[PB64] naufragar's bingo parlor for assassins

[naufragar]

I'm getting a worrying sense of deja vu:


Amica has indeed declared war on Gavagai, but he hasn't moved his army. It's likely he's waiting to see which way Gav commits. If Gav commits my way, does Amica attack? If Gav doesn't commit, does Amica peace out in a rerun of my 3-party war? Gav offered me Alexander III for peace. I think I can take more than this. If Amica doesn't move his troops, we try to get out of this war ASAP. Hopefully I can grab Alex III and Alex II (Gav's southernmost tundra city). But seeing Amica sit still is causing me some concern. Since Gav offered me territory for peace, I can only imagine he's offering the same to Amica. Prisoner's dilemna again. What's the winning strategy for that again? I am one of the weakest players on this map and trying to take territory away from one of the strongest. It calls for a gentle touch. Let's see if I've got it.

Here are our forces:


The most Gav can do at Alex III is to move all his horse archers from the fog, either to garrison the city or to throw them at my stack and hope for flanking damage on the catapults. I imagine this could energize Amica. All this to say, I don't know what happens next turn. Let's find out together.

[chumchu]

Thank you for the detailed reporting. This has been the most pb to lurk for a Long while.

[naufragar]

Thanks, Chumchu! (I notice your Foucaults are multiplying! )

I think the players in this PB are all high skilled, high focus, high reporting players which has got to make it just bundles of fun for lurkers as much as players.

[naufragar]

Despite my inability to understand Gavagai's motivations most of the time, I do sense that he and I are kindred spirits in some ways. I even think I like him, in some love-hate relationship.

I opened up the turn to this offer:


I had turned this offer down previously, so I wondered what had changed.

It turns out that Gav moved his cavalry up to threaten Cistercia. This is what I mean by kindred spirit.


This is the kind of move I would make. Aggressive, promising mutual destruction if the offer wasn't taken. I deeply respect it. The problem is the terrain. He has essentially split his stack, and once Alexander III falls and its culture disappears, my stack can reach his via the roads. (And I brought combat workers if that road were to have been cut.)

So things went very badly for Gav:


The power of catapults. 

I haven't done the math, but I'm pretty sure I got lucky.

I'm also pretty sure that even with average luck I take the city and wipe the stack. With below average luck, I think I still take Alex III and damage the horse stack enough that Cistercia doesn't fall. Catapults are absolutely nasty.

Speaking of which, here are Amica's:


I would like to get out of this war now please. I offered Gavagai peace in exchange for Alexander II (southern tundra city). I'm trying to be at least a decent ally, so I sent Amica a fish for fish with a 1gold trade. Hopefully he understands this as "I'm getting out in 1 turn." I don't think he should be too mad. After all, I just ravaged Gav's horse archers, which were his only defense against Amica's cats. Amica can now take a couple cities off Gav all by himself. Plus, Amica did sit on his hands for a couple turns until Gav committed to me and it was safe for him to move up. Not a bad move, but one doesn't fill me with a sense of obligation.

Things stay interesting, of course. Gav might not accept the peace. (In fact, Gav logged in after me to check the carnage, and of course couldn't accept the peace treaty out of order. So the real question is, does he reoffer?) If he doesn't take peace, I don't know if I'll push further or in what direction. If he does accept the peace, I don't know what Amica does. Amica should be strong enough to grab a couple cities. But maybe he doesn't feel that way and sends his army against me? No idea. What I do know is that I'm one turn away from Guilds. That's nice. 

[thestick]

 

In your T150 report, you mentioned that your second city was a mistake. Could you elaborate on that? Sorry if you mentioned it earlier, because I forgot.

[naufragar]

In your T150 report, you mentioned that your second city was a mistake. Could you elaborate on that? Sorry if you mentioned it earlier, because I forgot.

If I mentioned it earlier, it would've been 100+ turns ago, so no reason anyone should remember. My second city split off a pig tile from the capital and brought in no new food tiles of its own. Normally, I'm fine with splitting food off from the capital, but at the time, the cap only had 2 clams (and pre-Sailing, so no Lighthouse, so 4f each). I should've founded my second city four tiles to the west and picked up a wheat. That way I'm up 5 net food rather than 0. It was a massive hit to the snowball.

[Mjmd]

I may have lambasted you in the lurker thread for that city at the time as well  . I thought you would go south for the corn / copper.

Love the reporting and all the fighting though. I have to repeat this game has been great to lurk.

[naufragar]

I may have lambasted you in the lurker thread for that city at the time as well

I knew it! The lurker thread is just dozens of pages insulting poor earnest naufragar. 

Man, you miss one day of reporting PB64 and you miss an entirely new conspiracy:

Last turn, Superdeath sent me this:



I gotta be honest. I have no idea what this means. But he also sent a standard alliance offer and attacked Gav. Unfortunately, I decided to offer Gav a white peace. This is going to make Superdeath... unhappy. But I can't stay at war and invite an attack by Amica. Here's the power graph after Gav and my battle:




In our Amica-Gav-naufragar triangle, I have yet to be on the wrong end of a 2v1. I'm trying to keep it that way. Honestly, Superdeath ought to be able to make territorial gains on his own if he wants. I just need to retreat in my shell. I'm watching Amica. With my characteristic lack of subtlety, I've parked a knight on a tile he can see. Perhaps it'll be a deterrent. I've got over double his tech rate right now, so I'm happy enough to build up. (Ginger has about double my economy right now but hopefully that's mostly golden age stuff. He picked up Compass, which worried me. Still not sure what he's doing.)

Speaking of Ginger...


Did he burn a riverside hamlet that was going to be in Alexander III's borders?     

[Krill]

Mwahahaha. The curse of the RtR mod change strikes again.

[Mjmd]

I may have lambasted you in the lurker thread for that city at the time as well

I knew it! The lurker thread is just dozens of pages insulting poor earnest naufragar. 

Did he burn a riverside hamlet that was going to be in Alexander III's borders?     

Of course!

Also, there is an obvious answer to such an insult   . You know, just a bit.