@lurkers: There is a possible settler race between me and Gavagai next turn. (I'm not sure he has a settler but his unit movement looks like he has one where I can't see it.) We are at peace after a long war in which I moved first. How should this be resolved in the event I'm right? Turn order of the war? Throwing a coin?
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[spoiler] Civac fixes it (again)
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Normally you continue the turn order in which you are right now after you discovered it. Because Gavagai may not or cannot know if your are in a settler race, it would be best to inform him via PM that you are in a peace turn split.
EDIT: You do not have to mention that it is a settler race.
Mods: RtR CtH
Pitboss: PB39, PB40, PB52, PB59 Useful Collections: Pickmethods, Mapmaking, Curious Civplayer Buy me a coffee 
Let's start with the tactical situation.
 I founded Innominate this turn. It's only purpose is to deny the space to Gavagai and keep him from reviving his dormant culture in the area. He has a settler in range now as I suspected. He could settle on the ruins. The city there had had its second culture expansion and would be very annoying if rebuilt. It would be vulnerable to a knight attack on the diagonal though.  The city just makes as much culture as possible. Last time I saw Gavagai's army it was 85 units strong. It could easily be 90+ now. Even with superior tech fighting it would be tricky. I can't see it right now. He either pulled it just out of sight range or is moving it over to retake his city from Commodore.  Karkotaka dominates the area at the mouth of the land bridge. In the event of another war taking (or more realistically razing) this city would be critical. In the north, I am a bit worried about the holy city.  It was fairly lightly defended. There was some activity in AT's thread and he whipped a few times. It would be possible to attack it with galleys from the fog. So I stuffed some more units into the city and am transferring a sentry chariot there. (PBs make me incredibly paranoid. I also worry Amicalola snatches the Taj with a GEngineer.)
Amicalola's war is proceeding well for him.
 He had to build some trebuchet's to make headway but with the fall of Elementary MD the lightly defended Enuma Elish will also fall. Amicalola's army is a bit too close to Diegesis for comfort. Commodore's advance further south seems to have been stopped though.  He has reinforcements coming in too. However, Jowy stuffed the city to the brim with nightmarishly promoted longbows. I really don't see Commodore breaking this position. Superdeath's beat up stack.  He and Lewwyn made peace. I think Lewwyn is out of contention now. He looked pretty good for a while. It's between Amicalola and me now with some very long odds for Jowy still.
Domestic affairs.
The GP in Diegesis was born as an artist after all (at 90%).  It would have been quite annoying if it had been an engineer or even worse a scientist. The 3 person GA is now assured. Construction of the Taj Mahal continues apace.  It should give 13 more turns of GA if everything works as I think it does. Otherwise the brief reprieve at the Gavagai front enables constructing some buildings (courthouse, barracks) in production cities which otherwise were just pumping units. Not Legerity, though. Amazingly, even in a GA and having bank, forum, grocer in our high-powered bureaucracy capital we are still below 50% research rate. Demograpics.  The GNP leader is almost certainly Amicalola who is in a GA and burning gold. The main reason for being second in GNP despite the incredible food lead is this:  Yeah, 690 gpt costs. Since we are not in slavery, construction of courthouses is a bit sporadic. Moreover, the cities that really need courthouses aren't developed enough yet to build them, the typical problem of courthouses. AT's old capital gets the Forbidden Palace in due time which should help. Army is still the biggest in the world.  But again it cannot be in two places at the same time. Most of it is required in the Gavagai theater. I will focus on making more knights to have a more mobile defensive force.  All is right in the world.
Selected core cities.
Diegesis.  Just made the artist. Will have incredible production once all tiles are finally workshopped or farmed. After the courthouse a castle is planned then units. Grimoire.  Had to wait for the artist in Diegesis. Will get the National Epic once the GP is born. I didn't want to risk having artist points in the pool before that and of course Grimoire needs its hammer tiles back to build the NE. Terraqueous.  Also had to wait. Still had 330 merchant points stored up from the first GA. Tombola.   Was even more fabulous before switching to Mercantilism but the free engineer is very useful. Will construct the Parthenon after the Taj if feasable, otherwise knights.Legerity.  Was able to grow during the GA while still making two thirds of a knight every turn. I am replacing one of the mines with a wind mill to maintain growth. Not sure this is a good idea. Should calculate growth trajectory perhaps instead of wasting worker turns like that. Duende.  Moai city in a GA as required by custom.
Selected annexed cities.
Chrestomathy.  AT's border fortress. Better than it ever was. Will be a decent military city. The courthouse is a concession to the maintenance. I'd rather not build it. Ratiocinate.  The holy city will get bank, courthouse, forum and grocer probably in that order. Shrine should be 45+ gold once all cities are converted. The cottage is being transformed into a workshop to allow for quicker builds. AT's culture denies Ratiocinate two more workshops, unfortunately. An interesting option is to spawn a GProphet for a 4person GA here. Matronymic.  The former capital still has some growing to do. Looks nice already. Courthouse, Forbidden Palace, bank, library would me optimal but it could well end up making more knights too.
Outlook.
I have agonized (and I really mean agonized) over what to research next. It's fairly clear I want better units and will forego stuff like Education/Liberalism/Economics/Constitution for now. Viable options are Printing Press followed by Rifling, Chemistry -> Steel and Music -> Military Tradition. All of these require Gunpowder so I am researching that first to delay the decision. All new weapons generations have the advantage that I can probably secure both sides of the empire. With the exception of Amicalola (and maybe Jowy but he is not going to attack me any time soon) noone will be able to get to weapons parity quickly. I am far enough ahead that conservative play is preferable. Moreover, new weapons will enable attacking options. Two scenarios in particular seem promising. One is to attack Gavagai. While his humungous stack is a danger even with rifles or cannons Gavagai is geostrategically the correct target since annexing his territory would not lengthen my land borders. He is also far behind in tech and I can reinforce the area over the inland sea fairly effectively. The disadvantage would be that taking him on would be slow and moderately costly while leaving other more potent rivals to tech in peace. The other likely target is Amicalola. The border area is almost undefended on both sides. I could probably take 3 or 4 border cities quickly. However, after that the war is likely to stalemate. And depending on how strong his culture is the captured cities might get lost again. This option would also stretch my borders. My conservative nature tells me to go for the low hanging fruit against Gavagai with cannons or rifles. A raid with cuirassiers or better cavalry against Amicalola's border area (razing the cities) is something which should be considered if there is an opportunity. Cannons are much cheaper than to research than rifles and I will likely go for them. Cuirassiers are even cheaper but Gavagai has elephants to counter (or at least do OK vs them). Drafted muskets and knights will supplement the cannons (plus the classical era stack of course). Cannons should be able to deter an attack on the Amicalola border as well. Follow up tech could be Military Tradition for stronger mainline combat units that can reinforce quickly. |
