The Pen vs The Sword (Gandhi of NA)

[The Black Sword]

We're on a different landmass, so I think I can found there. I guess we'll find out next turn .

[Dantski]

We're on a different landmass, so I think I can found there. I guess we'll find out next turn .

I don't think its possible to do so within another city's fat cross. Hence the 2 diagonal comment.

[Ceiliazul]

It is poosible to plant in another citiy's bfc if:
-the cities are on sep landmass
-the older city hasnt expanded borders yet (you cant plant in someone else's culture)

[The Black Sword]

Yeah, CH's border expanded on the interturn ... but so did someone else's.



Xenu demanded a silk from me. Didn't realise he might be talking about this city for a while. Sent him back a surplus furs and silk. I'm not really sure what he was trying to say tbh, but I know he has some boats, possibly with troops, left in this sea.

After Free Market btw, that city will probably make me 7gpt. So not really worth settling the iceballs. My empire is getting bigger too and will use up 50% more trade routes from FM. I'm not sure if the market is saturated enough that the iceballs will get the same 5gpt routes.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go Compass -> Optics->Constitution -> Corporation next. Despite the known tech bonus elsewhere, things like PP(90gpt) don't really compare to Corp(300gpt IIRC). Constitution is a bit weak given it's so expensive but I think it could be making 100bpt soon enough. It also has Jails, now with -50% WW, which might be important. Unfortunately no tech bonus on it though. I think the big 4 all have it researchable and are playing chicken for it. Corp has to be amazing for them too. If I just draft the 4 of them I'll be happy. I don't really feel the need to push for anything else militarily for a while and nor do I need more buildings. I have a lot of infrastructure to catch up on already! I'm looking forward to this upcoming OR period. The next set of first-to boni are too far away still to consider yet IMO.

Meanwhile, I have apparently signed up to invade mackoti.

And the Old Tourists declared war on Dtay, followed closely by half a dozen great generals appearing in the log.

[Ceiliazul]

And the Old Tourists declared war on Dtay, followed closely by half a dozen great generals appearing in the log.

And how does that make you feel? Im guessing:

[The Black Sword]

Hey, you got it in 1!

It also makes me very curious, but my map info is terrible. OH has Astro and Dtay has Cavs. I'd also guess OH is using Pin's territory to strike at Dtay. Assuming the two of them are on separate islands, that sounds like it should actually favour OH. At the least it should force Dtay to obsolete the Colossus. Still, dtay is much the scarier in all the demos, I'm not sure which side I should be rooting for. If I knew OH was the weaker one, and he was just doing damage while he could to provoke a dogpile, it'd be tempting to help out and attack Dtay's big island city beside me.

Even still, I'd probably be better off finishing absorbing the Khmer and figuring out the global landscape then.

[Ceiliazul]

How has lack off map trading impacted your game?

Haw will your demos compare to the current leaders once dazed is absorbed?

[The Black Sword]

I'm not really sure I would have done anything differently with map trading on. I think I had enough local information to make my decisions and there's not much I could do about the big bad world out there. The main thing actually would have been knowing the shape of my own continent earlier. If I had swapped maps with Joey or Xenu earlier I might not have tried either of my failed city plants. I might have realised earlier that the Incan's were rather squashed, but I don't think I could have played that much differently.

As for the demos, well here's where we are currently:


Still a lot of land to take and pop to grow though, I'm pretty confident I can catch up to that top land area at least. Of course it's unlikely the leaders will stand still and wait for me(or maybe they'll keep blowing each other up!). I think Dtay, OH and BGN will remain a bit ahead of me but I might be able to edge ahead of Krovice to 4th place in the demos.

A further great point about those demos; I'm back to first place in power! That means dtay had a fair amount of losses last turn, in addition to this:




Domestically I revolted into FM/OR as planned and decided to stay in Bureau. I think I could make around 13 drafts over the next 5t period, which seems like it has greater hammer savings than Bureau's gold. But, I'm not sure I need the extra troops, so that's a bit of a false economy. Plus the capital is going Uni->Harbour-> Customs House -> Oxford next. All good for bureau. I also may have underestimated PP. With Krovice picking up Steel, KTB has jumped to 8% per player, so PP has a 40% bonus there atm, and none on constitution. That means it's about 2k raw beakers and Const->Corp is about 8k, while I reckon the second path gives me about 4x as much benefit. In any case, it's Compass->Optics next, and Dazed/Mack might yet force me to go for Astronomy after that, we'll check things again in 2t.

We did have a city capture this turn:


Mack retreated most of the army to the capital but a left a few units here. The two pikes are the only problems though, everything else will be easy, after bombarding, here's our odds:



I have two of these C2/Shock Cuirs, one withdraws, the other wins and I gather some xp from the rest of the units. End of turn setup:



Some other stuff I wanted to show, here's why I need OR:


This thing can be cut down to 7t pretty easily.

Also, Xenu asked for my second source of fur, after I just gifted him my first. I have no idea what he's trying to say.

[The Black Sword]

Got another city capture this turn, a turn ahead of schedule. The basic plan was to march my cat stack over, bombard down the defenses and take the city like before. That would only delay the cat's reaching the capital by 1 turn. However I also stacked all my Cuirs there in case an opportunity arose.

Last turn Dazed/Mack picked up Nationalism. They haven't revolted yet, but I don't particularly fancy fighting 5 muskets per turn. Additionally, we've been moving through their territory at the pace of my cat stack so far, which is rather slow. So long as I keep getting to cut down some defenders in each city that's fine. But I suspect they'll start retreating and abandoning cities soon. I've been thinking that I'll need to break out and start brute-forcing some cities with my Cuirs, taking some casualties but taking the empire quicker. Originally I was thinking that might be after the capital falls.

Here's the picture from last turn, IIRC, a pike was added, 3 unpromoted muskets and the mace retreated.



After some consideration I decided to attack here. I figured the LBs would be easy to deal with and I might be able to get roughly 50% win/withdraw on the muskets and pikes. Attacking now allows my cats to move to the capital a turn quicker, essentially saving a turn on every city I capture from now on. That seemed worth 4ish Cuirs, and in addition they don't get to retreat the 9 units in the city.

First up I decided to use my GG:

I've been ruminating over what to do with him. I attached him to the Trebuchet, which now has morale and accuracy, for 12% bombard per turn against castles. That will bring his defences down from 40% -> 35%. It might be a bit of a questionable use of a GG, but settling him wouldn't get me any new promos, he'll be a free cannon upgrade later and I can try farm him some xp to get to CR2. The other 10xp I gave to a 9xp Cuir, for 2 promos and speeding him along toward the 26xp mark. My pet project is to feed up as many Commando capable Cuirs as possible.

Anyway, we bombard down the 5% and send in our 2 flanking Cuirs against the muskets at these sort of odds:


I get my 1 withdraw and both muskets are redlined. Unfortunately I don't have any more F2 Cuirs, so I have to make do with Shock ones against the pikes:


The top 3 pikes have enough fortify for these type of odds, and the final pike is just built I get 70% combined odds against him. 2 dead Cuirs, 1 withdraw and 1 victory.

Then the longbows and cleanup; 1 80% battle, the rest in the 90s, all victories and lots of xp gained!




That went pretty well. 5 Cuirs and a HA guarding the city.

Domestically, we're up to 7 people knowing PP, so a 56% bonus and still nothing on Constitution. I decided to 1 turn it, unless the inflation rises and screws me over. I also upgraded a bunch of caravels to take back the seas.

[The Black Sword]

Stupid Pitboss left me 5b off PP. It wasn't inflation this time. I think I lost some trade route income, probably from Dtay and that cost me it. That's irrationally annoying. I mean, sure I'd have payed 80g to have Krovice and Old Tourist declare real war on dtay. But in a PBEM, all I have to do is check that my expenses are below my treasury and that the tech bar is all green. Apparently in a Pitboss I need to calculate 1% of my expenses and keep that as a gold buffer, then estimate a reasonable number for foreign trade fluctuation and keep that as a beaker buffer. Or you know, always end turn last, so I don't have to worry about the foreign trade.

In other news, Mack attacked the stack NE of Kharbranth with his capital garrison and a couple of other units. I lost 7 Cuirs, I should be able to finish off the rest of his units this turn. That's probably a better exchange rate than he'd get next turn, but I'm not too choked up about it.

I think I might also build an Explorer corps to go travel the world. Cheapest 2-movers around at the minute and they can travel in caravels.