Gavagai's thread

[Gavagai]

Figured out this Alphabet issue. He bulbed CS with a merchant and he needed Alpha to be able to do that.

[Gavagai]

Zanth's supergalley:

[Gavagai]

Wow, I actually won a coinflip to get Music Artist. This game is pretty intense. It really deserves a more detailed update, I hope to provide one soon.

[Gavagai]

OK, let's talk about this game a little bit.



This picture shows what my strategic puzzle is. I have pretty good GNP, MFG and CY. But I'm the last in land, and I've already taken almost everything what I can take peacefully. This means, I can't hold leading positions for long, unless I attack someone.
And here we face yet another problem. This is one potential target:



...and this is another:



None of them look especially promising, right? Also, Bacchus has a good tech rate and it would be a challenge to attack him without Galleons. And I will need to take some cottaged land before them as the moment I discover Astronomy my economy will go into the toilet. I have eight cottages in my entire empire now. I plan to add one or two but that will be it (I won't have pop to work them anyway because Colossus coast is too good short-term).
My decision is to break out in two stages:
1) Conquer Mikey with Knights.
2) Push into Zanth or Bacchus with Cuirassiers.
To achieve that I should try to get both Guilds and early Military Tradition via Lib (denying in process Lib and Taj to Furungy). This would require three GAs early: two natural, assisted by Music Artist which I have barely got and one from Taj. I also still hope to get Military tradition from Liberalism directly while self-researching Nationalism.
This gonna be a challenge because situation with Bacchus is bad:



There are five coastal tiles from which he can land in one turn, moving transports from fog. I will need to build land army to defend myself. That will be difficult because I will need to divert resources from my pretty tight tech program. Also he now has superiority in military technology: he already can build Maces and is only one tech from Knights. I still don't have Feudalism and only now researching Machinery.
We canceled OB as he doesn't want to pay for it and I don't want to give it to him for free. Still, I may possibly offer him this free commerce. For now my trade route slots are fully saturated by Zanth and Furungy (I opened borders with the latter, still hoping to get circumnavigation; I can't break through his territory by force because he has triremes in water). The problem is that I would like to close borders with Furungy at some point and after that point I will need trade with Bacchus (as I'm attacking Mikey soon). This makes war undesirable, so I may still want to pay him off for a time with free OB.

Some random pictures of my Empire:






And this is most probably the next city spot:



I really don't want to settle it. I will need Calendar to connect Silk and I already have a lot of techs in queue. Also, this is Mikey/Zanth continent, will need to put heavy defense in this city. But happiness is really important for me, I have, for practical purposes, unlimited Colossus coast tiles in almost every city. Vertical growth, hence, will be pretty powerful for my civilization.
(I can buy some happy from Zanth for gpt but I really don't want to be dependent on external supply of happiness; especially when I provide expandable gpt in return, not some equally crucial resource.)

And at the end - city screens:













Also this:



Yeah, I don't really feel that I lack them. When you have very few forests and your cities mostly work coast, your workers suddenly don't have much to do.

[Gavagai]

Zanth is moving lots of units towards Mikey's border:



Also, his power graph is surging:



It looks like he decided to catch up with leaders by taking out Mikey right now, at tech parity and with classical era units. Don't now what to think of it. Mikey already has catapults, so he should be able to defend; but I have already played one game against Mikey and got an impression that he is not particularly good at war. I think it will favor me anyway as it would make my own invasion much easier.

[Gavagai]

Bureaucracy gave Furungy something like +100 GNP. He must have a hell of a capital.

[Gavagai]

Eventful turn:



Bacchus is super-annoying as usual. This city is totally worthless in vacuum but it is close to his capital and will bring in four additional IC traderoutes. Also, it forces me to put some culture in Lemuria to protect my first ring. So, I guess, it may be justified.

Also, as you may notice, I'm in golden age.





I fired it up as soon, as I got Philosophy. What is hilarious is that Furungy got Philosophy same turn and once again lost a coinflip for Taoism. I wasn't particularly interested in getting it but it came handy as I will now be able to grow an additional pop in this city:



I'm pretty confident now that I will get Taj easily. Furungy revolted into Bureaucracy only a couple turns ago and I take it as a sign that he has no golden age in sight. Also, I have two Engineers, so I would be able to rush if I would need. Hence, even if goes for Nationalism directly he is unlikely to beat me.

Major piece of international news this turn - Zanth declared a war against Myki. As I mentioned earlier, they are at tech parity and both have acces to axes and catapults. Myki should be able to defend without a trouble but...



I really don't get it. Attack was obvious as hell, yet Myki (zulu-coloured Tarquin on this picture) did absolutely nothing to prepare a defense. So, anything can happen there.

My biggest worry now is Bacchus. I will need to refrain from researching Machinery for a while if I want to bulb Liberalism and I will also have no time to research any other military tech. But his power, though increasing, doesn't look particularly intimidating and I would gamble on the idea that he won't attack at least during next ten turns. Also:



He has a convenient passage to Myki's backyard and expanding there would be so much more reasonable than trying to attack me.

And last but not least:



Fingers crossed for circumnavigation. Also, Furungy is freaking close!

[Gavagai]

Actually, the best way to do it would be to use this GA to manually research Nationalism (taking Machinery in process) and use immediate second GA to take MilTrad via Lib. It really doesn't look like that Furungy is a close competition. Also, I really suspect that he would rush to Nationalism now, wasting yet more time.

[Gavagai]

It looks like Bacchus decided to join Liberalism race: he researched Paper. This is excellent news, actually: I doubt he can be a real competitor, as he doesn't even has Philosophy yet, but it means he isn't going to attack in the near future. Also, Mikey has researched Feudalism; good for him.

[Gavagai]

I'm thinking about a new strategy, actually:



What if I tech Astronomy and attack Furungy straight up? Of course, this would require me to kill my economy for a pretty long wile but he is the only real threat to win the game but me: Bacchus has even worse land than me, Zanth and Miky are stuck in a forever war and I don't know what on earth Hum is doing but he is pretty far behind. Also, Furungy is my neighbor, actually, and the only one who feels like a decent prize.
(Met his workboat not long ago, btw. He has like no tech.)