[SPOILERS] How do you make this thing work: Krill randomly mashes some buttons

[Krill]

Second thoughts: Pin has navy out, and also has Industrialization as told from tile yields. Don't know how long he has had it, but he is ahead in the "race" to ironclads.

I probably need to reconsider SS build queue as I need to get out enough navy to hold the choke point from him, but that requires the use of Press Gangs.

I probably need to then figure out how I am prioritizing this gold because I see a need to buy a granary in Citrus Paradisi at 215 gold (which helps give me production on the inner sea), a workshop in SS for Industrialization itself at 645 gold, 2 musket upgrades for 230 gold, and potentially an Archeological Museum for Natural History inspiration at 965 gold. Add in 2 Bombard upgrades at roughly 250 gold (both sword and catapult upgrades assume Professional Armies and should occur together for card efficiency all things considered), and I see 8 turns of gold accumulation on top of what I already have on hand, for everything except the Museum which can go fuck itself.

[Krill]

Well played Pin.

[Krill]

Culture is actually not horrendous. Pin is at 130, I'm at 108, and in a few turns I will have a further 17 culture from envoys and new Acropolis, so I don't think that lead is growing, might even be shrinking. Pin is up 4 civics though, but two of them must be Reformed Church and Divine Right, so he is perhaps only up two. Alhambram is at 84. Truth be told, I'm slightly annoyed that he decided to throw Envoys at Zanzibar and not Kumasi, because his culture sucks and even if his tech is good he will not be able to get the cards he needs to maintain military production via modifiers if he doesn't improve his culture. Retaking Suzerainty of Kumasi would have helped him with this and he must know that I have enough envoys from Acropolis production that I won't lose Zanzibar, so all he has done is turn 2 envoys into, at best 2 gold per turn from Merchant Confederation?

Well played Pin.

To expand on this, the reason I am slightly annoyed at Al did occur immediately after making that report.

In this game, there are 3 players and 2 City States that are being fought over with Envoys, Kumasi and Zanzibar. Both are in Al's back yard, and no one else can conqueror them. Al stated as Suzerain of both, but with the fall of Rome the situation became on that Al would not be able to hold onto both of them as he could not generate enough envoys compared to myself with Acropolis envoys and Pindicator's culture advantage reaching the next stage of envoy granting civics.

The short of it is that either Pindicator and I fought a battle for the most envoys in a single CS, and Al was left with on city state to himself and he could join the fight for the second city state, or Pin and I went for different city states. The latter occurred, but for the sake of this argument, if I had waited for Pin to commit his envoys I could have overpowered Pin in that city state, but it would have given Al an opportunity to take Lisbon from myself. Instead, I went for Zanzibar because I know that I do not need Kumasi to manage culture against Pin, but Alhambram does. This gives me the amenities to grow a further 24 pop, but I judged it such that I think I was taking the weaker city state from Al's point of view. I could be wrong on that, that is totally possible, but by rejecting the Alliance with Al I did try to magnify the culture problems he faces and push him down the route of holding onto Kumasi.

What then happened after me taking Zanzibar is that Pin took Kumasi. Al had that decision and could have held Kumasi from Pin as I then either took Kumasi from both of them, or I potentially took Valetta. Either makes sense, and the overall result is that Pin becomes weaker, but cements Al in third place and pushes me closer to Pin. Not by much mind, but it does put us more into those levels.

What actually happened was that Al dumped the envoys into Zanzibar, and I end up wasting 2 envoys to maintain suzerainity that could otherwise have put pressure onto Pin. So in essence, this turned into a fight between 2 and 3 and lets the leader push out ahead. The problem that Al had is that whichever CS I went for he could not maintain control of so there is not much point in fighting for it. I know that some people will disagree with this in the effect it has on the strategy, but my statement that I have more envoys than him is not wrong.

Looking at Al's culture, his decision to waste envoys on Zanzibar is in my opinion vindicated as bad. His culture has dropped off significantly, but most importantly, what he has done is given Pin an opportunity to use his envoys offensively, and Pin took suzerainty of Lisbon by dumping 3 envoys into it for the 6 envoy bonus. This now means that next turn, I have to drop the 3 that I have from the Acropolis and natural production to retake that because I can't give Pin that control and vision as the DoF expires. Admittedly there is the option to see if he wastes gold on levying the troops then taking suzerainty back to destroy his gold, but that seems bad when it takes two amenities away from me (I hooked furs, but traded it to Al for ivory which I lack and I still lack silver).

So what happens is that Pin keeps Suzerainity of Kumasi and Valetta, I have Zanzibar and Lisbon, Jester has Carthage that no one wants, and Al has nothing. If Al had instead dumped everything into Kumasi, he would at least have something. Maybe. And Pin would not be as far in the lead compared to him, never mind second place.

In other words, Al chose poorly.

[Krill]

Also, haha, fuck you Pin for taking Lisbon away! I have reclaimed that shitty, useless, Suzerainity for myself.

Plus I've taken Darwin.

[Krill]

List of eurekas:

Siege tactics: Own two bombards. Two catapults built, need 230 gold and Professional Armies.
Printing: Own 2 Universities. Complete.
Metal Casting: Own 2 Xbows. Complete.
Square Rigging: Kill a unit with a musketman. Impossible.
Balistics: Build 2 forts with a Mil. Eng. Need Siege Tactics (whoops).
Military Science: Kill a unit with a knight. Impossible unless a barb camp spawns.
Industrialization: Build 3 workshops. Buy 1 workshop in SS within 6 turns, then complete.
Steam Power: Build 2 shipyards: build at SS and EF (after bought lighthouse?)
Economics: Build 2 Banks. Due in 6.
Rifling: Build a niter mine. Complete.
Sanitation: Build 2 Neighbourhoods. CS and EF.

The rest are Modern era.

Rep Parts: Own 3 muskets. Complete in 7 without upgrades.
Flight: Complete an Industrial Era or later wonder. Not happening.
Steel: Build a Coal mine and an ironclad. Need Industrialization and upgrade a caravel.
Chemistry: complete a research agreement. use Jester?
Electricity. Own 3 privateers. Use Press Gangs and SS for boats.
Radio: Build a National Park.
Combustion: Extract an Artifact.

OK, truth be told, that is looking too far ahead. I'm struggling to see how to meet some of them. Industrial era wonders are absurdly expensive for one thing.

[Krill]

Pindicator knows how to play me perfectly.

When I'm on nights, give me a lot to think about and an easy decision to make it go away. Like offer a DoF so I don't have to think about war turns.

[Krill]

I've come to the conclusion that Pin is probably going to obliterate Alhambram in Rome, and Alhambram has only just realised that he could have captured Kumasi 20 turns ago and is now caught between a desire to correct that mistake, and a mass of modern units.

Also, I still don't actually know what I'm doing other than buying a factory next turn to cover 5 cities.

[Krill]

Science: Pin 154.3, 38, Al 166, 36, Krill 131, 35, Jester 100.3, 32
Culture: Pin 165.3, Krill 127.7, Al 83.1, Jester 74.5
Power: Pin 1731, Al 1341, Krill 905, Jester 749
Religion: Al, 61.5, Pin 33.8, Krill 24.9, Jester 17.6

As you can see, this is Not Good.

[Mardoc]

Doesn't look like anyone's mentioned it in a while - thanks for the reporting!

[Krill]

Busy time atm, working, buying houses, new jobs etc. Not having a clue is not the reason, just lack of time.