[SPOILERS] Dark Savant leads the noble Inca as half-noble Churchiill

[Dark Savant]

It's been 12 turns since yuris125 came up with a technology, incidentally -- he is (or perhaps was, if he was trying for Buddhism and then didn't switch to Hinduism) chasing religion, most likely.

[Dark Savant]

Turn has rolled, I can't get to it both being at work and since WilliamLP hasn't yet played.

ipecac again rolled the turn and promptly logged out, when he did immediately play the last turn.  

Might as well post some random thoughts.  Like, say, about PTSD?

• Soldiers aren't what this is most commonly seen in (at least in the US).  It's actually most common in car accident survivors.
  
• Something's up in the US military; for a long time, the US military had a lower suicide rate than US civilians.  That's drastically changed in the past decade or two, and no one is quite sure why.
  
• This is one of those terms that undergoes euphemism treadmilling.  You'd say that World War II veterans had "battle fatigue" or a "thousand-yard stare"; World War I veterans had "shell shock"; US Civil War veterans had "soldier's heart".  I'm not sure if there are any consistent terms going further back.
  

This has been a Dark Savant Blog/postcount++ Post.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 47 (2120 BC) - Part 1

Well, I actually do have a military situation on my hands.



Charriu really did wander into the fog with a single axe.  (No, the power graph still doesn't show a second metal unit, though I know he has a barracks in his second city; it shows in the culture graph.)

Now I regret starting a spear (which has 5/35 hammers, so I could 1-pop-whip it) instead of an axe -- in that case, I could easily whip two axes in Oldtown in that case before that 3-XP axe can reach me, but now I can only produce one.  (A single axe in Oldtown would only get about 25% odds on defense.  Also ... it might have extra XP from animal or barb victories.)

I actually decide to move Stonesnake to share the hill with the axe.  He could kill it easily, but I'm not sure he'll even know he can do that, and even if he does, it would both force him to declare his intentions against me, and give me an extra turn to prepare.

It reveals this:



That shows enough that I doubt there's a land bridge there.

I don't like having to do this, but for safety I whip the axe in King's Landing.  It'll regrow quickly.

Casterly Rock completes its terrace, begins a workboat, and works a 3f1c tile again.

Core overview:



I continued the second cottage at King's Landing because I thought they were too far away to make a difference, but working that cottage will be delayed, and I probably should have built roads toward Oldtown in case I need them.  Oh well.

Fishing came in.  I can't reach Archery quickly enough to make a difference against the axe, so I start Animal Husbandry as planned; science is 50% this turn.

Any military advice?  I can definitely deal with this (unless I get bad dice rolls, nothing I can do about that); I'm just unsure how much to commit away from the snowball to defense.  (Which is the purpose of this incursion, I'm sure -- I know this isn't being backed up by anything else, but one of my axes isn't enough to deal with one of his at Oldtown.)

[Dark Savant]

Also, I can't move first next turn -- that would potentially deny Charriu the chance to kill my scout.  I'm not 100% sure of this, or if Charriu knows how this works.

I'm still also at war with WilliamLP, playing second half, so I cannot play until both do.

I think.  Any lurker care to let me know what I should do?  I don't think I need to do anything, but I'm not sure.

[Dark Savant]

I completely forgot that I could just declare war myself and offer peace, to force a decision (and a turn order). 

[OT4E]

Scout is your back up unit for the case if he decides to try his luck and attack, dont lose it without purpose. If you are not declared yet log in and move it.

Save gold for upgrade, it is just 80.

Imho you are fine, dont panic.

[Dark Savant]

Okay, thank you -- I did in fact panic somewhat. 

I can definitely handle this, but moving the scout out like that wasn't necessary at all.  Oh well.

Turn 48 has rolled, let me catch up here first.

Turn 47 (2120 BC) - Part 2 (C&D)

Our scout wandering around WilliamLP's territory sees him where he plants his third city.



I'll look next turn, since I can do that on a good defensive tile.  He can't have a skirmisher there; the soonest he could have produced one is t44 and I would have seen it in transit.

19000 soldiers appeared this turn (that's a lot).

Score tally:

• Us: +6 points for Fishing researched in 4 turns; -4 points for a 1-pop whip in King's Landing (5 pop total).
  
• Charriu: +3 points for planting city #3, late for an Expansive civ that didn't spend time on Stonehenge (7 pop total).
  
• wetbandit: -7 points for a 2-pop whip in his capital (4 pop total).
  
• WilliamLP: +3 points for planting city #3 in that spot (5 pop total).
  

[Dark Savant]

Turn 48 (2080 BC) - Part 1

Charriu didn't declare war on me, and moved his axe towards me.

I declared war on him myself this time, and offered an immediate peace treaty.

King's Landing produces an axe and regrows to size 3.  We can produce and axe naturally in 4 turns, or regrow immediately to size 4; I choose the latter, working the flood plain cottage instead of the copper mine.  King's Landing also will expand to 3rd-ring culture next turn, 1 turn earlier than normal.

I have time to swap Oldtown (now size 3) to a worker, so I can put the Hot Pie's chop finishing this turn in that.  It also works a 1f2h tile in addition to the food.

Lommy and Harwin move one tile SW and build a road, en route to Oldtown.

The axe moves midway between King's Landing and Oldtown.

Stonesnake moves back towards our core.

Science back to 100% this turn ... Incidentally, we got Fishing last turn with 2 flasks and 3 gold to spare, which let Casterly Rock begin on the work boat right away.  Saving fractions of gold actually made a difference!

[Dark Savant]

PB38 spoiler.  (It should be okay to read this by about t125 or so of that game, but not in the next several turns, if you cannot read spoilers for that.)

I mean that -- you should not read this if you are either on Shallow Old Human Tourist's team, or are OT4E.

There's a chance Charriu may have gotten this one-axe attack idea from what killed me in PB38.  That only worked because:

• I opened in a way very vulnerable to an early metal unit attack
  
• I turned out to start only 11 tiles from Donovan Zoi
  
• I forgot he could produce holkans with no copper (so the attack came ~8 turns before I was expecting the earliest possible attack)
  
• he killed a defending warrior of mine, which was enough XP to get 2 promotions
  
• he used those 2 promotions to get Woodsman II (nice move)
  
• which on the PB38 map, meant he could get to my capital one turn faster than expected
  
• he attacked my defending capital warrior at 32% odds and won, one turn before I could get a 3 XP archer (I had things lined up to produce 3 in 3 turns)
  

You don't often get to kill a neighboring civ with a single unit like that.  Charriu might have been inspired by that -- but I can have 2 defending axes at either threatened city if I want to, and I know he can't possibly have a second axe coming by any time soon.  I can probably have horses connected by then.

That Woodsman II holkan is still around my former capital, which is now close to GermanJoey's territory.  Shallow Old Human Tourist's team has an immortal passing through GermanJoey's territory, and it's getting close enough to that holkan that the holkan may have a chance to kill it.

[OT4E]

I think it was a mistake to declare. There was a small chance that Charriu gets screwed by 40% culture of the capital. On T50 he gets on the forest hill and on T51 he gets automatically kicked before he realises what happened.

So if he rejects peace which I believe he does, so not hesitate to offer caesic fire after.