[PB48] TBW

[TBW]

T112:
Did a wine/spices for silver trade with GKC. It works out well for me because my northern ice shelf city will be popping borders to pick up another silver in 8 turns, so that'll bring my happy cap up to 12-14 in some cities. I'll be getting a settler out for my final main continent city in 4 turns, after that it's nothing but islands left. I'm like 6 gold short of finishing Machinery at 100% but pop growth will provide the extra commerce to get me over the line. I've also decided to chop out Statue of Zeus in Cancer, it's a 10 turn build and I can knock off 4.5 turns with chops. It'll let me put out base 3 promo melee units, and after I build one of those I can get my Heroic Epic up before anybody else. I've got other cities building catapults and war elephants to keep my power up while I'm working on that.

[TBW]

Does the enthusiasm in this game seem lower than the other pitbosses running right now? The other games all seem to be rolling much faster than this one, we started in March and we're on T113 while PB52 just passed T100 and it started in June.

[Mjmd]

Posting for this one has been a bit sparse, but its not the bloodbath PB49 is. I think some games are going faster depending on how people and their jobs are being impacted for Covid. I know for PB52 I've been able to do more turns because I'm working from home.

[Charriu]

PB52 is not your standard pace of a PB, so better not compare it. You know we are trying to set a new record there 

[TBW]

T116:
I have secured Statue of Zeus and I can 2-turn 3 promo war elephants or HAs out of Cancer now. Once I get one out and promoted to level 4, I can make that into 1 turn by spending 5 turns building my Heroic Epic, which I think is worth taking the time to do asap. Great Library hits in 6 turns and that's guaranteed at this point too. Raskolnikov has 7 HAs in a defensive position behind his Stonehenge city, but with 2 and 3 promo war elephants available in the area and existing C2+Formation spears I'm no longer worried about them at all. It feels like it's finally time to build up an army beyond garrisons and defenders and chew him up when I figure out the best way to do it.

On the foreign front, it looks like Superdeath is going to win the race to knights, but he shouldn't win it by so much that GKC and Gavagai won't have Feudalism and longbows available. Knights into walled hill cities with longbows and culture defense is a great way to get into a grinding slog of a war, so there's no telling what's going to happen between now and then.

[TBW]

T123:
Not a lot to report besides the fact that I finished my Heroic Epic and I'm now putting out Formation capable (3 promo) war elephants every turn. Superdeath finished Guilds a turn or so ago and has whipped 90 points worth of population in 2 turns, so he's about to crash a stack of knights into someone. I've got 3 turns to Feudalism, get a Great Person that I'll be using for a GA on T129, will be making a trade with GKC for Civil Service on T130, and until then will be pumping out war elephants every turn to get ready for the war that's coming soon. I am not in a great position right now, but I don't think I've totally lost the game yet. We'll see how hard the incoming knights hit GKC or Gavagai.

[TBW]

T127:
I've finished researching Feudalism and started saving for Guilds. I'll be getting to Guilds a few turns behind the leaders, but Superdeath has to punch through Gavagai before he can get to me and Raskol is still showing no outward signs of aggression, no turn splitting or anything like that. I believe I have enough Formation-capable war elephants to defend against any Raskol horse archer encroachment now. When I start my GA on T129 I can swap into Vassalage and one turn out some CG3 longbows from my HE/Statue of Zeus city to make sure trying to raid any of my walled cities is excessively painful for an attacker. In my experience, you pretty much can't scratch CG3 walled/hilled longbows before cavalry/cannons show up unless you're willing to throw out a lot of CR2/CR3 trebuchets. I should be able to polish off Guilds before I end my GA, and in an ideal world, I'll manage to finish off Theology and get into Bureaucracy/Theocracy to take full advantage of my Academy capital before my 1 person GA ends. I could probably, depending on how nice the RNG is to me on great people, go straight into a 2 person GA fairly soon after the first one ends. I'll have to crunch the numbers to see how that works out.

[TBW]

T128:
I very strongly suspect, due to Raskol's roading patterns and sudden flurry of whips, combined with the way both of the other players who aren't in my alliance have been logging in and out, that wars are going to break out pretty soon. Superdeath has to be sitting on 15-20 knights by now, it seems logical that Raskol would declare on me to keep me from sending Formation war elephants to defend Gavagai, and Mr. Cairo is 2 turns from finishing Guilds and likely has a large number of HAs ready to go, so he could keep GKC from sandwiching Superdeath. I am at least 6-8 turns from finishing Guilds, so I can't launch a reasonable preemptive strike, but I can defend both cities in the area he's seemingly planning to fork pretty reasonably. I think Gavagai is completely screwed, he just hasn't kept on on tech and there's nothing he'll be able to do about knights.

[TBW]

T129:
I launched my GA this turn, the same turn Gavagai finished Mausoleum and launched one of his own, and one turn after Raskol launched one. Raskol used it to get into Vassalage / Police State, unsurprisingly. I made the swap to HR/Vassalage/Organized Religion, and it takes me down to 4 turns to research Guilds at 100% slider. It looks like the math works out just right for me to squeeze in Theology on the last turn and make the swap into Theocracy, and since I'll get CS from GKC, Bureaucracy will be a huge help too. I went ahead and scouted out where I knew Raskol's stack was stationed to see whether or not I'm being paranoid about an invasion. It seems fair since he's had a scout keeping an eye on mine, after all. I'll be finishing my National Epic next turn and that should take me down to approximately 5 turns to get a scientist out of my capital.


This, to me, appears to be a defensive stack. I suspect the HAs were definitely intended for use as an offensive army but walls and Formation war elephants put a stop to that before it started, and now that I have CG2 longbows in a couple cities (and will be producing some CG3s thanks to Vassalage) I'll be in good shape.


Diplomatically, I was casually walking a scout through Superdeath's territory because I wanted to get eyes on where his knight stack is, and he just as casually closed OBs with me, so the best I can do is narrow it down to somewhere in the unexplored part of his territory. Gavagai clearly knows what's coming, so he's stationed a lot of war elephants and spears to counterattack if FloatingTheater goes down. Not the ideal defense against knights but nothing besides promoted longbows and pikes really is.

[TBW]

T130:



The war finally started, and Gavagai lost FloatingTheater, as I expected. Superdeath spawning two Great Generals was unexpected, and that looks like it could be catastrophic. If Superdeath didn't lose many of the 15-20+ knights I believe he has, I don't know what I'll be able to do to stop him in the 8-10 turns it'll take him to punch through Gavagai and end up on my doorstep. This is compounded by the fact that their team all has Guilds and all passed around Engineering this turn too. We have Civil Service and they don't, but when the enemy has that many knights on your doorstep, Bureaucracy isn't going to be the immediate difference maker. I think the best use for my Heroic Epic right now is continuing to 1 turn CG3 longbows, then swapping to knights as soon as possible. I'll be running research and wealth builds where I can to shave that last critical turn off too.