[spoilers]Commodore is Darius II of the HRE, now with less excuse.

[Commodore]

Fun catafact: Cannons blow cataphracts into small pieces. More news at eleven!

My name is Commodore, and I approve this message.



Chemistry: Open!

[Commodore]

Armageddon is come.



Palaven is now under Mistabodian control. Thanks, Dave, for building the Great Wall there by the way...fighting in Byzantium will be brutal. I need my borders to pop into the hole stat, that's a little too close for comfort there in the can-kill-our-iron department.



The Golden Age is over, but I'm waiting another couple turns before ignition of the next one. I figure if I'm going to bulb Printing Press, I might as well wait until that frajaboulus day, eh? Two more turns, and this will enable my GA civics swap to be to Slavery and Theocracy at the start, and Nationhood at the end.



Gaspar and Ichabod are beating the pants off us in MFG, need that Org Factory swarm in soon as possible. The Crop Yield is nice, though. Real GNP is about equal to Gaspar's GA version, I think they must have been wealth building for that insane spike. Honestly, this would be the perfect time to roll out an offense if it wasn't cataphracts to our one side, CKNs to the other.



Rifles or cannon, which to make first? This is assuming Ichabod's ego doesn't order him to attack now, in which case it's landsknechts and GG Gaspar. Riffington isn't the mightiest Bureaucap I've ever had the pleasure of owning, but it is worth quite a few beakers per turn.



Oy vey. At least we live in interesting times.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Can you remind me again why the palace was moved to Riffington?

[Commodore]

Can you remind me again why the palace was moved to Riffington?

[Commodore]

Sigh. Anytime those borders want to pop back would be great. Anyway, I went ahead and fired the GA and swapped to Slavery/Theo. Intensely painful, but as can be seen, Ichabod was threatening annoyingly.



Ah well. PP -> Guilds -> Banking -> Replaceable Parts -> Rifling. Draft after that while teching to Steel, with an objective of capturing Palaven, Tachuanka, The Citidel. Economics and Communism provide the next golden age, if ever it occurs that we have enough happy to be able to leave HR.

[Commodore]

So Printing Press is down with copious overflow, thanks to Mr. Isaac Newton. Unless we're in a tight race for a key "win" tech, like Physics or Economics, I expect this will be the last bulb. Golden ages and cash missions are better objectives here.



The second golden age is looking even nicer than the first. This is with no tech selected, making a great beaker amount considering our tininess. That crop yield is pretty important too, given rifle drafting is just around the corner. We've got some time, yet...Ichabod will take a while to integrate France into his empire. We've got to tear off a big chunk before he gets it running, all the while making sure Gaspar doesn't invade.



I learned from the great Hiding Kneel: The only way to organize a successful dogpile is to fight them all yourself. So question: How good are rifles and canon against cataphracts and catapults?

[Commodore]

I haven't forgotten, either! Here's more empire-y updating.
The Southern Border Cities:

Kusari:

The image here is obviously out of date, as are the other two. But you get it. If Yuri and Gaspar decide to raze the place next turn, it still would have been well worth it, its riverside grassland cottages are great and it has whipped in all that infra. I have one turn into a castle just in case, hopefully it won't be needed. The plan is to draft this sucker dry, using the insane HR-garrison happy cap as a poor man's Globe. Whipped-in canon will fill out the contribution too... barrage II cannon will shred Ichabod.

Sam:

Sam is the most worthless speed bump/resource claim city in the history of the universe. It's just there for iron, man. The defensive situation is actually really nice though, thanks to that peak and the lake nearby.

Zoe:

Only slightly less worthless than Sam is Zoe, claiming Dyes, Sugar, and having grown Riffington cottages. Now I've got it some cottages and farms of its own, but likewise, the main point here is to be a speed bump. Fortunately, its third ring has already popped, so it ought to be a fairly strong position despite the ugliness of the flat/flat defensive terrain. This place will get drafted too, albeit only once per ~3 turns.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

So question: How good are rifles and canon against cataphracts and catapults?

According to this, not too bad.

Rifles: +25% vs. mounted (yessssss!)

Phracts (no defensive bonus): Base strength 12
Rifles (+25% vs. mounted): Base strength 14

Heads up the Combat Calculator gives 71.47% odds on the rifle attacking the phract. I never know if I'm using the calculator correctly, I suck at excel, but that sounds about right. A little softening up with cannons and you're looking at a bloodbath.

[mackoti]

Yep catfacts stand no chanse.

[Commodore]

Well, I'm sure by the time I get rifles Mistabod will have Gunpowder at least for pinch. Given Theocracy and draft, I'll have C1 on a fair few rifles, C2 on hand-built/whipped ones. Interestingly enough, drill gives fairly good effects too because 'phracts don't get the usual first-strike immunity. Cats will complicate things a bit, but rifles and cannon have a nice high base strength to shrug off light numbers of them. I'm not going to be able to embark on a large-scale invasion of inner Byzantium, but if I could raze Bravery and capture Tuchunka, Palaven, Thessia, and The Citadel I would feel pretty good about my chances here. The lovely backline-France is a maybe, but that depends on how much cannon/CKN/rifles menace north and east.

It's a pity, because core Byzantium is a very very nice area. However, I seriously doubt our window between getting Steel and Rifling and Fin/pillagegold Mistabod also getting Rifling is all that wide. Not to mention...SoZ, Imp, and until Palaven falls, The Great Wall. Fighting inside of grey borders will be nasty.