[PB74] Tarkeel and civacs Game of the Year

[Tarkeel]

Excellent theme for city naming, I approve! Great reporting as well.

Thank you!

How happy are you with the leader and civ choice so far?

Short answer: Given the constraints of the picking method, I don't think we could have hoped for a much better result.

Longer answer:
China's agriculture/mining would have been the best starting techs for us, but that was always a long-shot. Germany's hunting/mining allowed us a reasonably early BronzeWorking (which was necessary for chops more than whips), and while we didn't have any hunting-resources, it allowed us the early AnimalHusbandry gambit. Germany atleast does have some interesting toys further down the tech-tree.

I actually wanted to play PRO in this game, but it wasn't worth re-rolling even if neither Isabelle (EXP/SPI) or San Martin (CHA/CRE) was worth testing. I've played enough ORG but it has some minor Germany-synergy, and IMP was more or less a necessity for this start,

As for the start itself, I think it is very interesting, as it forces you into some very hard compromises and a tough choice between AnimalHusbandry and BronzeWorking. I'm not sure how playable it would have been with worse starting techs (I didn't test any), which makes it so only 5 out of 36 civs were a real option. Maybe Zulu/Persia with agriculture/hunting also would have been playable?

There are two problems with this though: the picking format which means you have very little control of getting the needed techs, and the simple fact that just about every start we've seen is just plain better. Amica's twin-clams without a 3h tile could be worse, but at least those clams are 5f once the lighthouse is down.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 118 (75 AD)
The enforced peace ended, and although plemo did move some threatening galleys, the peace still holds. Squeezing out Currency did wonders for our economy, lot the least because we've made some new friends in the far east, so all our traderoutes are 3C soon.


Pindicator kicked off his conquest of Amicalola, which seems to be going splendidly, taking two border cities and razing an inner-ring coastal city. We have to be ready to vulture off the two offensive cities from earlier, after which the border should look pretty stable.


The second scout-overflow completes in Agricola next turn, which will let us finish Construction and probably HorsebackRiding directly after, so we can have some wellies against plemo and horchers for Amica. After that it should be 5-6t for Calendar. Meanwhile, Superdeath is eager for a rematch with plemo in that timeframe, which really doesn't fit us at all.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 120 (125 AD)
Are we dead now? Commodore's golden age just ended, and he went on a rather large whipping spree. Given that he revolted into Vassalage at the start of said GA, it's highly likely he has Guilds now, and we're still two turns away from HBR and wellies. Like I said in the T100 overview, he's about to field knights against archers. The only good news for us is that he and Bing have closed borders, so that might be the direction he hits first.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 121 (150 AD)
Plemo has gone for round two on Superdeath, and Commodore's knights seems to be heading south. It could be a feint to fool our scout, but I don't think so.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 123 (200 AD)
It looks like Amica is holding off Pindi in the jungle for now, so our plan to vulture the two insult-cities is on the back-burner for now. Instead we're trying to get out a wave of wellies and cats for defense, and possibly provide a diversion for Superdeath, who is begging for intervention.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 125 (250 AD) State of the World IV
We're in the middle a build-up phase, but here is how things are looking at T125.


The north is busy making units to either stave of a plemo-invasion, or counter-attack plemo in case Superdeath starts losing cities. SD just fired a GA and swapped into Police State before doing a round of whips this turn, so despite no war weariness this looks serious. Most annoyingly, plemo has been running some caste artists and has sniped the silks N of Rococo, and will take the sheep next turn.


The south is starting to mature into something worth having, and plantations will start coming up next turn which will help our happy situation somewhat. We're still woefully unprepared to handle Commodore's knights, but they seem to be going for Bing first.


The economy isn't too bad I suppose, largely carried by 3C+ foreign trade routes at this point. Development is still some 30-40 turns behind schedule and I don't see any way that will get better over time.

As for foreign affairs, Plemo is still the leading candidate but both Commodore and Miguelito are making gains, while Pindicator has stalled out in the jungle against Amica.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 126 (275 AD)
Commodore's knight stack went missing this turn, but we spotted it 4 tiles south:


Looks like Bing will be hit next turn. We did try to warn him some turns ago, but he seems to have interpreted as an invitiation to join or attack on Commodore, so we sent a more specific warning. Note the high amount of combat workers present; we also expect Commodore to get Engineering any turn now.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 127 (300 AD)
Commmodore went straight for the jugular, and Bing lost two cities on the axis towards his capital:


It would have been possible to the the westmost city from the fog as well, but those two were impossible to defend so might as well go straight for the main prize. Looks like Bing won't be seeing the modern age after all. Pindi also made some progress against Amica, burning another border city, but I think this force will hold him for a while:


We're frantically trying to get to Machinery and crossbows before our shoreline is raided by Zerkers.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 128 (325 AD)
We hit a nice event this turn:


That yielded 146g, allowing us to speed up research on MetalCasting, but Machinery is still some 10 turns away. Some triremes would be handy just about now, because Superdeath is begging for our intervention against plemo. We were going to wait for cities to start falling, but he did send diplo along the line of "sending everything", so we'll give it a go with what we have.

Our best case for making some gains would be to assault the island, but that would require some time to build and position triremes, and time is of the essence here. Instead the objective of this war will mainly be to relieve some pressure on Superdeath, and to do that we need to threaten by land, something we're not even sure we can accomplish.


The obvious angle of attack would be north of Rococo towards Lødøse and Haithabu, which holds MoM. We expect this line to be the most defended, and our forces would probably by shredded by the time we reach where the worker is now, if not before. A more defensive approach would be to stage in Catan and then set out for Aarhus yet again. The main benefit would be to get the sheep tile back to Rococo; the downside is that because of that tile plemo can look into Rococo and see this coming. Plemo's most likely response will be a counter-invasion to threaten Rococo, or move up forces from around Oslo to stop the line as well. For now we'll start moving the defensive forces up towards Rococo.

In other news, Bing seems to be going down. Commodore took the capital and has barely suffered damage on his knights, and Pindi just joined in as well.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 130 (375 AD)
Plemo didn't make any visible reactions to our forces in Rococo, so we declared and sent in the scout.


That looks actually quite promising, all things considered. There's even a worker in range of being sniped, so we send an unpromoted chariot to take it out, and also reveal that the third north-coast galley is missing. Note that the galleys at the island are moved out of sight, and have been replaced by triremes, which seems like a defensive posture.

The berserker in Oslo is a confirmation that we are definitely on the clock here. Bing is collapsing and is down to five cities, two of them on the island. My guess is that Commodore will swing north in less than 5 turns, and probably invade us about T140. Last turn, that timeline estimate was 10 and T150.