[SPOILERS] Dark Savant leads the noble Inca as half-noble Churchiill

[Dark Savant]

Turn 108 (175 BC) - Part 1

Here is the stack assembled to attack Nalanda next turn.



This isn't overkill; that worker just completed chopping a forest, so another unit might appear next turn.  I can promote two axes to City Raider II, and Nalanda lacks a barracks, so I can get odds on even two defending axes.

Meditation is in.  I'm going to research Iron Working next, actually.  I plan to use Meditation before I can get Iron Working (Winterfell will start on a Jewish monastery next turn), but not Priesthood; it'll be several turns before I plan to build a temple anywhere.  I'll run gold for a turn or two.

I whip a settler in King's Landing, which I will send southeast as discussed.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 108 (175 BC) - Part 2

JR4 isn't done building wonders; he just built the Colossus. 



I need to seriously think about possibly joining an anti-JR4 coalition, but how is that to be organized?  Do I just offer Open Borders to ?

Technologies known by rivals:

• Aesthetics: 0
  
• Code of Laws: 1 (I should figure out who has this)
  
• Horseback Riding: 1
  
• Iron Working: 5 (Charriu, ipecac, JR4, wetbandit; 1 unknown)
  
• Mathematics: 6 (wetbandit; 5 unknown; the Hanging Gardens have yet to be built)
  
• Metal Casting: 2 (Colossus just built this turn)
  
• Monarchy: 0
  
• Priesthood: not sure of the math, but I think this is 3 (ipecac; others unknown)
  
• Theology: 0
  

wetbandit is also known to have Calendar (he's building a plantation on a jungle banana tile right on our border).

I need to start to think about defense against horse archers indeed.  More spears, fewer axes.

Latest demographics:

[Dark Savant]

Turn 108 (175 BC) - Part 3

JR4 apparently wasn't satisfied with his military.



I wonder if he's the one with the horse archers. 

If those are, they're going to hit Charriu (probably) in a lot less than 10 turns.

edit: noticed this.  



I'm not sure whether to offer a Peace Treaty to Charriu at all now, but it'll still likely take at least 10 turns before I have another assault force in place anyway.

[Dark Savant]

Okay, I logged in to take a look.

moved away units from our front, including that impi that was threatening so many tiles.  I'll take that as a sign I can move away a few units as well.

If nothing else, I can re-offer the non-aggression pact to .  I'm hesitant to just drop the Open Borders treaty with JR4 without a better military, though.

The whipping frenzy moved me to #1 in hammer production.  Yeah, 1st place dropped by 27 hammers/turn.

[Dark Savant]

WilliamLP is behaving as if he has second half of a turn split with someone else -- he rolled the last turn, just rolled this one, and promptly logged out again.

He wasn't at war with anyone last I checked.  He's still got a few turns of a Peace Treaty with Charriu left.

edit: Also, he got a 20-point increase during his turn.  That's a 6-pop barbarian city capture.    It's now impossible for barb cities to spawn in our backlines.  Not sure if that's a good thing or not; those barb cities spawn with warriors and are easy to capture.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 109 (150 BC) - Part 1

Charriu versus me is still the only war in the world.  I guess people were actually getting Alphabet and Currency before gearing up for war, but that doesn't supply much  to the lurkers, does it?  Though I am facing an opponent who didn't seem to realize the urgency of defense until about now.

Charriu's chopped forest did in fact go into an axe, so I'm facing two axes and a spear on defense in Nalanda.  Those axes weren't built with a barracks, though, so they don't have Shock, and my 4 XP axes can promote all the way to City Raider II (yay, Charismatic) and get odds on them.

• City Raider II axe attacks Combat 1 axe (+5% fortify) at ~77% odds, wins taking 3 hits/51 damage
  
• City Raider II axe attacks Combat 1 axe (no defense bonus ) at ~79% odds, wins taking 4 hits/68 damage
  
• City Raider I axe attacks Combat II spear (+25% fortify, ~92% odds), wins taking 2 hits/32 damage
  

Nalanda captured with no losses, 21 gold plundered.  I'm content with those dice rolls.    I'm not content with 3 turns to come out of resistance (that was higher than I was expecting); that iron it has may be my only instantly connected source once Iron Working is in.

Charriu has two workers on that tile northeast of Nalanda.  I capture both of them.  That reveals a galley of Charriu's.



I'm facing 3 axes and 1 spear on defense in Pandidakterion, and probably more in Academia, which just 2-pop-whipped something.  I don't think my five remaining axes will cut it on offense now; I'll need to retrench and build more units.  I know JR4 might well attack Charriu in 3-4 turns, but I can't really make much progress until I have more and better units.

So I offer this to Charriu.



He'll get a 10-turn reprieve, and I hope he can also shift units towards whomever attacks him next.  Oh, and I'm renaming cities past The Eyrie after the Free Cities.

One thing of note is that Charriu doesn't seem to be lowest in power.  Killing two axes and a spear didn't affect lowest rival power.  I think he did get the point that he needs to produce a lot of units, quickly, to just not get run over in short order.

It's a realization late in coming, but some things you only learn through experience, I suppose.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 109 (150 BC) - Part 2

has a sword in his border city now.



It's still there even after he played his turn, after me.  is a fan of swords on defense, so I don't think this is a threat.  He's probably a lot more concerned about JR4's power spike. 

I'm also handily winning the cultural battle here, enough that it will probably annoy .  If he doesn't do anything about it soon, I might actually take control of the column of tiles with the marble; Castle Black is producing 7 culture/turn.

This is what  no doubt sees as well: 



It doesn't show yet on the graphs, but that's a leap of about 60000 power.

I'm not sure how to indicate that I'm most concerned about JR4 to .



I think that will help some; I offered the last NAP long enough ago that a renewal is in order, I think.

That was offered after ended his turn, so he hasn't actually seen this yet. 

If I build swords and push them east, I have to consider the possibility that they'll get there just in time to declare war on JR4.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 109 (150 BC) - Part 3

A couple of cities are now on Wealth to hold overflow until I can put it into swords, and to squeeze out enough cash to get Iron Working on turn 111.




My galleys are still doing quite a bit of scouting.  I'd rather use work boats (galleys are going to annoy other players), but I don't actually have enough of those.

Yeah, that's a spread of Buddhism to White Harbor as well.  I'm winning that cultural battle, though it's bordering what will soon be a gigantic city.  Well, at least it won't be long before I have the furs there connected.

The crawl towards spreading Judaism has started.  Winterfell doesn't even have a barracks, so I'm not going to have it produce swords.

I don't have enough work boats.  Well, I still have that extra on the western sea that's still scouting (it's now poking around WililamLP's coast).  I haven't actually been able to spare one to go scout out superdeath until just last turn.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 110 (125 BC) - Part 1

Charriu rejected the peace treaty offer, and didn't bother to make a counter-offer.  I'm not sure I can blame him at this point -- already his best chance to survive as long as he can is to hole up in the island city I think he has by now.  That probably is no fun, yeah.  I don't think I can blame him for not wanting to sign a peace treaty at this point, especially since I'm not sure he realizes JR4 is probably going to invade him.

I'm not going to make another offer, since I'll want to re-declare on him in less than 10 turns, so I feel a peace treaty is only worthwhile if he pays me for one (and he has no gpt this turn).

He also might try to land troops amphibiously at ex-Nalanda with his galley.  I'll have to watch for that; if he lands an axe and a spear that'll be a bit of a problem.

made no response to the fish-for-fish offer at all.  I'm not sure how to interpret this, though he probably doesn't quite know why I re-offered either.  He might well still think I'm the biggest threat in the game; and he may also think we still have a deal.  Even so, my garrison of 3 archers, 1 spear, and 1 axe behind walls is starting to look a bit dated.  Casterly Rock, beyond it, has one each of spear, archer, and quechua -- partly zone defense that can defend White Harbor, partly in case invades with a stack of impis and chariots. 

Our settler moves into position to plant south of Highgarden next turn.  I have a work boat in place to boat the whales immediately; Sunspear just whipped another work boat this turn to go on its one seafood tile.  No other settlers are currently in production.

Iron Working is due next turn.  I'll have enough gold left over to absorb inflation this time. 




I don't have enough workers in the west to get the gems at Casterly Rock and the furs at White Harbor connected ASAP (White Harbor will soon crest 100 culture).  Oh well.

Oh, and I re-renamed Myr to Braavos.  It's a good city site, and it's also roughly in the right geographical location even (the northwest of Charriu's rightful territory). 

[Dark Savant]

You know, I just started to ship a spear from the southern island to the mainland this turn ... and I sent settlers from islands to the mainland in PB37.

That's where I should get that next settler from.  Pyke doesn't need a library quite that badly (I swapped to that because it has a lot of food and needs to do something with it); I logged in just to swap that to a settler.