[Spoilers] Lazteuq and RefSteel's PB51 Adventure

[Lazteuq]

T164: Nothing much happened to us since last turn, but I sure do feel bad for Vanrober. Ramk just declared on him and took a city.

Toyota Supra is looking like a very nice target. It just built a catapult and he will surely dry whip a longbow, but that can't stop 7 knights!
Plan is to whip out a galley (and trireme?) and cause some stress on his western coast.

Superdeath once again did not move the praets out of Ford Mustang, despite 10/12 praets being on full hp. Maybe he thinks we have more units in the east than we really do?
I just realized I could have easily pillaged the roads from Mustang with the knights' extra movement points a few turns ago! At least then those knights would have achieved something useful.
I roaded the hill 1NW of Firebird so maces and knights can attack from a hill into the city if he recaptures it. His best opportunity to strike will be this turn; the longer he waits, the better it is for us.


Here's the usual war picture: White dots are known to be empty tiles. 

War weariness is going to be a real impact soon. However, Notre Dame is halfway done (4 turns left). We might actually manage to build 1 wonder this game!!! Also for happiness, we'll have wine connected from near Pigpolis. Enchilada is the only city suffering unhappiness right now, so our cities are still efficient. I'd have to throw a couple more stacks of knights into the meatgrinder before the general public gets too angry. Thanks to Commodore for putting many different luxuries on the map.

Foreign News:
Ramk made peace with GKC, that's kind of good news because it shows that they probably stalemated. Actually, maybe it's bad news because it might mean Plemo will get GKC's land, which is worse than Ramk getting it. Oh well.

Plemo got Taj Mahal. I'm assuming he grabbed Nationalism from Liberalism, so it just makes sense. That gets me thinking... maybe he is going for cuirassiers, not rifles. If it is cuirs, he could strike someone very soon. Maybe the target will be El Grillo, considering how most of El Grillo's army is busy fighting Vanrober?

[Lazteuq]

T165:
Most of superdeath's main praet stack moved east, so I decided to NOT take Toyota Supra. Instead, I maneuvered back around Grand Pre.
He has another stack moving up near Daytona 500 with 4 praets, 2 cats, 1 axe, 2 chariots. I'm assuming those units had been busy with Mjmd previously. They are 5 turns away from being a threat. Maybe he had been sieging Mjmd's capital but now forced to release the pressure?
War picture:

This time, I'm remembering to pillage roads. That tile 2S1W of Grand Pre has an especially important road. I already pillaged the village, so the road is available for pillaging next turn.
I'm moving units to the hill 1W of Grand Pre to act as a strong defensive point.
The trireme by Honda Accord continues to cause trouble for him. Every trireme he whips is a catapult he doesn't have! I'm worried he might send triremes toward Ceviche and Taco though. Taco is working on a trireme to counter that.

Superdeath's gold reserve actually went down by about 8 last turn. Maybe his economy has fully collapsed and he'll have to run wealth builds to stay afloat. Or maybe this is an intentional illusion? Either way, I want him to have as many unproductive cities and poorly-utilized units as possible. That's part of the reasoning for not capturing GTO. Unfortunately he does have a bunch of courthouses, so I'm finding it hard to believe that his economy could be so badly crippled.

Also check out this crazy island at the corner of the map:

You're not hallucinating, those are irrigated ice floodplains corn.
Unrelated, but I would prefer to play on a smaller map for my next game. With grad school about to start, it may be a while before I join another game though.

Ramk offered to give his world map for nothing in return. I have no idea if this is supposed to be a code for something. Of course I accepted, and I see that he has suddenly revealed a lot more map. I'll just take this as a gesture of friendship...?

Plemo declared war on El Grillo and El Grillo made peace with Vanrober. Diplomacy just keeps getting more chaotic. Only player not at war is GKC I think. Hopefully he doesn't attack us. We don't have any units to spare in Gira-land, so a GKC attack could be disastrous.

Tech: we have a ton of gold just sitting there. One option I just thought of is to get frigates. That could reduce the Plemo threat and of course have offensive purposes as well. Frigates are surely easier to get than Rifles, because Astro and Chemistry are both scientist-bulbable. Of course the default option is to go for rifling, and probably already be pretty late to the rifle-party.
Ah I just realized that bulbing astro isn't feasible because the scientist will want to bulb paper first. I forgot civil service has that hidden downside. Chemistry is still bulbable, but I guess Frigates probably aren't worth it.

[Lazteuq]

T166
In today's episode of weird diplomacy: El Grillo offers a 500gold for 500gold trade.
What is this supposed to mean? I don't know. I declined because I don't want to accidentally imply something.

Notre Dame in 2 turns hopefully.
Where to put Heroic Epic? I choose Enchilada because it has the highest base production out of all our cities, even before bureaucracy is considered.

Grand Pre's defenses are down to 1%. I decided not to attack because waiting one more turn allows units to concentrate on the hill 1W of the city. He can't reasonably attack our units here, because of the 25% river crossing penalty.

Superdeath now has the main stack of 10 praets in Dodge Viper. However, he only has 2 cats with them. That means he would take severe losses trying to hit units on a hill across a river. So I stacked 9 knights and 3 maces on that hill 1W. If he gets really desperate, he might start attacking with the longbows, that might be a problem actually.

I moved those 4 maces out of Pontiac Firebird so they can pillage the roads. They weren't doing anything useful otherwise. Once those roads are pillaged, he will have a much tougher time counterattacking.

Gunpowder in 3 turns. I'll build a few musketeers, but they really aren't anything special against praets.
Demos:

[Lazteuq]

T167:
Captured Grand Pre with losses of 1 cat, 1 treb, 3 knights (slightly bad luck). This doesn't help the overall situation very much, but at least it's easier to bring in reinforcements.

If superdeath decides to attack the hill across a river, it will be a bloody battle. Most of our defenders have Shock, but most of his attackers will have Shock or Formation as well. I intentionally didn't use those three maces for attacking the city so they can make full use of their hill defensive bonus. I wish I'd brought a couple longbows along. I guess this is where musketeers will come in handy.
However, I doubt superdeath will attack. I think instead he will wait for a better time. He has more reinforcements on the way. He might even feel adventurous and go attack Plymouth Cuda. That might be very bad!
This leaves me feeling stuck:

• Not enough units to attack Dodge Viper from the east.
  
• Not enough for Pontiac Firebird from the west.
  
• It takes only 2 turns for him to transfer units between those cities, so he can effectively hold both with a single stack.
  

I don't yet have a plan for how to proceed. Obviously units need to heal first, but that's only 2 turns. Maybe I'll make another push toward Toyota Supra.

I am now almost certain that Superdeath is losing money on 0%. So I plan to leave Pontiac GTO alone, it's probably costing him about 10gpt and providing very little benefit.

GKC declared war on Plemo! What fun! I think GKC picked a good time. It's also good news because it shows that GKC doesn't see our border as a threat.
Plemo finally got Alphabet, so now we know that his available techs to research are Chemistry, Economics, Printing Press, Constitution, Music, Theology, and Liberalism.
So obviously he has a large total beakers lead, but he still has a surprising distance until rifling. I wonder if he got too greedy going for Economics first?

[Lazteuq]

T168:
We got Notre Dame! Happiness situation is still OK for a little while longer, thanks to owning almost every luxury.

Superdeath moved his praets+cats 2S of Dodge Viper. I think this means he is trying to threaten Grand Pre from another direction while also defending Toyota Supra more effectively. He knows the 6 longbows in Dodge Viper are enough to prevent a fast knights-only attack. Or maybe this is some kind of trick.

I've set up a bunch of units to pillage stuff while the others heal. Pillaging those roads should make Grand Pre very hard for him to attack. Of course if he moves that main stack back to Dodge Viper this turn,  I can move everything back to the hill in response. As a side effect, the pillaging will take away precious commerce from his capital.
I decided to pillage his dyes near Plymouth Cuda also, to take away one of his luxuries. He has no other dye sources except maybe by trade.

His mini-stack coming up from the south can reach Toyota Supra in 2 turns, so that's another good reason not to attack it next turn.

In the west, there might be potential for another attack on Ford Mustang. We have 4-6 maces and 2 cats in the area, plus 2 knights up north on the dyes. That's not enough to take the city, BUT the maces can escort the cats as they bombard defenses. His praet stack can't defend both cities at once, so I see potential to gradually burn down the defenses of both Ford Mustang and Dodge Viper. In either case, pillaging roads allows us a safe retreat if he moves the praets around.

El Grillo sent an offer of Iron for our Iron+Crab. The only idea I have is that he is trying to say something about the crab city. We only have one city with a crab: Cerveza. Maybe Superdeath is sending an invasion fleet of galleys south through the ice fields and El Grillo is trying to give a warning???
Just in case, I'll set Cerveza and Salsa to work on musketeers.

I'm unsure if I should whip out a ton of units and throw the economy in the trash, or run most cities at size 10+ while casually researching toward rifling? I feel like I should have whipped more in the past.

[Hollybombay]

Long term plans?

[Lazteuq]

Hmmmmmmm, that's the problem. I don't have any brilliant long term plans.

I do still believe in what I said around turn 150ish, the idea that fighting wars is the only way to advance: I think peace is a sure path to ending this game in 3rd or even 4th place. I want to at least try for 2nd. Also I think wars are more fun. So, lets look at the target options.
--GKC: Maybe, but the same old reasons for not attacking him still hold true. He is probably busy fighting Plemo right now, but I'm assuming that is a limited war which might end by the time I could get an invasion assembled. Also, GKC is currently providing a safe land border for us, which is something I value greatly.
--Plemo: Nope. He has an unrivalled navy, and probably rifles soon too.
--Other Players: I see no way to practically attack any of the other players.
So my only war plan is to keep fighting superdeath until he dies, or the game ends.

About tech:
I'm planning on bulbing education and then printing press with the 2 scientists we currently have. Still, replaceable parts+rifling will take a long time after that.
The good news is, philosophical means getting 6 universities and then putting Oxford in the capital isn't actually too difficult. That would help the overall beaker rate a lot. I do think the war effort can afford a delay to build those universities.
After getting rifles, the superdeath conquest should become easy, assuming the game even gets to that point AND no-one destroys our economy in a surprise attack beforehand. Of course rifles also might provide an opening to attack someone else, but I'm really getting ahead of myself.

[Lazteuq]

T169

Superdeath moved his 12 praets and 6 cats to 1SW of Dodge Viper. This forced me to move some units in response, meaning there unfortunately still is a road 1E of Dodge Viper. That position also means the maces near Pontiac Firebird can't afford to advance anymore.

He built a trireme in Firebird, so I decided to suicide the galley and destroy the fishing boats and I sent those two macemen off on a 1-way adventure. They might provide enough diversion for something else to happen. They are both promoted City Raider III by the way.

Those units up near Plymouth Cuda are in weird positions because I want to prevent him from capturing it with a chariot. It was undefended previously, and I saw this turn that he moved that chariot into Dodge Viper.

His dyes are all pillaged, and now I'll pillage his only sugars near Grand Pre also.
Superdeath is down to 9 gold in the bank, from 20-something last turn. Also, pillaging the dyes should lead to some of his trade deals being cancelled.

Plemo offered 130gpt for 1000 gold. I refused. He has enough naval leverage that he could easily declare war and cancel the deal. Although I must admit a 300gold profit is tempting.

It looks like Ramk is taking advantage of Vanrober's losses in his war with El Grillo. Ramk might get to capture and hold a lot of Vanrober's land, while El Grillo took most of the casualties for no gain. Sounds familiar, GKC?

Reesearch is about 200bpt breakeven right now, with enough gold for 4 more turns at 550bpt
Tech "plan":
T169: Paper
T170: Alphabet
T171: Bulb Education and Printing Press (probably will be a few hundred beakers left on each?)
T175?: Complete leftover beakers on Education and Printing Press, probably using most of the remaining gold reserve
Work on universities.
Replaceable Parts will take about 10 turns
Rifling also about 10 turns, once universities and Oxford are running...
T195: Riflemen?
Profit???

Hopefully I can speed up this plan with some more capture gold from Superdeath.

[Lazteuq]

T170: The awkward military situation continues
Superdeath moved his stack(now with 7 catapults) around the south side of the capital lake. Now he has 2 workers there, which means he can rebuild roads.
I decided it was time to try baiting him. So I attacked with one knight(survived on half hp), and then I assembled a mini-stack south of Grand Pre. If he wants to, he can build a road and kill that stack. However, if he does that, he will be vulnerable to counter-attack. I think he will most likely not attack, but it's worth a try.

Superdeath's movement allowed a safe approach to Mustang. So that part of the plan succeeded. I'm sure he won't let a stack just sit there and bombard Mustang, but I might get a few hits in. 
However, his combat workers invalidate part of my pillaging ideas.
Those two knights in the center should make it more difficult for him to reinforce Mustang with unescorted longbows. Meanwhile, the maces down south have spotted a target.
The core problem remains, I can't figure out a way to break through the Mustang-Viper defensive line.


I decided to bulb education right now, that way universities can get started next turn, and also Alphabet can be delayed even longer.

Plemo got rifling this turn. He also re-sent the same 130gpt for 1000gold offer. I still don't like being in a situation where he can easily break the deal by declaring war, so I declined. IF we had a navy to act as a deterrent, I would probably accept his offer.
Plemo also captured a city from GKC.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Invading me might've been a bad choice - the only good cities I had were near Plemo or Ramk. Though, you really got bogged down with SD, and probably could have done a ton of damage with your knights, or at least secured all of Gira's lands before turning back south. I wouldn't have had the ability to retaliate.

I'm not sure what the right choice was, and you were 100% in a hard strategic dilemma.