January 19th, 2018, 22:14
(This post was last modified: January 19th, 2018, 22:15 by Woden.)
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(January 19th, 2018, 20:17)Chevalier Mal Fet Wrote: I COULD squeeze two cities on there - one on each end. I'm not sure if cramming in like that is wisest, or if the more central spot I've pinned is better. Is one strong city better than two weak cities? Probably! I think I'll keep the pin for now, these aren't high priority sites. Meanwhile, the second galley (Ocean) continues south, revealing that there is indeed a third small island. IMO, by the time you settle them, 2 is probably better than 1. Two cities means 4 trade routes and they most likely will not get much higher than size 7.
Quote:Larger strategy concerns:
Woden, I'm wondering if, should we lose any of the canal cities to Molotov-Ribbentrop, if it wouldn't be wiser to just go ahead and yield them. If they settle on the coast, I think my pair of galleys could catch them by surprise and take a city, but I really don't want to piss that team off when Khmer and Kongo will already want vengeance. Even best case scenario - winning two short, sharp wars to secure our borders with minimal losses - will leave us with two angry neighbors, and while I think we can handle Team Relic Molotov-Ribbentrop would probably be too much for us. So, by all means, let's jostle for land, but peacefully. Strategically, those spots are great for defense and for naval flexibility, but the defense problem would be solved with friendly relations, and if I ever need to move ships into the northeastern ocean, we can storm the cities then, once the Relic question is settled.
Further, I'd like to try and peace Relic, too. I can keep pumping military, but my expansive empire is in need of infrastructure. 10-20 turns to get out districts, monuments, and trade routes would really let me start humming along. It's not up to us entirely, obviously, but I think Cornflakes and Japper might be open to the idea once Aranyaka falls.
I have no desire to start a war with Russia/Germany but I don't know if we have an option after I settle middle canal city. I plan on going no further southeast right now and I don't think they will push up either side of the lakes without controlling the center. Hopefully they stay peaceful but I doubt it. The Archduke is a fairly aggressive player, not sure about Emperor K, and we have always had good relations in the other PBEMs but I have not giving a reason to fight and he might take the opportunity before I get a General on the field. I am thinking of doing a round of warriors soon to have them around for upgrades and added security.
We do need peace, so I say you ask for peace after you capture Khmer's city. I think T49 is the earliest we can get it. By the way, are you going to raze it or keep it? I will leave that up to you. Will he take it? I don't know but we can try. It would be nice to get a few turns of peace. Maybe I will ask Germany for friendship when I settle my city, or actually maybe next turn before they can see the settler? If they want to push the other canal spots, that is fine. We have lots of other spots that are more immediate and can go after them further down the road.
January 19th, 2018, 22:45
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I'm going to raze it. If I keep it, there's no way Khmer would ever agree to peace, and I'd be stuck with a size 1 city that can't grow.
January 19th, 2018, 22:55
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(January 19th, 2018, 22:45)Chevalier Mal Fet Wrote: I'm going to raze it. If I keep it, there's no way Khmer would ever agree to peace, and I'd be stuck with a size 1 city that can't grow.
Agreed!
January 20th, 2018, 01:46
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I think I found a solution to my need for a coastal city, a way to get a religion sooner rather than later, and speed up my growth curve...take Kandy. You have found 1 natural wonder, so there are likely 3 left. The earned envoys are probably going to be better if they go in the cultural or science city states, so who knows when we might be able to get 3 envoys into them. I would rather have the Suzerain of Valletta sooner. It already has a Holy Site and Shrine in it so we can start working towards a religion. I think if I go for 2 warriors after the builder in my capital, I can take it pretty easily with 2 warriors and 2 archers that are in the area. Once I have it I can start a galley and have 3 envoys in Valletta shortly after I finish Mysticism. I am also rethinking going after Kabul. With Russia/Germany going after Granada, the city might be more useful than the extra production. We can shift some forces after we get peace with Khmer. What do you think?
As an aside, for an Enhancer belief, I was think Crusade which gives +10 strength to enemy cities following your religion. Might not sound that good but we can use it defensively. Convert our front line cities and if we get attacked and they get taken, we will have an advantage in retaking them. Plus, we can bring missionaries along if going to warrior and try and convert enemy cities before we take them.
January 20th, 2018, 10:05
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I think both Kandy and Kabul should be on the hit list if Khmer agrees to peace. We can take them with the troops we have on hand, and both will help us more within the empire than providing their bonuses from without (pretty sure I can get Kabul's native production higher than any encampment bonus it'd provide, after all). Then you can concentrate envoys on Valetta and whatever scientific or commercial states you want abroad, and I can focus my envoys on Nan Madol.
As for beliefs, if you manage to grab a religion before the others evangelize theirs, I think the best remaining beliefs are Wats from the Worship beliefs, and yeah, probably Crusade from the Enhancers. Stewardship and Zen Meditation or Work Ethic would also be nice to have.
Crusade could be fun offensively, too - if you had a good Apostle up your sleeve, with, say, the belief that lets Apostles ignore terrain, we could surprise convert Molotov-Ribbentrop cities and cause a 20-point swing in our favor in combat. It'd turn your apostles into siege weapons.
January 20th, 2018, 23:14
(This post was last modified: January 20th, 2018, 23:20 by Chevalier Mal Fet.)
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So, when Khmer was dust, all cried, "To Trafalgar!
Run, Pheidippides, one race more! the meed is thy due!
England is saved, thank Pan, go shout!" He flung down his shield
Ran like fire once more: and the space 'twixt the fennel-field
And England was stubble again, a field which a fire runs through,
Till in he broke: "Rejoice, we conquer!" Like wine through clay,
Joy in his blood bursting his heart, - the bliss!
January 20th, 2018, 23:51
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Nubia-Turn 49
Start off with...
which gives me a policy swap...
Going with Urban Planning and Agoge. I plan to build a few warriors at Amon and an archer in my other cities. Economy didn't quite go in the crapper, making 2.3 gpt. Will go lower when I finish the encampment and archers. In the north, I move next to the barb camp and kill the spear. Will take it next turn if nothing pops out in between turns.
In the southeast...
new city should be settled in 2 turns, then I will offer friendship to Germany/Russia. Let them know I have no thoughts of invasion.
In the southwest, I lost my archer as Khmer produced an archer on his turn and I suspect both of his archers shot at mine. My other archer...
Ends up red-lining the city. CMF should have no problem razing the city on his turn. Did you remember to offer peace after?
January 21st, 2018, 11:07
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I forgot, you can send it on your turn.
Turn report will be up in a few hours.
January 21st, 2018, 12:59
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Turn 49
Score report:
I failed to update the score last time, but everything has been brought up to date.
Notes: Singaboy and Sullla have founded their third cities, then Singaboy surged to city #4 a turn after that and Sullla finished another settler. I sort of welcome a modest Imperial snowball, since I want Emperor/Archduke to worry about them more than they worry about us. They're both pulling a bit ahead of me, since my next settler is due next turn and then I still need to march it to the frontier. My next city is still a good ways off, unless I opt to forgo the canal city and settle on the Khmer frontier. Woden, what think you?
Emperor finished a settler - I noticed that, even apart from empire score, his culture rate went down by exactly 1 pop, .3. I don't think that'll ever come in useful, though - the problem of a settler finishing at the same time as a pop growth would still mask any culture change. Ah, well.
*I know this isn't strictly fair - you do get real benefits from religion. But rushing for an early religion was not something Woden and I could do, without any of the advantages the other teams had. Khmer managed it with no advantages and a fair bit of cheating, and as a result they're sitting on one city 50 turns into the game. That's not a tradeoff that Woden and I could make, so we instead invested our early production into units, exploiting our city-states, and now we're leveraging those units to secure as much territory for ourselves as we can. Strength ought to flow from land, I think, but it's not reflected in the score.
Start my turn with finishing archery:
I'm sure some of the lurkers have been shaking their heads at how backwards I've allowed myself to become in military tech while fighting this war.  I'm rectifying that now - gonna get myself up to date militarily so I can defend myself, before going back to economy and finally getting to work on some districts. Remember, my rationale was that Woden would provide firepower, while my slingers were little more than cheap support units. That plan worked beautifully, I think - Woden's economy is just barely breaking even, while his archers did the heavy lifting against Khmer. Now that we're entering a defensive phase, I need archers of my own to garrison my cities.
I suppose I'm putting the cart before the horse, here - you guys wanna see the fighting, doncha? Well, let this suffice:
Cornflakes opted to shoot my slinger with his wounded archer, while the fresh archer I presume is what killed Woden's guy. This meant both my warriors were at full strength, but only one was needed to slug his way into Aranyaka. The city falls with the loss of only an archer and possibly a slinger on our parts:
I had planned a cheeky little move where I used captured Aranyaka to upgrade my slingers before razing the city, but the way it worked out no slingers could enter city limits this turn, so I had to abandon that plan. Ah, well. I move up the warriors to support the exposed warrior on the plains as we put the city to the torch. I want to slowly disengage from Cornflakes here - if he presses the attack with those archers he could sting me badly. I've made my point, hopefully, and the isthmus should be English now, while Khmer's next city goes to a safer location they're more capable of defending. (If we make peace and they use the truce to pink dot us AGAIN, well, boy will my face be red. Hopefully they don't do that! )
So, that SHOULD be most of the fighting in the first war of the game. My injured slinger has a promotion, and I start to withdraw him north. I'm not sure he'll survive a shot from the archer in the marsh, but if he does he can outrun the pursuing warrior and promote next turn, then I can upgrade him to an archer at Actium. If he doesn't survive, ah, well, he knew the risks when he signed up. The final view of the front before we start to withdraw north (I burned the city at the very end of my turn):
With most of the action wrapping up, here's the wider world. My scout starts to traverse the land bridge into what I presume is Roman or Chinese territory, but runs across an injured barb scout:
I might clean him up for the experience next turn, or I may continue on my way. The scout is most valuable for intelligence, after all, and I don't really need more XP. On the other side of the world, Ocean presses south and reveals the suspected commercial city-state:
Muscat? I don't think I've ever had them in one of my games - I haven't played much with the DLC, which I bought specifically to be able to participate in this game. It looks like they give +1 amenity to every city with a commercial district. With that and the +6 gold, seems like they'd be a nice-to-have boost to any trading civ, but not essential. Still, if I can secure Nan Madol, this might be a nice secondary destination for my envoys.
Speaking of Nan Madol, my Mysticism hare-brained scheme completes and I drop my first envoy into the city, giving me an immediate +2 culture. My culture, you'll note from the score, is now much more competitive, and I managed it without investing any hammers into a monument. The turns spent researching mysticism will pay for themselves in increased culture in only 12 turns - so long before I reach Political Philosophy, which is therefore delayed not at all by this move. Here's a view of the city-state situation:
8 contacted, 4 to go - Archduke's city state on the far side of their continent, and the 3 Roman/Chinese city states. My plan is for the scout to stick to the equator and try to spot the city state down there, since the two coastal ones can be reached by galleys out of Actium and a city on our east coast. If I can manage to cross Roman/Chinese lands entirely, I'll work my way over the land bridge that's presumably there to Germany, and contact the last city state of Emperor/Archduke.
To wrap things up, here's the English core of cities on the eve of Turn 50. I have two settlers about to pop - one next turn - and a warrior ready to escort him. I've got nothing to escort the second one, so I'll need to churn out a quick unit from Trafalgar to cover that. Actium is steadily working towards its first builder. Then I'll build a galley, and chop the Maritime Industries overflow into walls, I think. Emperor's scout has traversed my lands, and will be approaching the land bridge soon. I still think I want to stick a pair of units there to block him - there's no better use for a couple of the units anyway, since I need to garrison against a potential counterattack out of the Relic continent.
This turn was a huge relief. I've been stressed ever since that city appeared, and now I sort of feel like I have a handle on the situation. -knocks on wood- Let's hope I didn't just jinx myself and things don't go to hell in a handbasket next turn!
January 21st, 2018, 18:18
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Turn 50
(Score report to come tomorrow morning)
After the warfare of the last couple of turns, this one was comparatively quiet as our armies started to withdraw. Cornflakes started to pull his units back, and I'm content to let him. I don't want to send my warriors into the jungles to be shot to death by his archers - we've come out ahead in this war, let's not throw away our advantage by losing our units in overzealous pursuit. The front now:
Cornflakes opts to withdraw rather than finish off my slinger. I pull out of range and take a turn to heal, grabbing the volley promotion. I bring another slinger within Actium's borders to be upgraded, but that'll have to wait until next turn, as Woden needs gold to grab the tiles at our canal city next turn. He comes knocking for the gold and I duly send it over this time:
I also get the notification that an unmet player has been defeated! There's the first city-state death of the game, but it certainly won't be the last. In the next 10 turns, I'd like to add Kabul to my own empire. If I can pull off a handful of warriors, archers, and a galley, I can make that happen. Team Empire's, er, empire has been blossoming outwards the last few turns. Hopefully it reinforces to Archduke and Emperor the need for friendly relations between our teams...or it will increase their impetus to attack us if they think we're distracted. Who can know these things! Fingers crossed, though, lads.
Ocean continues its scouting and uncovers two more tiny islands beyond Corsica (the natural companion to Sardinia, of course):
At least 3 tiny islands down there, 5 total in the sea so far. I dub the smaller one Minorca and the larger Majorca, for I trust obvious reasons. There's certainly plenty of room for an aquatic civ on this map! I'm glad we didn't abandon Cornflake's efforts and kept playing on this map. None are as good as Sicily or even as nice as Sardinia, but land is land. Woden should be able to settle next turn, or possibly the turn after. I keep expecting to see a Russian settler any day!
My own settler completes, but needs an astonishing 14 turns to reach the front! I'm not sure it's the best use of my time - I could settle Leyte a full 8 turns earlier. However, there's nothing for it but to try, so the settler duly marches out. I have to say, though, this long walk feels like a mistake to me, Woden. At least, more clearly like a mistake than anything else we've done yet. It's a long time to wait on ROI on a settler, and if Emperor nabs the spot anyway, I've got few back ups - some poor coastal locations that we can grab any time. I think I ought to send both settlers to the Khmer front, my army can defend all 3 settlements in that area fairly easily.
The western scout (The Lone Ranger ) enters a wider area after the one-tile wide chokepoint. No sign of intelligent life anywhere:
Finally, a turn 50 bonus. The known world, 50 turns in. Some of my editting got fucked up right around Aranyaka, but otherwise everything else is fine. https://i.imgur.com/Vr5gkuc.jpg
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