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

[Ginger()]

First off, a little civilian infrastructure flex post:
   
Yummy


In military news, I've pulled some units off of the border with Gavagai and shuffled them over to the west.
Maybe I'm making the game ending mistake, but I've decided to trust that Gavagai will not coordinate splitting me with Commodore, and as a result I've slightly reduced my garrison and unless Commodore whips all his cities in the coming turn, I will stay in Serfdom.
 While Gavagai could brute force Embassytown (at unspeakably high casualties). Superdeath probably factors as a threat in Gavagai's mind, and there is no way for SD to exist if Gav swallows me, however much SD might like to see me pay for my sins. I think Gav also believes that Amicalola will attack to retake that central river valley if that opportunity arises. Worst case scenario my paranoia can concoct is that Amica is fixated on Nauf and has signaled this to Gav unbeknownst to me.

Speaking of Amicalola, I've uncovered some of the Persian core...
   
Someone needs to check ma boi in for rehab, GLH addiction is no joke 

[Ginger()]

I just noticed that Nauf made a 6-tile Moai...   

   
If I chop a tile equidistant and outside BFC, which city does it go into? The larger one, the earliest-founded?

   
Magic Science, you expressed surprise at taking the food option on the stables quest. 
Look at the growth of this city, it would take 8 turns to grow another size without the baray stable. So that's 3 turns of additional tile working I get for each pop point the city grows. Additionally, for the cities that have stopped growing altogether, it's worth a continuous 3H 1C as each stables enables another plains hill windmill (I've got plenty of plainshills, it's what inspired the Machinery bulb).

Commodore's power is spiking again, I can only assume he's gearing up for round 4 of War and Peace. This truly feels like I'm trapped in Russian novel. The walls of the consequences of my action are inexorably closing in on me, and only the intervention of other's pointless misery (Gavagai's struggles) can save me from otherwise certain doom.

[Cornflakes]

If I chop a tile equidistant and outside BFC, which city does it go into? The larger one, the earliest-founded?

Should be earliest founded. But you can confirm by using SHIFT to queue worker actions to move to that tile and hover over the chop button and it will tell you which city will get the chop (use a worker that has already moved that turn so the worker doesn't run off if you accidentally let go of shift)

[Ginger()]

Okay thanks, it did turn out to be the non-Parthenon-building-city, sadly. 

Now for the turn report, final turn of the first golden age. We settled into our final cast of civcs last turn and now just enjoy the last tick of production in our units and gold in our treasuries.

I one-turned a chariot out of Dune last turn, with the intent of A) getting a triple promo unit to unlock HE, and B) placing it under Commodore's stack on the jungle square if he neglected workers in his advance.
I opened the turn to see no approaching Celtic army, proving once and for all that I suck at reading people.
   
Maybe he's just juking me by delaying a turn, but I locked myself out of Slavery with last turn's civic switches. Also this tea leaf reading is pointless, the odds are his stack will be in that city whether he plans on invading or not. Even if Naufragar wasn't hilariously embroiled (dude got Gavagai to post, man that's not a good sign), the border on Commodore's other side is two-tiles thick with jungle. 

I deleted the chariot after this picture was taken, no sense in revealing that I've settled my GG and best not to look too curious. That trireme peek is already revealing my naval paranoia and a possible weakness for Comm to exploit. 

I think I finally figured out why Commodore marched his HA stack on parade. I had asked for OB with the intent of de-escalation and army observation (funny, I know, but hey, it rarely hurts to ask), and I think Commodore was saying "hey you want to see my army, here's my army, now fuck off". 

Great Library finishes EoT

[Ginger()]

I’ve debated teching Guilds, but I think I want Construction and Music first. Ideally I would greed the music artist for as long as possible but my paranoia is ticking. Then I probably launch a second golden age in about 10 turns and try and end in Mercantilism and Slavery and whip an obscene army that some banks can pay for. Then I limp to Paper after saving some scientists to bulb Optics/Astro

[civac2]

Commodore came out to play.



I don't think he brought enough friends though.

Commodore probably is somewhat unlucky with the timing. (Hope I'm not jinxing it. ) Ginger got cold feet and instructed me to research Construction before Music as long as no one get Aesthetics. No one did and so we can now train elephants and catapults. The HE also finished a mere turn ago. Six of Ginger's 8 cities can 2-3 turn elephants due to supercharged Serfdom. I doubt Commodore expects that kind of warmaking potential without use of slavery.

The pure elephant builds are also Ginger's idea. We won't have enough time to produce a sufficient number of catapults for a collateral strike. But the elephants have odds against everything but the spear on flatland. If Commodore goes around Dune and reaches the hill chain things get tricky.

[civac2]

So after mocking Commodore a bit I had a look at my post and realised I had totally missed his boats.

Serves me right I guess. So far 3 galleys have been seen, one lagging a bit behind.



This is not a terribly large force but does pose serious logistical problems. Ginger's first war elephant finished and in a bout of foolhardiness exemplary display of courage attacked out to defeat an opposing elephant. Otherwise we left all units in place as vodka says that attacks on Dune without bombardment or the stack northeast of Dune would fail decisively.

Commodore also offered peace for 30gpt. Ginger asked me to counter with peace for 10gpt. In light of the mounted skirmish I almost regret the offer but the galleys are a problem regardless.

[Ginger()]

I’m awaiting boarding for my flight back, so I thought I’d give an outline of the recent developments. First of all a big thank you to Civac for covering for me and for dedicated attention to detail and much-needed tactical advice


The situation is a bit dicey, with the biggest threat being the Guerilla stack and it’s threat to the Moai or Capital.
It can probably be contained but things like Commodore ferrying more units or a couple bad rolls could make this quickly go south. It’s also just tile pillages and distraction and diverted resources, shuts down assistance that might crush Commodore’s main stack. Also it’s like walking on a cliff edge, if I miss a move it could all end in a blink.

It seems that Commodore has little chance of cracking Dune’s defenses, even after stripping cultural defense. So his big stack is more of a vulnerability than an active asset. Once I reach a critical mass to overwhelm the better defenders, and I can hit with my Cross/Longbows, Commodore risks a huge loss.

A couple mistakes,
1) should’ve finished Music and possibly launched golden age to boost production and decisively churn out enough units. I don’t expect a lot more population growth, so delaying the golden age doesn’t make sense.
2) should’ve built a couple triremes in Dune (double promo)
3) built LB instead of WE (2t vs 3t) in Moai/Cap

Commodore insists on 30gpt but that’s out of the cards. I sent a 20gpt offer though. Partially bc I’m very curious if he accepts. And partially because while it might improve his standing relative to mine, it does lift me a bit relative to the rest of the players.

[civac2]

This was the situation.



Commodore landed 6 Guerrilla 2 units at least some of which were able to promote further to Guerrilla 3. The main stack moved east on the hill.

We stuffed some horse archers into the capital but Commodore ended up accepting peace for 20 gpt. Undoubtedly to the chagrin of the bloodlusty lurkers.

[Ginger()]

Economy this game is really weird, I flip a switch, and I have a competitive gold generation and no unit production. Or vice versa
Ended up launching the golden age because I do not expect to get more population. 
The ambition was to do Guilds and Banking, but I will pick up Compass to be able to bulb Optics (Whales, Caravels, +1 coastal TR). As a result, I do not think I will make Banking in time for the golden age to be able to swap into Mercantilism. I do not think I would've been able to do it in any case, but Compass does seal the deal.

On the plus side, our power growth potential with the MFG economy is really good. We have a very pleasing spike at the time of Commodore's invasion. I think we can easily roll over Commodore in 10 turns with knights and Caravels available and a few Cats ready. 

   
:gruebel: