[spoilers] wetbandit prioritizes civ4 over more profitable endeavors, again

[wetbandit]

At long last, with some normalcy, I can provide some updates now that I'm not constrained by a 10 year old laptop that wants to die.  Even though this update sucks.



Courthouses and the academy are doing some work.

[wetbandit]

It's been a fun game.  Didn't build a single monument and relied on libraries and odd religions to pop borders.  Viva CHM.  Almost like a single player game.

At some point, there will be conflict here:



JR4/Refsteel really took over the undefended area here.  I don't think he's made friends with BGN and I, his neighbors, so hopefully that can be leveraged at some point.

I also mistimed the great lighthouse and hoped to whip it this turn.  C'est la vie, it will be whipped next turn.  I need to win the culture fight here, and TGL helps to do that and provide the extra TR to my 7 coastal cities.

My neighbors all seem to be doing great or are Elkad.  I don't see anyway around conflict with the Aztecs, but Elkad looks like he's going to fall behind.  A path of lesser resistance is key in these games, and I need to make up ground.  I'm productive now, but land area is not in my favor.



I'd prefer to take a chunk out of JR4 before he gets going, but goign all in on an HA or cata/sword play seems risky as all hell with a very weak neighbor.

CY graph, as more evidence:



Here are my 9 cities, with the 10th coming in 3ish turns.

The capital is a standard RB supercapital.  Bureau can't be missed, unless vassalage for an all out whipfest.    Bananas came online this turn so this will grow precipitously.  I have all 4 market resources domestically, so happy is not an issue for a long time.




The military city.  I have HE unlocked but for Lit. 



3rd city is a helper city for the capital and the JR4 border city.  Confucian shrine not really a thing.



This city should be better than it is, but the border pressure earlier forced me to delete a worker or risk an opportunistic war.  It tilts me that those riverside tiles haven't been improved for many turns!  That hill tile 2W1N should flip next turn (it's already 51% in my favor due to 3rd city popping 3rd ring).



BGN border city with 3rd ring enforcing the border.  This seems like a very safe border...right?



Western border with DZ.  His border city sits on 3240928 flood plains, which is enticing all by itself.




Decent future potential here.



Future moai.



Marble space filler.

I have courthouses in most of the main cities, and I can imagine many folks are going to be swamped by maintenance for a little bit.  Waiting until berserkers makes sense for me, but given the relative paucity of water on this map, my maces are "worse" than others!  bummer.  Just need extra cats then.

[wetbandit]

This sucks.



Elkad is sending over a mini stack of swords and chariots to...do something.  I've moved over to military builds everywhere to thwart this stack.  I don't understand this move, but I guess if you have the toys, they don't do any good just sitting around.  Unimproved riverside tiles in your capital on T116.

The reason this actually sucks is that refsteel/JR4 birthed a Great Merchant 2 turns ago.  They are going to bulb guilds when they can.  We are definitely Not Friends in this game, and I have the Great Lighthouse on their border.  So I'm going to eat early knights on the opposite border, and be unable to bring my own HA and 1 movers down there before he hits guilds to punish this gambit.

Damn you Elkad.

[wetbandit]

Blood for the blood god!








Definitely highrolled the knights (18-2 on mainly 70-80% shots) after sacrificing all of the cats.  I may get another shot when (if) he retreats out next turn.  Cornflakes has been whipping like crazy, so I suppose there could be a fresh stack in the fog to cover or join these guys.

JRef4, Mr. BGN, and DZ are all building army, so I'm sensing that I may get piled on here.  I spawned 2 GGs which should boast that I did well.  I'm hoping everyone piles on Cornflakes instead as it looks like he went Full Toku.

Plan is to try and crawl towards rifling and, if everyone leaves me alone, take Elkadia with Rifles units.  I have Lib in my pocket and can use it for Econ or RP.  It would be nice to do it for Rifling, but that's not a possibility with Mr BGN working on Education.

I have 6 unis nearly complete and can start on Oxford in the capital fairly soon.  

I have some free time this week for updates, any questions?

[wetbandit]

I got dogpiled!  GGs.

[Hollybombay]

I have some free time this week for updates, any questions?

How bad is the dogpile?

[wetbandit]

Mr. BGN moved in a stack that is comparable to Cornflakes stack. That stack was about my army's parity. DZ attacked at the end of last turn with a smaller stack. I am in enforced peace with JR4, but I expect him to attack when it runs out.

I think I could have held out versus Cornflakes, but there's no way with this. I pulled everything back to the capital and I'll let the three people have my northern half. I'll grab lib and deny economics. Screw you guys.

I kept army parity with my neighbors, but Cornflakes went into Eternal War mode on me when I declared on Elkad and sniped those 2 border cities. Apparently that and falling into the GNP Dark Ages was enough for him to go Full Toku and stay in war with me forever. I don't think it made sense from a game winning competitive point of view to build a 2 front army. JR4 just built the Taj and he is about even tech wise, even though I am up PP, Edu, and now Lib. He's up Nat obv. I think the better gamble was to keep a deterrent force on all sides, keep teching, and hope for war somewhere else. Oh well.

I'm not sure if everyone is aware, but I bought peace from Elkad for a ridiculous price at the time. I wonder if Cornflakes would have entertained that, but I doubt it.

Sorry for the lack of reporting in this one. Not that I'm the best reporter in the world, but I just don't have the inclination to play and then report nowadays.

[wetbandit]

Improbably, wetbanditstan survived the dogpile and all cities were recaptured.  And I didn't have to waste the army to do it.  




Unfortunately, all of the recaptured cities need heavy infra attention.  I regrettably forgot to change back into OR and stayed in FR.  I think I'd take the hammers in light of the situation.

I don't regret any decisions which led to the dogpile.  While the dogpile likely greatly reduced whatever chance I have of winning this game, I think counting on everyone not to attack was the rational play.  Cornflakes, after conquering all of another player's land, decided to go full toku and attack me instead of consolidating his new possessions.  I don't think that was a rational move on his part.

That said, I have no idea why Cornflakes stopped pressing his attack on me, especially after the dogpile on me.  He didn't need to pull out of the two cities he took from me and given the size of his army, could very likely withstand a counter-offensive.  I suppose he's worried about his other borders.


In any event, HE City has the HE back up and running pumping units.  I'm behind on power, but have enough cats and knights to theoretically deter interlopers.  Rifling is in 2 turns.
Attacking...doesn't make sense?  Cornflakes, he of the full Toku, still has his massive stack on my border, so attacking elsewhere risks an opportunistic strike from him.

[Old Harry]

What's the tech situation like?

[wetbandit]

What's the tech situation like?

so it looks like my screenies aren't showing right, I think that's a server issue with pcloud.

BGN/Cairo are up Music/Theo/Drama.  They are working on Printing Press.

JR4 is up Drama/Music/Nat and they almost have MilTrad.  That's certainly much more concerning.

No one else is ahead of me on anything else.  Which means I have Edu/PP/RP/soontobe Rifling/Lib/Economics/Gunpowder on most everyone.

My MFG sucks compared to everyone else, but hopefully FS Towns can help that.

Superdeath declared on JR4Steel so...maybe they will make things safe for some time.

I've had Education for some time and haven't been able to finish Oxford because of the, you know, losing half my empire thing.  Now that's been rectified, Oxford is attainable soonish.