[PB74 Spoilers] Donovan Zoi Celebrates 20 Years of Living Dangerously

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 76 - 975 BC

Really appreciate the update! So what is the plan for

Had I answered in a more timely manner, you would have gotten a much more diplomatic response, aka "I'm leaving my options open" or "I'll see where things stand in 4 turns."

However, after opening T76, I can almost assure you it will be all in on metal's Korea.  I forgot to take a screenshot of the theatre, but Death Valley's city shot should tell you enough if you look at the SE.




Yes, that's quite the encroachment.  And he's brought 2 Axes and a Spear to protect the city and its workers.  What metal may not realize is that I have been putting together an attack plan on him specifically for the last 15-20 turns.

This includes:
--2 Chariots awaiting orders on the Copper tile north of town
--The stored Chariot queued to be built next turn.
--Galley coming down from the Eiger for a surprise sea drop on Pjongjang and/or Seoul.
--Stored overflow from Worker whip, plus a chop completing next turn, will yield another Galley or close to 2 more Chariots
--3 Workers nearby, which will likely put farm improvements on hold to build a roadnet.
--Chariots started in Skelly and K2

I'm also holding onto the Settler, as I may use it to found one of the two coastal sites I can fit on the way down to Seoul (I still think I'm gonna raze Pjongjang since it's one tile inland, but not 100% on that yet since it still houses 2 sources of Ivory).

Lastly, I'm going with 90% science for the next 4 turns, because that is the only way I'll get HBR in that time.  100% puts the maintenance cost too high and 0% stunts research. And even still, I'll have to depend on Pryp'jat's upcoming Library and city growth to make up another 5 gold.

Thus far, I've been really good at making plans and then backing out of them, but I really think I have everything I need to make a move now.  My only concern is that I have a power deficit with metal for some reason -- is it from tech?  Because I sure haven't seen many troops in my Scout patrol of his lands...

What is everyone's city count that you can see? Your recent screenshots didn't include.

Everyone seems to be really close in power and city count.  As you can see, 4 of us are at 5 cities while metal's newest blight puts him at 6.  I'm hoping to reverse engineer PBSpy to get an answer for you on a larger scale, though the only civs of importance to me right now are my 3 neighbors.  If I fare well against them, there's a great chance I'll stay in the running globally.  So all my plans for now will be short term and local, now matter how good Plemo, Commodore, Pindicator and Gavagai may be doing in other parts of the world.




As far as this actual screenshot goes, I sent the Chariot to the far corner of the island to unveil a missed water tile during my Workboat tour.  I can now confirm that this island is surrounded by ocean tiles, meaning we've got until Astro to have any concerns about losing it.  There's also a great Deer/Sheep site to be had to the north, which would show better if only I remembered to turn on the resource tags. 

[Qgqqqqq]

Thanks! Are you upgrading the chariots, or attacking with them? Ctrl-R normally turns on resource icons .

[Donovan Zoi]

Thanks! Are you upgrading the chariots, or attacking with them? Ctrl-R normally turns on resource icons .

Ah, that's great to know if I zoom out, but I'm happy with the little button.  I just forget that the save starts with them toggled off.

I can't afford upgrades until my Hereditary Rule gambit, which may be coming next with Monarchy after HBR.  But I think Chariots are still essential to the attack with all of the Axes running around.  Combined with Horchers, I'll have an extremely effective mobile strike force in tight quarters since HA's can do enough damage against Archers and Spears to bring Axes to the top of any stack.  I'll still want to have some of my own melee units along for the fun, if they can keep up.

Well, I'm off to play the turn.  I'll try to get some better pics of what's going on.

[Donovan Zoi]

What a time to bug out on reporting!  Let's catch up.


Turn 78

This is what I'm dealing with.





This is what I'm doing about it.




--4 units in 2 Galleys, will land next to metal's Copper city next turn.
--road started SE of Death Valley then orders canceled (for stealth): will allow a 4th unit advance on Cheju from the NW
--Chariot builds started in 4 cities




You'll also see here that I decided to use my Settler in a safe location (Lake Nyos) rather than risk it on the frontlines.  I luckily had a Worker nearby to start the Size 1 Terrace chop (heretofore to be know as S1TC, since I know I'll be using it a lot).


OK, writing up T79 now. They kind of go together....

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 79 - War with Korea!

So I started the turn a bit differently than usual, by repeating the following mantra:

Remember alt-click, remember alt-click, remember alt-click.....

We had OB with metal so I had to be careful to not just waltz in for a peacetime chat.  There's nothing worse than advancing mistakenly during peace, blowing the element of surprise, and then getting pushed back a tile or two if you still want to go through with the compromised mission.  I actually did it once in the final throes of RB38, attempting to take someone's last city before the game was called.  The stakes are much higher this time.

The Advance




Mind clear, hands steady -- I executed the war dec to perfection.  I kind of botched the full picture here, not capturing my northern moves, so basically:
--We have C1 Axe, Axe, 2 Chariots on hill NW of Cheju
--metal has 2 Axes in Cheju and an Axe/Spear guarding 2 Workers
--We have Axe, Spear, 2 Chariots in the forest NW of Pjongkang
--metal has 0 defenders in Pjongjang!

Here's another case where metal has abandoned his core, this time overcommitting troops big time to an F-You city.   I was surprised but extremely delighted to see a 4th Axe up here, as well as the Worker crew moving even further away from my main objective: disconnecting his Copper.

Since I had just scouted the area (before getting kicked out), I don't see a way that Copper stands next turn.  That's great news for the rest of this war.


Metal has 3 things he can do here, from least likely to most likely:

1. Send his two Cheju Axemen to our southern forest stack.  Almost certain death.

2. Attack our hill stack outside of CV..  There's a chance he can do enough damage with 3 Axes to expose one of my Chariots to his Spearman, but we still have the benefits of high ground.

3. Retreat units to recapture Pjongjang.  Because of this option, I will have no other choice even though I was beginning to make peace with its location due to the Ivory tiles.

I will need to raze Pjongjang

Not only will this deny metal Copper (lol wut), it will give his northern saviors nothing to save, as we take what remains of our southern stack and sail toward Seoul.   I'm really looking forward to metal's next move to see how this all plays out.

Cheju will be razed eventually, due to either its size or zoning issues (I want a city 2W).

[Mjmd]

[Donovan Zoi]

A few other passing thoughts:
—Donovan does it again: HA’s will be delayed by 1-2 turns due to another glaring oversight. It turns out you need Archery for Horse Archers, ya mutt. Who knew? I think I missed it because I’ve always leaned on Archery well before HBR was even a consideration.

—And since the cat will be out of the bag, I think I’m gonna whip all 4 Chariots next turn to box in those 4 Cheju units. The overflow will go into more Chariots, which will be put on hold to 2-whip our first Horchers. In many cases, the overflow will complete those new Chariots, giving us 12 new mounted units. Then I may complete the whip cascade one more time if population allows, knowing that these units will have peacetime benefits with Monarchy and HR on the way. But they can do damage in the meantime to anyone else caught sleeping.

—metal completed a 3-whip in T78 that turned out to be a Library. And the city is surprisingly low on food meaning he’ll have fewer opportunities to whip units in defense.

—Miguelito just hauled in 24 points in PBSpy. If found to be GLH or the Colossus then hmmmmmm…

It’s important not to be too greedy, but I definitely think a second civ could fall victim to this mobilization. I’m taking things a turn at a time.

[klops]

metal-less metal... hmm, he should not like that

It turns out you need Archery for Horse Archers

d'oh! oO
You could try horse-riders... for, umm... scouting and fun

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 80 - 875 BC

I yielded the first half of the turn to metal, who completed 3 different whips on his side of T80.  When I logged in, my target city of Pjongjang was still empty but sized down from 4 to 1 before I even took action.  That looks to me like 2 spite-whips in one doomed city, meaning there will only be one viable unit coming next turn.

My Chariot took the city with no bloodshed, completing the decimation its owner had started.  Pjongjang is no more.




Wow, 79g! Not too shabby.  Up north, metal chose an option I hadn't considered and just bunkered down in his outlier city of Cheju.  3 Axes, a Spear and both Workers are standing off against 2 of my Axes.  I sent the two Chariots from that stack to my Galleys, along with one other from Skelly Coast.  So I'll now have 5 Chariots, and Axe and a Spear roaming the Korean mainland.




The problem is that metal has 2 Spearmen milling about Seoul and I didn't bring enough Axes to counter.  And I really don't want to run Chariots against Spears in a hilled capital -- that's just suicide and a job for my upcoming Horchers.  

As you can see, I put a Chariot in harms way trying to get vision on Seoul.  This forced me to keep pushing my lead stack forward by land (Axe takes Spear if metal kills my Chariot) while using the Galleys to bring more units from the north.  And since these troops are not a good match for the capital, I'm considering changing my next target to the Horse city of Posan.

Here's a look at my mainland, with 4 new units and a Terrace arriving next turn.  And I lied about the number of Chariots, having changed and double-whipped a Spear out of DV.  This will overflow into another Chariot though.
.




A Colossal Opportunity

I reviewed and found out that Miguelito did indeed build the Colossus in his capital of Armageddon, a Wonder that would boost my Hereditary Rule plans but I put on the back burner because I knew it would go early.  I've watched this scenario unfold before, in PB59, where Mig and Rusten built this wonder as FIN and made enough gold to eventually conquer me in the T130s.  In fact, Rusten even stopped by his old teammates thread yesterday to perhaps lend congrats and relive old times.   Thing is, I'm not about to let the same thing happen to me again.

Setting my sights on Posan is as much about halting Korean access to Horses as it is getting closer to the Egyptian city of Grey Goo.  I'm about to weaken metal and push him all the way back to his capital borders, where I can decide to either make peace or stalemate for awhile.  Then my next objectives will be the Gold city of Dejuge, Grey Goo and ultimately Armageddon.  

I honestly can't tell you how this will go, but I like the head start we have in troop build up.  They key is letting Miguelito think that I'm throwing everything I have at metal --- until he hears the roaring sound of hoofprints coming his way.  Time will tell if I have what it takes to pull off this misdirection.  The alternative is enduring the impact of a FIN Colossus from next door.  Again.

I'll play the turn in about 4-5 hours.

[Qgqqqqq]

(Axe takes Spear if metal kills my Chariot)

Note that your chariot is on a road, so he can take and retreat.