[PB62] naufragar and Rusten earn their wage in rostygold

[naufragar]

Well, next turn sure will be interesting.


I moved onto the tile you see, although it's possible I should have moved to the tile 1W. The more I see of OakAshThorn's bfc, the nicer it looks. Our single sad tundra furs looks a bit embarrassing next to Mjmd's herd of ivory tiles. Whatever. Just makes me more and more convinced that OakAshThorn needs to die somehow.

Here's Mjmd's power:


I don't think I see any axes. Last estimate, I believed Mjmd had 2 chariots and 3 skirmishers. He deleted one chariot but his graphs hasn't gone done. Maybe there's an axe whip in there hidden by the chariot deletion? He can pretty easily whipe a spear, axe, and warrior if he's got units in position. Otherwise, we try to be a nuisance.

Here's the North:


You can see a worker near Veilgarden. He's helping our road network. Don't tell Mjmd but

I plan to re-found Wolfstad on turn 61. I need to keep Mjmd occupied for a little bit longer and then get a peace treaty that covers, hopefully, through the first 5+ turns of the city's life.

All depends on if Mjmd can "stack" wipe us next turn.

Edit: I took a pic of the Top Cities screen and Mjmd's capital is at size 2. Don't know how long that's been the case, but I imagine that was a two-whip of an axe.

[naufragar]

I don't get it. Are players finding the game super boring? It's been 14 hours of a 24 hour timer on a weekend and only one team has played. (Admittedly, that team, Tarkeel and Civac, have logged in enough for everybody, but it's clear they are laser-focused.) I probably shouldn't read any strategic significance into this... but I do.

[naufragar]

I get the turn with two hours left on the clock and have to make big decisions. Ugh.


For the record, this isn't Mjmd's fault. He plays at a pretty consistent window. It's just that window is right about when I go to sleep, so I wake up without much time left. I need to run the numbers. I'm pretty sure that OakAshThorn is super safe. The question is: do I stay around to be a nuisance? Do I advance my stack to the forest? Do I offer peace? For what it's worth, I opened the turn up to a peace offer from Mjmd. Well, time to quickly think some thoughts.

[naufragar]

Slapdash report as I run out the door:


We move into a bunch of forests. The axe near Mjmd's city is Combat 1 Woodsman 1, so the chariot does not get good odds. In fact, that axe on average beats the entire garrison when defending a hill forest. If I remember, I'll add a bigger picture, but look at Mjmd's culture in the East. I thought the city in the fog was his capital but the borders aren't making sense to me. Perhaps OakAshThorn is more of a reach than I thought?

The chariot loss showed up on the power graph:


I'm still waiting for an axe whip, but regardless of that, an axe+spear in a forest is a pain to dislodge in the ancient era.

Now, I'm a petty bitch, but there's a larger reason I haven't accepted peace yet:


We'll have a settler out soon to resettle Wolfstad. We want enough peace turns to get cultural defense in the city.

And I'm happy staying at war out a teeny tiny impulse of spite:


We're Creative, so our GNP is probably worse than Mjmd's but his is hurting. Fog reading tells me that he has way more river grassland than we do, so Financial will kick in in a big way, but it hasn't yet. Time to turn the screw.

Here's the demos screen:


I was half a turn too slow with the spear. If I had played before Mjmd, the city stands. If I whipped one turn earlier, the city stands. Instead, you see the widening gap between us and (I assume) Tarkeel/Civac. We're not out of it. But regardless, it's important for meta-game reasons to react with berserk fury to enemy aggression. I learned that from Superdeath.

[naufragar]

We advanced on Mjmd's city:


Um...wow! That city by itself has more green flat river tiles than Bing and my empires put together! Financial was a good pick with that in mind! I'm getting PB88 vibes, pushing axes from my sad land at a neighbor who is swimming in river commerce.

I probably should've kept the warrior with the stack, but maybe he baits out a chariot attack? Similarly, I wonder how long that forest hill axe lasts. It should take one unit down with it, but that's about all the use it's going to see. I'll offer Mjmd peace as soon as I know that I'll teleport back by my borders. Right now I would just land in the middle of his cities. I must have gotten Mjmd's monument completion date very wrong. I really thought his borders would've popped by now.

[naufragar]

Mjmd sent another peace treaty offer:


We have no interest in a peace treaty right now. It would trap our units between his two cities. Anyway, he started this war by razing a city from us in an unprovoked sneak attack.  If he wants peace, he should hurt me enough to make me want peace.

(But really, we probably offer him a peace treaty next turn.)


I cut the road between OakAshThorn and Barge Ballad. I looked up screenshots to see when OakAshThorn got its monument. I don't have any t49 pics and I see the monument on t50, so I assume Mjmd's border expands next turn. So next turn, if Mjmd hasn't destroyed my stack, I plan to move it 1SW to the forest and offer peace so I'm teleported back to my lands. We would then re-found Wolfstad. If this plan works out, Mjmd will lose both food resources of his greedy plant to me and Vanrober.

Speaking of Vanrober, I checked his diplo screen and he has Writing, which means Tarkeel/Civac don't. This is horrible. This, coupled with Tarkeel and Civac's dozens of log-is per turn suggest they might be going for a wonder run. Spain can land the Oracle pretty handily, but for our purposes, we have to stay paranoid about the Pyramids.

Mjmd can kill my lone axe, but if I set up my odds correctly, the axe should take a couple units down with it, which is a trade I'm fine with. I don't know if OakAshThorn gets reconnected to Mjmd's trade network when borders expand. Never really understood those rules. I doubt I did any damage, but with luck I gave a city somewhere a bit of unhappiness.

[naufragar]

Is there anything sweeter than peace?


Mjmd took peace but...



What the heck! Bad, bad teleport mechanics.  What? You think I was gonna take the time to figure out where my troops were gonna teleport to?  Oh well. Vanrober offered Open Borders, so I didn't have to declare yet another war.

We re-founded Wolfstad:


So basically all Mjmd's chariot raze accomplished was to drag us both back. Maybe he felt that was necessary after I ate Bing, but now it just means Tarkeel and Civac get to waltz ahead even further.  I doubt he'll be happy about Wolfstad. I think my units in Vanrober's land can get back in time. Annoyingly, I don't think I can farm the irrigated corn in time. I should have roaded the dry corn, but thoughtlessly I started farming it.  Have to think about it.

It was the right time to get out of the war:


I basically didn't build any extra units. I'm still behind in city count compared to, well, everybody, so I don't really have the build queues to support a large army. In his western empire alone, Mjmd has 5 skirmishers and a chariot (and a warrior). Imperialistic Mali is nasty. I'm angry at losing a city originally, but all things considered, we got off cheap. Now to fortify so Mjmd doesn't come knocking immediately in 10 turns.

I mean this really was a stupid war:


Again, I'm Creative, so I'm not doing so much better than Mjmd, but what in the world could have been worth that chariot raze? I'll be interested in reading his thread afterwards to find out why in the world he attacked. I'm Creative; any time I plant on the Wolfstad location I'm guaranteed to grab that corn. Did he think he could plant there before me? It just boggles the mind. What a pointless war. Let's see if I've got the time to grow onto cottages.

Since I'm sharing graphs, here's Crop, which is terrible.


I'm pretty sure we're 4th out of 5 for Crop. We're also almost certainly last to a fifth city. (I haven't met Superdeath officially.) But Vanrober and I, at least on this graph, are still beating Imperialistic Mjmd in Crop. What was this war for, man?

And hammers:


As with Crop, Imp/Fin Mali is under-producing compared to Phi/Cre and Cre/Org. F me. What a pointless war.

I'm getting crankier as I write this report, so let me rein ( ) it in. The chariot raze wasn't as crazy as I'm making it sound. If there's a time for Imp Mali to push, it's when he's ahead on cities and has chariots and skirmishers. OakAshThorn, the city that started the war, is probably greedy, but greed is good if you can get away with it. I shouldn't be getting mad at Mjmd.  Just have to think up ways to get back in this game and catch Tarkeel/Civac. 

[Amicalola]

I'm getting crankier as I write this report, so let me rein ( ) it in. The chariot raze wasn't as crazy as I'm making it sound. If there's a time for Imp Mali to push, it's when he's ahead on cities and has chariots and skirmishers. OakAshThorn, the city that started the war, is probably greedy, but greed is good if you can get away with it. I shouldn't be getting mad at Mjmd.  Just have to think up ways to get back in this game and catch Tarkeel/Civac. 

Isn't half the point of these games to get cranky? Or have I been doing it wrong?

But more seriously, I'm glad to see the change of heart. This is a great thread and I think you guys are still in a decent position. I'm looking forward to seeing how you play from here.

[Rusten]

Still haven't found the time to really check in, sorry. But from my quick scan you're perfectly entitled to be annoyed at that move.

I'll try to get back into it one of these upcoming days.

[naufragar]

Isn't half the point of these games to get cranky?

Still haven't found the time to really check in, sorry.

No worries! Hope you're feeling better! We're still making negative money, so not much to discuss. Once we get some pop points working cottages, we'll have decisions to make, but until then...