[LURKERS] Mr. Gradgrind's Review

[Tyrmith]

He'll definitely be kicking himself after the game.

[Bobchillingworth]

Given how all of the teams are like at best at least 15 turns out from being able to produce Machine Guns or Infantry, I feel fairly vindicated in my belief that Hammurabi of England would have been a top-tier pick. Any of Donovan's neighbors could eliminate him fairly easily with aggressive Redcoats. Gaspar wouldn't last long against them either.

[dtay]

This is one of the more interesting games to follow in a while... kind of wish I joined (well, I don't actually have time, but wish I could've).

[Tyrmith]

One last thought before going to bed: are we concerned at all about Dreylin/OT4E loading up some units on ships and trying to boat one of our southern cities? I noticed that they drafted two more times this turn, which seems like more military than they would need. We do know that their team has a galleon, in a different body of water true, but it could be canaled up to us. If it were just Dreylin, this wouldn't be a fear of mine. However, OT4E has shown from past games that he's willing to pick wars with multiple opponents at once, even at times when it doesn't make a lot of sense strategically.

About overall situation I think that we need to prepare fleet and then plant a city on each passage to be able to throw it from one sea to another and unload wherever nobody expects.

It's interesting how productive it can be just to have a reputation as an insane warmonger- making people spend resources on merely theoretical threats, but of course generally that only occurs when you are, in fact, an insane warmonger and that has it's own downsides...

[Commodore]

One last thought before going to bed: are we concerned at all about Dreylin/OT4E loading up some units on ships and trying to boat one of our southern cities? I noticed that they drafted two more times this turn, which seems like more military than they would need. We do know that their team has a galleon, in a different body of water true, but it could be canaled up to us. If it were just Dreylin, this wouldn't be a fear of mine. However, OT4E has shown from past games that he's willing to pick wars with multiple opponents at once, even at times when it doesn't make a lot of sense strategically.

About overall situation I think that we need to prepare fleet and then plant a city on each passage to be able to throw it from one sea to another and unload wherever nobody expects.

It's interesting how productive it can be just to have a reputation as an insane warmonger- making people spend resources on merely theoretical threats, but of course generally that only occurs when you are, in fact, an insane warmonger and that has it's own downsides...

You'd be surprised how unproductive it typically works out to be.

[The Black Sword]

* Something I think we missed last turn: Gaspar/Noble used a Great Engineer lightbulb to finish Steam Power tech. We know that this happened because they gained 30 score points mid-turn, so it has to be a lightbulb. That's another argument against another settler coming out from them in the short term: I have to imagine they want to build Dikes in their water-bound core cities. (Small micro note: their Great Engineer lightbulb did not get the maximum beakers possible, since they had enough to get the tech mid-turn. They overshot how many beakers they needed to produce through actual research. I'm sure the difference was tiny.)

Small micro note: By bulbing mid-turn Gaspar and Noble got access to Steam Power 1t earlier. Their workers became 50% more efficient, they got bonus hammers from coal and they could start their levees earlier. It's possible to work out how much beakers a bulb will give too and end last turn exactly that much off, though whether the effort is worth it is debatable.

[picklepikkl]

Things I want to ask after Sullla's latest post, but am not sure how to phrase as neutrally as possible: "Out of the various options, who would you prefer Dreylin/OT4E fight next?" I'm curious whether the hypothetical declaration on DZ is due to an actual preference for them to be attacked again or whether Sullla just picked their name out of a hat re: the various targets he identified.

[chumchu]

I am waiting to see how opportunistically aggressive OT4E will be in this late era start considering what he and 2metraninja did in PB30. We have already seen one such attack but I think we will see many more. Considering that, Sullas plan below seems like asking for trouble from OT4E.

I'm basically thinking along the same lines. There's no question that we want that city, and this is the kind of break that we need to go our way. In the south, if Dreylin/OT4E are going to sail a death fleet up north towards us, one grenadier in Cotton Gin isn't going to make much of a difference. Plus, as scooter said in his post, we have an explorer watching the waters for at least one turn's incoming warning, plus as a Spiritual civ we can do a civics swap into Nationhood/Slavery at any point in time for an emergency. With those two things in mind, I also think it doesn't matter that much if we leave Cotton Gin empty for the time being.

[BRickAstley]

I am waiting to see how opportunistically aggressive OT4E will be in this late era start considering what he and 2metraninja did in PB30. We have already seen one such attack but I think we will see many more. Considering that, Sullas plan below seems like asking for trouble from OT4E.

I'm basically thinking along the same lines. There's no question that we want that city, and this is the kind of break that we need to go our way. In the south, if Dreylin/OT4E are going to sail a death fleet up north towards us, one grenadier in Cotton Gin isn't going to make much of a difference. Plus, as scooter said in his post, we have an explorer watching the waters for at least one turn's incoming warning, plus as a Spiritual civ we can do a civics swap into Nationhood/Slavery at any point in time for an emergency. With those two things in mind, I also think it doesn't matter that much if we leave Cotton Gin empty for the time being.

With our knowledge though, OT4E hasn't shown any desire to push at Sullla anytime soon. In contrast, they'll be pushing at Gaspar, which unbeknownst to Scooter/Sullla makes their barb city capture plan even more likely to succeed.

[chumchu]

Yes, but if I would be in Sulla and Scooter's position after having read PB30 I would be vigilant and try as hard as I can to not paint myself as a target for sneak attacks. Especially not when when OT4E/Dreylin are arming for war. The argument that 1 unit will not make a difference is perverse as leaving the city unmanned might well make the death fleet sail there instead if OT4E/Dreylin have a spy with LoS.

When next to such a player I can just not see leaving that front undermanned.