[SPOILERS] - WK does it again

[WarriorKnight]

And just for good measure let's throw map balance out the window:



This is fantastic! I pop a happy metal I don't have just as I get my first forges online.

Next tech will probably be construction then CS -> machinery. My NAP with Rome runs out T100 and while I don't think they'll want to attack me, better to be safe then sorry.

[WarriorKnight]

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Hey WK,

a quick question: Do you intend to ever stop putting EP on me? I'd hate us to go on a cold-EP-war, especially as this will only further help plako.

Kind regards,
Serdoa[/COLOR]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Hi Serdoa,

That's a tricky one. I have a unique problem with EP's, since I've built quite a few courthouses to help with maintenance and also due to some deals I've made in the past with TMIT, I have too many EP and not enough targets to spend them on. In a perfect world I would turn EP's off, but unless I'm missing something the game won't let me do that.

The only reason I'm spending EP on you right now is to keep visibility on your research. My apologies in advance, but I have to put my espionage somewhere and I might as well get something out of it (fwiw, your not my main EP target right now, Rome is). If you can come up with a solution that would satisfy both of us I would be happy to hear it though.

I'm curious though, how does a EP-war between us help plako? Yes it does let him get the upper hand against us in EP but a lead in Espionage doesn't matter nearly as much as a lead in economy or military.

Regards,
WK[/COLOR]

And here we have the beginning of tensions/lowered relations with Serdoa. I'm definitely going with plako over Serdoa since I've talked with plako a lot more. The winner will probably be who can get the rest of the civs involved. TMIT will likely join with Serdoa, while Rome may side with us (I doubt TMIT/Serdoa will want him after what happened in the plako war). Anyway, this is probably too metagamey right now anyway, just posting my thoughts.

[Frisbee]

Mmmmm. Gems. I don't think that random popping of resources can be turned off, but honestly, it should be a feature (like "No Huts / No Events".

Oh well, now everyone is envious of you, which is just what you want.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I'd disagree with Gold > Gems. Gold tiles are naturally 0 food, gems tiles can have 1-2 food. Early on, you need every slice of food you can to feed your whips.

And for your service, the RNGod has smiled upon you, and given you gems!

[WarriorKnight]

I'd disagree with Gold > Gems. Gold tiles are naturally 0 food, gems tiles can have 1-2 food. Early on, you need every slice of food you can to feed your whips.

Even on a Emperor/Toroidal map? Your economy decides how fast you expand, not how fast you build settlers/workers. Commerce is invaluable while food and especially production can be a hindrance if there's too much of it.

What exactly is there to build after a granary and a library early on that helps your economy? Military is only helpful with HR, settlers/workers don't help the economy and not much else is available that early (aside from wonders, but they aren't supposed to be whipped). If there's nothing good to build, there's nothing good to whip and so your best move is sitting at the happy cap working max commerce.

Although gold and gems are quite comparable, on this map I'd give the edge to Gold.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Well, Gold is 7 commerce mined, Gems are 6 commerce mined. I'll still rate Gems higher, because that lets you grow onto cottage tiles sooner.

Don't mind me, I just felt like cheerleading my favourite resources

[WarriorKnight]

Feels like forever since I updated, but then again we've only played 2 turns this week so maybe it's forever since I played.

Basically, I've sidetracked and grabbed archery, HBR and construction. Probably a bit unnecessary since I've extended the Roman NAP, but I don't think it's a huge mistake. Next up, back to CS.

Had a bit of a EP standoff with Serdoa. I've agreed to switch off Serdoa if he'll switch of me but I haven't seen him switch off me yet, plus he's stopped sending messages, so I think we'll end up going at each other after all. Started talking to Rome again and there's potential there since we agreed to extend our NAP to t140.

[WarriorKnight]

Interesting, plako just sent Rome and I this:

[COLOR="Sienna"]Hi,

The game has been a drag lately. Not much going on. What would you say, if we spice it up with a good old dogpile against Serdoa? I'll have NAP until T120 with him and I think you're also NAP free by then so we could act.

Here are some preliminary thoughts about alliance terms:
* We attack about ~T120 and we build hammerwise similar amount of attacking units that should be at least 25 Knights. The actual composition depends on what Serdoa does so this might mean also maces, longbows and cats+trebs, but hammerwise we should bring in equal amount of units in the field
* We try our best to evenly spread the spoils of war and compensate losses. e.g. if the capital is too big to be in the deal it can be razed and if someone loses lot of units others will gift units to compensate
* We negotiate as a group peace and war. No one makes indivicual peace treaties or NAPs
* Open information exchange. We keep others up to date concerning the issues relevant to our cause and sharing the spoils. Detailed plans can change, but then they must be informed to others in timely manner
* NAP until Serdoa is killed +5T. No longer than T140

Best regards,
Plako[/COLOR]

I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect this, as you can read in my previous posts that I've discussed the idea with plako before. The problem is that Serdoa has already sent me this a couple of turns ago:

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Hi WK,

it seems we finally have again a moving save. Was the second turn I got since your last message, so I only thought now about your message, sorry for that. I have changed EP-spending and checked the trade screen. I should get my Silks online soon, maybe you are then interested to trade them against one of your surplus happy resources?

As for joint attacks, I don't care tbh. TMIT doesn't seem to be a threat, but apart from him, all the others are pretty much in the running still. I am napped with plako and Rome though till T120 (like with you) and I expect right now that at least 2 if not all 3 come for me. If that is the case, please consider that

a) the last 3vs1 was a disaster and the main reason for that (the oh so great general mackoti...) would be involved again
b) plako would probably win more in this war then you, as he can take much more land freely without discussion with either you or Rome (look at the map, you border me on three cities, two of which are also bordered by plako or mackoti - you won't have an easy time staking claims there, especially with plako running culture and / or artists)

Oh, and lastly, please also consider that I will be prepared and therefore this will be a bloodshed

Kind regards,
Serdoa[/COLOR]

With Serdoa having figured out the dogpile before it even existed and medieval being the easiest era to defend, it's fairly easy to see that this won't work. Therefore the best move is to either sit out, which while teching to Redcoats is tempting, it's what I've been doing all game so far and I'd like a change of pace, or attack TMIT.

Attacking TMIT seems to be the right move strategically, as he's falling behind everyone due to losing the key site to plako, and with his low PYFT rating I doubt he'll put his full concentration into a war. I just need to somehow work it out diplomatically with everyone.

Oh, and I also grabbed Philo and Taoism cause I could, and since I don't have any other religion at all yet. Probably not that great of a move, but oh well. Definitely CS next.

[Lewwyn]

Posted in tech thread my availability to sub. Let me know if you're down. Email me at lewwyn[at]gmail[dot]com. Just let me know what specific instructions you have and what NAPs you have and until when and I can take care of things.

[WarriorKnight]

Suppose I should update. In-game, we've decided to launch a GA with our 2nd GP so we can briefly switch into Pacifism to get some GP's. I'm hoping 3 GS's, which will probably be used for a academy in the capital and a bulb for Edu and PP.

Diplo is continuing to be interesting. On the one hand it seems the Knight attack is off:

[COLOR="Sienna"]Hi,

After thinking this a bit Knights war feels too late to be effective on T120. We definately would be able to cribble Serdoa, but it would probably require more than we're ready to invest to go for a full kill. Curies are not much of an upgrade to Knights. What about instead of double mover stack we could focus on massive slow mover stack. WK has Redcoats and Mackoti aggressive rifles. Meanwhile I could be going towards steel to build up some double promoted Cannons or if timing is tight upgrade trebs. I think we would have a pretty nice advantage in rifle era war when doing it like this. You would need Nationalism+Rifling and I obvivously Steel.

This does not nescessarily delay things much. I haven't counted yet, but my gut feeling is that ~T130 could be doable.

What do you think?

Best regards,
Plako[/COLOR]

I feel a lot better about a Renaissance rush then a Knight attack, not only because we won't be running into castles or even because I get to use my UU. It's because Serdoa keeps sending me stuff like this:

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Hey WK,

you might notice the next time that you receive the save that I am in NH now. I will get to GP soon and start drafting like crazy + build catapults. I would love to use those troops against mackoti as you should have grasped from my last email. So if you are interested to extend our NAP to T145 for example, I would be fine with that. Or longer if you want.

Kind regards,
Serdoa
[/COLOR]

With Serdoa going heavy on cats + muskets, he'll eventually have an obsolete army when the rest of us decide to invade. I've already committed to plako + Rome anyway so his offer is going to have to be turned down, but I wonder once Serdoa sees when we don't attack on t120 if he wants to do something before we reach rifles or not.