[SPOILERS] Will the Sun(rise) Ever Set on Washington, Mongolia?

[Whosit]

Zulu have started to snack on Rome. Not really surprised, but hopefully it doesn't last too long. I still want to see if I can get them to help me fight CH, if I can communicate that somehow. CH has Construction and Catapults (as does Zulu). Sentry Chariot got a peek into Meinz or whatever it is that borders Wendy. 1 Spear, 2 Axes, 1 Cat. Over the next few turns I'll get more peeks into other cities. I kind of expect to see just that on the borders, but I'm sure he has a reaction stack somewhere. Soon I should get a better idea of how many units I need.

More GAs all around, and CH went into Bureau. I am certain that my choice to skip Construction, MC, and CS to go after Music is pretty dumb. XD I'm stuck on that path, though. At least if it pays off I get a GA out of it and can bulb Philo... for whatever that's worth. I don't have a strategy, really, I'm just trying to do it because.

I'm talking about declaring war and such, but I'd say that there's at least an 80% chance that I make some initial gains, find out I don't have enough units, get bogged down, and then get smacked around. However, when I do go to war, I'm giving myself a time limit: 5 turns. If I can't get all my objectives in that time, I'll ask for peace. I dunno. I can tell I'm starting to stagnate soooo....

[Commodore]

Zulu have started to snack on Rome. Not really surprised, but hopefully it doesn't last too long. I still want to see if I can get them to help me fight CH, if I can communicate that somehow. CH has Construction and Catapults (as does Zulu). Sentry Chariot got a peek into Meinz or whatever it is that borders Wendy. 1 Spear, 2 Axes, 1 Cat. Over the next few turns I'll get more peeks into other cities. I kind of expect to see just that on the borders, but I'm sure he has a reaction stack somewhere. Soon I should get a better idea of how many units I need.

More GAs all around, and CH went into Bureau. I am certain that my choice to skip Construction, MC, and CS to go after Music is pretty dumb. XD I'm stuck on that path, though. At least if it pays off I get a GA out of it and can bulb Philo... for whatever that's worth. I don't have a strategy, really, I'm just trying to do it because.

I'm talking about declaring war and such, but I'd say that there's at least an 80% chance that I make some initial gains, find out I don't have enough units, get bogged down, and then get smacked around. However, when I do go to war, I'm giving myself a time limit: 5 turns. If I can't get all my objectives in that time, I'll ask for peace. I dunno. I can tell I'm starting to stagnate soooo....

Wait, so I missed this. You're planning on attacking fresh low-cultured lands and burning a Great Artist on a Golden Age instead?

[Whosit]

I have no idea how to use Great People. What do you want from me?

[Commodore]

I have no idea how to use Great People. What do you want from me?

Well, I don't want a thing or another, just wondering if you'd weighed the benefits of securing your conquests with a culture bomb versus a later golden age.

[Whosit]

I had not, no. That is a thing I will want to consider. That artist will probably be sitting around a while if I save him to bomb, but I don't know if that's something that really factors in.

Oh, and I guess it's worth mentioning that Philo has already been bulbed, so I guess my next Scientist is available for GA anyway.

Also, sorry if I came off as rude before. In my head it was playful but I forgot tone doesn't translate.

[Whosit]

Played turn, finished the Horse quest and took the 7 Keshiks. Looking back, I would probably have been better off just building the Keshiks because they are cheaper than the Gers (if I was AGG, it would have been a nice deal, though). The extra food would have been nice, but in the end I desperately need units now, and I can still make use of the Gers by building or whipping some mounted units.

My power is still nowhere near that of John/TBS's Zulu. They're mad in first place, but at least I'm about equal with CH right now. I just need to build up a few more archers to free up some city guard units and I can probably attack soon. I may not be able to afford to do that 3-prong strike, though, and in that event I'll just attack from the north down, but if I can scrape together another force to attack out of Wendy, I'll do that, too. I'll have a little more intel on CH's defenses in a couple of turns, but I'm expecting Spear/Axe pairs, with maybe an extra axe or spear, and probably a catapult stack somewhere. I'll probably need roughly 2 Keshiks per defending unit, but I'll do some sims when I get more info to confirm.

I do have those 4 Swords still, though, and I want to add some axes and such to that stack so it can strike out from Wendy. To be honest, I don't care if they succeed, it's more about dividing CH's forces, but I don't know if that's actually a wise tactic here. All I know is that there's no point in stacking Swords with HA's because the swords can't keep up, so might as well have them attack somewhere else.

[Whosit]

I'm last in manufacturing by a large margin (100 to 200), but I'm almost tied in food still. I think that's mainly because my rivals have been whipping heavily, though. Hopefully I can catch up some in production, but historically I've had trouble balancing that with commerce. Or having adequate commerce in the first place.

[Whosit]

Hey, has anyone missed good ol' irrational, psychopathic Whosit? Because I think that train wreck is a rollin' again! So, you see, I was outdid by the Koreans this turn. I was had. This makes me upset. I have like 20 keshiks and a lot of boats and they don't. I had been toying with the idea of attacking them before, so why not now?! And even better, I can rationalize this by saying that when CH sees me attacking and burning Korean cities, he'll feel that's what my military buildup was for. (I got sight on another of his border towns and it's just a spear/axe combo, I think my target area is pretty weakly defended.) I can mobilize on the Korean front pretty quickly, and it'll give me something to do as I build more units for the real war. My main fear, of course, is delaying too long and then CH has Machinery and upgrades all his Axes to Macemen, but I think with enough Keshiks I can still plow through that.

Oh, and I'm one turn from Music, no Great Artists have been born, I think I got this. For whatever it's worth. I'll be saving up cash to get Civil Service next, and then hopefully I can scoop up Construction and Metal Casting and get my proverbial shit in order.



As you can see, they wisely planned the founding of Scharnhorst with the border popping of Akagi. My plan is to burn Scharnhorts, Capture Akagi, and burn Yorktown for the hell of it (also because it stole Pacifica's forest). The Galley by Durland will have either 2 chariots or 2 Keshiks. I'm pretty sure Scharnhorst is defended with only an Axeman, so 2 chariots can probably do the job. This assumes he doesn't reinforce any of the cities in the meantime, though, but I'm trying not to look too threatening (unfortunately, I have to defend Durland with a pair of Keshiks at the moment because I lack for other defensive units, and I don't want to use just an axe because it's in striking range of his chariot).

The other two cities currently have only an Axe and Chariot to defend. Even with Amphibious Keshiks, the Axe might take 2 to kill. I'll load 4 Galleys worth of units and station them in pairs in Pacifica and Dipper. Grimace will probably spot them and might whip units, but I don't really have a better way to angle the attack. Lastly, I'll put a stack of Keshiks on the tile those Chariots are currently on. They can get within striking range on turn 1 in case the boats don't do the job.

If I'm lucky, this'll be a 1 turn war. Maybe 2. I'll offer peace after my blood debt is settled. Korea's power does not appear to rival mine, and I'll bet you most of their forces are on the Persian border because, man, those guys are scary looking. I've yet to see even a whiff of a Galley from Korea, so I am not too worried about my own island holdings (all could whip a unit if needed, though). It's currently T133, and I think I can put all the pieces in position by T136.

Had some other good news at the start of the new turn, too.



Nice! Popped another Copper at my production city! Now I can do this:


(Gave up wheat and plans farm to work grass and fp farm)

and do this:



Dipper badly deserves to grow after all this time. I could grow it faster by firing scientists, but I don't want to delay my GA longer than I gotta, since I think I will be hanging onto that Great Artist for now.

Stay tuned to see if I actually pull off this attack, or if I waffle and sit on my ass for another 20 turns!

[Commodore]

Yorktown getting burned in the Pacifica? Ouch.

[Whosit]

Music and the Great Artist is mine. Hooray? I'm sure the only reason I was the first to is because I skipped all those other technologies that are kind of important and, uh, this surely won't come back to bite, nope. It's not like my finances are shit.

Nope. I'm only making 56 gpt at 0% science. Ow.

Demographics are looking... like demographics.



Food count is OK, but I think I'm gonna start falling further behind as rivals grow their cities back from being whipped. Leader is Elum/Persia, but I'll get to that. My production is awful, and really I only currently possess a single city that produces enough hammers to make much of anything. If all goes according to plan (unlikely) I'll improve that stat after capturing some nice cities from CH in the next some number of turns. That GNP tho'. The foreign adviser screen revealed some interesting tidbits, though.



Did you know you could see that people are at war with people you don't know? I didn't. Until now. So this is where Elum's big food and stat boosts have been coming from. He's gobbling up the Vikings, which may have to major impacts for me: Persia is the runaway and there's probably not much I can do about that so whatever. I'm just gonna play in my corner of the world, lash out violently at everyone around me, and then watch the walls come down a few centuries later. Also, Grimace miiiiight be feeling more secure at the moment, because his big scary neighbor is eating someone who isn't him. However, so long as the target cities remain with these piss-poor defenses, I should be OK.

By the way, I don't have stretch goals for this war. I'm not interested in going for the GLH anymore, or at least not at this time. If I'm successful in my objectives, however, a future strike at Yamato should be relatively simple, though of course I expect that city to be much more heavily defended.

Oh, and for all of the Zulu's huge military power, they've had two cities razed in their wars against HRE and Rome. Total. Not each. I'm pretty sure the loss against HRE was a sneak attack, but I'm not sure what happened with their war against weak Rome.