Nothing like the Prodigal Sons: The Odd Couple actually play as themselves.

[Gaspar]

t132 - Catch-up

So not much really has gone down since we last spoke, but I'll try and be a bit more big picture-y on this, the last turn of our Golden Age.

First things first. Let's take a look at the event log since we last spoke.




In fairness, some of the 2nd half of the log there is stuff you already knew about, but hey, why not accentuate the positive? Anyway, the less obvious stuff there: Seven built MoM, which is good because Yuri didn't; Gavagai has SuryAI down to his last city, though not all of that is shown because we don't have eyes on all of it; Gavagai agreed to a treaty renewal this turn, which allows us to focus defense on Yuri, eventually we're going to lose this game of Three Card Monte, but so it goes; we "popped another one" though we had just gotten Silver through conventional means.

Here's the current situation in the west, on the French border:




Yuri settled New Le Havre this turn, I think Pindicator XLII would have been a better name, but so it goes. Anyway, Credit Mobilier is a lost cause, he will likely send a big fat stack of Musketeers at it sometime soon and its just not worth risking losing our mobile defenses over that city. We will however make a stand if he makes a mistake, and if not, we will make a stand at the northern checkmark. The yellow line represents what we hope to establish as a new border after Credit's fall. The Northern Checkmark will get settled next turn, the city on the ruins of the former barb city in the south in a few turns, we're whipping that Settler in Bay of Pigs next turn. The red X is pointing to where we had hoped to plant a defensible city - that would have been great for settling a new border, but so it goes.

The other place there's been heavy activity is the southern islands:




You can see we have 3 cities in this area now - Chappaquiddick, Corrupt Bargain and Salary Grab. We'd like to plant a few more on the seas since obviously Colossus makes these cities pretty swell pretty fast, but I'm not sure we'll have a ton of free hammers for Settlers after the current round of French border-setting. We're checking to see if there's a key resource there, which would obviously make the whole thing more appealing. Anyway, its nice to see our putrid shade of mustard spreading across the map a bit.

In world news, we've met ad hoc and Hashoosh since we last spoke, leaving Goreripper and 2metraninja as the only contacts we lack. More specifically, ad hoc met us and we met Hashoosh, but neither here nor there. Hashoosh has dropped like 2 levels in my estimation of him because he's calling himself "The Horde" but his cities are just World of Warcraft place names. I mean, not only are they not all Horde towns, they're not even all Horde OR towns. His capital is the Dark Portal, for pete's sake. C'mon, man.

Techwise, obviously we finished Civil Service because you see us revolting to Bureaucracy above. This turn, we finish Machinery so we can build Macemen. We're finish it with a lot of overflow, so we're hopeful we can do Calendar next turn. After that its a question of whether we hit Literature for the Heroic Epic or if we go to Engineering for the improved road movement. Thoughts?

I won't give a tour of the cities because the Golden Age makes things look much rosier than they really are, I'll just provide an overview shot:




And the demos:



I think you could probably make a case that we clawed our way into 3rd place here... except that Gavagai and Goreripper are both way ahead of us on tech and haven't burned a Golden Age yet. Anyway, I think the game at this point leaves Seven as a favorite, Yuri still in pretty good position and then a cluster with us, Gavagai and Goreripper. I think both Gavagai and ourselves would have done a LOT better this game if we hadn't been neighbors, but that's how the cookie crumbles.

[Gaspar]

Ok a little contest for anyone not reading Yuri's thread.

The current turn is 133. Our treaty with Yuri expires 138. He just researched Gunpowder last EOT. He is not in Nationalism, but is in Slavery. He currently has 14 cities, though two of those are size 1 and planted in the last two turns.

Take a guess at the following things:

1. Does Yuri give us a treaty renewal?
   
2. If no, how many Musketeers to does he attack with?
   
3. As a bonus, before we reach stalemate how many Musketeers do we kill?
   
4. And how many cities do we lose? Which?
   

Here's the map of that area at the moment:




Winners receive internet cookies and perhaps some other prize, that has no monetary value.

[Gaspar]

Here's Noble and I on the subject:

Gaspar: lets think about this for a second
lets assume he doesnt go nationalism
so hes only whipping and naturally producing muskets
5t
how many muskets we talking?
10?
NobleHelium: well how many cities does he have besides the newly founded ones
Gaspar: 80h ea
14 total, 12 non-size 1 cities
NobleHelium: ok
so let's say 11
because he founded one before the war as well
one musket every two turns
so 22 muskets
that's probably optimistic for him
Gaspar: if he rolls up with 22 muskets
i will fly to russia to pat him on the back
NobleHelium: all right i'll make sure to draft up a fundraising post in advance
Gaspar: appreciate it

[Bobchillingworth]

Gaspar: if he rolls up with 22 muskets
i will fly to russia to pat him on the back

At this rate... you won't have to go far [turns to sternly face the White House, a single tear rolling down my cheek].

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

The answer to your question is It Depends. Does yuris think he can win from his position if he holds the line where it is? Is he willing to invest significantly in what would probably turn into an existential conflict for his opponent once Warren G piles on? Is he willing to risk his tech lead to finish you off in that case? It won't be fast, and you won't just roll over and die. Conquest would be difficult at best, even if Gavagai stays in the fight, which can't be assumed. Tough to say for certain, especially as a replacement/sub. It might be better/safer to accept the status quo yellow line and just whip/draft enough musketeers to defend against aggression. So, 10-15 and bring plenty of siege for defense.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Dedlurking PB16:

[spacetyrantxenu]

:snapping:

*whispers* More coffee, please.

[NobleHelium]

You can ask me on chat if you want updates you know.

[Gaspar]

1. Does Yuri give us a treaty renewal?
   
2. If no, how many Musketeers to does he attack with?
   
3. As a bonus, before we reach stalemate how many Musketeers do we kill?
   
4. And how many cities do we lose? Which?
   

Its t138/t139 right now. As of now the answers to the questions are:

• Dunno yet. He didn't wardec on his turn. We wardec'd and offered white peace, so we'll know next turn
  
• He did not attack, he has whipped/drafted a total of 9 musketeers, so I am not headed to Russia
  
• Can't answer this yet
  
• He doesn't have the forces in place to take anything yet.
  

Anti-climatic, I know. Here's the western front:




His units are denoted with the in-game signs, ours with the pink text. You can see we've planted McCarthyism south of Hollywood Ten at the location of the former barb city. He's going to have bring a lot more than he has right now to have success. I dunno if its coming, honestly. I think its 30/70 he accepts the treaty, we shall see.

Here's the core:




Unfortunately, we still can't really do infra, we still have to keep doing units. That's the situation when you're the only civilization on the board with 2 competent neighbors (technically I guess Yuri and Gavagai have this now with the elimination of Bantams. More on that in a minute.)

Here's the islands:




As you can see, we've started exploring the western island in the picture there and ZOMG FOOD. FOOD EVERYWHERE. It's like Gavagai's capital. If we could get 25t of guaranteed peace, we'd glom the fuck over all these islands like a ghetto Seven because it takes very little to make islands this green and food filled profitable - particularly when there's an infinite supply of ICTR. Unfortunately, while I think its entirely possible we get 25t of peace, we'll never get 25t where we can actually count on said peace.

Anyway, there's a quick update. We've know met all teams, the second team to do so after Seven. Everyone else is missing at least two contacts. Seven got circumnavigation last turn. Goreripper is rolling over Hashoosh like the fat blunt his name reminds me of. Hashoosh is down to 1 city. Goreripper is still whipping Knights like they're going out of style (and I suppose they are.) Having now met everyone, we can determine the duel winners:

Seven/Retep island = Seven
Wetbandit/Kuro island = wetbandit
Goreripper/Hashoosh island = Goreripper
2metra/ad hoc island = when you argue on the internet, nobody wins
Gaspar/Noble, Mike/Yuri, Gavagai, Bantams island = On middle continent, there are only losers.

Commodore quoted me something from Goreripper's thread, which I will present without comment.

Maybe we can take a hint from those Sullla AI games and who ever wins their duel gets to go in to a new pitboss. Make it seven players so Gaspar and Noble can be the wild card because if they really are next to Gavagai and Yuri on a bigger continent then that sucks for all three of those teams.

Other than that I think everyone would rather be playing that pitboss than this one.

Anyway, Seven's economy has recovered and he's crushing now. The concession can't be far off. Someone just landed a GEngy and if that was Seven and Yuri doesn't hurry up and finish Taj, he's going to lose that. Seven landing MoM and Taj should hopefully be convincing for everyone. I think if we played 25 more turns, the leaderboard would look like this:

1. Zululand
2. Greece
3. Azteca
4. France
5. Mali
6. Egypt
7. Netherlands
8. Sumeria
9. China

Though I must say Gavagai's play has been pretty curious of late, I still think through virtue of superior land he'll eventually pip France's tech advantage. France just expanded way too slowly. It lets you land Liberalism, but well-played horizontal beats well-played vertical every time in a 4X game.

[Gaspar]

Got this PM from Gavagai:

Guys, given the last in-game event, I think it's time to concede the game to Seven. Unless we want to see how excatly awesome he can be in his position.
On the other hand, if at least one of you wants to play on, I will be fine with it.
(Sending this to the first half of the scoreboard.)

I replied and copied Ichabod that we'd be willing to concede.

I'm assuming this means that Seven did indeed snipe Taj from Yuri. I wonder how close Yuri was. Perhaps that turn of revolt he ate to swap to Nationalism was the cause? Well, I suppose being out of Bureau doesn't make things any easier either. Ouch, either way.