[SPOILERS] scooter, pindicator, and Huayna Capac try some fast Zulu cuisine

[scooter]

Signs that things are looking up for us.



5th in food is definitely a new high! We hadn't been able to crack the top 5 in that yet. The GNP number is nice to see considering we're at break-even right now. The main thing that's cool is breakeven is 60% exactly with -0gpt and exactly 200bpt. I like nice round numbers . Anyways, 0%/100% over the next two turns likely is not enough for Machinery, so two turns of break-even it is in case you're wondering (yes there was solid logic other than OH SWEET ROUND NUMBAHS). Planning to settle our Slowcheetah buffer city:



Pindicator - my thought here is to drop the missionary in Five Guys next turn and load the Impi while moving towards the island. Then we come back for the missionary right away to get the border popped. Then we pick up the worker that's building the farm at Boston Market (we may be able to get it on the missionary galley).

One thing I highlighted here - Slow has already deposted SIXTY-TWO EPs into us. Um, yikes. We only met like 3-4 turns ago *nervous laughter*. We have this gut feeling this horse city may end up being a throwaway buffer city if Slowcheetah does come at us. In a perfect world we'd just have a nice, quiet border with Slowcheetah while annexing Xenu, but there's a strong chance it could be just the opposite. Not real ideal, but then again what has been ideal for us in this game exactly? We'll figure something out. If there are signs of aggression from Slow, we'll take the hit and go heavy on navy. Caravels are top priority for us right now anyways.

[pindicator]

Peeked at things before going to work

* We can get Compass in 2t @ 80% and -55gpt.
* Free spread of Hinduism to plako's lands. Up to 24 cities now
* We can now build watermills! (+2h). In rbmod this is the same as mining riverside tiles. We should try to get those in

[scooter]

I did take one shot last turn that I didn't post, so here's our lovely shrine city now with a market:



It can currently 4T a settler, so we're pausing for that real quick. Now from this turn, that settler is headed for this filler spot:



Unspectacular spot overall, but it should still be profitable. Hey, on second thought, what do you think about moving this city 1N? The rationale is this: Jimmy John's and Sid's currently use the lakes because they can Lighthouse them. This city will be unable to do that, so it's not worth giving them the lakes. However, if we move it 1N we can use that narrow strip of tiles by Jimmy John's, which are currently not being used. I think that's a better way to use our tiles. We good with that? Here's the big news that we need to discuss:



Geez. We are not getting that Wheat. I think we have a conflict on our hands here. We need to make it crystal clear to slowcheetah we will not be screwed with or run over. IMO we definitely should plan to have 4-6 Caravels out immediately upon finishing Optics, and we just start sinking his ships and setting up a defense net.

The question here becomes simple: do we abandon plans to settle this island? I'm honestly afraid to drop that settler off right now, and now that we clearly cannot get the Wheat under our control, it's a crappy spot to fight for right now. Thoughts?

If we could feel comfortable having a safe longterm border here with Slowcheetah I would be fine with just not pushing this direction and taking out Xenu instead, but the way he's pushed so aggressively makes me a little nervous. I dunno, it's really difficult to read. Sigh. Anyways, here's all our cities trying to grow right now:



Most notable is those food surplus and happy columns. Also, look at those trade route totals. We're getting NINETEEN commerce in Culvers alone. That's what non-FIN folks call 4 towns and a village. We have 7 cities pulling in double digits in trade route income every turn. Hinduism may be our official religion, but in Zululand we worship the Great Lighthouse.

[pindicator]

Another gorgeous evening so I've been out in the yard.

I'm remembering the last time we were in a border conflict, and I think we've learned lessons sufficiently to not repeat the same mistake here.

Slowcheetah's galleys are telling me that if we advance with our galley he will declare and tag team to sink us.
It also tells me that he doesn't have triremes built.

Meaning if we want to contest those islands, we do it like Commodore did to us. Whip/build in half a dozen triremes now and then when Optics comes in we follow it up with a wave of caravels. Once we have naval superiority we can start bringing in maces to pick off cities. It's not the person who has the best units, it's the person most committed to using and building them.

If we don't want to contest those islands, then we probably should turn tail and run. Five Guys will be a decent sentry, and since it's a one-tile island we can probably hold it fairly well with a decent garrison.

I kind of want to mess a slowcheetah up. I don't want to sit back and just be an also-ran the rest of the game. Which means turn back with the settler (saving him for when we have military superiority), and start massing triremes now.

I suppose we can do the same thing with xenu: turn tail with the settler and then build up units to smash xenu with.

Which neighbor do you want to push around? The one that'll be easier (xenu) or the one that probably hasn't had to fight yet and may make the same mistakes we made earlier (slowcheetah)?

[scooter]

Ok, so we had a little chat. And this:



There's really only one proper reaction.



Oh yes. This = happening.



That's 5 for starters. And one more for good measure:



Popcorn?



A round of Caravels also due up in about 7 turns max.

[oledavy]

Teach that improperly sized screenshot loving cheese eating surrender monkey what's what!

[NobleHelium]

At least you fixed the "slow city" sign before I could bash you for labeling a forest tile as a city.

[flugauto]

Do you have slowcheetah's power graph?

[scooter]

Teach that improperly sized screenshot loving cheese eating surrender monkey what's what!

Improperly sized screenshots is the best reason to declare war . Actually, his total lack of updates in forever is a good reason too.

At least you fixed the "slow city" sign before I could bash you for labeling a forest tile as a city.

This specific reason is why I took a new screenshot for the follow-up post despite nothing changing.

Do you have slowcheetah's power graph?

Nope, he's spending EPs on us like crazy. It's safe to say his military is noticeably stronger than us, given that we're basically last in power right now.

Let's talk about this for a second, actually. In theory, this is a BAD mismatch in slowcheetah's favor. He has significantly more cities, food, mfg, etc compared to us. His tech is almost assuredly ahead of us, though we have no real idea where he is in the tech tree. However, our goal here early is two-fold:

1) Pounce on his islands early before they're building military heavily. We don't want them to have time to get well-developed. This was why we had such a brutal time keeping pace with Commodore - his early buildings were cheap (and none of ours were) so he was able to pounce on us before we had any granaries/ikhandas in place whatsoever. Circumstances will be different here, but he's stretched himself so hard here lately that these islands should still be lightly defended, and we have a small window before that changes

2) Strangle him navally to separate the islands from his mainland. If we can get in here early and sink his galleys with Triremes, we can come in with a wave of Caravels and try to set up a net between his mainland and islands to prevent him from reinforcing his islands. Us vs all of slowcheetah's cities is a bad mismatch we likely can't win; however, us vs slowcheetah's underdeveloped islands is actually pretty doable. We just need to gain the upper hand early or else he'll overwhelm us.

As for the "why" it's pretty simple. In a vacuum, Xenu is a better target. He's weaker, we're teching much better than him, and he doesn't have any friends. The main concern is us building up to hit him and slowcheetah uses the opportunity to hit us from behind where our crucial GLH and shrine are at. It would make a lot of sense for him to do that actually. In contrast, if we attack slowcheetah, it's far more likely to be a straight-up duel, which makes him a better target in context of the overall situation. Commodore will leave us alone because we're hurting one of his chief rivals, so he'll be quite happy. Xenu just won't have sufficient ammo to come at us with because his army is about to be badly outdated. And really, sitting on our thumbs and coasting to a 5th or so place finish sounds extremely boring. Like I said before, we're playing with house money right now, so let's bet big. Good chance this stalemates and goes nowhere, but what's the harm in trying when we can't win anyways? And besides, Pindicator noted last night that "I think we play better when at war anyways" which has a lot of truth to it.

[pindicator]

Responses about fast food chains: 25
Responses about war: 2

Lurkers, have we finally sated your bloodlust (with a hamburger and fries)?


My morning update:

* Xenu asked to swap world maps. I figured why not
* Brick has declared war on Merohoc, probably to grab the islands off of him while plako finishes off his mainland.
* Our moai city finishes its forge next turn. Add another trireme to the mix? It'll take forever to reach, but may be good to have around the north just to dissuade a certain malevolent scientology alien