You can do an efficiency check on the far S island whenever, as it's too far away to use for war prep. I don't really have any solid war prep plans, just build stuff in the closest cities and throw some whipping in there once we get Guilds in ~5t. Still, I think it's best to avoid 2 people doing stuff at that same time to avoid confusion, especially when war is involved.
We get a gp in Spagetti (I think... whatever our 2nd city is called) in 4t, probably going to use him on a GA for better war prep.
Indeed, it's great yuri is teching philo. Not only is it fairly expensive, but what good does it do him? Aside from Pacifism and heading to Nat, nothing really. Which makes me wonder why he's teching that. Maybe we can catch him in a GA Pacifism switch? Still, even if not, yuri is still a tech short of any medieval unit, and Philo doesn't help him with that in the slightest. We almost certainly will be able to catch him without pikes, just depends on where he goes after Philo. Still, I estimate that sometime between t150-t155 we will be able to attack. Considering it's t141 now... we're approaching game time.
Also, we haven't really decided on tech after Guilds. I think Construction is a must, but after that I'm not so sure. Engineering for road movement, Banking for banks/merc, CS for bureau are all options, and I might be missing a thing or 2.
Oh yeah, Pacifism switch it is. No whipping is good (plus more unit costs for dissuasion) but GA/bureau is not. He won't have Engineering by the time we're ready to attack, but hopefully he'll chase after something else first to ensure that we can get a good chunk of him. He did pick up Construction just now which is a pre-req. Still, I don't think there's much doubt that we can get at least his border cities without problem unless he beelines Engineering, but considering how things are turning out so far I think that's unlikely.
Also, we are in our own GA now and Guilds is right around the corner. Unfortunately from what I can tell, Serdoa seems to be in the middle of the exact same thing, only about 10t quicker to Guilds. But worry about that later.
Any input on what our next tech should be Mero after Construction Mero? I'm tempted to go banking since merc would fit into our more-or-less isolationist diplo strategy, and let's us DOW Sian for that island city without consequence since he's our only OB partner (which is only guarded by a single warrior! gutsy or more likely an oversight), but CS or Engineering would probably be more practical.
Um, I'll have to check. I've haven't looked at the game in a while. I'll do an in depth comparison of the available techs when I can.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Yuri's finally teching Machinery. I'll think I'll be declaring within a couple of turns, as I'll have around 10 Knights in the next turn or 2, but I don't really have a tactical plan yet nor do I really have much time to spare for this game this week. I think we can grab the closest two border cities without trouble, but since yuri will probably have pikes by then I don't know how long we can go before running out of steam. Gains beyond that are unlikely since keeping them will be tough, but it's been a while since I faced someone with superior units so who knows? I do know that after declaring, I doubt we will have peace with yuri for the rest of the game.
Still, I don't see how Serdoa can lose. Tech visibility reveals he'll get Lib next turn, and he's 1st in power by a long shot and he'll be more successful against BaII then I will be against yuri.
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Going to declare in 2 turns. TBH, I'm not sure how successful we'll end up being, but we've gone too far to back out now. Fortunately yuri is going for Guilds first, and his GA will be over by the time I declare.
Serdoa is going for Alphabet, so next turn I can see just how far behind we are.
God, I've been so busy lately. I'll see what I can do, but no promises.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
So Mero, I hope you can at least chime in with some thoughts before I play next turn, cause this is the first turn in a while I've documented in depth and I'm going to declare at the end of next turn.
Anyways, everyone wants to start with war so here are my (rough) plans:
That's all sitting in Ravioli. In addition to that, there's a axe/spear pair with the workers, and 4 CKN NE of the city loaded in 2 galleys. Basic plan is to claim the hill when declaring with all the mounted units I have, and take Nodwengu the turn after. City visibility reveals 3 Impi's and some other ancient units defending. After that, reinforce it with 1 movers and move either north or east to the next city. Going try and do this as fast as reasonably possible, because once the surprise factor is gone we won't have much left going for us.
Also I debated attacking slow to get rid of his units on our border, but I've decided against it. The axe is gone and his galley can't do much to track our war effort.
Yuri does not have Engineering, as I've said before, but he does have Guilds. So we could see some Knights from him and the only thing we can counter them with is Knights of our own for now. However, we won't be seeing any for some time:
He did not switch back to slavery! Not to mention his GA will run out next turn as well, so unless he's aiming for another one he'll have to waste a turn in revolt. I'm shocked but hardly displeased at this development. Sure enough, his GA ended when the turn rolled. He got a merchant so if he got another GP earlier it's possible he could run another GA. Hope not though.
As a bonus, he got the merchant in that tile, so there's a city there too. I think that will be easy enough to claim a few turns from now.
Onto more domestic matters, southern scouting revealed very little worth settling in that direction, as well as several intelligent () barb galley spawns:
Also met Jowy somehow, but I have no idea where or how. Offered OB on the off chance that we can get another source of trade routes from him, since he's hardly a threat to us personally.
I'm thinking of putting FP in Gnochhi. Mostly because of all our southern cities are further away from our capital then even gains we expect to get from yuri, and finally have our 7th courthouse up. Will start next turn if you don't object Mero.
Before the end of the game is over, I really want to attack Sian. Mostly because his defenses are non-existent but since this is semi-diplo game, I don't want to open another front just yet. Have to keep resisting the temptation for now...
Also Serdoa got Alphabet as expected, and it's not great, to say the least:
He's up several techs on us, while we only have Construction on him. Will soon have Engineering as well, but since he's about to get PP...
And finally Demogs as inflated as I can get them:
A lot better then last turn since yuri GA ended, but when our GA ends we will follow suit. Power is respectable for the first time this game, and even land area is decent for us. Still, we'll have to wait and see how the yuri war turns out for us, but I'm pretty confident considering how the last few turns have turned out for us.
Still, even if not, yuri is still a tech short of any medieval unit, and Philo doesn't help him with that in the slightest. We almost certainly will be able to catch him without pikes, just depends on where he goes after Philo. Still, I estimate that sometime between t150-t155 we will be able to attack. Considering it's t141 now... we're approaching game time.![[Image: T146%20yuri%20GA.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15873301/Pitboss%2012/T146%20yuri%20GA.jpg)
We can hope, I suppose.
![[Image: T152%20War%20stack.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15873301/Pitboss%2012/T152%20War%20stack.jpg)
![[Image: T152%20yuri%27s%20fatal%20civic%20switch.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15873301/Pitboss%2012/T152%20yuri%27s%20fatal%20civic%20switch.jpg)
![[Image: T153%20yuri%20city.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15873301/Pitboss%2012/T153%20yuri%20city.jpg)
) barb galley spawns:![[Image: T152%20Southern%20scouting.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15873301/Pitboss%2012/T152%20Southern%20scouting.jpg)
![[Image: T152%20Gnochhi%20FP%20maybe.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15873301/Pitboss%2012/T152%20Gnochhi%20FP%20maybe.jpg)
![[Image: T152%20Sian%20temptation.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15873301/Pitboss%2012/T152%20Sian%20temptation.jpg)
![[Image: T152%20Serdoa%20tech%20lead.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15873301/Pitboss%2012/T152%20Serdoa%20tech%20lead.jpg)
![[Image: T153%20GA%20inflated%20demogs.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15873301/Pitboss%2012/T153%20GA%20inflated%20demogs.jpg)