The Pen vs The Sword (Gandhi of NA)

[The Black Sword]

I'll get some pictures up when I can but I succeeded in pushing Xenu off my continent. (We'll ignore the fact that the city was touching his borders and not mine, I'm the victim here!) He settled 1N and brought in an extra axe. I moved up again, putting both chariots in range. He brought in an archer. At this stage I decided I should use 1 chariot to suicide on his archer and my sentry guy could kill an axe and both would be covered with dog soldiers that could attack next turn. My dogs get odds on his axes so even if he brought more units in, that seemed like a good plan. On the other hand if I didn't attack, and he brought in a spear, then my chariots would be pretty useless and his archer gets odds on my dogs and he'd probably have enough units to save the city.

So I attacked:

Chariot vs archer: 25% win, 7% withdraw - Victory!
Chariot vs axe: ~96% - Victory!

Awesome! this turn he has evacuated his axe and scout, so I burned the city and offered a ten turn peace. I have a settler in transit to the location, so I believe I should be able to resettle first. He probably won't accept though, since there's literally nothing I can do to him, I don't have a port in that sea yet. He's doing very well and has a high power, hopefully he doesn't take this too badly.

As Parkin mentioned, I got peace with my other neighbours.

Germanjojo brought in a spear so I gave him peace. His war declaration was a pretty weak move IMO, he took away the only disincentive from me attacking his archer and if it hadn't been for Furungy he would have been punished for it. My settler would have been in position first and I'd have had an extra archer, so dog+2 chariots+archer+warrior vs axe+spear. He recently landed the Hanging Gardens too, having hooked up stone. I think he has 11 cities IIRC, so it's a nice move but not game breaking. I had been thinking recently that he should have had a lot more hammers spare given his graphs and was wondering where they're going. Anyway, he's doing well and is Agg, so I'll try for a peaceful border over there now if I can. I don't know where his capital is but I hope I managed to claim a reasonable share of the land.

I landed my GM a few turns ago too, that's my second GP and I think the other 32 players have managed 1 between them . I used the 10t peace to cash him in Furungy's city for 700g. I could have send him over to dazed for 900g but I'm fankly rather paranoid about my neighbours at the minute and I couldn't spare a military escort with all that's going on. It would also be a few turns delay in receiving the gold too. I was thinking of using the GM to scout out some of Furungy's land but didn't want to delay the gold either. There was a reasonably big army positioned near Fort Tahn though. Anyway, that's 700g running through academy, lib and pre-req bonus, so still pretty nice. I delayed researching masonry until the GM came out in case I got my 10% artist. In that case I was going to try my bulb Music and Nationalism plan. Without an artist in hand though, I want access to OR.

I can't help but feel I've come off a little worse from the change in the incan management. I thought I had a pretty good relationship with Hashoosh but it feels very hostile from Furungy. He's possibly just expecting retaliation from the settler snipe I suppose. None is coming from my end though. However, I have top GNP at the minute, should have an extended run of that thanks to my trade mission and I'm considering my civil service bulb now. That could mean some very early macemen.

It's been some interesting times in Wesnoth anyway.

[Ceiliazul]

Great reports, I think Furj just has a bit high "buildunits" score than the RB norm. It made AlaePB interesting, even if it doesnt make for the coziest of neighbors.

[The Black Sword]

Some pics as a reward for lurker comments. The lucky chariots:




Trade mission and the Incan units:


Just need to keep some spears handy to deal with these chariots I suppose. It's not a huge army I suppose but then Furungy's power isn't very high so it must be most of his spare military.

Overview:


Demos:


3g trade routes with Plako at the minute, so currency is too good to pass up. Oxy/BaII should fill up the rest of mine, I might need OB with Jojo or Xenu for a route though.

[The Black Sword]

Please go bother someone else Joey ...



Unfortunately, given I'm pretty much the only person he's put EP on, I really need to take this seriously. More unfortunate news, I have known tech bonuses on Construction and HBR, and I haven't been checking often enough to know when they came in. Joey finally hooked up his horses though. Dog soldiers are great in the ancient era but their low strength rather sucks when the next level of soldiers appears. I think I need to go for construction next.

Dazed declared on Furungy at least, so I can pull units off that border a bit to beef up the others. I need to go into Caste next turn though for this city:


Might have been a bit greedy there ... The only good card I have is this massive gold bucket, I have no qualms about upgrading warriors right now, so I can use those as if they're actual units. I might try war-peace people when the treaty runs out in a few turns. I'm up to 11th in food, give me another few turns to recover please.

[The Black Sword]

How does a T105 Pyramids sound?

Pindicooter got it T103 or something like that in PB13 and that was before stone was nerfed. Anyway, I decided to keep going for it, despite all the latest military problems, I have OR and Stone and access to Rep and Police State sounds mighty powerful. I'll hopefully chop 5 forests T105 to complete it. If I manage to land it and don't get attacked in the next few turns then my prospects might look up.

Regarding Joey, I might be overreacting to that power graph, though it increased again this turn. He's got more pop than me - that gives power, he's probably overflowing with barracks(I've got none) - that gives power and if he does have HBR or Construction, that gives power too. I tried estimating his excess power over me on the graph, I think maybe 30k, but pretty imprecise method. Still I'm taking some measures in any case, including teching HBR. I've got threats on every side, 1 horse archer is worth at least 2 catapults because of the mobility.

[The Black Sword]

T105 Pyramids sounds unsuccesful. Ah well, can't even really blame my neighbours for that, just didn't prioritise them well enough. Maybe I could have slotted Masonry in a bit earlier and put the hammers that went for the failed land steal by Joey, that might have been a better plan. Everything looks like a better plan than that thanks to my screwup there though.

Here's the current tech tree:


I had a look around if I should save the forests for another wonder and decided none look that tempting. I have no marble and haven't went particularly hard for Calendar or Lit, so MoM and TGL are out. AP was an interesting option, but it requires a big hammer investment. I think I'm better off putting those hammers towards military and attacking Furungy. I'm probably just going to go directly towards knights, might detour to CS via a bulb but I'm not sure there. I can't see ignoring Machinery as a viable option with these borders so the bulb Lib plan is out too. I can't see Lib or Taj being worth there cost, even assuming I could land them.

GP wise, I'll want another trade mission, I finally got another religion, buddhism spread to 1 of my cities, so I can put a second temple in Elensefar and generate that shrine in a reasonable time frame. Possibly bulb CS and probably a golden age around Knights. We'll see after that.

Overview:






One thing I hadn't noticed before in the demos is the unusually high land area, might bode well for the long term.

Closer look:

Blackwater is the likely Moai spot. It finishes the archer and then probably whips a LH when Slavery comes back in for tiles to work. Kesorak just got out the settler for the island. It needs to whip the missionary immediately, then needs to win the culture battle with Armageddon, and probably grow on coast too. Need to find an incoming missionary for here too.



Scouting with a worker. He was originally going to chop that forest but then I realised I should check I wasn't orphaning any seafood. We'll settle on the forest, so 16h down the drain now. I think I'll use the chariot completed in Elensefar to scout the island to the left.



Starting another settler for the amazing northern spot. I'll probably whip him to completion such that I'm back in Caste when he founds.



New city, decided to settle here now so that Joey doesn't get any ideas. Hopefully none of my other spots will be a race, every time I say that though, a neighbour always finds a way to steal one from me . It should get off to an incredible start though, stealing the pig and an unhooked food.



I'll probably get cultural control of that fish next turn. There's a sign in the north for a filler city, settler will be whipped from Wesmere. I decided the crab wasn't worth the culture battle of me settling first ring. I hope Xenu appreciates it. I want to get the next GM from Wesmere, which is already working on it. Silverhead is getting a chopped totem pole then I need to figure out if I can fit in a granary before a boat. The boat can bring the GM to Oxy land where he can get 1100g for the trade mission, maybe more if my capital is grown in time. Fort Tahn will just pump military, I'll try fit a barracks and stables in here. I think I'll also fight back in the culture battle for those spices, that's a nice tile. Furungy's workers are building a lot of roads in that area that seem to serve little use but for flexibility in attacking me.

[The Black Sword]

Thought I could play this turn quickly before college to give Xenu more time, nope:





This is going to require some simming.

Originally posted this in the tech thread.

[Lord Parkin]

What are those icons doing in the top right of your screen?

[The Black Sword]

It's minimise pop-ups. The first asking me if I want to revolt since I just got monarchy, the second asking what tech next, what to build after a completed HA and what to build in the city I founded this turn. They'll all come up at the end of the turn instead of the start if I haven't dealt with them already. Alternatively I click the icon and the box pops up.

[Lord Parkin]

Huh, never actually tried that option in all these years. Good to know.