[Spoilers] Dtay's first PB: When you play a game of CIV, you win or you die

[dtay]

Well OH double moved me to take West City (The Tides of Life) and then offered it for 150 gold. Hard to really blame him b/c he couldnt know that the turn split between him and me mattered, but bleh.

Definitely not worth a reload b/c of all the combat that must have taken place + general inconvenience + it's not THAT important, but its still annoying.

[Krill]

Well OH double moved me to take West City (The Tides of Life) and then offered it for 150 gold. Hard to really blame him b/c he couldnt know that the turn split between him and me mattered, but bleh.

As a point, it does matter, but because I'm not watching civstats closely, or even reading the threads...is there any way he could see your units about to attack Ichabod?

[dtay]

If I understand the sight rules correctly, no, he couldn't. (Cuirs were on a land space separated from a land space he controlled by 2 sea spaces). I really don't think it's worth the huge trouble it'd be for everyone though.

So I took the deal, 150 gp:



Renamed it to its proper and original "West City".

These are my next two targets. Burn reave and plunder until Ichabod gives me something for peace.



Keeping eaglemountain actually though. I wanted the spot thousands of years ago, and then Ichabod took it.



I'll probably take this iceball as well



Ichabod has 3 stacks of note:
This knight one:



This one:



And the one over by WLP



Look at all dem units. No way am I holding a mainland city... unless I tech to railroad and machine guns? Plop down a few machine guns and a city on a hill could defend against quite a few knights... huh. Keep that in mind.

But yeah, given the power differential currently, I very much need to keep this a naval conflict where I have the production (given Ichabod just lost 6 major coastal cities...) and the tech advantage



Some domestic news. Preparing this spot for a settler. Trade Routes!

[dtay]

Newly Christened Cameron has been taken:



I'm now in razing position for the Locust Tree



With my epic vision, I've checked Ichabod's forces. Only 1 unit can reinforce Locust Tree by next turn (a single knight). 3 cuirs and a musket should be enough to PROBABLY raze it.

I have another 2 Galleons filled with Cuirs on the way, most of whom have enough xp to promote to amphibious. We'll see how long Ichabod takes to lock down all his coastal cities, probably depends on if OH sticks in the war. 2 frigates are also hanging about ready to... well bombard and blockade I guess? He doesn't really have any navy at all for them to fight. More ships are being built as well. I'll soon be able to build drydocks, and Ichabod just lost most of his nearby coastal cities, so I should have long lasting naval supremacy over here in the west.

I offered Ichabod 3 peace deals in ascending likelihood of him taking it. I really would be fine with any of them, they're varying combinations of Island cities and gold. And one where I accidentally asked for a city on the WLP/Ichabod border. Oops. That'll be amusing if he takes that. Not sure what his emotional reaction will be to my pile on. It wasn't even SUPPOSED to be a pile on, but (luckily?) it'll appear that way to Ichabod. Given OH took/razed 6 cities (!) I think i'm the lesser evil.



In domestic news, Jetboy bank completed, +30gpt just from the shrine. Noice.



Now that I don't need all the hammers in Jetboy, I'm slowbuilding a market and just growing the city up. (Might go in and switch that Marble to the plains cottage as well).

[Dhalphir]

How do you feel about the overall game situation right now?

[dtay]

Scooter and Mackoti are still the near uncatchable front runners. Not sure who's in the lead position Mackoti just managed to peel 3 cities off of scooter but then scooter grabbed a bunch more from Bigger/"Poked Bear". But they're clearly in the lead.

Either of them could go on a naval raiding spree and really mess up my empire. I'm basically counting on an implied existential deterrent: Since they both are playing for the win I'm almost never going to be the easiest target and could probably tie up one enough to let the other win.

After that, the same Plako/me/Commodore tier I mentioned earlier exists. We're all not too far behind the leaders tech wise (actually commodore is neck and neck, he has a really impressive econ). Plako doesn't appear to be managing a jump up into tier 1, I think he needs to take over Bacchus for it to have any chance of happening.

OH/Fintourist are making a play to jump from tier 3 to tier 2. They'll get the rest of their island from Ichabod and then probably money in a peace deal.

Ichabod is falling out of tier 3 to tier 4 for the same reason. Losing cities to me/OH (mostly OH).

Everyone else except maybe WilliamLP are just snacks waiting for hungry giants. WilliamLP is maybe in a different catagory for 2 reason. 1) His empire is actually a decent size and barely coastal, so quick raiding and snacking is hard. 2) He doesn't really border someone capable of rolling over him. Commodore could run a clean naval operation but there are no coastal cities. Ichabod has been trying all game but now that his eastern flank is burning he's probably lost his window. bacchus obviously can't do anything. So WilliamLP is actually pretty safe and could end up placing 7th or so. 6th if Mackoti ever manages to eat OH.

[dtay]

As for me, I'm basically out of the running unless Mackoti/Scooter get in a giant war, both send HUGE invasion fleets that then miss each other in the open seas and raze each others core uncontested. Yeah...

So sans actually being able to win, I'm basically just playing this out with the goal of maximizing personal strength. Near term this means grabbing stuff off of Ichabod. After that (if there is an after that), not sure. Commodore is probably vulnerable to coastal raiding but has great tech, could respond in kind after my first strike, and I couldn't hold cities on the mainland in any case (and if I did scooter would just take it from me). OH is possibly a better target, but right now has a better landbound army than me. Mack could join in making that easier, but then I border Mack.

So... attack Ichabod, think about what to do later, later.

[Ceiliazul]

So WilliamLP is actually pretty safe and could end up placing 7th or so. 6th if Mackoti ever manages to eat OH.

i think you just predicted:

1-2. Mack/Scooter
3-5. Comm/Dtay/Plako
6. OH
7. William

...so you're predicting Ichabod's untimely demise? Are you going to help?

[Ceiliazul]

oops crosspost. also, what are the fates of Bigger, Azza, Bacchus?

[dtay]

Yeah that's roughly my prediction. OH has the highest variability. If he does really well v Ichabod he could get into Plako/my/commodore's tier. IF Mackoti kills him he obviously ends up lower. I'd say that #6 is the most likely though. OH has proven to Mack he's hard to digest efficiently, but Mack's constant presence will stop OH from gaining too much on some other front.

OH attacking me would be an interesting possibility. I really don't think he can make gains, cultural buffer + espionage visibility on my part means he can't sneak attack me, I'm a step ahead tech wise, my army is mostly redeployed to our border now besides an oversized guard on Jetboy b/c I really don't want Jetboy razed, and I can draft for more defense. I think all this results in is a bog at our border until Mack decides to take advantage.

I don't think Ichabod will die, but I think he'll fall beneath WilliamLP in score/significance/strength. WLP notably has the Buddhist shrine, which I think TBS showed can power an economy pretty well. Ichabod has always had inexplicably low teching for his empire size / land quality, not sure what happened there, and it's not going to improve now given the city losses to me/OH.

I'll help until Ichabod pays me not to. Pay the Iron Price for some spoils until I get payed the Gold instead.