In world news, both wetbandit and Seven generated Great Merchants, but that’s all that was in the log. Retep is 1 turn from Philosophy, and haram’s Chemistry research jumped to 15 turns, so he evidently switched off 100%.
In war news:
In the southeast, haram sent his pike out from eagerday and killed my sentry knight (gaining a Great General), but his pike was knocked down to 32/100. I moved forward my nearby knight, and saw that he moved both the pike and the spear onto the hill to the east of the horses. I only have one knight who can reach this turn, and since it’s an F2 knight, the odds are not great…68.7% against the spear on the hill (10 vs 9) with a 9.4% retreat chance. But I’m going to send some more forces forward, so you know what, screw it. Let’s roll the dice!
F2 Knight vs. Spearman: 68.7% (9.4% retreat) odds…WIN! Knight down to 46/100.
That’s still too much health for his pike to kill easily…it’d be very risky (~31% odds), and as you can see in the screenshot, he has nothing in eagerday, so my guess is that he’ll retreat him to the city this turn. Since eagerday is size 3, he might whip another defender this turn. If he does, I should hopefully have enough force to take the city. I have 3 knights on the way, plus the damaged F2 knight (which could at least be used for mopping up an already damaged unit).
I moved some more units into Tabriz, including 2 more pikes, so I’m pretty confident of being able to hold it, and so is haram because he has not moved his big stacks forward any more. It’ll come out of revolt next turn. I’ve also started moving my settler with a pike and mace to go claim some of that empty space. The question is…settle that hill to build cultural borders to block in haram, or go claim better land further north near where GJ’s old capital was? Wildebeest will grow to size 2 at the end of turn after finishing its granary last turn.
Haram’s forces:
In the southwest, haram moved several of the cats from the welly/cat stack away and they appear to be on their way to the southeast theater. There’s just a stack of 4 wellies and 4 cats now. I’m going to wait to see if they continue to move next turn, and if so I’ll launch an attack out of Sitatunga.
In the northeast, I moved my smaller stack into haram territory. They are just barely out of range of his stack of knights and keshiks, and can’t stand up to them, so I’m not going to move further in unless that changes.
In the north, I blockaded Tiflis with my triremes, and then moved my stack of three triremes and two galleys forward to see what’s worth attacking. I’m thinking about Samarqand. I don’t have visibility on it at this moment, but it’s fairly far behind the lines and under no danger from a land attack.
In the northwest, I pulled my two triremes back since there’s no point it keeping them up there when they can help out in the central north. I’ll probably keep them handy in case haram tries to sortie with his triremes from Tiflis. In his position, I might try to get out and pillage some seafood.
I dropped back to 0% science as we’ll still have MT next turn even at that rate and I want the money to upgrade some knights to cuirs. I think I will stay at 0% for one more turn after this, then go to 100% on Drama, and overflow into Replaceable Parts the following turn.
(November 7th, 2014, 13:14)agent427 Wrote: What are you doing to get such great visibility on haram's civ?
I've been allocating most of my EPs to him for over 20 turns, ever since I knew I was going to attack him. There are still several cities I can't see, but I can see most of them. I think I'm about 100 EPs short of seeing his hardest city to get visibility on.
In world news, retep built the Temple of Artemis and mackoti switched to Vassalage. He must be ready to build units, because Vassalage is basically useless except for a military buildup.
In war news, haram promoted his pike and was able to kill my damaged knight at ~80% odds. I moved 3 more knights up to the hill adjacent to eagerday, and he still just has the one pike in there, currently at 4/6 health, but C2 promoted. So if he doesn’t reinforce, even if the pike heals completely I should be able to take the city. If he gets another pike in there, I won’t be able to and will have to bring more forces to bear. However, I did promote all of the knights in Yak (formerly Tabriz) to Cuirs at 50 bucks a pop (since we finished MT!), so reinforcements will at least be the next generation of horseriders. And yes, I know a yak is not an African animal, but I like the name.
Haram’s cultural pressure on Sitatunga caused it to lose its seafood resource, but it only has 1 turn left on its granary so I switched to culture as the next build to try to gain some of that back.
No other battles this round, just shifting units around. Haram still has his massive stack of 2-movers centrally placed to move wherever they’re needed, but except for them he’s spreading the rest of his units out to the threatened areas. He put another trireme and two galleys in Tiflis, so I brought forward some more triremes, and I have another one completing next turn in Nyala and in Impala.
Graphs:
GNP:
We’re not doing terrible here.
Prod:
Mackoti has some crazy stuff going on here…his production numbers are insane.
Crops:
We’re improving, but still lowest of the highest. This will increase some more once I plant our new city in 2 turns.
Power:
Still dominant here, but mackoti has a sharp uptick, reinforcing the idea that he’s planning a war. He shares borders with several people, so I’m not sure who his target is. I would be thrilled if he joined in against haram, but he might come after me, too. Until I know for sure (he declares), my plan is to capture eagerday and negotiate peace with haram. I only have one point of contact via land with mackoti, but we have a large sea that separates us, so he could do an amphibious assault across that. I think I will build some more pikes and send them up to our land border. I also allocated all of my EPs against him in order to get his research, but it’ll take a few turns.
And demos:
That gives you an idea of how ridiculous mackoti’s production numbers are.
Logged in to a trade offer from Seven – he offered Spices for Pigs. I accepted as I have no spices and have ample pigs. Plus it makes him less likely to target me for a while. Win-win!
Also had an apostolic palace election last turn (forgot to mention it) between me and haram. Results are in and the winner is…ME! GJ and mackoti (plus myself) voted for me, haram and Gawdzak voted for haram. Seven and retep abstained. With 394 votes, I have enough to vote myself in so long as at least two people abstain even if everyone votes against me.
And also found something very bad had happened in the war front…Haram moved two 3-move Galleys with knights and razed Fox, my HE city. I don’t recall seeing the galleys with the extra move promotion, so I didn’t think he could hit any of my cities in one turn. Fox was just protected by an axe and an impi. He essentially sacrificed all of them, as I have a large force 3 tiles away in Nyala to protect my border with mackoti, but that definitely hurt. I moved a pike and a knight out of Nyala to kill the damaged and undamaged knight sitting on the ruins of one of my most productive cities. The pike had ~80% odds and won, and the knight had 99.9% odds and won. It was a brilliant play, and despite his loss of those units it will cost me more than that to resettle and rebuild the city. At least I can rebuild the HE. So kudos to haram for a very well-played move (if he reads this post-game).
I had two triremes adjacent to his galleys (which were unprotected) and used both of them to kill them. He has three triremes within striking distance, and both of mine were damaged, so I will likely lose them next turn. But I also have 3 triremes who can strike his next turn if they attack rather than retreat immediately (in which case only 2 have the range), so hopefully mine do some damage and the others can finish his off. That would completely destroy his navy in the north for the time being.
I also started building a settler immediately in Nyala (it had conveniently finished its trireme build this turn). Due in 4 turns.
I moved a galley with two cuirs from Sitatunga with a trireme escort (he only has a galley in the area) to threaten Darhan. It has 40% defense, two archers and a spear in it, but I’m also adjacent to that little 1-tile island with silk on it. I’ll probably be willing to risk against the defenders he has there, but if he reinforces I’ll just raze his fort and go home.
I also moved my stack of triremes and galleys further north and saw that Samarqand is protected by just a single pike (and 40% cultural defenses). If it’s not reinforced, my 4 knights should be able to take it, and then he’ll lose a city, too.
Over by eagerday, haram added another pike and a chariot to its defenses. Since its population didn’t decrease, he must have reinforced them through Seven’s territory. My C2/Shock knight has 64% odds on his damaged C2 pike, so you know what? I’m going to roll the dice.
C2/Shock Knight vs damaged (5.2/6) C2 Pike: 64% odds…WIN! Knight down to 24/100 and enough XP for another promotion.
Damaged C2/Shock Knight (9.7/10) vs Pike: 51.7% odds…LOSS! Pike down to 48/100
C2 Knight vs damaged Pike: 96.6% odds…WIN! Knight down to 62/100
Unfortunately that is all that I have right there, so I can’t conquer his F1/Sentry Chariot that’s still in the city. I moved forward a cuir that will be able to attack next turn, and I have two more cuirs on the way that can attack in two turns. I WILL HAVE THAT CITY!
I’ll be ready to plant my new city in GJ’s old territory next turn on the plains hill. Here’s the domestic advisor. I’m sad to see a hole between E and G where Fox used to be. Let us please have a moment of silence in memory of those innocents who were slaughtered by the evil Mongolian horde.
Basically every established city is building units of some kind.
Now we’re ready to exact revenge. Haram completed Chemistry and is going for Military Science and Grens. I’ve started on Replaceable Parts, but I’m building up cash right now after upgrading a bunch of knights to cuirs. Should have RP in 5 turns, then Rifling 6 or 7 turns after that (depending on cash flow). So there will be several turns where he has grens before I get cavalry.
It sucks when that happens, but I like the attitude. Keep an eye out for units with a blue glow - they can be surprising...
Also Eagleday doesn't sound worth the effort. Certainly not if he has OBs with Seven. Although the damage is done already... might as well keep up the .
(November 9th, 2014, 17:53)Old Harry Wrote: It sucks when that happens, but I like the attitude. Keep an eye out for units with a blue glow - they can be surprising...
Also Eagleday doesn't sound worth the effort. Certainly not if he has OBs with Seven. Although the damage is done already... might as well keep up the .
They were in a city, so it wasn't easy to tell they had promotions available. It was a slick move. The big difference between fighting an AI and fighting a human. The AI will never pull off something like that.
It isn't worth the effort, but A) He's lost more units than I have holding it, so despite the diversion it's been a net benefit for me, and B) I have no desire to leave it there on my flank.
Maybe I can offer Seven something to close borders with him...hmmm.
Now I know who Seven was preparing to attack -- GermanJoey. Just checked Civstats and it looks like he blitzkrieg'd him and took 4 cities. Somewhat surprising, as if I was GJ I would have been massing forces as a result of haram's efforts, and I'm surprised he was able to take so many in a single turn. But I think GJ is not much longer for this game.
In world news, as I mentioned before, Seven went to war again GJ and took 4 of his cities in a blitzkrieg attack and mackoti’s golden age ended. Haram also switched from Military Science to Steel – 6 turns on the clock.
On the war front, haram reinforced eagerday with some knights which ventured out and attacked my cuirassier and two damaged knights. The first attack was at 27% odds and a loss, but the cuir took 2 hits and went down to 64/100. Second attack was at 88.7% odds and a flawless win – the cuir did no damage. Third attack was against the first damaged knight at 94.8% odds with a flawless win, and the fourth attack was against the second damaged knight at 99.3% odds with a flawless win. I don’t mind losing, but it kinda sucks not to inflict any damage. Also discovered I can’t ask Seven to close borders with haram, meaning that city is, if not critical, at least important to protecting that flank.
In the north, unsurprisingly he attacked my damaged trireme at 99.3% odds and won, though his took damage down to 52/100. Then he attacked my C1 undamaged tri with his C2 tri at 70% odds and won, but was taken down to 28/100. Then he attacked my unpromoted tri with his C1 tri at 71% odds and won and was taken down to 28/100. The RNG giveth, and the RNG taketh away.
I took my other damaged tri, promoted it to C2 healing it to 1.4/2, and attacked his 1.0/2 tri at 75.3% odds and WON! Because of the way he moved, my undamaged tri can’t range on him this round, and he was able to get one tri back into Tiflis. He’ll most likely move this one in as well and let it heal. On the other hand, that gave my C2 tri enough XP for another promotion.
He whipped another pike in Samarqand, so he’s got two pikes in there right now, plus 40% cultural defenses. The first C1 knight, amphibiously attacking, gets 3.9% odds. I decided to wait for a moment and see what else happens before I decide if I can waste those knights.
Down by Darham, it hasn’t been reinforced; still a spear and two archers. Odds for my C1/Shock cuir amphibiously attacking are 70.1%, which seems worthwhile, so what the hay?
C1/Shock Cuir vs Spear (amphibious attack): 70.1% odds…WIN! Cuir down to 46/100.
C2 Cuir vs Archer (amphibious attack): 96.3% odds…WIN! Cuir down to 55/100.
Of course there’s another archer there, so no city capture/raze, but I have a feeling he’s going to want to reinforce. But what I did was move back adjacent to Sitatunga. Next round I unload the two damaged cuirs and replace them with two undamaged ones and move back down. Two rounds from now I’m ready to attack again.
Oh, as a result of these combats I generated a GG, so I’m going to use him for a super-medic. It’ll take a few turns to get him down and match him with his unit, though.
I moved my two cuirs forward to see what he has in eagerday, and he has 3 undamaged knights in there; a C2 and two C1s. The odds are slightly in his favor of being able to take out one cuir and damage the second, but if he did he’d have no defenders, so I’m not sure if he’ll roll the dice or not. We shall see.
I finished moving all of my other units, and had to finally decide whether to take a shot at Samarqand or not…and decided what the hell. Let’s see what happens. I can afford to lose the 4 knights, and there’s no better target nearby.
F1 Knight vs Pike: 1.3% odds…LOSS, pike down to 86/100.
C1 Knight vs Pike: 4.6% odds…LOSS, pike down to 40/100.
C1 Knight vs Pike: 18.7% odds…LOSS, no damage. (FU RNG)
At this point there’s absolutely no purpose to continuing to attack…had the previous attack done damage it would probably have been worth it to try to kill one of them, but I don’t need to give him any more XP. So I keep the remaining knight and retreat the boats.
And finally, I utilized the whip this turn for the first time in a while, whipping some buildings and sending the overflow into units, and whipping a few units and sending the overflow into more units. I whipped 7 cities, which I had been trying not to do too much, but I need to get the overwhelming force to smash into haram’s territory somewhere.
Haram asked for a cease fire this round, but I declined. Don’t need to let him tech to Cannons before fighting again. Wetbandit asked for open borders, and I accepted, then also asked for a world map. Given that he is about as opposite of me as it is possible for a civ to be on this map, I accepted.
In world news, wetbandit completed the Sistine Chapel, and Seven captured 3 more of GJ’s cities.
One of the really annoying things about this style of Civ is that you can’t actually see what happens when someone attacks and destroys your troops. The two cuirs I had on the hill next to eagerday were both killed by haram, but I have no idea if he used the knights he had in the city or he brought more forward. I don’t recall any of his knights having a Formation promotion nor seeing them waiting for promotion, but he killed my cuirs with two C2/Formation knights at about 70% odds each. The loss is fine – he had the odds…but it’s really, really important to know if he brought more knights into the city or not, and I have no way of being sure, whereas if it was a game against the AI, you’d see them move the troops in and then attack. It’s really annoying not to have a replay feature for when your turn starts.
I reloaded my galley in the southwest with 2 new cuirs and moved back down to Darhan, where haram moved a knight in to help out the remaining archer. I’ll have to see what odds I get next round…not as good as with the spear or the other archer, but still might be worth it.
I settled Fox again, which was a little bittersweet.
I moved the pike I had nearby forward to the hill next to eagerday, and haram did indeed reinforce. Four knights and a chariot. He’s also moving an axe from hitshowers, I assume to counter my pike. So I can assume that even if the pike survives, it’ll die from knight attacks, which is fine, if a little sad. I lost several units for little return over there. I’m going to have to form a new stack to lay waste to it and only attack in overwhelming force.
Up in the north, haram’s city of Sanchu is protected by 40% cultural defenses, 2 pikes, a musket, a longbow, a spear, and an archer…all unpromoted. I have a stack of 8 cuirs in attack range. They’re 1 square outside of the range of his giant stack of 2-movers, but if any survive against the city they’ll be in range to be attacked by them. But I want to try to raze this city down, which due to cultural borders loss might actually save my units. So here we go!
C1 Cuir vs Pike: 27% odds…LOSS, pike down to 46/100.
C1 Cuir vs Pike: 28.1% odds…LOSS, pike down to 64/100.
C1 Cuir vs Musket: 63% odds…LOSS, musket down to 20/100.
C1 Cuir vs Longbow: 71% odds…RETREAT, longbow down to 58/100, cuir down to 10/100. This is essentially a loss since it can’t possibly survive the follow-up attack.
C1 Cuir vs Spear: 74.9% odds…LOSS, spear down to 12/100.
C1 Cuir vs damaged pike: 86.3% odds…WIN, cuir down to 43/100.
C1 Cuir vs damaged pike: 97.2% odds…FLAWLESS WIN.
C1 Cuir vs damaged longbow: 97.3% odds…WIN, cuir down to 49/100.
Well, the RNG has not been kind to me the last several battles. I should have won one more battle, but those are the breaks. I decided to move my two pikes forward to help protect the surviving cuirs. They can’t survive a full assault, but they’ll at least make the attackers bleed, I hope.
Despite the disparity in power numbers, haram is doing a great job holding me off and I suspect I’m doing a suboptimal job of beating him down. Oh well, it’s all a learning experience.
I don’t recall seeing the galleys with the extra move promotion, so I didn’t think he could hit any of my cities in one turn. Fox was just protected by an axe and an impi. He essentially sacrificed all of them, as I have a large force 3 tiles away in Nyala to protect my border with mackoti, but that definitely hurt. I moved a pike and a knight out of Nyala to kill the damaged and undamaged knight sitting on the ruins of one of my most productive cities. The pike had ~80% odds and won, and the knight had 99.9% odds and won. It was a brilliant play, and despite his loss of those units it will cost me more than that to resettle and rebuild the city. At least I can rebuild the HE. So kudos to haram for a very well-played move (if he reads this post-game). 
Also discovered I can’t ask Seven to close borders with haram, meaning that city is, if not critical, at least important to protecting that flank.
