Ride to ruin and the world's ending! (TBS, Becko & Joao)

[The Black Sword]

Thoth is taking apart dtay, he apparently just got his hands on the Pyramids city and is revolting to police state. I just caught him researching HBR, how did he move so quickly without even horse archers? There are at least 4 city captures on civ stats.

I wonder do I need to attack Thoth now whille he's distracted. His GNP is pretty weak though, waiting for Knights at least seems like a good idea. There are pros to attacking all 3 of my neighbours:



Threatening Ceremony, Shape and Darkness of T1 of a war isn't bad. Holding Shape looks possible at least, Darkness would want to be razed and resettled north. Going further would be a serious challenge.



This stack is getting a bit outdated, 2 Keshiks for the spears then slam 6 chariots into the rest of the stack. Depends what his defenses look like behind that. Also depends on how hard he goes for Nationalism.

No grand plans for Oxy but the argument there is that his military is literally non-existent at the moment.

True Grit is up and fueling these ambitions:


On the tech front, I'm keeping up quite well with my GA neighbours, only slightly behind. I've given up on the Taj, I'll go hard for Knights and Economics and keep the Liberalism possibility in mind. Commodore already has guilds though and a nice tech rate as I've said before, he might be hard to beat to Economics. I wonder who Commodore's Knights will be aimed at, piling on dtay probably makes the most sense unfortunately.

I have a lot of options right now at least.

[The Black Sword]

Yeah, my thread title is very misleading, guilds next turn but there'll be no riding to war around here. I set up the Gaspwyn attack for this turn but called it off. I'm in a really strong position and if I have peace for my GA I think I'm going to catapult really far ahead. I'm beginning to think Thoth might not be the main rival anymore. Dtay still has a big empire and an actual tech advantage, is 4 cities production going to outweigh having to defend against that? And Thoth's tech rate is really weak. The two problems are if he manages to make peace and holds onto the Pyramids, which could fix that tech rate, and if Commodore piles onto dtay, and Commodore needs to pile onto somebody.

I think Lewpar might be the main competition now with their unending golden ages. Oxy might be in a good position too when he eventually makes a move, he's surely benefiting from not building any military units at all.

Anyway, I sorted out my GA planning. We're getting 5 great people out, first is from The Quiet Man, my NE/TGL city, then 4 from these guys:





I imagine TQM will be pretty close to another one then too, need to check that out.

Now I just() need to estimate my tech rate, figure out where I want to go and what I want to do with the GPs. The short term goals are probably Edu, Economics and PP, which will all be really strong. Regarding GP, my 3 person golden age is scheduled to help me swap into late game civics. This is the best time to generate the necessary GP but they'll be sitting around for ages if I do that. On the other hand, I'm not sure I can reliably generate them later.

We're getting CS next to revolt into HR/Bureau/Caste/Pac for the GA. Not sure about Merc yet.

[The Black Sword]

Would you look at that, dtay just retook a city already!

I've been giving him a bit of help btw, mostly surplus resources and OBs if they're worth anything, also 80g when he asked a few turns ago.

[The Black Sword]

Yeah, Merc is definitely worth it, not sure if I'm bothered re-checking my GP stuff to see if I can improve it now. It is 1k beakers away from Lib, and I'm still looking at the possibility of stealing that. But I won't be Libbing anything exciting so I think Economics is the priority and I doubt I can research 3k beakers for Philo+Lib and still win the Economics race. So I'll finish Paya early, that'll give me the gold to get Banking before the GA and if I manage to steal Lib, I'll just Lib Economics.

I think I'll probably forget about my 3 person golden age for a while and try win the lottery later. If I roll a lucky engineer then I'll save him for Mining Inc and go that way. 3 GS for bulbing PP, Edu and an Academy in the capital, then we'll grab 2 GMs I think for trade missions or a possible economics bulb if necessary. I'll figure out then what I want to do afterwards. If Thoth remains economically backward then a Cuir/Cav attack on former Carthage is a possibility. Or we could just go towards Communism for the Spy and Kremlin, that would help with the GA. Sids Sushi is also a target.

[The Black Sword]

Instructions for someone else to move along the turns if possible:

I'm preparing for a golden age the turn the next GP is in Donovoan's Reef. I just completed Paya, that allows two turns off 100% research, first to pick up CS with a lot of overflow and then to pick up Banking. Then throw the golden age , revolting into Bureau/Caste/Merc/Pac. Finish the GS in TQM in 2t, research Paper, use that to bulb most of Edu. At that stage, need to decide if Lib is winnable, if so detour over there otherwise continue onto economics. Might be worth building overflow on a cheaper tech for a turn, I'm not sure.

Next GP is from Fort Apache on turn 5 of the GA. Probably make this a GM for emergency Economics bulb, otherwise trade mission to Oxy island. Then Hondo on turn 6, GS. Then Searchers on turn 7, GM to Oxy island, build the boat there too, with The Sea Chase breaking the 700gpp mark as well and finishing its GS on turn 8. The 2 extra GS will build an academy in the capital and bulb PP. Also get as much Gpp as possible in TQM.

In general, finish whatever's in the queue and try grow the cities as big as possible on economic stuff. Nothing wrong with wealthbuilding if it wins us Economics/Lib. Start 6 unis and Oxford when Edu comes in, probably; Searchers, Sea Chase, Conqueror, Donovan's Reef, Fort Apache and Westward Ho. Most places could use a forge. Texas Terror, Lonely Trail, 3 Texas Steers, True Grit; build military. Obviously grocer and bank in Maker of Men

Workers probably want to start some irrigation projects now that CS is in. In particular, one for the rice in Donovan's Reef and one through the jungle for the rice. Also want to farm the rest of True Grit.

Password is 'Joao'.

[GermanJoey]

I played just this turn, in case someone else comes along. Took a little while to take it all in, a very impressive and huge beast you have here!

Unfortunately, it took all the time I had before I went to dinner just to play, so the writeup will have to wait a few hours. (I'm getting yelled at right now haha) I took some screenshots, which I'll describe when I get back. But just wanted to give you a heads up!

[GermanJoey]

Ok, so, I basically just left whatever build queues that were already there alone. These three needed something though, and chose this:



I later changed Fighting's build to Wealth, to leave the overflow alone.

I sent new military to whatever obvious staging points were around. I had no idea what to do with this galley, however, so I just sent him exploring to the NW.



You mentioned to fire off the GA when it is available, which is next turn. However, before that happens, I was wondering if you wanted to do any last minute whips. These cities looked like candidates:

http://imgur.com/TxPfbZc,QdtD7Fp,FeSMKeO...,Zksswe4#7

However, as-is, if I don't hear from you I won't whip any city and just let them grow.

Lastly, your demos:

[The Black Sword]

Thanks Joey.

With regard to The Searchers, I'd probably build a galley there first, just to make sure I have it in time for the trade missions. The other two are fine. The other galley can just go to sleep leave him on the fish behind In Harms Way for potential offense/defense with Gaspar.

As for your suggested whips:
Yellow Ribbon: Seems like a good idea.
Iwo Jima: No, only production comes from the whip really, so no need to hurry the forge if we can't whip.
MoM: Nah, full production into a bank, wealth build was saving overflow.
Hondo: Nope, needs its pop for GP.
In Harms way: Tough one, go ahead.

[The Black Sword]

Looks like I'll just about manage this without any need for wealth building:


Economics is safe, so I'll probably take Nationalism. Lewpar have been sandbagging it for ages, but I'm not sure if they've actually invested any beakers in there. I might as well give Taj a run. It would be a lock if they hadn't convinced me they had it and I abandoned my overflow cascade. Still, If I were them I'd have some sort of cascade set up so while Taj would be a bonus I'm not counting on it. I won't disrupt the Oxford in the capital plan, I'll go for a slightly slower build in McLintock. I want Nationalism for Nationhood, which is 50gpt cheaper than Bureau/Vassalage. It's also on the path to Military Tradition, which doesn't sound too shabby.

Probably end the GA in HR/Nationhood/Slavery/FM/OR. Not sure about OR but I think the Taj run pushes it over the top.

The rest of the world has been fighting(and the Mayans sleeping), so I'm back to top power, tempted to attack Thoth and replace Darkness, but I'm a bit worried about a potential dogpile.

[The Black Sword]

Here's McLintock:


Building a workshop a turn, then I'll put in some watermills. Of course there are other ways to build the Taj:



Looks like I forgot to take a picture of The Sea Chase, but there's some engineer pollution there too. Other GPs:




And True Grit being awesome, and probably responsible for my No.1 power.



Demos:


Dtay is doing a pretty good job of punishing Thoth and making sure Commodore gets all the spoils:


You have to assume Thoth will get the Mids city though. Still, looks like Commodore is the new no.2 to me, and I'm not sure if Thoth is even no.3. Dtay gifted me two workers btw, which was nice. I accidentally built a Trireme down south(seriously, was saving the overflow with wealth and it somehow got in the queue ), I think I'll gift it to him in thanks, I don't want to declare war on Thoth just to harass with a Trireme myself.

Interesting game at the moment, I'm in a really good position but closing it out against empires this size(and not much relative size advantage myself) looks hard.