[SPOILERS] Serdoa goes to war II

[Ichabod]

Well done. Nice using of your civ UB too!

[SevenSpirits]

Very nice! (And yes I liked the dotmap, thank you. )

What are you teching right now?

Also, yes: MFG includes forge bonuses but not e.g. IMP. Basically the game asks each city what it's production would be if there wasn't anything being built and adds those numbers together. Also that monument you captured is definitely from Stonehenge.

[Serdoa]

Oh, yeah, true about the Monument, silly me. For one he would have a border expansion otherwise (if he hasn't finished it recently only) but also all culture-producing buildings are destroyed when you take a city if memory serves.

Anyhow, make that 134 hammers then. Plus lost worker turns as he will at least lose the goldmine because I moved my chariot onto it so that I can pillage it next turn and still load into the galley if there are any frightening troops nearby.

As for tech: I finished Currency this turn and will finish HBR EOT59. Thats because I want to make sure that I can defend with some HAs in the unlikely case that Commist sends X-Bows at me. He would travel around 10 turns though, so I doubt he'll do that. Anyway, I'm short 20 beakers or so to finish it next turn already. After that I finish up Construction (I have it nearly half finished already) at EOT60. I am not sure how my civ will look at this point, so we'll go from there. Though probably I'll tech Monarchy -> Feudalism next as outlined earlier.

[Serdoa]

Played T58, Brian was extremely early today. Either thats because Lewwyn played early as well or maybe there is no Rugby to watch today? Anyhow, that makes me hoping that we can get another turn in today as well. And why would I be so eager for that? Well...

you might remember that I put my chariot on Commist gold. Not only convenient so I could pillage it if he moved troops in and still board the galley but also out of his sight. Now, when I opened the save, there were no troops of his to be seen. So I told myself that 10 gold from the gold mine might be nice, but spying on his troop movements and other cities might be even better. First I moved along the road, still in neutral territory:



Those lakes are interesting in that they let me spy on several tiles I wouldn't be able to see if those were land tiles. And looking at that I felt save enough to move on to the mined hill. Hey, the worst that can happen is that I lose 20 hammers. But if that city in the fog is as badly defended as his gold-city - and if he hasn't seen my chariot yet and is therefore not moving / whipping defenders - I might be able to raze another one. Well:



Two units in the city. One is a missionary though, so there is just one lone archer defending. Now, realistically, what can he do? He can't dry whip an archer, that needs two pop. But if he had started one, it will only be there after he ends his turn, so he certainly won't attack with those, I am pretty sure (if he loses the first battle, he would have high odds to lose the city). He can't move a one-mover into the city as I can see all tiles which those would need to be on. If he has a chariot nearby he could attack me or reach the city. But the tiles I would expect it to come from are not many. If he has one 1SW,1S or 1SE from the borders of Melville it could reach the city. But as there are no borders down there, it seems unlikely that he has a chariot there. So if he moves one in, it would have to come from his capital (the deer tile or 1S of that). Anyhow, I don't expect him to have more then one nearby (his military is weak if you count out the techs and pop). So, long short story, my axe moved as well, leading to this:



As you can see I gave the axe CR1 instead of C1. Thats bad in the long term of course but I wanted to heal it up as much as possible so I had to take the promotion now and CR1 will give +20% and nearly even odds against his archer (it has no fortify bonus). So, lets see what he does this turn. If he gets something in, I might move the chariot 1SE and pillage that hamlet. 20 hammers for around 15-20 gold is not a great deal, but setting him back is

And for those interested, the Demos:

Leading in GNP still. Lewwyn is being close sometimes (none of the others is though), but thats probably because he is researching techs with double-pre-reqs and known-civ-bonus. Monarchy probably as he is the one with Mono and should have PH as well. Commist has Monarchy as well, maybe one of the others too. That would certainly explain it. Maybe some libraries as well (I think everyone else has neglected them for most of the time).

Food looks good again, after that whipping previously it was shortly looking rather bleak (down to 8x like 2 or 3 turns ago I think). 3 behind the leader and that is me running 4 specialists at the same time. I'll very shortly get a market for running 6 specialists and maybe an academy (depends what I get as GP next). And libraries in some cities. I have settled no. 10 this turn btw and will settle no. 11 next turn. I just have to make sure that I expand enough to keep up with scooter but not so much that I cripple my research like he did. I'll need it against Commist.

MfG lastly is 17 behind first. But again, would I not run 4 specialists, then I would have 3 food and 12 hammers more and would only be behind 5 hammers. Thats fine for me right now.

Soldiers is growing steadily and will so for some time. Its kinda great to settle a city and airlift an archer into it the same turn, not having to wait for that guy to travel slowly to the city. I am sure Commist would love to have this possibility right now

edit: And as I asked some times in other thread, please let me know how the screenies look like for you. I have bad eye-sight and am using therefore a widescreen-lcd and 125% zoom. For me they look [strike]to big[/strike] ok now that I downsized them, but maybe its [strike]fine[/strike] bad for you guys? Let me know!

[Serdoa]

Now, having talked about the recent turn, what is the overall picture?

Well, Brian is still building an army out of ancient era crap. I don't get what for tbh. If he wanted to attack someone, his time is running out fast and as I said before, I think the distance is too much anyway right now, you cannot pay the expenses nor hold those cities. Swipe in, raze them and move back home, thats the only thing you can do. And you don't need all that many troops for that. Maybe scooter was harassing him and he got nervous? Might be. Anyhow, depending on what Commist does, he might have sealed his fate with being backwards in tech and resources (I think from my scouting that he hasn't settled any elephants yet) by having the most land at the same time already. But even left alone, from the play up until now I assume that he can't keep up with us others.

scooter on the other hand is doing fine. His GNP is bad - but he has so much less culture then all the others, that it is probably not half as bad as it looks. Commist, Brian and I have nearly the same amount, with me getting the most at around 35/turn. He has maybe 12 or 15 at best. So, add on his GNP 10-15. Means he is actually doing better in GNP then Brian and Commist. And his food and mfg graphs are rising all the time. He leads those, for now. If scooter is left alone and can get his economy going again, he will be scary. Of course no one will be interested in that and everyone will - as always when I play with scooter - head for me

Lewwyn is a wild card for me at the moment. I have noticed that he jumped in score like a madman the last few turns. I presume that means he is finally growing his cities, having somehow be able to keep up with the IMP-players. I think that is partially because no one really leveraged IMP to the fullest and partially because IMP is not that strong in itself. 50% hammers on settlers is nice, but thats only 22 hammers less for each settler. In return he got Org.Rel. and I would expect that he was able to leverage it quite nicely for building his infrastructure, probably getting back those 22 hammers (10 for the granary, 10 for a lighthouse, 5 for a monument, 15 for a library). If he had some lucky spreads of his religion, I can see how he can easily keep up. Anyhow, I didn't take IMP for the settler-bonus (though thats a nice goodie) but for the grocer, fueled by PHI-specialists.
As for his GNP... well he is making 48 gold / turn. I think he is giving up some food and mfg for that though. And he is making 78 GNP with that. I make 116 at 0%, making slightly less gold, because I am still regrowing.
Anyhow, he has turned around his bad start, so good job there.

Lastly, we have Commist. Now, till last turn, I was unsure whom they would attack, scooter or me. I was pretty set that either of us would be the target though. Why? Because Commodore has a tendency to attack the one he perceives as a threat, instead of the one being the easiest target. Also from his beeline till now, I assume that he never intended to tech anything after Guilds. Interesting gameplan, get Cataphracts asap and win... but I doubt it would work. Despite him being really quick, simply the distances make it impossible for him to conquer one after the other fast enough imo. Especially as even without teching, I doubt he can keep the cities - he probably would have to live on capture-gold... and if someone is able to even only delays him for several turns, he goes broke. Nice idea nonetheless, but I think better suited for duels or smaller maps. Of course, he always was able to at least take one with him down. And now that I razed his city, I am sure that I am the one he will try to take down. If he acts emotional (and him being Commodore nothing else is to be expected) he will want nothing but blood, no matter if he throws away all his chances to win this game in the process. Especially when his whole game-plan revolved around all his enemies fucking up anyway. So, I expect that he just plays to hurt my game Isn't it fun? Just glad that this is without diplo, otherwise it would be even more of a mess.
Anyway, razing his city hurt him badly. His GNP dropped to 36 I think. And as we found out earlier, around 20-25 of that is culture (after I razed the city probably more around 20). 4 is Espionage. Doesn't leave all that much for gold/beakers. Ouch.

[pling]

edit: And as I asked some times in other thread, please let me know how the screenies look like for you. I have bad eye-sight and am using therefore a widescreen-lcd and 125% zoom. For me they look [strike]to big[/strike] ok now that I downsized them, but maybe its [strike]fine[/strike] bad for you guys? Let me know!

Screenshots look fine to me

[DaveV]

The screenshots look good for me, too. You've done a great job of reporting so far; I love the analysis of the opponents. Following along with interest.

[Serdoa]

[SIZE="4"]TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY![/SIZE]

And believe me, after I have finished this report, all you will ask is "Why didn't you make that an even bigger font?!"

So, to start it off, I looked over to the Commist front. What devious plan have they come up with? Well



they got a scout whipped. Thats actually smart. If my first attacker loses, I can't take the city despite a measly scout not standing a chance in a fair fight against my troops. Looking at the odds my axe gets on the archer



I wonder, should I attack? Ok, time to assess this situation. What is the worst outcome? I lose. Thats 23 hammers down the drain. If I win, he will lose 70, 3x as much. Is that worth it? Well, depends of course. But at this stage of the game I would say "Hell yes!". I am his enemy forever anyway by now so no diplomatic reason to hold back. And if I can delay him another 2-3 turns before he can start phracting, thats even better. At the same time, I won't be delayed at all in my plans, even if this axe dies. Basically, the axe as well as the chariot I count as dead already, despite them still moving around.

Ok, enough talk about odds. ATTACK!



Sorry for the bluriness. I resized it to 75% first and found out it needs to be bigger afterwards, changing it to 125%. Anyway, as for the actual battle, I won nearly without a scratch. Even better, I am at 6 XP now, gaining another promotion. Maybe this axe will sometimes be a CR3 Rifle?

Anyhow, after my attack only the scout was left



No match for the chariot, so I of course killed him.



Well, 3 gold is certainly not what I have hoped for. Not that I could expect much more, that city was obviously only settled a few turns ago. Chariot moved after the raze back onto the hill where the axe waits for it. Still no units from Commist in sight btw.

Ok, back to domestic matters. I was falling behind a little bit lately for a reason. Not only because I played sloppy (though thats certainly part of it). Also because of




Isn't that beautiful? I also finished my research of HBR this turn, so at the end of the turn, the following reports were given



Demos EOT



My GNP is more then 3x the average now. In fact, I know that the 76 is Lewwyn, 39 is Commist and scooter / Brian each have ~ 44.5 (scooter seems slighty ahead so probably 43 and 46. Means I have more GNP then scooter, Lewwyn and Commist together. Of course some of that is culture, but at 100% I am breaking 150 beakers a turn (without bonuses for pre-reqs etc.). I think thats pretty good for T59. Though of course a big part plays the grocer I started with.

MfG and Crop are what they should be after building HG. I am working some unimproved tiles, most getting improved next turn though (or whipped away). So that should look better soon.

Soldiers is interesting, it seems Commist whipped himself hard, I assume to get several X-Bows out. I'm not sure if that is because he wants to harass me or if he thought I come with more units.

Last interesting bit: Land area I am still not first. I can only guess that Brian settled his cities far apart - maybe thats the reason for his higher military, so that he can actually do that and still feel safe. If he did so, that might actually have been great play, if he can backfill later without getting attacked. Though with Phracts on the horizon, I am not sure if I would do that. But then again, what do I know?

Well, ok, thats it for this turn. Do you think the font was big enough for such a turn? Or does anyone have a question? Want to see something specific? Capital right now or some such? Oh, wait... that might be a good idea.

Lovely isn't it? And as you can see, it won't take long for the next GP. And I will get a market in here as quickly as possible as well as a farm. Then I can give the GLH mine to the city to the east and the RR-mine will simply be disbanded for now so that I can run 6 specialists. Alternatively I grow it one more pop (with the market the happy cap will be 12) and take the crabs. That would allow me still 6 specialists while also working the RR-mine. Of course the city in the east would be rather fucked... though if I grow that to size 7 I could work 3 farms and 4 GLH-mines for a total of 14 hammers and 1 excess food. Makes 3 turn workers, 3 turn settlers. Nothing to write home about, but not totally sucky either.

[SevenSpirits]

I'm very impressed.

How many cities, granaries and workers do you have? Can I see a full picture of your empire?

[Ichabod]

The question is: what are you doing in a greens game in PBEM 34?