[SPOILERS] *Placeholder* Zakalwe plays a soldier

[Bigger]

novice is behind dazed in tech?

[zakalwe]

In number of techs, I think. Novice skipped archery and the priesthood-feudalism line.

[Bigger]

oh, so "most advanced" civ means # of techs, not beakers? hmm, I never knew that.

[zakalwe]

T101.

One of the first things I do is move my sentry chariot in Oman to see that Novice is mounting a big attack.

After some pondering I conclude that I should evacuate the island. If I ship over more reinforcements, I could perhaps make him delay his attack. But I won't have enough to attack out, either, and I'd risk getting all my best troops trapped on the island, since he dominates the sea.

I had a chat with Mackoti and he concurred. So then the issue was how to get everybody safely out of there, with all those triremes in the waters. I may have to use my GG to promote the two galleys to navigation I so they can make it to Comoros. That wouldn't necessarily be a bad use for the GG, though I'd prefer it if I could keep saving him. Escaping into Dazed's territory might also be an option, depending on what Novice does. In two turns I'll have a new city NE of the oasis where the galleys would be safe. Escaping into a freshly built fort would be the most elegant solution, but sadly I didn't have enough worker turns for that.

In the south, Dazed now has 4 chariots in his border city. Hardly an adequate garrison, but I only have three 2-movers down there so I can't punish him unless he moves something out again. I'm also preparing to settle the marble island down there.

In the north, I'm moving a lone horse archer up to harass Dazed's new city. Maybe he's so stretched that it will cause him problems. (Or maybe I can at least force a longbow upgrade.)

Beyond that, Music looks like it's in the bag now. F4 tells me that only Boldly has alphabet, and that he doesn't have Aesthetics. But I get a higher GNP researching Alphabet than Aesthetics, so therefore nobody has Aesthetics. And I completed it at the end of the turn, with plenty of overflow to complete Literature and Music on the next two turns. I also queued up Machinery after Aesthetics, so to those with research visibility on me it will look like I'm about to finish Machinery (I think... or it will just show me researching nothing).

I revolted back into slavery and did some whipping. Brunei is now working two priests (instead of caste scientists) to pop its GP in three turns. Before I did my whips, I was actually #2 in crop yield and #1 in GNP.

Overview shots:

[zakalwe]

T102.

On the island, Novice's two workers stayed put, now guarded by 4 spears. The only thing they could be doing is to build a fort, so I decided to treat it as if an attack was incoming next turn. He could have at least 10 units on boats, ready to unload into a fort on that tile.

In the north, Dazed's galley lookout has been joined by a trireme, so the only way to escape was to Comoros. So I burnt my GG to get a 5 XP HA, a 5 XP GG archer, upgradeable for free, and two 5 XP galleys that I obviously promoted to navigation I. Those galleys will be a potent threat just sitting in Comoros after I bomb it, so it's not all bad.

I don't regret capturing the city, because I've evidently kept Novice busy with troop movements for the last few turns, while I've been teching towards my great artist.

Two settlers are on the move, and forges are going up all around. Music at the end of next turn, provided I have enough beakers. I think I do, by a handsome margin, but I haven't actually checked.

Boldly currently has a solid lead in MFG and Crop Yield. From my own limited point of view, this is still a pretty close race. Much will depend on what happens with Dazed.

[zakalwe]

T103.

I clumsily grew my capital into unhappiness, with no military police units in range, so I decided to build a 2-turn worker there. I settled another city in the north, and I'm making a minor attack against Dazed there, just to make my units earn their pay. At the end of the turn I popped another great merchant in Brunei, so no bureaucademy for me anytime soon. Maybe he can bulb guilds for me, I have to check. In that case it's probably a lucky strike. I'm settling the marble island next turn, and starting the heroic epic in Djibouti. Jordan would also be a strong site, with more hammer potential, but it's a bit less developed and more exposed.

Though maybe I should try for the mausoleum in Djibouti, and put the heroic epic in Jordan...

The trireme that's blockading Liechtenstein is costing me quite a lot, since it takes away an overseas trade route. I'm fixing that next turn with the marble city, though.

I also got the music artist at the end of the turn. Machinery and guilds next, I guess.

Edit: Forgot to mention, Oman is still alive. Maybe he wants to bring in maces before taking it.

[zakalwe]

Relevant tech preferences for my great merchant are alphabet > civil service > guilds. I don't have particular use for alphabet, so it's not fantastic, but I guess it's still useful. I'll have to ponder if settling it in my shrine city (Brunei) might be better.

Edit, to clarify: I'm obviously not bulbing alphabet. But if I want to use him for bulbing, I'll need to tech alphabet first, which makes it less useful. If I do want to bulb, saving him for guilds is probably best since I can get a double prereq bonus on civil service.

[suttree]

You need paper before you can bulb guilds.

[zakalwe]

T104.

You need paper before you can bulb guilds.

Thanks for that tip. I decided to settle the merchant, which is perhaps a questionable move, but now I can just research straight to guilds and get there first. Culture bomb coming up next turn. If I had been planning ahead, I would have been better prepared to clean out that fort at the same time, but I expected Novice to evacuate it right away when he saw my artist in the event log. Oh well. I also aborted the attack in the north, I was going up against two longbows and a chariot. I had no time for simming, but it seemed like there must be a non-trivial chance that I'd come up short with four horse archers, a longbow, and a chariot. So I just pulled back instead, content with forcing another longbow upgrade.

[zakalwe]

T105-T107.

The culture bomb was less effective than I thought it would be, only gaining the first ring of tiles immediately. I am taking over the second ring too, since I now have one more ring of culture than Novice, but it's taking a few more turns.

Since I forced Dazed to upgrade to longbows in my north (his south), I swung my horse archers south instead, to attack his northern front. With the help of some galley hopping I now have 8 units in place to hit his border city that only has a spear, an archer, and two chariots. So if that garrison remains unchanged I should be able to raze that next turn, which I think is worthwhile, as it's a pretty big and productive city.

I can one-turn construction from scratch if I feel like it, but maybe I'll just go straight for guilds instead. Just saving gold for now.

Some shots below, including a tour of my cities. Yes, I still have only one library. (Edit: Actually I have two. Apparently I also built a library in Grenada in one of my less focused moments.) Forges are starting to come on-line, though, and my cities have grown a bit. The crop yield ranking is now a very close race.