[Spoilers] Dreylin's short visit to a late Era

[Dreylin]

Good news. Any sign of REM's plant?

[OT4E]

Good news. Any sign of REM's plant?

I havent noticed yet, nothing disturbing us I think.

[OT4E]

Since DZ is gonna get our clam, we must consider planting this:


Returning to the serious business, or cap has completed Oxford:


So GS in 7 turns, though the growth will stopped, but I think it is fine at least before Biology. With +100 science per turn from Oxford specialists we need 1 turn of 100% research into Physics, but we will see closer to date how much exactly we need. GS will give us 1900-2000 research based on how much population we will have. BTW with 100% on science we are close to top GNP. In my esteem we can get both Physics and Biology by T210, rotating GSes, though if we lose Physics race may be it is not good idea to go for Biology at all.

We have 1 settler for the front city with pindicator and 5 more settlers coming within the next 5 turns:
- in Guniea Pigs
- in Goldfish
- in Donkeys
- in Gesse
- in Silksmoth

After Biology we start catching up with Steam Power and Assembly line. So I expect that we will be heavily industrializing starting from T320. It means that we can kill somebody between T310-T320.

[Dreylin]

Yeah, if he takes our Clam, we should grab his - besides there isn't any Food resource worth grabbing on the far side of the island since the Rice can't be irrigated. I guess if we want the Marble we can plant on the Rice, which would also give us good visibility / early-warning against Scooter.

So Settler distribution would look like:

We have 1 settler for the front city with pindicator and 5 more settlers coming within the next 5 turns:
- in Guinea Pigs - Scooter frontline
- in Goldfish - Donovan irritant
- in Donkeys - Goats Island Silver
- in Gesse - Gasparland
- in Silkmoths - Silkmoths Island Silver / REM Staging

There are a few options in Southern Gasparland, so I'll take a shot for discussion.

After Biology we start catching up with Steam Power and Assembly line. So I expect that we will be heavily industrializing starting from T320. It means that we can kill somebody between T310-T320.

So t320 would be when we're looking for GA as well then. OK, so what can we build up in the next 5t and stage for an attack on someone?

Oh, and 2/3 of the Workers at Dolphins can be ferried somewhere more useful; I'm leaning to take them SE to Silkmoths, since we need a tonne of turns to put the irrigation chain in place. Also, I guess we don't Workshop those two indicated Farms at Goats....

And civics next turn: back to Nationhood, and Theocracy if we're in build-up? We keep in Rep for another cycle IMO to get out Physics, but then we'll have a backlog of Gold so could redeploy UniSuff?

[DMOC]

Minor note: the "clams" you're referring to are actually crabs.

[Dreylin]

t303 -

Pigeons on the pindicator border:


In the end I brought 1 Worker up to Geese from Dolphins and the other two are going to Silkmoths; I figured Dolphins will be OK at size 5-6 for a while working forests when necessary.

South Gasparland:


I lean towards the highlighted "x" site. I'm not sure the payoff from the landlocked "?" site would come in a reasonable timeframe - particularly due to likely delay before we get a Settler ready. Also, what do you think of settling on top of the Spices in the West? Scooter has pillaged the entire road here, so has no aims to settle up in this area - though I'm not entirely certain what this Frigate is doing hanging around

I must remember not to double-move it with the Privateers next turn!

Took a shot of the civics screen:


More variety here than last time.

Also, WRT war on the 310-320 timeframe; it's a 4-5t walk from our core to the coast over here, and this area is not in shape yet to churn units, so I'm not sure whether we can put together a solid enough attack on REM until the middle-end of that time window. We might be able to dent BGN, but we'll have to dance around his scouting units (there's an Explorer on sight too) in order to get the jump on him.

Oh, and pindicator has an Engineer; not sure whether that is of import or not; maybe he will race Donovan for Mining Inc.

[OT4E]

And civics next turn: back to Nationhood, and Theocracy if we're in build-up? We keep in Rep for another cycle IMO to get out Physics, but then we'll have a backlog of Gold so could redeploy UniSuff?

No, forget about UniSuff. We made Oxford to use Rep fully. Our production is now fine and we dont need to hurry production at such cost. I think we wont switch to US unless we are in a big trouble.

We need to spread religion more and only then turn into Theocracy.

About Nationhood I am not sure. If you see cities we can draft, then switch. I'd not draft Chameleons, Lhamas, GP (the hell no!), Rabbits and Chickens to be able to put specialists soon.

[OT4E]

Delivering units to our east coast and even that island in front of REM is a challenge. The main question of this campaign though is are we going to build that much fleet (like 10+ galleons and ships to support)?

I see that we can make a channel across entire ex-Gaspar's land which can let us use ships for better logistics and to hide our movements and presense.

What kind of landing can it be?
Lets say something like the following as the primary attack:
- 24 cavs
- 6 rifles
- 6 cata
- 12 galleons
- 5 frigates (to bombard)

And something like 4-5 galleons with rifles and siege from the other side(southern sea) accompanied by minor group of Cavalries we can stack in the front city without making it look too suspicious.

I think it is real to prepare all this and get in position in 10-12 turns.

[Dreylin]

About Nationhood I am not sure. If you see cities we can draft, then switch. I'd not draft Chameleons, Lhamas, GP (the hell no!), Rabbits and Chickens to be able to put specialists soon.

Most of the Draftable cities are building pop to whip Settlers, so we wouldn't see much benefit yet on that score. Main thing it would offer is +2 Happy to some of the cities stretching the Happy Cap, but we probably make more from Bureau than we lose to run 10% Culture slider, so better to do that for now, I think.

Well it doesn't sound like there's anything pressing, so we'll just keep the revolt in our back pockets for when things change.

Lets say something like the following as the primary attack:
- 24 cavs
- 6 rifles
- 6 cata
- 12 galleons
- 5 frigates (to bombard)

And something like 4-5 galleons with rifles and siege from the other side(southern sea) accompanied by minor group of Cavalries we can stack in the front city without making it look too suspicious.

I think it is real to prepare all this and get in position in 10-12 turns.

Hmmmmm. After thinking about this overnight, I can just about see how this can be done without whipping the core too much, since we have most of the Siege and can pull in / Draft the Rifles, but I have 2 concerns: Worker turns; the 3-4 Forts will eat up a lot at a time when we are also planting 6 new cities and are already running out of improved tiles to work. Yes, we'll be whipping away a bunch of pop in the build-up, but we'll still likely outgrow the ability of our Workers to keep up.

Secondly, I doubt that we'll be able to get away with leaving our borders lightly defended this time. We don't have any enforced Peace to protect us, have more and closer borders, and increasing vulnerability to boating. Maybe not pindicator, but I imagine that Donovan and especially scooter would take a pot shot given the chance. So IMO we need to leave a bit (lot?) more behind than we did last time - where we essentially stripped everything to head East. In particular I think that means fleet, so in addition to the 10-15 ships we'd be building for the attack, I'd like to see us with another 15-10 to reinforce our borders.

Overall, while I see the potential in pursuing the proposed attack, I think we leave ourselves more vulnerable this time, both to 3rd Party military attack, and to ending up in a tech / development hole to Scooter that we can't climb out of. Right now we have 2x land of everyone else and it's unlikely that anyone will be planning a concerted attack; let's concentrate on consolidating that land advantage into economic & development parity and then lead and let someone else make the first move - we border everyone now, and are well place to vulture off any 3rd Party war declaration in the near future....

[OT4E]

Consider the following points before making final decision:
1) We are going to have airships everywhere and we will not let enemy come to us closer than a cannon shot unnoticed

2) Enforced peace traties are also possible. I expect that we can perform local peace-making operations in the nearby lands. For example kicking somebody from "naturally ours" island.

3) I said that we need 50 cavs for attack and you can see that I only aim to use 30 in attack. It means that we must have 20 as a standing army ready to protect our borders. As you said we cant teleport our army to the east at once, so we will have time to fill our garnissons.

4) People will be industrializing and probably a bit earlier than we do because we have other immediate goals. Will anybody pospone his factories just to enter the war with us for unpredictable result? My experience says that people do only care about their own business...

5) I wouldnt worry too much about 3rd party attack before people get at least 2 of the following ingredients:
- infantry (after industrislizing, but not single ones from upgrades or drafts)
- railroads to gather units quick
- artillery
- destroyers

The only really dangereous thing for now is huge cavalry stack, but it seems that noone is making it. And its our job!

6) I am talking about very fast operation. The main activity must last for 3-4 turns without giving much time to react for others. If they start thinking to join when we declare war it must be already late to change things. If we see preparations before then we can turn back at any time.

7) How much efforts will it take for us to make 40 units with our 20 cities? Cavalry is ~1.5 pop. New cities can whip cavs on the 3rd turn after we plant them. As you said we are limited in workers, yes. But what does it mean? Personally I read it as "we have too many citizens, lets whip them!"

8) We are not commited to make any decision, not yet. The situation can change drastically and the plan to go for REM will turn into old weird fantazy dream, but I believe we will find opportunity to use our power more likely .