[SPOILERS] - social distancing with pindicator

[Gaspar]

FWIW, cost seems low enough that I'd feel pretty comfortable taking the shot at Mjmd.

OTOH, I'm glad you didn't get screwed by being a good doobie and letting everyone know about the bug.

[pindicator]

I did a thing




Now just trying to decide if I can get away with covering the wounded C3 knights. Next turn I'd retreat everything back if I do, and then expect to have Dance Floor burned in retaliation but whatever.

The fact that he has no gold and still has no Engineering makes me think I can get away with it.

[pindicator]

179

You know what, peace is boring.




Also, Mjmd just got Replaceable Parts at the end of his golden age. So if I'm going to hit him with knights I have to do it here and now, otherwise against Rifles this won't be possible.

Mjmd had spotted my stack ahead of time, as he had whipped Sugar Cookies and moved most of his units in the southern border away, including all his catapults down there. He is fearing a full invasion but I just want to raid and return to my own borders.

On defense Sugar Cookies only has 20% borders, no walls, and is not on a hill. We have C3 Knights that get odds on War Elephants and Longbows alike.

Code:

C3 Knight v CG2 Longbow (62.8%) - flawless win
C3 Knight v CG2 Longbow (62.8%) - win
C3 Knight v CG2 Longbow (67.1%) - win
C2 Formation Knight v C2 Elephant (72.1%) - win
C2 Knight v C2 Elephant (63.0%) - loss
C1 Knight v 20hp C2 Elephant (99.9%) - win

And then I had the smart thought to check the tiles south of the forests, which was last post:




Which led to a delimma. 3 of those C3 knights promoted from their attacks and it would be great to have more march or even C4 knights among my forces. At the same time, with 15 knights of Mjmd's to the south I am a little outnumbered here. However, I also out-promote him wildly as he only has 1 C2 knight a few C1, and most with no promotions at all. So the only question is the one of catapults: if he has a stack of catapults in range I could be in trouble. But in my favor is that he still has not gotten engineering and so there are only 2 tiles those catapults could be on. So I decided to risk covering the knights with the rest of my stack.

If I'm wiped out then I'm in trouble. On my turn I'll pull the road and retreat the survivors back into my territory. More catapults will be needed.


PRO: 104 (3,674)
FIN: 61 (3,324)
I removed the extra trade routes from my count this turn as they should be patched out by Ramk. Still looks really good for PRO here.

Civil Service done end of turn. I think I go straight for Nationalism. If he's going Rifling then I'll likely start with drafting maces while I tech Gunpowder and build catapults.

[pindicator]

Tech situation @ start of t180

Mjmd - 27,189 beakers
He's up: Alphabet, Drama, Banking, Paper, Philosophy, Education, Gunpowder, Liberalism, Printing Press, Replaceable Parts
I'm up: Compass, Engineering, Optics

Jowy - 21,391 beakers
He's up: Alphabet, Banking, Music, Paper, Gunpowder, Printing Press, Replaceable Parts[/b]
I'm up: Archery, Meditation, Priesthood, Compass, Engineering, Optics

Mr. Cairo - 14,782 beakers
He's up: Alphabet, Paper, Philosophy
I'm up: Aesthetics, Compass, Literature, Optics

Me - 14,558 beakers

Automated Teller - 10,566
He's up: Alphabet
I'm up: Monotheism, Compass, Civil Service, Guilds, Optics

Charriu - unknown

[Commodore]

Jowy - 21,391 beakers
He's up: Alphabet, Banking, Music, Paper, Gunpowder, Printing Press, Replaceable Parts[/b]
I'm up: Archery, Meditation, Priesthood, Compass, Engineering, Optics

Wut.

[pindicator]

I think Jowy is showy recency bias, giving too much weight to PRO and to Inflation

[NobleHelium]

Games have been won without teching Archery. If he doesn't have a good reason to tech it, he shouldn't tech it.

[pindicator]

180

Let's see if we have any morning after regrets...




All right, no regrets! Mjmd killed the two C1 knights I had apart but as I hoped he didn't have the temerity to take on the big stack. He perhaps could have just by his numbers.

This means I got away with burning an Mjmd city and killing 3 longbow + 2 war elephants at the cost of 3 knights (and 1 badly placed city of my own). I will take that!

So I retreated all my units back into my territory, pillaged the road (small thing, as he can easily rebuild) and then offered peace. Note the two knights now behind Foam. Noble offered that Mjmd may try to attack me there but I think the two knights showing means that he just wants me to see that he can defend. I don't think Mjmd is aggressive at all - in fact, I think he is too passive. But we had to hit him to slow down his tech rate and try to get him to build something other than research.

So I continue to build catapults and tech up as my research rate improves and cities grow. And prepare for the real war that is coming later:




Heroic Epic started. National Epic is almost ready to start at Benton, but I'm still growing that city while building its library. I think I will have to continue doing so up until it is almost done then 1p whip the library so I can get some overflow into the National Epic. With King of Montival I instead whipped all the stuff early - granary and then barracks - and we'll build the National Epic slowly.

Demos: I have retaken my rightful spot as food leader




Mjmd got Replaceable Parts last turn, and Rifling is the logical next step. My next step is Nationalism but I'm going to save up and then shoot towards it in one shot. Now that I'm making over 250gpt at max tax (woohoo economy! Finally showing some signs there!) and burn 710bpt at max science, I need to have a little more than 4 turns of burn saved. I'm burning an absurd 500gpt, so we need 2k gold. That is 6t away. Nationalism in 10 at current rate, but hopefully we continue to grow and that number comes down - we are growing onto some very nice flood plains towns up north after all!

Also, the extra trade routes didn't take away as much as I thought. I only dropped from 119 to 104: 15 in all, and they were the worst 15 so it was only 30 commerce lost.


PRO: 108 (3,782)
FIN: 66 (3,390)

[superdeath]

1. Are you planning on stealing the Taj?
2. Would you put Mjmd on the same passive-ness as Cairo?

[pindicator]

1. Are you planning on stealing the Taj?
2. Would you put Mjmd on the same passive-ness as Cairo?

1. It would be a pipe dream and honestly inexcusable by Jowy & Mjmd to let me get Taj. Nationalism is SO GOOD for war (Jowy) and Taj is the best wonder you can get with MoM (Mjmd). But if I am able to get to Nationalism first I would say I have a very good chance at landing Taj, and if they let me get Taj ... oh ho ho, what a coup that would be for me!

2. As for passivity, i think he isn't quite like Cairo. He did attack me after all But my take on his play is that he is not very experienced in multiplayer war and just how far you can push a civ to crank out units, so he is being extra careful with the units he has. He doesn't want to risk losing them in a bad attack. So with that I think he is passive.

Really, he plays like someone who plays a lot of single player: going for Rifling as the beeline tech instead of Cuirs or Cannons, like he'll just be able to overpower me like you would an AI