[PB78] Dreylin boldly goes

[Dreylin]

T172 -

Banking in, so it's time to revolt: Rep/Caste/Merc. I'm keeping Vassalage, because most of the cities are continuing to produce units. It doesn't look like there's going to be much/anything of Gav left for me to vulture once the peace wears off, so I guess I'll turn my attention to Magic and see if I can make any gains this time....

Before & after shots:



(still shit)

[Dreylin]

T173 - diplomatic immunity?

Two different approaches this turn:


I'm on board with going after Magic, but I can see most of his forces and they are far closer to me than they are to where Superdeath is likely to attack. Also, it's his turn to go first and distract, and I want to make that clear to him:


DeliMeats was previously Dehli, and if he attacks through that vector he will definitely attract Magic's stack. If I move against Marathon from Riker, then I'm getting the brunt of the counterattack.

As for Donovan, I really need to get something out of our relationship before I'm prepared to commit to another 40t. So far I got mauled by Gavagai and he and Superdeath have reaped the spoils. Should I have stayed at war rather than peacing out; in retrospect I probably should have done. I don't think I foresaw just how much of Gavagai's power was in that stack and how quickly he has folded since it was destroyed. It would have been bloody to get hold of Diamond City, but I would also have had a shot to get this region:



Donovan looks to be preparing to sweep this up which would be a real pain in the backside. So I try some AI diplo to try to signal that I'd like this area if we are to ally long-term.



We'll see if it works...

[Dreylin]

T175 - Ugh, war! What is it good for?

Superdeath sent an explicit timing of t178 for declaring on Magic. Magic has started shuffling units towards Riker from his reserve stack already, so is clearly expecting something on that timeframe anyway. I mirror it back to Superdeath, but will still make an effort to have him declare first.

On the other side of the empire I find that Donovan has finished capturing Gavagai's land empire:


Uuuugggghhhh. I really hoped he'd burn Varanasi. It was only founded where it is in order to flip Diamond City, and is literally the worst location in this area otherwise. It would be much better as 2 cities, with one somewhere around the Chariot and the other on the forest 1N of the Ivory. Plus it will fight endlessly for first-ring tiles with Diamond City and the city I'm going to plant on the 1tile island. It'd be semi-OK if it was in my hands, but awful in anyone else's - even an ally.

Donovan is keeping track of my army, of course, but from what I can see this area is very lightly defended - his small Knight stack is healing in the city East of Calcutta. He never responded to my previous request for this area in order to renew our alliance - very possible he didn't understand it - but now the cities themselves are available in diplo, I can try to negotiate something. So this turn I offered 200g in return for Lahore. It's a fairly lowball offer, but serves as a basis to see if he's willing to negotiate. If he comes back with a counter-offer, I'll look to roll Varanasi in as well. If I don't receive any counter-offer, then I'm going to raze Varanasi and ask for forgiveness later. I've pulled 3 Knights out of the main stack and positioned them near Chapel in range to hit the city next turn. There are only 2 injured Horse Archers there, and I don't think he can reinforce.

[Dreylin]

T176 - yeah, so I did it.

No diplo response from Donovan.



We may also be a few turns from the official end of our alliance, but he has not responded to any diplo since asking me for the extension and maybe that means he's planning to attack me or is otherwise not interested in continued cooperation. I don't feel great about it, but I don't think that a culture fight over these tiles and potentially flipping the city is a very viable option long-term. I do seriously wish he'd just razed the eyesore when he had the chance. Peace offer sent with 200g in reparations. I'm happy to go higher if asked. I had also intended to roll a gift of Dye into the Peace offer - since that is the resource at Varanasi and I have a duplicate - but forgot. Will add to a future negotiation, or just gift if we settle things.

One thing I missed though was how much health we were trading - I'd checked that Happy was covered - so now I'm losing food in a couple of places. I didn't search for any alternative trades; I'm hoping we just sign a quick peace and can restart those mutual trades.

Otherwise, the turn was spent positioning troops towards the Magic border. I've decided to ignore Little Lamplight this time and instead focus on a land push through Riker. I have the Galleys lined up again, but this time they're an empty distraction.

[Dreylin]

T177 - More War.

Donovan took the peace deal, so I can finalise arrangements for the war with Magic ... next ... turn?



I'm worried about Magic's tech rate, but Superdeath is fielding Cuirassiers and went a turn earlier than I think we had arranged, maybe? But he went first, with is the important thing except ... he went first, and then Magic played and now I'm in a position where I have to create a 3-way turnsplit.

Bugger.

Oh well, I guess we're doing this:


You know what helps with EP vision? Jewish cities for starters. The fleet is empty as already noted, but might provide a distraction. There's a small stack positioning to raze Persepolis, while the larger stack is moving against Troi. One downside of going a turn early is that my Knights were too far back to join the attack this turn. However they could hit Troi from the SE tile and I have Workers available to allow them to.

Superdeath took the city to the West of Marathon. I think it would be good for everyone if that city was razed as it might be a bit too strong. Ah who am I kidding, Superdeath is in the driving seat of this game now and I'm along for the ride. The question will be whether I continue to cling to his coattails until I've outlived my usefulness, or try to band with Donovan against him at some point. He did propose declaring on Donovan in 20t, but he played before the Peace was signed so may have misinterpreted the seriousness of the conflict. Not that I have illusions that Donovan could be plotting, but he did immediately reoffer OB and our health trade so I'm hopeful the relationship isn't poisoned.

I have not switched civics, though they became available this turn. I didn't see a critical mass of pending whips, so I'm sticking with Caste so I can run Artists in a few places I've been losing tiles to culture. I doubt I'll want to go to Police State now I have Merc enabled, but I do expect to switch back to Slavery at some point soon.

[Dreylin]

T178 -

Magic offered me Troi, Persepolis and 22gpt in exchange for peace. I countered by capturing Troi, burning Persepolis, and then asked for Little Lamplight for peace. In a lot of ways this is the same decision/mistake I made with Gavagai; OTOH there's no guarantee that Magic agrees to it, and they are also in a much better position to hold off Superdeath and Donovan than Gavagai was after his stack was wiped. It would be nice to finally get back to upgrading infrastructure rather than spamming units and maybe try to catch up on tech a bit?

I also settled Barclay on the tiny Island North of Diamond City - now La Forge - which gave me a second intercontinental route everywhere. :nods: I also have a Settler in place to spot onshore from La Forge that was opened up by the burning of Varanasi.

Maybe some pics next turn.

[Dreylin]

T179 -

Magic (unsurprisingly) did not take or reoffer the deal. Superdeath did pop up and offer / request a 25t NAP. I think that's good for me, it limits my ability to, say snipe and burn Marathon, but OTOH my piddling army can't stand against his Cuirs so yeah, accepted / reoffered.

I thought I was going to need a turn to regather my seige to move forward at Riker, but had forgotten to factor the rails. So my stack is now in Magic territory and heading to Marathon / New Tabriz:



Most of my Eastern stack is now on the Galleys; I'm flexible about whether I'll land them at LL, or drop them at Riker to reinforce the West. My Triremes are successfully blockading the city. The others will continue to advance and perhaps I'll see if Magic intends to defend Pasargadae, or let me raze it.

Meanwhile in the East:



Worf founded this turn to take advantage of the Pigs, which I'd captured from Lahore even before Donovan took the city. Still trying to work out where to plant the following Settler ... maybe 1S of the Horse so it can at least use the Cow for food? Alternatively SW of Horse would be landlocked, but would be able to share the Cows and Clams?

[Dreylin]

T180 -

Open to Superdeath diplo saying essentially: he gets Marathon, I get New Tabriz. Here's the overview:



I'm not wild about conceding Marathon's pile o' Wonders to Superdeath, but unless I'm mistaken the religious wonders stay locked onto Hinduism rather than updating to Superdeath's Buddhism, so that certainly takes a bunch of the value away from him. Also, Magic has stacked the majority of his huge pile o' Pikes into Marathon and I'm not too eager to deal with that, so OK I can let Superdeath got for it.

What I'm going to do instead is bypass Marathon and head for Pasargadae. I'm not going to take New Tabriz yet either, because I don't think the culture will pop me a route into the city to reinforce with defensive units to prevent a recapture. So this turn I moved the bulk of my stack 1S of the Silver - putting the Knights in range of both NT & Pasargadae - while splitting off a small force of 1-movers towards NT, and bringing in a defensive force from Riker onto the Silver. My fleet switches out a couple of Cats for hitters and also moves towards Pasargadae. If it's still poorly defended next turn, I take it amphibiously and move the Knight stack in while the 1-movers follow across the plain.

Pasargadae brings my stack towards Mycale, but also opens up a route for me to push my fleet into the Map sea, and Magic's cities on the south coast ... which are currently undefended.

Here's Superdeath's diplo, with my response:

[RefSteel]

unless I'm mistaken the religious wonders stay locked onto Hinduism

The AP hammers do stay with whatever state religion the builder was in when the wonder completed, and are granted to anyone who has the relevant buildings whether they own the wonder or not - but all the other religion-dependent wonders adopt the state religion of the owner, no matter which: If you conquer Sankore, Minaret, and Sistine from a Hindu civ when you're Buddhist, all your Buddhist buildings (and none of your Hindu ones) will get the free beakers, gold and culture. If you later convert to Taoism, all your Taoist buildings (and none of your Hindu or Buddhist ones) will get the bonus instead. If its original owner has meanwhile converted to Confucianism and conquers the wonders back, your buildings get none of these anymore, and (only) their Confucian buildings get the benefit. If they then adopt Free Religion (or otherwise go to No State Religion) none of their buildings benefit.

And all this time, no matter who conquers the originally-Hindu AP or what religion they or other players do or don't follow, everyone's Hindu buildings will continue providing AP hammers while the Wonder stands (well, until obsolescence hits at least).

[Dreylin]

This is very useful, thanks Ref!

I did need to double-check the rules around the others; I have been thinking about Sankore and was wondering whether I needed to have converted Hindu first. But then that got put on hold with wars, and with Magic finally researching Paper. Last I checked though it was still open, so maybe once things have settled down I will take another look.