[Spoilers] Pindicator's Nice Thread

[El Grillo]

With this, we can be confident that pindicator is not an AI

[Mjmd]

With this, we can be confident that pindicator is not an AI

No no no.

Now we know what KIND of AI Pindicator is.

[pindicator]

180




My 15th city is pure filler.  It cost 18g to found and is only pulling in 11c right now, though I expect it to pay for itself after we get a lighthouse & granary here.  Though I'm going to push out culture buildings first - theatre and monastery - and see if I can take that Sheep off of Bing's hands.




Edit: I've completely bungled my Snorks and Smurfs. Smurfs is officially The Smurfs but I named it Smurfs. Snorks is official Snorks but I called it The Snorks. I'll fix that if I remember to.

Funny thing happened last turn.  I was wanting to check Espionage and missed with my ctrl key, so I just hit E.  My group of knights at the capital went exploring, which sent them straight towards Magic Science.  And he reacted a bit this turn:  his scout was right with the knights, his army disposition had shifted to the west.




Anyway, it gave me an idea.  When I want to start my amphibious attack I'm going to do another push like this with my knights and horse archers, and get him to react.  You know, whenever it is I eventually tech Astronomy...

Commodore has Alphabet now.  Printing Press from him?  Or spies?

[pindicator]

182

It's a Great Artist out of the capital:




Another low-odds GP, but now I'll fire the artists in the capital in favor of scientists. I want to start building units here, but I'm going to build a Courthouse first so I can switch the 1 merchant to a spy. All-in-all, we should have our 3rd GA ready in 12 turns. What do we do with those 12 turns? More on that later.

SD is just about done.




All cities I have sight on are just garrisoned by a single longbow. I am opinions, but mostly two things: 1) Bing played this very cautiously and probably could have had SD wrapped up by now if he wanted to tolerate a few losses. 2) I'm a little disappointed Superdeath didn't decide to hole up on his island and make Bing research naval techs to come get him.

In any case, Commodore has some opinions on this war as well:




We've gone back and forth a little on the timing, but the intent seems clear: He invades Bing's mainland while I invade the former Superdeath lands. I pushed him back a couple turns from his initial offer because I have to do a few things before I invade. Replaceable Parts is still 2 turns away. Engineering has to be my next tech now. And finally, I am going to need to build some galleys.

I stopped the infrastructure and switched over to units. One or two builds will get to complete but for the most part it's time to go into war prep.

Overview of Bing + Superdeath lands, for planning purposes:




Bing researched Compass last turn. Prelude to Astronomy?

[mackoti]

Man, Bing will have loads of good land.

[pindicator]

Pretty sure that's why Commodore wants to hit him very soon, so he doesn't have the opportunity to get that land producing

[pindicator]

184

Magic Science pounced on Superdeath and denied Bing a city or two:




With Superdeath's western cities burned, Magic Science must be trying to thread the needle of slowing down Bing without coming directly into a confrontation with him. He has probably is worried enough about myself and naufrager.

Everybody not named Superdeath got a tech this turn: Bing picked up Literature (and Aesthetics last turn); Magic Science landed Gunpowder; Commodore bulbed Chemistry (on his way to grenadiers, no doubt); naufrager picked up Drama; and I finished Replaceable Parts. Several cities benefited from the +1h to windmills, and in fact I'm going to be adding more windmills to food-strapped cities.




You can see we're almost entirely in military production now. Banks and courthouses have done wonders for the economy: we're almost at 50% breakeven now. I would probably be going for Education if this war wasn't about to kick off.

Demos are showing us much improved in mfg. Naufrager leads in everything now that he's built Taj and started that golden age.




And we still have some catching up to do in the power graph.




Although really all we need to worry about is 20 knights. That's what I've been counting as being up in Superdeath's lands. They might move south in the turns to come, but for now that's the force I'm going to count on being up north when we invade: 20 knights, 10 catapults, and a scattering of longbows and pikemen.

[pindicator]

Qgqqqq, how do you feel about kicking off a war? Honestly it's not ideal for me, but this seems to be where the timing is lining up. I fly off to Alaska in 5 days and I'll have good internet connection for the first 2 days I'm up there. But a week from today we start driving, and cell coverage is going to be spotty at best.

I want to stress that if you feel uncomfortable about how turns are playing out or if something comes up that feels like it is too much then ask for a pause. We can try to question/answer it in the thread, but I'm going to be driving from Anchorage to Portland and especially for the first 2-3 days the cell coverage and internet service is probably going to be limited to when we get to a town. I'll try to check whenever I can in case you do have any questions. And if you don't feel comfortable at all about playing war turns, then just cover up until the war turn and then ask for a pause.

So let's get to the plan. Commodore has started sending countdown diplo messages every turn: the message he sent for last turn said 8 turns, and so this turn I echoed it and said 7 turns. That would put the wardec on t191.

Tech Plan
Engineering (t186) > Compass (t188) > Optics (t190) > Gunpowder > Rifling

Since we're not going for Magic Science then Astronomy isn't really needed. Boats will be needed against Bing, however, but I think we can make do with Caravels ... at least at first. But I do want to get an edge there because Bing will be building up Triremes and Galleys in order to take Superdeath's last island, so I need to be ready to counter his fleet.

Invasion Plan

This is just a first draft, look for it to change




I'm thinking of doing a 2-pronged attack against Bing, using my culture advantage to be able to pounce on Ur and Nibru with Knights from Grumpy Force and Amphibious Maces off of galleys with Lion Force*. Right now I am leaning towards using a Great Artist in Nibru, which should help slow enemy units on their approach to retake Ur, as well as let me have culture right up to the gates of Mediolanum. Ideally we will take all 3 cities on the first turn of the war: Nibru, Ur, and Mediolanum. The Great Artist culture will let my slow movers work with advantage against any knight counter-attack from Bing, as well as securing my seas from any naval forces from Bing. I would then be able to move through the fort at Nibru to contest Bing's coastlines whenever I was ready.

Finally, with Commodore pushing into Bing's core with his main force out of Doppelboch, he should meet more of Bing's forces in the south. I should have a relatively easy time in the north.

Downsides to this plan:

1) Commodore can already hit Mediolanum with the knights he currently has stationed in Campari. If this does happen on the first turn of the war then a Great Artist bomb makes a lot less sense.
2) This might not be the best use of a Great Artist: It might be better to save it in my pocket to use to catch his knights unawares. Further, if I do have an easier time in the north as expected, then it may be better to use the Great Artist in the far west to secure a border against Magic Science at the western end of Superdeath's lands.
3) This slows down my next golden age again. However, there no longer is a race to Taj, so it's less of an issue. And I have a lot I want to tech even before we get to that Golden Age.
4) It might be better to burn Ur rather than try to hold it



*Lion Force (Voltron) and Grumpy Force (Care Bears) are named in reference to the respective cities the attacks launch from. No, I do not remember the cartoons this well, and yes I did have to wikipedia them, and yes I am having way too much fun with this planning.

[Qgqqqqq]

I'm willing to execute a war plan, but I'm somewhat nervous about (a) the quality of that execution, and (b) the speed in which we'll be able to communicate for directions. I probably should have stopped reading as soon as you asked for a sub, and unfortunately this game is generally well reported. My MP wars have been either on FFH2 or defensive, so absolutely no promises on performance. I can report turns but if your internet is spotty and our time zones don't align (as I suspect) it could be slow going or require a lot of independence, which is challenging.

You leave on the 25th, right? It might be helpful if we log in together and have a discord call to chat things through before you go. (Can two people log in at the same time?)

[Qgqqqqq]

What's the ultimate plan, past turn 1, if things go well? Or if there's no knockout blow to military? Do we hold at the GLH city? Or push West?