Ugh, sorry about that. That's exactly the sort of thing that a delurker with actual MP experience (instead of a goofball who likes writing stories and making cute logistical plans) would have warned against ages ago. Gavagai is kind of famous for opportunistic attacks, and a lone axe in a newish city is just begging him to raze it for some ~free XP on a Chariot, a weakened neighbor (even if we're only an overseas neighbor) and another point of reference for his rep. (Gav is proud of his reputation as an aggressor, and I think he regards it a metagame advantage: It means his neighbors have to spend extra hammers on defenders for their front cities against him.) Obviously if we'd planted Monggutsar on his gold island, he would probably have razed it even sooner, but just standing back a few tiles was clearly not enough. We'll have to see what's going on in-game to evaluate our next move, but I'm glad our first city loss was that 1-tile island with no good unshared tiles. (Of note, we could have razed one or more of Dark Savant's cities this way, including that "5-food monster," when they were protected by just a spear apiece, though Axe vs. Spear isn't quite as good for amphibious attacks as Chariot vs. Axe. We elected not to though, partly because we were worried it would result in a militarized sea border against the guy with circumnav.)
I'm pretty sure the worst realistic scenario here would be if Gavagai plants a city of his own on that island in place of Monggutsar. I feel like he'd have kept it if he were planning to do that though - three turns of anarchy in a junk city vs. the cost of a settler? - and it looks like a raze on civstats.
Other news: I think GJ may have gotten the Music artist. Krill at least has a Wonder (SoZ) that generates Great Artist points, but if GermanJoey wasn't going up the Aesthetics line, I don't see how he could have generated any.
I haven't seen State of Zijin in a while, so I can't guess what's going on with its culture generation right now. If he got to Music, he could just be building culture there. There's no way he wasted a Great Artist by settling it though.
That moment, when you realize that your sandcastle is about to crumble.
Okay, so where to start? This was a turn with A LOT of action! As you can see, Babukhan is about to fall. I pulled out the chariot as it was just free XP for his units but then realized that the tile Gavagai`s units are on has a road. So the Chariot was deleted. The numbers of Gavagai`s attacking force are quite impressive actually. He`s got 3 Galleys NW of his Sword/Axe stack. There are two Chariots on the former Monggutsan city site, a Galley/Trireme pair W of the city and a Trireme NE of Empress Gi.
No, we`re not winning this game but we will make sure to stop Gavagai from stealing all our island settlements. Two Triremes were started and D-mishi which might come under threat started an axe as Gavagai`s forces are very melee heavy. Research was set to Machinery, I think Crossbowmen are the best answer to that. Dtay is working on the same tech by the way. Speaking of dtay, he captured the 5 food city from Dark Savant (I strongly suspected that from civstats). Maybe the sharks are smelling blood now, we`ll see. Oh, there was a third war declaration as well. Krill declared on Couerva! All EP are now on Gavagai.
Toregene swithced to a Barracks, as the Missionary isn`t that important now. We were hit at a very awkward time, building Forges everywhere.
Graphs and demos: Well, we`re obviously not going to keep up with the leaders anymore as we`re about to lose at least one more city next turn. Still, our mfg should look pretty good once all our Forges finish up. Actually, there might be an argument for building more military this turn as we`re seriously outnumbered on the western sea.
(September 1st, 2017, 06:37)GreyWolf Wrote: Thanks for the reports, the game is interesting indeed.
PB 37 has a number of players reporting fortunately. As the game is about to enter an era with more wars (with catapults reducing the defender`s advantage), I think there is plenty of action to come. I`ll try my best to continue doing the turn reports as they are now.
As Gavagai is taking at least two cities from us (well, probably at least one more than that) he`s about to gain a good chance of winning this game. I still think dtay, Joey and Krill have slightly superior chances, though. If Couerva is under a real attack by Krill, he might be in trouble. Neither we, nor Dark Savant are winning PB37.
Wow, yeah. That should be pretty decisive. dtay attacking Dark Savant is great news though, as we hopefully won't have to worry about either of them piling on right away.
First of all: Your attitude remains absolutely terrific, and your reporting has been fabulous throughout the game. Hopefully we'll keep it going for quite a while and claw our way back into contention, but either way, this has been a thrill.
Building more military is indeed advised: Triremes to take back the sea, Keshiks for counter-attacks or "attacking out" (and to get to the front faster from far away) and axes and archers for city defense.
I think I'd still rather have Construction than Machinery: By the time we finish Machinery, he'll have a whole different stack composition, and I think the unit types we have will be okay for defending against amphibious attacks; we just need more of them. I'd want Cats + Keshiks to hit him his units when he lands - and to counter-attack, potentially, though I doubt if he'll leave us an opening.
Well, it turns out that there were even more interesting things in the Event Log! I was more focused on the parts that directly involved us. The Great Library was built and dtay and Dark Savant unfortunately signed peace already.
Chubei switched to a Keshik. It`s got a Ger and okay production so another unit is probably good. We`re now researching Construction. It`s the best military tech for us anyway. We`re finishing it in 3 turns. I`m a bit worried about D-mishi here. It will whip an axe next turn and the CG1 Archer in Danashri can be ferried out. D-mishi could build another unit quickly but Gavagai`s forces are a bit overwhelming. Getting some War Elephants and catapults should help us out. Also, here is a screen of State of Zijin and Gavagai`s southern lands which I haven`t focused a lot on.
- GJ now has an Odeon in State of Zijin. That's where the extra culture is coming from.
- With peace between Dark Savant and dtay, we need to be aware of danger on our northern and eastern borders as well. GJ may also launch an attack this turn, as he's playing far later than he normally does (though maybe I'm jumping at shadows, and in any case the long wait with only China and him to play suggests they're probably his target). All of which means...
- As of T126, unless Gav has offered (and you decide to accept) a peace deal and nobody else appears poised to declare, we should be building military units (land or sea) in basically every city. If a forge or barracks can be finished in one turn (with a not-terrible whip or by natural production) that's probably okay, but otherwise we need boots on the ground more than we need the wherewithal to make more or better troops later. Cities that are too small and new to contribute meaningfully to the war effort and don't have a granary can be exceptions, but even then, if they're working any unimproved tiles and wouldn't otherwise be able to whip a granary soon, it might be best to start and the whip an Archer (netting 5 more base hammers for the granary than they'd get by slow-building it over the same period, as well as turning the pop into an Archer).
- Specific cities: Daliyetimishi and Empress Gi should both whip their axes if we're still at war with Gav (the former for the overflow, which would complete another unit the next turn, depending on which unit we choose). Oghul Qaimish should probably start a Trireme, and should probably not work Scientists during the state of war. If we're going to build Triremes at all, we need to get a lot of them, fast. I'm not sure if we can get enough into play soon enough if he consolidates his boats. I would also whip the Forge at Bulugan. (If he presses the war, we will.) Good call on the Keshik in Chubei! I'd start one in Muqa too after (probably whipping) the forge. And again: Units everywhere.
- Worker stuff: I'd want a Worker in Bulugan's forest ASAP to start chopping. Probably one of Muqa's forests too. Apart from that, you can probably tell where roads would help units get to the front (we're pretty good on that already, but I don't have a complete sense for the terrain; I know the Nambui - Danashri road is missing a couple of key tiles though) and it would be valuable to get a fort onto the grassland SE of Mandukhai to allow easy passage between the north and south parts of the western sea. (Especially if we build a Trireme in Bulugan.) Forts take a lot of worker turns, so we might need to hurry more workers in that direction.
That's all I can think of for now. Thanks again for all the great reporting and overall strong gameplay, even though we got blind-sided here. I'm excited to see how we handle the defense, and whether we can get back into contention!
At least the lone Archer in Babukhan killed two Swordsmen before it died. We now have 6XP on the Great General counter. As you can see on Civstats, 6 cities were whipped this turn. 4 units complete eot and many more are on their way. This is what our cities currently are building:
I offered white peace to Gavagai but I don`t expect him to accept. Maybe he`ll counter with a peace+gold offer but I doubt it. Anyway, it`s worth a shot now. If we somehow were to get that peace we might want to turn our attention elsewhere (State of Zijin or Dark Savant). That would of course be incredibly risky as dtay is about to get Knights but I feel that we need to do something to get back into the game. We`re getting Construction at the same time as dtay gets access to Knights, so at least we have a counter to them. A conquest of our mainland won`t come cheap! I just can`t wait to get those War Elephants/Catapults online. We are currently below average in soldier count. Let`s see in a couple of turns time..
The road from Chubei to the west coast was finished a number of turns ago. I didn`t focus on that in the slightest as there were always more important things to discuss. I think we are good on roads all the way.
For the first time we`re making 100 gold per turn at full tax. Our economy will be even better when we get that Buddhist Shrine built. Just four more turns now.
Oh, we`re about to lose control of the lake S of Oghul Qaimish but not the disputed grass tile. Seven Mysteries expanded borders and is helping him out. We can`t do anything about that. Except a military solution.
Graphs and demos: Well, we`re still doing okay but losing two cities are not helping us out. Especially Babukhan was a very good city with several good food tiles. Our mfg still looks okay we just can`t compete with the frontrunners in crop yield anymore. Funnily, our gnp improved as our costs were cut.
Oh, and make no mistake, if Gavagai rejects our peace offer, then we`re trying as hard as we can to reclaim the lost territory. I`m still having fun with the game.
