[SPOILERS] Peter of the Ottomans carries a big stick

[thestick]

Nothing interesting happened this turn. I whipped the Monument in Tohoku, deciding that getting the Sheep sooner was worth it. Tankra's power has been rising. (I just realized I forgot to add the power graph, I'll edit that in now. Also, he's had another power spike since last turn.) He's second in power and clearly whipping more units. Our Scout will move into position to see into Dumb Mud next turn. Nothing's appeared in Repel a Leper besides the Archer and Dog Soldier. Given we're lowest in power (discounting Sian), I'm pretty afraid he'll attack. Time to prepare!

Our Scout is scouting SAT's lands, and their cities are shockingly undefended. Analogy (their Horse city) had one Chariot in it, which moved OUT of the city. Their capital, Algebra, has only one Warrior. Vocabulary (their backline filler city) is undefended, which makes sense since it's behind a lake. Geometry, their mirror of Katrina, is completely empty! I'd at least put at least one unit there for happiness purposes. I guess their entire army is attacking Sian, which makes sense. It looks like Sian's going to lose his Loincloth (his capital). I still wouldn't attack, since as soon as they defeat Sian, their army will come turning around (unless they decide to overrun Nicolae...)

Also, I screwed up on the Hammam hammers, it's actually 67 hammers. I thought they were 65 hammers because Settlers are 65 hammers.

[thestick]

I'm pretty sure Tankra declared war on someone. Who, though?

[thestick]

And no, I didn't just declare war on you, stick.

Whew. I thought Nicolae would be a more attractive target due to the Pyramids. I was afraid that Tankra would attack due to us slipping to fourth in power. Still, that explains the absence of units - they're in the east.

Attack soon while the armies are in the east, or just sit pretty and be the only one not fighting?

[thestick]

...that's it?

Hahaha.

Nicolae seems pretty confident here. If Tankra's attack fails as badly as his first one did (no offence, but failing to take the city or pillage any tile is pretty much a failure), he's out of the running.

[Bigger]

since our economy's a little better now, perhaps its time to beef up our military. we have a border with SAT to the west, correct? So if we are beefed up we can consider attacking SAT, or Tankra (if his attack on Nicolae fails or stalls).

[thestick]

Short report for now, pictures will follow later.

Tankra offered Open Borders! I thought he hated me. I accepted, I doubt he'll attack in the short-term. Plus, he seems to want to work together with the other guy on the bottom of the scoreboard (rose to third, though!) to take down the top two. A secure border, I'll take it!

Masonry came in, queued up Hammams in Krakatoa and Katrina. Katrina will be 12/67 +8 next turn, wait until T68, then whip. Krakatoa will be 3/67 +3, with a chop coming in.

I've been scouting SAT's land, and wow, it is shockingly undefended. 1 Warrior in their frontline city bordering Yellow River? No units in Arithmetic?

Tankra's land isn't much better - one Archer in Dumb Mud! I really hate how they can see into Yellow River and Aral Sea...

At breakeven with current rate, Construction 8t, Currency 10t, Iron Working 4t, Sailing 2t. Been thinking of picking up Sailing to get trade routes hooked up, but we can just buid a road.

I'm leaning Construction for Catapults, followed by invading someone. We're pretty good in GNP right now, might even be top (hard to say with Nicolae's culture). We're at 33 beakers, will go up and down with whip and Academy. I was thinking of Iron Working -> settle jungle, but jungle has no pre-calendar food aside from Yellow River's pigs, so scratch that.

Tankra or SAT? No clue.

[Bigger]

well it seems like SAT is running a farmer's gambit, tankra isn't.. plus tankra is fighting nicolae, who we can't really touch ourselves... so I'd lean towards SAT

[thestick]

well it seems like SAT is running a farmer's gambit, tankra isn't.. plus tankra is fighting nicolae, who we can't really touch ourselves... so I'd lean towards SAT

Ehh, I wouldn't say farmer's gambit, just that their army is somewhere else (attacking Sian). There's the whole issue that SAT has more cities than us (9 vs. 5) and will definitely whip out a new army. Then again, catapults. Tankra's cities aren't too much better, an Archer in Dumb Mud, an Archer in Seline Felines, and an Archer and Dog Soldier in Repel a Leper.

Sorry about that, jet lag and stomach bugs have messed up my sleep schedule.

The biggest news is that SAT settled the city of Trigonometry last turn (sorry, forgot to mention it):


Come on! Granted, it's partially my fault for not getting any culture in Yellow River, but that's still a somewhat aggressive plant.

The other foreign news is that Tankra's building a road to connect our empires:

Either this is a road for Tankra to move his troops into our empire, or this is a sign of peace and mutual benefit. I think it's the latter. I'm not sure if foreign trade routes are worth too much more when they're on the same continent, but since our current trade routes are only 1 coin, we stand to make some money off this.

In domestic news, I decided to skim a couple of Workers out of Aral Sea again. The Great Scientist was born as scheduled. The Academy will be built next turn in Krakatoa. After that, I'll turn research back on. We're second in Population. Surprisingly, at breakeven rate (before I fired the Scientists in Aral Sea) we're tied for 1st in GNP! And our competitor is Sian.

[Bigger]

oh thats terrible, we have to raze the trig city asap. how long will it take us to crank out a buncha catapults and axemen?

[thestick]

oh thats terrible, we have to raze the trig city asap. how long will it take us to crank out a buncha catapults and axemen?

Construction comes in in about 8 turns, give or take. Axemen can probably be handled by pulling our existing Axemen (I think we have 5 scattered across the empire), skimming out a couple off of overflow and just slow-building them in Katrina until Construction. After Construction, reconfigure Krakatoa to hammers, crash the economy by whipping away everything, and hope we have a large enough stack to steamroll the opposition.

It's pretty obvious we'll need to prepare for a long war if we're going with slow Catapults. How many Axes do we need? 10+? Same number of Catapults?