[PB63 Spoilers] Ginger and Lazteuq find a way to peace

[Charriu]

Dear Charriu,
Have you ever heard the tragedy of the teleporting Caravels? I thought not, its not a story the DLL would tell you...


So in the first image, two of the caravel stacks teleported one to the SE without costing movement points
One of those stacks crossed the land barrier SE of Circei

In the second image, the Caravel I moved into CF sea teleported an additional 1S while no longer having any movement points. 

Also I noticed when I logged in the last two turns that the same caravel you see in the second image which was previously covering the landing Galleys, had moved 1SE of where I had left it on the last turn. I chalked it up to playing turns very early in the morning but its clear something fishy is happening
If CF posted any images of Giza last turn, please check to see if the Caravel was on the galley stack or not (ie if the bug happened between my log out and CF's sign in).

So first of all is any player disadvantaged or advantaged by that and therefore Ramk might have to move around stuff?

Second in the first image. Am I right to assume that the caravels teleported around from one point in your culture to another in your culture?

[Ginger()]

Yes they did move inside my culture.
No meaningful game impact has happened so far, but since this effect happened multiple caravels two turns in a row it’s weird and might be impactful later. Maybe it has something to do with the war declaration on Cairo? My screen froze a bit and after I cleared out Cairo’s chariots I noticed the caravels had jumped.

[Charriu]

I will investigate and this might cause an update for the mod.

[Charriu]

I was able to reproduce this bug. It looks like it only triggers when you declare war or somebody declares war on you.

[Ginger()]

It was not as bad as expected, on the interturn, I lost about 5 one movers and 9 knights, killing 12cats, 1 mace and 1 knight. CF also made the mistake of taking Cairhein and covering his injured 2 movers with an injured mace and a spear. 

This does not stop knights. 

I swung the hammer exchange back, retook the city, and moved everything to the corn. I upgraded a bunch of injured knights to Cuirs after they moved into the city and I also upgraded the knights on the southern boats (fun fact can upgrade without disembarking when moving through city, wonder if that works with forts too). 

Situation at the end of turn, mouse over is Cairhein
   

[Ginger()]

In the north my badly wounded knights are healing. No picture because no movement is boring. Last turn I might've missed a big chance to take Tar Valon with the Praet/cat stack, but I would've been out in the open and lost too many to Cornflake's remaining mounted
What you do get pictures of is the city I expect to take next turn, Memphis, opening up my caravel (singular at the moment, more are on the way) to start splitting Cornflake's islands away from his main holdings.

   

Taj completes EoT. Techwise, I'm doing 30% slider on Education, getting it in 3 turns. I think I will delay the Universities until after this war is decisively won and stay in Theocracy the next couple turns. I think I'm going to sandbag the Sistine Chapel for a bit, bringing it almost to completion but not quite. I don't want to piss off Mjmd yet, although he undoubtedly has other problems on his hands for the moment. Although its inefficient to tech Education if I'm not using it (would've been better to go for Printing Press for the immediate bonus), I want to secure the Economics merchant, and I think the first-to exclusivity is worth the lost tile yields. I made this mistake earlier with Music vs Optics and don't want a repeat.

[Ginger()]

   
Last turn I had a super calculated plan—I was going to place my great general healer as the top defender in the hopes that Cornflakes would take a ~20% gamble with his nearest knight and try to hit it. I did this because I needed one more xp point to get the Medic 3 promo. Of course, Cornflakes did one better and attached his GG to a knight down south and used Morale(?) to bring it up and hit 

   
Greens' hidden RNG modifier claims another victim 

Oh man that must be rough, naturally I lost a >60% against a longbow to even it out, but... man   
Oh and Cornflakes still hasn't turned on auto-promote,   

Superdeath shows his true colors and has canceled all our trades and is gifting CF iron. I think I'm going to wardec him and sit some caravels on his seafood. Do I wait until after he's played to make this a 6-way split?

Next turn you'll get a tactical overview as it promises to be more interesting than this turn's sit and heal. For this turn of 1100 AD, you get some numbers:
   
   
 That ratio is very satisfying. I don't think I appreciated how close I came to disaster when I attacked out with the knights. Cornflakes made a huge blunder taking back Cairhien and moving his knights in—those could've killed more of mine in the field and just ended up being a sacrificial offering for the promoted knights next turn and the troops streaming in from the west. The way to avoid the vulnerability to siege that forced me to strike out with the knights would've been to raze Cairhien and replant my own culture with a fresh settler, but like with my lack of Guerilla 2 Muskets, this was just a planning oversight and by the time it became relevant I didn't have that option.

[Ginger()]

Bing's wardec teleported my caravels   
It's not yet relevant although it might be if I end up declaring on SD next turn. We'll see. I think I'm not going to follow through on this threat. Its classic small injury, although he deserves it for feeding CF resources. 

Not a bug, but I've also discovered a nifty trick to control roads on hills. Obviously this won't work against India, but you keep two workers plus whatever defenders on the hill, and you can road at the start of your turn, and pillage it at the end, and it's a one-way control in neutral territory outside your culture. 

Man, I really love this game, it's so much more subtle than other combat games and it stands up exceedingly well to scrutiny, the designers knew what they were doing (except making Eles 8str  ... and vanilla Cossacks. That was a whopper)

Today was the big day, as I decided to press the attack in 3 directions, with the old cata/praet stack taking TarValon, the Cuirassier stack deep diving towards Alexandria, and the pennypacket naval invasion securing itself snugly on the Banana lumbermill.  

   
The big threat is Cornflake's 9 knights, of which only 4 are promoted and 8 combat ready, but he does have at least 3 catapults in the area to even the odds. If he had been more conservative with his catapults, I wouldn't have been able to do this. TarValon is a foregone conclusion, I expect CF to withdraw his defenders. The Cuirassiers can get hit by the knights, but the losses should be fairly even, and I'm happy to trade 50/50 as the attacker with the backup stacks on the way. If his capital's culture doesn't interfere, I'll be able to road my back up one mover stack into Alexandria after I take it. 

   
Here is the one mover stack sent to possibly move into Alex after the Cuirs strike it and remove the culture. Unfortunately, I think I maybe should've place the stack one tile to the east to reach even if the capital's culture interrupts along the diagonal. 

   
Here down south Memphis is at risk of recapture, I do have 4 units on boats to possibly amphibiously clear wounded units, but ideally he leaves it be so I can dump 2 muskets and 2 praets on the lumbermill through the canal. I haven't simmed it because I'm winning and I'm lazy, but I think for respectable casualties, he COULD clear out the 4 cuirassiers and Musket from the Banana tile. But that would require drawing the knights south and letting me take Alexandria. I also put a Cuir and 2 knights on the tile leading to Memphis, the idea being to invite trades to whittle down his numbers.

The idea is a full-court press to try and either close the noose, or invite him to split stacks and retake cities, repeating his blunder at Cairhien.

In 4 turns I will swap to Organized Religion, I don't think Slavery is worth it, even though it would be 5 granaries, the yields from serfdom farms alone are fantastic in golden age, not to mention the mills I've built. Here is the planned tech path:
   

[Charriu]

Bing's wardec teleported my caravels   
It's not yet relevant although it might be if I end up declaring on SD next turn.

A fix is already on the way. Ramk told me he will update the PB this weekend.

[Ginger()]

Slow weekend for the game so I'll post a t172 report:

Khalid Ibn Al-Walid strikes again!
Cornflakes hit the cuirassier stack with 3 cats and enough knights to uncover GG healer Khalid as the top general. ...and he promptly won his 50/50.  I'm forbidden to complain about combat RNG the rest of the game. Also, I've learned my lesson, and at 1.7 hp, I'll make sure to move Khalid every turn, so he never heals, pseudo scout ftw. 
The positioning error of the one mover stack that I mentioned in my last report was made evident, as Thebes's culture prevented moving into Alexandria from the western hill. If he retakes Alexandria, I'll probably lose the Granary and Courthouse that survived, along with the knight that took it, and be forced to raze the city to prevent garrison force dilution. So that's a 90(knig)+60(Gran)+120(CH)+100(new settler)+30(pop) or 400 hammer mistake on my part. Maybe he doesn't retake it? Idk, he's been feeling trade-y throughout this war.
I left the Cuirassiers in place and defended them with some Guerilla muskets (seriously Guerilla units are amazing in multiplayer, where the main dynamic is surviving sally-outs rather than sieging the AI's longbow stacks), I moved the one mover stack one tile outside Alexandria, pity they couldn't reach. The tricky part will be trying to pin down Cornflake's knights with my Cuirassiers, to prevent mobility force-multiplication by him, while covering my stacks as they converge on the capital. 
Cornflakes did not take Memphis, so my boats were able to drop woodsman praetorians and muskets on the Banana Lumbermill   . The sieging force is now secure and waits for more... well siege. 
I have the TarValon stack going for Akenhaten, the lumbermill border city with SD, should be a clean take but CF's knights might throw a curveball when I've split my stacks like this. 

Speaking of Superdeath...
   

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack melts knights like a candlestick 
WOW, pity he isn't posting. Maybe the lurkers can ask him how he's doing? He's probably understandably morose but this is a very impressive showing given the hand he was dealt. 
That's uhhh, a lot of casualties, napkin math says that's about the same as the 35knight invasion stack I saw earlier? Someone should be very grateful that WW is off, and I wonder if Bing maybe chose the wrong target  
This is of course excellent luck for me, as once again (as previously with SD v Cornflakes and Cairo v Mjmd) foreign events have conspired to let me proceed at my own pace. I feel pretty good about how I've managed the Diplo this game, but it's clear that I've had incredible good fortune. Well, it's better to be lucky than it is to be good. 
SD probably still wins his war in the long run, but at this rate he won't get rifles or cannons by the time I can field Cavalry stacks. If Mjmd leaves me alone for the next 20 turns, I should have a commanding lead over the field. It's not quite so simple as Mjmd is a pragmatist and will probably forgive Cairo if it means preserving his chance of winning and joining a dogpile on me, additionally, Bing and Mjmd are the two tech leaders, well tech follow-ups, I'm the tech leader
After Rifling I'll probably have to decide between Cannons and Levees