[spoilers] Sitting Bull is preparing war paints

[OT4E]

T100, something like a breaking point.

5 turns of forced peace with OH left. He planted the city near ivory right when we made peace. I do not really need ivory and at least I would go there to plant a city with just a clam to control that ivory source. I knew that he will use the peace for his own needs, but I dont mind. I had a backup plan to raze it by the end of the forced peace, but I accidently showed OH one of my swordmen because I didnt realize he can see it with double move. So it wont be easy unawared. And probably I am not going to attack. I prepared those units to siege barbarian city. I actually did great job denying that city to OH, he is leading by most of parameters and city of 5 could make it even worse. Of course I am also happy to have that city with 2 free workers and plenty of food and chops around.



I also decided to plant one more city in that area to make my presense there stronger. I considered 2 options to plant on cooper or 1 tile to the East. On that spot I would be further from OH and could use pig, but 2 extra base hammers, hill city and better formation made me plant on cooper. I dont think that OH will throw everything to attack it right now. His nearby cities are weak and he sees that I have enough power, I also can chop a lot with my 5 workers around and make my own attack on him. Good if I make him whip his core and bring more defenders there. But I doubt I can pull him on desperate action, at least not that soon.

In my core I started HG.



I know I have no chances to finish it, but it is good opportunity to build some wealth with 1.75 multiplier. I need at least 100 more gold to get Currency. My economics has fallen down once I planted the Jungle Juggler. I only have cottages around the cap, almost no lighthouses or tiles with natural commerce. Most of my money comes from trade routes which I hope I can improve with currency. I also started growing cities and making cottages but they will not bring much in the nearest future.

I build shrine on T98 and it started bringing me 3 gpt which meant that Hinduism was fortunately spread only between my 3 core cities. But shrine did it job and I got +1gpt on T99 and +1gpt on T100 and hope for more.

Should I go for the Alphabet first?
Recently I met 2 more civs: Commodore (Colossus owner) and 2metraninga (Pyramids owner). 2metra is doing even worse than me. In fact I am occupying 7th place in food graphs and probably he is the permanent owner of 8th. With them I could open borders, but they dont know Alphabet yet. Mackoti and pidicator do, but with Mackoti I dont want to trade, because he has his own religion (which has already spread to one of my cities) and he has TGLH and many cities and food. His cap is constantly growing and is now size of 12, while I did everything to make Cuzco grow and it has only size of 10 now. And he is still saying something about the land. I can only wonder what makes him so unhappy with everything?...


I have the only one comment here. Why not to call it "The Great Wall"?

[OT4E]

All the events are tied with Old Harry. He offered peace himself, he has plenty of land and food (twice more than me with both) but it seems that my existance still bothers him a lot. He went for Construction, so I need to go for Construction too otherwise I loss my position in the region and will be forgotten between my jungles and tundra islands forever.

Old Harry went on and pillaged roads between my main land and new colonies next to him. I planted a city of Cutthroat conformable to "cut road".


Now he has declares me war and starts fortifying vultures on the hill. Catapults are probably on their way. But this guy doesnt put things into the long-delay-business-box.


Well, I have nothing to do with that except throwing everything I can on the defense. Hanging Gardens have gone and gave me enough gold for Currency, but I still lack funds to get Construction. The plan is to build wealth and get it ASAP. I also sent OB deal to Mackoti, initially I didnt want to give him extra routes, but OH leaves me no choice, I need to count every coin I get.

[OT4E]

Old Harry made peace with me. Fortunatelly he needs more time to bring catapults there or he has just decided to take a pause to use his golden age and return with overwhelming forces. It is a wise move considering he has long GA with MoM. My production capacity cant be compared with his especially if I want to think about anything long tern but not an permanent power race with OH. He has ~150 production and ~180 gpt.

So my plan is to use given time and try luck with GL and by the way switch on catapults everywhere.

I completed GW in my front city, but it wont help me a lot because this city OH will raze on the 2nd turn of the war. I only built it because I couldnt afford more axeman that moment and may be to improve my culture pressure on OH a bit.

What can indeed save me from my annoying well-fed neighbor? Nerfed war elephants and HAs again or protective LBs?

[OT4E]

Short update. I lost GL for 1 turn:

I had a nice plan chopping it in 1, but 2metraninja was more dedicated. Well he has Pyramids, so let GL serve him better. I now have a choice what to do with my hammers, I have several wonders to choose from:
1) Temple of Artemis. I invested 1 turn in Cuzco into ToA, but it seems that that was just as building wealth with 75% bonus, because most of the nations have marble and they will not give me 15 turns to finish it. ToA provides nice GPP generation, no as good as GL of course, but it is better than nothing. I still can land National Epic in the Nuevo Cuzco and get 1-2 GAs before get consumed by mackoti and OH.
2) Statue of Zeus. This means that I choose path with Heroic epic and possibly soon will be able to build 2 or even 3 promo units there, if I survive one more of OH's comeback (his power went into the skies).
3) Partention. I doubt that 50% more of GPPs will do me much good considering 150% I got from trait. I still cant do it in 1, because it is more expensive than GL.


Here is mackoti's cap:

[OT4E]

Everything doesnt look well anymore:


Though did it ever look well? Island with just 1 pig and many tundra will be nice new home. GG Old Harry!

[OT4E]

I wasnt updating for long because nothing interesting was happening to me. I had to give up Nuevo Cuzco to the vile invaders without any chance to take it back. I could build 4 more catapults instead of ToA of course, but this was not going to help me against Sumeria stack. The landscape was not in my favor to defend it because of many hills and rivers. I calculated that I can stand his catapults but those swords could finish off my defenders despite of fotify, river or hill bonuses. So I had to retreat and tech HBR.

OH grew Great artist and exploded it in the city with ToA. I doubt it was reasonable because I could not counter attack anyway. He is probably not going for my core yet unfortunately where I could bit him on the flat. OH sent me several peace offers but I do not see much reasons in accepting it yet. I am not blaming OH for crashing my game, on his place I would probably do the same. But I dont know what I could improve in my game.

My plan is to grow GP in my holy city and run GA, grow a bit, get to Civil Service and survive as much as I can.





Here is what I could do with my cap:

Mackoti's cap is size of 20! Though his overall population is 4 times more than mine.

In the foreign news my old friend and companion 2metraninja got also attacked and lost city with pyramids and GLbr.
Commodore entertained me a bit by declaring war and unloading 2 crossbows next to my city. Lol did he really think it could work? I still had 2nd power.

[Zed-F]

You'll have to read his thread later to find out why he thought it could work.

[OT4E]

T152, last 2 turns of my Golden Age. I decided to get Theocracy before it ends, to be able to make double promoted protective units.



Mackoti has taken Astronomy with Liberalism. He was arming heavily and got top power by now. Drafting berserks and cheap galleons are both awesome. And I think he will come for the easiest target. Try to guess who is it?



The plan is to start whipping defenders from next turn. HAs and catapults are not good against bersesks, so I need something new.