[SPOILERS] Magic Science and Nobody Else in Pitboss 66

[Magic Science]

Rules Message For Lurkers: 

As I have mentioned a few times, I have a binding Peace Treaty with the Piccadilly + plemo team until Turn 85.

Our situation is tense, and it is highly possible that I will want to declare war as soon as I am mechanically allowed to on Turn 85. Based on their actions, I think it is highly possible they are planning to declare war on Turn 85 as well.

So you might need to decide who gets the first strike on Turn 85. The turn order was them then me in our previous war, but during the peace we have been trading the order back and forth. On this turn it was also them then me. What do we do?

I feel fine and calm about this situation, and I don't care much about what the order is (though I think the first half is better), but I also want to handle it correctly. I think that there were some controversies about this exact thing when I was not lurking the forum, and I have not yet read through all the archives from that time.

[naufragar]

Rules Message For Lurkers: 

As I have mentioned a few times, I have a binding Peace Treaty with the Piccadilly + plemo team until Turn 85.

Our situation is tense, and it is highly possible that I will want to declare war as soon as I am mechanically allowed to on Turn 85. Based on their actions, I think it is highly possible they are planning to declare war on Turn 85 as well.

So you might need to decide who gets the first strike on Turn 85. The turn order was them then me in our previous war, but during the peace we have been trading the order back and forth. On this turn it was also them then me. What do we do?

I feel fine and calm about this situation, and I don't care much about what the order is (though I think the first half is better), but I also want to handle it correctly. I think that there were some controversies about this exact thing when I was not lurking the forum, and I have not yet read through all the archives from that time.

We don't have a good mechanism for resolving this and it caused at least one game to blow up. (And the participants, Scooter and Comm, were sober, goodly types, so it's a pretty big problem.)

In PB64, I suggested to Amica that we start maintaining a turn split in the turn before the treaty expired through the expiry turn. For convenience, I suggested he choose which half he wanted. Somebody's always going to be at a disadvantage but that way seemed better than potential bad blood.

[Magic Science]

Thank you for the information, naufragar.

I will try to continue playing after them until Turn 85, so they can have the first strike if they want. This should be easy because of the other turnsplit with GeneralKilCavalry.

[Magic Science]

They pillaged one of my wilderness roads. We will be at war next turn.

[Magic Science]

Them first half, me second half. Maybe they declare or maybe I declare, I don't know yet.

[Magic Science]

Turn 82 to Turn 84 – 825 BC to 775 BC
   
The southern theater: The Blob.

On Turn 82, I settled Hestia and offered a Cease Fire just as planned, and on Turn 83, GKC accepted. The First Greco-American War is over! I won.

HOWEVER, I must still be careful in this region, because GKC has a Galley now, so he can physically reach Hestia. The Galley was north of Washington on Turn 82, but fog-gazing indicates that Washington is a canal city, so it is not stuck on that side.
RefSteel I and Hera’s Dream are still the only units assigned to fight GKC, but I think they should be enough for now on the defense.


   
The northern theater: Animalia.

On Turn 82, Plemadilly moved their Chariot to the bare grassland hill 1N of the “Athena” sign, which was extremely suspicious. (This is what prompted me to ask about the rules for declaring war again immediately after enforced peace).

On Turn 83, they moved their Chariot to the bare plains flat 1NE of the jungle, which was tantamount to a declaration of war. A Chariot there threatens 4 of my cities at once! And that must be the point of that Chariot, because they already had a Scout right there! Why are they doing this? So, that Chariot had to die ASAP. I moved 2 Phalanxes towards it. The Phalanx in Demeter stayed put.

Also on Turn 83, I quickly devised and began a plan to raze the baby Roman border city of Setia. Possibly Circei instead, but probably Setia. Could I do this? I think so. I would attack with 3 Axemen on the 2nd half of Turn 87, and they would defend with 1 Shock Praetorian (visible trickling south in the screenshot) and… nothing else? Nothing else was in view, even in the city itself, and my Warrior could pillage their wilderness road during the enforced peace to delay any reinforcements. They were so thinly defended here. The Barbarians still control their city of Mediolanum! Should I do this? I think so. Plemadilly was already attacking me, so diplomacy with them is not a concern. Demeter could stay safe with 2 Phalanxes and the capacity to build more units quickly. Setia would be autorazed and maybe just resettled by them, but I think that city losses along our border are “communicative”. Even if they resettle that spot, they still lose a different spot to me somewhere in Daggerland.

That sure is a lot of words for a plan that was canceled the very next turn. .


   
2 things went wrong:
ONE: I forgot to move the Axeman from Posiedon forward towards Demeter! . I need that Axeman for the attack! Pure idiocy.
TWO: Even worse, Plemadilly exploited the guaranteed safety of our Peace Treaty and used some of my own wilderness roads to move their Chariot to pillage one of my own wilderness roads! . In all seriousness, I will never sign a Peace Treaty again. I expressed that idea in a flippant way in my earlier reports, but I meant it then, and I mean it now. NEVER AGAIN. Peace Treaties are too dangerous.

Anyway, that road, the road 1S of Mount Olympus, was a deceptively terrible loss. I am hard pressed to rebuild it without delaying the Colossus (EOT 90), but I desperately need to. 1 Axeman and 1 Spearman are stranded off the road network now, and Demeter is cut off from my trade network. DEMETER HAS NO COPPER. . . 26 production invested across an Axeman and a Phalanx, and now that production is inaccessible. I knew that they might pillage my roads, but I never thought about this consequence of that.

So I am in trouble, and I spent a long time thinking about what to do. This is such a complicated situation, and next turn is when we can finally declare war again. What to do?


   
I think there are 2 bad things the evil Chariot is likely to do:
ONE: Pillage the road 1W of Mount Olympus. (This does not require actually declaring war). OR.
TWO: Move towards Zeus/Poseidon or Apollo/Artemis. AND.
Also, there might be more units in the dim fog in the north that will move towards Demeter.
So those are the things I must counter.

…

I moved the stranded Phalanx back towards Poseidon. And I moved another Phalanx forward from Apollo and Artemis.

I moved the stranded Axeman forwards towards Demeter, and then moved Charriu III the Phalanx backwards out of Demeter to protect that Axeman from the evil Chariot. The net effect of this is that Demeter will be more vulnerable for 1 or 2 turns, depending on if the road is pillaged or not, but then less vulnerable when the new Axeman arrives and the old Phalanx returns. For now, only 1 Axeman defends the city.

I switched back to training a Scout in Demeter. I cannot build any Copper units, so what else is there to do? It could make the difference, and I need it soon anyway.

I used some of Plemadilly’s own wilderness roads to pillage one of their own wilderness roads with my Warrior in the north. . I think the situation is now too dangerous to plan on razing Setia, but that city is so vulnerable that maybe I can manage it later anyway. Also, maybe by applying pressure there I can take some pressure off Demeter.

Lastly, I moved the 3 Workers that are in the theater. The westernmost Worker kept building a mine for Poseidon, which is very important. The middle Worker could not safely move to another forest to chop like he was supposed to, so he moved to Poseidon to wait. I can afford to wait this turn and Turn 85, but on Turn 86 he needs to move to a forest. The easternmost Worker moved to Demeter. The other 2 are busy aiding the construction of the Colossus, so he must repair the road.

Lastly lastly, I moved another Warrior north to the bare grassland hill, west of the lake. I want to move him towards Demeter, just in case, but I do not want to share the tile with the Chariot. At this point, the matter of who actually declares war is mainly about who will suffer or gain from teleportation, so I must be careful.

...

Turn 85 is here, but Plemadilly has not yet played. .

[Magic Science]

Another thing: I do not know what the purpose of this evil Chariot attack is for Plemadilly, but I see 2 options:

ONE: Plemadilly is not as weak as they seem in Animalia, and it is the vanguard of a bigger attack on Demeter. The evil Chariot reveals their hostile intentions earlier, but in return they can cut off Demeter's Copper, delay reinforcements, and keep some of my units occupied defending Poseidon, Apollo, and Artemis.
TWO: "The best defense is a good offense". Plemadilly really is as weak as they seem in Animalia, and they are not planning a bigger attack on Demeter. However, they decided that their Chariot would be more useful to the defense by delaying and threatening me in the central wilderness road area in the south, rather than just staying put in their cities.

Either way, their plan is succeeding so far.

[Magic Science]

Well, here we go. They declared. PBSPY says they captured no cities.

[Magic Science]

   
Quick note on the foreign affairs:
(this is for Turn 82 to Turn 84, I have not yet played Turn 85)
Things I Can See:

Civeel declared war on Alhazard! This might just be a scouting war for their Work Boat, but maybe not, and I hope not. I want Alhazard to be my ally against Civeel, in offense and in defense.

To that end, I offered Alhazard a Crab-for-Crab deal 2 turns ago, and he accepted!

Other players are contacting each other more, but I think I am still the leader in this category. Fortunately, Mjmd remains a lagger. Though I guess he should know that I neighbor GKC after the Battle of New York.


Thing I Cannot See:

The big news: JackRB was eliminated on Turn 84 by Mjmd. About 15 turns ago, I had no idea they were neighbors. About 10 turns ago, I knew they were at war and Mjmd had the upper hand, but I thought it was just a limited border war. About 5 turns ago, JackRB’s elimination seemed inevitable. I guess that JackRB lacked Archery and lost his Copper early on, because otherwise I do not understand how this could happen. It should have taken longer. Anyway, now Mjmd is in the usual situation: lots of land and lots of units and no money at all. I have his graphs and can watch his progress.

Old but relevant news: Gin-guelito constructed the Oracle and chose Code of Laws. I would feel much worse about my Colossus project without this, so thanks guys.

[Magic Science]

Special message to JackRB: Thanks again for playing. I hope you had fun and will consider playing again. I have never experienced early elimination, but I know I would dislike it, so sorry about that.

If you have any questions about my perspective on being a land neighbor of Mjmd, then feel free to ask. If you want to have a unit of mine on the Mjmd border named in your honor, then just say so. That could be fun. Your choices are Axeman or Phalanx. Or Scout or Work Boat, I guess.