[SPOILERS] Emporium For Sale. We Don't Rent Pigs.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Intuitively, I would have thought the archers would change over to LBs as well. No worries, though. I swapped Ogalalla to a LB (33h/t, perfect for 1t LBs/Cats) and will hang on to the crossbow build until I need overflow for something else. I'm going to keep Ogalalla configured for max growth so it will grow onto a couple of to-be-completed workshops when I get Guilds. When we get the next city growth and switch off food onto production, with the extra hammer from guilds workshops, we should have just enough hammers (27h/t base +125% = 60.75) to 1t knights. I thought I had taken a screen shot of this...nope, so I reopened the save at work.



Guess I better get HBR knocked out ASAP. Two promo, 1t knights will be very helpful. Getting a stable up will be a good use of the crossbow overflow. Great thinking ahead, Ceil!

Other stuff:



Splash screen because I'm a tard.



Yeah, novice wasn't really going for a blockade ceasefire, he was repositioning his boats to choke off the marble supply. I 2-popped Baxter Springs for the lighthouse, which would otherwise have starved. If I were novice, I'd continue moving my stack of 13 boats 1N/t and continue blockading until he was two tiles further north and could choke marble, as well as denying me the crabs at Virginia City and the clams at Dodge City. For a reliable chance to remove the blockade, I'd only need to build another...10 triremes? Well, whatever. I still get a 100% exchange rate on fail gold when building wonders (OR/Forge/IND). At least I still have my precious stone...



...whereas novice has lost his paterfamilias, and presumably a GP farm. With Caste/Pacifism, golden age, and a very nice food surplus, that city had to be working on another GP for him. Tough break. I'm not sure how he'll respond to this, but I'm guessing that I can't show a handful of knights quickly enough. I'm going to do a quick comparison of the former Papa and my Dodge City, built in identical locations:

Papa (now defunct)


It's been around size 8 for quite a while, and was size 6 on T101. My best guess is that novice has whipped this city for his navy repeatedly, as well as running Representation specialists, which would account for less food surplus/vertical growth.

Dodge City (not quite dead yet)

I've spared the whip here as much as possible, building navy elsewhere and making other cities suffer much more, particularly Fort Smith, which has recovered to size 6 but is still carrying 23 turns of whip anger (down significantly from earlier), and Virginia City, in the far south, which has whipped/overflowed for Triremes countless times. Dodge City has focused on building wonders and getting us set up for a golden age and to be a GPP powerhouse. Growing to size 13 is perfect for GPP production. I'll be working 6 food tiles for +11f and can either run 7 specialists (in addition to the "free" Great Library scientists) at a -1f deficit and share out all of the second ring mines to other cities, or work the first-ring grass mine and 6 specialists. I'll need to give the horses over to Ogalalla to get it up to 27h/base for 1t knights. I don't have enough specialist slots quite yet for this, only 5 now, so either a market or a grocer will get me up to 7. I'm fine on health, so probably market after National Epic.

In any event, I'm happy to have cracked one of novice's cities, and I think a fairly important one. He's going to be out for blood now.



Blockades are back in full effect. I still hate them. I'm glad that Zak's boats have been forced to the north. Let them go harry novice.



The specialists from Austin are highlighted. I'll be running merchants here from now on. Otherwise, some (moar) boats, troops, and economy. What else is there?



Two opponents in golden age. We're holding things together for now, until novice sates his bloodlust seeking his revenge. I hope he finds it... against Zak.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

T117

Weekend update!

Tactical shots:





Demos/graphs:










Cities:










T118

Tactical shots:





Demos/graphs:







Cities:

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

T119



I didn't leave the boats unstacked, I just took the pic when I had visibility.



Just protecting his workers for now, it would seem. That city is going to grow like a weed, then probably whip like hell and annoy me with swarms of...something.



I could be blockading here, but I'm choosing not to because I don't think that my boats should be able to block two tiles to the rear of a flotilla blocking my advance.



HBR will be in at 30%, then on to Banking. The continuing trireme builds make me nauseous, but at least I've cracked into novice's waters. Otherwise, units and economy. And a little fail gold in Austin. Actually, I spent more time thinking about a second turn of fail gold there vs. starting the NE in Dodge City than all the other builds combined. On the one hand, another turn of juicy fail gold when I'm about to rapidly complete the NE in another city. On the other hand, novice could blockade my marble again and I'd be out an awesome turn of production toward the NE. Well, I went with the fail gold.



Novice is working on Nationalism (either this turn or T120). Zak has Engineering, so that's something to be aware of. We only share one land border, though. Also, I'll be 3rd or last to Banking. Not a good sign. Overall, I'm always 2-3 turns behind on tech, it seems. Zak is doing just fine with Vassalage over Bureaucracy with that GLH thing.



Built this thing.



Built it here, put a turn into a market since I'll need a few more specialist slots when not running Caste. The plan is to follow up with a 3T NE. So long as novice doesn't blockade the marble. Also, highlighted, a great person coming up soon.



But we'll get there first.



Stable! Then horses and moar horses.



All of the cities of the enlightened, rugged folk of the Hat Creek Cattle Company.



Solid.

T120

Life got busy when this save was sitting in my inbox, so I'm short on pictures this time.



I moved 5 triremes up two spaces to get visibility on novice's second seafood (fish) and split the stack to keep the blockade on. After playing through the turn, this decision feels very bad. Novice has probably had time to move in other units and he won't get a better shot to crack my blockade cheaply than now when my stack is split. Certified right here. Patience is rewarded. I would have been much better off to extend the blockade by the single tile and kept all the triremes together. I'm nervous about this.



Novice did the smart thing and put the blockade back on, much to my annoyance. I have some more triremes trickling in (I think my count is around 42 now...bah). This changed the NE build from 3 to 6-7 turns. That's kinda what I get for being greedy with the fail gold.

No other pictures, but you can just be assured that I pulled all the right levers and that I'm going to see that everyone has voted me the winner when the save is next in my inbox.

lurkers and...comments.

[Commodore]

Sweaty Pizza going to be failgold farmed or built?

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Sweaty Pizza going to be failgold farmed or built?

Just built. Without the gold doubler it is less beneficial to build multiple times, and I really could use grocers and banks in some cities instead. I still have Chicken Pizza and the ToA if I really decide I have hammers to invest in future profits. I think though that I had better see to my defense. Once novice can draft I will be hard pressed to keep up with his troop production. Typical green mistake, maybe, constantly thinking I need more troops. I'm currently and consistently #1 in soldier count, eyeballing it each turn I suppose I'm a turn's worth of unit production ahead on average. But I (and novice, surely) know that much of this number is triremes and won't do much of anything against a knight or draft invasion.

That said, novice may not have the happy cap to do much drafting quite yet. He still doesn't have Calendar last I checked. And, offensive warfare still seems a very difficult prospect for any of us. I'm wondering what his breakout strategy is, or if he's becoming somewhat passive in the face of a rising Zak and my recent aggression/opportunism. I'm having a tough time reading the other players at this point. We all have sharp knives and we will all likely suffer invading one another, even trying to crack Ichabod's longbows. Playing for the long game seems to be what is happening, and I think that favors Zak ultimately because he nibbles at Ichabod's land and has the strongest economy.

I still feel like a paper tiger. Novice's cultural control at the border really has me feeling exposed on the outside. But I don't really see a profitable way to attack him on land. His border cities are defensively well placed in addition to being culturally strong. I'm just going to have to hold on until Astronomy I think so I can spread him out and probe for weakness inside, possibly on his inland island cities. I still have the incomplete fort chain plan kicking around.

Hmm. Long response (types on my phone no less) not entirely about the Shwedagon. that probably cleared up basically nothing.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Zak.... smh

Sigh.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

The rest of T121



I spread my boats out to see what's out there. I've marked where it is safe to sit, and that novice's boats have evacuated Watt. It seems that he's looking to outflank me and put the blockade back on (perhaps) at Sheridan with just the galley and trireme. I have three archers there, so I doubt he's trying to do anything to the city itself.



Here's how I ended up moving. The work boat I whipped last turn will have to be content sitting in port until I figure out where novice is going. I sent three triremes to chase these guys down. I can always retreat my own stack north of Watt if needed without risking more than a single boat. For now, eat the blockade. I hope he goes toward my city so I can pick off these two boats.



I'm not entirely sure why novice opted to move as he did, but I'll take the blockade relief. As long as I have the marble next turn, I can finish up the NE in Dodge City with a perfect 167h build. I'll swap the horse for a coast tile to get Ogallala back on schedule for another 1t knight while slowly continuing to grow. I'm going to see if I can manage to eek out one more city growth in Ogallala while 1t building everything.



Three knights this turn, and the two grocers at the top will finish just in time to start on some banks. Elsewhere, more fucking triremes. The count is 42.



Make that at least 44 by next EoT. I've got to deal with Zak's obnoxious fort/circumnav/blockade maneuver, so that means more of what I absolutely hate about this particular game. I'm just disgusted with these blockades. Nice tactical move by Zak, don't get me wrong. He did a great job thinking outside of the box. I just find the effect of this mechanic less than appealing when I have my own boats to contest his. In non-blockade news, I spawned a Great Spy at ~4% odds or so. I'll have to reopen the save to check for sure, but it was very, very low.



Next turn Zak will likely use the circumnav bonus to move south of my stack and completely take my Moai tiles out of play, and then move 1E the following turn to blockade Deadwood as well and block out my incoming trade/happy resources, causing further anger and starvation. And, this will cause me unhappiness in my mainland cities that have grown up so tall and are now reliant on the ivory. I can't wait.

Not sure if I'll ever get a GP out of here. Probably will when I fire a caste/pacifism GA between spawnings at DC.



Please don't blockade the marble next turn! I'm going to cash in almost 300g when I finish, which will help me get Engineering after Banking.

[spacetyrantxenu]

This thread is miserable to read--I'm sick of this game and I'm not even playing it. 44 triremes? A kitten dies every time you have to build another one.

[Ceiliazul]

Pretty sure it's a sheep and a wood, but I guess you could weave kittens into a sail...

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

T122



Zak withdrew, and I renamed my boats. I would have renamed them even if he had pushed the blockade further. I whipped the trireme in San Antonio and naturally finished the one in Great Bend. I'd much rather be building knights, but unlike my stone/marble luxury cities, I actually have to secure this front because Great Bend is such an awesome city. Maybe 10 triremes is enough to punish his stack before it gets larger? I'm hoping to not have to build any more until I get to Theocracy.

In other news, Zak took the score lead (until I ended turn). The man is on a mission and playing very well, it seems. He got a great merchant, I don't think it's from economics.



Almost the same picture as last time. Well, isn't it always? Anyway, I did the same take a peak at the adjacent tiles and move back to safety routine. All clear, so let's blockade the waters. This is the only location I'm blockading this turn.



Novice seems to be intent on removing my stack that is blockading most of his seafood resources. I'm going to keep shadowing his stack, and maybe just combine my stacks in his waters. I'm so sick of these boats, I'd love it if we sunk all of each others boats and just left it at that.



Hmm. This was supposed to show the garrison in Fall, I'm not sure why I got combat odds instead. Fall now has a longbow, knight, cats, and the assortment of old trash, just like I have everywhere.



Grocers are finishing, that will help some. National Epic finished, finally!



Micro worked out just right to get the horses back to Ogallala. We're up to a whopping 40gpp/t now with just the one specialist. I need more specialist slots, and hope to have them by the time we finish a golden age.



I'm not sure how I thought I'd be able to keep growing this while building knights. Not gonna happen. But, 1t knights? Uh, yeah.



Crunched some numbers here and decided to work a supremely suboptimal bare-ass plains tile over the 3f spice to get to 40h for the 1t stable. This will eat up my measly 2h overflow and get me to 24h base/turn, +25% (6) = 30, or a perfect 2t knight. I'll take this complementary force to what I'm getting out of Ogallala all day long. I wish I had planned this better so I didn't have to resort the the plains over spice swap but I didn't see the option until this turn.



Novice has a significant force in Fish (6 cats, 4 maces, assorted defensive trash), so I'm looking at knights to flank away the cats when he presumably moves in. Novice can't see my stack between Tombstone and Miles City, so I think I'm reasonably secure here for now. I have 2 LBs and 3 archers in Miles City, and Tombstone can't be one-moved even after Engineering, which novice still lacks. Once he has Engineering, Miles City is more vulnerable to knights, but I've built a wall and have the hill defense bonus to help, so I'm feeling like he's more likely to attack with slow movers, if he attacks at all.

Honestly, this map is so tactically difficult with so many fronts to contest that we may just opt to stare at each other across hostile lines. My economy still isn't the best, Zak's is, and Zak seems to be the only one waging offensive warfare. My best bet may be just to stare down novice and sneak a stack of knights down to Ichabod and try to carve some room out for myself down there. I feel so pressed all the time for troops, though, that I just don't know when I'll get it done.

Miles City's failgold (144) came in this turn. I will get the rest of it (147) from Austin next turn. Austin goes before Dodge City in the production queue, so I'm assuming that's why I didn't get all the failgold this turn.



The sun always shines a little brighter when I have tech turned on.