[PB57] Pindicator searches for his mascot

[pindicator]

So the run down is pretty much this:

We're in forced peace with TBS and Cairo both. I have no intention of stabbing Old Harry so we're in a bit of a respite and at the end of the forced peace get to see whether we are going to be 2v1-ed or if we develop peacefully or if we go after Cornflakes.

I'm finishing up Mil Trad in order to get Privateers in the water and so we aren't just conceding the oceans. But after that I think it needs to be an economy, and I'm not sure which one is the best for us yet. Printing Press > Replaceable Parts to boost all the yields? Education for the (expensive) universities and Oxford? Oxford is worth about 60bpt so it might not be worth building. On the other hand we are also running very efficiently thanks to Spiral Minaret and being ORG.
Democracy to keep stacking per-city boosts? Chemistry feels like the most middle ground choice: Environmentalism is there and gives lots of per-specialist boosts while also being on the route to cannons. Honestly, I feel like it's either Education or Printing Press next but I dont' know.

There is a Great Merchant searching for TBS's capital. Also, just to be able to scout out his lands is his mission. But I'm going for a trade mission here to keep my economic recovery speeding along.

I don't know if I can push too much into anything other than tech or units right now, so I've been holding back on spreading second or third religions, but that's something that will have to be done eventually.

Culture Cities are most likely

• Capital
  
• Dooley Skeleton (holy city)
  
• National Epic City for all the artists it will run eventually

I know it's all very vague but it's a big transition period and I don't have a firm idea of what to do. Just try not to burn things down, improve the economy, and watch Old Harry and Cornflakes for what direction we need to take militarily. Oh, speaking of: Jails. I've been considering this to keep my sight, but really I've got too many other needs. Building Research is probably more important.

I'm sure the next week will be fine with the 2 turns you'll get to play...

[pindicator]

Turn 152

Thanks again to Commodore for taking over and keeping the ship moving forward in my absense.

I've been teching Compass and Optics the last 2 turns and have a bit of overflow amassed. Optics let me build Privateers, which at least puts me on even footing in the seas. What I'm considering is going either Astronomy > Chemistry for focusing on navy or going Printing Press line up to Rifling to focus on land. Could also go Chemistry > Steel to mix the two, and that may be the smart play for pure military, but the Rifling line also improves economy more. Choices.

Old Harry has declared on Cornflakes and at first I was skeptical but it does to be an honest war.




It looks like he plans on taking a coastal city and bombing a great artist to secure a beachfront. I'm not sure how much this will work in the established core of Old Harry vs the newly gained holdings of TBS, but I'm going to trust OH has done his homework.

There's a suspicion in my mind that the war with Cornflakes is a ruse and that he will then gang up with TBS or someone else against me. For instance, there are very few galleys to make any true landing here. While these troops could in fact move to hit my south in a few turns (which has far fewer units than my north). The reason I think this may be on their mind is that my demos are starting to look startling:




Half my GNP is culture, but they don't necessarily know that when they look at F9.

So with that in mind I went back to Nationalism last turn for another round of drafting. And we're going to focus on Privateer building over the next few turns to make sure we aren't entirely caught in a bad position.

[pindicator]

Turn 154

Old Harry has landed in Cornflakes' core, and with a second prong of Cuirassiers from the north - veterans of his landing against TBS - he's made two key captures this last turn.




He used his Great Artist for less-than-expected results. Using a GA in someone's core is a trap I've certainly fallen into before. But I think OH just as too many units; Cornflakes has been pulling everything from his borders to help defend.

Which makes me wonder... 4 turns. I bet they'll still be fighting in 4 turns. Time to start moving units around. We could make some real inroads here if TBS lets us.

Printing Press finished at the end of turn. Demos had a nice bump




Replaceable Parts or Astronomy next? I'm a little worried about Frigates if I go all the way to rifles. And then they go Grenadiers and are able to punch through. So perhaps I should head to the bottom part of the tree myself first?

Or Democracy for that big copper statue in the sky?

[pindicator]

So, because this thread feels a bit stale, and because I'm well past due for talking about it, what are people's thoughts on the newest 3.15 patch for Path of Exile?

Honestly I don't trade a lot, I don't do a lot of end game grinding. (I'm actually trying to get myself to trade more since the game is so obviously balanced around it. But I find the idea of just buying my items far less fun - end trading tangent.) I dont' mind the changes too much from a play style but the progression is obviously slower. I'm still in white maps with my first character.

First character, by the way, was an Inquisitor that went with Battlemage Cry.




I went Ice Crash and Wave of Conviction for my spell that gets triggered by Battlemage. I have Elemental Equilibrium so that I'm constantly getting the -50% elemental proc by bouncing between Ice and Fire/Lightning. And ... it's okay. It's very noticable when I don't have any charges left on Battlemage Cry and I'm waiting around to cast that again. Perhaps there's a better way to build this but right now it just feels clunky. Seems like it would just be better to go straight crit and take the ascendancy on Inquisitor that lets you ignore elemental resistances altogether.

So I'm already thinking 2nd character.

And for my 2nd character, I want to make something around this combination:




The bow combined with the skill would mean 100% of lightning damage from Voltaxic Burst is being converted to Chaos. Then in turn I would scale poison damage and lightning damage.

So Trickster seems like a good start. But maybe Occultist is better for its chaos resistance reduction and hexes? Or maybe Pathfinder for flasks and defensive abilities? Assassin if I focus on crit? I'm still leaning Trickster so I can also boost mana and use Archmage Support (even if it got nerfed).

Anybody have any thoughts on how I might do this?

[naufragar]

At league start, I didn't have a computer that could run PoE, which made me sad. Now that I can play, I'm getting a lot more random crashes during the story line. Don't think that's how they wanted to slow progression!

My hunch is that scaling poison will be a bridge too far. If poison isn't part of the plan, Occultist is probably decent? I was playing around in Path of Building and mocked up a life-based Occultist that was trying to crit, so grabbed power charges, spell cit & crit multi, etc. CI probably makes more sense if you want to stack Int and go for Archmage. Crit-ing and shocking and exploding corpses sounds like barrels of fun.

But I defer to practically anybody else on build advice. I like PoE but am quite terrible at it.

[Amicalola]

I don't really know anything about Path of Exile, but I had actually been thinking the other day that I've been enjoying this thread's solo-reports.

Do you see yourself as the favourite to win at this point, or is there someone else you think looks better?

[Mjmd]

To continue the spam: which of Cornflakes citites seems the most delicious (from actual eating perspective).

[pindicator]

Turn 155

You guys do a good job of framing the turn report.

So when I invaded Cornflakes and demanded a city straight away for peace, my idea was to get a free city without crippling him so badly that OH could just invade and take him over on his own.

Turns out OH did not care, he just ran his army across the narrow sea and said he was taking Cornflakes' core over himself:




He has overwhelmed Cornflakes at his core, pushed through the counter attacks, and is using Police State, a drafted UU, and overwhelming numbers of Cuirassiers to just steamrole Cornflakes. Cornflakes is pulling troops from all corners and suddenly he looks very vulnerable.

In 3 turns we can declare and at this point I fully intend to.

To continue the spam: which of Cornflakes citites seems the most delicious (from actual eating perspective).

All of them?

I really want to hit two spots, however:




In the north, I really want to connect my borders and pull my defenses together into one spot. If I can capture both of these cities in the north of Cornflakes' lands then I would be able to do this. His border city of Whipped Cream is bare bones defenses and easy to grab, but the city of Apple Crisp is heavily guarded. In addition, that OH stack shown is about 9 units and could easily move to raze Whipped Cream itself. Or more. It seems OH is doing just as much to deny me future advances as he is to stake his own claim in Cornflakes' core.

I have my armies from the push into TBS in the area, but I really cannot use them too freely. My peace treaty with TBS ends in 2 turns and I do not want to be out of position or leave him able to hit Charger Blue. What I really need to do is secure first ring borders around Charger Blue but that will take some time.




My main push will come here. All these cities are bare bones defenses and I have about 20 mounted units ready to push in. In addition, I'll load up the galleys in the north next turn (only 2 sadly) and threaten to take Sugar Cookies by sea. Christstollen is a little too heavily guarded for a direct assault, and is better to let that city wait until the end where CR units and a tech advantage can make the landing easier.

I don't really know anything about Path of Exile, but I had actually been thinking the other day that I've been enjoying this thread's solo-reports.

Do you see yourself as the favourite to win at this point, or is there someone else you think looks better?

Wow, that is hard to say. Despite the score I feel like OH is in the driver seat right now. He has Police State Pyramids cranking out units like there's no tomorrow. If our two nations go to conflict in the near term then I think the game is likely his to win.

My advantages are in the long term. After the successful dogpile on TBS I have come out as the top leader in all demographics (even crept up to top soldier points this turn). I want to delay any confrontation with Old Harry as long as possible, while also not letting him get so much of Cornflakes that he is able to get ahead of me in demographics. Certainly he should know I have to invade into Cornflakes at this moment.

TBS is the least likely at this point, but the great equalizer is which way does the next 2v1 go? Whoever finds themselves on the wrong end of the next 2v1 is the next person out. Nobody wants to be on that end and we're all going to be making our own pitches to each other to attack the other person just so we're not the one being attacked. So if I have to put numbers on all this?

35% - me
35% - Old Harry
30% - TBS

It really is anybody's game still, which has got to make for some good lurking right now.

Back to me, I feel that Astronomy has to come next. I really want Replaceable Parts and Democracy for economy, but I cannot afford to lose control of the seas. For that reason I'm pumping out a lot of Privateers right now and I'll be looking to go straight for Chemistry and Frigates next. From there we probably head straight to Steel and cannons/drydocks.

At league start, I didn't have a computer that could run PoE, which made me sad. Now that I can play, I'm getting a lot more random crashes during the story line. Don't think that's how they wanted to slow progression! 

My hunch is that scaling poison will be a bridge too far. If poison isn't part of the plan, Occultist is probably decent? I was playing around in Path of Building and mocked up a life-based Occultist that was trying to crit, so grabbed power charges, spell cit & crit multi, etc. CI probably makes more sense if you want to stack Int and go for Archmage. Crit-ing and shocking and exploding corpses sounds like barrels of fun.

But I defer to practically anybody else on build advice. I like PoE but am quite terrible at it.

Yeah, I realized last night that if I was going to go Poison then I was going to have to get Poison on Hit and would almost have to go Assassin to make that work. I think there's Poison Support which gives 40% chance to poison on hit, and then you would have to find the other 60% from the skill tree. Probably Cluster Jewels are the answer: there is a 20% chance to poison on hit with spells notable for cluster jewels.

In any case, I decided to pass on the poison idea and will go with an Occultist focusing on just converting it all to poison damage.

I also found another Unique that has me thinking about scaling by Power Charges:




So maybe I pick up a Rearguard and go for max block?

[pindicator]

Pre-Turn 156

A big strategic decision looms over me as TBS has moved his forces to invade next turn when peace expires:




I'm not sure I agree with the strategic merit of this attack - it seems more grounded in retaking something that was lost. But regardless of the merits, TBS has amassed on the border a total of 37 collateral, 44 2-movers, and 17 1-movers:

• 29 Catapults
  
• 8 Trebuchets
  
• 17 Cuirassiers
  
• 27 Knights
  
• 12 Muskets
  
• 4 Swords
  
• 1 Mace

Defending in the area I have 17 Collateral, 36 2-movers, and 44 1-movers:

• 15 Catapults
  
• 2 Trebuchets
  
• 23 Knights
  
• 13 Horse Archers
  
• 11 Muskets
  
• 4 Longbows
  
• 11 War Elephants
  
• 9 Jaguars
  
• 2 Pikes
  
• 3 Axes
  
• 4 Spears

While numbers are on my side, many of my units are outdated and I am very much lacking in collateral. TBS will also get first crack at me due to turn order. I am still in Nationalism and have not yet drafted this turn.

TBS has really nothing but barebones defense on our other fronts:




And on our northern border, where we had hostilties in the past, he has amassed a large garrison but the catapults are several turns behind.

I also have another 20 Knights/Cuirassiers I can move within a turn of this front. However, these were the units I was meaning to invade Cornflakes with in 2 turns.

And Cairo is not slowing down:




Is holding onto these 2 cities worth not invading Cornflakes? What I am considering doing is pulling everything but some of the more ancient era units out of Charger Blue and positioning so that if he were to attack then I would be able to counter his stack. Then proceed with the invasion of Cornflakes as normal, with the possibility of gifting Stanford Tree to TBS for peace if this front looks untenable.

So is invading Cornflakes worth giving up these 2 cities? Especially if it puts TBS in a position to safely attack Old Harry? In addition, is there a way to diplomatically shift allegiances to TBS if it looks like Old Harry starts to gobble up too much of Cornflakes for himself?

Things to think on. I'll try to play tonight after work, but work is really bad this week. I'm picking up after team members who are dropping projects left and right and it's really pissing me off. (On top of everything else in RL...)

[pindicator]

Turn 156

Decided to deploy all my stuff into 1 large stack that would be outside the stack's range. Charger Blue is up to 21% culture so it will go into revolt when captured. Buffalo and The Tree - wait, I have 2 cities named after Stanford's mascot? - are both at 40% culture and so TBS will not be able to reach the big stack with his siege if he captures Charger Blue.




Here's what I think TBS will do:

1. Use the back stack of catapults to move up and bombard down the defenses at Charger Blue. Maybe use a cat or 2 to soften things up.
2. Use his best matchups to take out the 4 units there and take Charger Blue. With a little luck I kill 2 or 3 hitters before falling.
3. Raze Charger Blue
4. Resettle on the ruins of Charger Blue with the settler he has 3 tiles NW of the city. This will cause him to instantly get culture of the first ring of Charger Blue's location, something that he wouldn't get due to me having over 10% culture in the city. Because of this I pulled all the citizens off of Charger Blue and the city is running 7 artist specialists. The culture will stay on the tiles, nothing else will really stick around after that city is burned.
5. Attack my big stack with his 24 siege and 55 to 61 hitters (depending on how many he uses to take Charger Blue)?

I'm not so sure on that last account, because it's really throwing all his eggs into one basket. I'm not sure whether he'd win or lose that fight if he did send everything in. And just as much, would he then be just throwing the game to Old Harry?

If he doesn't go for #5 and just takes the city, then I will give him peace in exchange for Stanford Tree. Can't have 2 trees anyway. And this will give me 10 turns to go after Cornflakes full steam