[PB75 Mjmd] Call to Power

[Mjmd]

T223



90% SD trying to deceive me. Checks tiles and he pillaged a village down to cottage. 100% chance. Like dude if you are going to try to deceive AT LEAST PRETEND.

Edit: I demanded 50g for the pillage and put 2 units on his knight.

[Mjmd]

T225

Ijub sent cow for cow. Then d pact copper copper. Then just d pact. I may go back into respond that yes d pact, but I'll only protect your southern cities. I played a fast tired turn, but still didn't spot any factories. There is another explanation possible though; we shall see.

[scooter]

Also, Scooter in recognition of longtime Egyptian India alliance (or just because) left me 5 workers which will come in handy as I'm a little short atm.

I generally view workers as legitimate spoils of war and think they should not be deleted. If the workers are likely to be used against you then delete, but I otherwise think you should leave them in your last city.


If I was RB Dictator this would be a custom I would enshrine into law. But I'm not, and I think this is a minority opinion anyway.

[Mjmd]

T227

Ijub sent me d pact his southern 3 cities and d pact my entire empire. Ginger also has a 6 move galleon I can see and I'm betting there are more south coming at me.

I withdrew my stack from Ijub's border. Both to help stuff cities and also because Ijub gave Ginger open borders and gave away a deer to to do it. SIGH. I mean I get him feeling nervous, but I don't think Ginger is looking for a major war anymore. But ya he could spot my stack and my rail roading now kind of ruining any surprise. I am keeping a pair of workers rail roading, but may send them back as well.



I was a little worried when it was a 45 degree line that Ginger would attack Ijub at a huge tech advantage, but he has evened out a bit. I'm guessing he is just trying for a cheap shot at some of my coastal cities. As long as he already doesn't have a two 7 move galleons over this turn I should be fine and it hasn't been but 2 turns I believe since he got Astronomy so that seems impossible, but still I worry. I was aware of the danger and I have 1 new privateer out who will keep an eye east and put another in queue to go west, although maybe two east first..... One of my long term problems is I don't have a ton of coastal cities and 4/7 I do have are new.

Now Ijub did stuff some ancient trash in his southern cities, so I guess maybe Ginger might take a swing at him, but my bet is on him attacking his actual rival.

Oh btw fish for fish SD has been dumping what feels like all his EP spending into me.

[Mjmd]

Realized I never did song for PB66 Moai song. Former Jack city that had tons of food and 15 water tiles.



T229

So lets go back in time a bit:

T225
 I played a fast tired turn, but still didn't spot any factories. There is another explanation possible though; we shall see.

First off disappointed none of you asked for the other explanation especially considering Ginger isn't reporting. Now I have started to spot a few factories. However, the most likely reason was he was building wealth because we have been in a lovely tech race.

I detoured to divine right (bulbed most) and he detoured to military tradition which may cost him.



Nice little final tick of 4 beakers here. Did same strat with astronomy. Get the vast majority and then power through. Obviously astronomy was a big loss for me and to a lesser extent so was scientific method. Also, this strat helps hide tech for as long as possible.



Now you know you are in a tech race, but you don't know for what. You aren't willing to play clock games to get 2nd in turn order. After scientific method which of the 3 do you research? Well I haven't seen an extra merchant born so I figured it wasn't biology. I choose to do communism first, which even with overflow I couldn't QUITE 1 turn (it was super close).



Communism is cheaper, has Kremlin which I wanted to deny, and FINALLY gave me my 3rd great person. Which means I could then GA and if Ginger was going for physics the worst outcome would probably be a tie. I do need to get going on factories sometime soon though.......

Actual turn 229:

You know that power graph I showed a couple turns ago and how SD was still super low.



Now this could be a trap. I've used the old declare fake war to lull someone a couple times myself. IF SD posts its real as he is probably complaining. But will see either way. I did move a medium size stack that way JUST IN CASE. I don't plan on hopping in myself. But ya all of SDs power is on my border (his war with nauf promise coming true is funny to me after he left all of it there), so if it is real he is in trouble.

Launched GA. Took some finance screens to see civic differences.

After GA launched but before swap:



After swap to free speech AND free religion. Free religion will be temporary, but even 5 turns is an extra 1000 beakers ish, which isn't nothing with how expensive these techs are. I had tested prior and Sistine bonus will come back once I switch back. The question is how much do I care about going for culture as I could stay in couple turns longer for more beakers. I do want org back for factory building. NOTE: I switched some wealth builds either to research or off after so that is why total income down.



Staying in rep and merc as well for now. I am preparing to spread mining inc more, which might be another reason to swap sooner than end of GA as it is expensive.

Based on what I've been seeing for Ginger numbers he is going to be hard pressed to tie and I think there is no way he outright wins race to physics. Really wish I had gotten a GA any of my last 3 GPs so it wasn't close, but ah well.

[Mjmd]

T230

Ginger did scrounge up enough beakers to make it a tie to physics. I'm assuming its just a straight coin flip for how the great person is assigned? Also, met a 5 move privateer coming at me. It was still the right move going communism first as I didn't know which tech he was going for. If I had went physics there was 0% chance of tying the communism specialist and at least this way I get 50% shot (assuming). Also, keeping Kremlin out of the hands of people with food seems important. I also MAY use myself although I think that would require Cristo which has rightly been moved back a tech to make it worthwhile. I have a decision to make soonish which tech I want to stop at if I'm serious about culture. I still have at least 5 to research though. Might post more thoughts eventually. I also realized Ginger only has 8 ports. He has multiple cities 1 tile off the coast. His 8 are way more developed than my 7, but its not crazy advantage especially once I get mining inc going.

I also have thoughts if I really want to found cereal mills or save the merchant for a 4th GA. Might be decided by the coin flip on the scientist / GP coming out of Lemmings in 3 turns. Even with Kremlin I'm getting too much benefit from serfdom economy wise to permanently swap to slavery, so founding would mainly be denial although there are multiple cities that could benefit somewhat from.

Sadly SD and Nauf made peace. Don't know what that was about, but also means wasn't a ruse.

[pindicator]

I believe Pitboss randomizes the player order every turn, so it is a coin flip

[Mjmd]

T231

Well after losing 3 GP flips I WON ONE!!! Got the scientist.

Had to do some soul searching on which tech to do next. I could have gone for 2T biology (BARELY) and gotten cereal mills. It would be useful mainly as a way to prop up major cities such as my capital, Mandalay, and Drunken Sailor which will not be able to build factories due to missing some resources like rice and banana. Sorted by health below; also to show the extent of my wealth and research building (and it was greater at points).



Its not quite as bad as it looks as many cities will get more food due to biology so they will just smell a lot, but ya +5 unhealthiness will hurt and most cities already have aqueducts built. Also, obviously some farm tiles could be converted to workshops.

However, I think I just want a 4th GA ASAP. I do still have a 20% chance for merchant next (realize it doesn't show atm). So working merchants for so long was ok and in fact went back to working over scientists. Also, its just past time to get factories up and I love building buildings with org in GA, so will switch to that until next GA (another reason to get a sooner 4th as I don't want to stay in org the rest of the game). I'm also PRETTY SURE Ginger does not have a great merchant. He had one born, but it was in his 3 stack that I'm pretty sure was used on his last GA.

[Mjmd]

T232

Ginger double moved past my sentry privateer..... which I find to be a bit slimy as he 100% knew it was there. Luckily I finished my first airship this turn which revealed hopefully all. Although, I also already had my first frigate watching this particular ice pass. I tried real hard to figure out if I could find a better way of trapping his units without double moving him back, but I couldn't. So I just declared and killed 1 assumingly loaded galleon along with a scouting cuir. Sent him peace treaty. I'm not worried about Ginger turning on Ijub as he just became #1 power.



I was going to talk about this more later, but the fact I have ice down here is real nice from a defensive stand point.

[Mjmd]

T234

Ginger took the peace treaty. Due to the war I'm now up to like 3 times rolling the turn this game .

Accelerated the great person out of Lemmings by 1 turn to help me decide what to tech AND



Ya I lost the 23% roll. SIGH. Decided to go combustion to get ahead in destroyer production as I only have 1.5 cities that can / really want to be building naval units atm. Will go biology after.

Did my civic swaps and gpt did drop, but will save as I accelerate spreading mining inc. Decided NOT to go for pentagon immediately. Its about 8 mining inc execs worth of production and as my capital can't build a factory it might as well contribute in a different way. I may still try to build for fail gold in a bit as I imagine Ginger is already building.

Edit: logged back in to assure SD that the police state isn't for conquering him. Assuming he never closes his borders. ATM he is worth more for trade than as a conquest target.

Also, can someone gently tell Ginger not to double move his units past enemy scouting units in the future.