[Spoiler] Fintourist loses his multiplayer virginity

[Fintourist]

Turn 122

Excitement! This screenshot shows pretty much everything relevant:



Sareln

• Sareln did the expected moves (GA launch + civic switches), race is on!!
  
• I'm not sure Sareln realizes that I have research visibility. Anyways, he finished Paper and has Education selected. He could get it in 4 turns with max research, but he has only 80 gold currently. That enables probably one turn of 80/90 % research.
  
• Consequently, I still believe that he needs 2 Great Scientists to beat me. Liberalism is quite expensive (1848 beakers). My fear level will rise significantly as soon as Sareln produces his first GS...
  
• Sareln settled "Allspice" last turn. I don't believe that he will push for map centre during the next couple of turns.
  

Me

• I have now, my Liberalism calculations in place. The first move was putting myself 50 beakers away from finishing Education. Next turn I'll tech Meditation and overflow into Philosophy.
  
• My settler is on its way to found my 14th city on "C!"
  
• I whipped the settler for the "Fish Dot", which will be founded one turn later than "C!"
  

Azza

• Azza has luckily not produced yet enormous amounts of military. However, I guess it's only a matter of time when the first maceman is born. I'm crossing my fingers that he is busy with his own economy still for a while
  

Finally, here are the EOT122 demos. I thought that these stats are interesting since now Sareln is in Golden Age and we are very likely both researching Education with full speed:



So conclusion of this: Yeah, he's researching faster, but that GNP (or MFG) is not too scary. Of course he is surely putting a lot of effort into producing great persons, but still. Luckily GLH commerce and Shrine gold, which contribute significantly to Sareln's economy do not get boosted through GA.

[Fintourist]

Turn 123

No news is good news! Sareln is collecting money, Azza shows no particular aggression. Liberalism, Nationalism and Gunpowder ETAs are approaching. My food lead decreases due to the fact that I haven't been settling new cities. That will change soon!

In order to fight the maintenance that will soon explode again. I triple-whipped my first courthouse:



That courthouse saves me immediately 5gpt per turn and 6gpt when Tipsy Time grows a little bit. I hope to remain close to 50 % break-even rate after settling my 14th and 15th cities.. Btw, Tipsy Time is about 20 turns old, had only one forest to chop, but already has free monument, granary, lighthouse, forge and courthouse, which means that I have stacked quite a bit of whip unhappiness there. But hey, what's the point of luxuries and CHA trait if you don't use them! I guess next whips will produce military and library...

[Fintourist]

Turn 124

This turn tempo is costing me the game! Only two days until my summer internship begins and my civ planning time gets reduced even futher

Anyways, positive news: No macemen from Azza or great scientists from Sareln in sight (yet).

Negative news: Azza is still causing me headache..



We have a small cold-war-miltary-build-up-thing going in the west. We both had 2 Galleys and a Trireme in the area, but now Azza added a new trireme. I guess I'll have to respond, so I overflowed into a 2-turn Trireme in Chip'n Charge and I guess I'll double whip a trireme in Tipsy Time as well, if Azza moves his ships in any kind of aggressive way. This all would be okay, but in the meanwhile my no.1 competitor Sareln presumably does not face any kind of military pressure from his other neighbors and gets to run a lighter military than me while enjoying a MoM-powered golden age..

In other news, my own Liberalism train keeps going and I put myself 45 beakers away from finishing Philosophy. Next turn I start 1-turning techs. I think with some wealth builds I could now finish Philo, Education and Liberalism (close case!) in three consequtive turns, but probably Liberalism will be a two-turn tech. My efforts will depend on Sareln's actions.

[Molach]

Glad to see this on track again.

I second the , nice updates.

[Old Harry]

What does Azza's power look like? Is he ramping up for all-out war, putting together enough units for a strike on under-protected islands or making enough naval units to defend against you?

Also the lurkers demand more puzzles...

[Fintourist]

Hi guys!

Azza's power has been climbing constantly, but not really spiking. Thanks to my scouting galleys (which must annoy Azza) I have visibility on 4 of his closest mainland border cities. It looks to me that Azza is currently allocating his units fairly evenly across the empire for defensive purposes, but of course there might be an extra stack of 10 axes wandering somewhere..

Azza's power is now around 265k (1st), mine is 220k (2nd) and Azza's other neighbor, Hydra has only around 140k (5th). I hope that Azza's aggressive moves will be directed that way..

I'll see if I can invent a new puzzle. My time resources do not currently allow extensive planning or simming and my last updated sandbox is from T117. Therefore I'm playing pretty much based on gut feeling and short-term calculations now, which means that it's unlikely that I come up with anything particularly clever..

[Fintourist]

Turn 125

Turn per day! What's this?

The following is not exactly a puzzle in the same sense as earlier in this thread, but at least for me it gives thinking...



So Azza finally noticed (there's Azza's scout, Viqsi's warrior, my worker and my scout E of my future city) my plans to settle those yummy sushi resources and apparently he did not like it.. However, last turn he only spotted a settler and a missionary in "Bollittieri's" and a worker+axe pair that was roading the way to my new site. So he sent 2 axes and a spear forward possibly trying to convince me for not settling there... Next turn he will find out that I have slightly more units there than he probably expected.

So what's the situation: Azza has 5 Axes, chariot and a spear in the area. I have currently 4 Axes, two spears and an archer. Next turn I very likely double whip an axe in Bollittieri's and overflow into an archer.

Next turn I'll settle the city, spread Hinduism and start collecting fortify bonus for my defenders. Getting those +25 % and +20 % bonuses will be important for my security. In the mid-term I would like to chop all that first ring Jungle away and bring some cats & Janissaries into that city. That site is quite far from our cores, which means that for both sides, bringing reinforcements will be slow.

During the next turns, if Azza wants to be aggressive here are the possible match-ups (Azza vs. me):

T126/7:
2 axes + 1 spear vs. 3 axes, 1 spear and 1 archer

T128:
5 axes + 1 spear + 1 chariot vs. 5 axes, 1 spear and 1 archer

TXXX???
10 maces vs. ancient trash

In the short-term I should be fine, but let's see if tensions increase further. I have definitely settled three cities that Azza hates, but I don't think I have had many other options for my expansion. Please attack Hydra, I have enough on my hands!

Liberalism news:
Philosophy is in! Sareln seems to be building wealth in his cities. Otherwise I cannot explain how he loses only -40gpt while still teching with quite a nice speed (and with significantly higher GNP than 3 turns ago. Apparently he does not need to whip defensive axes and triremes Oh well, I'm definitely pushing for Lib regardless what Azza does. I'm not going to give Sareln a free ticket for MoM-powered Taj Golden Age. He can probably win that race anyways thanks to his IND trait, but hopefully I can force him to work for it (tech Nationalism). That could give me enough of a headstart so that I can reach Gunpowder and Astronomy. Then we can start arm wrestling

[Fintourist]

Turn 126

Azza! You're a total pain for me!! But I still settled that damn city.



So Azza did (kind of expectedly) the aggressive move and brought all his axes forward. This means that he has 5 axes, chariot, a spear and a warrior ready to attack me in two turns. I have currently 3 axes, spear and an archer in the city, next turn I'll add a 4th axe and a 2nd spear, then again an axe and then an archer. Bollittieri's has a nice food surplus, which means that I can produce every three turns an axe+archer pair at least for 6-7 times if I have to.

Azza! Thanks to fortify bonus you won't get coin-flip odds with your axes! You don't have odds on your side! Go back! Do not start a stalemate war that will ruin both of our games! Oh well, judging Azza based on other RB games, I'm quite sure that he will declare and march forward. So it's time. He can not really conquer me unless he gets constantly really lucky rolls. I have larger navy, I shoould have enough defenders for this first push and even if I go Liberalism first I can get Gunpowder in ~7 turns. However he can surely damage me with a determined attack and maybe eventually raze that city. I'm afraid that it would cost both of us too many hammers...

Because of Azza I had to whip more cities than I originally wanted this turn. Therefore it looks like I'm just a little bit short of 1-turning Liberalism next turn. However, because Sareln does have neither Education, Alphabet or if I remember correct Compass, it means that T128 Liberalism should be safe even if he gets great scientist next turn.

I'm playing for the win here and therefore I'm definitely not 1-turning Machinery or Gunpowder even if Azza declares. Sareln is still the main enemy.

Btw, Hydra settled finally his 8th city fairly close to my northern borders. If I ever manage to find a comfortable position between Sareln and Azza I would be happy to go take it from him.

[Fintourist]

Game mechanic questions:

1) My units in the city did not move this turn, just fortified. When do they get the first 5 % bonus? When the turn rolls? When it's my turn again? When I ended my turn (did not seem like it)?

2) Same thing about healing? When do my units heal?

3) Assuming Azza attacks on the first part of T128 (he is before me in the turn order) and damages my units. Do I get to promote the units that won battles when it's my turn on T128?

Thanks!

[NobleHelium]

Fortification bonus increases at start of your turn if the unit did not move the previous turn. Same for healing. You're able to promote units immediately that gained enough experience for promotion during someone else's turn.