[PB63 Cornflakes] Boudicca hunts crocodiles along the Nile

[Charriu]

Memphis has celebrated “We Love the Despot Day” 4 out of the last 15 or so turns, in two different 2-turn periods.  I saved about 5gpt each turn so that’s nice. But what triggers that celebration? The city has been at the happy cap the whole time and I would have thought a large happy surplus would trigger that type of celebration. Anyone know how this mechanic works?

Here you go

https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/show...#pid748984

Thanks! And interesting, 15 turns ago is about when Memphis grew to size 8 making it eligible. And since that time it's rolled <1% 4 times in 15 turns! Also interesting to note that this is an additional benefit of a growth strategy vs. wide sprawling strategy. With 4 cities over the limit I have about 4% odds per turn of a city celebrating ... actually that's only worth about .25 gpt

I made a conscience effort to keep my cities at 8+ pop in PB59 will see how that turned out in maintenance later. What I would say is that it's always worth to bring a city to 8 pop instead of keeping it at 7

[Cornflakes]

It's T100! I've explained my strategy and plan already so this will be mostly a screenshot flyover:

Empire overview:

   

I just completed Civil Service research but am holding off on the civics swap for one more turn in order to work 11 specialists with Caste System before swapping to Slavery. Next turn I'll adopt Bureaucracy, Slavery, Organized Religion, and Confucianism religion.

3 key cities:

   

Here is my capital in a GA. I've started another max growth phase here, planning to go up to size 14 with the current happy cap. I'm dependent on foreign trade for a couple forge-multiplied metals so I could be plunged into unhappiness. But I'm swapping into slavery at the end of the GA so if that happens I'll just have some extra whip potential built up.

   

I'm stopping just short of the 200-point GP this turn. This is half of my next GA.

   

I'm finishing the 200-point GP here this turn. Then I'll whip infrastructure. The courthouse will be worth 5 gpt! But I'm going to get the granary first, and maybe the forge.

Demos and graphs:

   

Superdeath is also in a GA and is the rival best GNP and production.

   

Here's my current financial advisor. I'm saving 2 gpt from AGG unit maintenance.

   

My food is lagging far behind the rival best and moderately behind the average. I'll be whipping aggressively over the next 10 turns, and then growing out after that.

   

GNP on the other hand is great! And will hardly be affected by the whipping. We'll see how my high GNP strategy

   

Apparently I was mistaken on the Great Lighthouse builder ... I thought it was MJMD so I canceled borders with him and opened borders with BING This also explains some of BING's recent strength on the GNP graph above.

[Cornflakes]

Mr. Cairo declared war on MJMD, razing 3 island cities for no gains to himself.
MJMD declared war on Ginger, and they both just lost around 20k power (sizeable loss for this stage of game)
Then MJMD and Mr. Cairo signed peace.
And now Bing has joined with DoW against MJMD

Happy warring folks, don't mind me! Just completing Machinery next turn along with my first catapult that is the start of a 15-turn buildup, culminating with Knights. Yes that's right, I'm 15 turns from knights. Meanwhile I'll trickle-build the support forces like Catapults, Crossbows (Fabled is heavily invested in axes/spears), and War Chariots for cleanup and forking duty.

My bureaucracy capital alone with 43 hpt can 1-turn build an endless series of War Chariot > Catapult, or can build 1 catapult + 1 maceman every 3 turns.

[Cornflakes]

So Ginger lost about 20k power last turn … then shot up by 100k this turn Praets incoming! My war correspondents are about 2 turns away and then I’ll give you a better update.

[Cornflakes]

Guilds ETA is T121, 10 turns from now. A quick peek at the MJMD/Ginger war:

   

Just arrived on the eastern front, and I'll have a better view next turn of the northern front. I'll also have a WC at the BING/MJMD border next turn. But I had to post this preview ... doesn't look pretty for Ginger. Those vultures on a hill with 20% culture will hold up just fine vs. Praets. MJMD has catapults too. I didn't see any in the Roman mini-stack there on the forest, but I should have a clear picture of the Roman forces after next turn. I predict that this war flops.

   

From the culture overlay it looks like MJMD and Ginger either traded border cities, or captured/recaptured. If these wars do end up flopping, I will be in a great position long term. My Mace/Cat/Knight attack will gobble up Fabled and give me a nice consolidated blob. From there I can turn west and sweep up the wreckage of the Roman/Sumerian conflict. Therefore I am tentatively planning to focus the maximum attention on military to take advantage of this opportunity. No more economic buildings, only Barracks, Forges, and units. In past games I have under-built siege units and as a result ran out of steam on the attack. After capturing the first couple cities I've had to pause my advance and wait for freshly built catapults to trickle up to the front. I'm going to focus more on building up a reserve of cats so as to not make the same error.

   

My new-ish cities are growing! All have granaries (last one finishing this turn). I unlocked Iron this turn and found the source in 2nd ring, but I spread religion to Giza already so I'll be able to mine it in time to build knights. It looks like everyone only has a single source of each strategic resource. This could end up being an important factor in the game. Iron is a critical resource for several key units including Knights, Frigates, and Cannon (and Cho-Ku-Nu). If someone had their Iron cut off in a targeted first-strike would be ... unfortunate ... oh, look! The Chinese iron is right on the coast

Somebody research Horseback Riding this turn. Hopefully that isn't Fabled. If I can keep him lulled into a false sense of security for a few more turns to avoid military tech that would be wonderful! I did not see any bridge in the Ottoman Empire as of this turn so Construction is still unknown.

   

AGG unit maintenance bonus is saving 4 gpt right now. Contrast that with ORG savings of 20 gpt
(probably 25 due to rounding) and the bonus is far weaker at this stage of the game. But in the upcoming stage it will start to kick in.

[Cornflakes]

I took a risk and reached out to Mr. Cairo with a copper+fish and War with Fabled + 10g. Then I offered a generous 10gpt for his sheep as a token of strengthened trade relations. He could use this info to build up and stab me in the back at my southern island holdings while I engage Fabled in the north. He could also pass a similar message to Fabled as a warning. My hope however is that he will take his significant naval investment in his southern sea and capture the island city there, as well as a city or three in Fabled's northern jungle belt. We'll see how this turns out.

[Cornflakes]

Screenshot of the turn:

   

3 cities were lost in the short MJMD/Ginger war. The middle one is hard to see, but when I add the tangent line there is clearly a negative change in slope indicating that culture production decreased ... but the accumulated culture in that city was miniscule. Ginger lost a more established city at the start of the war, and MJMD gave away a border city in a peace treaty at the end of the war.

Hopefully that exchange of cities leads to more bloodshed in the near future

[Cornflakes]

BING just took a hit on the battlefield, losing a half dozen axes and a couple skirmishers in exchange for what looks like a cat + chariot and a vulture or two ... I included the main BING stack that was there last turn and there were also a couple skirmishers on another tile:

   

It remains to be seen whether MJMD will push in and try to capture/raze with his highlighted stack, or whether he holds back to counter Ginger's stack when their peace treaty expires in 5 or so turns:

   

For my part I finish Feudalism in 2, with Guilds following about 6-7 turns later ... a turn or two behind schedule because I forgot that a 20 gpt loan payment from Ginger will be ending in 2 turns. Oh well, this actually won't affect my war timeline. I'm still moving in with maces/cats in 5 turns. My C1/CR1 maces will get >70% odds vs. full fortify C1 axes that Fabled has on defense. Fabled has Construction now so I don't want to give him any more time than necessary to build up a defensive force. I can take out the border cities with Maces/Cats that I'm whipping over the next couple turns, and then the first whipped knights will arrive just in time to push forward to the capital and second line of cities.

Let's have a quick look at the graphs now to get an idea of the long-term competition, so we can start planning our tech path after Guilds:

GNP first:

   

Superdeath's GA spike was much higher than mine, and my post-GA is artificially high since I have been running 100% research since then thanks to the Great Merchant. Superdeath still has a large deficit to make up from the early maintenance drag from Pindicator's far-flung capital but once trade mission funds run out Superdeath will be gaining on me.

BING looks good on the GNP graph, however his prospects took a hit recently with an ill-advised DoW vs. MJMD. As best I can tell it looks like Ginger enticed BING to joing the war, and then left him holding the bag

MJMD was on a good upward trajectory with ORG/Ziggurats/Colossus but ran afoul of border tensions with Ginger.

Similar story with Ginger landing the Pyramids and then getting embroiled in the border conflict. Ginger did get some mileage out of Police State but at the same time lost precious population and turns of Representation specialists. Furthermore even though Ginger has landed MoM he has not yet launched a GA.

In fact that conflict was very advantageous for me in dragging back all three of the most economic-oriented rivals by approximately 10 turns. They are also paying unit maintenance on a large standing army that will soon be outdated.

   

Superdeath is the clear production leader for 20 turns after his GA, and the rest of us have been closely bunched in a tight pack all game. It occurred to me that Superdeath could be funding his research via Wealth builds. That would explain his strength on the GNP graphs. I spend maybe 50 production on wealth towards the end of the GA but other than that put my production into infrastructure and unit pre-builds.

Fabled has lagged production mostly I think due to happiness constraints forcing low pop, in part due to whipping that I induced with my previous attack. But he has fixed his happiness issues recently through resource trades as well as Hammam whipped everywhere. It looks like he also has forges in all cities.

   

MJMD got hit with Early Leader Syndrome  he was out to an early food lead with the most cities, leveraging his farms gambit into Oracle + Colossus + Hanging Gardens ... but got called from an unlikely direction by a neighbor-by-sea. Mr. Cairo is the true hero of the game, and don't let anyone convince you otherwise. Then Ginger, rather than playing it cool with REP specialists, decided to whip his empire hard for an army of Praets that is now standing around polishing rust off their equipment. Check out the power graph:

   

Rome spiked massively with the praets, but Sumeria matched unit-for-unit with Vulture and cats. My recent building consists of 2 maces and 3 cats plus power from Machinery, Iron Working, Archery, and HBR all researched back-to-back 1 turn apart. Also there are a couple barracks and forges in there as well. But the real spike will be starting this turn and next. I have a few hammers into multiple units that will be whipped back-to-back and overflow into more units. I'll be completing 3-4 units per turn for the next 5 turns, then pause for a turn or two while pre-building HA to whip into Knights

And finally the demographics screen and the Top 5 screen so you can keep up with where the wonders have been built to date:

   

   

[El Grillo]

Thanks for the detailed report, best of luck with the preparations!

[Cornflakes]

WAR!!!!

   

A few war chariots infiltrated Fabled's position for a surprise attack. Fabled neglected to pop borders, and as a result I was able to strike a couple under-defended backlines cities on T1 of the war. (No units were teleported in the making of the screenshot)

I have 2 War Chariots, north of Brundisium, and one each in position to attack two of Fabled's cities. These 4 chariots can get into position to strike Caemlyn next turn. If nothing else, this should hold up a couple reinforcements from reaching the front, and force suboptimal whipping of a spear instead of catapult or axe ... yes, Fabled has catapults unlocked and at least two completed and staged inside Caemlyn this turn (I had visibility of the city when I captured the worker 1SE of Salida).

   

I captured Tanchico without incident at 99% odds, taking 2 hits. The Granary and Lighthouse both survive! That is a nice haul, but it is likely that the city will be recaptured via galley from Fabled's island and the infrastructure destroyed. The benefit to me of capturing is that these are two fewer build queues that Fabled can whip defenders from in the short term, and they create diversions to split Fabled's reinforcements.

   

Here is my staging for the main attack. I have divided my forces to strike two locations, trusting in my quality to overcome Fabled's equal quantity that he has on defense.