[PB64] naufragar's bingo parlor for assassins

[naufragar]

Superdeath, you greedy schmuck.



So, when Amica had been forced to pull garrisons from his cities and leave them empty, you snipe one cheaply so that I couldn't burn it. And then...you give it back to Amica? So all you accomplished was making sure I couldn't burn an Amicalolan city? In essence, you kept the city safe for him??

Lunacy is forgivable. It's not a vice. Greed is.


You gave him Open Borders along with the city? At what price? 200 gold up front and then 200 stretched over 10 turns?

Amica played his turn in 3 different pitbosses while waiting to play this one, so he was obviously waiting for Superdeath to open his borders. I wonder why.



I couldn't finish my turn tonight. Just wanted to log in and confirm what PBSpy had told me.

[Mjmd]

I mean you could have burned the city while SD had it

[naufragar]

I mean you could have burned the city while SD had it

The more fool me!

Serious question: you already built a galley just for transport across the Cursed Inner Sea, but do you think you will ever build a second one for that as well?
Wait a moment, what about a GALLEON, if this backwards game ever reaches that era? 
A galleon. 

  Just like the gypsy woman said.

I had to commit to a southern defense this turn, since Amica could be pushing into my undefended cities next turn thanks to Superdeath opening his highways to him. Anyway.


Now Amicalola could push through in my north with his massive stack of 21 cannons and assorted hitters. But, hell, we couldn't defend 2 prongs of the fork and now Superdeath has given us a 3rd to defend.

Superdeath, with 17 cities, thinks that he can compete economically against Amicalola with his 15. I've ranted about this delusion enough, but have a picture, nonetheless.


Notice which way SD's GNP goes and which way Amica's goes? How very unsurprising. Amica is playing Superdeath beautifully. Superdeath, flush with Amica's 100 gold per turn gift, feels like he's finally a contender, forgetting that he's soon to be 17000 beakers behind, still isn't researching as fast as Amicalola, and will lose that gold gift in 10 turns. Once Amica can neutralize me, there's just nobody else on the planet who can put a hand on him.

[naufragar]

Every turn, I post something scathing, and then a few hours later I think, "that's too harsh. I should edit that." And then the next turn, I feel the urge again...



So after Comm and I shattered Amica's army and pushed him back to his strategically vital Heroic Epic city, Superdeath sniped the two cities Amica had abandoned. He has now given both back. Oh and he also declared war on me to cancel our deals and close our borders. (I suspect this was included in Amica's city deal.) The upshot: until I get open borders back, I can't check to see if Amica isn't sneaking a cavalry force to raze my southern cities. And losing Superdeath's routes is very painful for my economy. (Because I don't have any intercontinental trade routes. Unlike Amica.)

Amica bought his city back at the cost of 80 gold per turn. Superdeath seems to think that Amica would give up enough in a peace deal to push himself out of first place and Superdeath into it. This is foolish. Here are the demos:


Superdeath is actually #1 GNP. Congrats Superdeath! With Amica's gifts totalling 180gpt, you are in the lead! Amica will definitely keep paying you this until you find a way to catch up! You'll definitely overcome the literal 17,000 beaker deficit! I'm sure before the end of the game you'll have managed to kill at least 1 Grenadier defending an Amican city! (Spoiler: Superdeath will never, ever kill a city garrison Grenadier for as long as this game lasts.)

Superdeath has Stonehenge and is researching a tech with a known tech bonus, so let's assume that his research rate is equal to mine. I'm making 360 beakers per turn. Any idea how long it takes to overcome a 17,000 beaker deficit while researching at 360 beakers per turn? That's right! 47 turns!  I'm sure Superdeath will be able to catch up to Amica. SD doesn't have a city count lead, a GNP lead, a beaker lead, a crop lead, or a power lead. But I'm sure he'll overcome all of these lacks by... giving cities back to Amicalola and closing borders with me, Amicalola's mortal enemy.

Amica burned my northern city, but I forgot to take a pic, oh well. I wasn't playing well and moved my fleet before scouting.


The defense of the east is a very scary thing. I know that Ginger has yet another 6 move galleon in the fog. Hopefully not too many more.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Amicalola is researching Philosophy. Gosh. I wonder if he'll be the first to Liberalism and then the Econ Great Merchant, turn that into a Mausoleum-boosted Golden Age, while grabbing Nationalism and the Taj. Don't worry, Superdeath! You're right on his heels! 

[naufragar]

I've moved my fleet into Ginger's territorial waters.


He's left only 3 units in Monte Cristo. Hadn't expected this. I've got a plan, but it didn't account for Ginger removing his garrisons. Oh well. The goal is to prevent Ginger from naval invasions. We'll see if this is possible. I think my fleet is bigger, but Ginger can probably produce ships just as fast as I.

And he is indeed making use of his fleet, burning an under-defended Superdeath city.


This puts him roughly 2 turns from my own undefended South, but I'll have an early warning unit in place by next turn. Hopefully the one turn window is enough, although I'm already stretched too thin defending North and Central Cipheria. (As in, I hope Amica just doesn't notice he can put me in a painful tactical bind.) Adding the South to places I need to defend would be a bridge too far.

I strongly suspect Ginger will just stay in SD land harassing. Ginger has Frigtes, and the strongest ship Superdeath can build is the Trireme... (coughbeakerdeficitcough)

There's so much going on that I don't really talk about domestic development much. Have an interesting city:


All of my cities are very, very small due to all the heavy whip anger. 71 turns of unhappiness isn't even the worst in the Cipherian Conglomerate. We're transitioning away from whipping poor Pigpen. With a Dry Dock and the new workshop, Pigpen can produce a two-promo Frigate roughly every 7 turns. (Just as our enemies have unlocked Ships of the Line...) It's been fascinating seeing these tiny little cities contribute to the empire. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have Amica's size 10 monsters (in what universe is size 10 a monster city? ) But this game has been an exercise in extracting value from minimal positions. And dare I say, its even been a fun exercise.

[pindicator]

71 turns! What's the forum record?

[Charriu]

Back in PB52 one of my cities had 112 turns. But I suspect even that isn't a record. I think you will find that in Amicalola's empire back in PB59

[naufragar]

Back in PB52 one of my cities had 112 turns. But I suspect even that isn't a record. I think you will find that in Amicalola's empire back in PB59

Curse you, Amicalola! Beating me in PB64 and overall RB record-setting! Edit: I should plug Amica's PB59 thread. It's very good, even if I can't read it through my weeping.

71 turns! What's the forum record?

Well, if we're having a competition, I humbly request this be used as my entry, also from this current game:

[Magic Science]

(in what universe is size 10 a monster city?    )

“Everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”. 

EDIT: The Cursed Inner Sea has a logistical Galleon now. Excellent. But this makes me wonder… what happened to the logistical Galley? Did… did Amicalola destroy it?

[naufragar]

EDIT: The Cursed Inner Sea has a logistical Galleon now. Excellent. But this makes me wonder… what happened to the logistical Galley? Did… did Amicalola destroy it?

Amica's blood thirst knows no satiety.  He killed it when he breached the inner sea and burned Dancing Men. But it's not a logistical Galleon! It's a fearsome invasion Galleon!



Admittedly, it's a fearsome invasion Galleon with only a 3 unit invasion force, but it's all part of the plan. (The plan is: I can't afford a 2 front war. Amica is going to kill me. I shouldn't be sending units this direction any way.)

Speaking of "Amica is going to kill me," this is the turn log of someone either planning something nasty or carrying something nasty out.


I play before Amica. I've been late reporting the past couple turns.

Not much happening except the Cursed Inner Sea fork is getting even worse.


Get to Heaven is putting out outrageous cultural pressue. It's taken the tile on which my musket stands and the sign with the "58%" is now only like 53% mine. (I shouldn't have moved those units onto the plains hill. I had a lapse of sanity and thought river crossings give the same +50% defense amphibious defense does, but rivers only give +25%.)

I hinted last turn that Amica just has to notice that I can't reinforce the north in 1 turn. He can take Lagash literally at will. Please don't tell him.    And I can't reinforce it in 1 turn because Superdeath has given Amica the potential to sneak a mobile force into my south and I need to keep knights in range. So if I lose the city, it will be directly due to Superdeath genius diplomacy.

Last Superdeath-related rant for a while hopefully: If SD cannot beat Amica, he cannot win. Superdeath cannot beat Amica on his own. SD can't beat Amica with Commodore's help. Therefore: Superdeath must have my help against Amica to have any shot of winning. So by assisting Amica in killing me, Superdeath is actively playing to lose. It's just all so stupid.