[Spoilers] Pindicator already misses slavery, and other out-of-context quotes

[pindicator]

Thanks Cornflakes, that sounds right.

This all makes me wish I had more knights!

[pindicator]

Turn 114

We are most definitely in a race now:




Japper had 80 military power at the start of the turn, which means that crossbow in Macragge and the Legion down by Cadian are all he has.  The crossbow was able to fire at my knight so I'm assuming it just finished.  Walls have been started at Macragge and Glorious Terra - if I don't take Macragge now then I'm not pushing through at all unless it's a large invasion by sea.  So it took me an hour of staring at the screen and trying to figure if I could make it work even with the crossbow.  In the end I went with my gut and made the attack.  62 damage to the city, 19 to my knight.  We're sitting at 90hp on one knight and 56 on the other.  11 xp, and I'm not sure if I get to promote next turn or not after he attacks.  If he rolls high then my knight is going to be down to 34hp.  If he is able to create and bring in another unit then it probably dies.  (I guess the walls being built are oddly comforting in that way.)

I don't know if I can take it in time.  If he is running Limes, we're looking at a city that makes somewhere around 10-12hpt, so 4 turns before walls are built.  I need to take that city on t117.  Next turn we attack with the healthy knight across. I can bring one horseman against the city on t116 and a second on t117. A sword and crossbow are racing for the mountain pass: crossbow can shoot 116 and the sword joins in on 117. I think we can take the city if he doesn't bring any more units in. Perhaps I should have healing my knight a turn instead of running in like this - I was using some bad info for how much XP i'd get out of an attack and now I think that knight is not going to quite get enough XP from defending this next turn to promote, which means it will have to sit out the next 2 turns or we'll need to sacrifice it to get a foothold across the mountains.

The legion I shot with crossbow bolts and kept it at a distance.  I should be able to chase it down and finish it off next turn.




I'm pretty sure all the increased GPT i'm seeing from Krill and Alhambram are the two of them racing for the next great general. I'm probably getting a Great Merchant next turn, and this one will be pretty nice to have. There is an odd Spice island in the middle of the inland sea - it's the only source of Spice I can see on the map. Typically there are 4 luxuries per continent, but this is a 5th and it's all by itself in the middle of the ocean - makes me wonder. (Speaking of continents, we got lucky there too, something I haven't really touched on.) Anyway, that seems like a good choice, or I can send it east and try to grab one of the luxuries by Krill that I don't think I'll get a chance at having.

Oh, that reminds me: Krill renewed our Citrus for Coffee trade last turn.

And speaking of Krill, I found his capital.




Where in the world is CFC Jester at?

[pindicator]

Speaking of info on XP, I found this in the XML

Code:

<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_ACTIVATE_GOODY_HUT" Value="5" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_BARB_SOFT_CAP" Value="1" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_CITY_CAPTURED" Value="10" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_COMBAT_ATTACKER_BONUS" Value="1" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_COMBAT_RANGED" Value="1" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_DISTRICT_VS_UNIT" Value="2" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_KILL_BONUS" Value="2" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_MAX_BARB_LEVEL" Value="2" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_MAX_LEVEL" Value="6" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_MAXIMUM_ONE_COMBAT" Value="8" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_NEEDED_FOR_NEXT_LEVEL_MULTIPLIER" Value="5" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_NOT_COMBAT_RANGED" Value="2" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_PROMOTE_HEALED" Value="50" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_RETRAIN_HEALED" Value="100" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_REVEAL_NATURAL_WONDER" Value="10" />
<Replace Name="EXPERIENCE_UNIT_VS_DISTRICT_NOT_CITY_CAPTURED" Value="3" />

Originally I had found this thread at CivFanatics, but the values don't match up with what I witnessed in game. Actually, they seem to be 1 point higher than the actual totals.

For instance, when my western knight captured Mars with the last attack it gained 11xp. I'm guessing from a combination of:

1 - EXPERIENCE_COMBAT_ATTACKER_BONUS
10 - EXPERIENCE_CITY_CAPTURED


My eastern knight has attacked 2 cities, and looking back has gotten 4xp each time. That looks like:

1 - EXPERIENCE_COMBAT_ATTACKER_BONUS
3 - EXPERIENCE_UNIT_VS_DISTRICT_NOT_CITY_CAPTURED


My eastern knight gained 3xp when it defended from a crossbow shot. That would be:

1 - EXPERIENCE_COMBAT_RANGED
2 - ???

... actually, i can't find a combination that gets to 3 here and makes sense. :

[pindicator]

Turn 115

Got the Great Merchant. He triggered Enlightenment and Mercantilism inspirations when he came in - both are civics I am going to want soon. Enlightenment doubles science from buildings while Mercantilism opens up the Logistics policy. I also got the inspiration from Printing Press by finishing the university at Acadia with the overflow from the jungle chop last turn. I put Acadia on finishing it's Industrial Zone (due in 8), but I think that city needs to swap to military....




The race for the next Great General is still pretty tight - CFC has the driver seat it looks like, as Alhambram had a big GPT drop and a decent increase in points indicating that he finished a project. He also dumped all his gold, and that can only mean one thing. Thankfully, Valletta was acting as my own personal spy in the matter and caught the buildup in its full glory.




Japper didn't show as a friend of Alhambram on Arabia's trade screen. First time in 15 turns that has not shown as Declaration of Friendship ... Goddamit Firaxis, that makes no sense at all! But considering the Mamluk upgrade it could be that this was the real end of that treaty.

We're re-routing my northern scout. Originally he was to use Shipbuilding (which I just got this turn) to embark east and find CFC Jester. Now I'm going to have him tail Alhambram's army. Unfortunately that means he will need to cross the arctic ocean and go onto the subcontinent of Baltia (continents on this map are really weird and really in my favor and no, I'm not complaining at all). 4 mamluks can do a lot of damage, even without a great general. So like I said last turn: we're in a race now.


So on to the battle:




My crossbow moved up and killed his legion, but now barbarians are arriving and complicating matters. I decided that the best thing to do with my mounted and melee units was to ignore them and leave the crossbows up front to take them on. And I am kicking myself now for not looking at the XP before and after to compare against the XML.

Japper hit my wounded knight for 15, so it is down to 41hp. He has also built another unit, which made me consider moving the wounded knight across the river to the campus for further protection. However, that would muck up the works for next turns planned attacks, so I think that knight sits tight. As I feared he is sitting at 14/15 xp; it would really suck if I lose him because of this

My healthy knight hit across the river for 50, bringing Mars down to 108hp. It took 15 dmg in return, dropping to 75/100 and also earned a promotion.

After realizing the barb sword couldn't kill my horseman I decided to hell with the barbarians and just moved everything northward.




If Macragge doesn't build walls and if my knight doesn't die then I take Macragge next turn. I'll be able to bring 4 attacks against the city: the 2 knights, my crossbow, and my wounded horseman.


Domestically, I think I need to get a round of units going. Alhambram and I are likely to be at war soon. 4 Mamluks are nothing to sneeze at, even if I do have +15 defence with DotF and America's home continent boost. I think crossbows and swords are my best bet. Next turn I'll finish up Medeival Faires which will bring a couple timings together nicely with some policy swaps. But I think I'll wait for next turn to show all that.

[pindicator]

Turn 116

I got the setup I wanted:




The western knight Knight attacked for 45.  Then I juggled some units for the crossbow to move up and fire for 29.  Here the minimum roll for the wounded knight was not quite enough to finish off the city.  I could throw in the horseman but that would surely result in its death, although guaranteeing the city.  Yet if my knight didn't kill the city I could potentially lose it in between turns; even moreso now that it was on the road network.  I decided that I needed to have every unit alive - I attacked with the knight:




There is one more big prize to shoot for in this war, the capital city and me getting Niter, but unfortunately it's going to be the trickiest one to crack.  Why is it so tricky?  Alhambram's power has skyrocketed with his upgrades; he now is at 700.  Total power of all players now reads:

Alhambram - 692
Krill - 525
Me - 467
CFC - Where are you???
Japper - 40

Since it appears that the demographics update a turn after I witnessed the gold being used to upgrade, I think we can deduce the number of Mamluks in Alhambram's possession.  Rather, i can see about 800g was spent on upgrades.  If that's all Mamluks then we're looking at 8-9 mamluks, or 160-180 power.  He jumped 215 so I guess there's other stuff going on.  Regardless, that's a lot of horse about to come from the north.  I'm pretty sure he's going to attack as he goes, so we're looking at 10 turns or less before Alhambram and I confront around Rome's capital.

I need to lick my wounds at Macragge, at least for 1 turn.  We'll promote both knights and then see what's what.

Meanwhile, I also have Catachan and barbarians to deal with.  I was able to take out most of the barbarians this turn:




After first manuevering for maximum flanking bonus, my sword was able to hit the lead barb sword hard enough that the horseman had the strength advantage. The 2 crossbows killed the back barbarian sword, and my horseman moved about the only spot I could find for it to. This leaves the crossbow, but it has hills between it and me so I won't have to worry about taking any damage.

I'm actually debating whether I take the time to conquer Catachan at all here. I may be better served in just racing everything northward to Rome's capital. We can see what next turn brings - Alhambram had not yet declared this turn, but based on the positioning of his Mamluks before he would need this turn to advance on Ocularis Terribus. If I don't see him attacking then I need to be wary of using open borders to come through Japper .... and oh my goodness, do you think Alhambram would really ROP rape Japper just to deny the capital from me? Well, we'll cross the bridge if it ever gets burnt.

I offered Krill a friendship pact. The main reason is that CFCJester has met Alhambram and they signed a friendship declaration right away - I thought Krill might be feeling a little alone out there. I suppose that is one comfort: Alhambram still has to keep a token defense in his east. Meanwhile I've seriously lucked out on this map and only have a pair of archers in my core right now. (Although I do have a scouting network to warn of any dangers coming by land or sea.) But I've also offered Krill friendship a few times recently, so I will lay off if he rejects this one as well.


Ok, let's go over some domestic stuff. I wrapped up Medieval Faires this last turn because this was the turn of my last Maritime-powered chop. First I chopped a hefty ~90 hammer overflow (not bad for a jungle chop!) into a galley at Forgottonia, and then I had to figure out what I was going to do with all those hammers. Forgottonia has built all it's buildings ... and while I really, really wanted to send all that into a settler, I really did not want to be caught with my pants down against Mamluks. With that in mind, we did the following policy change:




Knights won out over crossbows, at least for this wave. I really would like more crossbows, however... Especially with all the native buffs I get -- and if it should come to blows with Alhambram we'd add in Wars of Religion policy card to get a +19 strength to any fight in my borders. I really wish I could have been putting those hammers into a pair of settlers instead, but it would really be silly to make all these gains against Rome just to have Alhambram wipe me off the map with a Mamluk push. By the time those knights are done we'll be about finished with Humanitarianism (I'm in no way going to be able to get a Great Artist so we're teching this the hard way). I might add Yazoo to knight duty when it's builder finishes in 2 turns...

Merchant Confederation is a big help, worth about 15gpt right now. And while Serfdom is still needed for the next few turns, I'm really wanting to put a different economic policy in that slot. Of note:Yazoo is finishing the next builder. Jefferson has swapped to a knight right away and will build it's builder after Yazoo's (because otherwise Yazoo is delayed another turn). And on top of all that, there's what Absaroka is building:




Yes, that is a scout. After the builder finished last turn, the to-do list for this city is a campus. But it needs to go right where that marble is. So instead of waiting 20 turns for Absaroka to be able to build somethign that would give me overflow, I decided to use the empty-production trick for chopping the marble straight into the campus. The scout will not go to waste either: I know there are islands to my west; so that will be the unit that checks those out. Maybe he'll even find CFC out that way.

[pindicator]

Turn 117

This was a turn for healing the lead forces and the back group killed off the remaining barbarians while encircling on Catachan.




Walls are up in Rome's capital now - I think I made the right call in rushes for Macragge.  However we now are going to go into a slog for any kind of attack against the capital.  So I will pause here, dig in with Defender of the Faith at Macragge.  I probably should also get walls up in Macragge; it's only 55 faith with Valletta and Theocracy.

Further difficult is the huge X-component that Alhambram's forces represent.  Does he move through Rome to attack me? (Assuming they have OB - they did have friendship for so long it makes me think that could be possible.  More likely is Alhambram just conquers cities from Rome.  Arabia's last piece fell into place this turn:




Tried to talk myself into finishing the Industrial Zone at Acadia.  It's only 5 turns.  But my strategy going forward is to keep the slow troops up north and a response force of mounted units to go where needed.  After these knights, unless things get really heated with Alhambram then we should be able to go back to a lot of economic builds.

Krill caught me in culture and science (per turn, not yet in total techs).  I'm not sure how he's done it but kudos to him for it.  As soon as I can get out of this war then I should be able to push ahead again.

[pindicator]

Turn 118

Alhambram knows the race is on. 4 Mamluks in view. most I've ever seen is 4 but I still predict that's half his army.




Smart of him to just go right around Japper's walls. Japper would have been far better putting walls in Fenris instead - only has 2 points to attack by. Hopefully the natural choke will cause him to slow anyway. I plan on keeping my galley in the way to prevent him from getting anything in by sea; I should probably consider bringing the second galley up for that as well. And if I get really lucky I can snipe the city, but we all know Alhambram won't let that happen.

Glorious Terra is going to be the showdown and I'm trying to decide how best to play this. I do not like the defensive position against Alhambram should he get Rome's capital for his own. And my units are not going to enjoy and Great General benefits -- the next GG is Renn & Industrial units, which I really should get except I would need to start dumping into encampment projects now. Keep that in the back of your head though, because we might come back to that.

So how do I plan on going forward here? I think I need to try to slow the war down now and bide time for Cavalry. If I had niter I would have been able to just push on through with muskets. And perhaps it may also be possible to upgrade at an encampment after securing 1 source (is that possible in 6? ugh, i forget!). Either way getting a settler out for that Niter by Valletta is my next priority. We're only 4 techs away, so I would want to build horsemen to upgrade and then make a push at that time. I'd prefer rough riders but they need a lot more tech.


I see crossbows in the ocean from Krill. He isn't trying to do some 20-turn alpha strike, is he? I'm not so far ahead as to justify that, so I'm going to dismiss that as paranoia. Speaking of Krill, he's in Merchant Republic now, making him the first of my opponents to reach a 6-slot government.

Got a bit of the payoff for that theater district at Jefferson this turn:




4 culture, 4 tourism, and I really need to get an amphitheater in somewhere so I can deposit the 2nd great work somewhere.

[Ichabod]

You can upgrade units everywhere with a single copy of a strat resource. You don't need to be near an encampment. A city with an encampment can build units that require resources with a single copy, but upgrades work differently.

[pindicator]

Oh damn, I played this wrong then. I should have gotten that settler out ahead of the knights then. Well, we'll go for Gunpowder and get that settler out next.

[pindicator]

Turn 119

Earlier today I was thinking about the 4 different things I needed to get muskets:

1. Research
2. Gold
3. Settler
4. Two Different Policy Changes

Gold seemed the easiest - 120 or 125g per upgrade with Professional Army means I would need at most 500g to upgrade my 4 swords. I could even add a couple as I'm making 58gpt and sitting at 455g right now.

Research was also straightforward - 8 turns to go, down to 3 or 4 if I could somehow get an Armory done by then.

Settler was more difficult - and here I wish I had put that overflow at Forgottonia into the settler because if I had then having a settler would be a moot point. Potentially also requires a builder charge, though we may just plant on top of the Niter given the state of that location.

Policy changes seemed just as bad - 5 turns for Humanism and then another 5 for whichever civic I finished next. There were 2 specific policy changes I needed to do: 1) to switch to Colonialism for settler production bonus, and 2) to switch to Professional Army in order to upgrade all the units after the settler has founded the Niter city.


We need to take a moment to remember way back on turn 94 where we recruited our first Great Scientist. At the time this was the scientist who came after Hypatia, whom I felt such a shame at not getting that I had to practically give excuses why I was happy with Omar Khayyam. Well Omar has been wandering the wilderness for 25 turns, discovering the ways of the the world, and it was only this turn that he was able to return and share his contributions with society at large.

Omar gives 2 eurekas for Medieval or Renaissance technologies, and 1 inspiration for a civic within the same eras. I had been waiting for the easier side-quests to be completed, especially over the last 10 turns where I had a list of about 5 that I had planned to get done. And now this turn there was only 1 more on that list to complete:




Mass Production checked off the list. That just left Gunpowder, Siege Tactics, Cartography, Square Rigging, and the much maligned Military Tactics. Obviously best case scenario would be Gunpowder and Siege, but avoiding Military Tactics would be the best of everything. With civics, there were 4 possibilities left: Naval Tradition (yuck), Exploration, Humanism, and Diplomatic Service. Either Humanism or Diplomatic Service were wanted; the other 2 were both bad results - it's not impossible that I never research Exploration this game.

I decided to see what Omar got us and then build a plan from there.

And the results were ...

Middling. Humanism was fantastic, probably the best result, as that lets me change policies next turn, and to get into Colonialism right away. Square Rigging was probably the 2nd worst, as winning a battle with a musketman seems like a formality with how this game is going. Cartography is actually ok. Having the two of them together kind of opens up an idea of racing along the top of the tree for +1 mines and factories, which would be great if I didn't already want to rush the bottom of the tree for Cavalry and Rough Riders. Ugh...

So not sure what to do yet for the domestic side of things I decided to look at the battlefield.




I only have 1 galley, but the blue square just shows the units I could see on the upper coastal tile before moving south. We're looking at 7 mamluks in total with a great general. This also gives a little bit of idea into what Alhambram's tactics are. As you can see from the back mamluk having a sliver of life, it appears that he is rotating units, moving the wounded mamluks to the back to heal while fresh ones are able to move forward. When I have to confront this regenerating blob of an army I am going to have to make sure that I am able to kill units.

I give Fenris 2 more turns until it falls, and then the blob will move on to Rome. Perhaps he will slip up and give me an opportunity to raze the city, but I doubt it.

Rome, which I have no chance at taking in that timeframe.




If Japper had saved his army earlier and done this with his troops on the passes at Macragge he never would have lost that city. He may have been able to hold on to Catachan as well, and only lost a pair of weak border cities. His promoted crossbows could have rained bolts down on anything I attempted to move up against the mountains and with his power never dipping so precipitously it's possible that Alhambram never attacks. Ok, maybe not that last part - Alhambram was obviously always going to attack at Mamluks. But Japper could have held my end with minimal troops and committed his forces to the north and potentially held on. I guess I'm still baffled by some of the choices Japper made this game, even if they led to my benefit.

Anyway, there's no way I can take Rome from the front - I would need to move my forces around and surround the city, and by the time I have troops in position there (forgetting about Catachan here), then Alhambram will be streaming in at that same moment. I think my strategy may need to be now trying to burn Rome when I get the opportunity. Another detail about the upcoming standoff against Alhambram: Macragge will naturally convert in 7 turns. I'm trying to save that last missionary charge for Catachan and it's holy district, but I will use it to convert Macragge in case of emergency.

The legion being built at Catachan this turn does make things more difficult, so I'm pulling a knight back. Again, I'm not overly concerned about him finishing walls. I had thought I would get to easily attack with units the next 2 turns and take the city, earning promotions on the horseman and both swords in the process. Instead now I had to use the promotion to keep the horse alive, and I only attacked with 1 sword because while that sword can retreat and heal, opening up a spot for the knight, the other sword would have been in range of being killed if I had a bad RNG roll. I think we're still 2 turns out of taking the city, but we're going to need crossbow and knight to help now.

I spent the next 5-10 minutes looking through cities, trying to get an idea for what I was going to do for a strategy of getting that Niter built. The capital would have to build the settler, I decided. 12 turns to build it clean, meaning around 8 turns with the policy card, another 3 turns to get in position - we'll say the Niter would be hooked up in 12 turns overall. I flipped over to Yazoo - since i was about to chop a forest there anyway I decided we might as well get a settler done there. 15 turns with no policy card, so 10 turns with and likely down to 3 or 4 turns with the chopped forest. It would take 7-9 turns to move to the right location (depending on where I settle on a location). I could also chop a forest at the capital - this would mean knock the capital's build time down to around 3 turns as well.
Except I really want to save the last chop at the capital for later -- specifically for building a Rough Rider -- but maybe that's just wishful thinking and I really need to get that settler down. Ugh, I am going to chop that forest. And we'd be looking at 6 or 7 total turns before the city is planted, which really hits my timeline quite perfectly.

It was somewhere around here that I decided that if i was going to switch policies off of Serfdom next turn then I needed to switch Transylvania off that builder because there was no way it was going to complete in time. And while looking at that city I really, really wanted to find a way to build its armory, because -- well, because a lot of reasons, but mostly to speed up Gunpowder. 195 cogs to gain 245 beakers? Yes, I'll take that trade. Maybe I could buy it. Maybe I could buy something with faith:




Valletta is the best city-state.

Yes, I bought it, faith I could have used to buy a knight or what would have been half of a rough rider, or an enhanced religion. This got me the eureka for Gunpowder, dropping the research time to 3 turns. In addition with all the extra hammers for building units this city can naturally build an 11-turn settler. I decided to build one there, and reroute the builder at Absaroka here to help speed this guy out with a jungle chop.




So the plan is now to get 3 more settlers done over the next 10 turns. Transylvania's will be the slowest, taking 7 turns to build and costing 290h. Jefferson's will start next turn and be done in 3 turns.
Yazoo's started this turn and will complete in 5 turns. After I capture Catachan this will bring me up to 14 cities, although 4 of them will be in resistance until Japper is out. I won't feel like I need to take Rome to stay ahead, and can look at trying to burn it and then holding a line against Alhambram. (Obviously I take it if I feel that I can hold it!)