[PB60] Amicalola and Vanrober: Gone' Fishing!

[Thoth]

I also converted to Christianity this turn because we're not sure if the Sankore religion will switch if we convert afterwards. Oh yeah, we finish Sankore next turn!

Sankore, Spiral Minaret and Mike's Chapel all affect your state religion no matter what it is. If you change state religion then buildings of the new state religion will be affected by the wonders instead of the old one.

AP is fixed to the religion it is finished under and is independent of state religion after that.

[vanrober]

Then Amica was right we could swap a bit later. I was afraid of Sankore working as AP. This mistake was mine then, sorry bro

[Amicalola]

T177
SD evacuated Elephantine and whipped it from size 11->2, which I think is pretty lame. If you get caught out, the opponent should be rewarded. I guess it's hard to rule against, but maybe we should try something. Or maybe other people think it's fine. 



We took it and sent 6 knights towards Alexandria. But Heliopolis is more complicated thanks to Mjmd's stack:


This can't take Octopus, but it can threaten anything we take. I ended up sending our knights to Heliopolis anyway, because we have a lot of reinforcements arriving over the next 2 turns. 

SD has this hilarious caravel stack in the west. 


I upgraded two galleons and loaded them with units before we saw this.  So that's two loaded ships that SD is going to sink. Should have checked first, it's totally on me. Luckily I think we can reinforce Hieraconpolis with enough to hold it from whatever's on those galleys, but it was still a very stupid mistake.

Jowy cancelled OB, and with that Mjmd stack there, I think it's "Amicalola/Vanrober vs. The World"

Edit: I found a way to save the units on the galleons! Galleons themselves are still toast though.

[Amicalola]

T178
Here was the situation. 



SD upgraded warriors into 3 pikes. Alongside the axe, vodka shows us having a 90% chance to take Heliopolis (with heavy casualties), so I...



Go for it, of course. I'm trying to cripple a player here! And our first knight wins at 12.5% odds! In the end, we only lose 2 when attacking, which is a very lucky result. This raises the question of whether we could even keep the cities this turn. But in the end, I decide to burn them both anyway. 


I'm a pessimistic guy. I have to imagine SD has something gathering out in the fog. I believe he will try to hit our dwindling knights soon, and probably successfully. Even if he doesn't, the cities kept only granaries, and are size 1 (thanks to spite-whipping  ) - resettling ourselves when the situation is safer is not much less efficient. We've achieved our goals here now, of making a safer eastern border, and crippling Superdeath before he can get proper ships - the potential dogpile is now 2.5 players, instead of 3. I'm satisfied with that. The border has gone from this defensive nightmare:


To this stress-less wonderland:



This sparks joy. But the dogpile is coming...

[El Grillo]

Forgive me for going off on a tangent, but I can’t help but be reminded of one of my favorite minor characters from a truly underrated RTS, Major Richter from Act of War, whose go-to solution to basically every tactical threat is “let’s hit them first!”, to the extent that the game never tells you to build a static defense building until the very last mission of the campaign.

[vanrober]

That actually reminds me to "The art of War" of Sun Tzu. There is not better defence than a good atack!

[Amicalola]

Tangents are good! Love tangents. Especially when they give me a morning chuckle. I'm not sure when it happened exactly, but I feel like at some point I got a lot more aggressive. Maybe PB59 broke me. Or maybe I just got competent enough to act upon aggression that's always been bubbling under the surface.

[naufragar]

[Amicalola]

T179
So about that increased aggression.  Mjmd sent back a fish for fish this turn (although it noticeably excluded the copper/copper). To me, that reads "I'll attack you, but not yet." His stack is still very close by, although he moved it 1S, out of sight. I also found a stack heading through SD's territory last turn.



And I really don't like this border either, where Beds is about to flip that first ring.


So I, um...


"Let's hit them first!"


I offered peace for 350 gold, as a sort of reparations. Probably, Mjmd never forgives this. Also probably, he was already planning to attack us. Oh, I also razed another SD city. 


Let's burn the world!

[Charriu]