[SPOILER] Dark Savant's thread: Competition for limited resources remains a constant

[Dark Savant]

There's also possibility four, yeah -- superdeath just clears out and lets me take the city free of charge, so he can consolidate a larger stack.

It's probably the actual right move, though he probably does not know that trying to outflank me isn't going to work well as it appears.

[JR4]

According to PBspy, Superdeath lost a city this turn.

[Dark Savant]

Yeah, I've been busy and haven't been able to report.

I took Bart Trinke easily, and superdeath's stack didn't move and was reinforced with a few more units.

I tried attacking it on flatland.

This was a bad idea.  I overestimated the collateral damage I'd be doing, throwing away some catapults to not much gain.

superdeath now has a lot of moderately damaged units that can now just retreat and fight another day.

That's ... not ideal.

[Dark Savant]

I didn't mention this, but I offered Silks to everyone with Open Borders with superdeath in exchange for canceling trade with him.  (Even to Rusten.)

I'm still at work (about to leave), but in the players-I-have-no-contact-with department: Elkad apparently just captured one of OH's cities.    So Rusten might actually be the favorite now.

I'm idly wondering if it is worth asking superdeath for peace in exchange for war on Rusten, since that's a leader position I can influence.

Except:

• I'm utterly unprepared for any offensive on Rusten.
  
• superdeath would likely just invade me again if I try to focus on anyone other than him.  He's already proven he does this.
  

Also, I don't think I'll ever play a multiplayer game with more than about 10 players again:

• You simply have no influence over too many others.
  
• It's harder to gain intelligence on others.
  
• Games are more vulnerable to slowdowns, drama, and the like.
  
• My instinct is to swing for the fences with this many players (tried that in PB38, which ended ... poorly), rather than to just play the soundest game I can and hope things work out (PB39, which went reasonably well).  Swinging for the fences isn't going well here either, but with these three neighbors I can't see a path to things going well no matter what I did.
  

[Dark Savant]

Apologies for the lack of reporting on the carnage, there's not been much free time.

superdeath tried counterattacking with his stack, and I was able take out his entire stack except for a single badly damaged horse archer.

Here's what I have left, with known troop dispositions labeled.



That stack I have left is heavily damaged (and now has no spears); I'm not currently able to advance on another city.  The spies didn't find anything that can counter attack, but I don't have enough to be certain.

No one was willing to take Silks in exchange for canceling trade with superdeath, ah well.

I'm wondering if superdeath is beat up enough to be willing to pay significantly for peace, but I'll wait at least a turn for that.  He's got no gpt anyway.

Any advice on what I should do soon?  I'm uncertain what to do other than have the stack recover if it can.

[JR4]

Any advice on what I should do soon?  I'm uncertain what to do other than have the stack recover if it can.

It`s good that Superdeath`s decent-sized stack is dead. Right now I`d say that you should try to extort some money for peace - and then come back with Galleons for round two. Superdeath did try to ruin your game and there isn`t much point in trying to cooperate with him imo.

[Dark Savant]

It`s good that Superdeath`s decent-sized stack is dead. Right now I`d say that you should try to extort some money for peace - and then come back with Galleons for round two. Superdeath did try to ruin your game and there isn`t much point in trying to cooperate with him imo.

Mmm.

Well, Astronomy is very, very expensive. It's going to take a while just to get to Optics, and Astronomy costs far more than Optics.

I do have a Great Scientist on hand, actually. Except that's the GS I intend to fire the next Golden Age with, which is due in about 10 turns.

I can do Monotheism -> Monarchy -> Feudalism -> Guilds more readily ... except it might be too late for knights, really.

[JR4]

If you feel that going for Knights is the right call, then by all means go for it. Could you post a screenshot of the power graph on one of the coming turns so that the lurkers can get an idea of the magnitude of the carnage that just found place?

[Dark Savant]

I offered peace in exchange for stopping some trade.  Might have been too cheap, but I got no message so it may have been rejected anyway.

I'm traveling and it's taken more time and energy than planned... JR4, are you able to play this turn to keep this moving?  I don't have any real micro plans.  There's a lot of damaged units in the captured city. Feel free to post any pictures I haven't had time to.

I should only need this one turn played for me.  I can pick it up tomorrow but I'm not sure when that can be.

[JR4]

Sure, I can play this turn in a few hours as long as the mod works. (I haven`t downloaded it yet).