[PB78] Dreylin boldly goes

[Dreylin]

T122 -

And the world is at Peace.

I got this from Gavagai on opening:


I think this means he would join the war again once his enforced Peace is up, but obviously this was sent before I signed Peace. I think some more diplo needs to be had, but I didn't send anything back yet.

This might be a bad idea, but I need to grab something from the war:


The other main news from the turn is that I switched from Representation into Hereditary Rule. The last few turns I've been struggling to juggle which cities receive the Rep bonus and have whipped a few pop that I maybe wouldn't have otherwise to make sure that Sulu has the happy cap it needs. With peace, I can run an infrastructure push (Forge/Market) that will raise the cap everywhere and give me more space to work with. Most of the cities relying on the Rep happy have more MP units anyway, and the few specialists I might have run will push production and growth for 5t. Then I switch back to Rep and start teching again. I have CoL queued up, but more for Courthouses than Caste, as I haven't built a Workshop yet and have a bunch of Specialists available from buildings anyway.

Oh, and that Gallic Warrior simply refuses to behave has decided to troll me rather than just move somewhere I can kill it off cleanly!

[coldrain]

I've been absolutely drained with work, haven't paid enough attention recently on this game. It's a bummer not getting the island as spoils from the war, but at least you gained some ground. I enjoy the reporting too, keep it going!

Is there a chance to use great person(s) to get a momentarily advantage, like GA or bulb something valuable?

[Dreylin]

I've been meaning to post an update, but had been waiting for the Donovan-Thrawn takeover to be finished and a few more turns to roll and allow things to settle out.

Long story short, things are not as doom & gloom as I posted - partly I'm feeling more positive in general, and partly because I've been taking a long look at the game and thinking about it in the background.

I guess #1 to address is the player switch; I remember playing against Donovan before I took my extended break, and judging from PB74 he's much the same player he was then - enthusiastic, a bit prone to "squirrel!", and liable to all-but disappear during tax season. The last is not to say that he's an unreliable player, quite the opposite, but attention and reporting have historically taken a hit. I've been concerned about how the change might impact the diplo, but compared to the others I think I'm relatively lightly exposed. I will be treading carefully around Sulu nonetheless.

On the Economy: it's still in the shitter, but Pyramids offers me a way out. I also discovered that I was the only one who didn't receive a payout from Magic to end the war - he's currently shelling out a total of 40gpt in deals to the other 3. This is a important drain on him in addition to the dents we inflicted during what should have been a "race ahead" Golden Age. However, I still think Magic is in the driving seat of the game with a collection of key wonders and I believe his core cities remained untouched.

I may only be making ~20gpt at 100% gold, but both Gavagai and Thrawn are in the same ballpark - while being propped up by Magic's gpt Peace deals. Superdeath has been teching so I can't check, and Magic is still clearing 100gpt during his Golden Age. Superdeath does have his Courthouses in play already though, and just spawned his Oracle Prophet - waiting to see if a Shrine or Golden Age is incoming.

I've fired all my specialists while I grow in Hereditary Rule, but once Rep is back in play I plan to complete my first Great Person ASAP - most likely from Chekov, and almost certainly a Scientist - and kick off a Golden Age. It's the wrong time for a bulb, and the GA can be used to get Courthouses in place and a start on the next tech beeline.

That will be Iron Working -> Machinery -> Engineering for turtling. PRO Castles for the extra Trade Routes and defenses and Pikes & Crossbows to ward off neighbours. There's potential for a detour to Calendar if I need to boost happy, however all I have in my borders are Spices and Dyes which sadly don't synergise with the PRO Markets. There's an unclaimed Silks West of Sulu, but Thrawn Donovan might be about to claim it. I'll have to play it by ear.

I am also repeating to myself every day that "I must not get distracted by Aesthetics for 'Paya" because there isn't any urgency for me to go after it. 

I'll post some pictures from the next turn, so let me know if there's anything anyone wants to see.

[Dreylin]

T125 -

Here's the Silks I was talking about earlier:


It's a bit food-poor with just the coastal Oasis, but I could also shift it South onto the Stone to pick some more riverside. After a look around, I started building a settler is Spock. It's quite a way away, but is a significantly faster build and I can ferry it across the straight. (Also note that I'm penciling in some creative Forting between Riker & Sulu for future shenanigans...)

As I was saying about Spock:


Love this city; so glad that coldrain talked me into it! The Farm will finish in a couple of turns, then the Worker adds the cottage - primarily for Scott to the North. Spock is more-or-less up to snuff on improvements, but elsewhere I'm definitely suffering from lack of Workers now I'm pushing growth - although in a few turns the extra pop will turn into Specialists so the Workforce can catch up.

In general, builds are infrastructure-focused:


Kirk has finished infra and is pushing growth while slowly contributing defensive units. Sulu will whip the Forge soon, but most of the rest will be completed naturally. Then a round of Markets at 2x speed, which should finish in time for Courthouses.

Chekov can push the Great Person out in 4t when I turn the taps on, so we'll be Golden T131-ish.

Finally, here's a shot of the North:


You can see how Gavagai's new "tail" is pretty vulnerable, and that Thrawn/Donovan spammed out a bunch of cities to claim what would have been their core. There's space for one more city here on the Elephant, but I don't see either of us making a grab for it.

[Dreylin]

T127 -

Superdeath wants me to go to war with Gavagai. I am not interested in another war right now so I send Pig-Pig back to him. Magic shows up with Crab-Crab ... I send it back because again, I am not interested in another war right now. My biggest fear on that front is Gavagai declaring, but I would have expected him to have larger defenses in his South if that were his plan.

Civic are up and we're back into Representation. Specs hired and a smidge of tech enabled and we're good for CoL in 4t. Chekov adds a 3rd Specialist and is due their ~95% Scientist in 4t also. After the re-jig I'm back down to 4th in food (2 & 3 are pretty close), but am now leading in MFG with Magic's GA now over.

Superdeath has his shrine, which someone has an Engineer in hand. I assume it's Magic's second as a result of his Golden Age points acceleration. As IND, I assume it will be used to kick off GA#2 fairly soon.

Things are also looking quite promising to grab the Silks spot as there's no sign of anything from Donovan. My Settler is out next turn then ~4t to be on site and then found ... right in time to break the GA bank!

No pictures this time; let me know if there's anything you want to see.

[Dreylin]

Superdeath wants me to go to war with Gavagai.

I've misread this; he's warning me about Gav's stack near Spock. Yeah dude, I know! I've reached out to Gav for reassurance, but have diverted a few builds / units in that direction because I shouldn't push it.

My opinion is that it's a bad idea for Gav to attack anyone; his economy is in the shitter like the rest of us and more territory doesn't solve that ... although maybe pillage gold or extortion gold is the way to go? But he has a large army so maybe he's stack-locked to incentivize an aggressive move? I guess we'll see.

[Dreylin]

T129 - OK, we're good.



I trust Gavagai not to go back on this. FWIW, if he had not mirrored it, I was planning to offer him protection money for peace.

I'm still mostly on infrastructure, but I am also going to finish off those half-built Catapults before Courthouses start going in.


I'm going to get Kirk to push out the next great person, and will be flavouring the Engineer with a dash of Prophet for the chance of scoring a Shrine. Not decided what to do with an Engineer; 'Paya is an obvious SPI choice, but is it one that others would compete for and would need prioritising? There's the AP of course, but I'd either need to change tech plans or hold for a while. The one that's actually on my immediate tech path would be Notre Dame ... a good backup to losing access to Gold and helps everywhere. I wonder if Donovan would be unhappy if I rushed it in Sulu.

[Dreylin]

T131 - Silence is Golden

Didn't get the 5% Engineer, so we're spending the Scientist on a golden age. First though, we're racking up our city maintenance costs to 80:


Was going to call it Worf, but maybe not for this border city...

Golden Age builds are heavy on Courthouses:


I'll whip some of them eventually, but for now it's max hammers. I've fired most of my Specialists again, but will ramp them back on over the coming turns as the Courthouses near completion. Kirk will add Priests as the temples complete and then see what if dilution is needed. I'll also start to push some of the other locations as things develop.

Civics switch unavailable until next turn, so I can put off deciding about Caste. On one hand I wouldn't expect to be whip much / at all over the subsequent 5turns; on the other hand I have just 1 Workshop that would pick up the advantage so it may just not be worthwhile.

Demos are OK:

*if you ignore GNP.

I may have to start directing some of those hammers into Wealth builds once the Courthouses are up.

[Dreylin]

T131 - Silence is Golden

Didn't get the 5% Engineer, so we're spending the Scientist on a golden age. First though, we're racking up our city maintenance costs to 80:


Was going to call it Worf, but maybe not for this border city...

Golden Age builds are heavy on Courthouses:


I'll whip some of them eventually, but for now it's max hammers. I've fired most of my Specialists again, but will ramp them back on over the coming turns as the Courthouses near completion. Kirk will add Priests as the temples complete and then see what (if any) dilution is needed. I'll also start to push some of the other locations as things develop.

Civics switch unavailable until next turn, so I can put off deciding about Caste. On one hand I wouldn't expect to be whip much / at all over the subsequent 5turns; on the other hand I have just 1 Workshop that would pick up the advantage so it may just not be worthwhile.

Demos are OK:

*if you ignore GNP.

I may have to start directing some of those hammers into Wealth builds once the Courthouses are up.

[Dreylin]

T133 -

Not much going on; lots of infrastructure builds and growth. I did switch to Caste this turn though since I am finally working the one Workshop I have and will finish a second in a couple of turns.

I also hired a bunch of specialists at Chapel for the GP after Kirk's - it will be a split Scientist/Engineer. Spock will hire a few Merchants after their Courthouse finishes in 2t. First Courthouse completes EoT in McCoy; not sure if it will go back to units, push out a quick Marketplace, or start building Wealth?