[Spoilers] Haram hopefully reports

[Haram]

I paid Joey 100 gold for peace treaty. My cities were no longer threatened, but he was starving my Colosus/Moai city and it would take me a few more turns to get rid of his galeons.

I'm also happy with that peace, cause recent turns required soooo much focus. I don't want to invest that much time on a regular basis

Overall, I am very very happy not to lose any city. I think he was not fully prepared with units, when I discovered his galleons on position to attack. Ofc, he forced me to build a lot of units, but I was planning to build some army myself. People all around have knights already. Also, he was blocking/starving my Moai, but I was in caste/pacifism (partially), so I switched all citizens to specialists and used the time to generate an additional scientist. Even building units all around, and rushing for optics, I managed to get Economics merchant, before Joey.

Three things I was most afraid of:
1. Landing his units on my only Iron, right on his border and disconnecting it.
2. Razing one of the cities with university, cause that would delay my almost completed Oxford for many turns.
3. Razing one of the Moai/shrine/MoM cities with a concentrated landing (I didn't know how well prepared he was and what units were onboard).

Units lost total:
Me: 3 galleys, 3 workers.
Joey: 2 galleons, 2 chariots,1 Swords.

It could have been much worse

Now, Dreylin backstab is the main concern. I think, I should be fine here as well, cause emergency draft let me get a lot of bodies in place.

[Haram]

I killed Dreylin's stack.

Yesterday, he attacked Quann with 7 knights (killing my 5 units and losing 2). Shock knights are just tough bastards, they got odds against my C1 maces with 40% culture defence. Then he offered peace, but I didn't take it. To be honest - I was hoping, that he chooses to attack. Joey and Dreylin forced me to build more military than I need atm, so I don't mind to trade some cheap stuff for his double promo knights. Also, killing knight stack is just too much fun to pass on

What Dreylin didn't take into account was, that I just this turn got Engeneering and my units from Tequ'ran were able to reach the battle. First, I sacrificed 4 Spears (all dead), then flattened the field with 2 catas (both dead), then I won 13 out of 14 maces' attack. When I killed his last unit, I didn't have a single unit left to move

[mackoti]

I killed Dreylin's stack.

Yesterday, he attacked Quann with 7 knights (killing my 5 units and losing 2). Shock knights are just tough bastards, they got odds against my C1 maces with 40% culture defence. Then he offered peace, but I didn't take it. To be honest - I was hoping, that he chooses to attack. Joey and Dreylin forced me to build more military than I need atm, so I don't mind to trade some cheap stuff for his double promo knights. Also, killing knight stack is just too much fun to pass on

What Dreylin didn't take into account was, that I just this turn got Engeneering and my units from Tequ'ran were able to reach the battle. First, I sacrificed 4 Spears (all dead), then flattened the field with 2 catas (both dead), then I won 13 out of 14 maces' attack. When I killed his last unit, I didn't have a single unit left to move

Excelent, I am realy rooting for you, you prpepare some pay back time for him or joey?

[Haram]

I signed peace with Dreylin and converted back to Bureau/OrgRel and Free Market. My Taj GA ended, so I fired another 2-GP one. I still have 2 more GP in reserve (engineer/prophet).

My cap is starting to look nice - over 500 bpt

I killed Dreylin's stack.

Yesterday, he attacked Quann with 7 knights (killing my 5 units and losing 2). Shock knights are just tough bastards, they got odds against my C1 maces with 40% culture defence. Then he offered peace, but I didn't take it. To be honest - I was hoping, that he chooses to attack. Joey and Dreylin forced me to build more military than I need atm, so I don't mind to trade some cheap stuff for his double promo knights. Also, killing knight stack is just too much fun to pass on

What Dreylin didn't take into account was, that I just this turn got Engeneering and my units from Tequ'ran were able to reach the battle. First, I sacrificed 4 Spears (all dead), then flattened the field with 2 catas (both dead), then I won 13 out of 14 maces' attack. When I killed his last unit, I didn't have a single unit left to move

Excelent, I am realy rooting for you, you prpepare some pay back time for him or joey?

Joey didn't manage to cause any real harm, so I try to stay pragmatic. However, I am indeed planning my litte payback - take his only city on the island we share. The plan is to push the culture on the eastern dye and 1-turn the city with knights on the same turn the culture flips. He has galeons nearby, so I don't want to give him any time to reinforce. Of course, it requires solid sea control, so Astro/Chemistry are my next steps. I know it might sound strange, cause we are talking about Joey but I believe he will acknowledge my right to have this litte payback and behaves rationally.

As for Dreylin - yeah, I also have some plans. I wouldn't call it a payback, though. Aquisition seems the proper word.
I need more land badly.

[Haram]

I hope Scipio survives this turn. It is worth ~100 beakers for me. I'm researching alphabet with a full overflow from aesthetics/literature.

Edit: He did not

[Haram]

I think, I will set some RB record next turn. I will complete a wonder, that absoletes 3 turns later
Well, every wonder is basically free for me, provided I can build it in at least 2 cities and I don’t have any other urgent needs to allocate hammers. It is because I’m boosting my eco with wealth build (usually not more than 100 hpt, which is currently 1/6 of my production) and building failgold is twice as effective as building wealth for IND (including just stone/marble, but not forges and OrgRel). So, if I spend 500 hammers to double-build 500 hammer wonder, it is an equivalent of 500 wealth AND a wonder.

All the above reasoning was written just to cover the fuckup I’ve made. The wonders are indeed dirt cheap for me if I build some failgold, but I haven’t noticed that Chichen Itza absoletes with Rifling (I was never interested in building it). I this particular situation I should have built Notre Dame instead of Itza.

My tech situation (as of last turn, I don’t have drama/music to the left):


F4 screen:


Tech comparison (as of last turn, in the order of tech lead):

1. GermanJoey
Score: 1605
Cities: 20
Tech up: Liberalism, Replacement parts, Rifling, Tech down: Theology, Nationalism, Chemistry. Overall: 3,5k up on me.

In general, I am very, very impressed by the way Joey plays this game He didn’t get any wonders, but just look how strong his empire is, comparing to other FIN, IMP riders, like Dreylin, fenn/wetbandit, Jowy, Borshe, Tsargon, Scipio. The only first-to bonus he got was Lib and he used it well. Successfully running farmer’s gambit UP TO RIFLES is pretty uncommon, even on this kind of map. His attack on me with galleons didn’t cause any direct losses, but encouraged Dreylin to backstab me and it surely caused some inefficiencies on my side (I had to build much military, emergency convert to Nationhood and research Engeneering). I was also planning a payback - take Joey’s city on the island we share, but he’s reading my intentions very well and he has reinforced the city with 6 more strong defenders, just before I could hit it with knigs. Right now, he tries to take a big share of Tsatgon, but I have some frigates in place and I think I will make things more complicated for him. It is some risk for me to engage atm, cause Joey has rifles and I’m still on knigs/maces, but we will be on tech parity in 3-4 turns and he shouldn’t be able to cause any harm until I have drafted rifles on my side.

2. Haram
Score: 1740
Cities: 19

3. TBS
Score: 1879
Cities: 28
Up: music. Down: monotheism, theology, alphabet, philosophy, nationalism, paper, education, economy, Printing Press, gunpowder, chemistry. Overall: down 22,7k beakers
I was aware what kind of techs TBS has, but until I make a calculation, I didn’t realize how much behind me and GJ he is. Ofc, he has more land, more cities and the pressure is on me and GJ to catch up in this categories.

4. Fenn/wetbandit
Score: 1245
Cities: 19
Down: Estetics, Literature, Theology, Alphabet, Philosophy, Nationalism, Education, Economy, Printing Press, Gunpowder, Chemistry. Overall: down 23,3k beakers.

5. Dreylin
Score: 1166
Cities: 16
Down: Estetics, Literature, Theology, Philosophy, Nationalism, Paper, Education, Economy, Chemistry, Banking, Astro. Overall: down 23,8k beakers.

6. Borshe
Score: 1223
Cities: 17
Down: Estetics, Literature, Philosophy, Nationalism, Education, Economy, Gunpowder, Engeneering, Chemistry, Astro. Overall: down 24,8k beakers.

7. Jowy
Score: 1197
Cities: 14
Down: Estetics, Literature, Meditation, CoL, Construction, HBR, Theology, Philosophy, Nationalism, Education, Economy, Engeneering, Chemistry, Astro. Overall: down 25k beakers.

8. Tsargon
Score: 837
Cities: 10
Down: Estetics, Literature, Theology, Philosophy, Nationalism, Education, Economy, Printing Press, Gunpowder, Banking, Chemistry, Astro. Overall: down 28,3k beakers.

[Haram]

I declared on Joey.

There were basically 3 reasons to do so:
- he did the same to me after Astro
- I was really pissed off by his farmer's gambit and single warrior/skirm defences in most of the cities
- I want to help Tsargon live some longer (nah, thats not true - I don't care about Tsargon, I just don't want Joey/TBS/Dreylin to have a cheap feast).

I razed some crappy filler a city from Fenn's culture (single skirm defence). It was probably least important city in Joey's impire, but still something if he decided to invest some hammers.
Edit: I just noticed that pig is not covered by the other city, so it was actually a good production city (whipping post).


I sent some fleet north: 3 frigates, 2 galleons, 1 privateer. I play second, so he probably does some upgrades to reinforce this skeleton defences. They are pretty cheap for him with all these wealth multipliers.


South - he has 4 galleons south of Chinook and he unloaded units next to Tsargon cities. I puched bunch of caravels forward (I will be happy to trade them for some galleons), 1 galleon to cause terror on these empty cities and some frigates are catchin up. The main purpose here is to cut his supply lines and make his invasion collapse (or at least less effective). I know I will have to withdraw after a few turns, cause he will whip his own frigates, but it will definatelly make things more complicated for Joey.

[Haram]

Today, I had such a conversation with Joey via PM:

Haram,

As you rarely save gold, due to the nature of your economy, it seems I will be unable to offer you a peace treaty for some time due to in-game mechanical limitations. Therefore I will do so via PM, this one time. The offer is:

I will sell a peace treaty for 200gpt.

Good luck,
Joey

Joey, thanks for this offer, but I have a feeling that this kind of communication is just crossing the line. Whether we like it or not, our diplomacy is limited to the options that we have in game. Therefore I will not respond to your offer.

Haram

It already tells a lot about Joey's approach in this situation. He's thinking, that within my right to have a payback, I could have threatened with my fleet, but razing his city was already to much. So, now he says "We are even, provided you pay me for the lost city. Otherwise we have a deathmatch". You know what - fuck that. It was not me, who was first to open hostality betwen us. You didn't raze any cities of mine only because you were not able to. If you want a deathmatch, here you are. I'm only afraid, that with this kind of attitude you will never win a serious game on RB.

Ok, emotions aside and back to the game

First goal achieved. Joey's invasion on Tsargon is aborted, they signed peace. The only tiny problem is, that all this army is now comming at me and I still have 2 turns left to research Rifling. I expect Joey to land all his army on the island we share and threaten Dal Bootha (which is having a Great Person in 2 turns). It will be very tight, I'm afraid.



So, the rough plan is to:
1. Defend. It will be a challange.
2. Build army all the time, cause I need it either way if I want more land.
3. Wait until Joey's rage burns out (or at least it becomes less intensive, than frustration).
4. Seal 10-turn peace.
5. Conquer Dreylin.

[Haram]

I'm fine with any lurker resolution. Ofc, there is some minor information difference, when you log in before or after other players, but it is a pitboss, not pbem and this kind of situations occur all the time. I just don't understand, why is Joey to dictate that I *must* play in the order of his desire vs TBS/Tsargon, even thou I am not at war with them and we don't even have any close interactions.

Joey's request puts additional constrains not only on me, but on 2 other players and I believe it is not really dictated by in-game need, just by Joey's emotions after my DoW and my request not to log in off our part of the turn split.

[Haram]

Brief info for a sub

Last turn I triggered 3-GP GA and started drafting rifles. I had 700 hpt plus 4 drafts per turn, so you can maintain ten-rifle-per-turn pace as long you feel is enough to kill whoever you feel is the best target. In many cities there are almost completed knights and trebuchets in a queue, but it's better to check city-by-city these units, cause not everywhere they may be visible in a queue. I was researching Miilitary Science now, cause two knights can become commando generals to speed up the conquest. Ship-of-the-line can also be handy to control the sea from Joey's side.

Joey kept and garrizoned a city on Tsargon's mainland, that is completly surrounded by Tsargon's culture, so I assumed he takes 10-turn straight peace sooner or later. I was going not to offer it for 2-3 more turns, just to be more ready, when the countdown starts.

Password is in the first post.