Dave Fires Up The Epstein Drive [Japan]

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I like keeping the cities on the end of that isthmus. With no navy, Woden basically can't retake them - advancing over the 1 tile neck of land will just get his army blasted to bits, so those two cities are effectively a separate island from the rest of his empire.

[Mardoc]

Wow, that's quite the backlog of reporting to fill in!

You must be playing 2-3 turns a day to already be at T169 - 11 more turns will stretch out until what, Wednesday? Maybe you should reconsider joining the next PBEM, given this turn pace and the fact that concession is already under discussion.

I'm curious about something you haven't mentioned lately. You seem to have a pretty good rate of faith accumulation, and not much faith banked. What have you been using it for?

[Krill]

Lurker opinion: if trading all of Norway for peace is acceptable, how is trading one city to have a destination for trade routes not?

[Japper007]

Lurker opinion: if trading all of Norway for peace is acceptable, how is trading one city to have a destination for trade routes not?

I wouldn't even dissaprove of this action in an AI-diplo game, this deal was far less cheezy than the Germany for Norway deal. Either player clearly lost something and gained something in the deal. Should we start banning lux for lux trades as well?

[Emperor K]

Once again thank you for the excellent reports.
Also I am glad you are not joining PBEM 6 now, you'd have kicked my ass.
Just kidding good luck with the rest of the game.

[oledavy]

I'm not terribly happy with Archduke and Woden right now.

I mean I get it. Archduke is frustrated with this game at this point, and because he's frustrated, he's seizing onto a molehill and making it into a mountain. His "cheese" argument seems predicated on: "Dave just gifted a city to Singaboy to make him harder for me to kill." However, consider the following:

- I sold the city for items (gold and amenities), that I desperately need right now, while the luxury-less city of Triton was doing me relatively little. 
- I sold the city to have a destination for my trade routes (and I'm a little peeved that in order to attempt to pacify him, I've had to share this critical detail).
- Singaboy is not a power on the verge of elimination. Even if Archduke were sinking everything into fighting Singaboy (He has at least 5 muskets in Norway and a decent amount of his navy opposing me), Singaboy is simply not going to fall any time soon. Kiel will fall, taking cities beyond that will take a ground force that Archduke has yet to deploy, and will necessitate defeating Singaboy's army. Look how long it took me to take down Spain as a point of comparison, who was much less well-equipped to oppose me. Singaboy has at least 20 turns left in this game even if I do nothing to support him/threaten Archduke in the interim. The city sale doesn't change the overarching path of this game. 
- Triton is not a hard city to take. Seriously, he can just sail that navy over after he takes Kiel and take the city with ease, and pillage all my trade routes while he's at it. It's not even that far away from Trier. 

Archduke can be given the benefit of the doubt for not knowing some of this, but then you consider....

Lurker opinion: if trading all of Norway for peace is acceptable, how is trading one city to have a destination for trade routes not?

This really irritated me at the time, because it jacked two cities out from under me that I would have taken. Moreover, one of them (Jotunheim), was an extremely critical at that time because Darwin was on the table, a GS who arguably saved Archduke from losing then and there, and who he would not have been able to use had I had the city. 

I just feel like we crossed this bridge a long time ago with that absurd deal for Norway, and Archduke is choosing to get upset over my far less cheesy deal now, not because it significantly alters anything going on in-game, but because he's frustrated and needs something to latch onto. 

I also really dislike the: "You're only winning because you have the Venetian Arsenal" tone of some of the last couple dozen posts - conveniently ignoring everything I had to sacrifice for the VA and how much I bent around taking a risk on building it. This from them while they're fielding 4 GAs and a busted UU against my qualitatively vastly inferior fleet (see my t164 and t165 number crunching).

[oledavy]

Maybe you should reconsider joining the next PBEM, given this turn pace and the fact that concession is already under discussion.

I'm curious about something you haven't mentioned lately.  You seem to have a pretty good rate of faith accumulation, and not much faith banked.  What have you been using it for?

I think whenever BrickAstley starts sign-ups for that game he was talking about, I'll finally start a third game. Right now I'm just really focused on finishing this one out and making it to the end of the semester, so I wouldn't want to start anything new until late November/early December.

Re: Faith

I actually forgot to buy an amphitheater this last turn 

I bought a university in Ganymede recently, other than that, I've been torn recently between buying missionaries to spread my religion and increase my GPT, or just buying more buildings. 

What I have bought with faith this game: 

 - 3 Missionaries
 - 1 Apostle
 - 3 Libraries
 - 3 Universities
 - 1 Ampitheater

Jesuit Education has proven pretty essential to my ability to be competitive in science. I think it's a pretty natural choice for Japan, but also that there are other potentially extremely strong synergies with some of the new beliefs. Anyway, while I'm happy with how my religious game played out (despite DoTF being a bit of a bust), I think I ended up under-utilizing faith as the game went on and there is lots of room for people to iterate on using Japan + religion to do some fun things. 

[oledavy]

Once again thank you for the excellent reports.
Also I am glad you are not joining PBEM 6 now, you'd have kicked my ass.
Just kidding good luck with the rest of the game.

Thank you, but you flatter me, I've certainly made my share of dumb moves this game 

Just the same, I appreciate it. 

My present frustration with Archduke aside, don't underestimate him in PBEM5, if he is nothing else he is a very capable field commander. In most of our PBEM2 and PBEM4 engagements, I've come worse off from fights with him.

[oledavy]

@TheArchduke, 
Just give it 10 more turns and see if you want to continue. You will probably feel better in a few more turns

I assume here he's referring to his missing MG and caravel, probably en route to Halimede or Triton.

Edit: I would be posting stuff like this if the diplo thread weren't so tense right now.

[Ituralde]

An AI Diplo thread resolving into cheese and drama? Who would have thunk?

Thanks for the barrage of new reports. I really enjoy following your games, because they are always so well reported. I'm rooting for you to win one this time as well!