REM goes on the Sudric Express [Pitboss 33 spoilers]

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

So I thought long and hard about it... and then went screw it. I took alpacas and guinea fowl. We are never going to be on friendly terms this game, so I might as well get some XP and conquest gold (Im only 4 xp off another GG now) I didn't move on honeybees because it will be a source of tension between him and Scooter in my mind, and I want to limit my borders with Scooter. That city would just make things awkward. DZ seems content to sit in Zoth for the rest of the game.

Killed guinea fowl for the loss of an inf and a cannon. Not bad all in all. I am moderately exposed to a counter with his large cavalry stack, but we shall see what happens.

I decided to ride onto the old city square with 2 more cavalry and raze the railroad/CR there. Why? So if he wants to counter with that cavalry stack then he will have to do it over the river. This and the fact that he has no promos on a lot to my C2 cavs, means that even with heavy airship bombardment he probably will not get odds on the attack. I then complete the plan by having the reserves on the DZ forest, who with some cheeky railroads in DZ land will be able to hit back should he hit out at me.

I also chucked the ships forward - they are supremely obsolete next turn and given their incredibly slow speed rather useless soon. This contrasts with the cavalry who will retain usefulness once tanks are in for a lot longer. Basically this was to hopefully tempt him into bombarding and trying to kill the ships rather than the ground units. I have 4 destroyers and a transport coming out EoT, so I will be well on my way to replacing the fleets. Every non oil ship is more or less useless following combustion.

Here's why I can get destroyers EoT.

I'm sacrificing 6 worker turns and 4 base hammers to have access to the oil a turn early. It's so powerful that it is worth it IMO. I won't have any health issues as after I built all my railroads this turn I traded my coal to pind for gems. He gets a few more prod, I get to offset loosing the whales happy (which is quite awkward for me actually) This also gives me effectively 2 health per city, at the cost of not being able to use an effective IW. Currently I feel I have enough production in the capital which is my best hammer city for pretty much anything, So I am not too bothered about building IW yet. If this goes to space then my thoughts about this will definitely change. I'm having to hold back on all infra, but I have a worker ready to 1t me access to the stone for OU/Mt Rushmore/WP if i can open it at any point.

Also realised following this that as well as needing garrisons this turn before the trade came about, that if I go direct for industrialism, I loose another 2 happy per city... That's 4 happy per city lost in like 5 turns! Ack. Not sure if I should get flight first instead now. If I go flight first, I can shoot straight on to radio to get bombers pretty quickly. If I attack pind I will loose my gems happy, and I am wary of Scooter cancelling the dye trade given how reluctant he seemed to be to give it. I do think industrialism with tanks/marines/battleships would give a powerful message of you're screwed to enemies, but it would hurt domestically.

BGN until I could spare some airships for recon on him this turn was worrying me a little. He has the circumnav and I had visions of him destroying me with raids. Only this turn have I been able to confirm that he actually just has 2 galleons, neither of which can even hit a city. This is partly what sparked the just smash Drey4E whilst I can feeling.

He is pressing with aggressive settles, but I popped third ring borders there this turn, so I doubt I will loose my food there any time soon, and this will be awkward for him to keep safe and defend now. If I am REALLY lucky I could possibly revolt it, but I would say chances of that happening are about 1-2%

Scooter also seems to have no ships that I can find in range of my cities. This is ever reassuring. I don't know what his current plan is. I don't believe he can easily catch me up. I am consistently higher in all demos, and have more cities. I think it will need to be a dogpile to take me down now. One for one his units will outmatch me, but with defenders advantage I just can't see him reaching a point he can break through on his own.

Out in Silkmoths, still limited movement.

Drey4E has spent some turns moving these chaps through a new fort, though I don't think they will do much now I have destroyers next turn. I have just about enough boats to fend this off anyway. His land units still sit where they do, and I will be even safer once Silkmoths pops it's borders next turn. Might be a bit of a fight with Scooter for control of the pigs!

I actually think Dreylin is loosing interest - he was working suboptimal tiles in a lot of his cities this turn, and spent much less time playing than usual. This is good and bad - good as it reduces the long term threat, bad as it increases the short term threat. He might just go hail mary and try to blast silkmoths for example.

I have 1 settler ready and 2 more in 2 turns. I feel this game is all about keeping as many cities as possible as they are all hugely positive from the moment of settling. Current city counts are
REM 23
Scooter 20
Drey4E 17
BGN 15
Pind 10
DZ 1

Treasury and demos

Looking good! 60% chance to throw a GA in 4 turns too.

Any questions? This seems to have turned out very positive of late.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Essentially, what I am talking about here is the standoff I had with Dreylin over silkmoths. He had a healer unit, so whatever damage I could inflict each turn on his units was at the roll. Therefore if he choose to attack my airpower essentially counted for nothing, whereas he could bomb my units down should he have wished to attack any turn. or if he feared an attack my units would have still been damaged from that turns bombardment.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

This couldn't happen in a sequential game, and is the reason I was picking out units to hit with the airships hat had moved that turn so they wouldn't heal.

[Mardoc]

This couldn't happen in a sequential game, and is the reason I was picking out units to hit with the airships hat had moved that turn so they wouldn't heal.

I think you have this backward. Defender's airpower never much matters in a sequential game, because both teams have a chance to heal IBT, and you can always bombard before you attack. Team 1 only gets an advantage in simultaneous, because they can damage units before being attacked.

But even there, it only applies if you cede the initiative and wait to be attacked. How often are you going to have a lot of airpower, but no ability to attack out on your own turn?

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

This couldn't happen in a sequential game, and is the reason I was picking out units to hit with the airships hat had moved that turn so they wouldn't heal.

I think you have this backward. Defender's airpower never much matters in a sequential game, because both teams have a chance to heal IBT, and you can always bombard before you attack. Team 1 only gets an advantage in simultaneous, because they can damage units before being attacked.

But even there, it only applies if you cede the initiative and wait to be attacked. How often are you going to have a lot of airpower, but no ability to attack out on your own turn?

In all those posts re silkmoths, he had a force capable of hitting my city. If it were sequential, then his forces would be damaged by my airpower if they were to attack on a turn, unless they waited to heal. This way any units who didn't move the previous turn get a free turn of healing compared to a sequential game.

I admit I don't know later eras well, but it is not exactly ideal currently.

[Mardoc]

In all those posts re silkmoths, he had a force capable of hitting my city. If it were sequential, then his forces would be damaged by my airpower if they were to attack on a turn, unless they waited to heal. This way any units who didn't move the previous turn get a free turn of healing compared to a sequential game.

I admit I don't know later eras well, but it is not exactly ideal currently.

Pretty sure that healing always happens at the start of your turn, and civfanatics backs me up : http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=157954

So in sequential, you always get your units healed before you move (if eligible), while in simultaneous only team 1 gets their units healed before moving.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

In all those posts re silkmoths, he had a force capable of hitting my city. If it were sequential, then his forces would be damaged by my airpower if they were to attack on a turn, unless they waited to heal. This way any units who didn't move the previous turn get a free turn of healing compared to a sequential game.

I admit I don't know later eras well, but it is not exactly ideal currently.

Pretty sure that healing always happens at the start of your turn, and civfanatics backs me up : http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=157954

So in sequential, you always get your units healed before you move (if eligible), while in simultaneous only team 1 gets their units healed before moving.

Ok, but the point is still somewhat valid, as the one player is playing with a disadvantage from the airpower.

[Mardoc]

Ok, but the point is still somewhat valid, as the one player is playing with a disadvantage from the airpower.

Yes. I'm only arguing that the problem is smaller than your hypothetical, not that it's zero. It's up to y'all if the problem is big enough to be worth going to full-Sequential or if you'd rather have pace. Turnsplit order already matters for lots of other reasons, it's just normally considered to be small enough to live with.

See, if you had let Dreylin win the game before Flight, this wouldn't have been an issue

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Haha. They've basically gifted the game to me now I think! Dreylin needs to build a lot of GNP to get back to where Scooter and I am. Not sure why he is struggling so much actually for GNP.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

So 4 destroyers out. But more importantly, peace in our time. I gave Drey4E white peace. Limited gains to continuing the war and in the next 5 turns I hope to put the game beyond contention. Pindicator is extremely weak right now and I have huge amounts of water borders with him. I'm looking to swipe about 2/3 of his cities on the first turn of a war using mainly naval attacks with a few transports. Drey4E I have peace with and Scooter/BGN shouldn't be able to do much until it is too late.

Downside is looks like DZ will retake his old cap. I should have thought about the peace more. This will really marginalise the cities I took off him, and make them awkward to hold at best.

Saving gold currently. I have a feeling I can get industrialism and flight by the time scooter gets flight, but we will see. Gpt is 400 with 275 beakers.