Thread of Lost Tales: Bismarck of Japan

[Krill]

1 is a fair point. I agree and I'd probably have done it if I'd had enough time but when I was making this map I was incredibly time poor. Needs care to be balanced fairly.

2...yeah I'd have thought there would have been more island contact. Otoh the hand drawing of the individual tiles meant that the large island wasnt supposed to exist and should have been a bit different but meh. Looked OK.

This map is still probably the best one I've made in terms of playability versus time investment but that is solely because it was massively rushed.

[The Black Sword]

Looks like I should be able to 1t both the Parthenon and TGL. Micro is pretty nasty and I've made it worse by not making the plan earlier. I was tempted to just let the Parthenon complete in 2 but 1t of the thing is worth around 20gpp so I guess it's worth it.

After that I think I should head over to Construction, if I can manage without IW and Calendar a bit longer. Scipio still has 5 cities to my 13, I think I should start making moves over there.

In the meantime(about 12t to Construction), I'll try to slowbuild archers, axes, spears and chariots and grow some pop to immediately whip into some catapults. Whip a round of catapults, then a round of HAs, build some War Elephants in cities close to the front, combine with a bunch of ancient junk and we have the makings of an army.

The next GP is due around then as well, probably 80% GS, 19% GE, 1% GA. That'll probably be the same choice as before; Academy or Machinery. Both will be great options that time around. The Machinery timing is a lot better and The Great Library will want an Academy.

I guess the 3rd GP will be looking at a golden age, which I'll want to time up with either a Bureau revolt or a Merc one(or both). Might as well try for Paya by then too.

[The Black Sword]

Some thoughts on what the future might look like.

I think we have 4 tiers right now.

1: Me, GJ and Haram.

I don't know specifically how well Haram is doing but it seems a reasonable bet. We're all in contention to win the game.

2: Fenndit and Dreylin.

Both doing very well, can certainly compete if things fall their way.

3: Borsche and Jowy

Solid empires but below average. They'll be tough to take out.

4: Scipio and Tsargon
Sorry guys, the game hasn't gone your way. They're the best options for gaining more land.

How will people in the top two tiers look to expand further?

GJ

Should have all of his natural land given his city count. That's his core, and the two islands up to the jungle.

He could get some other small pieces:
-push further on the Fenndit island, that's unlikely.
-push Dreylin off his main island, possible but still difficult
-steal Tsargon's portion of Haram's island - that's certainly within his capabilities

Big pieces:
-Invade Jowy via land -> unlikely and I should be able to profit anyway if he does.
-Invade Borsche's island above him.
-Invade Tsargon below him

The last two are pretty good expansion vectors but an entire naval invasion is difficult. He's most likely to build up for a bit but he has to take one of these 3 options eventually.

Haram:
Should have his entire natural land.

Small stuff:
Tsargon's end of his island -> it's either him or GJ, would be more beneficial for Haram if he can swing it.
Scipio's end of Dreylin's island -> him vs Dreylin

Big Pieces:
Take Jowy's island -> seems most likely.
Navally invade Scipio to the south -> I have get this land before this becomes an option.
Invading GJ, Dreylin or Fenndit does not seem like a good idea.

Haram's options aren't great. Scipio might be the best one, so I need to get there first. If that happens he'll probably have to go for Jowy. Maybe that's when I try lift the rest of my island back?

TBS:
Missing 1-2 cities on my island to Jowy. Plus need resources there to defend.

Small stuff:
Those Jowy cities - they're currently way too much work.
Push past the jungle of Tsargon's island - considering it, 1 city would certainly be possible but might be tough to defend.
Push past the jungle on my island into Fenndit - By settling on the marble I've forced them into a pretty awkward dotmap decision but I don't think it's worth antagonising them here.

Big Stuff:
Scipio mainland - before Haram
Tsargon island - I want to end up with this in the end. But Borsche might also try this way. Hard to tell whether Borsche will stay weak in the long run.
Tsargon mainland - Could I get there before GJ/Dreylin? Might be difficult. At least if they do go that route, I should make sure I have enough forces on hand to take a good chunk.

Fenndit
Have all their natural lands.

Big stuff:
Settle Scipio's island for free ... - this has got to be their first goal and it's what their chances in this game are based on.

After that they'll have either Borsche or Jowy to invade. I guess I see a Jowy invasion as most likely. They'll take a while to get their extra land running, then Haram invades Jowy's island and hence they pile on the mainland.

Dreylin:
Has all his natural lands.

Small stuff:
Scipio's end of his island - again him vs Haram, he has more reason to get it.

Big stuff:
Then a land invasion of Tsargon.

Borsche:
Borsche has a pretty good geopolitical position and could get back in the game. He should aim to hold all his southern island from GJ and Jowy. Then steal over half of Scipio's island, while Fenndit gets the rest. Then either settle or invade Tsargon's island. Will he have the capabilities for that though?

Jowy
Jowy is pretty screwed by his neighbours. He's the only guy that can't get anything from Scipio and Tsargon. I think he'll be under too much pressure to succeed at any moves himself. He will probably take a swing at one of me, Borsche or Haram though. Got to make myself less appealing than the other two.

Going back to GJ for a minute. Looking at everything else I'm predicting, a mainland invasion of Jowy seems to make the most sense for him.

It'll be pretty interesting to see if the whole chain of logic from me attacking Scipio to dogpile on Jowy holds.

[Commodore]

Good stuff, nice to see your game thoughts...

[...] logic [...] Jowy [...]

FATAL ERROR ENCOUNTERED.

[The Black Sword]

His moves so far all have an internal consistency, though I didn't recognise it at the time.

He just didn't seem to take into account what my likely response would be, even in the case that he succeeded in razing my city. Anybody who just gave up on their southern island after that attack would have been ruling themselves out of the game. I would have still pushed to (re)settle the island like I have. I would certainly be worse off but his situation would only be marginally better IMO.

[The Black Sword]

Got GJ's graphs.












Taking into account his extra population, Joey is about making about 40fpt more than me. GNP is hard to read, I think I might have a minor advantage. I'm probably making about 20hpt more. My big advantage is in gpp though, which doesn't show up on the graphs. I'm making 50gpp, probably call it 40gpp that will get realised in a decent time frame. I'd guess Joey is making at most 12, probably 6. GJ has 19 cities to my 13.

[The Black Sword]

Nice. Probably could have cut a turn off the tech in the end but I don't think I could have gotten the forests chopped for both wonders in time, maybe for one of them.

GPP are going to start rolling off the production line now.

300: ~t108
400: ~t116
500: ~t122

And more following. We'll let Dor-Lomin roll and try for 1 in every other city I guess. Need to find a use for them all.

[The Black Sword]

Got the scientist, so an Academy for TGL. Lots of competing priorities there; National Epic, growth, work scientists. I think NE takes priority for the moment.

I met Haram too, he's doing well, more land area than GJ, if not city count. He's beaten Dreylin to Scipio's northern aquatic lands.

Tried to buy some gems off Jowy and Fenndit, who I think have spare pairs. Didn't want to pay anything significant though, so I'm just being careful with my micro instead.

Food figure is declining somewhat because my workers have been too busy to put up new improvements.

Tsargon is finally getting some stuff onto his south island and has teched construction. I'm looking to steal just 1 city from him there and play nice for a while.

2t to Construction.

[The Black Sword]

Bunch of golden ages going on at the minute. Actually for a brief moment in time, caste system was just as popular as slavery! Fortunately Scipio fixed this derisory state.

I guess this is a decent time for a GA, my pop won't have any more major increases until the Scipio invasion. We might enter one ourselves if we roll Prophet/Spy in Dor-Lomin in 3t. I'd want to make sure I can make it to Bureau by the end of the GA though. In addition to the civic(and samurai), CS also has irrigation which is pretty handy for my specialist economy. I don't really want to put cottages on most of my grassland tiles. So it's probably worth the delay in Banking and Mercantilism to go there first.

There also seems to be a bit of a scuffle going on between Fenndit and Scipio. Which is surely good for me. Here's our first batch of 9 catapults, the majority of which get whipped next turn.




This will probably be the slowest invasion I have ever attempted. Catapults need to move 15 tiles from one end of my empire to the other. Then they slog through 4 tiles of jungle. All that before invading an empire another 15 tiles deep.

Finally, here's Tsargon's island:



He's planted on the eastern 'x', I'm going to steal the southern one. This will get Borsche's fish resource in the second ring, because he didn't settle my moai site. Then I'll settle that plains hill by the rice when Iron working comes in. I could have settled first ring pig earlier, but as this city is pretty vulneruble I wanted it on the hill. The 2h plant rewards my patience somewhat. I was considering 'b' as a potential ironworks city. But I think I'll just let Tsargon settle where he wants in the area for the moment and take it later when I have less distractions. I just need to make sure he doesn't settle on the marble, but that would orphan the pigs, so pretty unlikely anyway.

[The Black Sword]

Declared war on Scipio last turn, Borsche this turn, looking like Haram next turn.