[PB25-SPOILERS] The Lunacy of the Reign of HAK Continues

[HitAnyKey]

Laptop only has about 17 min of power left (and I forgot to bring my power cord with me) so just enough time for a quick screenshot dump:

I accepted this.

[Zed-F]

How are preparations coming along to attack Donovan, assuming that is indeed the plan?

[HitAnyKey]

First the quick demos:

Right now next turn I'll get 7 Cav, 16 Cuirs, 9 Rifles, and possibly some other 1-movers to the tile 1NE of Chick-fil-A next turn. That same turn would upgrade all the Cuirs to Cav's as I'll have over 2700 gold after this turn. I could move in on the offensive the following turn if I felt like it.
Have another Cav + 2 Cuirs that could arrive on the following turn. Also need to decide if it's even worth sending the Catapults that are now down in Thapsus that direction. They would not get there in time for the invasion, so still debating about that. That's basically the only reason I haven't ended turn just yet.

I got a Great Engineer this turn, to go with my Great Scientist & Great Prophet. But sadly, the best it seems i can do for pumping GPPs is to get another gp out of Frantic in 16 turns. And I doubt this game will even last that long. Plus, Frantic is polluted with all the specialists, so there'd even be a chance I get a duplicate. So it's looking like a Golden Age is going to be out of the question.

I also completed the AP this turn, so any Taoist buildings I had made are now giving me an extra 2 hpt. I only finished it because I had started it. This would be good for the long-term, but at this point...there is no long-term. The goal now is to have some fun wartime and see if I can attempt to push Donovan to be ready to concede to Commodore before I fall out of 2nd place.
Anyway, that's it for now I guess. I'll end the turn later this morning when I make the decision on the catapults and other units sitting inside Thapsus. Comm didn't move through Tacape (currently leaving all his units in there), so not sure where he plans to send them. Also don't know why he liberated the city back to Gavagai.

I have to say, it does kinda suck seeing yourself with the highest Power....and NOTHING you can do with it against the #1 player because of the types of stuff he has and the absolute control of the seas that he has.

[MindyMcCready]

Right now next turn I'll get 7 Cav, 16 Cuirs, 9 Rifles, and possibly some other 1-movers to the tile 1NE of Chick-fil-A next turn.

Not really sure of the situation since you're reporting is pretty sparce. If Donovan's got that lookout Musket still there the better launch point is 1N2W of Bouncy. But that requires 2 combat engineers to road 2N2E of Chick-fil-A.

We'll also need those LKs 2E of Kerk in order to reinforce The Fortress against Cuirs. Maybe a rifle as well if we don't think that'll set Donovan off.

Those 2-movers are a little lighter than I though that we would have. More en route or did they get stuck on the SE island?

Have another Cav + 2 Cuirs that could arrive on the following turn. Also need to decide if it's even worth sending the Catapults that are now down in Thapsus that direction. They would not get there in time for the invasion, so still debating about that. That's basically the only reason I haven't ended turn just yet.

I assume that the reason that MC gave the city to Gavagai is so that he could use his culture. You're probably going to lose Thaspus next turn if that's the case. You haven't posted anything about reinforcing that city so it'll be a goner very soon unless you act on that.

The goal now is to have some fun wartime and see if I can attempt to push Donovan to be ready to concede to Commodore before I fall out of 2nd place.

I'm going to observe that it really doesn't seem like you're having any fun at all. Hang in there! The next 3-4T could still be fun as we try our Civ4 tactics against Donovan's Civ5 tactics. :LOL:

I have to say, it does kinda suck seeing yourself with the highest Power....and NOTHING you can do with it against the #1 player because of the types of stuff he has and the absolute control of the seas that he has.

[HitAnyKey]

So yesterday I didn't manage to get around to taking any screenshots, but mostly everything was still just moving things to the staging point anyway.
Here's the status as of right now:

This one is at 100% research. Forgot to close/reopen the demos when I lowered it while in this screen.

And this one is at 0% research.

Here's what I have staged and what things look like in the lands around Sparta:

Then just some other world news:
The imminent fall of Grumpy...

Around Thapsus he's mainly got a few units trashing the improvements, with the rest all sitting inside Tacape. Though Gavagai sailed a bunch of Knights form his island, over to Dragon Judge, and is marching them down as well to help cause me trouble down there. Not really anything I can do about all that. If I retreat the units, I lose another city...only to fall back to another city that I wouldn't be able to protect. So I figure I may as well make the stand at this one. Probably should have done so at Tacape.

For this possible attack on Donovan (maybe next turn, depending on what he does against Sparta)...
I've gotten all the staged Cuirs upgraded to Cavalry, combat workers in place, a few LKs and some Rifles on the Iron which would get roaded. I'm thinking I might need to/want to pull back those Rifles this turn off the Iron. Next turn if Donovan sails any of those ships around this side of the island, he'll see the rifles and probably get an idea of why they are sitting there. He still may wonder about the LKs and what they are doing on that spot.

If I don't upgrade anything else, I can have Cannons start being built in 3 turns (already getting some hammers into Catapults to have them switch over). Don't think this will help me anywhere, but it's something to do tech-wise. I'd also then be able to save gold after that for upgrading all the Catapults I currently have. I'm also considering the possibility of upgrading Caravels, but don't think that's an option anymore since Comm now has Iron Clads in position everywhere. So I can't even realistically 2-1 hit his Frigates.
Gotta head out for a few hours, so will finish the turn later.

[HitAnyKey]

For you lurkers, letting you know that I'm no longer really doing much planning or stuff. And in case you see him looking at the threads, Mindy is no longer consulting with me and has reverted to lurker status. I've decided that the game is over and at this point I do totally officially concede the win to Commodore. The only reason I'm still playing on is because from what was posted earlier, Donovan is not yet ready to concede. My guess is because he wants to have fun finishing off Ruff and/or then deciding to come down and attack me from the north while Commodore and now Gavagai come at me from the west (on that landmass). The two of them combined will likely be moving in on Thapsus in a turn or two.
Commodore is also getting very close to be able to land troops around Happy, I think. He's been bombarding that city and now has 3 Galleons and a Galley sitting next to it. So when he chooses, he can drop off 11 units there and then probably send the ships back to get more. He's also imminently close to Assembly Line, so even though I'll get Steel in 2 turns, that just won't be enough.
Some of this is also due to my current state of mind in my life, since now even my temp job ended last week. So I'm now fully unemployed and to the point of just applying to retail stores for some seasonal work to get us the extra bit of income we need to survive. My F'ing condo just won't sell (and even if/when it does I'll likely have to obtain a $15-20k+ loan just to pay off the remaining mortgage difference) so that's a huge drain on what would otherwise be a decent income from my wife. And yesterday I had the lovely punch in the face of actually being told by a temp agency that a possible position I could have had, the manager decided they didn't want me because I was OVERQUALIFIED and he didn't think I'd stick around long enough. So not only have I been underqualified for all the other jobs I had interviews with....now I'm also overqualified for some. Well, hopefully I don't end up being overqualified to work as a stock boy somewhere for the Xmas season.
[/rant]

[Zed-F]

Sorry to hear about the RL troubles, HAK. Being unemployed sucks.

[Mardoc]

So not only have I been underqualified for all the other jobs I had interviews with....now I'm also overqualified for some. Well, hopefully I don't end up being overqualified to work as a stock boy somewhere for the Xmas season.
[/rant]

It'll work out. I've been there. It sucks, but you'll find someone who wants you sooner than you think.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Sorry to hear the trouble. On the employment situation, if you keep hearing about being overqualified for a given position it may help to leave some things of your resume. Maybe have one resume you use applying for temp/seasonal jobs and your real resume you use to apply for the longer jobs you really want?

[HitAnyKey]

So Donovan will be logging in this turn to find The Fortress no longer in his control. I took it from him this past turn. He still hadn't attacked Sparta again, apparently waiting maybe waiting for his units to heal and reinforcements to arrive (I saw him sending in more Catapults). But The Fortress was going to come out of revolt at the turn roll, so I didn't want to wait any longer. This actually gives Ruff a reprieve, since I bet Donovan will now have to pull back to protect his inner core...or something. I actually even considered razing the city and burning the MoM city to the ground. But decided to keep it just for the hell of it. If I can wipe out enough of his stuff....either cities or his Cuirs as they return home....then maybe he'll become ready to concede. Otherwise there will just be a whole bunch of blood all over the world for lurker amusement.