[Spoilers] Alhazard goes back to BTS

[Alhazard]

Commodore peaced out and now DZ is sending all his troops to my border again. Was going for MOM a mistake? I could have instead 9HA which might be enough to break his defenses but would be worth slaving down all my cities like Gav is? Seriously considering either retreating and building no units until the GA is done or try to fork his capital and copper gold city to try to take at least one of them. Former is probably better to leverage my planned GA (7 more turns till MOM) but gotta do something with all these HA.

[Alhazard]

I want to ask if population growth from food happens before production. Let's say that in the same turn, my capital will grow and finish the HG EOT. Does the capital get 2 population EOT or just 1?

[Krill]

Could be wrong but I think the city grows first. If a city has a full foodbox and you build a settler, the city grows, but the new pop point still wars food that would go into the settler.

[Alhazard]

T128








Continue retreating. Forgot to mention this but I whipped away the rice tile from Jerseys on T126 because remember, the rice only gives a +2 food yield because you have to feed the population that is working the fields so it is better to whip a granary to increase faster growth.

T129






Now that my army is back inside my borders, start teching so I don't waste any gold on army supply. Here I made plans for whipping and tile management so that I can have 20HA and 7 catapults done and inside DZ's borders again on T138.

T130






Sentry chariot being useful.

T131






Note the huge drop in global power and 1st power, which now we know Gavagai got the better of. Finally cancelled the mistaken 4gpt to SD and asked 4gpt back to make it up at the least.

T132








Saw that the garrison got thinned, because of Commodore's war declaration. So divided in early, which was a mistake in hindsight because I could have done the same thing next turn to save gold and it might have not mattered.

T133






Not much to comment

[Alhazard]

T134










Sorry not trading away my only stone while trying to build the HG and Moai. yeah 9 archers was nothing facing the army Gavagai is fielding. Now I am really 2nd questioning my strategy. Should I have just whipped my cities to the ground and forget about the wonders for 30HA to make a real attack? Then again, maybe its not the best idea to pursue the same strategy as the leader when you are behind?

T135










I guess the human Montezuma that I read about no longer exists. Disappointed that Commodore gave up. Here I made a bad decision. I should have just sent everything at the city just to raze it and reduce numbers since DZ cannot replenish his army faster than I can. He just also lost a city to RM, which I think was the copper city, so he has no metal available.

T136










Well my move got DZ to split his army. So unless I see something different, I might just send everything at this city even at 22% defenses next turn. I really doubt that these forts will help against Gavagai's army.
Now I will go ahead and finish the HG since I did remember that I built the HG in PBEM71 and the screenshots show that the foodbox did not reset with the HG population growth, which was what I was afraid the most. With every passing turn, I can't believe that I will get to build both HG and MoM.
So let's talk about the golden age (GA) strategy. A lot has been written but my take is that only launch a GA when you want to change civics or needed to win a game (culture or space). I still not dunno what would be the GA for spiritual civs though (maybe when building infrastructure or want to run 100% science). I am going for OR then start the GA when I have my army inside my borders. Plan is to adopt OR and religion on the 1st turn, then at least finish the GA in bureaucracy. Now I definitely want the 2nd great person be the engineer from the capital for the Taj build. 4GPP from mids and HG gets doubled during GA for 8GPP per turn. If get the MoM, that would translate it to 96GPP during the GA and I already have 100+ in the capital. However, I do want to get the GE out sooner so I can run caste scientists at Nan Madol for a GS by end of the GP. Too bad I don't have another city with 8+ food surplus to run another caste great person so I don't have to depend on the music great artist for the 2nd GA.

[Alhazard]

T137










He didn't reinforce the city. I guess he thought I was going to bombard it down first? The bombard was a misclick. But he should have moved his capital garrison to reinforce next turn though. Sadface because the city spot I want is within the cultural control of the capitol. My conclusion was to found the wheat coastal city 1st so the captured city has at least 1 2food tile to work with and delay the HG in the capital until T139 when I have the new city settled. I don't see that anyone else that I can trade with has stone and the people whose resources I cannot see has no business building the HG.

T138












The city raider 3 axes won the battles, which was expected. However, attacking also with his HA was a tilt move. The garrison from the capital at least should have covered the survivors I think because most of my HA are still healing. I am really relieved at this point because I have basically won at this point. After I capture the capital, the rest of DZ's empire can't be far behind. I thought that SD would have overtaken me in CY by now with chumchu's cities but it is Commodore? strange.

T139
















New city founded. It is bad design to allow great people to act as unkillable scouts in civ6. Who came up with this.
I will see if I can capture DZ's horse city next to allow the new city to work the wheat. Will finish HG this turn. Whipped the courthouse in Nan Madol prematurely because it's maintenance is getting high and the new population would just work a coast. But it will grow back to 8 next turn. Now I configured Jersey to emphasize hammers because I think once the HG is done in the capital, it will cause all the other cities to grow before the production in their cities and I would like the governor to grab a 4hammer tile to finish this catapult next turn. Disappointed that DZ still has control over the other copper tile.
Looks like GKC threw everything he had at Gavagai but it wasn't enough. They really needed HA for catapults.
Let's talk about geopolitics. After DZ, I need to conquer RM but the problem is Commodore's not insignificant army that he might use to try to attack. Noted that Commodore also has construction from the bridges in see in his lands. Also DZ has a former RM city that is behind a mountain range, which makes it tough to attack and hold. Maybe don't hit DZ's city on the other side of the mountains until I have enough units to cover both front's? After RM, I need to attack Commodore but when is TBD. Now after Gavagai is done with Mali, I have 0 doubt that the next target will be Egypt. I do see that superdead has construction also but he better have a 40+ unit stack when Gavagai comes knocking with his army. I think I will need to prop SD to be a counterweight. So far we are trading wine for fur and when I get my 2nd stone source, I will offer a trade for 2gpt since he was asking for it earlier.

[Alhazard]

T140












Used the ability of the Keshik to see that DZ is heading over his stack to the W. I was afraid this is a possibility but pulled back enough HA so that he will find it difficult to capture 2 movement if he gets there. DZ left the horse city undefended. Now I think I will attack the border city with RM next with catapult support. This should open up trade routes to other players. BTW I was right about the HG giving extra production to other cities so I got the catapult out this turn and cut the build time of the MoM to EOT141. Whipped courthouses where I could because city expenses are getting high because of the new cities. Wish I could have whipped the courthouse in government plaza this turn but will have to wait since I really need to maximize whip overflow for the Moai build. Capital is right at the happy cap so needs to build a market. Bambi will have to build a missionary to Government Plaza and Nan Madol at least then 2 more missionaries before heading to full time military. I think I will actually launch the golden age right after the MoM finishes since most of the cities need to recover from whipping and I really would like Bureaucracy sooner than later. Wonder if anyone else started a GA during a hot war. After all these whips, my CY is again 3rd .

[Alhazard]

T141


















Pillaged the village and the road to prevent a stack from the capital being able to attack it in two turns. Logistics will be much better when I get control of the gold tile and its adjacent tiles. Also need to pillage the horse pasture next turn while sending a small mounted stack S to see whats in the city. I don't think DZ settled the new city near the sugar because the jungle would be cleared. I think he just settled a city N of clams. Courthouses are helping but maintenance is way too high. The religion spread to government plaza this turn so whipped the library now so I will gain the organized religion bonus without having it divided out if I had it whipped next turn. Also converted the capital while I can because I don't want to take chances that another religion won't spread over there. I did a rough calculation and estimate that I will get Bureaucracy just in time before the GA ends. Need to pillage more tiles and take cities I guess.
Didn't realize Gavagai's GNP has cratered that badly, and noticed that he isn't building that many reinforcements now.
GA starts next turn.

[Alhazard]

T142










So let's talk about this golden age. T141 is really late already, but tech in this game is super slow. Might be cause of lack of good cottagable land and heavy warring. We are going to basically have 1/2 field eliminated before knights. Anyways I got the idea for this from PBEM65. THH's post about this game actually made me read his thread again in detail, and Krill recommended an early GA just for Bureaucracy. You know, given how this game is going, I think early Bureaucracy is a fantastic idea. Let's see if this actually works
Didn't mess up the 1st civics swap. While cities are recovering from whips, will try to emphasize production during the golden age (for the inevitable conflict with Commodore) but balance growth in the cities although I am almost running against the happy cap in most of them. Look at Jerseys for example. It's about to happy cap at size 6 but trying to grow it to size 9 so it can also generate 20H per turn outside of GAs like Bambi. (BTW cities that can generate that many hammers are very useful see Sullla's thread in PB2). The copper and gold city also can be configured as such as well. Hoping that I can overflow the production from the planned whips into forges. Bambi will build wealth for the next 4 turns after this one to make sure I can finish civil service so I can adopt bureaucracy at 6th turn of the golden age with caste. The holy city won't starve during this GA and I will have it work an irrigated plain farm for the next golden ages so it's not at food deficit.

T143










Oops goofed here. Should have sent the worker group SE of the GG to SW of Jerseys instead to make a cottage as a placeholder since the cooper in DZ territory will be available to improve next turn. Not simming is hurting

T144






















The new city coming out of resistance messed up with my calculations. I guess I have to take this border city to fund my research.

[Alhazard]

T145












Took the city but messed up because I sent in a combat 3 HA before cats. Still won at 13% . But I really messed up and I might lose this city right back next turn. It only has a 5.5 c3 HA, the GG chariot, and a very wounded HA in it. Shouldnt have moved out the 2HA+sp, which planned to cut the road, because there are 2 roads to this city from Machu Picchu . DZ might have 4 chariots in Machu Picchu that he could throw at this city. Already moving a spear back to take over garrison at Gov't plaza for a 2nd GG medic if needed. Not sure where the big stack of axes went. Will peak into Machu Picchu next turn. Did DZ really sent them to Commodore?!
After Gavagai eliminated the discord team, saw that he turned on tech with 400g. Wonder what he will get. Possibly MC for colossus since his economy must be hurting, but I wonder if I need to rush Music right after my MC also...