[Spoilers] CH tries to be more than a warm body

[Cheater Hater]

Thanks for the suggestions both of you--and no, I don't have the GGs on the coast this time

If I put both in one city, I get 4-promotion Knights (3 from Barracks, 2 from Stable, 1 from Colosseum, 2 from Vassalage, 6 from GGs), and that's probably worth it--the one problem is that I don't actually have HE yet (though I think Literature is getting 1-turned next turn)--in fact I should probably log in and do that now

Edit: Yeah, settled both GGs in Olly. As for Ivory/Fish/Sheep, the city REM was talking about is Zenyatta, the city near my border--I'm guessing REM was trying to signify it was lightly defended? The problem with that is that I obviously can't capture it right away, and taotao's force is all 2-movers

[Cheater Hater]

I know I haven't posted for a bit, but that's mainly because there's not much to say and nothing's happened in the war. I finally got tired of waiting for anyone else to join in and offered peace--honestly, Serdoa doesn't need my help to fight on raw numbers, and taotao is about to get Gunpowder so any tech parity has evaporated. Also, taotao has borders across the western ocean from me, but I don't know if that's the other continent or some side islands. Serdoa needs to stop him soon or he'll be right back where he was before I brought him back into the pack.

[Cheater Hater]

Still not much to say, but I do have a folder of pictures at least this time. I did get peace from taotao though--did this war really only last six turns? Anyway, he built Taj, so the Serdoa/taotao cold war continues--I'm diverting my espionage to Serdoa/NH since city visibility isn't that far, and he's completing Paper next turn so I should have a good picture of where he is (and presumably taotao will get Paper very quickly so the Liberalism race can begin in earnest). As for myself, I'm completing Banking this turn (building a bit of research to finish it off), and I'm also planning to get back to the 2-person Golden Age I set up back during the last golden age--or do I want an Academy more? I also don't know if I want the new Emanciaption--obviously I won't swap until the Golden Age (or possibly the end of it if I want Caste System more, which I probably do), but it's weird, and in a weird place on the tech tree. I also have no clue where I want to go next--Paper->Printing Press feels like the simplest path, but that's probably going to take a while to finish. I'm going to save gold for a while at least, so that means I don't have to decide immediately.

[Cheater Hater]

And Serdoa just declared on me, **** this.

Edit: Yes, that's an all clear for "Fenn, take turns until further notice".

[Fenn]

I forgot to take screenshots of the Serdoa war, but to summarize: New Nairobi and Corihuayrachina were forked by 14 Knights, with a big stack of 1-Movers a tile behind. There was no way we could hold either of the cities, so I suicided Nairobi's Catapults on the stack and pulled back everything else but the Longbows to Macchu Picchu, where our own Knights could counterattack against either city after they fell. And then I whipped military/Walls everywhere (that wasn't 1t away from completion).

As expected, Serdoa took both cities; New Nairobi (+ a small stack 1S of the city) had fewer Knights in it, and most of them had nothing better than Combat 1; after suiciding a couple catapults, they were easy prey against our fresh Formation Knights. The last Knight was on 10% HP, so naturally I finished him off with a Longbow. We lost no units wiping Nairobi's stack, and the surviving Knights were able to pull back far enough that they should be safe from retaliation this turn. There's only four Longbows in there though, so Serdoa and his dozen Knights will be able to conquer it again pretty easily; probably will have some Pikes in there too.

Also got our probably last GP this turn, a Great Scientist. I considered bulbing Philosophy, settling him or building an Academy in some miserable commerce-less iceball, but that might be a little spiteful. We have at least a few turns before a decision needs to be made. Serdoa's army and hammer advantage is probably too large to hold back for long, but we can force him to inch along with his slow-movers - our Knights have the promotion advantage over his.

I have to say this is quite fun. Figuring out how to counterattack against Serdoa while preserving our Knights is a nice mental exercise when it's not my own empire being torn down.

[Cheater Hater]

I forgot to take screenshots of the Serdoa war, but to summarize: New Nairobi and Corihuayrachina were forked by 14 Knights, with a big stack of 1-Movers a tile behind. There was no way we could hold either of the cities, so I suicided Nairobi's Catapults on the stack and pulled back everything else but the Longbows to Macchu Picchu, where our own Knights could counterattack against either city after they fell. And then I whipped military/Walls everywhere (that wasn't 1t away from completion).

As expected, Serdoa took both cities; New Nairobi (+ a small stack 1S of the city) had fewer Knights in it, and most of them had nothing better than Combat 1; after suiciding a couple catapults, they were easy prey against our fresh Formation Knights. The last Knight was on 10% HP, so naturally I finished him off with a Longbow. We lost no units wiping Nairobi's stack, and the surviving Knights were able to pull back far enough that they should be safe from retaliation this turn. There's only four Longbows in there though, so Serdoa and his dozen Knights will be able to conquer it again pretty easily; probably will have some Pikes in there too.

Also got our probably last GP this turn, a Great Scientist. I considered bulbing Philosophy, settling him or building an Academy in some miserable commerce-less iceball, but that might be a little spiteful. We have at least a few turns before a decision needs to be made. Serdoa's army and hammer advantage is probably too large to hold back for long, but we can force him to inch along with his slow-movers - our Knights have the promotion advantage over his.

I have to say this is quite fun. Figuring out how to counterattack against Serdoa while preserving our Knights is a nice mental exercise when it's not my own empire being torn down.

First of all, thanks for taking over--I'm in one of my moods right now, and I really don't think adding an empire meltdown to it would have helped much. At the very least, just having someone take over is better than getting into one of my rages that I did the last hundred times this happened

Are you sure we can't get the second great person? Both Cuzco and Vilcas were close to popping, and I doubt Serdoa is going that quickly to get to my core. Granted, that's about 50/50 to be a second scientist, but the second golden age would be something.

How many units does Serdoa have? I only stayed in long enough to see that he had declared with a lot of Knights. I have regrown somewhat so you have whipping fodder at least.

Any sign of taotao declaring on Serdoa now that he's committed? That's what I hate most--I try to get help, take a big chunk out of the top dog, then get thanked by an invasion.

[Fenn]

I'll check Vilcas next turn - if it's close to a GP that would be good to get one more GA going, even if we're in pretty good wartime civics already.

IIRC Serdoa has at least 20 Knights, and that's after I wiped his Nairobi stacks. In addition he has about a dozen Catapults, some War Elephants, and a pile of older units - Axes, Spears, Longbows...I'll take screenshots and give specific figures when the turn comes around. He probably has more stuff incoming too, his Power is insane.

No military action from taotao yet, but he did agree to a 200G loan I offered the previous turn, which helped fund some Longbow/Pikeman upgrades. I'm sure he's glad to have us make difficulties for Serdoa, but whether he wants to take a shot himself is up in the air.

[Fenn]

Turn 149 arrived. Being in the first half of a turn-split is quite convenient, you just play the turn when it comes up. No risk of accidental double moving!



First thing I've noticed was taotao sitting a big stack on the border. We still have 7 turns of enforced peace left, but there's good odds he'll be back then. Not pictured are East Indiamen (!) prowling the seas - one northwest of this stack, and one south of Vilcas. We have no defenses in the southern half of our border, just Quechuas and Axes and the like, so if he launches an amphibious invasion, Inca will crumple pretty quickly.





The current situation with Serdoa. He's consolidated his forces in Corihuayrachina, and we have too few Knights and Catapults to dislodge them, so for the moment we're waiting on him to make the first move. After I wiped his Knight stack at Nairobi, I don't imagine he'll move around unprotected Knights, but if he splits his stack between defending Cori and moving on another city, we may have an opportunity to do damage.

You can see our uninjured Knights hiding behind the peak; Serdoa's got a Sentry Knight in Cori, so this is the best place to hide them where they can't be seen easily.



Without starving, Vilcas can generate a new GP relatively soon. We can hold against Serdoa for 11 turns, but if taotao joins in or attacks from the sea it might not be enough. Should we starve to get a second GP out more quickly? Note we can also get another GP in Cuzco in about 20 turns.



I think our wiping the Knights by Nairobi isn't on this Power graph, but either way Serdoa has more where that came from, and taotao's recovered from the bruising you gave him.

[Cheater Hater]

Good to know we aren't getting beaten that badly by Serdoa--other than the city loss the losses appear to be about even..

Have you re-offered open borders to taotao yet? That would surprise Serdoa, and give him a chance to do things (and again, him declaring would be awful regardless).

How much time is shaved off the great person if you swap the tundra mine for an Engineer? Heck, I should do that right now, and maybe even work the spy instead of a farm (if we can do so without starving). I did log in and do so (this isn't a return, just a check-in), and it reduces the time to 7 turns. I didn't offer the open borders, as that's something I want to discuss a bit.

[Fenn]

Ah, I missed that tundra hill tile, good catch. That'll be very nice indeed.

I'm not sure of the wisdom in offering OB to somebody you've warred with and will 100% invade us given the chance, but then again there's not much he could find out with OB that he hasn't already with his ships, so why not. Maybe he'll get tied up with Serdoa and buy us some time.