[Spoilers] The Crack'd Pot Civ

[Mr. Cairo]

aaaaaand, I'm alive. I did what I should have done at the start of the war, what I should have done before the war even started, and built walls. If I had I would have at least one more city right now. Of course, there's a lot of things I could have done to prevent this, but I'll save the post-mortem for when I'm actually dead.

So, here we are. The Malazan Empire in all its last-place glory:

Nowhere to go from here but up right?

So I have a short-term plan, then the choice between two medium-term plans.

Short term I need to replace the cities I lost, and while I have the peace treaty with GJ, I'm going to settle as fast as I can. Unfortunately I don't have many cities other than my capital and Itko Kan currently in a position to build settlers, but that'll have to do. My cap is growing onto a mine and saving oflow for a settler next turn, while Itko Kan will grow a bunch then 4pop-whip a settler.

Here's where I plan to settle:

I actually planted New Seti during the war, as the settler was already going there and I thought I had enough time to chop a unit or two, and I thought I was dead anyway. Which was unfortunate, as I wasted a settler and a couple workers I had to delete for zero gain . There's also a city location on the south coast, but that's lower priority.

Medium Term, my options are to either continue settling in that direction, and making a play for on of the Holy Barb Cities, OR, to launch a naval attack against OT4E's islands. The former is probably the easiest to accomplish, but I'd end up with an even longer border to defend against GJ. Taking OT4E's islands is riskier, but potentially a safer long-term plan. And if GJ plans to finish the job sometime soon, I'll have a few more cities after I flee the mainland.

The islands in question:


OT4E does have the circumnavigation bonus, but I have a GG, which can result in a pair of 4-move galleys (which I was planning to use against GJ). And hopefully, he wont think me a threat anymore. Of course, he may now be thinking of me as a target, but the naval forces I'm building now if I do attack him are just as useful as a deterrent/defense force. 

Demos:


Now, most everyone else is saving cash, but still, #2 GNP is pretty ridiculous all things considered.

Graphs:









Finally, a mystery:


Now, I'm not saying that Unta, my capital (size 7, Colossus) deserves to be among the top five cities, but surely it has more of a claim than size 5 Song Clan? 

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Was Song Clan hit by an artist bomb? Check the victory conditions screen. I've seen several times where artist bombs will promote an otherwise insignificant city up to the top 5.

[Mr. Cairo]

Ah, yet another thing I didn't notice when GJ attacked me. His culture doesn't make sense unless he culture-bombed Song Clan. Makes me feel slightly less bad about being so vulnerable, but then again I should have noticed GJ getting the artist and prepared for such an eventuality.

Thanks BGN.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Np. If the city has 5000+ culture then it was definitely bombed.

[Mr. Cairo]

Well, we can scrap the attack OT4E plan, he has Astronomy, as well as the Circumnavigation bonus, so I'm expecting 5 move Galleons to attack me out of the fog at any time. However, Chumchu's power has been spiking lately, so hopefully OT4E wont want to risk inviting an attack from Chumchu by attacking me.

[Mr. Cairo]

Round Two is about to begin, now that Gav is busy with TBS, GJ is going to try and finish what he started. OT4E also has East Indiamen, so my islands may be at risk soon as well.

I don't have any pictures of my empire this time, buts it's pretty much the same. I got one settler out last turn, but most of my cities have been preparing for this moment. I've got Walls and a Barracks in each city, and with Gunpowder coming in next turn I'll be able to draft 5xp Muskets. I've also got out a few catapults, so hopefully I can do some damage to his stack when it moves in.

Thanks to the EP I've invested in GJ I have visibility from all of my old cities, so I can see what he's got coming my way. It's still mostly knights, only this time his collateral is from Trebs, not Cho-Ko-Nu. 



Demos:


Pretty insane that I've still managed to keep the #2 spot in GNP. Colossus + FIN makes for a lot of commerce. In fact, my current plan for settling (assuming I survive) is to ICS down the crappy southern coast. 

Graphs:





My power is about what it was before the first war, but I'm a lot better prepared this time, and hopefully I wont screw things up again and leave half my army in the open for knights to kill.

[Mr. Cairo]

quick text update, pictures maybe later:

GJ didn't attack me, and hasn't been playing his turns with much care it seems, rarely taking longer than 5 minutes on them, so I thought he was mostly checked out. OR it was because he was in a GA with all his cities on research teching to rifles to kill me. Or maybe both. In any case he has Rifles now and is starting to put them near my border. I guess he doesn't realize I have visibility still on most of my old cities.

Part of my plan to get to Rifles of my own was to send my GM to TBS's capital, the largest city in the world, and cash him in.

BUT

OT4E just razed that capital. Circumnavigation-boosted East Indiamen are no joke, and as much as I'm glad they're not being sent my way, my Merchant was on a few turns away from that city. Now it'll have to go to Gavagai's cap, another 5-8 turns away.

Well, I'm building a decent amount of cats, and drafting muskets. I also have a few WE to counter his knights (thanks to a trade with TBS for my marble.) I've also been settling a lot of new cities lately, most of which are pretty marginal, but Colossus+FIN makes any coastal city decent.

[Mr. Cairo]

I guess I forgot to announce it here, but GJ invaded a few turns ago, headed straight for my capital with an army of mostly rifles and knights, arriving outside my cap this turn.

I forgot to take a before screenshot but his army consisted of:
8 Rifles
12 C1 Knights (including GG Medic)
1 C1Sh Knight
4 C2 Knights
1 Mace
1 Musket
1 Longbow
1 Cho-Ko-Nu
1 Catapult
3 Trebuchets

Awaiting him, available to attack his stack this turn I had:
11 Catapults (all but 1 with 5xp)
1 Treb
4 5xp War Elephants
2 5xp Knights
15 2xp Muskets
3 CG1 Muskets
1 Dr3 Samurai
1 C1 Pike
4 C2 Pike
8 Longbows (with mix of CG1 and Guerrilla1)

In my sims I could do a lot of damage, even defeat, his force this turn, but I was still undecided if I should wait and let him first try to take my capital. Maybe even let him succeed and then take it back. However, I got this diplo message at the beginning of this turn:




Gavagai is going to attack GJ in 3 turns, it would appear. GJ's army is too far away from that border to turn around, but he may well decide that it's too risky to try and capture and hold my capital while also defensing against Gavagai, and he might just burn it. I have a chance here with Gav's help to reclaim my cities, but I need my capital to stay alive.

So I decided to go for it. And by all acounts I succeeded. My capital is safe (for now) and GJ's army in my lands is crippled. I hope I can even kill off more of it next turn. 
My losses:
11 Cats
1 Treb
10 Muskets
3 Longbows
1 Pike
1 Samurai
1 War Elephant

GermanJoey's losses:
7 Rifles
12 Knights
1 Cho-Ko-Nu
1 Treb
1 Longbow

However, it should have been a lot better for me. I had dismal luck this turn.

It started with a caravel. I had a caravel and two 4-move galleys with Samurai in them (thanks to a GG) heading up GJ's coast to try and cause some ruckus, or at least force him to keep units in his coastal cities. In the latter I was successful.
As I moved up I saw a galley and attacked it with my Caravel (that had C1) at 79% odds and lost, causing only 25% damage (1.5/2) and probably letting him promote next turn. He'll probably end up taking a shot at my own galleys and may sink one. I should have just sat the Caravel on top of the galleys, but anyway... 

On to the battle. After the catapults I had a bunch of 40-45% battles that I won about half of, then finally got into the positives with a 55% battle I lost. Then the fun times just kept on coming. I lost a 61%, 68%, two 84%, 1 88%, and 1 92% battle against a Trebuchet. Just with the >80% odds battle alone that's four units of his that should be dead and 4 of mine that should be alive. 

At the end of the day, here's my forces:


And GermanJoey's



I'll try and kill as many of those retreating units as I can, but I also need to conserve units to try and retake my cities. Right now I'm just drafting muskets like mad (the unhappy in my cities is absurd) and building catapults everywhere (whipping when able/appropriate).

Right now my only objective this game is to retake the cities I lost from GJ in the first war. 

[Mr. Cairo]

Success! I wiped out almost all of GJ's invading force.

This is how the turn greeted me:

That one Rifle that was lagging behind covering the 1-movers, and the 2-movers retreating as far as they could, also pillaging as they went. The stack with the knight consisted of 3 Knights (1 was the medic), and two workers.

Using the cat I whipped in my cap last turn and one sacrificial musket, I wiped out almost all of them, including the GG medic. (I got a really good result with my cat, badly injuring that healthy Rifle down to around 10-ish when it could easily have done no damage at all):



Let the Reconquista begin!

Also, since I've been lax in reporting lately, here's a stitch of my empire:



And a flying camera view of the world:

[Mr. Cairo]

and here is the result on the power graph: