the adventures of cool guy boak

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Imagine that those towns were workshops: it would be trivial to fort them to allow a naval stack to pass, and then turn them back into workshops.

IIUC, this only works for towns which are adjacent to water, so the comparison to forts is completely fair.

Your detailed reports are exactly what I like. Really great work. Keep it up!

Good to hear someone's enjoying the thread!
And @Krill, yes, this only works for a maximum isthmus of two tiles (diagonally too, since as of a turn ago or so, I became able to traverse the little peninsula in yet another way).

Really enjoying the naval changes in the mod so far, however I think teching to paper is really the only option, and that there's really not much choice as to what units to use.

One example is instead of the Coast/Ocean binary of civ 4, revert to the gradient of coast/sea/ocean in civ 3. Instead of direct bonuses, naval units should have combat bonuses based on "where they belong". Triremes should be able to fully defend against caravels on coast and have current combat stats on sea tiles. This would make naval defense easier and add more choices for how to go about positioning naval units. Do I move in closer to the coast to be able to strike more targets on land, or do I stay back to avoid coastal defense fleets?

Of course, there's a large problem with implementation as every single map script would need to be rewritten, but even upping the current defense value of coasts, or creating a "woodsman" equivalent for triremes/ironclads that would increase coastal defense stats would make things more interesting than "tech faster to better ships".

Just throwing out some ideas.

Waiting on MSCC's turn, will probably post an update tmmrw.

[superdeath]

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Got carried away and forgot to take pictures.

1. Master Plan.... Slight miscalculation. Taj will take 13 or so turns to build. So we will be some turns out of luck, but it is ok, since by the end of the remaining 8 turns we will have printing press and replaceable parts both.

2. Naval stuff isn't going as well as I hoped either. MSCC have 11 privateers + 3 caravels (one of which is a medic), to counter our 15 privateers + 4 caravels (more privateers are on their way, but many are on guard duty for our stack).

3. Trebs can't attack off ships... STUPID ME. But, we will have a chance to take Kiev by landing our forces directly on the beaches for the first time. There's a hill we can secure, which should give us OK odds against xbows even with berserkers. We have some highly promoted city raider trebs, so we should make very short work of the city garrison.

4. Settling more cities is ok apparently, our maintenance for total number of cities has hit a cap, so additional cities currently cost us... 1-3 gpt at 0%. Not horrible. Will build like 5-7 more then.

5. Nauf/Cairo are in a state of permanent cold war and have left their capital cities exposed. I feel like I should not let this go unpunished for so long. The invasion stack+fleet is already readying itself against Nauf, and once I have dealt with MSCC's fleet, I must turn my attention to Cairo. Attacking them both at the same time with a crushing blow through rifles and the draft should end this game.

6. An alternative to #5 is to research HBR (lol) and build about 20 knights, ferry them over to Cairo, and use the southern strategy from one of the recent posts to achieve some tangible progress on the land. Knocking out 3 more cities would be a significant blow. (How many does it take, though...)

7. Most cities are on privateer duty. I think after rifling, the best bet is to say goodbye to the colossus, research astro, and load up the final attack.

[superdeath]

Cant wait to see the plan unfold!

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Kiev got burned with minimal casualties.


I'm going to move the stack south now, into Cairo's lands, heal it up, and carry out the "southern strategy" from before.

Demos (this turn) looking solid, as usual.

After a few more strikes against the borg, hopefully culminating in the destruction of their fleet, I think peace will need to be signed. War weariness is growing, and Cairo/nauf need to be pressured. There's a lot of considerations to go into the geopolitics here, more on that in a later post, probably after replaceable parts (4 turns off from that).


Global civics. We are running Herd Rule, Bureaucracy, Slavery, the final labor civic (whichever gives +1 on villages and +3 on towns), and free religion.


With our Taj Golden age (more on that shortly), we will need to go into end-game civics. What does this mean?
1. We need nationhood. Slavery is outliving its purpose, as we are completing the construction of important buildings in most cities.
2. We probably want univ suffrage. Towns are going to be growing out to full size and getting +1 hammer. However... Representation is also an option.
3. Slavery has gotta go. Replace with Caste?
4. Merc with rep? Perhaps, but it seems that the GNP bonus is greatest under our current labor civic. State property isn't much use with our current courthouse spam and forbidden palace and potentially Versailles. (Distance is creating less maintenance than number of cities). Free market is not an option once we go total war.


Golden age will restart in like 9 turns.
Tech plans follow neatly out of this...
Printing press finished this turn.  That means we have 5 turns left (after turn rolled). 1 turn of gold saving -> 1.4k gold. 3 turns till replaceable, ~150 gold left at the end. That'll give us 1 more turn of gold saving, ~800 gold in the coffers. Then, we have 9 turns of gold saving to get gunpowder and then rifling, which is like 8k~ beakers.
That means that we'll need around 6 turns of research, which is 2.5k gold. That's more than attainable in the span of the inter-golden age gap, probably with gp and a few turns of rifling being done before Taj is built, so representation can probably be researched in the span of the now-truncated golden age (8 turns, no mausoleum). So... rifling by turn 200~?
Also note to self: SETTLE MORE CITIES.



Really need to be sinking some of these ships when the time comes.


Finally, what you've all been waiting for, the showdown.

Our fleet vs MSCC's. We're going to add another 4 ships next turn. Once the 2-1 ratio in privateer numbers is achieved, I will attack.

MSCC also had a mini fleet on the other side of the empire that we sunk at an exact 1-1 KDR.
I'm gathering our privateers on that front to threaten the borg fleet.


35 privateers is beautiful.

Very scatterbrained report, any questions?

[superdeath]

Very scatterbrained report, any questions?

Yeah. How do you see yourself potentially losing from this point? Can you be attacked by all 3 remaining players and still win? Is there any chance for the other players to win at this point/what would you do in their shoes?

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Very scatterbrained report, any questions?

Yeah. How do you see yourself potentially losing from this point? Can you be attacked by all 3 remaining players and still win? Is there any chance for the other players to win at this point/what would you do in their shoes?

I cannot lose through culture surprise, since I'm ahead in that regard by far.

I don't see any of my opponents out-teching me in the near future either.

Cairo is financial, but is just beginning to expand. Even though he does have nice and tasty financial for permanent 3 commerce coast tiles, he does NOT have enough land or GPP production through wonders or pop (no herd rule yet). He is catching up, but my GNP is growing fast enough, and we will be building more cities.

Nauf has a minuscule GNP. Out of the question.

MSCC has been beat up hard. Running those huge unit costs after teh loss of 7 cities means that it'll be 50 turns before he even comes close if I leave him alone. Maybe not even then.

However, I don't see myself becoming untouchable on sea like I had hoped. Both Nauf and MSCC are mass-producing ships, and both, I believe, have paper now. MSCC is keeping some degree of parity with my navy, and it's taking up all of the production of my moai city + a few whips here and there to at least keep up. I do have my forbidden palace city also building privateers, but they're trying to cover both nauf surprise attacks AND MSCC wandering fleets. While I can take care of any pesky borg wanderers, I'm not sure that I can repel a nauf invasion without any city losses whatsoever. Most worrying is the need to protect Verstappen and our Forbidden palace city. The loss of either of these would be catastrophic to our GNP.

I should probably put 3 xbows in each...

This leaves Cairo, who is pushing his way towards paper, and against whom I have absolutely no naval defenses. However, he cannot hit me hard without me noticing first, and I doubt nauf can either, just because I have city visibility all over. This means I may need to do 50% espionage spending one turn.

So, let me give a more direct answer to your question.

The only path for me to lose is if all three players attack me within the next 25 turns before I get rifling and the draft. If they were to immediately redirect their efforts against me and start sinking ships and burning cities, they could really change things for the worst. 

My garrisons in most cities are sparse. My armies are loaded on boats. Ships aren't positioned in a global sentry net yet, as I simply have not go full war-time production and have all my ships tied down in key locations. The southern areas are entirely fogged, and for all I know, Cairo/nauf could start massing troops there (though, I am following the power graphs).

So, what should players do to win?
The borg should know that I cannot really take any cities on land, and that their naval force is sufficient to keep me at bay for now. Even as much as I want to think I can sink the enemy fleet, any naval action taken without at least 2-1 ratio will be dangerous and RNG-reliant, and I'm simply not building that many ships yet. They need to go ahead and get some catapults, hit Cairo, and get enough land to propel teching. Frankly though, I do not see any path forwards for them. Especially since I know exactly how many, what kind, and where enemy troops are.

Cairo has the best way forwards. He has a higher GNP than nauf, he has engi, and he should be able to absolutely counter samurai with cho-ku-nu's. The problem is his lack of paper and poor civics, but that can be changed really easily. If I leave him alone for 50 turns, I feel ke could become really dangerous. Cairo ought to get Notre Dame as well.

Nauf has the toughest path, but his large border with MSCC is an advantage. He can easily tech to guilds (but not really at all after that), and devastate MSCC with knights. At that point, if Cairo joins in and attacks MSCC as well, Nauf can get quite an advantage. He also has superdeath islands to settle. Nauf needs to present himself as a turtle to me, while preparing to attack MSCC, especially since I am more inclined to conduct a full-scale invasion of Cairo than him.

Nauf has the more interesting game to play, Cairo is a close lead, but I really do not envy MSCC. There's not really anything Magic can do to beat me, and on top of that, has to spend more resources than I do to maintain parity.

I think that without diplo and a coordinated effort, the other continent simply cannot pull though at this point. What they need is to start pressuring me in the next 10 turns and burn a few cities to make my post-rifling slingshot difficult. If I have to build military instead of pumping out uni's, grocers, and the last few courthouses, things MIGHT change.

If this doesn't happen, and Cairo/nauf continue bickering, I should have a nearly 100% guaranteed win. Rifles are an absolute counter to any medieval unit they can throw at me.

This game would be so damn different if Borsche were alive.

[superdeath]

This game would be so damn different if Borsche were alive.

QOTM.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

The first of many Japanese privateers. Promoted, too! Not a fan.
Demos from after turn roll




Are nauf/cairo/magic unable to see my demos due to espionage imbalance? Though they should still see top GNP/CY/MFG...
Graphs are more persuasive, though.

[boak]

borsche ruins everything