[PB66] Tarkeel and civac explore the untamed wilds

[Tarkeel]

Turn 179 (1190 AD)
The last city comes out of revolt, and our expenses are up to -418 at full research, and full savings at +375 so breakeven is still around 50%. Not too bad, but not too great either given that we just got PrintingPress. There's not much happening on our side of the world, just trying to catch up in tech and bring the new cities online, but Gav has started eating Vanrober, and has taken two core cities already. We're feeling pretty boxed in, with half our border against P&P, and the rest split between Mjmd and Superdeath (over water).

[Tarkeel]

Some cities for the lurkers

[Tarkeel]

Turn 182 (1220 AD)
Firiona Vie births it's next Great Person, which turns out to be a 24% Merchant, which is a decent result. Kaladim completes the bank, and with the extra income we can just barely scrape together the beakers needed to complete ReplaceableParts this turn. In our rush towards Rifling we've neglected DivineRight and the Minaret. It's somewhat concerning that Mjmd, P&P and Ginguelito all have Great Engineers born lately. We think P&P wants to use theirs on either SoL or MinInc, and they haven't even started on the religious line. Mjmd is more of a threat on Minaret, but he's still missing Theology. Ginguelito however does have Theology, and they might want to build just for funsies. We can't afford to spend EP on them for vision, so it's a risk we have to take. We're still going for Rifling, and will then save money while deciding if we want to risk it. It's also getting quite late for how useful it will be; SciMeth for Oil will be needed in the not too distant future.


Superdeath is proving to be as friendly as expected, dumping EP into us and breaking graphs. Mjmd is also being hinky, playing last without doubling for the previous two turns.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 185 (1250 AD)
Gavagai is consuming Vanrober, Mjmd is gearing up for something, and Plemo is about to give Amica a nasty surprise: We've seen atleast 7 galleys being loaded with rifles and cannons.


Meanwhile our cities are regrowing slowly but surely, and we're getting ready to buy stone for Citadels again soon. Hazard's dotmap is a bit awkward, it feels like the cities are just slightly too crammed to allow for good growth.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 186 (1260 AD)
Ginguelito researched DivineRight last turn, and spent their Engineer on rushing the Minaret at their lake-island. While I wish we'd got it, we're pretty sure that going Rifling first was necessary. We might have been able to beat them to it by a turn, but we could also have lost out on it by a turn.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 187 (1270 AD)
We got some more cryptic diplomact from Mjmd that we're at a loss for how to interpret:


Answers on a postcard please.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 188 (1280 AD)
The cryptic diplomacy continues:





We're pretty sure that Ginguelito wants us to attack P&P at Abydos, probably as a diversion for them to live longer. They must feel the heat after Amica getting attacked, and surely Mjmd or Gavagai will go after them next.

Best we can do on Mjmd's offer is an invitation to move up our stack to put pressure on P&P. We're currently setting up for out second golden age, so we'd prefer the other powers to duke it out instead.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 189 (1290 AD)
We're getting close to launching our next golden age, so we have some big decisions to make this turn on tech path and general direction for the game. Do we want to peacefully build infrastructure and tech up in a desperate attempt to catch the leaders, or launch an even more desperate attempt to gain land? Our only avenue of expansion is overseas into Superdeath, who just got Cuirassiers.


The general idea would be to hit Sigtuna with 4-5 galleons full of rifles, with 1 turn of warning. We could then use the city as a beachhead while ferrying over our 50 knights. The downside is ofcourse that Superdeath is extremely dangerous to attack, and will whip himself dry to defend. He also has fast ships and amphibious attackers. There's also the fact that peacetime isn't as exciting as wartime, as civac pointed out.

We also tried to get stone to build cheaper Citadels in our new cities, but Gavagai is selling his to Superdeath, and Plemo is the only other with stone. Have we complained about the resource allocation on this map lately?

Edit: Ginguelito also have stone, and are selling it to Mjmd.

[Qgqqqqq]

What's happening in the world at large? How do you rate yourselves and others?

[Tarkeel]

What's happening in the world at large? How do you rate yourselves and others?

Short summary is that Gav just ate Vanrober, without losing too much steam. Plemo is eating Amica, and it's going fast. I think it's mainly down to Gav and Plemo for the win, but Mjmd and us are still in it. Nobody else has a chance, but SD might think he does.