Gandhi of France II - Assuming Direct Control

[oledavy]

[SIZE="7"]Turn 64[/SIZE]

War is coming:



I dearly hope I'm wrong and they're overbuilding military or preparing for an attack on Yuri, but it seems an attack on Palaven is imminent. I have concluded that Mistabod are planning a limited war against me; with the goal of either taking Palaven, or shoving a pillaging stack in my lands to put me behind since I have the Pyramids. I had a long post typed up about the confluence of evidence that suggests it, but lost it to the forums and don't feel like retyping it. Their possession of archery and lack of Currency at this stage also suggests they're researched/are researching HBR and their stack will comprise of HAs and Chariots. However, I'm not willing to stake my city on that hunch and am building some axes as well. Here's the current garrison of Fortress Palaven:



I'm planning on getting another couple axes out. If the attack hasn't hit by then, then more spears/archers.

I feel sure the attack will hit Palaven, however, I'm also putting spears in Irune, and Rakhanna - which will be founded next turn. I doubt either of them will come under significant threat however.

I simply cannot go all military at this point, my economy is trashed as things stand. I'm trying to balance military, expansion, and infrastructure at this point, and hopefully I'm putting enough into military to hold off the Reaper tide.



I'm already paying through the nose for it though:



Confucianism fell to Commodore, and Judaism fell to I'm not sure who, NobleGas probably.



Welp, there goes my plan to pacify Commodore. I switched over my research to Archery, I may have more urgent need of it.

My economy is looking a little better now that I got my first library up in The Citadel and started running a pair of Scientists. However, I could not get my prophet out first without forgoing running scientists for a couple turns, so I decided to forego the 'bulb theology' plan for now.



I had ~80% chances of pulling an Engineer , but the RNG did not cooperate with me today. I'm planning on settling him next turn. I'll have to figure out some other way to get a religion, perhaps Philosophy for Taoism. Bulbing Mathematics and building the HG is tempting since I have stone. But with war imminent, me behind on expansion, and other Civs likely to go for it, it's not worth it.

All in all, other than the fact that I'm behind in cities and facing invasion, things are looking pretty decent:





Sasha is the Confucian Holy City, and unfortunately popped third rings borders before Palaven could. I'm probably never going to seize control of that row of tiles. Eh, c'est la vie.



Lastly, Commodore most definitely did declare war on NobleGaspar at some point:



Here's hoping they keep each other busy so I only have one hostile neighbor to worry about.

End Turn.

[oledavy]

Current City Count:

Me: 5
Mistabod: 9
NobleGas: 7
Commodore: 7
Yuri: 6

[oledavy]

Moving Rakhanna 1NW, changing the dotmap. This ensures I will get marble. At my current rate of expansion, dealing the the Byzantines, I don't feel I'll be able to settle the dyes/sugar before Commodore does. If, by chance, I can still nab them whenever I have a settler to spare, 1N and 5W of Thessia is still a pretty solid city. It will mean I wasted a worker turn, however

[oledavy]

[SIZE="7"]Turn 65[/SIZE]

Settled Euclid, giving my economy a noticeable boost:



To the east, I settled Tuchanka one northwest of the original Rakhanna location.





I vastly preferred my original dotmap. However, with the settlement of Riffington, Commodore is poised to settle a city for the dyes and sugar that shares the corn. I won't be settling my next city for a little while, and am fairly sure he will beat me to the location. While it's a setback, it's not the end of the world. It's not like I'm hurting for happy. I will probably have to make an early run at Engineering to counter Cataphracts, and could potentially build Notre Dame - made cheaper courtesy of stone. That would help offset losing the luxuries. We'll see what happens. I may yet get to nab them. As a side benefit, I've opened up a potentially backfill location southeast of the city near the border with Mistabod, that picks up some grassland and shares pigs.

I suspect my GNP is only looking so good because other people are running max gold, but hey, I'll take what I can get.



Mistabod's power graph spiked again this last turn. I've continued preparing the welcoming commitee. I would love to build a library in Palaven, both for the culture and the scientist slots. With the city's large food surplus, I could be turning 15bpt out of a pair of scientists. Unfortunately, guns take the priority over butter for now. One happy side effect of settling Tuchanka behind the ridgeline is that it doesn't really need protection from a Byzantine attack, due to the distance.

Lastly, NobleGas revolted into Judaism and OR this turn:



At this point, I'm the only one left without a religion. A rather sorry state for the SPI guy, but I should be able to fix that relatively soon.

Anyway,



End Turn

[oledavy]

[SIZE="7"]Turn 67[/SIZE]

Ichabod moved up his warrior to get visibility into Palaven this turn. He followed this up with moving two HAs to the border.



I declared war, and immedietly offered peace.



If he wants to attack now or begin pillaging my lands, he'll refuse the offer. If he wants to wait another 10 turns before coming after me, or go after Yuri instead (hoping for that one) he should accept. Either way, I should be able to discern his intent the next time the save rolls around.

My hunch about researching HBR was right

[scooter]

Yeesh that's a lot of military for T67.

[oledavy]

Yeesh that's a lot of military for T67.

You're telling me

These military costs are killing me, and Mistabod's can only be worse. They whipped down pretty hard too the last couple turns to push HA's out, and now have almost twice my power.

However, against all odds, Mistabod offered me peace back? (Guessing they wanted to take a look around before accepting my offer). I guess they weren't ready, or really are going after Yuri (the only guy who's power is lower than mine). At any rate, I'm not complaining. Of course we accept. Palaven is going to build a library, then barracks. If they still haven't declared on Yuri by then, I'll continue churning out units. In the meantime, I'm moving a spear to Tuchanka and retiring my warriors to the backline - they would have done little but take hits anyway. I may be forced into taking an early construction after mathematics if they persist in their mobilization. I won't be able to repel a major stack without catapults. Hoping I don't have to do that though. My attempts at repairing the economy were pretty well thwarted by having to make a significant investment in military, and if they keep it up, I'll probably be out of the running.

Still, things are looking up. I have 10 turns of guaranteed peace. I'm catching up in all the meaningful demo categories. Most importantly, within four turns I'll have libraries and a couple scientists in my three remaining core cities that lack them. At that point, I'll be making ~100 bpt without running the silder, and will be in good shape for the AD world.

[Catwalk]

Good job reinforcing Palaven Is there anything you'd have played differently so far?

[oledavy]

Is there anything you'd have played differently so far?

Off the top of my head, probably settle my second city for furs/silver/corn, and settle Thessia 1NE at a much later date. It was a poor location for a second city. I think I outsmarted myself there, with the idea of sharing tiles and getting a three food city center. It wasn't very smart with the benefit of hindsight.

That probably sums up the majority of my problems right there. If I had had that commerce from silver/furs earlier, I would have been able to get to Montheism for Judaism no problem, and gotten Pottery and Writing earlier to boot.

The current kerfuffle with Mistabod is frustrating, but not really unexpected. I couldn't make a pink dot like that without expecting someone to take umbrage with it. The unfortunate side-effect has been having to mobilize a fairly significant early military to protect my holdings, putting myself deeper in the economic hole.

All in all though, the peace treaty with Mistabod may become quite the turning point. If they had declared war on me and begun pillaging - forcing me to build yet more military - I would probably be completely out of the running. You just can't take that many economic hits and still be competitive. However, the 10 turn reprieve allows me to finish libraries everywhere and repair my lagging GNP with Representation Scientists - quite a breakthrough. If they do choose to come at me when the peace treaty runs out, I'll be significantly stronger than I was on t67.

[Catwalk]

Did you by any chance see me and slowcheetah sandbox t32 oracle in PBEM29g? I think that's a strong opening move for Pyramids, and Gandhi is perfect for it.