[PB 64] Ginger plays as Charlemagne, famed man of letters

[Ginger()]

117 capture gold is enough to finish HBR, which will hopefully allow me to trigger the stables quest.
Yup I got that one too 
Medieval era 3% event chance wins yet again

3 crossbows can now take Guerrilla 2, combined with the chariot, this might let me take Commodore's capital if he's not careful. Unfortunately, I did lose one Xbow at 70% against his archer. I did not promote Cover because I feared it would swap to a melee, and I desired the ability to double promo heal. Well greed has it's costs. 

I was tempted to send Commodore a peace treaty asking for all his gold and gpt, a total of 390 over 10 turns, Currency bulb with Colossus merchant? I didn't see any GP births in the log, maybe he hard teched it or I'm blind. but I was worried Commodore would accept that treaty and I'd have to sit on my ass for another ten turns. That seemed unexciting so we'll continue with our regularly scheduled programming   

[Mjmd]

Um THERE ISN'T A T100 SCREENSHOT!!!!!!!!!

[Ginger()]

Um THERE ISN'T A T100 SCREENSHOT!!!!!!!!!

   

Didn't take any overview photos, so just enjoy a picture of my rather meager stack (archer should be 1S inside the city, oopsie if Comm has a boat to the west).  

I'll take some city photos and advisor screens to outline the domestic situation (spoiler alert, it's not good) next turn.
I'm seriously considering an anarchy turn for Buddhism, atm I'm bleeding gold at 0%, growth is largely happy capped by a lot of whip anger, and I need state religion for whenever I get my 7th Forge (blacksmith quest). Plus, no GA in sight for a long time.

[Mjmd]

Question for domestic overview: Do you regret / thoughts on not building the GLH?

[Ginger()]

Question for domestic overview: Do you regret / thoughts on not building the GLH?

Given that I have no islands? Not a lot of regret really. Yeah, there was the denial factor to Amicalola, but frankly they were always going to win with the way the map (and Gav's expansion path  ) panned out. Sure diplo and warring and stuff can happen, I'm not trying to throw in the towel, but I'm a lot more comfortable taking risks like this haphazard invasion of Commodore precisely because the odds are stacked against me in a regular builder plan so I might as well try something exciting and create some variance. 

I viewed GLH as somewhat mutually exclusive with Oracling Machinery, which I think was far greater value. I also planned on building Colossus afterwards which would've given me more commerce in the gameplan I had, which was to grow tall my core of 8 cities on Serfdom mills and 3C coast, and use that try to scrape to Banking on a healthy MFG base, after which I'd just turn tech off. 
So in short: I didn't really have a spare 260 hammers lying around (that's about 4 settlers for me), I had my eyes set on a larger rabbit (oracle), and my very limited expansion room of just 7 coastal cities before war meant that Colossus would grant more commerce, and be a safer build than GLH which I know for sure is being contested.

[Ginger()]

Mjmd has successfully hectored me into caring about reporting, so if you want this photo dump gone, you know who to blame. 

   
Commodore sent these units from the west, so I assume he's stacking the capital, therefore makes little sense to save the Guerrillas for "surprise" later, and I pick these fellas off before they can get behind culture or walls.

   
Only two were required to kill, but after about 5 minutes agonizing over the decision, I promoted a third to go and cover the final Crossbow. They're low at 4.8 and 5.2, but unless he just whipped horcher in the cap, they should trade respectably. While Comm certainly has the GNP to research HBR, I don't think he's done it so far as he's hard-teched to Currency. If he does have it right now, this adventure is probably joever. 

   
Very powerful city, with huge production potential, currently suffering under the whip. Yes, that is an unworked pig. Settler is on the way to establish a new happy cap.

   
Here I got sloppy and didn't finish the forge fast enough to be able to grow before hiring the engineer, so it has been stunted by working a specialist before food 
The necessity of this stems from trying to race the Oracle's GPP in the capital

   
My dearest capital, another beautiful city location stunted by terrible abuse  . Top power doesn't fabricate itself, unfortunately I'm not sure I have a lot to show for it if Commodore can stymie me with archer spam. 

   
This is a splitter city, taking Dune's copper and Name of the Rose's Crab, with horse and a couple crummier tiles to round out the pop when it's at the top of the whip cycle.

   
This city is on a 4->2 whip cycle whenever the foodbox is full enough that Gold only stays unworked for a turn minimum. I might increase it to 5->3 now that it has coast to work, whatever delay lets the whip anger cool off a bit. 

   
A useless drain on the treasury at the moment. Once the rice is hooked and it start growing on some windmills, things will look a little more spritely. The walls are strange and mysterious artifact to my peoples, an advanced vestige of The Occupier, who knew the way of the stone stack.

   
This city... well it exists. Food, mine, coast. Meh, she'll be 'right. 

   
Here is the domestic overview of all cities. You can see the crippling happy cap problem and why HBR before Monarchy was *probably* a mistake. But I'm all in, which is an uncomfortable feeling, I hate the idea of being committed to particular path of having a clock tick down. It's for this reason I always gravitate towards picking abilities that scale or playing blue control in mtg. 

I was going to try to do a foreign/diplo overview, but it's such a complete dumpster fire this game that I wouldn't bother. Everyone probably hates me, except maybe Gav, but he's difficult to predict. Amica recently declared war on me, in response to my resumption of trading with Naufragar, to cancel his trickle of 3gpt. He sent me a peace this turn. I responded by demanding 10 gold, then sending a demand for 5 gold  —we engage in a miniscule amount of trolling. 
I also sent Commodore a ridiculous* peace offer for 40 gpt for peace, since I'm not sure I can crack the capital. 
I'll lean into the heel bit if that's what it's gonna be this game  
*I mean, it costs me nothing but his annoyance to open with a low bid, maybe he's feeling more desperate than I expect him to be. 
And then I asked Gav for his spare gold, I'm actually curious because he might accept if he doesn't have another use for it (who to sell to? deny it to me to keep me down?). I might re-re-reconsider my stance with SD if he does, it would be a huge coup given the forges I've built, and I've already pawned off my own gold for Nauf's silver.

[Mjmd]

I'm curious about the HBR teching? Sorry if you said and I've just forgotten. Edit: see its for the stables quest, so assuming you want to keep warring soon?

[Ginger()]

I'm curious about the HBR teching? Sorry if you said and I've just forgotten. Edit: see its for the stables quest, so assuming you want to keep warring soon?

Well, I had it half-finished earlier, because if Gavagai didn't give up Embassytown, I was going to try to activate the Greed quest at his horse city (with the boat attack). Greed gives units at the max tech level you have, a few chariots is fairly useless, a few Horchers might cause some ruin. So it wasn't a full cost tech anymore when Stables popped off, I'd already finished half. 

Well, a backup stack of 7 HA would be useful if this initial first stack is unable to storm Commodore's capital, but might come too late, I don't have 7 cities immediately ready to whip. Maybe if he pays the danegeld, I'll pick the Baray option of the Stables quest, the land is fairly dry so that isn't the worst idea. But in my mind the "keep warring" I have planned means trying to snuff out Comm's mainland empire and take the big shiny golden boy. But I'm pessimistic about my overall chances, Commodore definitely has a city on the island to his north and is ferrying reinforcements by boat. It's all a question of numbers now, and I don't have any of the information that Commodore does to evaluate those numbers.

[Ginger()]

 Commodore took peace for 40gpt
Hell ya, now I can tech to Monarchy and start growing again. After that I think it's Writing -> Alphabet -> Currency. Alphabet to be able to build research before reaching currency. 
Truth be told, I'm almost disappointed, I start a crazy no-siege invasion to try and shake myself out of my usual extremely conservative playstyle and end up taking the safe way out instead of gambling on taking Commodore's capital 
Old habits die hard, I guess.

I took my revolt to Buddhism this turn, for reasons stated in earlier posts. It cost 58 hammers and 33 surplus food, gained 20 gold. 
If I want to hold the city I've poached off Commodore, or at least tax a recapture attempt, I really ought to tech Masonry and put up some walls there. Alternatively I could write it off as a lost cause or rely on the threat of a re-invasion. The latter is probably more cost-effective, if Commodore wants to retake it he can, I then stay at war or shake him down again. Idk, unsure.

[Ginger()]

Oh no nonono please don't tell me SD is waiting till after Gav plays...
arrrrrrhhhhhh why is the timing always terrible. ITS NOT GOOD LOOK AT THE POWER GRAPH MY DUDE

SD sent copper copper and war with Gav.
I didn't return the offer. There's not exactly a signal for negation established yet by RB convention, what should it be?


   
Wade a stack of no-siege trash through these hills? It couldve barely cracked open Commodore and its supposed to invade here? Impossible before Catapults or Knights. SD seems dead set on this despite my accidental betrayal earlier (Gav and I both sent the peace treaties before SD's declaration, was just terrible timing)
I dont think he has any siege either, it must be pure Numidians.