The Hills Send Back The Cry [SPOILERS]

[El Grillo]

I'd definitely whip it, if I knew my opponent was threatening to beat me to it. More broadly speaking, hmm, I like the idea of using Parthenon/Taj to spend the next 20 turns in a GA, teching to drafted rifles, and then gauging which of my neighbors would be a more vulnerable target.

EDIT: Just to do my due diligence, let's do the math to check that he could actually whip it:

During his next turn, Khan would need 469h - 211h = 258h to finish Taj. The wonder has a whipping penalty of 100%, and he has bonuses of 50% (Bureau), 100% (Marble), 50% (IND), and 25% (Forge). Each pop is therefore worth 20 * (1+1.25) = 45. That translates to 5.733 pop needed, floored to 6. His cap has 13 population. So yes, he could do it.

While we're at it, the Great Engineer is indeed good enough to finish the Taj in a size-17 city.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

I'd definitely whip it, if I knew my opponent was threatening to beat me to it. More broadly speaking, hmm, I like the idea of using Parthenon/Taj to spend the next 20 turns in a GA, teching to drafted rifles, and then gauging which of my neighbors would be a more vulnerable target.

Does he have enough pop to whip it you think? I'm unsure even with all the bonuses he would.

[El Grillo]

Haha, I see we had the same thought. I edited my post to check that he could indeed whip it.

A few other things: now that I have Alphabet, I sketched out everyone's tech situation:




Techs are grouped by their vertical rows in F6, and the total is a sumproduct. I have a decent tech lead (thanks in part to my two bulbs), and by my estimate, my break-even research rate is highest among us. And yes, I double-checked Ginger's total beaker count. Yeesh.

T102:



Adrien has a decent chance at taking this city if he's willing to commit to it. I'm curious though, is he in such a hurry that he didn't have time to build any siege?



Feeling pretty good about controlling the only shrine in the game. This is honestly a far better Bureau/Academy capital, but I like how the higher hammer emphasis in Initial 64 allows me to contest wonders against Adrien, if not Khan. No regrets, certainly.

[El Grillo]

An interface question: How do I view the contents of large stacks of units? The descriptions run straight off the top of the screen when I try to hover over them normally. I know there's a toggle in debug mode to show the contents of a tile, is there any way to do that in a normal game?

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

An interface question: How do I view the contents of large stacks of units? The descriptions run straight off the top of the screen when I try to hover over them normally. I know there's a toggle in debug mode to show the contents of a tile, is there any way to do that in a normal game?

No idea - it does list a number by the unit type though.

[DaveV]

An interface question: How do I view the contents of large stacks of units? The descriptions run straight off the top of the screen when I try to hover over them normally. I know there's a toggle in debug mode to show the contents of a tile, is there any way to do that in a normal game?

Minimizing the interface (ctrl-I) helps. Otherwise, the only answer is a higher-resolution screen, I think.

[Aurorarcher]

Or go to military advisor to find all the units in the stack. This isn't so easy if you have visibility on a lot of enemy units (other than the stack) though but this basically always works anyway. I don't think this is what you were looking for but just mentioned it anyway.

[El Grillo]

T103:




We got it Khan ended up not whipping, so maybe I miscalculated earlier. In any case, this is great news, and means I might be able to beat Adrien to Liberalism with time to spare, letting me tech Gunpowder and aim for Chemistry. Adrien is sitting on 753+382gpt and is showing very little progress on Education, so it'll depend on what his expenses look like at 100% tech. 250gpt or thereabouts?


I know I haven't posted any Cal Band-related content for quite some time now, but this is a fitting occasion. Fight for Cal is chief among our (many many) fight songs, and is played after each touchdown during games, as the fourth song of the pregame show, as the third song of most commissioned performances, and at the end of every rehearsal. Someone once tried to Fermi estimate just how many times we'd played it during our four years, settling on roughly 750-1500 times. This video is actually Lights Out, which consists of playing an introduction, singing one verse of Fight for Cal, and then playing the rest of Fight, ending with a strut line and bow.




The aftermath at Canterbury indicates that Adrien got some good rolls, killing 3 bows, 6 spears, 2 axes, 3 HAs, and a chariot (and presumably one whipped longbow or spear) at the cost of only 4 knights and 4 skirms. With a medic-general in theater, he could advance on Ramsgate with as few as two turns of healing. For reference, it'll be at least 6-7 turns before my forces can even engage, so let's see just how many longbows Ginger can whip out - he has no chance at getting to pikes.




There's a city on the marked tile, but I don't know how well its defenders stack up against the 9 knights and 4 skirmishers Adrien has deployed here. We've seen Adrien commit at least 23 Knights to this attack with little whipping, which means close to his entire production base has been tasked with building them. Again, I have to ask, why no catapults? Siege units are still in vogue, right?




I wonder if I can double rival production before our GAs end - with the AP finishing next turn, I'll be adding 74-80 base hammers as cities build Temples and Monasteries, not to mention tile improvements. Then we'll do the same with beakers and Sankore, though I don't think I'll have time for the Minaret just yet. I'll actually need some culture to counter Khan's Chichen/Zeus combo at Marchup Cadence - I think Sistine and a cathedral should about do the trick.

Graphs:

[El Grillo]

T104:




We finished the Apostolic Palace and a round of Temples, with Sankore soon to follow. For smaller or production-starved cities like my island, +2h and access to +1h from a Priest represents an increase of 250% from 2hpt to 5hpt, and that's without the bonus OR hammer. We also birthed a Great Merchant from our National Epic city, with a Scientist due at 70% from Silent Walk in 5t right as the Golden Age ends. They'll be saved for a 2-person GA, and then the National Epic will work on another Scientist for a 3-man paired with the Music Artist and (perhaps) the Economics Merchant.




ORG is really starting to shine now that civics costs and inflation are creeping up (the inflation rate is 20%, but the Zulu central bankers don't seem to mind much) .Adrien started to spend on Education, showing 2t to it. He went from 753g in treasury to 580g, reflecting expenses of 173gpt. That seems rather lower than my estimates, so perhaps he's not going at 100% yet. As it is, he has enough gold to finish Education, but I think he'll need to do another period of saving (or run empire-wide Wealth/Research) to make it to Liberalism in one go. We'll be keeping an eye on that to make sure we secure the free tech, even if we're forced to use it on something less exciting (Constitution is fairly redundant, and the most expensive tech available would be Military Tradition).

Adrien captured Canterbury and seemed to have a successful battle in the center (Selsey, from Ginger's city list and process of elimination). However, Ginger's whipping longbows seemingly everywhere, including on our border, so hopefully Adrien's offensive stalls out at the capital and my siege will give me an edge.




Is Ginger offering to sell me these Workers? If not, that's a rather generous use of Worker turns, and he knows I have at least some Impi in this part of the world...




Khan looks to be going for drafted Rifles anyways, showing 1t to Printing Press.

Charts:

[El Grillo]

T105:




Khan is worrying us up north - he moved all of his catapults up from their previous counter-attacking positions into his city, where they could accompany a good dozen one-movers in an attack. Fortunately, our emphasis on production means that we can reinforce locally, and even 1-turn a Castle if he makes a move. We had Marchup Cadence and the closest city (3 tiles away, conveniently) swap to 1-turning longbows, and we have 7 knights in counterattack position that he doesn't know about, but I'd really prefer to not risk combat. Elsewhere, more temples and monasteries completed, and we'll be finishing Sankore next turn, presumably without opposition from Adrien.

Speaking of Adrien, he turned research off, which surprised and confused me. What does he need 1033g on hand for, after already committing at least one turn of teching into Education? The timing isn't right for a mass unit upgrade, and he can't cash-rush, so I'm curious as to what he's planning. If it's just to sprint for Education/Liberalism at 100%, fair enough, but he has to know I have tech visibility on him, and we're the only ones in competition for it.

I offered to buy Ginger's map for 150g. I know he's had open borders with Khan, and more visibility on Adrien, and any city of Khan I get knowledge of should become visible, which will be very helpful in a defense, if necessary. The price is perhaps a bit generous (not sure how people value map info here), but Ginger has been refusing previous trades, and I want this done in a single transaction, if possible.




Oh, I also voted myself Pope. We can scratch that one off the bucket list.

Charts: