[SPOILERS] - social distancing with pindicator

[Cornflakes]

Loving your thread, I look forward to it every day

Now we are really honestly going to grow to the happy cap.

There are two ways to reach the happy cap ... and whipping can get you there quicker

[Miguelito]

Loving your thread, I look forward to it every day

Now we are really honestly going to grow to the happy cap.

There are two ways to reach the happy cap ... and whipping can get you there quicker  

If you can't reach the happy cap, make the happy cap reach you 

[Commodore]

Holy fiber, batman. I see you're going with the "don't need to worry about toilet paper because I'm blocking myself up all week" plan.

[pindicator]

Thanks Cornflakes and Miguelito! I really appreciate such high praise

Holy fiber, batman. I see you're going with the "don't need to worry about toilet paper because I'm blocking myself up all week" plan.

I truly despise digging cat holes.

That and fitting 5 days worth of food into a bear canister means I need to go with the calorie-dense stuff.

[pindicator]

110

So a funny thing happened after I played in 109. I had sent Charriu an open border request, and he responded asking instead for Gems for Open Borders. Aren't I giving him Gems already? Indeed- there was that weird copper for gems that I agreed to because there was nobody to trade all my gems to and I wanted to make a friend. So I accepted and now I'm sending him 2 copies of Gems. After accepting I got a second trade window that was nothing, so he must have realized his mistake. But I'll just cancel the copper one when that's up.

The highlight of the turn:




Finally working that cow.

I need to get a unit out and send it south. Again. Because the 3 units I've sent south before have all died to ~10% odds. There's a barb axe that will poke his head out of the fog, dance around, and then retreat back. I have no idea what its AI is trying to do, but it's not harassing me any.

Took off a lot of hills this turn and put them on cottages. The wave of catapults is pretty much built, now it's just getting them to the stack. Again, time to attack will probably be t113.

Superdeath built a city in the far west, to claim his 2nd ivory. And Mr. Cairo has hit 13 cities, catching up with me. He has a better economy. Actually, Tokugawa is surprisingly an economic pick now in CtH: Aggressive gives the extra happiness at Barracks, which makes it mini-CHM. And PRO is just busted trade routes. Add on Zulu's ikhanda and he put together a sneaky strong combination there.


PRO: 26 (639)
FIN: 19 (485)

[pindicator]

111

And just like that, another one!

Decided to mix things up on Superdeath a little here




Probably should have done this a turn or two ago, but next turn everything goes onto that hill where I left just 8 spears.  I'm thinking even if I can get SD to move a few units away and they move back, that's defenders losing their 25% fortify bonus.  Which he probably won't do for just 1 turn, but if I had left it a couple turns it might have worked.  Oh well.

Down south, I found that horcher that peeled away




If he's going to push in with that horcher I've got a plan to bop it dead.

Meanwhile, I decided to put some barracks in down south before making units anyway.  Unit costs are bad enough so might as well make some really good ones.  Also, I realized I could just make Woods-2 axes and spears right out of the gate at Belisarius, and I really like that idea. One axe can go into the huge forests to the east and then maybe we make some W2 swords to be jungle warriors for me up north.

Demos:




Just need to fix that GNP. It's got me really considering Calendar next instead of Metal Casting.


PRO: 26 (665)
FIN: 20 (505)
I think I might have over-counted FIN a few turns, but I can't be certain. I'll just leave it at this point.

[pindicator]

112

I was wrong before. Superdeath does not have Construction.




Mr. Cairo does. So maybe I need to watch out for war elephants from the other direction. He does have warriors camped out throughout my lands.

I would bet Superdeath is gearing up to tech Construction right now. He probably had limped to Currency when I thought he got at Construction. Wow, if his economy is this bad with the Great Lighthouse AND Currency? Yikes, I feel better about my position. But I want to keep pressure up, make him whip citizens, not turn them into Rep-fueled scientists.

So let's advance:




I don't know what that worker of his is doing, but I didn't see any units behind it. Still, I'm sure I don't like it. Probably gearing up for a city somewhere.

Decided that it needs to be Calendar next. Metal Casting would be wonderful if I had hammers to spare, but hammers need to go towards the war right now. Triremes would probably be the one use for Metal Casting: forges are more the realm of my first golden age. But triremes would be useful, and I still probably go for MC next. Also, I have a number of cities that will grow into unhappiness over the next 3-5 turns, and wouldn't it be better if we just kept growing?

Top 5 cities shows my capital peeking in to the leaders




And with demos my crop yield is really pulling ahead although GNP still lags behind:





Based off the way the last turns were played, it's possible that this was the last turn I play. If Superdeath plays before I have to leave I'll do my best to get the turn in, but if he plays a little later than he did today then it will be really tight. Besides, it's kind of a cool cliffhanger.


EDIT: I just realized walls went up this turn. Well, I might need to go to the forest tile next turn and bombard them down now. We'll just have to do some sims and see how things shake out.

PRO: 26 (691)
FIN: 22 (527)

[pindicator]

Simming things out, it doesn't look good for me with the walls up. Actually, all those axes he added recently is what really turns things against me. I am probably going to have to change tactics here and I've shown my catapults for no good reason. Probably should have simmed earlier.

So now what do I do? More swords and change tactics, I think.

This has really bogged down thanks to me missing that window and trying to be cute with my numids earlier.

[pindicator]

So I'm feeling pretty despondent about this game as I realize my attack with my current troop level has no chance of succeeding.

Long term my position is not so great, not nearly as I thought it might be, because with Superdeath having the Pyramids he can always turn to Rep-fueled scientists when his economy crashes. Well, let's assume my extra happiness resources can beat that out. Even then the big problem with this map is ... I HAVE MORE NEIGHBORS. (Yes, we're back to beating this dead horse.) Superdeath puts everything on one city and it's all his has to do. I put everything in response outside said city ... and i give free reign to Mr. Cairo and Mjmd to do whatever on the other side of my empire. Mr. Cairo has already pushed up against my borders and I have nothing for a response or even a similar show of force because it's all out west against Superdeath.

The question is ... can I try to skate by like this and just continue trying to expand? Or do I need to just go all-war against Superdeath until one of us is gone? With Calendar coming online I see a possibility of just whipping hard for a BUNCH of catapults and units. Like 3 rounds of whips within 10 turns kind of whipping - that would be about 200 hammers per city, put everything to a size 2 or 3 and my economy in the toilet. But that influx of say 30 units would definitely help win the ground game now.

I do have room to continue expanding now - I just don't have the economy to support that and a troop buildup. And because Superdeath has nowhere else to put his units, I have to match his troop build up or risk getting wiped.

So I'm not seeing any good options.

[pindicator]

Okay, let's tackle one puzzle at a time.

Tech priorities:  I think what I want to do is get my golden age and use it to revolt into Org Rel & Hereditary Rule, then finish in Vassalage.  Use the golden age to get forges in cities so further infrastructure has +50% production.  Getting to Feudalism is going to be the hard part.  Then with forges in place we go for Compass and get Cothons everywhere.  (One thing to note about Cothons - I don't think we can count on the extra trade routes to be foreign, so I'm going to want some island cities to take advantage of those extra routes).  So I should expect to see +1 see to each existing trade route and then a domestic ICTR because we'll have an island city by then, which will give me +5c for each Cothon.

I also need to consider going for Literature and possibly even the free Great Artist at Music.  Nobody has gone Aesthetics yet, and there are wonders like Parthenon, The Great Library - even the Statue of Zeus if I want to really troll Superdeath.  Heroic Epic and possibly the free Great Artist are the real prizes here though.  It may be important to get Great Library just to deny it to Superdeath.

So that would mean tech order of:

Metal Casting
Polytheism
Monotheism
Monarchy
 - Golden Age -
Feudalism
Compass

And possibly slotting in Aesthetics and Literature somewhere.

After that it seems like a clear shot to Guilds as we'd only be 2 techs away.