[Spoilers] luddite tries to remember how this game works

[Commodore]

Perhaps, who knows, the horse will sing.

[Jabah]

Also if you want to interview you need to know on which side or against both.

[luddite]

Perhaps, who knows, the horse will sing.

What does this mean...???

but yeah, I don't really know anything about their situation. I'm just assuming Oxy will win since he has better demos, plus the Kremlin. But maybe Scooter can do something with his tactical advantage from the vikings and circumnav. Hard to stop those 6-move galleons...

Of course, I have absolutely no way to stop them if they go after my coastal cities. I could defend *one* but they'll just go somewhere else, much faster than I can move. Maybe better I just stay out as long as possible.

[Quagma Blast]

Perhaps, who knows, the horse will sing.

What does this mean...???

It's a reference to a story though one I can't recall exactly. A peasant (maybe Russian) gets sentenced to death, and he tries to get out of it by promising that he can teach the lord's horse to sing. The lord is understandably skeptical, but gives him a year. So the peasant goes in and sings to the horse every day, and when his son asks him why he's doing this pointless thing, he responds that he gets an extra year of life out of it. And, perhaps...

[T-hawk]

Here's a good telling of it:

“Herodotus tells of a thief who was to be executed. As he was taken away he made a bargain with the king: in one year he would teach the king's favorite horse to sing hymns. The other prisoners watched the thief singing to the horse and laughed. "You will not succeed," they told him. "No one can." To which the thief replied, "I have a year, and who knows what might happen in that time. The king might die. The kingdom might fall. The horse might die. I might die. And perhaps the horse will learn to sing.”

If you chase an impossible goal, you never know what else might happen along the way, and the goal might not even be so impossible.

On a practical note, you can get at least one AT or arty in each coastal city, right? That might be enough that any losses won't be worth trying for an attacker.

[luddite]

I see, nice story! I hadn't heard that one before. But yes, that's pretty much my whole game plan now... stay alive, and maybe something can happen. if they leave me alone to grow for like... 50 turns? I can come back with all this empty land. I'll definitely put *something* in all the coastal cities, just to stop them from being tempted. Losing a few small cities doesn't really hurt me that much right now. But if I want to make a difference in their war I would pretty much have to send everything.

They are actually weirdly close in mfg and food now. Unless one of them is in a golden age, which might be the case. The only difference GNP... what's going on with this? Just culture?

[luddite]

Aha, scooter *was* in a golden age. A very long one, thanks to the MoM. But it ended this turn, leading to a big drop in his MFG. And I think he lost a city, although I didn't get a notification. And he's also starting to lag behind in power. Kind of concerning.

He cancelled out silver-for-gold trade and offered me sugar instead. not quite as good, but I'll take it. it just means I need to get a move on, and settle the gold on my continent (it's in the far north).

But, this turn I resettled Bombay, in a slightly different place. This is my 3rd time settling this city!

[luddite]

Thinking about it more... I think I will send my arty over there.
a) it's just 4 arty, they can only defend at most 4 cities, which won't help much against a serious naval invasion
b) they could potentially make a big difference in a counterattack
c) if this war goes bad, it might go bad very quickly, so I'd like to head that off
d) it takes a long time to get over there, so I need to get started now.

of course, all this assumes that theres some sort of land war. if it's all just naval warfare i can't do anything.

[Jabah]

Over where exactly do you intend to send them ?
Your mini map seems to be quite dark

You probably need at least also a real unit to kill and capture/raze anything !

[luddite]

Over where exactly do you intend to send them ?
Your mini map seems to be quite dark

You probably need at least also a real unit to kill and capture/raze anything !

Yes.. that's really the problem. I have no idea where they're fighting. I've found a few city ruins, and one of Oxy's ships, but no actual stacks from him.

I had a vague idea that I could hit Oxy's stack with collateral, and let Scooter kill it (he moves after me). But that only works Oxy moves into the perfect position for us.

I suppose I could just gift them to Scooter... I don't know if I'm really that trusting, though.

Meanwhile there was some sort of battle this turn. Oxy lost a bunch of power, while Scooter lost another city. More destruction is good for me, I suppose.

I wonder if it's worth building the Great Wall? I haven't gotten any GPP yet, so that would eventually give me a Great Spy. Would be nice for the scouting ability.