[Mjmd #56 no players] One ring to find them

[Mjmd]

I wasn't going to report this turn, but then Mig crashed PB54 and a lot happened, so figured why not. Plus have to keep Mig engaged. I definitely report more when I have a ded lurker.

Demo's. You would almost think I'm doing ok in GNP if you didn't note how many people are up archery, masonry, and mysticism (let alone all the techs Amica has). The most important stat is 2nd in food 1st in pop. That will be all going heavily in praets!!!



To try to alleviate my future happy issues I sent a wine for fur trade to Amica. If Amica accepts would be a good reason NOT to fight Van. I obviously have a second beaver on the way. It seems like everyone pretty much has same happy resources or less other than Amica sadly.

Anyways, the news:
-Van took a city and razed a city last turn. Now there are only two cities he could have hit. One is very unfortunately ruffs capital......... I had really really really hoped ruff would just hole up there with his entire army and inflict a lot of casualties. Only GG born was for Van though. Super unfortunate. I'm assuming the razed city was the one taking his wet corn that would have been pretty swamped in Oracle culture.
-Jowy settled 3 cities JUST this turn!!!! Will be interesting what Gira does. Gira hasn't been whipping a ton. For the record I actually want Gira to be doing well as he is more towards Noble.
-Also you can see my scout found Cairo's resettled city and all Civacs re-founded city. to note Civac settled that city JUST for the forested beaver (no food); showing how absurd that tile is. Also, it looks like a large chunk of Cairo's army is on that border. I have been slightly worried.

Edit: forgot to mention I should take that mine Van built for me next turn. Van is also building a cottage that short term I should take up north. Van did do 3 pop worth of whips, so will be interesting to see if any libraries; sadly never go a glimpse of northern city which 100% was a mistake.

[Miguelito]

Still following anyways, but nothing useful coming to mind at the moment. Keep it up!

[Mjmd]

Rejoice for very bad things are about to happen!


Two sources of iron. One being about perfect spot other than I didn't have it already connected and didn't have all the workers needed to mine it this turn. Will be hooked up next turn. My first two workers Dan and Una are there (unplanned), which makes me happy

I was going to pm this to Mig, but figured I would just post. When Civac looked like a runaway I had actually thought about cutting through the west of Cairo to attack him, but I don't think it is needed / due to distance it is just impractical. He did beat me to the first GP this turn. Cases for war:
Vanrober:
Pros:
-He chopped my forest
-Culture is ANNOYING!!!! He seems really intent on winning the culture battle, which really makes me want to punch him in the face. Rasberry built a monument to slowly win that fight for instance.
-He chopped my forest
-While I can war peace him like he did to me, I will probably still have to garrison a large portion of my army on his border. Some of that portion could instead join the invasion. Just an overall very unstable border. 
-He chopped my forest

Cons:
-Current largest army. While I suspect most of it is HA, still seems meh
-Protective Celts - BLAH. Again I have to take his capital for the invasion to be worth much, which seems difficult to do pre cats. Now mind just taking the northern border city and then razing his other two flatland cities that direction would be ok. I could then settle the deer copper city he refuses to plant. Come back again with cats later. I would also have to decide if strategy is try for the sucker punch to capital right away or if it would be to cripple.
-Amica did accept my trade, so I would lose my extra happy. Now I will lose it when I war peace Van, but hoping I can then renew. Again I could also get open borders and build a scout with whip overflow, which I might do instead if I decide on Cairo.
-Would go back on my word; however, he was a dick and chopped my forest!

Cairo
Pros:
-Weaker military most of which is tied down on Civac border (I suspect if I had built like 6 chariots I could have taken both border cities, but again I've been pumping defensive units for the north)
-He may dislike Civac enough not to withdraw said units or at least a portion there of
-Overall smaller empire meaning chances of success are higher.
-Nearer to main whip centers / choppable forests.
-Calendar resources!!!

Cons:
-Civac gets at least 1 city and frees Civac up to split Jowy possibly creating a powerful Civac. Now mind I could just keep steamrolling south if things go well.....
-Ironically (also because you know I worked pretty hard at it with Van) has more hill cities than Van. To note Civac also has a lot of hill cities. Something about them having a contentious border and that area of the world actually having hills...... Reminds me another pro would be I would get bloody hills and if I take capital stone for what that is worth.


Now obviously things can change before I'm ready to attack.

[Mjmd]

Another pro of opening borders with Van is I could actually stage in Van's territory to attack Cairo's city on the diagonal, which I can't do because of rivers and not having construction.

[Mjmd]

Heh Mig now that we can talk a little PB54, first off grats, second.... you know how I kept my scout around and wanted you to log in to check for warrior power? Ya there may have been some PB54 lessons learned....... I got warrior rushed there and was super nervous of the same thing happening here, so thanks for helping out.

I definitely learned that keeping scout nearby on a smaller map is probably correct. Again not sure if it would have helped El Grillo / AT, but probably a good lesson.

Speaking of which I'm really undecided what to do with my scout atm..... I could keep it around Civac Cairo border or try to do an inner circle so I can keep trade with Amica no matter what / meet Laz finally.

[Mjmd]

Demos 1 more time before I whip them all away. 



I spent WAY too much time trying to optimize 2 pop whipping between Rome and Antium while also working the new iron mine (both cities really wanted to only 1 pop whip next turn, but I think both can overflow into another 1 turn Praet if I 2 pop whip in both cities. Ended up working 1 scientist in Rome thanks to Mig suggestion  and not working a cottage over at Cumae. Anyways Praets are in queue in every city except for the two not yet at size 4 (the two newest). Both of those will be whipped in 3 turns. Overall timing in most cities is working out nicely for whip next turn, put new in queue, whip them, bulb math and CHOP another round to completion. Will hopefully pop 2-3ish rds of praets out very fast. Working out where chops should be and when is my next turn job. Mind I think it is going to end up being very bad for math lol, so going to try to just put them on forests in-between cities so I can put the chop wherever it does the most. Hopefully this helps avoid having to do 3 rds of whips in rapid succession in some cities. I still might do 3 rds, but will have some spacing in there so I'm not unhappy forever.

Mig thoughts on target analysis I did? To note Van at #1 power isn't that much higher than I am currently.

[Miguelito]

Oh, I had not realized we were there already... been diving into the PB54 threads.

Well you said you would not read mine, but if you did you would read my praises of Cairo's defensive abilities. Still, I would tentatively agree that in the current situation he makes more sense as a target. Let's see how he reacts to our buildup.

Re: your analysis, I'd add that the current border with Cairo is much more sustainable than the one with vanrober. We'd need some praets in the north during the war. How has power developed between Ruff and van? The scoreboard indicates that Ruff is really just a sitting duck, correct? Well you could also argue that van has whipped a lot already, into offensive units, so not as much potential (well 4 cities more, although some will be yet unproductive conquests), and inferior research.
Meanwhile, I count the option of splitting him with civac as a pro. Do we know anything about Cairo's research?

If in fact we go for Cairo I think the scout tracking civac's movements will be very valuable.

[Mjmd]

I swear I'm not up to anything.....



BTW Mig I've mentioned it before, but I loved no score mod. My attack vs El Grillo would NEVER have been as successful as it was that game if we had been playing with this bull *#&$

Pop DROPPED to 763K; sadly this is still 2nd in pop...... people are not doing well world wide other than Noble..... Anyways 8 praets are on the way.

Power graph as requested. Yes I do like that myst finishes with GS.



Van did do some whips, but I think some of it was chopped out pre math as well. 2 of his cities are brand new. A small chunk of that power is walls. 

If I went after Van I would probably go construction before currency...... because again the odds against his archers on hills would just be horrible otherwise. Which seems bad, but hopefully conquer gold keeps things going. I went construction in PB54 as well, but that was a situation I was SUPER far behind. 5 people have math. Most of them probably going for currency, so I would get more KTBs. Civac used his GP on math. There was another GP born, but I didn't see a pt increase.

The border with Van is bad as stated. I could use Cairo as this games Charriu (PB52 reference) where I use him as a safe border I leave very very lightly defended. I do kind of have to know soon. Both for scout, but also because Van and I only have 4 turns left of peace (including this one). He will probably want to war peace or want open borders by then. Another reason I need to decide is that I could do a round of chariots with the overflow (depending on amount ect) in a couple of cities to catch up if I'm going that fast. They would be there to just finish things off / provide raw numbers. My gut instinct is to see who whips a lot in the next 2 turns and go after the other one. Grrr being next to protective Celts. Mind I'm sure he is feeling the same about being next to aggressive Rome.

[Miguelito]

I also really enjoyed no score, although from the threads I'm getting that most players were rather indifferent to it. BReaky not fond of the PBspy minigame for my part,  and also buffing attackers a bit is hardly wrong.

My gut instinct is to see who whips a lot in the next 2 turns and go after the other one.

[superdeath]

TBH, No score helps those that actually note/write down the score of everyone (or at least notice their score changed) Each turn. Im not a fan because of this. Its part of the reason why the use of BUG is amazing, it lessens the huge gap between those that spreadsheet and look at every little detail... and those that dont.