[spoilers] Commodore: Worse than Toku, it's Giggles of Siam!

[TheHumanHydra]

Just finished reading your whole thread up to this point; great reporting. Very interesting game; looking forward to seeing how it unfolds!

[Commodore]

Thanks THH. Come for the PB10OpAnalysis, stay for the show!

[TheHumanHydra]

Actually, I came for the history posts this time - usually it is opponent analysis, always learning.

[Cornflakes]

Any plans to chop the jungles to the NE of Stoney Knob if you're expecting a Serodian invasion.

[Sisu]

Archive binged on this over the last day. Edge of my seat!

[Commodore]

Thanks, Sisu, hope you continue to enjoy. It's going to be a big update here; this was a crazy-busy weekend to not be updating.

First of all, the world is now at war. Bigger completed the library quest and then hit Azza, and not too long after Serdoa launched a Smart Serdoa strike at Brick.

Any plans to chop the jungles to the NE of Stoney Knob if you're expecting a Serodian invasion.

'bout that...maybe. See, I'm less worried about a slow mace/treb/pike stack, more worried about knights. If so, the slowing terrain might be more of a plus than a minus, it's not like the knights get defensive bonii. Nor do my mammoths care if a stack defender or nine are in there.


Beyond that, it's been all about growing upward in comparative peace. Slowcheetah and I opened borders, and we're trading health resources all nice and convivial. I just keep on growing upwards, still edging him out in CY. It's a lot of yucky farms, though.


Some of my cities are just about to find themselves capped, though. He's Swallowdale...it grew, taking the plains hill mine from the sadly squeezed out Amazon in the west, and will sit pretty for a while. I do think it'll take pigs eventually to get a workshop+engineer more; that's a good 20hpt base. It's just grow and watch, guys.


Turn: 172
Status:

Next turn started with a leetle bit of fun; I sniped the barb axe with my medic chariot to go up to 8/10xp...one more axe, we've got a useful Medic 2.


This is where I come to the depressing realization that Plako is bigger than me and getting bigger, and Serdoa will be too if he gets his maintenance under control. I haven't grown in quite some time, and depressingly, there are only two more good cities and 4-5 more fillers in the land I have left. Maybe Astronomy is a really good idea.


I can certainly tech it without too much effort, but there is a nonzero chance that Nationalism goes from "nice" to "must have" if the capital spits out a GE; a rushed Taj would be using the GP the best possible way. If it's one of the other options, I'll just shrug and fire a GA, although it'll be wistfully in a GSpy's case.


Obviously, I'm not in war mode here, we're just growing still.


Nice GNP for 40% tech rate, I got to say. Courthouses finally paying off.


Sadly, my third-place MFG is a pretty distant third-place, I got Slow's graphs too and I can see he's impressively well-off but he's no big hammer guy. Serdoa is crazy; Caste/Guilds workshops are his win ticket. Score shows a pretty accurate ranking for all of us, not sure what Bigger's been doing beyond "WAR".


I did poke my head up to check out the viability of sniping Serdoa's horse city. Alas, he's got a longbow/holkan pair, which is plenty enough to stop a sneak attack.

Turn: 173
Status:

My own power is a bit suspect, actually. The nice big pile of BE can kill a loooot of knights, but although I'm still toying with moving on Serdoa, I'm worried that might not be the wisest with fifth-rank power. I'll check again for openings in Maya, but I might just put operations on ice; reading more 46 impresses me with how much caution Serdoa has.


What I do have is Dat GNP. Up to 50%, snagging Optics here. I'll knock out a caravel or two to see if there is anything worth colonizing, but I think it might be hammer time. Nationalism, by the way, also would in a pinch allow the CY to becoming Soldiers, not too bad a deal with muskets.


I think I just need to grow a touch more and fire my golden age. These little embarrassing cities are finally coming up to snuff, all cottages become hamlets in 1, 2, 4t for example. Pacifism/Caste, conserve power (pike it up a bit) and use caravels to screen, then blossom? Maybe. Growing and gold are our strengths, double down with cities like these.


Turn: 174
Status:

[TheHumanHydra]

Are you going to turn all those yucky farms into cottages?

[Commodore]

Are you going to turn all those yucky farms into cottages?

Nope, post-Guilds/Caste though they'll feed a bunch of -1f/+4h workshops. If Emancipation were a bit closer, maybe, but the US/Emancipation/FreeSpeech/Bureau cottage economy blossom is a long, long ways off.

[TheHumanHydra]

Huhm. Interesting. I look forward to seeing what you do with all those hammers.

[Commodore]

Huhm. Interesting. I look forward to seeing what you do with all those hammers.

Hopefully:


But who knows if I'll make it there.