[Spoilers] CH tries to be more than a warm body

[Fenn]

Stop the presses: Serdoa is offering 10t peace. Do we accept?

It bites to to lose Cori and New Nairobi, and Serdoa will probably use those 10 turns to tech to Curiassiers or similar if taotao doesn't eat us first (Serdoa is teching Gunpowder atm), but it's not like we can really stop his current army either. This might give us time to get some more 14xp Knights going, and perhaps fire a Golden Age to get towards Gunpowder ourselves.

[Cheater Hater]

Stop the presses: Serdoa is offering 10t peace. Do we accept?

It bites to to lose Cori and New Nairobi, and Serdoa will probably use those 10 turns to tech to Curiassiers or similar if taotao doesn't eat us first (Serdoa is teching Gunpowder atm), but it's not like we can really stop his current army either. This might give us time to get some more 14xp Knights going, and perhaps fire a Golden Age to get towards Gunpowder ourselves.

Has anything changed in the diplo situation (like taotao declaring on Serdoa)? How many turns are left on the peace treaty with taotao? How many units do Serdoa and taotao have in the area?

How close is Serdoa to new military tech--you say he's researching Gunpowder now, and I don't think he's started Nationalism yet (much less all the way to Military Tradition or Rifling). For that matter, how's taotao doing on tech? Presumably he's speeding towards Liberalism (and Serdoa wasn't researching much during the war), but what about the other continent?

What would peace get us? The main things are (hopefully) the golden age and HE, but what tech would we want? Are we supposed to head towards Nationalism ourselves? Or continue towards Printing Press in hopes of being left alone? Or do we need Optics for contacts and the sweet known tech bonus?

If we do get peace, I might consider playing full-time again if you want me to. Then again, I'd likely storm off again once taotao declared, and FF14 has been taking a lot of my time recently

[Fenn]

Has anything changed in the diplo situation (like taotao declaring on Serdoa)? How many turns are left on the peace treaty with taotao? How many units do Serdoa and taotao have in the area?

How close is Serdoa to new military tech--you say he's researching Gunpowder now, and I don't think he's started Nationalism yet (much less all the way to Military Tradition or Rifling). For that matter, how's taotao doing on tech? Presumably he's speeding towards Liberalism (and Serdoa wasn't researching much during the war), but what about the other continent?

What would peace get us? The main things are (hopefully) the golden age and HE, but what tech would we want? Are we supposed to head towards Nationalism ourselves? Or continue towards Printing Press in hopes of being left alone? Or do we need Optics for contacts and the sweet known tech bonus?

If we do get peace, I might consider playing full-time again if you want me to. Then again, I'd likely storm off again once taotao declared, and FF14 has been taking a lot of my time recently

Taotao (well, mackoti subbing for him) hasn't declared on Serdoa, still sitting his army on our northwest border. We have five turns of peace left with him, which will probably be followed by war. Serdoa still has many units left - I've killed about a dozen Knights and two Longbows so far, but he still had about 23 more Knights in his main stack with more on the way, along with >22 Catapults and assorted lesser units. Our own forces only really consist of about 20 Knights, about half still injured, 6 Cats, and some Longbows and Pikemen scattered between three cities.

It's not a question of making the war drag on for Serdoa, because from where I stand we're just about gassed. He still has enough troops to capture any city he likes, such as the HE or Moai cities, and if he commits his forces to it there's nothing we can do about that. I've been able to recapture New Nairobi twice because he's garrisoned it with just a couple of Knights + one or two other units, but once he starts bringing his Pikes into it there's little we could do short of throwing everything at him at once. Either we preserve our units and start losing cities, or we lose units recapturing cities until we have nothing but dry-whipped defenders to work with.

Serdoa's running low science on the slider so I'm not sure quite how far he is from Gunpowder, but I doubt it's very long. REM was the first to Liberalism this turn and pulled a triple civics swap, so I'll have to wait until next turn to see where taotao goes next. The other continent I don't know much about, but I don't think they have anything more advanced than Knights going on. Ourselves, I think we should head straight for Gunpowder - taotao has the strength to conquer us outright, even moreso than Serdoa, so although Optics would be nice for overseas contacts and trade routes, I don't think we have enough time left on this world to bother with it.

Still, it would be nice to have a few turns' reprieve to build more units and prepare as well we can for the taotao invasion that I'm sure is coming. I don't mind playing out the turns indefinitely; if we get peace it might take more time to load the game than to play it honestly.

[Cheater Hater]

Has anything changed in the diplo situation (like taotao declaring on Serdoa)? How many turns are left on the peace treaty with taotao? How many units do Serdoa and taotao have in the area?

How close is Serdoa to new military tech--you say he's researching Gunpowder now, and I don't think he's started Nationalism yet (much less all the way to Military Tradition or Rifling). For that matter, how's taotao doing on tech? Presumably he's speeding towards Liberalism (and Serdoa wasn't researching much during the war), but what about the other continent?

What would peace get us? The main things are (hopefully) the golden age and HE, but what tech would we want? Are we supposed to head towards Nationalism ourselves? Or continue towards Printing Press in hopes of being left alone? Or do we need Optics for contacts and the sweet known tech bonus?

If we do get peace, I might consider playing full-time again if you want me to. Then again, I'd likely storm off again once taotao declared, and FF14 has been taking a lot of my time recently

Taotao (well, mackoti subbing for him) hasn't declared on Serdoa, still sitting his army on our northwest border. We have five turns of peace left with him, which will probably be followed by war. Serdoa still has many units left - I've killed about a dozen Knights and two Longbows so far, but he still had about 23 more Knights in his main stack with more on the way, along with >22 Catapults and assorted lesser units. Our own forces only really consist of about 20 Knights, about half still injured, 6 Cats, and some Longbows and Pikemen scattered between three cities.

It's not a question of making the war drag on for Serdoa, because from where I stand we're just about gassed. He still has enough troops to capture any city he likes, such as the HE or Moai cities, and if he commits his forces to it there's nothing we can do about that. I've been able to recapture New Nairobi twice because he's garrisoned it with just a couple of Knights + one or two other units, but once he starts bringing his Pikes into it there's little we could do short of throwing everything at him at once. Either we preserve our units and start losing cities, or we lose units recapturing cities until we have nothing but dry-whipped defenders to work with.

Serdoa's running low science on the slider so I'm not sure quite how far he is from Gunpowder, but I doubt it's very long. REM was the first to Liberalism this turn and pulled a triple civics swap, so I'll have to wait until next turn to see where taotao goes next. The other continent I don't know much about, but I don't think they have anything more advanced than Knights going on. Ourselves, I think we should head straight for Gunpowder - taotao has the strength to conquer us outright, even moreso than Serdoa, so although Optics would be nice for overseas contacts and trade routes, I don't think we have enough time left on this world to bother with it.

Still, it would be nice to have a few turns' reprieve to build more units and prepare as well we can for the taotao invasion that I'm sure is coming. I don't mind playing out the turns indefinitely; if we get peace it might take more time to load the game than to play it honestly.

Oh, mackoti's back? Then again, he never declared on us (taotao was back by that point), so maybe that's a good thing?

I mostly assumed that Serdoa was gassed because of the lack of interest he's showing in the game--apparently the fact that we're putting up a fight surprised him Did you accept a peace deal yet?

How many turns until Gunpowder--can we get it before the second great person pops?

I didn't realize REM was competitive on the Liberalism front (he didn't even have Paper when I left), though that explains why he's in first now--part of it's that his land points are finally counting.

If it's not taking you long to play the turns, you could do a report...
(but seriously, I appreciate you taking the reins--I honestly prefer the dedicated lurker role anyway)

[Fenn]

I took peace, yeah. When I play the next turn in a couple of minutes I'll make sure to check Gunpowder ETA.

REM is starting to look like the winner of this game, barring any dramatic changes. He's far ahead in city count and land area and just landed Lib. Maybe taotao or Serdoa can conquer us and leverage their gains, but they'll have to hurry up with it!

[Fenn]

Played the turn. It's late and I'm tired, so no 'brilliant' 'insights' this time. Gunpowder has 6t left. Of course, the real prize would be to get to Rifling, but I doubt that's possible.





Our army vs. what Donovan (Serdoa's replacement) is showing us; he's got more Knights in the fog.



We have a spare GG; could make him an instructor in Vilcas, to add to the Barracks/Stable/Coliseum there, or merge him with that Quechua to make a supermedic. We do already have a Medic II Knight, but of course he's more likely to get targeted in battle and will never be able to take Woodsman III. Andahuaylas is going to whip a Library to try to push back against DZ's culture. Vitcos (to the right) has pretty good commerce potential, so I'm squeezing in a Market before the next wars erupt.

[Cheater Hater]

Honestly, Military Tradition for Curs is a better target than Rifling; it gets us Nationalism along the way for drafting and Curs are better for a wide defense. Also, if I'm remembering my math correctly, wouldn't putting the GG in the HE city give us 4 promotion mounted units?

[Fenn]

Yeah, Military Tradition may be more worthwile. Takes far fewer beakers too.

The HE city already has 4-promo mounted units, enough for Formation + one extra (Flanking, Shock, Charge); another GG would leave them 4 exp short of level 5. Adding a third GG would let us get 4 promotions on other types of units, though - think that's worth it?

Donovan will get Gunpowder next turn; it's still 5t away for us, while taotao can declare war in 2t. Might want to consider turning off tech, upgrading the last few spears and pikes, and putting the rest into culture or something.

[Cheater Hater]

Are we dead yet, or has this game ground to a halt?

[Fenn]

Oh, not much is happening right now. For us, at least. taotao is hiding a little stack within our borders which makes me think he might go after DZ? It would be a smart move for him, DZ has no gunpowder units and lost a decent chunk of power trying to conquer us.