Nobody expects the Chinese Inquisition: Isabella of China

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Wait, why make your Moai city the Wall St/Corp HQ, and not your Holy City?

[Gaspar]

Wait, why make your Moai city the Wall St/Corp HQ, and not your Holy City?

No Shrine. Due to the insane TR income it generates, the Moai city is far and away my best commerce city outside of the capital. The Holy City is actually a pretty crummy runt city.

[zakalwe]

Hmmm. I do believe I'm still unspoiled in this game, although my "dedication" may have been lacking. Time for a new round of bad advice, then.

So, your original deal with Mackoti is that once Commodore is dead, you can attack Mackoti? Hmmm...

That Moai city sure turned out to be a beauty, btw.

[Mardoc]

So, my question to the lurkers - does it make me a douchebag if I attack Commodore with mackoti? I normally strongly advocate against cooperating with #1 but given my NAP I don't have a lot of options. And its not like Commodore has been an especially good friend this game, the land grabs, he's culture warred at the borders, lot of lousy behavior. Still, I feel a bit like a tool. Opinions?

Bear in mind that we don't know the full situation and especially diplo. That said - I think it's fine, if you have a plan for how this is more to your advantage than to mack's - how this increases the chances of you winning in the end. You share borders and mackoti doesn't, so that suggests it's likely you can come away with most of the spoils, maybe even the lion's share.

Which in turn says to me yes, it's ok. Assuming you don't let yourself get bogged down.

[Gaspar]

What you guys both said is pretty much my whole thought. One way or another, this should work to my advantage more than mackoti's. Fighting Commodore is just a petty vendetta, it doesn't actually do much for him I don't think.

That said, Commodore has an empire. So its not like I draft up a dozen units and go stomp him. We're talking 50, 60 units or more really to do something.

Anyway, good news - I'm currently playing my 3rd turn of the day.

Bad news - Commodore and mackoti talked to me so much that I had to go underground.

They talk and talk
'til my head explodes...

Anyway, mackoti declared on Commodore this turn. These events actually had a negative effect on me, since he's blockading Commodore as well, so I lost Gems/Spices. I decide not to re-offer the wines for spices deal since I expect to be at war myself soon. And when mackoti captures Satyr, my culture will grab 2 of the gems. Need to go fort one of them, sadly.



I starved the cap a bit to get Ironworks done this turn. The factory might actually just be overkill, I'll be able to 1t any units I might want from here.



Tempted to take a stab at the Great General from Facism before going Rifling - long time readers will know I still don't have the Heroic Epic unlocked. Police State could be useful in tandem with some whipping as well, for that matter.



Sadly, beyond those two, everything else is going to require Scientific Method, which means expiring both Great Library and Parthenon, two wonders I've gotten a ton of mileage from. The smart short term path is probably Rifling -> Combustion -> shut off research for a while. The path I'd prefer is Rifling -> Combustion -> SciMeth -> Physics -> Electricity -> Industrialism. The issue, of course, is that one has me ready for war in 5-10t, one in 15-20t. Can't keep waiting for the holy hand grenade - it always LOOKS close. It usually isn't though.

Anyway, I still don't deeply care about this game, but its any opportunity to get reps in a part of the game I rarely get to so I should take advantage.

[Mardoc]

long time readers will know I still don't have the Heroic Epic unlocked.

That's right, casus belli right there! I'd forgotten .

[NobleHelium]

No need to fort the gems, you can get a trade route through mackoti's conquest.

And you didn't tell Commodore that he spelled satyr incorrectly.

[novice]

The benefit from GLib and Parthenon should be getting less significant now?

[Gaspar]

That's right, casus belli right there! I'd forgotten .

Yeah, I actually had a meltdown on Commodore in chat when he mentioned the Heroic Epic. So he won't be too surprised. As I said, I don't feel bad about declaring on Commodore - while we've been useful trade partners to one another, he's also been a bit of a douchey neighbor. My problem is that #2 attacking #3 is generally good only for #1. But I think that die is cast.

The benefit from GLib and Parthenon should be getting less significant now?

Yeah it is. I'd kind of like to keep Parthenon through one more Golden Age, though. I'm sitting on enough for the 3-man GAge. I need 2 more GPs for the 4-man. Artist, Scientist, Merchant for 3-man. Have Artist and Prophet for 4-man. Ultimately though, I haven't avoided SciMeth to this point, more that I beelined Railroad because I wanted to try out Mining Inc. 7 base hammers to a city it spreads to is quite nice. The cost is absurd, however. Wall Street should help with that, though. Regardless, I won't skip SciMeth (and I did decide on Rifling next.)

No need to fort the gems, you can get a trade route through mackoti's conquest.

And you didn't tell Commodore that he spelled satyr incorrectly.

Good call, thanks.

[Gaspar]

Just talked to mack. Apparently he's going to try and extract concessions for Commodore. If he gets them, I guess we're going to hold off until tanks. That'd be better for me, honestly, anyway.

God bless the holy hand grenade. 10:1 tanks turns into Bombers turns into Modern Armor turns into just launch a ship already.