Dave Fires Up The Epstein Drive [Japan]

[Commodore]

I think you owe Woden a post-rant apology. Looks like...you gots a stalemate.

Good play, with the galley/archers aiding your proxy state. Interested to see how it turns out.

[oledavy]

Anyway, watch me type all this and Singaboy just slaugher Jpper007 anyway.   For the moment though, I'm very cautiously optimistic. 

I think you owe Woden a post-rant apology.  Looks like...you gots a stalemate.

Good play, with the galley/archers aiding your proxy state. Interested to see how it turns out. 

Looking around, I'm going to say no to that one. 

Asgard will fall in 1-2 turns. It's worth noting there was a good chance it was going to fall anyway - Singaboy simply had too many units (and now Crossbows). 

However, I will say Jpper007 hasn't been doing himself any favors. A small sampling of the past few turns. 

1. Moving the sword out for it to die, and allowing them to more efficiently take down the walls of the city (versus 33 strength instead of 43 strength).
2. Not controlling the sea to the east and allowing galleys and quadriemes to attack the city. 
3. The archer to the northeast has remained inland instead of controlling the cliffs overlooking the harbor, and as near as I can tell is doing nothing. 

That MP experience Jpper007 claimed to have was totally useless here. At every step he's accelerated his own demise. It's frustrating to me that Singaboy gets such an easy mark. But hey, he was my neighbor too, I could have laid the groundwork to invade him and been the one doing this. It's also worth noting that this was all an insane risk on Singaboy's part - planning to invade the Vikings over the waters with a GG everyone saw coming ~40 turns in advance. I would certainly not have expected it to work. But, giving credit where credit is due - because of Singaboy's MFG advantage, he could have completely flopped in this venture and still been a major threat to win. The fact that he is winning this war is just making him win the game harder. This could all very easily be sewn up by t120, as I stated in the Diplo thread earlier. 

Anyway, the hour draws late. Singaboy still leads me in total techs, and importantly, has increased by 15 SPT in the last bunch of turns (from 30-45). As I said before to people in the diplo thread, the SPT lead I have is much more emphemeral - boosted by civics. Singaboy can always produce more campuses and libraries with this monster Hansa-powered MFG. And, most critically, my monster science production still hasn't pulled me out of the deficit I ran to Woden/Singaboy for all those turns. 

The idea that Singaboy and I are equal threats to win was laughable, and has only gotten more ludicrous. But, whatever helps Woden and Archduke sleep at night. 

At any rate, I'm not going to say anything to them in the diplo thread - I already tried to raise the alarm and got shot down. Just going to focus on my own civ, and try to put myself in position to do something about Singaboy should the opportunity present itself. 

I'm having a pretty busy weekend, so I will not have more comprehensive reports up until sometime tomorrow/Monday - apologies Chevalier! Thanks for sticking around with me through this shit show

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Hell, I'm getting mad on your behalf at Woden and the Archduke "uhh, we thought oledavy would stop him" in the diplomacy thread. Did...did they not read your messages? Good lord, you told them this was coming!

I'm also confused - how did Singaboy throw all his units to the far side of Asgard like that? Did they come from one of the flanks? Ohhhhh, horsemen ignore ZoC - including those of cities! I totally forgot that when I looked at the map earlier and thought a frontal assault would likely fail. 

Oh, well. Maybe Woden and the Archduke will get off their butts (put those great admirals to work!) and you can focus on the Jester expedition to try and equalize things.

[oledavy]

Apologies to my lurkers, especially to Chevalier, as I've been buried in real life commitments the last week or so. What little time I have had to play on my PC, I've been spending playing War of the Chosen. Our turn pace has continued to be very good, and nine turns have passed since I last updated things. 

Turn 103 reaches me tonight, and I will be reporting on it. In the meantime, allow me to briefly update you on what's been going on.  

Turns 94 to 102

What I've Been Doing

I came to the conclusion that the best thing I could do after the fall of Asgard was spam settlers. I currently have one on the way to Saturn, and two almost complete in Europa and Callisto. They will bring me up to a total of 8 cities, the final two being founded on the Belt and Saturn. These will probably be the last self-founded cities of the game. 

My navy skirmished with Singaboy around Midgard, until he brought up crossbows and forced me to retreat. Two of my archers died, the other is defending Jotunheim. The rest of my military has been engaged clearing off the remaining barbs - made harder by the fact there are now barb swords on Saturn and Uranus. 

I have come to the conclusion that I cannot safely settle Uranus. It is an island, but with only a one-tile channel between it and the Spanish mainland. This means that unless I can maintain a naval force in the channel, I can't protect it using my navy. Moreover, his control of the southern shore and the walls in De Soto give him a fortified position from which he can dominate the area with ranged. If I want to settle the island, I need a substantial ground force to fend CFCJesterfool off. I'm not willing to make that investment, especially when the secondary sites on the Belt and Saturn are both pretty good. 

There are two decent spots in the far west, and a couple backfill locations to my northwest and north that I could settle down the road, but I think this round of settlers will be it for now. 8 Cities total. 4 possible other spots that I could reasonably claim. 2 more if I want to fight CFCJesterfool for Uranus.

I've almost enough gold to upgrade a caravel, have one partially built in Ganymede, and am close to finishing Mercenaries. I can upgrade and have 40 str. cities on a few turns notice at this point, soon to be on a one turn notice, but I'm holding off as long as I can for maintenance reasons. 

Europa grows to size 7 in two turns. I then slap down an IZ. and chop it out using overflow + colonization on the city's settler build. I should have the IZ up by about t110, and Venetian Arsenal done around t140 or so. I will be buying one tile for a stone to harvest. Grand total, I have two forests, 1 jungle, and one stone to harvest into my IZ and VA. I bought my first University using Jesuit Education last turn. I continue to love this belief 


My Long-Term Plans

I'm leveraging my science into a very early Square Rigging and Industrialization. Waiting for the Eureka for Square Rigging will take forever, and I expect most people will skip it considering how game-breaking I expect frigates to be. Likewise, there is no way I can build three workshops in any sort of decent time frame. Industrialization promises +1 hammers on all my mines, and the ability to build an electronics factory in Europa for +16 HPT total in all my cities. 

In sum, the idea is to leverage my science lead into more production, with the centerpiece being the Venetian Arsenal. I may have some stiff competition for it from Singaboy, but I'm pretty confident with my extensive planning for it, I'll be in good shape to make a play for it. I've even been considering swapping to Autocracy to speed it up, but I will have to check first how many Amenities I am getting from Classical Republic. 

Otherwise, I'm gunning hard for Merchant Republic. 

So, around t150, I will have a monster fleet of cheaply built frigates and caravels. The great forests of Saturn and The Belt will be chopped into a fleet. There are a lot of turns between now and then though, and a lot of challenges to potentially overcome. I think if I make it that far, though, I will be set to be highly competitive in the endgame.  

What's Been Happening Abroad

The slow death of the Vikings continues and I don't think I can do much about them. CFCJesterfool continues to lag in development, but he can do some damage (more on that in a moment). While I have finally gained a very slight tech edge on Woden and Singaboy, Singaboy's SPT is catching up very fast. He also has a caravel now, and while I doubt he will sail it all the way west to trouble me, I can't be too careful. Singaboy is consolidating his position, and we're quickly approaching the point where any likely combination of players will not be enough to stop him. 

The biggest stories of the last bunch of turns have been Archduke's meteoric rise, and Woden's slow decline. For someone who focused on campuses and science early, Woden is lagging badly in SPT now. He has settled a couple cities in the last couple turns, but he seems slated for irrelevance unless he makes the right allies. 

Archduke, meanwhile, has built himself a sizable fleet, and took Stockholm (declaring on me for the Defensive Tactics boost as he said in the Diplo thread). I fully expect he's going to take Carthage next, which is adjacent to one of his cities. He also is extremely close to Singaboy. I have little doubt Singaboy is growing very concerned about Archduke, and I'm sure Woden is goading him to fight Singaboy for him. 

Where I Think Things Are Headed 

Vikings probably have about ~15 turns left. I'm setting myself up to be able to contest the coastline a little bit against Singaboy, but my priority at this point remains defensive. I am all but certain CFCJesterfool will be coming for me soon. His alignment with Singaboy in the diplo thread, and inability to win the game motivates him to do little but try and bring me down for burning Pizarro.

I expect he's targeting knights, as you can get to those without too much difficulty even with a shitty SPT. However, I don't expect he can make it to Cartography in any sort of decent time frame. With this in mind, as long as I don't completely neglect patrolling the seas to my south, and don't delay Caravel upgrades too long, I think I can fend off any thrust he sends my way. He doesn't even know where I am, he's never explored my lands. 

Archduke is likely to try and fight Singaboy somewhat soon, but its a war I don't think he can win. He is still a ways away from Cartography. Even with his Great Admirals, it will still be 35 strength galleys versus 50 strength caravels. What I would do if I were him, and I wanted to fight Singaboy, would be beeline Cartography, and start saving gold. Also, I would also be worried about a pre-emptive strike from Singaboy while he has caravels and a massive ground force. 

I think to accomplish anything, he needs Brazillian ground troops, and OIA forces harassing Singaboy's new conquests. I'm open to being drafted into an anti-Singaboy alliance, as it is desperately needed, but I don't see any point in trying to talk sense to Woden.

Planning for the long-term seems to be my best path forward at this point - utilizing my distance from Singaboy to do things relatively uninterrupted and allowing my science lead to accumulate. My long-term strategic goals are to contain Singaboy in any way which I can do so efficiency, while pursuing expansion in former Viking lands and in Spain. A big plus would be a meaningful war between the British and the Germans, but I'm honestly doubtful Archduke can do anything. With Singaboy already possessing Caravels and having a tech edge, it will be extremely difficult to prevent him from consolidating his hold on this game. The strength differences at sea are a lot more stark, and without being able to use defensive terrain, there are few ways to make up for having weaker units. Still, I can't predict with certainty what will happen. Singaboy might flub in a big way, Archduke may surprise me. I just wish he had showed the same gumption he showed in PBEM2, attacking a potential runaway in the form of me around t50. Here, I think he's waited too long. Singaboy needed decisive action being taken against him by his neighbors back on t70/t80. 

I give Singaboy about 80% odds of winning at this point, especially once he finishes off Norway. As always, I will try to position myself to be a contender, but much will depend on events a world away.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Apologies to my lurkers, especially to Chevalier, as I've been buried in real life commitments the last week or so. What little time I have had to play on my PC, I've been spending playing War of the Chosen. Our turn pace has continued to be very good, and nine turns have passed since I last updated things. 

Hey, no worries. I've not minded the break - I discovered Sullla's FFV solo reports on his website, and since I've been stuck in the middle of FFV with no motivation to continue for like six months now, I read some of those. It rekindled my interest in the game and I wound up ploughing through the second half over the last two weeks. Tons of fun! 

How is War of the Chosen? I've been intending to wait for it to go on sale before buying. 

I came to the conclusion that the best thing I could do after the fall of Asgard was spam settlers. I currently have one on the way to Saturn, and two almost complete in Europa and Callisto. They will bring me up to a total of 8 cities, the final two being founded on the Belt and Saturn. These will probably be the last self-founded cities of the game. ...I have come to the conclusion that I cannot safely settle Uranus. It is an island, but with only a one-tile channel between it and the Spanish mainland. This means that unless I can maintain a naval force in the channel, I can't protect it using my navy. Moreover, his control of the southern shore and the walls in De Soto give him a fortified position from which he can dominate the area with ranged. If I want to settle the island, I need a substantial ground force to fend CFCJesterfool off. I'm not willing to make that investment, especially when the secondary sites on the Belt and Saturn are both pretty good. 

That seems to mostly make sense. One worry I have is on the size of your military, especially after the OIEF was wiped out (or is being wiped out) in Scandinavia. Singaboy will arrive right across the narrow seas from you with a large, veteran army and a great general soon. He won't be nearly so distant from you then! Since he's also churning out caravels of his own, and he has Jester as a willing patsy (:P), and since you're his biggest rival to win the game, that army attempting to land on Jupiter or Saturn is a possibility I feel we must consider. 

My Long-Term Plans

I'm leveraging my science into a very early Square Rigging and Industrialization. Waiting for the Eureka for Square Rigging will take forever, and I expect most people will skip it considering how game-breaking I expect frigates to be. Likewise, there is no way I can build three workshops in any sort of decent time frame. Industrialization promises +1 hammers on all my mines, and the ability to build an electronics factory in Europa for +16 HPT total in all my cities. 

In sum, the idea is to leverage my science lead into more production, with the centerpiece being the Venetian Arsenal. I may have some stiff competition for it from Singaboy, but I'm pretty confident with my extensive planning for it, I'll be in good shape to make a play for it. I've even been considering swapping to Autocracy to speed it up, but I will have to check first how many Amenities I am getting from Classical Republic. 

Otherwise, I'm gunning hard for Merchant Republic. 

So, around t150, I will have a monster fleet of cheaply built frigates and caravels. The great forests of Saturn and The Belt will be chopped into a fleet. There are a lot of turns between now and then though, and a lot of challenges to potentially overcome. I think if I make it that far, though, I will be set to be highly competitive in the endgame.  

Seems mostly sound to me. The biggest medium-term goal to make you competitive with Germany is solid investment in production, sensibly pursued using your science advantage. I like it! 

One worry - which you've also pointed out - is the long timeframe to t150. That's half again as many turns as the whole game has had up to this point! Is the OIA Navy up to defending your islands in the meantime? Singaboy shouldn't be able to outproduce you, since he has Woden and theArchduke also to consider, but I would hate for him to be able to brute force his way to your islands. Definitely gotta avoid the mistake that Japper made, and keep that army from ever making landfall! Hopefully if you look thorny enough he'll decide one of his other neighbors is an easier meal and go away. 

Planning for the long-term seems to be my best path forward at this point - utilizing my distance from Singaboy to do things relatively uninterrupted and allowing my science lead to accumulate...I give Singaboy about 80% odds of winning at this point, especially once he finishes off Norway. As always, I will try to position myself to be a contender, but much will depend on events a world away.

Yeah, the total collapse of the Vikings, and the total failure of anyone outside the OIA to do anything about it ("We thought oledavy had it covered!" Bah. Still frustrated at that), has put Singaboy firmly in the driver's seat. I know I'm going to come across as a total paranoiac, but hey I consider that my job here, but don't depend on distance from Singaboy for defense. Once he digests the Vikings he'll be your neighbor, and it's just a short hop by sea into your territory. I'd feel a lot safer if I knew the OIA fleet could stand up to anything the Germans could spare for this part of the world. I strongly believe that all other priorities - even ones that make you stronger in the long term - have to take a backseat to naval security right now. 

Would it be worthwhile to outline the full, dire situation of the Vikings in the diplomacy thread, to possibly jolt Woden and theArchduke out of their somnolence? A triple alliance now, while the Viking cities are still under occupation, would stand a better chance than waiting to coordinate when Singaboy comes after anyone singly. If the others balk at your science lead, point out that you've been bearing the brunt of the struggle against Germany so far, and that so far almost all your efforts have been purely defensive. Plus, their proximity to Germany means they're the ones likeliest to reap the spoils of conquest should that somehow become possible.

[Dreylin]

How is War of the Chosen? I've been intending to wait for it to go on sale before buying. 

Fun, crowded, less linear than the base game. http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showt...p?tid=8923

I'm still recruiting.... 

[oledavy]

Turns 103-107

Gah, I let the game get away from me again. 

Anyway, the last turn. 



Of note in this picture, the settlers en route to city locations in the west and east. Titan will be founded on Saturn next turn. 

Production of the Venetian Arsenal will start on t109. A second chop will go into Europa next turn to speed up the IZ's time of completion. 

My cities are finishing a round of harbors, and then traders - which will simultaneously take care of my gold generation problems and give me three more trade routes to send out from Europa. 

Between now and the Venetian Arsenal's completion, I will be building a small army of crossbows for defensive purposes, walls in my outlying cities for defensive purposes, and pre-building caravels and frigates. I should have access to Exploration and the production boosting civic in about ~16 turns or so. Singaboy will have reached the civic significantly before me, but he has other things to worry about at the moment. 

I have a solid relationship with Archduke at this point, but I'm still expecting an attack from the Spaniards. I'm watching his military and tech progress really closely. I'm also a bit worried about Germany, but he still has the Vikings to worry about, and increasingly hostile British neighbors. He's already stretched himself perilously thin to finish off Jpper007. Sadly, had I intuited he was going to divide his force to try and expedite Jpper007's fall, rather than being more slow and deliberate, investing in an army of crossbowmen and samurai would have been very impactful. Anyway, Woden is the wild card in all this. I doubt he's planning to attack me, but it is a possibility of which I'm cognizant. I expect him to make a play for Jerusalem before me though. 

So yeah, basic plan for the upcoming turns: Wrapping up Infrastructure/Traders -> Defensive Military -> Ships -> Ships -> Ships. Since the VA effect applies to all of your cities, I don't think there will be much reason to stop spamming frigates until the game is won or I'm dead. 

The other thing of note in the screenshot is the German Caravel en route to Jotunheim. It will be two rounds of attacks in before I can intercept it with my two caravels. I had detailed the Rocinante to delay its advance. However, he sadly got a good damage roll and sank it rather than redlining it. Still, I delayed him for a turn, which might have been crucial to the survival of the city. We shall see. As an aside, I completely miscalculated the upgrade cost from galley -> caravel. It is only 270 gold! With Professional Army, I was able to upgrade both my other galleys for a mere 270. Had I known that, I would have built quite a few more galleys to upgrade. C'est la vie I suppose.

[oledavy]

How is War of the Chosen? I've been intending to wait for it to go on sale before buying. 

Fun, crowded, less linear than the base game. http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showt...p?tid=8923

I'm still recruiting.... 

Agreed! I've been having quite a bit of fun with it. I've been enjoying dropping into your thread occasionally Dreylin and seeing how it's going. Keep up the good work 

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

How is War of the Chosen? I've been intending to wait for it to go on sale before buying. 

Fun, crowded, less linear than the base game. http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showt...p?tid=8923

I'm still recruiting.... 

Agreed! I've been having quite a bit of fun with it. I've been enjoying dropping into your thread occasionally Dreylin and seeing how it's going. Keep up the good work 

I've been avoiding the thread just 'coz I want to play through it blind! I went into the Alien Hunters DLC blind and the results were hilarious as my team got wrecked by the various bosses. 
Not much commentary on the game - I approve of ships, ships, and more ships. Ships bring you security against Singaboy, ships keep Jester from getting revenge for Pizarro, ships set you up to maybe conquer Spain down the road. Ships do everything! 

I worry a bit about Woden's NAP with Singaboy. Again, it seems like misreading the diplomatic situation to me - he and the Archduke together could perhaps check Germany, but I'm not sure how much England alone can manage. Is Woden trying to wonder whore again (the Venetian Arsenal? Are there other useful naval wonders? Could he even beat you to the tech?) and wants peace, or is he planning on invading someone else? Jerusalem for sure, but what about you and Jester? He's really a wild card atm.

[oledavy]

How is War of the Chosen? I've been intending to wait for it to go on sale before buying. 

Fun, crowded, less linear than the base game. http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showt...p?tid=8923

I'm still recruiting.... 

Agreed! I've been having quite a bit of fun with it. I've been enjoying dropping into your thread occasionally Dreylin and seeing how it's going. Keep up the good work 

I've been avoiding the thread just 'coz I want to play through it blind! I went into the Alien Hunters DLC blind and the results were hilarious as my team got wrecked by the various bosses. 
Not much commentary on the game - I approve of ships, ships, and more ships. Ships bring you security against Singaboy, ships keep Jester from getting revenge for Pizarro, ships set you up to maybe conquer Spain down the road. Ships do everything! 

I worry a bit about Woden's NAP with Singaboy. Again, it seems like misreading the diplomatic situation to me - he and the Archduke together could perhaps check Germany, but I'm not sure how much England alone can manage. Is Woden trying to wonder whore again (the Venetian Arsenal? Are there other useful naval wonders? Could he even beat you to the tech?) and wants peace, or is he planning on invading someone else? Jerusalem for sure, but what about you and Jester? He's really a wild card atm.

On further reflection. I think I'm going to sub out walls and crossbows (all except 2 crossbows anyway) for as many quadriemes as I can cram out. I can also pre-build frigates by building quadriemes with Maritime Industries in place. 

I promised myself I was going to try and bitch about other player's actions less, so I won't say too much about Woden. In his defense, I think he thinks that he is playing both sides off each other, steering a path of neutrality and giving himself time to reach his UU battleship. I think he feels that he needs to build to get back into the game, especially as he has seen much of the early game science lead he built evaporate recently (Spain is now making more SPT than him). This is all very much in line with his play in PBEM2: I need to build one more thing, then I'll be set. I think he has once again made a bad decision, both for his own chances of winning and for the 'not Singaboy' players. I'll leave it at that. 

I am half expecting him to come at me with knights, but I think the distance will be too prohibitive, and he's going to opt to wait for frigates. Still, I will be wary. I do firmly believe he will be competing with me for VA. However, he has not finished Replaceable Parts yet. Worst case scenario, we start the same turn, and I'm fairly confident I can beat him in a horse race. 

Turn 109



Damn, that happened a mite faster than I thought it would. The Vikings will be down to one city next turn after Alfheim falls. I'm kicking myself for not sending in ground troops, but eh, c'est la vie. 

Priority right now is to monitor his caravel and prevent it from getting into my local waters. 



There is an off chance I could boat the city, depending on what he does with his units. I'll be monitoring this situation closely. Singaboy having a port on my seas is worrisome, and my two ships cannot simultaneously pin his caravel, watch the southern straight, and serve as sentries against the Brazilians and Spanish. I need more ships. 

There's also this: 



La Venta completed a Harbor. At long last, the city is ripe. I will be looking into taking it relatively soon, then moving on to Toronto and Jerusalem (if it's still alive). 

I founded my 6th city this turn, my first settlement on Saturn. 



Really high quality city. 

Two more coming in the next half dozen turns. 

Also, the IZ comes online next turn. 



It will bring Europa up to 26 HPT, more to come soon. 

I've devised what I think is some pretty clever micro over the next bunch of turns to speed VA along as fast as possible. I can't wait to show it off later this week.