[spoilers] Gaspar and Commodore welcome you to the islands, mon!

[Commodore]

Got it.

[Commodore]

So, I mighta kinda wenta little nuts with the signpostage.



I also think we might need to hold off on the revolution one more turn. The two above denoted whips are going to be nice but not vital (Gundrak's whip to avoid starvation), but we have got to stop this trireme in our core. Witness the solution:



The event log looks a little sad, but nothing too shocking. The mace, as you saw above, is getting crossbow'd to death next turn, we have another in range even if the RNG gets angry.



A little disappointed that the mace didn't take more damage, but hey, another shock mace! Great for our crossbow/Numidian attack force to fight. We need to kill this dang city soon.


Hagar, as Gaspar might have mentioned, is still covered by another mace. I dunno, move 6+ crossbows down to pop it? The trireme is annoying but no match for our C2 trireme nearby.



Our current stack near DD is a bit weak to take on the city itself, but if he strikes out at either axe (no road, so no return same-turn) we can either take a shot at the city or, more likely, at least take out the offending mace.



Domestically, not much is going on. Zim'Torga can whip in a happy-ful market next turn and then whip out a couple more shock or F2 Numidians for the final push. Poor abused city. Interestingly, because of the happy, I think we'll be running a fair number of Representation merchants.



Speaking of happy, little Zul'Aman needs to make a workboat for the whales about to be settled, then it can chill out with its library scientists for a while. The forge here is online.



Finally, important, Pindicator in chat confirmed he's hitting Yuri. Now that
he told us in confidence, we'll not confirm anything for Yuri.

Jon: sorry for being cagey yesterday, but i'm willing to let you in on the plans

i was being territorial -- silly, when there's more than enough to go around
2:17 PM
me: Makes sense.
2:18 PM
My spider-sense said that you were still in a flexible mood.

Jon: actually, i'm pretty set

i don't want either of them knowing htat though

me: But we figured the guys with caravels, fast galleys, and crossbows were not your targets. :P

Jon: i was kind of practicing in our last conversation

yeah

yuri is in trouble
2:19 PM
you want in?

me: Oy, about to get berserks?

See, want in, sure, but it might be unwise for us.
2:20 PM
We're more than a little behind, and will be having whip anger in places for the next 30 turns.

Jon: well, i'm not saying we need to plan together. in fact, i'm confident in my numbers already

me: Plus, we don't want Rego to coast even more than he already will be once he sees you hit Yuri

Jon: but there will be easy pickings, probably with the troops you already have
2:21 PM
me: Hrm, interesting.

I shall consult with the other king.

Jon: can i trust your discretion?

me: We're not going to be able to do another total-war.
2:22 PM
Now that you have told us this in confidence, not a peep shall be uttered.

Jon: thank you

me: No sense in letting Rego relax anyway. :P
2:23 PM
So in this endgame, are you going for total war or merely a short victorious landgrab.
2:24 PM
Jon: i'm going to take his starting island, and all our bordering islands. no reason you can't pick the cities that are on the border while i distract him
2:25 PM
me: Yeah, that's pretty total. :P

Jon: you think the power spike is impressive? wait til i start making zerkers

me: HA or berserks as your weapon of choice? Ah, cool.

Yeah, that's going to get ugly.
2:26 PM
One tip, though, even 'zerkers aren't perfect if he gets longbows.

Jon: yeah, i was looking at percentages

me: You can still beat that, but it needs to be by using 3-movers to fork everything.
2:27 PM
That's what worked for us.

Jon: well, yuri just teched aesthetics on t97. he doesn't have MC yet

i'm heading for optics
2:28 PM
unless my c&d is wrong

me: Heh should be fine then
2:29 PM
One kinda cool note, explorers early promo'd G2 are great stack defenders.
2:30 PM
Jon: i knew i kept that starting scout around for a reason!



me: Heh
2:32 PM
Although I guess maces are a bit different than Numids.

They defend well themselves...except against Numidians. Yay rock-paper-scissors.
2:33 PM
Jon: i don't plan on getting off the boat
2:34 PM
me: Point.
2:35 PM
Keep those suckers around, they'll be nice rifles or grens.

Jon: the trouble is i have to choose one or the other

me: Rego is going to have Jans pretty soon, so I doubt anything earlier will cut it.
2:36 PM
Jon: i think if i were to go after rego, i'd have to be on the track to astronomy

me: For a naval line, Chem-MilSci is a bit shorter as you need frigates anyway.

Jon: and then it'd be a war of attrition

me: Let's wait until we can both do that, eh?

Jon: hey, you're on a quicker path than i
2:37 PM
did you use that GS on optics?

it'd be cool if you kept him to bulb astro

me: Yep.

We can get another for that bulb, but Philosophy is in the way if you open CoL
2:38 PM
Jon: yeah, for a second i thought maybe you research optics and were bulbing astro
2:39 PM
me: That's too long to hold off on courthouses.

Jon: yeah, but it'd be damn cool! :D

another game, maybe one that's not a torroid

me: Right

[Gaspar]

Finally, important, Pindicator in chat confirmed he's hitting Yuri. Now that
he told us in confidence, we'll not confirm anything for Yuri.

Hmm. Good thing I sent that email 3 hours before the chat?

[Commodore]

Hmm. Good thing I sent that email 3 hours before the chat?

What's that, right hand? I'm the left hand, I have no idea what you were doing.

*Ninja-edit, what do you think of scavenging on the flanks? Yuri's been personally nice but a real pill in-game (note him covering our silks in his culture), and the new city south of Zim'Torga he settled from the other end. My feeling is that we wait around to see how the initial big battles go, and if Pindicator indeed does smash Yuri we cancel the rolling NAP and go a'scrapping.

[Commodore]

Got it, again.

[Gaspar]

*Ninja-edit, what do you think of scavenging on the flanks? Yuri's been personally nice but a real pill in-game (note him covering our silks in his culture), and the new city south of Zim'Torga he settled from the other end. My feeling is that we wait around to see how the initial big battles go, and if Pindicator indeed does smash Yuri we cancel the rolling NAP and go a'scrapping.

I'm all for taking opportunities. However, I feel like we're REALLY underexpanded in terms of the traditional sense, and for all our fast boats, we haven't done much exploring. We still haven't seen any mining happies so those are probably out there somewhere and I feel like nabbing some of those quality spots should be the priority. We've got to get out of war so we can focus on domestic micro - things like making sure we can hook up sea resources quickly, etc.

So if it comes down to picking the bones off Yuri's corpse, sure. But any commitment larger than that I'd be opposed to. We're still way behind the other three in terms of long-term potential - they have way more cities than us, for one.

[Commodore]

The turn began with Yuri offering his second sugar for dibs on our second whale when we hook it up. No issue, and glad to see the resource making our angry people happier.



Celebrating in the time-honored folkways of the Trollish people, we whipped a lot. This is a dead trireme sailing, methinks. Unless the RNG really hates us.



We're expanding in the non-violent way again, shockingly. If we can reclaim the silks (through one way or another) this will be a decent little site, less important now that we have Sian's silks.



Found another okay site with the exploring southern galley. There's a rumored treasure island site out there somewhere, we need to find ourselves gold in them there hills.



Whales get hooked in two turn, which is actually perfect because next turn is the revolution! The horses + fish means a nice production city for this map. If the worker reveals seafood north, we can also settle 1NE.



Militarily, it was a year of not-doing. Sadly, the forested mace has good odds against the new crossbow. We can double-team it next turn if ya want, or we can just bundle them over to Hagar or DD.



In Donald Duck, a new mace is going to be a hard defender across the river. Might want to move them onto the flatland before we attack?



Our flankers will be helpful, but we need to be able to kill what we damage before we strike. They will hurt anyone who tries to kill the forest axe, though.



Here's the situation at EoT (shot taken before some units moved).



Meh. NEED TO KILL THIS DANG PLACE.

[Mardoc]

What's that, right hand? I'm the left hand, I have no idea what you were doing.

I love it

What do we know about yuris? Does he have the ability to mass produce Longbows? What about the willpower?

Given the trouble we've been having with Sian, when he had only 6 cities to begin with - I suspect that yuris will be able to absorb a big hit and and still stall pindicator in the end. If he has Feudalism and the willingness to whip into the ground, that is.

[Commodore]

What do we know about yuris? Does he have the ability to mass produce Longbows? What about the willpower?

We know that he's a peaceful player in general, a fair builder and okay if not exceptional general fond of horse units. He's not had a ton of success in war but he's not one to crumble. I expect determined but not inspired defense on his part.

He's purportedly two turns from longbows, which defend against berserkers pretty well, especially behind his faux-Creative borders. He can certainly whip himself in the ground and I think he has the will for it, eventually. What I am not sure is how hard he will commit to the defense at first, and how well he'll defend his backlines too. He seems to be a bit blind on the naval side of things, and his wide empire is pretty vulnerable to the faster hit-and-runs that Pindicator can deliver.

What I am not sure of is how well Pindicator himself is going to conduct this war. He seems to be doing the 100% commit thing, which is very good, and he's got a navy that is only surpassed by ours. However, he spoke of hitting Yuri's homeland, which is the hammer-heavy prize on a map like this...but also the sure-to-be-strongpoint, every bit as nightmarish to hit as Sian's has been for us. Basically, we'll be adopting a wait-and-see here, but if the home goes, we need to scramble to take advantage.

[Commodore]

Got it.