The Pen vs The Sword (Gandhi of NA)

[The Black Sword]

Gandhi has had enough. Twice he has turned the other cheek to Incan agression, even giving them money to help them out of their poverty. He watched as they harassed his poor neighbours and now they come back again. Well, Gandhi has decided to recuse himself for a few turns and let the Sword have a chance.

This is the situation in the north:


There is 1 catapult in Armageddon and I'm 5 points from a GG. If I got lucky, I could roll one in the north and attach it to a HA. In the south, a HA and Axe have pillaged my spices:



Dog vs HA: lose
Dog vs HA: 36%: win!
(1 dog loss was about expected here)
Chariots vs Axe: Victory!

The chariot retreats back into the city. My dog is still sitting there vulneruble of course, but anything that does kill it will probably die in return. Especially because I have a mace coming out of that city.

Oh yes, I got my GG too, unfortunately not up North.

At this stage I went to college and spent half the day deciding whether to attack in my north. The combat would be very swingy but with a catapult to soften them up and only spears to take advantage of the hill defense it seemed like it just about came in my favour in the sims. If I kept a spare horse archer I could still raze armageddon. It would also keep my copper safe for another turn. On the other hand, he has 2 HAs and 3 Chariots in his second stack, so defending my cities will be difficult if I commit to this. If I build spears or archers in my cities then I can't get maces next turn and I'm in trouble vs his 1 movers.

Well, lurkers will be glad to know I opted for blood:


Lose, HA is only 5.0 health.

Looks like I didn't take pictures of everything else, approximately:

Spear vs Spear: 28% - Lose
Dog vs HA: Lose to open
Archer vs Spear: 11% : Victory!-
3 HAs win at high odds vs 2 chariots and a spear.

That leaves him with 2 units, chariot and HA vs 2 dogs, a chariot and a warrior



Lose.
Dog vs HA: 86% - Win!
Dog vs Chariot: 89% - Win!

The stack is clear, the copper secure and


No more Armageddon! (If only it was that easy in FFH31 )

I assemble my defenses for next turn:


I upgraded the warrior in Blackwater to a spear with the pillage money. Unfortunately that Dog(mace) is 3h from completion in Blackwater. My GG is going to upgrade the warrior on the signed tile next turn, he can take morale and gets me another mace into Blackwater. 10xp for him, 10xp for a HA in Weldyn. Both cities can hold from his fast movers this turn, but he can probably raze one next turn, we'll see.

But, don't worry, there's more where they came from.

[Gawdzak]

Well played! Will the Sword punish Furungy for his insolence?

[The Black Sword]

He will, if he's left any time. 8hrs of a 48hr timer left and Furungy still hasn't played.

Yeah, I'm going for the kill here, I'm hoping Dazed joins back in in roughly 5t and we can split Furungy's land between us. That's why I was happy to raze the city, where as usually I probably would have focused more on defending my own two and showing him the attack was going to be mutually unprofitable. We probably have 4 times his city count together, trading hammers should work in our favour.

[The Black Sword]

Not sure I want to double move Furungy based on only 1 post recommending it. I have a couple of units that he should be able to kill around that I could get safe.

I do think me going before Furungy worked better in the last war though, especially with Xenu playing after me. We got turned around somewhere in the peace time though. We need a good method for switching timeslots. Perhaps we both PM a lurker when we feel we could switch around without any side effects, and he lets us know when we both agree?

[The Black Sword]

He killed the dog, cost him this HA. Northern situation:



It was probably a bad idea to try save Kesorak. I had to use my catapult on the mini-stack to injure a spear. Then Prince Haldric, my C1 spear took out the other one(52%). Chariot from my boat killed the chariot(96%) then one of my HAs finished off the last spear. That allowed me to put my 3 HAs into Kesorak. I need to get 50g off someone to upgrade my dog to a Mace. Options are Bachus or Oxy(would help if Oxy logged in, sent him a copper trade last turn ). So, 2 spears for his 5 mounted units and 5 units for his 5 axes. The city should hold, but his axes will get odds on everything except the mace, so it's not going to be a good trade.

I got another GG from the fighting, heading up here too. Might just go on another free mace upgrade, but a GG healer would be nice.

[The Black Sword]

Before the crash, I logged into the game and saw Kesorak standing, my mace on 6.2 health and nobody dead and I was pretty happy. Furungy had better luck the second time though:


His axe managed to kill my mace this time, so he pressed on with the attack. Ouch. He is quite injured though. Haldric clears his chariot:


Then I move my GG mace and HA from Blackwater to Kesorak, and I decided to attack out:


2 Victories, though mace is down to 2.8 health. The other mace from Blackwater kills his healer HA, but he can't retreat, so he'll die to Furg's reinforcements. That leaves mostly injured units left:


I have a chariot in Kesorak, so I'd like to clear away the chariot defender. Charles Martel was going to give me a GG healer but I have a better idea:


Morale allows me to retreat into the city and I can upgrade next turn. That allows:
Chariot vs Axe 85% - Victory
Spear vs Axe 92% - Victory

I left the final Axe alive and used the boat to shuffle the last spear to Blackwater to block any ideas with his HA.

Next turn I whip in an Elephant in Kesorak and a Mace in Blackwater. Looks like we're going to hold.

[The Black Sword]

Yeah, that feels pretty safe to me. Furungy's unit composition in the south also looks a bit suspect:


Only two axes, everything else will get destroyed by maces on the attack and he needs more cats/axes if he's going to attack.

I haven't completely given up on GP plans:


It will be nice to have the shrine, but 4 GP by turn 125 doesn't sound great to me for a Phi civ, I hoped to exploit it more. I probably can't leave Slavery for a bit though. If I get a chance to grow tall again after this Furungy situation, I can pick up Philosophy and do a nice Caste/Pac session. I'm not sure what those GP will aim towards though. Right now, the following techs look pretty useful:

Calendar: plenty of happy to help me to recover from all of this whipping

IW -> Compass: Iron, the ability to build Harbours, one would be especially useful in my capital for the health and trade routes going through bureau.

Aes->Lit: The Epics. I have marble coming in soon too. I think this can be put on the backburner for a while though, I want my HE spot, Fort Tahn building troops for this war and I don't have a good NE spot picked out. Ideally I'd put it in ex-Incan territory. Philo also makes the NE less important.

Theology: I think I'm going to try for this next. I hope just seeing Christianity fall will mean no-one else will pursue the AP, despite the fact that my build will be pretty weak. The AP is also of limited usefulness to non-Spi/Ind civs, so hopefully that should reduce the competitors too. Theocracy would be pretty nice also, even if I miss out on the AP.

Dog -> Mace upgrades: Might also be a good option.

[The Black Sword]

Furungy offered peace. Not with this luck:



First cat was 33% to retreat, HA vs HA was 50% win, 10% retreat. Great odds after that. 2 more turns before I actually do anything offensive myself. Dazed's treaty must be up soon too.

I turned tech on Theology. Let's hope there's no competition(because they'll win).

[The Black Sword]

I saw Furungy had played, logged in before football, moved my chariot onto this hill to check Furungy's garrison then left him there and went off to football. I'm back now and he's killed him.

Anyone able to let me know what's going on here? Did I just imagine that he'd played?(not rhetoric, real question) I can't see any login for him before mine on the portal. Maybe he played pre-reload and that was what I saw and this was his actual turn? But in that case he should have known my chariot wasn't there in the first place.

It's pretty annoying, he was my only sentry unit and I don't have any stables, so he's not easily replaceable. Perhaps more importantly, I haven't seen any sentries for Furungy so I don't think he knew the extent of my build up in Fort Tahn. Now he gets to see it for a simple spear - chariot exchange. That damage is done in any case, so I guess it's not worth another reload. I'd like to know what happened though, can a lurker check with Furungy?

[The Black Sword]

Got my shrine, I was expecting around 20gpt:


I knew from PB13 how easily these things spread, but Confu is only 7% of the world's religion, imagine Judaism on 18%! Shrines really are something else in these games.

Army to move in next turn:


Up to 6th biggest army, despite the constant skirmishing:


Xenu founded Christianity btw, but I'm continuing with Theology. I don't believe the AP is cost-efficient without either Spi or Ind so I feel there is a reasonable chance he won't build it. Of course, it's possible he doesn't agree with me there, but I feel it's worth the shot. Getting himself a religion(he didn't have one previously) and a possible shrine might be reason enough to research Theology.

Funny comparison between these two cities:


Would you believe Sledding was actually founded before Basilisk Caves? Joey was very slack with this city, it sat around without a culture source or worker support for ages working that forested tundra hill.