[Spoiler] Another collection of Sianic Games

[Mardoc]

Finally had another turn. Can't complain too much, I've been holding it a week myself. Too many other games. HK killed off my pillagers, but they collected enough that we'll easily make it to construction on schedule. Yell0w has a Satyr in the city on my border, a bit scary but he doesn't seem to want to aggress again. Yet, anyway.

Otherwise, same as last turn. Working on converting the hammers into economy while we tech toward HK-killers. I'll need to build some catapults for defense, but I think maybe I should wait for vamps to actually invade. HK has ice elementals + catapults + millions of copper warriors, and even catapults won't find that straightforward to break, barring a movement advantage. Vampiric spectres should manage, though.

[Mardoc]

Well, Kragroth is certainly decisive. I'm now at war with him, and he sent in an invasion force.

Fortunately, Yell0w didn't leave him much to be decisive with. 1 Satyr, 3 Fawns, and two lizardmen invaded, and they didn't even have the reach to hit my city. I see Kithra still in Svart territory, maybe coming to join them. True, they're Agg Sinister with poisoned blades, but my copper bloodpets should still have reasonable odds. And his Satyr defended the stack, so I was able to wound it down to 0.6 Str with a reinforcing Moroi. I should hold the city at least one turn, depending on RNG.

I swapped all my cities back to units for the moment, and am sending 10 Moroi from the HK border as well. That should be able to clear up his invasion force and maybe counterattack.

Meanwhile, Construction came in last turn, and we picked up Writing this turn. I'm debating if I should push toward Feudalism, or save my money for army instead. I feel like I need to prune Kragroth back a bit, while producing/maintaining enough defense to stop HK as well if he comes west.

This should be interesting, but so far it doesn't look particularly threatening. I'm still more worried about HK counterattacking than I am about Kragroth's elves. But if I can get a half-dozen catapults built, I should be fairly safe from the ice-direction, at least for a while.

Well, that is, unless Kragroth has a bunch of stuff in the fog that will be coming next. Wait and see, I guess.

[Mardoc]

Kragroth attacked with three Fawns, won two/lost one. He brought up Kithra, I brought up some Moroi, but nothing decisive there yet. I see two more Fawns in his territory which might be joining his stack next turn. Good chance I can wipe his stack next turn, though; between my emergency production and the reinforcements from the east, I probably have enough. Then I can debate whether to press onward or just play defense.

HK is also advancing, with the PoW and a few javelins. I think I can stop him, but he has pinned a fair bit of my army; I'm sending 5 Moroi back from the anti-Svart force to help out there if necessary.

Tech is paused in case I need to do some emergency Moroi upgrades. Trade is next, and I think I can go straight to Feudalism afterward.

Most cities are on Bloodpets or Moroi until the current crisis is over. I have one city on a Siege Workshop. Assuming I end up in control of my territory, I have all sorts of options for what's next. I could resume the Moroi focus, and counterattack Kragroth. I think Commando Moroi should be able to make a Fawn-based army unhappy, given our production differential. I could try Moroi on HK again; there seems to be a non-zero chance I can kill the PoW. I still don't really like the idea of throwing Moroi into javelin/catapult hordes, though, even if I kill his summoners. Or I could sit back, play defense, and tech to Vampires.

I'm in no rush to decide here. Turn pace is still leisurely, and I definitely need to regain control of my territory before I consider offense. It might be that HK and Kragroth can bring more than I think, in which case I won't have the initiative and choice anyway.

[Mardoc]

Situation is still kinda tight. I counterattacked Kragroth, and came up slightly short; Kithra, his Satyr, and one lizardman currently survive, all at low health. I don't expect to lose my city, since I have five-six bodies in it (even if they're mostly wounded), but I didn't accomplish as much as I wanted, either. He's got two Hunters that can reinforce his stack, and I see at least one more incoming but further away. Going to have to keep pouring bodies northward for a few turns.

Meanwhile, HK paused a few tiles away in the east and is sending in ice elementals to harass while he trickles in reinforcements; his stack is up to 15 now. So I could have spared those five Moroi, which would have been enough to finish off Kragroth's stack . Not going to send them now, HK is still a pretty big threat.

I'm up to three Siege Workshops in production; first catapult should be completed in four turns, next in seven, and after that I can about go 1/turn. It's a bit of a gamble to not be working on just bodies, but if I can hold the front that long, cats will be much more effective than warriorpults/moroipults.

Feudalism appears to be about 12-15 turns of research away, long enough that I'm still not starting on it. I really want vamps - but of course just getting the tech is not enough. I also need to find the hammers to spare to build the vamps, and the time to feast them up to Spectre summoning, and ideally time to collect a critical mass; I'd rather not trickle in one Spectre at a time.

Course, I do still outproduce HK + Kragroth combined, and I'm still Raiders when they're not, so it's not all doom and gloom. I've got to remember Raiders - it may well make sense for me to ignore Kithra (or just keep feeding her bloodpet targets) and send my Moroi to go raze a city or two instead. I bet that would get me a reprieve.

[Mardoc]

One more turn. Kragroth withdrew, presumably temporarily to heal his units and reinforce, since he didn't offer peace or even ceasefire. I had two Moroi go barb, and lost two more trying to clean them up, both at 80%+ odds , so I couldn't keep any pressure on this turn. But now I've got some time and reinforcements streaming northward, so I should be secure...for a while.

HK is also standing still. Still occupying my tiles with ice elementals, but not attempting to kill, still not much new on his stack. It's standing on an ice hill, or I'd seriously consider throwing my stack at his; if he's still there in five turns I'll give it a try anyway.

Neither should be giving me this time (in particular, HK has a lot more power than he's showing), but I'll take it! My first Siege Workshop completed EOT, and I think I can get 2 turn catapults from the city (got to rejigger tiles, it might only be 2-turn when I have overflow available). Two more siege workshops are in progress but will take longer. I'll want cats on both fronts, but I think they'll head HK-ward first, since he's got a much larger army, which also depends much more on sheer numbers. Ideally I can hide them behind my city until I have enough to kill off his stack, but I'm playing it turn by turn.

I also went ahead and turned on research. Trade in three turns seems likely worthwhile just for the economic benefits, in addition to being closer to Feudalism. Haven't decided if I'll continue onto Feud immediately or try to pick up some other bonuses on the way. I could really use more happiness in my cities, which calls for Sailing and/or Sanitation, maybe a religion. But I need some spare hammers to make use of any of those techs: workers, at minimum, but probably also a building or three. OTOH, the easiest path toward spare hammers is to use summons for my fighting. So it's a bit of chicken and egg, really. Wait and see, hopefully I can scare my invaders enough to skim off some surplus and spend it on the future.

[Qgqqqqq]

Pictures? How dominant are the demos?

Still following, still interested, can't comment much.

[Mardoc]

Pictures? How dominant are the demos?

Time? Can I have more time? Maybe you mow my lawn, and I give you pictures? Or you could take over some of my other games?

GNP I'm 2nd-3rd, no one is really doing well in that. MFG is 190 to next best 100. Crop Yield is about tied at 2nd. So I'm not really dominant except in hammers. Fortunately we're all still in an era where hammers are the main thing that matters in an army. My main worry is that someone changes that on me before I manage to get my own game changers in play.

I haven't looked at graphs in a while, so I can't tell you who's in which spot. HK and I are definitely tops Power, but I wouldn't be surprised if Kragroth beats HK on some of the economic demos.

Still following, still interested, can't comment much.

That's reassuring. Kinda thought I was posting just to organize my thoughts.

[Qgqqqqq]

Yeah sorry, I try to post when I follow more, but I'm not too good at it. But whenever I see you've posted you're one of the first updates I'll look at (after my own games and the mod, basically), so am definitely watching

And, of course, take all the time you want. I still haven't done a mapstitch in '39 despite promising one some 2 weeks ago, after all

[Mardoc]

Well, this was a good turn for the Calabim. Kragroth left Kithra and his Satyr still wounded, on the border with only a couple Fawns to protect them (1S of Brakkah). Took advantage


Then I went looking for opportunities with one of the Burning Blood guys - prefer to get them into enemy territory if I can since they're so likely to go Barbarian. Well, I found an opportunity, all right.



I'm not sure it was wise to remind Kragroth that I'm Raiders - maybe I would have had better opportunities later. But on the other hand, I think it's likely he knew, or he would have pulled all his forces back to a city instead of leaving them on roads at the border. Four workers is pretty good prize anyway. It's not terribly likely that I would have a better opportunity later. I doubt my Moroi survives the interturn, so I deleted the workers.

Meanwhile, HK has pulled back a bit. I'm very unlikely to counterattack him at the moment...but I'm not sure he has any way of knowing, and the PoW are irreplaceable. With full information, this is a mistake for him, but with the info he has, it might be correct.

Also, as you'll see in a bit, my demos aren't dominant. It would be in HK's best interest for me and the Svart to stalemate and keep spending resources on each other. He may think he needs to ease the pressure on me a bit to keep that at stalemate. He's probably wrong about that, but I can see why he'd believe it possible with his current information.

Fort stack:


Worker guard:



Because HK backed off, and my catapults are now getting close, I went ahead and pulled six more Moroi from the front to send toward the Svart. My natural production rates are likely to give me opportunities, but a bonus of six more Moroi in threeish turns may break a stalemate. Hope HK doesn't give me reason to regret that - but so far I don't think he has Hawks or Floating Eyes, so I probably have breathing room. And in five turns I'll have a stack of cats to replace the Moroi and then some, anyway.

Demos and graphs:

As you can see, HK is still a huge threat, militarily, but Kragroth is the new threat economically. Now that I'm stabilized, it may be a good thing for me that Kragroth forced the issue of war now rather than teching up.

Next turn may be interesting. Here's the garrison of Brakkah. Kragroth could certainly hold it if he pulls back his units in the area, and builds another warrior. But if he's optimistic, I might have an opportunity here. Would be a tricky choice between razing and keeping: more cities is always better, but keeping a city on the edge of Svart culture is likely to be difficult - only worthwhile if I can keep the momentum going and take more cities, I suspect, and I'm not nearly that confident. I lean toward the raze, and sending out some pillage parties: that may give me enough cash to sprint to Feudalism. It may be easier to grow by pushing out settlers to secure areas, anyway.



I've swapped away from emergency builds, but you can see I'm still in total war mode. Just going on the theory that there are other units besides Bloodpets and Moroi who may be useful.

[Mardoc]

Actually, looking at my expansion options again - I really am leaning raze now. There are a lot of good things to grab left on the map - but extra copies of cotton and sheep don't qualify. I'd much rather get settlers out to the wine islands, to the gem island, Yggdrasil, and etc and so on. Those aren't just more tiles to work, they also boost the rest of my empire.

Agg Recon-based Svart vs. Commando me means that my advantages are almost entirely in initiative. I don't have anything that can stand up to his Hunters and Fawns on defense, but I can kill them if I hit first. Which means I need to keep the fighting close to the border where I have the mobility advantage. I suspect it will actually be less investment to build a galley and settler(s) than to crush Kragroth enough to hold where I don't have mobility advantage.