Gaspar, Lewwyn, et al go full Sartre

[Mardoc]

What would YOU do, folks?

You're seriously asking globals if we want to see blood? Don't you already know this one?

But. Well, I've twice now devoted a game to wrecking a foe over something that objectively I probably ought to have just swallowed - if I was playing purely for win-maximizing chance. I hadn't even given up hope of winning yet. There's just something freeing about focusing on the simple goal of disproportionate revenge . So...in your shoes I would absolutely fight, the only debate would be now or later.

Of course, you've had the concession flag set for a while now. Fighting TBS is the least likely way to make that actually happen. So I guess it's a question of your priorities, like usual .

[NobleHelium]

What Gaspar fails to mention is that it would be pretty much actually me fighting the war.

[Gaspar]

What would YOU do, folks?

You're seriously asking globals if we want to see blood? Don't you already know this one?

Nah. I was mostly asking the more existential question of how others feel about the general dilemma - do you take the easy way or the hard way, basically. Obviously lurkers bay for the blood of others, but very few feel that way when they're the ones in the position.

But. Well, I've twice now devoted a game to wrecking a foe over something that objectively I probably ought to have just swallowed - if I was playing purely for win-maximizing chance. I hadn't even given up hope of winning yet. There's just something freeing about focusing on the simple goal of disproportionate revenge . So...in your shoes I would absolutely fight, the only debate would be now or later.

Well, I don't precisely think this is a simple "wrecking a foe over..." situation. Its pretty late in the game for one and objectively, we have a pretty well-developed empire for someone in this position. Its not like we're a speed bump, if we fire up the war machine we're pretty certain to lose somewhere between 1 and 4 cities, but that's really it and there's certainly a possibility of recapture/punishment at a later date. Don't get me wrong, the idea here isn't to grudge for grudging's sake - it's to make it not easy, to prove the point that it isn't easy.

Of course, you've had the concession flag set for a while now. Fighting TBS is the least likely way to make that actually happen. So I guess it's a question of your priorities, like usual .

This is basically why I'm on the fence here. Obviously a big bloody war between Turkey and Mongolia is going to embolden Egypt and Rome to feel like they have a chance - possibly because it could open the door for a chance. If I make this play, I am basically saying - game on! And realistically, I have the option of one hour turns in a lost cause but with a pretty fun empire or four hour turns in a lost cause to prove a point. So how principled am I, really? I'll say this - if I take the deal I'm going to push for concession in public.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I don't vote for four hour turns, but I do vote for standing your ground. FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!

But seriously, nothing approaching four hours.

[pindicator]

I think you already know where I stand on this...

[Gaspar]

Most of the pictures here will be post turn-roll, I wasn't in the mood to really report properly last night.

So, as ever, this idiot yells a lot about not much. We took the deal, essentially because of this picture:




Ultimately, there's 49 units which could have forked Hogsmeade and Middlemarch there. We have a lot down there, but only 8 cats, which just wasn't going to be enough to get his stack to a range in which our Knights and Jans would have odds. Ultimately, this is about pride for me, which is quite wounded at the moment. River Styx isn't an important city other than that it mean we had one point to defend in the north instead of three. Here's what that area looks like post trade:




I could have a long rant about the silly choices TBS is making here but nobody actually wants to hear me bore on and on about psychology in multiplayer games. Some very good players get it, some don't, so it goes.

Up in the frigid north, we started poking at that barb city, which never grew because it went worker first for a city with no food. Then, the turn we landed to attack, the Archers all upgraded to Longbows with Oxy's elimination. We then got a pretty lousy combat result with the Janissary, losing 45 hp to the LB. And then the LB attacked out at ~60% odds and won! I honestly didn't even know the AI could do that. So we lost the Jan. There's another Jan in the Galley there so we won't have to get the worker out of dodge but the bottom line is the barbs this game have really sucked for us. I honestly don't understand why people like to have them turned on, they're just adding another layer of RNG.




You can also see other slices of bad news - dtay down to his last city, Commodore firing what looks to be an imperious Golden Age, the treaty with TBS and a second fucking Buddhism spread in 2t, this time to Agartha. This is bad for multiple reasons. For example on t171, we got a Buddhism spread in Shangri-La. On t172, TBS, as the last player to play, declared war on us, which generated +2 "Brothers and Sisters of the Faith" unhappy in Shangri-La, which ended up adding a turn to a Forge build in the city, largely intended to improve the happy cap. We never got a chance to react to this, because by the time we saw it happened, we had long since ended turn and the turn rolled. The moral of the story: #fuckpitboss.

Beyond that, the major event of the turn was swapping out of Pacifism for Organized Religion. This saved us a whopping 122 gpt because 1. We have a metric shitton of units and 2. Pacifism doesn't get the Org bonus, because its costs are technically not civic costs. This meant basically that our breakeven rate is almost the same out of GA as it was in the GA in Pacifism. (It goes without saying that the breakeven rate generates less beakers outside the GA, of course.

I don't think we mentioned it, but we got a Great Engineer in Tartarus 2t ago. This would normally be a cause for celebration, but there really aren't a lot of great choices for it to be used. The options are basically:

1. Just use it towards the GA
2. Rush Sistine Chapel in Hogsmeade, our soon to be National Epic city
3. Ice it in the hopes we can snipe Pentagon.
4. Ice it in the hopes we can snipe Mining Inc.

The current inclination is probably some combination of 3 and 4, but either way, it means the GEngy will be on ice for quite a while. We already have a Great Scientist reserved for the next GA and we have a GP due in Eden (that will be the 4th or 5th GP for Eden, which is pretty crazy considering its not the world's foodiest city) which is 88/12 Merchant/Spy. We have nearly full pools with overwhelming majority chances at 2 Merchants, a Scientist and 3 Artists so if we don't use the Engy towards the next GA, it shouldn't inhibit that progress.

Here's a look at the demographics, post-GA but pre-much tile fiddling

[Gaspar]

A little mood music...



I can't mould this stage
Anymore
Recognise me
Anymore
To tread this fantasy, openly
What have I done
Ooh this uncertainty, is taking me over

So yeah... we've reached the point of the game where I can't maintain an illusion that anything posted in here is relevant. Does anyone really still care what I have to say about the state of the game at this point? I'm pretty sure I don't care what I have say about the game at this point. Hopefully TBS will invade Thoth soon and put us all out of our misery...

...except that when not looking down the barrel of a gun, the game itself is deceptively engaging. The game has a lot of parallels with PBEM24. Game has been a forgone conclusion for a long time but because the map is waaay too large for the number of players, there is an ability to feel like the decisions you make matter. You have four remaining players, in four corners, essentially. Very similar stuff.

Anyway, so we went to attack the injured Barbarian longbow off the boat to accelerate the process and, well...

So blah blah, we've lost 2 Janissaries at a size 1 iceball.

Commodore eliminated dtay this turn, so its officially just the four of us... he razed Game and Watch, so we'll take advantage of that:




Axis Mundi is preparing a settler for the northern city sign. The southern city signs are Noble being Noble and being overly aggressive and hating Commodore, but I don't really intend to plant there.

Since I don't know what else to show you, here's a shot of the core.




And the demos




Is there anything anyone would like to know/see?

[NobleHelium]

Bonus pic, wherein "roughly a billion years" is quantified.

[pindicator]

I believe I requested a world to be burned. Dying to ice barbarians was not what I envisioned.

[Gaspar]

I believe I requested a world to be burned. Dying to ice barbarians was not what I envisioned.

Dying to barbarians unsatisfactory? Sorry...