at last, greenline is playing the kind of game he wants to

[greenline]

Krill sent me a delegation. I have no idea what delegations do, so I declined it.

Archery will be finished next turn. Slingers will be upgraded and then the attack on Venice begins.

[greenline]

Archery completed. Had just enough gold in the tank to upgrade the 3 slingers, boosting Machinery. My income takes a beating, but the immediate power is worth it. Now maneuvering my units to be in position. All the hills that will make Venice a good long term city make it a pain for my units to get nearby quickly. I can attack right away with 3 archers and 2 warriors, or wait longer for a third warrior. Not sure which will be better.

Decided to put some turns into researching sailing. If I capture Venice successfully, I'll want to hook up the turtles.

I see a road from Venice to Rome - not sure if Whosit or the City state built that. Interesting...

[greenline]

Whosit offered a declaration of friendship. I declined as I see no reason to offer him the safety right now. For this game I am going to avoid signing DoFs unless I have a compelling need to lock down a front. While Krill is my primary target it may make more sense to attack Whosit first depending on how the early game shakes out.

Good news is that with my archer upgrades being registered I am leading the pack in a big way in power currently. So I should be safe to attack the city states.

Also grabbed a barb camp in the southern ice:





The gold reward was pretty small, but at least I got MilTrad boosted.

[greenline]

Operation Agnadello continues as my forces gather near the Venetian border. Domestically, Scarborough Fair will finish its Seowon next turn. I used the builder to build a mine adjacent, giving the city more production and an extra beaker. Arirang is building a trader to boost currency - it will also be useful for building a road for my future three cities, and helping Venice grow after being conquered.

Early empire will be finished soon. The question is whether I want to build one or two settlers while in Colonization. Arirang can knock one out no problem, I just worry that it will take too long for Scarborough fair to build a second. Might be worth chopping into it with the other two builder charges. Alternatively, it could build military to guard the home front if I have the troops rotate straight to Zanzibar afterwards.

In international news, Whosit declared on CMF! Perhaps I should give him that DoF after all. if the war is serious, I do want to see him slowing CMF's crazy civ down.

[greenline]

Alright lurkers, you want blood? Korea Seowon spam too boring for you? There was some blood spilled this turn. AI blood, but that still counts, right?




Started off the turn with the boost from recorded history, from having two campuses. I was off again on how long it would take by the interface. The trader completed in Arirang as well - I kept it in place for now, hoping to move it to Venice after capturing it to create a road network between all three cities. Started a warrior in Scarborough fair and a scout in Arirang - both will take exactly three turns to complete, and then I can see if I can knock out two settlers once Early empire completes.

Whosit accepted the DoF. So I am good to put my military facing Krill for a while. He can't really pink dont me either at this point, and I hope he pressures CMF hard.




The scene right before I tried to declare war on Venice by moving my warrior into its borders. I then discovered you can do that without declaring war. So I attacked the warrior guarding the builder with both archers in range, while moving the third archer closer. This meant my warrior was teleported back a hex, but not a big deal. I refrained from attacking the Venetian warrior with my own, as I need to preserve their health to beat down the city center as quick as possible.

[greenline]

The Venetian warrior suicided against one of mine. So nothing to do this turn besides the 1UPT dance to move everyone into position. I will start bombarding the city next turn. Thankfully the city doesn't seem to have put out any archers, an advantage of attacking this early.

Two Venetian warriors are poking around near Scarborough fair while this is happening. They can't take a city from me, but they might pillage some tiles.

Krill asked for a DoF again, turned him down. At a minimum I won't give him one until I settle a city I want in the west by the maize / marble.

[greenline]

I only realized until after ending the turn that it was turn 50 and I should give a city overview. Uh, next turn?




Venice whacked my weakened warrior again - I might have to swap him with an archer to let him heal if they keep it up. Started bombarding the city. Archers are slow at chip damage, I should build a couple more for taking on Zanzibar. Or build a swordsman. I will discover BW next turn and have more than enough science to spare for iron working after that.

Whosit moves a slinger forward to scout - whatever. I saw a trade route heading from krill's territory closer to me, odd.

[greenline]

turns 51 and 52:




Start off turn 51 with Bronze working and early empire completed. Also discovering I have iron pre-mined at Scarborough fair, giving me an extra beaker. Nice! Not so nice - I didn't get the boost to the Wheel for pre mining a resource! Thankfully, there is an iron source near one of my planned city cites I can use anyway. I decided to research Iron working next - having at least one sword would make taking Zanzibar after Venice much less painful. More on that later...

Revolted into colonization. Both cities work on settlers. Arirang can make one in five turns, but Scarborough fair will take 10-12 turns on its own. I decide to use the remaining 2 charges on the builder to chop + mine a hill near the seowon to speed it along.

I also noticed that Whosit had built two new cities of his own, probably doing the same thing in his stint in Colonization - but faster, given Rome's early culture. Definitely a player to watch out for, beating my earlier assumption he wouldn't be doing so well.




Close up of Arirang. I'm saving the two forests already within the borders to chop into the Ancestral Hall, once I've built the government plaza. Completing the AH isn't as big of a priority on this dog ass random map where I'm already running out of room to settle on t50, but it will still be useful for settling miserable arctic colonies down the line.




Scarborough Fair is coming along decently, but wants extra amenities and more farms. After some deliberation, I spent my first governor promotion from Early Empire on Pingala and assigned him to this city. The reasoning for that was - I really would prefer the early culture to push me faster to PP rather than going hog wild on Magnus chops, given that I am boxed in. I think rushing Oligarchy and continuing the military path is the way to go for now.




Sadly, Venice churned out an archer quickly. One of my other warriors was also beat up pretty badly, despite defending on a forest hill. I was able to promote him with tortoise - this ended up being a mistake.

t52 rolls along:




The Venetian archer, of course, ignores the warrior I thought it had shot before and wounds one of my archers. And my warrior gets beat up way worse than if I had given it battlecry. The terrain here makes it really frustrating to assault the city, but nothing to do but press onwards. I continued bombarding with my free archers and whacked it with one warrior. Hopefully I can whittle it down before losing too many units.

In international development news, no one has built a campus yet. Interesting. Although Yongle and Toku with their broken leader abilities might not need to even bother doing that...

[greenline]

turns 53, 54




Venice continued to bombard my archer and suicide attack my warrior. I took a deep breath, continued bombarding, and pillaged the mine for some extra gold.




Getting some luck, my warrior survived and killed both Venetian warriors. I decided I was safe to retreat my wounded archer who would die in range. With two archers bombarding and one warrior free to attack, I should absolutely take the city next turn. I won't be able to if the archer attacks my warrior, but that means I can swap two healthy warriors in and keep bombarding the city in the red.

Settlers will be done soon. I need units to escort them... hopefully will be able to rotate once I am done taking the city. While I know where I want one to go, immediately west of the capital, I am not sure about the other. Might send it north of Venice if there is room there for a good city.

Currently leading in science rankings. Somehow Whosit has 12 beakers / turn without a single campus. Krill was the second player to build a campus.

[MJW (ya that one)]

You are not allowed to pillage for gold, so you made illegal move...

Is reload possible with PYDT?