[spoilers] Gaspar and Commodore welcome you to the islands, mon!

[Commodore]

Well, Mr. Arrarr was already in bed, apparently, so it was a little pointless. Still, had a decent little consolidation turn thus far. Out west, I moved the stack all into Da Lagoon to heal up (need a better troll name once we've completely taken out Sian). These guys are resting for now, but an archer or two will free them up to be used down at Sian's copper if so desired.



In the Pedro front Calvin and Hobbes still has yet to be reinforced, beyond having an easily evaded blocker trireme in place. Revantusk's trireme was whipped to cover the stack next turn.



With the archer reinforcements in Pedro, the offensive elements were again loaded up into galleys to strike, this time at C&H. The two wounded super-Numids, two city raider axes, and two shock Numidians eastward can all stage into the forest east of C&H next turn, covered by the new trireme (only one Sianic trireme in range to attack them, so that should be enough).



Beyond that, it's all economy. With capture ~30 gold, if we want Optics the turn the GS pops we can make it happen, Alphabet is a 2-turn tech at 60% and Machinery is down to three turns now, so it will be researched at 100% starting next turn, so the 6-turn ETA is perfect.



Zul'Farrak is beginning it's next frantic whip cycle, able to whip next turn, then overflow 1-turn a second axe, then put a turn into the whales settler and whip it in time for the second far-west galley to reach the city.



In side-news, Malaka'Jin's borders popped, so marble is now in-borders if still needing a fort. A fort on the grass next to the marble wouldn't count for hooking the resource, would it?



Finally, the angry citizens of Sen'Jin are about to be 5-pop whipped for a market, which will also give them something to do once they start piling up. National Epic site much?



Now's to the next turn, let's see what new wrinkle Sian presents us with, or if he's mostly given up by now.

[Ceiliazul]

A fort on the grass next to the marble wouldn't count for hooking the resource, would it?

Nope.

Looks good, but I have a word of advice. That word is "rabbits".

[NobleHelium]

Nope.

Looks good, but I have a word of advice. That word is "rabbits".

Sure it can. Fort the hill, road the hill, quarry/road marble. All forts act as cities, you just need a road as well (cities give you the road for free).

You might need culture over the fort though, not sure about that one. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't need culture, it can very well act as a foreign city which would provide the trade route. Although if you need culture then you'll need to plant a city there instead of the fort, since you can't get culture on that tile from another island. I imagine you want to plant it eventually anyway though, since that clam cannot be used otherwise.

[Gaspar]

Yeah, we can just fort the thing for now until we plant a city on the island, then quarry it afterwards. Ultimately, not a big rush - what are we building with Marble soon?

[T-hawk]

You might need culture over the fort though, not sure about that one.

Yes, you do. Forts in neutral territory do not act as land-sea connections.

(Strictly speaking, the culture on the fort doesn't have to be yours, you can trade through a non-hostile civ's coastal fort. But you can't build a fort in someone else's territory in the first place, so this only matters if you first build the fort then their culture expands to it.)

[Gaspar]

I see the save but won't be able to play for another 8-ish hours. Given the recent molasses in winter pace of the turns, if you can play before then, go ahead. I've been shadow-playing the last few turns to stay looped in anyway.

[Commodore]

Got it then.

[Commodore]

Right, so Gaspar is wisely avoiding the setup turns so he gets dibs on the battle next turn.

The gist of it is, unless Sian manages something magical, we get to take Calvin and Hobbes next turn. A pair of damaged super-Numids, two shock-promotable (but not shock promoted, I wanted to tempt him into attacking out if possible) fresh Numids, and two city raider axes against his axe and spear in walls.



Backing these units up is this lovely set. The axe and Numid are loaded into the Warder, and can amphibiously back up the C&H assault, and the selected galley ensures that either landing on the C&H hill or Zits if he leaves things open is possible.



There is potential for him to expose Zits, too. The pyramids city made a galley this turn, so he might decide to lurch into assisting C&H with some of Zits' defenders, seeing mostly just defensive units in Pedro. If he does leave just two defenders there, a risky attack is probably worth it, because there is a second unloaded galley in Pedro which can shuttle defenders into the city even if the attacking force is mauled. Probably won't happen, but I left us in position to take advantage if he blunders.



I did not opt for the low-odds attack with the Trireme out of Revantusk, choosing instead to cover the galley stack next to C&H. He can only hit with one trireme I think, although I have lost the westernmost trireme. There is a small chance it's going to menace the Sherman's Lagoon galleys over in the western waters.



Da Lagoon popped out of resistance at the end of this turn, and it was very painful. No courthouse was taken on this one, so the cost is kinda a little bit crippling. Rego's borders will block trade routes too if he pops them before we pop ours. At least if we work the mine there should be time to make an archer before any Sian units can come in.



To get Machinery and thus crossbows in two more turns we will have to work some merchants/build some wealth. At least Sen'Jin can now take part in that, with its new market providing happy and slots. Might be wise to make an axe next, whip the turn after for full overflow, and then have it make crossbows.


Assuming there is still a financial issue next turn after the battle for Calvin, Zandalar can also run a couple merchants to get us the needed cash. The capital is about to be in the nice position of being able to comfortably stagnate at size 12 for a while, although the ToA plan might change that idea if we feel secure militarily.



Zim'Torga, with an insane food overflow and four unhappy faces of whip anger might be best served slow-building the remaining shock Numids needed for the Aztec homeland push. At least that slow-building is faster now with the copper mine online. Nice little city, eh?



I'll leave with a dump of empire-wide shots, plus our victim's lands:







Go Orange! We have the most far-flung empire in the world!

[Gaspar]

Round 3... FIGHT!

On the interturn, Sian took a frustration shot at our Trireme with his Trireme. It failed, predictably. I guess he's probably feeling mauled by the RNG at this point. I'd probably be throwing a tantrum in my thread if I were him, so I can't say I blame him. Anyway, here's the situation at C&H/Zits.




Tempting as doing some jiggering to make the attack on Zits work, I feel like we're winning at this point so some prudence is in order. Let's take the favorable shot at C&H and then move forward from there.

After minimal simming I decided to promote a flanker and then throw it plus the two semi-damaged flankers in first as Numid-pults.

So, in rego style:

C1/Flanking II Numid vs. Unpromoted Spear at full fortify @4.1%/48%: RETREAT, Spear down to 2.2/4.0
C1/F2/Shock Numid (3.7/5) vs. Unpromoted Archer @10.5%/44.8%: RETREAT, Archer down to 1.0/3.0
C1/F2/Shock Numid (3.1/5) vs. C1 Axe at full fortify @4.0%/48.0%:
RETREAT, Axe down to 0.5/5.0

Clean up mode now...

CR Axe vs Spear (2.2/4, full fortify)@99.4%: WIN
CR Axe vs Archer (1.0/3)@99.9%: WIN
C1/F1/Shock Numid vs C1 Axe (0.5/5) @99.9%: WIN

Results in:



No buildings, sadly.

Other than that, I shuffled units around. Picked up an axe in the north and a pair of them off the main island. Left signs on the loaded galleys. I also loaded a pair of Galleys in Pedro to possibly land troops near Zits next turn. Besides the one galley brought back to the mainland to pick up troops, I put the other two in Calvin & Hobbes, renamed Zeb'Halak, due to the deer (Figured a Grizzly Hills town seemed appropriate.) Anyway, they can pickup the Numid-pults if we're feeling frisky next turn. I also went with Atal'Hakkar for Pedro since it will be the site of our "Great Temple" if we're lucky and Zabra'Jin, since Zangarmarsh seemed the closest thing to a Lagoon I could come up with off the top of my head.

I fired the extra merchants because the capture gold made them unnecessary. If we have issues when Atal'Hakkar comes out of revolt, we can always rehire. Definitely need to end this and get some Settlers out, we're falling way behind rego and Yuris. Though truthfully, might just be worth threatening rego as soon as its over, see if we can extort some gold for a NAP. He doesn't want to deal with us, even if he has the means to do so. We're definitely going to end up warring with him as his new flank, especially as he and Pindicator appear thick as thieves.

[Gaspar]

We are getting stupidly lucky here, btw, which I should have mentioned in the report. :P