[SPOILERS] Cornflakes and Q Eat 'Em for Breakfast!

[Cornflakes]

Steel in, 1 cannon in. Peace all around. Enforced 8 more turns with 2metra and Commodore, 10 turns with Bigger. Bigger offered white peace, which I turned down initially because I wanted to try hitting Apocalypse first. He had reinforced with a few knights. Threw 3 catapults in (which had little effect in reality) and a few of my knights. Won more battles than I lost ... I think I lost 3 knights to kill 3 knights and 2 muskets. My muskets and maces had still had loosing odds so I called off the rest of the attack. Re-offered white peace, which bigger accepted.

Even while groveling in defeat we can while 2metra is




What is the significance of this? First of all, those units can't leave Google until he declares war on us. This means they can't be re-positioned eastwards to hit Mars/Sheep. It's like they are stuck on an island 12 knights, 1 musket, 3 mace, 1 pike, 2 cats, 1 trebuchet. I'm pretty sure he had a bunch more knights lined up to hit Google, so he must not have moved everything in, unfortunately

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, those units are sitting ducts for us to attack. Remember that we have the first half of the timer split (by his choice when he originally declared on us) so we get first-strike advantage in re-declaring war. We can land a stack of units, including our shiny new cannon, right next to Google. Then as soon as the enforced peace is up we smash 180k soldiers, sitting at our mercy.

[Cornflakes]

2metra's culture is up to about 25% on those tiles around Google. Volcano has inate 24cpt. I set it to build culture at 21hpt -> cpt and hired to artist specialists (I had 2 citizens working coast). I marked the exact culture breakdown on the tiles in game, and I'll monitor to see if we have a chance of keeping those units imprisoned. Next turn I may hire additional artists, but I'l like to keep working all the towns if possible.

Tech is set tentatively to Replacable Parts > Rifling. 25 turns breakeven, about 15 turns full burn. I'll be saving gold for a while. I decided to finish the bank in Grand Slam ASAP before any other military because the bank is worth a whopping 40gpt while saving!!! Bank finishes in 2 more turns.

The biggest news of the turn is ...




AT is rather late to the party, but it looks like he's finally decided to show up. Now that we know he's here we'll be ready ... next turn.

I had moved everything from the Bigger front up towards Volcano to take ship for the Battle of Google Plains, and had just the morale knight left. He would have no special value if stuck up by Google, so I decided to keep him in the south in case I found some way to take advantage of him. With the extra movement point I had enough range to get inside SWAT and look around and then make it back inside Blimp. Well, I moved to the hill and found an army waiting, and no units remaining unmoved which could get into Blimp this turn. I took the MP longbow from Paradigm, leaving her unhappy, which brings us up to 5 defenders. AT only has 6 knights in range this turn if he chooses to attack (he's been after us in turn order since the war started). 6 knights unsupported by siege won't be able to crack Blimp this turn, and I moved everything out of Postos towards Blimp so I'll have another 10 defenders next turn. AT only has 3 catapults so he's not super scary against the force we can bring.

The bigger issue with him declaring on us is that it would cut off the iron trade 3 turns early and the horse trade 4 turns early Since those were free gifts anyway I suppose he's entitled to cancel early, but I begged iron from everyone else. If we lose iron then we can no longer build Cannon. The first half of the timer is the worst position regarding resources. If he cuts it off by declaring war we technically aren't supposed to change anything ... and lack of iron would leave our build queues empty at EOT, losing us a turn of production (this happened when Bigger captured Beginnerman). I went through all cities building cannon and queued up something behind just in case. It's rather a pain, because next time I'll have to go through again and make sure that I'm building what I want and have things queued up where needed. I really hope that someone else feels like propping us up (maybe Commodore, since he has 4 iron and we really have no reason to hold a grudge against him).

[Qgqqqqq]

How have we been at war with almost every Civ in the game?

[Cornflakes]

Well we ate Rome, which gave us too much land and made everyone jealous. They banded together to try and take us out, and Bigger ran off with all the plunder. AT heard that the pickings were easy but arrived too late to join the party.

Next turn we have enough force in Blimp to defy invasion (especially since he only has 3 catapults). If only we could get a luck break and pop Iron in one of our mines

[Cornflakes]

2metra's culture around Google increased from 28 -> 29, a difference of only 1% compared to the ~15% increase of the turn before. Unless he can do something quick I'll be able to completely annihilate that stack.

I shipped 2 workers onto the hill 1S of Google this turn. They will build a fort so that my ships can immediately get my troops back off the North Shore. Bigger's enforced NAP ends 2 turns after 2metra's, and I need to have that stack back to Paradigm by then to keep him honest. I will not keep Google. I don't know that I can raze it since it was my own city, but I won't leave a garrison. With my 5 4-move galleys I can get up to 40 units shuttled back home across the water in 2 turns!




Here are the Demographics. Not looking so hot long term GNP is suffering, and Crop Yield is horrific. Short Term we're ok. Soldiers are highest in the word by a non-trivial margin. Our #1 MFG means we can pump out soldiers quicker than our enemies ... assuming, or course, that strategic resources are not cut off

[Cornflakes]

So ... Iron ... how are we to claim our own source? I did some research and the odds of popping something from a mine are 1/10000 per worked mine per turn. We are working 19 mines, so the odds of popping something are about 0.2% each turn. A mine can apparently pop Gold, Silver, Gems, Copper, Iron, [Coal, Aluminum with proper tech]. So IF we pop SOMETHING there's only a 1/5 chance that the something we pop will be Iron.

Since we can't count on popping iron () we'll have to claim it ourselves. There are 3 sources on iron that are even remotely accessible to us:




We should have claimed the southern one long ago, but due to poor local scouting in the beginning we didn't know of its existance until too late I think this is still the most practical source to acquire. Yes, it requires blasting Commodore's Army, but look at the other option ... Bigger's iron in Azzaland also requires smashing an army, and his army is 2-move musketeers with free Pinch promotion. Plus we've seen a much greater number of units from Bigger than Commodore. 2metra's iceball iron is simply out of reach. It would require at least 4 cities to bridge the gap, not to mention having to capture at least 2 of those from 2metra.




My army will be coming from the 2metra attack T189, and will be 1NE of Paradigm when peace with Bigger expires on T191 (yep, attack Google on T189 and still reach 1NE of Paradigm in 2 turns). I'm planning to declare on Bigger on T191 and immediately offer peace. My army will be enough to deal with him if he comes at Paradigm because he can't reach it in 1-turn. If he accepts peace I'll then have 10 turns to capture the iron with my army and get back to Paradigm before peace expires again T201.

I can land my army on the Iron tile T194, hill 1NE of city T195, raze city T196 (I'll have 4th ring borders in Postos which will cover the iron +1 tile further) leaving my army outside all cultural control so I can move home along roads. Assuming the raze occurs T196 I can get back inside Paradigm on T200. Since Bigger moves after me I don't actually have to be back until T202, which give me a 2-turn cushion for delays.

[Qgqqqqq]

No we shouldn't have claimed it - its very indefensible and expanding that way wouldve either ceded the east to 2metra or the west to AT. I still think its too exposed for warring, and considering Commodore will sponsor us until/if we gain our own (start beating back Bigger or Metra I don't think we need to make another enemy currently.
Yeah he has an army of pinch musketeers...so just barrage him with whipped knights/cannon.
(Sorry for being an armchair general, there's probably a lot I'm missing here )

[Qgqqqqq]

Oh and remember he'll likely double that number if he sees peace + an army marching south.

[Cornflakes]

All valid points, yes. Commodore isn't yet sponsoring us with Iron and he's building up forces in the east as well. If he gives us iron then I'll certainly not go to war. I offered 100g for iron this turn.

[Qgqqqqq]

Offer iron for war with Bigger. Obviously you can't do it immediatly, but that's what the deal is after all- he's buying the blood of his enemies.