[spoilers]Commodore is Darius II of the HRE, now with less excuse.

[Commodore]

Any reason you chose not to hit their stack with cannons?

Because in 2 out of 9 sims, leaving the cannon in Kiki saved it. Even wounded a Drill 2 cannon takes a rifle to clear out reliably. I suspect Gaspar can still slaughter everything; the question is if I can wipe out the stack on the return. Not that it matters, given another 9 turns of golden age in China just began.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

You need some sort of super secret sneak attack strategy, and you're usually good for one. What's the Hail Mary plan here?

My suggestion:

Don't despair. It ain't over till it's over.

[Commodore]

You need some sort of super secret sneak attack strategy, and you're usually good for one. What's the Hail Mary plan here?

The plan, gentlemen, is to make snide remarks about their masculinity and die.

My suggestion:


Don't despair. It ain't over till it's over.

...or something to that effect...

Anyway, onto the dying: Lost Kiki, got offer of white peace:



Got mad, killed about a billion redlined rifles to no effect, and then Kusari got threatened, so offered peace again.



They were scared of my fearsome five machine guns therein and rapidly growing rail network, so they took the peace. All is indeed very much lost along the borderlands. I await death and concession once Dave kills off Mist.



Um. Bright news, bright news...well, my filler cities are a little better now!



Also, only six more turns of Chinese golden age, so yay there is that.

[novice]

Um. Bright news, bright news...well, my filler cities are a little better now!

[Commodore]

Sorry to sound so grim, I have nobody to blame but myself for losing this one. On the plus side, I'm about to play with something new!



Currently worth only 5hpt, but let's see if we can up that a bit...

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

If only you had had the extra hammers from Mining Inc 30 turns ago. You've been hammer poor for the entire game, and not much you could have really done about it in my mind.

[Commodore]

If only you had had the extra hammers from Mining Inc 30 turns ago. You've been hammer poor for the entire game, and not much you could have really done about it in my mind.

Well, I could have worked my mines and workshopped more, of course, but given my lower land area that was always a losing proposition. I think Kremlin whips/Mining Inc is the right path to solve that, but too little, too late. The single biggest mistake I made all game was not having the spear fast enough in the first Aylee. Gaspar/Noble winning that 50/50 shot and razing my marble was enough to delay the MoM by one turn, which was enough for them to gain it. Holy crap is that a strong wonder. Hard to say coulda-woulda-shoulda, though, because Gaspar's ragequit war if I'd won the MoM might have taken us out anyway.

It's actually kind of weird, looking at my MFG. Universal Suffrage is the traditional answer to the problem of MFG that a cottage economy faces against a workshop hybrid, but my strengths as the HRE are less in the vein of "more money" but more "cheap existence". I have no banks and only a couple markets or grocers, so my efficiency running gold ain't great, it's just that my 100% costs are roughly half those of my rivals.

[Commodore]

Okay, I'm having fun again. That's a little excess copper from Dave and Mist (as, well, otherwise I'd be taking it). Still, no matter, -18gpt works out to a mere -4.5gpt with a Rathaus. I lack a bank in Riffington yet, but already with a grocer and market I'm netting +6gpt for each spread of Mining Inc. Thanks to the HRE it is turning a pure profit ignoring the bonus. Definitely need to run more merchants in Oasis...need some Sid's action here too.



Now, I think it's a bit of a bummer for Mist, given Dave is playing musketeer madness down there. I'd play too, but there are only seven turns remaining on the China NAP and I expect them to come a rumbling.



Still, hell of a fun thing, eh? Cooperate Executives, factories, machine guns, cannon, destroyers, and infantry will be all rumbling off the lines by the time the treaty expires. Too late to stop 'em, but it'll be a hell of a thing.

[Commodore]

Okay, engaged again. I'm losing badly, and will die, but we're going to give Gaspar such a run. One executive per turn, until I bang out a swift Org factory, then one infantry per turn. I do love this capital...not the greatest commerce spot in the world, but these hammers are awesome.



Speaking of hammers, how's this for a great levee city? I did think the city tile would be getting an extra hammer too. Pity I'm so crushed by this culture, I wish I could afford the Hermitage in here, but as you can see, defender spam is the name of the game.



I have no clue what's going on in Byzantium. Dave's going for infinite musketeers, which is awesome I guess. Maybe I should be encouraged by this? I hope he doesn't lose the copper he's trading me. I'm spamming cow offers, is that too on the nose?



It's getting to the point where even a dogpile might be futile. Golden age, I know, but that's still a brutal demo lead. I need more troops, stat.



So, how much does it cost to upgrade stuff, again? Need a trio of transports with a dozen infantry the turn after Combustion.

[Merovech]

You only get an extra hammer (or food or commerce) if the non-improved tile you are founding on has a base hammer (or food or commerce) value higher than 2/1/1