[spoilers] Pax Commodorica: Pharaoh of Rome

[Commodore]

Turn 108:
I won an amazing 95% battle, which just kind of floors me. Good way to return to the game after the Sunrise break.


Meanwhile, TBS just kicked Gaswyn's teeth in a bit; the green team peaced out after losing a single city. Ox is on vacation, so Yuri might opt to start a war in his absence. MY CITY.


I'm whipping like a madman in some places, but growing hardcore too. My sea cities are generating some pretty impressive commerce for me right now; it's not up to the growth potential of the cottage-focusers, and I will eventually need to obsolete the Colossus to field galleons...but right now? I think I can have knights when my victim(s) still are faaaaaar from pikes. This is a Very Good Thing. And going to hurt to see all this whipped away.


Turn 109:
One more city; iron made me shift my dot; it's okay, fish is better than tundra sheep anyway!

I wonder if Lewpar will join me in romping Dtay over here?

[Commodore]

So-ho! Yuri is following a turn split, I am assuming with me but possibly elsewhere. In any case, he's knocking at *my* city there with his axe...perfectly. I ought to be able to snipe it next turn.


I'm gaining cities in the normal way, still...Scythia isn't much to write home about, but I'll take an iron/lighthouse lake/fish/wet wheat city to whip knights out of any day.


So I did a crude stitch...

...which, visually, should show my issue. I've easily got the least land of the remaining six civs; TBS and Thoth own the most, followed by Ox, then Dtay, then Gaspar doing somewhat better than me (Thoth/Dtay split subject to some conjecture). As a result, Gaspar and I piling on Dtay makes a crapton of sense, but Ox/Yuri would be a fine target too, strategically. It's a tightening world out here, folks. My box ain't getting any bigger without one of those other solid border lines going back.

So, naturally, what will happen is that I get dogpiled by Dtay/Thoth while Ox and TBS clean up Gaswyn.

[Commodore]

Well, Yuri wasn't taking much damage, so rather than risk him taking Mauryan and promoting next turn, I burned out the barbs. My dry rice/grass copper craphole!


You can tell everybody I'm on my way here on Project: Moai. Praetorians are perfect for whip-overflowing, plus the whip is happy-neutral in HR...

[Dp101]

You put the same picture twice. EDIT: Thank you for fixing it.

[Commodore]

You put the same picture twice. EDIT: Thank you for fixing it.

Thanks, good catch.

So this is a kind of amazingly played game right now, but the lurker thread is downright flaccid at the moment. Anyone have any questions? My thread is a touch low-hope at the moment, still interesting though?

[GermanJoey]

If you keep winning all these 95%+ battles, we have nothing to laugh about...

[Krill]

Can you describe and define win conditions for each player please?

[Commodore]

If you keep winning all these 95%+ battles, we have nothing to laugh about...

Eat it, Joe! I'm going to keep on winning these mid-90's fights too! Booyaka!


Turn 112
The most glacially paced Hanging Gardens attempt ever grinds slowly forward! I dun goofed and the aqueduct is now a 2-pop whip; that's fine though I needed at least three more turns to set up all the chops. Hispana is a pretty crummy place for an aqueduct but it's a fine place for engineer points, so I'm content. We'll not be much in position to actually gain failgold; as with any HG attempt the aqueduct is the chief speed bump; the gardens themselves will be a 1t build. Just in time for my sixteenth city, I believe!


Turn 113
...and boy howdy do I need the population. I just traded silver for sugar from Gaspar, and next turn my first gem mine finishes for fun and profit. That means I'll be looking at a hilariously high happy cap. Of my cities, only Legio here is even non-embarrassing in bigness; the capital is finally all grown up into its good tiles, and I'll be putting down the remaining riverside plains cottages shortly. All towns by turn 180!

Can you describe and define win conditions for each player please?

That's a solid one, Krill; I'll post the relevant graphs (taken turn 112) to inform the discussion:

No shockers anywhere, I think the crop yield actually shows the split the best:
-The Black Sword: 20 cities
-Thoth: 18 cities
-OxYuri: 17 cities
-Dtay: 17 cities
-Commodore: 15 cities
-Gaspwyn: 15 cities
All numbers are just as I recall, but accuratish. The expansion pace here in Pitboss Nineteen is probably the most insane I have ever witnessed. Here's some relevant big cities and wonders:

So Gaspar got MoM, no shocker.
I'm rocking Oracle (embarrassing MFG is despite forges everywhere), Colossus, and the Hindu shrine.
Dtay has the Great Lighthouse, Great Wall, and Pyramids
The Black Sword loves his faux-Creative Stonehenge.
Ox and Thoth just have bigger and better cities than us newbs, plus Academies.

Okay, then, that's the world demography, let's break this down by power and what they need to do to win:

TBS: Eagle Tier
This is The Black Sword's game to lose right now. He is, indeed, Joao, which means you should expect him to be ahead, and he shot of an early golden age...but, as Mardoc put it so nicely elsewhere, golden age hammers are real hammers. His snowball is the biggest, and every indication I see is that TBS won't muck around. He needs to keep up with the growth and be willing to brutally whip himself to get courthouses online for an intact economy, and then keep up in size with Thoth by using ger-boosted knights to buy himself incremental boosts from either of his weaker next-door neighbors, while continuing to charge up the meat of the tree. What he does not need to do is get bogged down in a grudge-war with Ox or Gapwyn by allowing them no hope. He might get good returns by directly hurting Thoth, but he needs to avoid any grinding matches.


Thoth: Falcon Tier
Thoth looks to have an edge in land area, from changes during his settling a couple turns ago he is the top there in the demographics. He's spreading his self-founded Confucianism now and that means his ikhanda are now being helped by the world's first courthouses in mitigating his sprawling empire's harsh costs. Judging from my border with him, he's going to “fair and a bit” splits with Dtay and I; reasonable, considering he's managed the lion's share from dead Pindicator. Thoth needs to keep up his excellent tech rate and continue with his trend of taking 20% or more of a world split six ways. His win path, naturally, looks a lot like TBS's with an extra helping of “maintain”. He's got to contain TBS from gaining anything south and probably should look to gain from others' misfortune; fortunately for Thoth I believe he actually neighbors everyone.


Ox: Hawk Tier
Now I have that John Denver song stuck in my head. Anyway, Ox might well be in the most interesting position; he's managed to take a slightly larger portion of our borderland to himself while maintaining a clear geographic border. His cities are big and strong although not nearly so big as they should be; he is ideally positioned for a Liberalism run (being Philosophical, it's actually a good choice for him). High happy cap means he might opt to draft a bit but that's flexible. He needs to tech to win here; he's clearly in third place but not so crushingly ahead as Thoth or TBS; that means doubling down on his chief advantage. He actually can go “tall” in the absurd parlance of idiots who don't actually know what they're talking about; big cities unto a tech lead is solid. The scary part is going to be conversion; he's going to need to grow but with this field's competence that means its got to be in tandem with events, dear boy. Meaning no offense to Yuri, Ox also needs to be the first in the driver's seat here to win this in his very fluid position.


Gaspwyn: Raven Tier
The Gaspar Standard Game is in full force here; played well but just nowhere near as well as the three above. The MoM is a major reason for Gaspar to hope, while the fact that he has even worse relations with his left and right neighbors than I do is good reason for despair. Zara Yaqob is great and here on the cusp of CoL only now entering into his prime; sadly, snowballs matter and he is definitely behind the leaders in land and prospects. To win Gaspwyn need to first and foremost break the mold and play a proactive game, pushing to a set goal. I'm a little disappointed to have not received any diplo suggestions from them, actually; I'm a good natural ally should they wish to make a push at either Ox or Dtay. Gaspar needs to gain more land quickly to be even in contender territory; peaceful development of his jungle won't compete with the giants.


Dtay: Crow Tier
Here's where I'm less than comfortable ranking, by the way, you could make a compelling argument for any of us lower three in any order. PB19: Tightly Contested Slow Mule Race! I think Dtay has some pretty nice potential, though. He's got a good chunk of land and his tremendous advantage in cheap courthouses and forges has yet to really kick in. The crop yield/#cities ratio shows an empire with whip-suppression running pretty high; a ten-turn jaunt into caste would do wonders. To win Dtay needs to keep a hold of his extensive tracts and start growing. Pot, kettle, I know. Weirdly enough, he can do really well not fighting here...he needs to just be able hold and grow. Pity he opted to piss off his nothing-to-lose neighbor with a ludicrous pink dot spray.


Commodore: Tit Tier

This is me. This is all I have in land. How to win is pretty clear; but when my weakest neighbor is the tremendously competent Dtay that means I'm pretty screwed. We asked for a big map; nobody took Catherine of Babylon...so this is clearly unforced error, Commodore. That being said, I've got iron, I've got horse, I've got circumnavigation. I'll try something before this is all over...actually, make that I'll try something in less than twenty-five turns.

[Commodore]

Although I guess in the end it could be worse:


Pindicator: Dodo Tier
No way to win.

[Krill]

Pindicator needs to make that his avatar for a while.

Nice update Commodore, thanks for that