Ministry of Silly Walks 2: Walk Sillier/Harder

[Shoot the Moon]

Crap, didn't realize that the gpt stuff was still an issue this turn. We could just have me gift you gold (not gpt) to get around it right? I realize it is technically against the rules but might be easier than disappearing gold next turn.

Yeah, that's far easier. I might just go ahead and do that. Can someone remind me again why midturn gold gifting is banned but gpt deals aren't? Aren't the two the same thing pretty much?

Also got a free Taoist missionary to use somewhere. I'd guess your capital for a eventual monastery? (10% isn't much, but what else can he do?)

My guess is mid turn upgrading by having one person play first and get the needed money.

[Shoot the Moon]

Random mumblings:

My new capital rocks, however most of my core cities are costing ~8gpt, which is probably enough for a courthouse in all of them. Going to 2pop whip all of them once I get back into Slavery, if I can sink some hammers into them without being interrupted during Castifism.

I'm feeling a bit vulnerable now without the whip, but we should be good for the 5-6t we need. Especially after the Artist bomb next turn.

I think we can get Feudalism at the end of next turn. Then we can get HBR/Archery the turn after simultaneously (you get HBR, I'll get Archery, we should be able to 1t them both with our tech rates I think?) and head straight for Guilds after that. We should be at Guilds by the time I can switch out of Castifism. (I wonder if I should hold off switching out until banking for merc..., perhaps wait and see if we need to whip emergency something first). That's some pretty fast teching, and it shouldn't slow down even after I leave Castificm once you go in your GA.

Also we shouldn't forget to cancel/renegotiate our gpt deals next turn so I'm not at risk of a strike. Could we sort that out tomorrow in chat?

Yeah I may be somewhat busy tomorrow but at the very least I won't end turn first again. Hopefully I'll be around though.

[WarriorKnight]

Bomb went pretty well:



mack has to evacuate, even though I can't kill his units anytime soon that city is just toast.

Unfortunately Smack got a GE, which they'll most likely use on Taj. Can't really compete with that without a GE of our own, so they've probably got Taj locked up unless we get lucky. That means we should aim for merc instead.

[WarriorKnight]

LAM just teched Engineering. I guess ND isn't a bad wonder and the road movement is useful too but that means no early Knights for them.

Also somehow missed that Seven started a GA as well. GNP is tough atm since both techers from our main rivals are in GA's, but at least we're not losing too much ground since I have several Rep scientists in Caste, and Shoot should go in a Mausoleum boosted GA of his own soon enough.

[WarriorKnight]

Actually, LAM getting Engineering means that we are now the best target for Smack Knight aggression. I doubt Smack will risk everything on Knight invasions, but we do need to ensure that we don't present ourselves as a target if we want to use Knights on 4H. At least we'll have both Lbows and Maces from next turn and Knights of our own in the not too distant future.

[WarriorKnight]

You know you want to. If you feel like going ahead with that and deleting the worker, feel free to do that and end my turn. Mack also left a sentry HA exposed, and I wasn't sure if I should kill it or not. Don't worry about the gold, it should be good enough until I switch out of Pacifism, and then we can reassess.

You should be in a GA on T98, as that's when my GP can reach your borders. I should also have incense for you within the next 5t too. Smack got an artist, but I don't think it's a good idea for them to use that on a culture bomb on us this time since both our borders already have been bombed, and in fact might be aimed at giving Seven a double GA.

Also redid the northern dotmap, and could use some input on the southern one:



Since we have 2 furs now, we can ignore the last one. The deer city could probably be moved 1W, and in all honestly you should be the one to settle it ASAP since your FIN and that's good land. The other two are resource grabs, the whale one can be postponed until Optics while I'll aim for crab/silver once I can deal with mack (which, I'll admit, could take a while...).



Haven't really updated the dotmap here to adjust for Hickery yet. The problem is if we settle too far to the NE, we give Smack a chance to fork two cities (along with Park Cartoonist) although we have to be careful not to give LAM a chance to fork me either. I don't think the current spot is that bad, it's just that it'll be right on LAM's border once Hickery expands.

[Shoot the Moon]

I attacked and won with ~3.5 strength left. I actually decided not to delete the worker yet. Because of how their road network is they didn't actually have anything to attack with next turn so we should be able to safely retreat it looks like.

I also threw up a couple of signs in regards to my thoughts on a dot map. What I put would force us to keep a jungle tile on a riverside grassland to avoid a fork, but that doesn't seem terrible.

[WarriorKnight]

We might be able to keep the worker? Sweet. I'm not sure if taking it off LAM is a good idea, but I don't think it'll result to much since we have the smallest border with them. Incidentally, they have quite a large number of cities on the eastern landmass, and we might be tied with Smack for 2nd most expansion in the east. What are 4H doing over there?

Got our 2nd GS, and to be perfectly honest I'm not sure exactly what to do with him. We can either bulb Edu or use him as a 1 man GA for me or part of a 2 man GA for you. Don't have to decide right now though.

T100 is coming up soon, think we should do another overview then?

[Shoot the Moon]

I agree on all points. That is, I agree with waiting to figure out a use for the GS and yeah a t100 overview sounds good. With the GS I'd say keep a bit of an eye on how everyone is looking lib wise as after guilds we might have a shot at grabbing that.

[WarriorKnight]

For some reason completely unfathomable to me, LAM decided to get Compass. The only way I can see that being useful is for better naval technology, are they really in need of Caravels though? Since we have Colossus, the rest of the world getting better naval technology isn't great news for us, but I don't think it'll matter too much considering distances.

T100 is next turn, and we still have no idea what to tech after banking. All of Engineering, Nationalism and Lib tech path are tempting. Right now, I'm leaning towards Eng -> Lib, but that could easily change. (after all, I was favoring Nat a while ago).

I can also switch civics again T102, and I'm thinking of Bureau/Caste/Merc/Pacifism. I wish I had better MFG for an army to defend myself with, but sadly SPI doesn't really do much to help that, so I might do another round of whips for knights just before switching again. Aside from that, all I can really do is help out in the tech department. I'm hoping that eventually I can switch to a workshop economy or something similar by the end of the Renaissance at the latest, since that's when a SE usually runs out of steam. Until then though, I won't be able to do much in terms of unit production.