[SPOILERS] Pindicator as Qin Shi of China - Boring Ol' Vanilla

[pindicator]

All in due time; at this point I don't think I'm going to attack WilliamLP before galleons

[pindicator]

Turn 156

Wow, I let a few turns go by there. And a lot has happened since t150. For starters, I have a new capital:



As it grows we'll let it take back it's entire BFC. And we're going to cottage over that workshop that some other city is busy using -- I think Tandem? -- so we probably want to cottage that up sooner rather than later so Tandem can start growing it. As well as that grassland workshop that Tandem is also working. Poor Tandem, I'll have it steal a workshop from White Falls to make up for this. With our current +6 food hopefully we can grow to size 20 at a decent speed.



When we get there, we'll be able to give the rice up, although I have no idea which border city will get that prize. Maybe we'll just give the grassland farm to Tandem. Or maybe we'll cottage that up too and just take the hit on food for not having an irrigated wheat. No, that seems silly. Either way, someone will get to grow a bit more.

Madrigal screenshot got missed, but it's chugging along at size 14 right now, pumping out CKNs. Gonna need a lot of CKNs soon...

Tyr is where I decided to build my next wonder:



Although right am not sure if I like that decision. So many other things I want to be building, but I also want to get this wonder done. In 9 turns I'm hoping I'll be able to switch things over to more infrastructure. (Or I'll be thankful for the extra production for units...)



Speaking of production for units, I do love Rhi'anon right now. Actually, Rhi'anon was the other city that I was strongly considering building Spiral Minaret in. But I didn't want to tempt dtay with such a prize on the border like that. And Rhi'anon is in an awful spot defensively, at least until we start looking to conquer eastward. (Spoiler: we're not attacking dtay soon.) But look at this! I can 2-turn CKNs or 3-turn knights. Right now we're 3-turning knights because I need everything I can to move west. I love this city



Staying out east, the National Epic finally is done! We have a pair of workers (who just finished workshopping at Rhi'anon) to give it a 4-turn farm. I might just farm over all those workshops. It's not like they cost a lot to rebuild -- with Hagia Sofia a workshop is only 4 turns to build. A pair of workers can knock those out easy. But yeah, this city likely isn't oging to be building much of anything in the nearterm, so we're going infra.

Okay, enough of the snoozefest. Let's get the lurker thread fired up! (I held you guys without an update for half a dozen turns; you guys deserve a little blood in the water.)

Behold!



Right now we're sitting on an army of 7 knights, 3 horse archers, 8 CKNs, 10 swords, 7 catapults, 2 elephants, 2 pikes, and a GG medic on a chariot. I have more than that, but I'm only counting what I have stacked up and ready to invade. I almost moved everything to the staging tiles this turn, but a little worker mis-click and the whole plan got delayed a turn. Eh, it lets a few more knights join the initial party, and also lets me upgrade the last of my horse archers.

I've also been scouting Cyneheard out west:



Last turn was the better picture, as I saw units streaming west and galleys waiting to pick them up, but it's pretty obvious that Cyneheard is moving everything west. His border cities with me are the only cities with defenders; everything else is minimally garrisoned. I haven't scouted the capital yet, and I am a little worried that I'm going to run into a stack of knights there that will change my plan. Well, if that happens then I'll change things up. Until then, this is the plan:



Next turn the 12 mounted units will move to the Blue A square and upgrade (although probably not the GG chariot). This will put them in range to hit the Caladan. And unless there's a huge mounted stack that I haven't found yet (say, at the capital....) then I will be able to easily take the city the following turn. Meanwhile, my slow-movers are going to rely on overwhelming numbers to prevent Cyneheard from being able to take them out. That stack will be 30 units strong, and should have enough defense against mounted units with 3 war elephants and 2 pikes. I've only seen a handful of catapults so collateral shouldn't be a problem. It will take 2 turns of moving before we can attack, but with Cyneheard moving everything west and the lack of units I've seen in the core of his territories, I think this can work.

I do have a chariot scouting his lands (trying not to look too obvious, I've moved him to the far west to "check out the war"). But I'm sure it registered on Cyneheard's radar. So he might have spies in my cities already. (Note to self: build spies!) So I'm trying to stay away from staging inside of cities. Unfortunately in the south it is the only realistic way. (I could have tried being sneaky but I would have had to divert more workers and it would have taken more time.)

So yeah, that's the plan. We'll stage on 157 and declare on 158.

[pindicator]

I just realized I have entirely forgotten about Castles and the free trade route they provide. +1 trade routes would mean dodging Economics and teching Scientific Method for Free Speech (still, Sci Meth is a longterm goal as of now). Downside is that even with the PRO discount that would mean spending 60 hammers in each city. And right now I'd rather have a CKN from every city.

So to compare, my options right now are (hammer values are adjusted for resource and Org Rel/Forge bonuses):

• Walls + Castle: 60h, +4 to +7 commerce per turn, expires with Economics
  
• Courthouse: 80h, -3 to -5 gpt in savings
  
• Temple: 54h, +2 bpt & +2 gpt
  
• Monastery: 40h, +2 bpt & +2 gpt, expires with Scientific Method
  

That's a lot of per-city bonuses that I need to get down.

[Commodore]

But BLOOD lasts forever!

[pindicator]

Turn 157

Lots going on in the world still:

• Krill got the last spoils of CH. GG buddy.
  
• Zanth is carving a bit of a builder's empire up north with his 2nd wonder.
  
• My scouting chariot has found muskets from TBS. Realizing all over again that dtay is Ethiopia and man do I really hope he doesn't send those Oromos my way.
  

Because I got this staged and ready to go:





There was a knight finished in Caladan at the end of last turn. This is where I was really hoping Cyneheard would play ahead of me so that knight would get to be an extra turn away when I declared. But we're past the halfway mark on the turn and I'm not going to sit around and camp to the last moment. Next turn I'll scout the capital with my chariot in Cyneheard's lands and then we'll make the decision whether to stick with the 2-stack approach or bring the knights into the 1-mover stack in the south.

Final tallies will be 13 knights in the north, and 30 1-movers in the south. More units streaming in from the east. (Please don't attack me, dtay!)


Finally, we hit a milestone this turn:



100 hindu cities. And I just finished my grocer. Best shrine I've ever had and probably will ever have. I made sure to switch over to a bank right away. 13 turns until that finishes.

[Commodore]

Sweet. For the glory of China!

[Ceiliazul]

Good sportsmanship on the turn order, may it bring massive spoils in return!

Those tactical pics are top notch, good luck and kill em all.

[pindicator]

The next turn was up when I got home, and I couldnt' resist playing. It's too late for a report, but the news all looks good: I don't see any stack of knights, it seems like Cyneheard has moved everything west for his war.

So I declared and moved in.

[Ituralde]

Loved the tactical analysis and planning and it looks like I came by just in time to witness some clobbering!

[pindicator]

Turn 158

Pre-war scouting:







A knight and warrior in the capital, a single longbow in Heliopolis, and 5 units in the border city. No knight stack seen in my half a dozen turns in Cyneheard's territory; if he's hidden it then he deserves to crush my army.

So we moved in!



Best part was that upon war declaration the chariot was teleported to the tile I meant to stage my knights to



I moved a pike off the main group to grab a worker of Cyneheard's. I was debating promoting that knight shown to sentry so I could see in the city, but I feel confident enough about the city's composition not to burn the promo quite so soon.

In other news in the turn...



I spent a few minutes wondering "When did I build a trireme?" But I think MYKI gifted me his trireme.

Demos look cool when I turn on science: