[SPOILERS] WillPlunder as Mehmed of Arabia: Noobs meet world

[TheHumanHydra]

This game is stressing me the hell out, lol. I'll actually be relieved when it's done and I don't think I'll play in 2 PB games at once again. Hopefully some lurkers find it interesting though.

I know that feeling. It was the "hammer" attacks that did me in too.

[WilliamLP]

Just checking:




I switched to Theology last turn, with the intent of whipping the hell out of everything if Bandit didn't take peace. I assume there's no ethical problem with accepting this, then switching research, even after I ended turn?

[Qgqqqqq]

No (in my opinion). Just don't make a habit of it if anyone has tech visibility on you.

[NobleHelium]

...what does someone having tech visibility on you have to do with it?

[WilliamLP]

Bandit took peace. I had no idea if he would.

Surely he must have been planning to sneak-attack? Why else would he have 4 galleys positioned there, and moved in just the way he would if he were going to? If they were to hide from Retep, it doesn't explain his moves at all. He was probably hoping for a quick surgical strike on the island and then to re-offer peace, is my guess.

So I may have successfully conveyed the message that I wasn't going to take it without trying to retaliate hard, even though I had no present danger to him yet.




I had an artist bomb ready for Alfredo, and I could move next to Belvedere in 1 turn, but I highly doubt I could actually take the city. But I would have gone into full war mode and probably whipped a round of cannons + camels everywhere, researched and upgraded to Cuirs, and gone in with that, which he'd have to sacrifice a lot to handle. This would hand Retep the game, if he doesn't have it already.

Kuro also took peace, which is really nice for the happiness.

I spawned a scientist, and saw no reason not to take another 12 turns of Golden Age.

So where does this leave this game?




My GNP is competitive for now, but it's entirely dependent on being in a golden age. The 4-man one would be awkward though, and would require some random number luck to get something that isn't an artist, scientist, or merchant. I guess this is a non-obvious (to a noob) value of the Communism spy. Maybe, I actually made a mistake firing the 3-man golden age now... I could have waited until next turn for anther great person and tried to save the Prophet for uniqueness for the 4-man one. I guess there was no reason to fire the GA now instead of next turn actually. So yeah...

Rhetorical questions to myself:

How long will this game last? It won't be that long before machine guns and railroad show up which should make attacking anything really hard.

Would we actually be looking at a hypothetical space race win if the game isn't conceded first?

Bandit has Financial (vs our Organized). Retep has Kremlin + Monk econ + early State Property + Organized. Can I compete with that? I have no idea. What I've learned this game is that this capital wasn't good enough. Doing it again there's no question I would have prioritized moving it somewhere over land and river that could spam cottages. Also, I would have tried to actually use bulbs in the key moments where they really matter.

What's the optimal economic direction here? All of Communism, Biology, and Corporation (Wall St. in the shrine city) would help a lot.

Replaceable Parts comes in next turn. Do I need Rifling next? I think so. Though, with forced peace with Bandit I'm not totally sure I can't get away with delaying it even more.

Is a large Cavalry force worth anything in this game now? Cavs could take Kuro out easily but: 1. who cares? and 2. so could rifles. In this three-way balance of power with Retep in the tech lead, I don't think Bandit and I will have a ground war soon.

Do I want or need Ships of the Line?

Is there any conceivable attack against Retep that could work? I'm thinking not. Unless maybe there were some way to set up a 3-way dogpile with Boldly, me and Bandit attacking at the same time eventually. Good luck in a no-diplo game.

I guess I need to think about what Civics I want at the end of this next GA.

Is colonizing further west even worth it? Perhaps it is if Retep doesn't call me on it? The game has to last long enough too.

How serious is Boldly about playing to win this game? They do have a lot of land.

At this point in a game, is it worth someone going after someone like Oxy? I haven't been looking at his tech, I wonder how close he is getting to rifles.

[Qgqqqqq]

...what does someone having tech visibility on you have to do with it?

If you swap late in the turn frequently then it destroys the point of people having tech visibility as you're never researching what you actually intend to research. Its something people got really pissed off at Parkin for in PB 4 and 7.

[WilliamLP]

This one is a little bit of a grey area to me: I did something that would be impossible in a sequential turns game, but that's common in PB (e.g. checking if a trade was accepted and accepting a counter-proposal after the player logs in - I don't think anyone would have a problem with that.) Changing techs as a reaction to a move in war as the player first in the order is dubious to me, and I probably wouldn't do it. But in a turn where I was at war transiently and making the change in peace, it's not as clear.

Unpopular opinion: I actually think the Spanish Mod worked remarkably well, by taking away all ambiguity about when you can and can't make any moves. It's extremely draconian but there was also no controversy about move orders in ISDG, which was remarkable.

[Qgqqqqq]

I agree that the Spanish mod solved the problems, but I don't think it was particularly worthwhile compared to the don't-be-a-jerk rule for slots, and don't think the rest matters enough to be worth being locked out and have to use a mod (cutting out most Mac users).

[Sullla]

The Spanish mod did not solve double-move issues at all. It does nothing to stop a team from moving every unit with 1 minute left on the turn timer, and then moving again after the turn rolls in a brutal, impossible-to-stop double move. We didn't make any moves like this because we didn't want to act like jerks, but there is nothing in the mod itself that prevents that sort of behavior from happening.

[WilliamLP]

Ok, I stand corrected on the Spanish Mod. I still kind of like the simplicity of how it handles war though: you play as in a pure turn split, with no subjectivity about what you can and can't do on the wrong half. All this being said, at least in the parts of this game that I've seen, there hasn't been much confusion or controversy about turn order.

Right now, not much is going on. I'm using the forced peace to run a bunch of wealth builds to get Rifling in 2 turns, arguably long overdue.




It's a higher GNP than I've ever shown in this game, but I might run wealth for a while to power through some techs while using the draft.