[SPOILERS] Scooticator and Pindooter give a sporting try

[SevenSpirits]

You made the right choice, scooter.

[scooter]

Some odds and ends from last turn after the commando plan flopping. I did burn two other cities.



I actually thought long and hard about capturing this one in conjunction with burning that nearby city via commando in order to bring in my grens and demolish that rifle stack. I thought pretty seriously about it, but the problem was that he would be able to counter-attack easily, and those are my heavy-hitting Grens - the amphibious CR2 variety - and so they are far more valuable than even regular grens. So I decided against it. Still, I was tempted.



I'll just keep doing this. It should net me a fair bit of gold actually. Lewwyn seems determined to preserve his whole army (I killed 0 units this turn) at the cost of all of his coastal cities. I'm not sure how I feel about that or what the point really is. I don't plan on invading further at this point, just maiming him so that I can clean him up with Infantry or geez, maybe even tanks. That would be fun - never used tanks against humans before. This freshly out of revolt city is really struggling:



Had to starve it down a size last turn, and I have to do it one more time this turn. Next turn I can get it to stagnate. It'll be a useful city, it'll just take some time. On the global level, Plako is just leveling Bacchus right now, not unexpectedly.



My first sighting of cavs anywhere in the world actually. Also, I'd love to hear the story behind this:





That's literally right in the middle of Plako's core.

[NobleHelium]

Lakamha only recently expanded borders, I'd guess?

[antisocialmunky]

Lol @ Plako's Indian reservation.

[scooter]

Fuller report will have to come later, but this past turn basically went:

* Razed another Lewwyn city
* Captured & kept a Lewwyn island
* Finished the long overdue Corporation, got a sizable commerce boost

So right now I'm seriously considering skipping Biology, as utterly painful as that is. Well, not skipping, but delaying. By finishing Corp, I can now go Steam Power -> Assembly Line immediately, then go nuts on factories. To top it off, I'm running a great merchant mission in 2T, and I have a sizable enough army/navy now that I can go mass research/wealth builds (with lots of Rep specialists thrown in there) and rocket-power my tech rate. I'm pretty much positive that with these two factors, I can get Assembly Line before mackoti or anyone in the game, for example. From there I could try to run the southern half of my continent over with infantry, or I could keep up the tech sprint for tanks.

Reason for this is that even with Biology, mackoti isn't any better than me in food, and I'm well ahead of everyone else. I don't really have a deficit there, but my MFG has lots of room for improvement, and ORG factories are awesome.

On the other leaders:

Mackoti: He just finished Communism, which seems to imply he's about to get a golden age and get himself into state property. He's going to get a large mfg boost out of that, and he could easily run over FinHarry with that kind of thing. Or cause me trouble, though I'm not sure the latter is all that wise considering what Plako is doing.

Plako: Cutting through Bacchus easily. If I didn't have Lewwyn and Mack holding me down, it would be pretty easy to interfere opportunistically, but I can't afford to do that, and I also can't afford to piss Plako off to an extent that he's willing to play kingmaker in the case he doesn't think he can win. So I'll probably leave him alone and let him do his thing.

Commodore: No signs of mass rush-buying yet, he's just drafting on tech and occasionally bursting on tech opportunistically. He's not done being a factor in the game, but I do believe he'll leave me alone (which I suppose is a factor in and of itself).

[antisocialmunky]

Commodore might wait until before the final collapse of Lewwyn to attack you though when your armies are most out of position. Seems too early to feel safe.

[Dhalphir]

So how do you rank everyone in terms of GNP/research/tech and in military power?
And when I say everyone I mean the leaders, top five or whatever.

[pindicator]

That sucks about Michigan. Still, getting to the Elite Eight is a hell of a season

[NobleHelium]

Michigan losing is always great news for me, because I enter a yearly pool where most of the entrants are Michiganlanders.

[scooter]

That sucks about Michigan. Still, getting to the Elite Eight is a hell of a season

Yeah, unfortunate, but given that they lost 3 starters (2 to NBA, 1 to injury) and arguably their 3 best players off last year's team and still made it this far this year, I'm content. Also, this reminds me that I never did get you those screenshots you asked for. If you're bored, feel free to jump in and get them yourself.

Commodore might wait until before the final collapse of Lewwyn to attack you though when your armies are most out of position. Seems too early to feel safe.

If Commodore attacks me, I lose the game regardless of the timing or how well I defend it - there's just too many ways others can pile on. So I don't see any purpose in worrying about it, when I can trust the reasons he'll leave me alone, since they are good ones.

So how do you rank everyone in terms of GNP/research/tech and in military power?
And when I say everyone I mean the leaders, top five or whatever.

Good question, and it's hard because the big picture changes so frequently. For instance, in the last 3 turns (that I'm about to report) I captured and kept 4 Lewwyn islands, and Plako has been gunning down multiple Bacchus cities/turn for awhile now. Anyway, as of right now, here is the current city counts:

scooter: 47
plako: 44
mackoti: 41
dtay: 31
commodore: 30

Realistically though, Plako is going to vault into the city count lead any turn now. I won't be adding more cities for awhile now, and Plako will continue to do so it seems like.



If he cuts through that core with ease, he probably becomes the leader of the game. He's still several techs behind mackoti and I, but there's plenty of time for him to catch up. If mackoti and I leave each other alone and focus on conquering our own continents, Plako's chances aren't great. If Mackoti decides to attack me when our treaty is up in a few turns, the pendulum longterm probably swings in favor of Plako. I tend to think he'll leave me alone, but we'll see.

If I were to guesstimate chances of victory, I think it's something like this now.

Mackoti: 40%
scooter: 30%
Plako: 25%
Commodore: 5%

Nobody else can win. Also, these %s are assuming average morale. Realistically, I don't have the time/interest anymore to win this game, so my chances are probably lower than 30%. However, I'm sticking with it because I kinda want to play with tanks. I have basically never used them, and I think I can have one within 20T or so.

Commodore is really only included here for his tech rate. I said the other turn that I would get to Assembly line first, then I noticed the next turn Commodore completed Steam Power (I'm not even close to tech visibility on him, so I never know that well where he's aiming). Commodore still has fewer beakers teched than me I believe, but his pace is a tad higher than me at the moment. It's a minor difference though as far as I can tell - a few percent higher.