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

[pindicator]

Looking at the cultural defense of Cyneheard's northern cities, I don't think this scenario is all that crazy:

159 - capture Caladan
160 - move all knights to the hill NE of his capital
161 - capture capital

It just depends on how much Cyneheard can pull out of the west by then.

[Ceiliazul]

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

Surely thats no surprise for the descendants of the crafty Captain Scout. The best post in the game requoted below in case anyone missed it:

Turn 051

Cyneheard has been posturing very aggressively towards my scout, trailing it with warriors despite the forced peace through turn 51. So on turn 50 when I began my return home, and found him positioned like so, I feared my scout was done for. They who had been to the ends of the earth, yet now on the return home the Egyptians were waiting like cowards to prey on them.



They hounded and tossed insults at our brave men, shadowing them for days as they roamed the waters of the west. Left with no options, the scout took the only route possible. It grasped at a gossamer hope so thin if you turned your head just a little it would disappear in the sunlight. The captain of the scouting party ordered his men south: He would lose the Egyptians in the wild forests west of their capital, where he promised them that they would be home faster than they could imagine, and no Egyptian would catch trace of any sign of their passing. The men thought him mad, but followed with grim resolution.

The captain swears he could not find the path again if his life depended on it. Already the tale of it has taken on a life of its own among the company. Some say they found an underground tunnel that led them from one side of Egypt to the other. Others claim the gods of the land had so favored them that they were able to walk in open during full daylight and the enemies' eyes were turned away. Others refuse to speak anything of it at all, simply shaking their heads and smiling as if they still cannot believe their luck.

But they all agree that the captain knew how it would end all a long, and to a man they will follow him now wherever he should call them to go. They know they are close to home now. And although there are reports of wild men roaming the vast empty spacies of world -- as wild and untamed as the Egyptians but living under no banner of their own -- the men know their captain will see them safely home.

and I mean best in ANY spoiler thread for this game

[Ichabod]

Awesome post!

[NobleHelium]

Unit gifts appear in the event log.

[pindicator]

I am really paranoid about a dtay invasion right now ...

[pindicator]

Turn 159

When I was thinking about the turn I realized I should have put those knights along with a pair of workers. That way we could road the hill after capturing Caladan and move everything up a tile farther. Unfortunately, something else I completely overlooked was checking the culture of the tiles around Cyneheard's city. So when I opened this turn up .... well, talk about bad timing:



Still, we moved in. I got a little unlucky in the results, but nothing awful:

• knight v longbow (10.0 v 12.6) 24.7% LOSS, lb to 32hp
  
• C1 knight v spear (11.0 v 10.6) 64.7% LOSS, spear to 20hp
  
• C2 knight v axe (12.0 v 8.25) 89.2% WIN, 68hp remaining
  
• C2 knight v axe (12.0 v 8.25) 89.2% WIN, 68hp remaining
  
• knight v cat (10.0 v 5.0) 99.1% WIN, 86hp remaining
  
• knight v 32hp longbow (10.0 v 4.03) 99.7% WIN, 82hp remaining
  
• chariot v 20hp spear (4.0 v 2.12) 94.8% WIN, 50hp remaining
  

And that led to this:





Unfortunately my estimates of culture were off, and the capital was a ring farther out than I calculated. So there would be no moving up to threaten the capital next turn. Instead we moved a couple knights to threaten the coastal town, the rest went into the recently captured city. I also moved all the new units north; I feel like my southern army has sufficient numbers but my northern troops could run out of steam fast if I don't reinforce.



I don't think I will attack the city of Heliopolis. Better may be to throw everything together and aim for the capital before he gets much more time to reinforce it. If I can take the capital and hold it then the war is over. If I can take the capital and can't hold it, then I'll burn it and the war will be a long slog at worst.

We should capture another city next turn:



Elsewhere, a mystery island appeared when we got Optics-enhanced sight over water:



Maybe I should swap to Astronomy and go there?

[pindicator]

Twelve Motion Jeweled Skull woke up yawning. The longer evenings had always been difficult to adjust to; even now after a score of decades upon this earth he still wanted to do nothing more than sleep the winter away like a hibernating animal.

He lived on a corn farm on the outskirts of the city that had once been the capital of the Free Cities, but with the current emperor moving his palace to Strand in the name of progress, Madrigal had become quieter and more provincial. There were still some local lords who would stop by and ask Twelve Motion's favor in some cause or another: like young, eager pups always starving for some of their mother's milk, climbing over each other greedily just to suckle. But Twelve Motion enjoyed the change of pace when the capital had moved; he could tend his farm in peace, raise his horses and pigs, oversee the hired hands as they helped brought in the year's corn crop. The field was now just barren stalks; they would leave it to rot and fallow this year and move on to another plot for next spring.

Still, something nagged at Twelve Motion Jeweled Skull. It was a feel like he was forgetting something vastly important. This was a feeling that had come over him for several days now, but he had let the feeling pass. If it was truly important then surely he would remember. And yet he did not remember, nor did the feeling pass.

Breakfast was a simple meal: farmer's cheese, cornmeal biscuits, --

OH NO!

The realization was sudden and seemingly triggered by nothing.




He had forgotten the war!

Edit: Thankfully Cyneheard hadn't yet played this turn!

[Ceiliazul]

Lol! Excellent play on the Commodorian portraits.

[pindicator]

Turn 160

After a weekend of endless homework I ended up spending wasting a lot of time playing this turn. And enjoying every moment of it

I mean, what's not to enjoy when you've got this to look forward to:



So let's get right to it!

First realization is that I don't have enough bombardment. 7 catapults will knock off 28% defense from a city with walls. If we come up against a city with a castle then there isn't even a point to bombarding. Maybe I want to invest in a trebuchet or two, just for the bombardment? If all I'm using catapults for is bombarding then a treb will get me the same bombardment as 2 catapults and at 20 hammers cheaper. (Really what I need is 5xp on those catapults so I can promote to accuracy.)

Second thought was that Cyneheard is just checking out. He didn't seem to move up or retreat any units. He played his turn relatively quickly last turn.

I started by sending in CKNs, rather blindly to be honest. I mean, I looked at who the top defender would be: CKNs had to face off against the knight; swordsmen were up against the Cover mace. Elephants had to deal with a spear. So CKNs seemed the best answer; they'd use collateral to weaken the remaining units anyway.

• C1 CKN (6.6) v C1 knight (11.0) - 3.8% - Loss, knight to 70hp.
  
• C1 CKN (6.6) v 70hp C1 knight (7.7) - 40.7% - Loss, knight to 22hp
  

After that I paused to look at the collateral damage I had done on the defenders...



...and quickly realized "Who cares about collateral here?" These defenders are crap. Axemen and war chariots; these are units you would use to soak up collateral. There it is: Cyneheard had a really great defensive idea here. Have a few strong units for defense and leave the rest as junk, to tempt me to use up my collateral. No more CKNs; I would use my swords now.

Except the top defender was now the mace, so I would use one more CKN to take it out. The rest of the war was mop up after the mace died:

• C1 CKN (6.6) v 94hp Cover Maceman (7.29) - 44.0% - Win! CKN to 16hp
  
• CR2 sword (6.0) vs. 93hp Cover Axe (4.74) - 75.7% - Win! Sword to 10hp
  
• CR2 sword (6.0) vs. 79hp Cover Axe (4.02) - 90.0% - Win! Sword to 83hp
  
• CR1 sword (6.0) vs. 79hp Cover Axe (5.01) - 82.6% - FLAWLESS WIN
  
• Sword (6.0) vs. 76hp Cover Spear (2.94) - 99.3% - Win! Sword to 70hp
  
• Sword (6.0) vs. 86hp War Chariot (2.86) - 99.3% - Win! Sword to 44hp
  
• C1 Sword (6.6) vs. 86hp War Chariot (2.86) - 99.6% - Win! Sword to 61hp
  
• Sword (6.0) vs 22hp Knight (1.57) - 99.9% - FLAWLESS WIN
  

Which led to these beautiful screenshots:





That is the most I've ever gotten in capture gold. We turned on the burners for Printing Press thanks to that windfall. I would do Education but I don't think that I will be able to switch away from unit production in 4 turns, so might as well get the passive bonus of Printing Press first.

Next we shift our attention up north:



This was what I meant about thinking Cyneheard has checked out. He isn't moving workers away. Perhaps he never planned on paying much attention to this game considering the nature of it; or perhaps I just killed his morale by stabbing him in the back like this. (And I do feel sorry a bit for that; emotionally I didn't want to attack him but he was the best target and I needed to keep up with the big dogs.)

So of course I snatched up the worker...

[pindicator]

Turn 160, part 2

Lets try this again...



Much better!

I decided to leave the captured worker from last turn on its hill; better to have it keep sight in the area. Besides, I have 22 other workers running around my empire and they are all running out of things to do. So anything i capture from Cyneheard is likely going to go towards sentry duty.

Looking at the defenders I was wondering if I should go for the capital...



Yeah, we're going to go after that capital. And likely burn it down. Because when I look at the big picture...



Arrakis and Sietch Tabr eliminated and his mainland become indefensible. If I can take them I will, but I'll burn them if I don't feel like I can hold them.