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

[Dark Savant]

Um, well, AI diplo is sort of vague usually - so everything I say here has exceptions.  That's kind of the point - if this stuff was too obvious and clear like Bridge bidding, it would be actual diplo and we'd have to add more restrictions.

Ah, I suppose that's true.  Although it really is rather like bridge bidding already -- there are agreed-upon conventions (ok, there are a LOT more in bridge), and you are allowed to deviate from them in ways that are considered to be non-destructive.

Hitting outlying cities for quick gains is relatively easy and cheap. Pressing for the kill often requires a large investment and may not be all that worth it given other threats/targets, especially if the target is crippled and you can mop him up with more advanced units.

It's also easier when someone is piling on from the other end. Now that Gavagai is gassed and peaced out, you'll die more slowly.

Gavagai and I are roughly even in power now, incidentally.

t180:

Researching Chemistry will take just 5 turns.  Okay, that's the obvious next research then.

Generating 2 more great people (I currently have a Prophet on hand) will take ~18 turns.  I'll probably actually live that long ... that does make me regret burning that Great Merchant for quick upgrade cash, oh well.

JR4 now has a bunch of frigates surrounding Mist.  I have a galleon that can drop off 3 extra defenders next to it per turn, but nothing else in range to reach it.  It'll be a few turns before I can arrange to get my eastern galleons west ... and I probably don't want to get them all west, anyway, I need to reinforce what I have in the area so GermanJoey is less likely to attack.

Next turn, my giant stack of units in Garrote Gorge should be at full health.

No other wars anywhere currently.

I'm taking a break from units to build some infrastructure, though I should probably get back to units soon-ish.

[Dark Savant]

t181:

dtay took his time playing last turn.  That's because he now has second half in a war he just declared upon chumchu/Coeurva.

That doesn't really help me much, since I have to keep a lot of units in Sorpigal near the border with c/C just to keep it happy right now, and the limiting factor in the war with JR4 is that I can't get much past his frigates and have only 1 ship close enough to even think about reinforcing its defenses.

He landed ~10 knights and a few other units next to Mist, whose defenses probably can't hold up to that.  I did 3 land reinforcements this turn, and can continue to reinforce the island -- I'll have 2 ships able to reinforce the island starting 2 turns from now, and more after that.  JR4 doesn't have enough frigates to prevent me from doing that yet, and by the time he does I may be able to start sinking his frigates.

Chemistry is due in 4 turns.  I pretty much have to research Military Science after that, I think.

[Dark Savant]

t182:

JR4 captured Mist, then offered a straight-up peace treaty.

I'm not at war with anyone else, and I don't have a chance of winning the game, so I don't see sufficient reason to accept -- I'd rather get experience fighting wars for the next game, and I can't get that if I sign a peace treaty.  (I might be convinced to declare war on c/C while dtay is attacking him -- he just took his border city.  It would take at least several turns to get an assault force in place, though.)  I'd take a white peace, but that's not allowed by the game rules.  I'd consider asking for a ridiculous amount of gold and hope he'd see it as such an offer, but it'd likely be interpreted as an insult, it'd be difficult to arrange practically even if he figured it out, and he doesn't have enough gold now that I'd actually accept it anyway.  The war continues for now.

I can land 3 more units this turn, and 6 on the next turn.  He killed the 3 units I landed this turn, but will have a hard time killing the 3 I landed just now, and hasn't yet landed reinforcements.

Chemistry is due in ... hmm, it might actually be 4, I thought I could get it in 3.  Oh well.

Oh, and all along I've tried offering a few gpt for one of Krill's multiple gold resources.  He hasn't ever accepted, which isn't a problem because I don't really need it anyway.  (He did offer gold-for-marble once, but I needed marble to build the Epics at the time.)

[Dark Savant]

Since I can no longer win the game, avoiding feeding the leaders is no longer much of a consideration.

Another goal is simply not to be eliminated next.  I have another 7 turns before Gavagai can re-declare on me.  That's a problem since I need more than that to produce my first Grenadiers and Ships of the Line, but I may have enough time to re-take Mist if JR4 can't reinforce it (and if he has that much force, why does he want a peace treaty?)

[Dark Savant]

t183:

Gavagai offered a non-aggression pact.  After turning it down and looking around, I re-offered it -- I don't want to have to worry too much about incoming grenadiers.

JR4 is now blockading enough coastal cities that I can't reinforce the recapture of Mist soon.  I can't actually do anything about this for a few more turns -- I can in fact get Chemistry in 2 more turns.  I really doubt anyone else is going to be attacking me soon, so I can simply wait this out.

When I do break out, I can convey 5-6 galleons worth of units.  And if nothing else this might do a little to get GermanJoey to attack JR4 -- I think something like this is better than sitting pat and awaiting someone to invade with overwhelming force.  (It might convince GermanJoey to attack me, but there's not as much I can do about that anyway.)

[Dark Savant]

t184:

Gavagai asks for Open Borders.  I'm not sure if that's the greatest idea, but I agree.  The significant stack of units Gavagai had on the border is no longer there.

JR4 killed the three units I had on the island; oh well, not much I could do about that.  Chemistry is due next turn, and I can start to build frigates to break the stalemate then.

The plan is to get a lot of navy and military through a bunch of forts I'm about to finish building.  I hope I actually properly understand the rules for forts, and all these ships can actually pass through a series of lakes alternating with forts.   

This isn't really going to accomplish much of anything, I realize, but what would?  It'll be a learning experience and it's better than sitting here idly waiting to die.

Krill has a stack of galleons going -- somewhere?  It's just barely in sight, and I don't think he'd show it if he were attacking me.

No other new news internationally.

[Dark Savant]

The peace treaty with Gavagai expires in 3 turns.

It's entirely possible he's going to simply launch an attack on me as soon as possible.  In order for me to last as long as possible, probably the right thing to do would be to sign peace with JR4 and defend against Gavagai.  The problem with that is even aside from the problem that I'm 100% doomed to die off slowly being that passive, I may not be able to withstand a full assault by Gavagai anyway even if I defend with everything I've got -- I was barely able to hold him off last time.

That's especially true if he has grenadiers.  He has no frigates as far as I can tell, but he can be easily massing them now.  Since I think I'm likely doomed anyway if Gavagai attacks, I'm going to presume he really means the non-aggressive pact we signed (it's also entirely possible Gavagai wants to attack someone else now), at least for long enough for me to get Military Science.

If he backstabs me, oh well.  I'll keep around enough pikemen to take on a decent-sized knight plunge, at least.

I'm going to see if this counterattack against JR4 can possibly work.  He IS watching every single open ocean approach I can take, just not the lakes-and-forts canal that's almost done now (which I hope works!).  The plan is to break out with something like 3 frigates and 6 loaded galleons.

I will also gain a tile next turn that will let me directly see into c/C's border city of Ignis Fatuus.  If it's lightly garrisoned (it wasn't last I saw), I reserve the right to sign peace with JR4 and attack that instead.

[Dark Savant]

t185:

Uh, I made a couple nasty typos at the very start of this turn; it's 4:30 AM my home time and I'm on a laptop I don't use that often.

I accidentally voted for what I think was "Never!" in the AP election.  I don't even know what that vote was for; I didn't intend to click there.

Then I accidentally suicided a loaded galleon into one of JR4's besieging frigates.  That's one of the 6 galleons I was planning to attack with.

I paused and exited the game without doing anything else.

I'm asking for a reload, though I'm not sure this is enough to justify asking for one.

[Dark Savant]

t185 (new and improved, without typos and misclicks):

The AP election turned out to be for diplomatic victory -- I thought AP victory was disabled?  That'd be an especially silly vote to defy if it's internally impossible. 

Chemistry is in, and boy is Military Science expensive -- it'll take about 11 turns.  That means I'm researching it when few other people have it, but I don't think there's an adequate payoff elsewhere on the tech tree.  Steel is a possibility, but that's even more expensive.

I order up some frigates -- I can produce 3 near the large canal in 2 turns.

JR4 is not doing much with his frigates now other than lazily bombarding cities he has blockaded, and he's stopped reinforcing the islands he's recently captured from me.

Gavagai now is showing off a bunch of galleons near our border.  Well, I won't actually be ready to launch my counterattack on JR4 for a few more turns, so if he attacks as soon as he can, I can defend with my intended assault force.  Oh, and he's showing a frigate now.  Yeah yeah I'm not going to attack. 

chumchu/Coeurva just got invaded by GermanJoey.  And the hill tile I just claimed on our border shows Ignus Fatuus still heavily fortified; the only other city I could profitably attack is a size-1 city that's the crappy one with marble everyone has east of their start position.  I don't think top 2 in power really need my help in that war.    And I didn't mention this before, but GermanJoey had a scout circling my territory during Gavagai's invasion -- I'm sure he was ready to invade me as well if I were actually collapsing.  (I figure he thinks if he attacks me seriously now, my best cities would go to Gavagai.)

This does have the problem that neither is them is likely to invade JR4 currently, but that hasn't ever happened anyway.

Krill's galleons are now sailing through my territory, so he's not attacking me.  He might be attacking -- uh, that crappy c/C marble island city? 

Civ 4 with a trackpad sucks.

[Dark Savant]

t186:

First frigates are out; three more are due in the next 2 turns.

JR4 offers a straight-up peace treaty again.  I don't want this, and he has 1627 gold on hand, which is tempting but I don't think that's actually enough.  It certainly would be enough for this game, but I'm worried about future games too -- I both want the combat experience personally, and don't want a reputation as someone who will let other players nibble at their outlying cities without repercussions.

Also, JR4 has twice as many net cities from me as anyone else.  (For the record: the other losses are currently Coeurva/chumchu 2, dtay 1, Gavagai 1, GermanJoey 2, plus Krill has another that he took from Coeurva.)  He's also the only one of the other eight players who hasn't even tried to be friendly with me.

If JR4 ever has 2500+ gold/gpt on hand, I'll demand it all, but I don't want to ask for 1627 on the off-chance he might actually accept it.  If he actually seriously reinforced his invading forces, I'd actually consider peace much more seriously, but he hasn't done much other than some lazy bombarding and seafood pillaging.

Assembling my counterattacking fleet is taking long enough that it might have been better just to have taken the peace treaty several turns ago, but it's too late for that now.

(I actually would like the no-white-peace rule taken out in PB38, if it only weren't additional work to administer.  If I could even ask for cities in a peace treaty he's not allowed to actually accept, I would do that.)

I'm aware all this may well result in my territory getting taken by Gavagai relatively easily.  If that happens, well ... it's a gamble I'm willing to risk.  I'll see for myself how likely a backstab actually is; and it'll balance the game among the remaining veterans more.

chumchu/Coeurva is losing cities fast, yet his power is still going up (this can't continue for longer than a few more turns, tops), and his border with me is now even more heavily fortified.  I'm not sure I want to fight him anyway -- that just means I have less force to resist whomever comes after me.

Krill's navy is still wandering around my territory and is now being reinforced.  To what end, I have no idea.

Incidentally, another item for the "dumb things not to do next game" list -- don't counterattack until I can actually assemble a reasonable counterattacking force!  I've done that too many times already.

I spawned a Great Scientist.  Sorpigal will spawn a third GP for another Golden Age in 12 turns.  I may not get that, actually, even if Gavagai doesn't attack me, because chumchu/Coeurva is falling apart just that fast and I may actually have land border exposure to dtay by then.  The likely timetable is that I can trigger the GA, but I get attacked with more force than I can possibly deal with during it.