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#31 |
Disabled Vet
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: RAWR!
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Things are better than expected after a prodigious round of catapults pulling 20% victories out of nowhere:
![]() Which paved the way for a landslide victory: ![]() That leaves 1 irrelevant catapult in play, and a Dutch stack sharpening its teeth: ![]() While a blockade is trying to prevent my spies from barging in and stealing everything. ![]()
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#32 |
Disabled Vet
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: RAWR!
Posts: 1,555
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And ...
![]() Done.
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#33 |
Disabled Vet
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: RAWR!
Posts: 1,555
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T160, 1000 AD
![]() ![]() 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. ![]() The score graph is flattering to Matrix but that also includes a brand new AP. He just can't help himself. ![]() ![]() I hope to steal engineering within 5-10 turns, which might require an uptick in spy specialists. ![]() 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. ![]() The bewildering increase in our GNP is largely due to Mid-Gaul coming online with its sweet, sweet gem juice. ![]() 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. ![]() ![]() 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. ![]() 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.
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Please do not annoy, torment, pester, plague, molest, worry, badger, harry, harrass, heckle, persecute, irk, bullyrag, vex, disquiet, grate, beset, bother, tease, nettle, tantalize or ruffle the animals. San Diego Wild Animal Park Last edited by Beorn; 22-02-2020 at 02:52. |
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#34 |
Disabled Vet
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: RAWR!
Posts: 1,555
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T168, 1080 AD
![]() 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. ![]() 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).
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Please do not annoy, torment, pester, plague, molest, worry, badger, harry, harrass, heckle, persecute, irk, bullyrag, vex, disquiet, grate, beset, bother, tease, nettle, tantalize or ruffle the animals. San Diego Wild Animal Park |
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#35 |
Disabled Vet
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: RAWR!
Posts: 1,555
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T170, 1100 AD (2 turns late)
![]() ![]() 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. ![]() 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'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. ![]() 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. ![]() 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 ![]()
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Please do not annoy, torment, pester, plague, molest, worry, badger, harry, harrass, heckle, persecute, irk, bullyrag, vex, disquiet, grate, beset, bother, tease, nettle, tantalize or ruffle the animals. San Diego Wild Animal Park Last edited by Beorn; 02-03-2020 at 19:18. |
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#36 |
Disabled Vet
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: RAWR!
Posts: 1,555
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T180, 1200 AD
![]() 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. ![]() 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. ![]() 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).
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#37 |
Disabled Vet
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: RAWR!
Posts: 1,555
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T190, 1300 AD
![]() 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. ![]() 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. ![]() 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. ![]() 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.
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Please do not annoy, torment, pester, plague, molest, worry, badger, harry, harrass, heckle, persecute, irk, bullyrag, vex, disquiet, grate, beset, bother, tease, nettle, tantalize or ruffle the animals. San Diego Wild Animal Park Last edited by Beorn; 17-03-2020 at 01:06. |
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#38 |
Disabled Vet
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: RAWR!
Posts: 1,555
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T200, 1400 AD
![]() ![]() Matrix and I had a big showdown, which you can see on the 50-turn military power graph: ![]() We came out on top and are now heading back in. ![]() ![]() 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. ![]() 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. ![]() 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. ![]()
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#39 |
Disabled Vet
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: RAWR!
Posts: 1,555
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T210, 1500 AD
![]() PP's Taj Mahal GA is over and we go back to #1 or 2 across the board. ![]() ![]() 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. ![]() ![]() 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. ![]()
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Please do not annoy, torment, pester, plague, molest, worry, badger, harry, harrass, heckle, persecute, irk, bullyrag, vex, disquiet, grate, beset, bother, tease, nettle, tantalize or ruffle the animals. San Diego Wild Animal Park |
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#40 |
Disabled Vet
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: RAWR!
Posts: 1,555
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T220, 1550 AD
![]() 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. ![]() *credits to Maarten for this find The last turn of slavery was ... colorful. ![]() 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. ![]() ![]() 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: ![]() ![]() 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. ![]() ![]() Killer's GLORIOUS peninsula was worth a good 3 towns of SUPERIOR worth ![]() ![]() 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. ![]() ![]() ![]() 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.
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Please do not annoy, torment, pester, plague, molest, worry, badger, harry, harrass, heckle, persecute, irk, bullyrag, vex, disquiet, grate, beset, bother, tease, nettle, tantalize or ruffle the animals. San Diego Wild Animal Park Last edited by Beorn; 17-04-2020 at 20:10. |
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