We actually have a new turn to play! This is the first one in six days, and the Germans are absolute dicks. They played their turn on Monday, and then never logged into the game again. Of course they didn't end their turn. They never once logged in or ended their turn in the 60 real-world hours that elapsed between Monday afternoon and Thursday morning. That's a total asshole move there. I actually think we should consider writing them an email politely asking them to end their turn when they're done playing, since they held up the game for absolutely no reason this week. (CivFr did the exact same thing, although not as badly. They never ended turn and didn't log into the game for the last 15 hours of their half of the timer.) Maybe we just make a general post at CivFanatics politely asking everyone to please end turn when they are done moving their units? This turn was an absolute disgrace, entire days thrown away for literally zero purpose whatsoever.
Anyway....
The northwest over here is pretty interesting. The Germans did not reinforce Wanzleben at all, nor did they upgrade the quechua to a spear despite having gold available to do so. They moved their longbow into Weil der Stadt and moved their war elephant in Weil over to the east, towards their capital. They also whipped both cities over here, which will presumably have either longbows or elephants (longbows if they are smart) come out at the start of next turn.
What this means is that we can take Wanzleben this turn if we want to do so. We have 78% odds to kill the quechua with our war chariot, and even if that would fail, we then have 71% odds to get the kill with our injured knight. We would have to be REALLY unlucky to see both of those attacks fail. Of course, this brings up the same question from last turn: should we kill the city? Because of the presumable longbow whip incoming next turn, I think that we have to do so and just take our chances on being able to settle the opened up territory. I don't think it's worth the effort of digging out a longbow in a city on a hill when we can kill a quechua with minimal effort. (Unless kjn can determine that there's something else being whipped in that city? It sure looks like the whip is for a longbow to me from what I can read in the production tracking chart.)
Here's my suggestion: we wait to raze the city until the very end of the timer. This prevents other teams in the area from swapping to a settler until next turn, at the very least. We can also set up this play:
![[Image: ISDG-1091s.jpg]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19563179/ISDG/ISDG-1091s.jpg)
We swap to settler in Frozen Jungle this turn (already done), triple whip it next turn (T156). We move as indicated on T157 along newly built roads, then settle the city on T158 on the desired tile two south of Wanzleben. Again, it's not perfect, I'd feel way better if we had the settler finishing at the end of this current turn, but I think we're better off taking our chances than fighting an unnecessary longbow at tough odds. Think of the competition as well: CivPlayers has virtually no chance to get a settler into that region because they do not have Open Borders with our team. How could they even get a settler up there? Along the coast to the west, I suppose, but that would take forever without roads. Besides, their two cities in the area are both too small for settler whips anyway. I don't see it happening. As for Apolyton, they have no idea that we're planning to raze the city. Even if they react immediately, that would be swap to settler T156, whip it T157, and then try to move it down there to settle before us on T158 (and Apolyton does not have Engineering, so no bonus road movement for their settlers). Plus, would Apolyton really triple whip their only city in the area (a nice commercial cottage one) for a settler while in a Golden Age? Even that feels unlikely.
Long story short: I think we should burn that city this turn, and we have good odds (I'd say 80-90%) of being able to resettle before anyone else gets there. Thoughts?
Here is the main front, which remains fairly light on German units. They seem to like this one longbow + one spear combination for some reason, there are a couple little stacks like that. Webringen still only has two longbows, and it will get another drywhipped one at the start of next turn, so three total longbows. There's an elephant and a spear moving down from Wien as well. Looks like 3 longbows, 2 elephants, 2 axes, and 1 spear in the capital next turn? That's going to be pretty easy.
I suggest that we move the small western stack (the elephant and 2 maces) up next to Weil der Stadt this turn. We should also split off about 5 maces from the main stack and put them next to Weil on the tile east of the city. That will give us some cannon fodder to knock down the strength of the longbows in Weil, while still retaining 15 maces to hit Webringen (where we'll have catapult support). Our knights will be positioned on the tile northwest of Worms, where they can hit either city as needed. However, I'm hoping to minimize knight usage at these cities, because the maces/elephants are in range to attack them. Here's the play I want to set up with the knights:
![[Image: ISDG-1093s.jpg]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19563179/ISDG/ISDG-1093s.jpg)
I've drawn in the cultural borders of Wismar in red, and stuck a white dot on the key tile: that desert hill two north of Speed Racer. It will be outside German culture as soon as their capital falls to us next turn. What we want to do is move three workers onto that tile this turn, and cover them with two maces (which are already in range for the job). Then next turn, after Webringen falls, we move the knights along the white path and are in position to hit Wismar immediately on T157. They'll likely have 2 longbows + 1 spear, but we can hit the city with 12 knights if we save all of the attacks, and that will not be enough units to save them. (Wismar is not on a hill either, thank bloody heavens finally.)
In other words, if we pull this off correctly, we raze Wanzleben this turn (T155), capture Webringen and Weil der Stadt next turn (T156), and then capture Wismar on T157. The best part is that this very technically follows our agreement with WPC not to target "their" cities until after we took all of "our" cities. Following the letter of the law while completely violating the spirit, beautiful.
As for poor WPC, here are the results of the carnage up in the northeast:
The Germans attacked with their catapult stack, with predictable losses on both sides. According to what WPC told us last turn, the Germans appear to have lost 1 elephant, 7 catapults, and 10 axes. WPC didn't lose too much: they are down 2 cats and 6 spears from what I can see. Due to their weird stack composition, the spears did a lot of defending, and after taking the collateral damage from the German catapults, they died to the German elephants. However, the WPC dog soldiers appear to have cleaned up against the German axes (collateral damage wouldn't be as effective against them, since they already have a low base strength and rely on the +100% vs melee combat modifier).
Anyway, it was a giant bloodbath already and likely to get worse when WPC attacks this turn. Nearly all of the WPC cats survived, so they have good odds to take that city, especially if they bombard the walls with their nearly dead cats and suicide attack with the healthy ones. We could easily see two dozen more units traded up here on either side. I love it.
Finally, there was more action between CivFr and CFC earlier this turn. CFC has 16 war weariness, while CivFr has 21 war weariness. I'm not sure how many units that translates into, all I know is that the values are higher than last turn (it was like 10/18 or something). They are still fighting for the moment, and that can only be good news for us.
Overall then, a very successful start to this turn. I'm not sure that we necessarily need to Livestream anything this turn, but I will do so if people really want it. Let me know what everyone thinks about these suggested tactical moves.
Anyway....
![[Image: ISDG-1090s.jpg]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19563179/ISDG/ISDG-1090s.jpg)
The northwest over here is pretty interesting. The Germans did not reinforce Wanzleben at all, nor did they upgrade the quechua to a spear despite having gold available to do so. They moved their longbow into Weil der Stadt and moved their war elephant in Weil over to the east, towards their capital. They also whipped both cities over here, which will presumably have either longbows or elephants (longbows if they are smart) come out at the start of next turn.
What this means is that we can take Wanzleben this turn if we want to do so. We have 78% odds to kill the quechua with our war chariot, and even if that would fail, we then have 71% odds to get the kill with our injured knight. We would have to be REALLY unlucky to see both of those attacks fail. Of course, this brings up the same question from last turn: should we kill the city? Because of the presumable longbow whip incoming next turn, I think that we have to do so and just take our chances on being able to settle the opened up territory. I don't think it's worth the effort of digging out a longbow in a city on a hill when we can kill a quechua with minimal effort. (Unless kjn can determine that there's something else being whipped in that city? It sure looks like the whip is for a longbow to me from what I can read in the production tracking chart.)
Here's my suggestion: we wait to raze the city until the very end of the timer. This prevents other teams in the area from swapping to a settler until next turn, at the very least. We can also set up this play:
We swap to settler in Frozen Jungle this turn (already done), triple whip it next turn (T156). We move as indicated on T157 along newly built roads, then settle the city on T158 on the desired tile two south of Wanzleben. Again, it's not perfect, I'd feel way better if we had the settler finishing at the end of this current turn, but I think we're better off taking our chances than fighting an unnecessary longbow at tough odds. Think of the competition as well: CivPlayers has virtually no chance to get a settler into that region because they do not have Open Borders with our team. How could they even get a settler up there? Along the coast to the west, I suppose, but that would take forever without roads. Besides, their two cities in the area are both too small for settler whips anyway. I don't see it happening. As for Apolyton, they have no idea that we're planning to raze the city. Even if they react immediately, that would be swap to settler T156, whip it T157, and then try to move it down there to settle before us on T158 (and Apolyton does not have Engineering, so no bonus road movement for their settlers). Plus, would Apolyton really triple whip their only city in the area (a nice commercial cottage one) for a settler while in a Golden Age? Even that feels unlikely.
Long story short: I think we should burn that city this turn, and we have good odds (I'd say 80-90%) of being able to resettle before anyone else gets there. Thoughts?
![[Image: ISDG-1092s.jpg]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19563179/ISDG/ISDG-1092s.jpg)
Here is the main front, which remains fairly light on German units. They seem to like this one longbow + one spear combination for some reason, there are a couple little stacks like that. Webringen still only has two longbows, and it will get another drywhipped one at the start of next turn, so three total longbows. There's an elephant and a spear moving down from Wien as well. Looks like 3 longbows, 2 elephants, 2 axes, and 1 spear in the capital next turn? That's going to be pretty easy.
I suggest that we move the small western stack (the elephant and 2 maces) up next to Weil der Stadt this turn. We should also split off about 5 maces from the main stack and put them next to Weil on the tile east of the city. That will give us some cannon fodder to knock down the strength of the longbows in Weil, while still retaining 15 maces to hit Webringen (where we'll have catapult support). Our knights will be positioned on the tile northwest of Worms, where they can hit either city as needed. However, I'm hoping to minimize knight usage at these cities, because the maces/elephants are in range to attack them. Here's the play I want to set up with the knights:
I've drawn in the cultural borders of Wismar in red, and stuck a white dot on the key tile: that desert hill two north of Speed Racer. It will be outside German culture as soon as their capital falls to us next turn. What we want to do is move three workers onto that tile this turn, and cover them with two maces (which are already in range for the job). Then next turn, after Webringen falls, we move the knights along the white path and are in position to hit Wismar immediately on T157. They'll likely have 2 longbows + 1 spear, but we can hit the city with 12 knights if we save all of the attacks, and that will not be enough units to save them. (Wismar is not on a hill either, thank bloody heavens finally.)
In other words, if we pull this off correctly, we raze Wanzleben this turn (T155), capture Webringen and Weil der Stadt next turn (T156), and then capture Wismar on T157. The best part is that this very technically follows our agreement with WPC not to target "their" cities until after we took all of "our" cities. Following the letter of the law while completely violating the spirit, beautiful.
As for poor WPC, here are the results of the carnage up in the northeast:
![[Image: ISDG-1094s.jpg]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19563179/ISDG/ISDG-1094s.jpg)
The Germans attacked with their catapult stack, with predictable losses on both sides. According to what WPC told us last turn, the Germans appear to have lost 1 elephant, 7 catapults, and 10 axes. WPC didn't lose too much: they are down 2 cats and 6 spears from what I can see. Due to their weird stack composition, the spears did a lot of defending, and after taking the collateral damage from the German catapults, they died to the German elephants. However, the WPC dog soldiers appear to have cleaned up against the German axes (collateral damage wouldn't be as effective against them, since they already have a low base strength and rely on the +100% vs melee combat modifier).
Anyway, it was a giant bloodbath already and likely to get worse when WPC attacks this turn. Nearly all of the WPC cats survived, so they have good odds to take that city, especially if they bombard the walls with their nearly dead cats and suicide attack with the healthy ones. We could easily see two dozen more units traded up here on either side. I love it.
Finally, there was more action between CivFr and CFC earlier this turn. CFC has 16 war weariness, while CivFr has 21 war weariness. I'm not sure how many units that translates into, all I know is that the values are higher than last turn (it was like 10/18 or something). They are still fighting for the moment, and that can only be good news for us.
Overall then, a very successful start to this turn. I'm not sure that we necessarily need to Livestream anything this turn, but I will do so if people really want it. Let me know what everyone thinks about these suggested tactical moves.
), but I understand if Sullla doesn't want to make one.
