[SPOILER] Nicolae Karpathia Khan of France

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Sometime's it's better to be lucky than good

Switched my capital to a chariot, the chariot from my combat with Sareln is too damaged to fight. I'm going to block off that hill with an axe. If Ioan moves towards the 7 towards the city, then I kill it with a chariot. If he moves it 1 onto the corn again, then I kill it with an axe and a warrior. Completed Hunting tech. I've lost the food to GE but I've been whipping and he's a crappy player who has been under zero military pressure so no worries there.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Argh, just realised, I could have built a barracks and then a chariot, and been in the same position to attack or to not attack. Been spotting a ton of micro mistakes. Oh well.

Also, I need to change over Mama's build next turn from an axe to a granary. Will end at 31/40. I kinda need the food. Will have to micro it out though.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Oh damn, just realised, Ioan can do some damage by fortifying on that forest hill, as it would fork the other forest hill and the corn. river tile, blocking movement

Still, moral of the story, if you're going to commit to an axe/spear choke, then keep them together so the spear is protected from axes and warrior swarms and the axe is protected from chariots.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Been trying out some combats before the save comes in from Sareln. If I go across a river, my chariot will have 20% odds against a C1 axe and 10% odds against a W1 axe (in a forest hill). Without a stupid river, 33% and 28% respectively. What does that mean? I can't let Ioan take control of the forest hill next to me capital. That would make it nearly impossible to dislodge. Instead, I'm going to hide my chariot in my capital, and tempt his axe with an empty city. Sure, it won't do anything, but I want him to think he can fork my city and hill, forcing me to cede the tile and let him choke with impunity. He probably saw a giant power spike, 10k from axe/chariot/hunting, so hopefully he doesn't know wtf.

And if he tries to retreat via flatland forests, then my chariot still has odds on him.

Looking at the power chart, there are 3 recent jumps in power. The first is the spear, the 2nd is the axe, and the third is probably a tech (because it occurred around when Ioan finished the SH).

Let's have some pics from last turn, so you peeps know what I've been babbling about:



42% odds for the last battle. Yeah, lucky, but I still think it was the correct decision as letting the two units combine would make it exponentially more difficult to dislodge.

EDIT: Oh god damn it I just realised I used my 1xp warrior before my 0xp warrior . I could have gotten 5xp on him! Bah, oh well, it's not like I can afford to upgrade a warrior with metal when I have so many other things on my plate.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Aw, Ioan didn't take my bait. I deliberately left my city empty and a worker cottaging a tile, so he had an opportunity to fork the city, my worker, and the critical hill tile. That way, he could force me back and then jump onto the hill. He's now running away, time to get another couple of workers out, and settle the long-awaited front city against Ioan and the Gems city. His power jumped up by ~10k, need to run the numbers to work out how much is from population and techs. I don't think it was IW as I didn't get a 10% boost at EoT from dumping 20 beakers into it, but I still want it anyway to get rid of those dangerous jungles. Writing after this, as I don't forsee myself laying down more buildings other than granaries. It's time for EXPANSION MODE.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

3 items of interest:

I've spotted Ioan's cultural borders. It doesn't block me from city site #4, which will be the hilltop plant I've proposed earlier.

Spotted ivory over the interturn when my borders popped, I can easily gain cultural control over the tile, but it'll be hard for me to defend as it's on Ioan's side of the map. I'll post a pic to show what I mean later.

Of biggest interest, I believe Ioan's finished researching Iron Working. Why? Because I just gained 27 beakers from researching IW myself (at 20bpt). The +20% from BW pre-req only accounts for 4 of those, then there's the 1 free bpt, the rest is accounted for by tech diffusion. This is bad, I'm going to need to respond using axes. I should be able to complete a barracks in my capital soon. I need to fortify them on some critical tiles to stop them from forking my cities. If I can weather this storm, I will be vastly ahead of Ioan, who would have just crippled his growth curve with a failed attack. I'll need to check out the map, and determine how many jags it will take to kill a shock axe in +50% or +75% defense tiles.


Also I have no clue why I'm arguing with this dipshit on CFC:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=425114

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Ioan's power has spiked dramatically. I could he looking at a jag here, wish I had time to run the numbers. I'll do it over the weekend. Still should be nothing a few axes can't handle. I have one on my putative city site, 1 that can take a shock promotion, and another that will pop out in 2 turns. Settler that will be built in 3 turns or so. As they say, the best offense is a good defense, so now my goal is to landgrab a good defensive site and weather any storm, and I will be vastly ahead of Ioan.



He's also retreated his axe. I smell a trap. Still fortifying my axe in the current position. Sending a chariot to reinforce it. Sent a peace request anyway, I'm a builder at heart.



Sareln took a peace deal, and looks to be settling his 3rd city North, probably by the fishes. I intend to settle on that hill ~2 cities away. The goal is, of course, to seal up my borders and dominate that blob of land. Unfortunately, it's probably closer to him that to me, thanks to that great big lake over there,

Demos:

All I have to do is stay the course. These numbers are good, considering I'm in the middle of a war.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

It was a trap! Ioan's reinforced the axe with a spear and chariot.



My sims tell me that the three of them are unlikely to get through an axe and a chariot on +75% defence terrain. The problem is if he tries to bypass me. In that case, I'm going to have to withdraw to that critical forest hill tile... again. If he goes on flatland, I hit it with axes until it dies. If it sits on a forest hill, then it's doing nothing... except stopping me from settling that frontline city. Luckily, I have a chariot in the north that will hopefully delay him. On the other hand, he has a pair of workers there, so he can easily build a road and kill my chariot with a spear or jag. I'll need to take a risk there, see what I can tie up.

Let's see, of Ioan's 64k power rating, 6k from Mine/Hunt/AH, then 10k for IW, 6k from barracks, 3k from population, and 14k from the troops I can see right now. That leaves a gap of 25k, could be a couple of warriors and a couple of axes and jags, though I'm not sure how it adds up. His power has been steadily increasing, and it can't all be from techs, so I believe all his hammers are being sunk into troops, not a settler. Still, he could probably poach a city site if he starts a settler now, but he probably won't do that in case I clear out his choke and apply pressure in return.

I think I'm a pretty eco-greedy player in general. I'm top of population, top of food, near top of production (though I'm somewhat lacking in cottages and population to work them. Then again, I seems like I'm comparing myself against other farmers gambiters in other PBEMs, the difference is they can avoid being called out on it.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Haha god fucking damn it my axe's 20% fortify bonus made him the first defender against the chariot. The chariot got a ton of hits in, then the axe killed my chariot, and the spear cleaned up. Should have considered that.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Also, I've got vision on Ioan's city of Garofita. It has 5 hammers invested in it. He can therefore whip a spear any time. I'm going to offer a 10t peace treaty again, so he has the option of peacing out and not having to whip on a +3F surplus. It would sound pathetic, I've been begging for peace for a while, but I can do this builder thing better than he can (I've got double his food).