[Cornflakes] 57 Christmas Treats That Will Make You Hungry

[El Grillo]

Very creative idea, unfortunate that it didn't work as intended

[civac2]

@Tarkeel: I don't think culture matters unless it's a tile you can't enter (opponent culture in peace time with no OB).

[Cornflakes]

In your sims, was the teleport target under enemy culture? The game really dislikes teleporting you onto a tile controlled by someone else.

It would have been great to see this work though!

I did attempt to sim the border situation including culture as closely as possible. I did not include the full empire size, and I did not run the sim for extended period of time so although the culture looked the same the total plot culture doesn’t match the game situation. I knew that the teleportation mechanics are murky and the result was by no means certain, but the risk was worth the potential benefit of razing that city.

I considered burning the Great General to make the raze a 90%+ shot, but in the long term I envision winning via commando decapitation strikes on everyone and for that the GG is essential in pushing me over the 17xp threshold for commando melee & gunpowder units as previously described. In comparison the border city is not worth giving that up. And right now as the 4th place contender the pressure of slowing down TBS is not my responsibility but Pindicator’s and OH’s. 10T enforced peace is a fine outcome from my perspective.

Oxford University completes end of next turn and I can run some research builds to accelerate the Military Tradition > Steel > Military Science research targets. Pindicator researches and TBS researched Gunpowder about 5 turns ago so I picked that up with full 18% KTB. Then they both just completed Nationalism so I will follow them there at full KTB . I’ll slip in Economics to lock in the GMerchant for the GA civics swap as planned and that should give them plenty of time to pick up Chemistry (TBS just finished and OH shows 6 turns ETA).

[Cornflakes]

   

Oxford University is completed, and is providing +115 bpt thanks to Bureaucracy and all the villages at my capital. I'm still about 10-30 turns from most of those villages maturing into Towns.

I have focused on infrastructure heavily over the last 30 turns while my rivals built medieval/renaissance militaries. I'm now up to 800 bpt base / 1000+ with research builds. I have enough gold or 11 turns of 100% research, and over the next 11 turns I will research as many beakers as I did over the previous 143 turns of the game!

   

My 8 banks allow me to run 60% breakeven or 480 bpt once I burn through the treasury ... that's an additional 10 turns to Steel + Military Science so still on track for GA in 20 turns with revolt into military civics to start pumping out commandos. Tech rate will suffer a bit without Bureaucracy but each turn from there through the end of the game I'll be building 1 commando per turn. The primary target is Pindicator's capital of Benny Beaver with the monk trifecta of AP + UoS + SM. Taking out the AP will also nip some of TBS's production capacity since he spread Buddhism and built many Buddhist building throughout his empire to capitalize of the free hammers.

   

My GNP jumps up to 1200 at100% research slider and the research builds I'm running (on a tech that has only 1 KTB). That is about where everyone peaked out in their recent GA's ... and I'll be able to maintain that consistently for 10 turns. Keep fighting amongst yourselves everyone! Don't mind me!

I'm also curious to watch the rival power stats over the coming turns. I'm not sure how well the others are reporting, but here's a look at their respective invasion stacks:

   

Pindicator is advancing from TBS's east (my north). The "13 knights" sign is old, TBS has about 20 knights. Persepolis is dead, but I think that TBS can stem the bleeding and stabilize this front without Pindicator conquering the whole of former-Persia.

   

OH's stack is scarier with 30 cuirassier That was some intense unit construction over the last 10 turns! TBS on his side has about 30 knights and 20 catapults. Kenane and Kell, Daredevil, and Good Omens should be dead (there are a half dozen Ethiopian galleys under the trireme at the bottom of the screen) ... but again I think that TBS can hold the line there without collapsing. But this joint attack should bring TBS back to the pack. If TBS can hold his score against OH then I don't know who would be in the driver's seat at that point. Even if Pindicator manages to snipe all of Persis he would only find himself in the same position that TBS now occupies as the game leader with a long empire to defend.

[Cornflakes]

   

OH invaded Persia, and culture bombed the captured city. This looks like a desperation move. TBS is shifting his 40-knight stack down from his core towards Persia ... and based on Pindicator's stack position [next screenshot] ...

   

TBS's knight stack can hit Pindicator inside of Persepolis after next turn. With the knights already in Persia I think he can bring 60 knights into the battlefield.

   

Pindicator completed Sistine Chapel this turn ... in Benny Beaver. That city is stacked! I'll have 10 commandos in 30 turns, and 30 commandos in 50 turns. At some point I'll need to start building naval units to transport them to the beachhead landing site.

[Cornflakes]

Pindicator sniped the city that I picked up from Persia 2 turns ago. OH smelled blood in the water and sent a stack of 40 cuirassiers through TBS’s territory, and landed 10 Oromo + 8 cuirs by galley. I do not understand this attack. Even with an artist bulb surely any gains would be too isolated to hold against the other two.

   

However I’m pretty sure that I have enough material to hold. But if OH proceeds with the attack we are both totally out of the running.

[Cornflakes]

This is disheartening:

   

I sent in a half dozen cats and cuirs last turn, but OH landed more catapults and cuirs of his own. Plus he sent in a stack through Pindicator's land (my scouting chariot in Pindicator's land spotted them on the move 2 turns ago). I'm going to withdraw from the three eastern cities and pull back to Dominostein and Cashew Bars. I'll abandoning the Wetpoint project for now, since there will be no late game Commando showdown anyway.

I'm considering leaving a token garrison in the far-flung city north of Apple Crisp and pulling those defenders south as well. Cashew Bars will be in grave danger in about 3 turns and I need every defender that I can possibly muster in the core.

[Cornflakes]

I traded about 16 pikes, 5 cats, and about 10 other units to kill OH's stack of 40 cuirs, but lost Mincemeat Pie and will lose Cashew Bars this turn

   

OH moved his stack of cuirs 1S of where my stack is currently. I didn't have enough material to hold Cashew Bars since my forces were split between there and Mincemeat Pie. And once OH combined his stack and covered the cuirs with Oromo my counterplay would basically be eliminated. My pikes are useless on offense against Oromo Warriors, so I decided to hit OH while he was still divided with the Cuir stack exposed. Eliminating the 2-movers will make it easier to concentrate defenders for the my remaining cities. OH has about 15 cuirs remaining in the east, 10 incoming through Pindicator in the west, and 7 north of Apple Crisp that should be trapped now and destroyed next turn.

I'm slightly concerned about OH culture bombing Cashew Bars and trapping my army inside Ethiopian culture I know he had another GArtist. I don't see it, but it could be on ship waiting to offload in Chex Mix ... but unless he also has 2 workers on ship to road the tile his stack is on I don't think he can reach Cashew Bars by road. The cows will still be within Caramel Popcorn's culture. (Except sometimes culture behaves weirdly with city captures, so it's possible the cows may temporarily lose their culture coverage for a turn )

Units killed vs. lost:

   

   

OH has a stack of Cuirs incoming from the west through Pindicator's territory so Mint Brownies will be torched this turn as well. My peace treaty expires with Pindicator next turn ... Will Pindicator invade immediately? Will TBS strike back against Pindicator in Persia? Will OH get attacked in his core while his forces are across the channel in my land?

[Cornflakes]

 

   

Well that didn't turn out as expected. OH had workers available on ship to road and get his GArtist in for a bomb ... but what I didn't consider is that the road would also allow his catapults to hit my stack. Other than the catapults I only killed 1 cuir on defense and lost everything.

[Tarkeel]

Ouchies.