Astronaut without sin confounds press, invites trio to control civilization

[spacemanmf]

Not much of interest to report for T128. Mackoti's fleet is nearly healed.



We plan to invade next turn onto the grassland hill. I later forted the tile 2W of Puck for extra defence for the workers who part-forted it. In order to avoid mackoti controlling this tile, we should leave a couple of units on there.

Interesting developments on the northern border. It could be one of those situations where tension builds up out of nowhere. Yuri, perhaps worried about out 2m+ power, has reinforced his border city with longbows, and a cataphract has now popped in there (presumably completed end of turn).



The cataphracts in his northern captures are perhaps heading south (there's only one left in the Sian's former city. Now, again, this could be for safety. Also, it could be because there is an opportunity to strike at our relatively weakly defended border cities.

I put a pike in Rhea and queued another in there. When he sees our troops amassing, that might be a reason for him to amass more!

Anyway, it's early days now but we should be cautious. There are some units on boats around there which could be used to reinforce those cities.

Mackoti could decide to go after Callisto still, so I think we should keep more units in the area rather than flooding them all down to the southern battlefront.

Our Heroic Epic city is building up overflow whilst 1-turning 11XP 3-promo cannons.



And our power continues to rise and, seemingly, not be matched.



I cranked up EPs on Yuri a bit since we still don't have graphs - they are proving slightly elusive.

[novice]

This is our new frontline city of Puck. (Before ending turn.)



You will notice that Spaceman didn't whip the granary this turn, so I assume he's going to use a micro trick that Seven recently added to our repertoire.

In two turns, the city will grow to 16/16 food and complete the granary. Normally this would mean starting out at size 3 next turn with an empty food box.

Instead, we'll check the avoid growth option (bottom right) and have the city remain at size 2 and with 16/16 food. Next turn we can uncheck avoid growth and work pigs and rice, for +9 food. This will let the city fill the granary to full capacity (8 food) and will give 9 food overflow. So the city will end its turn at size 3 with 17/17 food. Compare to the non-avoid growth option, which would have the city end that turn at 9/17 food.

[spacemanmf]

Er, yeah, something like that. I figured we could reconfigure it if necessary to get the granary built before growth. That seemed preferable to whipping.

[novice]

Er, yeah, something like that. I figured we could reconfigure it if necessary to get the granary built before growth. That seemed preferable to whipping.

Yeah, we could work a grasshill mine over iron for one turn to achieve the same effect without using avoid growth. Complete the granary with 15/16 food, then work rice+pigs for massive overflow that also fills up the granary store. Maybe we should do this, actually (assuming we get enough hammers that way), so that Ariel can borrow the iron for a turn.

[spacemanmf]

Ok, another day, another ridiculously expensive and uncomplicated invasion.



We have moved the moused over units onto the GL hill 2E1N of Rhodes. 79 units plus a Great General. The selected units are on the boats 4S1E of Puck. They can launch an invasion on Ephesus or reinforce Puck via forts.

Mackoti has 7 knights, 3 grenadiers, 2 phalanxes and 13 cats in range (that we can see), plus 24 units on the boats (there were 21 spare survivors from the earlier battle plus a presumably already laden 8th galleon). That's similar to last time, although he has 10 fewer cats and he will have to attack across a river if he wants to do the same as last time. I think that means that his grenadiers won't get odds.

You can see how we have recovered from that earlier war below.



Here are the costs of war.

[spacemanmf]

Ok, bit of posting in pindicator's thread, and a bit of posting in the lurker thread. Note to self: check for AP build.

Save's in, but I'm not home yet. I'll be able to play tonight.

[spacemanmf]

Ok, bit of posting in pindicator's thread, and a bit of posting in the lurker thread. Note to self: check for AP build.

Aha, pindicator's been gifting mackoti units, based on the demographics. I wondered what those two knights were doing in Ephesus. Seemed somewhat out of place.

[spacemanmf]

I'd guess about 200k's worth - nothing too shabby. Probably his remaining knights. Will make the forthcoming battle more interesting (and painful)!

[spacemanmf]

Not a big report this time - all the action will be next turn.

Here is the very front of the frontline:



We vastly outnumber the garrison in Rhodes, but the enemies they are everywhere. In boats, on roads, gift-wrapped, everywhere.

A sweepstake on how many units we'll have left in that stack might be called for.

I've not decided whether mackoti should abandon Rhodes or not. It depends how many units he has in range. We have 20-30 units behind the front line (including on boats) to join up with our main army.

If we can capture Rhodes, we plan to raze it and resettle 2E. That will be instantly defendable in 1 move from Puck.

Here are the demographics.



Our power was 2.31m after drafting and ending the turn, still a lead of 1m.

Part of that is the fact that our naval fleet is starting to match mackoti's. We have more boats, but weaker ones. I just want to blockade the route to Callisto so that more units can reinforce the frontline from there.

[novice]

If we can capture Rhodes, we plan to raze it and resettle 2E.

Did you come around to this? I thought you wanted to go straight for Thebes?

I guess it depends on how much of our stack survives.