Gavagai's spoiler thread

[Gavagai]

Gaspar went ahead with his stack. I destroyed it but it was more costly than I could expect: I lost a catapult, a horse archer, an archer and an axe, 160 hammers overall. He lost 285 hammers.

[Gavagai]

In other news: Seven bulbed Philosophy and I got a great general. Would kinda prefer to have it other way around. Offered Gaspar white peace but he won't accept.

[Gavagai]

I got a PM from Spacetyrantxenu with three screenshots, indicating that I was reading Gaspar's thread. I answered him (truthfully) that it was a friend of mine whose PC I used earlier to browse this forum and who auto-logined as me. Have no idea how this story will affect my reputation and wouldn't be surprised if a large enough fraction of players won't believe me. I hope, there is some way to check what IP was used, as my friend's IP should be completely different.

[Gavagai]

Gaspar didn't accept peace. But really, why would he? He is a total baller now, he is rolling in production. These eight units were absolutely expandable for him, he just freed up supply.



Amusingly enough, I'm the first in power now but I think I will lose this position next turn.



I sent a woody2 warrior to check what's up there as I was worried about an attack from this direction. And yes, something is definitely up. This worker is either chopping/farming (which would suggest that Gaspar went for IW) or building a road which would mean that an attack upcoming. I moved a warrior back 1NW to conceal my scouting. Other option which I strongly considered was to move it further SE, check for defenses in the city than delete and, depending on what I would see, may be start to prepare a raid. But I decided against it as such raid would be a huge risk right now. I'm not going to have enough units to both execute this operation and defend efficiently and may be caught with half of my stack out of position. Instead, I'm going to move my warrior SE-NE next turn and check out the shore: another thing I'm very much afraid of is a naval raid as I have an empty city up north.



Few words about my general strategy. I will have civil service in three turns and will revolt into Monarchy/Bureau. After that I will research Currency which is long overdue and then go MC-Machinery. With Maces I will be pretty much safe from any further attacks.
Also, I considered, if I would need to go offensive after maces... and come to a conclusion that as I now see it, I may want to keep defending even after knights. I hav a lot of space to expand into: paradise island in the north, Bantams in the west, even some unscouted land in the east. Any kind of offensive against Gaspar is going to be costly, it would be much cheaper to just establish a contain against him and then use surplus resources for expanding into less defended land. I think I definitly shouldn't try to take Gaspar's cities until I reach my natural borders in other directions.

Also, this:



I will add a HA and an axe next turn and then I will have a round of catapults. Actually, I'm going to build more axes and less horse archers. Now, after my cavalry was revealed, I expect Gaspar to start fielding spear-heavy stacks.

[Catwalk]

I got a PM from Spacetyrantxenu with three screenshots, indicating that I was reading Gaspar's thread. I answered him (truthfully) that it was a friend of mine whose PC I used earlier to browse this forum and who auto-logined as me. Have no idea how this story will affect my reputation and wouldn't be surprised if a large enough fraction of players won't believe me. I hope, there is some way to check what IP was used, as my friend's IP should be completely different.

I wouldn't worry about it. Xenu hasn't posted it anywhere else, so he probably wanted your comment first before making any accusations. I was in a similar position at the start of PB17, suspecting a player there of reading another player's thread based on his online status. Turns out he was reading that player's thread in a different game I avoiding making a fool of myself by asking a different player for his opinion before commenting on it, and he pointed out that I was reading my screen wrong...

Just keep acting honourably and my guess is that people will take your word for what happened. My experience is that accusations aren't thrown around lightly on here. Also, great reporting and great game

[WilliamLP]

Have no idea how this story will affect my reputation and wouldn't be surprised if a large enough fraction of players won't believe me.

I've clicked on threads by accident a few times while surfing through RB in haste and quickly click out. I'd assume that it was something like that or a comp mixup like you talk about. I mean, if someone actually wanted to cheat, does anyone think people here don't have the ingenuity to figure out a solution like logging out first?

[Jowy]

Have no idea how this story will affect my reputation and wouldn't be surprised if a large enough fraction of players won't believe me.

I've clicked on threads by accident a few times while surfing through RB in haste and quickly click out. I'd assume that it was something like that or a comp mixup like you talk about. I mean, if someone actually wanted to cheat, does anyone think people here don't have the ingenuity to figure out a solution like logging out first?

It'd be interesting to know who have actually cheated. I'm sure some have, considering how competitive these games get. It's kinda like doping in athletics :P

[Gavagai]

It'd be interesting to know who have actually cheated. I'm sure some have, considering how competitive these games get. It's kinda like doping in athletics :P

Incorrect analogy. In high-level sport you have huge money at stake (not just rewards for athlets but money which are poured via different channels into infrastructure supporting them) and also such things as prestige, national pride, etc.
On the other hand, none of us earns money by playing civ and has no hope to make it a profession. I, for example, play for my own enjoyment and if I truly read Gaspar's thread, it would completely kill the game for me. I like solving tactical and strategic puzzles which Gaspar offers me and if I knew all answers beforehand, this whole activity would become meaningless and void.
I suspect that all or almost all people here feel the same way. Those people, who have different motivation - they usually play on ladder or, more often, play different games at all. Really, if you are focused on competetion, on crushing an opponent and dominating him but not on making choices and solving problems then pitboss civ should be the worst nightmare for you.

[Gavagai]

With HAs Gaspar can surprise my sentry stack from the fog and take this hill back. Of course, hammer exchange should be favorable for me but I would really prefer to keep this position while I can. So, I'm moving a C1 spear there.
Also, observe a random HA in the south. I have no idea what Gaspar is going to do with it but if it moves inside my territory, it will immediately die.



I'm pretty pleased with visibility I have on Gaspar. In the east I have a woody2 warrior which can check fogged jungle tiles every turn. The only major blind spot is in the west but I will have a chariot there in a couple of turns.



By contrast, this is the only sentry I saw from Gaspar in this entire game and it doesn't reveal any important tile. Really, I think better scouting is a major advantage I have over Gaspar in this game.

[Gavagai]

Gaspar did the thing which I was afraid of the most. He has 12 HAs and 4 chariots in this stack and 1 more HA in the east. I think Beryllium is gone but so is his stack if he would truly go for it.
HA attack in current situation is a perfect lose-lose scenario. He won't be able to make any gains because these units would be ultimately destroyed and is going to lose something like 700 hammers for burning a city which I would immediately replant. On the other hand, if his only purpose in life is to make me suffer - well, this is the best option he has now.
Really, the timing is very unfortunate. Beryllium now has a spear and two archers (one with city garrison). In just a couple turns I would add two more spears and would be able to hold the city.