[SPOILER] PB37 Dark Savant tries not to be a blatant MP n00b

[Dark Savant]

t155:

chumchu offers a peace treaty.  He recaptured neither Regna from Krill nor Emerald Island from me.  With little navy on the western sea, no willingness to declare war upon Krill, and new foreign relations possible, I'm going to accept.

Gavagai just declared war on Krill.  Also, Gavagai just moved out these galleons.



Where are they going?  Those galleons aren't moving towards Krill.  He's not going to declare war on both Krill and me on successive turns, is he?  (That galley of dtay's is all by itself, so he's not defending against that.)  I shift a bunch of troops north just in case; I have defense to cover both Vertigo and on the hill where knights could land (he could fork Garrote Gorge and Vertigo from there).  He'd have to attack with a ton of stuff just to capture relatively-lightly-defended Erliquin (on a hill, with +125% defense against anything other than janissaries, and 4 defenders).

Gavagai has Gunpowder for janissaries, but I don't think he's had it long as I've seen only a few, two in the above snapshot -- if he's going to attack me, those galleons should have mostly knights.  I'm going to need Gunpowder relatively soon, I think.

Drama in, Philosophy due next turn.

I forgot autopromote promoted already-produced units, so I have more stupidly promoted units now.    Oops.

I'm not going to say this in the public thread, but I was going to play a second consecutive turn, but won't on the off-chance Gavagai is about to declare war on me.  (This is what I'm supposed to do, right?  Lurkers please answer, I can play another turn tonight to keep the game going.)

As far as my next research project goes ... I can research Banking to swap to Mercantilism before the GA runs out.

[Dark Savant]

More than 12 hours have passed; I'm going to presume it's okay to play.  (If I don't, I can't get to the game again before the time limit.)

[The Black Sword]

Yeah, playing a back to back turn is fine there I think.

[Dark Savant]

Yeah, playing a back to back turn is fine there I think.

Okay, thank you!

t156:

Not a whole lot happened this turn.  I have some settlers going finally, and a few more knights.

Philosophy is in; Banking started so I can swap to Mercantilism before the end of the GA.  I've also started the National Epic in Sorpigal.

I'll have to sit down and try to work out if swapping to Pacifism will actually pay off.

GermanJoey and dtay are both in the lead; apart from declaring a war against GermanJoey that I feel would be suicidal without someone else at war with him (DZ doesn't count; he's now down to 1 city), there's not a lot I can do about it.

Well, I can attack whomever they attack next, at least.  I can produce knights harder after the GA ends.  I'm not sure there's a better plan, really.

My power has risen to 4th.  Next game I may actually have this builder/warmonger balance better.  

[Dark Savant]

t157:

DZ/CH/ex-Ventessel has been eliminated.

Gavagai declared a second war!  Not on me -- it's on dtay.  I moved a caravel up there to see what's up.  I don't know where all those galleons and knights went.

Krill has a galleon headed for an empty island between me and GermanJoey.  I am only now building settlers again, and GermanJoey hasn't prioritized it either.  If Krill has a settler on there he'll beat me there by a couple turns.

I had put the Great General I generated (forgot to mention that) into Harmondale, which is now constructing a 10 XP knight so I can finally get going on the Heroic Epic.  Yeah, I never generated a 10 XP unit naturally.

I forgot to build a missionary for Sorpigal -- it'll be done next turn for a swap to Pacifism which I decided after all to use.  Sorpigal is working on the National Epic and could actually use an aqueduct next -- I wasn't expecting that so soon!  Banking is due next turn.

I need to decide which of these wars to potentially get involved in.

[Dark Savant]

t158:

Banking comes in; I revolt to Buddhism, Mercantilism, and Pacifism.

Gavagai is attacking dtay at the island city of Efbaum.  He's got more janissaries than I thought he'd have (it doesn't look like enough though).  Gavagai and Krill also signed a peace treaty, with no cities lost on either side.

That means it's time to consider whether to attack dtay, though I'm not sure it's worth it if there isn't enough blood being shed.

I'm wavering on whether to get Gunpowder or Astronomy next.  I finally decide on Astronomy; I think I'll have time to get Gunpowder as well before any serious threat emerges.

[Dark Savant]

t159:

Whoa, Gavagai just captured two of dtay's island cities, farther away from me.

I am considering jumping into the fray and retaking Wildabar, but that's heavily fortified -- multiple city garrison III longbows behind a castle and a river.  It'll be a while before I could transport enough of a force to take that (I don't have enough galleys in the area), and I'd have to rely on Gavagai to keep dtay's navy away were I to do that.

In the meantime, I have to worry about defending myself against GermanJoey on the other front.  He's at peace with everyone and has the largest territory.  He also just landed a settler on the island between us -- that has me beat by 2 turns.  Well, I can belatedly fill in gaps in my territory.

I could actually use a health resource -- but no one has any extras for trade.  Oh well, it'd be for just Sorpigal anyway.

The Golden Age ends next turn.  With Pacifism, and the National Epic completing next turn, I might actually be able to launch a third Golden Age after all.  

The crawl to Astronomy is under way.

[ipecac]

-Most people tend to reach Astro quickly via bulbing.

-Your best chance to remain relevant is to be prickly, and also snipe cities off other weaker civs when you can.

[Dark Savant]

Oh, I didn't realize I should have planned on a GP to bulb Astronomy.  Well, it's too late for that at this point; I'm now getting it the hard way.

I'll see what I can do about sniping cities.

[Dark Savant]

t160:

The Golden Age is over; I can finish crawling to Astronomy in about 6 turns.

If I win GP roulette, I can start the next Golden Age in around 25 turns.  Sorpigal is still catching up on infrastructure.

I'm planting cities to fill in gaps in my territory, at least.  I'll finally, finally plant green dot in 2 turns.  

I'm wondering whom to possibly attack.

dtay's frontline former island city of mine is still heavily defended, though I'm not sure it'll do well against the janissaries that Gavagai may have dispatched towards it.  dtay proposed a NAP for now, and I accepted because I don't believe an attack is going to happen any time soon -- even if I did somehow retake Wildabar from him, it'd be very difficult to defend.

It's actually possible to attack Gavagai now; that's only true because he and dtay are in an intense war -- both of their power scores have dropped precipitously.  I could probably attack and take Ankara on the border if I massed and threw most of what I have at it.  I'm doubtful of my ability to actually hold it, or weather the counterattack.  Not to mention it'd be costly because we're trading with the full +150% peace bonus.  You know, that would be a lot more possible if I had Gunpowder instead of Astronomy, come to think of it.

I'd consider attacking GermanJoey if someone else were, but I feel I can't fight him alone.

I may have the troops in place to start attacking chumchu in ~5 turns if he's still at war with Krill.

I can also attack JR4's island holdings -- at this point they're starting to be rather underdefended.

If GermanJoey were to attack JR4, I'm not sure which side I'd be joining.  I'd probably pick a side in that case.

I could start and whip a whole bunch of knights.  This would be rather costly because I'm in Pacifism, and I'm not sure a knight attack would accomplish a whole lot at this point -- or would it?  Even so, I'm just not sure whom to attack.  Part of the whole problem is that I can't easily attack anyone without having Astronomy.