[PB56] Amicalola and Tarkeel are Feeling Spicy

[Amicalola]

Not a proper update yet, that will have to come soon, another time. I'm very busy, like probably many people right now.

We took Monarchy.



We got the Oracle, Ruff didn't attack. So that's good. Noble is lurking around with a few units up north, presumably trying to stop us from settling up there. I am debating whether or not I should declare war this turn and offer peace, for 10 turns of guaranteed safety. On the other hand, why would he accept the peace?

Noble has more power than us, and only really needs it on one front, as opposed to our two. Thanks to that, he has units threatening our cities/settling sites, while we don't. His southern neighbours have apparently decided to ruin each other with endless war rather than focus on the guy who's already eaten a neighbour to their north. He has probably the most land to freely settle in the game, at least what I've seen. This game pretty much could not have gone better for Noble than it has. He also spends over an hour on every turn, which a) I am incredibly jealous of how much time Noble apparently has, and b) means he will check and think about every little thing. Which is fine; like I said I am jealous that he has that time. It just makes beating him even less likely. 

But in action news, I think I am going to declare war, and offer peace. Might as well, since he seems to be playing after us the last few turns. Hopefully he accepts the peace, if he doesn't not much changes, since we're basically in a cold war anyway.

[Lewwyn]

On the other hand, why would he accept the peace?

I think you underestimate the value of a enforced peace. He would probably accept, but then it snot clear you even need to get enforced peace right now as he probably wants to solidify his newly secured holdings. I would NOT give him enforced peace and instead force him to maintain a defensive army.

He also spends over an hour on every turn, which a) I am incredibly jealous of how much time Noble apparently has, and b) means he will check and think about every little thing. Which is fine; like I said I am jealous that he has that time. It just makes beating him even less likely. 

Only an hour? He spends 2 hours average on the pbem 78 turns with Gaspar. I see them online in Steam. It's always longer when you're playing with teammates and are interested in consensus or opinions on every little thing.

Did you settle the north? What does the border look like?

[Amicalola]

We got an enforced peace with Noble. While your suggestion was interesting, I think the value of US not needing an army for the next 10 turns is also very important. Noble also already has a defensive army, and it's better than ours. Because he didn't lose any units fighting AT, many are also promoted, and would beat us at even numbers, let alone the current outnumbered situation.

He has settled that pink dot to his north a few turns before we could, which is a shame, but I think we will get the rest. Ruff is also competing for the north, and I would expect us to end up with either 9 or 10 cities, leaving room for 1-2 of his. The amazing thing is that's actually better than we could have expected in a normal game, since we are grabbing 1-2 cities off both Ruff (he's very slow; still 3 cities) and AT (dead, obviously).

Meanwhile, Civac is already at 9 cities and still have lots of space.

Whatever Noble's work-life is, I am envious! I have the occasional day to spend over an hour doing micro/plans/a detailed report, but more than ~once a week just wouldn't happen. I actually regret splitting myself over two games; going to stick with one at a time in the future.



North is currently being settled, will be done by probably T83 ish. Longer term plans for now include three rough priorities.

1. Don't die to Noble, and be a thorn in his side. I still think Noble is all-but-guaranteed to win, but we obviously have to make that as difficult as possible.

2. Conquer Ruff? If Noble sends his army in the other direction, Ruff is so weak that even we could probably turn on him. This would be after construction, so T110(?) at the earliest. This is extra enticing to me, since I did want to kill a player after all, and AT was so rudely stolen from us.

3. Get to banking ASAP. Our conquering of Ruff (if that happens; it's not actually that likely) could also happen with early knights on the way to Banking for our stock exchanges.

[superdeath]

Would love some screenies

[Amicalola]

Would love some screenies

You'll get some soon! Promise.  

In 'Amica is a dummy' news, I goofed really hard this turn and settled a city with no garrison in range of Ruff's wandering chariot.

He can see the city. It is a middle filler-city which has literally 0 value to him, so hopefully he will be nice and not touch it. If he does raze it, 'kill Ruff' becomes a much higher priority. However, it was 100% a boneheaded move to settle this turn instead of wait one, so I honestly kind of deserve to have it razed. Would be very sad, but only a 2-pop whip and ~5 turn delay so not a total disaster. I think we'll get 2 more cities (3 if Fennel is razed  ) for a total of 10, as Ruff settled the spot I thought most likely for him this turn, with the forest furs. 

Did you place the furs around the map SD, or were they randomly generated?

[superdeath]

Did you place the furs around the map SD, or were they randomly generated?

If i tell you that i dont remember, will that suffice?

[Tarkeel]

Would love some screenies

I'm working on a T75 summary

[Amicalola]

Interestingly, Ruff didn't raze the new city, but also didn't accept my OB request. I wonder what that means...

[Amicalola]

So, having found Cairo and Civac, it stands to reason that Mjmd is on the other side of Ruff/Vanrober. I'm surprised it took so long to find each other. Nice to have finally met everyone.

Also, I was having a look at the diplo screen this turn, and I realised something Crazy. Lazteuq has met Us, Noble, Gira, and... oh, that's it. 3/10 people!!! How is that possible! Even if he hasn't got a scout, surely other people would have walked up on him by now. Seriously unlucky, I guess. Gira's and Noble's culture does a great job of sealing the Byzantines off from the world. The fact he and Jowy especially have not met is bizarre.

From a productive viewpoint, if I'm right about Mjmd, we may be able to split Ruff and even Vanrober with him.

I was thinking about this a couple of days ago, and with Tarkeel doing a proper 'state of our game' overview I thought I'd do a 'state of other's games' brief thoughts. Now that I've met everyone this turn I feel like I have a *decent* idea of how people are doing. Right now it looks like the strongest 5 and the weaker 5 are in two distinct tiers, with more variation within the top tier. Here is how I would rank us all right now (Turn 75). These are from the knowledge I have, which is not incredible, so feel free to correct it in the lurker thread for me to read later. At worst it's amusing for lurkers, right? Players (in order):

1. Noble - Will win unless something crazy happens. We are his strongest neighbour by far, and we are not very strong. 
BIG DROP

2. Civac - Has expanded very well. Slightly longer-term traits. 
3. Mjmd - Has expanded very well. Slightly shorter-term traits. 
DROP

4. Vanrober - Expanded decently, but near strong players and especially near Rome(?). 
4. Amicalola - Set behind by whipping, catching up with Oracle but not enough. Strongest non-Noble player near him, which either makes us a target or less attractive. Not sure which.
BIG BIG DROP

6-9. Gira, Jowy, Cairo, Lazteuq - Not sure why, but they're all significantly behind. Gira and Lazteuq will be scrumptious meals for Noble, which is why I plausibly can see us getting the chance to take out Ruff. Cairo will get eaten by Civac or maybe Mjmd. Jowy will get munched by Civac. 
DROP

10. Ruff - My working theory is still that Vanrober sniped Ruff's first settler which is how their war started. Tastey snack for whoever gets there first. Current prediction = Vanrober, but Mjmd or Us also possible.


The big takeaway for me from a game-balance perspective is that 4 of the top 5 players have IMP, and the exception is Noble who conquered another player entirely. Gira would be a tier above 6-9 if not for the war with Jowy too. IMP is really, really good. Probably especially on smaller maps.

[Tarkeel]

While the game has moved on to T77 by now, it's hard to find time to write overviews when the kids are at home all day. So, here's a slightly delayed T75 mini-overview.

Turn 75 (1000 BC)
When I lat gave an overview, I was very optimistic about our future prospects and possibility of splitting AutomatedTeller with NobleHelium. That did not come to pass, and it's been some very bumpy turns for our empire. Our entire military buildup (which hobbled our expansion) was for nought, and Noble managed to eat AT's entire empire, and managed to force peace concession out of us. The only good news is that Ruff and Vanrober have been focused on each other, giving us room to recover somewhat and we've managed to expand to 7 cities, with 8 being founded next turn. We should be able to land two more cities for a total of 10. We've also founded no less than two religions (and are actively spreading one), and landing Oracle for early Monarchy to alleviate our happiness issues.




Where do we go from here? One of our traits is more or less spent, while the other should be coming online as our cities grow and we can work all that wonderful riverland. While eating Ruff would be wonderful, I think our short term goal should be growing our economy. We're currently relying on trade routes to not crater our economy, but with all cities being size 2 or smaller that's actually pretty decent. We really need some more workers to lay down cottages and watermills (when available).




I still think our situation is better than it appears, but there's no escaping that we're the closest neighbor (and thus biggest threat) to the runaway leader of the game.

The (Spice) Rack
Our poor capital has been slaved pretty hard, but it finally has someone to share unworked tiles with. It really needs to get some more cottages up soon; Basil, Dill and Fennel should all be growing cottages for our capital.

Anise
Poor pink dot has also been slaved to the ground multiple times, but still manages to be our key economic city. I propose that we add watermills to all available tiles for some much needed production.

Basil
The Hindu holy city and thus one of our most important cities is also the most exposed, bordering Noble's capital. Currently slated for pumping out missionaries for a while.

Cumin
The fabled Red-dot that was delayed for too long by our failed Pearl Harbor. This should be our Heroic Epic city and prime producer of military for the rest of the game. It's also where we whipped out Oracle and landed Judaism, which we don't intend to spread.

Dill
This is more less a plain filler city on the Vanrober border that doesn't claim anything interesting. It's only redeeming feature is that it can borrow unused tiles from the capital and help grow a cottage.

Elderflower
One of our latest foundings on the way to the coast. Should be able to run a nice mixture of cottages and watermills with some mines.

Fennel
Another filler city that doesn't claim any new resources, but has a lot of riverland for cottages.