[PB69] Naufragar turns over a new leaf. Randomly.

[Hitru]

It's a turn 131 and it's an attack force of cats, axes and spears, what happened here?

[naufragar]

It's a turn 131 and it's an attack force of cats, axes and spears, what happened here?

It's just a miserable game.  No one's doing anything, and everybody's poor.

We had offered peace last turn. Miguelito rolled the dice with his chariot force, got unlucky, and offered us peace. We took it:


This game just sucks. I like Miguelito. I don't hate Ginger. It feels undignified to keep sniping armies and cities one bit at a time from a player who is checked out or a player who is covering halfheartedly for the checked out one. It just sucks. At the lowest point of PB64, I still felt like I was in a wrestling match with Amicalola. There was some joy in the striving. This is just misery.

But the optimal path is to try and profit off Ginger/Miguelito as cheaply as I can, while not opening myself up to a Magic Science attack. So pecking like a vulture is what we'll be doing. I pillaged the cottages and mine around Cathy Ames for 51 gold. This should enable us to reach Iron Working in two turns. Then we can add crossbows to our axe/cat stack.

Here's a messy overview shot:


The plan is to keep slicing bits of Ginger while forestalling a Magic attack. Ginger's tech rate has been slow, but he's got to be getting catapults sometime right? It's possible he 1-turns Cathy Ames before it expands borders. If not, maybe we can hold it. Then we attack again, either in the south or straight at the capital. Engineering will give us much improved security, but I predict one more war before I get there. And then Magic will have Knights and a choice of targets.

In the larger world, Comm is doing interesting things. He landed Hanging Gardens and then whipped 19 pop! And then revolted to Caste System. Lots of stuff happening over there, but the outcome of it all is still uncertain. Bing's empire seems to be dominant, but I don't know what he's planning to do. Magic I've already talked about.

I don't have the energy to make a revenge for Geidi Prime joke. This game is just...dull.

[naufragar]

This game is just...dull.

Well, these were the magic words, apparently. No sooner had I said this than Magic Science declared war on Ginger. Magic took and burned a Ginger city, both got great generals, and the outside world lost some 100,000 soldiers.



Weirdly, I kind of think these losses were practically all sustained by Miguelito/Ginger.

Here was Miguelito's stack last turn:


Massive, scary, etc. Now try and find it this turn:



Completely gone? Miguelito threw a ton of units at me at low odds and lost almost all of them. I'm guessing that's what happened here, too. 16 axes dead in an eye blink. A Pyramids' worth of hammers slaughtered attacking into a jungle hill.

It changes the game for sure. I don't really know what happened. If Miguelito just lost his entire stack, why did Magic burn the city? I'm very confused. The best guess I have is that Miguelito burned through his stack, but scratched Magic enough for him to get worried. Does Magic offer peace? Does he keep pushing?

It's hard to tell if this sequence of events was good or bad for me. Ginger weakened=good. Magic strengthened=bad.

[naufragar]

As predicted, losses were titanic and one-sided. We've all been there, attacking into vastly unfavorable odds in a tilt. 

Miguelito accepted my open borders, so I can now be your wartime correspondent:


That's not a lot of Magic army. Even attacking into a jungled hill, Mig lost 16 axes against this?? I don't get it.

No use making predicitions when the participants are so erratic. Mig could hold at Joker for at least a turn, but I don't know if that's a thing he's interested in. Unfortunately for him, his defense against me and my axes leaves him woefully under-prepared for Magic's quest-boosted chariots. Miguelito can't get his axes from his core to the front without them being run down in the open.

Interesting times.

[naufragar]

Miguelito accepted my open borders, so I can now be your wartime correspondent:

Or I could, if Magic Science didn't declare war on me and kill a peaceful reporter! For those keeping score, this marks the third time Magic has declared war on me. I have declared war on him zero times. You all laugh, but I am probably the most pacifistic player in this game. (Bing excepted, possibly.)


RIP my poor chariot. You can see Bing converting to Buddhism. Pindicator popped a Mausoleum-boosted Golden Age and has also converted. On the one hand, great! Hopefully they spread the religion around and increase my shrine income. On the other hand, I need to build the monk wonders because I have the fewest green tiles per city of any player. So I bear the cost of producing these wonders, and other players can just hop on for the ride. Bing and Pind with monk economies along with their paradise lands? Well, nothing for it. It's not like I have a choice.

Here's the front:


Magic's troops have disappeared from the east, or at least, they're out of my vision. Perhaps he's pulling back to heal or perhaps he's going all the way around to attack me. Same story with his western stack. He added an elephant on his turn, so I don't think he's retreating. I think he's pivoting to attack me. Was this always his plan or has the red mist descended? Poor, earnest naufragar, alway prey to the depredations of violent men.

Magic's power has climb dramatically, presumably crossbows and elephants.


I can now build Crossbows, but I just gained that ability. Magic could've been cranking them out for a while.

We are both in Serfdom, so it's a raw production game, and here's Magic's:


The only saving grace is that I can pull the emergency Slavery panic button. Not much of a comfort. Serfdom (plus shrine) is my entire economy. One hopes he just offers peace, and this was just to scare me. 

Weird stuff. I don't feel scared, but if a stack of medieval units suddenly shows up at Tortuga, it will be tres triste, as we save in HOSAV. [There was supposed to be a Le Bureau des Legendes joke here, but I can't find the episode, so you all should just go watch the entirety of Le Bureau which is the second-best spy show ever made. ]

[Tarkeel]

It's only the Apostolic Palace they will benefit from, Sankore and Minaret benefits only the owner.

[naufragar]

It's only the Apostolic Palace they will benefit from, Sankore and Minaret benefits only the owner.

Iiiiiiinteresting. Thanks, Tarkeel. That is very heartening.


This game, too, is very interesting. I love Civ4 politics:


Magic has two workers with his stack, so he could road and move to the forested hill in my territory. If he stays still or advances, I could attack him, but I'd have to sim it. River crossing+hill defense is gross. I'm also at that annoying stage of the game where people have catapults but I don't have any units with higher strength, so catapults can actually defend against my stuff. Making crossbows to remedy that. Trying to avoid Horseback Riding for as long as I can.

The politics: I don't want Magic profitably conquering Ginger. But I also don't want a war against Magic to drag on so long that Ginger comes back from his trip itching to team up with Magic against me and cause chaos. As of now, I'm pretty confident that I can defend against both, but the future is sketchy. I've dropped to 3rd power; is Magic ahead of me?

How do I prevent Magic from eating Ginger, while defending against a tag team and preparing to take more of Ginger's land myself? Delightfully tricky game.

[Tarkeel]

It's only the Apostolic Palace they will benefit from, Sankore and Minaret benefits only the owner.

Iiiiiiinteresting. Thanks, Tarkeel. That is very heartening.

It's quite confusing, as Apostolic Palace is the most known of the four monk wonders, and the only one with it's own mechanic. AP triggers on the state religion of the builder at time of completion, while Sankore, Minaret and Sistine only benefit whomever is the current owner. So they are worth conquering, but AP is pointless to conquer.

[naufragar]

It's quite confusing, as Apostolic Palace is the most known of the four monk wonders, and the only one with it's own mechanic. AP triggers on the state religion of the builder at time of completion, while Sankore, Minaret and Sistine only benefit whomever is the current owner. So they are worth conquering, but AP is pointless to conquer.

Fascinating. I plan to stack Minaret and AP in the same city, but if I were planning more thoroughly, there might've been reason to put Minaret in a more defensible city. Hmm.


Speaking of defensible cities, Miguelito keeping his entire army 1 turn away from Cathy Ames is unpleasant.


It's not necessarily 100% hostile. He could be keeping that stack there to fend off a Magic attack from the east while not showing his army. But no, I'm too paranoid to see this as anything than a prelude to attack.

So, I've offered Magic peace. There's no guarantee he takes it. (After all, I'm not totally sure why he declared war in the first place. ) And it would give him the ability to capture Joker from Ginger, but I need to shift back into a defensive stance.

You can also see that I've started research on Divine Right. The Great Prophet can't bulb the whole thing. Unfortunately, I'm still going to be a few beakers off, so I'll have to manually research one more turn after the Prophet's born, I think.

[naufragar]

Commodore, I don't think you're trying to be an asshole but


You're screwing me, here.

Commodore, because he really values roaded sheep, is building a road for Magic Science that enables him to sneak a force of horse archers into my capital with 3 turns of warning:


Because enemy horses travel as fast as humans on roads, I have to move units down to defend right now. "But naufragar," I hear you ask, "How do you know that Magic has any horse archers?" I don't, dear lurker. In fact, I suspect that his army is mostly elephants and crossbows, but I haven't seen his main force and his power has been climbing, so I have to assume that he's got a cavalry strike force. Annoying as hell. It also means I have to split my stack to defend against Ginger, who is still posturing aggressively. I'm trying to keep enough axes to make his retake of Cathy Ames brutally expensive, but, well, twice Miguelito has thrown away Ginger's entire army at an impenetrable target. So who knows?

Annoying as hell. Oh, obviously Magic didn't take peace. Not sure what he's after. Perhaps he just knows we aren't going to be friends this game and wants to claim the second half of the timer forever? Idk. I'll try to cause him enough pain to give me peace, but that's difficult for now. No matter. I'm patient.