[SPOILERS] naufragar, Charriu, and Zalson's Threepenny Opera

[naufragar]

Switched some builds to wealth in order to get Astro faster. This bites us if Baffords is taken before we get a Scientist out of it in 7 turns.


We're basically full speed to Astro and making ourselves prickly.

[naufragar]

Last turn, we lost graphs on BGN, so I put some EP his way to get them back. We have them and he didn't spend anymore, but he popped up on my radar, and now I'm realizing that he's our best target. I've had such a bunker mentality worrying about Rusten (and Commodore to a lesser extent) that I'd given up moving up in the world. Well, thanks for reminding me you exist, BGN.

I'm sending a couple caravels to check him out. One goes west towards his (very distant) islands. Another goes to his core.


I've moused over a workshop. He is not in Caste System, so he has Guilds. That is good to know...

Here's the power graph.


He can't have too many knights yet. (Should never have stopped doing C&D.)

Commodore also has Guilds. I can tell with Rusten because he is not finishing his workshop, which makes me suspicious...


I'm glad to be building pikes.

Next turn, I turn on tech. The Scientist is 5 turns out.

[naufragar]

BGN's moving some troops around. 4 galleons and 2 triremes in a stack for him.



I'm pretty sure Mr. Cairo landed Liberalism and used it get Banking. I'm not sure how he's doing because I don't have the EP to spare on him. I hope he's doing great.

[naufragar]

We are one turn away from our Scientist. The cities are working wealth or building galleys to queue upgrade to galleons.



I won't give a demos screen. Instead, use the domination stat.


Woof.

BGN is in a Golden Age and building knights.



We saw one of these.


Gotta be honest. I have no idea what's going on here. Commodore captured a DZ city and BGN is just creeping along hoping for scraps? (Note in the power graph above, Commodore has been taking losses against Donovan. Rusten has not.)

I'm moving a warrior down to keep an eye out for sneaky galleons, although with galleon speed and so much water, this is a bit of a wasted effort.


The red dot is where a fort could shorten Rusten's travel time.

Edit: I forgot to check how many beakers we have into Astro, but I'm pretty sure the Scientist doesn't get us all the way there. The Scientist is worth about 1780 beakers.

[naufragar]

Well, nobody burned Bafford's down before it spat out another Scientist. I did misjudge the Astro time, so we complete it next turn. Here's an overview.


We could get another Great Person out of Bafford's before the game ends, but I'm not sure what we would do with it, so I think our Great People days are pretty much over. (Although National Epic is a thing.) The Great Library has been so good for us. We'd be in even worse shape without it.

You can see in the above pic that I'm making galleys in order to get a head start on galleons. We have lots of viable shipyards in our western half, but we need ships on our East. I'll have to think about how to handle production and defense. It would be hell to fight either of the front runners on the seas even with equal tech, because they'll have better promoted ships, which are everything in naval warfare.

Speaking of the front runners, they have tons upon tons of cities. Here's where the rest of us stack up.


We're all roughly apace with each other. The bell is tolling for DZ. Comm/Pin made peace with him, presumably because somebody else is going to finish those last three cities off before Comm/Pin can.

[naufragar]

Long time, no post. Opened the turn up to this deal from Commodore.


Commodore, I love you dearly and won't presume to know your business, but shouldn't you be preparing to eat me before Rusten can?

Speaking of whom:


And I was so proud to have gotten some galleons in the water. So... I'm not going to commit too much to a naval defense of our east. Guess we're stuck building land units. I'm building pikes, although all the power players have muskets. I think we go Feudalism--> Civil Service. Get mace men and some extra farms. Last turn Rusten got (at least one) Great Scientist, so my hope is that he just bulbed Chemistry and used the free upgrade from a Great General'ed caravel he had lying around, so he's still a ways off from flooding the seas with frigates.

I've been repaying Rusten's border snooping in kind.


No invasion force there just yet, although I'm sure he can find fogged nookies and crannies to hide in.

Our power is climbing, just not fast enough.


Obviously plans to snipe BGN are going to take some time to mature.

We have trouble producing troops:


Honestly, I've still got unhappy faces around from our inconclusive first war with Rusten. (We really, really whipped then.)



Fourth in food. I imagine Mr. Cairo is the third. I've said it before, and I don't want to bore you with repetition, but this game is now about how Rusten and Commodore will maneuver amongst the smaller powers until one gets an advantage. (Barring some surprise blitzkrieg by one or the other.)

GNP is kinda sad, but I didn't think it was sad enough to be researching Longbows when an opponent is putting Frigates in the water.



I truly am sorry for the sparse reports, but it's hard to muster up the energy when there aren't any big milestones on the immediate horizon. I promise if there's an invasion in any direction, I'll give you the gory play by play.

[Zed-F]

Well you could always put a couple news reporting chariots in neighboring lands where you have open borders and report on interesting events abroad if that suits your fancy. Seems like very few people are reporting this game with any regularity at all these days.

[naufragar]

Well you could always put a couple news reporting chariots in neighboring lands where you have open borders and report on interesting events abroad if that suits your fancy. Seems like very few people are reporting this game with any regularity at all these days.

I'll try. I've got some caravels wandering around. One found Donovan Zoi's last city, as well as a Rusten conquest.


His empire is wide. I cannot go o'er. I imagine that spot will be a source of contention (and a good spot for a reporting chariot    )


I'm putting work into observatories to improve my GNP. We want good units, because BGN looks snipe-able.


I have a caravel on the other side. This picture is where I could park a few galleons. Still thinking. Long way off from knights. EDIT: I should mention, BGN had even less land than me. (Really should've not let Rusten get a toehold.) So no excuses on my part.

I'm sending another caravel down to get eyes on our southwest.



If memory serves, BGN and Gavagai are now at war. The post-DZ landscape is the one that really needs reporting.

[naufragar]

Good game, DZ. Looks like Gavagai had enough to storm your island keep.

Zed, I may get a chance to witness something interesting.



Commodore sure does have a lot of hulls in the water, but look at Rusten's frigates vectoring in on them. I've marked a Commodicator caravel, so I assume Comm's aware of the risk. Blows my mind that he might be thinking of attacking BGN instead of me. I can't understand the reasoning behind that attack (if attack there be).

But don't worry.


Comm might soon realize my cities are defended by hopes and dreams. I've whipped Receiving's observatory and it already has hammers in a pike. But surely, during the Commodorian armada's travels, it's seen I have absolutely nothing on my west side?

Here's the demos.


The only surprising thing here is power. We aren't last. That must be either Cairo or Gavagai. Perhaps Gavagai is gassed after his war with DZ?


Edit: To give a bigger picture, I'm surprised that none of the culture wonders have fallen (Sistine, Notre Dame, MoM). Odd. I note with chagrin that I'm still supplying marble to Commodore. Well, we're still getting stone from him.

[naufragar]

Guess who teched to Guilds without realizing he didn't have Horseback Riding?

On the plus side, Rusten swapped into military civics and started whipping, so maybe the end is nighish.