[SPOILERS] Kurumi & wetbandit serve you Hannibal's Breakfast Cocktail (of Persia)

[TheHumanHydra]

If it takes him 3 beakers to research PP and 1 to research Drama, and he generates 2 beakers per turn, he can either research PP for two turns then Drama for one, for three turns total, or Drama for one then PP for one with the overflowed beaker, for two turns total. I don't think it makes a difference going past that though.

Edit: ninja'ed; just ignore this.

[NobleHelium]

Your overflow gets divided back out by your multiplier on your just-completed tech to get your base overflow. It is the same as production. You cannot get extra beakers by abusing overflow and varying tech multipliers.

[wetbandit]

@Noble: That's good to know going forward that that civfanatics article is out of date.

PP finished and astro will come in next turn. I need Astro to contest Retep for the islands and for the plan to boat WLP's Moai and Capital, which are both lightly defended. Here's the problem:

The world situation has changed somewhat. BXB declared on Halvgud with loads of Phracts, presumably. They took 3 cities. Suttree declared on BXB with a stack of Cuirassers and razed two cities. BXB peaced out Halvgud and now there is war between the two 12 Str mounted civs. WLP continues to clean up Kuro.

I'm now unsure of what my plan of boating WLP's two major cities will accomplish. I can't really hold any land gains against WLP as his power is significantly higher than mine. That was known previously; this was to thwart an obvious 2nd power. He will obviously respond with, at the very least, hostile relations for the duration of the game. This action would probably throw the game to Retep, though, what with the 3rd/4th guy taking on the 2nd place guy, as I see it. As much fun as it would be to boat someone out of nowhere with an 8-mover, I don't know if it gets me closer to winning or substantially improving my position.

That said, I'm not sure where WLP will turn once he absorbs Kuro. He will probably take some time to tech, and he's not far behind, if at all. With the #1 somewhat far over the water to his east, he has a long border with BXB and Oxy, then shorter borders with Molach and I. Oxy has fallen behind in tech and is only now finishing Machinery. He's a potential target. BXB may or may not be weakened coming out of his war with Suttree. I have a long, shared coast with WLP and it's not far-fetched to think that he'll attempt to march in.

Molach has also beefed up his military and we are about even in power. He's reinforced his border cities with a number of cats. He's also renamed his civ to Switzerland and built Notre Dame. He's really turned up the culture on my borders, I believe he's pressing for a culture win.

Retep is teching away in peace and can research rifling, having just finished Replaceable Parts. I could see him finishing his GA switching to Nationhood and Theo, potentially, if he wants to make some hay. I don't know if anyone can stop him at this point if he decides to do that or even if he continues to tech away.

I can still boat WLP in 5 turns and there's not much he can really do about it. He'd have to come through Belvedere where most of my army is located and which is protected by a Castle. I can take his Western Island and lock him out of the Western Ocean, potentially. This might force him to focus East or West, but I don't know if he would hold a grudge. He's also got a 2-person MoM-enhanced golden age right around the corner as he has a Great Prophet idling in his capital. Boating his capital would also take that GA away and it's quite close between WLP and Retep in terms of overall power.

The peaceful option is to colonize every island possible and beeline Communism for State Property. I could slot in Gunpowder and Chemistry to ensure naval dominance, at least over my neighbors. This also opens up Steel for continued land invasions. That's a possible goal to invade Molach in 30 turns with Cannons. I'd really like to clear out Constitution-Democracy, but that's going to take some time and the SoL would be more helpful for me for denial purposes.

Feel like I'm playing for third at best. I just don't see how anyone can meaningfully stop Retep right now, other than to play for building a stronger civ to face him in the Industrial/Modern age.

[wetbandit]

Last turn of GA, revolted back to slavery. Accepted WLP's OB offer a few turns back, but he's getting wise to a boating excursion as he's starting to fill up his cities. He also made peace with Kuro. Alarmingly, he started researching Chemistry, which makes Steel almost an assurance.

Even more alarms with Retep finishing Rifling next turn. He could sail to my big island with a handful of redcoats and there's not much I could do about it.

Don't think I can ignore defense and so set research to Rep. Parts and then Rifling. That should take about 5-6 turns. At least with rifles I can fake a better defense versus cannons. I won't be able to research anything that could flank cannons faster as I'd still need to clear Philo-Nat-Mil Trad.

#1 in pop, #2nd in GNP, #7 in power

[wetbandit]

And in thinking more about this, there's something to be said in the long term for a Rifles and Cav assault on Molach, maybe even through Oxy, provided I can defend against WLP. Also, assumes WLP is actually aiming towards me and doesn't jump on Oxy/Molach/BXB.

I'm really looking forward to reading BXB's thread. I'd like to think they've been feverishly complaining about retep's quasi-isolation. Well, they might get a stack of redcoats over the water from the north to pair with the cuirassers over land from the south. From my scout over there, it looks like BXB beat back the stack of Cuirs and is making headway into some coastal, non-core cities.

[wetbandit]

retep revolted to Nationhood/Slavery/Theo and is researching Chemistry. He's accumulating gold, but serious possibility of defending against Frigates with Galleons in the far west while dealing with Cannons at home. Cannons at home get the priority attention.

Still #1 in GNP after GA even with retep in his last turn of GA. RP finishes next turn, Rifling in 4-5 after that. Whipped myself out of first in CY, but still a close 2nd, and still #1 in pop. Fundamentals are still ok. Power is not as bad as WLP's level is much closer to mine now. Annoyingly, WLP has 2 spears in his capital, which makes boatKnights less feasible if not outright bad.

Boldly/Xenu put the beat down on Suttree. He absorbed Sisuland plus past the old border with Suttree. They still are tops in power and their reward is a de facto overseas England (re: Redcoats), up Astro and Rifling tech, and that just went into war civics. Retep could sail over to me, likely just the large island, but I imagine (pray) that he'll send the BEF closer to home.

Also spawned a very low odds GE. I could save him for SoL, although researching Democracy anytime soon is a pipe dream, regrettably. Still, I'll probably hold onto him for SoL or even Kremlin. Kremlin would be wonderful, as it usually is, as I'm reasonably set up for US as an end game civic.

[wetbandit]

Settled Dry Rice Island. Two more settlers moseying to filler spots. I don't think I'll ever get into Nationhood, at least anytime soon, because Bureau makes Breakfast Tail extra wonderful. Making ~320 modified beakers from Tail at 60%.

Put 1 turn into Rifling and changed to Chemistry after seeing WLP changed his research to Astro. Both will finish in three turns. I have 3 Galleons worth of troops embarked, but I'd have to focus all 3 on his Moai city to do any damage. He has 4 units in his capital with 2 Great Prophets. I can only reach his capital with the 8mover on the first turn, though. Need to be able to produce frigates if WLP can.

retep, as mused previously, declared on BXB. BXB has a horde of Phracts waiting for a landing. Retep has whipped/drafted quite a bit, hoping to see some of the action with my scouts over there.

[wetbandit]

Picture Dump because my desktop is cooperating:














Steel or Rifling next.

[wetbandit]

Molach teched Rifling. After Chem, will be able to finish Rifling in 2 turns. Molach is culturing away, or so it seems.

WLP is moving most of his troops south. The naval arms race begins next turn when we're both able to build frigates.

First in GNP while Retep hasn't selected a tech. Strong peacenik urges overwhelm me. Settled a filler city on the continent, the fourth city on the island will be settled in two turns.

[wetbandit]

This is what happens when you're researching Compass and your opponent has Rifling+Astro+Chemistry:




Tech:




Demos and some graphs under spoiler:

The power disparity between retep and BXB is closing. Furthermore, retep can, or must, concentrate all of his forces in his landing on the continent, if that's what he intends to do. He did select Constitution as his current tech. The point is, all of those deadly Phracts are now chained to the coast. This implies a few things:

1. BXB is distracted land border is less defended, as they have to protect their valuable, coastal, core cities

Like this one at the top!

2. BXB's land neighbors can view this as an opportunity to strike at him or as a safe border while pursuing other exploits

On a minor note, I'm trying to figure out what happens if you lose the Mids/Paya while you're in a civic you otherwise can't use. I haven't found the answer yet.