[SPOILERS] Churchill of Portugal: Gallipoli Part II

[spacetyrantxenu]

T186 - I stayed in game for a long while and had a look around the map. It's Saturday afternoon and the Little Tyrant is sleeping, so why not? I haven't paid very close attention to some of the trades that are going on out there, but one stood out. Plako is trading rice to Slowcheetah for stone, wheat, and a one other item (didn't take a picture and I forgot now). So a three for one, for rice...including stone. That is very generous. I really want stone (why, no units require it to build! ) so I made an offer to Slowcheetah. He has rejected every trade I've offered him before, other than open borders, so he'll probably reject this too, but it's a better deal than he's making with Plako. Unless he is making the lopsided trade with Plako for non-diplo diplo reasons. Anyway I offered a rice (to match Plako's offer) + a dye (Slowcheetah has zero as far as I can tell) in exchange for stone and wheat (I have none). So Slowcheetah would come out ahead + one happy resource he doesn't have and + 1 health resource that he doesn't have to trade away, that's if he cancels the deal with Plako.

Anyway, I expect he'll decline the offer and I still won't have stone for building cheaper walls in the few places that don't have them, or castles in my two +15 size cities for the extra trade routes/defense. Here's a question for anyone to answer, there is a bug with castle defense, right? How does that work, something to the effect that the castle doesn't provide the additional defense it is supposed to if the city's culture is at level 3? Or am I making that up? If I could get stone and build cheap castles (PRO+stone+OR) I'd say it would be worth the additional trade routes if the defensive bonus would work correctly. I'm going to be attacked everywhere before too long anyway so I may as well have castles if they actually help on defense (IF they're cheap). Otherwise...just keep cranking out units.

Bigger just rolled the turn, end of report, going back into the game!

Photos from this turn:

North Map - Shows garrison in Blue Fish



South Map - Shows garrison in Red Fish



Demos (suck) :


Oh, I still have chariot running around Zulu land looking for their invasion force. I know they're up to something down there, I just can't prove it. Hans Blix (chariot) has not been very successful in his search for weapons. Imagine that.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I forgot to mention, I cancelled my gift of iron to Brick last turn, I saw he was getting a freebie from Slowcheetah. So that freed me up to start rushing in pikes. I'm saving cash so I'll probably upgrade a couple spears in Red Fish to pikes, in addition to the free upgrade I got on the one the great general is attached to. I'm guessing that Serdoa will attack on T189 or T190 with his big remaining stack of knights (14 of them are in Brown Bear this turn--I think that's the right name of the city, I'm out of game now). A lot of those knights are beat up badly from the blitz campaign through Brick's empire. I imagine he'd want to heal them for a turn or two before sending them further south to resume the attack, so that's how I get my T189 or T190 figure.

I don't know whether he will attack Brick's city (Black Fish) or try to come after me first. He doesn't have enough in that stack to take Blue Fish yet as it is basically holding most of my army (screenshot above shows the force configuration). I have an odd mix of units though. I can't decide if it's configured to attack out of the city (cats/elephants) or to wait behind the walls and die in the city (spears/longbows). In any case it's a lot of units to kill in a city with (now) level 3 culture, on a hill, with city walls. I would have to think Serdoa would bring catapults for that attack instead of slaughtering his entire stack of knights. But whatever, he can build more. And he probably is just going to wait to attack me with gunpowder units to negate all the walls I've built anyway. I'll find out soon I guess. I'm dropping off a spy in his territory north of Sad Fish (toward New Fish, his MY city across the bay). He won't see me drop the spy, I have it loaded on a galley inside Sad Fish and will move the galley 1NE, unload, and then move back south out of his sight, and obviously he can't see the spy. The general idea is to send it toward Terrapin so I can see the composition of troops in the city, since surely that's where a land based attack will originate. The only trouble is that the spy won't be there until T190, at which time I have a suspicion I'm already going to know where his army is going....

In the south I'm pretty sure the Zulu are going to make a play for my small border cities. I can't reinforce them with the pressure I'm under in the north so if they bring over a decent force there isn't going to be a lot I can do. Just. Keep. Whipping. I have a longbow at 20/50 complete in Mad Fish (the city with no food resources), so I've swapped to a crossbow for a few turns while the city grows to size 3. When it grows to size 3 I can either go ahead and whip the longbow (no overflow) or keep building the crossbow and then whip them both when I get 30 hammers (or 20 + 2 pop growths..uh..not happening there) into the crossbow. The goal would be to delay the whips and let the city be a size larger a few more turns because I need all the commerce I can get (saving gold), even if it's awful coast in an awful city. But most likely I'll end up feeling panicked and will just whip the LB soon. It isn't gaining fortify bonus sitting in the build queue.

Bad Fish was in revolt the last few turns because I don't have any culture there, so I'm going to have to waste 30 hammers on a monument build because I can't get a missionary over here any time soon. I mean, I could, but that would be most of one less unit built in a city I care more about, so whatever. Whip monument, regrow, recapture my workshop tile, go back to slow growth/unit whipping. I would have preferred to whip a barracks but I can't wait that long. If this city goes back into revolt it probably won't be able to build anything before it is attacked.

Back in the north I'm set to do several whips this turn. It's time to start reducing population -- aren't these cities too overcrowded anyway?

I'll play the rest of the turn later tonight. I seem to prefer playing after my neighbors because in a war I'm probably going to want the second half of the timer. I'm in a completely reactionary position now anyway, so that will let me go on reacting to the attacker's moves whenever a war eventuates.

And since I know war is certain, here's the event log from the beginning of T187:



Interesting developments. The Dutch get another cultural wonder, Brick or Plako helped Merovech generate another general, hot fighting continued between Azza and the Dutch with GGs created for both of them, in the process the Dutch grabbed another city from Azza (he looks to be gassed now, unfortunately), and....Commodore grabbed Liberalism already. Oh, and I've plundered two tiles around Brick's old capital the last two turns while the city is in revolt. That's an extra 57 gold, part of a unit upgrade for free. I'll take it. I don't expect it will matter non-diplo diplomatically, Serdoa is going to try to kill me the first chance he gets anyway. Small victories for the small fish. I'll keep on pillaging until the borders pop and push my chariots away, or until he swats them away, either way.

Finally, since my graphs are awesome, here is the power graph for the start of the current turn:



Zulu buildup continues, and I'm obviously doing the same. I don't suppose there's any chance I'll make it past T200 intact, right? I'm afraid to see what's going to happen soon though. I'm going to guess Commodore took Nationalism with Liberalism and will be drafting soon. Once drafted armies become common among the leaders, that's certainly going to be lights out for me and the other small fish, if we're not dead already by then. I hope Commodore drafts like crazy and spends some of his significant population beating on Serdoa but I think it's more likely that he'd go for the rump of Azza first, and then maybe (maybe!) try to annex the Zulu for a second time. The Zulu are now in a middle tier between the contenders and the obvious pretenders. That's why they're attacking me...if they can get just a bit more territory and keep researching fast like they have been, they could possibly reach critical mass to push themselves (sort of) further into the game. Expand or die, or something like that. But if Commodore can run an army of drafted units through them that would put an obvious end to their insurgency, in addition to providing himself with some more now decently developed land. It's hard to say though, but I do wish he had killed them when he had the chance. They're more aggressive players than Nakor, hence the pincer I'm about to be in now. Fun times.

[Ceiliazul]

If there's a castle bug, I don't know about it.

Edit: nothing obvious in google either.

[Krill]

Castles (and replacement UB): no longer decrease bombardment rate of catapults or trebuchets.

Castles increase the defensive bonus of the city from 50% of walls (and 60 or 80% cultural defense) to 100%. PRO also no longer makes Castles cheaper in the mod. Other than these changes I know of no "bug" with castles.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Thanks for the clarification about castles, I'm not surprised to find I had it wrong. I am disappointed to find that the mod removes the discount, though. That certainly makes it a less desirable build. I definitely don't want to spend the full 100 hammers on it. Maybe, maybe with stone...but without it not a chance. More units instead.

This isn't a conversation here but maybe for the postgame if someone can give a quick explanation of when a castle is worth building for defense (not for the trade route or the espionage bonus, in the case of the Spanish castle). Given that my rivals are probably close to Gunpowder it definitely isn't worth investing a ton of hammers into castles. They seem to come at an odd time on the tech tree -- by the time you can build them and get any use out of them, they're mostly obsolete. I mean sure, they can defend against an opponents trash units okay but for modern gunpowder units it's to no effect. Against more advanced opponents I'm certainly better off building units instead. And if I was the team advanced in tech compared to my rivals I likely wouldn't need a castle in the first place, if I was under attack I'd probably be able to send a more advanced unit out in the field to kill off the invaders. I guess it's a situational build...so what's the right situation? (Replies in the lurker thread please).

[spacetyrantxenu]

T187 - I have to get up in four three hours now so maybe this isn't the best time for a turn report. But the turns are momentous at the moment, at least until this goes sideways in a hurry for me.

To clear out the international news that is surely known by now, Arabia is dead, finished off by Plako.




Brick's recent war declaration against Arabia and the great general he spawned for Merovech indicate he tried to steal the kill, but it was not to be. Funny, tragic, you decide. Sorry, Brick, I was rooting for you! With Plako's army at the gates it wouldn't have mattered at all, it was just for pride or for fun. Too bad.

Since I always capture it, here's my overview map.




I'll get details below (logging back in for F1 and F5 now). Conveniently cut out of this picture is the interesting part of the game, the impending clash of three armies around Black Fish.

City builds (and I'm sure someone has noticed the eight whips I registered on Civstats for this turn ):



I really hate the infrastructure builds at this stage of the game but it can't be helped now. I need the walls at Glad Fish for when Scooter comes calling in a few turns, I need the monument to get SOME kind of culture into Bad Fish to prevent (hopefully) future turn wasting revolts, and I had to whip the barracks in New New Fish to clear the build queue for immediate military builds. The cities that didn't get whipped all had zero hammers invested in their current build and will be whipped next turn. No city will be spared, not even One Fish and Red Fish which I've tried to keep large for trade route purposes. Everything (pop) must go! I'll make this empire not worth conquering, I'm sure then I'll be left alone.

OK, so that's the army I'll add next turn, what do I already have, and where is it?



Yeah, I need more modern units. With more time I could have upgraded more old trash to better stuff, but this is what I have. Serdoa is moving with lightning speed, not stopping to rest his army. Good tactical move, it paid off in spades when he ran over Brick's empire. I hope it helps me wipe his stack. Here's what I think is about to happen, meat and potatoes time:




To summarize a really busy screen shot, Serdoa has the first move in the war against Brick and will move his knights forward (SE) and then SE again to attack into the city. I don't believe for a moment that he'll stop to bombard the walls with the two catapults he brought with him. Those extra units were the garrison at Terrapin and have moved to cover the stack or to do whatever damage they can while they're here, since no one can get to Terrapin right now. So those guys will end up defending/covering Serdoa's damaged knights after he attacks into Black Fish.

This is all assuming he doesn't move a unit 1S of the stack and get a look at the 33 units I have inside Blue Fish. If he scouts me prior to engaging Black Fish, he may rethink a direct knight attack and alter his attack vector to stay outside of my range. I could still attack him wherever he attacks Black Fish from, but if I move my forces forward out of Blue Fish Serdoa may be able to walk around me with his remaining fast movers and burn the city. I have to be careful in that case. I hope he doesn't scout me and doesn't suspect I'll attack. However...he has to know I'm hostile. I did pillage 86 gold from the town village hamlet cottage grass tiles by Brick's former capital. Brick didn't have many towns in his territory and I burned down the oldest. Oops. Bought me another pike upgrade! Anyway, Serdoa knows I'm hostile, if he sees my units he may try to evade them when he attacks. We'll see.

I'm sure for war weariness purposes it would be better to let Serdoa declare war on me when he's ready, but I won't get a better opportunity to kill a big stack of knights like this. If I've misread his intention up to now and he wasn't going to declare war on me, well this is all a big mistake then isn't it? Because he'll surely hold a grudge over this. But that army is a threat so if I can kill it, that's a huge win for me...for now. The payback will come later in the form of an unstoppable wave and I'll have to try dealing with that then.

So that wraps up the north. What's going on down south with the Zulu?




Well, they're up to no good, sneaking around hiding boats, and I'm pretty sure they're hiding units on the boats. I can't find a mace I spotted a few turns ago but there are four galleys mysteriously anchored off the eastern coast. I don't know how many units are on them now but I bet there are eight by the time they set sail for whichever one of my cities they're sailing to. My money is on Glad Fish, the island city south of my capital. Given the pressure I'm under further north I can't reinforce, so you guys are on your own.

For the curious, international relations:



Demos, after the whips (let's move that approval rating back in the other direction, shall we?):



Finally, something curious. What does the map look like after you've played many, many hours?



No wonder it takes so long to download the game state from the server every time. I'm probably not the only player leaving signs all over the place.

I hope I can keep reporting but I'm going to be exhausted when it comes time to play tomorrow. It's a shame I'll have to play these fun turns on my laptop, that touchpad is a real liability. I may not be able to take decent screens, but I'll try.

To small victories, or humiliating defeats!

[Sisu]

Thanks for your excellent reporting It's a real shame that only one out of the "big four" does extensive reporting, but this lurker is extremely glad that the rest haven't given up on the game in any way.

Fight them on the beaches!

[spacetyrantxenu]

Thanks, that kind of attitude (and, well honestly, WINNING the war) just got Churchill's face on the 5 pound note...so keep your head up, future prime ministers! Endure, press on, with dogged determination! (But most of all...just win!)

[spacetyrantxenu]

So the US FAA's ATC furlogh / sequestration problem has supposedly been "fixed" (I'm stuck on band-aids, 'cause band-aids stuck on me!), meaning flights are supposed to fly on time again, such as "on time" normally goes. But are the TSA / security theater guys on furlough too??? Seen longer lines than I'm used to lately. What good is it if the plane leaves on time and everyone is still busy retying their shoes or waiting to have their nads backscatter imaged? #cutforTSA

[Gavagai]

Xenu, I want to thank you for keeping up fighting spirit even in this desperate situation. It surely makes the game more interesting for us, lurkers.
Looking forward to your attack against Serdoa's stack and wish you good luck.