I'm afraid RL has been getting in the way of reporting, so turns 146-148 come bundled in one. Coming out of the GA has really hurt. Overflow and stocked cash mean that we'll have Feudalism in 3 more turns, but that's slooow compared to what we were managing before . We're 4th in GNP at a time when I think everyone is running cash (and no-one is in a GA). I think we're close to Elkad, but take a look at Superdeath. The annoying thing is that he's partially able to do this because other players have build armies to counter Elkad, while he hasn't. In particular, I think that the tension in the old RFS-81 lands is paralyzing both us and Elkad, and we're the ones suffering the hammer and maintenance costs. At the moment we're about 13t away from knights, but can probably do better. And then ... perhaps somehow we need to teleport our army across our empire without SD noticing. Maybe we just stop giving the GNP leader with the Great Lighthouse open borders (FAKE EDIT: no, we'll keep being friendly for the moment).
As for why our GNP has gone back to 25% break-even despite having a decent capital in Bureaucracy? It's partly that a lot of cities are rigged for growth right now, getting up to new happy caps. So they're working farms, not cottages. The newer cities are also focused on growth and production - first farms and mines, and soon workshops. Forges and courthouses are going up in various locations - almost nowhere is building wealth. A lot is the aforementioned military cost. A big part of it is our civics. Org Rel and Bureauracracy are not cheap. We need to spam missionaries and maximise the benefit of the former ASAP.
We do, at least, have the gems tile. I expect it to flip back at some point soon though .
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
Turn 149 rolled straight into 150. I guess I owe the lurkers some sort of overview. Maybe later. In the meantime, still no sight of Elkad's stack, despite getting right up close and personal looking for it. His power continues to be scary.
I thought he might have stopped building so much around the point I did, but it was just a temporary blip (no real surprise from someone who is in PS). Some of that is Machinery. He's now pushing for CoL, which is at least off the Guilds beeline. He also picked up a GPro and I was expecting the Buddhist shrine; but he's not got it just yet. Either a journey needed or he wants a GA.
Amusingly he's lost his pigs at Not Rome to RFS-81's culture. Worth bearing in mind that if we ever do conquer NR it will be under immense pressure from the south. So, we'd also have to deal with RFS-81's stack of stuff ASAP. If, if, if ...
FAKE EDIT: actually, WTF? How did that happen? Take a look at those two screenshots. Two tile jump in culture, no GArt notifications around that I remember. I had wondered if RFS-81 might plant a city in some of the land on his side of the border, but that's not it either. I guess I'd better go double check the event log. Also, unamusingly, that cuts our route along the coast if he cancel's OB.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
Hey, I've got time for a broad t150 overview after all. Welcome to the second largest nation in the world. OK GNP, poor Mfg, decent crop yield, decent power. It's currently building mostly forges, courthouses, hindu missionaries and wealth. Hopefully it will be able to build knights soon enough to matter. We've done nicely for space, with RFS-81 not really expanding towards us at all, and with the major threats (so far) lacking access to our half of the world's oceans. The world is now pretty much full. There is a little bit of astroland for them as can be bothered to spend the beakers, but that is a way off.
City views spoilered for length, whimsicality and inconsistent use of the historic present. Here are the first five.
Here is Bad Beginning, the gloriousish capital, engine of the empire. I forgot to check if it's still the greatest city in the world, but it was a short while ago and we've been pushing for growth. One day we ought to specialise it, but right now we're relying on it for commerce, supporting infrastructure and (potentially) units.
This is Austere Academy (*does not actually have an academy). Drove much of our early growth, but hasn't been quite so exciting since it ran out of chops. It got horribly starved to spit out a GMerch in the last Golden Age and is still recovering. Hey, at least it supplies its own food rather than begging from the capital. Should now probably just sit working cottages and coast forever, but just may be a (mediocre) candidate for the national epic.
Beatrice Beaudelaire, Moai city. Stagnated during first GA and is now pushing for growth, but a bit half-heartedly as she's still working those scientists to get us the option of our second. Also currently suffering from the capital wanting those tasty pigs. Technically a border city - and on flatland - but I don't see Charriu wading through that culture any time soon. She's another hybrid (as are most Moai's, I guess), but more focused on production. Some, at least, of those farms will be workshops once growth is done.
Carnivourous Carnival is an extended suburb of the capital. Lacking food of its own, its purpose is to provide resources and commerce. It's not done us too badly, but will never shine that bright.
Duncan Quagmire sits lazily on the river bank, achieving little except working a couple of riverside cottages and writing poetry, dreaming of the glory days when the silver made him the beating commercial heart of the expanding empire. Will soon be locally famous for his excessively early use of windmills to cover up the dreadful food situation. He will eventually have a forge, but struggles to build infrastructure or relevant units outside of a GA. Unless he gets his wheat back.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
In a larger world, Evil End would have been a great core city, with access to rice, gems and banana (still unimproved ). However, it fell victim to Superdeath's superior scouting (damn Impi), a little bit of luck (Deadpool was a barb city I think, SD got earlier religion spreads than we did) and SD's willingness to put hammers into wonders. Once that gem tile goes, this city goes back to being the most vulnerable point on the border. Despite that, with cows and rice it's our other candidate for the National Epic; still mediocre, but at least that would be another source of culture.
Frank Denouement is the older and larger of our two fishing towns. One day it will be allowed to peacefully doze at max pop running a handful of science specialists (maybe even - whisper it - a spy), but he's currently being lined up for a knight whip. Lined up well ahead of time. A market would have been nice, but would have taken nearly 40t even with a 3-pop whip to finish.
Grim Grotto is our major gain from RFS-81's reluctance to expand in our direction. It nearly broke our economy and was a slow starter, but grabbed land and has turned out quite well. Would have made a really good Moai candidate if we'd been prepared to delay. As it is, it ought to be a commerce city, but currently has an important role in spitting out units because of its position. Note one the few river cottages outside the capital region.
Hostile Hospital was cheap filler when we couldn't afford the maintenance of further plants. It did a good job getting basic infrastructure up and maturing cottages while Bad Beginning was happy capped, but is now stuck in a mediocre hybrid existence of working mines and coast. It's also lined up to try to get a Great Artist in the next GA, but will need to steal more food from bigger cities before then to really make that work. Oh, and that settler? A horribly hammer-decayed zombie that may one day be able to plant in what is now RFS-81's land. Or where Not Rome now stands, if necessary.
In contrast to her brother Duncan and neighbour, Evil End, Isadora Quagmire has exceeded expectations (partly by nicking EE's rice). Planted as a defensive measure to protect the vulnerable flatland, she has become an important source of units. Would be a candidate for the Heroic Epic, but we have a better one.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
The resurrected Jacques Snicket II is most of what we gained from the skirmishes with RFS-81 and OT4E. Essentially a desperate defensive plant, thick woods helped him get started and that copper tile has kept him going. Along with stealing Duncan's wheat, of course - he now dominates his neighbour, and continues to get the lion's share even although he has his own sugar. Our Minas Tirith staring at Elkad's Morgul across the valley, he exists to be gnarly and pump units. The Heroic Epic will almost certainly go here.
Klaus Beaudelaire is a dubious land grab justified mostly by the relatively short distance to the capital keeping the maintenance costs down. And by being on a hill. Farms and mines will be used to push units. Like his friend Duncan, may be forced to resort to windmills (ugh).
The chronicler of our sad tale, Lemony Snicket is another border hill plant. He is fairly well supplied with food but currently has even fewer hammers than our island fishing villages. A long life of misery has made him well suited to the demands of the whip, so we should get some value out of him. Cats, at least.
Our other gain from RFS-81 being beaten up is Miserable Mill. It's trade routes make it a net gain in itself, and - along with Frank - it appears as the partner of many of our other cities. Whereas Frank was able to get a library and a courthouse whipped, MM is going to lose all building power once we drop slavery for caste full time. Can we afford to do that before Nationalism and the draft? Will we be able to get enough GPP out of this collection of cities to get a third GA? Keep lurking and find out.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
Sigh. Not feeling good about this. We're firmly stuck in no-mans-land, too far behind Elkad in power to push for a military solution, watching SD skate ahead in GNP while our stack lurks on the far side of the world from his border. In fact, I measured how many turns it would take our 1-movers to cross the empire (10-11t) and misclicked, moving the whole damn stack into DQ. Well, it gives them some exercise. Charriu's power has spiked heavily. Beelining Machinery makes a lot of sense as China. Gets you these guys - and he has a bunch of them now, also committed to Elkad border.
(October 29th, 2018, 08:54)Old Harry Wrote: Rfs's border pop looks like a normal 4th ring expansion - the geometry is a little different from the previous ones due to maths.
Thanks for the cities overview.
You need a health building for the capital!
Any chance of a global overview with info on how tense the respective borders are and where you plan to make gains?
I actually played and drafted the above mini-report before reading the question. Technically, we're at peace with the world. Elkad is the only person we don't have OB with, but we have a fish-fish deal dating from the time he went into Police State (I hadn't noticed, because I was expecting an echo, not acceptance; it doesn't help that I keep thinking that Elkad is Boudicca and Superdeath is Chaka in the diplo screen - also, just general ).
We have had extensive discussions around options for gains, and I keep coming up empty. Charriu is a valuable ally, keeping our mutual sea clear of threats. Grabbing RFS-81's cap would leave us wide open to Elkad (he is in something of the same boat). If we hit MS first, I expect SD and Elkad to get the gains - we're attacking less mature cities over bad terrain, while they have easier access to the prizes. SD's power looks low, but he does have a stack of 13 HAs waiting to make life painful, plus Impis, plus he would see us coming from 10t away - our forces are all at the other end of the empire. We could close OB, but that's a pretty clear signal in itself. That leaves hitting Elkad and hoping for help - but we're the score leader (technically), so organising a dogpile could be hard. In an ideal world he'd be bogged down somewhere, we'd take Not Rome, get peace and turn on RFS-81, but that's not happened. Even if we're first to knights it won't be by much of a margin and those Praets are still a threat.
Still, 8t to Guilds with the cap building wealth. And yes, it should probably do an aqueduct, but right now three turns fewer to knights is about all we've got to pin any hopes on... that, and Elkad getting bored and doing something with his enormous invisible army that doesn't quite work.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
Well, either Charriu also has a habit of misclicking his stacks, or he's up to something. He is well placed to attack RFS-81, but I'm surprised he's risking it with Elkad's power lurking. I can think of other scenarios, but nothing terribly likely. He's probably safe from us - the last thing we want to do is get into a war with him at this point. We do at least have a settler to grab the site between us. The really bad news in the screenshot is that SD is researching Guilds, and will get there around the same time as us. We'll see what Elkad picks next.
How is Elkad affording this power? OK, I've got a stack of 31 various units sitting around just costing me money, but it must be worse for him.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
Charriu has indeed declared on RFS-81 and moved in. I'm looking at that stack and thinking how it would probably have trouble holding off even ours HAs and Imms on flatland, let alone our full force with cats. Looks like Elkad has similar ideas. Oh, and we have a fairly well armed settler party ready to move. We'll be roading that target hill over the next two turns. Everyone can see that coming.
But what's really interesting is the diplo. Crab-crab from Elkad. Nice, if we don't want to attack him. But the real news is iron+horse for iron+horse from SD. Unless that's just a warning (thanks SD, we know), it means he's interested in a knig alliance. He'll have the tech in 3t, we'll have it 4. But who does he want to attack? Charriu is wide open in the east, with ancient defenders, pressured borders (from both us and SD) and little visibility; I know I said I wanted peace with him, but that was predicated on him being useful, and hence alive. MS is a possible target, but looks much tougher. Unless SD wants to dogpile Elkad? So do I accept the alliance of convenience, and do I echo fish-fish and look like an idiot/traitor when SD goes for Elkad after all?
We want to be hitting someone with knights, so we've echoed the SD offer. We don't know for certain who, so we've not echoed the Elkad offer, this turn at least. Ironically, if borders were to stay as they are now I'm most worried about SD (Hitru is calmer: something about "more land" and "workshops").
In the immortal words of Sir Humphrey Appleby: "I am flexible in my thinking; you are indecisive; he is making it up as he goes along."
Or more succinctly, I have no idea what I'm doing in MP right now.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
We're lurking, putting a road down ready to settle, with a bit more of an escort than I usually provide (there's an HA and a couple of Imms guarding the workers). 3t to guilds, we'll be whipping a bunch into HA's over the next few turns, and then stashing them in queues to upgrade. Then maybe whipping them again. 10t extra unhappy for 10 more hammers than doing one big whip (12 hammers through a forge, and we do have one or two). YMMV as to whether that is worth it.
Trying to read Superdeath's mind. I've lost track of his HA stack (and Elkad's Praetorians), but I'm still thinking it's most likely Charriu (if it's MS we can pivot fairly fast). He has an odd trade of horse-stone with Elkad, which looks friendly. Elkad is obviously trying to prop up RFS-81 with the iron and ivory trades. We'll see how much good that does.
Based on the SD trade with Elkad I decided to belatedly echo crab-crab. But, as I said to Hitru in chat, my current strategy isn't far away from stacking two movers in the middle of the empire and flipping a coin. Maybe rolling a d4. Or consider how open SD would be to attack if he was committed elsewhere ... which would justifiably result in a blood feud that would throw the game to Elkad, so probably not.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
. We're 4th in GNP at a time when I think everyone is running cash (and no-one is in a GA). I think we're close to Elkad, but take a look at Superdeath. The annoying thing is that he's partially able to do this because other players have build armies to counter Elkad, while he hasn't. In particular, I think that the tension in the old RFS-81 lands is paralyzing both us and Elkad, and we're the ones suffering the hammer and maintenance costs. At the moment we're about 13t away from knights, but can probably do better. And then ... perhaps somehow we need to teleport our army across our empire without SD noticing. Maybe we just stop giving the GNP leader with the Great Lighthouse open borders (FAKE EDIT: no, we'll keep being friendly for the moment).
.
). However, it fell victim to Superdeath's superior scouting (damn Impi), a little bit of luck (Deadpool was a barb city I think, SD got earlier religion spreads than we did) and SD's willingness to put hammers into wonders. Once that gem tile goes, this city goes back to being the most vulnerable point on the border. Despite that, with cows and rice it's our other candidate for the National Epic; still mediocre, but at least that would be another source of culture.
).
