[SPOILERS] Haram's thread

[Haram]

Ok, just brief data. GermanJojo settled a new city to pump a culture to the tile adjacent to hitshowers. That was a smart move - he clearly knows how the culture works. He also had a general and I think he devided 20 exp to 20 units. That is something I always wanted to do when playing charismatic, but never had a good opportunity I've run a quick sim and it showed that the city should hold, so I rushed all the crap into the city to dilute collateral. He had 62 units, incl. 20 catas and 20 ballistas. I had 53 units, but behind the walls and across the river. To my surprise, he made an attack and lost ca. 30 units, killing only 6 or 7. Thats how the situation looked like after the attack:


He left 6 spears to defend. Fortunatelly, I left 4 fresh knights in reserve, so they helped a lot to cut through the spears and I didnt lose much killing his units. Overall result - 62 killed, 10 lost

I think I won this battle, because I still enjoy this game Its not that I played better than German, I simply put some more attention. It looks like, he had a blind faith in the power of 20 double promo catas and didnt care to make a quick sim before the main battle.

[Haram]

Today I razed GermanJojo's capital. It was a very nice city, but I cannot afford to extend my defensive lines at the moment. I have a feeling that it would be just a nice gift to Seven or Grimace in some ~ 20 turns. My ability to produce units is very low at the moment. I lost this production-heavy penisula to Grimace, my cities are whipped and I'm also trying to catch up with epics.

In fact, I shouldnt even chase Jojo, but he is so exposed at the moment that I cant help myself It wont last long, cause he revolted back to slavery and those balistas are pain on defence. So, I just raze all I can without big sacrifices and cash the infrastructure.

[Haram]

I got alphabet, so its a good time for a review



Mackoti
28 cities, score: 1594; tech: more – philosophy, paper, music, gunpowder, education, liberalism, printing press, chemistry; less – banking (+18,4k)
Mack is the score leader, tech leader, production leader and city no. leader (tied with Gawdzak). It looks like he's got all to win this one. He just got chemistry, that will boost his PRO workshops and the game just enters the time, where production reeally metters. Expected next steps - tech riesengardes/cannons, produce the hell lot of them and eat retep.

Seven
26 cities, score 1376; tech: more – philosophy, paper, nationalism, education, constitution; less – alphabet, guilds, banking, engineering (+9 k)
Seven's PHI+MoM combo causes, he's in a semi permanent golden age. He went the upper part of the tech tree to and just got constitution for Repr, which is great for his Russia. I really wonder what his next steps will be. As far as I know, he's the only one (of the top 5), who's got an engineer. What will you do with him, Seven? If you go Democracy and rush Statue, it will be a big mistake IMHO. The only way to compete with Mack is to get Minning Corp.

Gawdzak
28 cities, score 1362; tech: more - philosophy, paper, education, economics (+9,7 k)
I'm still very impressed by the way Gawdzak plays. Not only this game, he seems do deliver a great performance in every game he attends He uses more or less the same strategy, but it works great. Ok, back to this one. I see him tied with Seven on second place behind Mackoti. He’s got economy bonus, eaten Donovan Zoi. Nice work. I wonder, what his relations with Wetbandit will be. Wetbandit sniped a few cities of Donovan and it seems to me in a bit conflicting locations with Gawdzak.

Wetbandit
25 cities, score 1258; tech: more - theology, music, paper, education, philosophy, optics, printing press (+13,4 k)
Wetbandit is doing surprisingly well in tech rate. He's second, after Mack, but he didn't seem to get any relevant first to bonusses lately. Mack got Lib, Seven got Taj, Gawdzak - Ecomonics. I have no clue what he's planning. Wetbandit is the last one, who IMO still have the chances to win this game, although I rate his chances lower than Seven's or Gawdzak's.

Grimace
20 cities, score 1187; tech: more - theology, philosophy, paper (+3,6 k)
Yeah, he's in the great-top5, he's got AP and Confu holy city but I guess its clear he doesn't have the chances. Less cities, already behind in tech and whats most important - you can't win this kind of game with so little MP experience (sorry to say that Grimace, but its just a fact). Well, he still can beat me in long term, but i'll try do my best and not to fall

Haram
18 cities, score 833;
He messed enough in this game, to start the shoot-out zone. I expect him to go cannons or drafted rifles to survive longer.

Retep
12 cities, score 705; tech: less – priesthood, aesthetics, literature, calendar, banking, compass (-3,5 k)
He took over after Douglas, right? Retep took a very similar tech path as I did. Well, we both have stronger neighbours, so military techs need to go first. I dont know much details about his play, but I have a feeling he's doing a pretty good job, still staying alive. Anyway, I think you need to fall Retep, no metter what you do. It's just geography that will kill you (with a little help of Mack).

GermanJojo
10 cities, score 526; tech: less – poly, mono, aesthetics, literature, alphabet, metalcasting, machinery, guilds, engineering, banking (-9 k)
My worst enemy, right? I was sooo surprised when I saw his techs after getting alphabet. He was teching in a very similar rate than I did, but it seems he literally stopped teching when I attacked him at T131 It's such a pity I have a war with Grimace, I could have finished GermanJojo now, if I could concentrate on him. So... bad news for you German, you will have to play this game a bit longer

Donovan Zoi
3 cities, score 368; tech: less – civil service, guilds, aesthetics, literature, alphabet, banking (-6,4 k)
He seems to be dead already.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Nice update. Thanks.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Haram, can you explain the sequence of events that led to the workboat camped out in Jojo's lake by the robot city? That one is an oddity. Thanks!

[Haram]

Haram, can you explain the sequence of events that led to the workboat camped out in Jojo's lake by the robot city? That one is an oddity. Thanks!

Sure. First - I added a General to a workboat. Then, I gave him commando promotion to sneak to the lake. Unfortunatelly, after a while the General felt dizzy because of that clam scent and fell aboard. That is why only workboat remains

The workboat was simply scouting with OB, when I declared war. As far as I remember at this moment not all lake tiles were covered by GJ's culture, so he was pushed out to a adjacent tile, not covered by his culture. During the war culture covered all lake tiles.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I imagine that boat captain would like to go home some day. You'll have to clear out room for another port city so you can set him free.

[Haram]

Ok, so here is the situation:

I lost those 3 cities to Grimace. After taking the last one, he accepted my cease fire. It's nothing really solid, cause he can engage anytime, but at least he has to make a decision. I dont want to fight him right now, I can't compete with him in production. Every unit trade is just in his favour and I have so many coastal cities...
Good news is that I will regain control of marked tile... soon


Overview of GJ's land:
Red Xs - razed cities of GermanJojo. I think I wasn't able to hold them (the southern one was not worth keeping). I also believe it was a right decision to raze GJ's capital. With all those grown cottages and an academy it would be such a great prize for Grimace. I hope now it will be a bit more difficult for him to deceide for a war again.
Yeah, I know I didnt gain much from this charge, but after GJ lost his stack, I just wanted to hit him hard enough, so he wouldn't be able to retaliate anymore. He lost his core, incl. capital, maoi, main production city.
Yellow O - new city of Grimace, settled this turn.
Green O - the spot I consider to settle. The problem is, that Grimace has only 2 options to expand: me or Mack If I dont settle this spot I will leave him an option to conquer GermanJojo (but to be honest - my gut tells me he wouldn't even consider this one).



Some other news:
Mackoti moved his capital to Tamisra, ex-capital of Gavagai. It's a bad news for me, cause attacking me now is more efficient for him in terms of maintenance.


Gawdzak got an engineer. Well done, take Minning Corp - I'm rooting for you in this game!

[Haram]

Things are getting quicker, its gonna be hunting soon:

Seven got replacement parts and revolted to Theocracy at the end of GA. Rifling probably next, then music and military tradition. I won't stop rifles/cossacks with just knights/catas. Fortunatelly, I went straight to steel, but i'm not sure if I'm gonna make it (chemistry in 2).

Mackoti got Communism, started GA and revolted to state property. Theocracy will probably follow at the end of GA. It's gonna be a Stack of Doom.

Grimace keeps building units.

Gawdzak got over 5k cash stored and also adapted Theocracy/Slavery.

[Haram]

Grimace declared again. As I expected, he didnt even consider going for GermanJojo, who has 10 cities to take and very little military. Grimace has taken the city I recently settled north of hitshowers. Well, settling on ruins is a bad omen, isn't it? I had 4 defenders, 1 pike and 2 formation elephants, 1 C1 elephant. His knights won 3 out of 4 battles, 20-27% each. C'mon, I am the weaker one. It's not how the RNG should work On top of that I am 4 pts shy of the 4th Great General.

Ok, serious stuff - It is a really critical moment for my civ. Seven got rifling and started to whip units. Grimace has a lot more military than me, but the zone defence was working ok so far (the city he has taken was dispensible). I still have 17 cities, but its very misleading. My cities are whipped, 5 of them have no food resources, mainly working water tiles. So, my potential is more like 10-12 cities. Obviously, I can still whip a lot of units, but I need to work some tiles If I want to get to the cannons The chemistry is basicly finished, but I'm not showing it yet. I have only a few workshops and I dont want to show up my plans. Unfortunatelly Steel is soooooo expensive for me.

I need to be very patient and accept some losses, if necessary. The priority is to preserve the remaining military. It's hardly enough to hold Grimace at the moment. In 8T I will have GA and if everything goes right, i will be able to produce 3 promo cannons in my HE city before GA ends.