[SPOILERS] Mardoc gets back on the horse

[Mardoc]

It appears we're at war.

THH killed our vulture and left the city alone

That's certainly not what I expected. Such a petty reason to nuke possible trade. And although we'll have to reinforce, I don't think THH will be able to accomplish much beyond making me militarize the border. Which...y'know, I'd much rather learn that lesson at the cost of a Vulture than the cost of a city.

Generally thinking...this doesn't actually change any plans. It just means we need a few more units. And means that we have a preferred target for our first aggressive war.

In other news, our science rate is now down to 6 bpt. Definitely have to stop expanding until we can grow up a little. And Colossus is definitely getting slotted into the build order.

[flugauto]

The Evil Hydra will pay. .

[Mardoc]

Found the time for some pictures today!

First up...the 'war' front. Might be that THH is building up something nefarious to come hit us. Or it might be that he couldn't resist a 0.2 health Vulture but had nothing else in the area. Our spear is nearly healed, we have a second spear landing next turn, and a Vulture on his way up from Bohr. That seems like it ought to suffice to hold a city on a hill with culture, at least for the time being. I want to get another spear/vulture pair over here to escort workers, but not quite yet. Need more forces in the west; this map does wrap after all, THH is over there too somewhere.



We've got a worker down by the furs, due to be joined by a settler next turn. I'm debating whether to settle immediately or wait for the worker to finish the road first. On the one hand, the sooner a city's started, the sooner it can be passable. Needs to get a granary, lighthouse, and start working coastal tiles. On the other hand, at the moment cities are very expensive in maintenance.

I think I lean toward settling anyway. Better from a long term perspective, even if it does mean our beaker rate may be negative for a couple turns. I'm a bit scared of an actual strike, though.

Well...maybe I should wait until Lowe comes out of revolt, and see what the income looks like at that point. It'll probably cost us more than it generates, after all, and our margin is razor thin for the time being.



Speaking of preventative actions on gold, I'm happy with the micro I've managed here in Bohr. I got the forge to the point where it's just barely still a 2-pop whip. Next turn I'll perform that whip, swap to max hammers with the remaining citizens, and have a lot of overflow into Colossus. I haven't figured out # of turns, but Colossus should be ours very shortly thereafter.



Here's the rest of our production. You can see we're hardly in total war mode just yet. Gotta let that settler finish, but he's the last one for the time being. I'm starting to think I may put Ziggs in queue in a couple cities, Bohr and Curie, although not until after their urgent projects. 2.5 gpt is just barely enough for it to be worthwhile, and it'll likely be higher by the time I actually complete the Zigs.


Finally, here's our expenses. Definitely mostly to city maintenance - although that's not a very high number, our income isn't much either. I definitely prefer the idea of improving income to cutting expenses, but we'll be working on a little bit of both, really.



The one annoying bit of news is that we're still three turns out from having any additional happiness, maybe four. Have a worker roading the gold, one working on a road to the silver, and the fur worker - but no further progress just yet. I can double up the gold mine once that road completes, at the cost of delaying the rice farm, but I don't have workers in place for any other speeding up. At least not quite yet. Also need improved tiles for the new cities and a coastal road to make defense easier.

[flugauto]

Maybe go binary? It can save some bits of rounding. For example, Bohr has 9 commerce, but generates only 8 gold.

[Mardoc]

I'm pretty sure the game adds up commerce across the whole empire, so the max we can lose is 1 commerce/turn.

That said...that's currently like 16% of our total production. So, yes, it's a good idea and I'll start doing that next turn.

On a different note, thinking about the furs city. Lowe is likely to cost 4 gpt, and make 5 gpt from trade + coast + city tile. We can't really do better than coastline until we have enough military control to bring in workers.

So that leaves us with 7 gpt plus the city's own income (probably another 5 gpt), to pay for a furs city. I think that's in the realm of possible. So I won't delay this city any. It won't be too long before it's profitable: granary, lighthouse, MP, and then just grow onto a whole bunch of Colossus coast tiles. Always presuming no one's plotting to steal our shiny statue, but I'm already going as fast as I can on that.

[flugauto]

I'm pretty sure the game adds up commerce across the whole empire, so the max we can lose is 1 commerce/turn.

It is done for each city. You can lose 1 gold and 1 beacker and 1 culture, depending on th e sliders.

[Mardoc]

And yet, look at that city tab. According to it, the only city that makes any beakers at all is Lavoisier, and it produces 2. Yet our empire-wide production is 6 bpt. The only way that works is if the fractions from every city are also added in.

[flugauto]

I have taken my time and have summed all the commerce up, all the cities have 65-66 commerce. Gold + Research is 55 + 6 equals 61. I think 4 to 5 commerce is lost. Maybe I have made a mistake somewhere.

[Mardoc]

Been thinking about THH. And frankly, I can't understand this war. In his shoes, I'd have tried the warrior + chariot against our city last turn. Neither had good odds, but together they might have managed it, against our wounded unfortified spear. Instead, he's got the effect of angry non-trading Mardoc, without me actually being much damaged here. I suppose that, in turn, means that I'm not angry enough to turn this into a duel and guarantee his loss.

I guess from my perspective, it mostly means I need to pay attention to capabilities, not intentions. I can't see any reason for THH to do what he did, but I can't deny it was something he was capable of doing. If I focus on what he *can* do, and be appropriately paranoid aggressive, then this can work. Could even have peace with him as long as he keeps his units in non-threatening locations.

But it also means, I need to make sure to hit first when relevant. Put a chariot in a threatening spot? I should visit it with a spear. Can't do that yet, but it needs to be a general posture of mine.

[Mardoc]

I have taken my time and have summed all the commerce up, all the cities have 65-66 commerce. Gold + Research is 55 + 6 equals 61. I think 4 to 5 commerce is lost. Maybe I have made a mistake somewhere.

Guessing this is the result of posting screenshots at different points in the turn. I know I changed the micro around during the turn, and I think the Gold + Research screenshot was right after I opened the game. In particular, Bohr I swapped from max foodhammer to the cottages to make the forge micro work out right, but I might have adjusted other cities too.