[PB37 SPOILER] Coeurva, Bacchus -- Cyrus of Carthage

[Bacchus]

strange motif of Spanish overseas conquests entangled with John Shade from the beginning

That is some scary knowledge of that text.

[Coeurva]

Choose your answer:

a) I compensate with a lack of such knowledge in Civ.
b) I even forgot to mention Kinbote using the descriptor "auto-da-fé".
c) I cannot possibly be scarier than the artist who managed to build that book (this is all essentially culled from the Foreword alone). See Also:

Kinbote dies in "Cedarn, Utana" -- looking up today's most commonly-accepted etymologies for Utah and Arizona will yield another "fountain"-"mountain" rhyme. As does searching for "Golconda" in Keats' body of work, for that matter. Even October as the month of death is significant (see Zemblan actress Iris Acht and her doomed love affair).

Or the hints about a possible Dante motif (or perhaps more pertinently, a Dante-imitator motif?), of which I'm still not sure whether it's a red herring: "rubicund convives"; "concave inferno of ice" -- perhaps this is meant to recall Satan's entrapment as his maws crush the archtraitors (Brutus, Cassius, Judas Iscariot); the "stunning blonde in the leotard" that Shade's colleagues tease him with after he professes a weak memory for faces (Dante the character is initially stunned by a female leopard).

Or another possible motif: skin diseases (Hazel is psoriatic, one source of her torment -- Nabokov himself suffered from this in 1937), because the text appears to continue the Dante motif with Shade's "leonine face" as Kinbote calls it (Dante, because "la vista che m'apparva d'un leone"), but "facies leonina" actually also describes a symptom of leprosy.

Or Shade's confession that he can barely bring himself to "attack the fortress of an apple" -- which reveals what he doesn't say in the poem: the initial "apple on a plate" was probably placed by his wife.

d) I cannot possibly be scarier than dtay's army, which has captured another two cities from Yuri on T133.

[Coeurva]

T133


It's better for units to finish eoT134, as they will benefit from Vassalage. Especially the longbow in Sherry, as the city lacks barracks. I'm cautiously assuming that JR4 will attack us (nobody else has Open Borders with him, but I'm not sure how much of a deterrent that is).

If we can get stone, Lifeblood will probably build the Moai Statues during the GA, unless we really need the longbows (that's well possible).


Almost #3 in food (Gavagai is #2), but I whipped the longbow in Westward (actually should have waited there as well, to get a 5XP lbow instead) and the work boat in Crested Eyrie, which I'm sure nobody reading this knows the location of. (It's next to Yuri's Yekaterinburg.)


The plan. Can Savant see the "135" tile? -- Also note Krill's campaign to raise trireme awareness, which I hope won't alert Savant too much. Our attack force will be 8 swords (most CR2, one CR1), 1 chariot (sentry or shock), 1 catapult (4XP), on five galleys covered by two triremes.

I've sent stone <-> marble to Krill. If he declines, next turn we send the same offer to Gavagai (don't want to alert Savant). Funnily enough, Savant also has stone and not marble, but we can't exactly trade with him.

Yuri took another city back from dtay which I find astonishing, but I think he's slamming swords into newly-captured cities, so it's not sustainable.

I've been thinking that we could use our one remaining galley to snipe Yekaterinburg (garrison: 1 axe) with two chariots, maybe. It's not a particularly great city, but that's still better than dtay taking it.

EDIT:

Sorry for the delay in playing the turn, I got a diplo offer and due to a misclick on the laptop accepted it rather than decline, look around and re offer as normal. I'm not asking for a reload, but the unexpectedly accepted offer does require me to think for a bit longer this turn so I don't know when it will roll.

Hm. Now we have stone, but I'd rather wish we didn't. It sucks to exploit Krill here, but it also sucks that we can't offer our marble to anyone else anymore. What's best to do? Just not build Moai, and accept that we get 50% production on walls for 10t?

[Coeurva]

Krill has changed his mind and would prefer a reload. I've sent him this:

Hi Krill,

I'd personally prefer to reload as well, since the alternative would be awkward, knowing that you didn't mean to agree to the stone/marble trade offer.

Since you didn't name us as the sender in the tech thread, I figured it would be better to tell you this via PM.

Coeur

Not least because I had considered roughly the same in our case -- not a reload, but certainly an out-of-court settlement (although I didn't send anything to Krill in the end). Indeed, Krill might have been generous when he took the peace out of his own accord, without my knowledge.

So if he should need support in his reload request, there it is. Also obviously only speaking for myself here.

[Bacchus]

Savant should not be able to see T135. Why can't we move this/next turn? Still healing? As for chariot, should take sentry on hebona to scout garrison size before we unload.

[Bacchus]

Could also move Hebona with sentry to check garrisons right now. You can move 2E from 135 spot and back without starting or ending turn in view.

[Bacchus]

Actually, Savant can see the 135 tile.

[Bacchus]

Lol, it seems Yuri has captured a city back from dtay again. Really interested to know what the hell is happening there. If he managed something like setting up counterattacks with spears against uncovered knights or CR swords against cities -- well done him. #russianpride

[Coeurva]

Yeah, the swords are healing until eoT134 (I'm not sure if the medic axe helped at all). The sentry chariot can move 9 while loaded on Hebona this turn, which should allow us to scout Regna's garrison on T135, immediately before committing to an attack on that turn by sending the other galleys as well, but also allowing us to retreat from Savant's view if the city has been stuffed with ten axes.

(T135 is also better because Savant is presently ferrying over almost everything he has on the mainland -- our warrior is observing galleys coming and going at Sorpigal -- which will leave him at his most vulnerable; Harmondale is defended by a single warrior. I'd enjoy NumCav here, but we have too tight a schedule on Machinery/Compass/Optics)

I think Yuri is running around with CR swords to recapture cities. We could send him an Open Borders offer, and shove a chariot to the western shore to get a front seat if he agrees, not that he'd have much of a reason to. Also might gift him a lbow, if we can make a surplus of those.

[chumchu]

This thread continues to be the best waters for lurking on this site with one notable exception, you still have not provided much to honour the memory of Massinissa.