[PB79] Just one more Game

[xist10]

okay, this is a good thing.
I accept and resend this, only with 193 gold - coldrain should have send this in T188, so 5 turns would be T193.

Anyway, I have 3 "small" problems.
Miro is ~ 4 turns before MG, so I don't think this will be successful, but we can try.
And I don't know what to research next.
Option A) Scientific method and collect the 2 GP at communism (and the Kreml) and physics and hopeful the next corp at biology.
Option B) (Rifling) -> Assembly Line
Option C) Steel(->Railways).

Without the war from coldrain, I think I would use the riskier variant and research Assembly Line->Scientific Method.
I should be able to research Rifling fast enough to upgrade my unit in the worst case.

But so ? I think I need to have cannons to counter MG from Miro.

And my last "problem":
Should I found CreCon this turn ? I fear a bit that this would change the perception again and see my as the leader.
I think most players should know, that I can found the corp, but only having the tech is not that bad.

Anyway, my question:
I'm allowed to expand CreCon to coldrain or Gira ?

[Tarkeel]

Anyway, my question:
I'm allowed to expand CreCon to coldrain or Gira ?

As long as you have open borders and they aren't running Mercantilism, then yes. I can't think of any game where corps have been purposefully spread to other players, but we did consider doing it in 58 at least.

[greenline]

My experience with corps was that it takes a lot of time and production to spread just one in an empire, so better not to wait.

[xist10]

Last turn had bad news.
Carthage has become a GE and Miro saves over 800 per turn.
With ~ 250 costs, its research rate is thus over 75%.

With 1.4k peak research output, this would be over 1k per turn effectively.
I have surpassed this in , but outside ?
Let's see how it looks next round.

Miro also had a nice fleet building programme.
Over 20 ships of the line visible.
So my ships are primarily distractions. I have more ships at the moment, but more frigates. My island should be save, but I don't think I can realistic attack at sea.

____________________________

over.
The change to free market economy happened last turn.




My economic output has dropped to 1425 . - compared to with mercantilism a minus of 108 . - Unfortunately no pictures of the F2 after the change last round.
So I make 1204 in one economy turn.

This is an increase of 35 - which is entirely due to the banks.
The 7 more buildings account for 185 .
The research output here has fallen by 133 due to the loss of mercantilism specialists.




In terms of research, my peak performance has dropped by 192 to 1883 . - Which I can actually blame largely on the loss of mercantilism specialists. But I didn't think that so many % buildings were under construction.


So that makes 2.15 research turns per economy turn - I feel I can blame 100 per cent of the minus 0.05 on the spread of CreCon - and thus an effective research rate of around 68%.
Effective research output should then be about 1288 .

The test without picture shows -30 per round at 70% with 1327 .
Rule of thumb still fits.

This means that I actually exceed Miro's estimated research of just over 1000 .

And I'm still slightly ahead in the I've done so far? Constitution and corporation beats steel and rifling.




Railways and thus mining still needs ~7 turns.
With the "excess" GE, I should be able to found Mining before Miro could, as Miro has to research constitution and corporations as well as railways.

But I actually wanted to pause briefly from Steel onwards.




And upgrade the 18 catapults here.




In fact, I think coldrain's stack is a bit too small.
In addition, the Chinese fleet is moving towards me and I almost fear a backstab from coldrain.
The rally position here is 2 turns to my territory - I need 6 to get here.

And south of the mountain range there is nothing from coldrain, even city guards are only slightly reinforced.
Add the inactive fleet - the ships can bind manpower, even if the are no units on the galleons and I do think I have reason to worry.

I think I want to play timer games and let coldrain declare war first. - and I think I need 2 turns more if I want to upgrade my catapults before I invade.

[xist10]

I did delay my last turn a bit.
I was playing a long game of chess for most of the day, so it's not without reason, but after that I did some else first.




Spies are actually allowed. So I build 2 and scouted a bit before I declare on Miro.
The city guards here are still acceptable, so it's feasible to go in.
This army here could become dangerous, but it's still to far away - and I think I could get a first strike on this, if Miro moves it forwards.

coldrain has also declared.




So I march in.
War objectives for now: raze Cumae, reduce the number of Miro's ships of the line.
After that, let's see, I hope to be able to withstand a possible counterattack and then play defence.




With the upcoming cannons, nothing should really go wrong defensively.
I want to whip up some ironclads against all the ships of the line next turn.

[xist10]

Spy 1 finds nothing big.
The cannon/choko stack has not moved.




Spy 2, on the other hand, finds another small stack of chokos.




I don't want to risk stopping and bombarding - among other things, because Miro has MG next turn.
With catas against the city wall and castle, it's not worth it either.

So I smash the catas in thge city.




It was expensive, but actually a relatively safe success. Miro didn't really reinforce Cumae.

Very little remains standing.




This makes the decision a little easier.
Cumae is placed stupid (for me), I should have razed it when I conquered it from Rick.




And the new cultural borders is also quite nice.
There's this unsightly stack of collateral damage dealers - and my knights are mostly obsolete in this era.




I attack from the south here.
This allows the Rome guard to counterattack, but I prefer that to the Medialanum guard.

I still have the threat of my fleet in Royal Valley, which could attack Rome.




My knights can overrun almost everything. Miro has 1 catapult and 2 chariots left.
In the end, after a short consideration, I add the 4 remaining muskets.
This makes a counterattack by Miro a little more expensive, so the knights can escape.
But it could go wrong.




Cumae was bloody.
Especially since I had some bad luck with the grenadiers, I think.




Here, on the other hand ?
Another great victory at the moment.
I had to overcome 2 cannons and 4 knights, but always had at least 50% - against the cannons. The knights already had 69%.
Chokos on open field against combat2 knights ?

[xist10]

A week without update here.
I will not post a T200 Update, but I think a T201 Update tomorrow.
The war didn't continue well.
I had a bit misfortune and lost a sea battle and now, Miro was able to surprise me and moved 60 units before Arretium.
13 cannons, 10 rifles, 2 MG are the important part.
I have 40 units - only 11 cannons and 8 grenadiers

[xist10]

And the next big update.

Additions before the actual update:
I took the sea battle I mentioned - and I should have tested better.
Very volatile battle, I had a bit of bad luck and effectively lost one battle.
I won 1 of the 8 33% battles and 0 of the 3 50% battles.
I had actually expected 2 and 1. This pushed the balance down (-200 for me, +200 for Miro).


And after some thought, I actually offered Miro peace earlier.
Offensively, I can't achieve anything against the railroad and MG, but defensively I can hold my ground.
I have achieved a small war goal.

I can use the time to build factories and then found Cumae without any danger.
With CreCon I should have the 1st ring in 10 turns.
But I can't hold a direct foundation.

coldrain is also retreating. I might have to be careful that Miro doesn't overwhelm coldrain, but in case of doubt I should be able to give a credit. And coldrain only has to research railroads. He has gold.




Okay, I don't like railroads.
I think it took more than 4 workers.

That's 2 MG, 10 riflemen, 14 cannons, 7 muskets, 16 chokos and 12 knights.
A total of 61 units.
And the west coast is not completely denuded.
But the north coast ? Could be almost empty.




I come up with these 28 units and 12 knights.
I don't have enough equipment. More units are coming from the north, but it will take some time.

I'm probably not allowed to look for combat yet.
I think I'll have to take a whipping round after all. I'd also like to wait another 3 turns until I've got a turn. - Not 100% forking and make it in 2?

Factories and coal power plants are damn expensive.
250 + 150 . Factories in particular are not worthwhile on their own, as they only give 25% for the time being.
Together, however, it is 175% . CreCon is currently offering 9 .
That would be 16 from CreCon alone.

_____
Big T201 update:

2 settlers are ready to claim no man's land, since this turn also with board.




I underestimated the cannons.
In PB92, my entrenched longbows still traded off 1 to 1 with archers.
But here the first cannon won happily (25%), after that it was almost just mopping up (75%, 90+%).
Only my knight failed to take out the choko at 80%.

Most of it is back on the railroad.
In 2 turns I should be able to hold an advance on Siga. Then the infantry will be on the field.
Next turn will be critical.

But enough of the misery, let's take a look at the cities.




Carthage builds a musket to turn it into infantry.
I don't think there's any whipping going on here.
Actually one of the few cities where the RoI + construction time of factory and power plant are under 10 turns.
8 turn construction time, RoI even slightly less.

But problems.




Utica is significantly smaller than Carthage.
Here I might well whip the infantry next turn.
If I get another Prophet, it will be from here. But I don't think so.




In the medium term, Wall Street and a 2nd HQ are planned for Hadrentum.
At the moment, a whip is probably also due here next round.




Hippo was reduced in size during the war.
And the fish are currently being used by Thapsus.




My pearl in the north. Thanks to its northern location, destination for many 7 .
Carthage is big enough for 8 , but Kerkounne should bring more due to its location.

You don't get the minimum distance of a standard map that often on a small map.

I whipped away two scientists here last round.
There's also a whip coming up next round.

[xist10]

There was too much drafting in Leptis.
Next to Carthage the 2nd possible location, if I decide to settle the generals after all.




The trader for cereals should come from Thapsus.
I think about 40% in 8 turns. I could also use a priest for the shrine, but I have no idea what to do with an engineer.
Put it in the Pentagon if I use the other one for the Kremlin?




Filling city on the northeast coast.
No idea why the focus is on the hill south of the city ?
As so often, the infantry will be whipped here next turn.




Thanae has not changed since the last overview.




This should be enough for the whip next round.
Otherwise you'll just have to draft.




The second city in which I've drafted too many muskets.
At least the whip anger runs on a separate timer.




Another filler city. No CreCon should actually go here, I don't want to annoy coldrain too much - by the way, this only applies to the islands to a limited extent.




Malaca has just ceded the two food resources.
They'll also be whipped here next round.




Abdere is growing relatively quickly at the moment, as Malaca's food resources are occupied.
But I'll probably extract one or two infantries out of this city the next turn.




This filler city on the northern coast is one of the few cities that does not currently train muskets.
Too small.
I'm not sure about whipping the cannon either.
I didn't take the war seriously enough.




Baria is relatively free of adjacent cities. But it also has no useful food resource.
Siga is relatively new, I'm actually still planning a city on 4 of A, but currently ?

The cottages are relatively new, but are continuously occupied.

There will also be a whip here next turn.




Typical island city. CreCon is supposed to go in here, but logistics is always such a problem - and producing enough executives.




My former enclave.
Still no forge, might not be enough for the infantry.




Carthago Nova is also too small.
Contributed something to the ironclads.




Ibrossim is also too small.




Sarim Batim is a pure troop forge and border town. CreCon is not planned, as it borders on coldrain.




Pure coastal town, some inhabitants will fall victim to the whip next round.




Iol has CreCon as a border town.
Gira is a bit of an exception and Iol is further away from the border than Sarim Batim, for example.




Siga is in danger of becoming the target of the next Chinese attack. I should be able to fend it off with the infantry next turn, but...




Russadir has finally arrived at the desired size.
And again, the camera is not centered on the city square ?
Is this possibly because I took the screenshot while moving?




My most recent city foundation has done well.
But next round there will be the next whip.

And if I look at it that way, I have 4
here because of war ? I can't explain the 14 any other way.
But that can't be the case either. Other cities have bigger population and less.

[xist10]

Swapped by coldrain for Skinners Roam, Royal Valley has done quite well as a fleet base in the war.
It won't come straight to the whip here, but more troops aren't bad.




F2 at 100% research.




And the demo.
needs to be better.

Food is also only partially flattering, considering that Miro has converted some of it into troops.




0% research.




And the demo.
Surprisingly, I am still 1st in the BSP.




Balanced research.




I have too few troops.
17 communities are also too few.




I'm just wondering how many times Miro has whipped Blood on Clock that this city is smaller than Carthage.
I mean 5 food resources in range.
Bit of a shame Hadrentum doesn't show up here.




In terms of points, Miro has definitely lost ground in the war. But a lot was converted into troops.




With my I have taken the lead again.
Rep + Mercantilism and Freedom of Religion have made a difference and Free Market Economy is almost as strong as Mercantilism (with Rep !).




Yes, what do you say to that ?
Gira is just catching up in peace here.




See points.
Miro whips away everything that doesn't have a weapon in its hand at 3. You have to respect that.




Correspondingly, the power graph.
I have to take the war more seriously.




For the sake of completeness.

You can see CreCon.




Here you can still see the half spy rounds I took.
Miro also invested 10% or so once.




I'm missing the aesthetics track - and the 2 Relitechs.
Who cares?




The current research with the current research duration with balanced research.
I think I should put Railroad first. Then clear the scientific method and the 2 great personalities ?




Current research status of the competition.
I still have corporations and assembly line ahead of Miro, Miro has railroad ahead of me.
That's ~ 4,000 more for me. - I'll neglect constitution and twist.

Gira is in 3rd place.
Compared to Miro, Gira is still missing Constitution, Liberalism, Railroad and Twist. Economics will come next round. That would be almost 15,000 less ?

coldrain is still up to date in terms of military with Rifling.
Civil, on the other hand, lacks education, nationalism and economics in addition to the things from Gira.
20,000 behind me ? I can't neglect railroads with 4 turns of research time (I think, it was originally 6).

And now turn 202:

After briefly thinking about it, I offered Miro peace again last turn.
Even with infs it will be difficult against MG and so I might save myself the big whip turn now.
I'll have to think again about whether to do it anyway.




And I'm allowed to do things like that now.
I took over the founding of New Cumae.

Thanks to CreCon, this will also be at 40 in 2 rounds, the 3rd KE should come just as the peace treaty expires.