[SPOILERS] JR4 and RefSteel have a plan

[JR4]

Three players are less than a tech away from Assembly Line. Donovan has somewhat surprisingly been able to close the tech gap to Wetbandit (more or less) and as a result I don`t think Donovan is a likely target. Cornflakes is building Rifles like crazy (or perhaps he`s upgraded a ton of them from Muskets) so he doesn`t look that vulnerable either. But Infantry do get a huge bonus against gunpowder units. I`m still far from certain where our mighty army will march once we assemble a huge stack of Cannons/Infantry. Cannons are rather good at bringing down city defenses but the problem is defending them against an attack by mounted units. I think we need Machine Guns to have any chances of success..

[BaII]

Do we have a place that produces 3 promo Infantry? If we can have a handful of formation Infantry I think our stack relatively safe? Obviously MG's would make it a lot safer but doesn't MG lose to cavalry if they take the "Charge" promotion since MG's are considered siege units?

[BaII]

Also I think we're at the point in the game where we have to thinking of how to produce a commando factory.

[RefSteel]

Our first Factory completed this turn (in Gower) and as a result it got a ton of unhealthiness.

The coal plant will make it quite a bit more unhealthy, too....

Would it be an awful idea to try for Pentagon in Pilch? Yes, it`s vulnerable but it`s got good production.

Am I wrong in supposing that we have about half a dozen cities that have both higher production and less vulnerability than Pilch? I suppose Thaliard wants to build Infantry directly, but why not Gower or Lords or Tyre or Hesperides or Helicanus?

Do we have a place that produces 3 promo Infantry?

Not unless we get Pentagon and revolt into Vass+Theo; then Thaliard would be able to do it.

Also I think we're at the point in the game where we have to thinking of how to produce a commando factory.

Well. Commando requires Combat 4, and we're neither Agg nor Cha. That means a Commando requires five full-price promotions: 26xp. We have 3 from a Barracks + 2 from Thaliard from the settled GG ... + 2 for Cavalry only from the Stable, and we can get another + 4 from civics if we swap to Vassalage and Theocracy, and another + 2 if we manage to secure the Pentagon. That's a grand total of 13. If we can get one unit up to 26xp (probably by attaching a GG to a unit that already has 6+ xp) and promote it all the way (probably either to Commando or to Medic 3 + Morale or something) then we can build West Point in Thaliard for another +5 xp, taking it all the way up to 18. Then we'd still have to settle 4 more Great Generals there to make it a Cavalry Commando factory even in pure XP civics even if we land the Pentagon - and a fifth for Commando Anything Else. (Actually, I think the Colosseum bonus might apply to Cavs, but that's only 1xp, so it doesn't actually matter for our Commando purposes since everything else comes out to an even number.)

Note wetbandit, with Charismatic, "only" needs 20 xp, and if I'm remembering correctly that Mr. Cairo has SoZ (and will probably get the Pentagon if he wants it, given his GE) then he's a bit closer than we are. Since no one is Agg, Commando factories can only happen after a lot of warring.

[JR4]

As I`m sure the global lurkers are aware - there has been some.. drama this turn. It sure looks like Cornflakes took a city from Superdeath. That is excellent news for us as they are busy while we start our massive buildup. There is no guarantee that the current conflict will last for long, though.

[JR4]

Um no, false alarm. The world is still at peace. How on earth did Superdeath lose score points while Cornflakes played his turn? Let`s find out.

TURN 250 and 251

Superdeath sent us this offer. A defensive pact? No thanks, buddy.

   

Cornflakes planted another city right on the Superdeath border. I should have guessed that he still gets control of those tiles with a city putting culture on the tiles. Oh well. Way more interestingly, there are 35 Incan Knights hidden on the tile 2W of the new city. Superdeath needs to move in a garrison into Jeffrey Dahmer. Now. Fwiw I don`t think a Superdeath`s sentry Knight can get visibility on the staging tile.

We finished Steel and Railroad is up next. Railroad is 8 turns at max science and we might be able to shave off a turn of the eta once we have saved enough gold.

Our cities are starving as we really don`t want to pave over our workshops but that`s the prize to pay for rapid industrialization. I agree that we have better options of building Pentagon than Pilch as it`s just too exposed. This turn two Coal Plants will complete - and then it`s time for building a massive army.

[JR4]

Wetbandit`s main army moved east towards Cornflakes but I`m not sure if it`s a decoy or a real attack.

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As we`re planning on doing some heavy warring over the next 30-50 turns we might be able to attain quite a few Generals. It goes without saying that getting a commando factory will be hard but maybe, just maybe we can work our way there. Agg and/or Cha would help out and I really miss the Agg/Pro Rifles and Infantry from PB 39. We should be able to give our units some nice promotions with Theocracy (and perhaps even Vassalage) and knowing what units we`re up against is going to be important. I`m still undecided on who to attack but if Superdeath gets into real trouble here, losing a major city we definitely should consider piling on.

[JR4]

TURN 253 and 254

We got another offer of forming a Defensive Pact this turn - from Wetbandit. Wow, that was quite surprising I must say. The idea must be to form some sort of loose "alliance" to stop Mr. Cairo from running away with the game. The offer was accepted. I feel that it`s in our best interests to swap sides here. Yes, that`s cynical but we`re all playing to win.. We didn`t cancel our DP with Mr. Cairo just yet as he might cancel our Rice for Wheat deal and send our cities into even more extreme unhealthiness. No one else has any spare health resource either. There just isn`t enough of them on this map.

   

Superdeath managed to cover up his exposed border city and therefore Cornflakes retreated all his Knights to a more central position.

Our buildup in underway. We finished a Cannon and an Infantry and currently four cities are building units (that number will increase quickly as our Factories/Coal Plants finish up). Hesperides started Pentagon and I don`t think we`re favourites to land it. One thing that crossed my mind is that we actually could get an Engineer from Lords which would allow us to rush Pentagon. Is that better than going for another GA? I`m unsure.

We should have enough gold stored next turn to turn on research. I expect Railroad to be a 7 turn tech.

[RefSteel]

Heh - the webwork of Defensive Pacts really is starting to look [EDIT: like the lead-up to World War I]! At some point, somebody's going to declare war, and half (or all???) the resource trades and international trade routes in the world will simultaneously go [EDIT:kablooie]!

[JR4]

TURN 254

The sheer amount of Defensive Pacts in this game is quite staggering. Mr. Cairo probably feels that he`s got a target printed on his back and signed yet another DP - this time with Donovan. In response we canceled our own deal with him (and some random old deals, including Open Borders). In other words, we`re taking a gamble here, trying to isolate Mr. Cairo as I believe that his culture attempt has to be stopped at all costs.

   

We need to build some Wealth to get Railroad in 7 turns but that goal is certainly attainable. As you can see on the power graph we`ve been building just about zero units for a very long time. I wonder what the world would look like once a player decides to declare war. Actually, we risk getting dragged into a 4 front war if all the others decide to cooperate but I can hardly imagine anyone wanting to deal with our fully militarized civ once our buildup is complete.