[spoilers] Commodore in the slightly less than sudden death playoffs.

[Commodore]

Whoa. Apparently, what Scooter was doing was KILLING OFF YURI. Nothing major this side yet.

Good game Yuri, sorry we didn't make it to Chemistry.

Cornflakes seems to be agreeing that Scooter needs taking down. He better be up to help, or it's over for us all.

This was last turn. I reoffered after scouting Scooter's nearby troops:

...and positioning for a possible nasty snipe next turn:


Cornflakes and I have been skirmishing, it's been no big deal, just back and forth.


Winning the hammer trade, but it's all ultimately for naught.

If we can kill Scooter, I like my duel shot vs. Cornflakes. I have two nice cottage areas up and running, should be able to help:



Popped another copper at least. MoM golden age incoming too.

[yuris125]

Me giving Cornflakes that great general was a loss at 90% btw. Not that I have any right to complain after the combat luck you had this game

Good luck! Sorry we couldn't find that mortal blow

[Commodore]

Me giving Cornflakes that great general was a loss at 90% btw. Not that I have any right to complain after the combat luck you had this game

Good luck! Sorry we couldn't find that mortal blow

It happens, high-variability game mode.

Speaking of, Scooter is...alarmed:


No way, dude. CF has this army:

...and I have this one:


And also this, so that's neat.

[Commodore]

Okay, this is going to be a heavy hit, but I don't think he's managing a stack wipe. Then Cornflakes ruins his day.
   

[Commodore]

Cornflakes, as expected, was able to absorb Scooter's under-catted stack and burn the city. Cost him all his own siege, though.


Need to show I'm serious. Even if it means spending horse archers against a pike on a hill over a river.


Burned for a lot of horse archers, which is annoying but fundamentally okay.

The culture leaving and all the workers I brought along to soak cat hits means I can road and smash his extra units. Rare case of Woodie III making a huge odds difference, too.


Moving up, moving in.


Unless he's got a shocking reserve, Scooter's dead here. Sorry Scooter, but the dueling you vs dueling Cornflakes at 1hp, it's not much of a question. Take it as a compliment that Cornflakes agreed.

It's slightly premature, but I'm thinking of the duel now. Golden age time:



Obviously I'm pushing for a quick win. Long-term I have some projects, but that's a harder road.


I need MORE units in the south now, however. THE BARBS HAVE HORSE ARCHERS.

[Thoth]

Back in Base Civ 4 the barbs started with Horse Archers on Classical era starts.

Raging barbs were interesting.

[Commodore]

Back in Base Civ 4 the barbs started with Horse Archers on Classical era starts. 

Raging barbs were interesting.

I think I do, fuzzily, remember that.

Scooter hit me with his knights, but I have pikes for that. Not concerned.
   

Cleared 32% of the defenses with trebs, then it was time to go in. Only lost two catapults, which is good. Otherwise, I was carefully working to optimize my XP.
   
...and burned. Scooter played a very good game, no way he could know that Cornflakes and I had been negotiating a peace for half a dozen turns before he went and killed Yuri, making the dogpile the One Right Choice.
   

His towns, so painfully and patiently nurtured, are going to fund my 100% burn to Guilds.
   
Four more turns until peace is up with Cornflakes, then it's duel time.

[scooter]

I appreciate you kindly assuming competence with a bunch of things I did in this game. For example.

Scooter moved somewhat predictably, he had to know my whip was an axe or spear, so must have been worth it to get eyes on my city.

Peace treaty after, no hard feelings.

This was me playing quickly and outright forgetting to check if you whipped. I did laugh out loud at myself as soon as I saw the axe in a "don't know what I expected" sort of way.

He has Engineering. We're done, offered peace for war with Scooter...who's poking around with horse archers in a way I really don't like.

One of these HAs was 100% a misclick.

...and burned. Scooter played a very good game, no way he could know that Cornflakes and I had been negotiating a peace for half a dozen turns before he went and killed Yuri, making the dogpile the One Right Choice.

Yeah this game felt incredibly swingy. I kept hoping you could land a finishing blow on Cornflakes right around the same time I did on Yuri resulting in a duel in which I thought my chances were decent. Barring that, I was hoping I would have a few more turns to prepare for the 2v1. Fun game.


By the way, did you ever consider just not settling forward at all and instead expanding into your fairly large backlines instead and stringing the game out longer? I'm not saying you did anything wrong, but my instinct would have been to go that route, and I'm curious whether this was just gut, or if Cornflakes' strong opening changed things for you.

[Commodore]

Very good game, Scooter.

By the way, did you ever consider just not settling forward at all and instead expanding into your fairly large backlines instead and stringing the game out longer? I'm not saying you did anything wrong, but my instinct would have been to go that route, and I'm curious whether this was just gut, or if Cornflakes' strong opening changed things for you.

My gut always said this was going to be swingy, which had me settling in more of a duel mindset, just dueling multiple fronts. The backlines would have been my one way to win later in a more normal game, although the Great Southern Tundra's barbarians more than made up for it. As it was, needed to be able to be opportunistic with the game setup, which means I had to be forward enough to take advantage of things like Yuri's snipe of a Cornflakes city.

Madrassas really have been the MvP here.

[Commodore]

Scooter's cottage core is very profitable.


I'm going to bomb:


My understanding if that running artists before the bombing helps?

Cornflakes is positioned well for the peace treaty ending EoT: