[PB69] Bing admires the auspicious number of smoothness and longevity

[BING_XI_LAO]

I enjoy having civac as lurker, but sometimes I wonder if the feeling isn't mutual... 

[BING_XI_LAO]

I had a brief nightmare as I woke up that Commodore's Horse Archers were everywhere, invading. He parked 12 in a city visible to both me and Gavagai several turns ago. They're just sitting there in full vision. Weird behaviour, perhaps some butthurt is involved.

[BING_XI_LAO]

Now there are 15. Maybe with shock promo to kill Praets? Still, it's so weird to put them in vision. Maybe it's a BM play to troll Gavagai (or myself) - "you saw these for many turns in advance and couldn't do anything to protect yourself". In related news, Commodore and I now have open borders. I forget who offered.

I also offered Magic Science OB and clam-for-crab to encourage him I'm not a threat, because he is attacking the game leader Naufragar, crucially before (I hope) nauf gets a military tech lead into maces, knights etc. Mscience didn't accept it.

On the home front:
Turn 97: Net income 24
Turn 108 : Net income 44
Turn 127 : Net income 121
Turn 140: Net income of uh.... 119. Well. That's embarassing. It would be 127 if Kaechon still worked its gold instead of its new grass-hill-windmills.

Other points:
I got the 7 forges quest, and now have a free Engineer specialist in my low-pop hilly copper/gold/pig town. That town also built the Great Wall so now I'm on +5 GPP which is convenient. first GP is in 2 turns and most likely a spy which Civac will force me to turn into a Golden Age. 

I've spent the past dozen turns making forges, markets, and the buddhist religious buildings to get the sweet +2 hammers from them. As a result I am decidedly behind on military. Civac has been clamouring for TROOPS and he will get them now that forge quest is done. One elephant can be made this turn (just got horseback riding) with overflow. With the Golden Age I'll switch to Organized Religion and maybe Vassalage/Civil Service though I'm at a delay getting those techs.



Getting Cothons for the +1 trade route might be nice. Though given zero health problems so far, it would feel like a shame... almost like a waste of the incredibly wisely chosen +2 health event.

[BING_XI_LAO]

16 horse archers now. This is so weird. Can you imagine if he'd surprise attacked me with 16 horse archers? I would have absolutely shitted and pissed myself and died of an anal haemorrhage.
I parked a war elephant in his vision. He's at war with gavagai and I assume it's a bizarro grudge match but precautions must be taken regardless.

[BING_XI_LAO]

[Mjmd]

I like building forges (& to lesser extent markets) before a GA as then the extra yields from GA get boosted.

Not having units and focusing on internal can be good as long as you have a plan for what comes next. It obviously sets you up very well for the future. Not having units though does mean A) you can't jump on opportunities when they arise and B) someone might look to attack you because your low power.

In same vein bureaucracy vs vassalage is a more econ focused vs military focused. Mind you if your capital is a production focused city with a settled GG it might be better from both perspectives. Generally the more cities you have the less good bureaucracy is although it still can be useful to pop into it during a GA to get a wonder out.

[BING_XI_LAO]

Turn 167. High time for an update!

Civac filled in for me as we invaded first Gavagai's city on the coast nearby. Interesting how commodore didn't hold it after invading through it. Now Commodore is about to take Gavagai's cap.
The next step was taking another city which had been taken before - Superdeath's city on the coast just north of it. Amusingly, this had analogously been taken before by Gavagai, then ceded back to SD. And then SD offered me peace deal this turn in which I return it - presumably in case I feel paranoid enough to want to teleport my troops back home as Gavagai must have done.

Whipping, unit supply and maintenance produced this:

I am #4 for economic indicators but #1 for troop count.

Naturally given SD's weak position in the game we want to conquer him wholesale. But he has whipped everything into the ground and has amassed 12 knights, 6 wareles, 12 catas, which are deliberately displayed.
If we attacked that with a force not much stronger than it, it could (even while losing a battle) inflict enough damage that Commodore could invade us. So i've just delayed the advance for the second turn running to add more units to my stack - vodka now says 20 attacker casualties to my 12. I consider that tolerable, but 18 to 14 wasn't.



MSci has gotten a war-peace deal with nauf and can now attack SD - or me, and he has a scout in my western area just as I have two covering his advance, on SD or on me, which is ~9 catas 10 knights and ~10 crossbows ~2 wareles. The border with Msci is not well roaded and is hills/forest, but even so I had to leave some forces defending here. I have say 3 longbows 2 axes 4-5 knights 5 catas 3 wareles 1 pike. That's like, 19 to 31, quite dangerous. REALLY feeling the absence of the 21 knights (+2 injured and healing) over against SD.

Commodore could also attack me after fighting Gavagai. I have 3 pikes and 3 longbows in castle in the main city on the Commodore border. Where he can see them. 


I already whipped two of my former "major" cities down to 7 pop, so while there's some more whips left in them - actually not many more. I have clearly the biggest army, at 1.2 ratio to Msci, 1.4 to Commodore, but it wouldn't do to fight SD, take casualties, then fight both Commodore and Msci. Maybe i'm being too paranoid though as the Msci border is "sparse" while Commodore's army would expect to face my SD stack after a few turns - and he sees the SD stack.

I have just recently realised that I can fort the corn in my cap to move my two galleys into the "SD lake". SD has two triremes because I built two triremes and parked them on his doorstep. I am about to make a third. Maybe a fourth plus a third galley and run an amphib invasion of the SD island? While stalling on land? SD is whipped away to nothing, I just need to avoid getting injured by him them backtabbed. Fortunately the Nauf-Msci peace deal won't last forever and Pind is free to attack Commodore - and actually can ONLY attack Commodore. I sent Pind iron-for-iron this turn. Should have send a gold sum to imply strictly future-oriented.... better do it now.

Already gaine two (1-pop) towns from this, so although net income is low, I don't think I need to make any rash moves.

[BING_XI_LAO]

I might end up making peace with SD so that he can fight Msci. Could work if he gives me his peripheral northeastern town into the bargain, or if I simply back off.

[BING_XI_LAO]

[BING_XI_LAO]

The advance continues! SD has a couple of city defenders and 10 injured knights... while my stack is also injured. Not too much pain to get me to stop, but I might have to send another 10 knights to him.
In a plus, I saw pind's army, it's not the strongest I think but is near Commodore's army.