[Spoilers]C6PBEM23: Krill sidles yonder, and probably fails

[Krill]

Turn 131 - World Congress




TAD is sending trade routes to MH. I expect him to vote for me as the target, so he gets the extra gold. Chev will only give a token vote to something here, likely against Whosit. greenline is sending routes internal so doubt he cares. Whosit can only be sending routes to Japan but if he votes for Chev then he boosts an opponent. I think I am quite likely to win this vote as most will focus on the second resolution.

I think the district one will be closer. I thought about trying to stop campus development but I need that university in Long so it would likely cost me more. greenline probably votes to buff campuses, but I think the winner will be the buff to to holy sites with both Chev and TAD voting for them: OTOH TAD is probably done for Holy site development. I just want easy factories and coal plants, but knowing my luck I will win and have no coal.

[Krill]

T132

I kept Burmese. I've moved Victor. Loyalty is increasing.

Come and get me Whosit, or leave a back door into your core and your niter in my sights. You don't get to go and play with anyone else.

Also the coal situation is interesting (and not bad for me).

Pictures next turn, this turn was hard enough to play.

Edit: Although I will go on record about the world congress votes: this was not a bad outcome for me. In fact, it hurts TAD and that's a good thing. I lost 6 food and 6 production and get an unexpected boost, plus I can probably get the boost to apply to seaports (I know I can get the eureka and then the seaports available to build in 20 turns, and at half cost with factories down that's nothing). I'm pleasantly surprised with this.

[Krill]

For my reference (turn report to come when I have some time, no idea when that will be)

Era points, 68/75, 7 turns remaining.

Upgrade one warrior to MaA - 1 point (5 turns, with PA, without retinues, 125 gold, 20 iron)
Upgrade caravel to ironclad - 2 points (5 turns, as above, 135 gold,1 coal)
Grow MH to size 14 (4 turns)
Buy a GE - 3 points (any turn from next turn, cost 1100 gold and decreasing)

= 7 points, save grouching tiger and great wall segment for next era.

[Jabah]

Not sure about s14 giving points. I had 10 15 20 25 in mind...

[Krill]

It's a typo, it will grow to s15 in 4 turns.

[Krill]

T135

Very quick update which means it's a memo to self and you get to read it. TAD gave/sold niter to Whosit (no one else could use it, I didn't get it, and his niter stocks dropped), so I'm on a clock. Screenshots from T134 but T135 doesn't show anything different.




23 turns is plenty, but I offered the culture alliance to him so he gets the alpha-strike. In fact 23 turns is enough for me to do some pretty nasty things.




Change tech to Steampower. Upgrading an ironclad pre T141 gives me the FI boosted eureka on Steel plus helps solve the era points problem. More importantly I need the canal finished to defend Ponytail, but with it I can pretty much obliterate anything TAD will be able to put in the water. The military engineer can put in the rail roads, now I have Burmese for the extra iron I'm not really resource constrained, but this delays the Ballistics eureka to next era (so 50% rather than 60%) Change of plan with unit builds, getting knights out of Mullet, Ponytail and Long to coincide with finishing Humanism for flexibility. With the canal, I don't care much for muskets if I'm fighting TAD and Whosit, I need boats (to clear out all of the coastal cities) and mounted for hit and runs and keep his land armies split. These few extra warriors will be useful as amenities with Retainers and as a reserve.





Venice revolted, it is losing loyalty, and with me holding Burmese, it will revolt to me around T145. Another reason to prepare for Whosit to try and force an attack on Burmese. I've seen two muskets on T135, and greenline has lost an archer and crossbow to pigheadedness and hubris (that's what I'm calling those muskets, anyway). I don't see the city falling to him militarily, but this just reinforces how bad the "Kill a CS" plan was.





TAD took Preslav. There are three east coast cities to remove around T155, so need more frigates. I can get another 5 with upgrades but will struggle to efficiently manage the resources, and more if I can buy niter from greenline but I doubt he will trade any to me.

Burmese is getting units shifted up. Warriors, crossbows and a horseman (want to upgrade to a courser but might not be able to do it before T141 due to other needs for the gold. The knights will probably head up as well, but with Steam power will move up extremely quickly.





Whosit, meanwhile, is going to remove Zanzibar from the game as retribution for not letting him suzerain it. I'll note how he will take damage, even if he manages to cycle units, and due to terrain he is the only player that really had this option. And this is only an opportunity because the CS is stupid and I couldn't levy the units and keep them in the city to defend with. One Xbow behind the city, one in the city, the walls and the MaA that just would not travel back through greenlines lands, it should have cleared out that ram and a couple of other units. But no, the CS literally walked an Xbow into a musket and gave the SR eureka to Whosit on a platter. Not that it matters when he has no coastal cities, but still, it saves him 430 beakers on the route to factories.

I'm not bitter, not one bit.




I'm going to buy this GE. The only remaining GE is the 215 wonder production, double charge GE. Even with Limes St James is 450 production into cities that have other stuff to do. I think TAD is now broke except for pillage gold but he could take James with projects. If I miss and land the wonder GE I'll have to re-allocate Ponytail to get Heliocarnassus to 185 production, use a charge to safely complete it (it's the best coastal city for it, I do want the beakers and culture, and the faith will be stockpiled), and then suck up building Alhambra.

I'd rather just have the walls in Ponytail, Burmese and MH (because it makes so much production it's a waste to build the walls).





Swapping to Monarchy after Humanism. Professional Army/Retainers/NI/whatever/Republican Legacy/GE card. Then prepare for the free card swap on era change and head for Mercantilism.

PA is needed for the ironclad and Man at Arms upgrades. Retainers replaces Civil Prestige (+4 amenities, the housing is no loss). I'm already running Republican Legacy and the GE card gives me 8 points per turn, and if I am buying the GE that is worth 120 gold per turn at my count.

Era points: Need 7, but gold implications are I have roughly 2100 gold available to use by T140

MaA: 125 gold
Ironclad: 145 gold
University: 1000 gold
GE: 1040 (T135) and counting, reducing by 60 gold per turn.

Solutions: I can run Lilja (gold) for a turn in a city or two if I need, but I need to run them sooner due to the "bug" I saw with faith production. The GE card cannot be used until T138 so has no impact until T139, and the MH factory completes T138 so has no impact either. Hence the challenge: If I want St James I need to commit sooner, which takes the university off the table. If I accept the risk and potential alternative payout, then I need to figure out Limes and a bunch of wall builds, and how to finish a canal. But I really want that university before T140 because it saves me about 300 beakers (OK, it's not really that much of a deal breaker I suppose, but I will lose about 30bpt at era end).

[Krill]

T135: Zanzibar is stubborn and still has walls. It will fall but because it can't be put under siege due to terrain Whosit might actually run out of melee units with sufficient health.

I'm pretty sure that if it had the second Xbow it would have held here.

I bought the university. I'm pretty sure I can grab everything I need in the remaining turns. I'm up to 160bpt, one third higher than TAD with another city growing to size 10 start of T136, but once the era change happens I will actually lose almost 50bpt (Burmese Harbour is fixed and contributing hence the higher rate loss).

I'm trying to get to Steel by the end of the alliance with TAD. It'll be close, but if I can get the knight kill then I will have every eureka in place and I think I'll be able to do it. Then it would be on to Refining for Battleships, but with the canal in place at Ponytail I will simply try and remove everything he has from the east coast, and all boats.

[Krill]

I'll try and do an update next turn, when Steam Power is in, because there is a lot going on on T138 and I could make a lot of different moves, but right now just going to note a bit of C&D.

Whosit: Just reached second row Renaissance civics. If it is Mercantilism then he lacks Naval Tradition, if it is The Enlightenment then he also lacks Divine Right. It's Mercantilism because of camp buffTech: Has 29 techs. We know he has Gunpowder, Metal Casting and Ballistics, which means he is missing one Medieval tech, I think Castles.

TAD: This is more interesting. Also reached second era civic this turn. Down Exploration (Lack of Press gangs is going to hurt him!) Up Reformed Church (in Theo), Humanism, Diplomatic Service and therefore could have either Mercantilism or the Enlightenment: It's Mercantilism because his camps have the buff. He has 27 techs which is everything in the Medieval era, but nothing in the Renaissance. He is stack up beakers waiting for the era to change. The last save I have access to is T132, when he was at 27 techs, which means that he has accrued probably 1,000 beakers waiting for the era change.

I think this is a pretty cool attempt at subterfuge but it's not effective. At the era change there are 5 techs he could have at 719/600 and 2 techs he could have at 875/730: The maximum he could overflow is 885 beakers but not all at once without taking a massive delay. This is best at just a general catch up plan, not a deep beeline. Assuming he has managed to kill a unit with a musket, then he would be able to finish Square Rigging within 4 turns of the era change (assume 3) and probably Industrialism within another 5-6 turns of the era change. Then he needs to get to Steampower. he can just about get there before the end of the alliance...but he has extremely limited coal and I will have a great admiral. So I'm not worried there. The other problem for TAD is that I'm doing this as well, and I'll already be at Steam Power TAD needs to find a way to keep up in the run to Steel and Refining.

If he doesn't head for ironclads then I'm going to obliterate his navy, and any land units he tries to run down the isthmus run into Steel defenses and frigates he can't reach, so what's his alternative? I think he discounts my ability to hold the water, but he is building a navy to upgrade (galleys and quads), so I don't think he is planning on an alternative (why build quads and galleys to upgrade when you know your opponent already has frigates, if you don't plan to win on the water?)

Note that this puts both TAD and Whosit 10 turns ahead of me in culture. TAD will get to Nationalism before me but I should still get there before the Alliance ends, but at the cost of not having Mercantilism and hence naval raiders. Maybe TAD thinks that he can win with fleets?

[Krill]

T138

TAD bought James of St George this turn, so I bought Isadore. The civilopedia says that this should give three era points but the banner and the EP total only says it gives one. I suspect that TAD got era points for the GP purchase, and I didn't because it's the second this turn: I have never purchased a GP previously.

This bug puts me 2 EP short of a GA.

I'm not sure of how to resolve this because it changes pretty much everything. Maybe play the next turn and see if buying the GE then gives the era points? Whosit would have to be barred from buying the GE (not sure if he has teh gold, but he might if he finally captures Zanzibar.

[Japper007]

Did you buy out a Great Person earlier? (can't recall) Of so: you only get 3 era score the one time, otherwise it's just the one you get anyway.