[SPOILERS] William discovers a source of horse. FDR of Mongolia

[WilliamLP]

Nothing like only getting to view drama from the distant wake and aftershocks...

The funny thing is that I do have a direct contribution from Barry Lyndon: way back when Hinduism randomly spread! It will eventually be spread to all my cities I think. Spreading a religion without a surviving holy city is actually pretty ideal.

Turn 97:

I got Alphabet, and offered OB to the 4 overseas contacts. Pindicator's is a deal with the devil: he's set up to be a powerhouse in this game. But, having a powerhouse as a friend, particular with a narrow shared sea border, isn't all bad.




The really interesting thing is that this western landmass appears to be an island! It's an awkward time to realize this, because I have a settler going to hog land in the contested eastern zone right now, and also I'm growing vertically right now, which makes slipping in settler builds awkward, particularly with nerfed whips in full effect.

I do feel like I should be going for this land hard right now though, even though it's not according to plan. Particularly with (yet another) stone there, cities you can shove walls into are less expensive to defend than they are to capture or raze.

As you can see the operation to get a cottage super-capital is going fine. The Scientist is born this turn, to get an Academy in there.

Getting Currency next is an extremely greedy play but I think I can probably get away with it.

[WilliamLP]

So I now have 3 commerce trade routes in all cities! That's pretty huge, and it means that Alphabet before Currency was probably the right call.

Further, getting it this early, means that e.g. Pindicator doesn't have to get it. This could actually be an advantage, since it means MYKI and Zanth may have a harder time getting open borders if they can just get the trade routes free from me. And on this map, open borders is a massive game changer.

I've got the slight advantage of having played PB13. I know: 1. how the Alphabet metagame shakes out is a really big deal, and you definitely don't want to be the one on the shit side of it. 2. The buffed Free Market is going to be nearly broken on this map. 3. Fighting for naval and island tactics with two other hot wars on the far side of your empire sounds like more fun than it actually is.

[WilliamLP]

Turn 99:




Scientist is up, and he built an Academy. No need for tricks, with as many river cottages as this capital has the slow steady research advantage feels like the best plan.

My deferred wealth build in Great Wall cashed in. Yes it would have been an additional 19-20 gold with a stone hooked up, not a small thing.




Molach is going to settle the north part of this island. That would make me 0 for 3 on contested stone with an Industrious leader. Nice work, huh?

Here is why I hate the base KrillMod map trading at writing. (Or whatever we're calling it now.) It's a big, big advantage to know this thing is an island before other people do. Getting to settle first without needing military support is quite a massive benefit. Similarly with other geographical features. Enough that I think it was a mistake not to prioritize scouting with an early WB or two in this game, even at the cost of slowing the overall growth curve slightly. These strategic decisions, with differences in map awareness between players, are the most fun interesting of the game.

So yeah, good move by Molach here - he scouted it out first, even though I lost the race. It would be a different game entirely if the south were a long dividing island like this, and the west were crammed with people on the coast, instead of the other way around.




MYKI and I have been doing Yakety-Sax with peace offers. He offers 10 turns, I offer cease fire, I think we've gone back and forth with this five times. I finally offered back a 10 turn peace treaty, now that I have the settler ready to plant next turn. It's not a great city with no food tile (plains cows are not food), but strategically and in the long term with all the rivers, it's very valuable.

Another settler was whipped this turn. With the peace treaty, I may even try to ninja-plant the south site between the sheep and the rice. That's essentially a war declaration as soon as the treaty runs out. In fact... how much of a jerk move would it be to settle the south site right now - ignoring that I could have done it on T101 if I'd moved the settler differently this turn? The cost would be sure war with someone I plan on warring with anyway, right?




I'm strategically pretty torn. The basic gameplan:

- Grab land with a decent border outcome: check, with the hiccup on the stone city.
- Establish a peaceful relationship with Joao, without mass military buildup: check. (This was extremely uncertain.)
- Be in a position with no tension or threats on the south coast: check, Pindicator is getting a massive gain with OB, he has nothing to gain from attacking or pillaging this way.
- Establish an extremely strong tech position: check. With Currency in 3 turns and an academy, lots of cottages and rivers, and full overseas foreign routes, the econ is top tier in this game. This is not the Krill style of play, grabbing as much as possible and limping to currency with wealth builds. I'm par on land, or a little above (but not below). The passive savings of ORG are starting to come into effect now.

The weakness here was being behind in crucial military techs, with only ancient defenders. But that is going to go away soon since after currency we can blast through Construction and HBR like nothing. Just a few more turns of security are needed.

So the simplest plan is to focus entirely on military now, build up a massive force of Keshiks and Cats, and then Knights. We should be able to get to guilds at a very competitive time. And then just try to blow MYKI off the land. Then we'd be pointed right at Zanth, hopefully with a tech and land lead, tons of highly experienced horse units, and Industrious forges everywhere. That's the dream.

A crucial question now is whether to make a play at the west island at all. Between the two pigs on the south side (see map 2 posts ago) is a massively good city spot that I'm sure Molach is drooling over.

There's really something to be said for single-minded focus on a goal though, which would mean just gambitting this island completely for one more completely peaceful border. And that frees up what navy we have for the combined attack on MYKI.

A lot can change, obviously, like Zanth suddenly whipping up some Elephants and Cats. However, I'm far enough with the econ that if he isn't going all-in for economy, and he can't kill me really soon, then he's going to be at a very large disadvantage.

[WilliamLP]

Turn 100:




Molach's capital location. He (and by "he" I mean Parkin I think) moved the settler off the plains hill to the south, so he's going to try a more forward plant on the island. As you can the island is pretty close to his capital.




MYKI offered back 10 turns of peace. I accepted finally. I also settled Khartoum. I think it was the best compromise between strategy and being a city that's actually good. The nice feature is that at 5 tiles from Absinthe and 2 MYKI cities, it blocks basically all possible annoying plants. I really wouldn't want Zanth wedging in a city south of Absinthe for instance.

Since I have ten turns of peace, if MYKI is really going to give me immunity to plant that southern sheep/rice/fish site right in his face across a river, with 10 free turns to shuffle units there for defense, I'm going to do it. His best move here might be to settle on the rice, but he has to do it before turn 103 since I have a settler on the way over. I'm taking the risk of delaying a city, rather than settling a closer site like getting more seafood on the west coast.

[WilliamLP]

Also why in the world did I put a turn into a cottage instead of a farm on the tile 1SW of Khartoum? For a city that desperately needs more food and to eventually spread irrigation to the wheat. Because I'm dumb I guess.

[Ceiliazul]

I may even try to ninja-plant the south site between the sheep and the rice. That's essentially a war declaration as soon as the treaty runs out.

I vote yes!

Also, if a Holy City is destroyed, the religion advisor will say "none". This is true even if you have never seen the holy city.

[WilliamLP]

Well no such luck, on turn 101, MYKI had moved a settler to 1E of the rice. So he'll probably plant on the rice this turn, which is still a city that can be hit in 1 turn from mounted units.

Pindicator got Temple of Artemis, which I think is a great call, maybe the most underrated wonder on a map like this where the trade route multiplier alone will add to hundreds of beakers over enough time.

[WilliamLP]

Turn 102:




So it looks like MYKI is going to settle west of the river. I give him points for optimism! It means the grass deer is orphaned, maybe forever.

I don't have a good trading partner for an extra happiness yet. So this is perhaps a bad idea:




I hook up another silk next turn. On the one hand it can make our main rival more powerful, on the other hand it's good for us too and an incentive for peace.

I was deliberating a lot over the next tech. I probably would have gone MC first to start forges as perhaps the best production snowball. There are cases to be made for the relgious line to Mono, immediate HBR, or even an attempted beeling to Music.

But this turn I see that Zanth actually whipped 13 points of population! That's cats and or elephants, most likely. So Construction has to be next (due in 4).

And I really don't know if I can afford to tussle with Molach over the western island. It depends on how much tension there is between him and AT, and I have no idea. A great man (Leonard Nimoy) once told me that if I chase two rabbits, I will lose them both. Actually he's told me that hundreds of times - very persistent self-help.

My paranoid sense is that this is going to be an all-in from Zanth right now. So probably everything will have to go into military and defense if graphs and observations back this up. It also might not be directed at us, and we'll see.

[WilliamLP]

Turn 103-104:




Can you believe I'm still waffling about whether to push for this island or not? As of my turn on T104, Molach still hasn't settled, and he has a settler and an axe there. I have an axe and a chariot on a boat that might be able to wreck his day if he doesn't reinforce that right now.

I've played this pretty badly, and maybe I should have just committed hard to owning this land the very instant I suspected it was an island. But who would put a large unpopulated island on a map in a game like this anyway??

Or... I could have just settled a west coast city about 5 turns ago and had it building up by now.




So this is the final layout in the east, unless a raze is in the cards later. I'm thrilled to let MYKI improve the food resources and grow that city to the south.

The game plan from here is only about the war machine. Get the economic snowball techs that make this trait combination good, i.e. get forges and courthouses and gers everywhere. Then get to Guilds very fast, then overwhelm with Knights and Cats. Nothing too subtle about it. I'm certainly doing the expansion game more successfully than MYKI, and probably the economic game too.

Demos after turning on the jets:

[MindyMcCready]

Turn 103-104:

Can you believe I'm still waffling about whether to push for this island or not? As of my turn on T104, Molach still hasn't settled, and he has a settler and an axe there. I have an axe and a chariot on a boat that might be able to wreck his day if he doesn't reinforce that right now.

I've played this pretty badly, and maybe I should have just committed hard to owning this land the very instant I suspected it was an island. But who would put a large unpopulated island on a map in a game like this anyway??

Back from a vacation break.

You have succeeded in infuriating me with that city plant. And you are crazy to give up that island to Molach. That's a 5-6 city island and probably represents as much land (or city sites anyway) as the MYKI conquest at this point.

Sure would be nice to have another costal powerhouse right now.

This is not PB13 where we're substantially behind and confronting Master Commodore. If you commit to that island, you should be able to get it as long as it's planned well and you don't tip your hand too much.