[Spoilers] Gavagai, Bacchus and Elizabeth Form a Romantic Trio

[Gavagai]

War theater at T76



When you look at this, you will see clearly that gods decided to compensate Egypt team for bad luck they had in PB8. Because if I could follow my initial plan, I would be able to raze Moria and Waterdeep without much trouble.
I attacked Wall St. with two chariots. The first one killed a warrior, the second one died to an axe at 77% odds. Next turn I'll be able to attack the city with four chariots (one is SW from the city, wounded but with a promo available; two are on the desert hill; and the fourth one will be completed in Deau-Vere next turn) and clean up with four axes and a warrior (a stack SW from the city). He has four axes defending, one of them wounded but with, I think, two promos available.
In the north he has two axes midway between his cities. These axes are combat 1, barracks are in Waterdeep. I played suboptimally. I should have moved only one axe on the plains hill and two other axes should be moved towards Moria. This way I would force them to choose between defending Moria and defending Copper. I may be able to do this next turn but I think he will bring more units to this area.

EDIT: I think I need to explain - I moved the warrior to Wall St. after I made this pic. Also, I have three workers on the tile NE from Deau-Vere to one-turn a road next turn.

[Gavagai]

Captured Wall St. but lost two more chariots in process. Gods are truly on their side.
Need to think really hard what to do next because I really need to cut off copper ASAP. But I have only two damaged chariots to fork his cities next turn.

[Gavagai]

I will just put a picture here for now. Analysis and plans will be posted later.

[Gavagai]

Have some time to talk about plans at last. It's T78 now and I will have five chariots with full movement points at the tile SW from Wall St. by T80. I will move them to a plains hill which my stack of three axes occupies.
From this hill chariots can threaten three spots which they have to defend: Waterdeep, Moria and a copper hill. Losing anyone of them will very likely cause their defenses to fall apart. Also I will move two axes eastward to threaten Moria and a gold mine. It will add even more constraints to their defensive options.
Five chariots can overwhelm one spear even with defensive bonuses; this means that to defend all three spots they will need 6 spears which they are not going to have.
Weak spots of this plan? If they took horses with their fifth city (which is named Rohan by the way), then we are just screwed. I have a warrior in Wall St. which can be upgraded into a spear but this is all I can do. If I mixed spears with axes beforehand it would weaken my assault force; and this is a too big sacrifice in my situation. I won't do it to defend against a phantom threat.
Also, if we don't have a decisive victory in this engagement, our situation in terms of winning the game is hopeless: we are too far behind already. And the problem isn't just building units instead of settlers, workers, infrastructure. We lost a lot of worker/turns to support our war effort, even more than my initial plan required (had to build several extra roads to capture Wall St. quickly). This is, actually, is the most painful aspect as our land is ridiculously underdeveloped.

[Gavagai]

Jester abandoned pre-emptevely a copper mine and I immediately moved forward my axes. I have 4 axes on copper now and 2 axes and 5 chariots on the plains hill. He has 2 axes, 2 spears, 1 warrior in Waterdeep. Next turn I plan to pillage copper, move all my units on this hill and on T82 just overwhelm his defenses with axes.
Also, I moved a lone axe on his gold. He has three axes, two spears in Moria and can kill of my axe by sacrificing one of his own. I'm OK with it, actually - after his copper is pillaged, all even exchanges are in my favor.
Frankly speaking, I'm puzzled with his decision to abandon copper. I have three explanations: 1) he has another source of copper in his new city; 2) he has chariots and setting up a trap for me; 3) he has researched archery and is confident that he will be able to hold his cities with archers. This last one is, actually the most probable explanation. And, actually, it does suck: if he adds an archer in Waterdeep, he has a good chance to keep it. If he whips the city next turn, I'll consider attacking it immediately, with four axes I have at hand.

[Bacchus]

How's his GNP?

[Gavagai]

How's his GNP?

Terrible. Don't ask.

EDIT: Just realized that you are asking about his GNP, not ours. His is actually slightly better.

[Gavagai]

I realized that I made a mistake after all: I had to move all my units towards Moria as it is a much more important city and I could have attacked it with more units.

(I need to capture both Moria and Waterdeep to feel myself safe. But it would be easier to capture Waterdeep after Moria falls than vice versa.)

[Bacchus]

Ours I can see, +14 at 0%. His GNP should be better, his cultural output is what, 12pt at the moment, with 4 cities and a library, to our 9pt. Plus given the circumstances, he is like as not running at least a scientist, getting 3, or more like two getting 7. I wonder what that leaves him in terms of gold. I suppose we can count up -- 8 from palace, 4 from trade routes, 4 from city tiles and 5? from working commerce-yielding tiles (I spy a hamlet in Moria and the cow in Waterdeep). That's 21, of which 5 is supposedly paid out for city maintenance. How many units can he support whilst staying in the black? ~20?

[Gavagai]

Our cultural output is 19 cpt.