Thread of Lost Tales: Bismarck of Japan

[The Black Sword]

Ugh, 8 boats up here from Scipio and Haram:




I'm not sure the 5 cats I have left are enough to crack this:




And I really need to put more defenses down here too:




I guess these guys have their work cut out for them:

[The Black Sword]

Scipio has a catapult in his capital despite not having construction ... Haram is the only person who makes sense as the guilty party. My impression is that flugauto is a pretty bloodthirsty fellow too.

On the bright side Paya was due to finish this turn and based on the civstats score increase it looks like I got it. I really did not want to go through the trouble of spreading a religion this late.

[The Black Sword]

Well, decided to go marauding while I wait for the incoming catapult contingent. Couldn't resist taking this:




Not sure whether I should have razed it though. I hope Haram doesn't have too many WE on those boats. If I have to, I'm willing to give up the city(temporarily, hopefully) while I march on the capital. I then pillaged some cottages, because why not?




And up here I lost a Trireme vs Trireme battle.



It was a bit risky because I have no immediate follow up, but I had odds(65%) from the naval initiative mechanic and winning would have got me another GG. I want to generate one and get him over to Nightwish before I start my march, for a samurai upgrade and sprinkle xp.

New GP this turn:



Probably saved for a GA whatever I get. Then Gondolin can work tiles instead of specialists. I also revolted into Free Religion.

[The Black Sword]

GJ got alphabet recently, with the surprising news that I'm ahead of him in tech. I guess those great people have been doing there job. Since the golden age ended though my research rate has been in the gutter as I moved off specialists to grow. I'm 4t away from another great person, which I will use for my 2nd golden age to revolt into Merc and Caste. I could actually go with Merc and Slavery, since I have a forge in every city, but I think I need Caste to have any sort of reliable research.

There are 2 other nice things unlocked on this research path; Knights and Banks. When you have a breakeven rate of 10% Banks become very attractive. My current plan is to split my commerce generating cities into gold and research specialists. Commerce cities(meaning coastal w/wharves mostly) can build Banks while inland cities can be focused towards research via farms and scientists, and they can put up Libraries and (eventually) Unis. I might be able to save a few hammers on infrastructure that way.

Speaking of infrastructure I need to pick out 7 cities for courthouses so I can build the Forbidden Palace too.

Then there's Knights, and I'll want a couple of them as well. I move a stack into Scipio's territory next turn to head for his capital and hopefully I have all the necessary units to finish him off. So there's no immediate need to whip out a bunch of Knights and as I'll be in a GA when I get Guilds I won't throw away the pop. But I do want to have some Knights pre-built and more coming after. People tend to make Moves around the Guilds era and I want to be ready to take my slices out of Tsargon(most likely) or even Jowy and Borsche as soon as the Khmer are dealt with.

[The Black Sword]

Potential bug: Naval initiative doesn't seem to work when your ship is in a port.



As a result, I didn't attack and continued to chase these guys.

In the south, I screwed up and had to upgrade a warrior to a samurai for 180g, or there would have been a chance of losing Amon Rudh.




Yeah, that's a turn's research.

Meanwhile my stack has reached Scipio's capital:



We spend two turns bombarding the defenses down while we wait for the reinforcements in Nightwish, including 5 more catapults, to catch up. Scipio has managed to build a lot more units than I expected, so credit for that.

Judas Priest forms a pretty tense border with Haram in the north. He has 4 galleys wandering around in the fog. Next turn is his last chance to attack though, or my borders pop and the axes should get odds on amphibious crossbows and maces. If he lands troops I can whip walls in. Long term the 'f' city should become the main one in this area.



GJ's alphabet research:


I've got Monarchy, Music, HBR and Feudalism over him, so we're about even now. Of course he's making a lot more than 150bpt. That Philo research is a clear sign of a Lib run, I'd probably go for Astronomy if I was him. Thank god we don't border.

[The Black Sword]

Got a GS so I threw my golden age. Looks like things will work perfectly to revolt Caste T1, get Guilds T2, Banking T5 and revolt to Merc T6.

Looks like I will somehow be first to Guilds too. What's most disappointing is that Dreylin still doesn't have Machinery, I was hoping he might declare on Tsargon first and then I could pile on. But right now it looks like I'll be finished with Scipio before he's ready. Well, I might just declare first anyway. Depends how vindictive I think he might be. I should benefit the most from a Tsargon invasion, GJ might swipe a couple of cities but I would get more and importantly Haram wouldn't get anything.

Haram just completed Taj and Sankore. I had a sign 'Taj T129?' on my map but I think it required me rolling the scientist and getting a loan so it probably wouldn't have worked.

[The Black Sword]

Got pretty lucky and only lost 5 cats and 3 HAs to wipe out this lot:

[Ichabod]

Then I guess that Samurai was Miyamoto Musashi.

Congrats!

[The Black Sword]

He fought with honour. Before sending any of his men against the city he sought out and slew the enemy general in single combat.

(He killed the horse archer before sending in the catapults because he already had 90% odds and I didn't want him soaking up collateral.)

[The Black Sword]

Some golden age pictures:

















Looks like I forgot my Moai, perhaps subconsciously because it is unhappy this turn. We have 3-4 WW happy in each city and it's starting to become a problem. Hopefully it should go away soon, the question when will wetbandit finally take Lordi? I thought he'd have done it already. His culture is right up to it so he can just stage some cats two tiles away and kill whatever is inside. Next turn I'll peep inside with my sentry chariot but I can't believe Scipio kept too much there. Anyway, as a temporary measure I'm trying to buy some Sugar off Borsche while I connect up my own source(it has a village over it).

In tech news GJ libbed Astro. I've been considering where to go after Banking and all my options look crap. If I generate a GS in Dor Lomin, I might try bulb Edu and win the Econ GM. But I've got better things to build than Universities right now so that's a lot of beakers for a GM. And I might be up Monarchy, Feud, Guilds and Banking on Joey but he has Paper and Edu, a better tech rate and probably an incoming GA targetted for a Free Market revolt. And I don't know what Haram has been doing since Nationalism. I'm inclined to ignore those techs for a while.

Engineering seems to be the most immediate low-hanging fruit and after that I think I'll head down the bottom of the tree. Chemistry's WS bonus is probably better than the ones at Printing Press or Replaceable Parts. Then I can upgrade my military with Grens or Cannons and Astro. Not sure whether to go for the land or naval bonus first but it'll probably take my 20t to get through that lot.

Other possibly tempting options:

-Statue of Liberty: That's a hell of a lot of tech to get through just for the SoL, talking about 30t with no more military tech. And Haram already has Nat, Constitution and PP are a lot better for him even if the SoL isn't. He clearly has the advantage if we were to race though. It seems too risky for the moment. Maybe if I go for Cannons I can get the Ironworks built by the time I get to Democracy.

-Steam Power: Probably the best economic tech I can see in medium term future. I now have two cores full of rivers to levee. We need Chemistry first anyway though.

-Rifling: Takes a lot longer to get access to than the other military techs and if I'm not in Nationhood I'm not sure how much of any advantage it is. I intend to get into NH during my 3rd GA btw, but I'm not planning that for a while.

-Mil Trad: I don't think I really want Cuirs as they're not so well suited to Naval battles. Philo/Nationhood is also a lot less useful than Engineering/Chem.

-Corporation: It's even more tech to get here than for the Statue of Liberty and the rest of it does almost nothing for me. Maybe if I do land the Econ GM this could be an option. Theoretically if I could ignore military and win all the first to, then Econ -> SoL -> Corp might be best.