[SPOILERS] scooter's Industrial Revolution

[Rowain]

Now that I look at this screen, I'm a little confused about that GNP actually. As far as I can tell, REM is building units as quickly as we are, but the top GNP is still through the roof. Not quite sure how he's managing that. Maybe it's Dreylin beelining towards Assembly Line with wealth/research everywhere?

Don't you have the graphs to decide who is top?

[Commodore]

Perhaps Organized trait has been pulling more weight than we realized -

Whatever additional answers there might be, this is almost always true. It's an astonishingly good trait.

[Sullla]

A few thoughts before scooter plays Turn 320:



We must have traded maps with someone last turn (REM I think?), as we have updated information over in Donovan territory. Donovan's land is being split, with Dreylin getting the bulk so far and REM biting off a chunk for himself. I concur with scooter's assessment about Sector 19: we'll hopefully have a decent shot at grabbing that city after Dreylin captures it. Hydraulic Ram is only 4 tiles away, and we have lots of boats in the area. I agree that it's a key secondary objective for us. We will have vision inside the city the moment that it falls (we will grab control of the hillside horses), and that should inform us on how to play the situation.



Thanks for following all my unit suggestions thus far scooter. I know it hasn't been easy with so many units moving around in so many directions. I think we're almost into position now. Down here in the south, Battery will get religion this turn (the missionary landed in the city last turn) and pump out a 10 XP galleon. Induction Coil will do the same, with the galleon heading south this turn, unlike the previous ones which have been going north. We're going to have just barely enough time to get everything into position for the attack on Turn 323.

We should have enough units to hold Hydraulic Ram for the moment. The infantry coming out of Steam Engine, Telegraph, and Pasteurization should start loading on the 10 XP galleons as they come out of our southern cities. It's better to keep the units loaded on the ships, as they are invisible there - even with airships, it's a lot harder for Dreylin to keep tabs on what we're doing if we have units inside ships. Unless they're really keeping close notes, it will be hard to tell if units inside cities were newly built or the same units from the previous turn.



Up here, the single most important thing is to move the ironclad from Contact Process north two tiles. The ironclads are so slow moving that they're already staging right now for the attack in three turns. We need this ironclad and the one following from the same city at end of turn to be up by Power Loom at the start of Turn 323.

Otherwise, it's mostly the same thing as in the south. We want to load infantry onto galleons as much as possible to disguise just how many units we have up here. I suggest keeping the galleons down around that stone resource where they appear to be in defensive position up until it's time to attack. The 0 XP galleon over by Haber Process is fine where it is (although we should probably load it up with Haber's infantry).

I think Penicillin should Build Culture this turn to avoid losing the disputed spices tile. That grants us visibility into Dolphins, and it's really helpful being able to see the garrison. We will still be able to build the spy eot 321 / Turn 322, and move it into enemy territory prior to our attack. We can also finish it this turn if desired, but I think that will cause us to lose the disputed tile, and I'd prefer to avoid that.



I think we have enough defenders over here for the moment, although of course we'll keep building units and ships. Once Dynamite finishes the drydocks, Radio can convert over to mostly infantry.

Scooter, the workers are about to build a fort on the tile 3 south of Radio / 2 north of Hydraulic Ram. That will allow our ships to move between the northern and southern bodies of water with ease. I think we should stage our small ironclad fleet in the little lake south of Radio, where they can move north or south as we desire.

Dreylin doesn't seem to be reinforcing his border cities very much from what we can see. He may be racing to Assembly Line as fast as possible during his Golden Age. I'll take the more hopeful approach that we're doing a good job of selling these moves as a defensive buildup. Do we agree on swapping back into Representation next turn? That will help sell the ruse, and we really can use the economic benefits of Representation over Police State, which has been awesome for piling up units, don't get me wrong, but it's probably time to swap back. Before anyone knocks Police State civic, in 5 turns we'll have added about 600k in Power rating, from 800k to more than 1400k. It's definitely been a real help, and we'll probably be back in it later down the road.

One final note: the Demos look pretty sad for us right now. It's been a bit depressing each time I look at that Rival GNP stat. But all is not lost, even though I wouldn't say we're anything like the favorites right now. Of course the Demos look bad right now - both of our top rivals are in Golden Ages! And we're also running about the least economically-friendly setup possible while we crank military. We can swap back into Representation/Free Religion, build Research in a bunch of cities, and soar over 1000 beakers/turn any time that we want. Right now, our team is doing the same thing that Dreylin did earlier: tanking our economy to invest production into military. If we're able to claim more land in this fashion, in the same way that Dreylin did earlier, then the strategic gamble pays off. If our attack is a train wreck, then we're going to be relegated to second tier status pretty quickly. The next 10 turns are probably going to make our break our game. No pressure...

Scooter, when Turn 323 rolls around at the end of this week, do we want to do anything special for the big action? I can always stream the turn if that sounds like something interesting. It's your game though, you get to decide what you want to do.

[Dp101]

From a lurker's perspective, a stream would be great. Well, if it also gets accompanied by one last shot of the power graph before you reduce the average soldier count by quite a bit.

[scooter]

Turn 320

We are getting so very close. Quick tour of the theaters.



I've scattered some signs out here. Unfortunately, Germany gray is one of the hardest sign colors to read, so I apologize for the eye strain.



One thought here - should we consider staging any Frigates in Kaplan itself? It's a bit more of a giveaway, but the Frigates are unable to bombard Dreylin's island city from behind the city. They need to have 1 movement point leftover in order to be able to bombard. Unfortunately, we won't know in advance how well defended the city is, so we won't know if we care about bombarding or not.

One worthwhile note here - we'll actually have 5 Galleons here - 3 6-movers and a pair of 4-movers. One of them is coming along for the attack (likely the one currently in Kaplan), but the other is unassigned.



And by "unassigned" I mean possibly available to do some things over here. We've currently got 6 Infantry between our two front cities with two ironclads (third completing EoT). Radio will add at least one more, and Pasteurization can 1T Infantry indefinitely for awhile, so we can reinforce this area rather easily. Battery could always add another Galleon (of the 6-move variety). So we should definitely be ready if something opens up over here. Alternatively, if Dreylin gives up on S19 for awhile, we could always raze his city that's just south of Hydraulic Ram to give us some more breathing room up here (Ferrets IIRC).



I forgot to check this last turn, but yeah, Dreylin may well have been rival best GNP. (Unfortunately REM continues to pile EPs against us, so we keep losing his graphs.) This probably means he's burning towards Assembly Line as fast as he possibly can to get himself some Infantry. That could well be unfortunate news for us depending on how quickly he can get it.

Of course, REM is still giving him OB and an enormous haul in trade routes, so that sure isn't helping. I think that's a pretty bad mistake on his part.




T316 Soldiers: 799k
T320 Soldiers: 1,292k

500k in 4 turns with 0 tech advances and 0 upgrading is pretty fun.




Stray notes:

* I offered a 3g-3g trade to REM. Yes we did swap maps with him last turn - he offered that in response to my 4g-4g trade. I guess I neglected to mention that in yesterday's turn.

* Definitely back to Representation. With the overflow we've stacked up, we won't miss Police State too much.

* I'll think about the streaming idea. I'm not crazy about doing them myself because I'd rather not be distracted into possibly making a mistake. It will depend on when exactly the turn comes up since we can't be too sure how quickly the turns will go this week. It will definitely be well-documented even if we don't stream it, though.

[scooter]

The turn rolled as just the right time this morning, so I jumped in to take a look at the preturn situation.



I can't quite tell if that was sent before or after he rolled the turn. As in - does "1 turn" mean this turn or next? I assume next. Anyway, it looks like he's going to jump into the war just before us. Either that or he's asking us to speed it up by a turn.



And the bad news . Dreylin got Assembly Line with an assist by REM's trade routes. Dreylin just picked up 3 techs in extremely short order. This is pretty much proof that if he isn't dented soon, it's game over. I'm a little concerned at this point that it's too late.



Dreylin pulled his Cavs out of this city. He either needs them elsewhere, or he's prepping for us to attack amphibiously and is prepping a counter-attack. COOL.



Thanks, holy city.



Dreylin got a spy too.

[Sullla]

That's extremely bleak news for us. Dreylin just researched Assembly Line in 3 turns for anyone who was watching. I think REM giving him all those trade routes the whole game was a giant mistake.

Well, we're pot-committed now. All we can do is attack and see what happens. If REM joins us the 2 vs 1 might have a shot. But yeah, if Dreylin can tech that fast in addition to having double anyone's land, this game is probably reaching it's end stages.

[Mardoc]

I'll think about the streaming idea. I'm not crazy about doing them myself because I'd rather not be distracted into possibly making a mistake. It will depend on when exactly the turn comes up since we can't be too sure how quickly the turns will go this week. It will definitely be well-documented even if we don't stream it, though.

Personally, I find 'well-documented' to be even better than 'streamed'. It's just that many people find streaming to be easier.

[Rowain]

I prefer well-documented over streaming

[scooter]

That's extremely bleak news for us. Dreylin just researched Assembly Line in 3 turns for anyone who was watching. I think REM giving him all those trade routes the whole game was a giant mistake.

I think he actually did it in 2 turns, which is even more depressing. His last few turns if I have it right:

316: Biology
319: Steam Power
321: Assembly Line

We have a winner.


(Not a concession. Yet.)