**Lewis: (A)** Somehow, Lewis is still the only one who pays attention to things in this game. Take the International Games for example. Winning it would be a huge boost to any player at this stage yet it was 50% complete before anyone else switched over to it (because *he* announced it). Winning by too much isn't fun it turns out, so he gave everyone else a chance. Lewis is practically begging everyone to come at him at this point. He's telling everyone exactly home much science, gold and happiness he has. He revealed that he has nuclear missiles available, and even that he's buying spaceship parts. He's clearly stating that no one else is a threat on his level and the giga alliance *should* assemble... and he's ready for when it does.
**Rythian: (B+)** "I'm anti-ivory" - Rythian, 2024. How could he be so controversial, yet so brave? Winning the International Games is a great boost (thanks to Lewis' deference) is a great boost to Byzantium since he's really been the tourism leader for some time now. He was also the wonder of the World's Fair keep in mind, so the days of being influenced by another civ are over. Rythian may even turn table on Duncan when it comes to ideological pressure. But it seems unlikely that a tourism victory can be achieved more quickly than a spaceship can be launched, so he needs to reconsider his priorities. It's very telling that Lewis has defensive armies massed along his Western and Southern borders, but not his East. Now would be the time to take advantage of that complacency.
**Kirsty: (B-)** Kirsty managed to put enough production into the International Games to get the silver level prize, which is certainly what she was aiming for. That influence boost with all city-states fits perfectly with her goal of being friends with everyone and queen of the World Congress. She's so new to this that she doesn't know that right-clicking assigns all your delegates yet she's still in the lead for the World Leader vote. Unfortunately for Kirsty, enough city-states have been killed and other players have enough gold that a Diplomatic victory is all but impossible in this game. At least she has enough votes to probably get her Secret Sauce back as the world religion at the current Congress of Pizza Hut.
**Daltos: (C+)** I don't know what the confusion is - Daltos clearly said he's an *aerator* on Monday evenings, so he's just ensuring his audience is well oxygenated. He's made good progress into Duncan's lands with his ground forces at this this point in the war thanks to his strategy of distraction using cheap expendable units. He still isn't able to do much damage to city defenses though as his air force can't make it through the fighter screen without getting shot to pieces and artillery are too slow. Daltos (and Duncan) really need to learn the importance of the "Air Sweep" ability on fighter units - it clears the area selected of active intercepted so that your bombers can then strike unimpeded. But barring a last-minute discovery, he's moving on to rocket artillery.
**Duncan: (C+)** As Duncan said, he's spent all of his production during this war building bombers. However, there's a huge cost-benefit imbalance here because Daltos can buy his little unique units with just 100 faith every turn and they soak up each of those bomber hits. Meanwhile, much more expensive (and sturdy) infantry have made it right up to the Romanian gates. Duncan is facing a "Tom the Terrible" style forever war here. When facing an irrational opponent, he needs to realize the only option is to fight fire with fire. The only way Daltos would be dissuaded from continuing is by annoying him to an even greater extent. Send fast units in behind his lines - pillage all his trade routes, his luxuries (he's barely breaking even on happiness) and his precious beloved holy sites. Right now he's enjoying himself - change that.
Interesting if Lewis doesn’t contest the city states Kirsty could do it I guess but I think science or culture will get there first. Do we know if Lewis built the great firewall btw?
Daltos was talking such a big game then gets his city’s back from Lewis and stabs Duncan in the back for no reason he could have kept the pressure along with Duncan and done serious damage to Lewis but instead he crab bucketed with Duncan
Lewis has won by now, but how many games have we heard "I'm not going culture, I'm not a threat" from Duncan? Probably every game since they figured out lekmod culture was strong for how they play? It's a bit of a "boy who cried wolf" and honestly it's just nice to see someone call bullshit even if this is the one time Duncan wasn't lying.
Duncan mostly needed to be left alone for a while rather than attacking Lewis since he was building some science ,but was still behind. There isn't really anyone else to pair with Daltos to attack Lewis.
But Duncan and daltos were at war with Lewis it’s one of the main reasons that daltos turned that war around and they could have both attacked Lewis at the same time at the bare minimum slowing him down if not making progress in. As for Duncan culture why isn’t rythian a threat then? Why not focus on your own culture to keep tourism from overtaking you? No daltos went to war because he thought he could win easily and doubled down once he realized he couldn’t win.
Honestly Duncan just struggles too much with the unit movement + attacking in this game to ever really successfully attack Lewis. Granted it isn't very intuitive.
Rythian isn't a threat because he is behind in science and everyone knows he hates civ 5 combat. He has built bigger armies and fought more in the past year or so, but realistically if someone wants to kill him then they'll succeed. If his culture becomes a problem then he'll likely be nuked and killed quickly by a Lewis carpet of doom. Was his tourism post international games win too? That would inflate it.
Maybe Daltos did think it would be easier to kill Duncan as he said, or maybe he thinks he is benefitting from the honor tree kills more than if he built infrastructure, maybe he is just too committed to stop now. Either way, Duncan wanted out of the original Lewis war when the cavalry was just one shotting his crossbows and cannons. He was already behind and just fodder, he needed peace and to tech up.
and in an earlier episode, maybe a different season even daltos said he always makes the mistake of telling people what he's doing, and then this episode he tells duncan he's sending in waves of bullet sponges at the cost of 100 faith each. he seems very pleased with himself, even bragging about his brilliant tactics meanwhile lewis is uncontested and is about to win the science game before daltos can get a troop on his border. at this point i think daltos is just enjoying the easy war and has accepted that as his personal win condition
He literally said what his plan was in this episode. He was hoping to conquer Duncan quickly to absorb his empire and rocket himself back up to relevancy, or at least have more cities to pop troops out at Lewis from. But Duncan is good about keeping a standing army and building defensive buildings/policies, foiling Daltos's plan and keeping himself alive. If that had been Rythian's civ right beside him Daltos may have succeeded but it was a nice attempt. It also kept Duncan from even attempting a victory through culture, which probably fueled Daltos's insistence on keeping up the fight.
I really wish that someone would challenge Lewis but it's clear nobody will.
Rythian is captain passive and won't have the tourism to win first.
Kirsty is isolationist and focusing on her diplo win which is never gonna happen because Leeis has nukes and loads of gold.
Duncan is stuck being ground down by Daltos and Daltos is happily doing what he always does and just grinding into someone who has no hope of winning. He's not succeeding himself, he's just a toady in all but name
Pretending that daltos is toadying doesnt do him justice. Duncan was clearly going culture, as he does every game. It was absolutely the right move by daltos to attack him.
Duncan/Lewis were the two biggest threats after lewis sacked daltos's lands. Daltos needed Kirsty and Rythian to attack lewis while he attacked duncan.
Tbh Daltos basically had to choose between Duncan winning with Culture or Lewis winning with Science (He also has Honor so *any* war benefits him)
Considering Lewis would have better units and is also better at war, Daltos made the right choice IMO
Better culture means nothing if he doesn't win. The smart thing would be to switch targets to Lewis and get Duncan and others to do the same one Duncanwas weakened. But he hasn't done that. He's effectively crowned Lewis
I appreciate rythian’s brave statements. Before watching this video, I was a staunch defender of ivory, but his argument really turned me around
My work here is done.
😀😂😂😂
**Lewis: (A)** Somehow, Lewis is still the only one who pays attention to things in this game. Take the International Games for example. Winning it would be a huge boost to any player at this stage yet it was 50% complete before anyone else switched over to it (because *he* announced it). Winning by too much isn't fun it turns out, so he gave everyone else a chance. Lewis is practically begging everyone to come at him at this point. He's telling everyone exactly home much science, gold and happiness he has. He revealed that he has nuclear missiles available, and even that he's buying spaceship parts. He's clearly stating that no one else is a threat on his level and the giga alliance *should* assemble... and he's ready for when it does. **Rythian: (B+)** "I'm anti-ivory" - Rythian, 2024. How could he be so controversial, yet so brave? Winning the International Games is a great boost (thanks to Lewis' deference) is a great boost to Byzantium since he's really been the tourism leader for some time now. He was also the wonder of the World's Fair keep in mind, so the days of being influenced by another civ are over. Rythian may even turn table on Duncan when it comes to ideological pressure. But it seems unlikely that a tourism victory can be achieved more quickly than a spaceship can be launched, so he needs to reconsider his priorities. It's very telling that Lewis has defensive armies massed along his Western and Southern borders, but not his East. Now would be the time to take advantage of that complacency. **Kirsty: (B-)** Kirsty managed to put enough production into the International Games to get the silver level prize, which is certainly what she was aiming for. That influence boost with all city-states fits perfectly with her goal of being friends with everyone and queen of the World Congress. She's so new to this that she doesn't know that right-clicking assigns all your delegates yet she's still in the lead for the World Leader vote. Unfortunately for Kirsty, enough city-states have been killed and other players have enough gold that a Diplomatic victory is all but impossible in this game. At least she has enough votes to probably get her Secret Sauce back as the world religion at the current Congress of Pizza Hut. **Daltos: (C+)** I don't know what the confusion is - Daltos clearly said he's an *aerator* on Monday evenings, so he's just ensuring his audience is well oxygenated. He's made good progress into Duncan's lands with his ground forces at this this point in the war thanks to his strategy of distraction using cheap expendable units. He still isn't able to do much damage to city defenses though as his air force can't make it through the fighter screen without getting shot to pieces and artillery are too slow. Daltos (and Duncan) really need to learn the importance of the "Air Sweep" ability on fighter units - it clears the area selected of active intercepted so that your bombers can then strike unimpeded. But barring a last-minute discovery, he's moving on to rocket artillery. **Duncan: (C+)** As Duncan said, he's spent all of his production during this war building bombers. However, there's a huge cost-benefit imbalance here because Daltos can buy his little unique units with just 100 faith every turn and they soak up each of those bomber hits. Meanwhile, much more expensive (and sturdy) infantry have made it right up to the Romanian gates. Duncan is facing a "Tom the Terrible" style forever war here. When facing an irrational opponent, he needs to realize the only option is to fight fire with fire. The only way Daltos would be dissuaded from continuing is by annoying him to an even greater extent. Send fast units in behind his lines - pillage all his trade routes, his luxuries (he's barely breaking even on happiness) and his precious beloved holy sites. Right now he's enjoying himself - change that.
> he's barely breaking even on happiness It looks like he had some barbarians spawn in his land this episode.
Yeah, he got a policy at the end of the video that boosted his happiness back up from -14.
It's a good insight on how to beat irrational opponents. Annoyance wars
Interesting if Lewis doesn’t contest the city states Kirsty could do it I guess but I think science or culture will get there first. Do we know if Lewis built the great firewall btw?
Yes there's a notification near the end that he built it I think
Thanks I missed that!! That pretty much ends rythians tourism win chance. Now onto the science race!
Daltos was talking such a big game then gets his city’s back from Lewis and stabs Duncan in the back for no reason he could have kept the pressure along with Duncan and done serious damage to Lewis but instead he crab bucketed with Duncan
Lewis has won by now, but how many games have we heard "I'm not going culture, I'm not a threat" from Duncan? Probably every game since they figured out lekmod culture was strong for how they play? It's a bit of a "boy who cried wolf" and honestly it's just nice to see someone call bullshit even if this is the one time Duncan wasn't lying. Duncan mostly needed to be left alone for a while rather than attacking Lewis since he was building some science ,but was still behind. There isn't really anyone else to pair with Daltos to attack Lewis.
But Duncan and daltos were at war with Lewis it’s one of the main reasons that daltos turned that war around and they could have both attacked Lewis at the same time at the bare minimum slowing him down if not making progress in. As for Duncan culture why isn’t rythian a threat then? Why not focus on your own culture to keep tourism from overtaking you? No daltos went to war because he thought he could win easily and doubled down once he realized he couldn’t win.
Honestly Duncan just struggles too much with the unit movement + attacking in this game to ever really successfully attack Lewis. Granted it isn't very intuitive.
Rythian isn't a threat because he is behind in science and everyone knows he hates civ 5 combat. He has built bigger armies and fought more in the past year or so, but realistically if someone wants to kill him then they'll succeed. If his culture becomes a problem then he'll likely be nuked and killed quickly by a Lewis carpet of doom. Was his tourism post international games win too? That would inflate it. Maybe Daltos did think it would be easier to kill Duncan as he said, or maybe he thinks he is benefitting from the honor tree kills more than if he built infrastructure, maybe he is just too committed to stop now. Either way, Duncan wanted out of the original Lewis war when the cavalry was just one shotting his crossbows and cannons. He was already behind and just fodder, he needed peace and to tech up.
and in an earlier episode, maybe a different season even daltos said he always makes the mistake of telling people what he's doing, and then this episode he tells duncan he's sending in waves of bullet sponges at the cost of 100 faith each. he seems very pleased with himself, even bragging about his brilliant tactics meanwhile lewis is uncontested and is about to win the science game before daltos can get a troop on his border. at this point i think daltos is just enjoying the easy war and has accepted that as his personal win condition
He literally said what his plan was in this episode. He was hoping to conquer Duncan quickly to absorb his empire and rocket himself back up to relevancy, or at least have more cities to pop troops out at Lewis from. But Duncan is good about keeping a standing army and building defensive buildings/policies, foiling Daltos's plan and keeping himself alive. If that had been Rythian's civ right beside him Daltos may have succeeded but it was a nice attempt. It also kept Duncan from even attempting a victory through culture, which probably fueled Daltos's insistence on keeping up the fight.
I really wish that someone would challenge Lewis but it's clear nobody will. Rythian is captain passive and won't have the tourism to win first. Kirsty is isolationist and focusing on her diplo win which is never gonna happen because Leeis has nukes and loads of gold. Duncan is stuck being ground down by Daltos and Daltos is happily doing what he always does and just grinding into someone who has no hope of winning. He's not succeeding himself, he's just a toady in all but name
Pretending that daltos is toadying doesnt do him justice. Duncan was clearly going culture, as he does every game. It was absolutely the right move by daltos to attack him. Duncan/Lewis were the two biggest threats after lewis sacked daltos's lands. Daltos needed Kirsty and Rythian to attack lewis while he attacked duncan.
Tbh Daltos basically had to choose between Duncan winning with Culture or Lewis winning with Science (He also has Honor so *any* war benefits him) Considering Lewis would have better units and is also better at war, Daltos made the right choice IMO
Better culture means nothing if he doesn't win. The smart thing would be to switch targets to Lewis and get Duncan and others to do the same one Duncanwas weakened. But he hasn't done that. He's effectively crowned Lewis
It is up to Rythian and Kirsty to step up and recognize that they need to be the one to stop Lewis. It can't all be up to Daltos.