[Spoilers] Lazteuq and RefSteel's PB51 Adventure

[Lazteuq]

T134:
Razed Pigpolis (For some reason I was thinking we could keep it, but it was size 1 with no culture I guess)
Captured Girapolis. It kept a Granary, nothing else.
Approached Micropolis. It has a decent chance of being captured next turn, but not guaranteed. I could have thrown the ambpibious attack dice, but didn't.

None of our units died except a scouting chariot on the GKC border.
Gira has a significant military in the south, but I don't see any way they can cause much damage.Moving to the forest, our cats can just kill them. Attacking the units SE of Girapolis, they might kill something, but I don't see how it's profitable.

I'm most worried about Micropolis. If Gira manages to bring in another defender, it will be a struggle. Good news is, I'm pretty sure Micropolis didn't whip, so the defender would have to approach from outside. I can't imagine why Gira didn't whip it though.

After that, the obvious thing to do is push the capital. I think we might just not have enough hitters yet to do it. At least it's on flat ground. Maybe we could fork the capital and Lurkerpolis?

GKC made peace with Gira last turn. That means it's going to be a lot less of a steamroll. I'm assuming this is because GKC didn't have any more leverage on Gira. But it seems like now would be the perfect time to attack with whatever he has left, because now Gira is forced to split armies.
GKC offered silk for spices. I accepted. It's not like this is a binding agreement. Does luxury-luxury mean something different than food-food trades?

Thanks for checking in, Ref. More maces and horchers are what most cities are working on. I definitely didn't build enough, because I was in such a hurry to get the war started. Not having 3-movement roads from Engineering is annoying though.

Feudalism finishes this turn, and then it should be 4 turns to Guilds running at 100%. That should mean Knights can start building on T139. Any horchers currently in production when we get Guilds will become knights, right?

[Lazteuq]

T135:
Captured Micropolis with a chariot as the only loss. The mace is badly damaged though.
We will definitely get Guilds on T139, now that capturing Micropolis gave about 100 more gold.
Great Scientist comes out of Quesadilla on T140. I'm thinking saving for a golden age is probably better than something like an education bulb. That doesn't have to be decided yet though.
Great news: Girapolis has 2 settled Great Military Instructors. It has decent production, so think it might be the best Heroic Epic city option.

1 mace, 6 cats, 1 spear, and 1 axe are pushing toward Girapolis, with another 3 maces, 2 cats, and 2 horchers 1 turn behind them. Maybe we will be able to just rush the capital after all. Sorry, I don't have the motivation to make another annotated screenshot right now, but I'll do it again next turn.
The key question: How to approach the capitol (Persepolis) without leaving Girapolis open to re-capturing? I wish I'd brought a couple City Garrison longbows for this purpose...A longbow will arrive in 3T, but that's a little late. The Immortals are what I'm worried about, because they are fast and enough of them can overwhelm a couple spears. Especially I am concerned that Gira might be hiding additional immortals in the fog in an attempt to bait an over-extension.

It turns out I was wrong, Persepolis actually IS on a hill. However, there are only 1 axe and 2 immortals in it right now.
Gira reconsolidated the southern forces on a forested hill 1N3E of Girapolis. We have to be wary of Immortals trying to pull any shady manuevers. Strangely, I haven't seen a single Spearman from Gira, which means our horchers can wander.

Superdeath has taken some causalties in the Mjmd war, because we are #1 in power at 400k. Superdeath is still the only one we have tech info on, he just got access to Monarchy, and he still hasn't got Civil Service or Machinery.
El Grillo and Plemo are in a serious buildup, perfectly mirroring eachother's power gains. Plemo's GNP is a ridiculous 690!
I do worry a little about a Plemo surprise attack on the western coast. Hopefully he's busy enough with El Grillo.
I really do believe we can win this, but it will be by the sword, because there's no way we're out-teching the guy who has Mids, Colossus, Financial, and the most cities.

[Lazteuq]

T136
Movement! Gira might take out the lonely horcher with a spear, but otherwise I don't see any points of vulnerability. I guess there could be more immortals hiding in the fog, waiting to retake Girapolis. That would be a serious blow, especially if it was razed.


Looks like Mjmd is toast: The capital might fall next turn.


We could be running hereditary rule, but I think it can wait.

[Miguelito]

I think he can't raze his own former cities, at least not while they have his culture majorly. Also, taking a city defended by 2 spears would take a serious number of immortals, probably a hammer trade you can be happy to take.

Looking nice!

[Lazteuq]

Thanks Miguelito, good point.
Gira did not attack in the south, but was aggressive in the north.
Gira Losses: 1axe, 1spear, 1cat (120h)
Our Losses: 1 Mace, 2Horchers. (120h)
Well that kinda sucks! I was probably taking unnecessary risks.
Despite this, I decided to be greedy and continue moving toward the capital. Gira has at least 2 catapults available, so this will hurt, but I don't think it's worth waiting a turn for more units to catch up.
The damaged cat and mace from Micropolis are now on the forest 2N3W of Persepolis, acting as bait. Casualties on the border are much better than casualties next to Persepolis.

By running a whole lot of scientists this turn, I was able to squeeze enough beakers so Guilds should finish next turn.
Ramk has managed to chain golden ages together seamlessly. Ramk is also building up some serious power. I really need to build some scouts to explore that half of the world.
Rest of the world seems quiet. I really wish GKC hadn't made peace with Gira. If I'd known GKC would do that, I would have wanted to wait a few more turns before invading.
Demographics are still 3rd place by most metrics.

[Lazteuq]

T138
Guilds is done with 455gold left in the bank!
Here are the tech options:

Break-even research is pretty bad right now, only about 130bpt.
Girapolis and Micropolis both leave anarchy next turn.

Gira attacked the stack near Persepolis with a cat and an axe, taking one mace down to half hp and killing a catapult. Also the axe I landed near Pasargadae got killed. That wasn't a surprise, but I figured it was worth a shot.

I had a suspicion which leads to a tricky plan: When the Great Merchant explored Persepolis a while ago, he saw that the wheat was not roaded. This turn, I gambled a catapult to check if there still wasn't a road, and YES, the wheat tile is unroaded!!! By moving units on to the town 1S of Persepolis, I've forced Gira to either fight through them, or go the long way around, taking an extra turn of travel time. If Gira does nothing, we just eat the capital easily. Sure, immortals can reinforce the capital next turn, but they are terrible defenders.

Of course this plan falls apart if Gira has 2 workers nearby and builds a road on the wheat. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with this position.
I only left a spear in Girapolis to prevent Plemo's exploring warrior from taking it. We definitely have spectators in this war.

Turns out HAs cost 140gold to become knights, so...I don't think we'll be doing that.

Mjmd is holding on against Superdeath for now, but I think it's only a matter of time. Still, the longer superdeath's stack stays in the south, the more flexibility we have up north.

I'm thinking Vassalage might be better than Bureaucracy. Any thoughts on that? We could wait for a golden age, but that will be a while, at least 20 turns I think. Maybe I should have saved that merchant after all.

Cities:

A lot of cities really should have stables, but I'm feeling a desperate need for knights right now.

PB49 spoiler thoughts:

Fintourist on PB49 beat us to Guilds by just a couple turns.  Of course the PB49 and 51 aren't directly comparable, but whatever. 49 sure has been a lot of fun to lurk.

[Lazteuq]

T139
Fun Surprise: Micropolis has the Church of Nativity, giving +12gold!

El Grillo declared on Mjmd, I guess Mjmd is even more completely dead now.
Plemo continues to have crazy GNP: It's over 800.

Gira attacked with another cat on the units 1SW of Persepolis, but no real damage done.

There were too many defenders in Persepolis to capture it this turn, and it would have been tough odds with the defenses still at 40% anyway, so reinforcements are the big concern.
I was overconfident about that wheat tile. Gira brought in a worker and defended it by an axeman. Assuming the worst, that worker could have started a road this turn and will finish it next turn, allowing all the reinforcements to enter. This is not good.
Fearing the worst, I attacked the axeman with 2 catapults(first one died) and killed it with a spearman. Now we have 1 cat, 1mace, and 1spear all standing on the wheat. More importantly, the worker is dead. Maybe it would have been better to leave just the spear alone to die. In any case, Gira can't significantly reinforce the capital next turn anymore without attacking on open ground. It is a precarious position, because I think we'll lose momentum if Persepolis gets reinforcements.
Assuming Gira doesn't attempt a breakthrough, I think Persepolis will be ours next turn.

[Lazteuq]

[shallow_thought]

Yeah, it's quiet out there, but players' reporting is still appreciated. I'm enjoying this thread.

[Lazteuq]

Glad to hear it, shallow_thought.

Turn 140: This certainly was an interesting turn for several people:

Mjmd offered Silver for Spices. I declined, because Mjmd is totally screwed anyway and I don't want to annoy the two people who are currently destroying him. Mjmd lost his capital to Superdeath this turn. I think Superdeath razed it, because PBspy doesn't show him getting a big score increase. Or maybe it was just whipped to size 1 already. I don't know how to read those tea leaves.


GKC also offered Silver, this time for Incense. I see very little need for more happiness, but I accepted anyway because I don't want to appear hostile. I want GKC to worry about Plemo, not us.

Superdeath has a chariot wandering our border cities. That's fair, considering our chariot did the same. I'm thinking that closing borders might be good though, now that we have mapped most of his land. I just don't want to annoy him though. How "normal" is it to close borders with a neighbor in a situation like this?



Plemo declared on Mjmd. I really don't see the point. Plemo also did a ton of whipping this turn, and I can't see how that would be because of Mjmd, I think Plemo is about to get something serious started with Ramk, GKC, or El Grillo. Or maybe those were reactionary whips because someone is attacking him?

Quesadilla's great scientist has appeared.

Now for the FUN STUFF! The attrittion continues: (I wrote this as I played the turn, that's why the tense might seem weird)
Gira was very aggressive in attacking. I won't bother listing all the casualties, but it looks like we lost about 200 hammers each. Gira took out the three units on the wheat, recapturing a worker. This leaves Gira with a bunch of badly damaged units 2S of Persepolis. Gira did effectively stop the little stack I'd set up in the south.

None of our units near Persepolis have Medic (oops), so attrition is especially harmful. The culture from Persepolis is making reinforcements very slow.
This is a really tight spot, because Persepolis has exactly 6 units inside, and we have exactly 6 maces nearby, all of them injured.
After thinking for a long time, I've decided it is worth the risk to attack. Even if one of the maces loses, that isn't the end of the world, because I don't think Gira will be able to re-take and hold it next turn.
...
I attacked with all 6 catapults, even though the city still had 21% defenses. I did this to maximize the odds of every maceman winning, at the expense of the cats.
Our first 3 cats lost. The next 3 won, bringing every defender down to less than 2 strength.
All 6 macemen attacked with good odds and won. Even the mace that was on 2 strength had 86% against a warrior, and he won. Praise RNG ! Persepolis is ours, at least for now! This was way too close for comfort. Depending on a 2hp mace to finish a siege feels insane. It's not like we got lucky, we actually got worse than expected luck with the catapults, but still, I don't like thinking about how this could have gone wrong.

Taking the city opened up cultural borders, allowing a Medic HA to reinforce from the north immediately. I then upgraded that HA to a knight, just to make sure that it would be very costly for Gira to take back Persepolis.

As you can see by reading my crappy Paint labels, this is still a sketchy position. We won't be able to launch another attack for quite a few turns. I think if Gira really devoted everything to it, they could even retake Persepolis next turn, so nothing is guaranteed.
This costly attack has left us with only 4 catapults on the Gira front, and all of them are injured. That's not good. 

All this carnage produced a Great General for each of us. I rarely do this, but I think making him a warlord will help our low-xp army more than being a military instructor, so he is moving to the front. If someone thinks that's a dumb idea, please say so.