[spoilers] Lost in threads, Bacchus looks for a way out

[Bacchus]

Cheers, all good. Uneventful turns. My mfg and crop yield are good, being at 3 and 11, but I did not have enough money, by some way, to finish Currency. I now have to spend some time saving at only +26 gold. My army is a bit too large, but Toku with evented shock axes is just scary.

[Lord Parkin]

Turn 90

Turned up research on Currency, since if you continued at 0% this turn I don't think you'd be able to finish it at 100% the following turn. Figured losing (maybe) 1 beaker to rounding is much better than delaying extra trade routes by a whole turn.

Started another Immortal at the capital, finished a chop at Ecbatana. Didn't explore the tribal village because of the possibility that a barb Warrior could spawn on the tile where the Axe was and screw you over. Moved up an Immortal so you can safely explore it next turn with the Axe if you want though.

Started Barracks in Susa, prepared for border expansion onto the Corn at Gordium.

Demographics are reasonable - #1 in MFG, very nice!

[Bacchus]

Jesus, I have completely lost track of time. I was again sure I took my turn yesterday, but of course I was thinking of the day before.

[Bacchus]

Some observations. With these small waterways, culture is going to be very important, early theatres might prove a crucial advantage, especially after the 1000 year doubler. Having got Currency, I might well shoot for Music via Drama, the artist is nice.

Mid-term expansion would have to be southwards, HAK seems to have been involved in some conflict, which he hasn't lost, but neither really won. His power is large, his CY very low, and I can unload a stack of units in just 1 turn of sailing from Gordium. Not sure whether I want to do it with HA's without catapults though.

I have a lot of back-space to settle — there are some islands to my north-west and GermanJojo's north which are going to be strategically important mid-term, and give me a TR, so that's the next settlement location, coming very soon. After that, it's all about filling out the empty dots in my backline, there are reasonable cities with happiness resources and food or plenty of cottage space. I am only on 8 cities at the moment, soon to be 9, but can settle about 4 more without breaking a sweat. I have a crapton of natural happiness — ivory, whales, silver, gold, dyes, and Charismatic, which with markets, forges and theatres gives me a cap of 16. I think I even saw some fur kicking about somewhere. The bottom line is that I don't really care for Monarchy or Calendar. Would like Metal Casting though.

Not having a religion hurts.

[Bacchus]

Some border tensions:



I guess Bactra was a more agressive plant than it seemed to me at the time. That deer that my axe is sitting on is distinctly "his", but now I really can't allow him to have control over that tile for Bactra's security. My city already has a monument, so this whole thing is going to be really awkward if he goes ahead and plants. Oh well, perhaps I will just fort the ice and leave it at that, 50% innate bonus is pretty strong. I can also launch amphibious assaults via the lake.

Hm, the more I think about it, the more I doubt he'd be planting whilst leaving Bactra to stand where it is. Thankfully, I've been reinforcing quite heavily, our powers are about equal, albeit his recently spiked a bit. I do hope he doesn't start a war, it doesn't seem that either of our situations warrants it.

[Bacchus]

He founded it and moved the axe 1E. I don't think I can let it stand.

[Bacchus]

Yuri abandoned his forward-planted city, I autorazed and offered peace for 30g, hopefully as a comprehensible sign that I have no intention to conflict over the current borders. I even be fine with that city being replanted just 1SE of its original plot — a bit tight, but not enough to create perennial security threats. As it stood, that border would have been a nightmare for both of us, and Yuri clearly did not mean to set it as a start of an existential conflict — he didn't even bring any units to cover the Settler.

Demos after turning science on are in the 10-13 place range. A bit weak, with GermanJojo looking especially scary among the neighbours. HAK, on the other hand, now has something like half of my crop yield. I am researching HBR and will start assembling a landing force. In the meantime, settled a northern island with 2 crabs first ring, and working a sheep that's on my continent in the second. IC-TR's! Hopefully, JoJo will get alphabet and open borders for us both, though.

[Bacchus]

Heh, I have a roaming barbarian axe to the north, so I decided to move an Immortal to Tarsus, whilst picking up the city's Archer on a Galley to settle the northern island. Inadverdent result? Looks like JoJo dry-whipped a spear in PeewesPlayhaus, a city that's only 2 coast tiles away from Tarsus. I have to say I've toying with the idea of burning it after it got to 6 pop for a while now, but it really seemed too pointless an act of malice to be entertained seriously, plus prospectively I want the traderoutes. Still, that 2-tile separation is going to be a constant issue for us both.

[Bacchus]

Scratch the below, I realised I moved out of turn order.

Yuri did not accept peace. As I had an Immortal on a road now, leading towards Holland I decided to take a free step to explore. Immediately spotted two Workers which Yuri must have used to built the said road and retired to a distant (he hoped) hill. Not so distant, and a beautiful spot to get an eye into his current empire:



Well fuck. Good news — some his power spike is HBR. Bad news — it's HBR and he is planning to war against me. But now that I know, it's easier to get spears in place in time. This will most likely put both of us out of the game, but such is the c'est la vie, as we say in Russia with a carefree attitude to grammar. Deleted the workers and the Immortal. Was about to delete them before checking whether Yuri has played, and realised that I fucked up pretty bad.

[Bacchus]

I haven't moved anything but the Immortal, not sure what to do now. I guess we should reload to the previous login and Yuri should be informed of what happened. Not sure what he is actually planning to do with the Workers, if he starts mining, then they are dead, but I guess he'd want to move them.