[SPOILERS] GeneralKilCavalry and Irismono - Harmony Spawned from Discord

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Foreign relations:

Looks like Commodore is getting hurt pretty bad.

And it looks like we're about to get hurt pretty bad. Although, the power graphs between us and gav look tied, with us being slightly ahead. At the moment, we're far far ahead of everyone in GNP, with Commodore having fallen off precipitously from leading us despite a golden age to about 60% of our GNP. Did he lose GLH then? score drop would have been higher I would bet. Maybe the shrine city but doubtful as well. Most likely he's just totally gearing up for war and has lost a key city (probably coastal). End of the day, I doubt any of this diplomacy matters for our team. Our galley is slow-moving and will be long before it finds our nearest neighbor.
Nonetheless, next game - I'm getting deep into demo tracking. 

Militarily, I have little faith as well. We've not lost any non-warrior units to gavagai as of yet since we retreated from our two cities (praets had really good odds). I fear this situation will not improve much as we have very little time to build catapults, and our unit trades will generally not be favorable for a defender - his current stack of 5 praets and 2 chariots will probably absorb the losses of 4 cats and say 2 axes to average odds. However, our front-line cities are now walled and ready for combat. Here's to hoping gav does not have construction. (Those 9 cities, 3 of which are size 1, cannot possibly be helping his economy much at all with emperor maintenance costs).

Also, debating whether to bring the galley back down, load a skirmisher or two and hope to raze an unguarded city or to press on in our quest to find Commodore and the Holy Known Tech Bonus. Then again, the tech bonus if only 1 civ knows a tech is 1.03, which is probably an extra 3 or so beakers.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

We survived to turn 100! Time for a disorganized report for the lurkers. (Speaking of which, are there any suggestions for improving these reports? Would higher frequency with smaller reports be preferable?)

We've met chumchu - not sure if he is the one behind gavagai (he came to us with a scout), but I think it is safe enough to presume that he is close enough to us. Worst of all would be the (very likely) case that he is acting as a buffer state at this point, although, somehow, he is now in third place from last, with commodore dropping precipitously. The greatest problem with being on the edge of a jungle-ridden continent is the feeling of isolation - I have no clue what is going on, but here is what I can divine from PBSPY:

07/22/2019 21:33:25
Turn 98
Commodore
score decreased to 254 (-142)

Commodore must've lost his capital and Donovan burned it. Utterly insane plays, however this exchange:

07/23/2019 17:39:07
99
Commodore
score increased to 298 (+23)

seems to tell us commodore went back on the offensive.



This summarizes what we have compiled so far on likely conflicts/relations.

In  any case, we had a brief, very strange, one turn war with gavagai. He moved all his forces in, amounting to around 10 praets and 3 chariots, stole a worker and killed a skirmisher, and signed peace. With catapults coming in, we feel safe for the coming wars.

Researching currency next to buffer our economy which is suffering after the golden age (unit maintenance is double our civic+city maintenance at this point).

 

[Hitru]

Higher frequency would keep us lurkers better up to date so that would be great! ? What are your plans for the future?

[Mardoc]

We survived to turn 100! Time for a disorganized report for the lurkers. (Speaking of which, are there any suggestions for improving these reports? Would higher frequency with smaller reports be preferable?)

My absolute favorite style is a short report + screenshot every turn. Add in occasional whole-empire extravaganzas to fill in all the details, and make sure to answer the question 'what are you thinking?'

But, as a lurker, I'm quite aware that you're not playing the game for me, you're playing it for yourself and the fact that I'm entertained is a nice bonus .

[Irismono]

I'll see what I can do about sharing some of our thought process as things happen, my posts probably won't include screenshots as my life is pretty busy at the moment.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

[Adler]

---

There is a promise of blood, for we're boxed in by Gav and the options seem blight. To wait for Gav to gather enough Agg praets to finish us or try to do something (desperate) about it.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Turns of careful maneuvering have built to this point. We strike at Gavagai and...


We got him (unless he has some hidden stack in the back lines, which I somewhat doubt based on the overall power graph).

Lurkers worrying about Gavagai's crop dominance and a soon end to this game, fear not. He's tanked his economy nearly as much as we have and is a slumbering giant (emphasis on slumbering).

Though, in the long term, crop yield is extremely worrying. Burning red queen should help stifle this expansion, however.


Overall, demographics are not too hopeful. We're third in vital statistics and 4th in GNP. Our goal was (and is) to prevent a gavagai snowball, and hopefully, burning red queen will take us closer.

By contrast, Gav's stack:

10 praets is no laughing matter, but if gavagai attacks Baluga, he will have around 5 catapults, 6 skirms, 3 axes facing him. Our city is on a hill with walls, so we may yet survive this.

[naufragar]

     

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Turn one of the war has been successful. The hammer trades line up as follows:

My losses of 3 catapults, 2 axes, 1 galley: 50*3+35*2+50= 235

Gav's losses of 6 praets, 2 chariots, and an axe = 6*45+2*30+35= 370 + city burned

Of course, the empire strikes back. A huge mistake was not training a single chariot, we could've burned the city gav placed on the site of our burned city. Never mind, we will train a few now and hopefully pillage some improvements.

His stack has 10 praets and 2 axes (is there a shortcut to make counting easier?). We have 8 skirmishers, 4 axes (after whip) and 3 catapults to counter. I really need to do some simming to see how sacking the three catapults will impact the battle results. Training axes in every city due to fear of naval attack. Gav must have only a few units loaded if he was willing to attack with a galley at unfavorable odds.

I think we have a good chance at surviving his counterattack. We have another 4 catapults coming in 2 turns with an axe and skirmisher to boot. If gav attacks immediately, he will be unable to capture the city, if he starts pillaging, we will whittle his stack down - even 12 units cannot stand against 7 catapults and a horde of skirmishers and axes. The bigger question is - what to do with our victorious, but damaged northern stack? We're down 2 axes and 3 catapults, with that number bound to increase to 3 axes next turn. Retreating is viable, but I do wonder what gav has defending his capital...