Gavagai's PB42 thread

[Gavagai]

What size was Huxley? What kind of infra had been invested?

Size 7-8, something like that. Terrace, Lighthouse, Forge, Courthouse. No Barracks - I expected the city to be mostly building ships.

[Gavagai]

Lyons has fallen this turn, next turn Marseilles, Rouen and Amiens will be captured, thus clearing all Eastern half of French mainland.

[DaveV]

Lyons has fallen this turn, next turn Marseilles, Rouen and Amiens will be captured, thus clearing all WesternEastern half of French mainland.

Fixed.

From the minimap, it looks like there are only three more cities in mainland France. What's next?

[Gavagai]

Lyons has fallen this turn, next turn Marseilles, Rouen and Amiens will be captured, thus clearing all WesternEastern half of French mainland.

Fixed.

From the minimap, it looks like there are only three more cities in mainland France. What's next?

Lol, thanks. I also fixed the original post.

Good question. The main choice is between pushing into Superjm and taking a pause to consolidate and build the navy. I am currently leaning towards pause. Superjm is going to have Cuirs very soon if understand anything in this game, the war with him is not going to be easy. I will have to produce land units in all my production cities and it will leave me vulnerable to potential raiding and harassment on Krill's behalf.

[Gavagai]

I will make a final decision after I get Paper and will be able to see what techs Superjm has.

[Gavagai]

You know what? I'll try to challenge Superjm in liberalism race. He has Philosphy on me but I have Paper. He has a better GNP (golden age) but I have a Great Scientist up my sleeve and a large bank. Worth a try.

[Gavagai]

(Forgot to add, he will also need to slot in Music if he wants MilTrad).

[Gavagai]

While the game is on hold, I might as well update:



The last French mainland city has fallen. You can see my stack (below) versus superjm's one (to the left). He has Gunpowder on me (observe the Musket) and at least some of his Knights should be able to take Formation, as he has Colosseums in many cities and Vassalage + Guilds combo.
Here is a strategic-level perspective on the situation.



I am not attacking. He is too techs from Cuirs (Education + Liberalism) and already has a decent standing army. It is interesting that on Ot4e's case similar circumstances actually served me as a reason to press my attack earlier. I noticed that he is close to teching Gunpowder and getting Musketeers which would be able to get C1 + Formation out of the gates. That would make them better in every way than C3 Knights - the best unit I could through at them. This is why I decided to reschedule my attack: I figured that I need to do serious damage before Ot4e gets access to these units. And it worked - Ot4e teched Gunpowder on the very turn his last city was eliminated from the mainland.
The crucial difference between these scenarios is that Ot4e did not have much of strategic depth - Orleans was actually his border city. By contrast, superjm's strategic depth is enormous. To get to his core I will need to grind through a long and narrow isthmus of expandable cities, losing units each time I attack against Muskets. And at the end of this quest, I will have a stack of formation Cuirs waiting for me as a final boss. Not a fun scenario at all. I think I would be able to capture a couple of border cities - superjm currently has vulnerabilities of his own which are lack of Engineering (a big deal given his extended territory) and surprising lack of Catapults in his stack. But I do not see how these cities worth the trouble.
Peace then. And very well done on behalf of superjm, I can see how a different player could have blundered here in a number of ways. For example, he resisted the temptation to grab Ot4e's last cities here which would most likely open his stack to my attack. I looked him up - he only played FFH before, I think? He is playing a very good game here and its a pity he does not update much (I know, I know, I am not the person to be slinging this stone): would be great to know his perspective on things, maybe a lurker could nudge him?
I am also going to surrender him Liberalism race. I think I could have a shot at winning it if I would put half of my cities on wealth. But in that case, he would just grab Economics to compensate and I actually value Economics merchant more than Liberalism in my situation. I have MoM now and a shot at two long GAs before Nationalism (to revolt in Free Market and then Police State/Nationhood) but for this, I need every GP I can get. I would love to get Astronomy from Liberalism but I can just as well self-research it. Astronomy will extend my options considerably - I could go after superdeath or (less likely) Cairo and/or ask Krill some questions.



And meanwhile Ot4e manages to invent new ways to be annoying, I must give him credit for this. Observe his Great General super-galleys. He enjoys some very temporary naval advantage in the area but I am going to shut it down hard with Privateers.

[Gavagai]

One more very important consideration in respect to sj I forgot to mention: he has an access to Nationhood now and can draft Muskets. I do not think he has already revolted (which is wise on his part as it allows him to squeeze in a few more 3-promo Knights) but he will definitely switch on the last turn of his GA.

[Gavagai]

sj canceled OB and started pillaging roads around former Ot4e's cities which are in revolt. He also started drafting. I sent him fish for fish and an offer to reopen borders, hopefully, the guy will calm down. He also double-bulbed Education, so contesting Liberalism from him was always a pipe-dream.
Krill had some strange interaction with OH, took three cities from him (no idea where) and then immediately made peace. He is at 29 cities against my 36 with a caveat that I had to kill two neighbors to earn that number while Krill had no conflict at all except this short war with OH. From what I saw on the map, it appears he really outplayed OH in the early game by rushing cities to the chokepoints and securing a huge area for himself. At least, OH's mainland looks suspiciously crumpled, I think most of his cities are offshore.
Krill also started his second Golden Age, I may be actually in a race for Economics with him. But still, I should have an advantage because I have 1,5K gold in the bank while Krill has nothing.