[SPOILER] PB37 Dark Savant tries not to be a blatant MP n00b

[Dark Savant]

t121 (turn roll player)/t122:

Mathematics is due next turn (t123).

The other major threats to build the Mausoleum are the two rivals already in Golden Ages, except dtay's just ended, and GermanJoey's should end soon.  How much is it worth it to build the Mausoleum if you've already fired a Golden Age?  It's entirely possible one or both rushed to Calendar in their GA (though dtay got Feudalism, which is rather costly this early).  Well, we'll know exactly how many people have Calendar next turn.

The barb galley just suicided itself on our freshly built galley, rather than rip up more fishing boats.  Lots of work boats move on the east coast, and we could use more even.  We also need to move workers around the east; we're several turns behind improving random pigs on one-tile islands.

I haven't built any workers for a long time -- we only have 14 for 20 cities, which has actually been enough (it's work boats we're behind on), but we might actually need workers again soon now that we can build workshops and may have Calendar soon.  At the moment I feel it's more pressing to keep growing our core cities taller.

It's been far quieter than I've expected the past few dozen turns (the world is still at peace), but there's still significant room to put down more cities -- we can peacefully expand all the way to maybe 30 cities.

[Dark Savant]

t123 (turn roll player)/t124:

Mathematics is in.  Current status of who has techs we don't have (edited):

• Aesthetics - 2 (Coeurva, Krill -- both also have Literature)
  
• Archery - 8 (everyone else)
  
• Calendar - 1 (Coeurva)
  
• Code of Laws - 2 (JR4, ?)
  
• Compass - 0 (I thought Coeurva would have this by now, so he can slam down Cothons everywhere)
  
• Construction - 2 (Coeurva, GermanJoey)
  
• Horseback Riding - 3 (?, ?, ? - evidently some people think this game has been too quiet.  )
  
• Machinery - 0
  
• Monarchy - 1 (dtay, who also has Feudalism)
  
• Polytheism - 3 (Coeurva, JR4, Krill)
  

So Coeurva is still the only rival with Calendar.  I'm definitely trying for the Mausoleum; I micromanage things so that Calendar comes in next turn (t125).  I 2-pop-whip a forge in Garrote Gorge; it should regrow from size 7 to size 9 in 2 turns.

It will be immediately obvious we have Calendar, since we have two cities planted right on plantation resources.

We'll finish Moai Statues in Sorpigal in a couple turns.

JR4 built the Hanging Gardens several turns ago, which I hadn't mentioned.  (He's also built quite a number of courthouses.)  Other than the Mausoleum, no one has built the Great Library, the Temple of Artemis, or the Parthenon.

GermanJoey's Golden Age is over; he didn't make any civic swaps during it, or even switch to a religion.  He did just spawn a Great Artist.

There's no sign of any power spikes this turn (t124).  It's likely dtay is starting to prepare for an attack against yuris125; he withdrew most of that stack of axes and swords on his gold island.

[Dark Savant]

Oh wait -- Coeurva has the Heroic Epic, so he must have Aesthetics and Literature too.

I'm not sure how seriously he's taking the Mausoleum.  We can chop out 175 hammers of it pretty quickly, and he doesn't seem to have a forge in any of his well-developed cities.

[Dark Savant]

Ah, nuts -- from civstats I'm guessing dtay declared war on us and captured Wildabar amphibiously.

I knew he loaded up the units from there, but I didn't realize his galleys were in range to attack this turn (they must have been 3 NE of Wildabar).

If you have time before I can get to the game, can you please take a look at the situation?  (If dtay offered a straight-up peace treaty without asking for >10 gold, just accept it.  He can't ask for gpt, and if we give him more than a handful of gold we may not get Calendar next turn.)  I suspect dtay isn't actually going to press further.  Also, we're really, really not in shape to prosecute offensive war.

[Dark Savant]

I had a sword covering the workers on that island.

I should have moved it into the city, shouldn't I; the workers are only more valuable in the first ~10 turns that you're getting the city off the ground.



Ah well.

[Dark Savant]

Okay, that was preventable, but I'll chalk that up as a learn-the-hard-way opportunity.  

Now I have to think about damage control.  I really doubt dtay actually wants to press his attack (attempting to attack anything else is a reach); I'm actually more concerned other players will see this and I don't want them to think they can do the same thing.

That means I need to go back to military production soon, which I'd been intending anyway.

I think the most likely rival to attack other island cities is GermanJoey (we've got quite a bit of exposure to each other).  I could extend OB simply to discourage an attack.  (There was a brief window in which I could have burned down a new city or two of his, except I'd have had to leave a few island cities completely undefended to accomplish that.  That may have been the right idea, but that was also 20+ turns ago.)

I still haven't had a chance to see what's actually happened in-game.

[Dark Savant]

(post from being able to play, but the turn not coming up ...)

Why, that looks like a bunch of posts from people noticing I got attacked!  

I'm going to have to try to defuse this somehow, without sacrificing the push for economy too much.  (Doing that is tantamount to giving up, anyway -- I'm not going to switch to all-defense mode unless it's clear I'm collapsing no matter what I do.)  Whipping outlying marginal cities won't hurt that push too much.

Let's see.

• Coeurva: my best guess that he won't attack right away, but he'll hit me with everything he's got if there's any sign of a feeding frenzy developing.  I'll probably have to move a planned island city farther away, at the very least.  I'll rely on mutual trade and him having a weaker neighbor to protect myself for now.
  
• dtay: I'd accept a straight-up cease fire, but nothing involving me paying anything significant; it will take him several turns to get an attacking force anywhere near another city.  There's also no point remaining to then offering OB, since the point of that would be to not get island cities attacked, which is currently moot.
  
• Gavagai: well, I may be able to arrange shipping an axe to the island city between us, and then whip walls there.  (It's not much of a city; I planted it only to prevent Gavagai from planting there and stealing seafood.)  I'm not sure I can manage that in time.
  
• GermanJoey: I hope he's still peaceably inclined -- I'll try to offer OB on the same turns he offered before, to discourage him from attacking.
  
• JR4: I may be able to whip defense in the remaining couple of cities close to him before he can get a real attacking force together.  I'm not really too concerned about losing those cities (they aren't good ones); it's more that him successfully attacking them will make a feeding frenzy that much more likely.
  

I'm not sure I can hold this off, but I have to try.

You know, I'd blame this on myself not noticing that dtay could attack me in 1 turn (I thought I'd have 1 turn warning), but really, this all goes back to not developing my economy correctly in the first place.

[Dark Savant]

t125:

Okay, let's see what we can do to fix this.



Yeah, about as I expected.

I accept the treaty; I can't retake Wildabar, I'd like to be able to get my 2 workers out of there, and I don't want to encourage a pile-on.

I did, uh, lose a work boat and a galley in Wildabar, since I thought I'd have 1 turn warning.  Oh well.

[Dark Savant]

Okay, let's get some more trade going for no other reason than to discourage getting attacked.



Those are the same terms he offered before, I think.

I don't need to keep this going for long -- just long enough to get myself something vaguely resembling security.  

[Dark Savant]

You know what?  I don't think I need to do too much else.  Check out what happened.



That's two additional brand new wars.  It's very good news that both our neighbors are in wars, since that will give us some breathing room.

And that's Coeurva completing the Great Library -- if he was putting resources into that instead of the Mausoleum, I actually have a good shot at it.

And I might want to build more military, just because attacking Coeurva is suddenly an option again.  I don't know if this is a real war or not yet (Krill is probably just sniping an island city or two), and I still want several more turns to finish some forges and grow more pop.