Gavagai's PB42 thread

[Gavagai]

Also, why the fuck OH is in Buddhism??? 

[Gavagai]

I am a bit annoyed by the fact that OH is still taking cities from Lewwyn, he needs to get out of this war really fast. I think he underestimates the danger of his position. Krill is an obvious looming threat but Cairo has Privateers now which gives him a naval edge over OH. It means that Cairo has absolutely no reason to allow these three cities to stand.



Last time I had a glimpse on Cairo's graphs he had way more power than a civ in his isolated position should and was steadily building units. I have a really bad feeling about it, OH gonna crash hard and very soon.
This brings about the question... What should be my approach to GAs? I initially wanted two in a rapid succession to milk the maximum value of MoM. But it commits to finishing the game before late industrial era, otherwise I would need my third GA to industrialize and swap into final civics. But this scenario may be too optimistic to count on it...

[Gavagai]

I really hope there was something inside the ship (I destroyed it)



Ot4e's final cities (observe also red borders to the left). Will be a lot of fun taking this one I imagine.

[Gavagai]

Robinson can fall. I only settled this city because I lost a settling race to Bayonne, a few turns before the war. I figured I would be able to defend it but did not account for 4 fast galleys which make possible for Ot4e to bring units here fast. But we will see, I will add a Longbow and a Pike before he is able to attack with this stack.



That will be a bloody battle, I am projected to lose 6-7 knights, more than I ever lost in one battle in the whole war I think (I have 6 more units in galleys ready to attack amphibiously, so losing is out of the question). Should have brought catapults but I thought Privateers can bombard down culture defenses. Too late now.

[Gavagai]

OH came to senses and made peace with Lewwyn, good. SJ took Military Tradition from Liberalism.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

How significant would the delay be to either wait for frigates or catapults? What is the rush? Do you have massive WW issues and need to finish OT4E quickly or do you rather need to focus your attention on the next conflict and the delay is problematic for that? Or is it something else?

Thanks for the updates.

[Gavagai]

I would need to produce catapults locally or move them from the northern front. 4-5 turns in both cases and if I am producing them locally I need to take a couple cities off research builds (if I realized that I need siege earlier, I would just build catapults instead of Knights and move more Knights here from the north to compensate). Frigates are out of the question, I do not even have Gunpowder yet. War weariness is significant but still lower than my very high happy cap. I do not have really large cities which also helps. I am more concerned about motherland unhappiness in former French cities (I plan to grow Paris and Orleans really tall because the land around allows for it; in general, Ot4e's land is of higher quality than mine) and the only way to get rid of it is to eliminate France.
I am in the rush mainly because I want these cities to become productive ASAP and for this I need to capture them ASAP. I am in a tight race with Krill in this game, every advantage helps. 6-7 or even 10 Knights is an acceptable price for this, I am unlikely to fight another big war before these units are obsolete and my HE city builds a Knight per turn. Also, I want to put Ot4e out of misery, I do not think that it is particularly fun for him to keep logging into the game. I considered offering him peace after I took the mainland (which he would most likely reject) but decided against it.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Gotcha. Motherland unhappiness is a pain in the ass when cities are tall. Thanks for the explanation.

[Gavagai]

Took Grenoble, lost seven Knights as projected. Big international news - Krill made peace with Harry, no idea what to make of it. Krill needs to get some value from his knights and I do not see any other way for him to do it but to take out Harry. Also, Krill offered me OB for some reason. I accepted - I have a chariot which may explore him and next turn I'll be in Free Market.

[Gavagai]

Let's talk history a little bit, shall we?



This is where it all started, Plato was my initial capital. This start is not bad but also not great. A lot of sea tiles and only one expansion path. Let us see what is there to the north.



This is an overview shot. Butler in the west is Elkad's starting position, Paris in the north-east is Ot4e's start. The land between us was gonna be a large conflict zone. Let's take a closer look.



Tao Yuanming was actually my third city and More, the current capital, was my fourth. I settled very aggressively into this area as I figured that if I am locked away from it, I have no future in this game. This, of course immediately hit my economy hard and gold mine near More only partially alleviated this effect (I remember this city was stuck at size one for a while, just working the gold). The sense of urgency was accelerated by Rheims which was settled by Ot4e very early. This is a very aggressive city for him, as you will later find out and initially it made me believe that his capital is closer than it actually is. I am really wondering why Ot4e wanted this city so early, hope he will answer me soon in this very thread. I initially thought that he wanted stone but he did not do anything with it.
And observe Horses to the west of More. That was actually Elkad's only Horses. Look:



Elkad started at Butler, settled what is currently Vance (the city was razed and rebuilt), then he settled Andreae, making a foothold in the conflict zone, then he built The Great Wall in Vance, then he settled Bacon... and got invaded by a handful of chariots a couple turns before his Copper was connected. His opening was questionable in the best of circumstances but with Mao of Inca nearby its pure suicide. Not much to say about this war - poor dude never had a chance to build a two-mover, lost the access to Copper quickly and just got steamrolled.

Land to the south from Bacon



And this is far west, Cairo's continent:



I had an option to settle several cities there but decided against it. OH has chosen otherwise. We will see which decision was right. I kind of hope that Cairo backstabs OH in the worst possible moment. It would be bad for me from in-game perspective but my prudence would get vindicated.



My initial border with Ot4e was there. Morris and Campanella were my cities, Rheims was his. I had an option to raze Rheims with HAs left from Elkad's war - at that point, Ot4e had no military to do anything about it. Instead, I sent him fish for fish which was a wise decision in retrospect. We coexisted peacefully until Knights era.



This is Ot4e's core. Very high-quality land here which makes his decision to settle Rheims even more puzzling.



And this is the area to the east of my starting position. Was supposed to be my expansion land if I wouldn't take our Elkad. Logistics is a bitch there.

If anyone wants more info, please, ask.