[PB69] Naufragar turns over a new leaf. Randomly.

[Tarkeel]

No worries, I can usually find the time to step in and play a quick turn, especially with clear instructions such as these.

[naufragar]

I didn't take very good pictures for this turn. Oh well. Here's the front:


Magic opted to bombard for a turn but without Accuracy? This makes my timing pretty awkward. I've moved my army into Cathy Ames in preparation for an attack on Miguelito next turn. The annoying thing is that Mig can see this attack coming, decide that his capital is more important than Joker, and move his stack out. Nothing I can do. I only have 7 turns left on my peace treaty, plus if I wait for Magic to take Joker, there's a non-zero chance that Magic Science can beat me to Mig's capital with horse archers. Well, ball's in Miguelito's court.

Speaking of peace treaties, I'm glad I have one:


Holy smokes, I need more units yesterday. I can always revolt to slavery if I feel scared, but I don't like this spike at all. This turn, somebody researched Engineering and somebody researched Vassalage. I can't tell which one Magic got, but I've been assuming Vassalage for a Guilds push, but perhaps he wants to attack before Knights?

It's a fascinating tactics puzzle. How to take a bite out of Miguelito/Ginger without facing his main strength, while beating Magic to the spoils, while also being able to move back in time to defend against Magic's next mean old war declaration.

[naufragar]

My lack of proper photography last turn comes back to bite me. I didn't track what exactly Magic and Miguelito had on the last turn, so it's hard to judge the aftermath:


Well, not that hard. Still a pretty obvious one-sided slaughter. I think Magic lost 3 hitters and 5 catapults? While Miguelito lost 25 units! What a blood bath.

With Miguelito's army vaporized, it was time to move in to vulture.


The annoying thing about the one-sidedness of last turn's battle is that Magic can beat me to Ginger's capital if he wants. Magic still has 8 cavalry units, so he can beat me to the cap. Now, he doesn't know how slow I'll be, nor does he know how spear-less Mig's capital is, so maybe he doesn't go for it, but he certainly can get it first.

It's not the end of the world of Magic starts taking or burning Ginger cities. I don't think they would be out of anarchy by the time our peace treaty expires, so it's likely I get first hit. If he burns them, it's annoying but the land is firmly in my sphere of influence. I'll settle them eventually.

I also advance with a small stack in the south:


I expect one more defender in Javert. I think I've got slightly better than coinflip odds to take this.

I knew (or sensed) that Magic was 1 tech ahead of me, and I thought it was Feudalism. But then Commodore revolted to Vassalage, so he and SD were the confirmed Feudalists. And then in the course of examining Magic cities for stables I saw this:


What's the slightly different pile of stones by the wall? What dastardly thing is Magic going to do with Engineering?  What makes me think he's planning on attacking me as soon as our peace expires? Well, his power's higher than mine and he's already declared war on me three times...

[naufragar]

Grumble grumble. Miguelito reinforced Javert with two horse archers at the expense of his capital:


So we weren't able to take it. It's safe until our main stack can get down. Grumble grumble. 

Those two horse archers were likely needed at Mig's capital, which now looks like it falls next turn:


(Remember to account for promo healing and there's at least 1 extra horse archer on the cow that I forgot to take a pic of before moving my sentry.) Magic conquered Joker on t146 and Cathy Ames still hasn't gotten its bfc now on t147. It would be freaking disastrous if the city didn't get its borders by next turn.

My main stack can't actually push much further than Iago before it needs to turn around to defend against my warmongering neighbor to the north. 

[naufragar]

Magic didn't push on to Miguelito's capital, but he decided to continue his outrageous behavior. Remember that he has three times declared (unprovoked!) war against me. I have never reciprocated. Now, due to the delay inherent in resetting cultural borders, he burned all the tiles immediately north of my city of Cathy Ames:


So now instead of enjoying a 5f corn tile, the poor city has to scratch food off of plains hills! Outrage after outrage. I guess he's counting on my peaceful nature. Look how he's denuded the land.  Some people are just a threat to world peace. 

Any mechanics experts want to guess what happens when Joker comes out of revolt? Will I get to keep the 2nd ring tiles that have ~28 points of my culture in them, or will Magic get those? 

On the subject of pillaging, all of Magic's brigandage has probably net him 100+ gold. He's already 2 techs ahead of me (Engineering and Code of Laws). We'll see how much further he gets. 

[Amicalola]

Any mechanics experts want to guess what happens when Joker comes out of revolt? Will I get to keep the 2nd ring tiles that have ~28 points of my culture in them, or will Magic get those? 

Should be about whether there is more Khmer or HOSAV culture on the tile (Celtic culture is irrelevant). So say it's 28% HOSAV, 70% Celtic, 2% Khmer, you get to keep it.

[Tarkeel]

Any mechanics experts want to guess what happens when Joker comes out of revolt? Will I get to keep the 2nd ring tiles that have ~28 points of my culture in them, or will Magic get those? 

Should be about whether there is more Khmer or HOSAV culture on the tile (Celtic culture is irrelevant). So say it's 28% HOSAV, 70% Celtic, 2% Khmer, you get to keep it.

Partially correct. Celtic culture is irrelevant [b]as long as there is no Celtic city currently claiming those tiles[b]. How long you get to keep those tiles will depend on multiple factors, but if you can pop third ring borders before Magic pops second ring, you have a shot at keeping them for a while. He's going to pop third ring before you pop fourth though, and then he will start claiming it back.

Let's say your city is pushing 6 culture per turn (Religion + temple + monastery + library). It will apply 7 (6+1) tile-cultureto tiles in the outer ring, and once you pop third ring (at 100 city culture) those tiles will be in an inner ring and get 10 instead of 1 bonus tile-culture. Likewise, once Joker pops 2nd ring (at 10 city culture), it will get to apply that +10 bonus to those tiles.

[naufragar]

Thanks, Amicalola and Tarkeel. That was how it worked, and Cathy Ames holds the tiles for now.


I am...angry. Take a look at this:


I logged on because I was shocked that Magic was able to capture Miguelito's capital. Of course, it helps when Miguelito empties it. But notice that he didn't empty it to get away from my units. I can still kill his stack with a settler and great general in tow. So the only thing Miguelito wanted to accomplish was to give his city away to Magic. Who has taken or burned some...5? cities of his already. That's fucking insane. Again, I can't complain too much because Miguelito never signed on to be the turn player, but holy smokes does stuff like this make me angry. It's hard to see any strategic reasoning besides screwing me over. Either way he loses the units and the city. He would just rather give them away for free than fight? Disgusting.

Didn't have time to finish the turn. Probably for the best.

[Tarkeel]

I logged on because I was shocked that Magic was able to capture Miguelito's capital. Of course, it helps when Miguelito empties it. But notice that he didn't empty it to get away from my units. I can still kill his stack with a settler and great general in tow. So the only thing Miguelito wanted to accomplish was to give his city away to Magic. Who has taken or burned some...5? cities of his already. That's fucking insane. Again, I can't complain too much because Miguelito never signed on to be the turn player, but holy smokes does stuff like this make me angry. It's hard to see any strategic reasoning besides screwing me over. Either way he loses the units and the city. He would just rather give them away for free than fight? Disgusting.

Didn't have time to finish the turn. Probably for the best. 

Having just fought a war in which the opponent was giving away cities for free, I really feel your pain. Not much you can do about it though.

[naufragar]

Oh, and while I'm venting, remember how Commodore decided to build a road in Magic Science's land for no benefit of his own, solely to facilitate a Magic attack on my capital? Is he continuing his project?


Notice how he never got control over the sheep tile he roaded. Is he adding another road so that Magic can attack my capital with only 2 turns of notice? If he does, that's the sort of thing I have to go to war over to fix. Hopefully Commodore's not an idiot and this is just a mine. Asshole. Edit: He'd rather put a worker on this hill than improve (plantation/cottage) his dyes? Why?