[Spoilers] Ibuprofen and Eyeglasses: Thoth plays a Middle Aged game

[Thoth]

*sigh*





Commodore's GNP is interesting.....




I sent Fish, Iron, War with Commodore, and 12 to Pindicator in exchange for same.  Both have impressive sized galleon stacks as their main battle fleets.  I've got some caravels.  Not enough caravels, but some. I'll have more plus access to galleons and 2 promos for fresh built navy as my GA ends and privateers shortly thereafter.   Commodore doesn't look to be doing much teching for the immediate future.  Pindicator is still stockpiling gold with 600+ currently banked.

[Dreylin]

Gotta love that they don't both having indicator lines below 0. 

[Thoth]

Commodore took a shot at Scooter's last city and came up a bit short. There were 4 redlined defenders left when I played. I left them alone in the hope that they might cause a bit more attritional damage to Commodore and if Scooter manages to whip a musket there is a tiny chance I may get the opportunity to burn down the Great Library.

After Commodore's casualties last turn we're all around the same powergraph level.

Philosophy due at eot, GA the following turn.

[Thoth]

And now we are three.

Roughly equal in power and mfg, I think I have a slight edge on Pindicator in GNP but he has a substantial tech lead. Commodore.....has a GNP but it's still looking anemic. I expect that to change shortly as he builds courthouses and castles and pushes out a GP of some sort for a golden age. Hanging Gardens is also still unbuilt. It's a solid boost with 18 cities so I expect that to change in time for Commodore to whip away the new population.

City count is a bit ugly. Commodore settled two new cities this turn, one on Scooter's island the other I'm not sure where putting him at 18 cities.

So in order to avoid being the dogpiled one of the three of us I need to partner up with either Commodore or Pindicator and dogpile the odd man out.

It's going to be an interesting endgame.....who gets dogpiled? And of the dogpilers.....who stabs who first?

[Thoth]

Started a Golden Age this turn and swapped into Bureaucracy, Caste, Mercantilism, and Pacifism.  Hired a bunch of Scientists in my two island cities to get my 3 GSs generated for the planned bulb fest and wound up with the end of turn demographics looking like this:




I've got a few settlers in production right now and will pre-build units all over the empire ready for the end of golden age swap into Vassalage/Theocracy.  Caste is better for my long term hammers overall but it just can't match the burst hammers of slavery in the short run so I will almost certainly swap back into slavery as well.

I have tech visibility on Commodore this turn and he is showing 70ish turns to Gunpowder which suggests he's got  around 5/6 scientists hired.

[scooter]

Fun thread. I purposely ceded Vikings out of a lack of interest in doing the same thing two games in a row. But I think we officially have you and I to blame for Vikings now getting permabanned. I can't go into a ton of detail with the game ongoing, but one comment.

Logged in for a look around and to see what Scooter had done:

Greeted by multiple diplo messages:

From Scooter: Offer #1: Peace in exchange for him going to war with Commodore

Offer #2: Peace in exchange for me paying him 200 gold.

From Pindicator: Wants me to go to war with Commodore but isn't offering anything.


Curiouser and curiouser......

1st offer I thought about and came to the conclusion that I don't benefit from it. As to why Scooter would make that offer.......hmmmm.....perhaps there is a Commodorian fleet off his coast? or a Commodorian army at his doorstep? In which case getting a locking in 10t peace treaty with me would be a major coup for Scooter. It could also be that Scooter expects to be able to war/peace Commodore and wants to spam out a few more settlers/rebuild his army and navy while in forced peace. Any way I slice it, it's a "NO" from me on that offer.

His second offer is a joke. I'm not paying him for a peace that I'm not interested in.

To explain, I saw the writing on the wall, and I thought you might want to avoid what I saw as the inevitable outcome of a 2v1 in that gamestate:

City count is a bit ugly. Commodore settled two new cities this turn, one on Scooter's island the other I'm not sure where putting him at 18 cities.

Maybe still worth removing a hostile neighbor though, I dunno. Good luck with the rest! Will be very interested to see how the rest shakes out.

[Thoth]

Removing the hostile neighbour is worth it I think. Not having to deal with Privateers when I only have Caravels is definitely worth it.

I didn't want to give you 10 turns of peace to build up a Privateer and Galleon navy that I couldn't match for far too long.

I'll be settling around 4-5 more cities over the course of the Golden Age so I'll be close in city count but with a much stronger economy even after Astronomy. I've got around 18 villages that will benefit from Printing Press in 3 more turns which will cushion the impact of losing the Colossus nicely.

Still a lot of game left and I think I've still got a shot so long as I can at least force Pindicator to take Liberalism early and not grab Physics with it.

[Thoth]

2nd turn of the night saw the birth of my first GS who will bulb me to within ~100-150 beakers of University and the appearance of another barb galley up north.   

And my exploring Caravel has shown that the world is indeed, flat. 

Next GS to bulb PP due at end of the upcoming turn (#3 of my GA).   Third GS due at eot #7 of the Golden Age that will bulb me to within 1t of Astronomy as I've already invested a turn's research into Astronomy.
I'm looking at finishing Astronomy at the end of the 8th and last turn of my golden age and Gunpowder the turn after that.

[Thoth]

Pindicator grabbed the Economics GM last turn and has an aquaduct so I'm expecting HG and a golden age from him soon. Better him with HG than Commodore for sure.

I bulbed and teched Printing Press this turn. 3 more turns until I birth the GS to bulb Astronomy.

[Thoth]

No sign of golden ages or Hanging Gardens yet. Pindicator cashed in the Great merchant for a trade mission and is showing 3 turns to Liberalism.

I settled my 12th city this turn with 3 more due next turn to bring me to 15 cities to Commodore's 19 and Pindicator's 11.