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My scouting work boats have been stuck on the last few tiles forever it feels: and they each have hit another vertical stripe of land requiring me to go north or south. But at least they have made contact with a couple people I had yet to find:
That's 2metra and Bosche. Offered open borders to both of them. It looks like 2metra is losing a war against Superdeath and Bosche is perhaps tangled up with Dark Savant? In any case, Dark Savant is the last person I've yet to meet. But meeting both of these guys did help me boost my tech rate for Feudalism and we'll easily nab that at end of this turn.
I am planning on longbows in a lot of places next turn. We're finishing all the half-built settlers before my red alert earlier, and sending them south: although I am going to plan more on putting them in the best location more than just putting them on Gemling Island. We'll aim to control Gemling with military until we get enough of it that nobody else will want to send a settler there. So many competing priorities here: still want lots of settlers, need military, need to grow, etc. I'm really hoping getting into Mercantilism in 11 turns is going to be the kick I need to put myself back up in the top tier conversation. Alternatively I suppose it isn't too late to go for a OH-style attack with knights and going after Mouseferatu. But I would start needing to make those preparations now: otherwise I'd end up like OH/Hitru and kind of wasting away my advantage and making all those whips go for naught.
Let's talk OH/Hitru a little. I think if they were going to go through all of that whipping they needed to put those knights to use against a strong neighbor and either knock out Elkad or myself. Perhaps the sheer width of their empire is working against them: once the whips were in all the signs were there that this was coming, and Elkad and I were on alert. By the time it took for them to actually get their knights combined we were both whipping counters and war looked less appealing. Even now I'm not seeing huge congregations of knights like I thought I would based on the number of whips. Instead I'm seeing what looks like the C plan coming together after the A and B plans of Elkad and I fell through. (Shit, I really should not have given them that gold!!!)
I had a small inkling of a thought that he might be trying this last turn, but it seemed so out of left field that I didn't really believe it. But here we are: knights about to be loaded up on galleys. I counted 1 trireme, 4 galleys, and still only 7 or 8 knights in total. There should be twice as many as that by now for any serious attack.
Now if he really wants to be conniving he'll send those knights east after my weak southern cities. But he's already declared on TBW and he knows I can see them coming, so I don't expect him to. I'm starting to suspect Hitru is only interested in easy gains here, and is hoping that he can win by the Sullla doctrine: zoom ahead in tech and only take easy conquests. It doesn't seem like his MP tactics are quite top tier: otherwise why would you mess around with trebs? And now he's hoping that TBW can get him enough for what he's invested. So perhaps as long as I look prickly then I'm going to be okay. I'm rearranging my defenses, now: we're going to have to split into two groups - one up north at Invasion and another for the south that's kept a little south of Talisman and Beyond so it can shift south at a moment's notice.
I really need Engineering.
Naturally, I warned TBW as best I knew how:
Not sure if there's anything he can do about it: you really need naval superiority to get anywhere here but the map is so large that nobody has any localized strength, or more that they can't be strong everywhere. And OH declared on him already last turn, so this may be too little too late. But hopefully it gets him whipping and makes OH's life tough. After all, he can only resupply by sea. That might save TBW.
Conflicts are really popping up everywhere. At last count you have:
- Me vs GeneralKilCavalry
- Gavagai vs beardbeard (that looks lopsided)
- OH vs TBW
- OH vs Commodore (cold war?)
- Bosche vs Dark Savant? Maybe?
I may have to be ready for a future where OH is my entire eastern border and Gavagai is pushing in from the west.
Mouse stopped trading with me this turn: I suppose he was done with the stone? However he didn't offer a Silver for Gems trade so I didn't try that one with him again. Instead I sent a trade to BeardBeard that hopefully he will take me on
Mouseferatu needs to be my first conquest. Knights seem like they'll come too soon, but it could be that. Honestly, once Guilds is in I need to get about 20 knights. If mouse isn't ready for them by then - well it may be time to go after him. But I think he'd be ready; his economy is pretty decent. So more likely I'm going to have to come after him with a combined navy/marine attack. Which means either Galleons with some caravels as support or lots of caravels and privateers for support. I think once the knights start coming out we'll know by then.
