[PB25-SPOILERS] The Lunacy of the Reign of HAK Continues

[HitAnyKey]

Ummm, No! The Lurkers need to see blood!

Sadly we also had one of our Spys get discovered...

My eastern Galley had gotten trapped over in these waters when Commdore took that Grimace city and blocked it from returning home, so it is starting to go around the top of the retep/Donovan/Gavagai island. I'm REALLY hoping that this is retep considering trying to take the southern city (or cities) from Gavagai. And with him seeing us at war now, that might nudge him to do so. Anything to weaken Gavagai further is good for me.



Lots of Forges in production.

Only things of note in Gavagai's lands are that he started moving his WE stack (which now has 2 Catapults in it) eastward. He also whipped all of the former Borsche cities this turn, which is totally expected. Next turn Popeyes will be mine (hopefully losing no more than a couple units) and then we move on from there. I'm expecting to throw one catapult at the city first (since I expect it to have 2 defenders). Then will see which unit gets the best odds after that.

[HitAnyKey]

5. Can you post the ETA for Nationalism? And if you're onboard with that plan? Civil Service is the only other tech I think. Sadly that will end our cheap swords production. MC just grabbed that tech so we might be in a race for Nationalism.

So as you can see we are getting Philo EOT...good thing too, since it looks like Commodore is saving gold this turn such that he can research it as well.
But as for Nationalism, at break even (50% research, +12gpt) it would take us 4 turns to get Civil Service and then 12 turns to get Nationalism. There is no way we can beat Commodore to it, and hence no way we can beat him to the Taj.
I will probably plan to build Ankor Wat in whatever city can build it fastest. Which likely will be Sore.
After Stressed finishes it's Settler, I'm going to have it quickly build a Library and then it's going to start building Horse Archers for me. It's one of the only cities with a Stable, and I really need/want some 2-movers available. Especially if/when Commodore decides to come at me, I'll need them to damage his Catapults.

[MindyMcCready]

I've been going back and forth over what our goals should be: whether we should go into builder mode now or stay in military mode.

I think that our objective should be to take over all of Gavagai's land and as quickly as possible. To do that we need to have Wendy's as an objective (we could, but not necessarily need to charge in).

So other than forges, I think that we have to start back up on the catapults and swords. Gavagai with 200g and only 50 gpt is quite a few turns out from Machinery. With all of our advantages (mobility, army size, unit types) we should push this as much as possible accepting losses to gain land.

So I'm going to suggest the following tech path:
Poly --> Mono --> CS --> Nationalism --> Aesthetics --> Literature --> Drama. The goal being to land more cities while spreading our religion. When we adopt Nationalism we switch to builder mode with our 50% build bonus.

So Monotheism is a high priority for us to spread the missionaries prior to our infrastructure push. Monarchy is a nice-to-have but our happy seems ok for now with us landing Sugar (+1) and gems (+2) and a religion and +2 barracks. Civil Service for Bureaucracy would be nice if we can land it before the end of our 1st GA. Research overflow might make that possible.

We might need to hold back our 2nd GA a bit in order to make the switch to Nationhood.

[Mardoc]

Ummm, No! The Lurkers need to see blood!

Aww!

[HitAnyKey]

WTH!?!?!? Now I see Gavagai has logged in and is playing his turn? GAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! This is so fucking annoying. This is totally screwing with my war and my Golden Age that I have going on and no one seems to fucking care. This is one of my best games yet, and they're all just tossing it down the drain.

[MindyMcCready]

WTH!?!?!? Now I see Gavagai has logged in and is playing his turn? GAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! This is so fucking annoying. This is totally screwing with my war and my Golden Age that I have going on and no one seems to fucking care. This is one of my best games yet, and they're all just tossing it down the drain.

Wow, that was pretty crazy. Can't tell from the tech thread vs your post: did it all work out to your satisfaction?

If you've lost a turn vs Gavagai and he's double moved you, just ask to switch turns and double move him. I don't think that it'll make too much difference in the outcome of his nearest cities.

If Donnovan has still lost a stack of units after the change in management his interest in the game will be gone. Gavagai is probably done playing as well if he's truly being 3-way dogpiled. So you're really the only one keeping the came from concession. We'll have to be mindful of that if our prospects deteriorate. Also, this will mean that MC is more likely to attack us directly to force concession.

[HitAnyKey]

Just got back from Busch Gardens...now to play the turn. And the reload did happen, so things are back to normal...except now with Tasunke now taking over for Krill.

[HitAnyKey]

No time for discussion since I need to get to bed since we're going to Water Country tomorrow first thing. So here's just a quick slew of screenshots:







This one to show the stack of Tasunke's after what was likely their killing of Donovan's invading stack.

Graphs and Demos:

Here's the stack I have now moved up to the next city. I also just unloaded 2 WEs, 3 LKs, 3 Swords & 2 Catapults in Popeyes as well as the remaining backup forces. I lost city visibility on Gavagai as he apparently dumped a ton of EPs into us. I think his stack of WEs are in range, so I'm assuming he'll likely hit my stack with a few catapults and then attack with the WEs. I'm assuming I'll lose a handful of stuff, but hopefully not all of it. Cuz then....well, that'll just suck. LOL

[MindyMcCready]

Looks good.

I'm on the road today, but we should think about trying to buy the GM from Retep. It's probably worth more to us for a GA than it is for him. I don't really remember how much a GM trade mission generates (1100 gold?), but that would definitely be the floor of any negotiation.

Trade might look like 1100 gold for the city that generated the GM.

Taoism couldn't have landed in a better location. Now about Sore building Angor Wat, can it work the 4 specialist (AW + temple?) to generate the GP?

So when you adopt the religion we'll get another +3 culture/turn in Hungry.

[HitAnyKey]

Took the next city this turn. It came with a Granary.

This our stack now after the next round of reinforcements arrived. This one will move next to Five Guys next turn. The units in the south will take Taco Bell next turn.

Here are the usual graphs and demos:

Gavagai has been whipping out a bunch of units. I believe I'm pumping enough EPs into him to gain visibility again next turn. So hopefully I'll be able to see what he's got for me. I'm assuming he's been whipping out Catapults, so I gotta be careful of where I move my stack to so that he doesn't decimate it. I did have my HA take a few steps forward (to confirm that there is no stack within 2 tiles of mine) and then come back. So I'm 99.9% sure I will not be getting hit with a stack of catapults and crap next turn. I really wish I had a Sentry unit for seeing further away. I'll have to find a way to make one at some point.

With regards to your other comments....I really don't see a good way to try to buy the GM. For one, I need my gold right now. So I can't afford it. And another, I really don't know how I would go about signalling for it. I have my GS & GM which will be used for the next GA. I'll be switching back into Slavery next turn (when I also switch to OR) so that I can start whipping out some more military and other stuff again. The GA ends in 3 turns. If it were to continue we'd have another Great Person out of Happy in 9 turns. So we'll be somewhat close to another GP from that city once this GA ends. Though I'll likely have the city stop working 4 specialists so that it can get in some growth...it's only +1 food right now because of all the specialists.

I am also very happy with where Taoism landed. I used the free missionary to spread it to Sleepy (though probably should have sent it down to Sore....debated about that before I did it). After we switch to OR, I'm going to make a missionary and the first one will go to Sore. But yeah, I'll look into seeing what it'll take to build AW there. I almost wish I hadn't chopped all those forests at Ranting. Commodore never did end up building Notre Dame, so that wonder is still available even.