Lots of catching up to do. It is currently (as of this writing) T173.
T166
Pindicator was invaded by dtay as pindicator invaded Cyneheard/Dreylin (Egypt). I didn't want dtay to get massive gains at little cost while pin's army was away, so I offered a pretty generous loan to pindicator.
This is the generous part. I don't remember now whether he accepted or not, but dtay has not subsequently made massive gains from what I can tell, although he has certainly profited. Maybe my loan helped. The idea is for pin to pay this all back later when he can, but he has to survive first. This represents less than 1t of gold accumulation for me, so it isn't all that bad if I never get it back.
I don't remember the reason for this now except that he is on the far side of wetbandit and so could pose a threat to wetbandit, forcing him to keep troops positioned honestly. I don't need the extra resources, so why not?
Not much to say here, I'm still missing graphs on most of the game leaders (dtay and krill/novice particularly), but for my local neighborhood I'm in fine shape. OH/Fin went into a period of infrastructure builds after completing their wars of conquest. I have done the same.
I still have some catching up to do, but I also have a LOT of improved tiles to grow onto.
T167
A size 19 capture!! What a haul!
+33 on CY over last turn. Tech turned on helps GNP.
This screen no longer gives a totally accurate count on buildings since it does not reflect buildings surviving from city captures. I will continue to prioritize building forges, though not quite as highly as previously where they were typically the second build, because I think this game is going to continue for a long time and I'll want a lot of buildings in most cities, so the forges will certainly pay back. Even where I don't want to build buildings, I'll build units and the forges help with that too. Hammers are huge.
I could have, but I didn't. The timing didn't feel right and I don't have units on my England island to garrison cities and counterattack if needed. So I'll keep the knights there for now and see what develops.
Ruff is looking to take another bite out of Q, which is good for me since I can pile in soon, and Krill/novice are about to tear someone apart. I'm grateful for distance from those guys.
T168
My knights and workers hiding out in Q's territory got bounced back home when his replacement city popped second ring borders. Yay!
I think I'm showing exploration here, nothing more sinister than that. Move along.
Crop yield +14. This is really the one I'm keeping an eye on, in case it isn't totally obvious right now. With so many workshops and cottages around and me not whipping anything, growing onto these improved tiles as fast as humanly possible is the goal. So, food early, then lasting benefit after.
My stack is ready, waiting for the enforced peace to end and for just the right moment to knife Q as Ruff plows forward. Belatedly (meaning, I realized this many turns after I ought to have), I started building culture in Gallatin so I could win first ring tiles and be able to attack Q's front city directly from my own borders. This stack subsequently moves onto the forest (with a road, etc) to set up that move.
I'm not entirely sure what wetbandit's intent is with these guys, whether to hide them from me or from someone else, so I've kept tabs on them throughout the next several turns.
Bonus shot from T168, taken three days later. I guess I logged back in to pause or something? Dreylin recaptured pindicator's great prize. I'm guessing pin had bigger fish to fry in dealing with dtay and didn't put up much of a fight here.
T169
So Xenu still has some bite left and nothing to lose. But looking at the F4/Relations screen, it looks like Xenu is saving the venom for CH. Viva la rage!
Ruff has another stack 1W of this one, and another SW of the sheep that appeared to be mostly knights.
Wetbandit moving his merry band of knights to the east. Positioned here, they don't appear to be aiming for me because they can't really hit anything from there, although they could combine with a slow moving stack onto the same tile. But I don't see it.
More likely to me is a fight with Nakor.
Now featuring Oxford University. I would have waited for the Observatory to finish except that I want to start West Point immediately in Grant Village (Heroic Epic city).
Growth has slowed some, but still going in the right direction. Things are looking good.
Graphs now include Krill/novice, who recently finished a golden age. Nothing terribly revealing there except toward the end a power increase for Krill/novice, Team Mids for this game.
T170
Highly convenient. This allows Yellowstone to be food neutral without the wheat.
I've pushed my luck with OH/Fin by not scouting them thoroughly. I haven't seen units trolling around and still don't. I've marked city garrisons here. I could do them a world of harm, but it would only ruin both of our chances to win. This level of defense is shockingly low, though. I suppose they've read me, correctly it turns out, as a peaceful neighbor. I'm not all that peaceful, just toward neighbors I can't consume in one big bite.
The slow slog continues. I can finally declare but have opted not to yet as I'm still trying to flip the culture. The sign over Adrianople is out of date. Many of those units have moved to defend elsewhere. And, Military Tradition in one turn. Gunpowder is next (1t), then Rifling (2-3t). I'll just upgrade all my knights directly to Cossacks and attack then. Probably. Maybe.
Angling for some kind of amphibious attack, but the way to Pokemon is blocked by two triremes. I ought to give this up as a bad job and just sent the galley home to upgrade to a galleon and the knights to West Thumb to become Cossacks, but instead I may do a little adventuring to Q's backlines, whenever our war gets going.
I've also been settling cities like a fiend. They aren't horrible. Hooray, Free Market!
A no-growth (well, size 2 is fine) city that will just hit the wealth button. Why not? This will pay back its 100h very fast and then be pure profit.
Someone is keeping pace very well on crop yield.
Here is one area I've made a mistake. Note the harbors and customs houses. I read the +50% to harbors and +100% to foreign trade routes for the customs houses, which is every route I have, as being bonus to base, not an additive modifier. I have never examined trade routes closely, but the bottom line is rather than my 10g route becoming a 15g route with a harbor and then doubling again with the customs house, or doubling the 10g base (as I assumed it was) to 20g, it is simply one more modifier among several others when the base route is around 2-3g to start with. So, much, much less impact than I had predicted/assumed. Needless to say, these will not be a priority going forward. I may finish some of the active harbor/customs house builds. Live and learn.
Two more turns, destined to stay hidden away in the vault until next time. Thanks for reading!
Dazed is going down hard to TBS, mackoti is picking up the pieces. Sure, help yourself.
I'm still throwing down filler cities.
The spectacular failure of wetbandit's invasion of Nakor, commemorated by the birth of two great generals in cities obscurely named. The units highlighted here are the guys to credit for wiping wetbandit's stack.
Along with some of these guys. I really wish I had enough units on boats to wipe this knight stack before they heal but I'm not that good. They'll heal up and promote and live to fight another day.
Getting closer.
Empty cities everywhere! I'll take this as a trust building exercise for the world's two preeminent superpowers.
That's a whole lot of Organized Religion free hammers. What a luxury to be able to just build economy forever. I love my neighbors!
Demos and stuff:
This may be the first set of graphs I've had on dtay. The thing that stands out here is pindicator's trouble with dtay, and the beginning of dtay's trouble(s).
This surprised me. I didn't know that dtay was this competitive on hammers. I can see distinctly two golden ages, maybe he's in a third. I can't remember now. These pictures are from nearly a month ago. Shame on me.
Actually, looking at it again, dtay beat me to Replaceable Parts by many turns. This almost certainly accounts for his boost in production. He has a lot of cities and a lot of land tiles to get extra hammers from mines and windmills. And quarries too, but that isn't likely to be more than a couple of extra hammers.
That's quite an investment by dtay.
T172
This is it. This is all the pictures I took on this turn. Best reporter ever. Known Tech Bonus is awesome. 40% science and I look like a world beater. I don't remember how many civs had gunpowder at this time but it was a lot and I'm almost certainly capped on the KTB boost.
T173
Mostly healed up. That didn't take long.
Bah. You're going the wrong way! That's what you get for declaring war and not paying attention to the other front's cooldown timer on war.
That explains it. What happened, Ruff? Also seen, I'm still founding filler cities.
On the homestretch toward Cossacks now, Rifling due in 3t.
I'm sandbagging GNP a little. I could have finished Rifling a turn sooner by running wealth builds, but that is counterproductive. I need money to upgrade knights to Cossacks, and a 3t research plan does that better. This is a very rosy picture for me right now, especially with dtay's difficulties with pindicator, Krill/novice, and OH/Fin. I'm mindful that I could be the next dogpile target if I'm not careful.
This is not a very lean, efficient empire. I could have many, many more courthouses, and for reasons that I just can't credibly explain, I have not yet even started on the Forbidden Palace. Still, as they say, quantity has a quality all its own.
Ruff is back home, licking his wounds. Obviously he didn't bring nearly enough to the fight to crack Q's longbow army.
I was interested in the extent of dtay's expansion, visible westward through conquest northeast of pin's Avon Grove. There is obviously plenty I don't know, but dtay made initial headway against pindicator only to be attacked by OH/Fin and Krill/novice. This will drag dtay back and set me up as the next leader. I am concerned that I could be viewed as the next dogpile target, but geography once again is in my favor. Where dtay has plako, Krill/novice, OH/Fin, pindicator, and (once Dazed/mackoti dies off) TBS as neighbors in a central map position, I border OH/Fin (super-legit competition, but otherwise occupied), Dreylin (waiting to die, just doesn't know it yet), Nakor (same), wetbandit (eventually, but same), Q (same), Ruff (may last longer, but not really relevant), and the polar icecaps, the best neighbor of all. As the game continues and naval mobility increases, these distances can be covered by a determined opponent, but distance still makes gains tough to digest, especially against an opponent of my size, technological advancement, and hammer capacity. This is likely to deter too much investment by any contender unless I achieve a runaway position, which I do not believe I am going to do with my current position and with the changes to KTB and tech costs in this mod. These will work against contending civs making a whole lot of investment just to drag me down because they get dragged down too. The biggest threat is obviously OH/Fin but I'm big enough to drag them down with me if the conflict is serious. I am mitigating this threat by actively scouting the naval approaches around their territory and scouting a picket line with a chariot, running north to south to north from coast to coast. Eventually I'll get something in the water to have a permanent view on the naval lanes so they'll know surprise won't be achieved. And not far from now there are map-hax airships to keep a look over things. So, when war comes, for both of us it will be with both eyes open and knowing it will be an expensive mess. Hopefully the fear of us both losing will let us continue to be excellent neighbors with low garrisons. This helps us both.
Massive picture dump report. Earlier up thread, while I was maintaining a sandbox, I posted screenshots of each city each turn in what is probably the most dense thread reading ever. Sorry, but it was helpful for me in keeping the sandbox accurate. I haven't shown city screens lately except a little something to highlight here or there. In this turn report I'll dump each city screen so you can see what the empire is really looking like. That will be in the next post because there is a limit of 50 pictures per post.
But first, dtay asks for help:
I drew in current city counts, though several of my cities are of the filling space for trade routes sort. Ultimately I declined the offer. I want dtay to get taken down a peg and I don't mind if other opponents get a little stronger by eating dtay. I have other opponents to digest more cheaply than they will dtay, so any encouragement of fighting is good, until dtay collapses. Given his size and technological sophistication, I just don't see that happening right now. He has rifles, they don't. He may well have cavs, I don't remember now writing five turns later. Anyway, opponents could well make gains and still not be able to conquer him, leaving him brooding and angry, waiting for revenge against his aggressors. That suits me fine. Rejected! Also, I need the money to finish teching and upgrade my army.
Demos, graphs, etc:
Krill/novice are really building up some power. Perhaps dtay needs more help than I've assumed? I do not want Krill/novice in a very strong position, but I'm not willing to slow down my progress to see it happen just yet.
A Great Artist makes a fancy painting and is not used as part of a golden age. The world rejoices!
I think OH/Fin are the trade route leaders. In subsequent turns, my position as #2 in export/import continues, but with a widening gap. I think perhaps cheap-IMP Customs Houses are going up in OH/Fin-land next door.
I really like seeing two of my own cities.
I just realized I've captured more workers than I've built!
Still mostly focused on economy.
I've thought about nationhood but I just don't want to lose the population drafting. My economy is singing right now and my neighbors have a weak production base, naval cities, and I have galleys. I think I can continue to expand without losing population and losing the Bureau bonus. My capital puts out great beakers and I like that. Representation would be great with so many Research Institutes providing free scientists. I'm not sure if State Property beats Free Market for me. Maybe later when I'm building up for a serious war with a serious neighbor I'll need the extra hammers. For now, the economy seems more important.
OH/Fin have a great savings rate.
They've been at it for two turns now. I'll keep an eye on their savings/spending to see what their goal is. Kremlin would be tremendously helpful for them, making the SA whips even better. I don't have research visibility yet, but I'll be working on that soon.
I still have these guys stashed away. I've had them since the end of my last golden age. I'm doing well without them and trying to save them for when they will be decisive, either in getting my ass out of a crack if I get dogpiled, or when I can throw some factories down in a hurry and pull away from the pack. Right around factories you get so many new, vastly stronger units to build that I could pull ahead and fortify myself at the same time.
Chemistry after Rifling, for boats to protect myself. OH/Fin have Frigates so I need them too.
Too bad I don't have a shrine, but the RNG traded me the shrine for Taj, so I guess I did fine.
This would have been a good time to attack. But with Rifling so close, I'm very reluctant to risk my knights when Cossacks are so much better.
What a luxury to be able to just build economy forever. I love my neighbors!
Known Tech Bonus is awesome. 40% science and I look like a world beater. I don't remember how many civs had gunpowder at this time but it was a lot and I'm almost certainly capped on the KTB boost.
Still, as they say, quantity has a quality all its own.
