March 17th, 2014, 05:52
(This post was last modified: March 17th, 2014, 05:53 by Jowy.)
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I was only 30 GNP behind the leader this turn, doing better than expected. I should keep catching up as my cities grow to their new happy cap and finish their markets and courthouses. Bureaucracy will be a nice boost as well. It's awesome to see most of my cities have two +2 GPT trade routes when for a LONG time it was just one +1.
Mardoc has his EP's against me and I can't get his graphs back before I build courthouses (two in progress right now). It's a little worrying, but I have a war chariot keeping an eye on him and haven't found much more than a whole bunch of spears. Thestick has a scouting chariot inside my territory, and he might have parked it in Inaba. It was there last turn, and it's still there, though he might have moved towards Sian to uncover more tiles and then turned back. We'll see next turn if it's gonna move. If it doesn't, then I'm pretty sure he's planning to go for me after Sian is finished and he's keeping an eye on what I have for defense. Btw the answer is that I've got nearly nothing. Haven't been reinforcing that front, and in fact I've pulled back units for new cities. But I am starting to build more units now.
Updated world map. Sian got the circumnavigation bonus, yay.
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I'm irrationally paranoid about this lone galley. I offered 70 gold for peace to Sian, it will be cheaper than making sure my coastal cities all have 3 defenders when the galley sails by.
March 21st, 2014, 15:17
(This post was last modified: March 21st, 2014, 15:18 by Jowy.)
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Sian finally accepted peace. It's a nifty technique to keep in mind for future games, throw in a small concession with your peace offer to make your opponent feel better about it.
Thestick's stack / garrison.
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There is a whole second continent which I was about to reach with my scouting galley. That's where Sian's galley was going!
Mardoc has knights and I'm 4 full techs away from pikes.
March 25th, 2014, 07:59
(This post was last modified: March 25th, 2014, 08:03 by Jowy.)
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Second in GNP, F yeah! Didn't even have to crank up the slider 
3 turns to Machinery. I will be building maces and spears for land defense, and triremes to guard the coast.
Settling plans: Two filler cities, one risky city near Mardoc, and one more city towards the centre. Not going to race to America.
Got a Great Scientist this turn. Thestick bulbed reached Philo, so I just settled it in the capital.
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Bob beat me to Temple of Artemis by 2T. At least the hammer to gold ratio for fail gold is good with all the bonuses I had.
I completely forgot that industrious gets cheap forges. Might have been a good idea to get MC earlier, though lack of production wasn't the problem I was having.
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Bad news just keep stacking on. Mardoc canceled OB, and there's only one reason he'd do that. I declared war on him, and found his secret stack:
My instincts were right, though I haven't prepared nearly enough spears. This is the perfect time for him to attack, just before I was going to spam maces for defense. We'll see how this goes, but I'm not very optimistic. I promoted the spears with the Great General, but I'll only get odds against the first few knights. Notice the galley. Probably two knights there trying to take the capital by surprise. Hopefully one galley is all he has.
March 30th, 2014, 10:06
(This post was last modified: March 30th, 2014, 10:09 by Jowy.)
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Our defenders fought bravely, taking down six knights with them as Zanarkand fell.
Mardoc only had one galley, which is really good news. That said, the capital will surely fall when his stack arrives. I hope to stabilize at Flotsam.
Just trying to bait him to make a mistake. He shouldn't accept this offer.
Huge props to Mardoc, this was a beautiful play. He's attacking just at the right time, and it's the most realistic scenario as to how he could catch up in this game. He smartly played around my units in his lands (which were specifically looking for a stack!), instead of canceling OB which would have put me in full alert mode. I still found a few knights and got suspicious, but there is a very big difference between finding a beginning of an army and finding an army. I thought that I had more time, and did not sacrifice my economy by aggressively whipping soon to be outdated units (spears) just for a chance of a secret stack popping up in the next few turns. Getting late courthouses hurt me a lot, because I was not able to keep graphs on Mardoc despite dumping all my EP on him. The power graph would have given me more turns to react, and since he doesn't seem to have catapults, I could have gotten out with 2 cities loss at most (Zanarkand and Tinto). WP Mardoc 
April 1st, 2014, 02:48
(This post was last modified: April 1st, 2014, 02:48 by Jowy.)
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Got Machinery and started building / whipping maces. Mardoc didn't take the peace offer, but he will take the two cities next turn.
So close, yet so far  If only I hadn't rushed to delete my workers. And no, those were not my builds, I built a spear from both cities.
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