[spoilers] Commodore and Dtay are Sitting Bull of Inca, somehow.

[Commodore]

Oh my dear, dear lurkers...

I'd probably burn this one too. Not like you're ever going to be friends with Joey in this game anyway.

...you misread me. I just am delaying three more turns to get the full 5-galley attack force ready, and Black Seminoles is my main target. Burn less now to take the shot at burning everything (Zulu on the island) later!


Also, OH, as the new owner/operator of Celtland...Grimace totally did have the worst start. But I'm going to make lemonade out of it; his former capital will be a monster hammer site.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Huh, I never would've guessed...hang on, were you in PB18 or something?

I think my ability to win friends and influence people was shown to be lacking in the end.

You aren't the only one.

[Thoth]

[spacetyrantxenu]

I've been saying it for years!

So I think I'm going to go ahead and ensure that's not the case for next time I play an AI diplo game.

Lurker opinions?

Ah, a bonus double!

And these are items #1 and #2 for us:

Ha, it only hurts because it's true.

Atonement time...er....rabble, rabble, rabble....

[Commodore]

Weekend quick hits:

Joey owns all of the island now.

Our cities, 20, HAK, 18, Joey, 14.

Preparing to dissuade Joey from his hopes a bit...pike is because he's defending with elephants.

Maybe. Possibly. Look, it's a calculated risk.

For added security and cheap ~40h base cost, why not castle?

Economics is getting ceded to Joey I guess?

[Commodore]

I saw five ships, come sailing in, on death-mass day, on death-mass day, I saw five ships come sailing in, on death-mass day in the morning...

City raider pike, that's something kind of new.


That huge wave of galleys is kind of terrifyingly beautiful, isn't it? Let's not dilly-dally around. The first of our hopefully many kindled fires went kafooosh today. CR2 pike, then two CR2 swords, no fuss, no muss. Delft was sadly only recently plundered, so not much guilder was left lying around...

No cheap captures for me, then no cheap captures for you!

Here's where we are now. Joey is in slavery, so although Black Seminoles won't get its whip, only the (slow, no-engineering) reinforcement, the rest of the island is getting whipped to the ground. The island is pure Zulu; looks like HAK and Joey traded cities(!) peacefully, landing that stone city for Joey. All to the good, it's just another to be forked, not like Joey kept the garrison. So...let's put thumb to the scale a bit, shall we? Elkad logged in as I was about to head out; I told him to give 'im hell. Dutch need to keep fighting and in particularly tying down the Zulu fleet, it's why I gifted that extra trireme to them. New war time!

It's a wonderful time, at that! More knights incoming.

Such for death. But there was also new life, in the form of a new city! Sadly, the troll Celts are out in full force, tying down a pretty huge force with their potential bellyfuls of Gael death.

RtR swords are worth respecting, kids.

[Zed-F]

New wars are fun. Go get 'im.

[dtay]

Psychological warfare... successful?

So, can we just call this game already?

[Commodore]

Psychological warfare... successful?

So, can we just call this game already?

Good, but Elkad's was best:

So, can we just call this game already?

You aren't that far ahead.

Seriously; we have only the third-best economy at this point, Grimace's pirates mean we can't even mass courthouses down there, and Retep is intractable. Not to mention HAK's got his rathshaus online and is screaming economically without even firing his first golden age; he's also so a western neighbor crumbling and landsknects rock classical era face off. Game ain't over, not even for Joey.

[dtay]

Is this sort of dismay typical for joey? Because while I think we're in a good position the idea we already have the game won is pretty ludicrous. A successful conquest by joey or dz would put them on a level playing field with us, if not boost them ahead (especially joey given his economy), HAK has about equal land and a better current econ (hoping ours passes his once we get grimace's land running). And if once gav finishes off borsche he's got a lot of land to play with.

Or put it this way - I think I had a far larger temporary lead over the field in PB18 from about t130 - t160 than we do here, and look how that turned out.