It might be a good thing we're getting set up to use novice's spectator program for this game; I don't think I can keep up with reporting much more. Going from slacking off in my final year of university with no job on the side to suddenly working near-full-time hours is quite a shock, and I'm playing in too many games for such a schedule (I kind of expected to be unemployed for a while, until at least one of these games wrapped up). Today I was finally able to spend a good several hours on this game. Here's what happened this turn and last:
So as I said, I took de_cbble at the loss of three knights, which was exactly expected luck. I razed it, 'cause despite being Azza's closest city to my borders and size 16, it would have cost a whopping 20+ maintenance pre-courthouse, and still a lot after, obviously! And my empire's fine as it is; I still have two good sites to settle internally when my economy's not being dragged down by war (if ever).
Oh, fine, you want the blood and guts, don't you?
That capture-gold allowed me to research Constitution in two turns with no prior gold in the treasury, though I had to really stretch, running Wealth in almost every city, this turn to do it. I wanted to so I could switch to Representation in my last turn of Golden Age, but as it turns out, I may have to think about that - teching Constitution may have been a mistake, which I'll blame on my lack of time to play and think about the game - it turns out my cities cannot comfortably handle the swap away from Hereditary Rule. I thought they could at the time. Blast this war-weariness - and it's only going to get worse: it apparently takes an eternity-and-a-half to drain away, and jails only subtract 25% thereof; I thought it was 50%. Dang, I wish I was India for the +2 happiness ... They are cheaper than I thought, though (can you tell I've been distracted the past couple turns?).
Now I'm pondering what to tech next. Techs are about to slow down significantly as I exit Golden Age (I only have one turn left). I could, and probably will, just finish Military Tradition next, though cavalry will take
forever to build with non-Golden Age production - I hope they're worth it. Constitution does open up Democracy, which would let me build the massively-expensive Statue of Liberty to go along with this Mercantilism - Representation? thing I've got going. Does anyone know how many hammers a Great Engineer gives rush-building on Quick speed? And are they multiplied? On a somewhat-related note, is specialist production (hammers, beakers, whatever) multiplied? Thanks for the answers, anyone who replies. Democracy - Statue of Liberty would be quite the investment for no short-term gain, though. Constitution also opens up Corporation (yes, they're banned), which would be extremely worthwhile except for that I'm loathe to give up my Mercantilism specialists, and it'd require Old Harry to play ball, and if he did, would help him out as he's trying to make his big recovery! Plus it'd take a turn of anarchy. So I will probably finish Military Tradition, then tech Chemistry and Steel and finish this with cannon, if I can.
(Holy heck, this is another of those long posts. I guess I've been saving up for it.)
Oh, my opponents' techs. As you can see, Azza, having finished Liberalism, started on Nationalism to draft. This turn, though, he switched to Replaceable Parts without finishing the former (I double-checked). Conflicted between rifles and the draft? Maybe it's because he saw I had so many coming in. I wonder if the draft
now might not serve him better, though. Meanwhile, Old Harry finished Alphabet and moved on to Monarchy, which I
think explains this:
Remember Old Harry just started a Golden Age. This turn, so did Azza. Further, both are researching techs known by other civilizations (in Old Harry's case,
all other civilizations), while I gain no such bonuses. They are also presumably running 100% research, since they've been saving gold. I sincerely hope this is what explains my now third-place GNP while in Golden Age, 'cause if not, it means I've lost my cherished place as fastest techer, which is the only thing that's gotten me this far in this game. If I have, I'll have some serious thinking to do, as I'm not sure what more I could do to improve it - my best cities have almost all the tech- and gold-multiplying buildings; I guess just build them in all the rest and wish my war-weariness would go away so I could work more tiles. But doing that would mean abandoning my chance at victory for many weeks and to an uncertain in-game future. I must press my advantage now. This means I
must defeat Azza now; he cannot be allowed to stabilize after only one or two cities lost if I cannot fall back on my tech advantage to carry me through long-term. Ach, I'm probably just in panic-mode again. We'll see.
(Also, neener-neener, Old Harry, I got to show your GNP spike before yooou did [if I understand the graph displays correctly].)
Enough with airy-fairy technology. Let's talk hard military power.
This was the home front last turn, which led to this:
Obviously it's 17 rifles this turn due to drafting. This turn most of my cities produced wealth, and ran specialists. Hydranauts in particular ran two merchants to pop out its Great Person this turn instead of next, handing off to Wild West with its faster Great-Person-points for the next. Unfortunately, I got a Scientist instead of the Merchant I was hoping for; this means I'm virtually guaranteed to get a Scientist or Engineer next, which means I won't be able to pop another Golden Age for some time. Shucks. I'm now debating what else to do with these Great People (hence my rush-hammers mechanics question above).
Okay, one last world-economy note before I get back to what I
did with all that military power. This turn, Azza switched to Free Religion, Mercantilism, and Free Speech after launching his Golden Age. Old Harry switched to Pacifism and Caste System a turn or two before. Azza's running very strong economic techs, though Organized Religion might be better for him in war-time; I
wish I could run Free Speech, one of my favourite civics, but drafting's obviously an integral part of my strategy at this point, and because of that I need the barracks-happiness too. Shucks. Old Harry I believe is attempting to use Golden Age doubled Great Person production to produce enough Great People for further Golden Ages, creating a repeating loop until the Great Person thresholds become too high to hit in a timely manner. Very smart. Also very good for me: he's behind enough in tech I don't have to worry about counteracting this in the immediate future, while it is just about the strongest possible indication he does not want to go to war in the short-to-mid-term, which is just what I need: a secure flank so I can concentrate on my main (for now) opposition. Carry on, Old Harry; pop out those Great People to your heart's content!
Okay, back to the front:
Last turn, after razing de_cbble (what the heck do these city names mean, anyway?), I moved my uncommitted knights within striking distance of de_nuke, since I knew they weren't vulnerable, while the infantry and siege trundled along behind them:
This turn, I experienced the unpleasant surprise of Azza having summoned an army there:
Upon reflection, I realized this wasn't some hidden stack; I could track where almost every single one of those units had come from (the two muskets were obviously new from de_nuke and de_dust2 [when was this city razed? Against Serdoa at the start of the game?]): the knights were those I had previously identified that hadn't yet reached Azza's stack when it was destroyed by Serdoa, while the pikes and catapults were from the de_season (far southwest city, near Tarsonis) garrison (which city I now will probably attack with cavalry). So this is basically the rest of Azza's pre-war army, save for minimum city garrisons and a few odds-and-ends. Obviously, this meant I couldn't mount a hasty attack with knights to speed the progress of my army (shucks!), but you'll see that with that force structure and those numbers, Azza can't really attack out effectively, and doesn't really have enough to hold the city against a set-piece attack. We'll see what he does - he left the de_cbble garrison there to die, though it did cost three knights, and he took low-odds battles against me in the last war. But I think his Golden Age, civics swap, and army redeployment indicate he's still in this to win this. He'll do what he believes is best.
So, in sum, my medieval-and-renaissance forces are advancing slowly through Azzan-controlled territory, while rifles move to join them at the front. Old Harry's staging a brilliant but pacific recovery on my flanks, while Azza's teching toward rifles, hoping to hold me. Serdoa bides his time; I believe his comment in the tech thread - "yet" - confirms my suspicion he would build up an outdated stack and throw it at my soft underbelly to derail me at some opportune time (I'm not ready for this "yet," so I hope it's once I have a second stack of rifles ready to respond. There are so many ways this could go wrong
besides Azza succeeding in holding me - which he will do at some point; the question is whether it will be too late for his chance at victory in this game).
Best case: I destroy half of Azza's cities like I did to Serdoa, eliminating him from contention. My stack doesn't have to survive (it didn't against Serdoa!), but it'd be nice if it did. I wheel around and hit Old Harry with either this stack or a new one built with Early Modern units (rifles, cavalry, cannon?). I beat off a possible Serdoan thrust, and everyone concedes. I really hope this happens, so we can get this game done sometime this summer. As much as it has been the highlight of my day, it
plus work is really exhausting. (When it's over, win or lose, I will attribute my success at least in part to the fact for most of it, I could afford to devote the better part of the day to playing, thinking about, and reporting on the save - like I did today. I doubt the others have been able to devote that much attention to the save every day. It really helps with big-picture planning.)
Okay, you've had enough of my inane rambling. Good night!
