[spoilers] Commodore and Dtay are Sitting Bull of Inca, somehow.

[Commodore]

By the way, is all this of interest? I realized that my last two early knight blitzes (19 and 16) were reported well once the ball went up but I didn't detail my thinking in the run up; plus, this is earlier and tighter than anything I've ever done before so I find it interesting. But I keep most of the micro in my head so I don't need to record all this if it's dull to read.

[Ceiliazul]

Yes interesting, and even if it wasn't for its own sake, it's a teaser for BLOOD! And unlike certain pb18 leaders who tease and don't deliver, you have sacrificed enough economy for the knight push to be fully required for a recoup of the costs.

Joey will build MoM in short order. Then as soon as you commit to retep, elkad gets the Jojo pain train because you and Gavagai are pushing the pace. He'll have no choice but to keep up.

If Donovan is on the ball, he'll have all kinds of mop up opportunities. I see him as mostly passive, in general, but he'll have to join in or be easy meat later.

[Commodore]

Joey will build MoM in short order. Then as soon as you commit to retep, elkad gets the Jojo pain train because you and Gavagai are pushing the pace. He'll have no choice but to keep up.

If Donovan is on the ball, he'll have all kinds of mop up opportunities. I see him as mostly passive, in general, but he'll have to join in or be easy meat later.

I agree with all these predictions, but I think Adrien is enough to push the team tempo up quite a bit. Not for nothing are they top half of the scoreboard. They might even get the lion's share of Elkad...definitely after the first couple knights going eat we want the remaining forests in the peninsula going into troops to claim the next two cities westward from Elkad once the dogpile begins.

Borsche seems to be putting up an admirable fight now that it's on; he's whipped hard and Gavagai seems to have stalled in both razes and power, so that's good. Bet poor Gav wishes he had the good Numidians...

[Commodore]

Er, and as I typed that post, Grimace played a 2 minute turn.

Gavagai has to notice that he'd be able to make better gains to his west...

[Commodore]

Yeah, definitely going to add Warhouse to the whip list. As is typical with a Moai city, its production actually looks far more gnarly in a golden age than outside of one. That lovely 23hpt is going down to 14hpt with the growth post-GA, still decent but not so decent as to spare the lash. Crossbow gets built, then knight...this city is actually the launching point for the primary invasion of Azteca, ideally set up to launch a 2t hit on the capital. Why yes our third-ring city is sharing cultural borders with Retep's capital, why'd you ask? Tight map, people.

Uselessly wasted cottage is uselessly wasted.

Behold our glorious demos! Still growing taller and taller we are in preparation for the whip. Interestingly enough with the settlement of Manta's Gift we're now tied for top land area, not surprising given our eastern cultural dominance plus relatively high city count at 13. This is a tiny MFG/CY for starting a knight blitz, though...looking back at 18 and 19 Dtay and I each had 50% more CY and 4/8 more cities, respectively, plus heftier MFGs. The true terror of an early knight stack comes from twenty plus...that's going to be hard for an empire this size to field rapidly.

Hurts to watch Retep's massive demographic rebound, too...he's close, folks.

INCA, 175 BC: Maximum Peaceful Size

Dtay, have you dabbled much in theoretical planetology? I'm trying to figure out what composition this world needs to retain atmo/biosphere at the same rough size as Ganymede.

[TheWannabe]

Are you guys both physicists?

Also, can you make up for hammers with commerce by upgrading HAs en mass, or is that not practical?

[Commodore]

Are you guys both physicists?

Also, can you make up for hammers with commerce by upgrading HAs en mass, or is that not practical?

We are, somewhat (for me "when you search for 'Physics Major' it returns results for engineer"). We could run mass upgrades, but mobility is king and Construction/Engineering are pretty huge for conquest.

[Commodore]

So I've been reading a fair bit of PB22, post-elimination there. I've gotten quite a bit more insight into some of our current rivals; Joey, Gavagai, AI, Donovan, Borsche, and HAK. But one of my favorite little ideas was Plako's pregame analysis ranking players by drama potential and patience with the game. I wish he'd done the whole field there...anyway, let's do that here before the players start with blood and screaming, and try to also add a little humor:


-Commotay (Choleric/Sanguine)
We're fairly similar in playstyle, actually, although I think I tend to have a bit more blood both in-game and interpersonally. Neither of us seem to understand the word for “quit”, although after losing we'll withdraw a bit into prickle mode.
7/10 Drama
10/10 Patience


-Retep (Melancholic)
We've seen the Full Retep on display here this game, with the sputtering interest levels taking his performance from excellent to terrible. Unfortunately he's on an interest upswing now, more pain us. He's not prone to wreck games or cuss people out, but he will definitely do some griping.
5/10 Drama
7/10 Patience


-Gavagai (Phlegmatic)
Impressively machine-like performances occasionally hamstrung by tone-deaf interpersonal reads, that our Gav boy here. He's ruthless to a fault and unafraid of violence, so that does generate some drama, but stolid competency is the core of his game. His patience isn't completely infinite...he was bored to death by WLP subbing in PB18...but otherwise he just keeps on trying to win these.
6/10 Drama
9/10 Patience


-GermanJoey (Melodramic)
Joey is undoubted the best entertainment asset the forums have added in years, coupling an extreme sensitivity to insult or attack with some above-average mechanically skills and good reporting. We're not all that unalike, actually, although I think I have a core of joy that poor Joey lacks. But he's young yet. Despite his tendency to weep and wail and gnash teeth to Joey's credit he's actually not super prone to mail it in.
11/10 Drama
8/10 Patience


-DonovanAI (Phlegmatic/Sanguine)
This thread must be really fun, actually...Donovan is a pretty chill dude and Adrien is both scattershot and pretty exuberant. It's obviously worked well for them this game, they seem to have rocked India nicely. AI will get temporarily discouraged but pops back up, likewise Donovan...good pairing here.
3/10 Drama
10/10 Patience


-Borsche (Choleric)
I'm reasonably certain most of Borsche's internet persona is amplified, he's rocking this grumpy reddit troll thing that I find pretty amusing. Persona aside, he's not actually made much heat and light in-game, preferring to wet panties with politically incorrect provocative prevarications.
7/10 Drama
7/10 Patience


-HAK'n'Mindy (Sanguine/Choleric)
Of all the threads in this game, this is the one I most look forward to reading after the fact. HAK is about as happy-go-lucky as they come while Mindy is a full-blown paranoiac. The interactions must be hilarious, but it's kept HAK on the straight-and-narrow and turned in probably his best game to date, so nicely done guys.
0/10 Drama (Mindy is 10/10, but multiply it by HAK's 0, you get zero)
10/10 Patience


-Elkad (Phlegmatic)
Elk old boy has earned Krill's undying infinite ire but I don't actually see him as being all that controversial. Sure, his quixotic quest for EP economy is subpar, but he's got his pet desires. Fair enough, dude.
2/10 Drama
7/10 Patience


-Grimace (Sanguine)
Bless this old purple nugget-stealer's heart, Grimace is good people. He could use a dedlurker, methinks, like in 23 because he's so chillaxed he kind of floats along but I don't expect issues from this guy, he's game to always at least try.
1/10 Drama
10/10 Patience

[Krill]

Why can I see 6 different players in that screenshot?

[dtay]

Are you guys both physicists?

Also, can you make up for hammers with commerce by upgrading HAs en mass, or is that not practical?

I'm currently majoring in physics, graduating in about a week. (Though haven't done anything in that field, so have a vague idea of the concerns at play but haven't worked with them before).

We can, but we also want engineering ASAP because it makes the knight rush vastly stronger, so there are competing demands on commerce.