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

[NobleHelium]

I'd say it's more likely that mainland city with the archer in it, actually.

[Commodore]

Commodore, is it morning for you yet? I'm hungry for details!

I'm assuming this is Calvin and Hobbes, so now Sian is down to his mainland cities?

Nope, think other side of Azteca. Or as I like to think of it, Southwestern Trollia.



Sian dry-whipped an archer, no longer being able to whip in walls. Things looked a little iffy, but hey, it's not like the troops are choking him right now. The medic Numidian went in first, with slightly better than even odds of surviving.



Yup. Not only survived, but kilt hisself an archer.



Excited about the odds-beating Numidian, I glanced over to our new epic unit in Pedro. Huh, that's good odds of not dying against the spear. Sure, why not?



Inspired by the flawless win of his hero, the boat Numidian promoted to shock and tried his hand at beating the wounded axe. 80% odds is back in the "actually should be winning" category.



So, the result? Pedro is securely ours, and we got ourselves two super-units. Flanking II Combat I Shock Numidians are scary.



Those axes, yes, are city raider promoted, I think it'll be huge in taking Zits or Calvin and Hobbes in a few more turns. Although even the CR1 axes will need some flankers to go in first.



Meh, back to the city capture. I send in Death, the first axe, at low odds. The results of that are obvious now, what with our RNG worship.



Destruction there actually failed, for once, but he did a lot of damage to clear the way for the Third Really Bad Thing, Ugly Babies. Yeah, that wasn't going to lose, although he took more damage than expected.



The Cid decided to be a pain and spawn in the sweltering hell-pit of Sen'Jin, but hey, at least he showed up. Nice to see you, GG!



Fortunately war weariness has yet to hit, but Sen'Jin is still really, really angry. The good news is that in two turns, we can five-pop whip the market and their elephants and furs will amuse for mucho gladness. There's really no point in settling El Cid here.



So, having a galley in range, we move him to Zuldazar, where the HE will probably go.



There's a huge hammer potential here, maxing out at 26 before the forge. The soon-to-be +4 happy market is a good build here but after that, a forge, and the inevitable cothon it's all-military, all the time.



Bless his heart, Sian tried really hard to make a good trireme trap this turn. It's annoying, and next turn Revantusk will whip a trireme in response, but thanks to circumnavigation it's nothing too threatening.



I did the usual dance of galleys. My suggestion for the two coming up from Sherman's Lagoon would be to take them towards Zul'Farrak, which next turn moves off the mine to put a hammer into an axe, then 2-pop whips to make another axe the next turn on otherflow. Reinforcements!



Then, Zul'Farrak makes a quick settler, which gets picked up along with a worker to head north to the awesome horse/whale/fish site. Optics is six turns away, the happy (another market doubled-one), will be huge.



Succinctly, here's what the turn brought us:



Looking good.

[Ceiliazul]

Succinctly, here's what the turn brought us:

I'm not sure about keeping Sherman's Lagoon... Remember, the RNG giveth and taketh away.

[Mardoc]

I'm not sure about keeping Sherman's Lagoon... Remember, the RNG giveth and taketh away.

I'm just excited that we're going approximately even in attrition here! Maybe even a little ahead, counting things like the galleys burned in port. If we can keep up even/ahead, then we'll certainly win this fight.

I'd much rather be in our boots than Sian's! At least he's got a turn of no production from Sherman's, and the lost garrison, and the weakening of other fronts when he takes it back, under the best case scenario for Azteca. And this probably also makes our homes safe, as Sian's focus will be Sherman's/maybe Pedro, not leaving much to spare for strategic counterattacks.

[Commodore]

I'm not sure about keeping Sherman's Lagoon... Remember, the RNG giveth and taketh away.

Well, to raze it would be tantamount to offering an amazing site to Rego for free. And there's still no sign of Sianic galleys. If he takes it, that's actually fine...I'd rather he isolate away 4-6 units off his mainland and the theater that really matters, the Pedrosphere.

I quoted Sun Tzu, now I'll paraphrase Corazon Santiago: "Circumnavigation galleys stand at the apex of the first triad of victory, combining Mobility, Flexibility, and Initiative."

[Ceiliazul]

Circumnavigation galleys stand at the apex of the first triad of victory

You should rename the GG (or one of the elite horses) "Grifta's Legacy"

[Commodore]

Okay, time for a new series, hopefully one that doesn't tempt the wrath of Murphy. I introduce you all to:



Right, so, poor Ume over there in the corner is going to be made an ass repeatedly, but we're just going to roll with that. :neenernee Stuff changes all the time, and we here at Counting Chickens acknowledge that every new save is a potential gift or curse. I mean, next turn we could open to find Sian has deleted all his units. Or, next turn we could find that Regoarrarr has declared on us and his marine-laden transports are about to take out our capital. Who knows. Be that as it may, here's some thoughts about how we should be moving forward:

Barring brilliant generalship, great luck, or outside intervention, Sian's goose is cooked. There should not be too much difficulty in capturing Calvin and Hobbes in three turns, and then he's down to his mainland alone, with us researching Machinery in 3 turns (with a crucial Zul'Aman library whip next turn) to begin making crossbows, including shock crossbows from the GG-boosted Zuldazar. So, we should very soon see Zits and the Pyramids fall, and then we're integrating Aztecs into Carthage.

With the captures of Sherman's Lagoon and Pedro, we now own three Confucian cities, including the Holy City. A shrine on this expensive map would be incredible, but those are very difficult to make without an early Prophet wonder. The best bet for that would actually be to build the Temple of Artemis sooner rather than later and run a priest specialist from a temple too. At 8GPPpT, we'd make the pool filled in 16 turns, with a 75% chance of turning up Prophet.

The ToA is actually a great wonder for us in general. With our incredible Malaka'Jin reach city we have marble for the wonder, and which ever city we opt to put it in we'll have a cothon for three trade routes. Couple that with a very cheap tech requirement, and we're golden.

On the subject of techs, obviously, we're about five turns out from Machinery, and then Optics is the logical bulb. The next tech should probably be CoL for cheap Org courthouses and the Feudalism for Vassalage and longbows, but perhaps it'd be best to swap those two in order. Either way, the new empire needs to get a lot cheaper, and soon. (On further reflection, Feud first also means a more efficient double revolt to Representation, too).

After that if it seems reasonable to go for a shrine, we can pick up Polytheism in a turn, but either way the next line ought to probably be Aesthetics, Literature, and Music. Building culture is going to be a biggie for us no matter how well we spread Confucianism, and a free Great Artist if we can make it there first is nice, but the real deal is actually the two techs before.

Representation from the 'mids means a specialist economy, which is silly-good on this map anyway. We also have access to marble and surprisingly, several forests in the Aztec mainlands. The Parthenon would give us half-Phi for a long time, well worth shooting for, and the Great Library, already great, is practically broken with 'mids and Parthenon (12beakers and 12GPP a turn, really? Thanks).

This seems like wonder-chasing, but frankly, with our empire in the state it is, we're well equipped to chase them. Civil Service is a fairly worthless beeline with the sub-par capital, and bulbing Astro is still probably the best bet this early unless the military situation rapidly changes.

Take 'er with a grain of salt and discuss.

[Commodore]

Also, Rego says hi-ho. He is Flanders to us, I think...

[COLOR="SeaGreen"]Well howdy hidy-ho neigbhoroonies!

With your successful capture of Sherman's / Da Lagoon, it seems like, as we talked about a few days ago, we are indeed neighbors.

So I thought it would be useful to talk about your aims for this war and how you and us can continue to have good relations. I know that early on you had mentioned that there was no need for us to have a NAP given that we were all the way on the other side of the world but of course that has changed since then. I also know that you are somewhat averse to the concept of NAPs and I'm okay with that.

I do currently have an active NAP with Sian so that would probably prevent me from aiding you (not that you seem to really be needing any!!). I guess I have no current agreements that would stop me from joining the war on Sian's side, but that doesn't really seem to be a good idea, and as you have probably guessed, most of our army is defensive in nature (i.e. longbows)

Anyway I just wanted to drop you a line to open up the conversation on what ways we can cooperate. We are always looking for cooperation with other powers, as I'm sure you are also. I'm sure we can catch up on chat sometime

Your Mom of Ottomans[/COLOR]

So, hi there buddy. World's big enough for both of us...um, don't kill my pig city spitefully? 'cause that'd be dumb.

[Mardoc]

On the subject of techs, obviously, we're about five turns out from Machinery, and then Optics is the logical bulb.

I suppose it's time someone found this for you, then.

Scientist bulb list, from civfanatics

Writing
Mathematics
Scientific Method
Physics
Education
Printing Press
Fiber Optics
Computers
Laser (BTS)
The Wheel
Alphabet (BTS)
Philosophy
Chemistry
Fission
Fusion
Optics[SPOILER]Paper
Astronomy
Biology
Electricity
Flight
Genetics
Compass
Satellites
Aesthetics (BTS)
Sailing
Alphabet (Vanilla & Warlords)
Calendar
Medicine
Ecology
Advanced Flight (BTS)
Iron Working
Metal Casting
Engineering
Steam Power
Liberalism
Agriculture
Masonry
Bronze Working
Machinery
Gunpowder
Refrigeration
Superconductors (BTS)
Rocketry
Fishing
Combustion
Plastics
Composites
Stealth (BTS)
Mining
Military Science (BTS)
Radio
Meditation
Drama
Theology
Music
Civil Service
Democracy
Corporation
Communism
Economics
Hunting
Archery
Animal Husbandry
Construction
Robotics
Monotheism
Mass Media
Horseback Riding
Replaceable Parts
Rifling
Artillery
Future Tech

[/SPOILER]
Just to confirm, none of the higher priority techs are currently on our 'can-research' list? The only ones that seem plausible to be an issue are Alphabet, Philosophy and Mathematics - I think we're past them, but I honestly don't know the tech tree as well as I might.

The next tech should probably be CoL for cheap Org courthouses and the Feudalism for Vassalage and longbows, but perhaps it'd be best to swap those two in order. Either way, the new empire needs to get a lot cheaper, and soon. (On further reflection, Feud first also means a more efficient double revolt to Representation, too).

Longbows would be great. But do we really want the free units badly enough to give up Slavery? Where are we going to get hammers from without slavery?

Representation from the 'mids means a specialist economy, which is silly-good on this map anyway. We also have access to marble and surprisingly, several forests in the Aztec mainlands. The Parthenon would give us half-Phi for a long time, well worth shooting for, and the Great Library, already great, is practically broken with 'mids and Parthenon (12beakers and 12GPP a turn, really? Thanks).

This seems like wonder-chasing, but frankly, with our empire in the state it is, we're well equipped to chase them. Civil Service is a fairly worthless beeline with the sub-par capital, and bulbing Astro is still probably the best bet this early unless the military situation rapidly changes.

Take 'er with a grain of salt and discuss.

My main worry is that we repeat our earlier debacle and lose out on the wonders after trying hard for them. Do we have any feel for our opponents' tech situation and goals? I fear that by the time we've finished Sian off, Rego at a minimum, possibly others, will be far enough ahead to take any wonder we want.

Conversely, entering the longbow/courthouse age, we ought to be able to keep REXing until the map is full. And keep what we claim (and so will our opponents). So any land we want, we've pretty much got to take now, or else plan to get it as the longbow age expires.

Unless I'm underestimating our current position? Maybe it'll be possible to REX and get wonders at the same time? I just don't want all the land that should have been Sian's to go to Rego instead of to us.

[NobleHelium]

Uh...I think you need to brush up on your BTS Mardoc.

Vassalage is not Military State. It's under Legal, so the current main competition is Bureaucracy. Slavery is under Labor, which competes with Caste System and the never-used Serfdom.

Alphabet has definitely not been researched (and it definitely researchable). It only requires Writing. Philosophy is also definitely not researched, but is currently blocked unless Meditation is researched.