[pb72 spoilers]: the esteemed gentleman's literature and book club

[greenline]

Xist inexplicably chose to wait another turn instead of going all in now. I was able to spare 4 cannons from the front that will make it to the city in time. Perhaps he is getting cold feet in the sim as well?

If he continues to leave all his cats sitting on the tile in the back I am wiping them next turn. I really should have put my phracts on a tile to do that before, but I really thought he was going to move them all by now!

[greenline]

one more thing... I have planned to take some days off for a vacation at the end of October. I suspect it is possible this game may still be going on and be in the intense stages of late game war. Should I go sub shopping in the civ general around that time, or would you be willing to cover those turns?

[Tarkeel]

I might be traveling for work for a few days at the end of october, if it doesn't collide I should be able to cover.

[greenline]

Thanks for being able to cover.

Spammy extra comment: Bing's tech situation with his GA has been interesting. All these turns have passed and he's gone for military techs. He still has not grabbed Constitution. He may not be planning to end the GA in representation... that would signal he's all in on the Cav military conquest plan, I think.

[greenline]

Seeing our full stack, and a fresh rifle, Xist decided to skedaddle.




With a fresh wave of rifles completing, next turn is when I am going to aim to sneak in levees. Then the extra hammers can start going into machine guns. Aetryn has been using a lot of wealth builds to catch up to us in tech, now owning steel and steam power. The sooner we can lock down MinInc, the better.

[Qgqqqqq]

Are you planning on invading Xist?

[greenline]

Are you planning on invading Xist?

Not for now. The reason why I decided against that is because Tarkeel changed my mind on corps, and we rolled the engineer and got the economics merchant. I've never had a good feel for the power of corps pre or post mod, but the value of owning MinInc and Cereals is apparently much more than Statue of Liberty would be, for our 26 cities. So I think it would be a better investment of resources to secure those corps and defend our current territory instead of expanding and risking Bing piling on. I do currently feel threatened because I can't keep my complete forces guarding the Bing border and Xistland - once I have rails up I will be much safer and I can rotate the stacks back and forth with movement to spare. 2 more turns until that point. With serfdom and steam power, I believe workers can 1 turn rails.

If we concentrate enough forces on the Bing border post-corp spreading, that might be the time to finish off Xist. Xist made the tradeoff for a giant military now, but I don't think he's researched a single tech since his golden age ended something like 40 turns ago, his research is so bad. So the longer the game goes on the less threatening that super stack gets.




Ironworks city is finally maxed on tiles. Workers will add 3 watermills for the time being, and more with biology and cereals. I think getting Ironworks built early is a good investment. It has such a high upfront hammer cost it is easy to postpone or forget building it. Now we have a late game wonder factory.




Don't ask me what Xist is doing here.

[greenline]

Also, please talk in the lurker thread if what I am doing is good or terrible decision making so I can read it when the game ends.

[greenline]

[Tarkeel]

Are you planning on invading Xist?

Not for now. The reason why I decided against that is because Tarkeel changed my mind on corps, and we rolled the engineer and got the economics merchant. I've never had a good feel for the power of corps pre or post mod, but the value of owning MinInc and Cereals is apparently much more than Statue of Liberty would be, for our 26 cities. So I think it would be a better investment of resources to secure those corps and defend our current territory instead of expanding and risking Bing piling on.

SoL would be great as well, but MinInc alone is better than it IMHO, especially as the HQs are unnerfed in this game. There's still the cost of spreading it, execs are still 100 hammers and you need gold, but still.

I do currently feel threatened because I can't keep my complete forces guarding the Bing border and Xistland - once I have rails up I will be much safer and I can rotate the stacks back and forth with movement to spare. 2 more turns until that point. With serfdom and steam power, I believe workers can 1 turn rails.

Remember that even knights can only move 10 tiles on railroads, I've made that mistake before myself. But yes, getting a strategic rail circuit down is important. Try to have limit it to lessen the threat of Commandos later on though, preferably with chokes on hills that will be fortified.

If we concentrate enough forces on the Bing border post-corp spreading, that might be the time to finish off Xist. Xist made the tradeoff for a giant military now, but I don't think he's researched a single tech since his golden age ended something like 40 turns ago, his research is so bad. So the longer the game goes on the less threatening that super stack gets.

It was more an existential challenge for Xist; Whip out this army now or be dead in the next 10 turns. That stack can still maim someone though, but cannons are the best counter against cats.

Ironworks city is finally maxed on tiles. Workers will add 3 watermills for the time being, and more with biology and cereals. I think getting Ironworks built early is a good investment. It has such a high upfront hammer cost it is easy to postpone or forget building it. Now we have a late game wonder factory.

MMm. Juicy. Remember to build the watermills in the correct order; IE NW of the city before N.

Don't ask me what Xist is doing here.

Pillage party? But then why not land on the town directly?