Dave's Not Throwing Away His Shot

[oledavy]

I will write a full report for turns 81-82 later today, but just wanted to acknowledge something that is annoying me immensely. 

Singaboy pillaged two tiles of the Korean highway   

This has slowed down my timeline for taking Seoul, as my battering ran slowly crawls across the hills. 

I had thought the first turn I could attack the city with it would be turn 81, but it's instead going to be turn 83. Currently, I'm set up to move in next turn (82), and begin attacking the turn after that. Anyway, just wanted to bring this up because it was a very smart move by Singaboy and a detail I didn't notice in mousing over the map until it was too late.

[Commodore]

As much fighting as you've been doing...how's Greek war culture stacking up against Rome?

[oledavy]

As much fighting as you've been doing...how's Greek war culture stacking up against Rome?

Better than I expected, but still not well. 

I have earned 195 at that point, and that has been through constant fighting - I can only speculate on what a more peaceful opening would look like. 

Rome's t1 monument would have given 166 culture alone by this point, and that's not including auto-monuments in other cities you settle 

Granted, the cap for me is higher because I can still build monuments where Rome cannot. It feels like a really solid ability, and adds a major incentive to constant warring, but I think if you pick Greece, you pick it for Plato's Republic, not for Thermopylae. 

Turns 81-82

I have a lot of screenies from these two turns, but things have been happening so fast, I'm going to abbreviate the events of these turns into a dreaded text only report. 

Anyway, brief recap: 

The Second Korean War

As previously mentioned, Singaboy pillaged the highway between Hamilton and Seoul. I can't believe I didn't notice this before, and it caused a major delay in my offensive. I spent turns 81-82 positioning to move all my units within range of the city on t83. In the meantime, a horseman appeared and jetted through my lines into the city to buff its defense. Smart move, although I was slightly surprised he didn't have an archer in there already. I was expecting to deal with 1 archer inside the city, and 1-3 reinforcing units arriving from the south. An army like this would have been extremely difficult to deal with if it had combined with his forces already around Seoul, but since he allowed me to defeat him in detail, the threat was greatly reduced. As of t82, however, only 1 reinforcing unit had arrived as I prepared to close to noose around Seoul. 

Domestic Affairs

I got the Inspiration for Feudalism, finished it, started Mercenaries, and revolted into Raid, Conscription, Urban Planning, Charismatic Leader, and Trade Caravans. This did cost me a couple hammers as I finished up the last two settlers, but I decided it was better to eat that cost now than effectively lose out on the slot for the next 8 turns between now and Mercenaries, when gold is so important. Raid should yield huge dividends for me. Almost as important as the city of Seoul itself is the pasture (100 gold) and mine (50 science) to it's east. I'm now questioning my decision to swap out of Colonization, wondering how many hammers it cost me....

Oh well, not worth worrying about now. 

In the north, I found the barb camp and killed the spear for 12 culture 

Thermopylae Culture: 195 

A scout is wandering around south of the encampment however, a major concern for me since I have unescorted settlers moving into the region soon and this archer is my only military unit within a lightyear. 

I suzerained Carthage and the amenities helped immensely. It's vision revealed there is a tundra peninsula to it's north, but otherwise, it seems very close to the top of the map. I've definitely found the top of the map on the eastern peninsula. 

Lastly, I settled the city of Georgetown, queued up a monument, and spent a long time debating whether or not to work a 2/2/0 tile or a 1/2/1/1 science tile. I ultimately decided on the former, because the city will grow in 8 turns instead of 15 as a result, then I can have my second pop and work both. I will be running a trade route from the city to Hamilton soonish, a trader is being produced in Lafayette to take advantage of my Encampment Trade Route. 

International News

Singaboy suzerained Preslav, smart move for him. He seems to have a lot of horsemen, so the suzerain bonus (+5 str. on hills) could be very useful for him. 

Woden continues to grow by leaps and bounds. He's at six cities, is leading me in science and culture, and landed Petra as his 5th wonder. Turns out I was wrong, wonders give 5 points each and he had only completed 4 earlier. 

Alhambram now has the largest military in the game - I hope he's putting it to good use. Woden is only slightly behind him though.... At least I have the consolation of knowing Woden had to sink cogs/gold into military. I'm just now growing concerned that he may be the attacking player. 


Okay, those are the broad strokes. Time for the biggest turn of the game.

[oledavy]

Turn 83



Archduke came through!!!

Note: he apparently made peace with Preslav again in another example of the same bug I observed. 

This is huge. Monumental. I'm on the right side of the 2v1 this time, the 'Singaboy' position of the last war. I was beginning to believe I had gambled too hard, I was pretty sure I could take Seoul before Singaboy could marshal forces to defend it, and a long war would be precluded by the threat posed by Archduke/an actual invasion on his part. Still, I was worried that the most logical move to me would not be the most logical to Archduke. 
What's more, Archduke seems to believe he can take a city based on the organizing thread (Probably Frankfurt) 

If he takes it, Singaboy will likely be out of the game and will dedicate the rest of his existence to bringing down Archduke - which would be great for me. Time will tell, but I agonized constantly in the last war about what I could try to do to an opponent without leaving them no hope to win, and Archduke might just back Singaboy into a corner here. 

Still, Archduke's optimistic post aside, we'll cross the bridge and consider what it means/how it will effect my offensive when the time comes. Unless Singaboy has no forces at all around the city, however, I expect he'll do just fine and hold Archduke off. Singaboy has incredible production, a large existing military, access to both strategic resources, and Preslav. If he was remotely prepared, which seems likely due to his military growth over the last bunch of turns, I think he'll hold. I have to say, while I feel justified in my decision to invade, both as revenge for the last war, and as the most logical thing I could do to improve my chances at victory, I do feel a little bad for Singaboy in this. He's played very well from a start that has seemed a little weaker. I think he had problems with barbs early. He played the last war excellently, and up to this moment, was shaping up to be the strongest power of the three of us. 

I can't see what he's been planning obviously, what concerns have been on his mind, but the likely roots of this dogpile were two errors on his part that have only become very obvious with hindsight:

1. The decision to make peace with me, just a bit too soon.
2. Not immedietly investing every cog in military when Archduke and I made peace with our large militaries still intact. 

I will save more thoughts when his fate is more apparent - but I honestly believe this will put him down but not out.  Unless of course it's a phony war and there is no army approaching Frankfurt/Whatever City. 
For now though, this all but guarantees I can overpower him and take Seoul. Frankfurt, if it is indeed under assault, is a city he cannot win without (it has 2 districts   ). Seoul is a speedbump that's barely worth anything by comparison. I'm actually surprised at the number of units he's sent to defend it already considering the backwater it is and the existential threat Archduke's GG-led army may pose. 

So, the plan for now is to continue by attack on Seoul. I'll re-evaluate my war aims, if I want to liberate or try to get the city ceded to me, when I want to make peace, etc., as their war progresses. Ideally, however, my goals are to: 

1. Get as much territory as I can from Singaboy while not having to build more military.
2. Make sure they are both fighting for as long as possible, ideally with territory changing hands frequently.
3. If Singaboy is on the way out but will not die easily, make sure I'm not the one he wants to drag down with him. 
4. If Singaboy is on the way out but is collapsing, get as much of his territory as I can. 

He is building walls in Ulm now though: 



This indicates he may be anticipating defending it sooner rather than later...

I also see another city he settled out in the fog: 



It may be his 5th, or a sixth he settled since we started the war. Impossible to tell at the moment. 

I'll return to using paint next turn, but this turn there were no attacks and it was all about moving around Seoul. 



Not seen, the archer 1 southeast of the southern horse. 

He has 2 horses, 1 archer, and 1 sword all inbound. This is a fairly formidable force, and it precluded me completely surrounding the city like I wanted to and positioning a horseman to pillage the mine for next turn. I settled for the configuration shown. He only has the archer and the city for ranged attacks, so I can attack the city starting next turn from the positions I've already occupied (which have it under siege), and force him to attack my army and expose it to counter-attack. I do anticipate losing a couple units here, however. The territory south of the city is extremely dangerous for me, as he can combine 2 ranged attacks and 2 horses onto a unit there - enough to kill most of what I had. 

The only one who can sustain that sort of damage is the Tortoise promoted sword, on the high ground southwest of the city and anchoring my flank. 

We shall see what he does, but next turn I'm anticipating beginning my assault on the city itself and pillaging the pasture for 100 gold 

As an aside, I thought you could pillage a trade route at any point along the length, but I did not have the option to do so when I move a horse (who yes, had 3MP left) atop the road this last turn. Quite disappointing. I could really use the gold from pillaging that trade route. 

I imagine my assaults on the city will provoke an attack from his four units, but it's probably a turn out. my formation, with all its overlapping support bonuses, ensures I'm pretty secure for now. Still, with regular ranged attacks from the city-center - soon probably to be joined by an archer, I need to take the city sooner rather than later if I want to avoid catastrophic damage to my army. 



Woden either finished a second campus, or a library. Fortunately, with the completion of my second settler out of Hamilton, I am now repairing the campus at long last. My long-planned GS plan will finally be coming to fruition. 



In the west, Archduke is trying to make our border region more secure by building an encampment. 

Internationally, Woden continues to be worrying with his science and culture rate. However, I'm anticipating being able to at least keep pace with him with the two additional cities I'm settling and the city I'm likely capturing in the next dozen turns. Still, I'm very much keeping an eye on him and trying to take what steps I can to make sure that he's not in an unassailable position compared to me by the time I can do something about him directly. 

So. this brings us to my plan going forward. This turn, I can see the rest of my game unrolling like a fine rug. 

Turn 105 War to Eliminate Archduke

This is based on the idea that I'm able to secure an early exit from the Second Korean War and build and tech in peace while Archduke and Singaboy tear each other to pieces. If they peace out on t92 with their militaries still intact, I will have to re-evaluate. 

No though, I'm already beelining gunpowder. I already have an encampment in place. I am getting to mercenaries relatively soon, and I'm earning points towards El Cid. The plan is to upgrade an army in the turns leading up to t105, composed of crossbows, knights, and muskets. I'll get El Cid, attack Archduke, take Mykenes and Buenoes Aires, and put him out of the game. With his territory in my empire, I should be in a strong enough position to win, and instead of me trying to figure out how to get at Woden, Woden will be trying to figure out how to get at me. 

The best part is that most of my military for this war is already built (save a half-finished swordsman in Schuyler, an archer in Lafayette, and an as yet unbuilt Heavy Chariot). 

On turn 105, I want to invade Archduke with: 

2 Muskets
4 Crossbowmen
2 Knights
1 Battering Ram
El Cid

To that end, here is my shopping list for the next 23 turns: 

1. ~900 total gold (accumulating that much being one of my big motivations in fighting this current war in the first place). 
2. 4 Archers, 2 Swords, 2 Heavy Chariots, 1 Battering Ram
3. About 100 GG points for El Cid.

Gold will be an issue, and I may end up slow building a couple of the crossbows by using the requisite policy. However, I think I can easily get in the 400-500 range before the start of the war with all the cogs I'm sinking into my economy in the coming turns. There will likely be strong competition for the GG from Archduke and Singaboy. Archduke has been running Strategos over the last couple turns. However, hopefully they'll be distracted by their war and unable to do things like building barracks, building an armory, or running an Encampment Project, like I will do if necessary. 

If everything works out, I will have an unbeatable army on t105, will roll over Archduke, and be in position to win the game from there. There's still a lot of game between now and then though, so we'll see what happens. 

[oledavy]

Can anyone point me at the Encampment Project yield/cost info? I am right in assuming it grants gold and GG points, right?

A quick search online has not turned up anything. 

[srgtb]

It gives you gold each turn it is worked but the GPP all are given when it completes.

From Sulla's pbem1 write up:

Cost = 25 * (1 + 14a)
GPP = 10 * (1 + 7a) [or 5 * for theater/carnival]
where a = max(techs/67, civics/50)

[srgtb]

I believe it gives 15% of the production cost as gold

[rho21]

Yep, that's my simplified version of the formula Sulla found. I ripped out the various places where it rounds the number, so round down whatever you get out.

[Zero_1627]

A quick search online has not turned up anything. 

Because why would player need information like what he'll actually get from an action...
'Need to know only'?

[oledavy]

I believe it gives 15% of the production cost as gold

Is that at a strict 1 cog = 1 gold ratio? i.e., 100 cogs produces 15 gold?