[SPOILERS] Bacchus and Archduke serve a mouthful of Pecorino Romano

[Bacchus]

I'm not throwing anything, and you are quite right about the plan. What we need to do is clear, thats what I referred to about Russia's economic leadership giving us focus.

[Bacchus]

The empire grows:




Ravenna is a strong, safe city. I think we are second to the third city after Ichabod. I won't be building the fourth and fifth for a while yet, it's gonna be all military.

Ichabod is making 12 culture per turn, which is just nuts.

[TheArchduke]

Any GG points enroute by someone else?

[Bacchus]

No GG points yet.

[Bacchus]

Russia is showing 2 great general points per turn. I know pretty much for a fact that it's from Strategos, because besides two lavras he has a completed campus, no way he also has a completed encampment, and a third city. Still, this is bad news for us. Russia's faith generation means that he can get the general if he really wants to, and Strategos shows that he does. This in turn means we don't really have time to wait until legions. I'm going to complete HBR in line with the encampment and pump out a couple of horsemen, then hit Ichabod's second city with absolutely everything we've got -- three warriors, two horsemen, two promoted archers. Not a massive army, but that's what we can get online before he gets a general. He will also get Defender of the Faith, I presume, which makes things even more annoying.

Should I have gone for an archer rush originally? Maybe. I definitely underestimated just how powerful the Russian start is, I think it is absoultely ridiculous and I'm looking forward to reading his thread. He obviously got the inspiration for PP, which helped, but then he also must have GotOS for this massive faith generation, but even that's not enough, he has to have yet more sources of culture.

[Bacchus]

Next turn will merit an update.

[TheArchduke]

Waiting anxiously for it, flying blind here atm. Did you engage Russia?

[Bacchus]

No, nothing happened at all so far. But next turn we will at least complete and Encampment, so something to report.

[Bacchus]

Before I forget, here is the save. Report to follow

[Bacchus]

Encampment completes and with it State Workforce. I switch into Maneuver. Ichabod is ridiculously far ahead on score, especially Empire score, we are distant second. Next turn HBR completes, and capital will start work on a Horseman. I will hit the Russian second city with three warriors, horseman and an archer. As soon as the city is captured, I should be able to promote a warrior to legion. Ichabod only has a military power of 72 currently, and that's stretched across three cities, whilst I will gamble on sending almost all my units on this offensive. We'll see.