Turns 78-84
In the east we razed a barb city, which was blocking our expansion and settled our 9th city:
![](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/g0snabpfffco8ii/084easy0000.JPG?dl=0)
This is basically the last city that we settle. We have 6 cities that can be considered our natural territory and 3 cities that are more Elkad's. We might still go for one filler-quality city, but in the big picture this is it.
***
Looking at the north is still painful for various reasons:
![](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/pwkutj4ciwxifw8/084north0000.JPG?dl=0)
1. Elkad's remaining city currently has 5 defenders and he should be adding a new unit every 2-3 turns. After our disappointment we considered a whipping spree to get big enough force to take the city, but throwing 15 units at 7 defenders and hoping that it's enough is simply not a tempting play. Things will get still uglier after Syphilis pops it's 3rd ring borders. Let's see if Elkad makes some kind of a move when he has built more units or whether he stands his ground until we someday can take the city with catapults.
2. Cornflakes has claimed the jungle area as was to be expected. In the other better reality where we have Syphilis and our army, we would have not allowed that or at least had taken our part of those juicy resources. Unless we would have decided that attacking Miguelito or superdeath would have been more attractive. Sigh. Cornflakes does not have Calendar yet so at least he needs some turns before those cities really get going.
3. As a result, our border is really uncomfortable with 3 cities in the straight line, Elkad forcing us to keep a bunch of units in Gremlin and overall being vulnerable to all kinds of forking moves. In essence there is no other way to defend the area apart from having the biggest army and preferably a mobile one..
***
Macrowise we have a pretty even population with Cornflakes. At the moment we are still ahead in demos, but in the longer-term we will not be able to match his land quality. Having the Great Lighthouse and an island big enough for two cities does help him as well. We have slowly built our power back so that we are essentially tied with Cornflakes and Ruff at 3rd place. Probably good enough to hold our grounds, but still pretty far away from being able to make actual moves due to having our hands tight in the north. We do not have demos, but it seems that Cairo has built a big army in the dark so I'm expecting Commo-Migu-Cairo area to provide further lurker entertainment. Actually with all the war declarations going on everywhere in the world this should be a pretty entertaining one to watch.
But don't get me wrong, I would have loved to ruin the excitement with a successful Elkad conquest and focus on the upcoming summer instead of a game that is just painful to launch.. (I think I still need a while before I manage to stop whining in these reports)
Anyways, domestically we will get Currency next turn and we will go for quite a snowbally play where we build as much wealth as possible in order to get Monarchy and HR happiness ASAP. Add couple of whipped EXP markets for Furs bonus and we can make the most out of our food/land/resources. After that we have couple of different directions where to go, but let's come back to that later. In essence, we do not know, what will be the timing when we can be aggressive again, but at some point we are forced to make some moves again. Cornflakes profited too much from a war where we paid all the costs that we are unfortunately not in a position where we can just sit tight and expect it to be enough to win.
In the east we razed a barb city, which was blocking our expansion and settled our 9th city:
This is basically the last city that we settle. We have 6 cities that can be considered our natural territory and 3 cities that are more Elkad's. We might still go for one filler-quality city, but in the big picture this is it.
***
Looking at the north is still painful for various reasons:
1. Elkad's remaining city currently has 5 defenders and he should be adding a new unit every 2-3 turns. After our disappointment we considered a whipping spree to get big enough force to take the city, but throwing 15 units at 7 defenders and hoping that it's enough is simply not a tempting play. Things will get still uglier after Syphilis pops it's 3rd ring borders. Let's see if Elkad makes some kind of a move when he has built more units or whether he stands his ground until we someday can take the city with catapults.
2. Cornflakes has claimed the jungle area as was to be expected. In the other better reality where we have Syphilis and our army, we would have not allowed that or at least had taken our part of those juicy resources. Unless we would have decided that attacking Miguelito or superdeath would have been more attractive. Sigh. Cornflakes does not have Calendar yet so at least he needs some turns before those cities really get going.
3. As a result, our border is really uncomfortable with 3 cities in the straight line, Elkad forcing us to keep a bunch of units in Gremlin and overall being vulnerable to all kinds of forking moves. In essence there is no other way to defend the area apart from having the biggest army and preferably a mobile one..
***
Macrowise we have a pretty even population with Cornflakes. At the moment we are still ahead in demos, but in the longer-term we will not be able to match his land quality. Having the Great Lighthouse and an island big enough for two cities does help him as well. We have slowly built our power back so that we are essentially tied with Cornflakes and Ruff at 3rd place. Probably good enough to hold our grounds, but still pretty far away from being able to make actual moves due to having our hands tight in the north. We do not have demos, but it seems that Cairo has built a big army in the dark so I'm expecting Commo-Migu-Cairo area to provide further lurker entertainment. Actually with all the war declarations going on everywhere in the world this should be a pretty entertaining one to watch.
![popcorn](https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/images/smilies/popcorn.gif)
Anyways, domestically we will get Currency next turn and we will go for quite a snowbally play where we build as much wealth as possible in order to get Monarchy and HR happiness ASAP. Add couple of whipped EXP markets for Furs bonus and we can make the most out of our food/land/resources. After that we have couple of different directions where to go, but let's come back to that later. In essence, we do not know, what will be the timing when we can be aggressive again, but at some point we are forced to make some moves again. Cornflakes profited too much from a war where we paid all the costs that we are unfortunately not in a position where we can just sit tight and expect it to be enough to win.