[Spoilers] rho21 follows the works of Homer... D'OH!

[rho21]

Turn 101 has showed up. I've had a look at lunch in work, but I think I want to devote my full attention to this turn later as unit positioning is going to be important. I can report some news now though.

Firstly, the archer lives! There is a (GG-supported) knight in sight to the NW, but nothing in range to even attack Menaechmus next turn. Phew. I should be able to chop the walls there without risk to my worker, and any units I upgrade this turn will be ready to attack next turn.

I also finished military engineering, which shows that there are sources of nitre in the second ring of both Hippocrates and Xenocrates, in each case one square outside current borders. Should claim the first one in 7 turns. Geneva has one too. The only other source I can see is on the C9b site in the SE.

No new barbarian in the camp south of Kongo, so I will have 566 gold for upgrades this turn, which equates to 6 units. Between the two cities I have 6 chariots (1 wounded) and 4 archers to choose between for upgrade (plus a warrior and a sword).

[rho21]

Turn 101

Score tracking
The Aztecs finished a second harbour this turn.
Kongo researched a new technology and picked up 50 - either a camp clearance or pillaging a trader belonging to Brussels, I imagine.

Southern Theatre
The barbarian sword attacked the more damaged hoplite and died, leaving the camp wide open. I clear it for the very welcome 50. The damaged hoplite has 39 health, so it will be turn 107 before the pair get moving again.

Western Theatre
OK, so the archer survives. Here's how things look at the start of the turn:

Support bonus on the knight is +6, so all of the fogged tiles next to it contain units. Given this, I'm going to assume they are attacking at either Menaechmus on T103 or Pythagoras (and Geneva) on T105. I actually suspect the latter right now; handily it makes no difference to my preparations this turn. I will strip Xenocrates of most of its defenders for now: the known Aztec units in the vicinity are outdated, and it won't take long to redeploy knights that way if needed.

The good news is that there's no way the Aztecs have a ram with them unless it's at sea. Far too slow to keep up with the horses.

It's a real shame I'm behind in settling C4: with walls there, I would have a really strong line to defend. As it is, Aztec units passing Menaechmus to the north could threaten to turn my flank by crossing the river. Worse, I can't prevent them making that crossing, as my units would be too spread out to all benefit from the great general. The red salient drawn on the map above is extremely effective here.

So, what can be done? First I'm going to grab Aryabhata again and send him to keep an eye on the northern flank. Any advance warning at all of an Aztec attack on Pythagoras will be invaluable. I'll also make sure Pythagoras has walls ready to finish at short notice, even if I don't get to chop them. I also start moving the archer currently at Euclid to support Pythagoras or Hippocrates as needed. Won't have the funds to upgrade it, but every little helps.

Next, I need to work out which units to upgrade and where to place them. The Aztecs aren't getting over the river this turn, so I will have a chance to respond to their deployment.

So the plan is, referring to the numbers and letters I wrote into the image above:

Chariots:

1. Move to Hippocrates to heal, no point upgrading a wounded unit right now. Would heal in place but I need this tile for a different unit.
   
2. Move 2E and upgrade
   
3. Move to chariot 1's current location and upgrade
   
4. Move to chariot 3's current location and upgrade
   
5. Move to archer B's current location and upgrade
   
6. Move towards Menaechmus as a reserve only
   

Archers:

1. Beat a hasty retreat to Menaechmus, upgrade next turn
   
2. Move to chariot 4's current location and upgrade
   
3. Swap places with archer D; defend at the encampment
   
4. Move to Xenocrates, be ready to act as a reserve for the north or to defend Xenocrates
   

The sword also falls back close to defend near Xenocrates if needed.

Elsewhere, Brussels is under siege and won't last more than a couple of turns. Based on recent military power swings, I'm pretty sure this is Kongo's doing.

Housekeeping
The Aztecs are on 51/60 great merchant points, earning 6/turn. I still don't think the Aztecs will have the on hand for patronage next turn, but it's not worth take the risk for a mere 20 saving, so I buy the great merchant immediately. Zhang Qian appears at Euclid and cannot move this turn (a strange feature of patronage).
Anyway, this makes me suzerain of Hong Kong, boosting my culture further. The Aztecs will meet them thanks to the war declaration.

Mercenaries has finished. I only need to do upgrades this turn and next, so the next target is theology, due next turn.

Military Engineering also finished, revealing (as mentioned) Nitre in fairly sensible places. I start on Gunpowder next. I'm not getting the boost any time soon, but it's good to have the option to research it the expensive way if needed.

Finishing mercenaries gained me an envoy with which I take back suzerainty of Geneva, removing 10.5 income from the Aztecs and making all my cities happy again.

The campus is done at Hippocrates, giving an immediate 8 income (4 for adjacency, 4 from Geneva). My science rate is going to explode once I can get the third campus finished and start running the adjacency doubling policy. For reference, a library costs 180, twice the cost. A university I would therefore expect to cost 500. Pricey, even with all the free faith I get from harvesting.

Time for a new government, which will last all of 1 turn. The one after will go for about 4 turns. So which policies look interesting for this turn and next?

• Professional Army - upgrades
  
• Limes - needed to finish walls at Menaechmus. I also need to chop walls at Apollonius at some point and get started on walls at Aristaeus.
  
• Conscription - 14/turn
  
• Bastions - city defence bonuses sound very handy
  
• Feudal Contract - to build crossbows. They cost 180 though, so there won't be any done particularly soon.
  
• Caravansaries - 6/turn
  
• Colonization - still have settlers to finish
  
• Urban Planning - currently 7 before multipliers
  
• Trade Confederation - 1, 1 from international trade routes
  
• Charismatic Leader - still nothing better for a diplomatic slot
  

This turn I require Professional Army and Limes, other than that there's nothing I can't afford to drop for 1 turn (with production changes to match).
Next turn I'm going to want Bastions, Conscription and Colonization.

I have the option of changing to Autocracy to get rid of the diplomatic slot. None of my units in this fight get the +4 combat bonus from Oligarchy, though obviously the bonus XP is still nice.

The more I look at this, the better it seems. I could run these governments:
This turn: Professional Army, Limes, Conscription, Urban Planning, Colonization
Next turn: Bastions, Conscription, Feudal Contract or Limes, Urban Planning, Colonization

Actually, I get 1% bonus XP for the rest of time if I wait a turn before switching. Not huge, but I would only be using Colonization in one city this turn anyway.

So that means Pythagoras and Aristaeus start walls this turn, Menaechmus continues its walls and Hippocrates puts a turn into a granary, which is desperately needed.  Euclid also needs to switch production. Sadly the new merchant has generated an extra trade route slot. I guess Euclid can start work on a market: I'm going to need a couple of them before too long.

Whew, what a turn. Glad I didn't try to play that one at work. Here's how things look after everything that happened this turn:

[Garath]

I'll try to find some time to comment in more detail on that turn if I can, though of course commenting on military moves that are already a fait accompli is a bit unhelpful, and helping with the work of planning the next turn is nigh-impossible since I can't see what the Aztecs have done in the meantime.

However, I did want to make some quite comments on the report itself here - basically, while I really like marking up the screenshot with the lines and lettering the units (really do - it makes complicated reports like that one *far* easier to follow) you need to make them a bit more visible. Even the red arrow is only just about the size it needs to be, I think, and the letters on the units I simply didn't notice at all before you mentioned them in the text report, and even after I knew they were there I could barely read them. If used again, they need to be bigger, bolder, brighter-coloured, or quite possibly all three.

If you *do* manage to survive this push, taking that merchant and almost catching up on science will be pretty good things!

[rho21]

Turn 102

Score tracking
The Aztecs gained a couple of population.
Kongo finished another tech.

Southern Theatre
Something very strange has happened. The hoplite that was in the red last turn and spent a turn healing has healed 60 health! Meanwhile the almost undamaged hoplite is now in the yellow. The latter can be ascribed to the barbarian scout suiciding itself, I guess, though I wouldn't have expected that much damage.

Anyway, the sudden healing is reminiscent of the effect Sulla reported in PBEM7 when Mike was cheating by editing the game file. Not that I'm accusing anyone of doing that here, I've certainly not seen any other signs of it.

Much of this healing is going to be wasted hanging around for the other hoplite to heal too. What do the lurkers think, should I wait for the time the hoplite should have taken to heal before moving on?


Western Theatre

So, the Aztecs are aiming for Menaechmus. Honestly, that's a relief. Unfortunately for them, they're running straight into an army of similar strength, also supported by a great general, and with a river and fortifications and ranged support to help out.

Note that Menaechmus has taken damage. I guess the river crossing cost doesn't apply attacking into cities. Makes sense, as there are bridges out of them too.

Support bonuses show no other units close behind those ones.

Time to show why defence is better than attack. One way is that kicking the great general will leave him miles away, and leave the Aztec forces weakened and slow. Kicking mine would still leave him in range of most forces. Not that that's going to be a possibility this turn.

I upgrade the archer A into a crossbow, having first moved it 1E out of Menaechmus. This boosts metal casting.

One attack to do now, while Oligarchy is still active: the crossbow B fires from the square the great general started on, 50v50 against the knight on the jade. It does 27 damage, a little below average.


Housekeeping
Theology is done, recorded history is up next in just 3 turns. So before we can get to the fighting, time to do some chops then switch governments.

First up, chopping a forest for 74 at Menaechmus to finish the walls and provide 147 of overflow. That can be used to finish the industrial zone or to produce most of a crossbow. The industrial zone seems like the better plan here.

Then harvesting the stone at Apollonius provides 92 for 180 of overflow. That goes for a 1-turn temple with plenty left over. I feel that's going to be valuable enough. I did consider finishing the settler instead, but I think I'm OK doing that naturally.

Next a switch of governments. I change to Autocracy, as planned, picking Conscription, Bastions, Limes (want to chop through the wall at Aristaeus sooner rather than later), Urban Planning and Colonization.

Xenocrates has finished its barracks and starts an armoury, due in an insane 17 turns. Hopefully I can find a way to speed this up a bit.

I send another envoy to Geneva to solidify my position there. Aryabhata's job is done, so he heads to the nearest campus and activates to grab the boosts for Castles, Shipbuilding and Celestial Navigation. Zhang Qian teleports to Hippocrates for use there next turn.

Aristaeus does some ludicrous micro to maximise its wall chop: working a 2 tile instead of a 2 3 tile for a couple of turns. Ugh. More happily, the missionary has arrived there and successfully converts the city to Parallelism. The pressure for others to convert only goes up from here.

Incidentally, the next great merchant is Giovanni de Medici, costing 240 points. He can build a market and bank instantly. Not sure how many charges he has; if it's more than 1 he's pretty awesome. The Aztecs will be recruiting him in 30-odd turns.


Western Theatre continued

Menaechmus' walls don't get to attack, sadly. Not entirely sure why: chopped units do get to move, after all. Oh well, I should have noticed that and kept Oligarchy until after these attacks. Never mind.

The knight SW of Menaechmus attacks the knight on the jade, 57v59, suffering 27 damage and dealing 29. Good rolls this time.

Tricky decision next: I could finish the knight off, but it would almost certainly cost the life of the knight that launches the attack. However the red-lined enemy knight isn't even fully out of the fight yet as it will probably have a promotion pending. In the end I decide to attack. If the enemy knights stick around to kill my knight, it will cost them dearly: they will come under fire from 2 crossbows and the city. I might kill two more. There's a good chance they'll retreat to fight another day instead.

So, the attack is at 57v56. My knight takes 24 damage and gets the kill. Great roll, too, not that it will save it if the Aztecs do decide to attack it. Getting a kill with a knight also boosts military science. I make that 5 tech boosts this turn.

Here's how things look at the end of turn. The chariot SW-W of Menaechmus is there to screen the crossbow. It can probably be killed if they want, at the cost of a knight. A trade I'd gladly take.

[rho21]

I'll try to find some time to comment in more detail on that turn if I can, though of course commenting on military moves that are already a fait accompli is a bit unhelpful, and helping with the work of planning the next turn is nigh-impossible since I can't see what the Aztecs have done in the meantime.

Yeah, I was always aware there wouldn't be any chance to ask for tactical suggestions without holding the save for ages. Your assistance with strategic planning remains very valuable though.

However, I did want to make some quite comments on the report itself here - basically, while I really like marking up the screenshot with the lines and lettering the units (really do - it makes complicated reports like that one *far* easier to follow) you need to make them a bit more visible. Even the red arrow is only just about the size it needs to be, I think, and the letters on the units I simply didn't notice at all before you mentioned them in the text report, and even after I knew they were there I could barely read them. If used again, they need to be bigger, bolder, brighter-coloured, or quite possibly all three.

Ah, thanks for the warning. Looks fine on mine, but then I knew in advance what I was looking for. I can see that it would definitely look invisible on smaller screens. I'll go back and edit that screenshot and go for brighter and larger in the future.

[Garath]

Well that all went *far* better that it looked like it might when we first saw that force a few turns ago! To the point that unless there's quite a bit more to this force that we haven't seen yet (which I doubt) I really *hope* that stays and fights. Unfortunately it seems unlikely, because Aztec can presumably also count and see that the force is unlikely to survive, let alone achieve anything, if it stays.

I want to commend you for not overreacting to the military pressure, actually! Particularly when we weren't entirely sure if they were going to hit the turn before upgrades or the turn after, I was worried that you were still talking about settlers and districts, not desperately trying to get a couple more units out. But it certainly looks like doing so would have been wrong.

Assuming that the Aztecs *do* retreat, have you thought of any way to make sure they keep going all the way? That is, I'm worrying about them 'backing off', making a push from the other side Xenocrates in a few turns and then when you are engaged with that basically saying "Surprise! This knight force actually just backed off four tiles to heal and is still here!". Or is your defense simply flexible enough with the fast-moving knights that it doesn't matter too much if they do that?

[rho21]

Turn 103

Score tracking
The Aztecs have finished another campus and gained a pop.
Kongo has also gained a pop.


Western Theatre
And with that cunning strike, the first proper battle of the Aztec-Greek war has ended in a glorious tactical victory for Greece! The Aztec knights are nowhere to be seen. Certainly the right decision from them, they would have lost most of their force by sticking around. I'm sure they'll be back before too long though.

In fact a little scouting reveals they've not gone all that far.

And they've been joined by at least one more unit: one of the knights I have located has a +8 support bonus. Maybe they're coming straight back with ranged support, maybe they're going to keep retreating and show up again elsewhere.

My damaged pair of knights settle behind the river to heal up. One uninjured knight moves to keep an eye on the northern approach, though I think it more likely that Xenocrates or Menaechmus will be where they strike next. Scouting at Near Wild Heaven reveals the ram there has disappeared. I assume it is heading up behind the ridge to join the knights.

Attacking one of my cities with a ram, those knights would chew through the walls in no time. However the ram will be difficult to get close without giving me tactical possibilities to destroy it.


Housekeeping
Zhang Qian does his thing in Hippocrates' commercial hub.

Pythagoras has finished a settler. Hmm, can I go for C4 with this settler as planned? I really need that city to secure the northern part of the river, but it will be pretty weak until it can get walls built. I reckon it's probably OK, so I move that way. Can always turn around if I sense an Aztec attack that way in the next couple of turns. Pythagoras starts on its university, due in 11.

Apollonius has 66 more overflow left after the temple. I want to put this into the Mahabodhi temple to get the pair of Apostles. However even with overflow and with 10% to wonder production thanks to Autocracy it would still be 50 turns or so with natural production. I could chop in the deer and last two remaining forests, that would leave the city almost without production. On balance I reckon I'm better off using the overflow on something with more immediate benefits. Perhaps I can chop the Mahabodhi out much later when yields have gone up. Accordingly, the overflow goes into the newly-possible trader (thanks Zhang), due in 2.

Menaechmus' industrial zone is done. It continues building a settler.

[rho21]

I want to commend you for not overreacting to the military pressure, actually! Particularly when we weren't entirely sure if they were going to hit the turn before upgrades or the turn after, I was worried that you were still talking about settlers and districts, not desperately trying to get a couple more units out. But it certainly looks like doing so would have been wrong.

I have to give a large amount of the credit there to the way the game works: military units just take so long to build. Any units I'd started building in response to the Aztec military spike wouldn't be done for another 10 turns or so anyway, far too late to matter. Still, I do want to get more units in production after the next civic switch. Still plenty of urgent infrastructure though, and I'm running a bit tight on again, with all the knights and crossbows to support.

Assuming that the Aztecs *do* retreat, have you thought of any way to make sure they keep going all the way? That is, I'm worrying about them 'backing off', making a push from the other side Xenocrates in a few turns and then when you are engaged with that basically saying "Surprise! This knight force actually just backed off four tiles to heal and is still here!". Or is your defense simply flexible enough with the fast-moving knights that it doesn't matter too much if they do that?

I know of 4 knights (plus another unknown unit) over near Menaechmus and a crossbow (just spotted) at Near Wild Heaven. I think they only have ~8 up to date units, so that's most of them. An attack with archers and eagles would just melt away under encampment and archer fire at Xenocrates. Also Temujin can only be in one place at once, so any up-to-date units down that way will be much weaker and slower than the scary ones in the north. Still, I am trying to keep some knights in range in case they need to head back that way. I'm feeling fairly stretched right now, could really use more units to ensure both flanks are covered and to protect C4 if I found it.

I don't have the force to chase the Aztecs further away: any attempt to advance across the open grasslands would be a bloodbath for both sides. All I can do is scout with a knight each turn to try to keep tabs on their location.

[rho21]

A new, more strident version of that planning image on Turn 101 is up. Let me know if that's good now or if it needs more boldness.

Any thoughts on whether I should settle C4? Or for that matter on what I should do about the miraculous hoplite healing?

[Garath]

The letters still don't really pop (surprisingly - it's not like you could have chosen a much more aggressive colour this time) but they are now readily visible when I'm actually looking at them, so yes, much improved. The only thing I can think of that might be an easy improvement (depending on how you are creating them, of course) is that a thin white border to the letters might help them separate from the busy background? The arrow is probably slightly out the other side this time - bigger than it needed to be.

I don't have the first clue about 'miraculous hoplite healing', really. Assuming you mean something that should be completely impossible in-game (which admittedly it sounds like you do)... I guess you should report it to the rest of the players somehow? I'm really not sure, sorry.

C4 seems tough, without a forest to chop for walls in an emergency (unless you can switch tiles between cities and chop the one 2W of Pythagoras?), but I think on balance I would found it anyway. It's sufficiently back in your lines, with rough terrain on the approach, that I think the Aztecs going directly for it would probably be rather overexposed. Unless they had completely overwhelming force it seems like it would be relatively easy to hurt them from the flanks, and it would be pretty hard for them to get away again without more losses than killing a size 1 city is worth. And if they *did* have completely overwhelming force... would it really matter? They'd be attacking Menaechmus anyway, in that case!