[SPOILERS - PBEM17] novice and spaceman - Suryavarman of India

[pling]

Yes, well if we want to win I think we'll need to do more growing and less smashing.

Probably so, but I can always hope

Your pic's not working.

Fixed, I hope. That'll teach me to hotlink & not copy it out to my own webspace

[spacemanmf]

I know I said I'd kinda dialled out of this game, but I am interested in seeing the war front. I'm not averse to playing turns if you want me to. I don't want to leave you in the lurch. I just feel that this needs some highly skilled play. But if you want a second opinion, I'm happy to offer it (so that you can confirm your original suggestion was right... ).

I was intrigued by your chat with Krill:

22:33 Krill: ok
tbh I spend most of my time berating Darrell for his unit moves
me: heh
tbh I'm glad you're not the boss
Krill: eh
22:34 wouldn't be much difference tbh
While you have had a better early leader and UU, you've just not made mistakes
HK probably shouldn't be dead
22:35 otoh, it's not like you wouldn't have had odds with 2 units to attack with, whatever we built, and we wouldn;t knowwhat you;dattack with.
me: true
guessing game
22:36 well thanks for the compliment, talk to you later
Krill: well, I have tohe save for you now
me: ah you tease
ok I'll play it then
Krill: I think the one saving grace forus is you planted on wines
22:37 me: how so?
Krill: 3 move galley, from the tile 22 or 21 of your wines city we don't have sight on
but you can't get a galley there without a fort
22:38 and it could hit England
me: yeah
Krill: as it is you either did something really well played with a second galley, moved it up, attacked with the chariot to raze HK and then deleted the galley, and moved up a second galley that you've left in our lands, or you only have 1 unit to attack with
22:39 if you only have 1 unit it has to attack an archer
which is something like 6.6 if you attack frm the boat
so not great odds
me: yeah England will hold
22:43 Krill: Should be fun watching you finish this game off tbh.
me: pity we banned blockades
Krill: eh
I'd bethankful if I were you
galleys can blockade
22:44 we'd have just bloacked your trade routes
me: I was just eyeing an ocean fish, unpillageable...
Krill: the really annoying thiing is that even if you have a boat on a tilel you can't work it

Does he still think it is our game to lose?

[spacemanmf]

Some pics from T67 for the lurkers.

Our core:



Some cities have been switched back to infrastructure. Forges will be crucial for happiness (golds + gems) as well as increasing production. Trading Post could certainly do with one to cope with all the whip anger (3 unhappy, although only 1 angry citizen at the moment).

A galley holding two chariots and a trireme sit over in the eastern channel, with two axes in Trading Post. From Shoot's power graph spike (matching ours), he's probably taken care of his critical cities and I'm not sure there are any opportunities to be had over there any more.



In the SW war front, our chariot was killed by darrell's spear so the galley will presumably retreat and drop the warrior off in Tipping Point for extra defence. I presume we're going to whip that axe soon to counter any spear attack. A lighthouse is needed in there too. A trireme heads over for support. England is defended by an archer. Novice can maybe update what he did with these units.



Our army looks like this.



We have two triremes being built, one completing next turn, as well as a chariot, archer and axe all being built. Finally, our demographics still don't look too shabby. Ah, imagine if we still had foreign trade routes.

[novice]

By all means check out the save. This specific turn I'd actually like to check some odds in worldbuilder before moving anything. Can't do that until tonight though.

You could put up some screenshots and ask the lurkers what to do.

Fake edit: Crosspost.

[spacemanmf]

I will check out the latest save. Happy to play it if you tell me the plans you had. I will post some screenshots shortly.

[novice]

I played the turn. StM had reinforced heavily (smart move) so no sims were required. Fleet set sail for Thailand instead. Will pursue peace with all parts after we've checked out Thailand and taken StM's iron.

[spacemanmf]

First up, the eastern arena.



We have 2 galleys 2S of Bursa, holding 2 axes and 2 chariots, plus a trireme 1NW of Edirne. Shoot has an axe and 2 archers in Bursa (all unpromoted) with a spear 1E and an axe 3E of the galleys. Edirne contains two axes, a spear, a warrior and a Buddhist missionary. I suspect we can see the vast majority of Shoot's army.

I think it's time to retreat for now - we're not going to make any headway against Shoot here. I'm quite conservative, so I would stick the units back on the mainland and keep the boats patrolling the seas, scouting out more coastal cities. But other options would be to try to threaten Shoot's northern city, or darrell's city on our continent.

[spacemanmf]

Next up, the north.



A trireme has been completed in Cash Cow which can presumably head ENE to check out Shoot's city? Cash Cow needs a new build order - a forge? Or, since it is only defended by a warrior, an axe or archer?

And the two workers SE of Capital need orders. Were you roading somewhere? Or completing a cottage for Capital to grow into?

Out of interest, where is the settler going when built? Off shore for intercontinental trade routes?

[spacemanmf]

The south.



Not much to note here, except that Flooded Market will grow into unimproved tiles in 2 turns, so perhaps Capital's workers are headed here.

And the south-west arena.



Bull Market needs a build order. 3-turn archer (since it is undefended) or lighthouse? Tipping Point could do with a lighthouse too.

Unit-wise, our galley holds a chariot and a warrior, while Tipping Point is defended by an axe. Darrell's galley has stayed put whilst the spear has retreated SE. England is still defended by an archer, but a warrior is reinforcing shortly. We get no sort of odds on that. And our trireme prowls, ready to head west to attempt to take out the galley.

Worker-wise, the plains forest is part-chopped. Do you want to complete that chop? The two workers south of Bull Market can farm NW, farm SE or mine the eastern plains hill.

Feudalism in 4 turns, although it will likely be 5 turns. We can go 100% cash this turn, then full research afterwards.

EP-wise, we nearly have graph visibility on rego, so can switch to Kyan soon.

Breakeven research is 20%, which gives us Feudalism in 6 turns and we're still GNP leader.

Kyan has 12 cities, Shoot 8, darrell 12, rego 8. Quite uneven then. All appear to be on max research, except Shoot who is on breakeven.

[spacemanmf]

I played the turn. StM had reinforced heavily (smart move) so no sims were required. Fleet set sail for Thailand instead. Will pursue peace with all parts after we've checked out Thailand and taken StM's iron.

Yeah, cross-posted with this and didn't notice it, then went for a shower and some lunch, by which time you'd played. Ho hum.

Are we really going to pursue peace? Seems like a whole loada dead ends to me. At least we should stop asking for Open Borders. That's never going to happen unless we make an ally. Which we won't be any time soon.