[SPOILERS] Kurumi & wetbandit serve you Hannibal's Breakfast Cocktail (of Persia)

[wetbandit]

T146 brought the TOA and a heap of failgold.




Mis-moved a worker preventing me from hooking up silk in time for the growth. It will be online next turn. Tail needs a lot of help with health, I haven't found the time to start an aqueduct, especially now that the Great Library is available and I'd like to build a Castle (!) for the 5 commerce TR.

Really kicking myself for letting WLP build the MoM with a marble assist. It's entirely possible he would have built in anyway, as he had calendar for a long time. Still, in his golden age:




Sigh. Well, we're doing OK. After lit, I turned tech to Engineering. I've had research visibility on WLP for some time and he is on the verge of teching machinery. I'm worried about his power relative to mine, so extra road movement and a castle on the border will make me feel somewhat better. Oh yeah, pikes in case of Camels.

Besides that, a Castle will be worth 7 commerce in Breakfast Tail and potentially +3 or +4 in some other cities. Arguably better than TGL in Tail? I've got the last forest chop ready for the Great Library in Tail. Suttree has had Literature for quite some time and he also teched Alpha:




We're up some more important techs on him, but it's negligible. He's got a ton of gold and can fund research most of the way to guilds, I imagine. The wandering scout happened upon a huge battle between Oxy and Suttree which gave Oxy 2 GGs. Another GG was born in a far away land, so hopefully retep, whom I still haven't met, is also in a war.

FP can be 3-whipped next turn or slow built in 3 turns.

Didn't take pictures, but settled 3 new cities since the last update. One to claim Incense, one to fill in by Stolichnaya, and one out on the western island which will eventually claim 2 seafood.

[wetbandit]

Slacking on updates, peddling along here. Some new cities:








Sugar city to be settled in about 4 turns. Have some filler spots left, but will focus on getting island cities up.

WLP beat me by two turns to the Great Library, which is in the MoM city. He "won" the tiebreaker for that round, so my chop didn't get converted into production, which was unfortunate. I would have probably preferred the money, instead the big overflow goes into the NE. Walls->Castle next for the TR, then health buildings. Ugly 2 hammer workshop, but guilds is coming soon.




Not the best HE city, but it's got the most hammers in the empire and can't do anything else but build. Maces until knights are ready.




WLP is running away with the game, in my opinion. He is saving cash with research set on guilds. He detoured through compass and optics last turn, which puzzles me. I'm fairly safe from a galley invasion due to ocean, but once Astro opens up, this will be a nervous coastline. I spied a GS moving within his borders, I expect another Golden Age from him before the last one ends.

Research gets turned on fully next turn to complete Feudalism and then Guilds. HBR either before or after that, as I would like to get the Apothecary in Tail for the gold bonus. After HBR/Guilds, probably banking for the money.

Suttree finished Paper and peaced out with Oxy. I'd like to get some idea of what the hell is going on over there.

Demos and graphs have us in the top 3-4, except for soldiers. Just chugging along. Short term plan is to generate GPs from Tail for the next GA and/or for bulbing. I don't think I'll be able to deal militarily with WLP as he is ahead of me in every category.

[wetbandit]

Finally met Retep who appears that he's on an island or otherwise protected from land invasion, judging by his relatively low power. Dumped enough EP on him to get graphs and research only to discover he's going to finish Liberalism next turn.

He's also in Mercantilism.

Canceled OB with WLP, this may have only cost him 6 commerce, but I'll be damned if I keep feeding him more given that he's able to fire more MOM-enhanced GAs. Keeping OB with Molach because all of our other TRs go through him.

On that, WLP finished Optics and looks to be heading towards Circumnavigation. Retep has spammed map trade offers, but I'm holding out as we're not in a position to secure circumnavigation. If it comes down to it, trading with Retep for his map will give us a coinflip shot at circumnavigation, I believe, if our maps reveal enough. If they don't, which is what I'm worried about, there's nothing we can really do to reveal the last map tiles, as they'll likely be by suttree or retep.

No one really knows the extent of the island chains available to us. I have a settler ready to go on the big island for 1st ring pigs and bronze. I'm imagining that it will be 15gpt in upkeep right away, which is going to hurt.

I've been trying to buy Suttree's map, but he won't sell. Next tactic is to offer OB as he's diplomatically isolated for his map. He seems to be falling behind a little bit as he needs to invest a lot in his military due to Oxy's huge buildup.

We are 2nd in GNP and CY with finishing Paper this turn. No one is in a Golden Age. Completed Banking last turn. Castles completed along the border with a 10 unit stack in Belvedere, WLP border city, to dissuade any aggression, as he is tops in power.

Have a Great Prophet sleeping in Tail for the next GA. Tail finishes it's Apothecary (+4 badly needed health) and starts the bank next turn. Future tech path will be to get Education and then Astro. I would love to turn Belvedere into a Globe City, will snag Drama with next OF build up.

[wetbandit]

I owe a huge picture update when I get back home. Retep gifted us his map, which won us circumnavigation.

There are two island chains as far as I can tell; the first is what we are currently settling and the second extends east from Retep's northern mainland. Not giving him our map now so he can see we'll be in direct competition.

Education in 5, saving cash for 100% at end to OF into Compass-Optics-Astro.

2nd in GNP at 50%.

[Kurumi]

Thanks Bandit for doing all of this.

[wetbandit]

T165

Retep is the seeming world leader, or at least a close 2nd to WLP. He won Liberalism, doesn't have Alpha, therefore no PP, no GM was born, no Econ (AFAICT), guessing he libbed Constitution or Gunpowder. He's in the Taj golden age. He's 3 turns from Astro, which is alarming, considering the large amount of islands for which we'll compete. He's also Spiritual/Org for goodness sake.

But we snagged Circumnavigation




Some other world shots:








Spoiler'd demos and diplo situation. Our demos are not bad, still.

Man, that power graph.

WLP declared on Kuro, had been waiting for that. On that note, I see two general plans going forward:

1. Mass Knights and other Medieval junk for a huge junky Medieval conflict on Molach
2. Settle islands, tech to Astro, prepare fleet to control seas between WLP and our capital. Aim to eventually boat WLP's important coastal cities.

I prefer option 2. The way the world is shaping up, only BXB really has any capability to do anything to Retep. It's doubtful that he could at this point because Retep will soon have a huge naval advantage, unless BXB somehow beelined Astro. As you can see, Retep has been insulated from land invasion by a large, snaky peninsula. He's had the ability to play in a sandbox and invest in little military. I imagine that his tech path is to get to rifling for drafting/whipping. I bet he can get there within the next 15-20 turns, at that point, it will be tough to dislodge him.

So why focus on WLP? BXB has a huge border with him, any pressure off of him to focus on Retep will be helpful. BXB has the army, that's for sure.

Option 1 will plunge us into a long slugfest, which negates our relatively good GNP, I think Steel is necessary before the next land war is even considered.

I don't know how Retep plans to win, but there are two big powers here and it appears that WLP realizes he needs more land. I wouldn't be surprised to see Retep go Culture as he has 3 religions.

Domestic shots.

Saving cash to generate some OF at end of Education to power through Compass and Optics and dump a hefty amount on Astro. A 2nd GP will be generated in 8 turns and as long as we don't roll a low odds Great Prophet, will have the option to start a 2nd GA. I think I'd rather save that for an Oxford-boosted Tail, but we'll see.

Settling some more of the islands, one to settle sugar next turn, 2 en route to island destinations.




It's the capital, probably should have made those plains cottages instead of Workshops.



2 turn Knights. Dreaming that one day the Knights may end up as part of the boat party.

[wetbandit]

Not mentioned, but Retep has asked for the World Map a few times. I'm not inclined to help him.

I sold the world map for 30 gold to BXB, I hope they come to the same conclusion I did and align themselves to hitting Retep.

[wetbandit]

And that's a goofy HE city.

[wetbandit]

Thanks Bandit for doing all of this.

Knights or Galleons?

[wetbandit]

T167:

100% on Education, 2nd in GNP at about 825 which is respectable behind the leader Retep at 1050 in a GA.

Desktop crapped out so forced to play on old laptop, its only remaining redeeming quality is that it helped me pass the bar. Case in point: accidentally deleted the Sentry Immortal due to lag. Thought a window would prompt you on that.

Lots of whipping in two turns for universities and oxford in Tail which should hopefully power us through the Renaissance.