Spoilers!- Superdeath tries his best.

[superdeath]

t-170

Things are... Confusing to say the least. Magic has a fairly decent counter stack next to New-Hong-Kong and i can see it as well as shallow. Magic currently has a wandering quecha in the area so it would be hard to slam his counter stack.. He is however finishing astro EOT which brings up a slight issue, do i hit him while he is i assume settling all these islands and has resources devoted to that? Do i risk having to protect all of my coastal cities? Can i take having all my coastal resources destroyed? At the moment? no. So while i finish teching nationalism, im going to be looking at the situation in another corner of the world.. the Shallow/charriu/elkad area. I feel that i have to stop Elkad from eating Charriu, or Shallow from consolidating all that land. He is up an impressive amount of cities over myself. I just cant decide.. I know if i hit nationalism-gunpowder-Military Tradition my options will open up significantly.. however i dont know if i CAN wait that long. Elkad if he loses a major battle vs Charriu will have damn near no defense to a massive knight push. The issue with that is that Shallow has the opportunity to either A: attack me and force me to take a 2( likely 3 front war cuz magic ) or B: attack either elkad, or consolidate his land into a winning snowball. If i attack Shallow, the problems are a bit easier to know, but just as hard to defeat.. With his massive population advantage he can whip far more than i can. Sure i could take the two-3 border cities, but after that i would have to whip just as hard to counter his "screw you" whipping that i have no doubt would come.

So where does that leave me? I believe i have only a few REAL options with my current situation.

- Attack Elkad if he loses a massive stack. ( now or later with cuirs )

- Attack Magic once a significant amount of preparedness has been achieved. ( longbows in every coastal city, 40+ unit stack to attack with a decent sized stack to safeguard vs shallow )

- Bide my time and continue being the "relatively" tech leader and tech towards cuirs/cavs and then go crushing

Either way i see a final showdown being between myself and shallow unless the game is called before that point. Elkad REALLY needed to do something with that massive stack of preats much sooner than when he did. He honestly could have ran into magic and split him with me just fine, without worrying too much about shallow interfering. Magic could be a pita to my planning depending on if he decides to hold my army hostage with galleons nearby, plus i dont really want to go down the astro line just to counter his galleons.. just not worth it for someone in my position on this map imo. Charriu could really be a headache for shallow/elkad, although im fairly certain that due to past rome experiences.. that Charriu will likely make peace with shallow and try and drive as much pain into elkads ass as possible.

demos with tech turned on-

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So many knights + forbidden palace-

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Magic's counter stack-

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[superdeath]

Nothing too exciting yet, figuring Taj is somewhere in the 15-20 turn range from now.. which gives me the choice between grabbing construction/engineering while the taj is being built, or save cash for GA infused research towards Gunpowder/military tradtion.. Im thinking the latter, but ill have to attempt to run the numbers on if i even finish gunpowder under a normal golden age.. Also, as i still believe i have a lock on the taj, whether to go into caste right away, and burn a great person or two out.. or swap to it at the end for the workshop eco. Charriu isnt beat yet, and shallow hasnt pushed any deeper making me think that he is attempting to consolidate.. IF Magic would attack Elkad instead of sailing the seas ( he built his first galleon this turn ) then i wouldnt mind going to war against Shallow. Its maybe not a war i would win right away, but i could certainty contain him and force him to give up at least the border cities. But the more likely scenario is still, tech cuirs, run someone over with them. Elkad and myself dont have open borders with Magic currently..  which gives me some small ideas. Also makes me believe that magic will likely attempt to sail in force to the astro islands and potentially try and take the islands that we both have.. For that reason, Magic will either be my first target or last. He is fairly prepared, but only has an "ok" power rating, but for his small empire thats not bad. Ill have to look at some vision rules to know where i can stack my knights/cuirs/whatever to hit his cities and his counter stack behind that. I might even run a stack thru shallow territory to hit that stack to make sure.. So many decisions.


Demos-

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production-

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Elkad's stack location-

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The larger of Shallows stack(s) that i can see-

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Current visible troops-

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Any questions?

[superdeath]

Too late to update much atm, but Magic offered Open borders + crab. He is in the process of colonizing the "astro" islands.. so i dont really want him to pass thru my territory, nor do i want him to see my stack i have prepared outside of his 2 border cities. Elkad made peace with Charriu, and is heading in force towards Magic.. im thinking i will be hurting from the potential coastal blockades and seafood destroyed.. but unless he wants to lose troops to raze my newest city, he doesnt have any easy openings as i have been putting a longbow or two in every city for several turns now. I have a mini-stack in the charriu/shallow border region for protection, while my main 13HA/10-20ish knights are within range of Magic's cities. I fully expect Elkad to smash into magic with me, with Shallow being a straight wild card.

Demos-

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Cities-

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[superdeath]

Well, a couple things.. 1st, Charriu has a decent stack by the former city of.. siren? which is now controlled by Shallow. Im willing to bet these two will go to war soon.. and im hoping right as im prepping for war with Magic.   Also, although Magic did send a open borders+ crab+crab deal a turn or so ago, i turned him down in favor of just a crab+crab indicating to him that i dont give a crap if he sails thru my waters, just dont want to open borders. So far, looks like that has gotten the point across.. However, the war declaration that followed from him likely prompted Elkad to send his outdated but effective stack of 40+ units with roughly 25 praets into his border city starting next turn ( elkad declared this turn ) I sent Magic a ceasefire last turn, and got one in response this turn which i had to re-send. Im willing to bet that he declines it, and sends a 10 turn.   I dont want to attack Magic quite yet, as im finishing Nationalism this turn and should be able to one turn construction next turn and hopefully engineering before completing the Taj. Ive decided to build a longbow in basically every city so as to prevent a knight attack from shallow running into warrior defenders. As soon as i get engineering i plan on whip/building a healthy amount of pikes for the border cities. Magic's naval superiority will be there for at least a few dozen turns i bet as i plan on heading for Cuirs. Once i can build those, ill reevaluate and could decide to go for astro to take the islands, or go for cavs and take the rest of the land that i didnt conquer by that point.

Right now, i feel that my chances of losing this game rest on a few things. -Shallow running knights into me as im engaged in magic land. -Charriu sending all of his units into my semi-defended southern border forcing me to divert forces to that area. -Elkad somehow getting the drop on my knight based army and smashing it while its in a city. Otherwise, i honestly feel really REALLY good about my chances here. Yeah, Shallow has alot of land, but he also has what looks to be a pissed off Charriu on his heels. Elkad, i hope, continues to see me as an ally vs shallow than the other way around. This may all change once i land the taj and grab a key military tech like military tradition. Also got to decide if i want to try and starve some Great People out during the Taj golden age..  ill be popping a GS from Superman here in about 6ish turns, so using him to potentially bulb something or saving him for a back to back golden age? Endless possibilities.

Demos-

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Elkad + Magic's friendly dispute-

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Graphs-

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Cities/production/overview-

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Shallow's units-

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any questions?

[superdeath]

Well, im about 15 turns away from the taj being built at the current rate, ( once i remove the two scientist specialists i have hired ) So with that in mind, and the fact that magic didnt accept my ceasefire and then used a galleon to destroy my galley.. i decided to push construction-engineering and reevaluate. Shallow is currently on the move towards Magic. Elkad has a fairly large preat based army marching towards the cap.. I dont really want Elkad to have the cap, nor do i really want Shallow to attack Magic either.. so, here are my current thoughts.

I can finish construction next turn, and take the likely 200 hammers worth of work boat losses and "actually" go to war with magic, i know i can take at least the two border cities, but im really wanting him to duke it out with Elkad a bit. Its not looking great for him, and the fact that Magic is the only player that i know of that has optics/astro makes him a REAL pain in the ass for those that declare war on him on this side of the sea. For that reason ive been thinking about accepting his peace treaty offer, and maybe waiting for either Elkad to go further into Magic territory and get pinned down a bit... and then i can move my 50+ mounted units to the west and start taking 1-2 cities a turn till he whips enough pikes? The major downside to that is that it both helps Shallow out by temporarily weakening both myself and Elkad.. and that Magic could then make peace with Elkad whom i bet will still have 30+ preats alive to come and try and do something..

Another option is hoping Magic can hold his own vs elkad via massive whipping and threatening coastal cities, that i can harass either Shallow or take the rest of Charriu's land. Another downside to that is that i then have an even larger border with Shallow.. If only i had gotten another settler down south quicker to have a better border. I rate the plans as such- Attack Magic, Attack Elkad, Attack Charriu, Attack Shallow.  We shall see what magic's response is later this turn.. I sent him a ceasefire back.. then i sent a peacetreaty for some gold.. to indicate that i dont believe that its worth it for me to accept a peace treaty without compensation as his coastal shenanigans arent going to harm me all that much as i have plenty of defenses.  

Demos-

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Cities-

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Overview+ Shallows units.

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[superdeath]

Couple posts inc.

First off, the turn- Magic denied my straight Ceasefire, in favor of a 10 turn peace with 50gold per turn payment.. I accepted. 500 gold for both no more naval shit ( he burned 2 work boats last turn ) and it might scare elkad/shallow into thinking ill run into them while they are off in Magic land. It also doesnt hurt that im trying to get as far into the tech tree as i can before the golden age that should put me into a winning position tech wise. Currently Taj is on schedule for 18 or so turns from now, im having to decide if i want to keep that rough estimate which keeps the two hired scientists working towards another GS ( i have one popping in 3 turns ) Which i might use for education.. Still hoping a lurker will show me a good bulb chart.    

Shallow as expected, declared war on Magic this turn and i hope Magic uses the navy to make elkad suffer a bit while also taking Shallow down a peg or two with some cats/whipped elephants? I sent Magic open borders so he can move his galleons around easier, and so i can keep watch/ maybe slam some units into Elkad or Shallow if they look exposed. 

Demos-

 [img][/img]  " number one " in GNP at 0% science.. kinda funny.

Cities-

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Power graph-

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Each players visible units-

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After finishing engineering, ill likely grab gunpowder-military tradtion, Unless i decide to flip a coin and head towards liberalism right now and then maybe grab something with that? So many choices.

[superdeath]

So now the game plan. Im moving a bunch of knights and other fun things to possibly take all of Charriu's land. It looks like he is stacking units in preparation to take back the city from Shallow. Im hoping that his culture on that capture isnt TOO bad, as i want to smash his army if he makes the mistake of leaving it in the city. If he doesnt end up hitting Shallow's city AND Elkad loses some of his units i might take 3-4 of his cities in quick order. I can take his stone city on our border turn 1 of the war, and his cap turn 3. His other two nearby cities i can take turn 2 of the war, and another city possible turn 3 of the war. IF he has lost a fair chunk of his units ( would love to see his power drop like a stone  ) Otherwise, if none of these things happen i might still run my knights into Charriu land anyway, and then hold off on hitting Elkad till i get Cuirs/cavs. Shallow and I will have an interesting border after all is said and done. My hope is that i can be prickly enough to avoid a elkad/shallow dogpile, while also teching fast enough to overcome Shallows city lead.

My two current fears are- Shallow's rather enormous city lead, and Elkad throwing the game to Shallow by throwing everything at me. Magic could be annoying with his naval shit, but im not TOO scared of that.

Key-
Pink= Staging area
Red= Movement

Charriu Front-

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Elkad Front-

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Im confident that i can get either of these campaigns done, the timing is the only thing i have to work on atm.

[superdeath]

Alrighty, you all know my war plans... but what about my tech plans? Stay to the end of this report to find out!

Shallow seems to be holding steady in his newly captured city, is he afraid of me turning around and smashing his cities, even with a crab-crab? Guess we will see when he finds out where my fair sized knight stack went Elkad meanwhile, has been pushing steady for Magic's capitol and looks like he could likely take it.. Praets are becoming obsolete but they are still scary when attacking cities. If magic had a decent cat stack running around he might be smart to smash the praets before they get to use their city attack bonus. Im also hoping that although they signed OB and looked friendly super recently... im hoping Shallow and Elkad fight over the remains of Magic's cities.. Because having 30 praets on MY doorstep isnt going to go well for either of us.

Now, i know that attacking Charriu will lengthen the border i already have with Shallow, but i will have Engineering soon and i plan on having decent sized defensive stacks around to deter a war. ALL i need is more land and i should be set to take off into the sunset..

Demos-

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Cities-

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Stack is in position, just waiting for Engineering-

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Graphs-

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Current visible units-

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Tech path-

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Now to explain the tech path a little.. Finish engineering, tech banking-gunpowder-paper. Golden age will start, tech Printing press-replaceable parts.. I should get another scientist in here somewhere hopefully.. If i do, OR i see Shallow heading for education after he finishes Philosophy, i head for liberalism and grab Mit Tradition. Otherwise i continue teching towards rifles then head back to liberalism-mit tradition.  Might use the scientist to bulb part of education, if not paper.. will make a decision soon.

[superdeath]

Alrighty. So it turns out that Charriu's borders from Siren were a bit farther than i was hoping.. and he was able to see my stack and ripped up our open borders agreement.. which was a good thing because i was going to be able to use it to get a first strike in on his city via the banana. I have a fair stack sitting there next to his city, he has a couple Crossbows+ trebs for collateral, but i believe if he attacks out he will have worse odds than if he sits in his city, his best move is likely to retreat to his cap. I plan on still grabbing siren, and burning a road by his cap and parking where i can fork two of his cities. After grabbing engineering EOT, ill be swapping everything to knights/cats. Cats for home defense vs a possible Shallow/elkad attack. And knights for more fun in China land. I believe i can take siren-cap-his other city without being exhausted of units. Again, his best move imo, is to hold up in his cap.. because i want that city. Gotta catch up with Shallow's city count somehow.. Plus im hoping this war pushes Shallow to be more involved in the Magic war, hopefully causing issues with Elkad.. :D

Demos-

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Cities/production-

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War front-

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Every city-

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You know, i like this map so much i wouldnt mind Commodore being a regular map maker or have the regular's make maps like this one.. it allows nearly everyone to meet everyone, it has areas of conflict ( gems/gold/silver ) Just an overall great map.

[Commodore]

Just an overall great map.

Cool, glad you're enjoying it.

You know, i like this map so much i wouldnt mind Commodore being a regular map maker

  
I've played in almost 50% of the games on this site...and made maps for over 50% of the others.