Chevalier and Incurian's Itsy-Bitsy Teeny-Weeny PBEM Reporting Thingy

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Having had my fun with ljubljana, I turn to home affairs. Saturday so can write for a little while:




Malhari finishes its holy site and starts on a builder. I have a terrible shortage of food in my starting cities - probably Malhari was a mistake settling it where I did. In my defense, it was the nearest site that was also defensible against Norway. Furthermore, building two full-cost holy sites has really slowed the growth curve, as unlike everyone else I have no ships or settlers on the map. I will be behind the 8-ball for sure, but Inc is spitting out biremes and I have directed him upon the nearest city-states. 

So I settle for a builder instead of a double-galley build, possibly a mistake, but I really need food. A cattle pasture, a farm, fishing boats - lots of inspirations are needed and my lands are in sore need of improvement. Then we'll alternate galleys and settlers for a bit, I think. 

Religious race looks okay:




Ljubljana will have to build a second (Divine Spark) holy site or run some projects to 'catch up,' which I expect him to do. Everything is going well there - he's been posting furiously the last few days, whirling about in circles, surrounded by demons conjured by his own imagination. If he distorts his gameplan and warps later thingsi n an effort to win religion now then I've won! In a few turns he'll crow about how cleverly he's beaten me in the religious race and hopefully be that little more vulnerable to Norway. 

Overview of us:




As you can see, the map is flipping huge, which is why I'm not too worried that our slow start has doomed us. Yeah, I probably could have microed better to get a few turns ahead of where I am, but on a map this large it should come down to broader strategies and opportunities, not who got their city down at turn 25 vs turn 29 and so on. I am well aware of snowball effects and that we COULD be improved, but again - effort/reward ratio just isn't there.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Malhari



Malhari, or "Celebration" comes from the film Bajirao Mastani. One of the more successful Bollywood films in history, it tells the love story of Bajirao, Prime Minister and Commander in Chief of the 18th century Mahratta Confederacy, and Mastani, the princess of a neighboring kingdom. Bajirao is wildly successful and popular, a brilliant general and politician, beloved by his men and his king, but he is in a loveless arranged marriage. Mastani comes to plead for the Mahratta's assistance when her kingdom is invaded by a brutal neighbor, and Bajirao marches to her aid. In so doing, the two fall in love and Mastani returns with Bajirao to his estate - where her presence causes tension with Bajirao's first wife and his political enemies maneuver to exploit the situation and bring him down. It's an epic, sweeping tale of romance, revenge, fighting, politics, love, intrigue, tragedy, hope, reconciliation - all in all a solid 7/10 film. 

Malhari comes after Bajirao has led his army to yet another victory and he celebrates in his encampment with his men. The lyrics are totally pointless - blow the trumpets, bang the drums, because we crushed the enemy, etc, etc, - but the choreography is straight fire and the song is a perfect celebration song for any happy occasion.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I practically spit out my coffee laughing this morning:



If I hadn't run that 2-turn project to mess with ljub, I'd've met this city-state before thrawn could block me from it. 

anyway gg it was fun thankfully I don't have to worry about this game much anymore. City-state snowball is in full effect.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I mean, my capital isn't in any danger yet, but thrawn is already at 4 cities to my 2, and capturing that culture state in the fog with the two longships I'm sure he has nearby (or hell for all I know a goddamn conga line all the way back to his capital) will put him at 5, with one on my doorstep. A few base improvements and that sucker is spitting out longships every 3 turns. Inc and I can't really do, uh, anything about that, although Inc is one turn from capturing Mitla (he sailed hte wrong way at first - he's new to MP, be gentle). 

Anyway, this is kind of why I'd had a lackadaisical attitude towards the game - I signed up knowing I didn't have proper time for it, so I'm giving the others a warm body. I'll put up a fight and I can slow down thrawn eating me if that's what he chooses to do (thanks, Indonesia!) but I'm already behind the 8-ball. Even if I survive for a bit, Krill will blast past me in development as you can see he's going full farmer's gambit behind a massive shield of longships...which is exactly what I'd do in that team's place. 

Could I have been building galleys instead of holy sites? Sure, but then I'm just a more sucky Norway and not using anything that makes indonesia unique. Only real hope was to try and leverage our religious advantages into a mid-game edge, so I've no regrets. 

Well, maybe settling without food. But hilariously if I'd gone for the first settle scouted (Senorita) thrawn would already be on top of it and eating it, so, uh, well-done me. No alternatives. :D 

I don't regret the project either, ljubljana ran DOUBLE PROJECTS with his two divine spark holy sites just to be sure of his religion (he already told you I've no doubt, but for Inc's benefit, he took Feed the World and Crusade). That was hilarious, and a few less hammers into anti-Norwegian galleys.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I put to the council, what exactly am I supposed to do here?




Like, yes, he's doing exactly what I said he'd do two full months ago when I signed up for these shenanigans, but predicting something doesn't really give you the ability to do something about it. Those two longships cost him about 3 turns' production from his capital each - the same time my capital needs to build one galley, and the little bastards are stronger and can heal. And we can expect there are reinforcements, oh, about 3 turns behind these. I have two galleys out right now and a third out in 4 turns, which will do precisely dick attempting to recapture Nan Madol. 

So yeah. Suggestions? Otherwise y'all goin' get a real short game. 

Here's Phoenicia. Inc got his navy banged up taking Mitla but he's learning proper war tactics quickly.




Best guess is 
a)Phoenicia continues to expand with its own CS conquests and gets a Cothon down quickly. Long-term better prospect than trying to go up against Norway right away. 

b)We mass a navy and, uh, retake Nan Madol? At which point we will have gained nothing above baseline but Norway will have set us back probably fatally. And that's best-case, like, realistically two longships and a 3-turn build time can wall us off the city indefinitely, even if thrawn doesn't attack.

Could have attacked a longship with my galley, but that's not going to slow things much (more longships are speeding this way) and it'll get my galley killed, so for now I concede the city. 

Like I said: The longship spam -> CS conquest -> death snowball is in full effect.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Eyeballing the map, it looks like thrawn's about as far from my capital as Mitla is from my capital in the other direction. Krill is probably an equal distance from Inc's eastern shores. That puts Woden and ljub some combination of due south of both of us - probably closer, in fact, than thrawn is to me.

Anyway, it's only turn 42 and longships are murdering city-states off my coast. Which, again, was predictable. I don't want to admit that Norway is broken, because, y'know, I fully planned to take Norway with my first pick if it was there and still want to play them sometime, but as long as city-states exist and longships exist on archipelagos, what precisely does one do if one is not Norway?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

So, thrawn has a high science/culture output because he's conquered two city-states (soon to be 3 next turn), obviously - Inc's is comparable after his one city-state capture. But how is Krill so high? I get that Krill probably opened builder first since he has Norway on his team. But also he has 2 sea-turtles connected - meaning he has two 3/1/1/1 tiles right at his capital. I have no luxuries or bonus resources within the first two rings of my capital, which I sort of assumed was how all the caps were set up. Obviously not, so maybe I should have moved - but where? North or south doesn't solve the luxury problem, and moving inland is a suboptimal move.

Sheesh, what a steep hill to climb.

Lahore finished a galley, stalling Inc's conquest of it. Nan Madol, of course, did not.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Man, this is going to be two games cut short because thrawn took the civ with the early UU that's good at rushing city-states, and then, uh, rushed all the city-states. Both times I took a mid-developing civ and thought, "Maybe I can stop him from eating all the city-states?" (Note that in both games thrawn built one settler and then spammed his UU. Also note further that this is no criticism of thrawn. What should he have done, NOT played optimally?), and both times I never did work it out. I posted multiple times "gotta think of a way to stop the Norwegian longship deathball," and, well, I never did. If anyone else has any bright ideas, be sure to let me know. 

Anyway, no criticism of thrawn, but games like this are boring.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

In case anyone is wondering how my counterattack is going:

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

This game is incredibly dull, so I stopped posting. Inc doesn't really know what's going on so he's still having fun and is jazzed about attacking Nan Madol, and I haven't the heart to break it to him.

The Archduke is easy to read  when he's demoralized - he stops playing entirely. And even ljubljana has stopped posting so much, so I bet he's given up as well.

Like I said. Boring.