I'm almost (but not quite) sorry to be lurking unspoiled - I'm guessing it's a fun time for global lurkers. Let's hope the chaos opens some doors for you...
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
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[SPOILERS] JR4 tries his luck in PB 37
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October 4th, 2017, 16:00
(This post was last modified: October 4th, 2017, 16:26 by RefSteel.)
Can we cancel our Stone for [EDIT: Sugar] trade with Chumchu yet? If we can afford the points of happiness and it's been at least 10 turns, building Walls -> Castles with Stone/Forge/OR in heavily-garrisoned border cities will cost 20 + 40 = 60 base hammers each, and give us much better city defenses, +1 culture, another trade route, and +25% EP (so +0.5 per turn, +1 when we're running Spies for some reason.) That seems really worthwhile in potentially-threatened cities.
(I also recommend against running spy specialists if we can help it though.) Finally: [EDIT: No, I was wrong. Two turns ago, dtay played after us, whipped a bunch of cities, and left two exposed workers on that dye tile he roaded, in range of a Keshik. At that point, we saw what appeared to be the writing on the wall - you asked if we could whip a bunch of cities after he played, and the verdict was no - and if dtay had observed a turn split then, we could have declared on him pre-emptively and captured those two workers. (I was actually going to mention it until I saw he had double-moved us and therefore wasn't performing an attack.) If we had completed Engineering that turn or had a couple mounted units 1N of the silver (a tile still invisible to him unless he moved a sentry up and back) we could have deleted the workers and pillaged the plantation and road. By double-moving us, he denied us this option, which is an iffy move if he was planning war on us in the near-term at all, but especially if he attacks this turn in force. In reality, I doubt if we would have made a pre-emptive attack, so we'd probably just play on if he attacked this turn, but I don't think he will because I think he'll be better about observing a turn split than that.] 
Yes, the geopolitics are very intriguing at the moment. Dark Savant has managed to claw his way into the game again. It really looked bad for him when he was repeatedly attacked by others. I think Krill and chumchu will sign peace, it just doesn`t make any sense for Krill to fight another war when Gavagai comes knocking.
Building Walls and Castles in threatened cities sounds good to me. Let`s just hope that dtay hasn`t moved in already. He played a slightly longer turn than normal - so we`ll soon find out I guess.. Btw, the Stone-for-Sugar deal was signed on t144 so I don`t feel bad about cancelling it. We could offer him Silk for Sugar instead.
TURN 157
Dtay did not attack us. As 4 Knights and a Catapult completed this turn we`re pretty safe, at least for the time being. We have more than 20 units capable of hitting a Zulu stack on t0 of an eventual war. Borte and Bulugan keep building Knights as they`re very good for keeping our power rating at a decent level. Muqa is building another Catapult. Nambui is on other duties. It was just too tempting. A 5 turn Notre Dame with a ton of fail gold at worst. Yes, please! Also, note that Krill has a Galleon (5 mover) and chumchu has 2 Galleons in range of each other. They haven`t signed peace yet. The Stone for Sugar deal was cancelled and a new Silk for Sugar deal was offered to chumchu. Krill didn`t have anything interesting to trade. Access to Stone made the Walls very cheap! We started a number of them in vulnerable cities. Actually even Castles aren`t that expensive in Organized Religion + Access to stone. I`m used to playing at marathon speed, where the Castles take forever to build. Chubei even had to give up a workshop in order to avoid hitting the overflow cap. Our 2 Spy specialists were fired and we hired another couple of Scientists instead. Budashri was founded this turn. For the time being it`s growing a cottage for Toregene. Maybe Toregene can take it back next turn when it grows again, I`ll have to see. Note that dtay has a couple of Galleys around. The one 3NE of Bayan Khutugh is no danger, as we have 3 units in the city but there`s another defender incoming, just in case. The Galley on the western sea actually moved closer to D-mishi. Every port city of ours has at least 3 defenders there. I`m not looking forward to dtay getting Galleons some turns before us.. Finally, how do you feel about taking a small detour to Christianity before completing Astronomy? Heh, that would give us a nice 4-2 cushion on religions founded compared to Krill! Obviously, we don`t need more Holy cities now but Theocracy would be nice. And maybe the Apostolic Palace.. EDIT: I forgot to take screenshots of graphs and demos, will do it later.
Graphs and demos: Our big power increase doesn`t show up yet, but we`re up to about average power now. With China on its way out the numbers are a bit less favorable for us so we have to keep building units. I really don`t know who the leader of PB37 is right now. Dtay has a large lead in crop yield, while Joey`s mfg is way higher than dtay`s..
Realistically, the best thing that could happen for us is that either Dark Savant or Gavagai gets into trouble. Then we could, with a well-timed strike get a slice of one of their empires. I don`t see any chances for us to get anywhere before Astronomy, as our land neighbors are just too strong. Also, I still think going directly for Astronomy is the best play for us (but thought I`d mention the idea of going for Christianity first to give us options anyway). Chumchu accepted our Sugar for Silk trade. It`s a mutually beneficial trade. It`s a bit funny that our two best buddies in this game are fighting it out. Why can`t the three of us just be friends?
I like the idea of getting Theology for the civic and the AP, but agree that Astronomy takes priority, and suspect that we'll need other techs more urgently after that too....
Notre Dame seems crazy in our situation, but maybe this is a case of "so crazy it just might work!" We won't actually need the happiness for a long time, and the culture isn't going to change the tile-control situation near Nambui (at least, not with GJ...) and that city could be targeted by a couple different civs, but it needed to be a fortress anyway, so.... With GJ about to finish China off, we're not too far from needing to protect that border again, sadly. If I understand our unit mix correctly, more cats and knights are still our best defense, although it's not a bad idea to get a few pikes into key locations. Some minor micro stuff: - Any city with a Bank (like Borte) is better off running a Merchant (presumably alongside an Engineer) than a Scientist unless we need a few extra beakers to push a tech across or we're hoping to get a non-GM Great Person there. - This also goes for any city with a Market and a Grocer unless it also has 2-3 Monasteries to go with its library. The reverse is true for a city with a Library but missing one of the Market/Grocer pair.
Let`s research Astronomy first and then reassess the situation. It looks like Dark Savant and Gavagai are not going for it right away so we might get an opening (though it`s more wishful thinking than anything).
If we`re losing Nambui, it`s pretty much game over for us anyway. We could build more military or even a Harbor next instead. Hmmm, I`m not certain that Notre Dame is the best build but it`s just 5 turns. So I`d still say - let`s try for it. As Joey`s forces get back after his war with Donovan we need a better defense. Nambui and Oghul Qaimish will get more units in the coming turns. We really could use a few more cities. As we only have a bit more than 20 build queues we can`t possibly compete with the sheer numbers of the Zulu Empire and Greece.. Which is an argument for building more military now. Sigh, it`s just so hard to decide. As for the micro stuff - I`ll make sure to fix it next turn, (probably tomorrow). Iirc we`re running a Scientist/Engineer pair in Borte and a lone Engineer in Muqa.
TURN 158
PB 37 continues to deliver. Take a look at Gavagai`s Trireme that now has a blue glow on it. It turned out that Gavagai wasn`t happy about dtay`s Galley being in range of his city - and he declared war on the Zulu Empire (and destroyed the Galley)! So that`s pretty awesome news, again buying us more time to get to Astronomy with an intact Empire. As you probably noted, dtay already whipped a million times this turn, after double moving us - so he can`t attack us right away. Also, we got an offer of Open Borders from Gavagai. Hmmm, what do you think? I rejected for now. Gavagai is in 2 wars right now and we might be able to stage an attack on Babukhan... Dark Savant swapped to Astronomy, which makes sense. You really can`t get around without Astronomy for long when all others have it. Dtay still shows 2 turns to complete it. At first I thought he was whipping out an armada of Galleons but it looks like he won`t finish it yet. We can now 4 turn Astronomy, so research was set to 100 % again. We don`t quite have enough to finish it with our bankroll but I think it`s nice to have the option of building Wealth (to finish the tech) if an emergency arises. Oh, chumchu killed off the Incan Galleon near Nambui so that war is still real. Our first two Castles finish eot, in Chubei and Oghul Qaimish. Actually both at a prefect 100/100 hammers! I think Chubei will build units now for a long time. After Donovan went out, our power rating looks a bit low. So a lot of cities are on military builds for now.Vulcania`s Monastary was whipped as it really needs the first ring tiles to be productive and we only gave up a coast tile for a turn.
Graphs and demos: We actually have the second largest population of the world! Also, we`re standing at 5th in crop yield. The numbers are of course a bit skewed because we haven`t whipped a lot lately. At the end of the Golden Age we can consider whipping our cities to get more units on the field. We just need a few more turns to consolidate..
Do any of our western cities still have hammers in Galleys? (I'm not sure how many we put on hold when we abandoned our plans to attack GJ, or at what point in the production cycle.) If so, they'll have started decaying a couple turns back, but it still might be worth resuming one or more of them if we expect to just build them continuously until they're finished as Galleons.
So Gav and Krill are each involved in wars on two different fronts, including with each other? And are Dark Savant and Chumchu still at war? This game..... I'm kind of exhasted right now, so I'm probably missing lots of things, but thanks for the continued excellent reports! |