[Spoilers] Hashoosh, Gaz and the crew - The CANZAC Alliance sail the high seas

[Gazglum]

Thanks, Noble.

After a weekend pause, so much has happened in this game. And now I have run Q's PBEM57 into the ground, I can give it my full attention again. Where were we...

TURN 43

oh yes, the scouts! They were doomed, doomed indeed. And you may recall I was going to be suspicious if they tried to divert me. Well, that is what they did.



Both moved off-road, so that to catch them I was going to lose 2 turns - one to kill, one to get back in position. That was exactly what I was looking for in a delaying tactic, so I took a chance and ran my vultures up to that forest tile. That gave me the option of hitting either of Yuri's cities in another 3 turns.

Power was spiking world-wide, but my graph on Yuri showed him relatively level - it was Ilios who was starting to take off. If he comes for me too then I'm screwed, but Yuri is much easier for him to target, and there is too much land between us to make it worthwhile.

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Turn 44

Next turn I checked power again and Yuri had only inched up. I was starting to wonder if he hadn't got any strategic resources hooked up. It would make sense - he settled aggressively towards me, on tiles that lacked horse and copper. I presume he HAD them nearby, but they might have been behind his capital and he didn't want to lose the river spots. Well, Yuri, if that was the case you shouldn't have declared war on the Glum.

It would also make sense why he had a power spike early on that looked like an archery tech. Heart hammering, I pressed on into the wilderness. If he had chariots, I was in a lot of trouble, but if not this could be a good chance.

I was supposed to have a spear in support on this mission, but I am having trouble in the south. I underestimated the barbarians, and with all that empty land the warriors started coming en masse. I had a warrior standing guard on a hill, but in a pretty unlucky turn of events he was killed by a barbarian warrior attacking him. So with my south now wide open, I had to keep my new spearman down there killing barbs.

Yuri moved his scouts onto my copper, presumably trying that famous scout pillage maneouvere we discussed. He should have kept one on the copper and one on the pig, but he's moved them off again, so its not slowing me down.

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Turn 45

Another turn, no counterattack. With Yuri's power still lowish, I decided to take a gamble at actually threatening a city rather than pillaging some mines. So we moved over the river towards Milton Keynes and....



Jackpot. Two warriors is all he had. Take that Q, and your warnigns against early aggression! GO GO VULTURE TEAM!

Not all was well. Another barbarian warrior moved in on The Flying Dutchman



For a moment I thought I was doomed, and going to lose my best vessel. But I realised I could switch to vulture and whip next turn, losing only the wheat. Still annoying, and sets back the settler, so I have moved workers to chop it out.

Let the records show that the largest army in the world was constructed to defend myself from external aggression. And its really cost me in development.

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Turn 46


This turn took ages to come round, and the tension was killing me. I Kept expecting to find chariots had eaten my 'stack'.

And the news was badish, but not too bad! Yuri has copper at last and an axeman had joined the warriors in Milton Keynes. But thank god for eating scouts earlier. I had kept the promotion in reserve and now put it to city attack, giving me a 70% to take out his unfortified soldier. That was too good a chance not to take, if it meant taking the city next turn.



So we took the chance, and WON! Pow! But the vulture was almost killed in the attempt. Luckily, he'll get another promotion next turn.

Now it was a simple warrior squash and he would be down to 1 warrior in the city but WTF!

I killed his warrior, at 99.9% or something, but in the process my second vulture was redlined down to 1 strength. Unbelievable! And because the fight was 'so easy', I won't get a promotion out of it.

That probably has ended the campaign. Yuri can whip another unit in his next turn, and even if I killed that my 2nd vulture would now probably not be able to take out a warrior. I'm not even sure if I can risk pillaging the cottages, because i have no defence against coutnerattacks.

That is really bloody annoying. But c'est la vie. If Yuri has a mind meltdown, I could still get the city. But I think I may have to call this one a draw. If I can get my vultures out, I will at least be up 4-0 on kills this war.

[Gazglum]

My weekend away, while lovely on its own merits, coincided with some bitter times at Realms Beyond. As well as being knocked out of werewolf (a fact I followed with my phone at the beach), the turn in this game was as painful as expected.

Yuri got an archer into MIlton Keynes, and then counterattacked with his warrior to kill my redliend vulture. That's right, Yuri killed a VULTURE with two warriors. He won flawlessly too.

That's really crappy, and obviously my war is over. I gave the survivor the strength promotion and pulled him back across the river, and offered peace. Hoepfully Yuri will take it. It's frustrating though. I feel like Yuri made a mistake and I took excellent advantage of it, and then the RNG takes it all away from me. Losing the vulture to warriors made the difference between knocking out his third city and opening the floodplains to myself, and being locked into a cold war with me with worse land and fewer cities. I suspect I probably won't get another shot like this again. Yuri is up to 4 cities, and he has cottaged up the floodplains - they are all growing into hamlets now. His cities also have more food than mine. I'm really not sure what the long-term plan is - I'm not going to outtech him, and I have nowhere else to go.

I guess the islands it is then - and I started work on sailing.

The one bright spot is that the barbarian warrior in the south suicided into my vulture rather than pillage the wheat.

If Yuri doesn't take peace and counterattacks, then I will happily devote the rest of my ancient era to churning out vultures and grinding them against him. But I think he probably wants a breather now, too.

[Gazglum]

We have peace, and I can take satisfaction in one thing.



Your attempts at escape have failed, my friend.

[Old Harry]

[Gazglum]

TURN 50: THE GLUMBO AWARDS!

So, we have been sailing 50 days and 50 nights, and I have a better idea of where the game stands. You might say that I can see the layout very clearly, as the others seem rather spread ahead of me rather than behind. Me, Whosit and Dhalpir are all sitting on much the same score, but I fear that the wind isn't blowing in my favour just now.

For reference, here is the demo screen in case the others aren't putting it up:



I’m not very good at reading C&D, and haven’t paid much attention to the non-Yuris of this world so far. But I really should try and work out what is going on elsewhere. And since I believe it’s something of an RB tradition to rank your opponents and make snarky comments, so without further ado: THE GLUMBO AWARDS!

[Gazglum]

THE GLUMBO FOR BEST THEME GOES TO…WHOSIT! (Creative/Charismatic of…Hyrule/India)

Disclaimer: I don’t actually have WhoSit’s graphs yet, so I can’t tell much about him. At the start I guessed he would do the best, based on…nothing? My gut, I suppose. My gut is not right so far.

The Good: WhoSit and me are kindred spirits – popular threads, fun city themes (he’s from Hyrule!), crappy score.

He also hooked up stone early, so I’m expecting to see the Pyramids explode from him soonish. He could call them ‘The Spirit Temple’. If he’s going for the ‘Mids it would explain his low city count, and if he gets them it would put him right back on top.

He has fast workers. They are good.

The Bad: Whosit is below me in food and they call me Starvation Glum behind my back. He also has a much more dangerous geostrategic position because he has no natural barrier protecting him from Dhalpir or ILios. That probably means he can’t afford to go island hopping, which I can (notice a theme in my fantasies?).

The Prediction: Last. After all, he’s got 1 less food than me. This is a snowball game; you don’t come back from that.

[Gazglum]

THE GLUMBO FOR MOST ANNOYING CITY PLACEMENT GOES TO….YURI! (Spiritual, Expansive of England)

Yuri. My bete noir. My dark doppelganger. My English rose. Our relationship is full of pain and passion, but we can’t tear away from each other.

The Good: I had a vague idea that Yuri was no good at this game. If that was ever true, his time playing with Mackoti has put paid to it. Yuri is playing very compentently indeed, and making all the right moves to pressure me. Except for trying to kill me with scouts.

His perfectly placed holy city gives him very good map control over the middle of the board. He’s going to be able smash me with 2 movers whenever he feels like it, so he’s got me on defence.

He’s already growing along two rivers, and has grabbed himself notably more food than me.

And he’s expansive! Such a great trait, and its helped him win the races against me for the middle.

The Bad: I don’t know what his map looks like north of his capital, so lets hope its all desert and chalk it up as a negative.

Redcoats are good, but there’s a lot of tech and war to get through first where has no advantage.

He has a handicap nobody else has – he has to face the wily fox that is me.

The Prediction: 4th. Because I’m an optimist and I like to think that I’ll be able to narrowly beat him. I don’t think he’s going to be able to make much headway against Ilios, and if I can get the naval advantage he will hopefully not be able to go too far east.

In all likelihood though, Yuri has a good shot of taking me out with a hammerblow of knights. If he does then he will be a firm favourite to win, since he would only need to hold a tiny isthmus against Ilios while building a super empire in the ruins of Glumville.

[Gazglum]

THE GLUMBO FOR BLOODIEST OPENING GOES TO….GAZGLUM! (Spiritual/Charismatic of Sumeria)

THE GOOD: I am leading in GNP, thanks to my pimped out river cottage capital. A one food source capital is terrible, but once I HAVE grown onto the cottages, it’s not really much worse than any other. When I get bureau, I will be rolling in money.

I have a fishing boat rushing to circumnavigate, and I would be surprised if I didn’t win that prize. I think I have a good chance to claim more than my share of islands, and maybe back it up with the Great Lighthouse, although it’s been so nerfed I’m no longer sure it’s worth it.

I have a very safe backline (well, as safe as it can be when it’s swarming with barbarians).

I have hopes of becoming friendly with Ilios, so he can beat up the kids that bully me in the playground.

THE BAD: The horrifying number is food, where I am well below the average although not technically the worst. I also have only 3 cities (4 next turn), only Whosit shares that ignominy. The land to my south is food-poor and deserty.

My charismatic trait is all but useless on a map with high luxuries and low food, although that problem is shared by Whosit and Ilios.

I somehow have the SMALLEST army again, which doesn’t bode well.

Yuri and me are going to be locked in a cold war, and I wasn’t able to hurt him in our war. He’s likely to have a mobility advantage on the river, and it could prove very difficult holding my northern city against him. Our peace ends in 8 turns, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if 6 axemen immediately invade me. I’m not sure if I can do much against that.

THE UGLY: My dedlurker is too busy being a communist to give me cheery comments anymore.

THE PREDICTION: If Yuri leaves me alone I think I can keep my core secured and maintain a decent teching pace. I might be able to build quite a nice maritime civ. Playing for third is quite possible.

To actually win, I would need to be able knock out Yuri, which I doubt I can do, or launch a naval attack on Whosit or Dhalpir, which I doubt I can do. It depends how much the others weaken themselves with war I suppose.

[Gazglum]

THE GLUMBO FOR DARK HORSE POTENTIAL GOES TO….DHALPIR! (Expansive, Organised of France)

The Good: Finally, a late game trait! Dhalpir has a lot of land to expand into, and Org will keep that maintenance low. He’s whipping well and has more food in the two cities I can see than I have in my whole empire. While my men die in the rivermud of Milton Keynes, Dhalpir’s stats are growing steadily.

Dhalpir’s second city claims pig, fish and gold in its first ring. That’s disgusting. The jungle north of it gives him a pretty safe border with Whosit, nobody wants to go to war over a jungle except the USA.

He has equal opportunity at the islands as me, only not as safe a backline to focus on them.

He has lots of hills to mine.

Muskateers are 2 movers, and as Q has shown me to my cost, 2 movers are king in this game aginst humans. And they can be drafted. If Dhalpir gets to nationalism, Whosit might need to call up the Goron Defense Brigade.

The Bad: His capital lacks a river, which is going to mean lower money. I also havent’ seen many happy resources in what I have defogged, so Dhalpir may be the one player in this game to run into a happy crunch.

Prediction: 2nd. I get the feeling that nobody is going to attack the Dhal, and that he would be able to handle it if they did. But if he wants to win, he’s probably going to have to head to head with Ilios while keeping Whosit from opportunistically sniping him at the same time. That could be hard.

[Gazglum]

THE GLUMBO FOR ACTUALLY DOING REALLY WELL GOES TO…ILIOS! (Inca, Charismatic Imperialistic)

Ilios, Ilios, Ilios. I barely thought of you at the start, though Q warned me you would be good. Now you’re top, top, top of the neighbourhood!

Note the red vote on his name, werewolf players.

The Good: Dat score baby! Ilios is ahead in points. And has FIVE cities. And has laughably stronger production than everybody else. Oh, and about double my food. Plus he landed Stonehenge. The successes roll off the tongue. Actually, it’s a good thing I did this post, because I hadn’t’ realised how much he was rocking this game until now. Ruh roh.

I really don’t know how he’s managed this – he seems to have done better in every aspect of the game without sacrificing anything. Well, for a start it looks like he started on a plains hill with nearby river, as opposed to me who had to move there. He
has terraces everywhere, the swiss army knife of buildings. And Imperialistic helps.

Ilios’ central position was balanced by giving him more land, so Imperialistic was a perfect trait for him. With Stonehenge now in his pocket, he’s going to land grab everywhere he can then he’ll be able to outgrow the rest of the board.

The Bad: Um…he doesn’t’ have a religion? More seriously, a lot of his best land is jungled, so he has a hard choice between getting it now and not having it pay itself back, or leaving it. His expansion is going to cost him hard in maintenance soon, since he doesn’t have those pretty ziggurats to help him along.

His traits will run out of steam in the midgame, but then again so will mine.

And of course, geostrategically he’s in the Poo. He borders Yuri and Whosit, and when Dhalpir expands he will be a threat as well. If anybody is going to be double-teamed, it’s Ilios, especially if he looks to start becoming a runaway.

I am positioned to potentially be Ilios greatest ally. As soon as I get circumnavigation I am going to offer him a map trade. I can’t threaten him, and if he wants to come this way he’s going to go through Yuri. Hmmm…

The Prediction: Ilios is going for Gold. I hope someone stops him, but I sure won't be.

There you all go. My wild guesses, based on an incomplete map, incomprehensible C&D and against players I know nothing about. Check back in 50 turns – same Glum time, same Glum station!