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Fintourist and I had a chat and decided to heal the stack for a turn, then move next to Infrared next turn. After that we could bombard and heal another turn, or we could just attack. We'll see what Mardoc does.
Thinking more long-term for the first time in a little while: Dtay is getting Lib in three turns (eot144), he has the choice of Libbing Nationalism (3880 beakers) or Economics (3622 beakers). He can see that we have Paper and Banking, but doesn't know how far we've got with Education yet. OxyBaII, TBS and BGN all have Philosophy, so could be racing for the Taj. Our hope is that he Libs Nationalism in the hope of then beating us to Economics naturally. To that end we've got a plan:
t142: 10 % research
t143: 100 % research
t144: x % research, as much as possible, but not enough to finish Edu
t145: 100 % research..
Then we see whether we need economics eot147 or 148. If we need it eot147 it means that we want to be running research instead of wealth in our cities and get loans from someone (Plako and Novice might want us to beat their neighbour to the GM).
We've switched about five cities to wealth builds just until we see what eta dtay is showing for Economics.
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
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I'm sorry I wasn't able to give any advice these past two turns about the war; it seems our schedules didn't align too well this weekend. I'm surprised and glad to see you have city visibility on dtay; I hope you can keep it long-term!
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Hey THH, my fault - I didn't want to be holding things up when they looked fairly straightforward (although they didn't turn out that way!) I guess our next big battle is going to be Wednesday or Thursday, when are you guys around then?
In other news, from Civstats it looks like Cheater Hater planted a spite city just before dtay took his capital. Hopefully that's hidden in the middle of Krovice so dtay's lack of OBs with them means he can never get rid of the WW unhappy penalty  . This is extra good for us as CH is still a turn or two from paying off our 200 gold loan and may just forget to cancel it altogether. I'm hoping that Whosit's galley that just sailed around our south coast is also transporting a settler to do something similar. 
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
Posts: 3,679
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Joined: Oct 2012
No problem! I'll be around at the usual time Wednesday and Thursday, which is from 10:30 PM your time on. If that doesn't fit with your schedule, no problem; otherwise, I'll be happy to help!
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Turn 143
I played this turn quite late at night so I hope there isn't too much  . I'm greeted by an odd request - can we provide ten gold to CH? I guess that stops his units going on strike and disbanding? I declined but we can re-offer if anyone thinks it's worth it? He's still paying us 20 gpt for another turn, can he pay if he's got no cash?
Happy trouble is really biting now - mostly due to war weariness and stacked whip unhappy, but we also lost the silver trade from CH because dtay took that city. We lack dye, silver and incense and now have duplicates of Silk and Ivory. Looking around no-one who hasn't ended turn has any duplicates, so we need to move a Knight to Alfie instead of towards Mardoc, double whip the Knight in Izzy and move a knight to Kirby. I'll offer HAK Silk for his only Incense and Dazed Ivory for his only Silver. We could offer our Whale for dtay's second Silver, but I doubt he'd accept...
I reassigned most of our EPs onto Pindicator - we only need 200 to get visibility on all his cities and feel secure on that front. Actually I went for BGN's tech visibility, since we're getting a nice happy trade (fur-wine) from Pindi and don't want to risk that. We'll also have visibility on all Dtay's unfogged cities in the next couple of turns. Our other espionage goal could be to get city visibility on Mardoc, but we kinda know what he's got going on and it'd be 150 EPs.
The stack moved next to Infrared. We'll have 7 full strength and 2 injured Knights on t145. Mardoc will have at least five Longbows and a Welly. The fortify bonus and promotions don't seem as scary as last time though - our C3 Knight nearly gets odds...
Next turn we need to decide if we want to burn dtay's coastal conquests on turn 146.
- eot 144 Hazelnut, Marmalade and Ophelia can all produce Galleys
- t 145 we load Archers and Knights onto the galleys and put them in striking range of the four coastal cities (E of Marmalade, E of Hazelnut, E of Ophelia)
- t 146 we burn three cities
Currently dtay has nothing in range of them, but the Knights he just used on CH's capital might just make their way over to reinforce the coast before we can get there. If they do there isn't much point attacking. Any thoughts?
Demos and power
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
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Did you decide whether or not start raiding dtays coast?
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Turn 144
We found Jade!
Dtay took Economics  (and Cheater Hater took peace with him?!? What kind of a spite move is that?) More bad news (Sorry von Aldercreutz) is that all the coastal cities we'd have targeted are going to have Knights in next turn, so unless we can build some amphibious Pikes (we can't - we're one XP short in Hazelnut) the invasion plan is off. I'm planning on uncovering CH's new city, but not sure what the point of it was...
Dtay has two galleys hanging around our coast but I'm not sure what we can do about them, also as they aren't hidden he probably hasn't got any offensive plans for them. We need at least two units in each coastal city - so another few Pikes and Longbows might be handy. Hazelnut will continue to pump out Knights though to keep making use of the stable.
With Dtay taking Economics our plan for quick GP generation to launch a golden age ~t153 is off the table, but a different plan occurs instead. This table shows the techs we can target at the moment. We want to get Astronomy early to have some fun, Economics for Free Market has been a long-term goal (30 cities, +1 trade route +25% tr income in each means roughly +200 commerce  ) and PP will improve our economy massively (+50 commerce at least if you factor multiplier buildings).
Code: Tech cost pre-req adjusted cost
Compass 690 1 575
Optics 1035 1 863
Astronomy 4312 0 4312
Drama 517 1 431
Economics 3622 1 3018
PP 3450 1 2875
Corporation 4830 1 4025
Gunpowder 2587 2 1848
Philosophy 1380 2 986
Nationalism 3880 1 3233
Looking at the Great Scientist bulb preferences
I think I can see a route to bulbing Astronomy - by researching Printing Press, Philosophy, Compass and Optics but not getting Gunpowder. I don't think we need Gunpowder any time soon, so if we continue with a Spy and 2 Scientists in Englebert and Kirby then we will either:
- get a Great Spy and Great Scientist pair for a golden age and lots of GPPs into some bulby scientists or
- we get two GSci, use one (or both - they will only give us about 2000 beakers each) to bulb Astro and we go wreck some havoc in dtay's ports and use Cornelius to produce a merchant or spy for the golden age a bit later
- we get two Great Spies and ragequit.
Now it could be that I'm getting too attached to the Astro bulb - it only saves us 20% on a tech we could just skip (there is no need to go into ocean at all on this map, so Ironclads will rule the water in their day), but water based fun is what we're all about, and dtay has got a lot of very empty coastal cities...
Back to more immediate matters I'm concerned that Mardoc withdrew his Welly to counter attack again after we take Infrared (although it could be heading south to cover cities that our galley can threaten next turn). It looks like healing this turn and hitting Infrared next is going to be the best plan. The CG3 LB gets odds on our Knights, but the rest aren't as scary.
We bombarded Infrared to 26%, next turn I think we'll bombard to about 10% and sacrifice one or two cats to get odds on the LBs. We'll have seven full-strength Knights so we might not get the city next turn, but we'll get it the turn after .
Demos and power
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
October 11th, 2014, 08:02
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Now that you'll have edu, how fast are you going to build Oxford? Do you already have cities ready to build universities? And how much is it a priority to you compared to other goals like warfare and other infra?
October 11th, 2014, 16:12
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Turn 145
(October 11th, 2014, 08:02)von Adlercreutz Wrote: Now that you'll have edu, how fast are you going to build Oxford? Do you already have cities ready to build universities? And how much is it a priority to you compared to other goals like warfare and other infra?
At the moment we're building FIN banks, which may mean we build Wall St before Oxford . On this huge map we'll need eight universities to build Oxford, they'll probably get built in the same cities that are building the banks here (Alfie and Butterscotch already have banks, Azza's capital Watercress and Yam will quickly be capable of building a bank and University too). They aren't going to be quick builds for us though. The answer to your question is not fast.
Hinduism is on the march! Oh, and Dtay used the Economics GM to start his golden age and appears to be pushing GP points.
He's got a pretty nice empire, but strung out and vulnerable to being chopped in half by Krovice or forked from the sea.
Down to business, in the south our Galley continues to harass and pin units, I have a sneaky suspicion that that worker is a trap for our HA though, so next turn we'll probably continue on to Violet paying him no heed.
Up north I wonder if this Galley contains the Welly that disappeared from Infrared? He could boat Asparagus in two turns or Watercress in five turns. Our Axes get 70% against an amphibious Welly attack, and the Archer in Watercress gets odds too. I've put Watercress on a Trireme to protect our nets if needed.
At Infrared I did a bit of simming. Knocking the defences down to 10% and suiciding two cats gives us this result:
0 Knights dead: 111
1 Knight dead: 11111
2 Knights dead: 11
3 Knights dead: 1
Suiciding three cats instead gives us this result:
0 Knights dead: 111
1 Knight dead: 111
2 Knights dead:
3 Knights dead:
On balance that looks like half a knight for a catapult so I went for the two cats option since we've got less of them. In a great first roll our first cat got two hits, then the second got one, so things are looking promising so far.
- C4 Knight vs injured CG2 Longbow 77%... WIN (one hit) 
- C3 Knight vs injured CG3 Longbow 85%... WIN (one hit)
- C3 Knight vs injured CG2 Longbow 87%... WIN (one hit)
- C3 Knight vs injured CG2 Longbow 88%... LOSS (two hits)
- C2 Knight vs injured CG2 Longbow 86%... WIN (two hits)
- C2 Knight vs injured CG3 Longbow 88%... WIN (one hit)
Now the spears come to the fore, unfortunately the mace fights the longbow that beat our knight, so we're going to face some sort of mounted unit vs spear fight...
- C1 Mace vs injured CG2 Longbow 99%... WIN (three hits!) :/
- Green Knight vs injured Spear 73%... FLAWLESS WIN! 
- Injured C1 Knight vs injured spear 71%... LOSS (one hit)
- C1 Pike vs injured spear 99%... WIN (4 hits!)
We got 69 gold and a Granary and kept the city. Losing two Knights was a bit unlucky, so will that cost us? Let's check if I was right about units being kept back to counter attack? Oh, yes.
He's only got one War Elephant, three Horse Archers and 4 Catapults. We can't hit them this turn, but we can chase them down with our Engineering-enabled Knights if they run. I captured a worker and left him there as bait to try to get Mardoc to split his forces. I also only left the Pike in Infrared, he can retake the city if he wants, we'll just get it back next turn.
Economics (3622 beakers) is five turns at break-even, four turns with the gold we have saved right now.
at 0% we're making 17 beakers and around 494 gold
at 50% its 515 beakers and +4gpt
at 100% its 1012 beakers and -485gpt
We could probably make 50-80 gpt from wealth builds. I've left us on 0% as there is a monastery completing in Alfie this turn. Question is, should we be running wealth to try to get it in three turns? I'll let Fintourist think about that when he gets back from his latest holiday...
Demos and power - What is BGN up to? Is he going after Dhalphir's old civ? Or taking Mardoc's remains? Either way he's going to be first to Nationalism, presumably he'll grab the Taj, but is he going to be drafting as well?
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
October 11th, 2014, 22:42
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So at some point the dice tower is going to cough up all the good rolls it's been withholding. Probably against a different opponent with no idea of what you've been through with mardoc. And they'll whine about in their thread.
Come to think of it, I wonder how mardoc's luck was against azza...
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of course I know, and it just might be relevant to this post...