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t185 -
Constitution in and oooo, a low-odds Engineer!
Stashing him somewhere for now. Maybe for a rushed Statue of Liberty as soon as I can justify the diversion to Democracy (although it's sad that my territory is split across 2 landmasses, there is considerable denial value there).
1-turning Liberalism:
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t186 -
OK then, what's the news for the turn:
Yep, 2t to Rifling ... and he's still in Nationalism so the army will grow quite quickly. Trick will be making sure it heads in another direction while I try to claw back to some sort of parity. I queued up another round of Caravels, but then realised that I have a whole bunch of Galleys that can be upgraded to give me an amphibious force. So that's the naval plan; tech should get me Astro in 3t (1t save on Calendar, then 2t research), the Gunpowder in 1-2t to enable Pinch and give me a land-based chance to rebuff. Although at that point I'd think Nyles would be a better target.
So here's the civics switch:
Rep & Enviro were no-brainers to pair with Merc; less sure that FreeRel is the right choice for Religious civics, but I figure that right now I need to get going.
Gold & Research before & after in Spoilers:
Running behind Gawdzak at max-Gold, but ahead at max-Research ... we'll see how it looks once the GA has worn off in 2t...
The turn pace frustrates me (I'm looking at AT, Nyles & Ichabod on this). I tried addressing it in the tech thread, but I get the feeling that (in addition to playing their game of "who can roll the turn latest") AT & Nyles don't read that. 
If it doesn't pick up I'm considering just offering to concede to Gawdzak in the tech thread and see what happens.
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(October 9th, 2016, 15:57)Dreylin Wrote: t186 -
OK then, what's the news for the turn:
Yep, 2t to Rifling ... and he's still in Nationalism so the army will grow quite quickly. Trick will be making sure it heads in another direction while I try to claw back to some sort of parity. I queued up another round of Caravels, but then realised that I have a whole bunch of Galleys that can be upgraded to give me an amphibious force. So that's the naval plan; tech should get me Astro in 3t (1t save on Calendar, then 2t research), the Gunpowder in 1-2t to enable Pinch and give me a land-based chance to rebuff. Although at that point I'd think Nyles would be a better target.
So here's the civics switch:
Rep & Enviro were no-brainers to pair with Merc; less sure that FreeRel is the right choice for Religious civics, but I figure that right now I need to get going.
Gold & Research before & after in Spoilers:
Running behind Gawdzak at max-Gold, but ahead at max-Research ... we'll see how it looks once the GA has worn off in 2t...
The turn pace frustrates me (I'm looking at AT, Nyles & Ichabod on this). I tried addressing it in the tech thread, but I get the feeling that (in addition to playing their game of "who can roll the turn latest") AT & Nyles don't read that.
If it doesn't pick up I'm considering just offering to concede to Gawdzak in the tech thread and see what happens.
What does emancipation come at in this version? I think that the pb27 version of 1 com mines 1 ham watermill 1 ham windmill 1 com all cottages save towns was too powerful, although is balanced by the super serfdom there. I think being able to stack commerce and hammers on farms with bonuses to specialists is ridiculous here! Is the food bonus ONLY to cottages or for cottage/hamlet/village/town?
If you're considering dropping out because of turn rate but otherwise playing on, what do you rate your overall chances here? Your traits do scale better to the end game here don't forget! Well I suppose whatever fin this version has, but definitely better than ind. When you get to astro does your cre give an observatory bonus here?
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A lurker comment!? 
(October 9th, 2016, 16:43)ReallyEvilMuffin Wrote: What does emancipation come at in this version? I think that the pb27 version of 1 com mines 1 ham watermill 1 ham windmill 1 com all cottages save towns was too powerful, although is balanced by the super serfdom there. I think being able to stack commerce and hammers on farms with bonuses to specialists is ridiculous here! Is the food bonus ONLY to cottages or for cottage/hamlet/village/town?
Emancipation at Nationalism in this version, and the extra food is only for Cottages, not once it's gown up.
(October 9th, 2016, 16:43)ReallyEvilMuffin Wrote: If you're considering dropping out because of turn rate but otherwise playing on, what do you rate your overall chances here? Your traits do scale better to the end game here don't forget! Well I suppose whatever fin this version has, but definitely better than ind. When you get to astro does your cre give an observatory bonus here?
Yes, CRE does get the Observatory bonus (and Gawdzak has his up and running already); Gawdzak is CRE/IND, Ichabod is PRO/FIN and I am CRE/ORG. Gawdzak has used his IND well to grab a lead, spatially and technologically, and now Ichabod & I have to try to catch up. I'm not sure what Ichabod's up to - the 2t war with Molach was very odd - I think I've just about caught up with him in tech using my GA, but he's just fired off his 2nd or 3rd (not sure) with MoM so he's going to advance again now. I think he has a better shot at challenging Gawdzak because they don't share a land border and he has easier routes to expand his own holdings (I thought Molach could have been eaten in short order TBH.
I have an awkward border with Gawdzak; we have a couple of lightly defended mainland holdings across from each other, a land border in former BRickland, and the bay where I keep showing his growing Galleon fleet. My short-medium term challenge is to draft along the right path so that he doesn't get a decisive advantage that makes it clearly profitable to go after me rather than someone else ... Rifles off Galleons is the first of those challenges, likely followed by Frigates. Trouble is that keeps me away from PP (only worth about 30cpt) and more importantly RP, which keeps his lead growing rather than shrinking. My other problem is the same as it has been the whole game - expansion without acquiring additional (and frisky) neighbours.
I'm not saying that I don't think I have any chance or that I'm not enjoying the challenge of the game, but it's becoming increasingly frustrating to me that we're spending 48hrs+ on each turn when it should be very possible to have 24hr turns. <sigh>
Post has been a bit rambling, but i've not really been concentrating on it what with the Debate and drinking during & after the Debate...
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t187 -
Pictures for now; comments for later:
October 10th, 2016, 13:58
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t187 commentary -
Gawdzak will start Drafting Rifles next turn. It occurs to me now that I should take a few overview shots of his empire to track where the Drafts are taking place to gauge his priorities.
I'm guessing that those two GGs are BGN (Fenn)'s from his remaining island city and that Gawdzak is clearing it out now. That's the only really Hot war at the moment since I'm not actively going after Yuri and Mr. Cairo seems stalled at Adrien's door.
Also, by the time I get to PP, I should get a decent discount on it from KTB.
The culture bounce from Adrien recapturing his Capital has caused all sorts of issues for Mr. Cario. He did have his Knight stack lined up against Gawdzak's border, but has been ferrying it across ... only I'm not sure that he hasn't started taking it back again as I can't spot his GG anymore. He's not made a move back into Adrien's borders yet that I can tell.
Last turn of GA; I'll get 60%+ of Astro researched this turn and will use Research builds if necessary to finish the rest. I think that unless Gawdzak moves on me immediately next turn, I should be able to throw up a decent offshore defense and rebuff him ... at least until Frigates. 
Turn pace: Ichabod rolled the last turn and didn't play the roll (despite not being at war). 8/10 players played within the first 24hr of the turn; it is now 21hrs since then and we're still waiting for Ichabod & AT to play.
October 13th, 2016, 10:17
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t188 -
Events & Gawdzak front:
Gawdzak ran a full round of Drafts this turn, but sizes of these cities is the same. You can also see the fortified Rifles in Sardis and Pasargade; these were probably queue-upgraded Muskets (blue xp glow), but good news that they have been fortified rather than preemptively loaded. Other than the pile of Galleons, there's no sign of movement in my direction, so I don't think we're in any danger of amphibious attack.
I will have to remember his Engineer - will definitely affect things later - and AT's GSpy will likely be probing for weaknesses in his neighbours.
Speaking of probing for weakness, I found Mr. Cairo's stack hidden in this corner:
And BTW Ichabod's stack has turned up again at this end of his empire:
So as previously, things could get really dangerous really fast up here. I expect to sit out the whole thing, and will have a good cultural cushion once the Aztec culture is removed.
Post-GA Demos are actually better than I expected:
Food & MFG are still behind, although are improving rapidly as BRickland comes online, but GNP is pretty promising. Although it's padded by the Sistine's Culture, it's also on the pre-reqless Astronomy and with minimal Wealth builds. Gawdzak has used up his stash of Gold and is now making 500gpt, probably at 0% Science while for reference I make >600gpt. (ORG is currently saving me ~115gpt)
Astro will finish with some nice overflow and although most of the Wealth builds are in cities that will switch to Observatories next turn, I should still be able to get another turn of 100% Science if I want to (if I feel it's safe to do so). I'm being a bit reactive to Gawdzak at the moment, but I think I need to be for a little while longer until it's clearer where he's committing himself. Now that he hasn't immediately made a move on me with those Galleons, I think "safe" Navally; I have half a dozen Caravels now and a host of Galleys that can be upgraded to Galleons, plus he really only has 2 port cities here so even after Frigates I should be able to outnumber him in the short term.
New paranoia is focused on Cavalry, since he's just a couple of techs away - I expect he'll roll his overflow through Music next and then make a decision about MilTrad or Chemistry. I'm going to get some decent overflow from Astro myself, so I might also roll it through Drama before committing to Gunpowder or PP. Right now I'm 4 "big" tech behind in GP-PP-RP-Rifling, and the "big" tech that I'm up by (Constitution) he doesn't need until he's ready to go to AL. Much may depend on whether he plays before me or not; if I'm up first then I have to play cautious, spend the gold on a couple of Galleon upgrades and roll overflow through Drama; if he plays first and the coast looks clear I might see whether I can 1t PP and go from there.
Overall though, as long as I don't give him a good window to hit me, I think he's much more likely to go for a softer target (Nyles for example). Cavalry seems like a good moment to do that....
October 14th, 2016, 09:03
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t189 -
Not much of note this turn; couple of Golden Ages ending was all the logs had to say. Civstats showed Gawdzak only Drafted 3 times; he's grown his cities pretty big, so I imagine that most of them don't have a lot of Happy Cap space to Draft into. More Rifles are showing up dotted around though, and as expected he is still saving on Music.
Despite what I said yesterday, I decided to play it cautious this turn. I spent my treasury to upgrade 3 Galleons, which will keep me navally secure; set to save on Drama and Observatories queued up. I might slow research Gunpowder (should be about 3t) and build up a stash to push through to Rifling.
Here's an audience participation exercise to see if anyone is still reading; what do you find the most surprising thing about this graph?
October 14th, 2016, 09:42
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Adrien got more EPs than Ichabold?
Somebody hacked Ixhabod's account and uses Ichabod123 nickname?
BGN is still alive?
AT beats you all?
October 14th, 2016, 16:01
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I think that's Molach on top... he's not Org though so its pretty surprising that he's got such an EP lead. Ichabod being so low is definitely a surprise though, expenses have got to be really high at this point...
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