[spoilers] Commodore takes Advanced Starting

[Commodore]

Someone mind adding time to the clock? This turn is not getting played tonight, and I know others are waiting on me. Sorry.

Is Scooter actually fighting Cornflakes, despite his vacation? A little surprised here; I figured Cornflakes had checked out and would just allow himself to be pushed over eternally for the nonce. Which is a very disappointing thought.

Or...Cornflakes, despite his vacation, could decide to stay at war, which in turn prompts TBS to pile on. Sweet, maybe there is a little going on here actually, I'd expect Cornflakes hits Fan Death while TBS hits toward either Bigfoot or Chemtrails:

Roswell has to be my target; that sucker is a path to four of my cities, most notably my very best in the Moai beauty that is Everett. Scooter needs to sue for peace hyper-fast here, or I'm going to tear him a new one. I have to hit him *hard*, because my economy is so pitifully behind that there's zero hope for winning unless I can murder some good cities. If I can, though, this looks a lot more solid for ole' Mr. Commodore.

[Commodore]

Booyah. Cornflakes is conquering up there, while TBS is still at war. Going to crunch into Scooter in 2t, might be feeling good enough to actually try conquest over razing. If I can take three decent-sized hauls, I can also kick off research on Steel.

[Commodore]

This is a highly dynamic game, broken up by the checked-out wrecking ball that is Cornflakes with his vacations and random work schedule. Cornflakes took the border city he shares with Scooter, which looks like maybe dissuaded TBS from taking Bigfoot. Fair enough, but I think he's positioning to run through Cairo's land a hit me. If I have to not hit Scooter because I have to scramble a dozen pikes/jans behind a castle down in Olympia, I will be *pissed*.


My research is crap. Scooter worked himself up to Galleons, as you see, and so can fork my entire sea through Roswell. I have to kill Roswell, but it's a pretty dicey think at this point and Scooter has another turn to reinforce. I'd love to be able to push down the isthmus, but TBS with that danged knight stack means I. Can't.


I almost declared war on TBS to force a peace treaty, but the teleport bug would have cheated and tossed his stack out of Cairo's land over to Ligurian. A nice outcome on the map, but underhanded. I opted instead to send a couple diplomacy panes:
1. Me Backpack (AT city), His Ligurian, iron and horses, convert to Hinduism. Basically, let's be allies and I'll help him capture Bigfoot.
2. Me Olympia, him ALL CITIES. He wants to kingmake here, he can, but Scooter is massively ahead without this dogpile maintaining its coherence (and completely dead if we keep the dogpile running).

Exciting times. The dogpile continues, Scooter is doomed, we all get to eat chunks of him, and I'm in the lead but CF and TBS are in it. The dogpile dissolves, Scooter wins as he rips me apart with me 20+ turns away from Astronomy.

[Commodore]

Galleons all over, yo. I kicked off my part of the dogpile with a burning of New World Order:

Expensive, but not bad. Two jans that can now promote to Amphibious got shuffled into a single galley; thus, the two empties on top guard them and it's another nice strike.

Right, my primary vulnerability is the canal of Roswell. Initial setup:

Initial waves were pretty decent, won a couple ~37% odds fights, so I kept pushing:


Alas, I hurt the defending knight down to the awkward 6.2/10. My formation horse archers, being formation, couldn't hit the knight but instead cleared wounded longbows. All I have is the chariot and the sentry horse archer. Last try:

Nadda. Well, in the end our losses were close enough for an attacker to be pleased...

Scooter’s losses: 
2 archers, 2 longbows, 3 chucklenaughts, 2 muskets = 415
My losses:
2 jans, 1 war elephant, 3 knights, 2 horse archers, 1 chariot = 620

Final setup. I moved my slow stack to be able to move east or west as needed:

...then, I screwed up. I offered peace for Roswell and Stevie Wonder (former AT capital). But what did I say?

Exciting times. The dogpile continues, Scooter is doomed, we all get to eat chunks of him, and I'm in the lead but CF and TBS are in it. The dogpile dissolves, Scooter wins as he rips me apart with me 20+ turns away from Astronomy.

CRAP. I just made myself top dog *apparently*. Yes, I said apparently. Scooter's now going to be still the Astronomy-owner in ten turns, and couple that with Chemistry or Military Science. So if the dogpile (okay, now just 2-front war), dissolves, now I'm out of luck when his galleons come a-callin.

[Commodore]

Not to undersell my position here, that was a big swing in my favor. I just worry about the geopolitics from this...Scooter is currently suffering from being #1 in all respects but the eyes of his fellows.

[Commodore]

I am tickled about one little thing...I just spent a great general on 20 units. Charismatic plus barracks plus Theocracy plus Vassalage means I had SO MANY janissaries and pikes and catapults at 7/8 for XP, so...

[Commodore]

Scooter is reconquering Cornflakes' gains, and TBS has vanished probably to pile on to Cornflakes as well. So let's enjoy this brief shining moment of supremacy:

[superdeath]

Whats the plan from here?

[Commodore]

Whats the plan from here?

Well, I'll tell you what it isn't.

Absolutely not. There is no way I can give up Raze in particular; that thing is the key to my empire's heart. Scooter will be there on that doorstep with galleons in five more turns, and I cannot let him in. Apparently various people have short memories in this game...however:

Did you end up with any cities net of the peace treaty?

Nope, not at all. Net zero cities. Basically paid for my military in capture/pillage gold, and that's about it.


Scooter made a mistaaake.

He did unto me a small injury.

He sent me an offer of white peace, and then a pair of offers about "stop trading with TBS". Yeah bud, sure would be nice to be able to coordinate and shut out Carthage, wouldn't it?

I made Scooter an offer he very much needs to consider: Peace for 1000 gold. This nets me Chemistry, so halfway to Steel and cannons. I can then time it just right to have a cannon wave in time to actually conquer Cairo properly ten turns later after war/peace with Scooter again, because he's never getting trusted with peace not enforced by game mechanics ever again this game. Whoopsie-doodle, buddy, I think you screwed the pooch here.

I. Do. Not. Forget. Scooter had a great chance to be honorable and shut out everyone else. Instead, he chose this. So I told him if he takes back those two cities he's going to lose *everything* to TBS. That's a promise.

Scooter has successfully engineered a geopolitical situation where everyone else would rather anyone else win over him. His only consolation is that we're also all trying to be self-preserving as well.

[Commodore]

It seems almost farcical to talk about pursuing a victory condition in a game this dynamic. And yet progress still somehow manages to move along here; Scooter's got himself galleons, TBS has Chemistry and I'm sure is going to land either cannons or grenadiers shortly, and I'm two turns from Steel. It really hurt to build on this low-hammer map, but the Apostolic Palace is already helping with those critical hammers, and I see real appeal to Spiral Minaret and Sankore. Assuming this constant back-and-forth continues and we all somehow manage to maintain poise and sanity ahead, I might want to look at what a Culture Victory entails.

City #1: Seattle

Seattle is finally a capital worth its name, as decent workshops are online here and we can build a few things. This place is kind of a best-case for cultural pushing; it'll have ten towns and a couple townish tiles. Call it about 100 base cpt from tiles. With four cathedrals (easily doable, if expensive) and Free Speech, that's 400cpt. I think adding buildings at +25 together a nice 500 culture per turn is doable. 90 turns is harsh, but add in two Great Artists, you have a sane timeframe.

City #2: Everett

AKA my Achilles Heel. It's crazy how vulnerable this city is for being such a beefy boy. AP is here, all well and good, but I'd need to make UoS/SM here too along with some other culture superbuilders to manage that bare minimum 500 per turn. Painful, but again, sane.

City #3: Whidbey

It's what we are calling "superhammers" for this map, I guess. Plenty of food, but only 15 commerce from tiles. So how would you get up to the baseline 500cpt minimum? Push Islam and get six cathedrals, okay. That's x4. Add Free Speech, that's x5. Hermitage is doable with these hammers, that's x6. That's going to require ~84 culture per turn base. That's tiles, plus 15 trade, that's a whopping 54 culture needed from wonders, buildings, and artists? With Sistine, maybe, otherwise that's a tall tall order.

Backup: Spokane

Pros: Inland, mature city. Good tiles. Decent hammers.
Cons: Can't take all those tiles if I want to buff Seattle to max. :-/

I think, in conclusion...this game isn't going to go to a victory condition, even this minimal one.