[Spoilers] Adrien and Mardoc relax and play civ

[AdrienIer]

I was most definitely asleep at 3am
Great job wiping off his stack, did you get the power numbers before and after the attack ? It would be interesting to estimate how many units he has.

[Mardoc]

I was most definitely asleep at 3am
Great job wiping off his stack, did you get the power numbers before and after the attack ? It would be interesting to estimate how many units he has.

Nope. I really didn't expect to survive long enough for that information to matter to us . We might be able to eyeball it from the graph once we see how big a fall he takes.

[Zed-F]

Good job

[Mardoc]

Thanks, guys. I'm not sure how much credit I can really claim, though. Most of the decisions (especially the big one) were Jowy's, I pretty much just reacted.

Anyone know the expected value from Jowy's attack? Should he have known to turn around (or wander around pillaging) the instant he had eyes on the garrison, or was he just unlucky?

[spacetyrantxenu]

Strangely, though, it's not quite the same degree of suffering it was

Winning a big battle has that effect.

Should he have known to turn around (or wander around pillaging) the instant he had eyes on the garrison, or was he just unlucky?

He should have known to turn around when he heard this:

[Mardoc]

Well, we earned a little bit more respect from Jowy - first offer that had any benefit to accepting.


I still rejected it. Jowy's peace would have been worth an additional population point, and three turns of revolt, but this way we can consider additional opportunities. Thanks to the river, he can't retake it immediately, I can run away if he makes me (or bring up axe reinforcements). Other than the chariot, our army just stayed put and healed.



So what next? I'm strongly tempted to try for Velociraptor and/or the barb city.

I'm a bit worried that's overambitious. Note that Jowy turned on science and will pick up Math shortly. Still will require more time to get to construction, but I'm sure it's coming. Maybe we need to keep stacking up units instead of spending them.

Can't do anything about it for a couple turns yet regardless. Army still has to heal. So we can think and ponder. I will be settling the wheat city next turn, though.



Here's the first half of the battle, as reflected in the Power graph. It should sink again next turn when the cleanup shows up on screen


Another ambitious idea is to finally fill in our western dotmap. Three cities off to the west, plus Velociraptor/barb city (maybe) would definitely increase our productivity, given some time. I think we may have just bought ourselves some time . Definitely founding the wheat and copper cities, and I'm probably going to slip in a settler for the Moai candidate as well - need something useful to do in our cities while waiting for whip unhappy to wear off anyway.

I'm half-tempted to swap to Sailing (only 9 turns ) and grab an island paradise as well. But given that Math research, only half-tempted. We probably will want to go for HBR next, for flanking, or else for Iron if we really actually truly want to reconquer Velociraptor without spending a ridiculous number of hammers on it.



And....speaking of ambition, here's something that's definitely overambitious - I'm starting to think about establishing the cities toward Jowy in the north-east area that we dotmapped. Crazy, now. If Jowy makes another blunder, or Fenn piles in, then maybe we can consider it.

[AdrienIer]

Do you know what kind of army is in velociraptor ? It would tell us how overambitious that plan is.

If we're going for raptor we won't have the hammers to also found Moai, but we'll have enough units to take the barb city.

[Mardoc]

Do you know what kind of army is in velociraptor ? It would tell us how overambitious that plan is.

We do not. But we can deduce.

Jowy brought half the army we saw from that direction. Do we think he'd have left more than one Vulture behind? I actually don't, I think he'd have stripped the city. He was at peace with Fenn. Best defense against us was a good offense, and I think he saw that.

Then we saw his Tri garrison retreat toward his core, not toward Velociraptor

But, it is size 4, and we can't walk there in a day, which means he'll be able to whip out at least two more, plus any natural production. We should bring at least six axes, and a little overkill would not be a bad thing. Prob should bring the chariots too, if we're lucky he only builds vultures and they can get it done efficiently.

If we're going for raptor we won't have the hammers to also found Moai, but we'll have enough units to take the barb city.

When you put it this way - raptor is clearly the better city. Riskier, partly because it gives us a border with Fenn again - but better land, the chance of starting with more than one pop, maybe infrastructure. And given the above assumptions - also the one that gets more expensive over time instead of less. This moment, it might cost just 35h. Maybe 105 by the time we actually get an army in position. And it'll keep going up from there.

Actually - with a little bit of cleverness I can stick the chariots on the hill 2W of Velociraptor pretty soon, where we can see if it's just Vulture(s), and meanwhile advance axes from the Triceratops area toward that forest if more grunt turns out to be needed. Then we see what he has, for sure, before we commit the whole army. (bonus: see the barb garrison, too)

If I'm wrong and he's still got a mini-stack, then we don't do anything. If I'm right and he underestimates us - maybe he still has just one Vulture when the chariots show. Middle path, it still makes more sense than stacking chariots with the axes and moving them at axe pace.

So...next time the turn rolls, I'm going to see what I can scrape up quickly, and get it moving. This is something that should either be done quickly or not at all.

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On a side note, this war is really driving home to me the value of 2-movers. Even when we know for a fact Jowy builds spears. They're not for the head-on fight nearly so much as for exploiting weakness. Since it's really hard to be strong everywhere, that means 2-movers can get a lot of use. Would be even better if we were ahead in production and could present both kinds of threat, of course, but I'll still be sticking more 2-movers into queues, and probably we should go for HBR next.

[Mardoc]

Feeling lazy tonight, so just pictures.

[AdrienIer]

Are you sure you don't want to go binary ?
I hope this wasn't a plot to get our axes in Tri, if he has chariots ready this isn't going to end well for Tri's garrison.