The Pen vs The Sword (Gandhi of NA)

[The Black Sword]

Here we go ...



If I still had my sentry I'd know whether I was going to get Catted to hell or not.

[The Black Sword]

He sacked some of his 1 movers on me and retreated. Northern army ready to move out next turn:

[The Black Sword]

Dazed joined the war and took 2 cities from Furungy!



Only Waaagh and his capital left. Looks like I missed a picture of my latest city north of Tzeentech. Unfortunately there's no nice dotmap around here to defuse future borders between me and dazed without giving him everything there. So I settled 1NE of the city ruins, with the cows first ring. This is the first time I've ever wished to have diplo on and we could discuss what locations seem fair

I named the city after another wesnoth multiplayer map with an unusual name:

Sulla's Ruins

The backstory behind a number of the multiplayer maps references a great archmage Sulla. Thought it was an interesting cross-over with this community.

[The Black Sword]

It's been sometime since I put a proper update here.

Let's talk about foreign relations.


After centuries of cold war, we've finally made peace with the Germans! I've cooled down a bit since losing Silverhead and my position has picked up a bit, so a seaborne invasion is less likely. It's still on my possibilities list though. It feels to me like he's falling back into the pack a bit now after a strong opening you would expect from his traits. No new cities for a while.

In any case peace for 10 turns suits me fine, I don't need to worry about a force landing beside Silverhead, I can chop that forest into a gran, improve those dyes, and generally get everything done down here that I need to. The other interaction with Xenu is that AP build in Fort Tahn. Xenu was first to Theology so he could quite possibly beat me there. He's not building the AP in any city I can see but he should have 1 more that I can't that he used a missionary to spread to. My only advantage is OR, I'm really just hoping he doesn't think it's worth the build. I complete it in 5t and that will obviously have a big impact on my game.



Furungy is down to just his capital and should fall as soon as I can march my doom stack over here. The Incan menace is not long for this world! As a result, Gandhi has ousted General Sword and we're back to researching things like Philosophy.



We have a bit of a tricky situation with Dazed, and I'm gambling a bit here that he won't backstab me as I deal with the Incans. Him leaving his settler and troops pretty open to me is a good sign of course. I've seen that settler in transit with my chariot and I hope he replaces the razed city. I want that sheep filler city, and I'm whipping a settler this turn but he could settle first. Unfortunately for him, my Holy city is popping borders again in something like 8t. He won't hold the sheep, the city might even flip and I'm pretty sure our relations will go south. This will give me 3 cities with overlapping BFCs with Tzeentech, which is a pretty terrible military situation for me. I'm going to gamble on peace though and hope Dazed feels the same way. He's doing pretty well btw, similar to me he's had a slow opening thanks to no early game traits (Fin/Phi vs Spi/Phi) but like me he seems to have sealed off a good portion of land to grow into, he's got a couple of cities still unsettled and he already has more than me(18). Might be interesting to the lurkers since he doesn't seem to update. It's certainly a better position than his score indicates.



In the East, we have GermanJojo. He's just about to steal back the wheat/deer from Fallenstar again. I'm just about to revolt into Caste to take them back again. Despite that, I'm going to continue gambling on peace with him for a while longer. I've been pretty nice so far with regard to the forests on our border and in general we've both left workers open and don't appear to have big garrisons. Of course he could have a force in fog to hit, particularly worrisome around Wesmere if he gets engineering. But his power is still quite a bit lower than mine, so I feel good gambling on peace. I need to get a spy out and get some more information about his other neighbour situation and map out his land a bit more. He's been doing quite well for some time but I'm not sure he has the ingredients to stay up there. Like Xenu he's got the early game traits and his city count hasn't increased much in a while. Some of the management I've seen hasn't been too impressive either. Given his workshop focus, I guess Guilds is on the agenda.

Bachus: I like this guy. I think the OB borders I gave him were pretty once-sided to him but since then he's always responded when I needed something; a free cow or the gold for that critical mace upgrade.

Oxy/BaII: I don't like these guys. I offered them copper for gpt, they don't log in. I offer them 7gpt for 50g, they don't log in. In both cases I have to come up with alternate solutions to my problems. 2 turns later they log in, accept my deals and start stealing my gold! I can finally cancel these deals next turn, if their trade routes weren't so lucrative I would have declared war.

Fin/Harry: The leaders of those I've met, 50% more cities than me, seem to have been conquering someone. How to match these guys? Good question. I have to assume BGN and Dtay are in a similar position. This is the biggest argument for me trying something stupid like teching to Cuirs instead of econ stuff. I'm not sure I have a good target right now though, I certainly need more map info first. My scouting has been pretty atrocious!


Krovice: 2nd place of those I've met. I think they're a bit behind the other 3 though. I feel I'd stand a chance of competing with these guys long term whereas that's not the case with Fin/Harry.


Plako: Another guy up there in score, but his city count needs some work. Like Joey he recently threw a GA and I guess they need to look at conquest.

My general plan for the next few turns is to finish Furungy off with my current forces, and take as much of his land as I can while maintaining good relations with Dazed. I think Dazed has a second force to the West, so it's not assured that I take the capital. I need to find room for a few more settler builds. I'm switching to Caste this turn but I don't think I'll run many specialists besides the artists in Fallenstar. I don't think I want to whip anywhere though, need to let some of that anger dissipate. I'll continue to grow my cities and hopefully we'll maintain peace with our neighbours and I can revolt to Pacifism safely in 5t and I can really push some GP. I'm considering it in a lot of places, the only definite at the moment is a GM as soon as possible in Tombs of Kesorak to get a Trade Mission going to Dazed's island. In general I think I'm going to try run a specialist/hammer economy and see where it takes me. Try for constant trade missions and put up Libs/Unis everywhere. Bulbing Edu and PP are good options too, so nothing wrong with scientists and I'd never say no to an Engineer. Artist from Fallenstar will give me a golden age, though I'd like to delay that a bit. Free Market is absolutely great value and should be a target. Unless I can get a mountain of GP though then the free GM is unlikely. Nat -> Constit also seems pretty good value assuming I'm working around 40 specialists. Drafting ability sounds great too. The problem with all this is that I don't think it will catch me up with those old tourists. Where and who would be the best place for another conquest?

Final point; I'm thinking of targeting a Culture Victory. It believe that should be faster than a Spaceship with RBmod tech costs. It might give me a chance against the big 3 behemoths. It goes well with my traits, particularly if I land the AP. I have two good candidate cities in Weldyn and Elensefar already. I have access to a number of religions IIRC. I will not be turning the slider off for quite a while though. That wastes a lot of output in my other cities. I'll be looking at simply using artists, buildings, probably some build culture and artist bombs. I won't be putting resources towards this for a while, I want to keep my options open, but I think it makes better sense as a victory condition. Certainly Domination is not happening on this map. I doubt I'm the only one to think this way, it's got to be pretty tempting in such a big game. A big question is how your immediate neighbours will react, or will they leave it for one of the leaders to deal with. If there's more than one to deal with it could get pretty interesting.

[The Black Sword]

The Incan days are numbered:


Dazed has an army a bit smaller than mine in Luna. Furungy hit me with 2 catapults before I moved to the hill. They didn't do much damage though. Next turn I bombard and heal, I foolishly lost my healer a few turns ago to kill an axe I thought isolated. I have a mace and 3-4 spears in Serpent Ford I think, so it should be safe enough from the HAs.

Joey's power has now caught up with mine, and since the graphs are delayed, must be ahead. He does have Guilds. I desperately need to finish this up quickly and move my army East. I think he has Bachus on the other side and I hope he looks like an easier target. Also, I realised he has Caste for his GA, which is how he retook the food sources by Fallenstar. I hope he goes into slavery once the GA ends, but I rather doubt it.



AP coming, timing nicely with New Silverhead's growth to size 2 to work the pig. Xenu revolted to Theocracy(+Vassalage), which makes me feel a lot better about my chances here. It suggests the AP was not his reason to research Theology or at least if he is building the AP, he's not acting like he has any competition.

New city this turn too:



An alternate dimension which armies must fight to escape.

[The Black Sword]

Furungy's capital is exactly 9 tiles from both mine and Dazed. Joey's capital is certainly further than 9 from me. Seems like Hashoosh/Furungy were in a bit of trouble from the start.

That's dtay in the bottom left corner, similar city count to the Old Tourists. He has Paper too; up Paper, Guilds, Feud, Machinery on me. In return, I have Theo, most of Philosophy, Alphabet and Meditation. Ok, so that's not good, but it's not too bad, his Exp/Pro is about played out. What isn't played out is his wonders: Colossus and Temple of Solomon(!!!). My shrine gives 45gpt with 10% of the world's pop. I don't want to think about his shrine with 20% of the world's population and more multipliers.

2t till AP, a couple of cities are on wealth builds, will start Temples if I land it, Libraries if not.



How to take this capital efficiently without letting Dazed have it? He's already got 4 cities from Furungy, including Tzeentech, which is closer to me, I feel I deserve the capital given the work I put in.

[The Black Sword]

Well, taking it was pretty straightforward in the end, 14 units, only 2 axes and I had 18 hitters, mostly maces:


I lost my lvl 6 GG at 95% odds though , along with 3 catapults. I got a replacement at least, I'll probably save him for a healer. Assuming Dazed doesn't attack me next turn, I'll figure out how to disband the army into defensive garrisons.

Other good news:
New city of Howling Badland
AP due next turn
Joey declared war on Bachus, not me!

GG Furungy, I realise now that I see all your land, you didn't have many options.

[The Black Sword]

Everything will be nice and peaceful for a while, lovely chaps on both sides, I'll just play around with these religious stuff ...



He artist bombed me! Guess he's not feeling any 'our mutual military struggle brought us together'.

Everytime things seem to be picking up in this game, it throws something else at me.

[Ceiliazul]

nice move on his part, actually. What's your plan?

Also, "mutual military struggle" only counts if you're on the same side.

[The Black Sword]

Yeah, it's a really good move tactically, I just didn't think he'd want to do it strategically, big mistake there.

No idea what the plan is at the moment. Realistically, I doubt I can let that city stand. I need 2-movers to take it out though. I'm continuing peaceful builds for the moment in the hopes that Dazed won't start to get aggressive for size 1-2 cities. I have some really amazing buildings to put up and I need to gamble to do so. I'm ready to revolt to slavery if necessary though. Wish I hadn't teched Philosophy now.