[SPOILERS] Back to Basic - Mardoc plays Augustus of China

[Mardoc]

Well, I'm really looking forward to the next two turns . Hoping that I see them both tomorrow.

This turn was primarily setup, although there was a bit of excitement. First, I checked on Camel-town. Um...didn't that spear have another promotion on it?


Maybe TT built it fresh and moved the other one, and if he did, it should be right about here...yep! I like those odds, let's see if we can scratch a spear here in the open rather than wait for it to get behind walls.



Worked first try! TT should probably have just left the spear where it was, but if I'd moved to the northern hill instead he'd have managed to sneak it by me.



So, Camel-town is ours next turn if we want it. Start with a low XP HA to weaken the spear, and maybe we can take the city with only one casualty.

But first, I'm going to have one unit, probably the medic since he shouldn't be fighting, check on the city to the north. It's likely much better defended, Twinkle's army has to be somewhere, but it's worth finding out for sure. If it's only slightly better protected than Cameltown, we'll take it instead - or in addition. If it's much better...well, we'll just settle for one city for now. The last catapult will be in range of the northern city in 7 turns, and the first couple can be there in ~4 to start bombarding, if they're necessary. Along with the spears and axes and archer to help kill wounded units .




In other news, the Mids are about half-done, but it'll still take two more turns to get the rest of the chops in. Just gotta hope that neither Ruff nor Sian have decided to try for them. And I'm still mass producing units, but I'm beginning to hope there's a light at the end of this tunnel.

[Krill]

Uh, I think you might have killed most of his army already...

[Mardoc]

Uh, I think you might have killed most of his army already...

Demographics suggest he's still got about 75K worth of troops. Ancient era, that's ~15 units. Quite a bit less than he had, but not something I can simply run over if it's parked in a +60% city.

Unless I'm overlooking a source of Power, but I've already subtracted out IW, Archery, BW, Hunting, Mining, AH, the Wheel, and the Great Wall to get that number. Didn't subtract population, but I assume he can't actually have much of that remaining.

[Krill]

TBH I expect that a good chunk of those units will be at the other side of his empire. Not saying you can run him over, obviously, but I wouldn't be surprised if you were able to raze that hidden city.

[Mardoc]

Probably right. If he's stuck to 2 units/city min garrison, and also has the new production still en route to the front, that would be something more like 6-7 units in the hidden city. Which is my biggest fear, honestly - just small enough to be tempting, but big enough to seriously wreck my stack with some bad RNG luck. I'd have to debate for a while. I honestly hope it's either 3 units or 10, so the decision is easy.

Edit: Also, if I can take it, I probably want to keep it, not raze. My one-movers could reach after culture is removed, and axe + archer + spear is a perfectly adequate garrison.

[HidingKneel]

Don't succumb to temptation. If it looks at all risky, just take Cameltown. You're gaining momentum faster than he is, especially if he's losing cities.

[Mardoc]

So, what've we got?



5 Spears, an axe, an archer, and three cats, all behind 50% defense walls. Not on a hill, but that's still more than I think I can take with 12 mostly-healthy horse archers! It certainly won't help anything to give those units all a bunch of XP. Thanks, TT, for making my decision easy.

Speaking of 'mostly healthy' - any unit that's at all wounded won't be participating in the southern assault. That's the whole reason for making a Medic III unit, to let me keep my stack at full health.

So, let's see how this goes...first we send in the sacrificial unit, if we're lucky they'll retreat:



Um, guys, I realize I didn't actually tell you you were a sacrificial unit, but that should have been impossible! Don't you know the meaning of retreat?



Ok, I guess low odds battles do have to happen occasionally, statistics says so. But dang, that's beautiful. Next battle is 70% and we win that one too, leading to this:


It's even got a granary! Although we do need to get a missionary over here, at least its best tiles are all first ring. Debating if Redcloak should build military, or just go for infra. In fact, I'm debating that in a lot of my cities, because, well...



Double TT's power, and a lot of both of ours is tech, so I wouldn't be surprised if unit-wise I'm more like 2.5-3x his strength. But on everything else but MFG, I'm definitely only ahead of Celtia. On the one hand, nothing would be worse than coming up short and prolonging this war even more. But I also don't want to find out in a few turns that Ruff has made it to Knights and I've only got ancient units to protect myself with. I'm leaning toward leaving Roy and Elan on military, but putting the rest of the empire back to infrastructure and growth. Or maybe even have Roy knock out a couple settlers and missionaries. This is a bet that my current military will suffice to finish TT, once I get it consolidated. I think that's a good bet, but I'm not certain. It does help that he's collected all his military into one flatland spot, and I've got cats incoming. A bit of bombardment, one last big push, and that'll hopefully be sufficient.

Don't have to decide this turn, but it'd be good to know what I'm doing by the time the next turn comes along. Libraries and Mids would probably rescue my GNP a lot faster than anything else. But I'd look awfully silly to swap to infra and end up with a forever-war as a result.

[Commodore]

Better overbuild than underbuild; recovery starts once TT is dead.

[Krill]

Also, I would have raised Camel city. No point in risking TT taking it back...or maybe there is, because it would be easier to kill spears out in the open, so what do I know. But really, just overbuild on the cats. If you build 15 cats, the ones that live are still useful.

[Mardoc]

Also, I would have raised Camel city. No point in risking TT taking it back...or maybe there is, because it would be easier to kill spears out in the open, so what do I know.

It's not really defensible, but I figure the worst case is that I have to raze it next time. Might get a profit here, might not. But I think it'll be safe as long as I keep enough pressure on Twinkletoes so that he doesn't have any strategic options. He doesn't have any horses anymore, so anything sneaky can't be too much of a surprise for me.

But really, just overbuild on the cats. If you build 15 cats, the ones that live are still useful.

Fair enough. Maybe I can force Ruff to spend on military too Or else become master of the continent, that would also work. Full on cats for now.

Anyway, we did pull in a tech this turn. Gotta save for quite a while yet before we can go for the next one, armies are expensive.


Twinkle's got another axe, another cat, and another archer in Bibracte. Fortunately I've got cats . I'm working on keeping my distance and keeping stacked - I want to get the cats in place and bombarding the walls ASAP, but I also don't want to provide any counterattack opportunities. Which is partly why I went ahead and pillaged the road to cut off Redcloak.

Parked my horses and one movers on the 75 BC tile, next turn we'll advance to the hill, and start throwing rocks. I'm considering using a HA to pillage the grass road next to Bibracte, but I think that's a suicide mission so I'm holding off for now. Probably just have escort HA ride back to the cats whenever they're in range of a strike from the city - if any counterattackers have to end turn outside city, I'm probably ok.



Swapped my espionage spending to full on Ruff. Twinkle may be researching something with his 12 GNP, but I don't think I really need to know what it is anymore. But I'll want Ruff's graphs come war's end, at least.

But the very best thing about the turn is this: