[SPOILERS]PB46: (In Search of) Fine Foreign Dining, by Hannibal of England

[Juri]

The barbs really haven't been kind to you this game

[TBW]

T144:

naufragar lost Ravenna, as expected. It doesn't look like he killed many knights, either, which was also expected since axes, spears, and scouts are free kills for knights. He did get a Great General in Circei, which has one CG1 longbow and will likely spawn another next turn since he finished a chop. Two CG3 longbows, assuming that's what nauf does with the GG, will be a hassle for OH to kill for a little while with his knights damaged, and it seems unlikely to me that he would try to walk around them to attack me. I did scout one 5 move caravel in Lake Antium, but it won't be relevant to my navy for at least two turns. His two 4 move galleys are marked on the map, and I strongly suspect they're carrying 4 healthy knights right now.


This is the general area where the galleys would be landing troops. I opted to whip the walls in Hand of Tind to roll the overflow into a pike this turn, so that I'll be able to whip an emergency pike if I have to. With a longbow and archer parked in there too, it should be defensible if he tries for a landing. At the very least, it won't be a free kill. If he decides not to go for that city and instead aim for the mainland, I'll be 1 pop whipping pikes in 3 cities next turn. Between that and the pikes/war elephants I have, I think I'm alright.

Domestically, I have 7 turns of GA left. I have two main goals I need to achieve. I need to get Optics as fast as possible so I can get counter-caravels out of Westminster to defend my coast, and I need to get to Banking to get into Mercantilism before the end of my GA. Which one is more important? Mercantilism is 23 free specialists, Optics keeps me from getting raided by caravels and opens up an Astronomy bulb. I'll have to make a choice next turn, and I'm strongly leaning towards Guilds -> Banking. I think I can fight caravels at approximately 2 triremes/galleys per 1 caravel, and after Mercantilism I can research Compass -> Optics very quickly to make up that ground and get my own defensive caravels out. Undoubtedly I'll be thinking it over and suddenly have a brilliant idea while I'm eating olives straight out of the jar in front of the refrigerator at 1:37 AM tonight.

[TBW]

T145:



naufragar did what I expected with the GG, which makes Cercei a very unattractive target. It wouldn't really be worth it to try to break that city before cuirassiers at this point, especially if he gets walls built. There's no strategic danger in letting the city stay there, so I'm not going to worry about it very much right now. If OH wants to attack it with knights, I'll be able to see that coming and counterattack them right now.

What's interesting and definitely a calculation changer for me is OH offered me fish/fish and iron/iron trades, which I accepted. I don't know enough about either member of that team to know how deceptive they are, but based on the polite PMs I've had with them about turn splits and time zone differences, I'm inclined to believe they game with honor. Additionally, their galleys are now sitting in Ravenna with the caravel moved like it plans to join them. Maybe their plan is to scour nauf-Rome's island cities before pushing to Circei and they don't want to worry about me landing and cutting the Ravenna canal with a few galleys worth of pikes? They have no way of knowing where my galleys might be, or how many of them I have, and they know I have Engineering.


Superdeath and AT have open borders with each other, which tells me that they've made contact, which suggests that there's a way to finish E-W circumnavigation around here. I don't know if this map requires N-S too, but since there are ice caps I don't think it will.

I still see no reason not to go through with Guilds -> Banking -> Optics, but now I feel like I have some breathing room to run wealth builds to get there a little faster. Every turn in Mercantilism gets me to even better techs that much faster and I need all the help I can get shifting into a potential war footing.

[TBW]

I've got eyes on the Borsche/2metra war right now, and this strategy seems like an all-in desperation move that's going to amount to nothing when 2metra gets crushed by Rusten's cavalry at some point, with a huge army he can't realistically cash upgrade. 2metra also clearly got the events to give Cover to all melee units and Sentry to his two movers, which probably would have helped him a lot more if he hadn't gotten squeezed by Borsche and Rusten. I could be reading it wrong, but it feels like now is the time to be building up your knight stacks to go knights -> cuirs -> cavalry and stocking up on catapults, not storming a guy with 20 chariots and 20 axes.

[TBW]

T147:

Finished Guilds last turn, but I don't have enough gold in the bank to one turn Banking... or do I?




With judicious use of wealth builds and one research build, I finish Banking in one turn right after Guilds and I can swap into Emancipation immediately, almost like I intentionally planned it out several turns in advance. I'm also planning on switching to Taoism (since it's the only religion I have that doesn't have a shrine under someone else's control) and spreading that around. My final civics out of this GA are going to be Hereditary Rule/Vassalage/Slavery/Mercantilism/Organized Religion. HR, Vassalage, and Mercantilism are obvious, and I'm judging that being able to build and whip out courthouses as fast as possible is the most important next step I can take. OR will cost me 20 more gold per turn, but I'll make up that gold with as few as 4 courthouses (my worst city is paying 14 gpt in maintenance right now).

As of last turn, I'm no longer in a turn split with OH, which suits me just fine. His defenses are weak in the Rome area right now, but I still don't have the force projection to break him and hold the sea lanes, especially since he has at least one caravel already and I haven't researched Compass yet.

[TBW]

T148:
Converted to Taoism and swapped civics as planned. With Mercantilism, I have the #3 GNP in the game at 0% research slider and the top GNP by almost 400 at 100% research, which is a little over 1000 beakers per turn right now. My GNP will continue to skyrocket as I get stock exchanges and courthouses online, and at the same time, I have several good hammer cities that are pumping out knights and catapults. I'm sure my neighbors have noticed my power spiking at this point, but I have fish/fish type trades with everybody near me and naval sentry triremes posted now for a little advance warning on any surprises, and maybe their knowing that I got stomped so badly with Rome that it made somebody else quit the game means I'll be underestimated on a metagame level.

I can now see that Superdeath has Paper, and he's ahead of me by Code of Laws, Civil Service, and Calendar; I'm ahead of him by Aesthetics, Literature, Meditation, and Engineering. I should start to greatly extend the gap as my stock exchanges complete over the next few turns. Code of Laws and Calendar should both be 1 turners at this point, then we move on through Optics. My next Great Person will probably be a scientist, so I need to start looking at either bulbing or building an academy with him, then trying to get a non-scientist GP out as quickly as possible. I'm finishing a market in my National Epic city next turn and then I'll probably build a Taoist temple for another non-scientist GP slot. Right now, I think the advantages of whipping out stock exchanges and courthouses with Slavery outweigh the easy GPP distribution I'd get with Serfdom or Caste System.

Somebody founded Islam this turn, and I strongly suspect it was Rusten since he built Apostolic Palace. Neither of the guys who have Paper have a compelling reason to build University of Sankore right now and grabbing Spiral Minaret would be a big boost for the guy who already has AP. Rusten also has nothing to fear from 2metra, who is trying to invade a neighbor who has longbows with mass chariots/axes and a stack of catapults that will probably be spent after 2-3 cities, and I don't think he has any other neighbors. He's also India, which means Urukku Pikemen, which makes any cavalry based invasion a fairly poor idea until cavalry themselves.

[Juri]

The sentry promotion on 2metra's chariots isn't coming from an event, it is coming from the Ethiopian monument UB, which has been changed in RTR to give the sentry promotion and a merchant spec slot instead of 25% culture.

[TBW]

The sentry promotion on 2metra's chariots isn't coming from an event, it is coming from the Ethiopian monument UB, which has been changed in RTR to give the sentry promotion and a merchant spec slot instead of 25% culture.

You know what they say when you ctrl-f "sentry" on a Civ 4 events list, it makes an ass out of u and me.

[TBW]

T149:
OH is lightly defending Roman territory, with basically nothing but mounted units. His power graph is going up at about the same rate as mine, and I'm not building much military right now besides 1 knight per turn out of my Heroic Epic city and a couple so it seems like he's not going very hard on military buildup right now. I have to wonder if he has any threatening neighbors on his home continent or if he was just blessed with a big fertile continent that let him rush to Guilds and roll a hapless coastal neighbor. It would be satisfying to invade him and conquer Roman territory again, but he has a big power advantage and control of the seas.

Rusten is watching the 2metra-Borsche war with a scout the same way I am. Combined with the way his power is spiking upwards, I have to assume he's planning to crush 2metra imminently. It's what I would do in his position. I'm going to have to look at conquering somebody to expand my territory to keep up with the guys ahead of me. GeneralKilCavalry is the most obvious target for me, but I don't even have graphs on him and it'll be a while before I can get them thanks to his super early courthouses letting him build up a ton of espionage.


GKC's been casually walking a scout around, I've casually slid some knights and other units to where they can defend Sneatonthorpe and I'm going to build walls in there this turn just in case he's got any funny ideas. I also have single triremes positioned in the two lanes he could theoretically use for boats. I don't think this looks overtly antagonistic, but if he takes offense, it could be dangerous for me. I'm delaying Sneatonthorpe's stock exchange by a turn to build walls now, sliding my knights down to where they'll be theoretically useful, and bringing the pikes and catapults I staged to defend against OH's knights down too. I don't expect any sudden attack from him, but better safe than sorry here.


I think this is where circumnavigation is going to happen, I just guessed wrong on which direction to go. Probably would have found that out quicker if the barb galley hadn't eaten my work boat, but sometimes you play the game, sometimes the game plays you.

Tech wise, I'm researching Priesthood with overflow this turn to get ready for when I go for Nationalism later on, then it'll likely still be Compass -> Optics -> Civil Service -> Paper. I'm opting for Civil Service over Theology first because I won't be revolting into Theocracy any time soon, while Civil Service's farms spreading irrigation will be helpful immediately. When I get to Paper, I have to start thinking about privateers as an option. I've never played an MP game where privateers were relevant, since they're normally Chemistry + Astronomy and by the time you're at Chemistry, ironclads and frigates are already out there. It seems to me that the key to them is making it look like they came from somewhere else when you're using them to smash up somebody's coast. I'll have to think about that in a few turns.

[TBW]

T150:
OH declared on Elkad last turn, which doesn't surprise me. I figure he'll grab the two cities on Rome's continent and then peace out, but he might have a major invasion planned. I have no way to know how strong Elkad is, but seriously invading a Statue of Zeus PRO/CHA civ at Feudalism seems like a losing proposition to me. OH also has Education now, paving the way to grab Liberalism. There's not much I can do to counter that, unfortunately. I don't have Paper yet, much less Education + Philosophy. OH might have a runaway at this point; we'll find out over the next 2-3 months. Elkad fired a GA and revolted into Slavery so he might be in real trouble here.

I polished off Priesthood and I'll be spending my last turn of 100% GA research on Compass + overflowing into Optics. Other than that, I'm getting stock exchanges and courthouses built, still trying to find the path to circumnavigation, and feeling like I'm in a good spot overall at the moment. Can't wait to make some espionage progress against GKC to see when an invasion might be feasible.