[PB64] naufragar's bingo parlor for assassins

[naufragar]

I asked SD to go to war with Amica, since Amica's north is completely undefended from Superdeath.


But instead SD wants me to go to war with Ginger?  Mate, I can't reach Ginger. Also, there's the fact that, well, Amica is literally winning the game and if he isn't stopped right this very minute there will never be another chance...



He's about to finish Feudalism for Protective longbows, which is a real shame. Superdeath could capture every single one of Ginger's cities and he'd be at 20 cities to Amica's 18, but Amica will have the tech lead. Let me put that another way: even if Superdeath's wildest dreams come and he completely conquers Ginger, Amica will still be winning. This isn't just Superdeath, by the way. No matter how well any other players' plans go, their success will not hold a candle to Amica's status quo.

Yeah, I'm shouldering the weight alone, but that's just our traditional role. 

I decided to try to trade horse archers. The plan was to kill a couple of Amica's exposed HA's, then delete mine:


Easy odds.



Don't think of it as "never getting even close to normal rolls whenever I play against Amica." Think of it as "getting all the bad rolls out of the dice in preparation for an eventual run of amazing luck." It has to happen eventually, right? Right? 

Kemosabe should fall next turn. No idea how that expensive that will be:


I'm also moving units around randomly in the north, which might cost me big. On the other hand, I repeat my earlier note that Amica's north is entirely undefended. Of course, I can't immediately threaten it. (Remember many moons ago when I pointed out how amazing his side of this pass is and how terrible mine was? That one tile hill choke continues to be a thorn.)

[naufragar]

Too late for a big report.

Always nice to burn a city.


Amica had emptied it.

We swung our knights north.


Haven't simmed. Amica might be able to break the stack in the east, but then we start trading undefended cities, which I think hurts him more than me.

And Gav is being annoying:


Can't fault him for pushing up when I'm busy with Amica.

[Mjmd]

The only thing worst than a poorly reporting a war is not reporting a war

[naufragar]

Ninja edit: Five minutes too slow to avoid the shame!

There's been action and burned cities, etc. but Amica's mostly been retreating and consolidating:


Even when Amica leaves a token force in a city, it's a massive pain. Protective Longbows on hills behind castles and walls are unpleasant. My catapults don't even scratch the top defender often. Well, that's the game. His defense gave Amica another Great General, which is very scary.

Amica also built the Hanging Gardens. I expected this. Nobody built it so far, since nobody had both the hammers and cities. Ginger was the other candidate, but he's only on 9 cities. I had thought about building it just for the free 60 hammers from whipping in each city, but I couldn't spare any of my production centers. This basically means that Amica can whip an extra pike or longbow in every city.

I'm fighting Amica at roughly tech parity in the Medieval Era while he has defender's advantage, castles everywhere, and Engineering-speed roads. It's probably a doomed proposition, but we keep trying:


I've split off my cavalry force to see if I can force any openings on the western side. Doubtful, but I don't want to stand and bang with Amica's cat stack.

The above screenshot is very busy, so have a nice clean one:


Now that's the sign of a fun Civ4 game.

In the wider world, people are doing their thing.


I've gotten World Map trades with people, but I haven't cared enough to unfocus from the Amica war. Ginger has researched Gunpowder. As I've said about a million times, I'm not sure how to gauge his position. Knights are good. Muskets are good. Nine cities to his neighbors' twelve isn't. Regardless, Ginger is Not My Problem. Superdeath wants me to go to war with him. Weirdly, I'm not sure Superdeath has declared a unilateral war this entire game. That's very out of character. On the one hand, this is probably wise. On the other, one worries about the lack of initiative. Between Comm and Superdeath, I think Ginger can be contained, which leaves me to focus on Amicalola.

Amica and I have both been tanking our crop yields to fuel this war, but that's way, way worse for me. Financial needs pop points working tiles. Protective can whip all its cities down to size 1 and it will still have its monster intercontinental trade. My current calculus is that PB64 is going to be decided by this war, so I need to fight with everything, all the way down to my fingernails. Maybe I'm discounting Ginger and Commodore (who has expanded out to #2 in city count!) but that's where my mind's at now.

[naufragar]

These turns take so dang long and then I have to report, too? 

I spend forever simming and waffling:


I could try to swing my knights back north and attack into Amica's stack when it retreats to New Wheels, but that would turn out to be a bad idea. Who would've thought +100% defense in every city tile is strong? Protective is nuts, yo.

So instead, I move the knights to the west, to see how fortified Software Newman is.


This is nerve-wracking. For all I know, Amica still has a large force there because he doesn't trust Superdeath.

Speaking of Superdeath, he was getting on my nerves this turn:


He sent me 4 different diplo offers with some version of me giving him 650 gold. He started with just asking for it. Then he offered it in exchange for him going to war with Ginger. Then he asked for it with an iron for iron trade. Then he just asked for it again. Got to be honest, it annoyed me. Buddy, how about you thinking about doing something for our mutual benefit rather than every diplo exchange just being about what you want me to do for you? So I canceled the two free luxuries I was giving him. I had been torn about this for a while. On the one hand, I want SD strong simply because he neighbors Amica and Ginger. On the other hand, I'm petty. I reoffered those two luxuries on the condition that he declare war on Amica. I don't seriously expect him to take it, but I want him to focus on the many, many turns I've given him free stuff so he doesn't go around spamming me for yet more free stuff.

Amica too sent a bunch of peace offers. None of them good. The closest was offering 100gold for peace (less than half a turn of research for him). He also wanted to direct my focus towards Ginger. If Ginger attacks me when I'm full-on laser focused on Amica, his greatest obstacle, he's a fool, and I don't think he's a fool. If I attack Ginger while Amica is winning the game and becoming more and more untouchable, I'm a fool. We'll see what happens. Very unlikely that I research ocean-faring ships, attack the number 2 player, and seal the win for Amica.

By the way, bet this is the weirdest catapult you've ever see:


I gave it Drill 1 and then Shock so it would get great odds on the axe and I wouldn't have to damage a hitter too much.

So of course, I lost my 15% roll. Honestly, against me, Amica doesn't lose anything less than 90%'s. 

[Magic Science]

If superdeath confounds you like this, then I think you have another city name for the Cipherian Conglomerate.

And what is the Little Galley That Could doing in the canal there, huh? What are you up to?

[mackoti]

Why would atack with a catapult? You gain just 1 experience and 1 GG point...

[naufragar]

And what is the Little Galley That Could doing in the canal there, huh? What are you up to?

The Little Galley That is Barely Holding Together Our Entire Empire's Logistics was getting catapults from Cistercia to the jungle choke. Cisertercia produces a catapult every two turns, so if I didn't have to cross a sea, those catapults would be getting to the front 4 whole turns faster. That would be such a difference.

Why would atack with a catapult? You gain just 1 experience and 1 GG point...

It was a mistake, I wanted to move my stack up to attack Amica's city. I attacked with the catapult to keep my main stack as healthy as possible, but then I discovered that I couldn't capture the city, even if I got lucky.

I admit I'm a sucker for a good joke:


I took this although I think I shouldn't have.

I don't know why everyone (I mean Superdeath and Commodore) are so fixated on Ginger. He's not winning:


The current winner is obviously Amica. This is why I probably shouldn't have given him peace. Fellas, you know that Great People get progressively more expensive and Ginger can't keep chaining them, right? You all know that a 9 city empire doesn't outproduce an 18 city one, right?

But if you think I'm not already planning my next attack in ten turns, you don't know me very well.


The trouble is that Amica has one city with culture 3 tiles out in the center of his empire. From this central spot, his units can defend any part of his front. It's amazingly efficient. I've also marked a "knight stage" where Amica could post Knights in order to get to any of his coastal cities in one turn to defend against Galleons. Fortress Amicalola is very defensible terrain, indeed.

Amica has already completed a settler. I don't know where it is, but my own settler can't get to the jungle pass for another 3 turns. It's very likely that Amica can resettle the jungle pass city before me. (This is the real reason I shouldn't have given peace.) The terrain is just so, so bad for me. Amica's got a beautiful natural fortress and the highest GNP with which to sit back and tech.

(By the way, I have a confession. Last turn, Superdeath spammed me with like 5 different diplo offers all asking me to declare war on Ginger. In my annoyance, I kept rapidly clicking close on them and accidentally closed one from Commodore. I didn't read it, but it looked like a timeline for his attack on Ginger. I feel like that would've been important to read...

[Mjmd]

Last turn, Superdeath spammed me with like 5 different diplo offers all asking me to declare war on Ginger. 

I couldn't help but laugh, but mind last time I wrote these things it PB63 where Ginger actually was winning, but you know Cairo cannonball.

I just love this clip, so I'm reposting that post in your thread, because I want to.

MjmdT175

To all the players wanting me to go to war with Ginger.

[naufragar]

Amica has already completed a settler. I don't know where it is, but my own settler can't get to the jungle pass for another 3 turns. It's very likely that Amica can resettle the jungle pass city before me. (This is the real reason I shouldn't have given peace.)

Well, darn.


Not sure how I beat Amica next time. It was already pretty silly that I was able to raze that pass in the first place. (Yeah, Amica lost 3 cities in the war, but they were unimportant and the moment he settles a city, it gets a free +9gpt from trade routes.)

No clue how I beat him. Still very surprised that the other players aren't freaking out about the situation.