[SPOILERS] Dhalphir PB13

[Dhalphir]

Bacchus whipped three more times this turn. There's no way he's attacking me - nobody whips that heavily on the offense - if you need to whip that heavily to build an offensive army, you weren't ready to attack. Well, I'm ready for him to attack, but it seems more like defensive whipping against somebody attacking him to me. We'll see what happens in the next few turns.

For now, I've got a strong military presence in the jungle.

[Dhalphir]

well, we found out why Bacchus has been whipping.

I'll let the image speak for itself




As we can see, Inca razed one of Bacchus' cities up there.

The only unknown now is whether this is a serious war or just a snipe on one city followed by immediate peace. If it's the former, our city will go unchallenged in the jungle. If it's the latter, I imagine Bacchus' army is relatively big, what with the recent whipping, and I assume he will turn it around and send it to me.

So nothing really changes.

[Dhalphir]

To any lurkers reading (if you are out there) - should I go back to using pictures more often? I feel like pictures don't really tell a good story and I can do more with words, but if lurkers would prefer to see more pictures I can do those.

[Gavagai]

Pictures are cool.

[Zed-F]

If it were me I'd use both.

[Rowain]

To any lurkers reading (if you are out there) - should I go back to using pictures more often? I feel like pictures don't really tell a good story and I can do more with words, but if lurkers would prefer to see more pictures I can do those.

Words are fine but sometimes a picture is needed to know what you are talking about. People are lurking several games/threads and it is easy to lose orientation .

[Dhalphir]

Sounds good. The game is getting pretty interesting, and if Bacchus wants to fight me over my settling choices, things will get exciting.

[Dhalphir]

Unrelated to PB13 - this is a great case in point for what I was talking about with SP games being decided way too early vs the AI

This is from an Emperor game I played tonight. We're only at turn 124, I'm playing Ragnar of the Zulus, so not a particularly overpowered combo.




I mean, why even bother playing on? GNP is more than double my best rival, crop yield is double, my production capacity far outstrips theirs when I configure for max production, and I am not even close to halting my expansion for the sake of maintenance.

[Dhalphir]

I think I would quite like to play a Pitboss with Plako, if the time ever comes. He seems to strike that balance between knowing when to strike hard and when to power ahead.

[Dhalphir]

Today's update

Getting a sentry in position for Bacchus. If I can sit on the gems I should be able to see all of that flat grassland in front of Double Star. Will I be able to see into the city itself? Don't know.



The reason for this sentry is that Bacchus' power keeps rising. Now, what I don't know is whether that's due to my aggressive settling or due to some other war he's involved in on the other side. Retep is so broke and small it's not even funny, he must be wanting to do something with his units, and in his shoes I'd be attacking either Inca or Bacchus. Or both. Whatever.
Here is said power graph



Anyway, I need that sentry so that I can have a bit of warning about incoming attacks. I have plenty of units in the area, but I don't want to keep piling more in unnecessarily when I have a front with Plako to defend.

Demographics



This is at 100% science. I suspect I am very below average in GNP. However, I'm break even at 40% science, so I can support a couple more cities. Some more turns of building gold and I'll be able to burn through to Currency, which will probably leave me at 40% sustainable even with 2-3 more cities. This screenshot, incidentally, is why I think Bacchus is being attacked by retep. That has to be retep's GNP of 5 there. This means he must have no commerce at all, AND big costs, presumably from unit maintenance. If he has a big army, as I presume that means he does, then he WILL be wanting to use it. WillLP is a lot bigger over there, so if I was in retep's shoes, with a big army costing me a fortune, only a scant few cities and no hope of surviving more than another few turns, let alone winning, I'd be turning that army around towards whatever my weakest neighbour is and seeing what fun I can have.

And speaking of more cities, here's the plan.




The next city to be settled is on the Y. This will be an AMAZING city once I clear out all the jungle. Fish, banana, and two spices, one of which is in first ring and the other of which can be shared with Scythian, the Barb city that I will seize soon. I have another settler building in the capital too, this settler will go overseas to an island - I have a galley ready for the purpose.

In other words, we're in decent shape. If Bacchus attacks, it will set my expansion back a bit, but I shouldn't lose any cities to him, as I have plenty of units. If Plako attacks, I'm fucked, but he had his chance to damage me a few turns ago and didn't take it, so I have to assume he wants another 20-30 turns of builder mode before taking my cities from me. I may as well use the time to make myself as strong as I can so that I don't hand the game to him on a silver platter. If I can make it more worthwhile for him to look elsewhere at first for expansion...well, we'll see.

Oh, and I do have some plans if Bacchus is actually not attacking. If he's not attacking, and if he expends a bunch of army in a war with someone else like I suspect is happening, I plan to seize Double Star. It's a really good city, and if I can grab it in his death throes, that will be fantastic. We'll have to see what happens up that way in the next couple dozen turns.

Good news overall.

In addition, I think I will meet my goal of not being the first to be eliminated. So I'll have to set myself another goal. I'll think about that a bit.