[SPOILERS] Bismark of Sumeria (luddite + Atlas1998)

[luddite]

I don't know. After I take the last city in the south, I'm not going to press the attack any farther- I need to rebuild my economy and settle east towards LP. I admit, his capital with those pyramids is looking juicy- but it would be just cost too much right now. Maybe I can get it with HAs or catapults after I get currency, or maybe I'll have to wait for medieval units.

Anyway I'll stay at war for a while to make sure I get all the land east of his capital, and I'm still hoping to get some sort of concession from him for peace.

[luddite]

Pretty quiet turn this time- it's been a while since that's happened! Mackoti chopped a wall in the southern city, for some reason. I continued moving units down there, whipped a ziggurat in Kinsale, and started the capital working another cottage. I'm going to let it grow into unhappiness, since I'll get gems soon.

Also, I just noticed that Parkin is giving gold and ivory to WarriorKnight, so they must be on very good terms. Well, technically he's trading them for health resources, but it's basically a gift. I wonder if Parkin will ally with WarriorKnight against plako?

plako has currency now.

[luddite]

This is an interesting tactical situation. I need to get 2XP for this vulture from one of those units. That means I want him to attack with as close to 99.1% odds as possible, but without going OVER those odds. I can choose to attack quickly over the river, wait another turn and avoid the river, or wait 2 turns, heal and avoid the river.

[luddite]

I need the archer to be at most 1.4 strength. At 1.3 strength, I'll have 99.3% odds (wounded and attacking across the river), which is too much. And according to the Advanced Combat Odds mod, an unpromoted vulture would have about 20% odds of dropping the archer below 1.4 strength, which is just too much. Anyway, if the archer is above 1.4 strength, my odds of victory would go down rapidly. I'd need to get it at exactly 1.4 strength, which is just too hard.

Nicking the spearmen is also a possibility, but again, too difficult. With too much damage, he'd quickly become too easy.

My best plan seems to be to heal and avoid the river. Then let other vultures deal with the archer, while Debaser takes down the healthy spear at 88% odds. If Mackoti moves in the chariot, or if the archer takes just enough damage, then even better. If he gets enough hammers to complete an axe, that's ok, because I've got enough vultures down there to deal with that and I don't really mind the losses.

[luddite]

Also, what's up with plako? Last time I checked he was at 10 cities... but now he's somehow at 14!

[SevenSpirits]

That bastard, building settlers!

[luddite]

haha, well it's just a surprise. I thought I was getting close to parity with him (I'm at 9, about to settle 2 more) and I freaked out when i saw his city list.
On the plus side, mine come with prebuilt improvements!

[luddite]

speaking of settlers, mackoti just founded a new city. I guess that makes sense, since they still had plenty of empty land around their core, and I haven't made any threatening moves towards them in a while.

[luddite]

I like this city very much but what on earth was mackoti thinking, building a farm there? 9 food surplus wasn't enough, he needed 10??? I'll pave over that farm with a nice cottage, post haste.


Mackoti's power is growing pretty quickly on the graph, while mine has been kinda stagnant. I guess I should be worried about that, but I'm really not. He's still so far below me in power, and my defensive position is so strong, that I just don't think he's a threat to me at all. I don't think he could even pay upkeep on the number of soldiers he'd need to retake his lost territory. He chose to invest in catapults, which are a great defensive weapon, but pretty much useless on the offense here against my vultures.

[luddite]

I like this city very much too and he even left trees for me to chop!


Which catapults me up to... AVERAGE in crop yield apparently average is good enough for 4th place, since things are skewed so much by plako and parkin's enormous growth.


Here's what I've got to defend the city. Quit a substantial force, for this point in the game. And Mackoti won't be able to see it unless he suicides his chariot, leaving it stranded on my side of the river.


My economy is still lousy. However, this guy just appeared! Finally I can get rid of the forge engineer here. When the colossus finishes in 2 turns, I'll have enough money to finish off aesthetics and literature, and jump start my research.


Mackoti got a new unit in his city. I wonder why he made an archer? Either he hasn't explored all the coast to connect it to his trade network, or he just wanted something cheap and fast. It won't be a problem for me, I'll take it next turn and then found a city for the gems the turn after.