[PB59 Amicalola] The Vespertine Hour(s)

[Amicalola]

T147 - War!

With Pindicator's death, it looks like the orgy of death and destruction over this land might finally come to an end.

Just Kidding. This game broke me.   



I've had a sinking feeling over the past few turns. One that said it was only a matter of time before Naufragar and Mr. Cairo decided to split me, with both of their stacks near the border. I haven't really been able to see a world in which the three of us live in harmony long-term. While I'm top in power for now, I don't expect that to hold long-term, especially as Cairo continues to outscale me; might as well use those knights before they're obsolete. In addition, I'm still annoyed at Naufragar about, well, everything. What can I say, I hold a grudge.  


So when I saw an opportunity to wipe Naufragar's stack off the planet, and weaken him before it was too late, I couldn't really resist it. A sixth sense told me that Naufragar might try to run away from The Scouring this turn, and even if he didn't I'd resolved to get a first strike in now during the inter-turn. I want The Scouring, and if I get to whack Naufragar over the head for it, that's just an added bonus (maybe it's half the point  ). Anyway, I put my ~30 knights on this gems tile, where they would be able to get in a nasty first strike against those catapults either in The Scouring, or while retreating. 


Two workers roaded the incense, and into the breach we went...

First we assaulted The Scouring, which contained 3 pikemen. That fell for the cost of 2 knights. Then we went for the big stack itself, in which every unit was killed for a trade of... 4 more knights. Technically I had odds to lose only 3 there, but I can't really complain - the total trade was 6 knights for 5 pikemen, 6 war elephants, 16 catapults, a 1 HA, axe, chariot, and The Scouring. Not bad.  


I don't want to get cocky, but it seems safe to predict taking Madras next turn too.  

The 1-movers have gone via the north, a turn behind in Alarm Call (I screwed up there). They will move next to Hornblower next turn, and once I take that, I'll probably ask for peace. 


Not especially convinced he'll give it, but the whole point of this war was to reduce Naufragar's threat level, and I don't think he can meaningfully counter-attack after that disgusting first turn. I have city-visibility, and I know that Nauf has basically nothing outside of what's in Pindicator's territory. That's another part of the reason I suspect Nauf and Cairo are gearing up to split me - they certainly aren't planning to fight each other. Better to strike while the iron is hot. 

Finally, the siege of My Precious did not appear to go very well. I'm not really sure how this happened:


I suppose Naufragar will capture it next turn, for the gold at least. I'm not sure he'll be able to hold it... 

Of course, things look great right now, but they could turn on a dime. Cairo's stack is still close, and I'd only have 1 turn's warning of an attack from him. If that happens, I'll be able to whip yet more units, but I'd obviously rather it not. Let's hope Cairo is busy with the Astro islands and doesn't want a fight yet?   



I'll leave you with the power graph; someone under-estimated my capacity for spiteful vengeance.

[El Grillo]

Having full tactical visibility sure is fun, isn't it?

[Amicalola]

Having full tactical visibility sure is fun, isn't it?

No kidding! I can't believe how much I've under-estimated EP spending in the past!!

[pindicator]

Hey, hope you don't mind me posting your PM and replying to it here:

Hey Pindicator,

I've been waiting until you were officially out to write this. I just wanted to say that I hope there are no hard feelings about my... questionable decision earlier in the game. I imagine it was pretty infuriating, and I came to regret it very quickly. I realised that even if Naufragar had gone on to eliminate you, I would have helped him a lot more than me, and if he hadn't... yeah. I had been vaguely planning to send troops to help you in the 2nd war, but they never really materialised because of my self-interest in getting to knights ASAP. Well, 'self-interest.'  I think some of my biggest weaknesses are building too much infrastructure and putting off necessary fights, and both were huge there. I feel I treated you quite awfully this game, and I'm sorry for that.

I thought your whole game was completely amazing. I had expected you to come for revenge after those razes, but way under-estimated how severe it would be. It blew my mind how quickly you built that stack, while simultaneously on few cities and in another hot war. You caught me completely off-guard with it, as you could probably tell. I also loved how you never gave in, and kept doing such tangible damage to both me and Naufragar for so long (although Raging Herpes drove me absolutely crazy sometimes). You wouldn't know it from my thread, but in retrospect that whole war (starting with your invasion) was the most fun I've had in a game despite all my mistakes and losses, because you were pretty clearly the best player I've interacted with. I can't wait to read your thread and see it all from your perspective. If you feel like pointing out any of my   here or in my thread, please feel free. Could be cathartic, and I might even learn something. Otherwise, good luck in PB57, where things look a lot better!

Cheers (and GG),
Amicalola. 

Also, I wanted to get through your thread before replying. But here goes:

I think you are right that the decision to raze my cities was a mistake, but maybe not quite why you are thinking about it as. It seems like you didn't have the full knowledge to realize that I was in a fight for my life against naufrager at that moment, even though you saw we were at war. What you didn't know was that I had a plan in place to eliminate naufrager's invading stack although it required me whipping every city brutally to get there. I probably didn't need to leave the cities quite as vulnerable to you razing them as I did, but I thought surely you would realize that stabbign me meant naufrager would get everything. (And he should have, I'm still not sure why he didn't.)

If you had just gone after the fur island and left my mainland cities alone, I probably would have just written it up as a cost of war and continued on against naufrager. I would have been upset at losing it, sure, but the bigger injury would have been naufrager's and so he would have been the neighbor I hated the most. I also would have known I couldn't trust you as a friendly border regardless.

But by razing my cities you pretty much turned me into having zero chance at winning or even surviving into the middle ages. At that point I was going to try and get revenge on you somehow. It was just a matter of when and where at that point.

Oh, and the galleys. Remember that I was CHM. I only needed 4xp on a galley to get Nav-1. So with the first GG i was able to get two nav-2 galleys, and the third - the infamous Raging Herpes - was when i won a low-odds galley on galley fight at the start of our last war. That got me 4xp and i was able to double promote thanks to be charismatic.

I don't know how much I should say about the war with naufrager and myself yet because I don't want to color how you play out the rest of the game with naufrager. Maybe after the game or at least when one of you is eliminated

Also, I think you know exactly how I got so many units: whipping is very powerful and very underused by players. You did he same yourself with knights in getting together that defense! In any case, you were teching really fast at that point. Take PB52 into account where I was constantly whipping almost the entire game before finally pullign ahead for a victory there. (In some cases the razing/resettling of cities felt like a benefit because it let me start over with the whip anger )

But I think you're in a great position and definitely among the contenders for the game. Don't get down on yourself, keep plugging away, keep setting goals. Big games like this need a bit of luck to go your way, but all you can do is put yourself in the best position to take advantage of the opportunity when it comes up.

[Amicalola]

T149

My 1-mover stack is next to Hornblower, ready to bombard/collateral next turn.


I added a couple more knights after this picture, but this was a terrible idea by me. The knight stack is healing in the south. 


I'm not remotely happy with how I played this turn. I have no idea why I sent the catapults north, instead of just south where they could have linked up with the knights. I was trying to be clever, but I overthought it and made a move worse than the obvious one!  I'm trying to defend 2 stacks now from Hornblower's garrison, and really quite needlessly so. I think I'm guaranteed to lose some units unnecessarily on Naufragar's coming turn, because I'm guessing he'll attack out, and I should have thought about it better beforehand. D'oh.

Still, not all is wrong. The war is still going great overall, and we took Madras for free as expected. Even better news:


Cairo's stack is on the move... away from us!   So it looks like I don't have to whip another round of defenders in my northern cities. Next turn we should take Hornblower barring something crazy happening, and I think we can defend it pretty comfortably - just minus a few units.  

- - - - -

Hey, hope you don't mind me posting your PM and replying to it here.

Not at all, I appreciate the response. 

I think you are right that the decision to raze my cities was a mistake, but maybe not quite why you are thinking about it as.  It seems like you didn't have the full knowledge to realize that I was in a fight for my life against naufrager at that moment, even though you saw we were at war.  What you didn't know was that I had a plan in place to eliminate naufrager's invading stack although it required me whipping every city brutally to get there.  I probably didn't need to leave the cities quite as vulnerable to you razing them as I did, but I thought surely you would realize that stabbign me meant naufrager would get everything.  (And he should have, I'm still not sure why he didn't.)

If you had just gone after the fur island and left my mainland cities alone, I probably would have just written it up as a cost of war and continued on against naufrager.  I would have been upset at losing it, sure, but the bigger injury would have been naufrager's and so he would have been the neighbor I hated the most.  I also would have known I couldn't trust you as a friendly border regardless.

But by razing my cities you pretty much turned me into having zero chance at winning or even surviving into the middle ages.  At that point I was going to try and get revenge on you somehow.  It was just a matter of when and where at that point.

This is pretty much what I meant, although you explained it a lot better than my condensed summary of 'yeah.'  But it is good to have it written out like that, especially the middle part about the island is interesting. I had been thinking I had to go 'all' (take island and raze) or 'nothing' (neither), which was definitely wrong. I also should have realised how much trouble you were in vs. Naufragar, considering that I had taken note of his huge power spike literally two turns before.

Oh, and the galleys.  Remember that I was CHM.  I only needed 4xp on a galley to get Nav-1.  So with the first GG i was able to get two nav-2 galleys, and the third - the infamous Raging Herpes - was when i won a low-odds galley on galley fight at the start of our last war.  That got me 4xp and i was able to double promote thanks to be charismatic.

Well, that's given me a newfound appreciation for CHM, I had never thought about that possibility. And it explains a lot - I was super confused about where they came from.

I don't know how much I should say about the war with naufrager and myself yet because I don't want to color how you play out the rest of the game with naufrager.  Maybe after the game or at least when one of you is eliminated 

Also, I think you know exactly how I got so many units: whipping is very powerful and very underused by players.  You did he same yourself with knights in getting together that defense!  In any case, you were teching really fast at that point.  Take PB52 into account where I was constantly whipping almost the entire game before finally pullign ahead for a victory there.  (In some cases the razing/resettling of cities felt like a benefit because it let me start over with the whip anger  )

I'm looking forward to it! Yeah, I guess I was more just amazed how efficient you were. I didn't coherently visualise your unit 'production' at the time, which was a huge error. I think a big part of it was that when I was whipping knights, a 2-whip tended to be just the knight. But when you whipped WE's / Catapults / Swords, that was closer to 2 units with overflow, and I didn't make that mental connection. The bright side is that your invasion taught me how to really whip into the ground and make a magical army myself, which is definitely something I needed to learn the hard way.  

But I think you're in a great position and definitely among the contenders for the game.  Don't get down on yourself, keep plugging away, keep setting goals.  Big games like this need a bit of luck to go your way, but all you can do is put yourself in the best position to take advantage of the opportunity when it comes up.

Thanks, I appreciate it. I've been neglecting any planning or goal setting recently, because I've felt pretty knocked out. But this whole message had me thinking today about some medium- and long-term goals for the game, which was really nice actually. I surely have an uphill battle ahead trying to keep up with Cairo, but I hope trying will be fun. I have a few ideas and goals brewing from today, which I might talk about on T150.

[Amicalola]

T149

Most of my pictures didn't save this turn, for some reason. Naufragar attacked out at Hornblower, into my various stacks, although not how I'd expected. The biggest surprise was that my 2worker+2knight stack got left alone, I thought he'd kill those for sure. He got a little unlucky during his attacks, but then I lost two 90% battles clearing out what was left, so I think it roughly evened out. 


My total losses are now 12 knights and 1 spear, about what I was expecting. I've killed God knows how many troops now, although Naufragar did retreat some of his units back into his territory. I don't think I can advance into Naufragar's homeland, so I'm going to hunker down in Hornblower and spam cultural buildings until the inevitable counter-attack. Not sure if that'll be in 5 or 20 turns, but I am sure that it's coming someday. 

I also took My Precious this turn. I was agonising last night about how poorly I'd set up this attack (only knights, no catapults, only 4 units per turn) and how My Precious would take forever to capture. With bad luck, I worried I might even fail to capture it for some 5-10 turns. What I did not expect was for Naufragar to nearly empty the city, leaving only three wounded swords. It turns out Naufragar tried to retreat, moving his three triremes and three galleys away, presumably loaded with the mounted troops. 

My four knights attacked off the boats and the first three all won, so that with the 2HAs I loaded afterwards, My Precious now has six units defending it from four potential counter-attackers. I say four counter-attackers because after we took the city, my upgraded caravels (including the two uber-lucky pirate triremes! ) whacked Naufragar's retreating navy, and sunk four ships. Nauf can either land the remaining troops, or try to defend Bangalore. So it turns out there was no need to agonise - depending on where Nauf's ships go, we might actually take 0 losses.  



I'll try to get a larger post in next turn, given that it's T150. State of the Empire, plans moving forward, things like that. Any topic requests welcome.

[Amicalola]

T150 Part One - State of the Empire

The north, or 'the core.' 


You can see the core is still recovering from the invasion; the biggest scar is probably the lack of developed cottages. Well, maybe the unworked tiles. Or maybe the 4-5 whip unhappy in every city. You get the idea.  One thing I've done quite poorly in this game is specialise my cities - the only two of note are Unison (cottage capital) and Cocoon (Heroic Epic city), and even these cities were whipped for 3 knights each during the invasion. I'm trying to grow the core now, in preparation for a Golden Age in about 8-10 turns. Building-wise, it's a lot of libraries and castles. The latter is probably the weirder choice, but 75 hammers for 1.25 culture, 0.5 EP, (short-term) defenses, and 4-5 base commerce seems like a pretty good deal to me. Obviously they obsolete eventually, but I'm not planning to get Corporation until at least T200, so castles seem like a pretty good deal if built in the next 10 turns. 

The south, or 'Pindicator's land.' 


Regrowth is going to be slow here. Half the cities don't have granaries, and the number of improved tiles is tiny. Naufragar pillaging here was part of what tipped me over the edge into the current war, but it was successful in severely reducing my gains from this area. The plan here is to get basic infrastructure up in the next 20 turns (granary->forge->courthouse->lighthouse->barracks), and work as many tiles as possible. I'll try not to whip beyond the granaries. I'm probably going to rebuild with a lot of watermills and windmills here, which will be an interesting comparison with the core in 10-20 turns when the cities are grown. 

Here's the relevant graphs of the 3 remaining players on the island. 

I think it's quite interesting that we've all had a distinct phase of being 'the strong one.' Naufragar looked amazing 50 turns ago, and then I almost ran out to an unstoppable lead during my GA, while now Cairo is ascendant in every graph. It's going to be a real challenge keeping up with that.  

Demos


I've lost the 1st spot in power to Civac, who's currently attacking Elkad. Demos are catching up to some extent (see graphs), although they're slowing down again now. I think I'm right at the bottom of the remaining contenders, probably around 8th place overall. I'll need something to go very right to even have a shot at taking down Cairo, let alone the overall win. But I'm just strong enough that it's possible, and trying should be a lot of fun. 

Financial Advisor


I paid off my final loan debt last turn, and it feels good to be a free man again. Trade routes are obviously carrying me now, which is lucky considering the circumstances. The balance will probably get more even as Pindicator's land regrows, but this is still something I've never seen before. Unit cost is also going down as my cities regrow, which is helping a surprising amount.

Some Statistics


Granaries, forges, and courthouses are obviously the buildings I've most prioritised. I'm reasonably happy with that (being IND/ORG), although I think I built too many of the latter before Pindicator's invasion. Just a few longbows could have severely damaged his stack at All Neon Like, and then my game plays out considerably differently.  

Tech Tree


I'm behind Cairo in tech (up Gunpowder, down CS, Paper, Music, Astronomy). I can roughly keep pace for now, but as his Astro Islands come online he'll gradually grow that lead. I prioritised Gunpowder when I thought Cairo would attack me, although now that he's not it looks like a mistake. I would sure rather have 1-2 economic techs instead.  Oh well, hindsight is 20/20, I suppose. We're getting to the point in the game that I have little-to-no experience in, and tech path is probably one of the areas that it will show. 

Wonders (and Top 5 Cities)


I have the two best cities in the world! Well, nominally speaking. I think I played IND very well in the early game, leveraging it into two of the best wonders (Stonehenge+Ethiopia is a dream ), as well as an early MFG lead. But in the last 30 turns, it's Charriu who's been knocking it out of the park, building his own collection of wonders. They aren't as individually strong, but they'll add up over time, even for the GPP.  Every 'unknown' wonder is Cornflakes, who might have a shot at a cultural victory with Sistine, a religion, and the AP.

[Amicalola]

T150 Part Two - Around The World 
Until recently, this hasn't really felt like a 'Big PB,' because I've only had graphs and interaction with the people on my island, and maybe Tarkeel/SD. Maybe it's a problem in all big games, but I think 'no-score mod' made it a lot worse, even though it's a cool idea and great in smaller games. This is a little disappointing, but the recent graphs/maps have helped a lot, being able to see what's happening in the fog. It's exciting that so much is going on, which I guess is the whole point. I've also noticed that reporting for this game is a little sparse, so consider this, at worst, an updated map of each island.

Global Graphs
I've spent the last 10 turns getting graphs on (nearly) everyone who still matters, except GKC and unmet Cornflakes. Probably not the best use of EP, but with city-vis on Nauf I didn't see much else to do, and the info makes the turns more fun.  I think these will provide useful context for the rest of this report.

Food



MFG



GNP



Power

Islands
I've attempted a very short summary of each island, from left-to-right across the map. Admittedly, my information is limited, but that's part of the fun. Islands 1, 2, and 4 seem pretty clear cut, while I know less about Islands 3 and 5.

Island One

The island I know the most about, other than my own. TBS (Catherine/China) got out to the best start, as seen in the food graph. It seems that Commodore (Lieu-Ye/Rome) did not take that well, and they've been locked in a war for at least 60 turns, since I met them. TBS has -7 diplo modifier towards Commodore, for razing cities!!   Meanwhile, Superdeath (Charlemagne/Inca) parleyed his fast IMP+Inca into an early conquest of JoshyBravo963 (Asoka/America), and looked set to become extremely strong... for about 5 turns. Then TBS created a massive army and took America for himself. TBS has been stuck in a 2v1 war ever since, but is by far the strongest on his continent, while Superdeath and Commodore edge ever-closer to irrelevancy. I suspect it won't be long before one of them gets overwhelmed by Chinese cuirassiers or cavalry. Throughout all of this, a checked-out Tarkeel (Hannibal/Egypt) has mostly built in the north. Tarkeel is much stronger than Superdeath or Commodore, but I don't think he can challenge TBS (now Donovan Zoi) for overall supremacy of the island.

Island Two

Hey, it's us! Mackoti (Genghis Khan/Ottomans) has emerged as the strongest power here, following an extraordinarily successful conquest of Mr. Cairo (Darius/Aztecs), with Mr. Cairo confusingly assuming control of the Ottomans recently. Mackoti managed to somehow pull off an entire 1v1 conquest while still having one of the strongest economies. Oh, and he's Genghis Khan - words fail me. Mr. Cairo is taking full advantage, and settling 1-2 Astro islands currently. Pindicator (Lincoln/Netherlands) fought an amazing defense but was finally split between Amicalola (Roosevelt/Ethiopia) and Naufragar (Joao/India) following a string of invasions, alliances, and betrayals. I was able to take Naufragar's winnings in the last 5 turns, and Cairo has thankfully stayed peaceful thus far. My economy is decent thanks to GLH being overpowered on this map, albeit behind Cairo's. Meanwhile, I think Naufragar was hit pretty hard by my last attack, but maybe he'll prove me wrong.

Island Three

The island with the strongest average player, but no weak nations for them to easily consume. Incidentally, this island also holds both of the scary CivForum teams, and the Apostolic Palace Religion (Judaism) for more hammers. Piccadilly/Flunky (Willem/Mali) are the emerging superpower, having conquered Jowy (Kublai Khan/Byzantium). Unfortunately, the Byzantines never made it to Guilds. With nearly two civs worth of land and CRE/FIN pairing, Piccadilly must be one of the favourites. But the other three players here are no slouches. Frozen/Dullland (Victoria/Babylon) are competing with Miguelito/Rusten and Mr. Cairo for having the strongest economy in the game, with tonnes of financial cottages and coast. Ichabod (Hammurabi/Germany) also competes, and is settling an Astro island. That, plus his half-price Assembly Plants, means Ichabod will scale into the late-game better than nearly anyone else. Finally, Cornflakes (Pericles/Native America) has half a dozen wonders, including the AP and Sistine Chapel, although a Cultural Victory could be tough in that neighbourhood.

Island Four

Unlike the first three islands, there are two superpowers competing for supremacy. Civac (Shaka/Sumeria) ate AT (Justinian/Khmer) very early (first player eliminated), and so essentially has two developed cores. Meanwhile, Miguelito (Pacal/France) rapidly rolled Donovan Zoi (Sitting Bull/Spain) up more recently. Despite having the top food in the game, it is Civac under pressure, up against Miguelito's Financial+Colossus uber-economy. To that end, Civac has just invaded Elkad (San Martin/England), whose land might be the advantage Civac needs to keep the ball rolling. Miguelito has finished Taj Mahal, and declared war on Civac in response, and I suspect they will be locked in a death struggle from here. Not sure who will win, but the game will be much more exciting if it is Civac.

Island Five

Unlike every other island, there have been no eliminations. My best guess is that inconclusive warfare has stagnated all five nations, but this is the island I know the least about. Here is what I can say: Mjmd (Zara Yaqob/Portugal) was amongst the leaders in early-game food, but something must have gone horribly wrong, and now he's at the bottom. He has a huge dip in power, so my best guess is a failed invasion of Ramk? Charriu (Ramesses/Greece) and Lazteuq (Montezuma/Persia) seem to have fought multiple wars, and Charriu razed a city of Lazteuq's this turn. I love that Lazteuq is actively using Serfdom. GeneralKilCavalry (Julius Caesar/Mongolia) has fought Lazteuq and Ramk, and birthed a couple of great generals, but without actually gaining land that I can see. I thought this was a top-tier combo in this game, and I'm sad that it didn't seem to work out. Ramkamhaeng (Cyrus/Arabia) looks to be the runt, which isn't super surprising considering he got stuck with Arabia. He's at war with Mjmd and GKC right now, and I don't think the -X- Empire is long for this world...

Amicalola's (Rough) Player Tier List
I would roughly rank the relative strength of all remaining players in this order:

Strong Contenders 
1. Miguelito/Rusten - Pacal of France (Island 4)
2. Mackoti Mr. Cairo - Genghis Khan of the Ottomans (Island 2)
3. Piccadilly/Flunky - Willem of Mali (Island 3)
4. Civac2 - Shaka of Sumeria (Island 4)
5. TBS Donovan Zoi - Catherine of China (Island 1)

Long-shot Contenders 
6. Frozen/Dullland - Victoria of Babylon (Island 3)
7. Ichabod - Hammurabi of Germany (Island 3)
8. Cornflakes - Pericles of Native America (Island 3)
9. Amicalola - Roosevelt of Ethiopia (Island 2)

Powerful/Relevant Non-Contenders
10. GeneralKilCavalry - Julius Caesar of Mongolia (Island 5)
11. Tarkeel - Hannibal of Egypt (Island 1)
12. Naufragar - Joao of India (Island 2)
13. Lazteuq - Montezuma of Persia (Island 5)
14. Charriu - Ramesses of Greece (Island 5)


Dead Men Walking
15. Mjmd - Zara Yaqob of Portugal (Island 5)
16. Commodore - Lieu-Ye of Rome (Island 1)
17. Ramkamhaeng - Cyrus of Arabia (Island 5)
18. Superdeath - Charlemagne of Inca (Island 1)
19. Elkad - San Martin of England (Island 4)

Eliminated
20. Pindicator - Lincoln of the Netherlands (Island 2). Eliminated T148 by Naufragar. 
21. Jowy - Kublai Khan of Byzantium (Island 3). Eliminated T143 by Piccadilly/Flunky. 
22. Donovan Zoi - Sitting Bull of Spain (Island 4). Eliminated T142 by Miguelito/Rusten. 
23. Mr. Cairo - Darius of the Aztecs (Island 2). Eliminated T141 by Mackoti Mr. Cairo
24. JoshyBravo963 - Asoka of America (Island 1). Eliminated T121 by Superdeath.
25. AutomatedTeller - Justinian of the Khmer (Island 4). Eliminated T116 by Civac2.

As you can tell, I think Islands 2, 3, and 4 contain nearly every contender remaining. Islands 2 and 4 were deathtraps with multiple players eliminated, while Island 3 has by far the strongest average player left. I don't think it makes the others any less interesting, but I do think that the eventual winner likely comes from this group (2, 3, 4), something like 90% or more.

[DaveV]

Thanks for all the work it took to put that report together. It was very informative and helped me a lot with visualizing the global situation.

[Amicalola]

Thanks Dave, I'm glad it was helpful. Now that I have graphs and a good world map, I'll probably try to keep updated on global events, either as they happen or a little rundown every 5-10 turns.

I'm hoping to type up the final part (future plans) later today, after work most likely. After that, I might need to take a few days off.