[SPOILER] Dazedroyalty: Winter is coming!

[yuris125]

My empire in 1AD







Slowcheetah did settle the land to my east. I don't really mind - as I said before, the land is not very good, making it profitable probably was too much effort. I might want to take it off him at some point, but he can have it for now

This turn I researched Monarchy. Felt I needed to switch to Hereditary Rule right away, as my cities stopped growing some time ago. Had to decide whether I wanted to switch to Organised Religion at the same time. Thought long and hard, and decided against it. I only have religion in one city at the moment, and spreading it would be a big investment. Also, it's Confu, Merovech's religion, and I think I'm going to go to war with him rather soon, having his religion would cause extra unhappiness. And converting to religion would require an extra turn of anarchy, something I can't really afford right now. I'm going to get a great scientist in 30ish turns, which should be more or less at the same time as I get Civil Service. Then I will make the switch during golden age. Not sure if it's a good decision, but I feel it is

Speaking of war, I really think I'm not winning this game if I don't make some gains soon. Serdoa is miles ahead of everyone in score at the moment, and looking at the demos, it seems to be an accurate reflection of his advantage. I'm out of land to expand, never had good relations with Merovech (he's the only amongst the nations I met to decline open borders), and his power rating is very low. If I can make a stack of a dozen HArchers and a dozen Impis in 20 turns, I think I should be able to take some of his land. And it doesn't seem impossible

So, the current plan is to research Calendar, improve the resources I have while researching HBR and building Impis, then chop the remaining forests and whip HArchers, and see if I can launch a successful assault

[Oxyphenbutazone]

Hey Yuri, how's it going?

[yuris125]

Hey hey, I've been busy and not updating any of my games I'm afraid... and I really should post something. I will update as soon as I can, maybe this weekend

[yuris125]

Unfortunately it's been a while since I had time to report... as you probably know, WarriorKnight declared war on me. On Thursday, came home well past midnight, and saw this



I had a feeling this was going to happen, his power has been growing over the last 10 turns or so, and as far as I understand geography, I'm his only neighbour. But I hoped I would have a few more turns. The problem is, just 2 turns before this happened, my first golden age ended. During that golden age, I wanted to produce a great person. But in order to do that, I had to stay in Caste System during its last turn. On the other hand, I needed to switch to Organised Religion. So I still went for a revolution at the end of the GA - but stayed in Caste System. So I couldn't adopt emergency Slavery at the start of the war

On the plus side, as I mentioned earlier, I had plans to attack WK with Horse Archers and Impis. That plan never came together, but did build a bunch of Impis, and I still had them not far from the border. So I moved them into the threatened city. These were my defences



In addition to moving in all available Impis, I upgraded Archers to Longbows. This used up all my money, but I thought I needed immediate defences more than faster Engineering. To fund research, I sent requests for loans to Serdoa/NobleHelium and to Slowcheetah, asking for 200 gold and offering 22gpt. I had hopes for Slowcheetah accepting, we've been trading all game long, and have been as good neighbours as possible in this game. I didn't particularly expect Serdoa/NH to accept, but sent the request all the same

My estimate was that this was enough to hold off this particular stack. The worst thing WK could do was to move deeper into my territory and threaten kwaDukuza. That's one of my best cities, and losing it would've been a huge blow. I had very few Impis to defend that; my best hope was to get all available units in the city and hope that's good enough. Most of those units were Horse Archers - not very well known for their defensive abilities, but still capable of hurting some of the knights, and maybe winning a battle or two

This was kwaDukuza's garrison on the first turn of the war



And this was my overall army



This turn, there were two major developments. First, NH declined my loan request; Slowcheetah counter-offered with 200 gold for 30gpt. A huge rip-off, of course, but I didn't feel like haggling, thought getting the gold this turn was more important. So I accepted

Second, WK's stack was gone. Guess he suspected an ambush and didn't want to risk his knights by moving them into my territory without cover from melee units



Now the question is, how much time I have. In 2 turns, I will have Engineering, and will be able to revolt to Slavery. Yes, I will lose a turn to anarchy, but it's better than losing cities. In 4 turns, I will be able to start upgrading Impis to Pikes. Even just getting better road movement with Engineering will be a huge help. And I don't expect the attack to continue before then. If I get 5 turns, I will be able to whip Walls and a few Pikes - that should solve all my problems. Don't like switching out of Caste System and losing the extra hammer from workshops - but again, better than losing cities

I'll try to update regularly, at least during the war. If there is anything particular you want to know, ask away

[yuris125]

Well, nothing else of interest actually happened in the war. On the turn I discovered Engineering, WK offered white peace. I'm very happy with this, it means I got out of this war almost without losses - just had to spend some gold on upgrades and to repay the loan. No pop losses, no improvement losses, and no unit losses

I do need to attack WK soon if I want to have just a small chance to catch up with Serdoa. Not very realistic, Serdoa far ahead in tech and in economy - but who knows, if I can get WK's land, I could be in position to compete in late game. But I definitely won't be ready to launch a campaign in 10 turns, so peace is exactly what I want right now

[Merovech]

A slightly rushed plant, so I won't workboat the clams for maybe 5 turns, but as long as Merovech doesn't try to fight for it (and I don't think he's in a position to do so), it was worth it. I desperately want some land for my financial cottages

This was soooo annoying. I thought that you wouldn't be in a position to easily settle these cities so quickly, and in a way I was right, but you definitely outplayed me here.