[SPOILER] PB37 Dark Savant tries not to be a blatant MP n00b

[Dark Savant]

t136:

GermanJoey did accept the peace treaty -- these wars have now gone from "fatal" to merely "crippling".

I didn't get Construction -- the one outlying city I just lost turned out to be needed to get that in time!  I'll have it next turn.

Coeurva landed 7 swords next to Regna.  I have walls and 4 units in that island city, but that would be tough to defend against even if I'd built a lot more military.  At least it's got a chance to hold on.

Losing that city will be a serious blow.

yuris125 lost his capital, and GermanJoey also just declared war on him.

[Dark Savant]

t136:

Construction came in -- next up, Monarchy.  I'm going to try to reach Feudalism quickly, if nothing else to whip as many CG2 longbows as I can.

I can revolt back to Slavery next turn.

Regna fell being attacked by a catapult and 7 swords -- I only defeated 2 units on defense.  I suppose the only defense against something like is to keep multiple triremes running around -- which everyone else is doing and I didn't.

Coeurva has a stack of 10 units approaching Sorpigal.  I'll hold this off as long as I can.

JR4 joined the feeding frenzy this turn, declaring war and capturing an outlying island city.

Wars have gone back down from "cripping" to "fatal".  Let's see if I can make it to, uh, t150?  

[Dark Savant]

You know, one reason I tried to expand hard and push hard on economy was because it works in all kinds of SP strategy games.

Even AIs will inevitably declare war on you in this situation, but I've always taken that as a sign of saying "okay, you should start building military now", and you would typically have time to do it.

I thought I'd have time to react -- but I didn't, and it's far too late for that!  I've hit the point of irreversible exponential decay.

[ipecac]

It always takes time to adjust to the MP metagame. With this experience, you should perform much better in subsequent games

[ipecac]

It must be said that this map makes it much easier for opportunistic opponents to dogpile. If you only had 2-3 neighbours to worry about, and a less extended front you should still be in okay shape.

[Dark Savant]

Yeah, I figure I should be able to do much better.

I mean, there's hearing that MP war is brutal, and actually having it slam you in the face.  

[Dark Savant]

t139 (got the turn numbers wrong before, sorry):

JR4 is offering me a peace treaty where I give him 50 gold.  I turn that down, because at this point I want to fail in a way such that I don't let any one other player gain too much territory, and I stand to lose the most to Coeurva or Gavagai -- I'd rather cities go to JR4.

Then he offers me peace straight up.  Okay, hmm ... I think it's poor form to metagame that much, so I accept.

Monarchy comes in.  I can change civics now; I revolt to Hereditary Rule and Slavery.  I think I can squeeze out Feudalism in 2 turns.

I may be able to stave off total defeat for longer than I thought.  I don't understand why people are making peace with me when I think it's clear there's a feeding frenzy on.  (Okay, people are busy eating Yuri too.)

I can hold off the current 10-unit stack Coeurva has approaching Sorpigal.  That's probably why it didn't advance this turn -- it's waiting for reinforcements.  He's got to have Guilds by now.  Stack-o-knights pouring out of the fog has to be happening any turn now.

Gavagai has to be at least preparing to attack me.  I had some units from Castleview moving away, but I think I have to try to hold in both directions as long as I can, so they're back.

I figure Krill would want to help me out, because he can't reasonably get a piece of me now, and he would want to prevent other people from gaining territory.

I have some stupidly promoted units because I had autopromote active for a turn.

[ipecac]

I may be able to stave off total defeat for longer than I thought.  I don't understand why people are making peace with me when I think it's clear there's a feeding frenzy on.  (Okay, people are busy eating Yuri too.)

Sounds like they don't want to overextend, especially when they need to secure the mainland core in the era of knights.

[Dark Savant]

I may be able to stave off total defeat for longer than I thought.  I don't understand why people are making peace with me when I think it's clear there's a feeding frenzy on.  (Okay, people are busy eating Yuri too.)

Sounds like they don't want to overextend, especially when they need to secure the mainland core in the era of knights.

Ah, that makes sense, right.  Or at least they don't want to make the mistake I did.  

t140:

Feudalism due next turn.

Lost another island city to Coeurva's amphibious sword stack.  I have a crossbow in the next island city now.

Coeurva adds a couple Numidian Cavalry to the stack which is still stationary.

[Dark Savant]

t141:

Coeurva moved his stack towards Sorpigal.  He's not waiting for knights, apparently.  (He'd probably want to whip a bunch eventually.)

Uh.  I should probably take into account that the fact that Coeurva's advancing naval stack can attack Sorpigal in 2 turns.    Well, that can't happen next turn, so I can rearrange things to try to help out.

Feudalism is in, longbow production and Engineering started.  I'm running mostly cash for one turn so I can upgrade two archers to longbows in Sorpigal.