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

[naufragar]

Oh is timing tight and the margins for attack super sketchy? Get screwed, naufragar:

[Miguelito]

Now that you got Joker's first ring, is it good for something?

[naufragar]

Hi Miguelito! It is indeed! It means I'll be able to first-strike Joker with cannons in about 2 turns. (I'm on sad travel laptop, so don't have any pictures. ) Magic recognized the danger and teched drama and built theaters. Presumably he's also running artists. He actually regained control last turn, which forced me to build culture. I'll take the first ring back, but at the cost of one cannon, basically.

Now "first strike" is a little generous, since there's no staging tile that I can use that Magic can watch with a sentry unit, so he'll be able to sim the upcoming battle and determine whether to flee or fight. But with such a big collateral stack, sims are not super reliable. Magic has 20 catapults in his garrison. If my own collateral can miss those, I'm in great shape, otherwise he can hold the city and I lose a massive pile of hammers.

Pindicator, for his part, has suggested that he can attack from the north when I attack from the south. Yes, it's bad to feed Pindicator who has the biggest empire and the best tech, but I need to grow, myself. Pind was also a bro and loaned me 1000 gold for cannon upgrades. The terms are 20% interest which is paaaaaainful, but 6 extra cannon could be make or break. (Catapults cost 170 to upgrade. )

[naufragar]

Magic had vision of our stack and simmed it out. I'm grateful he did that work, because no way was I going to. It turns out I would've won, so he retreated from Joker.


Used a handful of cats to bombard defenses and then sent in cannon. Our first cannon had the odds you see. The next two had 50% survival odds, and then the conquistadors swooped in with high 90s.

I kept Joker.


I was only able to because we gained control of the sheep tile. Magic's big scary army is just outside, lurking in the fog, but without that sheep tile, only his cavalry can hit us. I think I've stuffed Joker with enough that he can't immediately retake. It's always going to be a little scary.

Especially as I'm now moving my army off my road network in the opposite direction of his army:


Too much going on on this screen to show everything. The upshot is that unless I've misjudged very badly, I think I can roll up all of Gingeria. Of course, Magic can build cannons and has an intact army, so we'll have to wait for his counterstroke.

He's saving gold right now, and capturing Joker actually made his savings rate go up by 2gpt.  You're welcome, I guess.

Lastly, before I forget, we spawned a Great General. I'm not really sure what to do with him. If I settle him at Ankh-Morpork, I can churn out Mobility cav units. On the other hand, if I attach him to a unit, I unlock the prerequisite for West Point, which will let me produce Commando infantry right out of the box. The trouble is that if I build West Point, I can't build Wall Street for roughly a billion gold per turn. This could all get solved by getting another Great General, but until then, I've got to think.

[naufragar]

Magic retreated most everybody:


After losing a conq flawlessly  we took the city with no other losses.



Things get scary. Magic has been upgrading about 1 cat->cannon per turn and I don't have eyes on his units. I think that he didn't have much in the way of collateral down here, but he's still got roughly 50 units that he can hit me with. And it's going to take a bit of time before I can carry my artillery into range.

To make matters worse, I'm splitting my stack:


It'll be expensive, but I'd like to burn Da-Mei. With that burned, former Gingeria will be truly cut off and I'll feel a lot more secure. You can already see my units fanning out to cut roads that Magic could use to retake Joker.

I don't think I get punished next turn, but anything's possible.

You can see I'm two turns out from Banking. A bank at the holy city of Ankh-Morpork gets us +30gpt per turn just from the religious buildings, which is crazy. And I'm contemplating switching into Mercantilism:


You might be wondering where these numbers come from. After all 23 routes times 2.26=52. The remained is domestic "foreign trade" which was very confusing until I worked that out. Assuming that each of those foreign routes goes from 2.26 gpt to 1gpt, I lose 29gpt. If I run free merchants in 10 of my cities, I've already broken even. (Well, Mercantilism is a more expensive civic than Decentralization, so -6gpt or whatever.) So I think I do switch into it. If I were Protective, I'd only be losing 6 gold before getting all the specialists. Protective nuts yo.

[Qgqqqqq]

How much gold is the shrine?

[naufragar]

How much gold is the shrine?

I believe it's 55gpt plus 2 from Spiral Minaret. Everyone besides Magic Science decided to become Buddhist because that's the Apostolic Palace religion, so the religion is far and away the most widespread. (Pind built Sankore for Buddhism as well.)

[Qgqqqqq]

Yeah I was saying I was stunned by the world % when I was in game. Pretty remarkable. Makes me dream for playing a 40-civ game and getting the shrine.

[naufragar]

Makes me dream for playing a 40-civ game and getting the shrine.

Be careful! If memory serves, it doesn't end well for the original owner. In PB38,Mackoti took the Hindu one from Rusten. In PB18, Plako (or was it Pindicator? One of the "P" players.") was a target for his. 

Mine seems safe so far. 

I normally am asleep by 9:30pm, so playing a turn at midnight isn't great. We burned Da-Mei at horrific cost:


How horrific? I had to delete all those horse units but 2 because Magic's army would've cleaned them up for free. It was insanely painful. And it looks like Magic has a settler and missionary ready for an immediate resettlement. So this attack was a mistake.  Pity.

It's possible that Magic gets frisky with his army while mine is in the south, but I've been building up some spare cannons. He could scare me; I don't think he could actually wound me.

So we advance on Gingeria, now cut off from Magic's core:


As always, Magic could have a gigantic mounted force just outside my vision. I doubt this because of that "4" sign you see in Bing's territory. He used his 2 galleys to move 3 knights and 1 cat from Gingeria into Bing lands. At first I worried that he would try to slip forces through Commodore's borders. I'm moving units to prevent that. But I think what he's actually doing is evacuating as best he can, so those units can join the Northern Corps. That would be great for me. The cheaper I can take the South, the better. Magic has most of the initiative right now. We wait to see what he'll do. I feel myself closing in on my strategic goals. Once I take Gingeria, any further gains become too expensive, pushing into Magic's hilly culture while he's building cannons. Whether he'd accept peace is another question. But this is definitely counting chickens before they're hatched. Have to win the South. Have to survive the northern army.

Oh, btw, Pind has Rifling. 

[naufragar]

Oh, btw, Pind has Rifling. 

And Philosophy 1 turn later? Ok. What insane thing is he going to get from Liberalism? I might have to follow along just so he feels some pressure to grab a free 4000 beaker tech rather than a free 9000 one.  Oh yeah, we got Banking this turn. The plan was Paper->Printing Press->Replaceable Parts to draft after Pindicator and get a nice little econ boost, but maybe I go Philosophy->Education to scare Pind into taking Liberalism earlier than he wants, although who knows what he wants. He will win the Liberalism race, but him Liberalizing Steel is way better than him Liberalizing Assembly Line or something stupid.

Another day, another captured Magic city:



Barring a counteroffensive in the north, the fate of these last few cities seems sealed. Afterwards, we rest and recover, perhaps behind a peace treaty, but it's not necessary. Notice that Magic's Knights are still on the labeled square. Not sure what's going on there, but it makes me uneasy.

He also has some Knights running around Bing-soon-to-be-Commodore lands.


Those "1" signs indicate one Knight each. And his army is gone from Da. He could have pulled it back for zone defense, but I still bear the scars of PB 45 when Superdeath ran his entire army through a neighbor's lands to raze my undefended cities on the other side of the world. I should prepare. Note, I don't think Comm would let his lands be used for a stunt like that. It would be big negative diplo. Still, trust but verify. Typing it out, he could be running all the way west to hit Cadia. He could take Cadia (this is the first city I took from him in the war) but it's meant to be a crumple zone to give Shrine and Cap enough time to prepare.