[Spoilers] Pindicator's Nice Thread

[pindicator]

127

I had been seeing Gavagai pull units away so last turn I finally called him out on it and pillaged his horse.




And this turn I saw why:




Commodore took a hammering on his border with Gav. It looks like Gavagai got culture up against Commodore's city and just unloaded on it. The spike there is about a 75k power drop while Gav only lost 15k. Commodore revolted into HR and Slavery when I was in game.

And so with Gavagai's units in the south, I thought maybe I could move the horse archers in and snipe a city?




Unfortunately no; he has enough Praetorians in place to stop a horse archer probe. So I will stay back and build up. A few teaser units left out: the horse archer in the south and skirmisher in the north. If he tries to bop either I have axes and shock horse archers in range to retaliate.

I turned on the research for Aesthetics this turn. Nobody has it yet; it looks like people have been following me to Calendar most recently, going by how many people now have calendar resources hooked up.

Superdeath got a Great Merchant.

Naufrager built Apostolic Palace. Hmmm, maybe I should research Meditation now; I did get a Buddhism spread inside of My Little Pony.

[pindicator]

128

Gavagai signed peace with Commodore and has brought back his wounded units into Rome. I wish I could move in now, but sadly the problem is my production base was way to the east and I'm still waiting for all those catapults I've whipped to get to the staging point. If Gavagai had made his move a couple turns later I might have thought about moving in early - but he'll have all his units healed in a few turns and so I think I just have to go with overwhelming numbers.

I'll have something like 9 war elephants, 9 axes, 9 horse archers, and 9 catapults for the attack. Those numbers are from memory so it might not be exactly that. But I feel like that should crack Rome.

[pindicator]

10 Praetorians in Rome now and suddenly I'm wondering if I'm going to have enough. Undoubtably Gavagai has made a great play here: knocking Commodore back into enforced peace and then being able to stuff everything into Rome - I need to reevaluate: Can I continue with this plan? Do I risk getting smashed if I do?

I could probably move stuff up a turn at best, but now I'm wondering ... maybe I need to sign peace with Gav and then send things south? Or just sit back and build up, kick off the golden age and stop whipping?

[Qgqqqqq]

When would you otherwise go in? Is it ahead of the peace with Commodore wearing off?

[pindicator]

130

I could potentially go in as early as next turn, but I had been planning on going in when my signs indicated: staging on 132 and advancing on 133.




It bothers me that I only see 1 horse archer here. This means there are more behind the city, so I have to think if I were to move in then he would have 15-20 hitters ready to attack my stack. The 12 praetorians are tough enough on their own, but there's probably half a dozen horse archers as well. Stupid oversight to let him keep his horse. So no, I am calling off the attack. I mean, I could possibly try again with Crossbows, but my problem is that I have nothing to match the absurd 8 strength of his praetorians. 7 strength and 1 first strike can't come fast enough.

I wonder... could I sign peace and attack Commodore? That would take coordination with Gavagai and probably more trust than he's willing to give me. I would not want to move units away from his border, for sure.

So it's time for a change in priorities




We probably don't come back to Gav until Knights now, which means I need to tech away. A shame I whipped away as much as I did on those units, but now we will need to make them earn their keep in letting me just build wealth and tech away. It was a good plan up until Commodore gave Gavagai peace.

New Plan: Trigger that Golden Age.




Another idea i have to abandon is Literature. Somebody already has beaten me to it, I think naufrager, and I'm going to give up on any plan of racing him to it. (T140 btw, just so lurkers can know whether or not I would have won that Great Library race. I guess I'll know in 10 turns.) Instead I'm going to throw one of those chops into a market and whip that at the capital (+2 happy).

My Little Pony is going to get culture over the wine in 4 turns so that is my first priority. Monarchy should be a 3 turn build, timing it out right. Then its Code of Laws to allow Caste during the GA, although I am toying with the idea of Drama here instead and building Globe in the capital. Instead we'll use Hereditary Rule to bridge that happiness gap.

I think I kick off the GA right after CoL is done. Then it's Iron Working, Metal Casting, Literature, and on to Guilds.

[pindicator]

I'm debating offering Gav peace and timing that right before when his enforced peace with Commodore is up. The downsides to this is it lets him re-establish the horses and project his power out of Rome / set up defenses beyond that city. The upside is that if he attacks Commodore then I might have a window to join him.

[pindicator]

If MS is waiting to declare on Ginger then I might just burn it all down by waiting for MS to play and declaring on him, putting us in a 5-way split

[Cornflakes]

If MS is waiting to declare on Ginger then I might just burn it all down by waiting for MS to play and declaring on him, putting us in a 5-way split

Tough luck on the Rome front. How is your economy with FIN comparing to the other economies in the game?

[pindicator]

134

Magic Science not only declared on Ginger, he also canceled my Ivory deal




I don't mind having my war elephants cut off - I was expecting that to happen sooner or later - but I'm miffed that he picked the exact turn to catch3 cities in unhappiness (all 3 had their whip anger wear off after last turn). This in turn kept me from finishing Monarchy by the barest of margins, and my wine now gets delayed another turn. I did not take the deal and isntead tried to offer Bing my Spice for an extra gold; Bing did not respond.

Gavagai has moved his stuff away again. But Superdeath is now sending him Horses, as the fresh horse in Rome made me go look to see who needed to die after Gavagai. I also offered to buy Superdeath's stone for 5gpt. 50 gold for getting Moai out faster - it would save me about 60 hammers, probably less because I expect to be in my golden age and Org Rel before too long.




I had to move some units in view of his culture in order to cover my spear/horse archer by his horse, and so I chose to show about half of my full stack. I'm hoping he thinks this is all that I have? A faint hope. But I might move in next turn if I don't see anything again.

His peace deal with Commodore is up in a couple turns. Hopefully Commodore wants to extract some revenge; he certainly whipped enough after completing Hanging Gardens.

My economy is doing well. I suspect that may be why Magic Science canceled our deal. But I have some long-term problems to solve, like how to grow. I'm pulling in 110gpt at 0% - but that's also with almost every city on Build Wealth. I suspect I'm probably 2nd or 3rd in research rate and that is heavily in thanks to being FIN.

Will go Iron Working after Monarchy, and then Code of Laws. Then a golden age. Maybe sooner.

[pindicator]

Superdeath took my Stone for GPT deal. I looked again at Magic Science and he has no calendar luxuries, either his own or through trade - so why did he cancel the ivory? I offered the Ivory for Spice again, and I won't offer a third time.

Edit: Stone means Moai is set to complete t142