[PB 64] Ginger plays as Charlemagne, famed man of letters

[Ginger()]

   

Another win for Medieval era increased event chance.

Clearly superior to Great Lighthouse 
payout was 170 in the end

This game is such a troll. I begged Gavagai's spare gold and changed research to writing instead of Monarchy. I'm 100 beakers deep in Monarchy, so maybe that's a bit late, but I think I'd rather do a HR/Vassalage double revolt in 13/14 turns whenever I brith my engineer and bulb Feud.

Speaking again of my bulb plan, anyone know how I can calculate the beaker yield? Would be handy to know if it completes in one go or not.

[Cornflakes]

Scientists bulb 1500 + 3/pop. All others bulb 1000 + 2/pop

[Ginger()]

Gav took my iron for gold, which is nice, this isn't a permanent arrangement, just a temporary fix for my happiness anyways. 

I now have 3 cottages. Gpt is still less than Commodore's danegeld. Christ I'm so boned. If it wasn't for Machinery idk what I would've done this game. 

Since I cannot complete 7 stables before the peace treaty runs out, I have decided to give up on attacking Commodore again. Even though he'll still probably be sporting insultingly low power, there's just no point to the exercise without Catapults. 
Yeah, yeah small injury and all that, but I think I've successfully delivered a large enough injury and have enough geographic stability, that the only thing I need to fear is his Philosophic trait turning into some turn 140 Galleons. 

Part of the problem with all the MFG I have and why I'm building crap like stables instead of straight building the HA, is that unit maintenance is a whopping 18gpt and AGG has been better than ORG for a long time like this.
Charriu, roughly how much population gives another unit free supply/upkeep?

I've spotted SD's stack of Numids on his Ethiopian border. Geopolitically, I can't see any way that SD's upcoming invasion doesn't hand the game to Amicalola even harder than the map does. 
Which puts me in a very awkward position given my earlier diplo with Superdeath was motivated by a threat from Gavagai that has since evaporated completely. So, I'm stuck with a promise to help that doesn't accomplish much for my civ. On the flip side, if Superdeath is successful with this Horcher rush (? Can the word rush be used to describe 10 Numids at turn 108?), then he is in a good position to target Amicalola. But I think more likely that this just epically fails.
To be entirely fair to SD, I'm not sure what other options for victory he has. Especially burning a golden age so early, you're all in or you're all out. 
It's a quality of Superdeath's that I really admire, which is the guts to put it all on the line. I'm very scared of losing so I'll always do things like take peace deal bribes and try to incrementally better my position. 
I sent some half-hearted diplo asking him to go to war with Amicalola. Maybe that changes his mind. 
At least Nauf with Darius is very focused on the Persian Problem, I think I can expect Sumerian knights at turn 130 or at the latest 140.

If next turn I see 0 KTB on Aesthetics, I'm going to make a stab at the top of the tech tree since I think I'm the only player with Marble. Great Library and Nat Epic in the capital should basically solve any and all GPP problems I have for the rest of the game, allowing me to unlock golden ages and focus said golden ages on production.

I think that if SD declares on Gav I join, maybe try to take Gav's horse city (of course, my boats are now on the other side of Cape Monte Cristo). I don't expect to make any gains, but I should be able to tie down some forces with my 3 guerilla veterans. I made a promise to SD in the last war, and I need to keep it if I want my diplo to have any credibility.

[Charriu]

Free unit for maintenance: Floor(0.24 * [All your population]) + [iFreeUnits from HandicapInfo]
This is without Vassalage, AGG or other similar stuff

Supply: Fixed at 4 units outside your border, but thanks to integer rounding you can have 5 units outside without any cost. From there it follows the pattern of 6th, 8th, 10th unit and so on.

[Mjmd]

Do you regret not finishing off Commodore while you could?

[Ginger()]

Do you regret not finishing off Commodore while you could?

Well truth be told I didn’t think I could, worst case scenario was that he ships another two archers in, plus the one completed EOT, so I’m looking at 6 archers 3 metal units that I would have to slam into. I had 6Xbows, 3 wounded and 4 without relevant promos, the rest was 2 swords and a few Axemen. I wasn’t sure there was an awful lot of point simming the fight as one can change up unit order. Also if I slam and everything is wounded as a result, he gets the chance for more units to arrive/produce.

Spiritually, yes I absolutely regret it. I always play like a coward and here was an excellent chance to channel Superdeath and I flubbed it. 

Materially, in terms of winning chances in the game? I’m not sure. My tech is truly atrocious, 400 gold is a blessing from the heavens, and even if I won at Commodores capital I still would needed to clean up his horse city and island empire without construction, which sounds like a major PIA given my restrictions with unit upkeep and teching and happiness back home.
Yes I’ve done a “small” injury, and Commodore is quite the inventive type, but I don’t think he can meaningfully hurt me given our hilariously defensible border, his land quality, and his lost gold/tempo.

[Ginger()]

   
So after digging more carefully through the event log, I can see that Commodore did birth an earlier Great Merchant, he had to have been running an engineer as well to collect 200GPP in 17 turns between 650bc and 225bc

As a result he ran a trade mission. And is now building power. As such I have sent him my offer for disentanglement*.
   
This isn't a legal offer for him to accept, so it just exists as signaling. "Capture the city, and I'll take 200g for peace."
This does feel a bit shitty, beating someone when they're down, but Commodore has been on the delivering end before, and that's just the name of the game 
If he refuses and fights on, I really need to get rid of ~17 units for the sake of the treasury... and I'm 8xp (4xp as IMP) away from a GG. 
I might unironically pick the stables food option if I finish the quest and Comm pays his taxes again. There is no way to peace, peace is the way.

*Of course long term, there is no disentanglement, he's going to hate my guts this game forever, so I'll just have to watch the power graph and hope PRO Xbows and Longdongs shred anything he can get before I get Knights.

[Ginger()]

Next turn I will jump from five cottages to seven!!!1! woo!

I do not want to think about all the flat green land Nauf and Amica have to plant cottages and zoom by me in 50 turns. To that end I will stop scouting, if I cannot see it, it doesn't exist.

[Ginger()]

Commodore took less losses than I expected at only 2, though I simmed it and my expectations were off, not the result. Oh well, touche.
He's moved his ridiculous stack of 9 archers accompanied by 4 HA into Seven Times Never Kill Man.
I took a 73% shot at one of the HA (top defender) in the city with a Combat2 HA of my own, and lost. The idea was to remove 2 movers that could potentially reinforce Aohngas, the city I moved my boats up to threaten. I then sent my last desperate grasp of a money grab by asking a much smaller tribute for peace (because hey it worked last time).
I fully expect him to properly reinforce Aohngas, and then in a turn or so we'll white peace as I'll have no more leverage.
I figure relations are so thoroughly toasted that there's negligible further harm in trying to squeeze some more.

Economic development is proceeding okay, although it entirely hinges on the iron-gold trade I have with Gavagai and silver for gold that I'm running with Naufragar.

I've swapped tech priorities from Monarchy to Currency as a result of this trading arrangement, though if it falls apart I might go into negative income again. Currently pumping most of my very good MFG into research builds, eta on Currency 11 turns

After I slip the engineer out of Earthsea I plan to run 3 specialists, engineer, 2sci in the capital to rush out a golden age. Hopefully I can hit Literature in time to nab the Great Library, but everything is so slow going. I really wish I was PHI here because the earliest I can get that second GP for the golden age is turn 130. The reason I can't use the first is because Engineers are rare and precious. I'm going to have to hope and pray that everyone else is too concerned with Mil-tech to contest the top of the tech tree.
Amicalola is certainly aware that he will need construction to hold the door. Gav's economy is crap, so I might be able to beat him if he wants to go there. The big remaining threat then is Naufragar, *possibly* Commodore.

[Mjmd]

So the target for the GE is Great Library?