Kuro's Bizarre Adventure (Kuro spoiler thread)

[wetbandit]

Not for another 10 turns or so. I just whipped in one Mandir and hastily finishing the temples for the other two.

I need to clear at least Rifling and Astro to have credible short term defenses. I still need Lib, too. I have such a long coastline that needs boat protection and all 3 cultural cities are coastal. My third cultural city is in particular danger, since it shares an ocean with Seven, about 5 tiles away, and I'm considering preemptively boating it to deny him a staging ground. The city is on a 2-tile isthmus, though, and Seven is definitely smart enough to canal over enough naval forces if it's close.

Frigates don't really matter in another 30 turns (or less!) when destroyers hit the water, not to mention infantry. It doesn't seem like the tech pace is at the level of say PB13, so the only thing I can rely on to slow others down is global war.

I'm not sure if it would make sense to tech to medicine for Sid's (stay in FM), but that would give me another ~25 culture. Radio is definitely too far. Running the beakers for Biology (3500 base) and Medicine (4100) is a lot of extra culture.

I will definitely rely on Rep Caste Artists and need to Windmill my hills for the food.

[wetbandit]

Gawdzak whipped 19 times in a golden age, iirc. He offered me OB and didn't cover his workers on our border. I'm taking this at face value, if he sends a stack of cuirs/cav my way, well, we can win the soft war with our culture.

Mack has a brutal power spike, I spied additional galleons in the same area and the ToW Gren UU, of which I forgot. 14STR Grens can ruin someone's day. I don't recall if he has MT, but he's teching steel, to achieve total scary one-movin' renaissance stack. The other fun Germany bonus is also on the horizon, the coal bonus which gives +50% to building assembly plants. Mack has such a crazy MFG that I can't see him delaying that much longer.

[wetbandit]

T181:

3 turns for another GP and my next GA. I've decided in favor of Free Market over State Property.




Distance maintenance is 61 gold. I have very few workshops, watermills, let alone land tiles, so the extra food and 10% hammer bonus isn't too great anywhere really. I'll break even on the lost gpt from the extra route nationwide, even in spite of extra civic maintenance. The extra TR will also directly benefit my culture cities. For that matter, here's an overview of where they are:




Glorious. What a useful canal.

Maybe the tech is slowing down more than I previously thought. Doesn't seem like there is much gold saving, perhaps some substantial upgrading occurring. Doesn't really matter when I need 47000+ culture in all three cities.




Grimace took a hit a few turns back and somehow doesn't have Education. The Seven/Mack/Gawdzak triumvirate can have their war(s), just so long as it doesn't involve me.

Graphs and such:

[wetbandit]

Boo.




Real talk: this is potentially very bad. I don't want to build a real military!

[wetbandit]

I was greeted with this:




I believe that Mack wants money to upgrade something. We are the only two powers without MilTrad, so there is a slight possibility that he is offering protection for a price. He could also be trying to sell me units. I declined the deal, I'm about to fire my golden age next turn and want the cash to run science or emergency upgrade units on the Gawdzak front. Or maybe he wants me to pay for the cannonballs his privateer used to sink my caravel.

I think he's massing troops for an attack on retep, see this SuperGren heading that way.




To that end, Gawdzak is finishing Astro next turn. The days of the ocean as my primary defense are nearly over. I have not seen a mass of galleys anywhere, it's possible that he has a few galleys in the queue which will auto upgrade. In any case, I haven't seen any big stacks of his anywhere, and I have a decent sentry net in his territory and in his waters. It's also likely that he will upgrade a trireme to a privateer and go to town as well.






In any case, I've probably run my luck for too long, given these power spikes. Corporation may have been an overly ambitious economic detour. I'm counting on the other powers that be to balance against each other

Seven is researching Steam Power, I've seen some Cossacks around. He does not have astro, which is comforting for the time being. I don't recall if he also has steel and intends to use ironclads to escort a galley fleet.




In light of the power build up, switching out of slavery makes me very nervous. Nationhood crosses my mind, but I'd only be able to draft muskets, which won't do much more than pile up enough bodies to trip up Cavalry.

It seems like this game has picked up some interest. GA next turn and potentially a renunciation of all violence and pretenses of national defense.

[wetbandit]

The League of Mack is forming, I'm assuming even more so now that his offer was a defensive pact.


Fired GA.

pre



post



A whole helluva lot of that GNP is FS-boosted culture. Rep-FS-Caste-FM-Pacifism. First Artist is in 4 turns, with staggered artists thereafter.

[wetbandit]

Things going reasonably well, defensive pacts secured, albeit not with Gawdzak, the most important person. Retep will now be divided between Gawdzak and Mack.




I found other reassurances in Gawdzakistan, this stack heading north:




Moai In A Golden Age




Yes, those are muskets because I need to spam units just in case I even get close with culture, see these demos:

[wetbandit]

Report from the trolling culture civ: Seven's frigate/galleon pair under my frigate is kindly dropping off his GM to gift me Sushi.




To that end, slowly plodding towards sushi had the detriment of losing Sistene bonus on my monasteries once Sci. Method finished. I can't figure that one out.

[GermanJoey]

wow, a cultural! how many religions do you have access to?

[wetbandit]

Just Hinduism. This is a primer on how not to win culture. Judaism was captured in some old Viking cities, but I didn't have the time (or inclination) to spread it around enough. I have no other religions. On some chance that I actually make it to sushi, I'm not putting it in the Hindu holy city because it has 0 production.