[SPOILERS] Peter of the Ottomans carries a big stick

[thestick]

In retrospect, I got overly paranoid over my eastern neighbor, got stuck in war, focused on Expansion, didn't focus enough on economy, probably didn't leverage Philosophical well, got stuck with a small empire, then tried to use war as a way out. Which isn't going very well. Oh well, you need to make the mistakes sometime.

[Bigger]

did you ever read ww5? I read it for the first time yesterday, quite an entertaining read!

[thestick]

No, haven't read it yet.

Pics tomorrow, I'm sleepy. SAT's still fortifying Geometry. I moved the stack to the hill. I noticed a 1 Catapult 1 Axe stack 2 tiles away from my Chariots, so I sent two of them out to kill them. Got lucky at 30% odds vs. the Catapult and killed the Axe at 95% odds. Those Chariots will die, but one less Catapult for SAT to collateral with and 56 vs. 40 hammers, in my favor. I think we'll have the strength to take Geometry. SAT's defences in other cities are thin, so a dedicated attack will probably take them out.

A bunch of Axes completed this turn, including in Chernobyl. Going to wait for Geometry's culture to disappear so we can get that Wheat and Copper. In foreign news, Nicolae moved a stack of Zhuge crossbows and Axes next to Poverty Point, he'll declare next turn and raze that city. CFCJesterFool settled the stupidly aggressive plant of Mound City in the north, which that Worker was roading to and those 3 Archers defending. It's 3 tiles from Repel a Leper. It's nearest food source is 1W of the city, a Deer, but the Deer is in our culture! Once this war with SAT wraps up, we're burning that silly city.

[thestick]

I killed a Catapult and Axe with two Chariots, then took the hill.


First of all, unless SAT builds a 1t road on that desert tile 1SW of the hill, there are only 2 Catapults that can hit our stack. Chernobyl's slightly at risk of being 1t moved with Horse Archers from Addition.

If SAT stuffs everything into Geometry, that's 12 defenders + whatever they whip out vs. 12 hitters, so we won't take it next turn. Then again, they'll have to defend with their Horse Archers and Catapults, so I'll gladly take a 1t delay for fewer casualties. If they attack into our stack, we, we'll see. It's probably about time to take peace.

In domestic news, Chernobyl came out of resistance:


We need to take Geometry. I'll get a Monument out of here soon-ish, then some happiness. We still need to find time to revolt into Hinduism, then the beakers to research Organized Religion.

Options as I see them are HBR, CoL, or Monarchy. Probably CoL.

In foreign news, CFCJesterFool settled Mound City:


Which is a ridiculously aggressive plant. He'll have other worries, though:

[Bigger]

yep. Let's see if Nicolae just burns the border city and gives peace or if you plow's through tankra/jester. If we are able to keep moving and absorb SAT this could quickly turn into us and nicolae.

read ww5 when you have time, its an awesome read .

[thestick]

I doubt it'll be that easy.

[thestick]

Still chopping up the pictures. Bottom line, we razed Geometry. SAT attacked, we killed all of their Catapults on defence, then they won 2 40-50% Axe vs. Axe fights. Most of my Axes were surviving with red health. I had 10 attackers, SAT had 9 defenders. I bombarded with 4 Catapults, suicided with 2, then won with 2. I then swept SAT's defenders, only losing one 60% odds on a Axe vs. Horse Archer fight. One of my Axes was so damaged, he got only 85% odds on a Warrior.

SAT has 2 Horse Archers and 1 Sword in Addition. I wheeled in 2 Axes, 2 Catapults, 1 Archer onto the hill. The stack is now down to 7 Axes, 8 Catapults. I'll either heal the stack or promo-heal and move on Addition.

Algebra popped 4th ring and is stealing Chernobyl's Crabs. I'd like to get it eventually...

[thestick]

When I opened the save, this was the starting situation:


3 Archers, 2 Axemen, 2 Horse Archers, 1 Holkan, 1 Warrior. First, why is SAT defending with Horse Archers? SAT has a Great General, purpose unknown.

I attacked into the stack after bombarding Geometry with 4 Catapults, bringing it down to 28% defence. The first Catapult didn't even scratch the CG1 Archer, but the second did. The third got 70% odds, then it was a sweep from there. Only other loss was a 60% Axe on Horse Archer battle with a weak Axe. After cleaning out the last Horse Archer (you know you're wounded when attacking a 0.1/6 enemy only has 92% odds), Geometry burnt to the ground.



Of course it must burn being completely surrounded by SAT's culture. None of the buildings survived. SAT has a couple of Workers ready to be sniped, but I burnt all of my hitters attacking Geometry. Oh well. End state:


Sun Tzu was born in Katrina. I'm not quite sure whether to settle him in Krakatoa for Accuracy or CR2 Catapults or merge him to create a Combat 2 + Morale + Shock super-Axe.

In foreign news, Nicolae burnt down the city of Poverty Point:


The only other defences CFCJesterFool has is 1 Horse Archer in Seline Felines. No clue if Nicolae will push his invasion.

Military:


We're running out of Axes. I'll queue some up after this round of Catapults.

Financial:


This army is costing a ridiculous amount of money. Strangely enough, Chernobyl costs LESS maintenance than Yellow River since it's further north. Definitely moving the capital elsewhere eventually.

The world has been engulfed in war:

[thestick]

The turn hasn't come in yet, but I decided to settle the GG in Krakatoa and get that second promo. I also realized that I should throw in a few 1.5t Axemen/Spearmen in Krakatoa's build queue.

[thestick]

The biggest news of the turn is that CFCJesterFool declared war on us. Um, what? He doesn't even have a stack, just one Horse Archer that got kicked out into the southern jungles. Now isn't a good time for war, so I offered 25 gold for peace. Mainly I want to get my foreign trade routes back up, it'll pay for itself in a couple of turns. (If being at peace but not having OB means I can't get trade with Nicolae, can someone let me know?)

Weird, now everyone is at war with both their neighbors (if we say that Nicolae borders Sian and not SAT).

SAT merged their GG with their stack of Horse Archers, losing one to a Spear and killing another Spear. Their current garrison in Addition consists of 1 Sword, 1 (damaged) C2+Shock Horse Archer, and 1 Catapult. I decided to move on the city. I should take it, the question is how bloody it'll be. At current HP, the HA has about 35% odds on killing my Spear, no clue how it'll change when SAT collaterals.

I also moved a Spear/Catapult out of Chernobyl and sent an Axe to cover them. 5 Axes, 6 Catapults, 2 Spears, 1 Chariot should be enough to take that city unless they have a ridiculous army in the fog.

After that, I'll heal up in the hill city of Addition, wheel in more troops, split them between garrison duty and invasion duty, then move on Subtraction and Comprehension. Need to move the capital to Yellow River soon, maintenance will be brutal until then.

I queued up a Spear in Aral Sea in case CFCJesterFool doesn't take peace. We're down to only 3 Spears, so I'm whipping more out of Yellow River. WW is now up to 2 unhappiness in most of our cities except for Aral Sea, Yellow River, and Chernobyl. (Why?) The economy is now apocalyptically negative, -22 gold per turn. I need that foreign trade! Chernobyl still isn't paying for itself yet...

If I capture Comprehension, is there a chance it will flip to Sian? My guess is 'yes.'