[SPOILERS] Joey gives Darius of Celtia a Chance

[GermanJoey]

HMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....................

[GermanJoey]

The pace of this game is utterly glacial. 10 turns in a month, jesus, this will probably be the last PBEM I ever play. Anyways, other than that, the situation is fantastic. My land is so rich! I just revolved into HR and OR, after getting Monarchy->Monotheism; accidentally founded Judiasm. It autospread to two of BaII's cities on the first turn, lucky guy. This turn I 1-turned Archery at 50% (for cheap garrisons), then plan on moving to Mathematics (chops) -> MC (chopped forges) -> HBR -> Guilds.

I just realized I forgot to save my empire screenshot, so I reopened the save to take one.




Anyways, I have a settler coming next turn, planned to settle on the marked spot in the SE to secure a nice border with BaII, one in two turns, planned to settle at the marked spot in the west to seal my border with Gavagai, and one in three turns, which will be going to my south to start getting control of my section of the central ocean zone. I have 8 workers, which I had thought would be OK for a while but my food surplus is SO INSANE that I still can't keep up with improvements in some places. So, after these next three settlers are done, I'll get 3 workers out.

Demographics look fantastic:




My capital (SS taken right after I hit end turn) is becoming insane:




Plan to double-whip the library next turn, overflowing into a Hindu temple for the extra happy and priest specialist slot to accelerate the shrine. Depending on the timing, I might go for a GA instead, but we'll see. My academy is done soon:




At which point my GNP will be like double my nearest rival.

As far as an analysis of my neighbors go, BaII seems to be doing the best, with a pop and city count close to mine. Gavagai is pretty behind in CY, GNP, and city count, so it makes me wonder if he's going for the Mids or some other expensive big ticket item. I don't think he got rushed, as the rival's total soldier count is way too low.

Any questions?

[GermanJoey]

T66.

I'm growing so freaking fast that I can't even keep up with tile improvements with 12 workers, much less chop down all these trees. Not a lot of need for notes (normally I put down way more than this), as the instructions for most workers are "move to an empty square and cottage."




I have a Barracks + Dun combo done in my main production city, and another couple finishing soon, so I'm gonna start pushing out a few of my uber-UU and see what I can do with them.

Demos: notice I'm researching a no-prereq tech here at 30% slider.

[GermanJoey]

WOW, I haven't updated since august, but.......... its only been 11 turns since then!

Here's a crappy screenshot, that I hastily took before work, that doesn't in any way adequately show the front:




I've been forking the hell out of him with my Dun-powered GII 2-movers thanks to the plethora of hills in the area. First I approached his capital, but then veered north to take my first real goal, The Spirit World. My goal here was to collapse his borders so that my cats and WE could advance more quickly on his extremely hardy capital. Unfortunately, it didn't help a whole lot, with some critical tiles still crushed by his capital's recently-popped 4th ring (!) borders. Still, this was a major city of his, and it had some nice stuff:




That I couldn't really keep. Had to raze, he has too much stuff on the counter attack. Perhaps if some of my reinforcements were 1-turn closer...

The total causalties for the war are as follows:

Me: 1 gaellic dead from an attack this turn, 2 more next turn most likely
Gavagai: 3 dead HA, 1 dead axe, 1 dead spear

He's whipping up a storm, he might end up being able to hold... hopefully my cats and elephants will be able to keep my stack safe until I can bombard him down.

I also sunk a galley of his this turn, in a hail-mary 33% attack after he slipped it past towards my undefended ivory-island city. I figured that it was better to take the risk and go for it, as otherwise my sea precense would be completely stunted. retep's been expanding quite well on the other side of the central island, and getting slowed here, losing one of my costal cities and slowing the settling of 2 others, would effectively hand the whole damn thing to him.

In domestic news, I am tearing through classical techs at a rapid pace and puking out settlers. I have Math, Currency, CoL (1-turned it at 80% this turn), HBR, and Construction. Perhaps Currency next. I have 2 settlers out right now, one settling near my SE border w/ BaII in 2 turns, 1 to settle on the central island, and 2 more settlers finishing in the next 2 turns, one to settle to my NE border near BaII, one to settle in my far NW. That should put me back up to city-parity with retep. My capital is now size 15 and working on market. I'm thinking about starting some wonders depending on how my war goes with Gavagai... the HG, for example, could be really great for me right now. TGL is a possibility as well, if I'm willing to waste a settler on a marble iceball...

[GermanJoey]

I just realized its not clear in that first screenshot, but the majority of my stack is now on the forested plains hill 1E of where its standing in that SS.

[Qgqqqqq]

Wow, that's a stronger financial trait then in base! Could we get some zoomed out looks at the map?

[GermanJoey]

Someone actually posted in my thread!

Sure, when I get home I'll reload the save (already sent the next one to dhal) and take some pics; maybe even replay the turn so I can take some better screenshots of the battlefield.

[Qgqqqqq]

Heh, we was certainly meant in the royal sense

Why did you invade Gavagai? Can't seem to find the initial reasoning in-thread.

[GermanJoey]

It's a land grab, mainly. I'm basically out of land to settle after these next couple of settlers plant besides the inner island, which will be heavily contested. Might as well nail him now while I have a huge tech lead, a super-good UU, and he's relatively unprepared. (my power lead was essentially double his, 210k to 105k, at the time of invasion a couple turns ago). The longer I wait means the stronger he gets, as he has quite a lot of empty land to settle to his south.

[GermanJoey]

Oh, and yeah, I don't get why this version of RB mod has such a strong version of Financial. I mentioned it back when I first took over, but its the main reason for my huge tech lead at the moment.