[LURKERS] Mr. Gradgrind's Review

[Commodore]

I concur, they need to hustle. Oh wait, you say Sculla are going Physics first for OP airships?

[Bobchillingworth]

Boldly is still relatively engaged and I get the impression he's fairly advanced. He needs to actually move on someone at some point though. I seriously doubt he can win, but he could swing the game in a big way. Pin too I suppose, but all indications are he'd rather spend his time elsewhere.

[Fluffball]

I concur, they need to hustle. Oh wait, you say Sculla are going Physics first for OP airships?

Well, flight does require physics, and depending on the timing of everything they can get use out of airships. They have ZERO scouting ability at the moment. No spies, no espionage, no air support...

Boldly and Pin could get back in this game easily I think, but as far as I can tell from the graphs, neither one of them has much in the way of units. They are competitive land-wise from what I can tell. Not currently situated to win, but they could throw themselves into the running with some effort. Oh well, there is plenty else to watch.

[DMOC]

Boldly is still relatively engaged and I get the impression he's fairly advanced. He needs to actually move on someone at some point though. I seriously doubt he can win, but he could swing the game in a big way. Pin too I suppose, but all indications are he'd rather spend his time elsewhere.

I disagree -- I don't think Boldly is engaged in this game at all.

Pindicator is not engaged either; he's requested a permanent sub for this game and is now in Pitboss 34.

[picklepikkl]

They need Physics for Electricity -> Industrialism, don't they? Or is your objection, Commodore, to them using this time for teching as opposed to conquering the minor nations?

[Fluffball]

Panzers and flight both needing physics, plus the scouting ability of airships.

An attack on pindicator right now would be ballsy if not suicidal. They'd probably need at least 5 turns to get things in position, and holding their gains against REM would be very much up in the air. They need to massively upscale their military if they want to hold another 14 or whatever cities. Even just taking 7 would stretch their resources thin, especially with ZERO scouting abilities.

And then there is that pindicator's minor army has railroads and machine guns against infantry. It wouldn't be painless to get in there.

[Commodore]

Going Physics over Combustion boggles my mind, but nobody likes modern navy here it would seem.

[WarriorKnight]

I agree Commodore. Modern navy will be good for a long time, if not forever. Airships will be obsolete far more quicker, and will certainly not be a big factor whenever the next big war happens.

You might argue having no recon ability, but they should be reasonably safe in immediate future anyway. Unless they want to expand into pind immediately, then the recon would be useful. Otherwise it can wait until after combustion.

[DTG]

On the next tech: I feel like the visibility of airships are more useful to us right now than Combustion's destroyers and transports. I would feel otherwise if we were gearing up to attack, but I think we want a little time to tech and build before looking to make another move. I just feel really vulnerable when our two big rivals can see everything we're doing while we remain in the dark. That's a bad place to be on a map this big.

Exclusive access to Destroyers is a far more effective counter to potential aggression than Airship scouting. In fact, it gives a 2–5 turn headstart on starting a limited war and wrecking your rivals' navies without committing to something that's actually dangerous.

Plus Combustion has some penalties in the form of obsoleting whales (RIP game's worst happiness resource!) and introducing the oil unhealthiness penalty. If we grab Physics first, we can actually build destroyers and transports via the uranium unlocked at that tech. Obviously a very minor point but I figured I might as well mention it.

Combustion only causes unhealthiness if you connect Oil, which is avoidable if you haven't planted a city on top of an Oil resource.
Combustion is needed to build Destroyers and Transports as units.
Physics renders Uranium visible, but Fission is needed to enable the use of Uranium.

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Winning modern wars requires a modern navy + Fighters. And it looks to me like Marines >>> Tanks/Panzers on this map. So go to Combustion, build Destroyers while going to Flight, then build Fighters while going to Industrialism, and then use a few Marines supported by Infantry to body one of the minnows.

edit: access to the Commando promotion would add more options, if it's available for troops en masse.

[The Black Sword]

Exclusive access to Destroyers is a far more effective counter to potential aggression than Airship scouting.

QFT. Fortunately Scooter agrees.