[Spoilers] When Commodore is 64

[Commodore]

This turn. This was a good turn. It also is a prime example for snowballing; where one good roll leads to a whole mess of nastiness raining down. Sorry LT; I was planning on doing this to Pin even before you took over.

Here's the start. LT withdrew his little feint force back to the woods but I'd farmed them of all I needed, just the one great general (hard to see, just behind Scarlet Citadel). Couple that with lots of fresh new 5xp monsters from the barracks/Vassalage empire, we're ready to play now and to hell with waiting for knights. That galley is loaded with two aggressive 5xp swords, AKA death incarnate.

CG2/Drill 1 archers ought to be good defenders, right?

The first move is the worst move for the poor Turks. Pindicator was pushed forward heavily and only kept his wonderful Stonehenge city of Breakside guarded by a single archer. I moved three longbows and the horse archer out, merged with the horse archer, and then moved one more forward. Bingo, nothing but an archer. And here's where I got lucky; I'll always take a 25% shot to kill a city that nice, but when it's combined with the perfect opportunity to literally advance the entire front? Most definitely. We thus promoted C2/Morale, and...

Breaksido delenda est.

Now, we're in the risky side strategically, although tactically we're wonderful. See my borders? That's a pink morass trapping Turks in on their aggressive forward positions. And also, there's a reinforcement road now opened up. So let's open things with our amazing 10xp longbows...Guerrilla 3 time baby! Don't even need the awesome withdraw this time; win, win, win, then a chariot cleans up the last axe on yon hill. Sullen in those woods, there does lurk an unpromoted chariot...so my second C1 chariot uses the now-open road to reinforce ex-Breakside.

Combat line would have been better, but come on, G3 is fun.

So it goes. But we've got a second Ottoman city in the region, a size eight monster named Ecliptic. We're not going to take it out this turn, but...we're going to set up a next-turn takeout, dependent on what awfulness gets whipped in. Despite the drill and CG2 and innate +30% against swordsmen...my amphibious swords still get odds on them. So two archers down, just a zero-promotion axeman left, with all my horse units able to strike next turn too. I offer LT peace for Ecliptic.

EAST ASIAN SWORDSMEN LOOK SO AWESOME YOU GUYS.

Whew. So that was a tremendous turn. Crushing win ratio, yes, but after the first win everything else was at least positive survival odds. Snowballs snowball. And that is one hell of a way to ring in the new millennium. And as it is, capture gold sees us to directly to chucklenaughts, no stops. Knights next.

Who needs this "waiting for Machinery/Guilds" business?

I'd be a lot more worried, but I'm running around with 50% more power than the next highest soldier count. And I'm not exactly loaded with superstacks, as you can see. Middle position's got to keep himself safe, y'know? On the plus side, one more victory anywhere will net me yet another great general.

Imperialistic winning attacking battles within his own territory. It...has effects.

[Commodore]

Really guys, nothing? You're seeing blood and death, even if you're disgusted by the target that should have some reactions:


Aight, demographics. Researching full blast, Stonehenge monuments all over...but still a diiiistant second to Flugauto in a golden age oh SWEET HOLY CRAP. Yeesh, that's a lot of beakers. I'm sure Yuri with his own turned on will beat me too. MFG is clearly "not in a golden age", although actually not too far behind. Crop is up, of course, because the Ottomen were our only rivals there...but yeah, look at that power stat. This is silly, guys.

...silly, but still necessary on my part at least. Borders were unfriendly before, now with Stonehenge's score boost...

Graphs are in (sans Yuri's), and...interesting. At least, I find them so. I'm not sure what Wetbandit's issue has been, but he's hurting, man, and of course you're about to see the Ottomen dive a bit. Flugauto and Yuri are more and more my main rivals, Flug in clear ways (Darius coming into his own, GNP going stratospheric, solid borders with me), and Yuri in unclear ways (has GLH and Bureau but who knows what he's using them for).

Mysterious, dark Yuri, who I've not had graphs on in three thousand years.

That said, I think I have an idea what Yuri may do. Poor Logical Tautology inherited a good empire but also a colossal geostrategic mistake; Pin got greedy and pushed hard south and west. Now, this seems reasonable as he carved out a vast hinterland, got inside my ideal border plug, and has an island(s) backline ready...but he took too much; he wedged in between Yuri and I. And now, Yuri still doesn't share a border with me, but is rather bottled up with nowhere to go but Pinward and just landed Civil Service. And Yuri isn't the most aggressive man in the world, but he's planned and executed several sold offensive wars...always once his UU is online. So things look a trifle tense in Turkey now.

Please use samurai. Just for the cool factor, man. Please.

[Old Harry]

Jaynestown? Good episode. Have a comment for that.

So has Krill's map troll backfired? As long as piggy-in-the-middle is spiky enough perhaps he has the whip hand...

[TheHumanHydra]

OH: You watched Firefly?? Yay, you can be my friend now!

[Commodore]

So has Krill's map troll backfired? As long as piggy-in-the-middle is spiky enough perhaps he has the whip hand...

Well, the spikiness is pretty much required, aye, but I'm actually still nervous. Flugauto and/or Yuri with some triremes and a galley or two could totally gut my economy by hitting the island, for instance. Reinforcing there next. Generally I got a good metagame break with Pin; he was #1, so I was less obvious dogpile target, cut Yuri off from bordering me, and constrainable with a nice low-intensity bush war. With me taking Stonehenge my score suddenly skyrockets and LT isn't Pin for rep/fear, so the metagame has very much shifted.

Still, although I won't characterize this as "whip hand" I definitely do have a wealth of ways to screw up opportunities.

And c'mon THH, we all watch Firefly. Trouble is, I think I was one of maybe eight people who actually watched it when it came on. I did my part to give it ratings!

[Athmos]

Really guys, nothing? You're seeing blood and death, even if you're disgusted by the target that should have some reactions:

That was a great turn and I love your threads, I just don't connect and check update every day

Keep up the good work !

[von Adlercreutz]

Barbarism will certainly prevail! Crush those degenarated civilizations! Or make them pay Danegeld.

[Commodore]

Thanks Athmos, certainly will try.

Barbarism will certainly prevail! Crush those degenarated civilizations! Or make them pay Danegeld.

That's the plan! I need to review the dom limits, actually. It's a weird situation, because while I'm winning now this map position means I literally can never truly go full runaway.

But we're definitely going to win this by DOMINATION. It's the only barbarian way.

[Kofiman]

Nice barbarian raid there. Did the tribute come in?

And you should totally be "Com Dubh" in this game.

[Commodore]

Well, I've yet to get the save back, but given Wetbandit and Flugauto have both updated and:

Or make them pay Danegeld.

Did the tribute come in?

I'm guessing...yes? Seriously, if LT took the peace I'm going to kind of be at loose ends. Ecliptic is a size 8 city!