[PB64] naufragar's bingo parlor for assassins

[Mjmd]

A lot of your pictures are broken fyi. Nvm now works.

[Charriu]

Not for me

[naufragar]

Phew. That was a very bandwidth heavy post. And a lot of those images are hotlinked from random sites. Hope all's well.



Now, if Fortune 500 were just a bit closer to me than Amica, whatever. The game can be overzealous with the liberate mechanic. When the city is 50% closer to me than Amica and steals a 6food tile that was going to feed two of my cities? Yeah, some liberation is in order.



The axe+spear+2 workers behind the city is a nice touch. Without them, the city could well have fallen. As is, I've probably just given up a chariot for nothing. I've got a spear and axe coming via boat and Cicstercia whipped an axe as well. You might notice in the lower left corner, it sure looks like I have 80% of Amica's power. Well...



Whatcha gonna do? Sometimes the wars just happen.  It's likely that this power build up is coming my way anyway. It's not like Amica needs to fight the First National Bank of Superdeath, and Gav has been bending over backwards to help Amica win this game. 

Speaking of:


Amica is giving Gav Ivory as a bribe to close his borders with me. Weirdly, we're unable to trade but the thought is still hurtful.  Gav, of course, took the free luxury.

Let's see if he goes farther:


He can whack an axe of mine that is headed to the Amica front. He shouldn't. After all, the axe is on its way to fight the game-leader, whom Gavagai will have to get through in order to win, but Gavagai has displayed all the desire to win of... I don't know, some creature that hates winning.

Here's the map for lurkerss'benefit.


If you're wondering how Gav doesn't see that he and I need to cooperate against Amica, you are not alone. I hope I can read a reason after this game is over. It blows my mind that Gav doesn't have a problem with Amica leisurely strolling to victory. (Remember, Gavagai is Amica's only foreign trade partner.   ) Pseudo-edit as I look at this image: Amica's city of Get to Heaven is as close to Gav's cap as Gav's southernmost tundra iceball. Think about that. Gav has befriended the guy who has forced him to the margins. "Oh I'd like a spot 10 tiles from my cap. Well, Brother Amica has taken the good one. That's ok. I'll settle on the icy peaks. Amica's my best friend. I hope he wins. " Shoot me.

[naufragar]

I opened the turn up to this offer.


Do you not know my reputation? I'm bad, bad naufragar, roleplayer of Montezuma, most aggressive person on the forums. I've never met an axe fight I didn't like. How in the world do you think I'm going to respond to something like this? 




Yup. We whimpered away with our tail between our legs. If you compare stacks, we're actually pretty even. I've got ~68% odds on his top two axes defenders and I can cover my own stack with a spear and a couple more Vultures. (There's one in the galley.) So we could've slugged it out here and the outcome would've been uncertain. Vandal probably falls in any event, but I could at least have made Amica bleed.

On the other hand...


Not for nothing, Amica did declare war on Ginger this turn. I don't understand the geography of that, so I can't comment. I doubt this is a real war. Looking at this graph is scary for a non-Amica reason. I only have Vultures and Spears. If Ginger just pushes all the way through Commodore with his Crossbows, I can't really stop him. I don't see any reason for him to do this, but it's a possibility.

I wonder if this will cause Gav to realize the Amicalolan threat.


I mean, I get Gav's hesitancy. Amica is the only neighbor he has that he hasn't been at war with (beside me). Still, Amica is up to 11 cities and a monster crop yield. Check out these demos:



Yeah. I'm in second place in Crop and Amica has 25% more food than me!! He has almost double the rival average. Hell, if he is removed from the calculation, he probably does have double the rival average food. He's just a ridiculous menace. Sorry if I sound exasperated with Gavagai and Superdeath. It's just I'm staring down death here, and nobody seems to care. (Or everybody has already given up.)

Speaking of giving up, Superdeath, put your big boy pants on and get back in the game.


You're Imperialistic. You're Financial. This is inexcusable. Superdeath has completely given up on this game, and it's benefiting Amica. Sure, stop settling cities on Amica's border. Sure, keep bankrolling him.    (If he were benefiting me by throwing the game, I admit I wouldn't be complaining. ) Pseudo-edit: Several times this game, Superdeath has played sub-60 second turns. Delightful. When I'm his neighbor he plans a kamikaze attack before we've even met. When he neighbors Amica, he gives him his whole treasury and refuses to resign to AI.

Hopefully Amica's double-digit city count wakes the other players up. As for me, I can live with the loss of Vandal for a little bit, especially if it drags Amica down.


Do remember that Amica is paying 20 gold per turn in maintenance to Superdeath that he can turn off at any point, so this isn't actually as bad as it looks. I also remind the lurkers that all of my demographics screens and graphs can be trusted to show the full picture.

[Mjmd]

Speaking of giving up, Superdeath, put your big boy pants on and get back in the game.


You're Imperialistic. You're Financial. This is inexcusable. Superdeath has completely given up on this game, and it's benefiting Amica. Sure, stop settling cities on Amica's border. Sure, keep bankrolling him.    (If he were benefiting me by throwing the game, I admit I wouldn't be complaining. ) Pseudo-edit: Several times this game, Superdeath has played sub-60 second turns. Delightful. When I'm his neighbor he plans a kamikaze attack before we've even met. 

I mentioned this is the lurker thread by SD is also breaking my little Vicky heart. I would have offered to take over, but for you know the actual perfect map knowledge.

BTW nice job declaring war then immediately signing over a city for peace 

[naufragar]

BTW nice job declaring war then immediately signing over a city for peace 

Was it Sun Tzu who said "To win without fighting is best"? Now we can add "To lose without fighting is second best."  

But we weren't the only ones taking humiliating peace treaties:


I mean, dang. Ginger extorted Commodore for everything, down to his gold fillings. It's a great deal for Ginger, since he's found a way to turn his military might into research. (And a ton of it. 40 gold per turn! Wow!) It's also a great deal for Commodore if the alternative is death. He's definitely the short stack at the table, but "a chip and a chair" as they say. It's always good to see players fighting to stay in it.

Speaking of, I opened the turn up to this:


Gav, I never meant those mean things. You were always my favorite. Of course, I sent this back. I've got 9 more turns of peace, but whenever Gav wants to declare war, I'll send whatever I can cobble together.

Gav is likely feeling a ton of pressure. Ginger to his west just got an entire economy's worth of research off of Commodore, and Amica got a city off me and is just gigantic. Wonder what he'll do.

I was looking through the domestic advisor and noticed something:


If you wondered, "Gee, naufragar, where are all you 6food tiles?" you are not alone. My only city above a 5food surplus is the capital. Just in the Amicalolan lands I've seen, I spy six +6 food resources. So long as Amica can grow onto cottages with all that food, he's in a way better spot than me. (And remember, I'm #2 in Crop.)

[naufragar]

PBSpy tells me that Amica founded two more cities last turn, bringing him up to 13 total. I'm second highest with 9. As I've been saying, it's only a matter of time. Eventually all those cities will start turning a profit (if they aren't already with Currency + Great Lighthouse for Protective trade routes). I suspect he's getting the Hanging Gardens soon.

I opened the turn up to this:


Say what you will about the guy, Amica's got a great sense of humor. His jungle city wasn't an egregious pink dot. That was just me trying to not get bottle in. His min distance grab of the 6food tile I was counting on for feeding two different cities of mine that was 13 tiles away from his cap and 9 tiles from mine? That was an egregious pink dot, so no. I will not be signaling peaceful intentions.

I've got tech visibility on him now. He's going for Construction. It should take him a long time unless Papa Superdeath (who's now in a Golden Age) opens his wallet again. I believe he already has Horseback Riding, so he's going for War Elephants. Must be nice to have ivory. 

I had opportunity to defend against Gavagai but am choosing not to:


I could've done a few things. I could've had a spear at the front of the queue instead of a vulture. I could have whipped the vulture and rolledthe roughly 50% shot if the chariot attacks. I decided Gav attacking me was too unlikely, so I've kept the order, so I can two-whip both units. Gavagai would gain nothing beside a little pillage gold and my refusal to ever work with him. If he razes the city, it would hurt. (Those are my only two luxury resources right now.) But I would be truly surprised.

Unfortunately, he just got graphs on me and he might not like what he sees:


Believe it or not, the demos screen currently shows me in second place in GNP. I'm at 102 to someone's 104. Not sure who that is. Presumably I find out next turn.

I gotta say, this game's in an interesting spot. Gavagai just landed the Pyramids. Amica has a massive 26% Crop lead over second place, who himself is high above the average. Ginger has a tech lead and a huge tribute income. I've got Fin/Org. Even Commodore has some potential with the Colossus. (Sad to say that Superdeath is the only one truly out of it. Now that I think of it, he did just pop a golden age. Maybe the top GNP is his.) I would not be surprised if any of the 5 out of these 6 players won it (although if Commodore clinched it, I would just chalk it up to Comm magic).

[Mjmd]

You can build war elephants with iron fyi.

[naufragar]

You can build war elephants with iron fyi.

Ah, thanks. I had forgotten. Regardless, I don't imagine I build any this game. My peace treaty with Amica expires around turn 113. I don't know if he'll straight up attack the moment the treaty expires. He does have considerably more power than me, and I have two different exposed points (maybe three, depending on how you count), so he could push. Not sure. He seems very bankrupt, making about 8 or 9 gold per turn. On the other hand, he's still paying Superdeath 20 gold per turn, and soon those loan payments will end (or he could default on them).

While I'm in my "Superdeath is making me sad" mood:


Amica is settling cities in my face 13 tiles away from his cap, while his neighbor won't settle a 6foodhammer tile 5 tiles away from his own cap. I just get so demoralized.

But then my hero Gavagai comes around!


Gav not only stopped trading with Amica, leaving Amica completely embargoed (although I'm predicting Superdeath starts trading with him soon), Gav also opened borders with me despite Amica bribing him with Ivory to embargo me. In thanks, I've given Gav my first sugar.

[naufragar]

And now Gav and Amica are at war with each other. I have no idea what's going on there, but Amica took a city off Gavagai and didn't raze it. Gav apparently took it right back the very next turn? I have no clue what's going on or where. But it makes me happy. Amica also settled a city peacefully so now he's at a cool 14. The rest of the planet has a combined 37. Big empire. He basically has the land of two players. That's how you win, baby.

Want to play a tactics puzzle? What are some of the *fun* things Gav could do with his chariot next turn? He does not have any vision or knowledge outside of what his chariot can currently see.


If Gavagai is clicking one tile at a time, he could move up to the forest, see the archer, move one tile back (1SE), and then next turn move 1E of the lake and see inside Amica's (empty) city. If there's a unit, no biggie, he retreats into my peace-treaty impregnable borders. This sequence takes some odd pieces falling into place, so I don't expect Gav to stumble into an empty city, but that's why I haven't cut this road. Obviously do not mention, hint, or even allude to this city or possibility to either player! For now, we wait. Pseudo-edit: I see underneath my sign that Amica also built a monument. He built this eot107. If my finger-counting is correct (and it never is) that city has 6 culture in it, so the math still works! Barely, but culture vision shouldn't pop until t111, one turn too late. Fingers crossed!

In the meanwhile, I take some potshots at my next free barb city:


I'll try not to hand this one off to Amica, too.

You can also see Comm's Great Merchant heading to do some business. I hope Commodore and I can remain on excellent terms. I'm really putting a lot of faith in a demilitarized Eastern border. I worry that people will start noticing me, though. My GNP is excellent, and I'm about to trigger a Golden Age. I've been keeping track of Amica's gold income per turn (thank you Currency mechanics) and the guy is pretty much flat broke.

He's making basically no money despite having the slider at zero. This isn't so bad since he's still paying 20 gold per turn to Superdeath and that'll end soon. He can build wealth. The most interesting play that Amica could do, in my mind? Build the Hanging Gardens and immediately whip all 14 of his cities into horse archers and slam them into me. This is why I'm happy that Amica drew blood on Gav. Hopefully it makes that plan a little less likely.