Japper is back in BBG

[Japper007]

I finally pulled back in score, only Greenline is still trailing the pack (me and everyone else at 30, he's at 27), wonder how his game is going? Is he getting killed? Barb trouble?

In other news, Greenline is now also producing Great Prophet points, so far just 1p/t, just like me. We might be in a race. Oh well I thought Settler was the wiser choice still, even if it means founding second. I'll keep an eye on the GP screen

Surprisingly I see Kongo is almost double my science atm (6 to my 3.6), must be his civ ability and presumably higher pop and maybe something like working tea/geothermal tiles. Though tbh science isn'ty as relevant at this stage of the game. Oh and of course he has Geneva! That is +2 right there... silly me.

[Japper007]

Managed to killsteal the Scout shuffling between me and Hunza, nice That being a Slinger kill, I'm now 5 turns from Archery. (IIRC one barb kill from Bronze Working boost too)

I think I have a real shot on getting the Temple of Artemis with that. I'll certainly try, this start is already pretty screwed, and that Wonder is absurdly strong in BBG so it could pull me back from the brink. +4 food +2 housing and every pasture, plantation and camp in range gets an amenity.

[Japper007]

Turn 40:

Somehow, Greenline has leapfrogged the field to top score (if I'm counting correctly, it was him picking up the most tech), but other than that it isn't much of a seperation (I'm lowest at 36, he's at 45, it's not insurmountable)

I'm still in a "race" (of a whole GPP/turn), for the first Great Prophet. No other districts finished according to the GP screen.

Next turn I finish Archery. I'll wait for the settler to finish (4 turns from now), before placing the TOA, because at least one player has seen my capitals tiles and will see it getting placed. No need to give the game away just yet.

[Japper007]

Turn 42: meet Hattusa, and Yuri's scout, to the east. That explains why some of these guys are pumping out so much science without campuses. (BTW this is why CPL usually ticks the BBM option to have no "Blues" spawn, it can quickly add up to a large differential, especially if some lucky guy has a pocket Science CS) Possibly there's a third blue CS in the fog up north? That would explain Greenline's tech pace.

[Japper007]

Turn 45: Two Archduke Eagle Warriors show up at my northern city (can we please increase the attachment limit? I'm already running in as low a resolution as possible... oh well guess no screenshots for me). Capital finishes settler, I queue up an Archer (really wanted ToA... oh well, won't just build it for Arch), and switch the northern city to one as well (it was doing a Lavra, but I can do without for now, defense is more pressing). I'm circling back the Slingers to upgrade. I have a war chest of 212 gold, maybe buy a Warrior once Arch declares (pretty sure he will, though he might just be looking for an oppertune Builder/Settler snipe) I'd love to buy a Trader or a Monument, but this might come down to the wire (two Eagles can take a city by just slamming it, it's a scary unit).

Think I can hold, maybe drag Archduke down, but if he declares war now I just don't see a way to win this one. But honestly with my terrible start I wasn't that optimistic anyway... Oh well at least it would be fun to see how much I can make him regret this.

Kinda strange from his strategic perspective, come to think of it. Yes my second city is pretty nice, but I think he would've gotten more out of growing into that very nice river system he has up north. And if he stalls out one of the other guys will eat him eventually.

[Cornflakes]

My workaround for an occasional large screenshot is: Load into Gimp, export as JPG with the "preview" checkbox enabled so that it estimates the output file size, then drag the quality slider down until it is in 400-450 kB range. Not practical for 5 screenshots per turn ... but for Eagle Warriors showing up ...

[Japper007]

So it's 4 Eagles now... Bought a Warrior up north to give it my best shot. He hasn't declared yet, but has blocked all my tiles (seems strange? He'll get yeeted out when he DOWs, a miscalculation or is he still trying to snipe a civilian?). Every turn he's giving me here is to his detriment. Next turn I'll move a Slinger back into my borders over there and upgrade it. Two Warriors and an Archer is going to be close, but the terrain makes it pretty difficult for him (a river and some tight spots, though that of course does make putting the city under siege easier). If I can hold for 5 turns I'll have equal numbers up north.

[Japper007]

Ok I'm dead, can't even put a dent in these Eagles, they outclass every unit I can bring to bear now. Damn just a few turns and I would've gotten Archers out and maybe held.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Yeah, even a few points of strength difference make a huge difference - warriors basically crumble against any kind of UU. In the base game Eagles have an absurd +8 points of strength, meaning they outclass warriors even more than Legions outclass swords, then you've got another +1 strength for each luxury Archduke has, too, which could realistically be +2 at this point depending on his start. So realistically every single Eagle Warrior is equivalent to a warrior corps, doing twice as much damage and taking half as much in return - so each one of his guys is worth two of yours. I guess a small consolation is they're a bit more expensive to train?

I have no idea how BBG messes with these numbers. But yeah, spawning next to the Aztecs can be basically a death sentence.

[Japper007]

I might make a nice final stand at my capital or at least be annoying (I can build an Archer every few turns, at least it has hammers...). AFAIK the BBG Eagle and civ synergy is untouched in the mod (since Archduke is the host, I've been looking at the Aztec introscreen... a lot lately).

I do not think I mismanaged my start (though feel free to send pointers), I was able to get food rolling as fast as was possible. Just bad luck to have such a slow growth start next to the ultimate early game civ.