[PB78] Dreylin boldly goes

[RefSteel]

Oh, here's another question; how long should it take for culture to reset, because it did not do so at the start of t199?

I'm not sure if anybody knows the answer to this one - on this site or in the world. Culture recalculation after city capture is incredibly weird and buggy. Probably/hopefully sometime in the next three turns?

[Dreylin]

T200 - pt1 Overviews

I'm going to split this update into 3 again and start with some overview shots and then maybe talk a bit about where I think the game stands.

Let's start with a zoomed out view of the world with some shoddy annotation:



I stuck myself in the corners since we'll see plenty of that later and just used the lines to sketch out the outline of the remaining empires - for this purpose I have assumed a split to be held after Magic's demise with Donovan getting the remaining land cities and probably Superdeath taking Map since he has fleet in the area and sufficient incentive to clear the culture around Marathon. Note that Magic has done a very thorough job of whipping these cities into the ground defensively and while these represent a good deal of land, it will take a decent length of time to pay off.

You can see that Superdeath is the first to achieve a wrap-around with Marathon offering that narrow link, while Donovan is quite close in both directions; just being blocked NS at Marathon and WE where I snuck in and grabbed the space for Worf & O'Brien. Donovan has huge ... tracts of land, but his cities are comparatively small and there are quite a few gaps - particularly where his border with Magic used to be, but also along his NW border with Superdeath. His capital remains at size3.


OK, Let's look at my borders, starting with the most established:



To my East and Southeast I have a culturally fixed border with Superdeath. Spock is still the lynchpin on my side and would form a focus of attack, while Superdeath has expanded around it in Gavagai's land. The latter's decision to not raze Spock has been important, since a raze&replace would have reset the cultural output and I would have struggled to hold as many tiles as I have been able to against CRE Superdeath.

Important note for the Eastern border, so far the Trireme outside Scott is the only ship that has been launched into this body of water, but I will need to install real garrisons if / when Superdeath gets Astronomy and can field Galleons and Frigates. Spock could also use a few more defensive units if I'm honest, but relations with Superdeath have remained good and Rifles will fix that soon enough.


The Southwest:



I've shown a lot of pictures of this area recently, so not a whole lot to add, but you can see that the culture has righted itself and that Riker's established footprint will make sure that Arby's is not going to claim much. Khaaaaaaan will miss the pair of Farms there though, so I have added one near Yar to help it grow (which is now possible with the Oasis in borders). Lwaxana (formerly New Tabriz) will struggle to compete with Marathon for tiles, and also needs to push back against Donovan's culture to the West.


The Northwest:



A pretty hard border between Sulu & Sssla - I've talked about how much better this city would be as part of my empire - but the rest is relatively recent and undeveloped. From what I can see there are few if any ships in this area, I think having been Forted to the West and Maalor/Draconis. Crusher & McCoy are working on a pair of Caravels to keep an eye out over here.


Moving around to the North:



I'm not sure why Firma is so small right now as it's an established city on par with Picard and was Donovan's border with Gavagai for a long time. Most of this is recovering Gav-land, but Reticuli is the regional powerhouse.


Finally we're around to the Northeast:



Here's where Superdeath could wrap NS; the borders at Chapel / HuHot & Herculis are well established, and because it was competing with HuHot, Chapel had culturally gained the Pigs from Lahore before the hand-over. There's an argument that I should have pushed to grab that city at the same time as I burned the one adjacent to La Forge, but I think that would have been far more provocative and derailed the effort against Magic Science - which was absolutely needed to prevent him running away.

So we are at a point where I have 2/3 of the cities that my opponents do, but a greater percentage of theirs are new conquests verses established cities. Superdeath has a decent economy, a well-developed core and lots of new conquests. Donovan has lots of land, a mediocre core, and lots of new conquests. I have a decent economy, a well-developed core, and some key Wonders. Superdeath is clearly in the lead, and I think you could have a decent argument about whether Donovan or I are in second or 3rd. FWIW I think that right now I am in second as I have disengaged from the war and have been able to concentrate on development; that changes as Donovan's new land comes online and is developed.

So the main goal of the next 20-30t is to not be the 1 in the 2v1, and if I'm successful at that, to make sure that I make more substantial gains more quickly than my companion. And these are why I've been plotting with Superdeath rather than against him. Reasoning is mainly 2-fold: 1) current tech level & capacity; I'm half a step behind SD in tech and half a step ahead of Donovan - putting him nearly a full step behind SD - I think Donovan & I could struggle to make gains against SD, while SD & I together could make a rapid dent into Donovan. 2) attack vectors & defensibility; I have a very long and exposed front against Superdeath. I could grab Marathon & Arby's to secure the SW, but then I'd also need Mycale, Spicy Tuna, and DeliMeats to bring the border back to focused on Spock. On the other hand attacking into Donovan generally pushes a border in one direction: Lahore (& Calcutta?) and Sssla are both short pushes which don't expose or extend a larger border. In the West, push to Yarrow (or bypass to Obaca) and cut off that peninsula from land reinforcements; in the north, Pataliputra and Firma push the border back without lengthening it, and if SD is attacking from the North at Golden Sun and Bombay then we're collapsing the border. On the other side, I don't think Superdeath makes as quick gains from Donovan - and where he does it's more into the ex Gav and Magic-lands rather than Donovan-settled cities.

I'll look at economics in the next post and then highlight some of my cities in the final.

[Dreylin]

T200 - pt2 Economics & Tech & whatnot

It's so nice to have a functioning economy after many many turns of scraping by:




One could even call it competitive:



*I left the Scaling lines on for these since Donovan's Native America brown is much harder to pick out against the gold background.

Donovan's turn of Anarchy is clear, and you can see where Superdeath turned on the taps for Steel.


On the Production side, I've regained my edge:



Windmill conversion is now paying off with RP in hand.


Food:



Lower city count is really showing here.


Power:



Superdeath really stalled at the walls of Marathon, while Donovan will likely lose a chunk of his forces at New Tehran. I've fallen a step behind, but will be making that up shortly with Rifles.


Full Demo set:




I decided against a picture of the Civics, but you can see that there's no trade anymore; Donovan's Anarchy took him into Mercantilism, leaving Superdeath the sole player with no Economic Civic. I've lost track of great people so he might be close to a Golden Age, but if not he should probably be considering the Anarchy for a switch as well.


Finally, a look at the tech tree:



Donovan is up some portion of the Aesthetics branch and most of Astronomy, but down by Paper through RP.

Superdeath is also down Paper-RP as well as Optics & CoL, but is up by the whole Aesth-Music tree, Philo-Mil Trad, Chem and most of Steel.

I'm saving on Aesth & Lit for Rifling, but I may see if I can also grab Music without affecting Rifling - Sistine would be a very useful build, but also a big time investment without access to Marble.

After Rifling I'm not sold on a plan; There's a definite argument to follow Superdeath to Steel, but I also feel that with PRO Rifles in hand I could take a run through Education to make a play for Liberalism or the free Merchant. We'll see what Superdeath does after Steel....

[Dreylin]

T200 - pt3 City Tours

A selection of cities this time rather than going through all 20, though of course more detail can be requested on subsequent turns:

Kirk just doing Bureau-Cap things.   I'll bring a Mine across from Uhura when it grows again and then can out at 18 with another Specialist. With everything useful built here this is where I would probably go for Sistine; in the meantime ... Knights.




Spock has nearly recovered from the mauling it took during the Gavagai war; not sure the other economic buildings are worthwhile here, so may just go back to Knights.




McCoy will probably get Ironworks and then West Point. Also one of the few Levee-eligible cities ... no, it's not because I like to found 1t away from rivers (I do), but because there just aren't that many rivers around this map.




Scott probably gets Oxford (slowly).




Uhura has grow far beyond her original filler / support role and is now Military pump and will get Heroic Epic soon. Now that it received a religion spread, this city has finally(!?) stopped trying to hire Artists to pop borders!




Oh my, look at this monster! National Epic in the plan to go here with Moai; fingers firmly crossed for the 2/3 chance at the Priest in a couple of turns for the Hindu Shrine in Kirk; it's probably the last decent opportunity I will have for a Priest to payoff.




Chapel originally started hiring specialists to mitigate whip anger (though I see still 27t remaining!), but now is pushing out the next Great Person and would really appreciate a boost of Pacifism at some point so it can get back to military builds. Not entirely sure why I'm building a Bank here tbh.


Finally a more recently acquired city to round things off:



La Forge is tuning up his engine in the NE and ready to roll.

Finally here is a complete list:



We'll check back in 10t, by which time most of these queues should be clogged with Rifles....

[Dreylin]

OK, that's the T200 update posts now updated. If I've missed something you want to see or you have any concerns about some of the questionable things I've said, just let me know. Looks like the turns have started moving again and ... holy crap Donovan is whipping everything again...