[SPOILERS] Blut und Eisen: Deutsche Einigungskriege

[spacetyrantxenu]

Burn them all.

It isn't a matter of desire, there's plenty of that to go around. What I need is a secure border to protect my flank. Good luck with that!

[spacetyrantxenu]

Stale screenshots, starting with the map:




Southern dotmap, building my new city at minimum distance to plako's land grab because I don't care if he likes it or not.




Demographics showing I'm not doing terribly in spite of having one neighbor who is leading important demographics and having another neighbor who is plako. Except that how I'm doing is mostly immaterial compared to how they're doing.




And cities, because I built them I guess I should show them.

Pig Mountain, the capital, off and on one of the top 5 cities in the world. Just look at those cottages I'm growing for [PILLAGING PARTY'S NAME GOES HERE].



Penny Bacon, mmm bacon, mmm hammers, mmm going to build a lot of military here as soon as I can and kill as much stuff as possible:



Sweet Corn, growing more cottages for [PILLAGING PARTY, MOST LIKELY OXYPHENBUTAZONE'S NAME GOES HERE]:



Seafood, eating seafood and getting ready to whip a lighthouse. Probably will overflow to an archer because that warrior in a border city is begging to die. Although overflowing to a galley and putting two axes on it would be more fun. Moai would be nice but that's a long term investment and we're not playing the really, really long game. But with this much food I bet I can whip a lot of horse archers here. Those are good for killing things.



Tusk City, moved up onto a hill above the ruins of the older barbarian city. When the revolution comes I should send in the death squads from here, so Oxy doesn't miss the point that me wanting to kill him is 100% his own fault. Also, I like plains hill elephants.



Rice and Gravy, grow, grow big and strong so I can introduce you to the lash. I think you're going to like it. I'm going to like the horse archers you produce. In a game where the future mattered a city like this would probably want the National Epic, but I have a better place for it anyway (marked as C8 in the map above, with 5 food resources if it takes from its neighbors), not that I'll likely ever build it. I only need enough economy so that my units don't strike while I'm bleeding [INSERT DAMNED ENEMY NAME HERE].



Are we doing awards in this game? I should see my name in the nomination for worst infrastructure by the time this is all over. T75, no libraries. WIN.

[Ceiliazul]

Moai would be nice but that's a long term investment and we're not playing the really, really long game.

You're top 5 in crops and land, top 10 in everything else that matters right now. If you aren't playing the long game, what game are you playing?

In a game where the future mattered a city like this would probably want the National Epic, but I have a better place for it anyway (marked as C8 in the map above, with 5 food resources if it takes from its neighbors), not that I'll likely ever build it.

Does the future not matter because of oxy and Plako? Observe the success of Fin/Harry in PB13, where they fated themselves squashed between the meteoric Dtay and the metronome Mackoti... dry your tears and go kick ass!

Are we doing awards in this game? I should see my name in the nomination for worst infrastructure by the time this is all over. T75, no libraries. WIN.

You'll have to steal that from pb8 Zulu. No Granaries... by t100!

...and I know you are quite familiar with pb8 which is why I don't understand how you can give up on the long game yet. You're killing it in the demos, don't let your temporarily strong nearby opponents get you down!

[spacetyrantxenu]

I guess I should clarify. I'm not giving up on the game, and I know my position is reasonably strong compared to most of the field. But compared to my immediate neighbors the position doesn't feel great. I'm not about to die, but this game is going to go down a familiar path where I'm outclassed in the midgame by bigger, better opponents. PB8 is a perfect example of how I know I can fight on well beyond the point of reason and stay in the game, it's just a matter of setting realistic goals. In PB8 I couldn't have reasonably tried to hurt my rivals much (Serdoa for the most part by the mid game), but I could set my own goal to survive and have fun doing that. In PB11 after we flattened our economy, won the war, and lost the game all that was left was finding something fun to do while waiting for someone else to win. Eventually that turned into cathedral building and a CV attempt that would have never worked, but was something to do anyway. Setting goals keeps the game fun.

Here I harbored no expectations of winning the game from the outset, that's just an unrealistic goal for anyone to make in a field this large. I mostly wanted to see how well I could play, see if I've improved any from some of my previous games even though I'm still not (and never will be) a max effort micro player. I think I'm doing OK but maybe it's because the land I have is so lush, but from checking the diplo screens the players I have trade connections with all seem awash in resources, too, so I think everyone must have got some really good land to work with. If that's the case then either I'm doing better than some people or I'm not whipping as often as they are. Hard to know right now. Anyway, all that's to set up my contention that for as well as I may think I'm playing, it just won't matter when bigger, more advanced neighbors, who both happen to be better players than me decide to crash down on me later in the game. I'll be back in a fight for survival and I'll probably last a long time but I'll lose the initiative and probably won't have a chance to get it back once that happens. Maybe I'm too pessimistic, or uninformed since my scouting isn't great and I don't know how much space my neighbors have. But they both beelined cities in my direction, indicating they either have some safer back line territory to settle into when I'm out of space or that there isn't any space on those other fronts and they had to settle toward me. Either case isn't good for me, because they're taking land from me and probably don't have enemy pressure on another border like I do. I could be totally wrong but that's the prevailing theory for now.

Since I feel like I'll be doomed in the long term I'm not terribly worried about planning to maximize mid- and late-game strength, since I'm not liable to be in a position where it's going to matter by then. I'm going to try to get the most I can out of the remaining cities I can settle and then I'm going to take a bite out of someone because that's going to be the next most fun thing to try to do. So that means as many hammers as I can manage and probably not running my typical cottage cheese everywhere. I expect I'll be sufficiently behind by the time I fill out my land and gear up for war that it won't be effective and I'll end up wasting a lot of production and economy in the effort. On the other hand, plako and Oxy both failed in the diplomacy aspect of this AI diplo game and I have to respond at some point, so if I maim one of them and hurt their chances of winning I won't be terribly upset about that outcome, revengeance will be mine! I'd like to win a few battles even if I think it's a certainty that I'll eventually lose the war.

[spacetyrantxenu]

So prior hysteria notwithstanding things aren't going completely terribly, but I still hate my neighbors. Plako just built the Great Lighthouse. At least it got hit with the nerf bat, but still, it's a good wonder and will help prop up his economy as he back fills his open land. I'd look for him to throw down several cities quickly and for his economy to not flinch while he does it.

In a game with this many players I should be happy about being 2nd in MFG and 3rd in food, while researching a tech with (very likely) zero KTB at a slight deficit. I'm not completely skimping on defense, so this is a fairly honest representation of me playing decently, I think. But...
















...Oxy is still being beastly in demographics, he's near tops in both food and MFG and his GNP is better than mine. So he's blazing ahead. IMP does that, but my CHA isn't much of a counter since he has more happy resources connected than I do. Over time IMP loses much of its best attribute, cheap settlers, but the importance of CHA's happy cap boost isn't all that critical later into the game either, since resource trading is going to probably be rampant in a game with this many players. Better to grab the extra land earlier. So Oxy is doing what he should be, and I'm kind of in his shadow.

Ignoring international relations, then, I can at least be happily engaged in running my own affairs until it comes time to run interference in someone else's business. Exhibit A:




I have two settlers being built, out of my first two cities. At the last minute I decided to change my third city (Sugar/Corn east of the capital) from a third settler to another worker, because really, I can't settle three cities without completely breaking my economy and utterly straining my existing worker force. I have eight workers right now which is becoming insufficient. By the time I get these next two cities down and connect my gold (within ten turns) I'm really going to need more workers. Then there's the bit about needing more military because the third city I planned to settle would seal the border with Oxy to the east. But that city will be nothing but a drain and defensive fortress until I get Iron Working and can hack it out of the jungle. Plus, I'd need enough units to make it a fortress and I'm already scrambling to keep everything covered. I don't think Oxy will be in a hurry to settle that spot because it would be fairly provocative to do so. How much will he want to press his luck with a fairly well confirmed psycho on his border?

About that...I shouldn't have researched HBR yet, I should have gone on with Mathematics because I really need Currency or Calendar to prop up my economy. I don't have the spare hammers to build a marauding HA stack right now so HBR isn't going to do anything useful immediately, unless I want to wave a HA or two at Plako as a warning to leave me alone. I have too many fresh cities that need basic infrastructure before I think about punching Oxy in the neck. Chops and whips go to workers and granaries before HAs, because those things beget more HAs in the final assessment. And I do want to finish settling my few remaining cities and grow them quickly, the land is good enough to rapidly grow new cities as long as I have the workers on hand to improve tiles in time.

All of that will lead to me being able to whip more killers into being when the time comes. Delaying sucks because as I delay Oxy gets more ahead, but I have a feeling I'll be hitting my expansion limit before he does (though I can't prove it, not yet having scouted him). If he keeps expanding when I stop, grow tall a bit, and then whip everything into HAs that may be nasty for him. New cities should be a drain in the short term and so having to defend them (really, I hope Oxy has to defend new cities against someone) ought to stretch his defensive force, or so goes the theory. I have an idea of what I'd like to do, but obviously it'll be a while until I find out if I'll get a chance. Fingers crossed I can provide buckets of blood for ye lurkers' hateful gods.

[Ceiliazul]

[spacetyrantxenu]

This post reserved for postgame.




Insert today's rant here. Then, get off my


.

(This post will make sense once my diatribe is edited in after this game ends).

[Lord Parkin]

Turn 97

I have screenshots but since you PM'd me your instructions and asked me to PM rather than post if I had questions, I presume you want to keep things secret for some reason.

Units moved as requested. City builds continued as requested. Research to 100% as requested.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Thanks for covering. Looks like I'll be home in about an hour and would have just missed the turn.

About the secrecy/paranoia: as you can see from the current turn I'm missing a few vital techs before launching the spaceship. I'm in full paranoia mode until I cinch the win. Or I'm still competing for worst thread, although Dazed probably still had a huge lead in that race.

[spacetyrantxenu]

So LP subbed one turn for me, the first turn I've missed in this game. During that turn, this happened:




The first random event I've received the entire game, he popped a gold for me. Pure win!...Hey wait, why didn't that HA finish 50/50 like it was supposed to....

Yeah, the gold popping lost me a hammer and it didn't finish on time. Even when it's right, it's wrong. Good thing I didn't especially need that HA for anything right now.

Also, this is funny. I bet TBS really believes he's going to keep that city he planted this turn. I really want some of what he's smoking.




I'll burn 1,000 hammers if that's what it takes, that city isn't staying there. It's a straight up insult, honestly. Yeah, what I tried to pull was ill advised but no way in hell does he get a port there forking three of my core cities. Just forget it dude. You're a good player, you should have known better. Oxy and Plako have been crappy neighbors too, but at least they didn't try to cram one in THAT stupidly. I'll be settling the location marked C11 in a few turns (settler building in the size 5 seafood city in the picture). Then at some point I'll build a few more galleys and take care of that little blighter.