[SPOILERS] yuris125 praying to RNGesus

[yuris125]

Next step is coordinating the start of the attack. T115 is when I took the barb city. 4 turns to pop the borders (including this one) and then 2 turns to improve the horses - it will be connected T120. 3 turns to build the first two rounds of knights, and 3 turns to get them south, assuming I have Engineering by then. T126 is the earliest I can strike (maybe I can do a turn earlier if I find a good strike direction in the north, but me attacking from the south and Pindicator from the north would make defence most difficult for Commodore)

Now, with the fastest way, one of the knight rounds will have to be dry-whipped. I'm ok with it - we need to strike before Commodore gets too much of a tech advantage - but no point doing it if Pindicator cannot be ready to strike on the same turn

Next turn I will send him a war with Commodore and 126g diplo message and see what he says

[yuris125]

Pindicator sent another message confirming the land split - the copper/cow spot is all mine




Thoth's galley in Pindicator's waters met mine. He immediately offered OB, which I took

And then on my turn, a caravel found Krill




Turns out everyone knows everyone, I was the only one left out




Judging by the fact that I have trade connection with Krill, it looks like I started on the eastern edge of the primary landmass, and with my scouting focus closer to home, I didn't reach the land in the west before it was blocked by Commodore's borders

Krill has 23 cities, leading the count ahead of Commodore's 21. Maybe the impression of Commodore's huge lead is not that accurate. Commodore does have wonders and is doing very well in tech. In fact, I can see everyone's tech thanks to having Paper




Ummm.... I don't know if me and Pindicator joining forces vs Commodore is going to work - he's quite behind in military tech. In fact, unless I'm misreading the screen, think I'm in 2nd place in tech right now, maybe about even with Thoth? Colossus power?

I do need to get more land to stay relevant though, and don't think I can successfully fight Commodore 1v1.....

[yuris125]

I appreciate Commodore's offer of the "no knight invasion" charter. The problem is, in the current game state, I am the one who has to make a move. I am planning to attack him with knights. Even if Pindicator cannot join in the attack due to his tech situation, I cannot afford to wait much longer. Commodore and Pindicator are my only realistic attack target, and with the diplo that took place, I'm pretty committed to not attacking Pindicator

Not having access to anti-knight units would mean that I am far less likely to be able to keep his cities

Obviously I cannot post this in the tech thread. Commodore likely isn't even aware that I will have knights very shortly - I'm sure he's aware of my lack of horses, and don't think he knows I'm about to get them

I agree with Commodore that it has been a very interesting game and it ending inconclusively due to this bug would be great shame. If everyone is happy to keep playing as is, I will. But continuing with me having no access to pikes will influence the game more than others know. I will miss what I think is the best window I'm going to get for an attack on Commodore, and pretty much the only option will be backstabbing Pindicator in about 20 turns, when our peaceful exchanges are a distant memory

[yuris125]

Looks like the game will continue. However Krill is not wrong in his view that Commodore is very likely to win. And it's funny - Commodore has the biggest military in the world, twice the size of mine, but at present I'm also the one with the most incentive and the best means to damage him (being the neighbour, having military tech parity, and means to reach one of his important cities in one turn with mounted units)

Of course, if he attacked me right now, when my army is half the size of his, he probably would've crushed me. His commitment to not attacking me will limit his options as well. But of course, he doesn't need to acquire more territory to win the game

Once the game restarts, I will need to check the tech costs, but think my plan has to revolve around teching towards Rifling and cavs. I will still build knights, if only to upgrade them - upgrades will be essential when I have so few build queues. At the same time, I'm going to explore the seas to the east of the northern islands, maybe there's more settlable land there

[yuris125]

Honestly, with Krill's playtime being limited, and Pindicator seemingly disengaged from the game (unsurprisingly, his tech state is not good), maybe it's better to put the game to bed. I can't stand up to Commodore on my own

I would prefer to keep playing and see what can be done from my position, but if the general feeling in other players' threads favours a concession to Commodore, I won't stand in the way

[yuris125]

Haven't posted an update since the game restarted, as I've been trying to figure out what to do with 30+ turns of NAP others agreed to, guaranteeing me safety through the era of knights. This does allow me to improve some marginal tiles on the border with Commodore without fear of losing the workers, but that's merely spinning the wheels

I definitely need to have Rifling by T150, so that I have something capable of defending against mounted attackers. But what else?

The first and foremost issue remains the same. I have 13 cities, soon to be 14, but that's all I can acquire peacefully. I've been sending caravels out into the ocean, and it doesn't look like there's Astro land, at least not any I can reasonably reach. Being able to win with 14 cities sounds very questionable, when Commodore is on 21 with high quality land, and Krill is up to 26

With the geography, the only players I can reasonably acquire land from are Commodore and Pindicator. Commodore is the tech leader and could well be further ahead by the time I'm ready to attack. Unless I decide to end the NAP and hit him soon, despite lack of defence against mounted units, I don't think he's a realistic target, at least not 1v1. Attacking Pindicator however should be realistic

My concerns about hitting Pindicator are two-fold. Firstly, I didn't attack him earlier because I thought we were locked into a single continent, with the other players across the ocean. In a 3-player situation, two players fighting almost always benefits the third. This may still be an issue, I don't know how easy it is for others to influence a conflict between us three. But with other players at least within galley reach, it eases the concern. The other one is the well-established good diplomatic relations with Pindicator, including him ceding a city to me to allow me access to horses. I don't want to attack him if I can help it. However, a major premise our diplomacy was built on was attacking Commodore together - if this attack doesn't happen in the next 30 turns, I think it's fair to consider myself free of any obligations

So that has to be the primary plan. Start building knights as soon as I can, be ready join an attack on Commodore if anyone launches one, otherwise attack Pindicator once I have Rifling (maybe also MilTrad and attack with cavalries? depends on the timings)

For now it does not look like Pindicator is planning an imminent attack. He does have this stack, and at first I thought it was for offensive preparations, but it has been sitting there for a while without moving




I now think it's probably intended as a response to hit a knight stack should he be attacked, rather than preparations for an offence of his own

I still need to launch my first golden age (the two great people I birthed so far were both used for bulbs), but that's a while away - I can only get the next great person out in 19 turns. This does also point out my lack of Epics - I do need to include researching Literature and building them. That's on the way to Music and MilTrad, so will be needed anyway. Probably will go for Literature after Engineering

I did consider which civics I would ideally be in by the end of the golden age, and would've liked to go into Representation / Mercantilism / Emancipation, but doubt I will have the time to include the Democracy branch. With the need to build military, it will most likely just be a boring setup, like HR / Vassalage / Slavery / Mercantilism / Theocracy (staying in Bureau is worth considering, but with me being charismatic, Vassalage + Theocracy will allow me to build triple-promoted mounted units, and if I'm planning an attack, the third promo is almost certainly more valuable than Bureau benefits). If the military campaign is successful and the game is still going, I will think about what my endgame will be

One other thing I considered is the monk wonder trifecta, which has not been claimed, and could be worth the effort. Depends how hard I want to go on knight-building (I would like to bring my power rating to a respectable level), but I do think the wonders are worth going for. After all, I do need something to replace Colossus income after I am forced to research Astro

Commodore is on Nationalism btw (not showing on the scoreboard, I lost research visibility on him for the moment as I'm putting 4 turns worth of EP into getting Krill's and Thoth's graphs), so he's likely getting Taj and another GA in the near future. Stopping him will certainly be a challenge....

[yuris125]

Krill is actually not that unrealistic as a target. Attacking him would require Astro, doing with Caravels would be too much pain. But it's not impossible




However, land quality, at least on his western coast, looks crap. Quantum Effect is a good city, but to its south it's all plains and desert. Explains why he's so far behind Commodore despite the high city count. That said, he probably has the most potential to catch up to Commodore - I think the best chance to stop Commodore from running away with the game is to work with Krill

So the primary plan remains the same. Either Pindicator and I attack Commodore together, or I attack Pindicator at some point in T140s. As far as I'm concerned, I already sent Pindicator two diplo proposals with specific attack turns; he didn't respond to them, so it is up to him to communicate when he's ready to attack

Thoth completed Apostolic Palace, so building a full set of monk wonders is out of the window. But I will attempt Sankore, will take 12 turns, and worst comes to worst, it will fund research towards Rifling. If I do manage to build it, I will consider going for Divine Right and building Spiral Minaret as well

[yuris125]

Oh also, I built a spy. Spy units are explicitly allowed, and I would like to map out Commodore's territory and get an idea of where his units are. He now has a huge stack in Horserace Bet, but I'm sure that's only a fraction of his forces

[yuris125]

My biggest problem at present - I don't see a single opening for an attack on Commodore

This is the force he has in Horserace Bet




This is not falling without cannons. Also he built Hermitage there; I am going to lose the two marked tiles to his culture, and can't do anything about it (that's why I'm building a castle in Mainz now, before it loses two of its production tiles)

I feel like my whole game at this point is about being ready to jump into a war, once one starts. So I am focusing on building knights and closing the gap on the power graph, while researching towards Rifling (Printing Press first for some extra commerce, then Banking - Rep Parts, then Gunpowder - Rifling)

Nuremberg is the city that got Heroic Epic




23 base hammers, will be a little more after I build one more workshop and replace two mines with windmills to support it. Far from amazing, but serviceable

[yuris125]

Thoth completed Sankore, that idea is not happening either. All I can do is tech towards cavs and await some kind of war I can join