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[PB59] Pindicator's One Thread to Rule Them All

Turn 081, in the Reckoning of the Shire

Well concerns are rising here, as naufrager has shot up to double my power in just 2 turns.

[Image: pb59%20-%20081%20-%20powershot.jpg?raw=1]

So everything goes to army now.  I thankfully have enough in the bank to 1-turn Masonry.  Considered whipping Hornblower right now so that the overflow would 1-turn walls, but then I'm whipping off the cow and we want that city to be able to do more later.  Plus walls should be the last thing to come in.

I finish a worker in Brandybuck at end of turn, and I 2-pop whip settler at Took next turn, but that is it.  I 1-pop whipped the worker at Chubb even though that city really should not be whipping any more.  I'll just have to give its pig to Sackville.  Chubb is far enough away that I think it makes chariots.

I considered declaring war on naufrager and offering peace, but instead I am going to send a warrior forward to scout if the units are coming my way or towards Just - his Ottoman neighbor to the north.  I also sent Just a warning:




While we're on the doom and gloom train, Amicalola has moved an axe and chariot up to our borderlands as well.  Considering their power is equal to mine, we're looking at what is likely their entirely army.  Please don't be unhappy about that fur city; you have another to your north that you should take.  Speaking of which, it was smart to put Chubb where I did as Amicalola settled a city which grabbed that fish this turn.  I didn't see it coming because it came from the northeast and my warrior went northwest.  I really thought they would grab the rice & fish in one city, but perhaps I missed a resource.

Enough for the doom & gloom; let's look at positive stuff.  Iron Working is done and we have 2 sources of Iron.
North:



South:



If there is no war or if I'm able to defend well enough then I will settle the Corn/Iron spot with the settler being whipped out of Took.  I want to establish as much of a presence in naufrager's direction as possible, and I've already seen him with a work boat along the inner sea.  However, if things start to go south, then I too will go south.  That southern iron is a little awkwardly placed for me; any city that claims it is going to also be within Took's BFC.  But there probably isn't any helping that and I'll likely just settle it on top of the plains hill so that I can use the Fish to get that city started.




Forgot to whipp Chubb until after the screenshot, so I photoshopped the size down to 4 there, but forgot to touch up the worker bar lol.  That worker is probably going to chop the riverside forests at Sackville and cottage up that city.  Sadly those chops look like they're going to go into units now.  We also need to mine the hill between Took & Chubb.  I was supposed to shuttle the archer at Sackville over to the island, but Amicalola's chariot made me stay at home.  I still want to get a pair of archers onto that island at some point.

Moving east, the pair of workers at Brandybuck started chopping the jungle.  Next turn they finish and the worker being completed starts on the gems mine, and the following turn all 3 finish up.  Capital is putting 11hpt into axes.  There's also a worker cottaging the tile south of the capital; once that guy finishes he's going to chop more forests - again, likely into units at this point.

Proudfoot gave up its corn for a turn to work the copper and a grass forest.  The city has 24 hammers in its granary and we want to whip next turn.  It will take the corn back next turn too; this was a one-time only deal.  The capital in turn will take the fish back from Took until it hits size 11.

Finally, Hornblower is just going to pump out archers.  The city is on a hill, will have walls, and if I have 4-6 units in there then I should be fine from any sane attack.  I've decided that we're already going to whip it at size 3 so the worker there is not improving the hill but instead chopping a forest out. That chop will be the walls, I think.

Unfortunately I fear naufrager has just crashed things so far that he has backed himself into a corner where he *has* to attack in order to pull in some pillage gold. But as the saying goes, we do not need to outrun the bear.  Just the other guy.  (Sorry kan & just, but I'm hoping that's you!)
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Oh son of a bitch




I thought I'd have a couple of turns while his forces gathered.

Kudos for him having fast workers to road through stuff too. I'm in real trouble here.

Didn't play yet, I'm too mad that my game is over before it even began. Doesn't matter if I fight this off or not, I'm an also-ran.
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Turn 082, in the Reckoning of the Shire

I declared war and killed his scout with a warrior.

So I'm in the game and counting turns it looks like I have until turn 86 if he keeps everything together and moves up.  If he rushes the chariots ahead that should be better for me anyway as I'll be able to pick off half his forces and by using units that counter them.  So he probably moves everything up and is at the gate of the capital on my turn 86, attacking the capital on his half.  (Then if he's particularly devious he shifts the units to the deer and forks Brandybuck with the capital, forcing me to attack out.)

This means I have 3 turns of production in any city that isn't the capital and 4 turns of production in the capital; otherwise they won't complete in time.

Which in turn has led me to think I need to get maximum hammer value from whips NOW and worry about efficiency or "working good tiles" later.




I tried to get as many cities as I could to 4 hammers at end of turn so we could double whip next turn for maximum effect.  Unfortunately that just isn't feasible with all the different overflow values running around.  Baggins and Took could do it - though Baggins is working a bare grassland.  And I could have done it at Brandybuck if I had taken my citizens off of every single improved tile and moved them all to lakes / bare grassland.  I decided that was a bridge too far and I'll just chop for extra hammers there.  Chubb had 12 hammers overflow so we just are going to regular 1-pop whip there next turn and that will still get 2 units in successive turns.

I haven't done hard number crunching here because I had my 2nd vaccination shot yesterday and its hitting me today - everything be woozy.  So hopefully I'm not missing something simple.  But I think I end up with 10 units in the capital by the time his stack gets there.  And hopefully the archer at Hornblower can kill an axe (or two!); after all, it is on a hill.
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Turn 083, in the Reckoning of the Shire

Not since the white wolves crossed the frozen Brandywine has the Shire seen such a threat at its borders:




Naufrager moved everything up and there only seems to be 1 straggling axe behind. There are also only 2 fast workers showing where there were 3 last turn. Unless he has 2 in the fog behind letting him road up, then he may have cost himself a turn by not roading. (Also, how I wish I could pillage my own roads!)

I've indicated his likely course up and the turns he will reach these tiles. Obviously he can move faster if he rushes the chariots up, but if he does that then he just loses the chariots. I am going to try to get another whip out of Proudfoot; if the city can at least get a spear or archer in it so that naufrager has to commit some troops to it then I will be happy. Or perhaps the axe I whipped this turn just stays in that city and we hope he splits his forces / delays his main stack.

Last turn we set every city up for whipping and this is the turn we pulled the trigger. 2 pop whips at Took and Baggins; this turn we made sure to get both the cities to 70/35 production and maximum overflow. 1 pop whips at Chubb and Brandybuck. Then workers everywhere are chopping. The idea is that we should be 1-turning units out of all 4 major cities for at least 3 turns. Then we set up the 2-pop whips and do it again.

My stuff isn't really worth highlighting because all I have on the ground right now are a couple of archers, some warriors, a spear, and a chariot. There is a bit of a logistics problem with moving units up from Chubb - I really need a road 2NE of that city to get units up faster, but there's no time to build it. Or rather, I could but it means producing less units out of Brandybuck. So the axe that we are whipping this turn probably doesn't reach Baggins in time. But I'm still feeling like I hold at Baggins here: I will have a dozen units in that city by turn 86, perhaps more.

We'll see what happens next, but while things are tight this is not yet game over.
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Turn 084, in the RNG Rape of the Shire

What is this bullshit?




20% odds to win the fight and he only loses ONE ROUND? I mean, I'm not sure if my formulas are 100% right but they have this happening at a frequency of less than 1%. God I knew my barb luck was hideous, I didn't realize it extended to early player battles too.

The bright spot is that he's split his forces up and he's moving along a potentially slower route of staying on the trees. It does prevent the axe at Proudfoot from getting the capital (well, not technically - I could go south), so I decided to not chop that forest hill on the river and instead have put an axe and spear there. And so help me, if he attacks with an axe and wins that fight at 10% odds then I guess Sid just doesn't want me playing this one.
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I hate everyone
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I mean, Amicalola just GIFTED MY ENTIRE EMPIRE TO NAUFRAGER. He will get nothing now! How stupid is this?
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So Amicalola burned by copper city.

I lost a turn of production in every city.

I no longer will have enough in place to beat back naufrager.

And Amicalola will get none of this.

What a moronic play.
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Ouch. frown
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Turn 085, in the Backstabbing of the Shire

Want to know something crazy? I still think I can hold off naufrager. (As long as he has NOTHING more coming up lol )




So what happened after Amicalola burned my only copper was the cities that had units in the queue built those units: the capital finished the galley I had put 1 turn into before swapping to axes; Took had a chariot thankfully in queue after its axe. Brandybuck had nothing in queue and so I lost those hammers, sadly. Or perhaps they rolled over? But I lost the unit coming out this turn, which was just as bad.

When I opened the game I had an offer from Just for open borders and copper. I thought that strange at first, him offering copper, but as you can see it is clearly needed. Nice to know one of my neighbors has some basic understanding of what is going on between naufrager and myself.

I killed Amicalola's chariot with my axe and killed naufrager's scout. Naufrager made the smart move of razing proudfoot - really, he has done everything right so far; it's just that I still think his strategic thinking for this war was flawed in the first place. (He might just get bailed out by me having a stupid neighbor on the other side.) And if he doesn't bring up more units then he is going to stall out at the capital then wish he had made more.

I had this brief moment where I thought what I could do to Amicalola's coastal cities with a pair of galleys (or maybe 3!) loaded up with troops. That would of course give the capital to naufrager. And really, my capital is everything this game. If I lose my capital, I lose the cottages, the academy. I really have to hold Baggins if I want any hope of continuing in any capacity other than just turtling up on an island somewhere.

And then I started counting units ... and I think I can still hold at the capital. I have no reason to hold for, though, as I will lose yet another city on Amicalola's side of the turn when he razes Sackville. So instead I went back to the settler I had started at Took and whipped it. This will go to the iron island city and I'll shuttle workers over there to whip everything out as quick as I can. Maybe I can scrounge out a living amongst the islands.

Oh, why would I do this to myself? Relelgate things to such a backwards living. It would be so much more fun to bring half a dozen units up to Amicalola and burn his stuff, and just let naufrager have it.

But I can stop naufrager still. So I feel like I should. I owe that to everyone else playing.
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