[Spoilers] Pindicator's Nice Thread

[pindicator]

079

Well, I perhaps should not have offered that peace deal because Gav was already pushing towards Commodore. See the power graph - again:




There's a drop from Commodore, presumably from praetorians that weren't coming my way. Well, I'm going to blame that on being sick for the past week. Only today do I feel like I'm turning the corner, but the last two days it's been hard to stay awake longer than an hour at a time.

Regardless, it isn't a total waste because there was another thing I wanted to get out of Gavagai with a peace deal:




Now this won't give us any extra commerce from trade routes, but it will give a chance for religion to swap to my borders. If he accepts I have a worker ready to complete the road connection between our civs.

And the plan is still the same now: horseback riding and barracks now, then stables and horse archers later. If he and Commodore are still sparing in 10 turns then look for me to build up an invasion force of axes and horse archers.

Demos:

[pindicator]

083

This was the turn I needed to decide which tech I was going to go for next and how we were going to approach Gavagai. Do I try for Metal Casting and Mints/Colossus? Do I try for traditional development with Mathematics? Or a more aggressive line with Horseback Riding?




Gavagai's power has been relatively stable. Commodore has made a series of whips and seen his power climb. But the spoiler was getting tech vision on Gavagai this turn: he is going for Colossus. He is trying to zig with development when we expect him to zag with Praets. And I think that makes my decision. I need to also zag while he zigs. FIN should be developing too as well; they should not be attack Praetorians. But we can get Horseback Riding in 5 turns. If I can then get 2 quick rounds of horse archers in, those 8-10 horchers should be enough combined with the axes I've got sitting in Rescue Rangers. Especially if he's trying to build forges and wonders at the exact same time.

Here is the one thing that could change my mind:




I finally got a galley out, and next turn a scout will jump on. If there is plenty of good land to claim out east then I might just switch up to whipping settlers instead.

Edit: I have half a mind to cram a coastal city in south of the sheep, nestled among the mountains. It would be a silly city, not really something worth spending a settler on. But it would also be the perfect location to name Inspector Gadget, as a hairbrained scheme to just get vision in the south using the mountains.

[Mjmd]

083

Edit:  I have half a mind to cram a coastal city in south of the sheep, nestled among the mountains.  It would be a silly city, not really something worth spending a settler on.  But it would also be the perfect location to name Inspector Gadget, as a hairbrained scheme to just get vision in the south using the mountains.

I may just want a city named Inspector Gadget, but I will point out that it isn't that bad to split off a food.

[pindicator]

That's true. Once Thundercats gets its lighthouse down then that sheep is going to really be excessive food until we can raise the happiness cap.

And if I don't see a good spot to land a settler to the east, then the settler I'm building at the capital right now has a good chance of ending up settling Inspector Gadget

EDIT: Though with Gavagai losing a city to Commodore just now, I'm currently fantasizing about how to dotmap the west after I take Rome and Antium :shrug:

[Qgqqqqq]

It would also get the wine, right?

[pindicator]

If Commodore's city wasn't there it would

[pindicator]

084

It's time for my favorite portion of these games: deciphering hieroglyphics!




You are demanding Crab. Wtf does that mean? Sure buddy, crabs for everyone. We love crab.

I sent back:




Then getting into the game, I moved my galley and figured it out:




Khmer borders in the fog and his spear sitting on what looks like is where he wants to settle next. So it's a good thing I haven't pushed for "overseas" expansion earlier, because AGG/PRO Khmer is not someone I want to fight either. Supply lines would be awful on top of them having the military advantages, so I'm just going to concede everything past the shores. After I saw the crab and that he was saying "This is mine!" then yeah, take it.

I sent another message after of me giving him crab. Hope the message is clear enough that i'm not going to contest that spot.

But I'm going to settle Inspector Gadget now. I can get my workers there to road the way and settle on 87.

[pindicator]

086

Lots of planning going on as we get closer to making our move. Plans get made and revised and remade.

First off, Magic Science did give us open borders, which is great not only for the exploration but because it gives us +2c trade routes. Except not in all our cities; My Little Pony and The Smurfs both are still stuck on internal routes.

I dropped off my scout and will explore the coastline with my galley - but I suspect that this may just be a big inland sea:




The positioning of the horse makes me think that Magic Science's capital must be E-E-SE of my galley. This makes me think that is no island to the galley's northeast, but just a bay to the east that I'll scout out next turn.

Rather disappointed in the lack of naval exploration. Not really a slight on the map, but just disappointed that the last two games I'm in both now seem to be very light on naval importance. Perhaps the map meta is moving away from having islands and weakening trade routes - something I should be celebrating as a FIN civ. But really I enjoy the extra dynamic of island hopping, and I was hoping for a bit of that here. Again, no criticism of the map intended, just wistful longing for the next one.

Back to the task at hand. We are 2 turns away from Horseback Riding and starting the war push. Commodore has declared on Bing and razed a city of Bing's, putting himself into a nasty 3-way war split. Gavagai has responded to his lost city by building 2 more praetorians, but he is still forging ahead (heh) on Metal Casting. With all this I have to give some thought to attacking Commodore, but I don't see that as a good option for a couple reasons:

• Terrain - Currently a more difficult angle to attack Commodore and from what I can see the terrain is not worthwhile. On the other hand, Gavagai's cities will be a natural extension of what I currently have, and I can keep my eastern defenses over the mountains in the east by Thundercats and My Little Pony and then push out westward without extending borders.
  
• Production Base - Even with Praetorians, Gavagai is still only sitting on 3 cities. I think with a strong enough build up I can overwhelm him and his production base. Rather than with Commodore, whom I would end up in a grueling war. I might still end up in a grueling war with Gavagai anyway, but I have more confidence in being able to out-produce and win that war.

I also have a strong avenue for decapitating Gavagai in one swift stroke:




Those are the current working turn numbers. Right now I'm looking at 10 horse archers and 6 axes on t94, but not all of those would be promoted. It's hard to move that timeline up much without the numbers drastically falling off: for instance, moving up 2 turns would cut that horse archer number in half. I'm confident in killing 2 praetorians and reasonably sure on 5-6 with the axes also attacking on 96.

If I can catch Gavagai off guard then the hope is to take Rome and Antium and then find a good defensive position to hold down past there. Then backfill with settlers and finally take the barbarian city. This would put me up to 13-14 cities if I can pull this off.

I'm not as concerned about maintenance costs of incorporating these cities due to being FIN and having coast and cottages; I should be able to quickly grow out of any problems. Having a religion and adding gold luxury would also put me in a position to grow. In short, I think Gavagai is the right play and I'm starting to be optimistic at my chances for success.

[Zed-F]

Sounds like a plan! Do you have a dedlurker to bounce ideas off of in this game? (Not it as I am spoiled this time.)

[pindicator]

Nobody has yet felt foolish enough to jump on board. Would be happy to have someone to share my hair-brained schemes with