[Spoiler] Any volunteers for a human sacrifice? Brennus of the Aztecs, by Krill

[Zargon]

So…you guys should start placing bets on just how bad my gpt becomes without wealth builds.

I actually feel like commerce less non-unit costs isn't going to slip much, between the FP, the transformation of PRNGG, and the fact that I think new cities will only cost about 6gpt (~9 maintenance, 2 inflation, less 5 commerce? Should look a lot like Culture does now, right?). No clue what might happen to unit costs, so I'll toss out a wild-ass guess of bottoming out at +25.

[Krill]

I should say, unless you are a dedicated lurker and read only my thread and blog, to post in the lurker thread.

[Zargon]

As it happens, I don't follow any other threads, but given that I haven't actually played civ 4 in years, and never got particularly good when I did, the idea that I could leak gamestate information through an estimate like that even if I wanted to was kind of funny. Still, I suppose there is a point to be made for others who might not be quite as incompetent as I.

[Krill]

As it happens, I don't follow any other threads, but given that I haven't actually played civ 4 in years, and never got particularly good when I did, the idea that I could leak gamestate information through an estimate like that even if I wanted to was kind of funny. Still, I suppose there is a point to be made for others who might not be quite as incompetent as I.

We've had problems in previous games where lurkers would ask inappropriate questions and make inappropriate posts in some players spoiler threads. Generally it's better to be safe than sorry. But if you are not reading anyone else's thread then you can post what you want...

[Krill]

Turn 151 - Oh no you didn't!

And that is why it doesn't matter who you vote for. If Pingo try anything stupid I'm not averse to shoving them off the continent...under the right circumstances.

Keep on Swimming. I suppose I'll uncover the rest of the tundra then go look for Cyneheard.

Still no change in the garrisons. Things are looking up.

Interesting. I thought all culture was supposed to collapse to not leave single tiles within your culture. Probably has something to do with the tile being a legal city site, and peaks aren't that.

Now, this...this is interesting. I am not accepting a city in this location. I will delay any war against azza to wipe it out, and if Nazul are not taking me seriously I'll bomb the jungle tile between then sugar and banana to make my point. Then I'll take whatever I can, and fortify the border. Then I'll turn on azza. I'll have the GS from Crapital to use for a golden age if I feel like I need the extra production or beakers to get to Guilds.

I'll note that against a C1 sword with 20% fortification on a hill, has 55% defensive bonus. Nothing will get odds on that until a mace, so I must sacrifice a unit to kill the sword. I will use both jags to stop him getting more units into the city, and use a 6XP HA, probably promoted to C1+shock for about 40% odds off not dying and then use a C2+shock HA to clean up. Axes I do not fear with spare chariots and and spears will not get past the jags. I don't think anything will get past the jags to be honest, except WE, and even then he should lose a WE to kill a W2 jag on the jungle.

And this is me giving Nazul a hint. Hopefully Nazul move the warrior 1 and see the huge stack of HA and chariots and GA moving their way and think they don't want to piss me off. I've moved down a bunch of workers to make it look like I'm about to settle the city for the banana and rice, but in fact I'm going to keep that settler in hand so I can use it to plug any gaps in the front against Nazul. The HA stack can attack the sword on the hill on T154. Including hte three workers at PD, I have 8 workers available for the war, though I doubt I would need all of them. I doubt will need all of the HA unless I really do stage an invasion.

And yes, there really are over 25 military units available for an invasion. I am not concerned about a single axe or a single sword on a hill. I am concerned about the strategic repercussions of Nazul settling that city though.

I don't think this needs much comment. So long as Pingo don't join in a dog pile I can easily handle azza and Nazul at the same time, once I get Feudalism.

This missionary can go down to the Nazul theatre, I need a source of culture in the bomb city to continue putting culture into the captured tiles. I will probably build another missionary next, I think it takes 3 turns with the use of the hill.

A court house is perhaps not the best choice of a building when the city is 3 tiles away, but I need the EP, and it does save 3 gold per turn. And it helps unlock the FP.

Overflow 17 base hammers, and from next turn make 24 base hpt. I think it is time to make new units...so WE are likely the next build until I can no longer one turn then. So...two of them.

Looks like SC is going to be on military then, what with the likely second war to deal with.

Going to need 2LB in the city: Nazul are closer to optics than I am but I don't really fear blockades...just want to make sure I don't lose it.

Ideal size is size 14 working three mines, a farm and two watermills, for 18hpt. With guilds and two workshops instead it can make 20hpt, and Guilds is looking like a good tech to me.

With the war against azza postponed, I need to change the unit builds. I need LB to hold the city, so once Feudalism has been researched, I shall build two of them, taking four turns due to overflow. But build another catapult before then, I should be able to use them effectively against azza if he invades.

I need to rush this court house out and work a bunch of workshops; NS is in a critical location between two potential fronts yet can be made safe from attack via an artist bomb and attack at Nazul. A barracks can wait, Theocracy and Vassalage will provide 2 promotion units. And because of the workshops, Guilds looks yet nicer, never mind knights. I would envisage this to be a major source of catapult production, making over 20hpt at size 9, though at larger sizes it can work the well developed cottages.

I definitely need to get the hill mined, I will likely have to delay the growth at PRNGG to do it, but war comes first, and PRNGG still has a decent food surplus with three farms and a banana, +8fpt. And slave the catapult...

Give up on the second farm, reposition the workers to road the jungle towards the bomb site, and get the stack here. But finish the court house...

Nice chunk of overflow isn't it? Next turn build a worker to 13/60, turn after slave it to 75/60 and the overflow 17 hammers into the court house again, which should shorten the time until completion significantly. The two workers will help with retooling WTF? but first will likely be used to farm at SC until I get to Machinery.

With the likely war, I definitely need a strong garrison here to deal with azza when he makes a move. Longbows and then cats, HA can come from other cities. This city is one of the reason I'm considering a GA in the next 25 turns now, with a few workshops down and 10 turns of growth, well, that's a lot of hammers over 8 turns. Into maces, knights and cats, well...it'll be interesting, doing a two front war again.

Focus on growth while I can but I'm aware of the likely need to neglect PRNGGs needs, though instead of farming everything then cottaging I will likely just cottage and grow at 8fpt.

Another city in need of a few workshops if I'm going to war, though I can well see it being cottaged later on. 27hpt with Guilds and stagnant growth...reasonable.

That unit cost number is going to get much larger...and that unit supply, well, I suppose I'll be more bothered if the numbers fall.

MFG should get equal to first in the next few turns. The rest is reasonable with tech turned off.

Update after Nazul played:

He planted the city. Here is an even bigger hint, Nazul. The city, or everything south of Middletown. Your choice.

[MWIN]

You don't trust your ded-lurker Darraljs to play turns in your absence:neenernee.

[Krill]

Turn 152 - Making friends is not my strong point

I played turn 152 late, to make sure that I would be able to play last in any potential war with Nazul. This is not necessarily the best move, as it does give Nazul an additional turn to move units, but Nazul have the chance to discover my stack no matter how I move towards him. He will see my demand for the city and if he doesn't accept it, will definitely prepare for war. This is therefore a good reason to have not gone ahead with the demand - the downside to attacking out of the blue is that it makes you unpredictable, and people don't like unpredictable neighbours. They get scared and make you life difficult in the early game. I want Nazul to know that city is unacceptable to me and that I'm going to wipe it off the map, but after that peace is an option.

A sword...I think, what with me declaring war on Nazul very shortly, that I'm going to build LB in a few cities before I finish the court houses. I am not going to be leaving cities defenceless any more.

A new axe for azza. azza is slaving Saffron pretty hard, so when I move my HA stack against Nazul, I really, really need to leave enough units at Opportunism to destroy everything he throws at me when he moves in. Because azza has spies and he knows the city will be...less defended than normal. He won't know that I'm leaving a handful of HA and a bunch of cats in position to defend the city though.

Why waste an opportunity to declare war? I wanted to check where Nazul moved the axe to, and he has moved it to the tile I would want to settle and culture bomb. Culture bombing that tile basically makes everything south of Archaide unviable as a Nazul city, but I still have to defend at NS against a potential attack. It would be an aggressive plant, but it is not the best use of a culture bomb IMO.

The best use of a culture bomb is in Archaide. Unfortunately I'm too late to pull this plan off, but the trick would have been to move in an unseen stack of over 20 HA to threaten Archaide at the eot T153. T154 Nazul log in and think "oh shit" but don't have any units in place to defend the city. 20HA is enough to just about breakthrough 2LB and an axe when most of them are three promotion units, and have enough left to then attack Middletown on T155. IF Middletown can get razed, an artist bomb in Archaide seals off the entire jungle region from Nazul, and is in effect a one city front that can't be boated, and the culture extends to within one tile of the eastern ocean.
Easy to pull of? No. Cheap? Definitely not, but trading 10HA and 7 chariots for a one city front and ripping apart about a third of the Nazul economy is a price well worth paying, even if I have to slave the jungle cities a little bit to then take the southern Nazul cities and hold off azza. But none of that really matters now because 2LB in a hill city with 40% culture is just not happening.

Swim little fish...

Interesting game. Yuri declared on Pingo, then made peace. Wonder what happened there. And I've declared war for the third time and whacked a HA (that will promote next turn) and is 2XP from a fourth promotion. I left this HA where it is and will keep it around Opportunism. I've moved a HA and chariot from between CPH and SG east to also cover Opportunism, and the HA on the "Here" sign has moved to also cover Opportunism. 3HA, 3 cats, a chariot and 4 archers are defending Opportunism. And Opportunism will build into another catapult this turn, then complete an axe next turn, then a longbow...everything that I'm building now is going to defend either SG or Opportunism. I am delaying the attack against azza, I am not abandoning it. Just Nazul need to be dealt with first.

When Nazul log in they shall not see a diplomacy screen from me. They will not know where my stack is, or how I have positioned my forces. They will know for sure that they are at war, and they will probably hazard a guess that I'm a bit pissed off. They might offer Jungle Hill for peace. If they do that I will seriously consider accepting the offer and just hitting azza straight up. I will spend the next ten turns pumping units from WTF? and sending them down to PB and NS to defend.
If Nazul carry on with the war though, I need to move 2 workers to the tile 669 of PD. I must then cover them with as many units as is totally necessary, 1 jag and an HA might be enough. I then need to place at least 3 units, 2 HA and a chariot, on the jungle tile adjacent to JH so I can attack it on T154. The rest of the stack can be placed 66 of PD. T154 move the sentry chariot onto the new city site, to see if there is a welcoming party, then move whatever is needed onto the tile to defend . And keep 2 workers 1S of the banana chopping, and use them to road the sugar on T155. Then hit Axrenox if it's easy to hit, otherwise wait a few turns for the catapults to turn up.

The last missionary is for the bomb city, this missionary is for DP.

Boring.

Nothing but units now. Unfortunately with the stables not yet built, I can't make 14XP units. Oh well...once I get those watermills down and I'm making too many hammers to one turn units without losing hammer overflow, maybe I can one turn the stables. Until then...straight units.

As I'm not going to work the ocean tiles, I only have to grow GNAP 2 more pop.

I changed this build to an HA, so that next turn I can slave it. It would be able to reach Opportunism or SG by T156.

Building into this catapult this turn so I can one turn a bunch of units under Theo and Vassalage. The other option is to complete the axe but I think the catapult would be more useful to make it easier for the archers to win battles on attack when and if azza invades.

This city I'm not going to slave. I want to grow it onto the hill and turn it into a reliable unit pump.

I'll slave SMS next turn for the cat, and overflow into...a longbow or another HA?

This jag is being built, delaying the court house by one turn, to act as another jungle unit to sit on hills and annoy Nazul. I don't have to slave it until the end of next turn so I might not go through with the slave.

Slave next turn and then go back to growth.

Not slaving SG. It will likely grow to size 7 then build a longbow, finishing eot T158. Then back to the court house, the second and third longbows can come from another city.

Grow it as hard as I can, though I might end up just mining all the hills if I really need the hammers in 10 turns. I really want to just get it working cottages though.

slave next turn. I considered slaving a WE, but with cats I'd rather have the extra movement than the extra strength.

Unit cost is getting yet higher.

Now up 148K on second place.

[Krill]

Turn 153 - Peek-a-boo

Turn 153 has been an interesting turn, trying to balance the amount of units I sent at Nazul and what I kept back to deal with azza.

yuris is starting to settle the islands...

No change in this garrison.

No change here either. I still have to be wary of azza moving this garrison out though.

New civic set up (taken after slaving 5 cities, BL, DP, PD, SMS and CPH). I'll keep this until I have CS researched and I can use Bureaucracy.

OK, this is where things start to get interesting. If Nazul have two more workers they can road under the longbow and move it into JH at the start of next turn, drastically increasing the cost of taking the city. The cheapest way to limit that possibility is to attack the longbow this turn with the jag. The best promotion to take is W3 for the two free strikes, giving 32% chance, and if the longbow wins it will only gain 1XP. I only need to get a couple of hits in and an HA will have great odds against the longbow even in JH.

Good enough, the longbow is now below half health and pretty much useless until it can health, and it isn't going to have time to do that.

No new units in Archaide...except I can't be sure it didn't build a unit last turn and has moved it towards Axrenox. Still, I can't attack this city and walk away with my army intact.

Two workers are moved up to enable me to road next turn and move a settling stack up to the borders, cover with the jag to stop any W2 units of Nazuls threatening the workers. Moved up two workers to road next to JH next turn so I can attack with HA from further away, so that the main HA stack can remain closer to the Opportunism theatre, and covered with HA that can also attack JH, cover the settler or attack anything just outside JH next turn.

Sentry chariots, don't you love them. Note the barb city, it needs razing as it's on the wrong tile as it can't work the gold. There is a worker under the Nazul axe that is currently making a plantation. I don't think Nazul realise what they have on their doorstep.

Showing a few catapults and a HA stack...note that this isn't the final position.

I placed two HA 1E of Opportunism, as azza will now have to leave two spears in Saffron city or risk having it razed. That means azza could attack with no more than 5 axes and 3 spears on the tile 1SW of Opportunism, but he will run into 4 cats, 4 archers, 3HA and a chariot. I'm pretty sure I win that battle.

azza ran a turn of espionage against me. At first I wanted to run the slider on him, but in the end I though...why bother, or at least why bother this turn? He can see my cities but he can't give that map knowledge to anyone and he might get sloppy, as I can hide units in places he can't see but still keep a military presence capable of smacking down an invasion from him.

I love this graph until someone manages to take a chunk out of my power I'm not going to stop bullying people. I'm probably setting myself up for a huge fall but it's so much fun! That and the economy just needs me to grow pop and get court houses down, the rest I'll make up through sheer volume.

20 HA, or in a different context...1000 hammers. Probably more useful than a 500 hammer wonder as they have all been built form the HE city...

Next pop point will be a scientist, and after this missionary...build a third for CPH. After that...I don't know. Wonder for fail gold?

Boring. Just a backline city that throws out gold and let's me focus on killing people, there isn't much to really discuss about it.

I can one turn HA from now until T167. That's probably enough to wipe out azze along with a few cats from the southern cities, or specifically Opportunism.

Need to decide between another cat, a longbow, or to finish the spear next turn.

Working a scientist to make 14 base bpt (plus the free beaker to make 15bpt), which is adjusted to 21bpt due to the 1.4 prerequisite modifier. After growing to size 10 I'll probably just work the scientist until the food box has been depleted then work the ocean to refill it. I'm not expecting the city to grow above size 10, without biology.

Longbow next, for defensive duties.

This HA will come out with only 2XP due to no state religion, but it's another warm body for Opportunism, and it can gregrow quickly without the plains hill.

Over the next few turns I'm going to see the war with Nazul develop, and hopefully end. I need to be preparing for a potential two front war, not with azza attacking me, but with me taking hte fight to azza. The moment I get peace with nazul I have to abuse the unbreakable 10 turns of peace to relocate my Ha stack and smash azza into tiny pieces. That means I need to build a good size cat stack, and enough defensive units to hold any city captures and defend a fast mover stack as it enters azza's land, though I will be razing most of the cities azza has planted. Longbows and cats are the order of the day, but an axe and spear or two is not a bad move.

I need the court house then grow vertically. With Civil Service doable in about 2 turns at max tax, I can conceivably have MC finished for workshops by turn 164. So I want to both grow as fast as possible but also save the gold from the court house. I'm going to just work the hills until the court house is done then grow on the grasslands. I don't mind working the unimproved grasslands or the coast for a few turns to keep on growing, too much, I'll workshop the tiles here in 3 turns max I have that many workers in the area.

Keeping the cat stack growing. SMS is small at size 4, but next turn it will work the grass hill for a one turn 50 hammer unit, then it will grow eot T155 to size 5. After this, I need to balance growth between SMS and PRNGG, swapping the banana between the two as needed. With SMS now a fair bit smaller than PRNGG it's more efficient to grow this to work all the hills and then a few farms to continue growth. Size 6 is a good aim, with a few farms adjacent to the lakes.

The slave on the jag means that I have a replacement for the lost jag this turn, but this jag comes out at 7XP.

Overflowing out a nice 15 hammers...the workers build can workshop around BL before Machinery has been finished.

I'm building the longbow as a deterrent . One in SG and on between SG and CPH will be a decent defensive placement, though I do want bow longbow in CPH before too long. The court house can be finished after the longbow.

If I am going to hand the banana over to SMS for a few turns, I realistically want to get PRNGG to work the hills and build the court house and market. So size 8 is a good aim IMO.

Another warm body to defend Opportunism with, it will be 5XP, good enough. Then another unit or to build a court house...a unit, obviously.

Feudalism as saved me a few chunk of gold, even if it costs me slightly more than the base civic to implement.

I'm guessing Nazul will take a dive on the MFG and CY number when they start slaving next turn...and with 3 cats, 3 HA and a jag the soldier points will increase by 39K eot. Maybe things are getting a little bit ridiculous.

[Krill]

Turn 154 - Pointy end in the other guy. Rinse and Repeat.

So turn 153 was played late at night, and not reported because I didn't want to stay up for 4 hours figuring everything out. It was reported after playing T154, so you can consider these two reports as a double header.

Um, bit late for that now Nazul. I can raze that city this turn, and I don't really want the city on that tile anyway, it's a bad city location. And you've delayed my invasion of azza, so I want damages. And a GG, a GG would be nice. I'm not too far from one of them.

I don't really need to do much damage to the sword to get odds with this HA. So do I attack with an F2 HA, a C1+shock HA, or a chariot? Well, the chariot won't do much damage at all and is basically a straight 30 hammer loss. The difference between the F2 and C1+shock HA is that the F2 HA is more likely to live, and I don't mind using a second unit to get the kill. The shock HA is more likely to win straight up and thus get a bunch of XP, but I'll go with the F2 HA.

As all I need to do is knock the sword down to about 85% health, the F2 HA is very likely to do just that (65% of the time gets that or better).

Instead it knocked it down to 25hp and withdrew, so perfect outcome.

Even the chariot gets such good odds I didn't want to waste an HA on the attack (1XP isn't worth it IMO). This way the chariot will get 2XP if it wins which helps with getting the GG, and can promote next turn, and I can use one more HA to threaten Axrenox.

And the with workers roading the jungle, and the mini stack on the tile, I can go and kill a new, full strength longbow, and capture two workers. And maybe even threaten By-tor.

The 6XP HA won the fight and will promote next turn to 3.7 strength, either C3 or C2+shock. I then moved up the sentry chariot to check out By-tor, then moved up a further two HA. That should be enough to capture the city if there is nothing new built, but I think Nazul just slaved a longbow. That's...possible to beat, with good rolls. The C3+shock HA has odds on the (77%) axe.

I moved the jag down to threaten By-tor. That means I now have to attack with a C2 HA against the first longbow then evaluate the result. With enough damage, that leaves the C3+shock HA to attack the axe, and then a 3.7 C3 HA, a chariot and CR1 jag to clean up the 2.8 health longbow, the other longbow and potentially the axe. All that is perfectly doable.
That leaves my nice 12 HA and 4 chariot stack to attack Axrenox (which was slaved for 2 pop this turn). I promoted one HA to C3 to stop Nazul having any bright ideas about attacking the HA stack with the axe. 3 long bows and an axe in Axrenox is not enough to hold it, but could be expensive to attack.

Still, I'll offer the peace deal to Nazul. I doubt they would accept until they logged in, but they might have a look around and consider that a reasonable trade as that means they can keep a good few units. And they could slave them before offering them to me to make them worse cities, for example. If they reply with anything less than this deal I'm not accepting it, but I'd accept this offer if I see it accepted when I log in.

These workers were renamed Twenty Three Nazul" and "Twenty four Nazul". I'm now the proud owner of five captured workers, 300 hammers not to be sniffed at.

Ah, Pingo are exploring. I'll offer them a map trade, to see if they've had any interesting observations when scouting out the iceballs.

Commodore is losing power but taking cities. Hopefully he can hold them. azza and Pingo aren't doing much at all about their power.

The satisfactory conclusion to a war with Nazul is me holding Axrenox and By-tor, but that basically means I need to then hold that border against them, settle the south coast, deal with azza, and settle that huge island off the south coast. I need that as a bulwark against scooty, to stop them from threatening the main continent. Whilst I'd prefer Nazul to have dealt with scooty it looks like I'm going to have to do that. That means I'm going to need another dozen workers, and a dozen settlers just to settle the south coast and island. Probably call it two dozen, to resettle some of the junk cities azza has planted.

And shit, scooty got circumnavigation, which likely means they have Optics. They are up something like MC, Compass, Machinery, Optics and CS, but down at the very least Music. Probably up by about 4K beakers right there? Question is what else they have and they lack. It's possible they are up less than that, if they lack stuff like Aesthetics, Lit, Music and Feudalism and don't have much more on their side. And yuri got a Merchant, wonder what he is going to do with that. Trade mission in to azza?

scooty got a bad event there. And the results of my battles in green. See, everything does look better in green

No change here.

Or here.

Nothing to see here...

Boring.

A settled GG, a stable, and Guilds. And by that time I'll probably have subjugated half the continent anyway. The silk has been farmed to within one turn of completion.

I'm going with the spear simply because I don't want to lose the hammers and it will be useful to put into CPH instead of a longbow. Then probably another catapult.

After this catapult, probably just building wealth until I get MC and can build triremes.

I farmed the extra grassland. I might only get 15 turns out of it before I watermill over it and farm the plains (for better outputs in a golden age), but that 15 food is about an extra pop point, which might be useful if I revolt back to slavery.

Finishing the axe for the same reason as the spear, I don't want to lose hte hammers and it will be useful to defend Opportunism or to sit in a city and defend that instead.

What to build after the court house? Probably a spy to sit in Archaide. Or a monastery to pop borders to 40% and ensure Nazul can't plant another city toward me to screw me about with.

A new HA, then more cats.

Making 13 hammers this turn, 7 hammers next turn and growing, so the court house will actually only take 4 turns to build. Then more units.

Working the river grassland next turn, as it will be farmed. I should only get to use it for maybe 25 turns, but it's better than nothing and I have the worker turns spare. That means the court house should be finished about T164.

I could really do with another culture building here...

I'm roading both of the jungle hills in preparation for delaying growth. A mine on those hills takes a mere 5 turns to complete, even with the jungle. Who says Serfdom sucks.

After this longbow has finished I'm going to go ahead with the court house, should finish eot T67.

Unit supply jumped up because of those stacks moving out of my land. That caused inflation to jump up 5gpt as well...

Yeah, Nazul slaved a bit, didn't they. Rival best power went up 11K from last turn, but that's after I killed 12K of power (the sword and longbow).

[Krill]

I now seem to have a problem. There is a limit of 50 images per post so the turn reports are going to be split up into multiple sections.

Turn 155a - Turning the screw

Turn 155 has been both a joy to play, and one of the scariest turns I've had to wait for. Prior to turn 154 ending, I was not sure if Nazul would get any border pops to screw up my unit movements, whether they would have too many longbows in either or both cities, if they would move a fast mover stack out of the fog to threaten NS, and other moves I haven't been able to foresee. As it was, Nazul didn't get any new longbows into position, that I could see at the start of the turn prior to Nazul moving anything.

One thing I did do was log in whilst Nakor was playing hte turn, and tried to negotiate a peace deal that saw me gain both Axrenox and By-tor. Nakor was willing to hand over By-tor, but not Axrenox. I did not think this deal acceptable for a couple of reasons: I needed to attack on turn 155 to get a GG, as I was only 2XP away, and I can not hold a front line against nazul if they hold both Archaide and Axrenox. Whilst Archaide would be the better city to raze it is to expensive to attack it without catapults, and a culture bomb south of the peaks would not make the fornt any easier to defend. The minimum acceptable outcome to me is that Axrenox is razed and I capture By-tor

Here is the garrison of By-tor. I have a C3+shock HA that has 77% odds on the axe, after that the rest is clean up. Nazul also retreated the axe and worker from the sugar at Axrenox. Regardless of Nazul changing their minds and agreeing to give up Axrenox, I want to attack By-tor to get the GG, so ahead with the attack.

This is the obvious attack to open up with over 80% odds of not dying. Win this and all other units will have odds, and this is the only battle that the shock promotion will matter in, so...

Survived at quite good health, IIRC, but now with only an archer and longbow left this battle is over.

I attacked with another HA with only C1, to gain 3XP, to increase the amount of XP going towards the next GG, and to be able to double promote the next turn to at least 75hp. And promptly won.

This was the final battle, as it was the one with the best odds. I didn't promote because a 9XP jag with the 20XP from a GG can give me the holy grail of a Woodsman 3+Medic 3 unit, healing a minimum of 35hp a turn, up to 55hp in my cities. This is where I'm probably going to send the GG, as I don't strictly speaking need to make the medic, but I'm not intending to stick with Feudalism for +2XP. That means I don't have much use of the settled GG, until I start fighting with those units. Or I build West Point. WP basically needs one of either 1GG or an XP civic to open up 4 promo units, or five of settled GG or XP civics for 5 promotion units. It will get one settled GG, the second one generated.

And duly gained the 2XP needed.

Granary, and court house, definitely worth keeping. And my first forge. Does it actually work if I don't have MC? Whatever, I can easily work the two food resources, hook up the rice to fresh water, and then work a spy for the EP, which I drastically need as it seems half the players in the game can see my research.

I've accepted that I need to culture bomb, I didn't want to use it just yet, but sometimes you do what you have to do.

Good enough. This is one of the reasons I hate CRE leaders, it is nigh impossible to take the inner ring off them. But I can reach the city, and it only has one longbow.

A nice F2 HA, let's see what it can do.

Looks like my HA don't like dying, I think I've only lost one all game. With the longbow dropped so low, the rest of the battles are about minimising losses.

Another 80% battle to not lose the HA...

Archers against HA on turn 155...and my HA are triple promoted but Nazul haven't built barracks, or used Vassalage or Theocracy. This isn't a particulary fair fight, just the way I like them.

All I have left are the triple promotion HA to use, and I attack with them after using all the promotions. I don't want to risk losing any, and I do have a medic scout to help them heal.

Keeping up with the attack.

This one I don't promote, to gain 2XP instead of 1XP, and definitely heal in one turn.

I've managed to capture 126 gold this turn. I've shaved a turn of CS thatnks to that gold, so maybe I should thank Nazul for not accepting hte peace offer?

No court house, but I can focus on building that next, pillaging the cottage tiles once machinery is in and turning Axrenox into a hammer city. That will make it less useful to nazul if they try to recapture it, and gives me more gold to speed up the CS research. And a free granary and forge are reasonable...

Not a single lost unit this turn, but I captured two cities and a worker, and destroyed two longbows, two axes, and three archers. That brings the total up to this war to one lost jag for 3 longbows, 2 axes, 3 archers, 1 sword, three cities and 3 workers. And a GG, I suppose. Nazul have lost 335 hammers in military units, and 280 in workers and the new settler. I lost 35 on a jag. That would have been a decent defensive stack, on a hill and in a city. Apart from the archers which are frankly junk now. And Nazul have been building forges in front cities...sure, they are IND, but they really should have played more defensive.

Nazul have made several mistakes, and another one I can point out is that they should have roaded the tile 3 of Archaide. that would have enabled them to keep 2LB in Archaide and Arxenox, and the rest 36 of Archaide, between the two cities to defend which ever one I attacked. Not doing that is one of the reasons my attack has succeeded. Now I don't really know how to proceed with an attack from here on, and I likely wouldn't. I'm most likely to just play zone defense with an HA stack and catapults Axrenox is expendable, and if Nazul try to recapture it my aim is not to hold the city, it is to destroy as many units as possible and then raze the city. Then remove Archaide from the map and resettle in a more defensive position, maybe on the grass hill overlapping the bananas.

Note I have 5 HA in the theatre that so far have not taken part in any battle. These are the troops I'll be relying on whilst the rest of my units heal. I don't have many great units to use if Nazul trickle in units, OTOH, if they trickle in units they might leave themselves open to a flanking attack at Middletown.

I offered this to Nazul. I thought about offering white peace, but I don't want to give the impression that I'm completely finished with them just yet, and want to go do other things. But they do not have much that I'm interested in. So I offered this not in a hope of getting any of it, but more in the interest of getting a counter offer. Nakor might simply be pissed enough to refuse it and try an attack with WE. They still die to cats and HA though. The only thing that could really threaten me is a fast mover stack but now I'm building LB and have triple promoted HA, I'm not that concerned.

Time to have a look at azza. He still hasn't improved the garrison, but as I no longer have his power graph, I need to be wary of him stacking up on a tile I can't see.

Nothing new here either.

azza logged in to play and got a bad event, poor guy. I don't think he has had an awful lot of good luck this game.

azza, for this, I salute you. You keep on trying to do something to get out of that box I keep on trying to cram you into. I'm going to have a real problem trying to capture that city, but it's any challenge for me.And Nazul, you sneaky...hiding a worker and a galley to try and escape with it. Well, I'm always wanting more workers, so thank you for giving me my 26th worker, and 7th captured. I am gambling that there is no unit on the galley, though...

I'm now lacking seven intercontinental trade routes, so I'm going to send the workboat to Cyneheard to try and gain them.

World map trade, so save me having to scout out all of the southern icecaps. I get slightly more than I bargained for.

Nothing down here...

Plenty up here though. Two of the only sources of whales I've seen all game, and a popped silver for Cyneheard. That capital is easily equal to mine.Higher food but slightly lower hammers, river, two flood plains. He should have settled 89 of Lafayette for the horse and 1S for a hammer city, but Cyneheard just hasn't done anything at all. He has, IMO, probably played a worse game than azza. Azza had a worse start even with the gold. And commodore went to war with Pingo.

Mingo junction, once that is taken over by Commodore, I think Cyneheard will fall within 25 turns. But yuris might be able to time an attach well enough to kick everyone off that continent. Hopefully scooty are in a position to do something about it...