[Spoilers] DZ'CH is apparently a catchy name

[Donovan Zoi]

What are you going to whip with slavery?

Where are we getting attacked, if that' what you mean when you say someone is trying to burn our cities?

I am not saying they will, just that they should. With cities at a premium this game, they will likely keep it though.

I thnk C1/Pinch Cavs may have to do, for mobility and a slight advantage against Rifles promos depending. Not fully decided on that, so I'll let you know.

Thoughts are welcome

[greenline]

I'd move a ship to scout near Dreylin's nearest city to the barb city to tell if he's going to attack before revolting. Maybe I just like to play dangerously though

[El Grillo]

My RL Hell week ends on April 18th!

You preparing taxes too? I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... or is that just my computer monitor? Best of luck with that and with the in-game events!

[Donovan Zoi]

My RL Hell week ends on April 18th!

You preparing taxes too? I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... or is that just my computer monitor? Best of luck with that and with the in-game events!

Yes El Grillo, I sure am! Actually, I think mine eyes see two tunnels right now, just not sure which one to bolt for.

Thanks, and may your summer be extension-free. :D

[Donovan Zoi]

I'd move a ship to scout near Dreylin's nearest city to the barb city to tell if he's going to attack before revolting. Maybe I just like to play dangerously though

After looking at the save, I am not going to revolt. He is going for the barb city, or is he? I'll need to keep you in suspense for the moment as I have to play PB27 real quick.

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 273 - 1806 AD

OK here is a quick image dump.

Our core of 3 is not in immediate danger, and all cities will grow next turn:











Demographics


We are blowing everyone out of the water in crop yield and production, all while keeping up with infrastructure.

We are still competitive in soldiers at this point, without having to whip one unit.

We are lagging in production at the moment, only because we are focusing on explosive growth. I am currently in the process of improving many of the 0-4-0 tiles, and would like to halt growth and focus on production when Bombay hits Size 12.



Eastern Espionage


I have two spies eyeing scooter's Germany, with one about to reveal two cities next turn. One of our explorers has located their capital from the other side of their empire.

Two Rifles stand watch in a defensive stance, so no short term worries here hopefully.



REM Encroachment


As expected IMP REM has just pink-dotted his 5th city near the canal region to our west. We will want to address further encroachment fast.



Artists Artists Everywhere


Wow, 3 Great Artists generated over the last 4 turns. Is there anything I am missing besides a culture bomb here?

OK well, you didn't want to talk about all this, did you? Let me work on the war post.

[Donovan Zoi]

WAR!!

Here is where we stand at 1806 AD:



The Good News

-Dreylin went for the barb city, which is currently building a Granary.
-He landed 2 Grenadiers and 1 Rifle, which do not have good odds against the MG and Rifle we have stations on the city hill. I thnk we keep the city here!

But wait, why are there 6 dots showing on that stack?


The Bad News

-Because Dreylin caught me being sloppy. he bagged 3 workers I left undefended instead of guarding them with one of the two defenders.
-There is still a Galleon in the area so we have a huge choice, but in my mind a pretty easy one.


Here's the Issue

My worst fears dashed for now, you can only imagine my relief to see that our main cities are still out of harm's way. But with REM coming in from the west and the need to defend waters from both BGN and Dreylin, we need to make sure that we maintain our core of 3 at all costs. For several reasons, I think we need to bail on the barb city:

1. We are 4 turns from Steam Power and 6 turns from one our two GEs being built up in Bombay and Vijay. The city remaining can have Merchants added to it to get us our "doesn't matter" GP so that we can start a GA on about 40 fully developed tiles at a time of our choosing, while saving the GE for Iron Works when Steel is complete (current ETA 13 turns), if we are able to orchestrate a GA-fueled production burst can get us the 3 necessary Settlers before doing so.

2. While it looks like Dreylin's stack of 3 may attack Tartar this turn, they can just as easily reboard their Galleon and beeline toward Vijay, where only one Cavalry defends. And the tough part is, if we wait to vacate Tartar until they make this move, our Rifle and MG will arrive to Vijay too late since Tartar is 7 tiles away. But we get home first if we vacate the city before they play.

3. Tartar came with none of the default improvements and therefore would need to be built up from scratch.

4. Tartar costs us 6g in maintenance.

5. We need to free up units to address and hopefully stifle REMs advancement, and maybe even take that offending city.

6. Dreylin's capture of Tartar will provide him with Gems when I believe they already have Gems. We can have our second Silks hooked up any time, and may be able to convince him of a long term trade.

7. I am sure Dreylin would welcome the opportunity to avoid a prolonged war and perhaps gain a friend that shares common threats in scooter and BGN (who currently have OB with each other).


Long story short, I think the pros of yielding Tartar outweigh the cons. And yes, I know full well that giving up 3 workers and a fledgling city is a huge price to pay to an aggressor for the mere prospect of peace, but there's no question that he will think twice about advancing on our core if he knows we would beat him to his next prize. We also have too much happening at home to devote too many resources to such a distraction.

Let me know what you think, as I will need to play before I leave for a 12-hour marathon workday in about 6 hours. Otherwise I may have to delay the game, which I would hate to do.

[Cheater Hater]

I really disagree with abandoning Tartar--even beyond the obvious problems with going back down to three cities (you said REM was on city five, but how is everyone else doing?), there's the metagames implications of it. How much does losing three workers actually hurt us? I'd start by offering straight peace, and see where that takes us--presumably Dreylin needs the workers a lot more than we do.

How much of an actual threat is REM? Presumably getting to five cities had an actual cost in development (lack of workers), size (a big whip or two along with the stopped growth), power (lack of troops), and/or the first Golden Age (has he triggered it yet?), and while he obviously will spike relatively soon, I don't know how much defense his pink dot will have--hopefully he doesn't pop borders right away so we can check in on it (do we have OB with him?). Presumably we want to build more military anyway (to guard our settlers if nothing else), so we should be fine, even if we have to rebuild a couple workers.

[greenline]

To defend Vijay, could we possibly build a frigate somewhere? It doesn't look like Dreylin's galleon has an escort.

Is there a way of checking if one of REM's cities is a barb city? Or is he cash rushing settlers via UniSuff?

edit: Also, I would start Vijay on a settler now or soon since it looks like it can work all its land tiles.

[Donovan Zoi]

Sorry all, vacating Tartar and plugging a major hole in our defenses by putting the Machine Gun on the X next turn in Vijay (see one of the above posts). We just can't risk losing the upcoming GE in Vijay when Dreylin has a Galleon floating around ready to drop troops on our coast at will.

It's too far away to defend and we would not be allowed to develop the cities with Dreylin's units there. After a Rifle completes in Vijay, I may build a couple Catapults depending on how my diplomacy goes with Dreylin. But a Frigate will be our next priority in Delhi. Settlers will be coming very soon, as cities hit Size 14 (our current happy cap) they will be transitioned to production.

Leaning on military builds in production mode should limit any threats from meta concerns. You think one city loss will send the sharks circling? BGN and Dreylin are our only naval threats, so we must prepare for these. REMs threat seems domestic, though we will have to see. And we will be able to project any advance from scooter dues to our spy net.

I'll post more coherent posts soon. There really couldn't have been a crappier time for this to happen as far as RL goes, as I will be getting 3 hours of sleep tonight. I wish you would have just said "that's cool, Donovan" so I didn't have to agonize at the screen for an hour and a half tonight.....