[SPOILERS] Ceiliazul's First Dance: Louis of the Ottomen

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Ew gross build workers to fix those ugly bare hills.

[Ceiliazul]

Ew gross build workers to fix those ugly bare hills.

Yes, it's ugly. I have 22 workers for 13 cities at this point, but I'm barely keeping up. This city has been neglected because 11 workers are at adjacent cities, standing up the Forbidden Palace and launching Toro, my Arab border city.

The fruit of this sacrifice can be seen in the t96 report, coming soon. And really, this city already has overflow issues. Windmills might make sense, but not yet.

[Commodore]

(I still have a monopoly on Aesthetics, and don't need Shwedagon yet)

Ugh, not to be a Debbie downer, but do you really need the Paya at all? I love me a good culture war wonder, but are those hammers less dear than the 500 beakers in a couple dozen turns?

[Ceiliazul]

Another day, another Great Engineer!

...oh, and Liberalism fell.



Opening the turn saw me out of a golden age, and Catwalk in one. I was surprised to see my demos still in the lead! Both of us have a 1-prereq tech selected, so no distortion on the gnp graph. Jive baby!

Recall from t95 that Liberalism was still 1.5 turns away... I stretched to hire artists all over the empire. I hired over 30 scientists, and had 8 cities with negative food as I pulled in every beaker... and *barely* got Liberalism this turn. It was probably not crucial that I get it this turn, but Catwalk popped another Great Scientist (his 6th!!) and will surely bulb education next turn.

With Paficism, National Epic and Parthenon, Diesector ran 7 scientists to pop my own 5th GP... An Engineer! If you're counting at home, it's my 3rd one. This was at low odds ~20%, and actually not what I was hoping for. I have 2 engineers on the board right now, and surely my opponents are groaning about it...

Engineer 1 will rush Taj next turn
Engineer 2... hold for Engineering bulb? (~830 beakers)

The Fall of Baby!

In this monumental turn, Liberalism, and a GP isn't enough. For the main event, we bring you full size screens:

I have 3 maces still entering the field of battle, but wanted to take a crack at the city. Probably unwise, actually, but I long ago set a goal for myself to eliminate Sumeria by t100. Also, I have settlers in place to colonize this land, so I'm in a hurry.

The Mace won at decent odds, and exposed an archer with no fortify bonus. That brings up "Kick", my elite Axe. He unlocked the Heroic Epic for me, but really isn't doing much at this point. Sure I'll upgrade him if he survives... but what if he could get a couple more victories? Getting the last 8 xp points won't happen without rolling the dice. If take this low odds shot, I might have a chance of unlocking West Point!

17% is pretty rotten odds, but with double promoted units rolling off the line, this guy isn't all that valuable to risk. I have Great Engineers coming out my ears, obviously, so rushing West Point in my Heroic Epic city is even an option!

I pulled the trigger. And WON!

After that it was cleanup, my medic axe killed Sumeria's warrior and carried the day.

CR2 Mace v Archer at 58% WINS! 8/10
CR2 Sword v Archer at 34% WINS! 9/10 - worthless unit I shouldn't have built
C1,CR2 Axe v Archer at 19% WINS! 23/26
C1,Medic1 Axe v wrr at 97% WINS! 18/17

New Ownership

I have 2 settlers moving right now, ready to claim the best of Sumerian lands before others can get a sniff. Also, The Forbidden Palace is on pace to finish right around t100, another longstanding goal.

All told, I'm well on my way to making Sumerian lands profitable. Check out VoltArc. It will start the FP next turn, but this city was carved out of the jungle ~t80. This city is only 15 turns old! A lot of worker labor went into this site, and I estimate completing the FP will save me ~30gpt. Every turn I delay is precious. Not only that, this city site ROCKS! With the jungle cleared, it will become a full-fledged core city very quickly.

Of my 22 workers, 12 of them are in this picture! (not all visible) The t100 report is going to be one for the ages.

Almost disaster

I didn't realize until prepping the screenies that AdHoc had an axe under my maceman! If I failed on the 17% battle... his CR1 axe may have been able to beat a wounded archer, and the chariot there win an even odds battle to kill the last warrior! Wow, that would have be a disaster... and self-inflicted.

Still a bucket-load of win in this turn, but now tempered, just a bit.

[Ceiliazul]

Reporting Neglected

Yeah, I know I've been lax. Big things are brewing, and a massive t100 report is in the works. Also big events around the empire timed for this turn, so I'm excited about the next turn.

After Liberalism, I did take Nationalism and rushed Taj in a border city. 9t remain in my golden age. I also finished Shwedagon Paya finally, raking in ~140 failgold (all at 2.75x the hammer cost) and enabling Theocracy. That might be important next turn. The wonder will also help Gamma in an intense border battle. The tile 1W of the city is getting pumped by THREE Arab cities. Shwedagon should maintain integrity of at least my first ring.



As previewed in The FAll of Baby, I had a settler and workers ready to go colonizing former Sumerian lands. My city in that area is absolutely going to by me Globe Theater location! Might as well name it Draft City!

Another city will found next turn on the ivory in this shot. Arabia placed a city too close to allow settling North of Ivory, as I hoped. Still, it'll be a good city site, and with all those forests it will get off the ground quickly. Also, Horse, FP, shared fish and crab! This is Biohazard lite, as settling locations go.

Also, gunpowder! The first Janissary rolls off the line next turn... gonna be a fun one.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Oh, how nice, that the fish remained improved without needing to settle next to it

(1/turn drafting on Quick speed is easy, it's only tricky on Normal speed)

[Ceiliazul]

Oh, how nice, that the fish remained improved without needing to settle next to it

Yes, that was nice! I'll be using forts to shuttle fish boats for my next city though, so I didn't get off scot free.

AI also improved the pigs for me... and AdHoc passed on the opportunity to pillage that square a few turns ago. Double yay!

(1/turn drafting on Quick speed is easy, it's only tricky on Normal speed)

Yeah, you're right. This farflung site will be great for Globe though. My other 1/t draft options are too big already, and would have to reduce their size to turn into draft camps. This one is a more reasonable size for that operation. also, getting a National wonder will help this far end of my empire maintain it's borders without interlocking other cities. ...and it will be able t draft 1/t. :-)

[Commodore]

So how did the final dotmap shake out vs. the original plan?

[Ceiliazul]

So how did the final dotmap shake out vs. the original plan?

I was saving it for the t100 report, but since you asked... THE ORIGINAL PLAN

Empty circles are planned cities... every one of them got filled in (though some moved slightly.) Hand drawn around t40, I had a pretty good idea that I'd assimilate much of Sumeria. The NorthEast too ended up going according to plan. I'll post the current map on t100, but I'm very pleased with how this turned out!

[Ceiliazul]

Honored Opponents,

I have a pretty strong lead, and long term NAPs that will allow me to continue developing in peace.* I haven't won yet, but the game feels pretty boring right now.* I wonder if you guys would be interested in shaking things up a bit.* I propose a change to CTON always war, starting on t110.

In more detail, I propose OB and all trades are cancelled immediately.* No further diplo may take place.* We all use 10t of worldwide peace to stand up defenses, which none of us really have right now.* On t110, always war is initiated.

Note this doesn't mandate a t110 invasion of any border.* I certainly have no army or plans to attack on t110.* No one is forced to attack anyone else.* At the very least this will keep everyone honest.* At the very best, it's anyone's game based on tactics and timing.* What do you think?

If anyone rejects the idea, I'm happy to drop this proposal and continue the game as planned.

Respectfully,

Ceiliazul

I posted this hopes of restoring some uncertainty to the game... if there is no war until t120, AdHoc will be absolutely steamrolled by ~30 jans with treb support and ~25 Curs.* All of them would have 2 or 3 promos.* He'd likely have knights, but it would be a walkover.

I honestly don't think I'm far enough ahead yet to declare victory.* Certainly PBEM26 has showed how the #2 power can quickly catch up.* I hoped aways war would lead to renewed interest... but it seems not to be:

I'm in favour of calling the game, recognizing Ceil's superior position.

i'm with Catwalk, i'll just concede now, Ceils lead is too much really and even changing it into AW won't really help.

If Pegasus makes it unanimous, I guess that would be it.* Pegasus doesn't seem too interested: he's had the turn for >50hrs.