[SPOILERS - PBEM29] spacetyrantxenu - Mao of Babylon

[Ceiliazul]

Does anyone want to see anything else? Is anyone here? These reports will be a great deal shorter in a few weeks when I move down to join my family. I won't be able to take a few hours to play two turns of civ and then write about it.

I'm totally here, but my own time budget is on a swift downward slope. I'm also about 2 weeks from a major event, and there's lots to do.

Um, comments: I don't see ny buildings you didn't see in 'Function', but that city is a terrific specialist city for him. If he's running artists for whatever reason, that could explain the swing. Also it sounds like you're a great ally for Slowcheetah... certainly much better an ally than Dazed!

[spacetyrantxenu]

Once you're resigned to your fate, you can embrace it.

It's OK, most efforts at MP civ result in failure. We're dealing with a 75% failure rate in this game. In pitboss games it's a lot higher than that! Why, in PB7 when I go down in flames I'll be a member of the 94% who failed to win. When I work the numbers that way it doesn't feel so bad.

#waggingthedog

[spacetyrantxenu]

T117 - Laptop battery is dying, here's the most interesting find of the turn:



So he moved his forward units back toward his land, it seems. I wonder if my war declaration has put Sian on the defensive for now? Or maybe he's just regrouping so he can push forward in a few turns. I emailed that photo to Slowcheetah to keep him apprised, but I think he has visibility on the city anyway. It's a nice gesture all the same and I've asked him to send me shots of Sian's troops when he can see them, so I don't get surprised like I did last turn at Gary Johnson. Those knights were in Slowcheetah's land so he should have told me about them. I emailed Dazed asking him to do the same, to send me shots of his border with Sian when he can see troops. We'll see about that.

Nothing new on the other two fronts. On Dazed's border Sian still has very little showing in his front city (Mehmed?), but I know he has units hiding in the fog. I still need siege down there to reduce the cost of taking his cities. I've continued gifting CG2 Drill1 LBs to Slowcheetah in Too Much Civ, it's up to 4 of those now. That should free him to send away several of his maces elsewhere for forward action. By Gary Johnson, Sian's stack of knights has disappeared while I continue to mass units in the city. He knows he won't be able to take that city for now, I'm sure. He'll likely reevaluate the option when he has cannons. That would rip me apart for sure.

That's all for now.

[spacetyrantxenu]

T118 - I took the Great Engineer I popped last turn out of Rick Santorum (courtesy mostly of the Hanging Gardens) and fired a golden age. I'm fairly sure I've poorly utilized GPs during this game, I should be starting my second golden age by now. Everyone else has done much better in this regard, so that's something to learn from. For now it leaves me with a half respectable looking economy, powered by large cities inefficiently working coast But now they at least look like FIN coast.

I swapped civics into HR (why not?) and Theocracy. I thought about leaving slavery for caste but decided that may be a bad idea if I need to rush units for emergency defense. I don't have all that many workshops anyway so it's no big deal, plus I don't have a lot of extra food for running specialists (and no Philo for pacifism during the GA). Mercantilism would be nice but that would be a bit of a dagger to my allies at this point so let's not go there for now. I'd just want to use Merc during the GA for the extra GPPs but I'm not sure if it's worth giving up foreign trade routes for that on a mathematical basis even if the diplomatic situation allowed it.

On the research front I had been teching Paper at 0% for the last few turns saving up cash so I could run a high science slider during the GA. I have 15 libraries and only 7 markets so my infrastructure would prefer to get the most benefit possible out of the GA commerce boost. Mostly it comes down to the fact that I need cannons soon so I better get started. My choices were:

(Max research = 915 bpt)

100% into Paper = 915 * 1.4 = 1281
100% into Chemistry = 915 * 1.2 = 1098
0% into whatever = save gold this turn = 1496 gold in the bank

I thought about saving the gold so I could run 100% for the next 4 turns of the GA, but since I still research at a good clip at break even during the GA I went ahead and started Chemistry now. I'll go two turns @ 100% to finish Chemistry with a good bit of overflow into Steel. I can then run one turn @90%, then a few turns of break even to be broke and finish Steel before the golden age ends. I hope that in the mean time I don't have any cities burned down that would delay the due date for Steel.

To illustrate the difference a golden age makes:

Before I popped the GA (non-existent research bonus is 40% with Paper selected)


After I popped the GA (research set to Chemistry, so only 20% bonus)

With Paper selected in GA my GNP was over 1200. It was tempting to run up Paper and Printing Press for the commerce boost but it really is crunch time. Dazed managed to get a leg up on me by taking the convenient path to Rifling. I'm still not convince he did it out of any spirit of cooperation (he didn't consult with me or Slowcheetah before taking that tech path), I think it was the best move for Dazed and his cottage economy. Too bad that locked me into chasing Chemistry and Steel, which are great for war and useless for my tile improvements. I think I have 3 or 4 workshops down, so the +1hpt at Chemistry is wasted on me. At least when I go to PP later it will be cheaper.

Troop movements - I gifted double promoted knights to Slowcheetah this turn. They're just SE of his pyramids/MoM city. I'm not sure if he'll be able to move them next turn or not since I just gifted them, but he'll get the save after the turn rolls for what that's worth. I think he'll be able to use them, but if not it probably doesn't matter. I don't think this constitutes trying to introduce some cosmic double move into a PBEM. I just moved the unit to his territory outside of Sian's visibility (that's why I moved so far inside the culture) and made the gift. I think the total count now is 4 knights and 4 LBs. Then again Slowcheetah has sacrificed...4 cities to the cause? I have to think some of that was preventable, though. I saw how lightly garrisoned his island cities were before, he may have been burned by that.

Speaking of getting burned, Slowcheetah lost a core city this turn, Jaw Hurting. It seems he was surprised by an upgraded galley-->galleon and an amphibious assault. That tells me he just didn't have enough units in position when he probably should have. If he had been watching Sian's tech path he knew Astronomy was coming, but he just missed this one. It's too bad, he's really in a bad place with his cities now. I hope he can hold on for a while until Dazed can start working on the other end of Sian's land or this may not go well for us.

Maps:

Sian's garrison at Hannibal in the tundra


Sian's lack of garrison at Mehmed. IT'S A TRAP!


Since it's so obviously a trap, the last thing Sian will expect me to do is to take the bait. So here I pretend to take the bait and in the process swallow both the bait and hook.

If he doesn't reinforce the city I'll either take it (raze) next turn or allow Slowcheetah to take it. I'm thinking this city needs to just burn as any other outcome will be crushed by Dazed's culture. Plus burning cities don't need to be defended. Everyone wins. Except the peasants, they all die. But that's their lot in life. Suffering FTW!

[spacetyrantxenu]

Time to catch up on the email from the weekend. 2:

[COLOR="Magenta"]Dazed,

Any chance you can email me screen shots of Sian's border with you if he has troops visible? I'm scouting around with one scout while I prepare a force, but he has limited visibility without risking his death.

Thanks,

Xenu[/COLOR]

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]Xenu,

I can see a little in the jungle but nothing in the tundra. I'm working on trying to overcome his culture but he's got wonders and all I've got is a stinking +2 from the Great Wall! :D

Hope it helps. If you're gonna hit that city, don't wait too long! I mention this only because it's a learning opportunity, not to give you a hard time, but moving in with one knight to snipe workers was bad because it put him on aware. It's tempting to get 5 workers but I'm guessing you didn't really need 5 workers right hten anyways. So either snipe then delete, Snipe then cover with more units (wasn't an option for you) or wait. I genuinely think if you'd waiting and then moved your whole force in 1T later, Mehmed would have fallen.

By the way, if you do take it, feel free to keep it or raze it. It's whatever you want. CG3 longbows are tough nuts to crack so it's not implausible to keep it.

Dazed[/COLOR]

[spacetyrantxenu]

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]Hey guys,

I'm looking forward to joining the war with y'all. I've been building a substantial fleet to take some of Sian's island cities! Now that I have the tech to put the necessary troops on the boats, I'm excited! It's gonna be good times. 7 turns away, I believe. I know Sian is worried because he offered me OB (looking for an ally? looking for income?). I turned him down without a second thought tho part of me thinks I should have said yes and scouting his troops for us before T125. Oh well. What's done is done.

I sent Xenu a picture of what I know of Sian's border to my south but here's a copy of if for slowcheetah as well:

Slowcheetah, could you do us a big favor and let us know what tech Sian has? I know he has Military Science and Guilds, but beyond that I have no idea what he's got. Do either of you have tech visibility on him? If so, what is he currently researching?

For the cause,

Dazed[/COLOR]

[spacetyrantxenu]

[COLOR="Cyan"]
Sian's Current Techs

Can Research:
COL, Drama, DR, Edu, PP, Steel

Has (military): Military Science, Astro, Chem (Frigates and Galleons!!!), he doesn't have nationalism so he can't draft. I don't have research visibility (in fact it's probably the opposite way round) but I'd guess he's probably going PP next, if he techs Edu he's heading for the economics GM.

Attached is a screenshot of his stack just outside the tundra city. Annoyingly the stacks are split. I currently have nine hwachas, pikes and 4 maces garrisonned in OHP. I can move them onto the deer tile turn 119, and launch an assault from there. There was a grenadier in the area a few turns ago, I'm not sure where its dissappeared to. Most of my troops have promotions available, so if we have to take out Sian's forces in two stacks they should be able to heal up pretty quickly (Medic GG will also be in attendance).

slowcheetah[/COLOR]

[spacetyrantxenu]

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]
OK,

well steel is clearly the worst choice for him to take from our perspective. I'd prefer he went economic route so he wasn't increasing his ability. Cannons will be painful. However, I don't see him going PP becuase he doesn't have that many cottages. Maybe he will. Can you keep us up to date on his techs?

Dazed[/COLOR]

[spacetyrantxenu]

[COLOR="Cyan"]Yeah I'm pretty much praying he doesn't go steel next. I'll keep you guys posted with his further discoveries. Also Dazed if you let me know exactly when you are going to hit his island cities I can currently scout them with triremes a few turns before. From what I've seen so far he tends to have just a longbow in them unless the city is being threatened. Note if you want me to scout his northern isand city this way, he will see the trireme because I won't have enough movement points to get out of there.
Also Sian says he razed my city Jaw Hurting this turn, I was expecting it to be hit in the next couple of turns but not quite that fast.(he used a galley upgrade, which I didn't consider). I was prepping a couple more longbows to be placed within it next turn, and was going to draft there, so it being taken that turn is annoying.

Ah well, I can still help you guys in the war effort; a winning comeback for the korean people currently doesn't look on the cards though.

slowcheetah[/COLOR]

[spacetyrantxenu]

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]Slowcheetah,

The turns are going so slow now that there's plenty of time for war planning in between. If you'd like, I'd be happy to help plan some good tactics/unit maneuvering with you to help beat back Sian. I don't think your situation is terrible if we can take down sian because you cna reclaim your lands and you have a tech lead on Xenu and me. But you do need to stop hemorrhaging cities to Sian. Even with his tech advantage, he shouldn't be able to do too much damage to a well planned defense. I know you're 1t from optics. You need Astro/Chem too. How long for that?

Dazed
[/COLOR]

Yo Xenu, PYFT!