[SPOILERS] Back to Basic - Mardoc plays Augustus of China

[Mardoc]

...How did you lose all that land?

One should not farmer's gambit, switch economy types by way of 4K gold in the bank, and piss off a neighbor, simultaneously.

Basically I let myself get too far behind in tech, without a standing army. I was intending to swap to EE, but didn't build enough spies early enough to turn my banked gold/EP into tech in time. Paying for all the eastern cities didn't help.

Ruff got to Nationalism and Rifling, drafted Rifles faster than I could get Chos built and moved to the front, and cut me in half at Tarquin. Then eventually took out the weaker half.

Now Sian decided to join in. He took a bunch of my backline cities because I had everything over by Ruff; I've taken back all but two and the ones he razed. I think he'll finish me eventually, or Ruff will with Cannons, but for now it's Fortress China, home of the human wave.

TL;DR: I was sloppy.

[Mardoc]

Been playing the turns very fast lately, just trying to push this one to the end.

I've got Sian kicked back off the mainland, and he's just been blockading my coastal cities. Burned a number of mine before I got my military balanced, but he hasn't actually profited from the war. I've been splitting between military builds and rebuilding on the ashes. Don't have any naval tech, so I can't do more than that yet.

Not sure what the end game is here. Ruff's got cannons and cavalry and rifles, he could probably conquer more of me if he really put his mind to it. Or, well, he's got at least one Destroyer, too - maybe he'll go after Sian. I think Ruff's definitely gotten himself into the pole position now, Sian should have stayed at war with him rather than diverting to hit me.

Ah well. At this point the important thing is making the turns go round in circles. I want to focus on the games where I haven't yet made crippling mistakes .

[Mardoc]

(more specificly his repeated espionage changing me out of State Proberty)

Hmm, I only did that once. I wonder if Mr. Ruff has been having some fun with spies, too...

[Ruff_Hi]

Hmm, I only did that once. I wonder if Mr. Ruff has been having some fun with spies, too...

Not me. All of my spies are in my border cities trying to catch your spies ... or in neutral land between us watching for your invading army.

[Twinkletoes89]

I admit it, it was my zombie spies I left behind to cause trouble

[Ruff_Hi]

I read through this thread last night ... ended up getting to bed at 12:30 but couldn't sleep as my brain was still buzzing from all the things here. I copied out a chunk of items that I want to comment on - should have something up by Fri or Sat.

Yeah...my instincts are all going to be off, since I play FFH mostly. Cheap settlers, late Calendar, no magic at all...there's a reason I chose to play a 'casual' game first, where I can always blame the map .

Excellent - scape-goat lined up from day -1.

[Mardoc]

Graphs for Ruff's curiosity:

[Ruff_Hi]

Thx Mardoc - I think there are some interesting stories in there. I will revisit them over the weekend.