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

[The Black Sword]

Heh, seems peace isn't such a straight forward proposition for the Myths. On the one hand, I think they either lose Gurton Buster or a lot of troops this turn, so giving up Styx shouldn't be so bad. What's to stop me coming back in 10t and doing it again? Get Rifling and Nationhood.

On the other hand, I have a lot more to lose than they do, and they hardly want a two city swing with the leader. I'm not sure what will happen if they decide to play Chicken. Gaspar is the last team I really want to be fighting right now, it's unfortunate that my army happens to be over here and I want to leverage it. Hope I didn't risk too much for 1 measly city in such a big game.

Assuming I got peace, I was considering the following plan:

2t Sci Meth with lots of overflow
2t Communism(might not be possible without the SoL failgold)
Throw GA, Research Compass
Research Optics.
Hopefully Research Astro in 1t with the overflow.
Upgrade some Galleons.
Attack Thoth.

Then go something like Physics -> Bio -> Medicine.

This does go against my usual policy of only having 1 enemy at a time though. Another question is if the Physics GS is worth the medicine delay without the Thoth war.

[The Black Sword]

So, Gaspar accepted peace in the end. I still have to be watchful of his power during the peacetime though, if he wanted to hurt me, I think accepting peace and coming back better prepared in 10t time would be the best way to do it.

Meanwhile Commodore threw a GA, and turned on tech to 1t Edu with a scary GNP, looks to be about 50% more than mine. I think there has to be some wealth building in there. I got momentarily scared about Communism, but I think I should still be fine. I finished Sci Meth(well, 1 beaker away to preserve TGL for one more turn). I can certainly get Communism in 3t, he needs Lib, Sci Meth and Comm, so he'd need some GS at least to match me. Still, I'm looking at the possibility of getting it in 2t, that would require switching pretty much my entire empire over to research but it might be worth it. I'm holding off on the draft too, just in case. Despite his Ind trait, I think the Kremlin will still be safe, thanks to the Universal Suffrage, GA+Bureau combo. I'll be able to 6t it, chopping the deer forest in my capital on the final turn.

He might also force me to skip Physics though and go directly to Medicine and Sushi after Communism. There, I'm up Sci Meth, Econ and Corp, and I already have the GM generated. But If I go Comm, Astro and Physics, the advantage will be with him. We'll stay flexible with our research visibility though.

This turn I'll see where Thoth uses his GE for SoL and then I'll figure out whether I'm still in that race or not. I had a not very thorough look through his cities and didn't see anything to really match McLintock. I have a Deer forest to chop here too. GE gets 500h +20 per pop. If he has a GA of his own then it's probably his.

I have to sort through my military this turn and see how much I need to keep for defense and if I can attack Thoth without Astro. His current staging tile is an absolutely terrible location though, hittable by my Cavs from the fog. If he doesn't change it, that will probably be too tempting.

I wonder, as I go up to Medicine, will the others prioritise other parts of the tree. Getting to Combustion(and Mining Inc on the way) or Assembly Line(with the Pentagon) first could put some pressure on me. There's also Cristo at electricty, but the two Spi civs will hardly prioritise that.

[The Black Sword]

Rechristened my new cities. Needed 12 names, not bad:


This is also the strain put on the Duchy for a 2t Communism(which is the same cost as Steel). 3 turn Communism would be a big reach for Commodore, but it doesn't seem totally impossible if he does something like this. And losing a coinflip for my GA would be terrible. He needs some GS though, next turn would his last chance. Not sure what I'll do yet.

I sorted out some micro to complete SoL by T181, but I forgot OR and had some hammers spare ... I think T180 might be possible. Doesn't look like I can beat a 6t Kremlin.

[The Black Sword]

Here's where Thoth builds the SoL:


1247 sabotage production, anyone have the formula?

Also, what's the chance inflation strikes twice in one game ... Would need an extra 50g to cover it. Barring 2 GS from Commodore next turn, the Spy is safe, but an extra turn off the wonder etas wouldn't go amiss.

[spacetyrantxenu]

http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthread.php?tid=4475

[GermanJoey]

http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthread.php?tid=4475

neat!

[The Black Sword]

Thanks. Seems he's actually building it in his capital, with 243 hammers invested. GE would give him 840. He can make maximum 110hpt, so that's 4t production, chopping the deer wouldn't speed it for him ... I believe I can just about manage 4t myself.

We're also both in US, wonder what it'd cost to rushbuy.

Also;
Commodore's GNP continue's to be insane.
I hit 50 Cavs.

[The Black Sword]

Here's our fun GA projects:


Over halved the ETA here.



Chopping the Deer will shave off a turn.



Comm stole Notre Dame on me btw.



Here's where I curse Thoth and that bloody GE. He's making a bit less than 100 hpt, but he should still be able to 3t the SoL if he chops his Deer forest. I can 3t it too for a coinflip. Or I can scrounge up 3k gold next turn to cash rush it. Worse case scenario, I lose the coinflip for SoL and I'm up 4.5k gold instead. Let's try value SoL. I have roughly 40 cities and if I landed SoL I think I'd switch back to Rep after the GA is over*. So, roughly 6b per city, everybody will have at least a Library, lets say 8b per city or 320bpt. Which may be worth 9,600b right now. The 3k gold cost is a bit inaccurate though, because the last 1k will be through inefficient means, so let's say 3,500b

So, option 1: Rush the SoL: Gain 300h = 600b, lose 3.5k beakers, gain 9,600 beakers for 6,700b.

Option 2: 50% chance of 9,600b, 50% chance of 1,500g so average 5,150b.

Hmm, I have to admit, I was leaning strongly toward taking the coinflip before that calculation. Complicating matters slightly is that the next few techs are all really good value for a while IMO. I also have to be sure that the 3k beakers doesn't cost me Sushi to Comm. There's the question of US vs Rep without the SoL too. I'll think about it during the day.

*Sushi means I'll have mountains of food. Slavery+Kremlin means I can change it into mountains of hammers. US lets me exchange commerce for hammers, which is unnecessary. Rep on the other hand allows me to exchange my food for beakers. So the hammer bonus is the only thing going for US, and that will be dwarfed by the Rep bonus on SoL.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Isn't it a shame to have so many good choices?

McClintock is a monster city. I was hoping that whoever got that bit of land would make it into the most awesome brown tiled commerce city ever (so many rivers for towns!), but I guess as far down the list as it got settled you simply needed hammers more. And the city is clearly great for that, too. Poor plans river cities, no one ever puts cottages on them.

[The Black Sword]

Comm is 1 turning Communism too, my GNP is higher and I'm saving gold.



A lot of gold.

And Thoth's chariot pillages my towns in Oxy land. I'm pretty sure Commodore did the same actually, but at least he had the decency to delete the unit and try hide the evidence.

I was originally going to make McLintock into a cottage city IIRC, hence the 1 town and 1 almost town in BFC. Needed somewhere for these SoL type projects though.