[Spoilers] Commodore as Washington of the Mongols

[Commodore]

Good job on those chops, 26 free hammers for you!

How do you know the whipping was Mackoti, his score didn't decrease... how many pop did he whip?

Whoops, I thought it had dropped relative to me because of land points for everyone else. Stupid Creative messes up my counting.

By the way, I'm looking forward to continuing with my galley-borne axes plan, I ought to be able to chop out a galley in Naga in time to load it with a couple raiders. TT's spear-spamming ways need to be punished, although keshiks with their withdrawal rates and mobility still are an even match, strategically, with their nominal counter.

[Ceiliazul]

In the last few days (~10 turns :jealous TT improved to around 54 power. You are evenly matched at 50, but will be mass producing double-promoted units shortly.

On the west coast, the balance is 74-to-53! I expect fireworks on the left coast shortly, maybe even before you and TT light off.

[Commodore]

May it be a merely slaughter that produces nothing!

So, here's a nice little side question; where is TT's fifth city? Reach is obvious, as is Moon River 2S of gold. Iris, the capital, is also no problem to divine, and I'm going to assume one of the others is at the wet corn/fish site somewhere along the coast. His fifth city, "Get that annoying song stuck in my head", is...where? East of capital? Cows/Clams/Spices site?

[Ceiliazul]

So, here's a nice little side question; where is TT's fifth city?

Build a single road to connect to Reach and you'll be able to see his resources available. This will determine a rough idea of where his 5th city is. He cannot stop this tactic, but he could use it against you. You could prevent that by destroying the road before ending turn.

You can only do this until you lose that 1st ring tile into Reach.

[Commodore]

Well, lost the Reach tile, no surprise as its first-ring. I decided to actually go writing next, as Sphinx:
-Needs more culture to keep key hill tiles.
-Is running out of improved tiles, and might as well work on a scientist.
-Has more nothing else exciting to build.

All that aside, the end of turn fifty saw my people being honored for their impressive cultural accomplishments, meaning their awesome erections of stone that have popped up everywhere. I'll see some prophet from this before too long.



Time for the Turn 50 review! First off, my demos. My GNP has been consistently high, due to the furs and gold my workers brought online as soon as each city was settled for them. MFG and CY have been consistently average, above TT but below the western powers, and power has been rock-bottom until the most recent skyrocketing. Land area says I'm at the head of the pack for cities, although population shows that most of them are little 1-poppers.



My capital of Manticore is my pride and joy, able to churn out 2 keshiks every 3 turns with the whip, all the while working that Oasis and the lovely early village, plus deer and wheat. This is a great city, and as you can see I'm finally building cottages to grow onto once Calendar gives me a high enough happy cap. This is easily the best city I've been given as a capital, with great commerce potential and great hammer potential. Bureaucracy will make this place a beast.



The second city Gryphon is hungrily awaiting the advent of Calendar to have sugars helping out its food issue. The grass hills are getting mined as of now (turn 51 this morning), which will allow a good strong hammer potential here. Already, the borders are about to go 4th ring, which will be nice. Long-term, this grassland is getting cottages out the yin-yang and Gryphon will settle down to a nice commerce center.



The dry city of Sphinx is my frontier location, and definitely under TT threat. It is pumping a butt-ton of axes for now, to either move to take Reach or Moon River, or to defend against a slow-mover stack attempting to solidify TT's control of this critical valley. Long-term, this is the #1 prospect for slow-building wonders, as once the rice can be farmed the city can just sit at size 7 and work the gold and three plains hill mines for a huge hammer rate.



My strongest second-tier city is Basilisk, well-supplied with food and soon to be a cottage-heavy commerce center. While the ger is going to mean a lot of cavalry once the city completes it, eventually this site will probably be the center of my settling push westward.



The spicy backline city of Minotaur is never going to be an awe-inspiring place, but it fills up space, nets me a good secure port, and claims a good food surplus for its size. Whipping is in order here, lots of it. Currently, the plan after the work boat is to push a ger and then keshiks, but I might decide to just make axes if the profitability point is too low.



Finally, my most recent and most worthless city, Naga. I need the clams netted to make this place anything other than an utter drain on my empire, and a lighthouse to make it a good city. Once the rice is farmed this will be an okay commerce site, but until that time it's just breaking even.



My empire overview, north half. This place is pretty well developed, and in a few more turns the workers are going to migrate westward, pre-roading for the settler push. Meanwhile, in four turns every city seen here will be making keshiks for the inevitable TT war.



My southern half, with the aforementioned TT's spear set highlighted. Despite massive deforestation, there is still a lot of chopping to be done here, and the nicely developed cities will definitely be able to defend themselves. The two tiles currently carrying a big chunk of my economy are down here, the furs and the gold. If I can capture TT's gold this whole boondoggle will have been worth it.



So that's the current "state of the nation", over-all. I'm thinking more and more than I want to spam out axes to ensure my current holdings' safety and possibly to capture spear-covered Reach. If I can put a cork in Gold Valley's southern end it's only a matter of time for poor TT. I feel like I've been going pretty well and if TT has been more willing to talk I think I'd be happily spamming out settlers still, but alas, momentum now says I need his land to keep up with the western powers.

[Commodore]

Also, briefly, turn report for 51. We're still ten turns out from the NAP expiring, and things do not look good for TT:



He's pouring more troops into Gold Valley. Dude, can you see my axes massing? I'm not going to hit your spears with my keshiks in equal numbers. I'm flexible and you're stringing yourself out wide with scattered and slow forces.



Meanwhile, finally healed up my contact warrior is moving westward again. I'll laugh if I the whole east explodes into war before we even make contact with Gaspar or Mackoti. Stupid animals.



Need to have about 627567651220 more horsemen, and I'm good.

[Commodore]

So here's something cool, every single city I own completed their production this turn, and research in writing finished. The most important part of this, of course, is at Sphinx, which makes its fourth 1-turn garrison unit, an archer for max overflow into a Library. It'll be close, but I'll keep the tiles.



Okay, I lied, one more turn and I whip Mr. Naga here. I love Exp, I'll have a hard time picking something else in all games out. Insta-granary!



One-pop whipping Manticore produces an effect I wasn't expecting: I'm near the happy cap! And also, due to overflow, I'll be one-turning Keshiks for the next five turns...yeah, this is awesome.



How's that for a fast mobilization? I think I'll be making a settler soon, maybe in Minotaur up north. Five cities pumping should be enough versus that kind of power rating, right?



Need to go de-hubris-ify.

[oledavy]

How many keshiks do you have at this point? And how many do you plan on having for the assault?

[Commodore]

How many keshiks do you have at this point? And how many do you plan on having for the assault?

Uh...looks like roughly a dozen, plus five or six axes. It's not much, but I'm not looking for a death strike, if I can cut off Reach and gold I'll be able to strangle him.

[Ceiliazul]

How's that for a fast mobilization? I think I'll be making a settler soon, maybe in Minotaur up north. Five cities pumping should be enough versus that kind of power rating, right?

That's quite the spike, but TT is also mobilizing. He may be 3-4 turns behind you, but that gets eaten by travel time. Sphinx needs a library, but otherwise it's Keshiks/axes for clobbering time.