[Spoilers] Pindicator already misses slavery, and other out-of-context quotes

[pindicator]

Okay, so turn 75 is in and I'm really trying to decide....




Is it time to pull the trigger?

But I have to leave the house for a bit, so I'll get to dwell on this some more...

[pindicator]

Turn 076

I decided to wait one more turn and move into a better position last turn.  I figured that while I could kill 2 archers and start bombarding the city, if I did that I wouldn't have any units near the archer to threaten it and I'd have a bit of trouble tackling archer + chariot + warrior.

The AI decided to reward my patience:




Here's the setup and my attacks.  In order, I went:

* The three right-most archers attacked and killed the chariot (bottom-most archer promoted to Lvl 2)
* The Sword on the marsh attacked the archer and on the stone tile, and killed it in 1 shot, losing 7 health and capturing the builder (2 charges)
* The northwest archer hit the archer on the fur tile to make it 100% chance that our next sword would kill it
* The northern-most sword killed the archer, taking 5 damage
* The western-most sword moved to threaten Brussels' last archer

The situation now stands as:




From here I like how we'll I'm set up to hit Brussels the city and kill the last archer should it decide to stay in place and shoot at me.  I think I can take the city within 3 turns from here, if the new units aren't too awful.


*****


Japper, meanwhile, is creeping down the west side of that mountain chain.  I think he's trying to get himself in a spot to use all 3 of his archers to kill my warrior.  And I'm tempted to let him:  I'll get the eureka after all.  But probably not worth it while I'm fighting Brussels, so we're keeping our warrior on good terrain and where only 2 archers can hit me at once at most.

Japper has done a great job of using his terrain:  he has finished his 2nd and 3rd campuses in recent turns and is using the double Campus adjacency civic to skyrocket to 34.4 science.  Way ahead of Alhambram even.  I am going to have to really start dealing with Japper after Brussels falls to make sure he can't just tech away - yet geography is not our friend.  Much as I am angling to put a city up there that prevents him from moving south of the mountains, there isn't any good way for me to attack north of the mountains.

Well, I have an idea or two actually...  More on that later.  In any case, while at this point in the game I would put myself as the (narrow) front-runner, Japper is going to take that spot from me soon.


*****


I've been watching Krill's scout the last 3 turns move west due to my suzerain sight over Valencia.  For whatever reason the game decided that we officially met this turn and I now have contact:




I may have called myself the narrow front-runner, but I would also call Krill #2 at this point.  He's right behind me in all categories, has a good military built up, and is now pushing to grab the second religion in the game.

I'll be able to do a better "state of things" post in a turn or 2, because my galley has found borders in the fog to the east of Alhambram.  So we'll finally have sight on everyone soon.

[pindicator]

Ugh, I think I just gifted Alhambram coffee because of the sad piece of garbage that is the trading UI in this game.

How do you view current deals? Currently proposed deals? And when I clicked "Never Mind" last turn, I guess that doesn't really mean "don't send this deal"

[Bacchus]

Regarding your Brussels adventures, I think it also depends on the personality of a specific city. In my PBEM3, Brussels built a ridiculously large military, and was food-starved enough that I ignored it all the way until after T100. Served as a very useful barbarian shield though.

[pindicator]

Turn 078

When Brussels built another archer this turn I was ready to say "here we go again"

Instead I got a reminder about how awesome swords can be in this era




Archers had pegged the city down to around 120hp, and my 2 swords did the rest. It would have been nice to pillage all those tiles first but I didn't want to mess around since all these units have a long trip north ahead of them.

City renamed to Yazoo, and we'll build an Industrial Zone here as my first district. If this was single player I'd put Ruhr here. I know the terrain is poor with so much tundra, but there's so much production to be had at this city. I'm probably going to leave the marshes up and just farm over them.

[pindicator]

You know what I could do? Tech to Crossbows (~12 turns), save my gold, and instead of Monarchy head straight for Professional Army.

[pindicator]

New California just declared independence from the rest of California today:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-califor...-of-state/

Clearly they're angling for my next city name

[pindicator]

Turn 088

I don't know why I'm so reluctant to give updates. I've come through the holidays whole. I've finished off the flu, and then conquered the cabin weekend. I should be relaxed, re-energized. Instead, I find myself giving mind to the turns and then once closing the game not wanting to give it a second thought. So let's make myself go through some motions here:




Japper and I have set up a bit of a no-man's land, but at the same time I think this is okay. I probably will not make a serious attack against Japper until I get to Rough Riders.

In the meantime, I'm working on economy. I'll have Monarchy in 10 turns and that will add another dozen culture. Plus we'll have universities in about that timeframe too.

Not even sure what to talk about here... I did deviate for feudalism, and I had 3 builders mostly built right in time to switch civics over so I built most of the builders with +30% production and will complete them with +2 build charges. The one at Acadia will build a plantation, chop a few jungles, and build mines for the industrial zone that city needs to build. I really do need some commercial hubs as well though...

... and I still really regret that Theatre Square at the capital. Perhaps in 30 turns I'll like it more, but for now I hate that I didn't build a commercial district or a harbor.


What else to discuss?

[Ichabod]

I'm no longer ded-lurking, since I needed more things to read during holidays. But I just found out that the Simultaneum policy (double holy site buildings yields) doesn't work with the culture from Choral Music. So, here's a bit of info to plan around.

[pindicator]

I'm no longer ded-lurking, since I needed more things to read during holidays. But I just found out that the Simultaneum policy (double holy site buildings yields) doesn't work with the culture from Choral Music. So, here's a bit of info to plan around.

I understand, I've hit a bit of a lull in my reporting.  Although I am working to get out of that (see below)!  

Thank you for the information on Simultaneum.  It makes as much sense as the religious buildings not giving culture for Choral Music, so at least they keep things consistent    In all honesty, it probably means I don't run the policy - and likely means I'm scrapping my plan to beeline Reformed Church and the Theocracy government.  I'll be happy getting to a fast Monarchy instead, and will be better served by the housing bonus of that government instead.  I'm not really that put out about Simultaneum working or not working really, though it makes absolutely no sense to me why it does not.


Turn 091

Let's take a look at demographics.  I've gone ahead and ranked where I think the teams are, which doesn't necessarily line up with the in-game rankings.


Science

1. Alhambram - 18 techs, 32.7 science
2. Japper07 - 18 techs, 30 science
3. Pindicator - 18 techs, 35.4 science
4. Krill - 15 techs, 26.5 science
5. CFCJester - 15 techs, ??? science

The top 3 are all neck-and-neck here, but Alhambram picked up his 18th tech on t87, Japper on t88, and myself only hit #18 this last turn.  Japper has dropped the policy that doubles campus adjacency, which has prevented him from skyrocketing away.  I am still running it, though I'll be dropping it at the next opportunity.


Culture

1. Pindicator - 14 civics, 42.8 culture
2. Japper07 - 14 civics, 32.4 culture
3. Alhambram - 12 civics, 21.2 culture
4. Krill - 11 civics, 23 culture
5. CFCJester - 11 civics, ??? culture

Regardless of Simultaneum, Choral Music has still propelled us to overtaking Rome and claiming the clear lead in culture.  We had to hard-research Civil Service in our goal to rush Monarchy and 6-slot governments ... and really, a lot of the credit needs to be given to having Valletta as a city-state (I probably should keep track of how many buildings we've been able to purchase with faith, but it's a considerable amount now - something like 1 wall, 1 granary, and 2 monuments).  Actually, the large amount of coffee has been a huge boon as well:  those 2f2h1c tiles are nothing to scoff at.


Cities, Population & Districts

1. Pindicator - 7 cities, 28 population, 6 Districts (3 holy site, 2 campus, 1 theatre square)
2. Krill - 6 cities, 28 population (?), 4 districts (encampment, holy site, commercial, ???)
3. Japper07 - 6 cities, 24 population, 5 districts (3 campus, 1 holy site, 1 encampment)
4. Alhambram - 5 cities, 24 population, 3 districts (2 campus, 1 encampment)
5. CFCJester - 5 cities (?), 19 population (?), 5 districts (???)

While I have sight on all of Japper and Alhambram's cities, I only have sight on 2 Krill cities, and somehow I've not yet CFCJester yet.  (He seems to be either east or south of Krill.)  Krill or CFCJester could possibly have 3 population in exchange for a district, one way or the other, but I feel pretty confident about those numbers.


Wonders, Religion, GP, etc

Krill has a Great General and built the Pyramids
Alhambram has religion due to Stonehenge, and religion in 2 cities due to 2 holy sites.  He also has +1 science in his libraries due to Hypatia
I have religion in 3 cities


So I think I have a narrow edge still, but I'm going to need to work more in science in order to keep up there. Culture will come pretty naturally now, so I don't think I need to push for that. (And wtf was I thinking with that theatre square. That should have been literally any other district.)

I was going to go into what I did on 91 but I see the turn has almost come around again so I think I'll hold off for now.