[Spoilers] Dreylin tries to take over the World ... casually?

[Dreylin]

Alrighty, after some extended spreadsheetery I have created a plan which combines tile jiggery-pokery and starting the 3-man GA in 3t (on t180) to get all of the long-pole University builds down to 6turns!

This will crimp several of the surrounding cities which I only have mental pictures of, so I will need to assess that impact in-game before committing to the plan, however by bringing Doobie's down in line with the others, it will mean that I'm not required to build an 8th and can do something else with Ganja or (more likely) Mary Jane.

I've also made a final decision to put Oxford into Weed. Several reasons: the Plains Cottage from Doobie can be kept to up the base Commerce, Weed can run more Specialists than Doobie to push the Rep bonus through Oxford, and finally, with the Unis all finishing 3 turns into the Golden Age on t183, Weed can spend turns 4-7 completing Oxford with the (hopefully) last turns of Bureaucracy.

So now all I need to do is look at the Finances and make certain I can reach both Constitution and Liberalism in the next 10turns....

[Dreylin]

t177 -

Builds configured:


If the turn lasts to tonight (who am I kidding, of course it will) then I might go back in and switch Weed's build to a Settler before the University.

Also note from the following shots that Gawdzak was in the turn at the same time as me (always somewhat reassuring), and spent the turn trying out different techs; he had Gunpowder, Economics and Divine Right queued up at various points. He has no cash, so I don't know if they are passive research times (in which case ) or he's still got the slider up at 100%. Regardless, no dash to Economics for me, I think.

Here's the view of Dresden:


And note that AT has a city placed the far side of that Mountain.

Well here we go:


Highlighted is the stack at Bonn, which I think should be enough unless he completes units at both Bonn & Dresden this turn roll. (no whips on his turn) The smaller stack heading to Dusseldorf is 3 Knights and a Crossbow/Longbow pair for coverage. I'm not certain whether it was a mistake or not to push the larger stack ahead a tile to Aurochs; on one hand it would allow them to withdraw a tile after attacking the city, on the other they are in range of Yuri's SE city - and 2-move distance from where his main stack was last spotted on Nyles' border.

5t ago that stack was exclusively HA and Longbows, but there may have been Pikes added since. My aim is to burn this city next turn before he can reinforce with too much of that stack; if taking looks impossible I'll likely need to pull back NE, take Dresden and then return with additional Swords & Cats. If I'm successful at both cities, I'll offer him Peace in exchange for Dresden - which I have no idea whether he'd take.

Unfortunately the Yuri-Nyles' Peace Treaty is only half expired so I can't get support from that quarter ... and have to keep an eye that nothing untoward is coming at me from that direction. Add that to my mounting paranoia about Mr. Cairo's adjustments in the NW and I'm a bit of a basket case at the moment!

Finance screens to help me plan for GA research:

[Dreylin]

Update: well it looks like Molach has joined in on the party; declared on Yuri and took a city. I can dare to hope it's part of his homeland, but probably it's an island. I logged in and switched a couple of builds; Gawdzak is now showing 4t to Divine Right ... I expect that is saving gold and he'll turn on research to grab Economics out from under Ichabod.

Also, shockingly, we're 36hrs into the turn and AT, Ichabod and Nyles have all failed to play yet.

[Dreylin]

t178 -

Seems like Yuri is the punching bag now that BRick's gone:


And it looks like Ichabod has finally signed Peace with Gawdzak. I wonder if this means he'll play through the turn roll...?

Well, time to do some punching:


And my RNG luck continues; no losses here, or at Bonn. Bonn kept, but Dusseldorf burnt as planned. Unfortunately I misjudged the borders of Dresden and left the Settler out of range to plant the new city, so that will have to wait a turn.

And despite Dortmund being empty bar a single Mace, I did offer this:


I have 8 Knights SW of the city to take it next turn if he rejects, but I think he may well accept. Note Molach's Galley to the SE next to a newly-captured city. Also AT has Galleys in the water NE of Bonn, so I left the Knights in the city until I can bring along some defenders. I think that now is the time to stop the push - 2 new land borders, and the border with AT is getting longer & longer!

[Dreylin]

t179 -

Mr. Cairo fires his GA and Gawdzak completes Divine Right:


Which means I'm a lock for the Sistine Chapel.

Yuri didn't take the Peace offer, so I'll do this the hard way:


Cost me 2 Knights and 3xp short of the next GG:


So no repeated Peace Offer, but no advance right now; consolidation and then we'll see if he comes back offering Peace or if Nyles joins in once their Peace is done. Maybe once I've consolidated I'll have a force worth pushing forwards with.

Speaking of consolidation:


Pulled everything back into the city or level with it; should be safe from counter attack.

Aha, I think I've found out why Nyles' stack hasn't appeared:


Stuck behind Yuri's borders.

Oh, and this guy showed up:


Maybe Gawdzak's Trireme will take them out? Otherwise I'll dodge around them while bringing in my own Triremes.

[Dreylin]

t180 -

A few events:


Sistine popping borders already and the Barb moves into range of my approaching Trireme - killed without a scratch.


Pretty relaxed turn; shuffling units around at the front and preparing for this:


Slipping in a few marginal Builds while the GA bonus is on:


Tech on next turn for Constitution in 4t and Lib in 2t. Considering getting Optics first though since the first Gawdzak Galleon is in view...

[Dreylin]

t181 -

Nyles kicked off a Golden Age. Yuri offered me straight Peace, but I rejected ... even though I'm pivoting some troops back towards the front with Gawdzak - he now has a Galleon in the bay near my islands.

[Dreylin]

t182 -

Interesting times abroad:


Mr. Cairo took his eyes off the ball and now Adrien is making him pay ... at least for a few turns until he ferries over the heavy hitters. But they'll take lumps out of each other and maybe Ichabod & I can take advantage. Of course it really helps Gawdzak to have the pressure taken off that flank while he concentrates on out-researching everyone - just picked up RepParts. I might have to skip Liberalism and Environ/FreeRel and get some defenses - Rifles off Galleons would cause a lot of pain.

I'll also be keeping my eye out for opportunities to snipe some of Molach's offshore holdings on his way out (although I'll probably bump heads against AT if I do). Molach doesn't seem to have a large force on the Ichabod border ... at least not enough to dent 30 'phracts.

My first Uni is complete and the remaining 6 complete this turn. I think it might actually be possible to get Oxford down to a 3t build with some tile shuffling and overflow...

[Dreylin]

t183 -

Well this is a turn-up:


I wonder who he's going after ... AT thinks it's him judging by his whip-fest during the aborted turn.

Also note the growing stack of Gawdzak Galleons peaking out here from behind the tech screen:


Yeah, that's not good. Keeping a close eye and starting to build up a stack of Caravels if I think I don't have to bail towards Astro.

Universities complete, some tile juggling later and Oxford due in 3t in Weed.

And a new city:


If AT's the target, then there are a few targets of opportunity I can grab in this area.

And here's Mr. Cairo's stack on the way to wipe out(?) Adrien:


Having his stack on the continent is "a bad thing"™ mostly because there's now no counterweight on the North side of Gawdzak, but he may get frisky after wiping out Adrien.

[Dreylin]

t184 -

Starting to feel like this game is already over; Gawdzak just completed the final piece of the Monk Trilogy(SM) and is outperforming my GA stats on all fronts. Gunpowder in 2t and then I expect he'll grab Rifling. Ichabod doesn't appear to be invested enough in the game to really challenge and if he doesn't declare on AT or Gawdzak soon than I have no idea what he was up to with the recent Declaration/Peace with Molach - from what I could see there was plenty of scope for him to make gains in that area.

Some reassuring news for me from last turn is that Gawdzak is not (yet) staging an amphibious assault on my SW mainland through canal-forts, so it's just the stack of 3 Galleons in the bay adjacent to BRickland that I need to be concerned about in the short-term. (esp. now they are 5-move ) I was going to pull a few troops down from the NE to build up some of the vulnerable cities, but with the renewed fighting up there between Mr. Cairo & Adrien (and Ichabod and AT's border stacks) I don't think I can, so I'm starting to hold what would have been the next round of defenses for BRickland instead of ferrying. And now most of the coastal cities are working on Caravels to try to minimise the range of any Galleons.

The slowed flow of troops has also meant that I'm holding mini-stacks of Knights as zone defense from any potential land-based Gawdzak aggression or AT/Molach shenanigans and have not pushed against Yuri. Besides, I'm waiting for Nyles to get involved on that front before pushing any further - which reminds me, I need to send Sheep-Sheep to him to try to encourage friendship.

Constitution due this turn and I'm shooting to then 1t Liberalism with overflow / Research builds to speed up the civics switch by a turn (coinciding neatly with the completion of Oxford for the expiry of the Bureau hammer bonus). I think that now is the time to get that going and not panic about incoming Rifles, because after all if I can't start to keep pace then all is lost anyway. Afterwards it'll be save gold on Calendar and then something from Astro/Gunpowder; I'd like to go straight PP-RP for more economic goodies, but I don't think I can put off the counter to Gawdzak's Galleons. Plus CRE gets 1/2-price Observatories for another pick-me-up (which he already has going).

I'll pop my first NatEpic GP on the turn roll, with mixed odds for a Merchant/Artist/Engineer that will probably be banked for a while. I think there's a chance for a 4-man GA down the line, but I'm a bit in the mode for mortgaging that future possibility if I can get an immediate gain - unfortunately the most likely Merchant will be stuck on Economics then Corporation, so I might look at cashing in on a Trade Mission; anything low-odds would certainly be held for future use. Following GP will come from Weed, which will use Oxford to hire a bunch of Scientists for the last 2t of the GA and beyond.