[Spoilers] Ibuprofen and Eyeglasses: Thoth plays a Middle Aged game

[Thoth]

At the cost of 3 cats and two grennies, I took another city from Commodore bringing me up to 20 cities to 12 each for Commodore and Pindicator.


Ending turn brought this very nice event:





I'm aiming to start my GA next turn and push towards Steel.  F8 shows me at 50% of world pop and needing 54% for Domination.  Still well below the land threshold, it looks like  I'll need most of Commodore's land for that.  In the meantime I'm stockpiling catapults and grennies in the north to deal with Pindicator's next stack.

[Thoth]

Pindicator invaded again with a decent sized stack.  I make it 34 hitters + 17 cats and 5 tebs in the stack.  I'm close but not quite in a position to hit that stack but I do think I've got enough to soak that collateral and inflict decent casualties if he does attack on his turn.  His 1 movers will be across a river from the city (which has walls and 20% cultural defenses vs gunpowder.





I pulled the trigger on the golden age this turn which produced the following demographics:





Forbidden Palace due in 5t:





My former border city with Commodore has shaped up nicely and is a fine home to my second Military Academy:





End of turn F8 screen:





Pindicator can't take Main Gauche next turn (he doesn't have enough hitters) so the question is does he hit me anyway?  And if he does, am I right about having the numbers to soak enough collateral that my defenders still have enough strength to score some kills and/or a good number of hits?  Or does he reposition to the other side of the river?  Or fall back pending more units?  

We shall see.     

Ending turn brought me the Smokeless Powder event so all my Muskets now have Pinch for free.   I don't have a lot of muskets but I do have 3 in Main Gauche

[Thoth]

Pindicator attacked.


Looks like I'll be stack wiping him on my next turn.


GG guys!

[Thoth]

I lost 5 grennies, 1 musket, and 1 knight on defense.

I lost 1 G3 grennie clearing out a rifleman on a hill after clearing out the remainder of Pindicator's stack with no casualties.

Captured 4 workers, deleted the two in Pindicator's territory and left the other two uncovered.  AFAIKT he's got 4 cavalry in position to hit my own combat workers who are protected by some grennies and knights behind a river.  But none of them have moved since Pindiator's 5 minute last turn so it looks like he's a bit tilted.

Demos indicate a 50k power drop for Pindicator since last turn and I'm within a few k power points of having as much military as both of them combined. 






And they both have a lot more power points in capital ships than I do.  (I built 3 frigates in the last 2 turns in the inner sea.  Which brings up up to 3.  )

I've still got 18 cats  in Main Gauche and Steel due in 7t.  My defensive army is intact so I'm free to direct all of my new built stuff onto the Commodore front and clear out his island cities and clear a path to Lance.  That along with his mainland cities should give me enough land to win by Domination if Pindicator hasn't conceded by then.


Lance finally came out of revolt.




I'm not going to get much out of this city.