Gaspar, Lewwyn, et al go full Sartre

[sunrise089]

...Gaspar, why is your name golden?

[spacetyrantxenu]

...Gaspar, why is your name golden?

http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthrea...#pid493177

Gaspar posts more when in golden age. So now that he's permanently in a golden age he has to report more. I did it for the entertainment of this thread's lurkers!

[Old Harry]

Any questions?

A shot of your tech tree would be nice.

Also why is bulbing Chemistry more useful to you than the other options you have?

And did Xenu booby-trap your mouse to make you report more?

[spacetyrantxenu]

Any questions?

A shot of your tech tree would be nice.

Also why is bulbing Chemistry more useful to you than the other options you have?

And did Xenu booby-trap your mouse to make you report more?

What color text would a badass use?

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Any questions?

A shot of your tech tree would be nice.

Also why is bulbing Chemistry more useful to you than the other options you have?

And did Xenu booby-trap your mouse to make you report more?

What color text would a badass use?

BOLDBLOODREDHUGEANDALLCAPS...

[Gaspar]

...Gaspar, why is your name golden?

Gaspar posts more when in golden age. So now that he's permanently in a golden age he has to report more. I did it for the entertainment of this thread's lurkers!

Just Xenu being Xenu is the easier answer.

Any questions?

A shot of your tech tree would be nice.

Also why is bulbing Chemistry more useful to you than the other options you have?

And did Xenu booby-trap your mouse to make you report more?

I'll grab a shot of the tech tree when I actually play the turn. Because whether or not we have that gold is pretty important to the turn as a whole, I have to wait to play until after dtay and I'm guessing from the lack of logins overall, folks have forgotten about the game during the hiatus. So I wouldn't expect that shot to come super-soon.

I don't really think bulbing Chemistry is super useful - if dtay takes the deal its overwhelmingly likely that I instead use the Merchant on hand for a Trade Mission and ice the Scientist for a Golden Age. There's little-to-no value in pursuing the Liberalism path with something like an Education bulb right now because 1. Oxy is overwhelmingly likely to beat me there, as he's already on that path and 2. I can't realistically build Oxford or Taj Mahal during a military buildup with no wonder-doublers on the map. Oxford is great but build Universities suck and Taj Mahal is just a non-starter. As great as the Taj/MoM combo is, locking down my best production city for something like 15 turns just can't happen. I would be somewhat surprised if I built any other world wonders this game.

Anyway, Chemistry only really stood out as an option if I wanted to pursue a super deep beeline for Grens/Cannons since I'm already after the bottom of the tree with Guilds for Knights and Gunpowder for Jans. But ultimately, there's not enough value there to outstrip just getting some gold and using it for whatever. There's certainly the possibility of doing some HA -> Knight upgrades. But I haven't really figured out my long term tech goals. The long term tech goal was Guilds and that will come in either at EOT or next EOT, depending on whether I give all my gold to dtay. So beyond the obvious of Engineering and Guilds, I haven't really considered what should be next. I guess that's something I should start to consider.

[Gaspar]

So busy turn.

First off, dtay took the deal. I expected him to as really, what choice did he have? Because I'm me, I feel like its worth addressing 400g for a Great Scientist. Obviously, in the abstract, the GP is worth significantly more than that - namely, I'll basically ice him and use the Merchant I had iced for a Trade Mission which will net something like 1100g. (There are better options but they require risk. I'm not willing to risk my GM for an extra 200g somewhere, not in this game where everyone has a hair trigger.) So basically I've got 700g of profit. But its not quite that linear. For one, I've had to delay Guilds a turn. This actually means something when I'm on something of a clock for making them worth something. My tech rate is still below that of most of my rivals. For two, I didn't really need this GP. Of course a GP that doesn't impact your GP clock is valuable, but that value is in the future. I'm still a good ways away from being ready for GA #2 and I had the GPs for that covered anyway. More importantly dtay needs that gold right effing now. He needs to upgrade Skirms to Longbows so he can have hope of fending off Commodore. The Great Scientist holds no value for him. He's already fired his 1-man GA and he's highly unlikely of living to see a second. There are no techs which a GSci can bulb which will help him survive right now. And he basically went for a home run - he gifted me the scientist. So anything he gets from it is basically pure profit for him...

...and I sort of hurt myself in taking the deal anyway, because that gold went to put a Longbow in a city I'm planning on taking.




With Commodore the Enemy at the Gates, I decided to go all-in on taking those two cities next turn. Basically, I throw the Green HA's at the cities to soften top defender and then hopefully kill with a c2. The 2nd c2 HA is insurance or a city defender. I can also get an axe into Ike and an Axe and a Spear into Capt Falcon. The downside here is dtay has his 2 workers in the area. It couldn't be more blatantly obvious what I'm doing (the workers are needed to road the rice after the culture goes away to get the 1-movers in as city defenders at Falcon.) I could have waited, but after Commodore took out Mario last turn, he could take these any second. So basically, I decided either dtay can't do anything and I take these next turn or he defends better and I turn my attention elsewhere. I'll offer peace right after the attack - I can't get anything to attack Game and Watch (our eastern border city) anytime soon and anyway, it doesn't look like Thoth is making much progress on that front. So the best case scenario here is I get two cities which I need as a buffer against Commodore and dtay can resume the battle with the Romans. Worst case is I get nothing. There's no opportunity for dtay to counter attack, so really, this is a no-brainer. When the downside is status quo, foolish not to try.

In other world news, TBS fired his 2-man GA this turn.




Also note the Knights which have popped up on the border and Keshiks added to his stack in Westward Ho. I mean, whatever dude. If you attack me over Oxy I will grind you to the end of time and make sure you don't win this game. I'm at best the 3rd best option for you to attack right now - Oxy is weak as hell and Thoth is clearly choking in dtay-land. But yeah, it certainly is a possibility. I think its unlikely the attack is coming soon - you don't adopt Pacifism before a military build up - but it could certainly be coming after the GA. Anyway, I'll continue to stuff insane amount of units in the border cities and push culture as best I can. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, we're approaching TBS in power level and a lot more of his soldier points are Axes, Spears and Chariots, so we'll see what happens. My best chance to win this game is to get more land and that's not happening from TBS right now. Thoth made his play, Commodore made his and I'll make mine soon enough. I think the winner of this game is TBS. I think Commodore and I have outside shots. I don't know if Thoth can recover but he has a lot of land and as long as that is the situation, he has a chance.

Oh, almost forgot the tech tree for Harry - sorry dude!




I have everything before this and nothing after it, though I will have Guilds next turn. Here's a shot of the tech trading screen:




So yeah, we've caught up quite a bit but still behind the leaders. Oxy gets Paper next turn and is clearly heading for Liberalism. TBS teched Banking and I would assume is heading for Economics for the merchant and then I dunno. He built Paya so maybe he's skipping Philo, which takes him out of the Taj race I guess. I mean if the only possible opponent for Taj is Oxy... I guess I could build it? Taj + MoM is disgusting as we all know. But building Taj is really a pain in the ass. I guess I don't really care where it ends up as long as it doesn't end up with TBS.

Anyway, here's demos:




I still don't really know if I'm in 3rd or 4th place but I do feel like with some huge luck I can win.

I guess I'll ask any questions again since that got a good response last time.

[NobleHelium]

dtay added a pike to Captain Falcon. I think either you attack and take Ike and his two workers on the border then offer peace for Captain Falcon or it will take significantly more effort to take the cities because those two chops are going to complete.

Also, you should check what happened to his two traveling workers with F5.

[Gaspar]

So, as Noble suggested - unfortunately dtay is in fact able to recognize the most blatantly obvious impending threat in history and got a Pike into Captain Falcon.




This is the situation at the beginning of turn. As Noble suggested, I don't think this changes the calculus on attack timing - we have to attack now or much later, which gives Commodore time to take the two cities before we get there. It does of course change that there's little chance of taking Captain Falcon this turn and in fact, a decent enough chance I can't take it at all. As Noble has pointed out countless times, we weren't really well prepared for this - way too much of my army is pinned down on the TBS border. Anyway, someone one said that Fortune Favors the Bold® so here goes nothing...

The Battle of Ike:

Green HA vs Green Longbow at 25%: WIN! (I was fucking owed that)




I need a cigarette after that.

Anyway, here's what the battlefield looks like at Captain Falcon after my turn:




Barring shenanigans, I should be able to take this next turn. I'm hoping dtay realizes this, because I offered him peace for Captain Falcon. I can't take Game and Watch soon - I can take it, but it will require 5t of either building new units and/or shuffling old ones. I also surrounded his workers there, so if he doesn't take peace he'll have to delete them or accept them going to me. I did also get 2 workers near Ike. Weird that he left them there seeing as it sure looks like he sussed out the attack. I guess he doesnt care about them anymore - he must have more workers than he needs at this point.

Anyway, that's everything super-interesting about the turn. The gold from capture along with a couple wealth builds allows me to complete Guilds this turn, just a turn later than originally anticipated. Engineering is next and should take ~4t. Then we'll see what we see.

[Gaspar]

Dtay played and took the offer.