Astronaut without sin confounds press, invites trio to control civilization

[novice]

So, a bit more comprehensively about turn 91:

Yuri accepted our proposed spices for dyes trade. We discovered Nationalism, adopted Nationhood, and drafted three macemen. We saved 30gpt in civic costs, but our income at max tax still dropped by 11gpt due to the loss of bureaucracy.

After spotting Mackoti's naval stack of 1 galley and 7 caravels, we regrouped our units 2W of Ariel, four tiles from the caravel stack. Our stack consists of 4 galleons (1 C1), a caravel and a galley.

We started the Taj Mahal in Ganymede, due eot99, and after ending turn we finished The Great Library in Io and we got a merchant at a bit over 75% odds from Charon.



We have two galleons standing by to ship-chain the Great Merchant to Sian's island city of Last Exile. It will arrive at t94 for a trade mission. We'll research Paper->Education and get ready to grab Liberalism. Sian has Paper and got a great scientist this turn, so he might be trying to compete. He lacks Meditation and Philosophy though.

We have a total of six galleons in action in the eastern ocean. We've defogged most of it, we've settled three cities, found four more good spots (two or more food resources), and will capture a barb city. There are also many mediocre spots which will become attractive soon. We'll also farm a WC to 10xp, and Ganymede will build the HE after TM.



Europa is spitting out 1 work boat a turn, we can still use more of them.

[novice]

So what is the issue with Sian competing, why will those mediocre spots become attractive, and why was The Great Library built for denial?

The answer is - communism. We have three more great people arriving by eot97, and they'll hopefully be two scientists and a scientist/merchant. The plan, then, is to bulb Printing Press and Scientific Method and take Communism with Liberalism. That requires us to sandbag Liberalism until t100 though.

If this succeeds, we can follow up with Construction->Engineering->Gunpowder->Chemistry->Biology. We'll use State Property as our economic civic and save the Monarchy->Feudalism->Guilds->Banking->Economics->Corporation line for last.

[SevenSpirits]

Tech update:

Mackoti turned research to max, -200gpt unless he spent some on other purposes, and therefore probably produced about 450b. He teched Horseback Riding. I suppose he's planning to build some knights?

Luddicator teched Monarchy and is saving some gold.

Sian is probably still on Engineering based on the Machinery/Construction choices mentioned last turn, though he's saving gold. Yuri is probably still on Guilds. It seems everyone is gearing up for war.

[novice]

It seems everyone is gearing up for war.

Everyone but us is out of peaceful expansion room.

[spacemanmf]

So that drafting has kept you top of the soldier points, but what are you going to have to counter possible knights from one side and cataphracts from the other?

I guess it's not *too* long before Engineering and Gunpowder.

[novice]

So that drafting has kept you top of the soldier points, but what are you going to have to counter possible knights from one side and cataphracts from the other?

I guess it's not *too* long before Engineering and Gunpowder.

Seven is convinced that people are too scared of our galleons and power rating to attack us.

As for me, I figure we can easily preempt any aggression from Byzantium - we're sending scouting units back into his lands to let him know that we know about his buildup when it comes. Ideally he goes after Sian. If not we'll just have to see how well cataphracts defend coastal cities.

With Mackoti, hopefully we can sign peace with him soon and get 10 turns of forced peace, enough to catch up on necessary military stuff. Of course we'd like to delay a peace treaty for as long as possible, while not waiting until he actually has the upper hand. We'll see how that works out...

[spacemanmf]

If not we'll just have to see how well cataphracts defend coastal cities.

Against what? Maces? He could have longbows in there and use cataphracts for defence.

The great thing here (for you), unlike PBEM17, is that mackoti and cannot co-ordinate with Yuri. It probably makes more sense for them to try to damage the other way if they can't guarantee mackoti joining in at the same time. Your current war may encourage Yuri to attack you since he will think that all the action is taking place on the other side.

[SevenSpirits]

A fascinating turn which really shows why No Talking is the best way to play.

Here's the power graph - it sure looks like Luddite's getting interested in war, too. Or maybe he's just being cautious about Mackoti's power. Note: Mackoti got Feudalism this turn. It could have been an engineer bulb (and he's now overflowed his research into Guilds, maybe) but I think it's more likely he was just teching it before the engineer popped already.


Meanwhile...

I think this speaks for itself. Sian's going after the Ancient Army Guy with Swords and Cats!

Then there's Yuri, hooking up iron.


And then of course there's our "war" with Mackoti. I pillaged a fish this turn.

I also left our fleet spread out. Reason is, he shouldn't be able to reach any of those ships. Our northern ship is vulnerable only if there's a second fleet (2+ caravels) hidden around the north side of that island. In that case we trade a galleon for a caravel and knowledge of his ships. The two northern galleons could also be vulnerable if the hidden island tile SW of Argos has a fort, and that's where all his caravels are. I deemed this extraordinarily unlikely since it would require a massive surplus of worker turns on his part, plus several extra defensive units for the fort lest we sink his fleet with a couple macemen.

Next turn we'll start the turn with a lot more map knowledge and can then consolidate or do whatever is appropriate.

General turn stuff: I re-checked the plans for our GPP cities and made a couple notes. With a bit of micro we finish the Observatory in Callisto a turn earlier. Also drafted the three cities novice mentioned above.

Here are our demographics. Our gpt at max tax is an impressive 23 and we are first in GNP.


Finally I did some diplo.

That's right, horse to Yuri. Why the hell would I do this? Well, here's the message I'm trying to send.

We see you are about to build Cataphracts and we offer our support. Would you like any assistance?

... with the hope that he understands we are not stopping him because we want to be friendly, as opposed to because we're dumb or oblibious.

A few factors may help make this message more meaningful:
* His diplo screen does not show him having horse (this is because he's doing the horsetrading with Luddicator).
* We will hook up another horse (across the ocean) next turn. So it doesn't look like we're giving up a duplicate, but we also aren't actually giving up the ability to build horse units. (Um, chariots. Right.)

As I was typing this post up, I got an email from Yuri and replied thusly:

Hey Seven,

Was surprised by your offer of your only horse resource to us for
free. Can you explain what you meant by it without breaking the no
diplo rule? Is it a game mechanic I don't know about?

Cheers
Yuri

Hey Yuri, I don't think I should say anything in diplo no matter what.

Seven

I love this format so much.

OK, and I offered peace to Mackoti. But we don't want peace this turn. I'd rather have it next turn or the turn after, so... I asked for too much.


Why do I think this won't seem like just an insult? Because he has no GPT to trade and only 12 gold! So as far as I'm concerned my message is that we want peace but we want more than 12 gold for it.

[SevenSpirits]

Took a midnight peek at the save.

Yuri and Mack got Guilds. Neither accepted our trades. In Yuri's case we shouldn't read any meaning into it.

I'd probably offer Mack peace for 2gpt from him. Really we'd be willing to do it for zero gpt or maybe even a negative amount, but I think this offer works better. (More likely we get a counteroffer.)

[novice]

Feel free to play, I can't until tomorrow.