The Pen vs The Sword (Gandhi of NA)

[Ceiliazul]

Ah, I didnt actually realize that you werent at war with dazed... ueah thats pretty aggressive!

[The Black Sword]

I've been meandering a bit since the Incans were killed off. I probably should have saved gold immediately in anticipation for a Nationalism and Taj run. That would have been a relatively early Nat, I'd have a good city for it and could have used a golden age too. Instead I put overflow into Paper. Then when that artist bomb occured I sort of panic researched Feudalism. I've also chopped two forests in my potential Taj build city. When I started thinking again, I noticed that I still don't have a pre-req bonus on Nationalism. I think BGN is saving up gold for a run himself though. I decided to finish off Feud, Aes->Lit and then Paper and then save gold for a bit and see if it's still on. I've sort of written it off though.

My current plan is to beeline Cuirs though, getting Gunpowder through the Guilds line. So, nothing really wrong with Nationalism next even if I miss the Taj. I need 2 movers to attack Dazed and knights aren't going to be enough I think. I'm giving up the economic techs Edu -> Econ and PP. I think this might work out though. I'll want Engineering and can possibly use Castles in big cities to replicate FM a bit. More importantly, I expect a lot of other people to go this path given how powerful it is. I'm hoping I go Nat -> Mil trad, they go Edu -> Econ. They get FM bonus, I get +50% known tech bonus. Might work? In any case, I think I want to try the military route. I think the Unis and Oxford hammers need to be going into more Cuirs too.

I need to use my Phi advantage here to get as many Cuirs out as quickly as possible. At the moment, I'm thinking 5 GPs, 2 for Trade Missions, 3 for my 1st and 2nd GAs. Aim the second GA as I hit Mil Trad.

Some Pics:


Dazed has no second land border. That explains the GA bomb a little bit. It'll also make an attack much harder I think.



Despite artist bombing me, he hasn't really been building up troop since. I hope that holds until I'm ready. On the other border, Joey's power is pretty scary. He's at war with Bachus and Nakor though and I believe the Bachus one at least is hot. I'm going to hope he has enough on his hands.



The signs show Dazed's percentage control over the tiles. I'm thinking grow most of these cities to size 3 or 4, work their 1 food source and artists until we hit 100 culture for 3rd ring borders. No point in any long term investments in these places while they're impossible to defend.

Demos:

[The Black Sword]

Somebody(Pin?) built the University of Sankore?


Come on, I really doubt that was worth it. I was about to start building it this turn, would have needed to pretty much beeline it after the AP to have been in with a shot. Even then I think I would have missed out. What a waste of 1k beakers for Paper.

Congrats on another Lib dtay! This one is done with a far better empire unfortunately.

I'm going to go through a few of my cities each turn since I have some time. First up, we have the border with Joey, which really could use a bit more garrisoning:


Fallenstar is losing the battle to reclaim it's food sources. Might need Music to win them back. GJ has Drama so a Theatre is probably incoming and he's going to hit the next threshold first I think. Until Music, probably just build LBs since we have a Totem Pole here.

Artist will pop out in 4t time for my golden age.



The moai completed at an embarrasingly late date and ready to grow. Forge and religious stuff next. Blackwater Bay was my original moai site but it got caught up in the war effort, so I went with here instead. It is a lovely moai location, just very late. Now it can finally start contributing.



Cottage heaven Wesmere. I want to get a GM out of here. Originally I was thinking of running a period of Pacifism before my GA, but I decided it was a bad idea to run too many specialists and suppress my pop. The downside is that I'm not sure I can get my GMs and realise their trade missions this side of Mil Strat with the delay. We'll see. Instead we'll switch from OR to Pacifism near the end of the GA when we're finished the immediate buildings. There's no real need to load the GA with specialists since we have access to Phi and Pacifism outside of the GA too.

Anyway, this city doesn't usually have access to the Pig, but in this case it grows us a turn earlier and I want to grow it to get the GM out ASAP. Monastery next and then I probably will put up a Lib here.



Finally, Freelands is a very nice cottage filler. It usually has the pig, the sheep too if Fallenstar ever retakes the wheat. Improved tiles are pretty tight but we're managing. I'm thinking of farming most of the rest of the tiles then I can pave them over when I get to max size.

[The Black Sword]

BGN finished Nationalism. I could have researched it in 4 turns and built the Taj in 6 I think. I don't think that's good enough so I switched to Guilds instead. I'm not going to draft during my GA. I'm just left to kick myself for the stupid research targets over the last few turns. I don't even have UoS in consolation. I really hope that Engineer a while back was BGN.

In more productive thoughts, if Pin does want the Spiral Minaret, I'm not fighting him for it. It's not worth distracting the resources from a potential dazed war.

[The Black Sword]

Thinking about civics for the next few turns. Perhaps something like:

3t of GA - stay in OR - Try to finish off last infrastructure. Barracks is probably worth it most places.

5t of GA - Pacifism - Pretty sure I can get the 2 GMs out of this period and I'll easily research Gunpowder and Nationalism. Start building Cats, pre-building Cuirs hopefully. Try not to actually complete units.

5t - Theo/Nat - Draft up a round of muskets. Finish off the units in queue. Research Music and Engineering, start Mil Strat.

5t - Pacifism - Finish off GPs for golden age. Let draft anger wear off, more pre-building - Finish Mil Strat.

5t - Theo/Nat again - should have hit Cuirs by now. Another Draft round. Throw the GA. Probably want to research to Caravels at least.

Probably back to Bureau after that, hard to tell. I'll have to think about the Draft anger, it might be worth it to disconnect the copper and Iron for a turn and get a round of warriors for HR happy. The happy cap is already pretty good though if I put Forges up.

I'm not really sure I need 2 GM missions tbh, I only run through 250gpt.

[The Black Sword]

Continuing the tour, we have my core:


One nice capital. 3rd in the world at the minute. The unhealthiness is relatively new and can be fixed with a Guilds Grocer. I'm paying Xenu 1 gpt for a Banana at the minute, the only effect is here.



Holy Elensefar. Next turn we can switch to the watermill and still grow. I'll finish the Grocer and then this city is onto military for good. I debated the Library for a while, with 2 GMs coming up it would be pretty reasonable value in normal circumstances, but not good enough with a military push oncoming. I decided to put the hammers into a Treb this turn, since I don't want to complete units till my Theocracy period in 10t time and 1 or 2 would be handy. I might need to get a GP out of here though, haven't decided where the last one is coming from yet. This city can pretty much do anything!



City no.3 Dan Tonk. It's been pretty utilitarian so far, whenever Wesnoth needed something, Dan Tonk was the city to give it. Onto semi-permanent military builds now too.



Finally we have little Cynsaun, tucked away in the corner. When I decided to delay Oxford, I gave this city the capital's last forest to give it a good Granary start. The aim for this city is probably just to get it up to Drafting size, it won't be able to contribute much else.

Here's some overview shots of Dazed's territory for planning purposes:



I'll want to take this island when the time comes, 1 movers will probably do. Jah Keved should be raised. I can't hold it with the city 3 tiles to the west. Maybe a diagonal galley attack will still be on, maybe we just use 2 movers.



We're retaking our first ring at a great rate here. I looked up the culture bomb mechanics and realised I could overcome them with a 2nd border pop everywhere, but I think there must be a mistake somewhere because it's going faster than I would have anticipated.

I'm going to pop 3rd ring in Sulla's Ruins in 5t, Frontline hasn't popped 2nd ring yet. So I should hold that hill and Frontline can be taken. Then we probably want to march our main 1 move stack at Urithiru. If we can get that 'retake' tile, which is a bit unclear, then Tzeentech can be surprised. Or I can just send 1 movers to the copper hill.



Hopefully then Cuirs can pick off Luna and Lashing before rejoining the main army. Dazed's army is currently in Luna.



That will leave us with a front like this. 1 city to hold, with hill and river boni. Dazed is left with 6 real mature cities to produce units with. I'm expecting someone on the southern continent to attack his holdings there. If not, naval superiority in both seas will be important.

Looking at the terrain above, I'm going to want some G2 units to play with I think, so I can't just rely on drafting. They'll allow me to pillage stuff, support my 2 movers, hold the city and generally be a nuisance.

Hopefully something like that will be possible. Dazed is even on city count with me, though a bit behind in other areas. He could be very tough to crack. Playing the economic game will not give me a chance to catch up with the leaders though and I think this is the best timing for a Dazed invasion, possibly before he gets a chance to really leverage his late game Phi/Fin traits.

Interestingly, Joey's power took a sharp downturn recently. We now have OBs(I figured I couldn't possibly look more open than I already did, might as well scout him back ), I need to check out whether that is an option instead.

Also; met Pin, who is indeed the UoS stealer. Has DR researchable too, so he might take SM too. It's of even more questionable value than UoS though.

[Ceiliazul]

Re the library on elensafar, it doesn't multiply the shrine income anyway so no great loss.

Less infra, More killing, said the lurker. News at ten!)

[The Black Sword]

More killing

Yessir!

I landed my GA this turn and threw my golden age. I need to get through Nationalism and Gunpowder in these 8t. I decided to take Music this turn. It has 2 pre-reqs now and I doubt we'd get much more. I'm hoping I'll get a few more on Gunpowder at least. I think I can still make those two techs in the 7t. I need Music anyway for Mil Trad and build culture will be handy in a few places, where I can work GA tiles instead of artists. Artists aren't really bad, but given how long until the gpps will be realised I'm sure the tiles will be better. I also need to decide whether to build the Sistine Chapel. It fits with my long term culture plan and would allow me to win the culture battle here:


It will be a bit of help on the Dazed front too, but by the time it's built it won't have much chance to make a difference.It is also quite a few units.

It was a pretty bad mistake letting Joey ahead in the culture over there. I had the advantage earlier, I should have pushed it so that he wouldn't think of investing to try catch up. Instead I stayed barely ahead and didn't anticipate him moving into Caste. I pop 4th ring to match him next turn.

Here's my northern island cities:



Astral Port is getting out a GS for my second GA. We only really need to concentrate on the GPs during the 2 Pacifism periods. Once the possibility of emergency slavery is taken off the table, this place is pretty badly defended. I have a mace headed up.



Hornshark is my future NE spot and I decided it will get GP no. 9 instead of Elensefar.



Little old Aethermaw needs to focus on that LH next turn. Last workshop coming up. It also needs to get to size 7 and drafting size ASAP.



And I'll show off Blackwater here to round out the numbers. I was originally thinking of the Moai here. Weaker location obviously but they could have gone up a lot sooner. However, like Dan Tonk, Blackwater was a loyal servant of Wesnoth and still has whip anger from the Furungy war. It now puts out a very respectable amount of hammers.

I'm also checking out the happy resource market, to deal with potential WW and Drafting weariness. I could use access to gems, incense, whales and sugar. I'm already get Ivory from Krovice, it wouldn't hurt to look for other potential suppliers. I sent out whales for silk to MYKI and wines for sugar to wetbandit I think. When the time comes I can probably pay gpt for a while, I'm sure that will get takers.

[The Black Sword]

Here's my southern cities:



Undergrown HE. I need to farm these grasslands once the GA is over. Still, it's almost in 1t Knight mode for the GA, can't ask for much more.



You can see the remnants of Old Silverhead here. The ruins of the city itself and the german settlement it was built on. Also the cottages that were abandoned for centuries. New Silverhead was built for manufacturing though, not living space. I'll keep the one hamlet I'm working, farm and workshop over the rest.



Sablestone. I figure a galley and a unit onto the southern continent is more important than any local stuff. However this is my only real port in this sea and Dazed has at least 2 triremes and 2 galleys here already. I'll probably stagnate it at size 5 until we eventually retake the fish from plako. I have to be careful he doesn't raze the city like Xenu to take complete control over the fish. His power is through the roof at the minute. I assume he has some goal for it though.



Joey had another power loss recently, back down to me and Dazed's level. It could mean he's just over the hump and has dealt with whatever army is defending the lands he's attacking. He's still a less attractive target though.

I'm not going to build Sistine btw, too much of a long term investment.

[The Black Sword]

I decided to change plans slightly, I'm going to get
T7(of GA) GM out of Wesmere - Trade Mission
T8 GM out of Kesorak - now GA instead
T9 GS out of Astral Port - now GA

T9 isn't a GA turn of course but that's how my thinking has been oriented for this. Originally I was going for 2 Trade missions and then a GA from my second Pacifism period. I wanted the GA to coincide with Mil Strat to accelerate Cuir production. I realised that I'm looking to draft 50-60 times and I should probably throw my second GA before that. Additionally if I'm planning to draft 50-60 times, I might very well kick things off before Mil Strat if an opening appears and at least the GA hammers can ensure pre-built cuirs and good supporting units. The second Trade mission wasn't very efficient either, this GA will do more to hurry me to Mil Strat . I don't think I need the second Pacifism session now, the 4th GP is coming from my NE city anyway, so the bonus isn't worth as much there.

And if anyone's wondering, I've noticed the similarities been this and dtay's campaign against me in PB13. Why will this work out better for me? I'd get all of Khmer, not half. Dtay drew the short straw of PB13 Land. That and I struggle to see better options.

Finishing the tour, with the Khmer border cities:


One of my GP cities. I hope to have some better hammer improvements down when the GM is completed.



Next turn we hit 100 culture IIRC with Build Culture.



Then we can take the village off this guy and let it concentrate on that 100c mark.



Arcanclave will have 3rd ring by the end of the GA. Not much else.

I forgot Sullas, will grab it next turn. Most of these cities just want to grow to become draft candidates after the borders pop.