[SPOILER] Nicolae Karpathia Khan of France

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Yay a ded-lurker, someone I can talk to! I've been lazy as hell with taking screens. I made peace with Ioan (probably a mistake), DoWed Sareln to gain vision on his city and head off any military build up on his side of the culture war, and so he can't easily 1-move my city. I a grand total of 5 fronts to defend, not easy, but I have a couple of sentry chariots to spot build-ups, so I have time to reinforce any threatened city with just as many troops as I need.

Really, this current war with Sareln is a distraction, I have no intention of trying to take the city, I'm in the middle of a science-infrastructure push right now, I'm building wealth to get CoL out faster and whip some courthouses out in my peripheral cities.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Ugh, I sent in a sentry chariot, and there's a pretty big stack of 5 axes, 3 chariots and 2 catapults behind Sareln's front city. There are another 6 axes and 3 spears in the area. Bloody hell, couldn't GE have played better and tied down more of Sareln's forces?

Still, I don't expect him to attack, that stack has existed for a while, the top axe has been fortified for a full 5 turns. It looks like a defensive force to me. I think I have enough to handle it, though it might be close, I've been playing a pretty risky game here. I am 100% glad I decided to settle a GG in my capital, 2 promotions unlocks sentry, and I'm going to need that to deal with any unexpected surprises. I already have 2 of them running around on both fronts.

I'm taking a bit of a risk anyway, I have 3 axes and a spear fortified on the jungle hill, I'm aggressive so I can take the counterpromotion, I don't expect Sareln to attack it as I'd be making favourable trades, I have twice his production and crop yield so he can't afford that anyway. Plus, Sareln is an extremely cautious player, I can probably use it against him. He's probably feeling the effect already, he's on 6 cities and I'm almost on 11. I hope he's more scared of me than I am of him!

CoL just came in, the question is what next? I'd really like metal casting, I have gems and silver hooked up, but I'd really like Aesthetics to get the SoZ up in my Sareln front city. I'd also really like HBR to defend my immense empire, though it may be manageable for now, as I have a pretty high power rating anyway. Priest/Poly/Mono/Monarchy/Feudalism as well? Not sure yet.

[Ellimist]

Plus, Sareln is an extremely cautious player

He wasn't in FFHPBEM-IX...

I suppose I'll read about it after the game, but I have no idea why he thought he'd be safe with an empty capital on a smallish map with 2 aggressive opponents.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Well, that was the impression I got this game. He doesn't take bad odds that have good strategic outcomes.

Example, his axe/cat stack still hasn't moved. He knows I can see it, if I were him, I'd wave it around a bit, that would force me to withdraw from the hill and towards my city, which would lose me the crucial strategic vision.

Unfortunately, I made a mistake earlier. Last turn, I should have moved 2 chariots onto his stone, and pillaged the quarry and road. This turn, I moved 2 chariots and a spear onto it, it's out of range of any of his 1-movers, but I only just realised after playing the turn that Sareln's 2 workers in the area could build a road and let him kill a few of the spears. This would tempt him to move his entire stack forward, and I don't want to lose the status quo of me sitting on his hill looking at his dudes.

Also, my scouting warrior spotted the warzone between GE and Ioan. It's actually a bit absurd, Ioan sent his troops ridiculously far from home, and he was better off landgrabbing it all. I can confidently say that Ioan is an extremely aggressive player, I'm more aggressive defense.

I'll post some screens over the weekend, if I can find time. Maybe I should stop playing just after I wake up, so I don't do stupid things.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Called it! I fucked up, lost the pillaging stack. Completely my mistake. I'm going to have to do a long hard think about my defenses. I may even leave the scout stack on that hill, I'm up to +100% defense, I wouldn't mind Sareln burning his cats on 5 units instead of my defensive stack.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Let's see...

Sareln:
11 axes, 2 spears, 3 chariots, and 3 cats

Me:
9 axes, 1 spear, 2 chariots, and 2 cats, on a hill, behind 40% defenses. I can potentially withdraw 3 axes and a spear from the scout stack. If Sareln tries to bypass it, I can even bring them home without risk, using a little worker micro. If he tries to kill the scout stack, I can hopefully make a favourable hammer trade. I don't think he'll move in, I'd like to tempt him by hiding one of my cats.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I'm going to hold my scout stack. God help me if I lose another stack piecemeal. Luckily I'll be hooking up stone next turn, I can 2pop whip walls out immediately. Alternatively I cat them to death on flatground.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

In addition, let's have a look at the battlefield between GE and Ioan. I have no idea where the rest of his Ioan's forces are. Ioan has 2 Jags, 1 cat, 1 chariot, and an axe. GE has 4 axes and 3 spears, split apart to stop the Jags running around like the horrible jerks they are. Unlike me, GE hasn't been chopping away his forests. His development is awful, I see a billion cottages but he's not working any. I have no idea what Ioan is trying to achieve. I guess he's using the opportunity to expand in his direction, I saw his borders 3 tiles to the west, a decent idea but his demonumbers are tragic and he can barely crawl towards CoL and organised courthouses.



Demonumbers at EoT:


Screenshot of my core:


My slider rate is rather sad, ~60bpt without wealth building. Hopefully this will increase by a tick as some courthouses come online. I've been building markets in the core, so that could help as well. I'll want to prioritise the guilds-banking line, because my expenses are so damn high.

I can still compete with Sareln's research, he should hopefully fall behind his lack of land makes him cap out. Ioan's also got a huge maintenance issue like me, but the difference is he has nowhere near as much pop and development as I do. GE's situation is like Ioan's but he has nowhere near as many cities.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

It's almost a cliche by now. Made peace with Sareln, GNP spying tells me no one has aesthetics yet, so I can secure vision by building the SoZ in that border city. Will come in next turn. I noticed Ioan's garrison is awfully thin, and production spying tells me Ioan has 26 hammers in Lacrimora, which suggests it's not a defensive unit (could be a catapult, could be a building). I was intending to take Lacrimora if I could, but then I noticed Ioan left a worker unguarded, and our peace treaty had run out. Killed the 40H worker with a 16H archer, deleted both as Ioan would have odds on it and I didn't want him gaining 3xp and another shock Axe. I'll be in position to attack Lacrimora in 3 turns, I'll need to think about whether or not I have the means, there's an archer and catapult behind 20% defenses against 7 axes, 2 spears, 2 cats, and 3 chariots. Hopefully this works, and I draw first blood. Oh well, I have an army, and it's itching to be used, it's going to get obsolete soon.

My current philosophy: Ioan is weak on GNP and development, Sareln is weak on food, production and expansion. I like to imagine I'm keeping it this way.

[Commodore]

I noticed Ioan's garrison is awfully thin, and production spying tells me Ioan has 26 hammers in Lacrimora, which suggests it's not a defensive unit (could be a catapult, could be a building).

One quibble: Catapults are totally defensive units. In fact, with a glace at PBEM...was it 8? The AW one. Anyway, Rego with cavs/rifles vs. infantry, cannon, and MGs proved that cats+road network = horribly expensive wars.