[Spoiler] Suboptimal's Next Attempt at Lurker Frustration

[suboptimal]

Turn 265

Did Canada take Truly back from me? Do I still have a submarine off the coast of Red Wings?




No on both counts. That’s another craptonne (metric) of notifications, though. I can call the World Congress if I want to call a vote on a betrayal emergency. Eh, pass. Also, over in Canadian territory:




The missionaries are a prelude to war. I know this. Woden also has Crusade. Canada is doomed after they get done with me. Agent Merciful Death in Bruins starts a siphon funds mission, as does Leofflaed in Wild.

Right, so, the invaders. I’ve got a frigate fleet and an ironclad I need to deal with, a fighter that could really use to promote and a cavalry army that needs a talking to over at Truly. It looks like the city attack and the battleship can one-shot the frigates. The frigates are the more dangerous bunch while the ironclad is just pillaging the Harbor (“just pillaging the Harbor” he says ). City attack goes first, frigate sinks. I promote the fighter. Machine gun army goes after the tank, it dies. Battleship says hello to the cavalry, they’re redlined. The tank comes out of Truly, the general goes to Auntie Wainwright and the tank follows up by killing the cavalry. It earns a promotion but will die next turn because Canada’s battleships in Auntie Wainwright can hit it because the ironclad can see it. Or rather, it can’t, because the bomber at Peter Sallis sends it to the bottom. Unless he brings that northern tank over my tank might be safe. Cue Woden and another nuke.

My sub heads southwest towards Penguins to go pillage the tundra cities. My artist checks the coast south of Auntie Wainwright, nothing to be seen. Sinan moves down to Auntie Wainwright for a look. That city is at 10.9 loyalty and will flip the turn after next unless I lose Truly or Foggy. Kathy Staff will flip in four turns, Compo in eight. Canada’s biggest loyalty risk is Auntie Wainwright flipping. The five great works are still in the city and if it flips back to me and I can hold it that’ll cause the other two cities to flip back all that much faster. I could also rachet up the pressure by retaking Nora Batty.

[suboptimal]

Turn 266

I still have Truly:




I pass on the World Congress vote and check the loyalty situation.




Auntie Wainwright will flip back to me on Canada’s turn. Kathy Staff will go either next turn or the turn after, depending on when that city calculates its loyalty. Compo has a few turns but that time will get cut when Auntie Wainwright goes. If I can get and keep both Auntie Wainwright and Compo then Marina will fall back into my control as well.

Sinan embarks and the artist does a sweep to go look for Canadian naval units and I find none. Next turn I’ll go check for the Phoenician navy a bit further south (I still have a pin there). My bomber takes the quiet time to promote with Evasive Maneuvers (+7 vs. AA) and my tank army heads to Peter Sallis to try to get some healing done. It also has a promotion so takes Barding and gets some faster healing in. I also give the battleship group the Bombardment promotion. Foggy pauses to repair the lighthouse and I send a trader to Peter Sallis. Sub closes in on Penguins.

There’s a new hole in the Phoenician bucket, dear Liza (dear Liza):




Woden also took a few cities but likely won’t hold them:




Hit end turn, Woden completed a spy mission.

I think the only way I hang on here for more than 10-15 turns is to get Canada to peace out and immediately get trade routes going there. One buys me a bit of time, two buys me a lot of time, three puts me in the green economically.

[suboptimal]

Turn 267Turn 266 World Congress

In today’s episode of Civ is Like a Box of Chocolates:




Ah….FFS. I waited two days for that? :gripe: However, Canada and Woden have both played so I get to see what I’m in for once Ichabod plays his turn:




Not only do I get Auntie Wainwright back but the city appears to have claimed a crapton of (useless) ocean tiles. HEY YOU GUYS!!!!! I actually got to use Eleanor’s special loyalty flipping ability.

It’ll take two turns to rebuild walls, one turn to get the monument back online but the city is at full loyalty:




Those two will flip on Canada’s next turn. Also not the Pink Crown of Flippage at Marina. The changeover of Auntie Wainwright and its five great works have that city flipping in seven turns. That’ll go down a turn or two once Compo flips. Anyway, time to take my 83 diplomatic favor and see what the votes are on:






For a second I need to figure out why I’m the target of the Betrayal Emergency, then it occurs to me that I had an economic alliance with Woden and declared on him as soon as it ended because, well, I needed to make an attempt at self-preservation. Wonder what the target city will be? I put everything else piles into voting down the Betrayal Emergency and the leftovers (one free + one bought vote) into passing the Nuclear Emergency.

[suboptimal]

Turn 267

Survey says:




Wait a sec….Woden’s been kicking the shit out of me (well, OK, nuking the shit out of me) and he didn’t want bonuses against? If I were Canada I’d be very, very afraid of the end of the alliance.

Seems Ichabod and I are on the same side and Canada, as an ally, got no vote. But check this out:




It’s a 59-turn emergency, not a 30-turn one! . So, where’s Gondor? Dunno yet….I cancel out of the WC screen and get this:




OK, Gondor…




Yeah, I won’t be getting anywhere near that city during the emergency. However, all I need is to get one point and for Ichabod to capture the city to get any benefits. However, I don’t see the emergency objectives being completed any time soon.

So, Auntie Wainwright. I start repairing outer defenses, one turn to complete. The Canadian battleship group at Compo is in range of my bombers so I attack, doing 57 damage. Foggy’s lighthouse is complete and I resume the tank build. I could, in theory, bring my battleship out of the lake and sink the Canadian unit but I’d be exposed to any Phoenician naval units that might still be around. I send the artist southeast to the last known position of the Pheonician carrier and come up empty. That’s...good, I suppose? Sinan stays put to watch over the Canadian battleship. The fallout at Truly will clear out by itself in four turns; I’ll save the builder charges for repairing and restoring improvements.

I’ve got two traders available but I’m going to hold off on trade routes. The 10-turn enforced not-peace with Canada ends on my next turn. I want to see if Canada will offer peace (and maybe Marina) on their turn. That’ll let me get my economy back on track a bit.

One of my spies has made a terrible mistake.




I choose “By Foot”. Radcliff evades capture but failed to get any . He’ll be home in four turns and I’ll redeploy, likely to Canada. Since I’m on that topic, my sub moves into Penguin’s waters and will pillage the lighthouse there next turn.

Compo and Kathy Staff will flip next turn. The addition of Compo will give me five available trade routes. If that battleship is what’s left of Canada’s naval power I might try to send Foggy’s trader to Venice next turn and see what happens. Amani will go into Compo next turn.

This is all likely moot, though. Looking at the diplomatic ribbon, Ichabod is down to 20 17 per turn. My pending concession still stands, though it’s likely to Woden. I can’t recover to challenge him and Canada will get boot-stomped when that alliance is up.

[suboptimal]

Turn 268

I got four era score when Auntie Wainwright flipped back to my control – two for the flip and two for the city rejoining my empire. Kathy Staff has flipped, so four more. Compo has not.




Or rather, Compo flipped on Canada’s turn and then they retook the city because it’s back at 50 loyalty (and losing 17 per turn). Amani gets assigned to Auntie Wainwright and Pingala goes to Truly. Kathy Staff starts the repair outer defenses project. In other notifications it appears than Venice was liberated from Brazil as I am Ichabod are now at war with the city-state:




Truly’s builder is complete; I use a charge to clear the city center and queue up repair projects – outer defenses, monument and then another builder. The other contamination will clear itself in three turns. Peter Sallis has completed a tank and starts the Campus. I shift the lake oil over to Foggy and Auntie Wainwright will repair its monument and then start a builder.

In looking at things I’ve got two possibilities. The first is that I could try to take Compo now with the bomber, maybe the fighter and the tank army. However, that AA gun is a problem though it won’t outright kill my aircraft. The upside would be killing a few Canadian units in addition to getting the city back early. However, I think the bomber can wipe out Nora Batty’s defenses in a single attack (or two). I sweep the artist east to check for Phoenician craft and find none. Sinan moves over to Nora Batty and I’d pretty much clean out the walls in one shot with the bomber. Unfortunately the city is 11 tiles away from Peter Sallis. I rebase it to Truly’s airfield and will attack next turn. I also bring Peter Sallis’ new tank down a bit to be closer to the action.

That leaves Penguins’ Harbor; I pillage the shipyard and move to the fishing boats. If I get attacked I’ll either pillage the boats and move out of range for a turn or go back for more .

Lasers completes next turn, Globalization in 6 turns. I’ll switch to Fascism when the latter is done.

Given Ichabod’s condition I might not be the next to be eliminated...

[suboptimal]

Turn 269

It occurred to me after last turn that I probably should have gone after Compo. If I took the city Canada would have no units for a retake-and-raze operation. Of course, that doesn’t matter right now because Canada has engaged in a push for my capital:




Right. Battleship starts to work on one of the artillery units. I go after the corps first since that’s a more killable unit. City defense is relatively useless but I attack the infantry with it. Tank army at Peter Sallis comes down to Foggy and also attacks the infantry, I should be able to kill it with the city attack next turn. The air units go after the northern tank army, doing about 50% damage to it. My bomber group is covered by the machine gun army but I may need to relocate to a city next turn. Compo will still flip in two turns so that complicate things a little for Canada (spoiler alert: it won’t).

Ichabod is down to one city. I’ll outlive him for sure, then it’s just a matter of Canada conceding to Woden. Heck, at this point Woden doesn’t need to do anything to wipe out Ichabod:




It’d take 16 turns to flip but Ichabod likely won’t see Turn 270.

My sub pillages Penguins’ fishing nets to heal up from the city attack, then moves outside the city’s range. If there’s a Turn 270 I’ll pillage the other nets and go back in for the lighthouse.

[suboptimal]

Turn 270

Ichabod is dead. Good game, Ichabod! Still getting the Brazil screen on startup.

Looks like Canada either wants to try to kill me before conceding or...something. Maybe Phoenicia will head them off at the pass. Nah...Phoenicia is going to rebuild a bit and show Canada who’s boss. Regardless, I’m back in final countdown mode:




My bomber was forced to rebase but remains on the same spot it was, despite the presence of Canadian cavalry. Also, Truly, for some reason, does not have a city attack available. Actually, none of my cities have a city attack available. Oh, wait, they’re hidden under the other icons.

Bomber rebases to Truly. Foggy has completed a tank. Weirdly it is allowed to attack out despite the other tank army in the city – oh, wait, it goes all the way around before attacking. Battleship again goes after artillery. I take a turn and upgrade the fighter to a jet fighter. That might give me a bit more ooomph for next turn. City attack at Foggy goes after the machine guns. Solo tank heads up to Peter Sallis and is absorbed into a corps. That city and Truly make their somewhat ineffective ranged attacks. Builder (now injured) clears the contamination east of Truly. Tank army at Foggy attacks the machine gun. Every city starts tanks. Pillage the fishing boats at Penguins.

Something has attacked Kathy Staff. My artist finds out what’s up:




If I were Woden and wanted to send a message to Canada I’d bring my fleet west and drop a nuke one tile SW of Foggy.

Oh yeah, if I haven’t said it before, I concede to Woden.

[suboptimal]

So, the game ended while I was playing Turn 270....A brief postmortem.

- I followed the plan I laid out in the beginning, even if I didn't flip anything but my own cities back to me.
- Cultural victory is mathematically possible in a 5-person game but practically impossible. Too many things need to go right. However, artifact hoarding is a great way to accelerate late-game cultural progress. A 4-player game might be more doable because the costs are lower (800 per tourist) but even then a lot has to go right.
- This game has "confirmed" the meta that all roads lead to nukes.
- Naval power is important as the game goes on, even on pangea maps. Naval (and air) power projection is quite effective.
- It was a nice change of pace to get to play with all the various units past the Renaissance Era.
- That was a blast. I'll be curious to see if (or when) another PBEM gets this far into the research trees.