|
Open Spoiler : Old Camel
Since it's our second hump at this old beast.
https://i.imgur.com/S4HGwOC.png Khmer is good and well-rounded Dutch are taken by Matrix again Sumer is good all-around Aztec have a garbage UU but better UB than Sumer Boudica is nice but Celts are garbage Pericles again, tempting Justinian has 12-strength knights Very tough choice, all pretty good civs and traits and none stand out to my fancy. Last game's decision algorithm would yield Sumer or Aztec first, so heads or tails: tails. Aztecs. Move the scout, find Wheat and coast. https://i.imgur.com/cECOK87.png Wisdom dictates warrior first. I don't have agriculture so worker first is lackluster anyways. Greed demands silver first - need both mining and bronze for chops. Solid techs to get anyways. https://i.imgur.com/PV4Cp2c.png The Irréductible Village Gaulois thus sends Astérix (again) to scout for more viable land, as it seems like a pseudo-OCC situation on a peninsula. We'll see. |
T10, 3600 BC
https://i.imgur.com/55ETszs.png I'll try to keep a 10-turn report pace. Ynnek and I have 2 pop, 1 guy has 2 warriors. https://i.imgur.com/21nlpgd.png The Village Gaulois is stuck up North in such a way that its culture will reach both ice sheet and desert: https://i.imgur.com/E3uUiNu.png Which, if I may vent a little: https://i.imgur.com/I5ZQX5u.png Though to be fair, the South is looking better. We have pretty little to look forward to in the way of commerce-rich rivers and resources. Tons of food in the capital, nothing outside of it. In hindsight I'd have settled 1SE on the coast for access to crabs and an easier time sharing cows. So, planning. We have forests. Tons of forests. 1 silver and 1 cow are under forests. Enough forests to justify 2 workers chopping right away to kick-start workers and settlers. Worker #1 will come out right on cue for BW to allow him chopping ; starting warrior to 2-pop went better than expected in that regard. https://i.imgur.com/w6rOmnJ.png So the opening will be warrior-worker-worker-settler-(settler?). Silver should allow for a painless REX to 3-4 ultra early cities. Marble + I want WANT WANT to exploit my UB on slaves. Rushing the oracle for CoL (not even going to pretend an attempt at a Philo or CS slingshot) seems like a no-brainer. Which brings us to the next, bigger, looming problem: economy. Sure there's a good patch of grass down there ... on my frontline ... that I could fill up with cottages ... easily available for pillaging ... and I might just do that. There's also a few nice river grasslands in the capital. It'll be a hell of a bureaucracy metropolis. But really, my most efficient way of building up $ this game seems to be the Wonderbread economy. Wonders and bread.
That's the strategy, folks, and it means that we'll be valuing food above all: it gives more [estwing] and double the gold you'd expect from building wealth. I saw it on CFC, never tried it myself. HoF bigwigs seem to thrive on it. I have no clue how to best proceed with it so let's just hope it doesn't blow up in my face. I don't intend to practice it or make a test run either: we'll do it live. |
|
T20, 3200 BC
https://i.imgur.com/q6Jcd6h.png We are on a brisk pace of nearly 2 turns/day (and would attain it if PP played his double turns when he has the opportunity - no matter). Lots of movement on the score graph on turn 20. Many new growths to size 2, as well as techs. Judging from #1 soldiers and +23 score jump, I might be the first one to bronze. https://i.imgur.com/8WlNqKd.png Communication with ynnek is on the slow side, as is tradition. It is known. The land takes shape and we learn there's no resources to share at all: the only one with multiple copies is spices, which we'll both have access to. We seem to be near other landmasses on his end. https://i.imgur.com/nvSDyiM.png One single copper. Bummer. I'd rather have settled OrangeDot 1N to grab sheep first ring. However, we have no backyard => we need to forward settle => we need to defend it => copper first. It'll be a solid military city too, with everything but hill. https://i.imgur.com/6W5BFpj.png Ynnek's lands are forest-rich but resource-poor. We can't gain visibility into his capital (nor can he ours), nor see behind it to confirm or deny whether he has a viable backyard. Otherwise, having to wait until iron + calendar to develop properly will understandably put him on edge. https://i.imgur.com/5Wwvtbl.png I really hope he has a lush little piece of grass behind him. It'd be better having an ally than not. At the same time, I've got nowhere to go but forward towards his face and there's both copper and elephants to take advantage of. Heavy sigh. |
T30, 2800 BC
https://i.imgur.com/enKwuSn.png Silver is connected which catapults me to #2 in GNP, from dead last. Someone else has an improved mining lux + more pop. Population is low. All part of the plan. Someone jumped ahead to 23000 soldiers. Could be a combination of barracks, pop, archery, AH, bronze ... a whole bunch of warriors would also help. At any rate, relative strength with ynnek reveal it's not him. It suggests he has 1 or maybe 2 warriors, his warr #1 all the way SE on a deep dive through the jungles. https://i.imgur.com/MKaYWme.png There's still wheat to improve for 4F1H and cows for 4F2H, but the current unimproved forest cow (!) gives me a cozy 3F1H for no effort whatsoever. So until I have 4F tiles to work and grow on, I'll keep chopping settlers. https://i.imgur.com/Sopj7z8.png https://i.imgur.com/1wDFTfw.png Score isn't as bad as I thought it might be. Everyone has resumed growth (see demos) while our 2-pop capital churns out workers+settlers, chop after chop. https://i.imgur.com/dgjhQL5.png The uncovered territory between ynnek and I is somewhat in our favor - mostly because of jungles on his end. Good land on both sides anyways, with a few rivers and good potential grass+rivers. He assures me his backyard, like ours, is only good for a weak city. Let's put up this dotmap for the sake of argument: https://i.imgur.com/4MpGgjN.png Brown dot can tileshare with the capital, work specialists. Teal dot ASAP for cottages, pink dot can wait a bit since it only blooms with winery and plantations. Backyard purple dot when we can build a lighthouse and Moai. Orange dot gets settled first to grab copper - doing less would be irresponsible. Settler #1 gets chopped in 3 turns by worker #2 while worker #1 will already be on-site with a pre-chop and a pre-road. We know from demographics that ynnek has no built up military to snipe it out from under me. Which brings us to sharing. The white dots have practical food sharing opportunities with the Khmer capital, good access to grassland cottages, rivers, tons of chops, gold and stone. A solid share of the land. Whether it's a fair share, well, time will tell. There's 1 or 2 more spots to the SE with bananas and rice to be grabbed. Perhaps more. When I'm sure I won the race to copper city, I'll be in a position of strength to negociate borders with ynnek - something along the lines of setting a DMZ on the gold-stone column and going no further west myself, in the interest of a peaceful long-term cohabitation. Meanwhile Astérix will forego further exploration in the interest of fog-busting a clear path through to the orange dot. We can discover the SE jungles in good time. |
T40, 2400BC
https://i.imgur.com/3OA7Av6.png Little improvement in demographics but we're getting there. Being first to settle has its perks. Let's give it time to yield benefits. On the score graph, notice the first whipping from Byzantine slavers on T36 and Petitbonvm being founded on T37. The rest of the increases are mostly techs, some pop increases. Last place in population (6000) is below me and I used to be sole last with 6000, meaning it's the whip's fault, meaning Stapel seems to be making workers/settlers and whipping them out. https://i.imgur.com/707Nvrc.png With early bronze, my soldiers score was slightly higher than ynnek, which I thought meant he had 1 warrior and fewer techs - then his score jumped (with bronze). That spooked me to the possibility of him having built up a warrior army to bully me out of there. To be safe, Ordralfabétix the warrior was chopped on the frontline. Then we re-equalized once I got Wheel, which seems promising: I bet we now both have mining-bronze-wheel + 1 scout 2 warriors. Assuming this is right, I get to make axemen in time to deter anything cheeky. Ordralfabétix goes fogbusting, we resume building up. https://i.imgur.com/6X94oWb.png On the diplomatic front, PP tells me Killer lost his bet while trying to invade his capital with 1 healthy warrior, 1 wounded. This follows after a rather irregular double-move from PP to open hostilities. Herr Killer is sure to be pissed, about both events, although to be fair his follow-up invasion against a fortified aggressive warrior at possibly +60% - thus 5% odds or worse - was greatly misguided. Could even be +85% (1% success) if on hill. Closer to home, ynnek got my proposal for a peaceful neighborhood. He says he doesn't have copper (said nothing about horses) and he also would rather team up than let guns decide. The broad strokes of what I sent are a 5:6 split of cities on the main lands, he gets first dibs on settling whatever landmass lies to the SW and we re-negociate later for the SE. He kept exploring it while I was escorting my worker - settler convoy so he knows more than I do. https://i.imgur.com/dQUfkve.png Whatever happens with a treaty, I'll keep teching for Oracle => CoL. Maybe I can sweeten the deal for him by sharing the religion. |
Long term peace with ynnek has been agreed upon. Peace brings me little in the obvious tit-for-tat sense, especially now that metal is secure, but I'd much rather we both had the time and space to focus on development before facing off against other threats. I don't believe in zero-sum games: we both gain by towering above the average opponent together.
|
New neighbor from the south: Bastiaan Stapel. We'll conduct diplo in French for him to practice a bit. Peace until 1AD, 10 turns warning afterwards.
This opens up a whole Pandora's box of possibilities for how the world is set up. Looking forward to figuring out where he is and what the continent looks like beyond the snake pass to our SE. |
T50, 2000BC
https://i.imgur.com/vNT8MgD.png The choice to rely on chops rather than growth for early development is starting to flourish, with 4 high yield tiles improved in the capital and city #3 2 turns away. https://i.imgur.com/FUyEp6O.png Matrix is flying away in score, similar to last game, so I'm betting he has a high growth capital with 2 metal luxuries for ridiculous commerce. He just settled on T45 (Brunch 43, ynnek 49, me 37) so his points aren't due too much to pop but rather mainly to teching. Creative financial also helps and I'll bet he raced for writing and cheap libs. As he should. https://i.imgur.com/E1I4swX.png Stapel was the first to whip (for 2 pop even) and he may have settled around T42. Not 100% sure. ynnek also 2-pop whipped a settler and put it in my face - surely hoping he'd bust my culture. Both are my closest neighbors and you can see them featured here: https://i.imgur.com/gnkJkmP.png Judging from Stapel's 1 espionage against me, he probably has met 3-4 opponents. That's promising for our scout Astérix, who has already discovered a bomb of a canal city: https://i.imgur.com/dhNIKPK.png https://i.imgur.com/LVt78oz.png So, in the short term, we'll need granaries and workers for growth and cottages. Soon-ish, we'll have to fight ynnek's creative culture in Petitbonvm with religion and a cheeky 3-chop Oracle. |
T60, 1600 BC
https://i.imgur.com/B7XQPwZ.png Population is low but crop yield is tied for #1. We are now officially in the race. 3 towns, 2 granaries (3rd building), 3 workers (4th queued). https://i.imgur.com/kWrPGSU.png The economy is shaky at best so we'll leave it at that for now and wait for a few key techs before expanding. https://i.imgur.com/fLHLvrA.png That, and Babaorum needs to grow into cottages. Wonderbread only works with wonders to build and we've not even reached the first. https://i.imgur.com/ZBT0SsD.png Power is waning slowly as I've been whipping granaries. Petitbonum is almost done with its barracks, then axemen ad infinitum. https://i.imgur.com/FIGFJJf.png Matrix keeps leaping up in score. I think his cultural borders have something to do with it: part of the score is territory so if he settled his 2nd big fat cross away from his first, that's a lot of land to convert into score. That and high pop, high commerce, high tech rate. But only a semi-late 2nd town. The 3 that seriously use the whip are my neighbors and I, with Brunch the greek just starting to contribute to the slavery party. https://i.imgur.com/EfsuVOO.png The area SE towards Stapel is rich and tempting. One day, hopefully, a GE will build me Versailles there. But that's just a distant fantasy. Right now: Poly->Priest->Writing for Oracle->CoL, whip Sac Altars, overflow into ToA, profit. Diplomatically, Stapel is still a chipper fella (and safely far away) while ynnek is giving me pause. Espionage suggests he's met other neighbors (might have been him adjusting my slider down, but somehow I doubt that). We agreed to share foreign contact info ; he hasn't. Then there's the forward settlement on Petitbonum, stealing clams and trying to grab copper passive-aggressively. I'll stand my ground with culture for now, but it's testing. When I get my cellphone repaired, I'll try and nudge him towards being a better neighbor. |
Ok so here's the setup for our first Wonderbread payday:
https://i.imgur.com/y7YqI9y.png T70, the capital will 1-pop whip an almost finished axe for max overflow into Oracle on T71, timed with a chop. Nearly 50 hammers, doubled for marble. T71 Babaorum will 1-pop whip its granary, overflow into Oracle on T72 for a handful of overflow hammers. Nothing to write home about but enough to contribute. T72 Petitbonum will 2-pop whip a 4/35 axe for max overflow on T73 along with 2 chops. That will complete the Oracle and we'll put the overflow into an axe and/or a sacrificial altar. T73 We get Oracle and over 100 fail gold. That's 20 turns of 100% research. Calendar is in sight. Beyond that: Altars for lower maintenance, a few more towns for more wonderbread sources, and a bunch of 2-pop whips for Altars, axes, missionaries ... to overflow into the next marble big thing. With ToA, I hope to gather closer to 800g - and that someone else completes it. |
T70, 1200 BC
https://i.imgur.com/D9XTxgb.png Even with good growth, our GNP is dismal. Babaorum will work dry grass cottages to kindof fix that but it'll be a long time before we've got anything to show for it. City #4 will go for a quick library to push a GS academy into the capital. Still, we'll need calendar for spice gold if keeping up is to be an option. Perhaps before construction even. We'll see how the ToA payday works out. Also, Killer is really hurting. We may as well assume that last place in demographics is him. https://i.imgur.com/c6t6EV9.png PP and I are taking off — my good turn was writing + pop increase, I assume his was similar. Meanwhile, Matrix pulled a pyramid out of his hat: https://i.imgur.com/LEERkiK.png Unless his neighbors wisen up really fast, it'll be a tough game. Ynnek has met our wonder-full score leader through a work boat somewhere while Astérix reached Stapel's borders right on time for open borders. https://i.imgur.com/Lo3kUyl.png He's got barracks and pushes out 3xp archers to raid barbs in the jungle. This being noble difficulty, they'll stay hungry most of the year. He's also been hoarding all the religions. I guess he didn't feel like learning to write any time soon. Which leads us to the very linear, very snaky state of the world map: https://i.imgur.com/X2AGXQ0.png And the inevitable conclusion that those gems ought to belong to the Aztecs. https://i.imgur.com/bJjCcu3.png So the sensible move would be: farm everything, whip everything, mass ele-pult to clear the way southwards, establish a forbidden palace zone at or near the gems, regroup and see about a guy who started with stone and way too much gold in his capital. Ynnek is gonna be ruffled when the Oracle hits his culture and I steal his lighthouse-clam. Then again I was bummed when he stole the clam to begin with so part of me hopes the religion also goes to Petitbonum, to really dial the culture up to 11 (or even 14). The only spot that could use a quick culture hit from missionary spread will be Spice-Town so I'll try and appease him with a gift horse religion. |
This will be a 2-part log, too much happening all at once.
We built the Oracle https://i.imgur.com/zm6lwfq.png Then, we built the Oracle https://i.imgur.com/TTIJhJV.png And the Oracle was the gift that kept on giving, on https://i.imgur.com/6nxiQ6G.png and on, https://i.imgur.com/QfD6GY5.png and on, https://i.imgur.com/M58KTBI.png and on, https://i.imgur.com/qVGUEho.png and on. https://i.imgur.com/h5B71yB.png That's a rather slow tech rate, well under the world average GNP, but with our wonderbread payday it can be sustained at 100% for another 15-20 turns. This'll get us to Calendar and spices. https://i.imgur.com/yuYgkkR.png From spices on, the regular economy should be a lot more respectable. |
T80, 875 BC
https://i.imgur.com/m40XHsI.png How on Earth do I have 68 GNP?! https://i.imgur.com/MdGfuOf.png Quote:
https://i.imgur.com/FZV2neI.png You can see the spike at Oracle, and a lot of whipping for Altars. Killer is also whipping himself raw down there, while Ynnek and PP are making the most of their high-food tiles. Matrix is still at 2 cities so his quick rise to #1 couldn't be sustained. [ynnek] Ynnek and I are on 4 cities ; his capital is really pretty nice: https://i.imgur.com/6ZumD4H.png Stone, gold, fishes, it's got everything. Everything double, now that he's got the desert copies. Only thing he needs is to improve that rice and those hills. https://i.imgur.com/bYHzxys.png His #4 is a bit early to be that far out but he might have felt the need to close up the position, with an eye on backfilling later. Gonna hurt his economy for a while. Stapel also overextended forward, very agressively: https://i.imgur.com/cYp56CD.png It's all jungles. He needs to pop borders for fish and chop every single jungle tile there to make it work. Preposterous. Distant. The Bay of Faith is far below, and similarly underimproved: https://i.imgur.com/SlLtB9w.png His score is stalling, and no wonder. He needs like 4 more workers STAT. Iron working, too. But he's researching MC, probably to fix his economy with forges and Colossus. Good plan, in the long run. Short-term, he needs iron working and workers. https://i.imgur.com/tmoCCJM.png Diplomatically, Stapel is a jolly good neighborino who's happy to let aztec axemen roam the jungle to fog-bust and farm XP. He's got religions and marble, we have religion and marble, so I threw him a bone and offered not to compete for ToA. Make no mistake, we'll build ToA, we just won't finish it [pirate] https://i.imgur.com/XIJL9sn.png [doomsol] Matrix has been met. His warrior scout is down in the Bay of Faith, about to trek North. He'd rather not open trade routes until he can benefit from them - fair enough - and has set all his espionage points on us. Even while curating our leads on the other 2, we've got 6:4 on him so, slowly but surely, we'll get there. We owe this encounter to Astérix's bravery in combat: https://i.imgur.com/6W1hCHF.png Quote:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...6/Asterix1.png |
Now, a bit of math. Can't help it, gotta convince myself this wonderbread strat is worthwhile.
At face value, 1 pop whip = under 18 food -> 30 hammers -> 60 overflow gold. 1F => 3.5$. Let's compare a wonderbread farm to a wonderbread town to a commerce economy town (1F vs 4C). https://i.imgur.com/mT6ss5R.png Say we whip a missionary for 2 pop in the capital, cycling from 4-6. At +5 FPT growth, Altars mean it'll regrow in roughly the same time it takes to wipe away the unrest: 30 food total, /2 for granary, x2 for 2-pop whips. 30/5 = 6 turns so I've got some to spare. If we add a farm, it becomes 30/6 = 5: the exact same time as the unrest. Now that means we produce roughly 10 hammers x5: 50 hammers (10 of which go into a wonder), plus 60 (35 to production, 25 to overflow) for whipping: 75 hammers into production and 35 into a wonder. With modifiers for Org. Rel. (not forge), that's about 80-90 hammers of production and 75-80 hammers of overflow gold. Optimally, over 30 turns, we repeat the cycle 6 times: 85x6=510 production, 75x6=450$ overflow. If we work a town for 30 turns instead, we get 4 more GPT and 1 less cycle. 95x5=475 prod, 75x5=375$, Village +120$: 495$ overflow. That's ... actually lackluster for the farm vs town matchup. Let's now suppose we do 30 turns of 1 hill mine and 2 towns instead of the wheat and farm. No growth, no whip. Hammers are at 12, OR makes it 15. Extra gold is 9 for 2 villages and a river grass hill mine. 15x30=450 hammers, 9x30=270$. Even if those were financial towns, 11x30=330$ still falls way short of the 450$ mark. [:O] Damn. And we don't have to wait 70 turns for towns. And we get whipped infrastructure early all the time. [:O] |
T90, 625 BC
https://i.imgur.com/XkpKEOh.png The age of wonders has crept up on us, with GW and GLH coming online: https://i.imgur.com/WgQZ5EK.png Stapel will get a good boost to his economy from GLH, but imo, he needed 2 workers and a settler MUCH more. That and iron working for a gems city. Between Pyramids and GW, Matrix is setting himself up to be under-expanded. His territory is starting to take form, with a very recent 3rd city to the SE: https://i.imgur.com/oLBJkAd.png And I now have him on the demographics graphs. https://i.imgur.com/8VAqI6x.png A barb city has popped up in his backyard, onto which ynnek already has a scout warrior posted https://i.imgur.com/VrWlqpH.png And we'll race them there with a galley of axemen https://i.imgur.com/OwYT4JS.png The northern little fishing village hasn't been built yet as it will take more time for it to go online, with lesser rewards. Our 5th city is a handful of turns away, right on time for calendar. Ynnek got his 5th first. https://i.imgur.com/syfoNWx.png We're almost 10 turns ahead of him towards calendar, with CoL in the bag, which is a sizeable tech lead. Can't wait for the next wonderbread payday. https://i.imgur.com/Q7GbkyU.png Killer still in the gutter, Ynnek and I maintain the whipping pace, Matrix still up there despite being underexpanded. BrunchTime the greek coming up like a rocket, recently surpassing PP. |
T95, 500 BC
[estwing] We have confirmation that continents are split 4:3, with Killer on his way to the grave, making it a 4:2 split. ProPain has now captured his outer city. Long-term plan: get a Great Spy over there on a caravel. I'll start working on one in short order. [ynnek] Ynnek is out of pocket for a bit so things will slow down. Our partnership is going great, with both of us doing a bit more than would be 'reasonably curteous'. Among other things, I'll clear a city near Matrix for him, spread my religion over and give him iron when connected, while he informed me I did have iron, has sent gold ahead of time and conceded future rights towards the gems city. [doomsol] Matrix has a size-10 capital with Pyramids, Great Wall and Stonehenge. Talk about flaunting his stone ; Stonehenge is of absolutely no use to him, he only got it to deny others just-in-case. With religions, Stapel and I have little use for it and no stone to build with - so I guess it could be seen as the first intercontinental offensive action. [afro] Stapel made at least 1 more worker, which is good. He needs a healthier workforce if he is to ever build ToA and give me a good wonderbread payday. Artemis is at 550 hammers accumulated so far. Our Oracle money is all but gone by now, falling 1 turn short of yielding 100% research through Mono+Math+Calendar+IW. Don't sell the bear's hide before killing it, as we say, but I foresee a future where Matrix tries to play ynnek against me and/or where I ram through Stapel with elephants and catapults while riding the $ wave of ToA fail gold + conquest bounty. Unfortunately, Stapel will go into the grinder either way: his mass religion tech path, combined with under-worked, far-away expansions, left him far behind the pack. |
1 Attachment(s)
T100, 375 BC.
https://i.imgur.com/de55EHm.png https://i.imgur.com/fnMo8UC.png The F9 screen has taken a jump upwards with Killer eliminated. The "Rival Worst" from T100 is above the "Rival Average" from T90, across the board. https://i.imgur.com/DDsFXbZ.png Ynnek with calendar is going to take a good boost upwards. He needs it, what with his first circle having low food to grow. None of my business, but he should've settled 1 tile closer to tile-share his capital's fishes and rice. https://i.imgur.com/4AP9hWU.png We're still in good standing with #1 score, thanks to high pop and a few big techs. https://i.imgur.com/YIWxafo.png Still, we have urgent matters to attend to: https://i.imgur.com/Z2tKOjw.png GLib + Pyramids in a 10-pop capital. I know how that ends. This means war. [ninja] https://i.imgur.com/xzxe2gZ.png Catapults, Triremes, Elephants. His territory is gorgeous as well, but I only spot one metal ... so far. https://i.imgur.com/yLeaOFq.png This may mean that I can camp it with a stack of shock axemen for a while. He'll soon expand west to grab iron #2. I need to be ready for that as well. Burn and pillage. [doomsol] |
T110, 125 BC
https://i.imgur.com/NxZTlR3.png The game's 2nd war is upon us. https://i.imgur.com/bv4vo7b.png *snickers* [col] We are at polar opposites of the map, which makes things logistically difficult. Galley #2 comes out next turn, so we'll have some backup in case of naval battles, then triremes within the week. https://i.imgur.com/SS7nI5J.png The first wave consists of 5 axemen: 4 stacked up by his iron, and 1 sowing the seeds of chaos in the heartland. https://i.imgur.com/9ih0taT.png His 3 strategic resources are in jeopardy: Ynnek has made a fresh settler this very turn, and has a galley ready to make the trip south. Stapel should be able to handle the horses, should Matrix even get there with 3rd ring culture. And most importantly for now, his current source of Iron has been successfully pillaged at the cost of 1 scout decoy. RIP Asterix. https://i.imgur.com/DgFwccV.png He has 2 axes and an archer in The Hague, 1 injured axe (from the scout), 1 archer and 1 catapult in Rotterdam. https://i.imgur.com/qxJqRss.png Both Ynnek and Stapel are dragging along on expansions with low food and high worker needs. Things are looking up while their development takes off. PP and Brunch seem like they're having a very close heat matchup over there. Meanwhile, our lead wanes as the Oracle boost tapers off. As for Matrix, his wonder combo really shows. https://i.imgur.com/Sk4uYMt.png That's just nasty. Icarus' hubris. Our only hope is stopping him within 50 turns before he can just ridiculously overpower everyone. The Aztecs' part will be to capitalize on high food output to whip everything relentlessly. We made a deal with Ynnek and Stapel: he needs to be stopped. Else Matrix wins, no contest. They agree. And they need to keep Gronigen. Else I win, no contest. So we are at peace until 500 AD while we sort things out in the Netherlands. I'd be content just grabbing Amsterdam for a domestic source of gold. |
1AD
https://i.imgur.com/WlOD2iY.png Whipping 2-3 pop constantly like a motherfucker https://i.imgur.com/QtB9BNj.png 2 Forges up. HBR next turn for elephants. Ynnek will start being scared soon since he sees it all get ferried over. We'll probably have to start discussing land concessions then. https://i.imgur.com/wC5Cgxp.png Temple of Solomon is a neat 8 GPT, in a strong commerce city no less. Nothing close to Pyramids+GLib+Gems but hey, we make do. https://i.imgur.com/Bb4xlri.png |
such beautiful lands!
|
Works for me ;) Clearly not quite Matrix's but then again, less of a target on my back. He's got a lock on #1 now - and he can still expand. I look forward to finding your place and witnessing the shitshow.
Stapel is moving catapults north so my end may be near. Or not. We'll see if Matrix pulls off a 3-way alliance against me or not. The shadow of last game weighs against me even while he builds the very thing that got me the win... |
T110, 125 AD
https://i.imgur.com/9eKCfEN.png Back in 2nd place, probably for good. https://i.imgur.com/v6A6yKz.png PP and BrunchTime are closing in on my score while still expanding. Matrix grabbed the iron to his SW and killed our expeditionary force with catapults + chariots, which I did not see coming. https://i.imgur.com/NMHbcpH.png Elephants are trickling out. Unit production from 2.5 cities is limited: 2 galleys have proven to be more than I can fill up. Meanwhile Matrix is 8 turns from crossbows, Ynnek has just started to build units seriously and I expect a backstab from Stapel. I feel like I gotta prepare for a backstab from both. Either way, I'll need a much bigger army - Matrix HAS to be choked down and my allies, if they are, don't seem to take the threat as urgently... https://i.imgur.com/NKt2a8a.png Within the next 10 turns we'll have visibility on Matrix's cities, which will prove to be HUGE for the war. https://i.imgur.com/eG3G7QR.png It's currently quite low-stakes over there. He scouted with a chariot, daring me to attack it with an axe so that he could send more chariots back in. Our woodsman 2 jaguar dares him right back. |
Quote:
|
T115, 250 AD
Diplo update. We're now down to 3rd place, behind Matrix and [swordman] BrunchTime the greek who has completed the Temple of Artemis. That's a sweet, sweet 1000 gold in our pockets from wonder fail gold. https://i.imgur.com/5Ellncn.png [ynnek] Ynnek has made it easy for me to go out to Matrix's lands and he will start pumping out catapults shortly. Having 2 low-food expansions initially hampered his development but he's coming around well. [doomsol] Matrix held me off long enough to get triremes into play. With the initial axe team dead, and with seas becoming perilous, I have chosen a strategic withdrawal. We'll go the long way around. This has been precipitated by: [afro] Stapel, who wasn't quite playing both sides, but he was wishy-washy and/or stalling for someone to grow weak enough. I wished for an alliance to stifle Matrix now. He considered that an unreasonable demand. Things get lost in translation, no hard feelings, not my first choice, but we need to grow. Since he won't join, he has to go. The fireworks begin in 5 turns @Flintoff, the ivory city. The long way 'round it is, through the byzantines. [ninja] |
T120, 375 AD
https://i.imgur.com/RGVeLoo.png The race tightens as we drop to 3rd place. https://i.imgur.com/lUR1Bu9.png [swordman] BrunchTime the greek is showing off his new wonder and high food output, shooting past PP and over Matrix. The part where he builds ToA does play into my hand. https://i.imgur.com/BkCm3Rp.png [ynnek] Ynnek has his food developped and it starts to show. Time will tell whether he keeps biding his time to grab my lands while the toys are away down south. I'll have to make troop relays so as not to send everything away all the time. https://i.imgur.com/KAnlQVo.png [afro] Stapel kept showing outrage at the idea of me wanting to clarify his position and pick a side. When I proposed that we stay at peace until 500 AD while we attacked Matrix together, he understood 'stay at peace with EVERYONE until 500 AD', which would have left me hanging with troops halfway across the pond, a difficult supply line, Ynnek not showing up and Stapel's army coming north rather than south, eyeballing whoever weakens first between Ynnek and I. Not gonna happen. https://i.imgur.com/xEj25Ib.png We will end our disagreement ... forcefully. https://i.imgur.com/v6OFn2e.png First combat is a loss despite 76%, but our scout also won defending a 99.6% attack from Matrix. Anyways I'm glad I took it now, as 2 more axes might have populated the jungle next turn. https://i.imgur.com/ubP1dGP.png Large amounts of reinforcements are right behind. [doomsol] Reversing the whole amphibious invasion of the Netherlands was painstakingly long. Matrix barely pressed the issue though. Everyone is back safe. I suspect we'll meet again in Stapel's capital. He's free to develop for a while and he knows it. I'll try and stay competitive with higher population, fewer whips, bureaucracy (next turn) and the extra land from Stapel. Everything rides on making Stapel's lands work ASAP, really. Matrix is a good builder-style player: the catch-up will be a bumpy ride. |
T135, 500AD
Today was a good day. https://i.imgur.com/JRl8i4s.png [afro] Stapel mustered his forces and tried to weaken our army with catapult collateral when there was 1 turn of bombardment to go, so we used that last turn to finish off the walls, promote a healer (healed all but 1) and let loose on the next turn. https://i.imgur.com/dr2AHql.png With great success. Total losses: 1 elephant riding in, 1 catapult at the gates. [doomsol] Matrix's army is sure to be marching East right now so we'll send a 2-galley war party to scour the coast and try to "bluff" our way into making him doubt, or double back, or allow us an easy capture. https://i.imgur.com/eObBrBb.png Still 3rd. Matrix researches Theology - either for Theocracy, or for further ends ... https://i.imgur.com/i2KMQzJ.png That GA could get him further down the Nationalism line, either by bulbing Divine Right or Nationalism itself. https://i.imgur.com/k5aj5fa.png That's a big gambit in quite some time, if it is indeed his plan. Plus, a cuirassier rush would have a tough time against an army of elephants. https://i.imgur.com/AxcNXEU.png First to Alpha and CS, making spies, will try to steal machinery and currency from Matrix ASAP. Stapel has HBR but no more elephants to use it on. We'll soon have saturated our useful tiles in the homeland ; new conquests are a timely addition. Babaorum is working 8 cottages while Aquarium has 4 specialists at size 6. All of the great people options would be nice: spy for Matrix's techs (or Brunch's), scientist for an academy, or GE for a wonder. Bureaucracy in the capital hoisted it to 35 hammers (rival best MFG is ~65 empire-wide) while Petitbonum remains a crazy mix of whip output + hammered military. Some hammers are being whip-overflown into mausoleum, slowly building up the next wonder fail gold. With conquest $ pouring in on top of the last payday, we'll keep running at 100% science until Education. Then, a quick whipping of universities will keep me in the game a while longer. |
T140, 600 AD
https://i.imgur.com/80r09Xz.png Keep in mind, there's 2 golden ages active. [afro] https://i.imgur.com/SjCn0ob.png I keep baiting Stapel, he keeps taking bad 25-30% fights, chipping away at his own army. https://i.imgur.com/yNMuJsH.png We have a medic scout general and a few woods3 jags to heal everyone up right quick, too. 2 down, copper town will fall in line soon. This will fulfill an old promise to Ynnek [ynnek] [doomsol] https://i.imgur.com/XMwR11y.png I was way overthinking this, as is tradition. He just burned his artist into a MoM GA. https://i.imgur.com/Z7YXJXI.png Which leaves me a bit richer, but without a wonder to dump into. https://i.imgur.com/Sp6zRC6.png Score is lacking but we'll soar again within 20-30 turns with the new conquests coming online. GE will make gardens in the capital. https://i.imgur.com/DiK0Hkz.png No one has engineering for pikemen ... yet ... or even closing in on longbows. The future looks good for the ele-pult wave. We'll try and reach macemen+trebs by the time we hit Matrix. |
T145, 700AD
[doomsol] There is some highway fuckery going on here as Matrix started gobbling up Stapel from behind. https://i.imgur.com/iKM2GmN.png https://i.imgur.com/LB3NCXv.png [afro] Stapel missed 3 turns after conceding his copper town and moving his troops back to the treeline chokepoint. It cost me 3 units to power through that spot, which is further reason why he should have settled there in the first place. Chances are Stapel just got demoralized and gave up. That he would concede everything to Matrix is very poor sportsmanship but hey, we the irreducible gaulois will prevail. [ynnek] As part of millenia-old agreements, Ynnek received Alésia. We'll resume the march South in a turn or two. https://i.imgur.com/0Ryp44J.png |
T150, 800 AD
https://i.imgur.com/oMyN0rG.png I feel fucked. I got greedy and delayed Hanging Gardens by a preposterous 5 turns to include all of the new cities coming online. Obviously, that led to PP building it on the very same turn I was going to. So that's that. And it's fully my fault. Bright side: our economy still runs on wonder fail gold for a few more turns. https://i.imgur.com/8k011aS.png That's a solid blow to our score as PP catches up to Brunch and Matrix keeps running away - now with a free lunch of half of Stapel's empire. https://i.imgur.com/IKQLp9Y.png So we are nearing the moment of truth and Stapel's forces are daunting. https://i.imgur.com/uxvuIWG.png If he had put even half of that force up on the plain hill forest, I'd never have gotten through. But he'd rather gift the leading player with half his shit ... bleh. Ok, no more bitterness. Done. We have our work cut out for us. |
Things are better than expected after a prodigious round of catapults pulling 20% victories out of nowhere:
https://i.imgur.com/ltOJ0zU.png Which paved the way for a landslide victory: https://i.imgur.com/lrZdSPl.png That leaves 1 irrelevant catapult in play, and a Dutch stack sharpening its teeth: https://i.imgur.com/TzKMfc2.png While a blockade is trying to prevent my spies from barging in and stealing everything. https://i.imgur.com/uhSv0kX.png |
1 Attachment(s)
|
T160, 1000 AD
https://i.imgur.com/gjjP34q.png [doomsol] Matrix got fucked. He didn't fuck up. RNG fucked him up. I did put myself in a position to be wiped out, although I didn't fuck up so much as I took bold action to take my chances with this game, and got lucky. https://i.imgur.com/GUE423w.png The score graph is flattering to Matrix but that also includes a brand new AP. He just can't help himself. https://i.imgur.com/XHtD290.png https://i.imgur.com/YmFzcU4.png I hope to steal engineering within 5-10 turns, which might require an uptick in spy specialists. https://i.imgur.com/w8iRjKB.png Stapelburg is now Lugdunum. We march West. Next turn upon capturing Antioch, macemen upgrades will level the technological playing field and put us at a significant numbers advantage. https://i.imgur.com/ZggEe8F.png The bewildering increase in our GNP is largely due to Mid-Gaul coming online with its sweet, sweet gem juice. https://i.imgur.com/lFAmtFQ.png Old Gaul is halfway through its university builds. Machinery hits this turn, then we go 0% for a bit, build up cash, whip the last universities, and resume research at 100% with better infrastructure. https://i.imgur.com/sJkVBeu.png [ynnek] Ynnek comes from the North to throw a wrench at Matrix while he has a lead on his military strength for the first time this game. He should be ferrying his troops to the 2-tile island city he just got (unless he ain't, which our next batch of spies would see within 2-3 turns). I envy the intercontinental trade route commerce he's getting there. https://i.imgur.com/z9KcWXQ.png Now the big question in the air is will he want to switch gears and go head to head after Grönigen, or will we find a way to make a peaceful split happen and work together towards besting the other continent. That suspense will keep every turn of this game interesting. |
T168, 1080 AD
https://i.imgur.com/x2L3vvH.png Even after the RNG wiped him out at Stapelburg, barely 10 turns passed and Matrix has a larger force than mine with all the perks of castles and short supply lines. I can't keep this up. His northern end is very weak and Ynnek doesn't seem to want to take advantage of it. Too slow on the trigger? Doubting himself? Honoring a cease fire turn count? Whatever it is, I wish he had acted sooner and more forcefully. His military numbers are very high, close to Matrix and mine. If he launches, we may still have a shot. But he needs to go quickly. https://i.imgur.com/ko4xEZL.png My fleet is gone. My spies are gone. I can take Matrix on an open field in home soil, or in his forests maybe. I'll need trebs and muskets to do better than that and it would be a bloody hell. Liberalism > Cannons seems like my best option to fight him off properly. But he just might beat me to that as well. On the bright side, I control larger and better lands now, all in all. The peaceful development route has become a legitimate option again. But that would leave Ynnek in the dust, which bothers me. He really needs to act. Other options include pulling a Stapel (overtaking Ynnek for "free" while he harrasses Matrix), shaking hands with Matrix and calling it a day (which he may be inclined to do right now), throwing myself at him (YOLO) and hoping he exposes himself attacking me again (I wish). |
T170, 1100 AD (2 turns late)
https://i.imgur.com/sgmzVPB.png [doomsol] Matrix's GNP and MFG are preposterous again. IIRC he went into a 2nd golden age. We'll see how he does once that's over. https://i.imgur.com/0XgpUvd.png He chased me out of his territory where I tried to dare him to take me on, which he declined. I tried to manufacture a chase so he'd come into my territory for 1 turn where I could slam my catapults against him and gain a sliver of a chance for the upper hand. He didn't chase, and I miscounted the turns of movement for my reinforcements anyways. Had he come into my trap, it wouldn't have sprung and I'd have been fucked. He's afraid of my musketmen (I have 0: you have to MAKE those and I have half his MFG). Hooray for his unwillingness to fight. On turn 171 there was an AP vote to end the war against him, to which I voted no, but it obviously passed anyways. I should've defied it. Ynnek should've defied it. Oh well. [ynnek] Ynnek's troops were landing on a tile of his own soil crossing over Matrix's continent, but the tile culture-flipped so his army is now stranded on the midway island and he can't declare war right this turn or transport them back there safely. Matrix is trying to turn him against me. Quite frankly, backstabbing me seems like ynnek's only option left to stay in the game ... short of moving his army allllllll the way around to join mine. https://i.imgur.com/1cekQgl.png PP got Sankore, which bought me 3 turns of 100% resarch. I look forward to someone building Notre-Dame so I can race through Liberalism. With PP having paper, I won't risk any sort of slingshot: just try and get there first is the plan. https://i.imgur.com/HSqARH2.png Matrix doesn't have paper yet. Good. I don't need to worry about him building universities. I wonder what he'll tech after caravels. Espionage takes a long time to build back up after spending 1100 of it stealing engineering :cool: |
T180, 1200 AD
https://i.imgur.com/uNunRCU.png Didn't do take in the way of screenshots: Matrix used his AP to stop the war. My chances look better and better as Stapel's lands begin to flourish. [doomsol] It's been a quiet, yet tense, 8 turns. I still don't know where Ynnek is at. Matrix has spies on my army and wants me to move north. I'm waiting for Ynnek to make his move either way, and having a diplomatic cold war with Matrix meanwhile. Waiting for Ynnek is not usually what you want to do, but hey, he holds the balance of power. [ynnek] If he does nothing, he has no chance of getting anywhere. If he attacks me, I'm confident I can take him on but then Matrix wins the south (I probably would be ok). If he attacks Matrix by sea, he loses everything in transit. So he needs to bring his troops home and (hopefully) join me in destroying Matrix. So we wait and build up. Haven't had a wonder payday for a while. The next ones should net us liberalism + printing press, and send us on our way towards cannons and/or astronomy. We'll see how the war(s) go(es). |
T190, 1300 AD
https://i.imgur.com/i4RL1hi.png Economics have gotten better for me, yet much tighter in general. Comparing my 4th position to the leader's and the average reveals that Matrix's post-GA, post-wonder economic lead wanes as PP, Brunch and I begin to control more territory to make up for it. https://i.imgur.com/zKX9IJJ.png PP has gained liberalism and its free tech, 3 turns before we could. That's a really hard blow. Brunchtime hasn't increased his score a lot lately, suggesting he has pretty much capped his food supply and is researching large techs. And isn't whipping for production. Maybe turning folks into specialists, maybe working a lot of hills, probably building up a large army/saving for upgrades. A stagnant score like that looks to me like an upcoming storm of grandiose proportions on continent 2. I ventured into Matrix's territory with half a mind to capture Constantinopel. Then one fateful night, dog-tired, barely conscious, when any inkling of wisdom would've told me to get the fuck to bed (preferably 3 hours ago), I opened civ. Saw we had reached our destination. Instead of bombarding for a turn, instead of sending a spy up a hill to check where his stacks were at, I misclicked a treb into attacking. A zombie-like sunk-cost-fallacy gripped me. I kept bombarding, attacking, somewhat at random. At one point I right clicked my stack 4-5 times with eyes 90-100% closed. A shameful display that may have cost me the game. Somewhat disheartening... we'll have to make do with a retreat and relief efforts. Also, be more disciplined about rest and sleep. That brain injury fog really creeps up on you late at night. In spite of that, crop yields allow us to leverage pop growth into what would otherwise be a lackluster production. This may or may not be enough to keep entertaining our newest guests. https://i.imgur.com/t7Aoch8.png Our supply lines are looooooooooong. Yet, we have muskets in great numbers ... currently marching down the road to Stapel's old capital. If Matrix attacks us at Londinium, he may just win the battle. https://i.imgur.com/VxD20iC.png His 11 catapults are not geared for city attack but for barrage. He only gets 1 shot with those as they'll all die attacking garrisson 2 muskets behind castles. But if he goes straight up to Lugdunum, which is a much greater prize, he'll have to contend with a lot of fresh reinforcements, as well as bombard it for a turn or three. Thrilling times ahead. |
T200, 1400 AD
https://i.imgur.com/iscz6PQ.png [doomsol] Matrix and I had a big showdown, which you can see on the 50-turn military power graph: https://i.imgur.com/8p87okJ.png We came out on top and are now heading back in. https://i.imgur.com/CWkYhvt.png [ynnek] Meanwhile, Ynnek has free reign of the west and is sealing the fate of the Dutch. He and I are facing happiness troubles after both defying a peace resolution on top of Zeus built in Gronigen. Ynnek answered with a heavily whipped Notre-Dame. https://i.imgur.com/P38NdKQ.png PP is running away with the score as I suspect Brunch is gearing up his military. One of them has surpassed my numbers. If it's PP, he'll be a daunting opponent. https://i.imgur.com/jjUSAQb.png As for the here and now, Notre-Dame boosted our funds by about 1500$ which served to 100% tech + GE rush Steel, upgrade 5 cannons, and will last us until printing press for the extra income. https://i.imgur.com/xOtIXZn.png |
T210, 1500 AD
https://i.imgur.com/rz7oiKi.png PP's Taj Mahal GA is over and we go back to #1 or 2 across the board. https://i.imgur.com/S6QVjx3.png [ynnek] Ynnek's conquest of Matrix's north shores propels him out of last place as BrunchTime the greek stagnates. If Brunch doesn't act soon to combat PP, he'll be in big trouble. https://i.imgur.com/OnMx765.png [doomsol] We stole Theology from Matrix and entered a theocracy. 5XP out of the gate will help our cannons nail him down. Liberalism next turn will also allow for free speech, aka 7-8$ towns. We press on. https://i.imgur.com/PNJoxmA.png |
T220, 1550 AD
https://i.imgur.com/YKvYVzM.png Technology and civics really did wonders for my cottage economy. Printing press +1$, free speech +2$ and free religion +10% research. Now we can sustain a 50% research pace that'll leave PP panting, with 2 solid cottage cities, a 3rd on the way and Stapel's old capital will soon be re-purposed for GP farming. https://i.imgur.com/prwhtSC.png *credits to Maarten for this find The last turn of slavery was ... colorful. https://i.imgur.com/X5apJBX.png But since then, it's a nice, light cruising. So much less management. We'll attack Matrix within 2-3 turns, whenever cannons have healed a bit. I hope we'll have enough to break through. [doomsol] https://i.imgur.com/PhvwCmI.png 18 musketmen is nothing to scoff at. 20+ by the time we attack. He managed to make a handful of cuirassiers to harass cannons and did some pretty good damage. The die are cast, but we'll have to wait a few turns to see how they fall. As for the rest of the world: https://i.imgur.com/sI1QI4G.png https://i.imgur.com/bRz9WPQ.png They are solid technological contenders, with a landmass each. Kindof a sad way to play PBEM, and why I wouldn't have wanted to play Mali last game for instance. https://i.imgur.com/OOUK1Pq.png [estwing] Killer's GLORIOUS peninsula was worth a good 3 towns of SUPERIOR worth https://i.imgur.com/pKrIrOl.png [swordman] Brunchtime was doing alright but has clearly capped out his growth potential. He is the first to astronomy and will want to settle out the sizeable subcontinents of the great ocean. Gotta watch that one. https://i.imgur.com/YVdaVYQ.png [cookiem] (since [butcher] is retired) ProPain has WAY too much room to manoeuver. He'll clearly be the man to beat. I'll have to pick Ynnek's brain about a way to deal with THAT. |
| All times are GMT +2. The time now is 22:57. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.