[spoiler] Q Returns to Quest Once More

[fireblaze]

What's forking mean exactly in the terminology? Hitting a city/cities from multiple angles at once? An attack from the fog of a third party certainly would've been a syvl move, glad Mig didn't let it go through

[Qgqqqqq]

Yeah, exactly.

I'm going to post a bunch of pictures and then edit in thoughts on the way to work.









Mig land




Auro land

[fireblaze]

it definitely looks precarious but you're still in a pretty nice spot overall seems. Dark Elf pressure ramping up or petering out? You considered building up some treasury buffer after you hit trade for the event buffer, or are you beelining straight towards the next step in The Grand Plan?

[Qgqqqqq]

Heres the thing: I'm somewhat blanking on what the Next Big Thing is gonna be. I'm loosely planning to beeline Corruption of the Spirit for Ritualists, but not really sure otherwise. I can get adepts, but I dont have a ton of mana or the ability to scale mages. Construction seems worse, except for unit speed, and other options are deeper in the tech tree.

Trade isn't feeling as good as i expected it to be. On this low food map losing the Agri bonus actually hurts, but sanitation still isn't worth it. It'll pay off when the cottages grow of course.

Auro is still in enforced peace (I mentioned that right?) but it expires soon, and he has units poking around. I'm really struggling with the size and spread out nature of my empire, to balance units on both sides. I also don't actually have that many spots left to plant forests, so I really should just be consolidating PotL.

The plan had been to hit Auro through Migs borders. But this turn Mig closed borders and moved up a stack of swords. They have iron as he built the (very expensive) Mines of Galdur(?), but I don't think he realised how many units I have in the area. I was demilitarizing to try and cultivate an ally, but my highly promoted Fawn and Gilden were already rotating back, and I could also summon tigers. He doesn't have a chance.

But it plays into the larger problem: I could beat him, but I can't beat him and Auro. Invading Mig just means being hit by Satyrs over borders I can't move on. And the same is true if he keeps borders closed - I sent a raft of positive and or threatening messages to try to get borders back open. Otherwise I might have to try to split Mig with Auro...but I can't see that going well. For all my good demos, they are transient unless I can secure better land against Auro longer term, while staying safe from his terrifyingly quick units. I've been half avoiding building roads in the East for precisely that reason!

Man, if Mig hadn't chopped that forest...which of course is the reason he doesn't want peace against the player who tried to murder him.

Anyway. I stupidly built two settlers, one for a site that's just barely viable with agri, and probably not without, and the other which is almost certainly indefensible in the east. Should have just built more PoL and spread Leaves.

Re gold, I'm definitely wanting to secure an event fund. I only burnt through it because I really wanted to get to Trade.

Any questions?

[Qgqqqqq]

Slightly nervous about both my opponents finally updating (well, Auro has had some activity but still) barely a minute apart. We shall see.

[shallow_thought]

Are you enjoying the game? I know the map wasn't quite what you'd hoped. FWIW I had fun in my brief flirtation with MP again, although it didn't end well.

[Qgqqqqq]

Yes I am! I stand by what I said at the start though - I kinda wish I wasn't doing so well it's just too much pressure that it makes me stressed about the turns sometimes.

But I would play another one (there's a sign up if you're interested in another!). The map quality has actually been fine even if I've drawn a bit of a short straw, with FotL coming in clutch. I like the advanced start skipping a lot of the boring turns, though I do think it made rushes a bit easy so I might want to tweak it.

[Qgqqqqq]

Mig attacked and killed Gilden and my best Fawn. Stupidly, Gilden wasn't fully promoted, and lacked fortification bonuses. I was also slow to marshal other defences. He offered for peace for Norman.

Hell no. We war till you die. I should never have given peace, I should have choked him to death long ago. The Eastern expansion was a mistake, the last settler there (and the two I built recently) are a while from giving back more than they took overall. I should have always focused on this flank rather than splitting my focus. That's a single player mindset - I should have expanded, but not that far.

Perhaps I should have given him Norman for war against Auro or similar. That might have been the move that kept me in this game - though without Norman, I can't hope to match Auro anyway. But I'm not taking peace now he's killed Gilden. I know this means I can't win from here, but I can't win this way anyway.

Norman will fall next turn. I am massing my PotL however. I'm not sure I can kill Bambur unfortunately, and he will have highly promoted other units. We will see what happens, I guess.


Lurkers, from this point on I'm open to conceding to Auro. If others offer to concede ten or more turns from now, please ask me in case my mind has changed. But I don't expect it to. With my land and geopolitical position, I don't have a chance. Bing has missed his window to consolidate into a decent position, and Mig, even with Norman, doesn't have a chance - three Satyrs can fork his cities and pick them off one by one.

[Qgqqqqq]

The plan had been to hit Auro through Migs borders. But this turn Mig closed borders and moved up a stack of swords. They have iron as he built the (very expensive) Mines of Galdur(?), but I don't think he realised how many units I have in the area. I was demilitarizing to try and cultivate an ally, but my highly promoted Fawn and Gilden were already rotating back, and I could also summon tigers. He doesn't have a chance.

But it plays into the larger problem: I could beat him, but I can't beat him and Auro. Invading Mig just means being hit by Satyrs over borders I can't move on. And the same is true if he keeps borders closed - I sent a raft of positive and or threatening messages to try to get borders back open. Otherwise I might have to try to split Mig with Auro...but I can't see that going well. For all my good demos, they are transient unless I can secure better land against Auro longer term, while staying safe from his terrifyingly quick units. I've been half avoiding building roads in the East for precisely that reason!

Man this hurts to read. It comes down to forgetting the Dwarven promotion (/G2) which let his one-movers hit me out of the fog. RIP

[Qgqqqqq]

I just have to hope Auro doesn't jump in as well...I can check Mig's units, especially as they're all one movers (except across hills). But Auro's units are commandos, with access to three moves + body 1. They can move faster through my territory than I can! And they're all stronger on the attack then any of my units (even Fawns are str 6 on the attack, my expensive PotL are 5). I have been building lots of warriors (ironically, given I nerfed warriors) just to put meat on the table, but I can't cover all of my cities. He also has a Griffon on the water (I don't have sailing).

Realistically, half my cities could die quickly if he jumped in, especially now that I've stripped units away to support the west - where a lot of my buffer just died. And I think it would secure a concession from others, who similarly don't stand a chance, unless they can vulture some. So he really should join in.

I'm not sure what I do if he does. Who do I prioritise attacking? It's unfair to do that to Mig, after I did almost kill him. But I think I would, given he's precipitated this in a context where he's (kind of) king-made between us. The stack he slammed into me might have allowed us to have a chance of bringing Auro down. Though I still would have bet on his mobility over both of us. Ah well, hopefully it doesn't come to this.