Brick by Brick (Spoiler Alert!)

[TheHumanHydra]

Turn 161: sixth turn of peace, second turn of Golden Age.

Old Harry switched to Nationhood and Caste System and started drafting and building cannon.

I finished Steam Power at end-of-turn. Coal's 2N of Pirates.

Four turns till peace expires.
Four turns of Golden Age remaining.
Four turns to Assembly Line at max. science.

It'll take a bit longer than that, obviously.

[TheHumanHydra]

Oh dear, Azza has posted. I have several units exposed pillaging, and some coastal cities that are naturally vulnerable. And my new western cities are in his former lands ... that's why at least I have my cavalry stack on hand, until it's needed elsewhere.

Edit: Oh dear, Commodore has posted. You know, I had a feeling I was overlooking something important as I ended turn yesterday. I hope I'm not about to have another city or two sniped.

[NobleHelium]

I'm not posting anymore until you start responding to every post with "oh dear, NobleHelium has posted."

[TheHumanHydra]

Oh dear, NobleHelium has posted making fun of me.

Lol, I'm not actually that paranoid. It's just unusual to see Azza posting so much, and I always wonder what you guys are saying in the lurker thread. Other than "THH doesn't know what he's talking about."

[TheHumanHydra]

Turn 162: seventh turn of peace, third turn of Golden Age. First turn of peace with Azza!

Yep, contrary to my paranoia, Azza actually proposed peace, which I accepted. Glad to have my cities that much happier!

Old Harry's rapidly-increasing army is in an excellent attack-position against either myself or Azza. Against me, I'll have one turn's warning before it enters my borders, and then a few turns before it can hit any of my cities. Our infantry forces are essentially equal; he has somewhat more siege, which is typical for me (contrary to my real-life beliefs on force composition), and I have my 16 cavalry. Several cities have completed or are about to complete their planned infrastructure builds and are beginning to switch back over to military, while those with longer National Epics and such are well on their way, and my newer cities are popping out their terraces and forges. I'm a third of the way through Assembly Line one turn in, but now I must switch back over to gold, perhaps for the rest of my Golden Age. Now we pause for Serdoa's vacation, while Old Harry presumably decides whether to attack in two? three? turns' time (or to attack Azza - speaking of which, it'd be awesome if Azza used our peace to attack Old Harry. Not that he would anyway, and he's attacking Serdoa right now. By the way, if I'm successful against Old Harry at some point in the future, I fully anticipate having to go whack Azza, who still has some fight in him, 10 cities, and modern military tech. No raging over unexpected resistance this time, hopefully. If I'm even successful. Longest parentheses ever).

[TheHumanHydra]

Turn 163: eighth turn of peace with Old Harry, fourth turn of Golden Age. Second turn of peace with Azza, first with Serdoa!

For the first time in a millennium, I'm at peace with all the world. Azza and Serdoa have bigger fish to fry (each other), I guess, and don't mind not holding me back with war-weariness anymore now that Old Harry perhaps appears to be the leader. Or something.

Anyway, I've pretty much completed all the goals for my Golden Age already. I settled all those cities right at the start, I've got granaries at least up in all of them, I've got another economic building up in all my core cities, save Hydranauts and Wild West, whose National Wonders are due to be completed this coming turn or next, and I've made substantial progress into Assembly Line. The only thing I'm not sure about is growing up to the happy-cap; I've grown back some, but my happy-cap has kept growing too! I should be ready for more drafting once the Golden Age ends.

Old Harry's military keeps shooting up, cannon and drafts. I can't actually tell if his are defensive or offensive deployments yet. Surprisingly, I've lost sight of his catapult stack in the few fogged tiles in his territory. My stack is in position to respond wherever needed, and I have perimeter defenders to hopefully prevent a repeat of my previous misfortune. Old Harry seems to be teching cavalry right now, which will make said perimeter more dangerous. Glad it's not machine guns (yet), though.

I'll get around to posting some pictures when I finally remember to change those screenshot settings before playing the turn. In any case, they're not very enlightening right now.

[TheHumanHydra]

Turn 164: ninth turn of peace with Old Harry, fifth turn of Golden Age. Third turn of peace with Azza, second with Serdoa.

I have pictures for you!







I believe that's the first time anyone's cracked 2000. So yeah, I pretty much went crazy this turn and switched all my cities (save one) to Wealth in hopes of finishing Assembly Line at the end of next turn instead of several turns down the line. I figured being able to draft 20-strength units several turns sooner (and right when war could be declared) was more valuable than anything I could build in these couple turns. For reference, I went from like -399 (I think?) gpt at start of turn to what you see above. That's my civ eking out pretty much every last coin and beaker it can; win or lose, this is probably my civ's high-point this game. Of course, I intend to switch out of Free Speech and quite possibly Representation next turn while I won't suffer revolt, so my research-rate will plummet. Hopefully I can still squeak Assembly Line out.

I'm not sure where I go from here. Intensive drafting will - must - resume, of course, but I need to see whether Old Harry will attack, and then think about how long I want to wait (and build up) before I do so - and where. I also need to decide whether to push on down the long, slow road through Communism to Artillery and/or tanks, or sacrifice (much of) my research lead to upgrade all my rifles to infantry for the final push. I'm leaning toward the latter; tech costs are atrocious (and this isn't RBMod!), and I think I may have finally succeeded in developing a military (technological) advantage. Honestly, though, I'm still scared - I'm remembering pbem 8, where regoarrarr's cavalry (what Old Harry's bringing on-line now) annihilated stacks of exactly what I plan to bring to the field. Time to give that game a re-read ...

[TheHumanHydra]

Turn 165: tenth turn of peace with Old Harry, sixth turn of Golden Age. Fourth turn of peace with Azza, third with Serdoa.

To counterbalance my frustrating and entirely preventable failure in pbem 45, my pbem 46 turn was an awesome one.

First off, check this out. This is the result of the big push you saw last turn:




Aw yeah.

Here are this turn's builds:




Arranged to just squeak out Assembly Line at 90% science. Back to cannon! Drafting to resume next turn; I switched to Hereditary Rule and Nationhood this turn as planned (fittingly, Legoland, the capital, celebrated We Love the King Day" at end-of-turn to welcome her monarch home).

At end-of-turn, peace with Old Harry expired, and I finally regained my place (for this turn, at least) as first in score and in crop yield. I'm still first in power by a hair after six turns of virtually no military production; hooray for attritional victories (last war). Note I did finish Assembly Line in the "four turns at max. science" I said wouldn't happen four turns ago. Still undecided about going all-out on upgrading or teching up to Artillery or tanks or something. Tech-times don't look so bad now, even out of Golden Age. Maybe I've adjusted my expectations. Hmm.

Well, the year 1700 dawns, and with it, the age of rifling, of industry, of mass armies, of total war. This century, the fate of the world shall be decided. Up, men of Inca; to arms! The foe awaits you - and with him glory, and blood, and the final Test of Time.

[TheHumanHydra]

Turn 166, blah blah peace blah blah.

Obligatory builds screenshot:




I now have three infantry. Next turn I should have ten: I decided to go the upgrade route.

Old Harry has surpassed me in Power. This will be an uphill battle against hordes of units, one which I may yet lose (hopefully only after I win the war, as against Serdoa). At least infantry get good odds.

It'll be several turns yet before I declare war, probably ~10 or slightly less. Two-pop drafting is painful, as I knew it would be. I'm emphasizing growth in my newest cities to get them up to a size where they can participate in the draft rotation and allow the rest of my cities to maintain their population, and happiness. Until then, yet more scarcity and suffering for my people. The good old days.

Oh dear, NobleHelium hasn't posted in a while.

[thestick]

Apologies if you've already explained it, but why are you declaring war on Old Harry?