[PB57] Pindicator searches for his mascot

[pindicator]

081

Did a bit of whipping.




But not at the capital. We've got a lot of temples now. I wonder if someone is going to look at the PB Spy entries and start panic whipping defenders.

Anyway, the demos I proposed. Contrast to a few turns back:




Sadly not much change in GNP. But food and MFG are both up a lot. I'm guessing the extra expenses from cities coming out of revolt is holding back GNP. No worries, we're chopping out Sacrificial Altars with haste.

Gavagai's power is spiking. I think I'll put up a round of spears before I go for any more infra.

I probably do want to get back into Theocracy soon though. My advantages are all rather short-term and OH & TBS are both cashing in on long-term advantages.

[Mjmd]

Nice Demo improvement.

I know you put a lot of effort into that attack. Do you think you overbuilt units? Or did TBS just have more to defend than you thought?

[pindicator]

I think I might have wimped out and given him peace too quick.

I do not think I overbuilt units because there is a long shelf-life on these horse archers. They'll be relevant for a while and give me a lot of flexibility for the next era or two. The next time a war comes up I'll have the option of jumping in and grabbing a city or two. Or I'll just have my defense set and can focus on economy.

I do start to question the Theology bulb a little though...

[pindicator]

082

OH declared on Gavagai. If this is a real war then I'm going to jump in and try to take the border city of Gav's as well as settle his 1-tile island for 2c trade routes. So I swapped back to Theocracy. Actually it was a good time to do so anyway; I will be finishing a lot of units this turn.

We'll see what the situation is next turn. That will determine a lot of how I proceed. But the horse archers are moving towards the border with Gav.

[pindicator]

085

Had a good think about what the next set of goals were and decided it's time to push economy. I have room to squeeze in several more cities and I have a wonder that encourages ICS with plans to get more. So a wave of settlers and missionaries is in order, as soon as possible. From there we are going to get Metal Casting for Triremes and Forges in a few select cities, and then push research with Wealth Builds. That means Metal Casting was the tech that eventually won out. I want to get to Paper as soon as possible so I can build Sankore, but I might squeeze in one of Iron Working, Construction, or Monarchy if I figure there are immediate needs for any of military or happiness.

I used my roaming settler on one of the decent city locations left in the world:




Hat tip to the Baylor Bears who won this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament, handing top-ranked Gonzaga their only loss of the year.

Also, you can see TBS is up to economic stuff too. He just triggered the game's first golden age and has a Great Merchant roaming my streets. I think it may be heading towards Old Harry though? In any case, TBS is looking to jump ahead economically as well. He's also pushing culture up against my newly conquered cities, which makes me consider another attack when our peace treaty is up in 3 turns. Yes, that means it's time to start moving the horse archer army back towards TBS.

Come to think on it, his Great Merchant has not moved the full movement last turn. I wonder if it is serving more as a scout? Or perhaps he does not have enforced peace with OH and is just setting up how to move within OH's territory. That sounds more likely.




I am amused by this graph. The spikes at the end for TBS and me are rather similar, except mine is a combination of Currency & turning on the research for Metal Casting. His is his golden age. It's no surprise that he leads GNP & MFG right now, but I maintain a slight food lead.

[Amicalola]

Why did you decide to settle Taylor Bear off the coast? Safety?

[pindicator]

Biggest reason is to share the Corn and get a quick start for the city. Settling on the hill for safety is second. Having all the forests be first ring is just nice too. It's just a nice spot, really. The coast part is unfortunate but I like all the positives more.

EDIT: A better spot would be to put it 1S of where I placed it, but then I don't like how that's a little harder to defend. Plus I like having the rice in the first ring so I can improve it before border pops.

[pindicator]

086

Oh, I think I see the plan now.




Did not realize that Machinery has been bulbed by our PHI teams. With TBS now teching Feudalism it seems pretty clear where he is heading. So Construction suddenly is a must-have tech. Forget the forges; we are using Wealth Builds to get there right away.

He's found my horse archer stack with his great merchant, so I'm sending them up towards his border. Probably will not attack because I expect him to be prepared, but at the same time I want him to have to spend those resources on defending. So we'll show him what he expects to see.

Definitely feel like I'm falling behind. I need to get Paper and not die to Knights.

EDIT: I forgot to add, Old Harry just finished teching HBR and whipped a ton. Those are horchers, right? There's no way he's already upgrading to knights ... right? That would be crazy fast but I haven't been tracking what they have been doing with their great people, so man .... I guess it could be the case.

[pindicator]

087

TBS cashed in his great merchant and I moved my horcher army up to strike next turn. I'll road and move the sentry up first and if I see anything worth going after then I'll pounce and try to raze that border city between us.

In the meantime, I swapped to Org Rel. This is probably stupid. I probably should be staying Theocracy and building out triremes and catapults and weles. But instead I'm going to try and sneak in 5 turns of infrastructure: monasteries, forges, and the like that I can whip. Forges especially - more efficient whips are a good thing.

I also had a really interesting scenario take place at Mortimer:




The city was at size 3, 22/26 food and 29/60 in the granary. After swapping to Org Rel I was able to whip it this turn and realized that not only was it correct to whip, but that it was better to not work the pig. Craziness that a grassland hill mine is better, but the trick of course is Avoid Growth. At end of turn I'll be at size 2, 24/24. Next turn we turn on growth again and work the Pig and Cow and we'll be sitting at size 3 with 16 in the food box at end of turn. If we were to work the pig and cow this turn after whipping we'd end up with 6 overflow this turn and 7 next turn putting us at 13 food in the box. Same amount of hammers, because I'm working the grass hill one turn in each scenario. Thought that was a bit of craziness worth sharing.

[pindicator]

088

Sacrificial Altar is my MVP




Is this the stupid version where crossbows also give collateral? Shit, I keep forgetting what wacky stuff Krill threw in here at the end. In any case, the sentry horcher was not needed; I had just enough EP to gain city sight this last turn and saw all I needed to see. I really screwed up by not razing this city before peace and now I have to hope I can gain control of that rice or else the Houston Cougar's city is going to be indefensible.

Catapults next turn. Lots of catapults.