[PB37 SPOILER] Coeurva, Bacchus -- Cyrus of Carthage

[Bacchus]

I don't know how, but it seems our password became 'l'. I had some connection troubles yesterday, and it seems somehow when only a single letter got sent to the server, instead of rejecting it, it changed the password? That sounds ludicrous, but I have to better idea.

[Bacchus]

changed password back

[Coeurva]

Our password is actually still "l", no idea what's going on there. But thanks for working it out so quickly.

[Coeurva]

T130

Krill has seven units on Mandrake Island now (two swords, five axes), three of whom are covering the landing spot. I think he saw the fleet after all, or maybe he's just as psychic as before. Offered peace to him and landed our units next to Chehalis (three unpromoted archers inside); we can ferry the Medic axe into the city next turn. Also sent another sword and a catapult towards Maud.

Turned on research, Feudalism due in 2t (will have to spend 1t at 90% sci); ranked second in GNP and soldiers, #4 in food/MFG. Apathy is death.

dtay has 507,000 soldiers (us: 404,000). Suggested research: CoL (not least for Caste System, also Astro prereq) -> Compass -> Machinery -> Optics -> bulb Astro -> HBR -> Guilds. For infrastructure, build cothons in the first phase, stables/observatories in the second (skip courthouses). Then we'll attack Savant with knights before dtay does the same to us. Second option is to prioritize Guilds.

Also need to decide what we want to build during the GA. Probably just units, whipping off the 202 coast for cothons right after the GA will have expired.

Still need to end the turn formally because I got disconnected again, then bounced off myself, then crashed on "Finishing". For all intents and purposes, it's finished.

EDIT: Or we just tech HBR first and build as much NumCav as we can, and try to overrun Savant with sheer force of numbers.

Forgot to mention that JR4 and Gavagai have made peace, and Savant has a Great Scientist (Sakharov).

[Bacchus]

Knights are way, way too far, we need to start conquering Savant's islands straight after Chehalis, and placing lbows there to resist Joey. Maybe Machinery before Compass, if cothon construction is a little delayed? Build some xbows in the GA for the land campaign.

[Coeurva]

That works, we can do that; if Krill takes peace and absolves us of the need to defend at Chehalis, we could actually attack Regna on T134 (land T133). I only worry about getting stuck, for the same reason as before -- raising Savant's alarm early, making a land campaign or attacks on his north-west all but impossible.

I think Savant invests 4 EP/t into us, btw.

EDIT: Isn't it amusing that Krill managed to deter me by the exact same strategy I had thought we'd need to use against him ("show overwhelming strength at one point, and he'll assume you're this strong everywhere") -- Although I don't doubt that if he has the logistics to stuff six more units (most of them C3 Shock) into Mandrake within ~5t, he can stuff as many units into Foxglove over the 3t we'd need to hit that city as well.

If Krill -- or Not Krill, I suppose -- doesn't take peace, there's apparently another city just past Mandrake that we might be able to hit after Chehalis.

[Bacchus]

Krill did not take peace, but re-offered for 1 gold from us. He also put 5 triremes on our borders at various points. I couldn't open the action log from behind the diplo screen, but I don't think he could have hit anything during his turn. He also hasn't seen our fleet due to its timely evacuation to Chehalis, I think.

Saving up eliminate Savant swiftly would be good, but then think of the capturegold on that size 10 city.

[Coeurva]

Well, once Krill sees the capture of Chehalis this turn (where our army is essentially trapped for a few turns now) and scouts nearly all our coastal cities with his triremes (there's a sixth one 9 of Mandrake), he probably won't be taking that same peace. I whipped triremes in both ports and switched builds to archers in some cities (Feudalism eot), and I've also moved Westward's archer such that we can get him into Chehalis by T133, and one axe from Spire to move into Swallow (marble city). Hopefully we can shove longbows into the relevant cities before he can start causing trouble. He hasn't killed anything yet, though.

For the future -- you can handle diplo as well if you want to.

dtay has ~550,000 soldiers now. It's terrifying. Chehalis yielded about 30g on capture. Whipped the library in Foals because Joey already has 45% culture on the fish; irksome.

[Bacchus]

To clarify, did you get the diplo screen when you logged in? I thought I would be able to leave the decision to you, otherwise I would have accepted.

[Coeurva]

I didn't. I think RtR automatically closes open diplo screens on log-out to resolve diplo-locking.

It's no problem, I think we can fight Krill. He might be sympathetic if we simply tell him what happened via PM, too, but we pretty much can't do that without admitting some weakness (in this case, a logistical one, since we can't use our army in Chehalis as long as Krill threatens the city).