[PB59] Charriu welcomes all the townfolk

[Charriu]

T162:

---

RED ALERT

My caravels discovered 3 galleons to my SE. Looks like Lazteuq might be heading towards my southern islands. We still have 2 turns left on the peace deal. Since we signed peace I was playing first but this turn Lazteuq double moved me, which is totally ok. But now I have to keep playing after him so as not to loose track of his galleons, which of course is vitally important. I have 3 units in each coastal city, but I somewhat doubt that it is enough to defend against 9 potential units on his galleons. Should he choose to land on my mainland then it should be easier to defend because I have some mobile defense in reach.

On the flipside this also means that these 9 units are not at home to defend vital cities in Lazteuq's home land. Maybe there will be an opening for attack for me. Really curious what he packed on these galleons.

Also in more international news Miguelito finally noticed last turn that he was still giving me 44 gpt and canceled the deal.

[Charriu]

Lazteuq hasn't played yet. It's the last turn of our peace and I do suspect that he wants to declare war next turn. I hope we are not both trying to play in the second half.
The only reason why I'm looking to play second is to be able to track his three galleons movement. I have no problem with him playing second other than those three galleons. I can discuss it with him, but obviously I am not allowed to.

[Charriu]

And don't worry you can mention to him that I am aware of his galleons. He should know that I know that

[RefSteel]

Lazteuq hasn't played yet. It's the last turn of our peace and I do suspect that he wants to declare war next turn. I hope we are not both trying to play in the second half.
The only reason why I'm looking to play second is to be able to track his three galleons movement. I have no problem with him playing second other than those three galleons. I can discuss it with him, but obviously I am not allowed to.

You shouldn't need to play second to be able to track his galleons' movement, right? As long as he doesn't double-move you, you should be able to track them equally well from either side of the split. That said, it sounds like you've been maintaining a peace-time turn split for the past several turns anyway; wouldn't it be standard practice to just PM him that you think you should continue observing the same split?

[Charriu]

I maintained the split by pure coincidence, it was not intended. This is what exactly happened:
Since the peace I played first. But in T162 he played before me. That same turn I discovered his galleons, but was now in the second half. If I played again in the first half of T163 Lazteuq might do another double move and move the galleons out of vision.
But all of that is irrelevant now because he already played. Also stupid me. Of course I could just inform him about the peace turn split.

[Charriu]

T163:

---

Lazteuq's galleons moved back to a less threatening position. From there he can't reach my land and make a landing in the same turn.





No unit in his newly build city. This must be a trap by Lazteuq, right? RIGHT?  

Also as you can see I settled a new city in the lower left. Hateno is a town from Zelda Breath of the Wild. Is basically Breath of the Wilds variant of the classic Kakariko village, which almost everybody who ever played Zelda knows. I like this town because of the whole atmosphere. Lonely little mountain village, calm and relaxed. Also my kids love the coloring shop there, especially the animation when Link colors cloth.  

Now if Lazteuq's ships were in range I wouldn't have settled this and even now this is a risk as I do not have that many defenders for it. It will bascially be a fishing village nothing more or less. The big reason to settle it is because of the additional trade routes I can finish Engineering this turn for the extra road movement.

With Engineering I am now on equal footing towards Lazteuq in terms of invested beakers. As you can see he's now going for gunpowder, but he first needs to collect gold again. He's only making 178 gpt per turn, while I can turn up 444 gpt. Looks good for me. Unfortunately for any upcoming conflict he now has Engineering and pikeman. Does not look like I will make any progress towards him in the near future. For that I need something stronger to break him. Hopefully cuirassiers are enough for that.

[Charriu]

T164:

---

It's war, again. Lazteuq managed to hide or bring in 4 more galleons. Well done Mr. Lazteuq. Well done.

Luckily one of my caravels managed to kill one of his galleons in a low odds fight (23% I think). I can only hope that that galleon was fully loaded. Now there are 6 galleons in reach of me with maybe 18 units on it. 3 of them can reach the mainland. I have given up Hateno. Loosing it isn't that bad. All of it's tiles can be worked by neighboring cities and as you know I only settled it last turn. I think of it now as a costly conversion of 100 hammers to 34 science beakers. I think the mainland is safe for now and I do hope he lands with 9 units there that I can clean up then. The bigger issue is Fireburg. For this we turn to the situation on the ground:





As of now I have 5 units in Fireburg. I upgraded a phalanx there and also in Esther City, so Lazteuq should see that I have access to pikes. The big problem in Fireburg is that I only have 3 true defenders. Hopefully he does an amphibious attack which will give me additional modifiers. But even if he lands I may be able to bring in reinforcements from the mainland (1 musketman, 1 maceman). Best case scenario is I hold Fireburg against an amphibious attack next turn even if barely.

The good news is that if those galleons are fully loaded it means that 18 units are missing on his defense of the homeland. I managed to look into Bottlenose north of Ester City with a caravel and only saw 1 warrior and 1 trireme. I moved 1 galley into Esther city and loaded 2 crossbowmen in. I also moved 1 galley to the old position of the galley in Ester City. Hopefully it just looks as if I moved 2 crossbowman onto the galley to reinforce Fireburg. As I already said I upgraded 2 highly promoted phalanxes in Esther City. I hope that I can go on the offensive there next turn, when I know what Lazteuq has done with the galleons and their load.

Another important aspect from the very first screenshot. Lazteuq switched out of Slavery into Serfdom again. Great so not worrying about whipped defenders on my offensive.




Lastly I wanted to share how this screen, which shows how kept up to Lazteuq in tech. Like I already said last post, I'm now even in tech and looking at the graphs I will mostly likely get ahead of him. All those units he build are more costly for him then for me thanks to having the holy city and the extra gold from Spiral Minaret.

[Charriu]

I was thinking for two turns now how to get a sentry unit. I was contemplating if I should promote a knight to it since I have no longer access to chariots.

Well stupid me. I already implemented a solution for this problem. The explorer now gets the Flanking I promotion and with the next promotion can take sentry.

I totally have forgotten that change.

[Charriu]

T165:

---

To my utter surprise Lazteuq did not attack or land with his galleons/boarded units. Even Hateno is still standing, which is really surprising. The only explanation for that is that he didn't even look at that place. Instead most of his galleons aren't to been seen except for one SE of Figaro looking SW. He's either attempting a landing and attack at Figaro or he tries to capture the southern islands. The problem for him is that Figaro is better supported on the mainland and has 7 units in it and the southern islands are all on a hill with better units compared to Fireburg.




I took a look at Bottlenose, but unfortunately he increased the defense there. I moved the galley with 2 crossbows back to Esther City. What I did on this front is moving another galley into Esther City and boarded it with a pikeman and an elephant. I also moved a galley with 2 maceman 1NE of Snowdin Town and protected it with the caravel. This is another distraction, which most likely won't draw many troops near it.

Plan for this border is to move the last galley from the outer sea into Esther City and board 2 catapults with it in T166. I will also move more units to Esther City that turn, maybe even more knights depending on Lazteuq's galleons. The Snowdin galley will move towards Bottlenose. Then on T167 I will unload everything 1SE of Bottlenose and move the knights to that tile, too. The advantage of that is that I will move my sentry unit to Esther City on T166 and which will move with the knights on T167. Speaking of which:





This unit is called an explorer. I bet most players never built one of them or even know they exist. Sign of hands here. Who ever built on of them or considered building them during an MP game without my buff? Nobody? I guessed so.

[Charriu]

T167:

---

I think I made a mistake last turn. This was more or less the border situation last turn:




Lazteuq had offered peace, which I refused. Now I had this grand plan to land 2 maceman, 2 crossboman, 1 elephant and 1 phalanx on the forest tile 1W of Bottlenose. At the same time I would have moved my main stack to the marble tile. From there I could have aided the attack on Bottlenose or flank Vaquitta. But I thought to myself, better wait another turn so that my explorer can clear what's in the fog and I can bring in 2 more catapults W of Bottlenose. Well this is what happened this turn:




Lazteuq killed a caravel with his galleons 2W of Bottlenose. Now I still could have landed 2 maceman W of Bottlenose, but Lazteuq blocked my 3 galleys in Esther City with his trireme. I have to say this is perfect time as he moved his trireme there the very first time in this war. I also moved my explorer forward to see if that worker is a trap, which it obviously is with the stack of 4 spearmen to its NE. Now this all made think. I could still move my mainstack forward to the marble and would most likely survive an attack by Lazteuq. The problem is that I suspect him to support both cities enough to make it a bloodbath on both sides and I would need to capture both cities to be able to move 1 movers in for additional defense. This all felt like I would run into a wall and/or a stalemate, which isn't what I want for now. He would also most likely loose a lot of ancient trash units and I mush rather he keeps those for now as they will cost him for the next turns.

So with a heavy heart I offered him peace. The upside is that my defensive strategy prevented any landings of his and I gained the upper hand on technology. During these upcoming peace turns I would able to get in reach of cuirassiers by just 2 or 3 turns. And after that peace I would have Nationhood available, my globe theatre, national epic and heroic epic build and on top I get a great person for my first golden age. The tech path right now is Nationalism, Music and Military Tradition followed by Paper->Alphabet->Printing Press->Banking-Replacable Parts->Rifling to boost my economy further and at the same time get to even better units.