[PB70] Charriu tries to promote the arts again

[Charriu]

The song



Music: Jorito, JohnStacy & Lauren the Flute - Secret of Mana 'A Wistful Heart' OC ReMix

T154:

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The golden age turns went by rather uneventful. I managed to finish Nationalism and Constitution and switched into Representation, Nationhood, Slavery and Pacifism at the end. Representation increased 0% science income to 227 beakers per turn and I like that. Nationhood will helping building an army, but the 2 happiness from Barracks are also very welcome. There was a reason for building those in almost all cities as I don't plan to ever switch out of Nationhood. Slavery is still there for obvious reasons and pacifism to keep my PHI trait running.
I had some discussions with Tarkeel and Superdeath, but I'm to lazy to write them down right now. Basically they are afraid I'm not investing enough in military. It's true that I invested less then I hoped for during the golden age. Reason for that is that I made increasingly more mistakes in my micromanaging tool and with the end of the golden age I also stopped using it. It became too inaccurate, but hey I used it until T152 which is great.
Another problem I had is that Mjmd has a chariot in my territory seeing any movement in his direction. But this might turn out good for us. He always had stationed more units at my border compared to SD. So I will try to be as threatening as possible to Mjmd and occupy his troops so that Superdeath can backstab Mjmd.

[Charriu]

The song



Music: RoeTaKa - Shadow of the Colossus 'For Her Soul' OC ReMix

T157:

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War is coming next turn, so please keep your excitment down in the lurker thread until it did. I post here what I just wrote to Scooter as it pretty much explains my plans for now.

To keep you up to my plans and doings this turn. I am ready to move in T158. As you can see my plan is to take Johnny Boy. It's very obvious to Mjmd, but it's the best target as all other cities are 4 tiles deep into his border. I know it's a hard nut to crack, but what can I do.
As promised I also send you a "I declare war on Mjmd" deal.

Mjmd also moved a galeon in reach of my gems island. There is the possibility that he will cut me off my gems and with that the happiness. To that extend I send you another deal asking for 1 of your silks. That way I could soften the blow from no gems. Should I capture Johnny Boy I would like to upgrade this deal into a fair dye for silk deal.

It's a long shot but hopefully Scooter, Superdeath and me can take down Mjmd. If not than I am also happy to congratulate him to his first(?) PB victory here. He earned it by now.

[Charriu]

The song



Music: Derek Oren, Jeremy Robson - Final Fantasy VI 'Cantata for Dancing: I. Mors ego sum mortis' [Dancing Mad] OC ReMix

T158:

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It has begun. Well technically it already began with Scooters turn as he accepted my declare war deal and "forced" me into war with Mjmd. He did not immediately join but I expect him to join in next turn. Same for Superdeath. He actually is the most important player to join in. The way I see it Superdeath now has 3 choices.

1. He backstabs Scooter. Meanwhile Mjmd will probably overrun me, gets my super science capitol city and just wins the game.
2. He does nothing. Meanwhile Mjmd will probably overrun me, gets my super science capitol city and just wins the game.
3. He joins in gains a good chunk from Mjmd and becomes the new leading player.

As for the tactical side. You may have noticed that I did not move my army 1S of its current position. I checked with Vodka and my army as of now has no chance of taking the city. Therefore I will opt to bombard the city until I can take it, which will mean I need to cross the river later.
I also expect Mjmd to have a catapult stack nearby to ram into me. That's why I wanted to stay behind the river therefore reducing the impact of those. The plan right now is to take that hit, heal and bombard at the same time and take the city later. Of course the most important point of all this is to be a distraction to Mjmd and occupy his forces here in the north, while Superdeath starts up a second front in the south.

[Charriu]

The song



Music: Ganaé - Street Fighter II 'Spitfire's Boom' OC ReMix

T161:

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The war against Mjmd has turned into a stalemate from my perspective. Mjmd and my forces are staring at each other while I bombard his city down. Meanwhile a reinforcement are drawn together in my territory ready to join the main force on an attack.
Scooter was trying to do a landing on WhereToGoJohnny SW of the screenshot, but Mjmd was able to spot it in advance. Scooter opted to land his units out of reach of the city. Curious to see what he will do.
Meanwhile I start to get annoyed with Superdeath. He still owes me gold, which is ok if he pays it back in a few turns, but the last times I talked about it he always nagged me to whip some more (or better phrased whip myself into the ground). To that I say: NO!
Why should I whip myself into the ground so that Mjmd is defeated and Superdeath can triumph. This hyper-warmongering playstyle is exactly, why I think that multiplayer is inferior to singleplayer. The way I see it the war is processing fine - not brilliant, but fine. Let me illustrate:




Yes, Mjmd is way stronger, but that's not what I see in that screenshot. What I see is a financial liability in an overblown military on Mjmds side. Of course he needs it to defend himself.






As you can see Mjmds finances dropped way down and is economy is suffering from the war. If we just keep him that way either his morale will defeat him or his finances. Anyway even in a stalemate we should keep the upper hand in my opinion.
But the big ugly problem already showed itself: Defeatism. Scooter is already talking about concession. As always here at RB a game will probably end prematurely. (PB66 seems to be a rare exception from this conceed-early-meta). I wonder if I am perceived strong enough so that my non-concession prevents this game to end. Then again we can all talk. My prediction. Scooter will soon write in the general thread that he will concede to Mjmd. Superdeath will probably follow him as will Bing. What happens if I don't concede then?

[Qgqqqqq]

You don't need to be strong to prevent a concession. If you're MS late-66 there might be grounds to say you can't block, but generally the requirement is for a consensus.

[Amicalola]

FWIW Charriu I have been thinking a lot about your complaints about the MP meta being too unit-centric and not allowing for buildings. A lot, because normally I think your civ opinions are very good (eg. Concessions) but this one feels wrong to me. I can't remember many (any?) MP games where the winner just fought wars all game and neglected their economy. Indeed, I heavily prioritise (many would say overprioritise) buildings but have still won games.

I think it's more just about picking timing for units and buildings. Like you can't massively prioritise either for the whole game. In fact, I think there's a strong argument that choosing ones timing to focus on either units/buildings is THE most crucial skills of MP Civ4. So maybe there's more focus on warfare than SP, but you definitely can't neglect economy either. At least, that's my two cents. But I certainly understand walking away from MP due to frustrations, no judgement here. Just have been mulling this over for a while, thought I'd share my thoughts.

[Charriu]

The buildings aren't exactly the biggest problem with MP. That would be the lack of playstyle variety and goals. Culture, scientific and other victory types are almost non-existent. That leaves only conquest and after you played your tenth conquest game it becomes stale.

[Charriu]

I had a lot of fun with some single player games in which I never had to or did conquer anybody. That would never happen in MP

[Miguelito]

Games usually don't end by conquest but concession. I think most times actually that's due to "whatever we do, XX will go to space while the rest of us is researching Flight yet."
Last time we saw a victory screen that was actually culture I think, and PB59 was some 15 turns away from either domination or space.
Anyway, would you be up for an Always Peace game? Reading barbs / deity if you ask me. I'd play.

[Qgqqqqq]

Krill also wanted to do an Always Peace game at one point.