[SPOILERS - El Grillo PB54] Staying home and stargazing

[El Grillo]

Things haven't been going great personally, and you can see my attention to these PB games has suffered as a consequence.

I'd ask for a sub, but PB56 is still in its infancy so whatever, while this game feels like it's in a pretty tense moment of military buildup that I wouldn't feel good asking someone else to handle.

[Charriu]

I'm sorry to hear that. 

Anything we can do to help?

[El Grillo]

It's an unfortunate combination of seasonal mood swings, isolation, and work-derived anxiety. Like good god what am I doing with my life. Some time off in the coming days will be greatly welcome, and I'd also appreciate a hug and someone I trust telling me that I'm ok. A tall order at present, alas.

In this game though, I'd hoped to declare war and offer peace to Mjmd this turn, but he seems to be waiting for me to play. We've already run the clock down a full day, maybe we just need to flip a coin for it?

[NobleHelium]

You were last to play last turn and he was first to play, so he should play before you this turn if there is contention.

[El Grillo]

It's a bit messy because I only played the previous turn last because I had forgotten to get to it during the weekend, and prior to that I had been pretty consistently playing before Mjmd.

The idea on my part was to hit his fort-in-progress Workers a turn or two before it completed, but Mjmd pre-empted that by settling a coastal city 2 tiles away from mine, a possibility I had forgotten about because of the normal minimum distance rule. Now he can just base his Galleys out of there and I'll need more Triremes to cover the landing zone.

[El Grillo]

Mjmd's power spiked an impressive amount between turns, and he pre-empted my defensive Galley move by declaring war this turn, so I think I'll be a few turns too late from holding Great Diamond. Well played by him. If he's content with taking that city, so be it. It was a bit of a reach, and I can suppress further Galley movement with my Triremes, but I expect him to have a stack in the north as well and that could be problematic.

The only good news is that superdeath doesn't seem to be mustering up for an attack as well. We're ~5t from Feudalism but if they both attack then I will probably lose 3-4 cities before I can become prickly enough.

[El Grillo]

Played T113, I'm ferrying over some more Archers and whipping in Walls, but Great Diamond is doomed if Mjmd can bring some more Catapults. My Triremes can't get there in time to stop him from making two more trips. I noticed Mjmd built Hanging Gardens, which is a great play by him with his access to stone, so if he's throwing a dozen units at me here then the city is his and I can only hope to extract a fair share of hammers defending.

Good news is that with the Academy, Feudalism is a 3t tech and I can start it next turn. And to be even more optimistic, while I'm sad now that the island is a 2-tile island and not a 1-tile island, you can bet I'll be grateful when it's our turn to counterattack.

[El Grillo]

Shoot, I was distracted and went to play the turn. I only moved a single Galley before realizing, and not in a way that should affect Mjmd. I'll send him a PM to let him know, but would be fine reloading if he wants.

EDIT: It was a Galley, not a Trireme.

[El Grillo]

Triremes were one turn too late to save Great Diamond. Longbows will be one turn too late to save Big Dipper. Mjmd founding that port city 2 tiles away was a real tactical win and I perhaps fell into the trap of committing and not evacuating defenders in Great Diamond when that city was basically doomed as soon as he secured a way to unload his units. I can't even pin the units he used to attack on the island because of how many open spots there are, but at least I can prevent him from shipping the units north or attacking me directly with them. Small things to be grateful for.

In hindsight, it was perhaps overly optimistic to go for Civil Service instead of straight to Feudalism, Vassalage would've been fine right away whereas Bureaucracy will take quite a while to pay back, especially if I could've saved myself this attack with more effective defenders as a deterrent. We're certainly not dead here, but this sets us back considerably, and that's really not acceptable when I fully expect Miguelito to have Guilds coming out of his GA, or shortly thereafter. The power ratings on that confident don't exactly inspire confidence...

[El Grillo]

For future reference, Archers don't queue-upgrade into Longbows.