[spoilers]The Courts of Chaos: Thoth disrupts the Pattern

[Thoth]

Captured the 4th and final city on the channel island at a cost of two cannons.  I've got the land I wanted from the war so I sent Pindicator a white peace offer.   I doubt he'll take it but he might want to focus on making Yuris and Commodore's lives miserable with Privateer blockades.  




Commodnore's coastal cities are sprouting machine guns and he's got two large cavalry stacks guarding former Pindicatorian ports.  All three of the major powers of Commodore, Krill, and Thoth have significant numbers of Privateer scouts covering the intercontinental channel.

[Thoth]

I really should check F4 diplo pane more often. I had to scroll back a long way in the log to find out that Pindicator and Commodore peaced out 8 turns ago.

Pindicator and I are also now at peace, leaving only Yuris and Pindicator at war.

Commodore sent me Open Borders + Fish for same. I do seem to have forgotten to send a reply.

[Thoth]

t170:  After a very boring turn of peace last turn, I DOWed Commodore this turn.  Sank a pair of Privateers and a Trireme and moved ships to put pressure on this area:





Commodore has a huge quantity of troops in this area so I'm mostly aiming to tie up his forces while I see about sinking some navy and blockading the ports.  Hopefully Krill is on the ball and can take advantage to burn some of Commodore's southern ports.

Ending turn finished Corportation which helped take me back up to +17 gpt with Industrialisation due in 4 turns.    Commodore is cashing at about 200 gpt more than my max tax but I'm making ~300ish?  beakers more than him at 100% cash.

[Thoth]

I beat Commodore to Biology and Cereal Mills by a turn, but he's going to beat me to Physics by a turn. Amusingly, I popped a GS at end of turn which may cause some entertaining consternation if Commodore checks the log wiithout checking what I'm teching.

GA #2 starting next turn with the GS and one of my two Gpriests. That will help power me through the rest of my factory and Executive production. Aiming to exit the GA in Rep/Vassalage/Emancipation/Environmentalism/Theocracy for +2 hammers, +2 gold, and +3 beakers on every specialist that I'll be growing/supporting on +13 food per turn from Cereal Mills. I've already lost 2 happy per city from Whales going obsolete and I'm going to lose another one soon when Yuris loses his Wines to Commodore so I'm hoping to grab as many of the happy wonders at Electricity and Radio as I can. I'm aiming for Flight after Electricity and then straight to Radio for Bombers and Eiffel tower. I'm expecting to be running 10% culture to manage happiness possibly 20% if Commodore manages to beat me to the happy wonders. But the yields of the extra specialists outweigh the commerce cost. Even a lowly citizen is 3 hammers/2 gold/3 beakers. And Corporation food can support 6 of them per city.

[Thoth]

Unfortunately, Commodore went and teched Artillery. I was so looking forward to a vulgar brawl.


Tanks and marines in 2....

[Thoth]

Swapped into Environmentalism (+6 health per city, +2 gold per specialist, extra yields from forest) and ended my Golden Age this turn.

I'm running mass specialists at or close to happy cap in many cities at +2 gold, +2 hammers, and +3 beakers per specialist.  Merchants are an impressive +5 gold, +2 hammers, and +3 beakers.

I forgot to check max beaker/max tax after the GA, but it was -85 gold at max tech and +1900+ at max cash.  (faux edit:  logged back in to check.  +30 gpt at 100% science (2400 bpt), +1614 gpt (918 bpt) at 100% gold.

Lagging a bit in hammers and military so I'm aiming to run at 80% tech for 347 gpt/2100 bpt and turn the surplus cash into hammers via upgrading obsolete units.  I've still got a bunch of cities to spread Creative Constructions to and I've got a few more factories/coal plants finishing up over the next few turns so I think I can keep up in hammers and with tanks, marines and battleships rolling off the lines in a couple of turns the military balance should be shifting in my favour a bit. 

Post GA demographics:





I've still got another 3 preserves to finish up in my 8 preserve vanity project up north in Tir Na Nog Th:




Looking pretty solid for a POS iceball.  It'll look better in a few turns once I've finished the last couple of preserves and grow another couple of pop. 


Still aiming for space.

[Thoth]

This deformed dwarf of a city wasn't planned originally.  An event created a forest and +1 food on one of the plains tiles so it became worthwhile to put a final stuffer city in here.  With Mercantalism, SoLiberty, and an eventual Salon the city was clunking along at size 4 with 4 specialists when it got boosted to size 7 (and hungry until Biology a couple of turns later) by another event.  I've since spread both corps here and I'm planning on growing until size 12 and then working 4 more specialists while growing to 13 at +2 food per turn (replacing the desert windmill and the hamlet with specialists)






I've got a lot of super-Merchants hired around the empire courtesy of cheap expansive/financial Markets/Grocers.

Note the 100% beaker rate and the GPT. 


I'm either 9 or 10 turns from Radio and bombers.

I might just make it into space yet.

[Thoth]

I'm now up to +175 gold per turn at 100% tech (without building wealth) and I'm up to ~2650 BPT. I think this is probably the most ridiculous economy I've ever built.

I'm about 300 hammers per turn behind Commodore who is in a Golden Age. Long term he's got enough cities to establish and maintain a hammer edge. Short term I'll pull ahead by the end of his golden age thanks to some more coal plants completing and some more specialists getting hired as a few more cities finish up their growth and start replacing 2F/3 commerce coast with 2H, 5 gold and 3 beaker Merchants.

Techwise I'm up Democracy (Comodore is showing 1t), Electricity, and Industrialism. I'm down Communism (1t with extra overflow), Artillery, and Fascism. I finished up my Iron Works at end of turn in a city that will be producing 85 base hammers per turn. So I should be able to manage a 4 turn build of the Eiffel Tower with a bit of overflow. I think that should be enough to beat Commodore unless he manages to pop a GE. One GE won't be enough to complete the wonder by it's self but I'm certain that Commodore can arrange a good sized chunk of overflow in a high production city with a factory and 1t the wonder if he manages the GE and the tech in time.


Communism next turn and then I think 3t to Radio but I might have enough overflow to do it in 2t. Commodore detoured to Facism which got him the GG (he has at least two that I know of possibly more). So I'm expecting some form of GG powered shenanigans from him.

[Thoth]

Commodore rushed Christo Redentor.

So I made a chop and finished the Eiffel Tower this turn. 2 more turns to finish the Happy resource wonder in another city or I can GE rush it on my next turn as I popped a GE at the end of turn.....

I was planning on starting a golden age soon but I want to wait for another GP to be born as I'm also hoping to set off a 4 man GA. I'll see what Commodore does on his turn. If he wants the wonder and has some hammers invested then he can cash rush it. So if he doesn't cash rush it then I'll hang on to the Geng for the moment

In the meantime, I slipped Divine right in last turn and will finish up the Spirlal Minaret in 2t. Should be worth another 100 gpt or a bit more. Which will make my ridiculous GPT at max tech (currently +240 gpt/3050 bpt at max tech) even more ridiculous. But I'm ok with that. I've got a lot of obsolete crap to upgrade so the excess gold will find a use.

[Qgqqqqq]

What's the aim with Eiffel?