Brick by Brick (Spoiler Alert!)

[TheHumanHydra]

Right, I knew about all that ... so there's nothing intrinsic in the way the numbers are presented that accounts for the variance; just beakers multipliers? I've always wondered about this.

[NobleHelium]

GNP is beaker production + gold production + culture production + espionage production - expenses.

[TheHumanHydra]

So all the variance is indeed just beakers multipliers. Thank you very much, NobleHelium, that helps me a lot.

By the way, your prompting made me agree to peace with Azza this turn. Why string the poor guy along? As much as he's not really a threat right now, I wouldn't want to create resentment for the future, when he makes his bid to get ahead in the game.

[TheHumanHydra]

Turn 70: Mathematics came in EoT; my score went up 44 points (seems like a lot) but GNP went down 21 (from losing the known tech bonus from, like, everybody, I guess).

[TheHumanHydra]

SERDOA HAS DECLARED WAR ON ME. Help urgently needed from anyone who's unspoiled.

So I opened up the save, strolled through my cities, got a message saying my population had reached one million and followed it to the demographics screens, which I found promising:





(Aquanauts is that "stretch" city I planted early on in that really promising location ["A" on the dotmap on page 11]; it's pleasing that its apparently matured so well.)

And just as I was pondering why Serdoa's power was so high when he didn't even have Hereditary Rule, I opened up the message log as I always do at the start of the turn and got a real shocker, that Serdoa had declared war on me. I immediately opened up the military advisor screen and saw that zero units of his were in sight. Now I'm most confused, and in urgent need of help from anyone who's unspoiled (I have exited the game without making any moves).

It makes no sense to declare war before your units are in position, which makes me wonder if this is a bluff: Serdoa must have seen how heavily I whipped my cities when Azza declared war on me, and how much that impacted my graphs in the turns following. My graphs have long since recovered and have been rapidly improving, as you can see from the demographic summary above. I don't actually see myself as that much of a threat, but maybe for some reason he does and wants to slow me down?

Or maybe he actually is intending to invade, and is incompetent. For obvious reasons I consider the last part unlikely.

Finally, maybe he actually is intending to invade, and believes that I will do X set of actions in response to his declaration, which will cause me to fall into some sort of trap he has planned. Maybe he believes I will shift all my troops to one or other of my borders, and he will strike from the other.

As you can see, I am very confused, mostly stemming from the fact that this is largely unexpected and I have no idea what his intentions might be. If I were him, and I wanted to invade someone weak, it would be Azza (sorry, future Azza). If I were him and wanted to knock down my closest competitor, it would be Old Harry. I have no idea what is motivating this. If anybody (again, who is unspoiled, obviously) can help me unravel this knot, it would be most appreciated. Obviously I am going to have to play the turn at some point before I go to bed (or is it acceptable to hold the save over something this important and unexpected?), but if anyone is able to respond before then, I will take their opinions into serious account. If no one sees this and is able to help till tomorrow, though, I will still greatly appreciate your advice.

The Chinese adage, "may you live in interesting times," has come true.

[NobleHelium]

You can hold the turn, sure. I think you posted too much information in the tech thread, by the way.

[TheHumanHydra]

I deleted it, probably before anyone saw it. Thanks, NobleHelium.

Edit: For anyone who's curious, this is what the message said:

"Sorry to double-post, but another issue has come up: under what circumstances is it acceptable to hold the save while dealing with something very important and unexpected? (There you go, Serdoa, free information). As in, I need to make a decision on very short notice that may well decide whether I live or die in this game.

Oh, how I wish we were playing around a table and I could see your poker face, Serdoa."

Also, another thought has occurred to me: perhaps Serdoa is trying to trick one or both of the other players, not me. For example, he could conceivably have troops by Azza's eastern border (de_nuke), and declared war on me to make Azza think he was going for Wild West so he doesn't whip or move troops up, and next turn will declare on Azza and take him by surprise. Ach, so many possibilities - I know all of these scenarios are convoluted and bizarre, but this situation is bizarre, and I don't know what to make of it. I think I will hold the save and sleep on it, as much as I hate to.

[NobleHelium]

You can delete your post with the X at the bottom right of the post.

[TheHumanHydra]

Yep, I figured it out. As I said in my edit above, I think I will have to hold the save for this ...

[NobleHelium]

(I would also post in the tech thread that you are indeed holding the save.)