[SPOILERS] Athlete and Lewwyn are SHAKA OF THE VIKINGS

[Lewwyn]

So the other shoe dropped:



Thats a pretty rough roll. 91.9% and lose?
Well lets see how we did overall:



Not bad. Things to note: Seven founded Christianity, Nakor got the MoM (like I guess he would).

In terms of combat, TRD's GG hopped off the galley and killed the zerker that was sitting outside of the Sigyn (Finally renamed!). He also unloaded a second crossbow which is now sitting in the spot that the zerker had been sitting in. Otherwise the combat log looks pretty good. I used 3 cats to bombard, sacrificed 4. TRD had upgraded 1 bowman to crossbow and whipped another crossbow, for a total of 3 crossbows, 1 bow and 1 spear. Took the city with one unlucky loss. Lets look at the overview battlefield:



Sigyn is in good shape even with the two crossbows threatening. The one crossbow has to cross a river to hit and my top unit on the stack is a defense promoted crossbow. All the zerkers are healing up, have a second medic in the spear.

Loki cannot be hit by anything at this point and is safe with a crossbow and the healing GG.

Skadi is precarious based on that single zerker in the city. TRD could retake the city easily, his problem is that I would then retake it just as easily. I"ve moved another zerker onto the attack stack from Loki, the zerker in Skadi is at full health so TRD's healthy crossbow would take dmg, and his GG is injured. So TRD's options are to A) take the city next turn and keep it and lose the units he puts into it, B) Take the city and raze it or C) wait for reinforcements.

If I were him and I felt I was definitely losing the city no matter what, I'd take it and raze it. We'll see if he feels the same way. In any case, TRD loses units he can not afford or I get another city. Pretty much everything is win-win for me at this point.

One other note is that the crossbow threatening Skadi is from where? Kindness. So unless he whipped out another crossbow there last turn, Kindness is back to a single bowman defending it. I have loaded a cat and GG Zerk onto the galleon this turn, next will be the second zerk. I am 3 turns from owning Kindness.

Power graphs:



Feeling good about that.

Monarchy finishes this turn. I know we discussed getting economic techs but I'm again debating the usefulness of HAs. They would be great to hit these crossbows that TRD has springing up everywhere... Opinions on techs?

[Bruindane]

Feudalism and Vassalage? Hard to say without a tech tree to look at.

[Lewwyn]

Feudalism and Vassalage? Hard to say without a tech tree to look at.

Thats the direction I was headed when I researched monarchy. Thing is HAs could be useful 2movers and mounted. Especially now that TRD is running around with crossbows. My army is pretty cat and zerker based. A couple crossbows for defense but mostly I think I need a counter and HAs could help.

Also, and this is the big reason I'm considering it is that I need HBR for Elephants. Best to have that read for whenever Seven gets ivory online. Also it gives me a chance to get Stables up before WEs the ivory comes in. So thats why I'm thinking about it. BTW HBR would only take two turns.

[Bruindane]

Well, those galleons + berserkers are all the mobility you need judging from your map. How many non-coastal cities do you see? HBR can wait, especially since you can build pikes in a pinch.

[luddite]

congrats on getting diligence! We'll see if he's bloodthirsty enough to raze his own city .

One problem with going for HAs is that, in most situations they're only marginally better than your aggressive berzerkers. The lower base strength really hurts them a lot. 2-moves is nice, but in this case it seems like you're better off using catapults. Of course if you're planning on building WE anyway, it would be nice to have the stables.

As far as I can see, TRD has only one source of iron, by Temperance. Can you take that city, and prevent him from building any crossbows?

[Lewwyn]

TRD only one non-coastal city left, Temperance which is also the iron. I have thought about going for the iron, but so far I've made all my moves based on how quickly the results would come in. It will take a bit for me to get a group together to run down and take Temperance. I have a feeling that may actually be the last city I take. Everything else I can reach by sea at this point. In any case I have to wait for the zerkers to heal in Sigyn.

So yeah those are good arguments on waiting on HBR. I will check the turns on tech for Feudalism and make a decision then. My tech rate actually improved this turn as well. When I took diligence I got the second gems tile so now I have gems and +2 happy. About 3-4 of my cities are going to gain a pop this turn.

Also, I was looking over the map and realized I could hit Kindness in two turns. Now that Diligence is mine I don't need to go to far north to avoid his culture visibility. Instead I can shoot straight up the coast and land just outside of Kindness sight next turn. If he takes the city, I will retake it before I move my galleon up the coast. I should be able to hold the city after a retake so he will not be able to react.

There was a problem with this, I needed exactly 8 tiles so I couldn't move the galleon NE to pick up the zerker, so next turn I'll do this instead:



The galley picks up the zerker and moves to the galleon, the zerker switches transports and the galleon takes off up the coast. The following turn I take Kindness. Huzzah.

Oh and Seven is going to give me a new galleon in the next two turns as well.

[novice]

Nice ship chaining there.

Two medic I units in Sigyn don't heal your stack any faster than one. I notice your medic I berzerker has a free promotion, though.

TRD can't raze Skadi, since he has the cultural ownership of that city.

Longbows counter crossbowmen.

[Lewwyn]

Good point on the longbow counter. And also didn't know he couldn't raze it, that makes e quite happy.

Yeah I was figuring on leaving one medic in the city and moving onward with the other. Does the medic 2 stack?

[novice]

Does the medic 2 stack?

I think the healing rate is the same for all these cases:
a) A medic 1 and a medic 2 in the same stack
b) A medic 2 in the stack
c) Two medic 2's in the stack

A medic 2 heals the stack faster than a medic 1 though, obviously.

[Lewwyn]

Actually, I just checked and Medic two doesn't heal faster, it simply extends the heal to adjacent tiles. And apparently if a unit has Medic 2 and doesn't have medic 1 it won't heal any units in the tile!