[Spoilers] Bacchus debuts on RB showing unmatched vision and slick dice-rolling

[Bacchus]

Trying to arrange war loans.

[Bacchus]

Yuck.



That's an obscene amount of gold in upgrades right there. Still, for some reason all of that, and then a whole bunch of Muskets with a smattering of Rifles went here:



This is a real overcommitment of forces, and importantly Chau Sara drew all attacking units, even though given the tech superiority and that obscene level of promotions, Plako could have easily sent some Cavalry to harass my retreat in the core. So I've won maybe two turns. It's not enough, I need 12 to get Rifles. I begged for some charity loans, but no-one was willing to finance a lost cause at a crap rate, I'm slowly ratcheting interest up. I would have thought the leaders at least would gain a lot by seeing me through to Rifling, but I would be sceptical too. Again, Rifling was the wrong choice of tech. I'll keep repeating that so it sinks in.

In other news, my Galley managed to pillage a fish net on some godforsaken Maya island. And a trireme blockaded his Moai city. Hurray for inconsequential pesky annoyances, I feel like AI.

On the major front, my ancient and classical units are doing the only thing they are good for -- pillaging their own infrastructure. Eventually they will retire to the fort line, to serve as a body in the face of an unstoppable advance and to soak up collateral. About the fort line -- as noted above, piling units into the key three tiles is not a smart thing to do, because Cannons. The most productive use of forces seems to be to spread them out in groups of 3-4 and fortificate the hell out of my core. Still hopeless without Rifling, but maybe at least it will suck the will to live out of him. Still, for meta reasons I can't just leave a stack in each city to be slaughtered on his own schedule — have to show that attacks against me don't really pay off.

[Dhalphir]

what's with the temple in Tarsonis? :D

[Bacchus]

The city just completed something else, and that was on the queue from a while back when things like that mattered. Christians have Apostolic Palace, so that's always nice. This turn the city was getting captured anyway, so I didn't bother changing prod — plus it couldn't have whipped anything worthwhile like a Musket.

[Bacchus]

I managed to get a loan in the end. A laughable one, 120 gold for 15 gpt and from Old Harry of all people. Next turn I get Rep.Parts, though, though people will see that I am within a reaching distance of rifling. I also got a General, so will actually have a rifle as soon as it researches whatever happens. I can very realistically get to rifling, given what plako did with his forces, if I had the loans I require, I could do it in 8 turns, just in time for his approach. And then I would switch science off anyway, so it's not as if I wouldn't be able to pay back. Oh well. I guess you can't expect a deep and flexible money market in a AI-Diplo game.

[Bacchus]

Damn, looks like I missed an incoming Galleon. Lost Big Time a couple of turns ahead of schedule.

[Bacchus]

You can only raze cities that don't have too much of your own culture, right?

[Krill]

Yeah. I think if a city has 10% or greater of your own culture, you can't raze it.

[Bacchus]

Still, Plako is letting me trade units 1 for 1 through strength in numbers in this attack, so I will bite on the opportunity and counter-attack at least in Big Time.

[Ceiliazul]

In other news, my Galley managed to pillage a fish net on some godforsaken Maya island. And a trireme blockaded his Moai city. Hurray for inconsequential pesky annoyances, I feel like AI.