[SPOILERS] Peter of the Ottomans carries a big stick

[thestick]

I see why Nicolae's irritated with the pace. Tankra gets delayed for 90 hours, then both members of SAT post around 2:30, yet the save is still in their hands and it's already 6:20. They're probably at work, but I still see his issue with the turn order.

You could always take an image and shrink it. Hope Werewolf 15 is more interesting than Werewolf 4.

[Bigger]

eh, I didn't read werewolf 4. what was wrong with it?

edit: I read it, amazingly short. I see what you mean, but part of that is only 9 players. more players = more fun, imo .

[thestick]

eh, I didn't read werewolf 4. what was wrong with it?

edit: I read it, amazingly short. I see what you mean, but part of that is only 9 players. more players = more fun, imo .

Just hoping that your labor of love doesn't end without an epic moment, for your and all the player's sake. More players = more fun if you enjoy wondering if you'll live or die. Which I do for this game.

We discovered Construction this turn:


I queued up Catapults in Krakatoa, Aral Sea, and Katrina. I was afraid of queuing up Catapults in Tohoku since it's so far away from the front, but after playing the turn I realized that we'll need them anyway to defend against whatever SAT throws in the north.

Here's the current state of our military:


Need more Axes desperately. There's one offscreen north of Krakatoa. I've been considering sending Chariots into the north, but the distance is still prohibitive. I've also considered burning down Geometry, Arithmetic, and Addition and replacing them with New Seline Felines, but locking the Crabs out of play forever (unless we burn down Algebra, which definitely isn't happening) is holding me back.

[thestick]

No pictures, nothing much has happened besides the usual buildup. Catapults completed EOT in the core three cities. Tankra/CFCJesterFool settled a new city, location unknown. SAT moved their garrison in Trigonometry out to cover a Worker that's pasturing their Sheep. I chopped a forest near Tohoku, but didn't realize that it wasn't in it's fat cross and the hammers went to Krakatoa. Oh well, more Catapults.

I've decided to start the invasion sooner rather than later, once enough Catapults have been built, and just create more Axes for the march on Algebra. Basically, we need to invade before SAT gets Horseback Riding or Construction. They're still building Research/Wealth everywhere, as evidenced by their sky-high GNP and MFG. It's getting ridiculous, their GNP is 140! Invading will delay that, hopefully, by burning down their cities and getting them to stop building Research/Wealth. Yes, I know that getting them to build units will make the invasion harder, but them building Catapults and Horse Archers will make it harder than that. I'd like to time it right after they research a tech so they don't have huge piles of gold to burn into Construction. And yes, I know even if this works it's basically throwing first place to Nicolae, but if it improves my position, I'll do it.

[Bigger]

yeah, I don't think we really have a choice at this point. Anyway, might as well get some fighting in before the game is inevitable called .

[thestick]

On a side note, even if TheStick kills me (power graph bro ), I am having fun so far. Thank God HAs flank catapults...heck losing units right now would boost my science rate...derp.

Oh no, CFCJesterFool has foiled my dastardly plot!

If he can get SAT to believe I'm attacking him and not them, great. Of course, if I actually do need to attack him... which I probably will need to if SAT grabs HBR/Construction. Hey, with Construction over Currency, someone needs to be invaded.

[thestick]

The big 1AD spectacular will be put up sometime today. As of the end of this turn. we have 6 Catapults and 7 Axes built, the only thing left to do is move them into position while building more troops. Apparently, chop overflow is going to take care of most of the Catapults in the short term. Most of the Axes are going to come out of Aral Sea, as we keep getting too many hammers to 2-pop whip Catapults but too few hammers to outright build them.

CFCJesterFool seems pretty convinced we're coming for him. I moved a large part of the garrison at Aral Sea out into the fog, hopefully he'll take this as us trying to trick him into believing we're going for SAT.

SAT researched Code of Laws. They're out of Gold, and are going to be whipping Courthouses (probably). Great in the short term, less population for units and beakers not going into Construction. Bad in the long term, their GNP will go through the roof again. Best case scenario, we get free Courthouses.

[thestick]

Woo, survived the first 4000 years with our empire intact! I'd honestly expected I'd die before this.

A couple things, SAT founded Confucianism in Geometry. Great, now I won't have to feel so guilty when I (eventually) burn down Comprehension (formerly Chiton). Nicolae researched Currency. Currency looks like it's about 180 gold.

The cities:


Another chop is coming in next turn, which should keep the Catapults rolling off the assembly line.






Whipped a Catapult, overflowing into another.


A chop is coming in sometime soon here. I'm going to swap to a Hammam and whip it. No, I'm not sure whether it's better to build Catapults here or infrastructure.

Military:


SAT's Empire with Cultural Borders:


I took this picture for two purposes. One, to see the population of the cities before SAT whips them for Courthouses. Two, to start planning for the troop movements.

I'm pretty sure Geometry has 3rd ring borders, between its brief stint in the Top 5 Cities list and the founding of Confucianism.

It looks like Addition is 4 turns away from Trigonometry unless we want to do some fun road construction in the south. Geometry is 3 turns away from Arithmetic. I plan on amassing troops 1NE of Yellow River, out of sight from the SAT border. I'm not quite sure whether it's better to close borders and alert SAT to funny business or keep them open and risk being discovered. T1 of the war I plan on moving the Axe and Spear out of Yellow River onto the Sheep, as we need it in our possession to move the army into Trigonometry and 1SE of Arithmetic T2.

Crop Yield:


GNP:


MFG:


Power:


Demographics:


I'm honestly surprised how far GNP dipped. The conscription seems to be going well. SAT's GNP and MFG are ridiculous.

The idea of attacking Tankra still haunts my mind. Cracking more than SAT's border cities is looking harder by the minute. But Tankra's empire is smaller, but he has better military tech, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to deliver a knockout blow in time before SAT gets HBR/Construction, but if I don't they'll beat me for sure, and on, and on, and on...

[thestick]

In military planning news, SAT hasn't moved their Axes out of Comprehension. Their current military garrisons stand at the following:

Comprehension: 3 Axes, 2 Chariots (1 headed into the empire)
Subtraction: 1 Warrior
Addition: 1 Holkan
Trigonometry: 1 Holkan, 2 Chariots, 1 Warrior
Vocabulary: 1 Warrior
(Assumed) Arithmetic: 1 Warrior

CFCJesterFool isn't much better, though:
Repel a Leper: 1 Dog Soldier, 1 Horse Archer
Elite Tile: 1 Dog Soldier
(Assumed) Cahokia: 1 Archer
Dumb Mud: 1 Archer

Still no sign of the other two Horse Archers we're assuming he has. Judging from the roads, Cahokia is a filler city somewhere east of Elite Tile, in a similar vein to Vocabulary.

Hmm... taking Dumb Mud and Seline Felines would give the same land as Geometry, Arithmetic, and Addition. Horse Archer's flanking can be (somewhat) defeated by not letting the Horse Archers win. And we have the Catapults to soak up Dog Soldier attacks.

CFCJesterFool researched something big (or had a lot of population growths) since his score shot up above ours. Great, we're back to 4th in Score.

[thestick]

In war planning news, CFCJesterFool moved a Horse Archer out of Dumb Mud into a position to hit any southern invasion. That, and probably to show he has some.

Tohoku and Aral Sea are starting to ram against the happy cap. Time to whip more soldiers! I really wish I had more food in Katrina, it's never up to full size. Could probably swap the gold to Yellow River, just haven't for some reason.

Military:


Yes, that's 11 Catapults and 8 (really 7) Axes. I'll build another two Axes next turn. We're stuck at 28/30 at the GG counter.

Is that enough troops? I don't know. Thoughts?