[Spoiler] Fintourist loses his multiplayer virginity

[Molach]

Congratz.

Great read as always.

As for the attack - perfect crippling strike!


Just razing the GLhouse/Holy city would have severely weakened him, but with those other 3 cities he'll be struggling a while now.

Azza might pile in, but I think you can hold them off easily enough while teching to more modern units. Worst case was getting embroiled in war with other people while Sareln pulled ahead - not too likely now.

[Fintourist]

Cheers guys

I agree that this strike has damaged Sareln so much that Azza is now my main contender in the game. Aaand you're correct! I have to keep my eyes open regarding that front as well. However, Azza does not have Astronomy yet, which should mean that I'm safe for now. Soon I will switch to Nationhood and draft cheap defenders everywhere, which also improves the situation!

[Fintourist]

Ok, let's make still one post about the attack on Sareln and name it provocatively:

Sareln's performance & why he should have been better prepared

First of all, I think Sareln has played a very good game from economic/builder perspective. My take is that he has managed to exploit his traits EXP & IND very effectively and built a strong economy. Without my attack this would surely have developed into a tight technological race and it's quite possible that no significant military edge could have been gained through tech advantage.

It will be interesting to benchmark afterwards with e.g. T100/120/140 demos, Liberalism date and other milestones how our performance compares with the vets game. Of course the games are always different and not truly comparable, but my guess is that we had both been at least competitive there as well. However, I might be overestimating our performance and Noble + others are just shaking their heads "No greenies, just no.."

Anyways, I think Sareln played a strong game until this moment. Maybe he could have expanded faster earlier while building wonders and I think he should have went more horizontal during the last 20-30 turns. But yes, that was a good economical performance (at least to my greenish standards). However, he simply gambled too far with his low military. There are two clear reasons why Sareln should have been at least a bit better prepared:

1. Check that power graph...



This is the power graph from T147 with my top value being about 450k soldier points. Yeah, that's not a huge terrifying military, but still... That is kind of a spike... It should at least awaken your interest, if your immediate rival and neighbor doubles his power in a short time frame.

2. You got Alphabet, use it..

Sareln got Alphabet on T144 or T145 if I remember correctly. If there is one tech that you want to check and know whether your neighbors have it... It's Astronomy. At least in this map. I don't know if Sareln knew I have Astronomy and simply ignored it or if he did not check it, anyways he did not react to it.

So yeah, if Sareln had whipped just a single musket or 2 longbows in his border cities, Cumin & Elderflower would still be standing. I would have sacrificed some Janissaries and still razed Dill (and probably Fennel too), but Sareln's losses would have been significantly smaller.

As a final statement, it's so easy to say this afterwards and such a mistake can happen to anyone if you simply do not pay enough attention for couple of turns. I'm sure Sareln is so experienced that this won't really ruin his day, but I still feel sorry for him since effectively 6 months work of economy building just got destroyed in a single turn.

[Fintourist]

Turn 148

So let's keep updating! I played this turn already yesterday, but reporting had to wait a bit. Backlog from previous turns was quite high.. Starting with war stuff:

In the North

• I loaded the captured 3 workers in order to transport them to duties in "Rafa's Spin". Yeah, this really is slavery to its fullest..
  
• I loaded 3 full health Janissaries into a Galleon and put it within striking distance from "Coriander". Based on my remembering of the city size it probably has whipped a real defender, but I might as well go and check. Forcing Sareln to whip defensive units is also a way to cripple his economy (see below)
  
• 1 Janissary pillaged a hamlet while waiting to be transported as well
  

In the South, Sareln whipped a musket in Allspice. Muskets are pretty tough to kill straight from the boat so I unloaded 4 Janissaries next to the city. Sareln should not be able to get further defenders into the city, which means that I probably attack the city next turn. I haven't checked the odds yet, but I guess I will lose at least 1 Janissary in the process.



Additionally you can see that I sinked two galleys of Sareln near the city of "Lemongrass". At least some killings happened this turn too!

Domestical news included settling my first Astronomy-required-city to my NW. Many more will hopefully follow soon. I have now pretty much reached the limit of No. of cities maintenance, which makes horizontal expansion again very attractive. Especially since State Property is not that far away in the future with Printing Press speeding up the research. (My max beaker rate grew to 800 thanks to the tech and city growths after ending the turn.



Finally here is the overview of mine and Sareln's starting areas:



That makes the damage I made to Sareln's Western and Nothern coast very visible. Additionally you can see that my core cities are again in the infra mode. More units will be produced soon as I hopefully get Taj and switch to Nationhood for at least 5 turns.

Sareln is currrently busy with studies and probably not too motivated. I wonder when I see a save again..

[Fintourist]

Yeah, this is kind of what I expected.. I know that Sareln is busy, but it's not cool when you declare your first real MP war and then don't see a new save for days. I'm never ever playing PBEM's again unless I know that my opponents can really maintain a turn pace. This game should have reached an industrial/modern era or be over by now. Man this sucks.

[Molach]

Perhaps he is discussing whether or not to concede the game?

[SevenSpirits]

Nice attack. Sucks about the turn pace. One would hope that removing half of someone's empire would make things go faster.

[Fintourist]

Perhaps he is discussing whether or not to concede the game?

Nah..... Or who knows? I'm sure Sareln is not too motivated anymore. Hydra is out and BaII is surely not yet totally committed. Viqsi has been busy already for a good while..

That leaves Azza. Azza has used the free room has now 17/18 cities and despite being technologically behind his position is surely better than it was on T150 in his latest other games...

[Fintourist]

Nice attack. Sucks about the turn pace. One would hope that removing half of someone's empire would make things go faster.

Thanks! Technically it should be faster...

[SevenSpirits]

Azza has a tradition of getting attacked too....