T158-159
Turns are chugging along. I got tech visibility back on Cairo, and he's, um, not doing what I expected. He's researching Gunpowder!! Cairo, you're meant to be researching up to Free Market/Oxford like me. Why aren't you playing the appropriate role in my plan?
I'm getting a little worried that what's about to happen to me is what I planned to do 10 turns ago. That being, I research Free Market while Cairo unlocks cuirs, or frigates, and takes me to pound-town. Maybe the Free Market plan is too ambitious, and I need to scale back a bit. I could get Astronomy first (now), and then save up for the GA while bulbing Chemistry? Frigates+Galleons would make me feel pretty safe from any potential attack in that direction.
I guess a potential upside is that I could settle the Astro islands in something like 12 turns. Extremely late, and bordering on useless (not sure I even bother), but maybe it's worth it if I'm getting Astro anyway. But I lose the Free Market beakers, and delay the GA by something like 15 turns. Why is everything so difficult?!
(But really, these decisions are fun/engaging. They're just driving me crazy; I keep second-guessing myself every turn, and changing my plans. On that note, I think I'm going to log back in and switch to Astronomy research...).
Updated Plan for Astro Settling. I call it 'better late than never.'
Each Galleon (5 total) will carry a settler, worker, and oromo warrior. I don't think I need to defend them seriously, at least at first, because no one on Island One has Astronomy. I guess I'll find out if that's smart or not. The cities will have no way to pop borders for a long time, so I'm just settling them all on the first-ring seafood resources.
T160
Astro timeline has been increased by approximately 1 turn, thanks to a loan from Tarkeel. But the main reason I'm posting is to have pictures of Cairo's stacks, to compare to on the following turns. His power is significantly higher than mine now, and he's not slowing down yet.
Here's an easier-to-parse count of all units:
- 21 Knights
- 21 Catapults
- 6 Maces
- 2 War Elephants
- 10 Horse Archers (including Great-Medic Hernan Cortez)
- 5 Swords
- 5 Axes
- 2 Spears
Interestingly, Cairo still doesn't have Engineering, so I don't think he's expecting an attack; perhaps I should have rushed him after all. Cairo is researching Education this turn (in 1 turn! ), so maybe I don't need to be as worried.
T161-164
Not much happened these turns, but this is pretty scary.
I really hope I can direct whatever Cairo is planning into Naufragar, and not myself. Best case scenario is probably "hey Amica, you want to finish the job against those dastardly Villagers?" Kind of considering sending that myself, but I don't want to look desperate.
I haven't played the last 5 turns very carefully, for RL reasons, but I'm hoping to get mentally back into the game now. I'm building a whole bunch of banks, which I'll whip after the upcoming research spurt. Not sure if I'll get Education->Economics, or Chemistry first. We'll see where Cairo sends these units, and what diplo he sends me. The one saving grace is that Cairo doesn't have Chemistry (or Engineering) himself; not that it'll take him many turns to get there. I spent a few minutes panicking before I realised that Engineering is a prereq for Chemistry.
I'm really not sure what to report in this game. I've never made it this far solo in a game, let alone been in a semi-decent position. The Astro island ships are on the way, I'll definitely update that when it's settled. The 'Around the World' reports will be coming every 25 turns, but that leaves a month of empty space. Is there anything that lurkers would like to be updated on, specific or in general? I'm open to any suggestions, honestly.
For some reason, the fort is taking forever to do the same, despite turns of culture buildings and it being first ring (do forts get culture bonuses, or something?). With Cairo's help, and the ability to raze Delhi out of the fog, we can probably divide Naufragar roughly equally. Note Naufragar's caravels that have moved away from the inner sea - I'm getting worried he's planning some kind of naval attack, which would catch me off-guard at the moment. There's too many things to build everywhere. Nauf is mostly still building infrastructure though, so I don't think he's planning an all-out assault, or anything.
I also bulbed Education this turn, and asked Tarkeel and Civac each for a loan to get me to Economics a turn faster. I'm taking the risk of going for the economy first, because any slim chance of winning I have left is dependent on the economy.
In world news, Civac finished off Elkad, and Ramk doesn't seem long for this world either.
Edit: I'm very quickly realising that offer was ridiculously ambitious. How am I supposed to attack Naufragar in 3 turns when I'm currently worried about his ships attacking me? This is why I don't normally play before drinking my coffee. I sent Cairo a fish/fish afterwards, and next turn we'll see what he makes of everything.
I think I'm going to set up a timer for my turns, to make sure they don't go longer than 45 mins. That is probably one of the better ways to avoid the burnout of two lategame turns per day. I'm also trying to take the games less seriously, but I've said that enough times to know it's a little hollow. I'll always get too attached to my civ games, to some extent. Maybe taking shorter turns will help with that too.
I have enjoyed your reporting this far. In my opinion most interesting posts are the ones related to your planning. For example if you are planning to invade Nauf once you have plan in mind picture of relevant area and reasoning behind your plan would be interesting to read. But if it takes too much time it's ok to scale reporting back
Completed: pb38, pb40, pb41, pb42, pb46 and pb49
Playing: pbem78
(September 12th, 2021, 01:34)Amicalola Wrote: 31 pop. whipped
With a golden age next turn. Do I invite death?
Yes.
So last turn, I whipped 9 banks despite being about to go into a Golden Age. I also finished Economics at the start of this turn. So the Free Market conversion is obvious, but whipping 31 pop into buildings the turn before a Golden Age, and then launching one at 0% research must seem pretty weird. Or bad. Maybe it just is. But I figure Golden Ages are good for research because you have research multipliers, so maybe the opposite is true if you have a lot of gold multipliers? And now I do! I decided to launch the GA now (with lots of gold multipliers), instead of later (with lots of science modifiers) for a few reasons:
Need to catch up to Cairo before he realises how dead-in-the-water I currently am to an Ottoman attack. His GA set him thoroughly ahead in military and economic tech, and I need to catch up.
Switching into Free Market ASAP, to aid the above. This is worth about 130-150 raw commerce, which is absurd. There is similar reasoning behind Serfdom - it provides about 100 commerce and 30 hammers currently, and I need every bit of commerce/hammers I can squeeze right now. The ultra-risky part of this is the next 3 turns, before I can switch back. If Cairo goes ahead with our 'attack Naufragar' plan for that timeframe, I'm golden. If he sees the civic swap and correctly identifies me as a piñata full of sweets, we're in trouble.
I have some crippling loan debts that make my GNP look smaller than it is (to the tune of nearly 200 gpt!), for the benefit of 1700 gold a few turns ago. That helped me get to Free Market quicker, meaning I should about break even on gold (maybe even profit!). But it had another purpose too: If PB56 and PB58 taught me anything, it's the value of being underestimated, and artificially lowered demos are a great way to achieve that. Even better during a GA, which is when I'd look the most concerning to other players.
A few other things. Here's the demos before and after the GA launched:
Before:
After:
Pretty huge difference, with the obvious, immediate, and huge caveat that I can't whip and am a complete sitting duck for anyone who wants to take a swing. Let's hope they don't notice?
It's pretty hilarious that I still make more money from trade routes than tiles in a Golden Age. The Pindicator invasion damaged my cottages' progress more than anything else. Or maybe I'd just already bungled that. Part of the problem with my 'vomit settlers onto the map' playstyle is that my cottages always suck. I guess that's something I need to work on.
I also finished settling my cities on the Astro island:
I ended up going for 5 strong cities, and I can settle a western filler later on if I want as well. Without Free Market, these cities break even. With it, they actually turn a profit already!
My tech path going forward definitely starts with Chemistry, so I can catch up on sea power. I should get that in 2 turns, I believe. After that, I'm looking at Nationalism for drafting, and then either Printing Press + Replaceable Parts for the tile yields, or Steel for Drydocks (I guess cannons are ok too). Not sure which I'll go for yet. It probably depends how crippling my loan debts end up being, and where Cairo goes (he's putting a lot of EPs into me all of a sudden... ). I'm definitely counting on the peaceful nature that Cairo is known for, and that he was researching Printing Press (not Steel) last turn when I could see it.
Overall, I have no idea whether this is a genius play to get back into the game (I'm fine food/MFG-wise, but my tech sucks), or if I've just signed my own death warrant. It would be wrong to call me defenseless, since I do have plenty of troops left over from other wars, but it would also be wrong to call me 'prickly' currently. I guess we'll find out over the coming turns.
Oh, so you still want to attack Naufragar. Together, even? Well that sounds like literally the best idea ever.
And 'attack Naufragar,' Cairo is doing. He's taken two cities on the first turn of their war!
For my part, I have been daydreaming about a world where Cairo and I can peacefully coexist. One where I can invade Tarkeel (who's going to stop me? Superdeath? Commodore?), and then Superdeath with his Buddhist shrine, and eventually the whole of Continent One. Of course, those are only daydreams, because Cairo exists. The real problem is that Cairo has no alternative - he can't invade Continent Three, which is much stronger than Continent One, so there's no chance he'd let me do it. Oh well, they were nice daydreams. Back to figuring out a realistic plan. I guess that wistful daydream will just always be in the back of my mind. I'm giving myself one more round of eco buildings now, while I'm still in Organised Religion, since it looks like I will be able to reach rifles before I need to fight someone next. Ideally, that's the eastern continent, realistically it's probably Cairo.
But maybe I can get something overseas to work - Miguelito seems to be invading Mjmd currently, with Civac on the other side (Civac also borders Continent Three). I'm not sure why Civac is just letting him do it; if Miguelito pulls this off, he is 'guaranteed' instead of 'very likely' to outscale Civac and kill him later. In fact, if Miguelito doesn't get attacked by Civac in the near future, I'd give himan extremely high chance to win this game. C'mon civac, do something!
Cairo, you're meant to be researching up to Free Market/Oxford like me. Why aren't you playing the appropriate role in my plan? 
This is why I don't normally play before drinking my coffee. I sent Cairo a fish/fish afterwards, and next turn we'll see what he makes of everything.
But I figure Golden Ages are good for research because you have research multipliers, so maybe the opposite is true if you have a lot of gold multipliers? And now I do! I decided to launch the GA now (with lots of gold multipliers), instead of later (with lots of science modifiers) for a few reasons:
