[SPOILERS] Blut und Eisen: Deutsche Einigungskriege

[Cornflakes]

One of your rivals has been eliminated ... also, how would you conduct diplomacy with the people at the top of the scoreboard? Are you just plain out of luck if you don't have a large resolution monitor?




I haven't been paying attention to the tiles that you're working other than to make sure your citizens are all on unimproved tiles. I did however swap two mines over to the capital to speed up the monasteries and the missionaries that will follow.

[spacetyrantxenu]

You'd have to use F4 for diplomacy with the score leaders.

Boosting capital production to speed the missionary program is probably fine, I just had it configured for me maximum commerce since we're running 100% slider through a city with an academy. Getting missionaries spread in time will be a challenge so I'm sure it's worth giving up a few odd beakers working the mines.

Jowy died first, then "Barry", aka, the squad that shall be chastised after the game ends. Which city did Furungy lose, where was it located? If his coastal city still remains maybe it would be worth loading a few units on those two had galleys and possibly make a raid/raze of the coastal city if it looks weakly defended. He's dying anyway, it's just a matter of dividing spoils between Dazed and TBS at this point. If we can wet our beak without much cost it seems like a good play. If we don't have any units to spare from defensive positions right now we can pass on the attack opportunity, I'll leave that to your discretion. If we do have spare units it seems like a both fun and possibly profitable enterprise worth at least investigating.

Do we still have research visibility on BaII/Oxy? Can't tell from the scoreboard.

Mardoc has Feudalism already, that's nice, we'll get at least a partial discount.

If you're wondering about the wall build in the internal city it's to enable a castle trade route later on as that will be a good commerce city eventually. We have stone for a few more turns so it isn't costing much anyway.

If the capital is pushing hammers you can probably swap the pig to the city east of it. Capital shows nine turns to growth. With any kind of food the smaller Zuckermais will probably grow sooner than that. I have incomplete information from that one screen shot, if it's more optimal as you have it then leave it as it is.

Looks good so far, thanks again. The vacation is going very well. Two days in San Francisco and then two days up the coast in northern California so far. Redwood trees are big. Going to a volcano tomorrow (Lassen National Park). Not sure if it's dormant or what. I'll assume it is! Then on to Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, and Sequoia over the next few days. I wonder how many knights I could chop out of a sequoia tree? Best to not end up being a fugitive from the park rangers, those guys don't play around (Ask Boldly over in his thread, someone. It's ironic he's gone with a National Parks naming scheme here after some of his real life travails in them. )

[End transmission]

[Cornflakes]

Old Harry offered OB. I turned it down but can re-offer next turn if you want.

[spacetyrantxenu]

We have plenty of spare foreign trade route slots so we don't need theirs. Unless one of our scouting units located their territory and needs to pass through (unlikely?), I don't see a need to give them free routes. Where did we meet?

[spacetyrantxenu]

I'm back home and can take over for the current turn. Thanks a lot for keeping things going. Is there anything new I need to take into account for the next turn?

[Cornflakes]

I don't think there is anything new. Nothing comes to mind other than an opponent being eliminated. Oh, I think one of your neighbors popped a GA (or ended a GA?). I'm pretty sure there were some civics swaps associated with that as well. (or maybe you just have a SPI neighbor)

[spacetyrantxenu]

Caledorn made contact with me this turn by declaring war to sail a galley into my territory. In a typically rude response to his greetings I killed the galley with a nearby C1 trireme (flawless victory, free promotion). I offered peace and will offer open borders next turn if he decides for some reason he wants to be at peace with me now. I'm not sure why he'd want to, unless he has another scouting boat sailing along behind this one.

What's the moral of the story? If you want to come into my yard, just ask.

Edit: Photographic evidence!

[Ceiliazul]

Edit: Photographic evidence!

I want to see photographic evidence that you still have an empire...

Also, have you declared war on your brother yet? I believe that's tradition, right?

[spacetyrantxenu]

I want to see photographic evidence that you still have an empire...

Here ya go. Small but proud. And presently unconquered. Let's see what plako has in mind coming up, shall we?




He has been rapidly building his power, almost certainly to attack me. He doesn't need that much power for defense and I think I'm his only land neighbor, and I recently caught what really has to be his spy in my territory. So I don't see what other conclusion to draw. I've offered him open borders a few times recently, which he has declined each time so far. If he was interested in peaceful coexistence I think he'd have accepted OBs and allowed us to scout each other, to lower mutual suspicion and avoid an expensive arms race. So...he's attacking. He has a MFG edge courtesy of his IND trait and earlier forges but I believe I'm closing the gap a bit with new workshops and whipping. Whatever hammer advantage he has will be made up for by my advantages on defense. Then again, when he swarms me with knights and musketeers it's going to be costly to throw him back anyway, so I most likely won't come out of the exchange ahead. But I don't think he can conquer me.

That brings me to what I'd rather be doing right now. Before plako vaulted his power to its present and growing level I was positioning myself to do something to alleviate BaII/Oxy's tedium in playing out turns in this game. Their empire is small, like mine, but well developed from what I've been able to see on the map and by their graphs. But in auto-pilot mode it looks like they've gone back to the Oxy PB11 playbook and been building a lot of units. So their power is also high, as always. Even so, I was hoping that a lack of effort and/or malaise on their part would allow me success in a war. But I can't entertain that scenario with plako's army standing ready on my western front, not engaged fighting elsewhere . So I'm left doing what it seems like I end up doing in every game, playing defense and holding little initiative with respect to my military options. Even in the south where Ruff is razing cities from Q left and right I can't get involved because the one city where I border Q is apparently where Q is making his stand. He has a stack positioned there that I can't engage via amphibious action and I can't spare the units because of plako anyway. So it goes. At least if Ruff presses the attack (which I doubt in the face of that defense) and takes the city I'll get the contested fish tile back, that would be some consolation.

As for the rest, I haven't declared war on BGN. I'm getting good revenue from trade routes with his big cities and he's the only player trading me stone right now, so that will have to wait. If I don't need him as a trade partner later and he passes by with a unit I can kill, I'll probably declare war then.

[Ceiliazul]

You want initiative? Thats a tech on the tree, right? Oh wait, I'm thinking of military tradition. My bad.

!!