[PB62] naufragar and Rusten earn their wage in rostygold

[Charriu]

Don't know how much longer I'll keep up the country song gimmick, but if I stop the soothing tunes, I might just strip off my clothes, howl at the moon, and kill a deer with my bare hands. So let's learn about the dangers of impulsivity.

I'm looking forward to that.

[Amicalola]

Hello. Would you like to officially concede to anybody (or if you have already, officially repeat it)? Or would you prefer to keep playing?

Also: . Just a big fat , really.

[naufragar]

You ask me on the turn I was projected to land the Pyramids? Should I read something into that? 

In all seriousness, let's say I have a standing concession to Tarkac. I don't know how Mjmd and Vanrober/Miguelito feel about their chances, and I don't want them to feel pressured to concede. For all my shit talk, Mjmd has the best chance if he can get a moment of peace to grow onto Financial river cottages. Vanrober, I imagine, is working library scientists to get a Math bulb into Currency, so he might not feel so hopeless either.

Short version: I concede to Tarkac, but if people want to play on, please don't indicate that they are alone in wanting to do so.

I plan to get to the turn in about an hour and try to talk big picture stuff then. (And pictures of my shiny new Pyramids? )

[naufragar]

Nah. Screw that. It's not even turn 75 and Civac himself has complained that Realms Beyonders resign too quickly. For our site's honor if nothing else, I retract my concession.

[Charriu]

Nah. Screw that. It's not even turn 75 and Civac himself has complained that Realms Beyonders resign too quickly. For our site's honor if nothing else, I retract my concession.

[naufragar]

Don't know how much longer I'll keep up the country song gimmick, but if I stop the soothing tunes, I might just strip off my clothes, howl at the moon, and kill a deer with my bare hands. So let's learn about the dangers of impulsivity.

I'm looking forward to that.

I don't believe you. While conceding is probably a good idea, since the longer this game goes on, the more of a angry, unkind monster I become, I figure I should play this string out despite my increasingly frayed mental state.

Apropos of nothing, let's fast forward our country music by about thirty years.

Johnny Cash released this song in 2002. (He kept producing music practically until his funeral.) But this was originally written by Sting (yeah, that Sting). Sting's version is... not good. In fact, it's amazing that someone can write such a profound song and not seem to get it. "I orphaned his children. I widowed his wife. Awooo!" C'mon, Sting. The writers of the Wikipedia article for "I Hung My Head" also don't seem to get it. "It tells the story of a boy who shoots a stranger (possibly by accident)." C'mon, Wikipedia. It's the story of a boy who shoots a stranger out of a sudden destructive impulse (as in "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die") and has to bear the weight of it for the rest of his short life. And yet while it's a very sad song, it's not completely hopeless. No idea why this song popped into my head...

Anyway, we start the turn up with an easy combat, with our chariot versus Mjmd's warrior.



Did I say easy combat?


Heck. What's a 78% loss among friends?  Seriously folks. This game.

We move our troops up.


Mjmd cut the road down to Shuttered Palace, but we'll try to reconnect it. If we had killed the warrior, this would be easy. As it is, it's a tiny bit complicated. If my understanding of queue upgrades is correct, I'll be able to double whip that warrior (which will be a spear) and get the full overflow into another unit. Mjmd moved his units back into the fog. He's got enough to stack wipe me, so I have to be a little cautious.

You know what's sad? I'm not even particularly excited about this:


Yes, people, this entire time I've been fighting Superdeath and Mjmd with one hand tied behind my back. This city can and will three-turn metal units probably for the rest of its life. With stone, the Pyramids are 334 hammers or roughly 10 axes. Could you imagine if I had 10 axes? And the 'mids don't even do anything yet because I can't afford the turn of anarchy to revolt to Representation. Worse, I'm almost certain Tarkac were building it and now got failgold from it. (They didn't research Writing or Sailing which I would've expected if they didn't go Masonry.)

I stand by this:

I don't like the Pyramids.

Never touching Pyramids again. 

Pseudo-edit: I never actually said anything about concession. So, I still don't know where Tarkac are.  I assume they are across the desert to my west and roughly north of Superdeath. 9 cities is not enough to launch the spaceship, so they still have to do something to win. They are winning, but they need to turn their dominance into an obvious path to victory. Rolling through me or Vanrober/Mjmd would be a way to demonstrate that. Until then, they haven't won, and I'm trying to get into the mindset that I insist they show me they can do it, rather than giving them the benefit of the doubt.

In perhaps simpler terms, I mean that my concession question isn't "can I still win?" but "is Player X's win guaranteed?" Probably the win is guaranteed... but we'll see. My plan should be pretty obvious. We have to bloody Mjmd, avoid bankruptcy, garrison Shuttered Palace sufficiently to deter Superdeath, get to Writing. At least two of those seem impossible. But if we do, it looks like I can get to Construction before at least one neighbor. Perhaps we could even conquer cities without going further bankrupt. Ok. That sounds like a plan. Stabilize territorial loss->stabilize economy->get Scientist specialists->get Construction. If Tarkac or whoever stop this plan, I'll reevaluate concession.

[naufragar]

I realize I made a stupid, stupid mistake, and it's eating me up inside. 

Can you spot it?


I knew Mjmd was going to raze Wolfstad the first chance he got, but I still finished the corn farm. What an idiotic thing to do.  This picture is perfectly emblematic of the game so far. Mjmd's city was founded on turn 45 and thirty turns later he has only improved one tile in its bfc, while building barracks and a monument before a granary, and then I go and give him an improved 6f tile. Goddamn I'm an idiot.



When last I checked, this city was at size 3. I doubt that Mjmd one-whipped this, so I guess it grew to 4 and he two pop whipped it in the first half of the turn. Granary or two metal units? If he checked the event log, he could have designs on the Pyramid city. If anybody is interested in some neat micro, the city produces 11 hammers and +2 food by working the horse, stone, and deer. It produces 13 hammers and -1 food by working horse, stone, and grass mine, so I can continuously turn out metal units at three turns a pop while still growing ever so slowly. Obviously, I wish I were building granaries and working cottages, but this is what we've got.

I revise my estimate when I said Mjmd has best shot at second place. It's got to be Vanrober:


Look at him go. Settling good cities in uncontested land. What an idea.


Ugh. I'm still pissed at myself for building that farm. Vanrober has re-settled his razed city that will eventually grab the sheep from OakAshThorn. If I hadn't built that farm, Mjmd would have once against gained exactly nothing from his raze of Wolfstad. As it is, I've given him +3food.  I'm such a moron. (It's probably obvious, but just in case it's not: a city that goes through the first 30 turns of its life with nothing better than a single plains ivory camp (which is equal to 1 grassland mine on a river!) and for which you commit yourself to dozens of turns of ancient era war, in which you whip and chop out units from cities without infrastructure is not the best plan.) I really shouldn't have built that farm. 

[naufragar]

Oh right. Country music...uh.... Here you go.


The same artist as "One Dying and a Burying," which is pretty trippy. Also the voice of this rooster:

[Cornflakes]

Maybe if you start playing backwards you will have better success

[naufragar]

Maybe if you start playing backwards you will have better success 

I've got a feeling that my fortune is going to be the same backwards or forwards.




The turn pace has been very fast, so I haven't be able to report the last few turns. For a change, here's the Superdeath front:


Now naufragar, I hear you say, you aren't at war with Superdeath. Why are you calling this the Superdeath front? Well, charming lurker, Superdeath has not settled another city, so I've got to assume he's just gearing up for our next war. In this pic, you see me dealing with a barb. Barbs have been pretty nasty this game, but I haven't mentioned many. Hopefully, we kill this archer with no problems. Shuttered Palace could be adding a lot of units to the Mjmd front, but I want a couple axes and a couple spears before I even see Superdeath's invasion (which is due t80). Perhaps he doesn't attack, but that would surprise me.

I've missed a few turns of reports on the OakAshThorn situation:


We made some bad moves, some good moves, and won an important 40% fight. OakAshThorn is not as vulnerable as it looks. Mjmd whipped this turn, so there'll be a unit in it next turn. I believe I can ask Vanrober to join in next turn. If I were Vanrober, I probably wouldn't. Mjmd and I are just weakening each other and gaining nothing, while Vanrober's position starts to look better and better, but maybe if Vanrober sees an opportunity to raze OakAshThorn, he takes it. Next turn, I'll probably try to cut the roads into the city and lay siege to it. Notice that OakAshThorn has returned to its normal state with exactly 1 tile improvement and a non-food tile at that. He's got a granary, so it's alright, but we'll just keep applying pressure.

Speaking of pressure:


I've got a force consisting of 1 axe, 1 spear, and 1 chariot who are in Mjmd's north trying to cause trouble. It looks like I'll be able to pillage his farm next turn. (Another city with the 1 improved tile special.) He produced the chariot this turn, but if he tries an end run, The Flit's spear should handle him pretty easily. As I mentioned previously, the starvation is intentional. We're 3 turning units forever from here. Mjmd has 50% more build queues than us and already is higher on the power charts, but who knows. Let's just keep applying pressure.