[SPOILERS] Rusten and Hitru laugh off any and all mistakes as bad RNG

[Rusten]

Had a long discussion with Hitru last night trying to understand what naufragar was doing. We were fearing his astronomy date but came to the conclusion that it was impossible for him to be there now. His power rating has spiked and now we are at war. Unfortunate. Why he attacks the #2 power who is about to discover astronomy beats me.

We could've had a wonderful Commodore dogpile together and sandwich him but it was not to be. This is great news for everyone else in the game. The playing field is leveling itself. Especially good for Commodore.

[Rusten]

If he stops to bombard we have time to reinforce this city with a G2 sword and archer, but I doubt he will.




Did he really go to war for this minor city? Even if he takes it what does it really achieve? Of course he is about to lose much much more, but he doesn't know that.

Astronomy in 1 turn. Going back to slavery this turn. Some galleys have a turn into them and will be whipped into galleons. We'll have 3 fully loaded galleons ready to raid his coast very soon.

[darrelljs]

We'll have 3 fully loaded galleons ready to raid his coast very soon.

.

Darrell

[Rusten]

Yeah, bring the popcorn, this should be fun.

But strictly from a winning perspective this is bad for our chances. We could've used these turns to eliminate BGN from contention or seriously hamper Commodore's development. Naufragar was not a big threat to win the game, but his best chance was in dogpiling someone, not starting an open war like this. I could've understood his move if he attacked our mainland with galleys, hoping to raze/capture our most important cities before we reach astronomy, but what's occurred just seems very very bad from our perspective. He's eliminating himself.

[Rusten]

Started the turn with a 2x bulb into astronomy for 1833 beakers each. The fact that it doesn't finish the tech can be useful. We don't telegraph astronomy to everyone. Also adopted slavery and police state (kinda forgot about this civic as representation was so good).




I miscounted before, we do have time to reinforce the city slightly before he attacks. It will end up having 3 archers, a sword and an axe in it. Not sure what he does at that point. It will take a long time to bombard away the Dun with only 2 cats. If he waits another turn we have the option of reinforcing with a galleon that completed, but that would reveal our hand so we're not sure what to do yet. Clearly he would not have done this if he understood we had astronomy, so I expect his northern cities are considered unreachable and will only have the 2 bowmen in them that I saw with the wb.




He might block both reinforcement tiles with the triremes. We'll have a galleon from marine which can take out 1 of them and clear a path, but we're not entirely sure we should. We are considering sacrificing the iron city to not reveal galleons and feign weakness. Not just to naufragar but to other rivals as well.

[Rusten]

First things first; we can save the city if we want to. 3 archers+axe+sword this turn into 7 archers+sword+axe+xbow next turn. On a hill, with a dun, with some G3 promotions (xbow in particular). Good luck breaking through that.

As expected naufragar did block both reinforcement tiles, but our galleon has 98.4% chance of victory. If we were to lose that I'd ragequit the game (it would have units in it as well).

We're still discussing the possibility of giving up the city and maintaining a fake war to not alert naufragar/BGN/Commodore, but it may end up being too cute of a play. If naufragar was a contender to win we'd happily sac the city for the greater good, but as it stands it may be better to let him off the hook (for 10 turns ). Taking peace would also save our silver city. Would ask for a huge sum of gold for this. He may laugh when he opens the window on log in, but perhaps change his mind when he sees the galleon.

It's a tough decision. There are many ways to play this.

[Krill]

Can't trade cities.

[Rusten]

We know. By giving up the city we don't mean through a trade agreement. We mean that we'd choose not to defend it to not reveal galleons. There's no scenario where we give up a city and also take peace.

The two main choices are:
-Lose nothing and sue for peace (show galleon and reinforce city)
-Lose city and raid his coast (hide galleons)

edit: I should add that after thinking it over we are probably in the 'save city' camp, as much as naufragar deserves multiple burned cities it's better for our game overall.

[Rusten]

Opted to save the city. Did not get screwed by RNG, we won the 98.7% battle with 2.9 health remaining.

We're giving naufragar a way out. We sent a peace offer for 300g+100gpt. Don't expect that to get accepted, especially without watching the state of things first, but if he gives us a decent counteroffer we will let him be.

There's just no chance he can take the city this coming turn, and we'll have plenty more reinforcements coming. Even with lucky combat he doesn't have the numbers to mop up right away, and as of next turn there will be a G2 xbow in there which hard-counters his units.

[Rusten]

Hitru logged in and there was no counteroffer from naufragar which is truly baffling to us. What in the world is he trying to achieve? He's attacking the #1 (as of last turn) power who has galleons over him on a water map. The best case scenario for him is to be holed up in his cities with no attacking prospects and he didn't even offer a blank peace treaty in return? Meanwhile Commodore is settling 100 cities.....

He's completely tanking his own game and effectively playing kingmaker for Commodore.