[49 spoilers] Miguelito, pindicator and Adrien take Shiva by the hands

[Miguelito]

also, I find it curious that Commodore hasn't launched a GA yet (or I may have missed it? But it's not showing on the prod graph either). It seems like a textbook case of when you want one: Lots of cities, a religion to change into, and no Currency yet at turn 121 because his GNP is at the level of the 3 city crowd. Maybe he's trying to finish Machinery to get his Samurai built? By now he could likely be finishing an engineer for the bulb (I remember the trireme event which showed him having MC during the 90s (?) )

[Miguelito]

If remember correctly he also explained why, but I don't find his post anymore.

Maybe because they should require something, and he made them independent from ivory?

[Charriu]

Yes he definitely wanted to make them independent from ivory. Maybe he will come back to this if he comes back. (Boy he's now gone for a full 6 month.)

[pindicator]

Here's Cairoland:



Yes, this is far stronger than my surroundings (remember, there used to be forests, not jungle). But I concede that it's very easy to get boxed in here. Apparently Commodore founded his second city without copper, maybe he could have done something there (though I'd guess Comm wouldn't play entirely recklessly)?
Or he could have founded the third city 2N of where he did (S of the sheep) oops no that's illegal with his 2nd city spot, but maybe then that one should've gone 1NE?, and maybe pull a Miguelito and build stonehenge there? He had strong production early on, so he may have fared better (and Comm's city would have been swamped immediately, and much earlier than my Oracle did that).
But apparently he decided to focus on me, either because you rather fight the newbie than the commodore (fair enough), or because he decided from the start that the naval situation was unsustainable and he needed to get rid of my cap if he wanted to live.
He's had two opportunities where he could have achieved that: First during the (long) Commodore war; had he attacked Mahadeva or sent 2 galleys for the cap I'd have been in huge trouble. I think that was a typical case of Cairo waiting too long for the opportunity to be perfect and it then dematerialising. The other one was when he brought that giant Immortal stack, which he moved east of Mahadeva, forking the capital. Had he unloaded the swords at the cap on that turn - which he was able to do from the fog - I think it's very likely I would've lost the cap, and then I wouldn't have held the island either.

Adding to the list of map gripes, Cairo has a TON of safe backlines. He only has a land connection in one direction, towards you - no wonder he attacked. You're literally the only direction he has to worry about! Meanwhile you had neighbors on all directions.

[scooter]

Not to threadjack too badly, but since it was brought up in here...

I'm deliberating between determined defense against Comm, or trying to exile onto the island in order to prolong my pain (at least I have a nice trireme fleet for the while being).  sounds like the better meme (I'm old enough to remember Xenu, though I don't expect as much glory)

Apologies pindi, I've not been here long enough to have witnessed it live, but of course you have an even more famous exile story on your record.

Hahaha, I definitely approve!

Always do the exile invasion. I ought to go back and restore some of the screenshots for that.

+1 for that. That thread was one of the best read on this forum. Something that probably never happened before and won't happen afterwards. It's so special.

I spent some spare time in the last week restoring my images from the invasion. It starts here:


https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/show...#pid333575

It begins when the idea was initially proposed, and it ends when the conquest officially concludes, leaving us with 10 cities and counting. I didn't restore any images before or after that time frame, but that was the most important part.

[pindicator]

Thanks scooter!

Time for some nostalgia

[Miguelito]

Not to threadjack too badly, but since it was brought up in here...

I spent some spare time in the last week restoring my images from the invasion. It starts here:


https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/show...#pid333575

It begins when the idea was initially proposed, and it ends when the conquest officially concludes, leaving us with 10 cities and counting. I didn't restore any images before or after that time frame, but that was the most important part.

Thanks scooter as well. I will not be able to replicate it, unfortunately: there's no large island, the island that is there probably has more military on it than Jester had in total, and it's t124 already...
But I noticed that your first wave had 6 galleys, with one trailing, and that's exactly what I could send off next turn!

I won't.
Taking my island back is senseless as long as Cairo still has his cap, and I can't land there as long as he has his giant stack full of HAs. My only hope is that he and Commodore somehow go to war. Or I move through to Ruff's island, more on that later.

Adding to the list of map gripes, Cairo has a TON of safe backlines.  He only has a land connection in one direction, towards you - no wonder he attacked.  You're literally the only direction he has to worry about!  Meanwhile you had neighbors on all directions.

I think from pure geography it makes actually more sense for him to attack Commodore (who however is the world top power, go figure). Say he takes my cap and Mahadeva - Comm can cut that off from the rest of his cities anytime he wishes so. But off course, there'd be always the threat of us boating him, and I can see why he wouldn't want to live with that, and also why he thought he'd have more success against us than Comm from a player strength perspective. While he has just one direction to worry about on land, he also is really in danger of getting boxed in, which happened. I've come to the conclusion that the best play would have been Stonehenge at his 2nd or 3rd city, at least when he saw SD's city fall on PBspy.

What I still don't understand:


Look at this! It's even more lush than the other island, and Cairo was free to settle it for dozens of turns. I get that our island was strategically important for him, but to just let this go by...
Also an easter egg of Ruff's in the shot


Here's Ruffia:


What I said about Cairo's land in comparison to ours similarly applies here, although he has two land neighbours (with pretty defensible geography), but little to worry about from the sea early on.
I think the southern Buddhist holy city was the one he took from SD early. He's taken another one on their border now which I can't see yet, and is moving for the capital. He may have trouble to claim that though:



If FT came after me with that, I'd be dead, period. Speaking of - weren't I starting a new war at the last report? Well Commodore played first that turn, and retreated from Gangadhara, but put a large stack including his first Samurai on the banana by Mahadeva, and offered peace. With all my forces, I might have been able to defend against that stack, but a) my axes were in a bad position and b) I didn't want to go for a last hurra just yet, so I took peace. Maybe he'll be back in 5 turns with more samurais, maybe he'll go elsewhere (Cairo ) ?

Oh and I'm getting iron from both CF and FT, so building some phants.

[pindicator]

To threadjack this some more, I've figured out how to restore my old dropbox pictures!!! I'll be fixing my links in pitboss8 today. Yes, it is a slow work day.

[naufragar]

Thanks scooter!

Time for some nostalgia

+1 (and apologies for threadjack)

[Miguelito]

Setting sail:



What will I do? Take back Nilakantha? Go for the capital? March through to Ruff's island while he's busy with superdeath? Chicken out?

1 is not defensible, as I have explained multiple times.
2... not while his stack isn't marching on Mahadeva in its entirety, else he just kills me with horse archers.
3 is the best meme, but I'm not sure I'm ready to throw myself away like that already. Maybe I should ( gotta have it look like I'm trying an attack on Ciaro though).
...with all that said, 4 isn't unlikely.

I can also see a combination of 1 and 2: Unload and start bombarding, to make him go for my core, then when his stack is there change gears and set sails for the cap, burn that, then retreat to the island. Bear in mind he now has triremes though, so I can't move freely. But Cairo usually is very cautious, I doubt he would leave his cap open to that...