Gaspar and NobleHelium - More Arguments About Buildings & Food.

[Gaspar]

NobleHelium played T131 solo, with a little "input" from me via text message and Lewwyn via gchat. The input was minimal since Noble was basically impossible to talk to without him being within melee range. Since I'm pretty sure Lew or myself would have killed him given the opportunity. Its too much work (though doable) to screenshot my text messages to show you just the sort of thing that was going on, so instead I'll show you the situation then give you the conversation Lew and I had this morning, or as I like to call us, the Battered Wives Club. [BTW - I prefer the RB wink smiley to the CFC one.]

So the crux of the issue is this:



Commodore accepted peace with Dave after getting the bloody nose that Noble posted earlier. Well, once he accepted that peace lo and behold all those units that were hanging out near Palaven in the T130 SS had to go somewhere. Here's where they went:



I'm not going to do one of my usual breakdowns because its not really necessary. The necessary part is the number of units we're talking about here:

In the vicinity of Kusari/Caldeum:

6 Rifles
2 Muskets
1 Knight
4 Cats

In Kusari:

1 GG Rifle
3 Rifles
2 Muskets
4 Longbows
1 LK
2 Cats

The combination of that force with what we had in Caldeum/in range of Caldeum at the beginning of turn could roughly be described as "probably not enough... if Commodore completely empties Kusari." Of course, its incredibly unlikely that Commodore completely empties Kusari for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the fact that he's been drafting it hard and surely needs the HR happy. Nonetheless, that was largely the story of the turn. Noble scrambled some units as best he could and we can probably handle the invasion should it come, but we'd definitely prefer a few more turns. I do definitely think he's coming to visit soon, he just teched Steel so no doubt we can expect the Cannons rolling off the Holy Roman lines soon. We'll ride his coattails to it next, though we teched Corporation this turn for the free trade route.

Overwhelmingly likely, caution in this situation means we'll probably wait an extra turn or two to finish off Yuri. But, rumor has it that Noble "Fucking hates this insistence on killing Yuri ASAP." So we'll not speak of that again.

Other stuff occurred this turn of course, though I have to piece that together from the save. We settled our 18th and 19th cities, Towers of Sin and Core of Arreat. Of course, it has been so long since I so much as loaded D3 that I don't precisely even remember what places these names refer to. Towers of Sin is the crappy deer/whale city we basically put off until it wouldn't impact # of cities maintenance.



Core of Arreat is the "Alamo" city:



The sexy workshop on the Ivory was my idea, fwiw.

Other than that, there's basically 3 projects going on in the empire: (1) Statue of Liberty build in the cap (2) Granaries, Temples and the like going up in the new cities and (3) MOAR UNITS. On that, here's the end of turn state of the Sanctuarese military:



Another 5-ish Rifles completing next turn and so on. I'll probably do a city-by-city sometime soon, maybe when the GA is done, since its been about 25 turns since I've done a comprehensive state of the empire bit. Here's EOT demos. We finished Corp mostly on overflow so we only ran 50% slider. Not quite sure that we're in demo suppression mode but we're clearly in front at this point so if that ends up being a side effect good. No suppressing that MFG #. I think the political divisions are as such that there's really no reason to worry about a dogpile, however.



The chat with Lewwyn as promised follows. We didn't really talk about Noble freaking out as much as I remembered we had and I had to edit heavily for spoilers from other stuff but there's a funny story in there and some analysis of the game from me and Lew.

Warning: Chat not family friendly.

Lewwyn: hey
it was pretty funny last night
noble was in full on worrywort
Gaspar: jesus christ
he lost it on me on txt lol
internet back up so I took a longer look at things - theres no way commodore is emptying kusari
hes been drafting the shit out of it
so he needs those units for HR happy
Lewwyn: yeah exactly and He started simming like crazy
Gaspar: rough estimate he has like 12-15 draft anger in kusari
i do think hes going to infiltrate us with the communism spy though
Lewwyn: and he's like "the results aren't god enough"
"the best I get is 70& odds"
he's like look at the sim I'm going to sendn it to you
and I'm like don't
I'm not going to use it
and he's like "fuck you"
but why I just told him I didn't want to sim and he took it all personal or something
I don't sim
and then he's like "What's right is your feeling"
Gaspar: yeah, hes unbelievably obnoxious at this stage
Lewwyn: being all sarcastic about my gut
you know what it is
he's all anxious because he's winning now
Gaspar: yeah
Lewwyn: and he's playing not to lose
Gaspar: such a horrible time for me to be out of pocket for half a week
Lewwyn: I was aghast
Gaspar: we need like an intervention
Lewwyn: noble's insanity is reaching new heigths
I told him if comm emptied the city we should empty caldeum next to kusari
Gaspar: though i did debate just playing the next turn I can without him
Lewwyn: and base trade
he didn't get the joke
Gaspar: im sure he went into a caldeum is more important than kusari tirade
Lewwyn: well I cut it off
Gaspar: i mean, don't get me wrong
Lewwyn: I forgot for moment when I did it who I was talking to
Gaspar: caldeum is probably the 2nd or 3rd most important city
Lewwyn: and I wasn't troling or nothing lol
Gaspar: and it really sucks balls that its on the border
but y'know
but whatever
its his main flaw
hes probably as good a player as there is on RB on pure mechanics/micro/etc
but hes just a giant, giant pussy
Lewwyn: GIANT PUSSY
Gaspar: yep
Lewwyn: balls deep son go baalls deep
Gaspar: couldnt agree more
Lewwyn: tho it apparently pisses people off lol
Gaspar: lol
you're no fun to play against
Lewwyn: ultra competitive
Gaspar: yeah, and crazy aggressive
the reason you're both a pain to play against and lose more than you win
is because you don't care if you lose at all
basically you're the opposite of noble
Lewwyn: XD
I can't tell if thats a good ting or a bad thing
Gaspar: depends on the situation
this game was good for me though
i have a much better sense of my own place on that spectrum
like, this is the first time ive been in the lead this late
and im really not remotely worried
as long as we're not retarded
theres no possible way for commodore to compete with our land lead
Lewwyn: now that he's at peace with davy
Gaspar: and mist is just an annoyance
yeah
no idea why
Lewwyn: SoL and merc and rep man
I can't wait to see
Gaspar: he could easily have taken out dave if he was willing to commit and accept losses
yeah, im thinking that maybe we should just skip SP since i dont think its enough better than merc to justify the dead beakers in communism with commodore getting krem and spy
Lewwyn: cristo for denial?
Gaspar: yeah, that for sure
i told noble
we need to tech basically assembly line > radio at this point
Lewwyn: yep
well
steel
Gaspar: steels on the way
Lewwyn: I know but maybe earlier
and you guys sure have alot of GP farms...
Gaspar: want to get IW up quick and obviously have cannon on hand
its because we have so many cities with like 5 good tiles
Lewwyn:
more workshops yay!
Gaspar: yeah
production is going to be sick soon
Lewwyn: where are yo now btw?
Gaspar: my new apt
complete shithole
lol
Lewwyn: and why does noble have your cell phone #
thats like
masochistic
Gaspar: uh
i work a lot of nights
Lewwyn: lol
Gaspar: so via text we can communicate while im at work
Lewwyn: yes lol
Gaspar: the hilarious thing
tuesday night i think it was
i had a girl over
Lewwyn: yay
Gaspar: and we were fooling around
Lewwyn: yay
Gaspar: and my phone is just going apeshit
shes like wtf is up with that
im like no worries, its just my male girlfriend from nyc
Lewwyn: noble has elevated his role to cockblock wow
Gaspar: lol, i got laid but it came close

[NobleHelium]

Yeah, I didn't think of the draft unhappiness. You know, since I've never actually had to draft heavily and all that. I ran 50% science this turn to make sure we get enough overflow to do Steel in 2t but also save gold in case we need to upgrade some stuff next turn. I think we might be better off if Commodore infiltrates us instead of GAing, but it would be nice to keep research visibility.

I wasn't being sarcastic Lewwyn - I meant that you kept arguing based upon your instincts without any real data to back it up. I like intuition too, but when there are this many variables you need to be more specific about everything.

[pindicator]

[NobleHelium]

Going to post the rest of the city screens because I'm incredibly bored while davy sits on the turn for the second day in a row. Plus I realized recently that we suck at posting city screens. And I get to try out the new screenshot tag.



Will finish the SoL right before it runs out of food. We can drop a mine on the last turn and work a grass town. Ideally we'd swap the mine and watermill for two windmills and a plains town to a grass town, but we don't have the workers for that right now. I would like to change those mines to windmills and grow to size 15 though.



Not really notable. I'd like to get a GP out of here eventually but I'm not sure if we'll be able to. It's working some different tiles than normal due to the GA bonuses.



Working on hopefully a Great Artist. But a Prophet or Engineer would probably be fine too.



Builds stuff. Actually a surprisingly good target for a Bank, relatively speaking, if we can find time for it. I would like to build Wall Street in the not too distant future. It'll probably steal the Pig from Alcarnus for a turn soon to grow to 13, probably after Alcarnus grows to its next size.



Pumping out our next GP, preferably a Merchant since Cathedral has no chance of getting that. A Scientist would be annoying.



Building stuff again. This is historically our backup wonder city. I hope to cash in those GPP also.



Now working max tiles, will not generate another GP most likely. We'll probably not grow because we don't have the food to sustain size 14 until State Property.



Spams out units. Generates lots of culture to stick into Commodore's face. I hope to fit in a Bank on overflow at some point soon.



Needs to build another Settler, but doing a Knight right now because we might need it for defense, but it can also be used for the Bursa offensive.



Second best commerce city, needs to find time for more multiplier buildings at some point.



Going to grow to 14 while waiting for Cathedral to pop its GP, before surging ahead to give us our 11th generated GP of the game. Hopefully we'll get a Spy or an Engineer out of here next.



Almost done growing for now, will be putting out good hammers after the Forge is done. A lot of Bursa expedition units are here because it doesn't delay the attack and still lets them return to defend Caldeum if necessary next turn.



Working obvious tiles. Gaspar probably wants me to ignore the cottage, but hey it's already built for us and we're in GA.



Needs to be groomed into a lategame production powerhouse. Will get Ironworks hopefully sooner rather than later.



Keeping tiles warm until Core of Arreat matures enough to work them.



Will take over the hamlet from BK when it grows as the sign indicates, then hopefully it'll get to start working workshops soon because those farms don't actually do anything until you turn the population into hammers or commerce.

Not shown is Rakkis Crossing (southeast from AC), which is still in revolt. By the way Seven, working Citizens during revolt actually inflates your demographics - hammers in revolting cities add to your MFG, but produced commerce do not add to your GNP. (Producing food does add to your CY.)

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I'd rather have fake +1h/pop than fake +2-3f/pop

[Lewwyn]

Good news. Commodore didn't attack. You're fine.

You should work one priest instead of an artist in Cathedral and finish the rifle there this turn.

Oh and kill Yuri.

[NobleHelium]

WHAT IF HE ATTACKS NEXT TURN?? WHAT DO YOU SAY THEN??

Buddhism spread in Mist's new border city.

[Gaspar]

Actually participated here, though I'm still disoriented enough in my new surroundings that mostly I just sat back while Noble told me what he was doing/got frustrated by my inability to get E and W right. Anyway, as Lewwyn mentioned Commodore didn't attack. He did have this conversation with me in gchat, however:

Commodore: So, playing on out to the end, but it's gg. Next invitational!
Gaspar: Hmm?
Commodore: Nicolae and Scooter both expressed interest in the next game once China wins
Wanna team?
Gaspar: I dunno if I'm playing again right away after this.
Commodore: Resting on laurels is so Krill
Gaspar: lol
Even assuming we win
I don't think anyones granting me any laurels to rest on
Commodore: I give you 90% odds

Doesn't mean much, but interesting that Commodore is feeling glum. Probably means a much higher chance of an attack soon. I definitely think we're ahead but also that the game is closer than he's giving credit for.

In other foreign news Dave and Commodore are back to BFF status post-war:



Other stuff - Mist teched Philosophy, Commodore finished Steel and has a Cannon or two, Yuri teched... Astronomy. Gunpowder might have been a superior goal, sir.

Beyond that, this was a turn full of mundane micro stuff so mostly Nofun lulled me to a sleep I was pretty ready for anyway.

Outside Yuri's capital, we employed the Civ5 offense:



The carpet of doom is to deny him tiles hopefully reducing the number of longbows he can get into the city before we attack. Due to being overcautious thanks to Mr. "90% odds" we're moving in slowly and will attack Yuri on 137. As such, every longbow we can deny him is pretty big. Its a pretty amusing dichotomy - Rifles popping up everywhere around the empire while we attack the guy we're at war with CKNs.

Commodore stacked up his scattered units around Kusari:



He can of course now hit Cath soon as well as Caldeum, so we hedged a bit keeping some units on a midpoint tile near Royal Crypts.

That's pretty much the story. We get a GP out of Wortham Chapel in two turns, SoL is four turns from completion, the new cities are getting up and running and we're building lots of Riflemen. So many in fact, that we passed Commodore on the power chart again.

[NobleHelium]

Two weeks ago I said this to Gaspar in chat:

i estimate that 60% of the parallel universes that will derive from our current position result in us winning

[Gaspar]

Yeah, that in a nutshell was the turn. I think to some extent we're both a little burnt out on the game, truth be told. Me largely because my RL has been really hectic of late and it contributes to a disconnect, Noble I have no idea but I notice the difference. Regardless, we soldier on.

The primary bone of contention this turn came over where to distribute units - I prefer a larger force in the cities to act as a psychological deterrent; Noble prefers a force deployed so that it can reach either threatened area quickly. Mobile defense force is superior when you're relying on collateral like we are, of course. But I think the psychological factor is particularly important with Commodore. While I feel like we can handle an attack at this point we'd clearly rather finish out our Golden Age in peace. Anyway, we compromised with putting more units in Cathedral than Noble would have liked but less than I would have liked initially. Noble, as per usual, won all the other arguments because he's like a pit bull.



The white boxes represent staging tiles for the mobile defense. Circles represent potentially threatened cities. Yellow circle represents Commodore's main staging tile. Take it for what its worth.

In world news, only really Commodore stuff this turn. First:



Good job, Commodore. And then:



Calling on this one. He has maybe a half-dozen farms plus a few more wheat/corn/rice tiles and Sids isn't anything remotely approaching game breaking on this map if he's headed towards Medicine. Just doesn't make a lot of sense, but you go on with your bad self. We'll go take Assembly Line, get Infantry in play and build Pentagon.

Beyond that, we just focused on building more units, positioning towards the final battle with Yuri and developing our new land. I'd show pictures of that but all that's visible is a billion signs. 4t til the final reckoning. We researched Steel this turn, advancing us to Industrial. This caused the usual upgrades, including the "upgrade" of our forts from stone to brick which highly confused Noble:



And the "upgrade" of our spies from men to women, which I would imagine highly confused them: