Grave Errors: The Bobchillingworth Experience

[Bobchillingworth]

Oh wow, Tholal's definitely at war:






He just lost his capital and is down to three cities. Those power spikes might be hunters being built and lost, then. Very likely it's TBS whaling on him, based on his leader and increased rate of thread updates. Minor chance of Dave, who should be building PZ right about now.


Okay, so I can draw a couple conclusions from this-


* One of the two people I don't want to neighbor instead borders Tholal, which is good for me.

* Tholal's capital was probably about five tiles SE of his current one, since it was his second city settled. Not sure why he chose that spot for a first expansion, perhaps it has an incense or something I haven't uncovered.



Overall this is good news. Settling the copper is my biggest priority though- strength 3 bloodpets aren't going to cut it for much longer.

[Bobchillingworth]

Crap, this isn't good:





TBS met me, and he has a lot of cities.





Cities he's taking off Tholal.





Using his massive power which hasn't decreased at all (confirmed by checking their WW- Charadon doesn't have any).





He's keeping up in GNP too, and that's with cottages. His production far outmatches mine, as well. I'm 2nd in both categories, although functionally still doing slightly better in GNP since I have less culture and am currently not working a couple farms to push out a pair of bloodpets more quickly.





Tholal might be doing better in his war if he tried building units instead of, say, markets. Yes, your capital gets extra gold from it since you're in Godking. No, it's not a good idea when you've lost half your empire in the space of a few turns against a guy who has the combined power of the bottom three civs. TBS hasn't even popped his WS yet






The above land represents a small silver lining, since I can probably claim all of it now. Well, assuming TBS doesn't murderize me. Come on Tholal, get your act together! I'm in serious trouble if he collapses completely and I have a big army of highly-promoted Sons of Asena on my doorstep in a dozen turns.


I'm making a bit of a gambit with my tech, about to start researching Drama over Warfare. My reasoning is this- Drama would be really nice for my civ if I'm the first to research it; being able to build culture saves a lot of hammers which would have gone into monuments, and the free Great Artist could bulb Sanitation. Warfare is a necessity for certain, but I only have three cities with decent production at the moment and two are on / about to be on settler duty, so I'm not going to have training yards and be able to draft anything better than bloodpets for a little while yet.


I am very curious how Tholal is just collapsing like this. Does TBS even have bronze weapons for his troops? My own sources of copper are like four city sites away from my capital, unless I've got one fogged in Jungle Land to my west (which would only be three sites away, I guess ). The situation is even worse for horses. Strange. And why isn't Tholal killing anything? Is he building hunters for defense instead of warriors? Or markets, as the case may be. Hmm.


Oh yeah also TBS asked for OB; I obviously declined, since there is an excellent chance I'm next on his kill list, and I have zero incentive to allow him to scout me out.

[Bobchillingworth]

Met Dave:






He's two cities up on me, which is understandable since I invested a couple settler's worth of hammers into Governor's Manors. Plus he has an easier job expanding with his Barb trait.





Why the heck are people opening borders with aggressive rushing civs? I don't even have a trade connection with anyone.





Dave's power is surprisingly low. He has about two warriors per city- or more likely one warrior in most cities, a couple in the borders, and then a handful of scouts plus maybe a PZ or Hunter.

[Bobchillingworth]

Ugh, this sucks:





Tholal is down to a single city left, and will probably be eliminated within a few turns.






I declared on Dave to remove his annoying scout and gain a promotion. Offered peace, but I don't care if he takes it or not. A bigger problem is that the killing bloodpet revealed Tholal's last city is also his latest, and close enough to culturally contest my copper

Which means that A: I'll have to fight for control of it with him for as long as he remains in the game, and B: Charadon will be right on my doorstep once Tholal dies.



So: some changing of plans is in order. Research for Drama is kicked up to start eating into the Event Fund. Warfare immediately afterwards. Cities finishing settlers are going on Training Yards. Both new settlers are getting redirected to copper sites. This is going to be pretty rough, TBS probably has about 10 Sons of Asena or whatever, plus his WS, and plenty of good reason to try to take me out.

[Bobchillingworth]

This sucks:







Suuuucks







Blaugh.

[Bobchillingworth]

Things are moving to a head quickly.


Tholal gifted me some workers:





Hopefully they don't get mulched before I can evac them.


Traded maps with Dave:





Hopefully he gets the message that, while I don't want his units anywhere near my borders, I'm happy to exchange data on a mutual basis.


I can see all of his land and TBS's. I think both of them have land more conducive to expansion than mine, although there isn't a massive disparity in quality. I also have fewer economic resources in reach than either of them. Mine is probably more defensible though, and I got a better deal in terms of food. Eh, in all I guess it's okay for a non-mirrored map.


Dave borders TBS and nobody else. Please attack him now Dave, now that his army is many tiles away from you. Do not allow him to take my land, you are not going to be able to stop someone with the territory of three civs.



Landed the drama dude EoT:




Going to bulb Sanitation next turn.

[Bobchillingworth]

Tholal's final defense:





I had kind of hoped he would allow me to raze the city, but oh well. Not sure why his army had so many scouts, perhaps he kept retreating them until he made his last stand.


I offered shadow mana to Dave for OB, Ale and Sheep; he accepted.


The current border, now with TBS, is woefully undermanned:





I need copper like, now, but getting a mine down is going to be tricky when he can just throw Sons of Asena at my strength 3 bloodpets, and then convert any captured workers into reinforcements. I do have Moroi on the way, but more importantly this:





The settler should arrive at the other copper site in like four turns, and then I'll just need a couple more to connect it.



TBS also offered me OB. This is quite possibly a trap, to scout me out before invading in a few turns. But he might also genuinely desire trade routes, so I made a counteroffer; OB + his map + a mutual Body Mana trade. I don't think an offer of friendship could make me look any weaker than I already am, so let's see how he feels.

[Bobchillingworth]

TBS rejected my counteroffer and proposed straight OB again; I refused. While there is the possibility that my decision pushes him to declare war, I seriously doubt opening my borders would have dissuaded him. The risk of him sending in a scout and attacking once he knew my troop dispositions was too high, if he wasn't even willing to accept a friendship resource trade.


First Moroi completed this turn, IIRC I have three cities which can build them now, with three more coming online soon, plus drafting. Kind of a shame I'm having to build 40-hammer units, but there is no alternative.

[Bobchillingworth]

And I get another demand for straight OB from TBS:





Refused, and... oh, what's this?:





Okay, reoffered. Not sure why he would offer them if he's just about to immediately attack, so I don't think I have anything to lose at this point by agreeing. Please, if anyone reads this and TBS doesn't see a trade offer from me for OB this turn, could you please tell him that I did mean to propose it? That might be asking a bit for a lurker, but I've been bitten by not operating diplo windows correctly before.


I'll have my other copper city up by t100:




Decided to place the city 1S of the settler after the mobility 1 workerscout revealed the bear- plus the new location would get a corn after I build culture for a few turns.


Speaking of building culture, it bought me one turn at Letho:




Unfortunately I would need two to get copper hooked up

[Bobchillingworth]

Turn 100 Overview:


TBS accepted OB and moved most of his troops back. Okay. Well, I'll have copper weapons and some Moroi in place if he returns, so whatever. I guess he's tired of fighting for now- probably trying to stay on his feet economically and worried about a two-front war if Dave jumps on him too.


Settled a new city:




I'm going to get a squad of Moroi down here eventually to capture the barb cities.

I'm not sure how I have contact with superjim. I reloaded the previous turn, and he doesn't own the HN bear. Ugh, I hope it's not a spider somewhere.


My entire empire:




Small for T100, but it has competitive production, food and GNP. The main obstacle to rapid expansion is keeping enough of an army on hand to deal with TBS.


My cities:


























Demographics:






Going forward, I have several options for tech:


* The Veil Path: Go for Ritualists, attack TBS with Moroi and Ritualists and Body Adepts. Tempting because I love me some Veil, but almost as expensive as just teching to Vampires which managing to almost completely miss the point of my civ. No.

* Beeline Vampires: Tech HBR and/or Sailing, then get Trade, then Feudalism. This will take about 30 turns at my current tech rate, although this will improve. The big problem here is that, while totally ass-kicking awesome, I'm not sure I can last with just moroi until the big V's show up.

* The Catapult Path: Masonry + Construction will only take like 9 turns total, if not less, and unlocks both chain irrigation and a unit which will make my defenses against TBS much more credible. I think I'll go with this, even though that means essentially repeating my doomed gameplan from PBEM I.


So, I'll finish Masonry next turn. If TBS is still clearly aiming for passivity the turn after that, I might be tempted to tech Sailing- a couple of my cities could really benefit from cheap Lighthouses, and Galleys would unlock an island and some strategic options for me. Also Pearls- Dave has one, so I probably do too... might be at the capital. Then it's on to Construction, and quite possibly attacking TBS with an army of Moroi (mostly drafted) and catapults. And trying to signal to Dave with every non-diplo diplo means known to man "ATTACK TBS WITH ME". I'm thinking starring intently at my screen until my retinas are sore might work. I don't want to commit to a massive attack on TBS if I can avoid it, especially since I'm not sure I could even win such a conflict, but I cannot allow him to retain the city he captured south of Letho for long. I must have that mana node, and taking it would seal him off from about 4-5 city spots worth of land I want.