Gawdzak's GA has ended. He didn't get Communism and didn't revolt to State Property. This is... pretty questionable decision on his part.
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Gavagai, the God-Emperor
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Interesting civics decision by Gawdzak. He seems to be facing the same problem as me. Free Religion is super useful for upcoming space race but given this geography you absolutely need the ability to produce double-starred destroyers. His solution was to forgo Environmentalism for Vassalage and still run Free Religion. Well, for my situation Environmentalism seems to be more powerful than Free Religion, though I came to this decision entirely by eyeballing. On the other hand, Gawdzak has very few farms and doesn't seem to run a lot of specialists (I don't have civ at hand to check but I suspect that he lacks health and happy which would explain a lot). For him this solution may seem sensible.
Of course, it is still unclear, why no State Property and no Universal Suffrage. His decision to research Physics at the end of his GA is really significant because he could have researched Communism instead. He should expect to gain something really big from Physics and, of course, I dislike this development greatly. I offered Defensive Pact to German Joey. The purpose is to set up a better contain against Gawdzak, making him, at the very least, nuke his trade routes with both of us if he goes to war. Of course, it isn't real Defensive Pact but better than nothing.
Well... Sorry, no screenies or details, just some assorted thoughts for now.
As you all now know, I got dogpiled by GJ and Gawdzak. To be frank, I never seriously believed that such war is possible: I see no way GJ and Gawdzak can trust each other. They both can reap huge benefits from backstabbing the ally in the midst of war, taking a lot of cities. I counted on this fact to prevent any coordinated action from their part. Due to this, I took some wrong decisions before the war. Most importantly, I researched Biology before Assembly Line. That delayed my industrialization and put me behind my neighbors in arms race as they both decided to skip Biology (Gawdzak - understandably, GJ - stupidly). However, I'm not sure it would even help me if I decided to skip Biology too: I would still be unable to fight both of them at once. However, it appears I totally misjudged my neighbors yet again. I spent a long time, trying to understand what my mistake was. I decided that the problem, basically, lies within GermanJoey. He had all the potential to compete with me peacefully (he is seriously behind now but only because he refused to research Biology and adopted stupid civics) but fucked up everything. The obvious strategy on his part was to sit still, wait until Gawdzak attacks me (that was very expected, in contrast ti him Gawdzak has to be very aggressive) and then go all-in to space. Instead he did the stupidiest thing one could do in his situation: attacked me. I wonder if he undertands all implications: Gawdzak can burn the hell out of me, given his tech edge but he can't really hold anything valuable in my land (and he doesn't want me to be weak enough to make my cities capturable because in this scenario GJ will get the biggest reward); on the other hand, Gawdzak certainly can integrate most of GJ's cities into his empire. So, at some future point Gawdzak inevitably turns against GJ. On top of that GJ is conducting the war in a really strange way: I think, 3 turns has passed but he just isn't doing anything. There were a lot of small skirmishes, one big naval battle (initiated by me) but no serious offensive operation on his part. It looks like he started the war without having any kind of plan and without being ready for it. On the other hand, Gawdzak is doing a very solid job, picking off my coastal cities. I'm quite terrified by his efficiency in doing that. I hoped that I would be able to at least kill one of his amphibious attackers for each of my defenders and in this way to hold at least my most important coastal centers. But it looks like he has favorable odds in every single battle and it means that I will have to abandon all my eastern coast altogether. Happily it doesn't look like Gawdzak already has necessary numbers, so I don't have to do it right now, but when his army comes, I will have to fall back. Now it looks like I need to allow Gawdzak to rampage freely. I currently has no answer to Tanks, Marines and Battleships and the harm he can inflict is substantial but limited: he can't move any further than my eastern coast. On the other hand, I can try to knock GJ out of war: he is very vulnerable to naval pressure and is currently weaker than me on seas. However, I'm not sure if it is a clever thing to do in the long term. If GJ is broken, Gawdzak will take most of his cities and become a true monster. Really, annoying: why GJ isn't thinking about this kind of stuff? He betrayed our game-long friendship and now I have to think how to protect him. Sigh. Also, Plako now has a very good chance to actually get his CV. I think, he is even favorable to win now.
I think, this is what I should try to do:
1) Allow Gawdzak to raze my cities on the eastern coast. 2) Take from GJ former Korean colonies while freezing his main forces in his core by threatening it with empty transports. 3) Wait until Gawdzak attacks GJ. After Gawdzak runs out of targets for razing in my land, he should inevitably make his move for a real landgrab - or he will lose the game to Plako or dtay. GJ by that point should seem weakened and distracted and appear to be an easy target. 4) After Gawdzak does that, immediately make peace with GJ and help him to defend himself and to break Gawdzak's war machine. Seems like a strategy. Of course, it is too dependant on what GJ and Gawdzak would do. But I can't think of anything better and my assumptions about their behavior seem appear sensible.
Thanks for your reasoning and good luck!
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld |
