[Spoilers] Gavagai, Bacchus and Elizabeth Form a Romantic Trio

[Gavagai]

Tension is growing. Turn rolled when me, Jester and Noble were online. Immediately after that Jester cancelled open borders, Sian logged in and DOWed Kurumi. So much for my hope that he will attack Slowcheetah. Also, taoism has fallen this turn and it looks like Serdoa/Noble self-researched it.



New city, future Moai site.



Sian is building swords for some reason.

[Gavagai]

Jewster is going to attack us.

[Gavagai]

War theater and my forces. What I know of Jester's forces is written on signs. Also, he made three whips previous turn and one more this turn. I think, it's catapults, haven't seen any from him.
Jester doesn't know this but he could hardly find a more annoying moment to start this shit. I was going to start a golden age next turn and switch to caste.
I'm not sure what I will do. Most probably, I will delay everything for two or three turns and use this time to research construction. With my own cats available, I should be safe.

[Gavagai]

I decided that I will delay GA by two turns and use this time to research construction. It will require a lot of wealth builds. I expect Jester to attack in four-five turns; he would need this time to put his catapults in position. What further complicates this situation is that tiles to the east of Koln are about to flip to me. It will happen in 2-4 turns, I think.
Also I'm considering declaring a war pre-emptively on the next turn or the turn after next and using this window to occupy hills on the border.

PS: On the above picture I forgot to put a mark for an axe and a chariot 1SW from Parye

[Gavagai]

This is another painful dilemma I have. All three forests around this city are pre-chopped; I can either chop them into The Parthenon or in two catapults. In the latter case this city would be unable to finish The Parthenon early enough for it to be relevant and I will basically abandon any chance to win Liberalism race and to be of any importance in this game.
On the other hand, building Parthenon while losing Parye/Koln is a pure weed.
Will have to decide it next turn.

[Gavagai]

Two more slaves from Jester. I guess, he decided to through all he has at me. Don't think I can hold him off and stay competitive in a game as a whole.

[Gavagai]

Fucked up worker micro big way. I was going to move a worker on forest but for some reason ordered him to mine a hill. It will delay a catapult by one turn which can be pretty important. Fuck fuck fuck...
I think I should allow Bacchus to log in again to have someone to blame for my mistakes.

[Gavagai]

Demos:



Oh, boy... Well, I did this:



Basically, it sums up my current attitude. I'll kill Jester ASAP and won't care about anything else.
Sorry, too exhausted for a real report but I DOWed Jester and moved to a hill:



If they are smart, they will stack their units 1S from Moria, than road the tile 1NE from Parye and attack. This way I'll have no option to attack out.
Now I don't even think I really need a catapult in Parye. Instead, I'm going to dry-whip walls the moment I see them stacking units 1S from Moria. I'm second in the turn order, so I'll have time to react. I begged for Stone from Sian: after all, I practically gifted him horses.
I don't think I will seriously try to defend Koln. I have no resources and if they get themselves distracted on capturing this city, it will by me time to get my hands on macemen.
Speaking of those... Golden age will be launched next turn, I will use it to get Civil Service and Machinery.

[Gavagai]

Also want to show you this:



Keep in mind that they have MUCH less pop and have a luxury to concentrate EVERYTHING on a single front. This is why I take this threat so seriously, despite my massive production advantage. Of course, they had to whip their empire into the dust to achieve this.
In all fairness I underestimated them. They were extremely passive for a long time, didn't build units and, frankly speaking, military skills which these players usually display, gave them a certain reputation. All of these really put me off guard. Of course, if I've ever given a real thought to this situation, I would see clearly that my defenses are pretty thin for this era and that they have enough pop to quickly master up an army large enough to defeat me. But I was too focused on competing with Serdoa and Slowvheetah.
Well, this is fair: it was one mistake too many to leave me with chances on winning.

By the way, they could have settled all those islands which I found in the north-east instead of making this MAD move. Well, I can understand their choice. Yemelyan Pugachev once said that it is better to drink fresh blood once than to eat carrion for three hundred years. I guess, they decided to follow this philosophy.

[Gavagai]

Can't play now as I need to wait for Nakor/Jester and possibly would be unable to play until Friday. But I logged in to look around and discovered that Slowcheetah has built The Parthenon. If Jester hadn't messed up my plans, I would have built it on the same turn, so the fate of the wonder would have been decided by a coinflip. Anyway, we are going to get some failgold which will be really helpful.
Also, Sian agreed to give me Stone. Now I have a really good chance to hold Parye.