[Spoilers PB27] REM tries to get a handle on this mod

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Thanks for the fun.

I really wanted to help Commodore (and stall you), but you steamrolled him. My jumping in turned out to be pointless, and just delayed my south-east expansion instead.

When Nyles declared (or a couple turns before when I got uneasy), I had no choice but to move my troops his way and hope you got in a fight with taotau or something.

Unfortunately, I had lots of spears to fight off your HA with, which do terrible vs Nyles swords. I had hopes to stop him and turn around, but you guessed/saw my troops were gone faster than I expected and forked everywhere. (Rightly, as nearly everything of mine had left)

Losing my capital to his galley was a mistake on my part (knew it was there, forgot about it the next turn and moved a crossbow out). You would have gotten an Academy there, which should have convinced you to try to hold it. My troops were turning around to try to get it back.

Instead Tarnsman burned, so there was no point. So I kept on and broke Nyles, since he's the one that started a war he couldn't win.

Ergh I thought there might have been an academy there. Damn. That's really annoying. Super annoying. Although it would only recently have come out of resistance, it definitely would have been worth having.

As you saw I did move a few tiles closer to you. That was why I didn't settle too much towards you. I almost started putting cities down in that dead area between yourself and borsche - I build too many settlers as imp. I did think your city of explorers right on my border was a little cheeky!

Yeah commodore was unlucky - as I said earlier if he had not bothered with cats and just got more axe/spears I would not have been able to kill most of his army in 1 attack. When you didn't open borders I guessed something was up.

I don't know if I mentioned it in the thread but I had city visibility on you before I attacked - I could see how empty your west was. Even though I was rather paranoid that taotau may attack me, I felt my best chance of winning was using soon to be obsolete units to make some quick gains. I slowly watched the stack of 15ish spears march past your cap and off. I wouldn't have done scout moves to declare on you at the start, but it turned out to be very useful!

Sorry it took so long, I wasn't expecting nyles to have a backstab and not be able to take anything. I didn't have the cats available to take a city with lots of defenders in without huge losses.

Thanks for not deleting the workers, they will be useful - I'm very hammer dry currently so I need to get the water mills and workshops going.

I think with these 2 extra sets of land, if I can hold and not get attacked for 20 turns I will be in a really strong position. Probably a better position than sedora and England. Might be able to start catching taotau, but I know he has nationalism, the whole top of the tech tree, Astro on me. 7.5k beakers + easy with the MoM. Not holding out too much hope there.

Cheers for the game, and have fun lurking. A more satisfying end I guess than the cfc pitboss!

[Elkad]

My road network could have been better. I thought you had visibility on Outlaw and Tarnsman (Tarnsman due to your early scout declaration) with all the EPs you were dumping on me, but I didn't have a route that kept my spears out of vision range of my own cities without marching cross-country. Was that all new courthouses, or did you actually run spies/slider a bit?

I actually considered deleting the workers, but it was from a maint standpoint, not spite. That rates up there with burning your own improvements, something I try not to do. I needed just a few more gold to upgrade another archer to xbow, and the workers needed to go, but then I realized sending them out to kill trees (and then be captured) did the same thing, plus I got the hammers for a second xbow. At least one stack of workers was vulnerable to Nyles as well (covered by axe/spear, but on flat ground), but he let them escape.

I can't say much about the game since I'm spoilered now, but I hope you can leverage all that land. Remember, quantity has a quality all it's own.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

My road network could have been better. I thought you had visibility on Outlaw and Tarnsman (Tarnsman due to your early scout declaration) with all the EPs you were dumping on me, but I didn't have a route that kept my spears out of vision range of my own cities without marching cross-country. Was that all new courthouses, or did you actually run spies/slider a bit?

I actually considered deleting the workers, but it was from a maint standpoint, not spite. That rates up there with burning your own improvements, something I try not to do. I needed just a few more gold to upgrade another archer to xbow, and the workers needed to go, but then I realized sending them out to kill trees (and then be captured) did the same thing, plus I got the hammers for a second xbow. At least one stack of workers was vulnerable to Nyles as well (covered by axe/spear, but on flat ground), but he let them escape.

I can't say much about the game since I'm spoilered now, but I hope you can leverage all that land. Remember, quantity has a quality all it's own.

I also had vis on assassin, priest King's and your newer Bordering cities to the south. Pretty much all EP from courthouses. I spammed them being big and org. I have run a few spies mainly currently for GPP generation and lack of other slots available. No slider use, no point making my tech situation worse.

Yeah commodore got rid of most of his workers luckily he had highly improved land so it wasn't too much of an issue, but mechanising it for hammers does need workers.

Yeah I definitely agree that a load of this incredibly rich land cannot really be a bad thing! If there were no more wars I would be pretty confident in a win from this. Note the Dutch no longer get any river hammer bonuses from the dike. This might prove crucial late game in slowing down spaceship building.

I also notice that I have hit 2nd place now. I won't sink from there without another war either killing me or someone taking a lot of land - sedora could take borsche without too much issue probably now CH and taotau have taken a chunk of power from each other. That would then give me an extended border with a quite strong power... Not good bordering him taotau and Plako (by then!)

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Demo dump!

Full gold with about 20gpt of wealth builds. Gotta convert that CY now into a GNP and MFG lead. Soliders, I am roughly par with everyone on the island save Sedora. Nowhere near enough for my size though.

Only other thought is when I go golden, should I also take OR? Debateable as to whether I go Confu as so many happy sources, but I probably will. However OR is about 12-14gpt. Probably worth it but will have to have a think.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

I'm really starting to believe this game. I'm being allowed to grow to a powerhouse now. I feel very much like medieval Russia currently. Rather behind in technology, and a little backward; but huge and with lots of possibilities. A rather useful UU in the cossack to come and my Golden age finally next turn, ready to swap into a few different civics. Some wealth builds going currently. I have just picked up city viability on Sedora too, who doesn't have much in his cities near me. Borsche has me mildly concerned as he has huge amounts of EP on me... I don't think he will come for me thought.

However the main thing is that with taotao slowed down, I feel fairly good about a possibility of nabbing lib. He was a surefire thing for it, but now I am not sure.

He obviously has philosophy over me, however no one yet has any paper that I can see. Boak on what I guess is another continent now is being eaten up, but HAK may have something up his sleeve. Yuri is teching philo but I am not convinced that he has enough teching power to really get anywhere. CH has sucked himself up into a war that he cannot win.

The main rivals for this will be taotao, Sedora and myself if I attempt to go for it.

Taotao is the tech leader having astro, nationalism and a large part of the upper tech tree on me. However he is in a war currently so is a little restricted in the way of wealth builds. He has been given a lot of astro routes with HAK though. He I think will struggle to compete with me in a golden age. However he has had nationalism on his own for a long time, and could quite easily finish the taj very soon, and suddenly be very likely to pull off lib. If he does and gets MT he will romp with curs. I do not want this to happen. He has a fair amount of gold too.

Sedora is more interesting. His empire is much smaller, but he has huge power now. Able to go anywhere. He also is financial and so is getting a lot out of his limited amount of land. However he currently has a Great Merchant. a good trade mission will give him a full tech run at lib. I think he is heading for it too as he is gold saving on paper, and has a good amount.

Who knows. Next turn I need to decide to go for either lib, econ or nationalism. I think nationalism is out due to taotao must be finishing the taj soon... And most people will be go for the free econ merchant probably. So I think it will be a start on paper saving gold and wait...

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Ok, this lib race is going to be extremely tight. I am surprised it is - I think perhaps a tad bit of complencency on taotaos part that it is at all up for grabs and CH being rather helpful... I calculate on techs I KNOW he has he is about 12-14k of beakers ahead of me currently. This is grim especially considering that he has just entered a second MoM golden age...

I am certain that all my borders during it are safe except for the taotao one - in Nyles/plako plako suffered a crushing amount of resistance in Babylon. I guess not enough collateral undid him as I think he only had 5-6 cats there. Nyles did manage to stuff it with a huge amount of longbows. Since the turn below Nyles has most of them healed to full health. Whilst it will be difficult for plako now he will eventually win, but Nyles will whip himself into the ground.

I don't think there is enough of Babylon to warrant jumping in now, despite it being easy pickings. I would prefer to hold the nice border I have.

However - Yuri just declared on Borsche. Borsche has minimal military and I know Yuri has a fair stockpile of knights. I think he will have decent success. This is really interesting to me as he has a fair few old Elkad cities that I could e[/spoiler][/spoiler]asily add without gaining many new borders. I also would worry that Sedora would jump in here now and try and gain some land too. A good border region here is really important to me for this reason above all else. Borsche should hopefully have depleted the northern border garrisons just as the lib race is coming to the end. As long as nothing too exciting is happening elsewhere I will try and gain something from this here. It will be a good use of the aging army that I have ready to defend from plako.

Speaking of Sedora - I now have city vis and he has little on our shared border. In fact I have no idea where his main stack is which is the most powerful in the world (certainly this continent) and probably has 50ish knights in. It is not within 10 tiles of my border I am confident in though.

Taotao is the only one whom I am unsure of. our land border seems fairly static but who knows what he can do from the coast? I just have to hope and pray here really. I will stack a few knights in the cities but I am definitely running a bit of a gambit here for lib...

According to the click through I can get it at full tech in 8 turns. This doesn't include any overspill, or the 20% tech discount for the prior techs on edu or lib. It also doesn't include some KTB on paper that will develop this turn. However currently I do not have enough to run full tech for this amount of turns, but I will be getting progressively more wealth builds up. Also my cities are on an upwards trajectory even now. I spent a lot of time really trying to eek out as much prod and growth these last few turns with the tile sharing. Anything that won't be built for 8 turns or isn't important was swapped to wealth too.

I am really going for this. I think I can shave off a turn just by the mechanics, and I have a hopeful ace up my sleeve...

A GS is due in 5 turns from Smolesk. Well currently 2/3GS 1/3Gspy, but now I can run 4 scientists in emancipation when he is due it will be roughly a 5/6 chance of a GS. Pretty good. I could hopefully bulb lib in the interturn...

Lib is expensive with the tech scaling though. 3866. A Gsci bulb will give me 1500 + 3*pop. About 1900 for me here, around a turn of full tech - but importantly, BEFORE the turn roll.

There have been quite a few Gsci births recently though so I need to be mindful of others trying this too!

Current demos - boosted by a GA and huge wealth building (220gpt currently). Taotao cannot 1 turn paper here, unless he too like me wanted to wait until Yuri got it for the KTB boost. Sedora has no tech selected after completing paper - he seems to be turn splitting but I don't know who with or why. If he is deselecting techs on the turn roll then that is a little cheeky. I don't think he can match me/taotao in golden despite being fin.

Only issue is that if I use the Gsci for a bulb, and even if I get the free GM from econ, I am still a long way from another GP for another GA.

However I think this is hugely worthwhile doing - even if I don't get the lib bonus. If I can get lib pre ending my current golden age, I can change to mercentalism. This would enable me to run 2 specialists in each city, using the emancipation ability to have 2 of the merchants/artist/scientist variety. This coupled with a change to representation will net me a minimum of 12 sci/city pre modifiers plus get that next GP much faster. This *40 cities is HUGE. (480 pre modifiers, probably net 550ish after increased costs of the civic)

Some random shots - the cap and my favourite city and future IW if I make it there

If I manage this I think I will push for the SoL given my many cities on the one continent.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Also of note - Mack has 1.5k gold and is making 150gpt so he has room to go faster. Sedora has 900 gold and no room to go faster it seems.

One thing I need to say, is that once you reach the late medieval/early ren era this mod really does start to shine. There are so many options and choices that I could make. Rather than almost having to reach econ for free market or run CS for the specialists the mod is hugely open. I do also like how the changes make mines better than they were. Some things are quirky, but this era has become much more interesting.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Things seem to keep happening in my favour this game. First Sedora on CH, and now taotao is going for revenge on CH too. It is so nice having visibility all over this area. That's 15 knights heading that way, and virtually nothing coming up north.

This has the added bonus of also raising tensions between Sedora and taotao - they are both still a bit cautious with each other since the razing of the the English city. Sedora has enough to wipe out that stack should taotao try and take too much. He will probably be fine if he retakes the resettled city he lost to CH but anything more will cause later border tensions.

Plako and Nyles are still rather stuck together. Plako is really lacking the seige to move forwards.

Do not know what is happening with Yuri/Borsche, Borsche has put huge amounts of EP on me to the point where I do not have demos for him, but Yuri doesn't have huge power. And just seen that Yuri hasn't managed to take a city yet.There is huge amounts of fighting currently though - look at this!

3 generals in a turn. Already one this turn so far. I have had 4 this game, I think I have the record currently but this might be overtaken soon.

For me - slight slowing of the movement back to my core with the taotao threat much lowered. Still gonna have a few cities (those with stables) on knight duty. However my main plans are now to move on Borsche. At least all the old Elkad cities I want, but if I give him a few turns to reconfigure against Yuri I should be able to take a fair amount of land with minimal fightback again! 39 cities is too low - I need to break the 40 barrier!

Demos are still great - especially since we are comparing GA v GA with me and taotao. Starting to convert my CY lead into an MFG lead and the commerce lead needed. Also my solider count is looking less shabby all the time. Perhaps my high EP spending is hiding my relative weakness from the other teams?

Lib is looking more secure - taotao seems unwilling to commit full tech onto it. He has near 1500 gold and is still making 150 gpt. Amusingly I have paper on overflow alone nevermind my 1500 beakers a turn. With Sedora going for PP taotao and I are neck and neck in tech. No one else has paper except Sedora and Yuri (that I have met admittedly, Gavagi/dtay/Ichabod all could be close, although I doubt too close - taotao got taoism only 10-15 turns ago or so). From this with the perquisite bonus I might be able to even 2 turn Education. If I can save my great person and get the econ bonus merchant a back to back golden age could put me on par with taotao! Mustn't get too carried away though. England has Redcoats soon, taotao has his Indiamen and I have my cossacks. All to play for in the late ren/early industrial eras. That is probably what Sedora is heading for with printing press actually. At least rifles are 2 pop drafts in this needing a size 8 city (I believe) so 55 hammers a pop and a much bigger food cost.

Odds of a win? I cannot say for the other Island, but I currently feel taotao has about 35%, Myself 25%, Sedora 15% and the other island 25% total most likely Gavagi.

[Gawdzak]

Hey REM,quick suggestion: could you use the 'screenshot' tag for screenshots instead of 'img' tag. It would really help people like me to see the screenshots without scrolling sideways.

By the way, great reporting! Looking forward to seeing what's happening next.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Hey REM,quick suggestion: could you use the 'screenshot' tag for screenshots instead of 'img' tag. It would really help people like me to see the screenshots without scrolling sideways.

By the way, great reporting! Looking forward to seeing what's happening next.

Sorry I use the spoiler/img tag to put them on the screen as tapatalk doesn't show the screenshot tagged images as it is glitchy. Also they come from imgur like that!

But thanks for saying hi, has been getting lonely in the thread. I see most others have been doing very limited reporting despite possibly me being the only civ that isn't in a state of war now! Certainly on this island next turn that will be true.

Hope it's interesting to follow, I'm lucky I have enough time currently to really get the most out of my golden age. I'm pulling it back slowly but surely! One thing I have been bad at is the national wonders this game. I was very late putting up moai with probably delaying it too long to get it in a nice spot given how cheap it is with stone, and I don't have lit for the epics either.

At least I decided on a GP farm this turn, I'll post pics next turn of the planned builds of the national wonders.