[spoilers] Pax Commodorica: Pharaoh of Rome

[Krill]

There are exceptions to this rule; namely, that rule applies to 1v1 wars, whereas this is really a 3v1.

[Commodore]

Doen't this attack go against the rule of "Land war is never profitable against a competent opponent"?

There are exceptions to this rule; namely, that rule applies to 1v1 wars, whereas this is really a 3v1.

What Krill said...although, for Thoth, you can certainly see the rule in effect; he's not turned a profit. And don't underestimate the very real cost of my huge swarm of barracks, 2,700 hammers in knights, plus gold in support and supporting logistics. This has been a profitable war, but nothing so amazing as a good sea blitz would have been...

Although hey, good for Thoth, he capped two more Dtay cities this turn. No wonders in them, but still...

[Commodore]

Dtay retook one of his cities from Thoth and pushed along a consolidation path, pooling his whole force in the middle of things. His horse archer and galley are out of Diddy Kong...sure, I'll take it.

Combat 3 knights are kind of brutal; I won a couple lowish-odds fights like this one, so instead of eating four knight casualties, I only lost two.

Killing the final longbow reveals the mysterious hidden city of Mali, enough gold the finish Gunpowder in two turns, and nice vulnerable roads.

I judged the city faithful to the Claudines, and embrace it. Only the forge survived, but so it goes.


I burned a couple of the roads leaving the city vulnerable. If Dtay goes all-in he can retake it...but not next turn. I am mildly concerned that Dtay has horchers in that galley; nothing to do but to treat it as loaded. Ivysaur is a curious find, now pitifully isolated from the rest of his empire. Annoyingly, Thoth may be trying to capture it with his own galley there. I'd dislike it, but eh, nothing else to do.


Main Mali stack:

It's coming people.

[Commodore]

Gaspar's impressive thread spam spike tells us Captain Dourpants and the Hopelessketeers are feeling a bit more upbeat. I think I know why...

...er, Oxyuribandit, when your power is lower than the guy with six remaining cities...

[Old Harry]

Do you have a plan to use Gaspar's fragile temperament against him?

[spacetyrantxenu]

I'd make that a QotM if it wasn't so blatantly obvious whose thread it came from.

Edit: Where is thestick? We need your signature powers!

[Commodore]

Do you have a plan to use Gaspar's fragile temperament against him?

Sadly, when Gaspar gets the negative nellies he checks out with an army and is prone to attack. The prescience that serves him so well normally becomes tetchy paranoia, and then the violence comes...basically, I'm glad he's hopeful.

It was a rather uneventful turn this time around, with no cities changing hands. This tells me that Ivysaur's garrison can at least give an impi pause, as you can see. Looks like Dtay rolled his dice and tried to kill himself a Thoth-galley. Ideally, that only gave Thoth 1XP when he won, so its a trashed and still-non-combat Zulu galley here. Ivysaur is getting a visit from my own galley shortly. But Ivysaur is the last Mali city I want to capture...

[Krill]

In other words, he becomes a psychotic dictator with an army that can wreck entire geopolitical situations.

Gaspar is Kim Jong Un confirmed.

[Commodore]

But Ivysaur is the last Mali city I want to capture...

Let's expand on that. Here is Mali main motherland:

Right now, Thoth owns three tiny border cities of Dtay's. He has sunk a butt-tonne of costs into the war, for basically nothing in return. But now he's whipped what I can only assume is a knight wave, and he is push hard. Me *keeping* the GLH and/or Pyramids would basically just be salt in Thoth's wounds. (I would sell him one of them if I captured it). He cannot accept me taking them. I might consider Master Hand, but that's still a bit provocative and it gets culture pressure from both Donkey Kong and Cannot. So, my plan is to raze it and resettle on the plains hill 1SW...that city still gets most of the awesome capital goodies, but without the culture war, and allows a solid two-city front that would be hopefully stable.

I'm going to be neighboring Thoth across the whole world. And although I've been neglecting showing my domestics much lately, the western portion of my empire is extremely valuable. Gemina is going to be a scary Heroic Epic city, and I think I'm going to use its 28h base to bang out several other wonders too. Parthenon actually sounds like a worthy goal for me...

I need to do a big domestic overview soon, actually, for my benefit as much as for you viewers at home. Anything you guys want to see?

[Commodore]

Oh.

That's Liberalism folks. Also seen? Ox playing a 6 minute turn, following Yuri's equally swift playing.

I need to start putting together a profit force....