Depraved Danish Debauchery - Catwalk cooking up a storm [SPOILERS]

[Ceiliazul]

Winnable position? Sure, why not?!

Things are definitely looking up. T108 is played, and saw me at #3 GNP, #2 MFG...

T110 will start the Golden Age of Swappery, and by the end of the golden age I'll know much more about my chances.



(I fully expect to pop a low-odds engineer, just when it matters least. )

There's also this defensive display from the current game leader. I count one Holy/Heroic city and one Capital there. After Civil Service it's time for knights... with a side of fast workers. Could be fun, no? I could actually hit Lava from the fog with some creative road work.



Where'd I put that Dr. Evil picture?

[Qgqqqqq]

I'm almost certain GA bombs are banned.
Otherwise, good work

[Ceiliazul]

Hmm, guess I should check the ban list...

t108

Well, my settling party got crashed by AT with a, um, *experienced* explorer. This guy walked straight thru Stick's land... how is that possible?? Well, he sure ain't going to run thru mine. One of the Lbows burns his spare promotions on C2, and attacks at 70% odds. WIN!



With the explorer handled, my horse archers attacked the skirmisher on the gold hill. I have culture in the area due to Catwalk's razed city, settling should instantly give me control of the gold. The goal here is to keep the gold hooked, because as soon as KJN sees the settler he'll pillage for sure.

shock HA attacks at ~40% survival odds = RETREAT (0.7)
shock HA attacks at ~80% odds = WIN (4.1)

The axe, as planned covers the retreated horse, and the elbows and settler climb the hill to the new city site. I'd really like KJN and me to get along, being the bottom of the barrel in this game. We should be focusing our aggression on AT and Stick, right?!

t109

Guess not.



He had a skirmisher and a spear in the fog.

His spear killed my uncovered HA on the gold hill, his xbow killed my axe, his skirmisher killed my nearly dead flatland HA. I clearly lost the hammer tradeoff there. And now, there's another **** Mali unit ready to pillage my gold!

But wait, he pulled the goalie there in DanAkyroyd, didn't he... well, that gave me a touch of stupid. I left my shiny new city unguarded, and attacked out with both longbows. Not only that, I didn't even use my promotions... Dumb Dumb Dumb. The hill LB actually moved right up to the Mali city, for a chance to raze it next turn.



Well, we'll see if it's punished... reinforcements are en route if Lazarus lives. Easy come easy go, I suppose. Could have reloaded, but it was an actual oversight. And the worst thing is, I could have had the same chance to capture DanAkyroyd if I had left first longbow in the city.

Have I caught a Catwalk infection??

[Ceiliazul]

Looking at it now, I'm just dumbfounded that I did that. If Stick has a horse unit in the fog, well, I'll have learned my lesson.

Slow down a bit, Ceil!

[Commodore]

Why a horse unit? And Artist Bombs are banned, settling is allowed.

[Ceiliazul]

t110

Oh, are you accusing me of forgetting they were Zulu?! Well, yeah, I actually did do that.

Leaving the city naked was a fantastically stupid play, and was appropriately punished. Basically 65 hammers down the drain, but I'm choosing to look at it as a cheap lesson. It was an impi that administered the punishment, and an axe killed the impi in turn. I'll settle that spot as soon as practical, no doubt about it.



Well, this guy should help ease the pain. Du Fu spells GOLD to me, as in a golden age. Long awaited, it's finally time to swap around the civics I've been dying for! Oh, and choose one my THREE founded religions to get some use out of...





Hey, note that the tile yields are turned on on that first pic... there's iron in that shot. Judging by the tile repeats, there should be iron 1E of the gold tile, 1S of the sign for the city. Queue settler!

So, back to the present, with a golden age kicked off, I can finally do the civic swap I've been waiting for. Caste system is just temporary, for border pops in my new cities. I don't plan to whip much during my golden age anyway. It's a risk, I realize, but I'm going to have to take risks to become relevant. *cough* I'm also going to have to guard my cities.

Anyway: Where does a golden age with era appropriate civics leave us?



So what if it's a fake lead, and my crop yield still sucks. I'll take what I can get!

[Commodore]

Heh, all the more impressive considering the drop in Culture GNP from the other two religions. Bur/what will be your final civic configuration?

[Ceiliazul]

t111

Another lovely golden age turn sees us complete Civil Service. Macemen online!

Next turn we'll start Iron working. There's a known source already in my borders! which is important because soon comes guilds... and knights!

So the tech path is IW - Sailing - Calendar - Guilds - Engineering - Gunpowder!

The banter thread hints at large battles taking place on others' turns. They couldn't be in my territory, because none of my cites would require a large battle to take!

Lets hope is some Stick on Teller action!

[Ceiliazul]

t112?

Quiet turns. Busy life. Lame reports continue:

Golden Age is good.

Duel map maintenance is very bad, therefore courthouses are very good.

Iron working research completed with much overflow. Iron exactly where it should be (near suicided city of Lazarus) Settler completed this turn (Lazarus Deu)

Tech adviser estimates guilds due in 2, if I can scrounge up the gold. Golden age has 3 turns remaining.

An ambitious plan is hatched... feasibility studies pending. Starvation likely involved.

[Ceiliazul]

Here is the brainstorm: if I can get out a great merchant on the same turn I finish guilds, I can bulb banking and enable mercantilism civic for my last golden age swap! With seven cities currently, mercantilism is worth 7 free citizens. Only two of my cities will be temporarily forced to work plain citizens, I've been emphasizing forges heavily, with libraries on deck.

So, how to accomplish this? Well, the merchant can be had with starvation in gandalf. I can even avoid shrinking. Barely. Working only food specials and merchant specs, it can be done at about 85% odds. I've already confirmed the merchant will bulb banking... Although the bulb uses only 80% of his full beaker power, it's still a good deal: these civics are going to remain useful all the way into the industrial era. I don't see another golden age coming soon, so now is the time.

The harder part is landing guilds in two turns. At 100% research, my beaker output is enough, but would put me ~100g in the hole That means almost all my cities must focus on wealth. Can I do it without retasking my heroic epic city? Yes!

Now, no one else even has guilds, let alone banking. I can tell this from gnp analysis. nice to have a tech advantage somewhere! Everywhere else I'm pretty far behind.

How many civs have:
Engineering - 3
Priesthood - 3
Drama - 3
Sailing - 3
Philosophy - 2
Paper - 2
Compass- 1
Music- 1
Theology - 1

Oh, and guilds has another tiny benefit... Knights! I have three workers en route toward the once and future Lazarus location. This is my only native iron source, and it will be guarded jealously. the turn guilds comes in, two knights will complete. Three more the turn after that. : hammer