[SPOILERS] DTG hip, hop, hapaxifies

[DTG]

I ran a rough test to see how my Knights would fare against AT's stack, which is now gathered in his capital. I win, but I'd lose 900H+ worth of Knights in the process, which is far too rich for my blood. So I am going to need to laboriously build and move a Catapult stack to weaken the defenses, and then smash these against the city slopes. This will all probably mean that I spend more time capturing one city than I did the other 12.

Elsewhere, Alhazard entered Caste/Pacifism, and I don't think he will invade now. I have 31 cities to his 18, and I can enter Representation/Mercantilism as soon as I begin my own GA (maybe next turn). All of this will make it very difficult for him to catch up. In short, I am now large enough (and I have a sufficiently promoted/fast-moving army) to defend my borders at tech parity; I can also get to Military Tradition first, and Cuirassiers will open up another window of opportunity to attack and defend safely at the same time; if Alhazard invades a third party before that, then either his flanks will be exposed, *or* I will backstab his target when their stack is committed. His extra GA turns shouldn't matter, unless he can somehow keep me contained, devour a rival, and get to Rifles before I can respond.

So, barring a committed dogpile, the game is mine to lose. That doesn't mean that I've won, but some of the excitement is gone, and I think I will be playing Sim Civ until I Cuirassier someone to death and the others give up (probably). Again, a 3-way dogpile would change this, but that would basically require Commodore and Bob to abandon their local conflicts to help Al/spite me.

[DTG]

AT's now down to one city:







Elsewhere, I should uncover Alhazard's eastern stack next turn, and then I'll start my second GA.



Delaying Representation/Mercantilism has slowed my tech rate a bit, but I value the information. Plus, this gives AT's former cities time to leave revolt before the GA begins.

[DTG]

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good:









I'm on GA#2, and can generate one more Great Person before it ends. So I will head to Nationalism and try to rush the Taj Mahal. The only way I can lose it is if Alhazard can spawn a Great Engineer in the next ~5 turns, while beating me to Nationalism.

This is Al's eastern stack:




It's purely defensive. Notice the lack of Knights? Well, Al is building them, and they're not in the west or east of his empire, but they were heading south towards his capital, which provides naval access to the Isle of Contention. I've also noticed a few minor unit changes occur on Al's side of the island (like Catapults being built, and then disappearing). To be safe, I've upgraded the defenders and whipped some Walls, to enable a Castle whip should Al invade:




The Walls OF will let me produce 2 more 7XP LBs without whipping and this, coupled with some mainland reinforcements, will make it a really costly prize to attack. It is worth committing quite a few resources here, since Scamels is size 13 and supplies +3GPT in trade to most of my cities.

[DTG]

Good game, AT. Here are some pics from the final battles:













What were your thoughts about the map/game?

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In other news, Alhazard finished Paper, so I followed him to it. He has a Great Scientist and Great Merchant stockpiled. I basically want to pressure him into getting Liberalism before he can take anything especially good, and if he has to waste a Great Person to do so, then so much the better.

[AutomatedTeller]

My thoughts are that I screwed the pooch on this one I think the map was reasonable, though I'm not sure that our starts are equivalent. I have a mountain in mine, which doesn't actually matter all that much - wet corn and pigs is stronger than fish and dry corn, though. I mean, eventually my cap is probably stronger, but the critical parts of the game are the early ones, when yours are stronger. But still - I should not have been as far behind as I was.

I didn't report very well, but my expansion was crap - I went to the dry rice 1st and the sheep/fish site 2nd, which is terrible. I managed to oracle metal casting and NOT get Collosus, which is just weird. And there is something quite wrong with my tech path when I am trying to fight knights with maces and neither LB or pikes.

I had fun, though.

[DTG]

My thoughts are that I screwed the pooch on this one I think the map was reasonable, though I'm not sure that our starts are equivalent. I have a mountain in mine, which doesn't actually matter all that much - wet corn and pigs is stronger than fish and dry corn, though. I mean, eventually my cap is probably stronger, but the critical parts of the game are the early ones, when yours are stronger. But still - I should not have been as far behind as I was.

I didn't report very well, but my expansion was crap - I went to the dry rice 1st and the sheep/fish site 2nd, which is terrible. I managed to oracle metal casting and NOT get Collosus, which is just weird. And there is something quite wrong with my tech path when I am trying to fight knights with maces and neither LB or pikes.

I had fun, though.

Dry Rice, and then Sheep/second ring Fish. Yeah, that's not gonna help your expansion.

The Colossus is stupidly good on this map, due to the lack of Marble/Stone. I was in a bad mood all day after I saw that Al had beaten me to it by a turn. But I suppose for you it was hard to squeeze it in after the Oracle, and falling behind on the city count.

GG anyway. I certainly enjoyed the Knight rush.

[DTG]

Alhazard has 1-turn left to finish Education: a turn slower than me. I don't know how much OF he will get out of this, so I've decided to Lib. Nationalism (which is guaranteed) rather than gamble on Military Tradition (a turn slower, and risks letting Al grab Economics with Lib.).

I can then rush the Taj on the turn that my current Golden Age ends. If Alhazard doesn't get to Economics before me, I'll 1-turn it for the free Great Merchant; if not, then it's no big deal: I'll just go to Gunpowder/MT instead.

I also have a spare Great Scientist. If I don't win the free Great Merchant, I'll bulb Printing Press with him, to improve my tech rate and speed me on the way to Rifling.

All this Liberalism/Economics stuff doesn't really help me much more than a direct Cuirassier beeline. But it does starve the others of hope, which is what I need for them to concede, and that would take less effort than starting another war.

[DTG]

I took Nationalism with Lib and rushed the Taj Mahal:










I put the Lib. OF into Economics, so that I can take it as soon as somebody else tries for it.

I hope that this is enough to convince Alhazard and the others to concede. Could somebody please check Al's thread, in particular, to see if he is willing to give up now that I've rushed the Taj? If he wants to continue, we'll be playing for another 8–10 turns, I reckon, until I Cuirassier-rush someone small and backwards (not naming names ).

[DTG]

After delaying Economics for a turn to prolong a Castle's extra trade route, I now have the Great Merchant:




He'll join my Great Scientist. I have a ~25% chance of continuing the GA chain:




If not, I'll just have to wait a while and do some bulbing/trade-missioning in the meantime. Even if my luck proves horrible, Communism will supply the last Great Person for free.

I'm not 100% sure how to play the civic situation now. I can 1-turn Military Tradition, and (I assume) Gunpowder after that, so it'll probably be Theocracy + Slavery, rather than Caste System with Pacifism/FR.

Demos and tech situation:







I'm up about 5000 beakers on Al, and lots more on Bob/Comm.

[GermanJoey]

Very nice game, DTG! Ever think about trying your hand at a pitboss?