[SPOILERS] BRick goes for a diplo win with Genghis's Vikings

[yuris125]

Xenu's research this turn is Alphabet (26). Don't know what to make of it. I guess he wants open borders to go with the extra trade routes he received from Currency? Well, we'll see if we have something to say about it

[BRickAstley]

Hey, it's not construction, so i dont care.

Though if Serdoa has massively lower power, maybe we could go for him instead?

[yuris125]

I don't like attacking Serdoa for 2 reasons

1. The map doesn't allow us a safe approach to Serdoa's cities. We will have to go through the chokepoint where the barb city was and expose the army to a Cat strike. Also, Serdoa's cities are spread out and he will have the time to reinforce - I don't think we will be able to capture more than 1 city

2. Geography prevents Serdoa from attacking us as well, which means we don't have to fear a backstab during a war with Xenu. If we attack Serdoa, our border with Xenu is quite vulnerable

We should have Serdoa's graphs next turn and can decide then, but I'm strongly inclined to attack Xenu in about 10 turns (as soon as we can get a stack of 16-20 HArchers). I will post an attack plan tonight

Serdoa will be the perfect target when we get Zerkers

[yuris125]

So, attack plan



Orange dot is the staging area. I believe (needs to be tested though) it is not visible from Xenu's territory - hills block the vision from S and SW, jungle blocks it from SE. From there we can attack Black Fish on the turn we declare (orange arrow). HArchers not used to take the city continue onto the Magenta dot to threaten Blue Fish. On the second turn of the war, before any 1-move reinforcing units can get there, we attack and hopefully take Blue Fish

From there, we have options. Some of the units can move onto the blue dot to scout and possibly intercept reinforcements from the core cities. Depending on the forces we see in Red Fish, we can also try to move in and pillage the iron. Or just attack Red Fish on the 4th turn of the war. Taking Red Fish is key to success. If we do it, Old Fish is cut off from the main empire and can be taken at any time, and we leave Xenu without iron. I expect the battle for Red Fish will be the most fierce

If we take Red Fish, we will re-evaluate and decide is we have the force to capture One Fish and Two Fish. Yellow dot is a good spot to fork these cities. If we still have some HArchers, we should try to go for it. If not, taking even 4 cities (Black Fish, Blue Fish, Red Fish and Old Fish) would be a success

I'm not counting on taking New Fish - assuming the war goes well for us, I would be surprised if Serdoa doesn't declare on Xenu and take that city. We can't do anything about it - the city is too far away from the direction of the main strike

[yuris125]

We can also stage 1E from the orange dot, that spot is definitely hidden by hills and jungles. Just need to build a road there

[yuris125]

I just realised that Black Fish got Buddhism - I believe it happened in the last 2 turns. This means that we have to assume it will expand borders in 8 turns, gaining control of the jungle rice tile and making covert preparations impossible

Can we have the army ready in 7 turns? If not, we will have to stage farther away from the border, and won't be able to take a city on the first turn of the war

[yuris125]

Logged in to check the game, and got 2 diplo offers from Bigger. The first one was for Open Borders, which I accepted. The second:



I declined this one. Generally speaking it's not bad for us (we get a substitute for the resource we trade away), but 1 GPT does nothing to change our situation, and they're getting a free lux, so I think it's skewed in their favour too much. You can try to reoffer it with a higher GPT payment if you want

Also whipped a couple of cities - I have a feeling you don't use whip often enough. We're working bad 1/1/1 tiles, whipping that pop away doesn't even hurt us

[BRickAstley]

I know we can have 10 HAs ready in about 4 turns. Might have to go in low to get a turn of surprise.

Hey Xenu, send all your army at Serdoa, or Nakor, or something.

[yuris125]

Considering Xenu's power, 10 is nowhere near enough. They will just die trying to take Blue Fish. With 10, we will need to be lucky just to take and hold Black Fish - and a single city is not worth the investment

[yuris125]

We will declare on Xenu next turn. Borders of Black Fish did expand, so we will have to stage on Magenta dot to fork two cities. The force will be 13 HArchers and 1 Axe on the first turn, 4 more HArchers and 3 more Axes on the second turn, and we will not stop HArcher production throughout the war

I know this attack is risky, but I feel it's our best shot to get closer to the leaders. If we die, we tried...

Good luck to us