[SPOILERS] enough is ENOUGH! scooter opens some windows and finishes first!

[scooter]

T62 does some city burning

Yep. So ok, remember that chariot that I had chasing Commodore's warrior? Also remember the axe I produced to protect my town island city? Well I actually decided to go on a little adventure... Becuase:



Despite how bad my military has been, Lewwyn's has been worse. And if I can pull a "Serdoa" it'd be nice to slow Lewwyn down while getting myself some much-needed raze gold. So I come up to Lewwyn's pigs/gold city and here's what I see:



He has an axe + Quecha. I was hoping for one unit, but this isn't bad. Here's the thing though - like I said, his military is really low. I estimate he's probably got 4 or MAYBE 5 non-Quecha military units and I can see two of them - one's in the city and one's up by the corn. So it's unlikely he'll have reinforcements... So to recap I have 28% odds of razing the city (axe vs Quecha is a gimme), which has the upside of hurting Lewwyn, increasing my security in the area, and most importantly, giving me some raze gold to fund research towards Calendar. The downside is I'll kill the axe pretty much no matter what (wound with Char, finish with axe) and get a promo on the axe, and have a shot at razing it next turn or withdrawing with a now-promoted axe at the cost of a chariot. 28% chance of a big win at large benefit and 72% chance of a loss that barely hurts. Also, Lewwyn has a galley in the city, and since I've used my movement points, I cannot run away. He'd be wise to use that Galley as a 30% chance of killing 3 units at once, and denying him that opportunity would be wonderful. So all that seems like a no-brainer for me so here we go:



Yeah I somehow missed the victory shot, but here's the axe shot showing the no-longer alive Lewwyn axe. And yes:



Razed it. 64 gold! I was going to finish construction no matter what, but that allows me to run 100% science here which means with overflow into Construction I'll likely finish that in 1T too. That makes me happy. The aftermath:



I decided to keep the axe there and roll the dice. Barring combat workers he is unable to kill that axe with any 1-movers at all... So the only way that axe is dying is if he has 2-movers in the area. There's a chance he may not even have hooked horse yet as I can't see that area, so again it seems smart to roll the dice here and hope I can rescue my axe - if so he'll be really valuable.

So enjoy that good news, because the other fronts are more annoying:



Commodore moved forward. Ugh. So I've got 2 chariots in the area that he can see, and I've whipped Keshiks in Simple Math and Sante Fe so I'm not in any danger at all, but this is still annoying. Yes he's roading that rice. Really wish he'd just withdraw everything and give me a safe border here so that I can actually do something about Serdoa. He's "furthest" away from me - not from a raw distance perspective (we are all equidistant) but in a "true distance" by military travel he is the furthest away. I have 2-movers who could make a trip, but I can't do that while I'm defending from Commodore. Anyways, Brian is exploring too:



Not a problem at all - I micro'd that Spear to finish next turn, and I have a newly-completed Keshik at Holocene anyways so I'm more than ok there. Still, annoying. Found Brian off exploring with a Spear:



Really wish he'd take that big army of his (though I'm almost caught up with him now) and head north at Serdoa. FInally, demos showed my newfound military legitimacy:



That's what happens when 3 Keshiks complete at EOT in a game where everyone has a low military. Though on the power graph - everyone is spiking a bit right now as everyone seems to be noticing if they don't build military then they cannot keep their cities . I'm realy glad that I've made the investment that I have into naval superio

[scooter]

I am now number 1 in soldiers.

And yep, that's today in sentences you never thought you'd hear me say...

Full report later.

[scooter]

T63 now has a military

Ah yes, I can construct things:



Particularly those elephant-type things. Also catapults. Yummy. The natives are restless... Or more accurately, my enemies:



He's just kinda hanging. Guess he's a sentry? I may go chase him with my Spear... Though better would be killing him with a Keshik. That may have to wait though, because I have to keep an eye on this too:



This situation is not nearly as bad as it looks. That chariot is dead if he enters my borders and may even be dead if he doesn't. Yep, MILITARY. In the land of non-military building:



I'm going to need another Great Merchant and I also need gold right now so I figured this is as good a time as any. I need MC for Triremes and my teching is too bad at this point. I actaully dropped science to 0% after taking this shot, taking full advantage of my +50% gold modifiers here by building wealth and merchants. The merchants come out ahead of building wealth on all those mines, so this was an easy decision. I'm going to pass that stone tile next turn anyways. Some scouting:



This makes me think Brian's chariot is just a sentry as he's got a sentry here as well. I actually misclicked here and moved right onto the jungle, but it gave me scouting information (one of Serdoa's settlers) so I figured it would be unfair to reload. I may get popped with a chariot or something but that's life.

So we've seen Brian/Serdoa harassing, but we've got good news on the other two fronts:



My gamble again paid off, and I'll get a promo'd axe to take home to my island city which should make it very difficult to crack (I'll pair it with a Spear eventually but no rush since it'll be awhile before Lewwyn gets a boat on the waters again). On the Commodore front is the best news:



He withdrew! Well, he withdrew the archer that was on the copper and he held the crossbow still to cover the workers. I moved my chariot 1W which is out of range of the workers as a sign of peace and I kept my second chariot hidden out of view. So looks like I'm good here. I completed Gers this turn with overflow in Sante Fe and Simple Math, so next I'll pump out a War Elephant in one of those two cities in order to show it to Commodore, hopefully cementing this border as a peace zone. Honestly, if Commodore comes at me with serious forces then we might as well call this game because Serdoa is just SO far ahead that the only way this is a game is if Commodore is actually able to crack him with Cataphracts. I'm still seriously considering giving him a worker or something. Actually, I have a spare settler right now. I might actually give it to him... Though I just realized I can't gift it in AW, which means he'd capture it and it'd turn into a worker I think. So maybe not. Either way, I now WANT Commodore to get to Guilds as quickly as possible and hit Serdoa before Serdoa bulbs his way to Rifling . That's my only real shot at this game I'm thinking, because Serdoa's teching ability is pretty clearly miles beyond my own judging by this turn's GNP where he again broke his tops. Evidence:



Again, number one in soldiers! That's right, completing 3 Keshiks and 3 Gers in 2T apparently was enough to launch me from 4th to 1st. Shows how much military everyone has . Well, I'm safe defensively, but I'm not really safe enough to go harass Serdoa unfortunately. Also:



I decided to move this city to the forest plains rather than the earlier planned spot (yes the King Park thing will be fixed shortly). This will let me share more tiles as War Paint, Holocene, and King Park all have improved tiles that I haven't really used much because of whipping. Speaking of whipping, I whipped that library into War Paint which is part of why I turned research off completely this turn. Power chart has not totally caught up yet:



But it will. Brian's early military spike looks like he just built too much military and didn't really have serious plans as I don't see any spots on the graphs where he hurt somebody. So who knows.

[novice]

I actaully dropped science to 0% after taking this shot, taking full advantage of my +50% gold modifiers here by building wealth and merchants.

Gold modifiers don't affect wealth builds, only production modifiers do.

[scooter]

Gold modifiers don't affect wealth builds, only production modifiers do.

I, uh... most definitely knew that . It's been awhile.

[scooter]

T64 plans the funeral of a scout

So first I was like:



And then I was like:



And then I was like:



And finally:



I briefly thought about doing the usual "delete to deny experience" thing but I decided to do myself a favor and direct Brian towards Serdoa's wide open settler. Serdoa dropped that settler off via galley (that's the only way it could've gotten there), so he'll likely just load it right back up, but it'll slow him down and we'll take all we can get on that front right? Right. Brian, please use your ridiculous amounts of military (he jumped back into the lead this turn) and proximity to Serdoa and go mess him up please. Thanks . If we all do our part we may be able to make it close enough that someone finishes a respectable 2nd instead of conceding in BC years . Anyways, in less pessimistic encounters:



He backed up again! First he backed the archer off the copper hill, then he got off the rice with the crossbow. This is encouraging. In the south:



Borrowed the stone which isn't being used (due to Holocene merchant-ing it up and War Paint re-growing). I'll build a monument on the stone, pausing for 1T to let the chop finish a granary. You haven't seen it yet in this shot, but two more workers flooded in next to the city soon after taking this. I also configured War Paint to grow this turn instead of next. Also, Holocene's whip anger went away at EOT which was nice. I showed Brian my Spear:



I could've moved next to it, but I viewed this as less threatening. I figured I'd show him I have a Spear and he shouldn't come too close, but I'm not going to chase his sentries away. Demos:



Back to earth on the soldier front. My two competitors are Brian and Commodore:



I can probably chill a bit since it doesn't look like either are necessarily coming after me. Since I have Keshiks scattered around my borders and whippable cities everywhere, I'm definitely safe to any kind of invasion at this point until Phracts. I am building one elephant to show Commodore but I'm not necessarily rushing it given his backing away.

[Gaspar]

I spent about 20 minutes trying to remember where I had used that picture before remembering it was an ode to Lord Parkin in PB4.

[scooter]

I spent about 20 minutes trying to remember where I had used that picture before remembering it was an ode to Lord Parkin in PB4.

That's actually hilarious to me because I didn't take it from there... I just google'd "sad face" or something like that and decided that was perfect. Then it seemed really familiar to me, but I just assumed I'd seen it before. Now that you say that though, yep, definitely remember that post.

[scooter]

T66 is back in action

Alright we had Lewwyn in "I don't feel like playing" mode and then Brian just not playing for reasons unknown, so we missed two turns in the last few days. Annoying, but we'd miss 0 turns before then so I'm still hopeful. The problem is runaway Serdoa - when stuff like that happens players start to lose interest. Anyways, I'm most definitely still trying and not going to give up, but the situation is still pretty bad. Annnyways.



Pushing hard for Moai here. I'll probably build it this way - through whip overflow. Once I get Moai in here, this will be a really strong site. Double 5F tiles already make it pretty good. I'll probably build a couple defensive units here and double-whip them at max overflow (and ferry them over to this eastern front for these cities) and overflow in that way. Or that's the plan anyways. Commodore front lookin good:



He backed away, so I did the same. Really happy about this . Someone got a great general:



That's... odd. Didn't think there'd been enough action yet for that..? Maybe Commdore is wrecking someone with crossbows? One can hope. Does IMP still give faster great generals in borders? If so, that's likely the culprit. Lewwyn sure has dropped behind in score, but I assume that's largely from my pigs/gold razing. Score is actually a pretty accurate representation of standings right now IMO - Serdoa is running away, I'm well ahead of the pack but well behind Serdoa, and Commodore/Lewwyn have been dragged down by city razings. Brian on the other hand, I guess he just played his opening wrong (built all that military while the rest of us were building settlers) and got way behind that way.



I micro'd Calendar to complete at EOT btw. Anyways, here's Brian poking around again. Once again, if he comes closer he's dead. This city was briefly empty, but I whipped in the Spear as I needed to whip out some unhappy faces anyways. I had the incense hooked up of course, so as soon as I hit enter that was +1 happy in every city which was fun. It's perfect timing as I have a bunch of bananas I'd like to hook up as well.

Quick before/after of the demos, as it shows my GNP wavered from 2nd while teching Calendar to 4th while no tech is selected:

Also solidly #1 in soldiers. I probably went overkill on securing my borders, but I'm certainly safe now. Still trying to keep my economy afloat by any means possible which is the real challenge right now. Code of Laws for some Courthouses seems like it should be a high priority, but teching anything quickly right now is difficult.

[scooter]

T67 can't build a galley

I never knew this:



But what's the deal here? Island cities cannot build galleys? Or why can this city not build one?

On management of this city, I actually swapped to a Spear, which costs 23h. I'm putting in 2hpt base... So I'll work the Spear 2T to get the 4/23h, then whip for the max 19h overflow into Moai. Once I get Moai I'll just grow this city as high as possible. I realize the town site is probably slightly better for Moai due to a higher number of water tiles, but this is a stronger site and would be ready quicker, so it seemed more logical to get this going quicker rather than delaying Moai even further. Was sadly unable to kill Brian's chariot:



I forgot I didn't have a road on the corn, and I only had 1 worker in range. Too bad, no death. Anyways, this should chase Brian away. Hammering out a Granary down south:



Got some definite overflow from the Monument whip. Anyways, we'll finish this granary and then we'll shift into max-growth here. Once the borders pop the Pigs will be a boon in that regard. Demos:



My revived food lead is largely because 1) I have a higher happy cap now (see my #1 approval rate) so I'm growing, and I have several new cities with hooked food that are pushing growth now. Look at that GNP by the way - Serdoa just lapping the field right now - it's really scary. I'm second, and Serdao is still more than tripling my GNP. It's bad. Not sure if he's catchable or not at this point.. Probably not.

Tech choice - basically boiled down to Aest->Literature for Great Library or CoL for badly-needed Courthouses. I'm thinking Courthouses is the bigger deal here, though I teched at 0% this turn so I can wait. Either way, CoL is roughly a 5T tech at break-even. Metal Casting wasn't considered because I will probably bulb it in about 6T.