[SPOILERS] scooter Reruns Bluey

[scooter]

Commodore declined my peace offer and instead offered his map for peace which, lol. He might as well have offered 1G for peace. Congrats buddy on the forever war, I've got way less to lose here than you, and I'm not going away without being paid a lot.






He swung at my forested stack and annoyingly won two coin-ish flips and got a super low odds withdraw, but on my attack I won two coin-ish flips in return, so whatever. I'm still salty at losing two Formation Elephants earlier due to extreme RNG. (The Mace was a cleanup of a redlined unit.) Also note the Mobility promo on Knights due to the free Flanking opening up access. I'll have to keep that in mind, what a pain. This is fundamentally my issue with Events - they range wildly from "here's +1h on a plot, cool" to "here's a free promo in perpetuity for a unit class you'll use for 100 turns." What is the point of joining a game that is fundamentally a competition if we're just going to sprinkle random game swinging BS onto it? Unless of course tons of random BS is the entire point of a specific game, then boy do I have a map/game for you the next time one of these ends.


Anyway, it does look like he was able to Dunkirk out 2 Knights. All said and done, I believe I killed 5 Knights along with several Keshiks, which is pretty good given his original invading force had just 4 Knights. There's also a chance I sunk some on that Galley I killed, not sure. At end of turn my soldier count climbed above his. He's also burning gold right now, which I suspect is for Engineering, which would make it much harder to me to use just Elephants. So I expect wave 2 will come in a bit, but this is exactly why I wasn't going to give him 10T free peace - because that's roughly when I expect that group would be ready.


I anticipate he'll retreat and just wait and build back up. It's going to be difficult to go on the offensive with 1-movers, though not necessarily impossible. Much will depend on whether Pindicators joins in. I asked him to via diplo, and he echoed it back, but also he's not really building up super heavily right now, so I'm not expecting much. A shame.

[Mjmd]

This is fundamentally my issue with Events - they range wildly from "here's +1h on a plot, cool" to "here's a free promo in perpetuity for a unit class you'll use for 100 turns." What is the point of joining a game that is fundamentally a competition if we're just going to sprinkle random game swinging BS onto it? Unless of course tons of random BS is the entire point of a specific game, then boy do I have a map/game for you the next time one of these ends.

I'm doing a fantasy map with a friend and I really want to do a fantasy map pitboss, but I know people would want other things like huts and events on I just never want to play with. But ya there are people who like that sort of thing.

[scooter]

This is fundamentally my issue with Events - they range wildly from "here's +1h on a plot, cool" to "here's a free promo in perpetuity for a unit class you'll use for 100 turns." What is the point of joining a game that is fundamentally a competition if we're just going to sprinkle random game swinging BS onto it? Unless of course tons of random BS is the entire point of a specific game, then boy do I have a map/game for you the next time one of these ends.

I'm doing a fantasy map with a friend and I really want to do a fantasy map pitboss, but I know people would want other things like huts and events on I just never want to play with. But ya there are people who like that sort of thing.

I'm sort of OK with it if the imbalance is agreed to off the start and is fundamentally part of the game. It doesn't make a lot of sense in a game like this - the map is sort of mirrored-ish, and there's an implied degree of fairness. But also I think the strongest events just need to be toned way down. I don't think I'd be bothered by the Flanking thing at all if it was like "all living units get Flanking 1" instead of "all mounted units forever."

[scooter]

Let's roll some dice.





Commodore was fleeing with his wounded Trireme + Galley, so I elected to take the shot here as I was > 50%, and I had a fresh Trireme coming up from the south if he decided to press his luck. I won this, which was a massive result. My own Galley was redlined, and I was hoping his Galley underneath this would be baited into killing me, then I could hit it with my Trireme. I figured he would just go home though. Until Pindicator did the thing I was REALLY hoping he would do here.





Beautiful. There were definitely units on board that Galley. I think a Knight + War Elephant, both slightly wounded but veteran. Nice work.





Meanwhile in the south Commodore decided to press his luck. I'm almost positive he stuck his 2 slightly wounded but well-promoted Knights onto this Galley and sailed west hoping to snipe a city. And it was a reasonable idea given that area is very poorly defended. The problem is my Trireme was still not healthy - I foolishly sent him home to heal "faster" resulting in no healing. I blocked his path. By my check he would have roughly coin flip odds to kill this. I was uncomfortable leaving that to chance, so I did some GG shenanigans to get a second Elephant into Granddad, but that would not be visible to him. He likely thought he was getting a raze here if he won the fight. (I also brought in a worker pair to function as combat roaders if he elected to land them.)





However, he did not win the fight. Flawless victory, and with it two more Knights sink to the bottom of the ocean I think. At least one anyway, surely something. Behind this I used my Great General to sprinkle 20XP among 2 Elephants and a Longbow - just because those were the only units around - and gave one Elephant Morale to get him into the city. So I was covered either way, but it would have been dicey had I not done that and he won this coin flip.






Chef's kiss. This more or less confirms that 4 units did indeed sink on those 2 Galleys, I think. I didn't kill anything else this turn beyond a scout. I now have the second-largest army in the game. (I haven't bothered with Yuri's graphs with the heavy EP spend on me, but he's in last.)


Also, if you ever wonder why we nerfed War Elephants in every balance mod ever, this is why. My 7Str Elephants at 60h apiece just went dead even with 90h Knights that were much better promoted. And Knights are widely considered one of the best base units in the whole game. The mobility disadvantage is real, don't get me wrong, but the amount of oomph I got here out of easy 2 pop whips was really powerful. Also, the Culture Bomb wasn't totally worthless either - the huge cultural edge on the border was really impactful here.

[Zed-F]

Good work fending off Commodore! I guess it will be a while longer for him to rebuild, but your forces aren’t set up to be so aggressive as to counter invade. So I guess it’s just keep swimming for now?

[Qgqqqqq]

Congratulations on a strong defence.

[scooter]

Thanks! However,

I guess it will be a while longer for him to rebuild, but your forces aren’t set up to be so aggressive as to counter invade. So I guess it’s just keep swimming for now?

I debated, but nope, gotta risk it for the biscuit.





Commodore revolted OUT of Slavery just a turn or so before this, and his power has not really recovered, and he burned up most of his treasury on Optics and spent hammers on a Caravel. I have to try to punish. I'm skeptical that I have enough, but we are going to find out.


I don't think I'm going to succeed for one big reason - Pindicator gave him peace for no reason. Really frustrating. I get his preference to not join in the hot war, but this allows Commodore to totally empty out his units on that front. This will probably cost me my attempt here. But we're going to try anyway given that he cannot whip.

[scooter]

He was able to reinforce too much, so I had to withdraw. He took two more shots at the stack and got kill + withdraw while also finding several more units. Really annoyed that Pindicator just gave him peace for literally no reason. I mean, I get it, but it's annoying still.

[scooter]

Well, I decided to make a play. Commodore and I had been negotiating over peace, with me offering harsh $$ terms, and him offering white peace. I intended to remain at war to limit his options while squeaking out a couple settlers. One was earmarked for the silver site south of the former barb city. However, I opened the turn up to Commodore offering 25g for peace. That's a very small sum, but the timing offered an opportunity to take a risk.





3 choppable forests and good tiles means in 10T I ought to be able to get Walls and a Theater and be well on my way to flipping the first ring back. If he wants to come right back at me in 10T, I'll be as ready as I can - more ready than I was last time at least. Of course, he may not want to do that, as Pindicator is a bit too free right now, but we'll see.


Bluey episode name is mostly in the honor of, you know, the giant Army standing right next to the city. The city is a risk for sure, but also I've recovered from losing it just fine before, so I'm OK with the risk.






Er yes, I also settled a second city this turn, taking me to 9, which is somehow the most in the game despite the fact that I've lost 2 in this game. Granted, my cities are quite underdeveloped, so it's not a "lead" by any stretch. Anyway, this city is a bit uncomfortable given that Thoth's Woodsmen 2 Sword is in the area and can hit the city next turn. I stuffed 2 longbows in, so it's safe. However, he could move SE-SE and threaten Quiet Game, so I had to give it the chance to have 2 defenders the following turn. So these cities are safe, but if he tries to mess with them, it will be annoying.


Bluey episode name here is mostly because planting 2 cities in 1 turn does seem like the kind of play someone who was born yesterday would make. It does indeed seem like a questionable move, but it sounded interesting, so here we are. If I can't profit from a counter-attack on Commodore, I should attempt to profit from the security I've built myself in a way that makes me better prepared for whatever comes at me next.

[scooter]

The actual gamestate is really fascinating right now. Thoth and Pindicator are pulling away from the pack by totally different means. Thoth is doing it by gradually conquering Yuris. Yuris has done a nice job of striking back a few times recently, but his fall does look inevitable. This will give Thoth an enormous amount of land. His tech is not super impressive, so there's an open question of how he's going to get to Astronomy, which is the tech that will massively change this game.


Pindicator meanwhile is doing it the total opposite way. He's been the big winner in being the only player at peace for a very long time now. I haven't followed his tech closely, but I think he's got the strongest economy in the game by a mile. Taking peace with Commodore rather than pushing a 2v1 was an interesting choice. It annoyed me, but I think he's likely trying to push his way to Astro. He's in the pole position to get there first, and if he does, he's going to have serious free reign to do what he wants. Viking Galleys/Caravels are just not scary to Galleons. I still think he's the clear favorite in this game as I have since T35, especially as Thoth's conquest of Yuris has simply not gone fast enough.


That leaves Commodore as really the swing here. Is he going to just come right back at me in 10T? I generally assume so. It's hard to say for sure, though. The reality is Thoth/Pindicator are getting further ahead, and he's going to have to decide if he needs/wants to put a stop to the Spanish snowball or not. I'm in 4th place, but I do have the tools to claw my way back into the game via peace. It's less clear that Commodore has these tools, and that's sort of the core issue driving this game right now. SPI does help a lot, but the fact is he burned his first two Great People thresholds on an early Guilds play that netted him 0 gains and 2 annoyed neighbors. He's really only in 3rd place because he still does have the heavily promoted Knights. What we do know about him is he teched Optics and wanted 10T of peace with me. We also know I have a very large standing Elephant army that has already caused headaches for his Knights, so he may very well be looking elsewhere next. His choices in the next dozen turns will decide a lot.


So IMO we have 2 contenders, 2 players who can impact the game and maybe squeak back in if some things go right, and 1 hanging on by a thread. Still a pretty interesting game.