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[SPOILERS] I'm really good at video games!
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Haha, alright. Glad I learned of that now :P
I'm going to go ahead and edit that into the first post.
Things are starting to get interesting.
Quick update: I crashed my economy fairly hard with over-expansion, to the point where I was barely making cash at 0% science. I generated a Great Scientist however which I recently used to launch a golden age, enabling me to quickly complete Currency and allowing me to revolt to Organized Religion next turn. I didn't have much to build during the economic collapse besides troops and workers, so I've maintained the largest army for a while now (although DTG has been very close behind) and almost all of the tiles my cities work are improved. Currency means I can continue expansion, but that may occur at a slowed pace due to my capitalizing this turn on a situation which has been developing for a while: This has been Commodore's garrison on our border for the last several turns:  To be honest, I've found it fairly perplexing. He hasn't sent me any resource-for-resource trades to indicate his desire for a demilitarized border, nor has he even offered OB. Here was my response:  Having never bothered to fully familiarize myself with the vision rules, I wasn't sure if he could see my Chariots after they moved into strike position. Apparently not, as he didn't bother to reinforce the town. Well then. He has vastly better economic traits than I and is starting to finally catch up in expansion, so I'm never going to have a better opportunity to hit him while I still have military tech parity and a production advantage. I declared, and:  Bam. Won a 20% odds fight against his WC but lost a 70% vs. his Axe, so it all equals out. Not a great blow to Commodore by any means, but I intend to press my advantage until he's forced to whip out a counter. I also captured a Worker elsewhere, which I deleted in case he was able to recapture it, plus my labor force is already sufficient. Long-term peace was never a feasible prospect, especially since he's the only person I border and I'm sure he covets the land that lucky barb city spawn has allowed me to control. I'll take peace after I think he's been set back enough and/or progress is no longer possible, but if Forever War is going to be a thing then so be it. Unbeknownst to me when I played that turn (forgot to look at the event log until after I hit enter, heh), AT is also at war with him as of a turn ago. I'll certainly be thrilled if I have inadvertently joined a dogpile, but I'm not counting on it. Current plan is to advance on Commodore's next front city while menacing his backlines by sea. I haven't seen any naval presence from him yet. I would also very much like to get some pillaging done, my economy could really use the gold. The rest of my empire:    Pleased to see that the peninsular wheat city I'm settling next turn also has a couple fish. Good National Epic city if I can retain it long enough.
Cool, peace with Commodore. I believe I lost two spears, four chariots and an axe, while his losses totaled one axe, one worker, three war chariots and a city. I suppose that's about only a little in my favor, but I didn't whip even once during the war, whereas he did so substantially for at least one city, and should have been set back a bit further than I due to his having fewer cities and troops to begin with. Hopefully his neighbors will be able to capitalize on his weakness to take land at his expense. I think 7 ancient age units were a fair price to set back my only neighbor, who also happens to be the most dangerous player on the map (AT is a tough vet as well, but I think grabbing the Oracle set him back pretty badly. DTG and Al are doing well, but geography has conspired so that neither is currently high on my threats list).
Commodore will never forgive me, but that's fine since game-long peace between us was never in the cards. I'm teching Construction now, so I'll see how things stand with potentially going into Round 2 in ten turns. Gold Age just finished; I used the last turn to revolt to Org Religion and Hed. Rule. I'm surprised I'm still topping the scoreboard. Not used to leading in a BTS game, I'm still playing fast turns and largely making decisions on the fly. My next game should probably be a teamer, heh.
December 29th, 2015, 16:41
(This post was last modified: December 29th, 2015, 16:41 by GermanJoey.)
Lookin' good!
I noticed a lot of red faces in your bigger cities. Was HR enough to deal with that, or are you lookin' for anything more?
I was actually going to whip them off into markets, but then I realized that I could 3-turn Monarchy with 4 turns left in my golden age, so that ended up becoming my new plan. That's essentially my management style summed up in one sentence there. All of them were just 1 unhappy citizen, so HR resolved it for the moment.
To be honest the turns are kind of overwhelming; I generally know what to do at any point in a FFH game. I've never even played a BTS SP game to completion (I only bought BTS to play in PBEM 3 eons ago, and then not too long after largely dropped it for FFH). Don't get me wrong, it's not as though I have no idea what I'm doing, but I don't have a great feel for build or tech priorities. For instance, I'm teching Construction atm. Only one of my cities has any whip unhappiness; should I prepare to whip a dozen or so Catapults to hit Commodore again? I'm not sure he could handle that, but I'd really rather get some Markets produced. Or is Construction is mistake, and I should have gone for Metal Casting or Code of Laws? Either would have helped my economy more, but I'm certain Commodore seeks to avenge my raid, and from what I know of him as a player he's excellent at seizing the initiative in combat but less adept at managing pressure applied to him. Despite FFH being far more advanced tactically, and my own tendency to get catastrophically outmaneuvered, I rarely if ever feel adrift. Can't think of the last time I found myself looking at several different techs and a half-dozen builds and finding them all about equally valid. Thinking about it, I'm def. leaning toward hitting Commodore again, sooner than later. He's really good at reading people, and if I were him I'd think that Bob is a builder at heart and has a history of shying away from serious combat until he's convinced he can attack with minimum risk to himself. I don't think he'll be expecting Jowy-esque persistence. Plus if he doesn't have collateral of his own then I'll have a serious advantage (and I settled a great general in my best production city, so I can produce sentry chariots to check). Main issue is that I'll be at risk of falling behind DTG and Al. My score isn't doing me any favors here, makes me look scarier than I am, and I'm not sure if we're allowed to do copper / copper trades or whatever to signal that I really want to make a genuine dogpile. TLDR: Decisions!
All that said, I have to say that I fucking love this combo. Would have seriously considered picking it again in PBEM 72 if that wasn't with restricted leaders (and Pacal / Maya is sort of halfway there anyway, heh).
Since my last update I've continued to maintain a military build-up on the border with Commodore (albeit with minimal whips, so not at the same pace I'd use if I planned imminent war). Although I believe I reached Construction well before him, he was able to pack a large number of units into his front city, enough that I was unsure of my ability to safely march a stack up to his gates and/or deal enough collateral hits to get decent odds against them with my hitters.
And then this turn, this happened:  Well, I can't resist the chance to take a swing at him now. That's a half-dozen units I can take out on flatland plus three Workers I can delete. Attacked, killed everything with no losses. I had 55% or (much) better odds for every combat, so I wasn't really particularly lucky. I'll lose the Chariot which killed the Workers, but that's fine. Went ahead and sent strat resource for resource trades to everyone else, since it looks like other people are doing friendship trade shit anyway. Come on guys, hit Commodore now! Take his land, I don't care, I just want him off my border. As for why I'm still single-mindedly focused on Commodore: A- He's probably the most skilled player in this PBEM. B- He's in a golden age and surely heading for Knights. C- His empire will only get stronger as he makes increasing use of Fin and Cha. But he's not too strong to fight at the present juncture. D- I don't even border anyone else! So anyway, I'm going to whip in a round of courthouses everywhere, because maintenance is killing me, but then it's pretty much all military all the time, with the exception of putting up some Forges, maybe. |
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Are you, in fact, a pregnant lady who lives in the apartment next door to Superdeath's parents? - Commodore |
For a minute there, I thought you captured the city too.
