[SPOILERS] Cornflakes and Q Eat 'Em for Breakfast!

[Qgqqqqq]

I don't think the norths scary atm, but if he survives commodores attack, then we should be worried in the next 20 turns.

What do you think about the idea that we can't really turn off tech?
Also, the shrince city needs a market.

[Cornflakes]

I don't think the norths scary atm, but if he survives commodores attack, then we should be worried in the next 20 turns.

That soon? I honestly think Commodore is at least as dangerous, and he's just as easy to attack. AT is busy now with Jowy as a juicy target, so expect peace from him for a while. I don't have a recent picture of the Commodore border, but this'll have to due ... I've drawn in the current culture.



On the other hand, we can't keep anything of Commodores. This would be a campaign of burning and pillaging because anything we keep would just open up another long front across the water. 2metra's northwest will easily integrate. Do you know anything about 2metra's competence as a general? I've lurked Commodore heavily so I have a pretty good feel for his tendencies.

What do you think about the idea that we can't really turn off tech?
Also, the shrine city needs a market.

Yeah, we can slot in market for Doughnut soon. Regarding teching, I think your assessment that we should be a "gold-focused civ, that can tech when necessary" is correct. There is also the possibility of Espionage. In the last couple days I've been looking into Espionage since I'm not well-versed in that aspect of BtS. We could set Constitution as the next tech goal for Jails (which will come in handy anyway to control high war weariness). A jail in our high commerce cities will give the same +50% multiplier as Library + University for 120 hammers (vs. 310h). The hammer equivalency isn't quite fair though because the extra hammers will be spent on spies.

Espionage is also VERY useful in quick strikes. "Foment city revolt" takes out the walls & cultural defense in one shot without bombarding, although sometimes it takes 2-3 spies to succeed. This is HUGE when attacking by sea without landing troops. Spies can also cut roads and isolate what used to be a zone-defense army. Espionage requires thinking ahead though because spies move slow and have to stop for a turn before actually carrying out a mission. I will definitely consider (not saying actually implement) spending a couple turns of 100% espionage against an enemy before attacking, even though this does make our intentions crystal clear.

Tentative teching path I'm liking: Guilds > Banking (hopefully by end of GA) > Constitution

[Cornflakes]

Logged in. Nobody discovered any techs. We're still #1 in GNP by a significant margin. I'll try and get a screenshot of the demos when I get a chance. I do not understand how we can remain top GNP, and #2 in score when we've been expending significant resources in war. Here's some city counts:

Commodore: 19
'Ninja: 14
AT/TT/Jowy: 11-13
Us (Corn/Q):12
Azza: 3, and on the way out.

About a 15 turns ago I whipped away more than 30 pop in a 4-6 turn time-frame. Prior to this we had more cities than commodore for the whole game, although he did settle 2 cities to pass us up on the same turn I ordered nationwide whippings. In the past 15 turns Commodore has added about 8 cities! Including one he lifted from us and one he lifted from 2metra.

Commodore is the long-term threat. It might be worthwhile to start sending around "Stop trading with Commodore" notices, although coming from the #2 guy, who's 1st in power by more than 200k ...

[Cornflakes]

This leads to the next question: what to do with our current army post-Azza??? It's costing us 40gpt in upkeep + 20 gpt in supply for being out of our territory. We have some options:

– Divide it 50/50 between Blimp (AT border/in range to reach south Commodore border) and Sheep (2metra border and Commodore eastern border). Probably should keep a few units in Azza's westernmost city (still fogged) once we capture it to keep temptation away from TT.
– Send it to attack someone else, not full committal like Azza but just take or burn a city and sue for peace. We could muscle through AT's border city or follow either of the 'Ninja/Comm naval invasions I outlined above.
– NOTE: settling more cities should reduce the upkeep costs. 40gpt is outrageous. Plus we'll obviously loose some to Azza.

I think divide it between Blimp and Sheep, with some in the yet-fogged Azza city would be best since we have acres and acres of land opening up in the north and west.

[Cornflakes]

Just to confirm, you will be around to cover turns if necessary starting May 7th? If Azza plays wrong we could be all done by then. If Azza plays "right" he could drag out another dozen turns of life, but we should be in cleanup phase by then. He doesn't have the build capacity to pump out many more units.

I'm leaving for a few days and staying on another university campus, where I expect the firewall to block access. There is the posibility of an internet cafe nearby that doesn't block access, in which case I could continue to play turns until the 15th. From 15th through at least May 26th I'll need full coverage for sure. If necessary we can ask for a 24-hour pause on the 16th if you're not back by the time I head out. Better that then find a sub for that one turn.

[Qgqqqqq]

Err...I can cover may 7th to 14th, and then am away till may 18th.
During this I won't have 24 hour coverage, so may need pauses for war turns.

[Qgqqqqq]

This leads to the next question: what to do with our current army post-Azza??? It's costing us 40gpt in upkeep + 20 gpt in supply for being out of our territory. We have some options:

– Divide it 50/50 between Blimp (AT border/in range to reach south Commodore border) and Sheep (2metra border and Commodore eastern border). Probably should keep a few units in Azza's westernmost city (still fogged) once we capture it to keep temptation away from TT.
– Send it to attack someone else, not full committal like Azza but just take or burn a city and sue for peace. We could muscle through AT's border city or follow either of the 'Ninja/Comm naval invasions I outlined above.
– NOTE: settling more cities should reduce the upkeep costs. 40gpt is outrageous. Plus we'll obviously loose some to Azza.

I think divide it between Blimp and Sheep, with some in the yet-fogged Azza city would be best since we have acres and acres of land opening up in the north and west.

Split it the way you mention, plus keep some there to attack commodore if nessecary.
Send some to the north to guard there, consider moving the whole lot in on AT and demanding the border.

[Cornflakes]

Err...I can cover may 7th to 14th, and then am away till may 18th.
During this I won't have 24 hour coverage, so may need pauses for war turns.

Due to time zones and the 24-hours currently I think that we'd only have about 36-48 hours between the timer expiring after I play on the 15th my time/16th your time. Timer then runs out late on the 16th and we ask for a two day pause. I think it's better that then find a sub for 1-2 turns at this stage of the game.

[Cornflakes]

The end is near ...




Azza didn't reinforce Zombie, so either he didn't check the stack for HA's or didn't expect us to use them. Lost 2 HA's in the attack (~70% and 96% odds) with one left over to spare *wipes sweat off brow* ...




After knocking the city down to 1 warrior I spent a full 5 minutes debating whether keep or raze. Reason is that keeping would lay our army at the mercy of Azza, and with 11 hitters and all his catapults he'd basically get to kill our top 11 units. I tested it in WB last week, and we came out absolutely decimated, even against the army of all maces. I decided to keep the city and placed the units to receive the least damage, but before the unit placement here's this:




Azza's first GG, and he dies immediately when we capture the city Speaking of which, we've only had 1 GG born to each of us!!! We've been fighting a tech-equal war for 60+ turns, and except for Azza's ill-fated invasion we've only had minor losses in little scrimmages on both sides




I moved the northern Maces/cats army halfway between Ghast and the newly-revealed Enderman, pillaging the road with the impi. Around Zombie, since Azza has 11 hitters and a ton of Cats I put 12 junk units inside of Apocalypse and put the rest of our army behind the city. They will be out of catapult range, but still able to counter attack if Azza tries to retake the city.

[Cornflakes]

Oh, and I almost forgot ...




Globe is up and running. I obviously swapped the engineer to the Banana plantation after taking the screenshot. Let's grow this baby up so we have pop to crank out a GP from here in the GA. We'll pretty much grow a 1 pop/turn.