Last turn had every appearance of impending action. In addition to the amphibious Cataphract noted above, I saw this in the north:
MJMD's catapult and knight stacks both advanced, after having spent multiple turns on the prior signed tiles. Their movement was converging on the NW diagonal of Citadel, in sync with Superdeath's counter-clockwise Cataphract crusade. Superdeath again put his workers on MJMD border tiles, guarded this time by 3 Cataphracts. I had 2 options:
1) Hold in place, let SD road that tile, and give him the opportunity to split my defenses ... I only have enough catapults in range to hit one combined stack, so if MJMD landed 1NW of Citadel while SD advanced separately through the roaded tile it could get a little uncomfortable. I'd still likely come out fine, but I would have to eliminate SD's stack with my catapults and then give MJMD the opportunity to use his catapults against Citade.
2) Declare war on MJMD, take out SD's Cataphracts and workers, and thus funnel him to the kill tile 1NW of Citadel.
I took option #2. My pikes had 67% odds on the Cataphracts and I lost 1 exactly in line with the odds, and used an axe for cleanup which I then deleted along with the 2 workers.
At Money SD took the annoying action of pillaging my wheat
I sent in a spear at 12%, which did enough damage that my 2nd spear was victorious for another 6 GG points
After surveying the MJMD and Pindicator (lack of) forces in the region I peeled off 8 catapults along the YELLOW path within striking distance of the kill tile 1NW of Citadel. I was all set up for another showdown with SD's Cataphract this time with catapults and mixed stack support ... ready for smack down the stack in a "final showdown" ... only for it to fizzle into nothing. SD's Cataphracts continued their Counter-Clockwise Crusade, ending up 1W of Edwin Fox which isn't even in range to hit Citadel "from the fog" if MJMD had advanced. And so MJMD on his part didn't advance, but remained unmoved. I also held in place.
What is SD's target?
What is his goal?
In domestic matters:
We finally build the Christian shrine and the profits are magnificent! Our breakeven rate is now 50% and factoring in the library/university/Oxford bonuses the shrine is worth around 90 net bpt breakeven, a 25% increase overall
Printing Press was 1-turned with overflow off Alphabet + Gunpowder
Replaceable parts is a 2.5 turn tech, with this being the first (T172). Completion EOT174.
Nationalism should be 2 turns with the half turn of overflow off RP, EOT176. Taj rush T177.
Rifling in Golden Age will be 4 turns, EOT180 ... 5 turns slippage from initial plan.
Military Tradition will be 3 turns, EOT183 ... 7 turns gain from previous plan.
I thought about the land > promote to Morale trick right as I hit end turn. It’s not my best coastal city but it does have 900 GPP accumulated. I could easily have covered it with another unit just to be safe.
