[SPOILERS] Serdoas and Nobles Thread with a little bit of Gaspar sprinkled in

[The Black Sword]

I tried out a Jeeves Hunter once that had some Brave Archers in it. It did ok but of course a 2nd pair of Leper gnomes would have been better.

Why does this game continue to exist again?

Because people are having fun playing it?

[NobleHelium]

Except the guy winning can't even be bothered to play all his turns?

[SadGit]

The problem seems to be that the "lesser game" was won too soon and you never cared for the greater game.

If you had switched to "reporting >0" after "Death to Commodore=true" you might have found purpose in playing on.

[Old Harry]

The precedent was that PB18 had spoiled subs (and even a retirement to AI) as otherwise it would have ground to a halt due to size. You knew that before you signed up didn't you?

In PB18 TBS had to fight a war of conquest with Mackoti subbing in for one of his neighbours and still won, if you want to win a game this size you've got to beat the odds... 'Course if you're just up for moaning that's even better .

[NobleHelium]

Hurrah.

[Donovan Zoi]

So.... tempted.....

But working 60-70 hours a week through mid-April.

The backstory is a good one though:

A disgraced Zulu monarch, forced into exile and living under the radar just across his old borders in his once-coveted city of Overspark*, slowly re-inserts himself into the public square when general malaise threatens to overtake the populace. The good people of England embrace the emergence of this passionate yet rational neighbor who never turned on them, but they also remain wary that such benevolence was almost always coupled with a crippling naivete -- the kind that forfeits moderately-sized empires in a matter of weeks.

He knew the stakes all too well, having spent the last several decades reliving the nightmare of his own shortcomings. He also realized that he would need to answer for some of his past actions in the region from a new perspective. But Donovan Zoi stepped up to the podium in Overspark's impromptu Town Hall meeting anyway, to assure the scattered crowd that England's best days were still ahead of her...

*We still have Overspark, right?

[Donovan Zoi]

I checked out the current turn and am definitely interested. A great time to be inheriting England too.

I haven't been spoiled on this game in months, but did have a quick run through all the threads after I was eliminated. I'll leave it up to you and the lurkers to decide if that disqualifies me.

[Serdoa]

Great. I'll post in the tech-thread to confirm if anyone has an issue with you taking over, though I doubt it, seeing how mackoti can be on-off ded-lurker at will.

As for the diplomatic front: Don't know if CH agreed to peace, but if so I doubt he ever has the strength to attack meaningfully but will remain a thorn. My intention was to get peace, run to Cannons and Cavalry and have a second go when we are actually not at tech-parity. Because I was so indecisive where and whom to attack this time I lost the 5 turns or so that would have been necessary to run through the first few cities unopposed. Instead I split my Knight-stack and lost one half of it without really causing much casualties to CH. At that point I still know only of around 10-15 Knight he has, while I have close to 25 or 30, but with catapults there is no moving out without losing half of them. And then I'd need another turn before sitting in front of a city with walls and several Pikes and LBs defending it. With a damaged stack and potentially next to no catapults left, thanks to Flanking. Maybe I could have taken it, but if not I would lose all gains - and even if I might have.
Anyhow, CH is therefore not really something to concern yourself with instead to defend and take him over imo.

REM and I have a lightly defended border though he started to bring more units to it. Still, its a one city border and he has easier targets, so I believe peace is the best move. Also he is the only contender against taotao at this point. They both need encouragement to fight each other - being friendly might help in that.

taotao will either go for us or CH (should be ready to move in behind if he does). Or he sits there, tries to get a research-edge and then goes for one of us. Basically same position we are towards CH he is towards both of us.

Borsche is ... waiting to be taken over. He moved currently some units on our front - maybe he tries to attack as a hail mary? Else he will be taken over by someone. Similar to CH to backwards and small to be a contender, but dangerous just because of being able to drag one down into a war. Though I'd say CH played better and got really unlucky with position on this map.

Everyone else is really of no importance because they are simply not close enough to make any difference.

[NobleHelium]

So uh...why did you build so many impis? Were you planning to attack us?

[Donovan Zoi]

Great. I'll post in the tech-thread to confirm if anyone has an issue with you taking over, though I doubt it, seeing how mackoti can be on-off ded-lurker at will.

OK sounds good. I will take over on the next turn then, but may still log into this turn to get more intel.

As for the diplomatic front: Don't know if CH agreed to peace, but if so I doubt he ever has the strength to attack meaningfully but will remain a thorn. My intention was to get peace, run to Cannons and Cavalry and have a second go when we are actually not at tech-parity. Because I was so indecisive where and whom to attack this time I lost the 5 turns or so that would have been necessary to run through the first few cities unopposed. Instead I split my Knight-stack and lost one half of it without really causing much casualties to CH. At that point I still know only of around 10-15 Knight he has, while I have close to 25 or 30, but with catapults there is no moving out without losing half of them. And then I'd need another turn before sitting in front of a city with walls and several Pikes and LBs defending it. With a damaged stack and potentially next to no catapults left, thanks to Flanking. Maybe I could have taken it, but if not I would lose all gains - and even if I might have.
Anyhow, CH is therefore not really something to concern yourself with instead to defend and take him over imo.

There's a chance that CH may have some bad blood with me, so I may let this front cool down for awhile. I do see that peace was declared last turn, but at the same time saw a moderate Dutch stack north of Angola. So taotao/mackoti may take advantage of being the sole aggressors for the next 10 turns...time will tell.

Depending on how things look, I may concentrate on taking holdings in CH's east if taotao looks too strong to the southwest. I like the versatility of the layout as the naval game emerges and I am pretty sure that FIN/Quay cities there will fill our coffers quickly. Incidentally, our Moai city could use a Quay too, so a 1-turn detour to Compass may be needed.

REM and I have a lightly defended border though he started to bring more units to it. Still, its a one city border and he has easier targets, so I believe peace is the best move. Also he is the only contender against taotao at this point. They both need encouragement to fight each other - being friendly might help in that.

Yes, I see that REM has blown up to 39 cities, so I am glad that we have a limited border with him. As with CH, I think I will concentrate on sensible defense in this area as well.

taotao will either go for us or CH (should be ready to move in behind if he does). Or he sits there, tries to get a research-edge and then goes for one of us. Basically same position we are towards CH he is towards both of us.

I would look for taotao and mackoti to relish the shot of having me as a potential conquest again, so I will definitely be shoring up this area too. You'll have to let me know what kind relations you have had so far to merit that minimal defense you have going in the NW part of our empire. I may have missed something though, as I was just taking a cursory gander at everything.

Borsche is ... waiting to be taken over. He moved currently some units on our front - maybe he tries to attack as a hail mary? Else he will be taken over by someone. Similar to CH to backwards and small to be a contender, but dangerous just because of being able to drag one down into a war. Though I'd say CH played better and got really unlucky with position on this map.

Yes, I saw a possible conquest here too, though dedicating time here pulls us from all 3 other neighbors IIRC. In PB25, Borsche was Gavagai's personal Vietnam and pretty much took him out of any real contention in that game. So if I decide to strike there, it will likely be after Rifles and with possible multi-boatings in poorly-defended backline cities, just to make the first strike that much harder for him to recover from.

Everyone else is really of no importance because they are simply not close enough to make any difference.

Yeah, I saw the mini map. You guys didn't get out much, did you?

That's actually cool, as I am a builder at heart and see us remaining extremely competitive in tech, especially as we bring more Stock Exchanges on board. We are 16 raw turns to Rifling and Redcoats, so realistically about 25-28 turns away. I also think that some quick Courthouses may shave a few turns off research, as well as get us demos again on our 3 biggest rivals (thinking about devoting some slider to ESP to these guys to see where we stand). The key is to not let my domestic tendencies overrun our need for state-of-the-art military, and to not spread ourselves too thin.