Commodore played. No new alarm bells ringing. In fact, I noticed and important fact which escaped my notice when I actually played the turn last night ...
This is hugely important because it adds another turn to the travel time of an invading stack from Commodore. It also means we can hit Rapture with knights staged on the "3". If we could capture Rapture and slip a flotilla of 4-move galleys through to that backlines lake we'd have coastal access to a couple major Commodore cities.
We gained access through 4th ring borders in Sheep, coupled with the ~100 culture we have in Rapture from when it was originally under our control. Looking back at screenshot I confirmed that we did not have access to these tiles last turn, but we now own them 53% to 47%. Sheep expanded to 4th ring 4 turns ago.
And a bit of worthless filler ... Trailer for Revenge of the Corn. Stay tuned. Revenge of the Corn: Act I is due for release in a couple days, delayed slightly now by the opportunity to acquire Dye for use in the theaters.
Small blunder this turn. I moved the wrong worker first, which meant I wasn't able to connect Dye in time. Oh well, we'll get it next turn. I doubt Commodore will let us keep it long if he notices it.
Otherwise just chugging along towards Steel I microed all cities except Blimp and Porcupine for max commerce and converted all Mercantilism specialists to scientists and was able to shave a turn off Steel. Four turns remaining. I'll get 3 cannon for sure on the turn I discover Steel by carefully microing catapult auto-upgrades. By the 2nd turn I'll have at least 5, with them rolling off the lines about 2-3 per turn thereafter. 5 turns after getting Steel our eastern borders will be secure for sure, and I'll turn my full attention towards Bigger.
After Steel it's all cash for a while. I may upgrade Catapults to Cannon depending on the situation.
AT's GNP is scary. He's quickly catching up in tech, and has a ton of cash in the bank still. Bigger's GNP was teetering on the edge before capturing Azzaland. As soon as those cities come out of revolt he'll be sliding into the toilet.
Our only worry now is the Bigger might get Cuirassiers. Those would noticeably impact difficulty of retaking Azzaland.
Acts 1 & 2 will be staged on the high seas, while Act 3 will be carried out simultaneously on the ground. All this means that the game is pretty much AT's. After punishing my enemies I shall have to convince them to go after AT, while somehow honoring the debt we owe him for the loan of Horses & Iron.
You seem to be handling it really well, looking forward to the revenge!
Sorry I've been afk lately, been very busy but should get better (it does help me claim that you were the one to kill our empire ).
One thing I've been thinking about is that I'm actually really pleased with how well we've done - the fact that it took 3 (!) of the 4 players still with a hope in the game to beat us means I'm tbh satisfied with the game overall. I'm not entirely sure what the situation is - whether we've stopped them and are simply crippled or if we're gonna be wiped out in the next 10-20 turns, but I don't think we're in a situation to worry about AT. If he wins I won't mind really, so long as we burn some of the other cities (which, of course, is why he's propping us). I mean, if we do take back what is ours and get a chance of victory then all well and good, but I don't need it.
Bit of a ramble I suppose...
Azza, my only question with your settling was why you left that pig alone for so long? That would've been my first city probably.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
(June 3rd, 2013, 02:26)Qgqqqqq Wrote: Azza, my only question with your settling was why you left that pig alone for so long? That would've been my first city probably.
The Ghast pig? It was a safe backfill city, so I felt it was a low priority compared to Skeleton, Creeper and Spider. I pushed wide to try and claim better land, thinking that the salt water lake would be a natural border between us.
I spent a few minutes this afternoon looking over our fronts. I think we can successfully hold our core, and from there we'll see what we can do to improve our position 2metra moved in on Google with 11 knights, cat, Trebuchet and a couple other units. I'm going to try holding Google. I want to kill off some of those knights, even if we lose the city in the end.
Dye connected to help alleviate our happiness crunch. I offered 50g to AT for Whale. We have over 700 in the bank and need less than 600. 3 turns to Steel. TT's progress has officially halted. He has over 1000 gold in the bank, and my guess is that the majority of that was capture gold We have a massive stack in Paradigm. He pillaged a road and I didn't have any workers to repair it this turn. But next turn if he leaves his musketeer stack in place or advances I'll smash it to bits (he doesn't have sight of the stack, and i just moved half of it into place this turn so maybe). If he retreats his stack I'll throw ours into zone defense so it can get back to Postos if Commodore advances, but he's looking rather quiet now. He offered to take Chemistry for peace. I turned him down. I want to press either TT or 2metra hard after we get Steel, and I'd rather wait a couple more turns before signing at 10-turn NAP. There is little danger in waiting.
And speaking of pressing 2metra, here's the strike force waiting for next turn ... our spy was caught, but I can still move forward and get vision of all cities with one of the galleys.
I'd like to take our Karakorum, and if the defences are light enough that will be my target of choice, followed by Hoth, followed by Turfan. In addition to the 10 units in galleys I have a 3-move GG knight in the stack. The 2 knights on the galleys are 11xp and will probably promote to Amphibious. The galleys will move up one-by-one so that I have the flexibility to attack a 2nd target after destroying the first.
Our knight attack luck series continues. This turn won 3 battles at 96%, 99.9%, and 72%. We have 12 knights now and haven't lost one yet.
We're in hot war on 4 fronts and I say "our only worry" 
2metra moved in on Google with 11 knights, cat, Trebuchet and a couple other units. I'm going to try holding Google. I want to kill off some of those knights, even if we lose the city in the end.
We have a massive stack in Paradigm. He pillaged a road and I didn't have any workers to repair it this turn. But next turn if he leaves his musketeer stack in place or advances I'll smash it to bits (he doesn't have sight of the stack, and i just moved half of it into place this turn so maybe). If he retreats his stack I'll throw ours into zone defense so it can get back to Postos if Commodore advances, but he's looking rather quiet now. He offered to take Chemistry for peace. I turned him down. I want to press either TT or 2metra hard after we get Steel, and I'd rather wait a couple more turns before signing at 10-turn NAP. There is little danger in waiting.