[SPOILERS] Nyles Standish goes full retard

[NylesStandish]

Turn 107:




Good news: Plako suicided a Horse Archer which did no damage and gave me a Charles Martel. Bad news: Yuri killed my obviously empty scouting galley with a Trireme, which I think he produced specifically for the task.




Suicded another cat, killed 3 defenders with swords, lost 2 swords (including the only city raider II sword). Elephants on the way. Charles Martel the super medic is just outside of Plako's vision. He takes 1 more turn to reach the hill with my stack whether he stops here or further along the roads, since he can't make it this turn.

Basra 2 pop whipped Moai last turn then immediately regrew 1 pop at the beginning of this turn and is now working on stables to start cranking out HAs.




Commodore's dead. Looks like he's still got the stone, though, so he's still getting my copper. Not that it'll do him much good now. I don't know exactly when he lost access to metal and horses, but I doubt even if he was able to obtain an alternate source for every resource he lost that he'd have the time to produce an army strong enough to stop the advance.

[NylesStandish]

Turn 108:




I log in to this screen, and the same thing from Plako. Accepted from Yuri and refused Plako.




Plako has a Crossbowman now. I considered re-offering peace when I saw it, then decided against it. Gonna use the GG medic to heal up and go for another attack.




I finally find the Juggernaut.




17 cities, 10 Russian and 7 Beast. Those 7 and Rastenford are all that remains of Commodore, the rest razed.




Put all EPs on REM. Graphs in 8 turns.




Garbage demos. 19th in crop yield, mfg and land, meaning I'm actually second to last in those if you don't count the remnants of Commodore and TheWannabe. Soldiers and GNP aren't crap but that won't last too much longer with everything else in the shitter.

[NylesStandish]

Turn 109:




Some of REM's stack in Commodore's land.




Not much happens on this front. Just sitting.

Turn 110:




REM offered Open Borders, which I used to get a look at REM's main stack in Amondon.




I also get contact with Tao, the score leader with 18 cities to my 8.




Looks like #9 won't be Hamburg any time soon. I can suicide cats and go another round with the swords, but there's way too many defenders to actually take the city with this force, especially with reinforcements. Also, the shock swords were really stupid but even if they were city raider II now I don't have enough swords and cats to kill the defenders faster than he can replace them right now.




I asked for a peace treaty. I hadn't founded city #9 in order to put more resources towards military, so I guess I do that now and figure out what to do next. Attacking Elkad while he's fighting REM in the west could go well or backfire depending on which side of his empire he focuses defense on. Attacking Plako again seems suicidal. If I go attacking Elkad, Plako could just hit me when the enforced peace is up if he chooses.

Also gifting Copper and Gems to Commodore again. Tried to get a little bit of gold to speed up Machinery, but Commodore re-offered without the gold and I accepted.

[NylesStandish]

Turn 111:




Plako accepts peace, and some other stuff happens.

Turn 112:




Scouting out the coastline near Rastenford and watching Leonidas' last stand.

Turn 113:

I was tired and laid down intending to rest for a few minutes before playing my turn and some other things, but ended up falling completely asleep and missing my turn. Thankfully, GermanJoey covered my turn.

Turn 114:




I find GJ has moved my chariot onto the hill next to the ruins of whatever that city was called.




I move back south and see the prelude to the final battle.




GJ had moved my stack onto the tile NW of where it is now. I moved them here so that Elkad's chariot wouldn't see a big ass stack coming in his general direction with that chariot next turn. Just chilling in the middle, able to attack or respond on either front.

Turn 115:




Commodore finally gets finished off. Good luck in the Toughvets PB!




Elkad offers Dyes for Silks. Happiness neutral for him in cities with no market, +1 with market. Many of his cities which I've actually seen have markets. Exited diplo then later re-offered since Nineveh and Mosul are still suffering bad from stacked whip unhappiness.

Turn 116:




2 pop whip forge in Akkad. Also note the 3 commerce each trade routes from CH. City takes pigs back from Anbar to grow back up. Not pictured: settler in place to found last city I have room to found now, which will claim a whopping 3 more land tiles.

[GermanJoey]

GJ had moved my stack onto the tile NW of where it is now. I moved them here so that Elkad's chariot wouldn't see a big ass stack coming in his general direction with that chariot next turn. Just chilling in the middle, able to attack or respond on either front.

Woops, I didn't even see his scouting chariot! I had remembered you said you were considering an attack on Elkad, and since you had 8 turns left of a peace treaty I figured it'd be better safe than sorry regarding the timing of your attack. Sorry if I ruined your plans.

[NylesStandish]

GJ had moved my stack onto the tile NW of where it is now. I moved them here so that Elkad's chariot wouldn't see a big ass stack coming in his general direction with that chariot next turn. Just chilling in the middle, able to attack or respond on either front.

Woops, I didn't even see his scouting chariot! I had remembered you said you were considering an attack on Elkad, and since you had 8 turns left of a peace treaty I figured it'd be better safe than sorry regarding the timing of your attack. Sorry if I ruined your plans.

It's fine. You didn't ruin any plans. I don't think the chariot saw the stack before I turned it around. However, attacking Elkad immediately probably would have been better than what I ended up doing.

Turn 117:




Oh, look! A barb city!




CH's and RedAdlerTao's scout comes to take a look around.




Tikrit is founded, taking sheep from Basra until it can get borders and fishing boats on the clams.

Turn 118:




Unfortunately for REM, I'm not going to let Vandal grow and basically allow him a free settler.

Turn 119:




In bird culture, this is considered a dick move.




You know what would REALLY be a dick move? Razing Saradash or Kempen. Kempen has a single shock axe on a hill. I think the turn after this I moved onto the grass hill a knight's move away in order to fork Saradash and Kempen and be able to see into Saradash. REM wouldn't really be able to directly retaliate without either taking out Elkad, or getting Open Border with Elkad and walking his army through Gor to fight me, which I don't see happening.

[NylesStandish]

Turn 120:




Elkad building some farms on the ice next to the deer :Brick:




Forking the two cities, but the chariot is too weak to take either with good odds. Border pop next turn prevents attacking Kempen and I go back to scouting with the chariot.




Shifting forces to the east to deal with a hypothetical Plako counterattack when peace runs out. I don't think he will, but I moved the stack just in case.

Turn 121:




No gigantic fucking stack of horse archers is coming over the German border, so I shift the majority of my forces to the west and leave a few mostly anti-mounted units in Nineveh. My fear of a German attack is part of why I didn't go straight for Elkad. Even though I had the 10 turn peace window, I wold take a few turns to walk there and back, and I wouldn't be able to get much done and get back in time to defend my eastern cities.




Captive has a LOT of food. Pigs, 3 deer and 4 floodplains farms in the BFC.

I also got graphs on REM, so dump time:



















Crop yield is insane as expected. Most of his other stats are far less impressive. I expected his power graph to be more intimidating.

Turn 122:




Moving in for the




Slave girl is defended by a lone warrior, just like Captive and Tarnsman. Nomads is defended by a lone archer and Hunters has far too few units to deter any aggression. I should be able to swipe a good chunk of his empire while his defense is focused in the west against REM. I could even use this chariot to capture one of his warrior-defended cities when I choose to declare on him.

Turn 123:




What's this? I get my own silver, the 2 happiness (with forge) resource I will lose temporarily when I attack, a mere few turns beforehand? Now, the only thing I lose access to in the initial attack are dyes, which are only 1 happiness without theater. He loses the gems (I cancelled the deal upon finding out I discovered the new source of silver, so he needs a new source whether I chicken out of the attack or not) and silks (+2 with market, which Elkad has a lot of).




The perfect tile to strike from.

[NylesStandish]

Turn 124:




Two important things happened this turn; the first one: Elkad's chariot in the east is coming back through my territory. Next turn, that chariot can't see inside of Akkad, but it will on turn 126. I need to begin the attack before he spots my stack.

The other: free copper immediately after free silver!




I don't have a tech screen from T125, but this screen pretty much tells the whole story (besides lacking Monotheism).

Turn 125:




My overview screenshot.




Another chariot coming through to look around. If I wait any longer, Elkad is guaranteed to see my gigantic stack around Akkad and make preparations.




War were declared. My big stack moves into position. Also, notice that the loss of trade route income pushes Monarchy back a turn.




My three horse archers go towards Nomads and find it completely empty.




I use a chariot to take Elkad's worker and another takes out one of his Flanking II chariots. Didn't delete the worker. I have odds to keep him if Elkad's chariot attacks mine, and even if Elkad gets it back he'll have to delete it or lose it along with the chariot when I use one of my spears/elephants.




Graphs and demos tell basically the same story as they did a couple of turns ago when I last posted them, but I have them all screenshotted as well as all of the city screens if any lurkers are interested.

Also, quick question: is the building of spies allowed? The rules say "Espionage: on (only passive)". Active espionage missions have been removed from 3.0.0.4, but I don't believe spies themselves are mentioned specifically in the rules.

[GermanJoey]

Yes, you can build spies, but there are no active missions and spies can only see the tile they are standing on.

[NylesStandish]

Turn 126:







These screens were taken immediately after I rolled the turn, and once it was my turn to actually move:




The chariot threatening Captive killed at low odds for Elkad. Even if my chariot had survived, taking Captive wouldn't have been a guarantee, but it would have been better odds for me to win than Elkad's chariot had to beat my chariot.




My big stack coming into striking range of Hunters. Really wishing I had more than 1 City Raider II sword and less shock swords




Nomads understandably spite whipped. Since you can only whip up to half of city size, he must have whipped twice. The upside is that 2 of the 9 or so whips I saw from him on civstats won't translate into units coming my way.




Nets 118 gold. Kept the city; it retains a granary and a 2 culture/turn barracks.