[Spoilers] I have enough games already. Oh look, a PBEM !

[AdrienIer]

The game is on. Sian saw my maceman last turn but let his city be defended by just a pike anyway. And it's the one city with my culture in it so







I'll take Euclid back I think, but not much more unless I get to cut Sian's territory in two, which is precisely my plan. If I get the strip of land below Euclid he won't be able to defend properly. I could then ask for Grimaceland back maybe ?

But let's not be delusional, my military is minuscule, those pikes are worthless on the attack and the only reason I have so many cuirs is that I upgraded all my knights into them last turn, burning a turn's worth of cash

[Miguelito]

That cash seems like an excellent investment! Happy time!

Expecting: retep making peace with Sian next turn. I hope to be proven wrong. Got a power graph/demos? Maybe F4 techs as well?

[AdrienIer]

Retep just got gunpowder so rifling is next now.







If Retep makes the same mistake a THIRD time and attacks me instead of Sian I'm moving all my units to his front (leaving a few defenders in the south, like a couple pikes plus a musket/longbow in both cities) and Sian can win this. Honestly Retep played the early game well, and his main problem was not neighboring Grimace who was the weakest. So when I killed Grimace he couldn't take his share of the spoils. But then he didn't play the diplo game very well, I think he could have gained a lot more against Sian then he did against me last time. I do get that I was shaping up to be a tech giant that needed to be stopped, so at least he avoided that. If he makes another debatable diplomatic decision he doesn't deserve to win.

[Miguelito]

BTW I saw a scientist popping? So another GA coming up soonish? I believe the canonical play would be to time it for levees or factories, but otoh the game could well be over by then... Any more civics you want to change to?

[AdrienIer]

The scientist is 1/3 and the next one should have 45% to be another scientist so I'm not sure there will be another GA soon. Changing to theocracy and environmentalism (mainly for the +1 gold per specialist, although the +1 commerce per farm and pasture is also ok) would be interesting.

[AdrienIer]

Sian left Euclid empty so I took it. He also lost a city to Retep last turn. The problem is that he's getting rifles in 2t, and I'm nowhere near it.

[Miguelito]

Hm, if you get philidor might be best to just raze it and then go conquering in the southwest while holding borders with at least a little cultural control (Euclid should get the time sw of it)? Got a defense plan with cats?

[AdrienIer]

Well Euclid will stop being in revolt at the end of next turn, and then I'll be using a ton of artists (because I won't control all the tiles I can use) so I'm likely to get back some cultural control in the next few turns. I think razing Philidor would be the best option, last time around I chose to keep the city just west of it and it was a major mistake. In the west Thucydides is producing a cuir a turn but that's all the army I can use. Currently it's one pike one mace and one cuir, I had to bet on the fact that all Zulu units would be stuck fighting Retep and thankfully I was right. So the offensive is likely to be very slow on that side.

Because I only have 2 cats and 2 trebs following the previous war against Retep I don't have many possibilities, my offense is half pikes a quarter of a bit of everything and a quarter cuirs. My only hope is that he's really underdefending his cities, like he is in the peninsula (one city I can see is only defended by a longbow).

[Miguelito]

Point is that in defense cats really multiply the potential of cuirs, even against technologically advanced units. So we should really get a number of those to Euclid (or, say, two times away so they can strike any incoming stack but won't be lost to a fast cav strike)

[AdrienIer]

I agree, but 12 cuirs in my main stack is barely enough to do anything, I want at least 20 before I build other stuff. I definitely agree with you in principle, it's just that when you're so far behind militarily the choices disappear.