[SPOILERS]The Tyrant realizes that once the world burns it gets really boring....

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

suttree razed the Colossus??

Yes. Inexplicably yes. This is the relevant bit:



And I would have seen (I think) some suttree culture creeping in this shot if he had kept the city, as well as the Colossus statue itself:



Statue is missing there. Previous turn:



Visible just above the signpost reading "EMPTY". Also, the Colossus is missing on the Top 5 where it lists all the wonders that have been completed. Now, I'm not sure what to make of this move. It is absolutely incomprehensible to me. Is he fearful of the mighty Byzantine... axes? Sisub should not factor into this decision, really, because he's not long for this world. I'm guessing if we had declared on Sisub prior to suttree playing his turn that his calculation would have been different and that he would have kept the city. He has cultural presence all over that region south of the city from his artist bomb in Memory Rock:



Is he feeling stretched thin and worried that Byzantium would have helped ourselves all the way down there? I wonder. If so...

That said, I'm going vulture what spoils I can off this carcass before the wolves get here.

[Commodore]

Does this give you a bit more hope?

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Taking a city with decent food resources gave me a bit more hope. This, I'm not sure what to think. I don't think it reflects well on suttree, though to be fair, he didn't know that I'd pile in on Sisub since I was already at war elsewhere. Strikes me as too timid and lacking confidence, or as negligence (as in he didn't realize the Colossus was there). The good news is that we're catching up on cities. +2 this turn.

I hope to get Yar Tishes relatively cheaply and further hope that Sisub bleeds suttree dry with that stack in his capital. Sisubs cities are faaaar to large at this point in the war, considering how many cities he has lost. Where in the hell were the whips when it mattered? That the civ conquering the poorly defending civ was either careless in razing the Colossus or unsure of keeping it from these guys who apparently can't tie their own shoes, yeah, that's encouraging. But, when I lose to these same guys later, that's gonna hurt my pride.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I smell blood, or weakness, or something. Only reason you raze a good wonder like that is that you think you can't hold it. From what we've seen Suttree should have been able to hold it. So either he made a bonehead decision to burn it down or he knows something we don't and really can't hold the city. Either one is a weakness. I hope someone is giving Suttree the business right about now, or he fears it will happen soon. Something to slow him down or hurt him.

Nice job on grabbing the city, stupid dice notwithstanding.

Take care in the west with harassing Kuro, we don't stand to gain a lot by continuing to fued with him, well other than pillage/raze money I guess. Just don't lose the western force right now, I don't think we're going to be able to replace it for a while. The situation back east may require quite a bit of...emphasis for a while, until Suttree no longer had the biggest stack in the area OR until we're 100% happy with where the cultural borders end up.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

What, no forever war for PYFT glory against Kuro?

Kuro offered peace, I declined, played the turn, then re-offered a white peace. I see no reason he wouldn't take it since my galley followed his galley even closer to his coast, presumably loaded.

Maybe suttree didn't think he could both defend the Colossus city AND take Sisub's finally well-defended capital. Of the two, the capital will be of more value with all of those nice cottages.

Speaking of cottages, we ought to pillage down some for a little fundraising. Not ours, of course, just those in the vacated Colossus area.

[spacetyrantxenu]

100% pillage around the abandoned Colossus site.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

While I wait for someone to unpause the game for me since I locked myself in a diplo screen, more sisub madness:



Add to this that I misclicked an axe from the hill SW of Yfen Kato to the plains hill right next to that massive stack. Goddammit.

So, I would assume that the best way to utilize a large stack of units like this when you're being invaded from two sides is to hunker down in your 60% cultural defense capital, enjoy your additional 25% defense bonus provided by the hill, and bleed your enemies as they finish you off. This looks to me like he's going to say "Here, suttree, take the rest of my cities for free, I'm going to invade those backstabbers in the north because their power is weaker." This doesn't sit very well with me, even ignoring that it ruins MY game. It unbalances the rest of the game terribly. Dig in and FIGHT the invader. Jesus Christ...

I can't find the post, but I'm pretty sure I called this...

[spacetyrantxenu]

Ha. Hahahahahaha. Sure, give away the rest of your cities to Suttree, clearly holding your last northern city on flat ground is a better tactical position. But surely he's not going for a counter invasion. Because that will work out well when he has no cities left. Well I guess he'll have that settler land somewhere and hope to rampage a stack through our territory and cause us damage? All the while Suttree is happy for picking up the last three mainland cities cheaply, while weakening us at the same time. Yeah, this is some pretty fucked up gameplay by whoever is pulling these shifts. Obviously doesn't give a shit about unbalancing the game by giving things away for free.

Why are we taking this game seriously?

[spacetyrantxenu]

My game client crashed while I was logged in, I hit F4 to go to the diplo overview and the game client stopped responding. Logged back in, got disconnected on the first attempt after a long delay. Second login was successful. Civstats looks quite cluttered now but no harm done evidently.

[spacetyrantxenu]

And wtf it happened again when I pressed F4 to launch the diplomacy overview....