Dreylin Blues 2000 is on (another) mission from Cod

[Dreylin]

T126 - "Parsing diplo"

Gingac responds:


Which I /think/ means something like "we have no aggressive plans; go ahead, fill your boots & don't worry about us". Not that I have immediate plans against greenline, but useful to help me plan.

Ljubjana also shows up:


Which I take to mean "we might make a move on GT's rear and want to cover our own". Happy to mirror this one back; they are just not a good expansion vector for me unless it's sniping some border cities while they are eaten by another.

Spent a long time staring at tech, builds & mostly-idle Workers. The key target is Civil Service, which I can grab comfortably in 4turns - one faster than I need it. (incidentally, 1 opponent has it in the bank) So I started looking at whether I can slip another tech in first to give my Workers something extra to do ... Calendar is >1t even if at full burn, so that's out. I'm reasonably certain I could fit Metal casting in and still land CS on time, but what does that give me: Forges & Lumbermills (Workshops are not really useful until I can chain irrigation). I don't have enough forests for Lumbermills to sway things and as far as Forges go ... well I can build Courthouses now.

ORG/OrgRel Courthouses.

That's currently a 2.25x multiplier going into them. A Forge would increase that to 2.5x of course - saving 6+ base hammers - but would also delay it hitting by a whole bunch of turns costing me more commerce. So Forges wait until after Courthouses and are not therefore urgent. Also back to that previous statement about the usefulness of Workshops; chain Irrigation at CS is probably the most important Worker tech for me right now, so we'll get that first. 1t of saving and then 3t to research; 2 remaining turns to reassess (with the last of those in Slavery after the revolt).

Builds:


The Jewish Temple will come down to 3t with Haddock growing. I should probably be pushing more Specialists, but I'm concentrating on growth and working as many Farms as possible for the extra Commerce.

[Dreylin]

Couple of random shots from the last couple of turns.

Superdeath popped up with this:


Not sure that 1g from the farthest player is much of an incentive to take a side in their conflict, so I don't do anything. GT does seem to have canceled OB with Gav though, so maybe he spammed these out to everyone. What I can tell of their war, there was an initial clash where they both lost a bunch of Power, a rebuild phase and then it looks like Gavagai got hit pretty hard without appreciable response. My War reporter is still a long way off, but I don't think I've seen a sign of cities changing hands - though I didn't exhaustively explore that area.

On the GT/naufragar front, after a couple of turns walking in circles, Elwood finally found a stack with some hitters in:


I don't think there's been an actual fight over here yet, and I remain to be convinced that this stack could make much progress.

Domestically it's been about finding jobs for Workers while prioritising growth and teching towards CS. That should have been achieved on the latest turn roll, but the Bureau revolt will be another turn off. Gingac did their Bureau revolt a couple of turns ago, which means they'll exit the GA in Serfdom rather than back to Slavery as I will take. Not a big deal for them since their Prod is so high regardless.

I am healthily cautious of their tech lead, but they continue to indicate friendship so I will no greatly prioritise contingency plans. I do need to work out a vector on greenline though; he continues to take efficient turns and is not actively scouting within my borders (as Gingac is and I am in both of theirs), but his historic EP spend - in terms of passive bonus rather than active - has given him tech visibility and potentially also city visibility. As my Courthouses finish and my own EP build begins, I intend to change that. Anyway probably it'll be Knights before I can go after him, but we'll see how things shake out.

[Dreylin]

T130 -

Definitely a stalemate on this front:


Meanwhile Superdeath came and offered me Silks for 5gpt ... I'm only a couple of turns off landing my own, so not interested.

Civil Service in and it seems that now Calendar is a 1t tech, so I dial that up for the last full GA turn - next turn I'll revolt out of Serfdom and lose that extra Farm income, but will get Bureau in exchange so we'll see how that balances.

Meanwhile I have managed to push not just one, but two cities onto the top5:


And we know that's what really matters! 

[Dreylin]

T131 -

Power fins:


I guess I should work on mine a bit, right? 
(I have started a few MP Bowmen now that I have Courthouses in the production centres)

Time for a revolt into Slavery & Bureau.

Before:


After:


So the difference is in the Civics cost.

I guess we'll see next turn how things are after the GA finishes. I'm going to 1t Metal Casting this turn so I can also start some Lumbermills and then a few turns of saving before either Machinery or Construction. I might need a couple more Workers, but then I will also have access to Forges so.

Gingac finished Sankore. 

[Dreylin]

T132 -

It's always slightly sad exiting a Golden Age:


Lots of tile re-jigging and a couple of whips later.

Foreign news:


It took a while, but I finally figured that this has to have been the Music Artist. And a second Golden Age to boot. 

Which also means he's alot farther ahead on tech than I thought. 

So that's probably why this also arrived this turn:


Now my dilpo-sense is quite bad, but I figure this means War in 50turns? I spend a long time thinking and eventually I send it back.

And then I send back 40t as well. Frankly, 40turns is too many in my estimation as he should have Gunpowder by then and Oromos are not our friends. If Ljubljana sends back 40t, I may try knocking it down to 30t and see about their appetite. Back of the napkin I need ~10t to research Construction->HBR->Machinery and then I can start to build an attack force because 2-movers are not needed from my attack vector. I'd also need 2-3 Galleys for an amphibious hit on the SE coast, which Haddock can provide.

That's not to say I think it's a great idea, but I'm not sure I see a good alternative for reigning in Gingac. 

[Dreylin]

T134 & T135 - War, Huh? Good Gawd Y'all!

Ljubljana mirrored back 40t on war w/ Ginger, so we're on around t173-ish. I guess they must have something else going ... oh!


GT is a bit upset:


Yeah, and I think naufragar is about to break their stalemate so GT's game may be on the brink:


Meanwhile Jake has finally reached the Gavagai/Superdeath border:


I'm taking all these escalations super seriously:




In peaceful neighbourhood news, looks like Ginger is sending Marco Polo on a Trade Mission:


And greenline seems to be lining up for a chopping and/or Lumbermilling campaign:

[Dreylin]

T136 -

Everyone is out of Golden Age now (I think):


I'd be really happy with this if Gingac wasn't sporting 2x Production!

[Dreylin]

T137 & T138 -

Infrastructure Week continues; Last Courthouse will finish this turn and I've started whipping a few of the slower Forges in more marginal locations. Started a couple of Gardens as well, but also a few Cats.

greenline's tech shows he's finished Construction & started Iron Working. I'm aiming for Gingac's tech next to see how bad things really are. At home, I'll finish Machinery this turn and then looking at another ~10t for Feudalism & Guilds ... greenline's lands are looking inviting!

[Dreylin]

T142 - Notes



So here is where I keep all my notes - specifically regarding my neighbours' EP and Tech path (now that I'm leveraging my Courthouse EP advantage). greenline, despite having near equal EP generation is still only sending 4/turn my way (I suspect he still hasn't touched the EP screen and that this is just the passive division) so I can easily keep view on his tech. I think he picked up Construction prior to IW & Sailing, but not sure he has Machinery.

Gingac haven't built a single Courthouse yet so I can keep theirs easily. Of note, things were worse than I thought and they finished Nationalism this turn ... not sure if they have a GEng banked to speed it up, but their prod should knock Taj out in short order. Nauf's declaration on them is interesting, but I have a theory: several turns ago I spotted a Great Merchant leaving their borders and heading West ... I wonder if nauf took it upon himself to kill it where Ljubljana didn't want to and GT probably couldn't spare the forces. If so, that's a huge help to the rest of us!

I just got Ljubljana's tech this turn (they have some Courthouses, but not many) and I think they just finished Guilds since they have had Feudalism for a few turns. I'll go for nauf's tech next turn since they are pretty advanced over there.

At home it's a 5t push for me to get to Guilds. As you can see I'm lining up a few Stables and have some support units started as Infrastructure Week winds down. More of the cities will be turned over to military over the next few turns as I prepare to push into greenline.

After Guilds I'll go to Gunpowder rather than Engineering as I need to be wary of Oromos coming from the North. I'd really like to find a way to get into Vassalage, but as you can see my next GP is committed to a Shrine. The second is well underway in Sheepshead, but the 3rd has barely started - likely in Stonefish, but I could switch it up.

I may eat the turn of Anarchy to get there, but will likely wait to see what's the reaction when my military starts to spike.

[Dreylin]

T143 -

Whatever happened between naufragar & Gingac, it's settled now and they are back at peace - good news since it created a 3-way split.

Ljubljana sent me Fish for Fish. Has he not been paying attention? Is it more worrying if he has? 

I returned Wheat for Wheat.

Also found an available health trade of Banana for Crab with Mjmd. Right now Health is more valuable than Happy; I've built a couple of Gardens in the most critical spots (Cod, Haddock), but the rest will have to wait.