[SPOILERS] AlaePB1 - the ol' Nile blues

[Bacchus]

Due to a very pesky bug feature, I lost about 5 turns in mustering an attack against Zanth. For some reason my galleys won't sail into a flatland desert fort. I guess it must be within culture for this to work. Annoyed.

[Commodore]

Must be A. within your culture B. next to coast.

[Krill]

Coast that is freshwater still counts.

[Commodore]

Right

[Bacchus]

Yeah, it's both coast and fresh water, but not within culture. Not that rifles will be obsolete by the time they get there, but still.

In other news, looks like we'll be flipping for Communism with Gavagai. He must have really switched his production into research. Sigh.

[Bacchus]

Hmm, Gavagai went down to having Communism at EOT199, whereas I'll have it EOT198. He was drawn with me on scheduly briefly last turn, whilst logged in, but clearly couldn't afford in. Annoyingly, I'm only a little short of having it right this turn, so I scaled science down to 60, to a) earn some gold without damage to the schedule, b) make Gav think that I'm out of the running.

[Bacchus]

Turns out I got investigate city on Gavagai this turn, and here is him pushing the tech at 90% science and starvation:



Oh, he is going to be so pissed to not even get a coinflip...

[Bacchus]

Ah, no, I'm wrong. Next turn he will crank science up to 100%, and finish the tech together with me. Oh well.

[Bacchus]

By contrast, this is the most I can manage:



Which puts me second on GNP, at the cost of rampant starvation. Isn't this annoying? I think it's pretty annoying. Oh well, coinflip it is.

[Bacchus]

Oh dear, looks I might just have pissed Gavagai off enough for him to invade me. There is about 10 Galleons, plus his frigate fleet assembled within his borders, but in dangerous vicinity of my capital. Upgraded a musket to a rifle and switched production into Rifleman, that way I will have at least 4 rifles in the city if he attacks right now. Given that his main attack force is curs, I should be ok. There is a large amount of flak in the city too. Not enough to fight off 30 units, mind, but enough to take down a sufficient amount to bog down his attack.

Of course, my capital also sits right on the straits through which all Gav's fleet would have to sail if he is planning to attack Furj, which would make entirely more sense, so let's hope it's that.