[Spoilers] Grotsnot massively inflates his own View count

[Grotsnot]

I was mistaken about Rome and city 3. Had even checked their diplo screen so just a derp on my part.

They have declared friendship with 2 of the 3 eastern powers, though. This turn (39) I sent them a DoF request 'cause why not. Either get some leeway to prepare for the Greeks or know that the drums of Mordor are most likely headed my way.

[Grotsnot]

Surprising no one, Rome declined our offer of friendship. (Or ignored it, hard to tell from the UI)

And the barb Spearman has decided to set up shop right in the path of my freshly-built Settler, delaying StG by two turns going around the southern hills. Humbug. Can we get Walls up in time for Mordor's invasion? Probably not!

[Grotsnot]

Today (T43) in DOOM:
* Rome has Iron Working. I think they got it last turn or the one before, will have to check my records.
* Greece finally met another civ! ...and immediately made friends.
* St Gloriana founded next turn, Masonry 2 turns away. No sight of Legions yet but don't worry they'll be here before I can get my encampment or walls up.
* Ooarai will finish a Trader next turn to head to Amsterdam and help solve some of my money problems. Got a couple of dead weight Holy Sites weighing me down so can't afford all the tiles I want and will need even more for Archers (next after Masonry). Kinda wish Defender of the Faith wasn't banned but Russia would probably beat me to it anyway. Will train a Spearman next for the +5 city strength, for all the good it'll do.

I keep taking screenshots I might eventually post. Just gotta get around to it. Sadly these past dozen or so turns the game hasn't felt worth spending a lot of time on. If it was just Rome or just Greece beating the war drum I'd be a lot more hopeful. Can't do shit about the incoming dogpile (welcome to RB!) though so I'm pretty checked out.

[Grotsnot]

Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment also doom











No offense to marcopolo, but seeing as Arabia has even less military than I do, this means there's an outside chance that I'm not Rome's first victim target  

Looks like I was mistaken about Greece declaring friendship, too, was just a general happy face.

Current suspicion is that Arabia is somewhere southeast across the sea. To explain why they've only met Greece and Rome (and me), maybe there's another sea in the far southeast and Rome is on some sort of lynchpin.

Something like, to a VERY rough latenight ASCII approximation (~=water, #=land, *=player start):
~~~###*####*#####*##~~~
~~#####~~~####~~~###~~~
~~~#*#######*####*#~~~~

Should be turn 45 tomorrow, so will do a State of the Empire then. Spent this evening catching up on C&D vs Rome (may or may not have graphs in time for SotE >_>). Looks like I was horribly mistaken about Stone Circles way back when. New hypothesis is there's another Religious CS somewhere out east and they picked up God of the Open Sky. Also they just cleared a barb camp so the Warriors will be headed home for upgrades soon

[Grotsnot]

Turn 45 got delayed until this morning, so no screenshots until this evening. Realized I've been neglecting a useful piece of the C&D puzzle: Tech & Civic tree screenshots. I only have end-of-turn saves going back to like turn 35 but hopefully that'll be enough to fill in some missing pieces.

The big "news" is that Rome does not actually show up as having reached the Classical Era as far as Science yet. They just now got Political Philosophy and switched over to Oligarchy (yes, Oligarchy before T50, fffffffffff-). I wonder what they've been doing with their beakers, then, since the tech they got around turn 40 was spot on for the needed for Iron Working. Curious. Potentially 99%-ing it and delaying Classical Era for a bit to do CS missions? Encampment+Walls in StG are due turn ~52 and starting to rebuild some cautious optimism that that might actually be in time.

The Greeks just settled to our south, right next to that "Optimistic - Greek"/"Haha no" pin I've had down there for ages. Still leaves room for Kuromorimine, but it's going to be tricky to pick up any of those Sugars. They're 15 turns away from a GG and our DoF is due to run out any minute now. I expected it to be done this turn but maybe it doesn't trigger until the bottom of the turn. Going to suggest a renewal if they do not (and they won't).

Arabia, however, accepted our DoF. And the UI continues to bedevil me: on Arabia's diplomacy overview it shows the slightly-angry face with Greece but if I hover over it it says Declared Friend. So mayhaps I was right the first time and the Greeks are buddying up to securing a flank with the Arabs. Not a great sign for us, but of the Greeks and Romans I have better odds of taking on the Greeks. As of last turn, and subject to a fairly large grain of salt, I think the Domination tracker indicates that Rome has 5(!) Warriors and a Slinger while Greece has 2 Warriors, an Archer, and a Scout. Meanwhile I have two Slingers and two Warriors - one of which is critically injured and still limping home from fogbusting the northwestern corner.

By no means out of the woods yet, but maybe stand a chance of not getting utterly smothered in the cradle. Turning the doomsday clock back about 10-15 minutes 

[Grotsnot]

Well so much for hope:



No Legions spotted yet but they just upgraded two of them out there in the fog. God dammit I need 6 more turns don't do this shit to me...

[Banzailizard]

I got buried under school work these past few weeks. What is the spear-man for by the way? Are you expecting cav? If not better to build cheaper units like warriors and slingers that you will upgrade. Also the best defense against legions would probably be walls. Nothing wrong with holding walls one turn from completion, and then finishing if you are attacked. If not then you can chop latter with Limes. I am trying not to give too much advice, my own loss means I am not sure if I am suggesting the wrong things. One thing I can do is ask questions though.

So what are you plans though. If Greece attacks where and how will you hold? What about Rome? Both?

What does your mid to long term tech and civic path look like?

How do you plan to eventually try and win the game (just assume survival for now)?

[Grotsnot]

Spearman is to get a little more city strength, since Iron Working is a long way off. Won't make a big difference but every little bit help.

Walls are the current plan, but I'm skeptical they'll be done in time. I'm getting the Encampment first to get a +100% chop for them. It costs about 22 (43 w/ +100%) to gain an extra 30ish and gets double the city attack when it's done.

If I get until turn 52 then I can hopefully hold St Gloriana. Walled City + Encampment w/ Slingers/Archers (not sure how many upgrades I can afford). Probably park the Spear in the City Center for the strength boost with a Slinger in the Encampment and an Archer south of the city. Then I'll need to wall up Ooarai too and hope the remaining forces can hold against a northern flanking attack.

I'll have Iron hooked up next turn which will boost Iron Working and Wheel, which will fulfill a quest for Seoul and get me a solid science boost. I was hoping to head for Writing next but if war were declared I should gun for Iron Working - probably take 8 turns if I don't get steamrolled by then (hmm, so maybe the spear was unnecessary after all. Oh well, too late now.)

If by some miracle Rome swings south toward Arabia instead then I'm going to switch into Colonization and try to grab Anzio and Kuromorimine before Greece DoWs. Highly unlikely to have walls up before the invasion but hopefully the hardpoints will allow stalling long enough to get those up. Assuming Greece doesn't attack before getting their GG, then I should have time to get Swordsmen to defend with.

If both attack I'm fucked. Pretty much stuck picking one front to defend or lose on both. If Greece attacks while I'm at war with Rome I'll probably swing everything over to the Greek front - punish the bastards for dogpiling and hope that someone in the east opportunistically jumps on Rome.

Goal right now absolutely is survival. If I get out of the next 5 turns without a war then I might be in shape to look at possible win paths that aren't hilariously wishful thinking.


Also the DoF with Greece ran out this turn. Sent a renewal request and we'll see if, for some reason, they decide to quell the wardrums. The UI for Greco-Arabian relations flipped again so I have no idea if Greece has any other possible targets.

[Grotsnot]

Ho. Lee. Shit. Folks:




 
I did not expect this at all. But it is absolutely wonderful news. Probability of survival has at least doubled!

The Roman front is even looking like I might have enough time. We'll see. They can get a third Legion next turn but don't seem to have started full mobilization towards us yet. Looking like StG may have to tank one or two hits pre-Walls. Which will suck but should be survivable; I'm pretty sure I can get my Spearman down there in time. If they come surging out of the fog this turn I'll be in trouble but cautiously optimistic that 1-2 turns delay is all I need.





More from the home front later tonight hopefully. I still owe y'all an Empire overview - been kind of a long time since I've been up to my old standard on screenshots >_>

[Banzailizard]

Interesting that Greece accepted. Are they gunning for someone else then? Why invest in a GG otherwise? Where did you think Arabia was again? I think you said they were next to Rome, in which case they might die soon. They have basically no military at all. I am crossing my fingers here and hoping for the best for you. I don't have much else to add, just letting you know you still have me reading.