[PB66 Mjmd] I HAVE NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!

[Mjmd]

T163    I had a longer post, but then browser randomly closed!!!! You get shorter version

SIGH GAV. No crab for crab. Scouting revealed units and more importantly two fresh galleys. Culture on key tile about to flip; that his heroic epic city. BUT I have no road long signal of peaceful intent.



Could have double moved to probably save, but dick move so war peaced and offered gold. Sadly drafted (and whipped Dinky) on plan going into turn and didn't scout until after. Hoping he saw Plemo take lead and get Taj / just wants to eat Vanrober stuff before SD razes and resettles better spots (SD razed one Van city on Gav border).

Edit: for record no double play this turn is because its 3am here...........

[Mjmd]

T164

Gav sent me an offer where I give him edmund fitzerald, 2000 gold, and a world map............. I take that offer as "No peace". 

Message received!




Two of those are university whips. Edmund Fitzerald I WAS SUPPOSED to be the 6th....... but luckily I had started a 7th, but would have preferred to whip a bank instead and then slow build the university and now that will be reversed. 

Quick note I was doing all this on my backup laptop rushing through at lunch time. I'm blaming all mistakes on this. Tonight I have to keep working on getting main computer back in operation. 

CURRENTLY*** I'm treating this as a limited war. Gav would have to SLOG through culture to get to me. He did produce a 3rd galley, but he would have to win all 6 battles to take down High Barbary. I PROBABLY should have left a 7th unit there honestly. There just isn't a reason to send units towards Edmund Fitzerald, I can't hold it assuming like 3 knights show up with rest of what is coming. I also put the galley in the way (He moved differently assuming I think I whipped a trireme), so he would have to risk a 50/50 combat with units on board, to then also win all 6 battles. I suspect* he will instead go try to raze Dinky (again); again if I had left 7th unit in High Barbary I could have blocked with galley and maybe honestly should have. I'll only have 4 units there (xbow, axe, chariot, new sentry from overflow). Again, blame the rushed turn. My defensive SD triremes are 1 turn late basically (again along with knights this would have made my job a lot easier if I had double moved). 

BTW assuming this is a limited war I have the settler to replace as you can see last picture. It was suppsoed to settle a filler city over by Mig. I wonder if that is what caused this instead of the culture, but I still think its the culture. 

Speaking of SD he got caravels, which I'm treating as defensive for now........ Again, long term SD is an issue. 

Plemo looks to be going for his 3rd GA to keep chaining them (which is the most efficient way). He also is sending cats away from me, so its pretty obvious he is finally going for the rest of the isolated land Krill gave to him because.....

Edit: Plemo just went constitution for Representation (to combine with Mercantilism). Currently going for drafted muskets.

[Mjmd]

T164

Gav would have to SLOG through culture to get to me. He did produce a 3rd galley, but he would have to win all 6 battles to take down High Barbary. I PROBABLY should have left a 7th unit there honestly. There just isn't a reason to send units towards Edmund Fitzerald

win all 6 battles. 

T165 

I shouldn't play at weird times, but will see if last nights mistake comes back to bite me as much as this one.

Gav had a fresh trireme for the galley and my calc shows he had about a 12% to raze (ie he had odds, but the first three were mid 60% and none of the others was about 79%, but ALL of them together makes a low percent). So ya High Barbary and its valuable culture are gone. 

So while I sort of and I stress sort of, understand why Gav attacked, I really don't. I've been 2nd and 3rd in a lot of games and I've never once been tempted to go attack either the 2nd or 3rd (opposite of whatever I am). Gav brought his entire army, not just enough to raze / take Edmund Fitzgerald. Typically what I do when I'm 2nd or 3rd is I'll try to go get stronger myself, recruit some allies, and try to get to a good place tech or position wise to then help a dog pile. So yes Gavs attack makes sense if we were the top two players, it makes sense if we were 1v1, you know when it doesn't make sense? When you are 2nd and 3rd and there is a game leader that will eventually be in a position to burn every coastal city of Gavs to the ground. When the day comes and Gav asks for my help, don't worry Plemo, I'm not coming to help him. Not Plemo may never do this, because I might get my revenge first and it won't be needed, but the point being is that if Gav ever looks scary Plemo can pretty easily dissect him. Now there is no way I'm letting Gav plow into SD or conquer Amica. 

Now what if Gav didn't see Plemo was clearly in the lead and thought Plemo and I were tied, but if that is the case all he is doing is playing kingmaker. Either way screw him. I'm glad I didn't double move him, but also pissed I didn't in this moment.

[Mjmd]

Mjmd

Never be afraid to fix your mistakes.

In PB63 I did the correct thing when Cairo decided to play kingmaker and retreated to key cultural city. I have no clue why I moved that 1 macemen forward this game, no idea at all. I'm going to blame rushed turn on laggy laptop and not at all on my general intelligence. That game I forgot to chop a key forest and sacrificed 3 workers to fix it and that was very key to me being able to push Cairo back. 

Then last turn for some 4am turn reason I thought settling a city would somehow keep the pig tile culture that the original High Barbary WOULD HAVE controlled, so I settled a city 2N of original location on the hill to get those sweet 5 lake tiles. You know the exact tile his knights could reach after taking Edmund Fitzgerald   . Also, because I had expected culture of High Barbary to be there I hadn't retreated extra units from the city (which is why I wanted culture to slow down his stack), so that was worth 5 units and a city at that point. 

So mistake plus a mistake = 4:30 am or whatever figuring out I was in trouble and trying to fix. The only solution was to give Gav Edmund Fitzergerald for peace. He couldn't see new city from his units. Gav sent me a DM letting me know he accepted my peace treaty. I believe he accepted my 4th peace treaty (peace for city, city +100g, city +200g, and city +250g). 

So obviously the next step is to backstab T/C and slam my new stack into him right and at least take cities over by me? Once they conquer Al I will have two high powered neighbors with only one land neighbor, so I need to weaken them right? MAP BALANCE!!!!! Ya no, I need one ally and as we've been peaceful all game, that seems like the best choice. 

BTW Gav sent me crab for crab and open borders   . I promised him doom and destruction and fully intend to fulfil that plus I WANT MY CITY BACK!!!!!!!!

SD sent me crab for crab which I returned. Gav is sending his army back south so I think he is doing what I thought he would do to begin with.

[Mjmd]

T166

Man I really want Sankore..... Its too bad AP is in Firiona Vie, I would love to raze that city for culture reasons. BUT I'm going to trust them........... I am of course typing this for use in 50 turns. I sent them a couple of interesting diplo offers this turn, shall see how they respond.

Just real quick, here is Gavs stack, minus like 5 macemen that disappeared somewhere (maybe galleys?). Also, see confusion on why he didn't road. I'm POSITIVE those workers were in the stack last turn. Wonder if he mined accidentally.

[Mjmd]

T166

Man I really want Sankore..... Its too bad AP is in Firiona Vie, I would love to raze that city for culture reasons. BUT I'm going to trust them........... I am of course typing this for use in 50 turns. I sent them a couple of interesting diplo offers this turn, shall see how they respond.

Just real quick, here is Gavs stack, minus like 5 macemen that disappeared somewhere (maybe galleys?). Also, see confusion on why he didn't road. I'm POSITIVE those workers were in the stack last turn. Wonder if he mined accidentally.

[Mjmd]

T170

I'll try to get back to reporting a little at least now that my computer is upgraded.

Gav and I are having the following discussion via imperfect Diplo

Gav, "Heh Plemo is running away with the game go focus over there"

Mjmd, "Yes you idiot, you're the one who attacked me! Give me my city back!!!!"

Gav to Plemo after this game:

"In particular, you were lucky that other players (me included) made lots of incredibly dumb decisions." - Gavagai

Seriously he could go conquer like 3 civs in these 10 turns and instead we are starring each other down over one city.   . His 1st attack showed that without whipping I couldn't have threated him (especially without a road on key tile). I wanted a small force over there to prevent Mig (!) of taking offense to a new grassland farm draft city. Did he really take like 4 macemen as a threat? He had open borders and long vision lead time (as well as again the unroaded hill tile).

OH SD peaced out with Vanrober and sent me friendly signaling. SOO I immediately garrisoned some knights in my coastal cities.   (for those unaware SD sending friendly signals is often a precursor to him attacking you). I also really keep meaning to take a screenshot to try to get someone to explain some culture to me.

[Mjmd]

I think I'll post graphs later and some random thoughts, but for now can anyone tell me why Spain controls the tile above Christmas Ship? I know culture can spread if you control tiles around it, but I would have expected Spain to have to control one or both of the 0% corners?



I'm really looking forward to T/C taking that Al city so I get 1 more water tile. I'm thinking of having my Moai city whip a university to get to 4th ring culture faster........ Its my 7th best commerce city so its not a complete waste of hammers.

[Mjmd]

T171

Anyone have an answer to culture question? I also have a culture question for SD, but I think I know the answer for that one; might post that tomorrow.

Graphs: 

So lets do the bad. Food: I didn't even take this graph picture because it makes me grumpy. Plemo is leading by A LOT despite me being up a couple of cities. Part of that is the insane amount of seafood he has plus type. My northern coast basically doesn't have seafood and I have 2 fish (had 3) and Plemo has over 10..... 

GNP
Its actually pretty good for me. Plemo will continue leading through his next GA and main thing is he got to /getting to military techs he needs, but there are only two players here. Gav recently I believe wealth built his way to printing press. He obviously has an entire empire that needs to get back up and running so he has room to grow in all these. 

Prod 



I suspect Plemo is slightly below me but as he can draft and has better food, probably doesn't matter. 

Power



There are problems here. Gav hasn't declared war on anyone else and his rapid forces could have by now. Meaning basically all his army is probably on my border.......... Because why would he want to conquer Vanrober, Amica, and most of Mig and SD while I have to keep a large army on my other border. I can probably devote most of my first draft of Rifles to Gav border, but then will have to distribute. T/C doing well is actually both good and HORRIBLE for me. Their random city up by my Plemo border means that once they finish off Al, they can intervene if it looks like Plemo is pushing me back. However, as they only have 1 land neighbor at least until Plemo pushes me back it means if Plemo is ever neutralized they can also turn on me very easily. I tried getting a long term peace treaty, but I know from PB67 that Tarkeel doesn't like them and indeed they just sent back fish for fish. Once they conquer Al they will have more cities than anyone as well (I mean again Gav COULD).

Disclaimer: I should mention T/C and Al had a big battle, but my scout had left to see if T/C was opening up a 2nd front (which I thought they would do instead of charge in), so I haven't gotten visual yet.

[RefSteel]

can anyone tell me why Spain controls the tile above Christmas Ship? I know culture can spread if you control tiles around it, but I would have expected Spain to have to control one or both of the 0% corners?

The "surrounding tiles" effect you're talking about ignores diagonal tiles, but also only applies once you get the tiles in all four cardinal directions.  As for why the culture is where it is, the "69%" tile is 4th ring to Firiona Vie and the "0%" tiles are 5th ring.  For cultural (and lots of other) purposes in Civ, spread along a diagonal counts as 1.5 tiles distance, rounded down.