[spoilers] Commodore takes Advanced Starting

[Commodore]

I don't have any problems with your actions.  I will admit I had hoped that we could have done more damage to scooter, but theres only so much crappy ancient age stuff can do.

Hey, you gave it a good go. I applauded your courage moving forward without my units for sure joining you; that was brave.

To be fair, it seemed obvious you would move in as well, as it was absolutely the best chance of hurting scooter.  I had hoped for a better outcome... if i had simmed it at all, I probably would have held back and defended the cap.

I presume, btw, that your copper/horse/stone offer was an offer essentially do that?

Basically. I was going to follow your lead, didn't know which city was a better shot. You lose 100% of the shots you never take, however, well worth trying. I think I'm going to disappoint you now though, as I opened to find Scooter offering fish-for-fish. I think Cornflakes is alarming him, even though he has 60% more land than the Dutch. I counter-offered this:

Vagaries of AI diplo being what they are, hard to say, but basically I'm saying let's keep a watchful peace and fight our neighbors. I'm top power now, so maybe it's foolish, but I'm willing to give it a go.

[AutomatedTeller]

I never understand these AI deals. You offered me copper/horse/stone for some gold

I assumed that meant send military units to take my city back, but I really had no idea.

[Commodore]

Turn 100 Extravaganza: Pitboss 53 now with 5

I think Advanced Start definitely accelerated us here. My cities are huge, my people are happy, and my build queues...still need the whip.

Weird map, man. In this Age of Gold I don't know how much can been said about GNP and MFG, but at least the Turks are well-fed. And strong.

The fact that my military is #1 both confuses and baffles me. I really, really don't have what I'd call a large army, certainly not enough to fight an offensive war against anyone. A round of knights is about to roll off the line, but if I'm not going to wage war against Scooter but rather try for Cairo, I think I'd rather have 3-move galleys loaded with the Janissary Corps. 

Hrm. What can we be told by the graphs, Jerry?




Well, looks like neither TBS nor Cairo are about to kick something off, happy in techland. Scooter's economy crashed pretty hard, although the rebound when his conquests some online is going to be staggering. I'm very impressed with TBS and that MFG, don't look now gang but he's still in it. He's actually also managed to snake some decent-but-not-amazing wonders out from under Cornflakes' nose.

Just got to keep plugging. I really don't have a great place to build wonders at this juncture, but Everett the Moai City will be able to put at least *something* together as its forge comes online. Moai cities aren't usually the very best hammer location in the whole empire, but here in the land of flatness...

Interesting game here 100 turns in. Anyone have any questions?

[superdeath]

i swear i didnt realize how flat i had made the map.

[Commodore]

Scooter is trying to tell me something. This signal is strong, but the data is garbled. He had an OB offer after this.

I returned a simple Open Borders/both of us Stop Trading With Cornflakes. I think Scooter wants to be able to draw-down our borders. Okay, but I want in return him to have to actually militarize his Cornflakes border. Otherwise, I don't see the worth here.

I did offer this, let's see what TBS thinks about war with Cairo in a dozen turns. Maybe?

[Commodore]

Going to see if Scooter accepts the OB DMZ unto being kept honest by Cornflakes. If he doesn't accept, eh...I can murder three or four cities here on turn one of a conflict, and I'll invite Cornflakes to join in this split.

[superdeath]

t103 researching gunpowder... Advanced Start is really something

[Gaspar]

t103 researching gunpowder... Advanced Start is really something

I can't decide how I feel about this game itself, but I definitely like the idea of something reducing the extremely dry first 50t of a normal speed game. This is why we always used to play quick but obviously that comes with its own flavor of problems.

[Commodore]

t103 researching gunpowder... Advanced Start is really something

I can't decide how I feel about this game itself, but I definitely like the idea of something reducing the extremely dry first 50t of a normal speed game.  This is why we always used to play quick but obviously that comes with its own flavor of problems.

I've registered my map complaints and all but don't get me wrong, I'm having a lot of fun here. Advanced Start is fascinating, basically let us just skip the boring parts of the first 25 turns or so. A- game mode, would definitely try again. 

All that said, I really don't have a clear vision of how much of this current tech pace is due to Advanced Start vs. CtH mod buffing some traits and this map being very flat and high-happy. My old BtS senses are being triggered; I think we're about to zoom through Medieval and Renaissance pretty fast before crashing into the hammer sump that is Industrial Era. I'm going to be probably going for Nationalism next, as the draft is this map's Killer App, then of course Music and MilTrad for cuirs. I'm in a decent position, but Scooter with 1.67 blobs and Financial is going to absolutely out-compete me with 1.33 blobs and Charismatic, so I need to see if I can convert my good position into a consumed Cairo post-haste.

[Commodore]

Big debate this turn; Scooter is drawing down his forces, so I can do likewise. Giving the top dog his chance to put this away, so I need to try and grow bigger. The big debate personally this turn was between Engineering and Gunpowder. My head, schooled in logistics as it is, knows that Engineering is typically the best choice, but darn it, I want to try these:

Weird trick if I want to invade the Khmer...I still have a fair few horse archers. They can protect catapults and janissaries from ballistaphants in a stack.