(February 27th, 2018, 22:15)oledavy Wrote: Just wanted to drop a line and say I'm still here, reading along and rooting for you two 
I don't know if I mentioned it CMF, but I like your naming theme. Back in PB6, I was playing Ghandi of the French and doing French military losses for cities, so Aboukir Bay appeared on my city list too 
Thanks, Dave. It's good to hear that! I miss your advice, but I'm struggling along as best I can! I don't think I've done too poorly - in fact, I think in a game against anyone but Sullla I'd be doing quite well! More on that in a minute. I think I've met my goal of "not losing embarrassingly" so far, at least, but we'll see if I can't blunder everything away in the brewing war.
I'm curious to see how long it takes people to work out my PBEM8 naming theme. Will they get it right away? Never? We'll see...
Anyway, here's my turn.
Turn 83
Today was a big turn for me!
It started quietly enough. I saw that Leyte Gulf had brought its walls 1 turn from completion, so it was time to activate the builder that had been on standby there. Commence choppage:
This brings my final RND to 1 turn from completion. I'll have 7 trade routes available next turn, and I've got a trader at Salamis 1 turn from completion (I found you can save the production on a trader, even if you build up to your limit elsewhere! Just so long as the trader isn't your actively building unit! A neat little trick that probably is totally useless - I only stumbled on to this because I swapped off Salamis's trader to quick-build the Mausoleum). The most anyone else has are Sullla and Archduke's trios of Commercial Hubs, for 4 total trade routes. Thus, my GPT should rapidly start to climb, thought it still isn't approaching Archduke's stratospheric heights (60 gpt! I wish I had a peaceful border and I could just go full builder...).
While I'm chopping, I remember that I moved Salamis's builder into position to chop. My rough calculations seemed to indicate that this would bring the Mausoleum down to 3 or 4 turns:
Plan is to chop, while the other builder mines those hills. Notice that the damn tea is STILL unimproved here - it'd be worth a bit of extra gold to me, but my builder charges are constantly spent on chops and mines. It's been worth it, I think, and my wave of serfs will hopefully finish off all internal improvements until the renaissance.
Anyway, I was expecting to spend another handful of turns chasing this key wonder, but as those of you capable of math have no doubt realized, instead:
The damn thing finishes! Huh. How 'bout that!
So, I take the free Great Admiral, who gets two retirement charges. Here's the next one:
Mediocre, a free 75 gold and bonus trade route pillaging. Still worth having with the Mausoleum! The chappie I took generates me an envoy when he retires, so I take the effectively free envoy. I'll save up 4 (won't take that long), then kick Cornflakes out of the suzerainity of Geneva. ...OR I save up 3, and grab the suzerainity of Seoul to bring them in against Japper! Geneva benefits my own science more, Seoul would probably be more militarily effective since Japper's entire damn army is at Nan Madol:
I've shifted my units, but just offscreen to the south is Japper's 4th and final Ngao Mbeba. Nan Madol can hold its own behind its walls, at least long enough for my army to arrive. To avoid getting picked off piecemeal, I'm going to withdraw. I delayed Japper here for a bit, but I don't want to risk 1/3 of my army in this fight - I lose it and I've lost most of my striking power. I'll relocate to the east, join up with my 2 warriors and 4 archers there, and try and hold the land north of the lake and mountains to preserve the city later.
Japper will either press his attack against a walled city while Rome kicks in his back door, or he may withdraw to save his cities. It's worth Woden and I to delay the war a bit if Cornflakes/Japper will let us - Woden has a host of archers and a GG, but no horsemen yet, I have a large, semi-modern army, but no chariots yet (or a ram, but I can whip that out pretty quick from Actium, I haven't forgotten about it!) and little gold for upgrades. About 12 turns more of peace will be enough to get us to the cutting edge.
And if that means that Sullla attacks first, at those chokepoint cities? He might suck off the defenders, Cornflakes/Japper might think we NEVER intend to attack (clutching at straws, obviously), and Woden and I have a clearer road to conquest. So, I think waiting helps us more than it does them. If not for Rome/China, in fact, I'd argue we should send another DOF, build for 30 more turns, THEN attack. I'd risk falling into Woden's trap in PBEM2, when he built and built and found a vengeful Alhambram upon him, but I think one more DOF would have helped more than hurt. Ah, well, irrelevant now.
In other news, the scout finds more broken terrain:
Singaboy's really closed up his borders here. Dense settlements. I don't think I've even spotted a city center yet!
Anyway, with the last major project of my building phase done, I start to wrap up and shift to military mode. An overview shot of the empire:
2 turns, then about 5 turns of builders, then mass heavy chariots. Most of them should be rolling off the lines T95 - right when Mercenaries finishes and we shoot for Stirrups.
How have I done so far?
In demographics, I’m actually doing pretty well, I think! Culture is 33% higher than my nearest competitor, Rome, admittedly based on a single vulnerable keystone that I’m not in position to defend effectively (hopefully Japper can’t attack effectively, either). Science is now second in the game, to - who else - Rome, but the caveat there is that it’s not sustainable without more campus districts. I’ve probably peaked in science output and will start to slip backwards unless I focus more heavily on it.
Gold generation is vastly improved, too, as the RNDs finish. Woden and I had the weakest economies in the game, thanks to our lack of internal development and large militaries. Now, though, I’m making more gold than anyone except Archduke (3 commercial hubs, diamonds, and I suspect two commercial city states) and Singaboy - and I’m only about 10 gold behind Singaboy’s monk economy with a much larger military, and I’m not in conscription, and I’m not in caravanserais! The fundamentals of the English economy are sound, they just need an opportunity to be unleashed.
Expansion I’ve done okay - six cities, as much as anyone before Sullla planted all those cities in the last few turns, but I’m going to fall behind there, too. Hmmm, might be able to manage some settlers circa T95? If I could push out 3 or even 4 I’d be pretty set, and if I can keep Nan Madol from being razed that will mean more and more culture, enough to stay competitive all game long.
So, right now my civ is leading or in second in most major measures of strength - except that it’s being soundly beaten by Sullla’s Rome. This may seem pessimistic of me, but I’m actually quite pleased. This is my first MP game ever, and I think I’ve not done too poorly.
Okay, so what haven’t I done well? Well, for one, I’m not nearly a good a teammate as Woden is. I often forget to include him in my calculations, and he’s had to talk me out of some crazier ideas and remind me of basic game rules more than once. I think my civ is something of a paper tiger, too - a culture built on one city-state suzerain is begging for trouble, my science rate is a bag of tricks with no real sustainability, and I’ve expanded, but not developed internally properly so I can’t continue to expand at the rate I have.
Did I do a good job preparing for the coming war?
Yes and no, I think.
On the one hand, I’m in a MUCH stronger position than I was on turn 52, roughly the turn we signed peace after razing Aranyaka. I have 4 more cities down, each and every city has at least 1 and in some cases 2 districts, I’ve landed a key wonder, I have many more builder improvements than I did, and I have a lively network of traders out.
However, military development has been almost nil in that time. I built 1 warrior, who replaced a casualty of the Battle of Kabul. I’ve built a ton of ships, for chopping bonuses and to cement my control of the sea - but while they’ll be useful down the line against Rome, in the immediate future they mean shit-all for the war to come. I failed to save gold for upgrades, needing it to grab key tiles to get the districts up - a long-term investment when I could probably have used a shorter-term payoff.
The saving grace here is that Japper and Cornflakes have been unable to prepare much, either. Japper’s military now is STILL smaller than the one I fielded 30 turns ago, and Cornflakes’ is smaller yet. Cornflakes is much better off now than he was on t52 - he has 2 more cities, one with walls, an encampment, and a modest military force, but I think I’ve improved my productive base even more. Even if our militaries are presently more balanced (and remember - we didn’t have the force to push to Cornflake’s capital and take it on t52, either), long-term all the advantages are on our side.
So, short-term worries: Will Japper manage to capture Nan Madol? D: I’m delaying as best I can, but in 4 turns I need to get my last sword out of a blocking position so it doesn’t die uselessly.
If I can save it, medium-term prospects look good: We’ll be able to outproduce Relic, and our swarm of knights and horsemen backed by crossbows will steamroll Japper’s outdated units and Cornflake’s Domreys (Domreys are slow and poor at fighting units, but fantastic attackers. Can’t leave my cities exposed to them), if he manages to build any (does he have to slowbuild those, or can he upgrade from horsemen/chariots? Not sure if they’re Catapult replacements or knight replacements).
Long-term, things are grimmer, and it’s not because of Rome. No, my worry for decisively ending this game is China. Singaboy has 44 faith per turn, and it continues to climb. He’ll be backed by Crusade (thankfully, Rome will not be able to profit from this), but more worrisomely, he’ll be able to swap into Theocracy and produce a veritable tidal wave of units, and if we’re fighting in the middle of Relic again (say Rome/China take the western cities, and we grab the central ones), my navy will be USELESS.
My best chance, I think, is at the coasts. I must do my best to hit the canal cities Sulla has built or will capture, and cut off reinforcements from the imperial heartland. Woden and I might have a chance at the more limited armies then. Meanwhile, I can send other ships - Sea Dogs, mostly - to raid and pillage along the coasts, knocking out city-states like Lisbon. Then it’ll depend on which side Molotov-Ribbentrop join, and how well we can exploit the situation.
Basically, the end of the game is going to be chaotic. I think if you have to pick favorites, pick Singaboy and Sullla because of Sullla’s absurd development skills and Singaboy’s titanic faith, but don’t count us out, either. I think we have a fair chance to make a game of this.
Remember, I won't be making my window tomorrow - I'll be spending the night in Memphis, chaperoning our 7th graders' field trip. See y'all Thursday night!
for tile purchases in the next 6 turns but can send you anything left but will need money for xbows around T95. Also, just an FYI, I will need to have the Feudalism boost by T90, otherwise I can finish Mercenaries on T95. Keep that in mind as you plan your next turns.
and +1
to international trade routes. With 7 trade routes that can be a significant boost. I am not sure if it will replace Nan Madol but it should help. As for gold for upgrades, I do have a few coppers to harvest at Horus and can build a builder after the ram. I really don't like harvesting copper this soon in the game but if we need gold for upgrades it might be worth it. Plus, it looks like I have a nice little ice ball of a city in the extreme northeast with at least 6 reachable crabs and a couple of fish. It will have poor production but good food and gold. Maybe worth sending my next settler up there to get it going, maybe the one after. Anyways, it will be nice for our next military push, whenever that may be.
(61
, so I by another monument...
