[SPOILERS] Serdoa plays in PBEM46

[Serdoa]

Opening the save showed that Azza - again - didn't take my peace offer but instead killed my brave warrior. Now, I don't blame him for that - but why not re-offering peace on his turn? I really hope we do not simply have a bug here which is "eating" our offers. Thats the negative part of AI-diplo, you do not know if it actually has reached the other participant.

Anyhow, I had my spear next to his now wounded Keshik. Odds:



93%? I'll take that. Should be easy, right? Well...



That was close. I didn't expect that tbh. With 90%+ I always kinda assume I win without a scratch, despite being proven wrong in pretty much every game I played. Anyhow, I offered peace to Azza again, lets hope he takes it this turn. He has only 5 Keshiks left now. I still have my 5 spears and copper reconnected. Therefore I think I came out of this war with just some scratches. Still, I'd rather not have had to fight now, I would have finished Pyramids T57 otherwise. That was already awfully late. But now? I doubt I even need to try it. If neither Harry nor THH build them till T60 though, then I'll assume they have given up and can probably finish them by T62 or T63.

Well, nothing else to report. Lets look at Demos



GNP is me still not researching anything. MfG and Crop are fine, considering I whipped away 2 pop this turn.

Soldiers... those 37000? Yeah, thats THH. No, I still don't have a clue why Azza hasn't attacked him. I doubt he would have been able to hold against Azza. He has settled kinda akwardly which should make it relatively hard to defend. Also he has still no Spears. And I am not sure if he had pre-build spears in the queue as I did - I'd guess he did not. Azza attacking him like me would probably have killed him. Would not necessarily be better for me tbh, as I would have a much stronger Azza to worry about with an experienced army. And probably 10+ Keshiks, not 5. On the other hand, if he had attacked Harry, I would be leading the game right now by a good margin I think. As it is, I barely keep up with Harry despite he only now getting to enjoy his traits.

[NobleHelium]

It's generally accepted that you can ask someone whether they received your offer.

[Serdoa]

Thanks for the clarification Noble. I did do exactly that yesterday and yes Azza did indeed get my peace-offers, but refused to take them. That lost him a Keshik last turn as reported. What was unfortunate because this turn he now offered peace to me.



I am not really sure why he didn't take it last turn. Or offer it after he killed my warrior. I would not have refused - I thought my peace offers EVERY turn showed that I just wanted to be left alone. Instead now he lost a 33 hammer Keshik to kill a 10 hammer warrior. Bad trade for him - and me, because I could have used that warrior and would have saved 23 hammers that I had to invest into a spear to replace it (so basically he did trade equally with me there).

Anyhow, I took the offer of course. I might offer him OB next turn, which of course would only benefit him (I have two island cities) while I certainly wouldn't get better trade routes than my internal ones. Not that I really understand how trade-routes work, guess I have to read up on that. Hopefully civfanatics has an article on that. If someone has a good link to somewhere else explaining that in detail, please share

What can also be seen is that Azza is still at 4 cities. I am at 6 and will plant no. 7 next turn. 8 and 9 to follow shortly. Probably one more island city as well.

Apart from that little episode, nothing happend. Well, except for



Ugh, yeah, Hydra showing up with a Quechua. I hope for you that this is only for scouting purposes, because otherwise I guarantee that I will kick your empire that is defended by 6 warriors hard. Even if he just tries to be opportunistic.

[Serdoa]

T59 started with me basically being broke



And here is an overview before I ended turn:



Can you spot something? Not good to see, but after I ended turn:



Yeah for Great Lighthouse. That should get me to ~40% research at break-even. Still not great, but due to the war with Azza I had to forgo some plans to get an economy. I probably will have to find other ways to get myself to Cataphracts. When I have them, I don't care about economy any longer.

[Fintourist]

The Great Lighthouse surely is a nice boost. What kind of sacrificies did you have to make for getting it?

[Serdoa]

Basically none. As one could see, there was no way to expand any more without tanking my economy. This (and Pyramids) was always part of my plans, since the early scouting phases. I had actually intended to build it in another city and till T50, but I slightly delayed it first and than the war did interfere. Still, there was not much else I could have done tbh with the hammers. Sure I could have a slightly bigger military, but I did get through the war as it was. I could have more workers - but I am actually fine for the most part with the numbers I do have. Though that I want more is again more due to the war, because I would have had 3-4 more workers without it. The whips on the turn Azza invaded sure hurt. Necessary city improvements are also done in this city, it has Granary and Lighthouse. I don't have anything else worthwhile to build. Library is not necessary in a pure hammer-city. Forges and Courthouses I can't build yet. Barracks would be nice, but it is certainly nothing I need right now. Missionaries would have been cool, to spread my religion. But I would have had to build a Monastery in one of my religious cities, build a missionary there, spread it in the TGL-city, build a Monastery there as well... and now you already have invested as many hammers as TGL. So I doubt I would have done that.

As for techs: I got Masonry (Marble) for Oracle. I needed Fishing and Sailing to settle the islands - which because of Stone I wanted to do definitely. So there was no investment I wouldn't have done either.

So, in essence I didn't really sacrifice anything to get it. The only sacrifices I had to do so far in this game were because of the war. I had to sacrifice my Pyramids-plans (I am surprised it still has not fallen, I had expected it to be much sought after, especially with the war hitting me). I had to sacrifice some worker-builds to get instead Spears. I had to delay my Horses-city. But even with all that, I still feel good about the game:

[Fintourist]

Thanks for the detailed reply! The demos surely look promising at the moment. Especially when one remembers that you were attacked. I assume that you're GNP has been slightly above average during the last turns (before you landed TGL)? Do you have an idea how "the most advanced civ" -ranking would currently look like (e.g. measured by beakers)?

[Serdoa]

I have stopped tracking that at T53, so I can't tell for certain, but I would assume that Harry and I are tied for first (though I got Oracle, so in raw research he did better), with THH slightly and Azza slightly more behind. None of the financial civs has really put that much emphasis on commerce I feel, so it was easier to stay on par (still needed the Oracle). I don't have any cottages though, so I need something quick to make up for that, otherwise I will fall behind too early. Just enough for MC, Machinery, Monarchy, Feud, Guilds.

[Fintourist]

Ok, thanks again. Does that tech path mean that this game will get an early end through a horde of cataphracts? (I do not know if you have written it somewhere already in the beginning)

[Serdoa]

It might. It will depend how the game evolves. I would rather not give up everything else, just to be able to take out one opponent and then be stuck with a lost game. I do intend to tech there relatively quickly (Banking afterwards for Merc. as I doubt anyone gives me OB anyhow with TGL nor that those would get me more gold than my own). But I might still make a detour for Calendar (MoM) or CoL. In fact, I pretty certainly will go for Calendar, just because I need a higher happy cap to actually produce the cataphracts in high enough numbers quickly enough.

And maybe I will not even go for them early at all and instead find other ways. Depends on how the game progresses. I do have setup a city that can build Pyramids pretty quickly as it has 8 forests available. But I need to get more workers there (2 currently, 5 soon). If Pyramids haven't fallen in around 5 turns, I might get them. If I get them, I probably try to simply blow ahead so far that the others concede