[Spoilers] The games they are a changin' - Ichabod Civ 6 PBEM 3 as England

[pindicator]

You know, suboptimal's units look really out of place for defending any attack against Dalwhinnie. Especially a fast-moving attack from horsemen. Meanwhile we have flat terrain all the way (though a river crossing to contend with).

And look, suboptimal's iron is at Dalwhinnie too.....

[Ichabod]

You know, suboptimal's units look really out of place for defending any attack against Dalwhinnie. Especially a fast-moving attack from horsemen.  Meanwhile we have flat terrain all the way (though a river crossing to contend with).

And look, suboptimal's iron is at Dalwhinnie too.....

I agree. Suboptimal's position right now is very precarious and going for Dalwhinnie after Kikyo, before going for Kaiser's second city, might end up being a good next move. Right now, though, I think we need to focus on capturing Kikyo.



Situation at start of the turn. Our horseman is sadly gone. I confirmed later in the turn that Suboptimal sacrificed his heavily injured sword to take down the horse. Kaiser also seemed to have attacked my warrior (coupled with Sub's south archer), but he survived. This shows how the sword surviving was a big thing, as even a 1HP unit did sufficient damage to my horse, that he was killable by an archer shot + sword attack. I also learned that you can move a tile inside ZoC tiles and still have a movement left for attack any unit that exerts ZoC.

As I've said, though, equal exchange of units favours us. And we got our revenge kill, by shooting the sword three times with our archers.



Unfortunately, I didn't take much interturn pictures, but here's the gist of it: I moved the heavily inured north because I really wanted to check is Suboptimal second sword was dead, rather than just ran away. And I confirmed it. There's a Suboptimal archer 1NE of the Camp, and he can kill my warrior. Thing is, he can't see him, and neither where all my archers are (I think), so I don't think he'll risk it.

Suboptimal's southern archer is toast, if Kaiser decides to cooperate, because there's a warrior 1E of the archer and an archer 1SW of it, most likely. This Kaiser archer can't hit my closest archer, due to the forested hill. The only way my archer dies is if Suboptimal shoots him and Kaiser finishes it with his warrior. But that means the warrior is toast, and I can live with that. The city will be unguarded after that.

Suboptimal's threat seems to be gone and, even more interesting, Rowain doesn't have a DoF with him anymore (if he had one in the first place). And Rowain made peace with Bacchus. So, perhaps Rowain will go for the weakened Suboptimal? Who knows...

Kaiser will complete the 60GPP for the Prophet, aided by Stockholm suzerain bonus of all things. So, we'll be facing DotF starting now. Fortunately, there are some things going our way here. Kaiser only has 3 units and they are all badly positioned, to the south of his city, which means my archers have first shoot advantage due to hilly terrain there. And Kaiser's Camp means that new units start on kind of a bad spot, when you consider a defense of the city. If we park our units on the right spots, we can avoid taking that much punishment. We have warrior fodder when needed too.

The main thing about Kaiser is that he won't have Swordsman/horseman for a long time. He needs to wait 10 turns to get peace with Suboptimal, so he can be gifted. There's one in his second city, but my scout is guarding that spot, so he'd need to send his builder there, guarded by a unit, and that will take a long time (the builder is very badly positioned right now). And Rowain, which is Kaiser final contact, doesn't have iron.

Luckily, DotF isn't added to unit strength inside the city, so our attacks won't be that damaged by it. This might end up being a case of sacrificing units for the greater good of the civ. Anyway, I'm confident even DotF won't be able to hold against 3 horsemen in about 6 turns. We'll see though, as the game is still pretty new.



Next turn, Watchtower finishes a horseman, chopped. It's also building a Heavy Chariot, as we have bonuses stacked on such units (and there's no district I want to place there yet - I considered a Holy Site, but I don't think we'll manage to get one of the GPros, now that Kaiser will get one). We will also chop the other forest into a horse. Desolation Row still needs a bit for its horse, but at lest it starts right next to the front.

I'm hoping all our units will survive until next turn. I don't mind losing the heavily injured warrior, but I really hope to not lose the archer. If we lose it, at least we get a revenge kill (again, who knows what opponents can come up with).

Interesting stuff.

[Ichabod]

By the way, Pindicator asked me a long time ago how my trip was. I had a lot of fun and it was very interesting to visit a first world country (I spent most of the time in Ireland, but made quick trips to Belfast and Amsterdam), as it helped put some things in perspective for me. I had never been to Europe or the USA before this trip (I only traveled in Latin America). Anyway, here's a picture of me asking advice from the Queen herself. It's the Statue of Queen Victoria in Belfast City Hall. Not a Wonder of the World, but I took this picture especially because of this game.

Sorry that the picture is so big. I'm not very good with messing with pictures and uploading them.

[pindicator]

So going off screenshots, suboptimal only has 2 archers and a slinger left in the area -- is that right? Have we really knocked his army down that much? Killing his swords was huge; he can't take a city without any melee.

You know, suboptimal's units look really out of place for defending any attack against Dalwhinnie. Especially a fast-moving attack from horsemen.  Meanwhile we have flat terrain all the way (though a river crossing to contend with).

And look, suboptimal's iron is at Dalwhinnie too.....

I agree. Suboptimal's position right now is very precarious and going for Dalwhinnie after Kikyo, before going for Kaiser's second city, might end up being a good next move. Right now, though, I think we need to focus on capturing Kikyo.

Yeah, this was mostly thinking that if things were to bog down at Kikyo or if we were to get an opening against Dalwhinnie. Mainly I just wanted to keep it in everyone's mind in case an opportunity came up. But right now it's look really good for us at Kikyo. Hell, it's looking really good for us for many more cities with all the horses we have planned coming out.

[Ichabod]

Yes, we killed 1 warrior and 2 swords, so there's only the ranged units left. And the only way Suboptimal's southern archer survives next turn is if Kaiser lets him live, for whatever reason. Otherwise, it'll be hit by an archer and a warrior, already being at 70% health. Ah, and Suboptimal has to keep the slinger/another unit tied to Dalwhinnie, otherwise we can pillage the iron mine with our scout.

The main thing we have to watch out for is Suboptimal's units attacking our units and allowing Kaiser to finish them off, while we try to take Kikyo. But I think we have a fairly decent defensive position to attack Kikyo from (coming from the west od the city), and we can always use our warriors as meat shields for more important units, when the actual attack takes place. 

Finally, there's a chance Rowain will attack Suboptimal, seeing as they don't have forced peace between them anymore, while Rowain has a peace treaty with Bachus.

Unfortunately, I don't think we'll get a new turn today, so the tension will keep going for a while longer.

[Ichabod]

We had some delays this previous turn, but I got another one last night.



Kaiser indeed founded his religion, taking DotF and Work Ethic, presumably to help him get walls in his cities faster. He finished Masonry last turn and is indeed building those walls. It'll take quite some time to finish them, I think, as he just finished a warrior by chopping it. I don't think there is that many hammers invested on the walls this turn.



This scout move reveals that Kaiser likely finished Suboptimal's archer with his warrior + archer combo. That's pretty good, because it means those units aren't on good positions to really threaten my units. Actually, Kaiser's archer can move on the recently chopped silk tile and fire on my warrior or archer, but that is a bit inconsequential, since I don't think he can finish either of those units.



The chopped warrior was create don the Camp. Apparently, Kaiser attacked Suboptimal's other archer with the new warrior, as the unit is damaged already. That's a good sign for us, since it means Kaiser's hate is more directed to Suboptimal.

I attacked Kikyo with 2 archers, while moving and promoting the third one to 97/100 health. The warriors took positions, but didn't attack this turn. I don't want to give Kaiser the possibility of killing any of my units without really exposing one of his to decisive counter attacks (which I think would happen, if I attacked Kikyo with the warrior that could do it). Also, I wanted to prevent Kaiser from taking a secure position on that forest hill with his builder, as I really need to prevent a chop from happening there, so it made sense to conserve the warriors HP. The city ended turn with 157/200 health, IIRC. Pretty good for only 2 archer attacks. This means my archers can outdamage the city's heal rate, while being mostly secure from counter-attacks.




Of course, I plan to start attacking with melee units soon. My horseman, chopped on this last turn, still need 2 more turns of movement before he can attack. I'm not exactly sure when I'll start attacking with the melee units, it depends on how things go and what Kaiser does. The really good news is that DotF doesn't help the city defense, nor the defense of a unit inside the city. So, depending of what Kaiser does, I have two options: slowly grinding the city's health, if he keeps his units in position, or killing the warriors one by one, if he ventures forward. As Kaiser is building walls, I don't expect to see more units any time soon. He still has 3 warriors and an archer. I can also place the city in siege next turn, which can perhaps allow me to capture it the following turn, depending on how much damage I can dish out (I can use the heavily injured warrior to complete the siege and soak a hit, for example). We'll see.

I'm confident that I can take the city before walls hit and I have horses reinforcing soon.

As for Suboptimal, he started a Camp in his Capital, which I think gives a clear signal that his situation took a hit for the worse.

I'm eager to play the following turns.

[pindicator]

Yay, a turn!

157/200 is a good start, but we are going to run into walls pretry quick. I'm guessing 3 turns.  Kaiser's capital is likely making 12 cogs/t turn right now. That chop is going to pull in about 45 (I'm guessing he's only a little behind us there). That would mean he only needs 3 turns of production to build walls.The good news is that production is assigned at the beginning of the turn (not the end like civ4), so we get an extra turn before walls actually go up.

So on t65, 12/80 into walls at the start of his next turn. He moves and covers the builder, and his city heals to 177/200. On our turn we get similar luck on the archer shots and drop him down to around 110. Assume we also have our warrior attacked by his warrior so it has to pillage to heal.

T66 the walls are at 24/80. Chop brings him to ~70/80. Walls complete next turn. City heals to 130. Archers would knock down to around 60. This is the turn the horses arrive. Would we have enough horses and warriors around to finish the city? Probably safe to assume he has knocked 1 warrior out of commission. That leaves us 2 warrives and however many horsemen can attack that turn. It seems doable.

Hopefully I'm correct in all that, but we may consider starting on a battering ram anyway. Even if we do take Kikyo before walls finish, we will definitely need it for Kaiser's last city, and for Suboptimal.

[pindicator]

Of course, I plan to start attacking with melee units soon. My horseman, chopped on this last turn, still need 2 more turns of movement before he can attack. I'm not exactly sure when I'll start attacking with the melee units, it depends on how things go and what Kaiser does.

Just realized I misunderstood this. So the horse needs 2 more turns of movement and then can attack on the 3rd -- meaning it won't arrive in time under my scenario. We might want to consider some melee attacks next turn ten, depending on how the archers do.

And we also need to make room for that 3rd warrior in the back, anyway

[pindicator]

I got to see turn 65 before Ichabod played it, so let's do a bit of a score update for the lurkers following along!  Only the score, I'm going to leave the battlefield reporting to the tactical master who has brought us to this position

(Although I will say to Ichabod, if you see this before playing, then what do you think about moving the warrior at Kikyo onto the forested hill this turn?  Haven't thought it through, but wanted to float the idea.)


The numbers:

Science

1) Ichabod - 12 technologies, 21.2 science
2) Bacchus - 11 technologies, ??? science
3) Rowain - 10 technologies, 14.5 science
4) Suboptimal - 9 technologies, 15.8 science
5) Kaiser - 7 technologies, 7.2 science

Culture

1) Ichabod - 8 civics, 11.9 culture
2) Kaiser - 8 civics, 2.4 culture
3) Bacchus - 7 civics, ??? culture
4) Rowain - 5 civics, 11.7 culture
5) Suboptimal - 5 civics, 7.3 culture

Domination

1) Ichabod - 276 military strength
2) Rowain - 190 military strength
3) Suboptimal - 96 military strength
4) Bacchus - ???
5) Kaiser - 56 military strength

Religion

1) Kaiser - 1 city converted, 9.5 faith
2) Bacchus - ???
3) Suboptimal - 3 faith
4) Ichabod - 2.1 faith
5) Rowain - 1 faith

Screenshots in spoiler tag:

In short: we are still leading most demographics, but Rowain & Bacchus are making a big effort to develop science and civics, and is narrowing the gap

[Ichabod]

Played 2 more turns and ew captured Kikyo.  

Full report to come later, but I think we just made a decisive step towards a win here.