[PB64] Amicalola Gets To Heaven with Tarkeel and Ljubljana

[wills]

A phony war is usually a player declaring war to try to trick a different player into thinking they are safe.

Ahhh that makes sense. So the thought here would be that Nauf would declare a phony war to trick Gav? So that would be good for Amica yes? Or at least neutral...

[Amicalola]

A phony war is usually a player declaring war to try to trick a different player into thinking they are safe.

Ahhh that makes sense. So the thought here would be that Nauf would declare a phony war to trick Gav? So that would be good for Amica yes? Or at least neutral...

Hello! That would be the theory, yeah. The more I think about it though, the less likely I think it is because their stacks should still be down in that southern area, and Gavagai can see mine near him, so why would he believe it was a real war? I'm less sold on that than I was first reading it last night. Naufragar is also very good about sending PMs when he declares war, and we don't have one, so he probably hasn't declared. We'll see what's happening when I play the turn in a few hours, I suppose.

[Amicalola]

T154
Honestly, at this point I'm even more confused at how this all played out. Naufragar did not make peace with Gavagai, so my idea was probably wrong. He did not declare war on us (and logistically a phony war wouldn't make much sense, so I doubt that in retrospect), so Tarkeel's first theory was probably wrong. But most confusing of all....  Superdeath decided to wait 4 turns while I was actively pulling away Gav's forces, and then declare war the turn after Gavagai and us signed peace. The mind boggles.   So I wonder if your second theory was correct, Tarkeel, although I don't know how Naufragar acquired the 'real' date for the war while we got stuck with about 4 different possibilities. SD's stack wasn't on the border with Gavagai last turn too, which means that he declared war before he could actually advance??? Apparently I somehow missed the numidians, which moved into Gavagai's territory last turn. I am so lost regarding this game's diplomacy. Naufragar I think we just misinterpreted, so that's my bad (and I'm very sorry Nauf!). But Superdeath, who has been marching his army in circles for the past 5 turns, I have absolutely no idea about.  

In any case, Gavagai accepted our peace, so we can finish off our forges. Once we have those, I'll feel a lot safer against attack, because we'll be able to whip HAs/Catapults so much more efficiently. That's lucky, because with Pachacuti, Naufragar is flashing something scary.


 The worst case scenario is that Naufragar and Gavagai make amends somehow and then come after me. That sounds unlikely, until you realise that only 10 turns ago Naufragar and I made amends to go after Gavagai.  

But something else very exciting happened this turn. For the first time in dozens of turns...


We're not last in GNP!!!  

I also looked at the power graph. 


If SD is serious about this war, then I think I regret offering that peace treaty. With all three people, and the power hit Gav took (worse than I expected), my assessment on being unable to take cities was probably wrong. I can't believe I missed his numidians.

[Amicalola]

T155
Superdeath captures Gorbachev, while Naufragar makes peace with Gavagai. Gavagai moves his units back towards Gorbachev, which he can attack in 4-ish turns. I think he can probably retake it, but I've been wrong before. I still don't understand at all why SD waited for us to peace out before joining the war, that just seems so unintuitive. Reporting will probably quiet down for a little while - I'm on placement again, which is extremely busy, and our civ isn't doing a whole lot for now. 

Economically, one long-term option we have is to whip Bazaar->Harbour in any decently-sized cities. That makes the trade route bonus on the Bazaar relevant (+4 base commerce per city is pretty good!), and could be our final round of whips before we (finally!) convert to Serfdom. It would be about 15 turns away, I think. Of course, that's very optimistic to think we'll be left alone for that long, so we'll have to see what happens in the meantime. One thing I'm really missing is Organised Religion, I haven't had to play a game without it in a long time and getting buildings out is really painful. I suspect I've gotten into the habit of building way too many buildings by virtue of so many OrgRel games in a row.

[Amicalola]

T158
Naufragar returns our fish/fish, which is excellent news. The no-cottage economy excels in the midgame, but we need as much time as possible to get there (it is worth noting that we are not in the 'midgame' by T158, but I digress ). I still have hope for catching the pack! 



We finish the mega-advanced tech of Calendar and begin plantationing near Fever Dream. 



We are whipping many, many forges across the empire. Most of these cities will start Wealth builds next turn. 



Huge battle about to be fought near Caomhin.


Ginger's stack is considerably better, but he doesn't have many catapults. We really want Commodore to win this fight.

[Amicalola]

Something strange seems to be going on with the turn order. Two turns in a row I have played first, and then everyone else has waited 10+ hours to play theirs. It's... concerning.

[Amicalola]

T163 - War!
Thank goodness it's Friday. And just in time for us to be back at war! We retake Lenin and Nicholas II, losing one HA at 66% odds. 



Then, our teleported immortal gets a chance to use his bonus! It's not anti-archer, it's anti-archerY!! 


Of course, we lost that 66% too. Imagine our UU's bonus actually mattering.  I know it's only an immortal lost, but all these unlikely results adding up and compounding is really frustrating (e.g. we lost 2/3 66%; nothing crazy, just another little thing for the pile). Our combat results have just been astonishingly bad over the course of this game - it's becoming a bit of an inside joke between my partner and I at this point.  

I offered Gavagai white peace, because I don't want to push any further. I hope we don't need to find out, but I'm pretty sure we can hold these cities against any counter-attack anyway.

[Charriu]

Ha I always thought that bonus specifically applies to the archer itself. Maybe I should rename the unit or the category to clarify any misunderstandings in the future.

[Amicalola]

Ha I always thought that bonus specifically applies to the archer itself. Maybe I should rename the unit or the category to clarify any misunderstandings in the future.

Me too! I was initially intending the immortal to suicide and got all excited when it had odds.

[Amicalola]

T164
Gavagai did sign the peace treaty. So we get to enjoy our new holdings!



Only, there are these strange, small houses nestled in some of the riverbanks. So obviously we remove those blights from our illustrious empire. 


Then we get a bit overexcited and remove the rest as well.  

Commodore and Ginger seem to have fought a big battle, with Commodore getting the upper hand. Our power is back to 1st place, meaning Ginger's losses must have been considerable.



Meanwhile, the others seem so far content to continue leaving us alone. So I'm basically in my civ happy place, configuring whips, tile micro, population growths, etc. I said in the past that if we could just get 30-40 turns left alone that we'd start rocketing our way back up to tech parity. Now that number is more like 10-20 turns, so more tangible, yet also more potential for heartbreak.  

It's a bit of a shame that my favourite part of civ is also the part that's least interesting to report/read. I worry that it makes my threads look less positive than my actual feelings on the game. Ah well. Back to the happy place.