PB75: Superdeath forced to play

[superdeath]

How goes the rest of international relations?

Pretty much the same ol same ol. Gavagai has a war/hate-boner for me, Nauf is Nauf. Zulu is the same super expanding 100 posts a day, Ginger is probably almost to rifles, Dreylin has a TON of gpt but not in a GA so i have to HOPE that its alot of wealth builds? Like HAS to be?? (i have the most out of the people i can see that arent teching, Dreylin has DOUBLE my gold income with less cities) Greenline has been kinda, "there" but not doing much other than making me spend a decent amount of EP to stop him having research vis on me forever.. because for whatever reason he chose to put EP into me for like 30t. Mjmd is somehow still alive and kicking with almost on par #cities as others, but also has his 10 wonders. I wanna say i have like 5x the military of Mjmd. Ridiculous.

[superdeath]

Ok. Update. GT is going to either get DECIMATED, or at the very least clean some units up for me. Again, i wasnt planning on going in. Hence i havent been making units, ive been focusing on building forums, walls (castles) and other infrastructure. ALSO BUILDING SETTLERS! :D

However, having all of Gavagai's or most of them preoccupied with protecting his core, gives me an opportunity to take 3-6 cities off of him. If he has to waste all or most or hell even SOME cats on GT's stack, i have a good chance of holding most of the cities before any new units arrive. Nauf mirrored back a 30t fish NAP. Im assuming that will hold, and i can focus on actually finally ending Egypts magical reign. Still no word from Mjmd. Is he playing? Is he in fantasy land? Is this a variant PB where Gavagai prevents me from winning, and Zulu and dreylin dont stop Ginger, and Mjmd doesnt take a chunk out of Gavagai at any point, and he doesnt either. Lowest power the entire game. FFS.


Anyway. You guys arent here to hear me rant.



The GT/Gav fighting grounds. Gav goes first, so i expect his 5cats to smack GT's stack, which for whatever reason... doesnt have ANY of his pikes in it. Because reasons. So, because of that i expect almost a full wipe. Probably a unit or two left over.





So, what am i doing? Attempting to grab 4 cities next turn. I can about guarantee 3. The 4th is iffy. Depends on what pops in the city if he whips it. The two north are mine. Tiwanku is 99% mine unless he stuffs it with more units. But, then its more to collateral. (wish i had more) The city right above that, i have 1HA and 3 spears to try and break it. A single axe would be devastating. Luckily, when Tiwanku falls i can send my stack north to make sure i grab it.

Sadly Gavagai will be grabbing Fued EOT, so thats another reason i needed to go in NOW. If he hadnt gotten Fued coming in, i think it would have been plausible to ram my HA and praet stack thru the south, and just build pikes/cats to keep Gavagai from suicide running like GT into the desert. Man, i really hope he loses alot of units defending. I can almost see Gavagai attempting to run the axes towards Ricky's capital, but that doesnt really help them much besides make the city easier to capture. I can park most of the units on the hill afterwards, park the archers in Tiwanku and wait.


Gonna be an interesting couple turns. Any questions?

[superdeath]

His stack isnt nearly as wiped out as i had hoped, but its lost ALOT of cats, and although he will get some promos... and be healed in like 3t, i have captured 5 cities, and the highlighted stack has no good places to go. He can suicide the cats into the city to buy time via healing, he can run away with them + the WE, but if he doesnt cut the roads i get to slam ALOT into it.. if he DOES cut the roads, he loses a couple defending units and my HA's can smack the stack and hopefully take some Cats with them. Next turn, its fairly likely i capture another 2 cities. Not razing them, because i can use them to whip if Gavagai doesnt send a unit to capture it. I need to get some more catapults out and destroy his doom stack 1v1, then its just a slog from there. Until then, its likely we will trade cities for awhile. Might pump EP into him a bit to get more vision on where that stack might move to.







Loving this artist lately.

[Magic Science]

Capturing 5 cities in 1 turn is an impressive thing. Thank you for the report.

[superdeath]

Capturing 5 cities in 1 turn is an impressive thing. Thank you for the report.

8 cats, 3 war elephants and 2 WC gone. For just 1 war elephant of my own. I think next turn i can capture pi ramesses. Other than losses there due to whatever Gavagai may have whipped/running around, i expect to lose 2 units this turn. The chariot that cut the road, and the northern HA that also cut a road. The middle HA cant be hit by anything other than his Axe at least in view. Im holding my counter stack in the city above nuttybars for WHEN (not if) Gavagai sends it. I expect him to either be full tilt or close to it after what GT did. If he is full tilt he might even just send all the HA/WC he has thru the desert. Would be rough, but i dont think id lose anything important if he did that, and id capture EVERY city he owns. Well, will take awhile because longbows... but hey.



Im keeping an eye on Naufs stack, because really... thats the only thing at this point keeping me from potentially not having fun in this PB. IDC if i lose at this point, but i dont want Nauf to be smacking me in the back to cause that. Also, im currently saving gold to either emergency upgrade spears to pikes if Gavagai goes in on a certain city, OR if things go well ill have plenty of gold for 100% research during a GA to grab guilds among other tech. Ive really gotta catch up to Ginger in tech. Side note: Mjmd cut roads that GT made. I feel like Mjmd is playing a different game from the rest of us. He went from getting the earliest war/city razed, to being best buddies with that same player. Boggles my mind.

[superdeath]

Question is:



Is this allowed? Got this as soon as i opened the turn. Now, im not giving up that city no matter what, but one of the northern ones i could throw his way as an "island" if its allowed. Especially for 300gold. Would be much needed gold for teching to knights and beyond.



ANYWAY. Thats my question. On to the report thus far:



Nauf cancelled our open borders. SO, thats great. So now roughly half of my empire must contribute catapults and other things to the north to prevent Nauf from having a unholy amount of land acquired. If he rushes his stack i saw earlier, im doomed. My only saving grace is the fish/fish 30t that i cannot remember if it was myself, or him that sent it first. But either way he had confirmed it literally a turn or two before. Whether Nauf thinks that now is the time to break that "agreement" is another thing entirely. I dont have the best track record, so if it happens... ill be pissed BUT it happens.

I sent him a shitload of diplo messages trying to convey that id like to also stop a runaway Ginger/civac. Getting into a long bloody war with me (i have ALOT of falling-back land) does nothing but hand Ginger the game. Dont pull a Gavagai, Naufrager.



Did "some" whipping. Trying not to whip any big research cities unless ABSOLUTELY needed. Plan (unless Nauf attacks, or Gavagai does something tricky) Is GA in 3t. 2t if im allowed to get 300g from GT via purchase of a city.

[Zed-F]

This isn’t a peace deal, so taking this deal seems to me against the spirit of the rules, if not the letter. It’s likely to lead to angry comments in other players’ threads.

[xist10]

We lurker even think that this is against the letter.
Akhetan is borderline, but even there a no. Another city straight no.

[superdeath]

Ill go with the lurker consensus then. Im not too disheartened to hear that though. BUT i had to see if i could grab myself another chunk of gold. Thanks for the input/answer!

[superdeath]

Another turn, another stack dead.











 


Im fairly sure i have marked the rest of his units. I doubt there is much hidden in the fog. Mjmd has knights, and looks poised to either gobble up some territory (lol right) or based on his diplo, prevent me from conquering any farther. Either way, im basically pausing here while i wait for knights of my own.. because fighting against longbows without them is a pain, especially when you need a quick war to avoid being germany-ed.


Question for lurkers: When revolting (during golden age, or not) does it matter what order you revolt as far as converting into religion vs civics first? AND because its been awhile........ (dont look at me that way) how long his a normal golden age...  


Trying to time it when i can pause military builds to keep golden age tech going for as long as possible. Thanks!