[Spoilers PB27] REM tries to get a handle on this mod

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Demos - Don't get this. Not first in land area but I have over half a percent more than dtay according to victory screen? Odd

The victory screen always rounds the rival best down, so dtay's is actually something like 11.75% probably.

Good reports.

Thank you. Generally rather optimistic about this game now. Think I'll hit enough of the first tos not to be caught later, and SoZ will be a monster on this map with these civics...

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Just a quick update - rolled out literature (finally) gonna start on the HE next turn and the NE when the RI has finished in captive (about 4-5 turns). Lots of gold, and gonna smash out a 1 turn nationalism as taotao is getting more and more frisky, and I want the option to draft should I need it.

It is all a bit messy on that island, although I don't think there is enough will to declare on either side currently. I will try and settle the wine next turn if all stays as is, I feel that is the best place to stake a lot of land for me! I don't know whether to build any navy or not yet. I'm looking at getting nat/music/MT then steel currently, and it would be good to save the navy for drydocks for more efficient hammer usage and the xp, plus I have enough of a solider deficit to need a fair few rifles, especially when I find things like this...

That is rather ominus I feel... A stack of nav2 galleons. Cannot quite tell exactly what they are doing there but it is something to be mindful of. It will be a couple of turns before they can threaten me however.

I'm still massing rifles to sit in my coastal cities. This is the era where a huge force can be landed at the drop of a hat and I will be weak to this for a few more turns. I will circumnav next turn if my knight stays allowed in Gavagi territory - indeed I am beginning to worry more about Gavagi. He is more advanced than dtay (with chemistry, although still paper+ behind, about 27k beakers) and is getting a lot of land now off HAK. I think those 2 can keep each other in check, but it is a concern.

There is also barb island to think of too. They seem to be having a whale of a time here!

I only have a settler/worker/HA(landed) in that boat so I am apprehensive about putting stuff down there actually.

And then I had a terrible misclick when the game kept freezing...

My CR3 GG rifle! Why was it him... I was debating about moving him into plako land to get on the boat and then he ended up on a rather aggressive seeming spot - like I want to raze the mine :/ Almost changed his name to misclick but thought I probably shouldn't. I didn't raze anything when Plako was attacking NS so hopefully he shouldn't do too much, his army is 7 tiles away so hopefully this won't ramp up tensions either.

Demos still lovely.

Fenn will be safe for 5 or so turns I feel. He has about 5lbs 5 pikes and some knights plus ancient trash in his last (hill) city. Although I imagine taotao wants to end it it would be stupid to not use siege. DZ will probably know better than to swipe.

One thing I have noticed is MT allows for defensive pacts... I think this could be interesting. I reckon I could cement a firm friendship with DZ if I offer him one when I can. It would also make war between me and taotao less likely PROBABLY. Maybe even offer them around a little...

No pics but Yuri's looks a bit toast - where is his military?! I'll get some later.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Jumped in to get some pics and see the damage... I genuinely thought he would declare on me this turn. I still think he has advantage if he does so in the next 5-10 turns, as he will be able to instantly stop my colonisation with his east indiamen and I have nowhere near enough units to be thinking about anything aggressive to him on the mainland. Indeed my main concern now is I get too careless and leave a good opening. I am wondering WHAT I need to do to get him to declare. Atm I feel if I put 5 privateers on his moai city and blockaded it he would just shrug!

So Voldoga settled this turn was the city I thought he really might take offense to. About a 50/50 of burning it should he have declared last turn, but he has ploughed on through to try and claim more sites instead. I don't actually have wine and it is a moderately good site. I could have dotmapped this better with no time pressure, but I feel it is more important to claim the city sites than make them perfect. I have 2 knights and a pike I can dump anywhere next turn to relieve the pressure on the low amount of defensive units that are around there, and I will transport another load of units next turn too.

I should hopefully be able to snag the whole of the southern coast of this island as I have turn position on him. I have this Galleon here with 2 settlers and a knight in. If he has not landed a settler last turn from that east indiaman just in my LOS he has no way of stopping me planting the likely plains hill 4NW of the galleon in 2 turns. I would then also want to plant on the banana to the east of this. I don't know whether to take the Ice island or not. Unfortuately there is no way of knowing whether I can attempt both cities before moving the galleon. The Iceball city will be moderately productive forever at size 1, but will be great for intel.

He has really gone for all these islands... impressive settling plan. I think in about 20-30 turns my IMP ability will make me able to have taken more of these especially above germany, where the barbs have gone wild almost. They might even perminantly village that banana!

I'm dropping my city raider rifle there to try and take these cities. Might as well use hiim! A lot of barb activity is slowing settling these sites though.

Down south DZ is making things more leary. He settled last turn and does not have astro so it has to be somewhere on this island. Looking at the culture I beleive it is 3N of ollytambo. I think this is risky to say the least. I guess it gives him safety of controlling the sheep between them, but it doesn't really claim much of its own. I think he is treading dicily here. But again, with redcoats I doubt he could pressure taotao easily into combat.

Yuri threw a GA but he is basically dead. 2 armies and I doubt he would have withstanded borsche alone. He seems to have very little to fight with. He could be gone before Fenn as Fenn has a tough nut last hold to crack.

As you might see from the tech bar, I am doing music purely on overflow this turn, so next turn I will be able to put 2 turns of tech into anything. MIGHT go for steel first, however most likely now it will be

Music>MT>steel>constitution>corporation>steam power>democracy>assembly line>railroad.

I think this is the best path, but am open to changing it. I want to put the fear of cossacks into people ASAP and allow the HE city (due 2 turns, embarrassingly late) to start making lots of them as well as other stabled cities. Steel is important for the drydocks especially, less so the cannons for me currently. Constitution is just a bridging tech given I am running rep anyway, as corporation will be somewhere in the region of 200+ commerce per turn! Steam power I want early as I have been quite meticulous in trying to settle on rivers proactively and I want that decision to really reap benefits. The cap will gain 8hpt with a levee, my best hammer city Novogorood will gain 14 currently with a levee. It will be big. Democracy is just for the SoL, to be built in Novogorod when first able for a lot more specialists. Assembly line for cheap factories and more prod and then railroad more for the prod than the movement.

At any time I see one of the other powers going for Sci method and the freebies I can switch to claim these, my tech rate is good enough to allow for this overlap. However baring in mind Sci method needs PP and communism liberalism REALLY the only candidate for this any time soon is taotao as DZ lacks astro/chemistry, and all the other continent seem to have ignored the middle of the tech tree for the bottom and the hammers!) Mainly need to keep an eye on the scores on the doors. With the above plan, not convinced on the railroad/assembly line/democracy order. I am starting to find my workers a bit bored and giving them railroad as early as possible could be a good idea, with all the prod bonuses it comes with. Also it might be more viable to build a factory and levee in Novogorod before starting the SoL to make the production more efficient. I am also wondering whether I should just get steel next turn with taotao for the giggles and start on drydocks now. That is limiting the ships I am building a bit.

The thing to be careful of here is that each step down the tech tree is much much more expensive than in a usual game. Beelining now is much less efficient for example. The other thing to note compared to a usual game is the change to destroyers and transports. Usually they are active at combustion, however they now require that and artillery (combustion to activate oil to the network) this with the tech scaling will increase the time wooden navies rule the seas by a large amount, and this I need to factor in to my shipbuilding plans. It also makes the dutch comparitively a better civ again

This turn does mark a turning point IMO. I think now I am the most likely person to win this game, given I now have a decent tech lead, my solider deficit is reducing rapidly and my demos are very nice. I would put it about 35% me, 30% taotao 12.5% dtay 12.5% gavagi 5% DZ 5% others.

Metagaming here - cannot decide what the HE city should build infra wise. It already has quite a few buildings, but
1)should it build a stable? It has a barracks and colloseum so cossacks will be at 4xp. I think yes but not 100% convinced
2)should it build a levee? again I think yes, as it will gain 12 hammers/turn
3)should it build a factory? again I say yes as org makes the factory half price and only 125 hammers for the 25% bonus but not 100% sure again.

Also the next question is that these techs are flying fast here - should I be holding off infra and focusing on getting an army and hitting one of the more backwards civs? No idea. They are both rather big now where the WW taking them especially borsche with no easy access to boating him could be more than it is worth. At least I have access to PS should it all go tits up.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Not much to say on this turn. I shall indeed get the entire south of that continent as taotao has not landed anything there. I also decided to risk it and try to land a settler on the banana up there the next turn, although it won't have cover if there are any barbs...

I forgot to mention I THOUGHT I would trigger circumnav last turn, as I definitely had 1 of every X and Y coordinate uncovered. Could I get some lurker input here? I checked back over the logs again and I definitely cannot see it going. This turn alone I have seen taotao/gavagi/HAK/dtay ships with the normal amount of movement so none of them have triggered it, and I cannot believe that any others could have.

Is circumnav still on on this game? Or can it be turned off like city trading now?
Has anyone else got it and I have missed it in the logs? Or is there not enough water to make it happen? I believe there needs to be over a certain amount... I'm really really confused. I didn't actually take a photo of this, but it does all link up now in this turn if that is important (didn't think it was)

Interesting thing 1 - how dead is Yuri? that is only one army attacking him too (I would be struggling to deal with this but no one seems to want to bother me!

Interesting thing 2 - what is borsche doing? Is he bored? I don't really understand a wall of workers...

Interesting thing 3 - I could 1 turn steel if I wanted?! Admittedly I am at max tech and music cost me just overflow last turn, but still that is rediculous. This tech cost taotao about 6-8 turns. I swear my output is double his. Indeed I am of the next top (who is either taotao or dtay in golden, I forgot to check)

I can possibly one turn both MT and steel given this and my RI builds and growth coming this turn. From the top picture you can see that I only need a small amount of this turns output into it, so it shall be close either way.


Please can anyone answer my circumnav conundrum too?

[The Black Sword]

IIRC there's not enough water on the map for circumnav?

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

IIRC there's not enough water on the map for circumnav?

Would be the most logical answer... Surprised at that though. Is the threshold 60%?

[The Black Sword]

I don't think it spoils anything to say that another candidate has been bitten by this already. The number bandied around was 55%.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Definitely doesn't. I was really surprised it hadn't gone. I'm sure taotao at least has gone around the map already for example, and HAK dumped a scout on me very early. I've already put the effort into going around! Ah well, I didn't prioritise it at least.

[GermanJoey]

Yeah, taotato had circumnavigated ages ago, but we couldn't really say anything to you before now - it wouldn't be fair for one guy to waste his time but then to save someone the effort later. It was supposed to be explicitly turned on for this game, but Krill forgot to set the threshold to 0 in the XML, and thus it is back at the default 55% water, luckily for you.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Yeah, taotato had circumnavigated ages ago, but we couldn't really say anything to you before now - it wouldn't be fair for one guy to waste his time but then to save someone the effort later. It was supposed to be explicitly turned on for this game, but Krill forgot to set the threshold to 0 in the XML, and thus it is back at the default 55% water, luckily for you.

Very lucky for me! Most surprising thing about this though is the amount of land on the map!