Khan's Thread [SPOILERS] A roll of the dice...

[Jowy]

I just discovered the new Discord feature and it's amazing. I have found a negative though. I am yet to receive my first turn, Jowy has held it for over 33hours and Discord just keeps reminding me of all the other games Jowy is currently playing at any given moment that aren't Civ. 

I appreciate that without Discord I would not have this information and would assume he was working or whatever. It's just frustrating. It's the first turn, it takes 10 seconds to play it. Yes, you want to build a sandbox but surely you've got worker or workboat (if his is similar) first locked down by now? In fact, he does not start with fishing. Send your scout somewhere, choose worker, move the turn on. You don't even need to choose a technology yet. There is no good reason he could not do that and then build the sandbox at any point.

Of course, i'll keep this all to myself because Byzantium yo.

Well shit, I'm never going to Discord again lol.

Haha, sorry Jowy. My excitement leads to impatience at times. Why did you quit the game? 

Civ news: Second city grew. Next settler out shortly. Should have 3 cities and 4 workers in 5 turns time.

My heart wasn't in it. I realized I wasn't enjoying the game and things would only get worse, so I should drop out early so the replacement gets a relatively clean table to work with.

[Khan]

A good reason. Thank you for being so forthright with both us and yourself in that case.

I've met all the players now, third city settled in two turns. A chop is timed to finish as it's founded and assist it with it's initial workboat. I am very hammer rich so far. I think my next two placements are going to be commerce hubs. Been a little slow and still not working any cottages yet but I am working almost entirely 6 foodhammer tiles (exception is the fish at 5f, 2c). Last in commerce by a long way but not worried about that in the slightest. I am behind on food too, but comfortably ahead in production. For now, this is fine. I am building foodhammer units anyway and I think the combined total (food plus production) would have me in first. I being improving the grassland gems next turn which should help curve out from my expansion and soften the blow until I blanket the ground with cottages.

[Khan]

Turn 50 update. Screenshots taken after pressing end turn.







At end of turn I finished The Oracle (in Splendor, alongside Stonehenge). This will let me take currency and culturally dominate the El Grillo border. Plan now is to expand east and west (both towards Greenline). I have a nice lead at this part of the game with 6 cities (others all have 5), both of the early wonders and 8 workers. In some games, I would think I had this wrapped up. Unfortunately, I am far from certain in this case. I do have a lot of land left that I could claim to the east but it is almost entirely devoid of resources (1 dry rice and nothing else). The screenshot above shows my next expansion, the one in the SW corner is in Greenline's first ring so is a much tougher pick up. Still, will do what I can. Have begun churning out totem improved archers and dog soldiers to guard the border cities. That will do for the short term.

[Khan]

Long time no post. Brief overview of the game:

I had a huge lead in all demographics and a lead in city count. Then I ran out of room and as the map is not mirrored, the other guys did not. I don't take too much responsibility for this as I control quite a bit of land that is nearer to my competitor's capital than my own. El Grillo's financial trait and significant land edge has allowed him to eventually overtake and now surpass all of my demographics. He has quite a lot more land and, on average, it's a fair bit more lush than my own. No problem but I need to act or i'll come second to that scoundrel again. I grabbed guilds and built a huge army and I have absolutely dismantled greenline with it.  The landmass being as it is has forced me to maintain a large naval presence to deter Ruff, but that aside my army is still huge. I have been at war with Greenline for four turns and I have taken 4 cities and also his capital in that time. He has managed to secure a minor fortress with a handful of longbows but that will not hold for long once the catapults turn up.

I have no land border with Ruff but an ENORMOUS land border with El Grillo which makes it impossible to defend all of it. Of course, the same is true for him too. He is researching faster than me but I should be able to get liberalism. At this point, I will get astronomy as there is an island out there which I hope is worth the effort (Treasure Island, woo!). I have a big land advantage but am sandwiched between the two of them. I can easily attack and really screw over Ruff by attacking via the sea. Within 5 turns, I could raze about 4 core cities unless significant garrisons appeared in that time but I am not sure this does anything other than guarantee a 2v1. As such, I will leave Ruff alone but maintain my significant naval advantage and begin assaults on Grillo. Salt the earth style attacks where I just try to disrupt and harm him enough that my newly gotten lands put me back in the lead once again. This could be the prelude to an enormous land war between two huge empires, which would be cool. Grillo only has half my army currently but his border cities are all longbowed up and I know he has access to pikes and muskets. He is also protective. He will be particularly prickly to poke.

[Khan]

What are people's thoughts on 'mercy killing'? 

What I mean by this is I've basically destroyed greenline. I've taken his entire core, his capital and all of his lands that I held any desire for. What I have not done is actually kill him though. He has a couple of moderately well protected cities in 'contested' land between him, ruff and el grillo. I don't want those cities, nor do I particularly want to expend resources taking them just for my competitors to re-settle the land.

Have I got a duty to greenline to 'end his misery' as such? I don't want him to have to keep playing a turn in a game every day when he's become little more than a city state that will eventually be eaten up. I have the forces to do it, but it would put my army in a vulnerable location to counterattack from the others and a fair way away from 'home' if one of the other two decided to try their luck.

[Commodore]

I'd say no, you're not required to do anything, but you might want to anyway...makes the saves go faster, less worry about OB shenanigans, war weariness...

[Khan]

I'd say no, you're not required to do anything, but you might want to anyway...makes the saves go faster, less worry about OB shenanigans, war weariness...

Ok, the war weariness especially is a good point. I think i'll take the happy medium road and wipe him out, but when I feel comfortable doing so. Not putting any of my stacks at risk. The ideal would be Ruff takes him with cataphracts or something. As far as I can tell, he doesn't have those yet though.

This is a strange game. El Grillo and I are way ahead of Ruff but he might be able to play kingmaker. I'm still undecided what my best course of action would be if El Grillo were to attack Ruff. I could not get involved in any land war between them. I think my best bet would be to attack El Grillo's border, as well defended as it is. A dozen protective longbows, pikes and muskets would be nasty to get through but cannons should help.