Zhonghua Wenming Jinian - The Annals of the Chinese Civilization

[thestick]

The dam finally burst:


Though I'm still first in power

I settled Aihai, the Sea of Love or the Sea of Grief. Take your pick.



Note what Bob's researching in that picture: Machinery. In the wake of PB16, time to stop farmer's gambitting so hard.

[Old Harry]

Is bob going to attack you? Does mardoc with Jowy's land jump into first place? (will he get Jowy's land?)

[thestick]

I don't think Bob is going to attack me.





But... Ancheng is dangerously exposed (as always). My defenses are geared against a Horse Archer strike, which won't happen since Bob doesn't have Horseback Riding. And I don't have enough Cats to use a human wave.

Machinery it is. Repeating crossbows and Spears shut down everything Bob has to throw at me until Knights.

I don't think Mardoc will get all of Jowy's land. Jowy's in a bit of a tight spot.


No Machinery, no Construction, no Horseback Riding, no Archery. He can build Axes, Spears, and nothing else.

He should be able to crunch enough Spears to turn this into a stalemate, though. Mardoc has 12 core cities and Jowy has 10, so it's not a decisive land mismatch.

The real question is how hard Jowy will defend. The way I read him, Jowy doesn't believe in the fallacy of sunk costs. If he captures a cities off of you and you have no chance of retaking it, he thinks you'd rather take peace and get a better position by rebuilding than whip everything to the ground and try to retake it. Which is probably the right way to think about things. Except that means not whipping everything to stop Mardoc and taking peace easily.

His views seem to be changing, though. I think he's starting to consider human emotion in his war declaring algorithm. So he actually might whip everything to the ground.

We'll see.

[thestick]

The University of Sankore completed on schedule, netting 26 raw beakers:


Next on the list: research Theology to call Bob's bluff and make him burn the Engineer, then Divine Right.

Bob's stuffing his cities with Longbows:

[thestick]

Um.



Note Bob's research: Engineering. A defensive tech. Phew. Start panicking if he heads for Guids.

Up to ~45% breakeven.

More Settler-spamming fun:




Yanzhuang makes enough hammers that I have to periodically swap off of military to avoid running into the overflow cap. Yay.

[thestick]

It must be destroyed. Detoured Engineering for the road movement.

Stop sitting around. Kill Sian before he hits Construction or wises up enough to build Horse Archers. 'But I need military to go into the jungle!' Stop settling the Jungle for a moment. Redirect the settlers to resettling ex-France.

Seriously, tops in power, Sian only has 1 Axe 2 Spears on the mainland, Bob's peaceful, and Jowy's too preoccupied to take advantage of the power vacuum caused by Sian's imminent collapse. You really are a peacenik.

The tech path is unchanged. Beeline Banking and Economics to unlock Rep/Merc and get a Merchant for the three-man Golden Age, hopefully chained. The Scientist will pop from Meiyuan in 5 turns (80% odds), and the Artist will come from Meiyuan courtesy of Caste System.

Note to self: hire a Priest in Yanggang. If the ~60% Prophet roll doesn't go your way, build Angkor Wat.

~3 turns to Liberalism.



Strange road to nowhere on the far continent:

[thestick]

Turns out that 'road to nowhere' connects two Barbarian cities:




Burnt, of course. Sorry Mardoc!

In more bad news for Mardoc, it looks like Jowy's capital of Steelport will hold.

Aihai's borders popped; I plan to raze Chinook next turn.



Cuitan, a horrible filler, was settled for the Mercantilism specialist and the Monk buildings:



I changed my mind. I'm going to build Angkor Wat now. I can't wait 18+ turns (Meiyuan's Great Scientist pops in 5 turns) to wait for my 20 GPT shrine.


(Chop that Forest and work that Mine.)

In 6 turns I'll swap to Caste/Pacifism again to starve out an Artist from Meiyuan and finally get that Prophet. (That means don't whip Meiyuan, you fool!)

[thestick]

Chinook was razed at the cost of 1 Horse Archer, allowing Danquan to be settled:



Last jungle city for the moment.

Amassing repeating crossbows and Settlers to subdue the French minority. Currently at a pathetic 8 Crossbows 2 Maces 3 Cats. Should be enough, just need to waddle them forward. Sian will get Construction before I can attack - let's see how many Cats he can build.

Bob is researching Guilds, but he doesn't have Horseback Riding yet.

[thestick]

In foreign news, I don't think Mardoc will be able to take Jowy's capital of Steelport. Mardoc's sitting there wailing at Steelport's 60% cultural defences with just 1 Trebuchet and 1 Catapult. Mardoc's surrounded the north of the city, but Jowy's reinforcements (and empire) lie to the south, and Mardoc hasn't cut off those supply lines yet. I think Jowy will be able to stuff enough Maces into the city to keep it from falling.

I did a back of the envelope calculation for Meiyuan's Great Artist. I should be able to pop it before the end of the Taj GA.


Now I just need to bum rush Economics.

I'm worried about Mardoc. He settled a bunch of cities on the far continent, bringing the city totals to so:
thestick: 20
Mardoc: 18
Bob: 17
Jowy: 9
Sian: 4

I think Bob's still second place. Besides Mardoc besieging an enemy capital (not the best way to win), he trails Bob in all major demographics:

(Take GNP with a grain of salt, ~150 of that is Monk Sistine culture)

[thestick]

Now to wonder if I should have straight-researched Nationalism when I lost the Great Scientist coin flip and couldn't bulb Education...

I wonder if I'm misusing this eternal Golden Age - I feel I should be researching some sort of beeline tech to stomp on everyone instead of backfilling to Economics.

Domestically, time to start on Universities. Because this is a 'Small' map (even though I have 20 cities and counting), Oxford only requires 5 universities. Horray.

(Note to self: whip a Lighthouse in Kouxiaqie and a Forge in Mankante. Churn out more Workers and Settlers! Your economy's booming, idiot.)

Pic of the Jowy front:


Jowy begged me for my spare source of Iron. Jowy's only source lies at his capital of Steelport - indicating he's afraid his capital will fall.

I think Mardoc will be able to take the city eventually. Mardoc's Knights beat Jowy's Maces in a straight fight, which this will be after Mardoc strips the defences. But Mardoc's ability to reinforce his stack looks shot, while Jowy's isn't. That just isn't enough force to take the city. Sure, Mardoc should be able to plow through with sheer force of numbers, but that's not the most efficient way to go about this.