[SPOILER] Nicolae Karpathia Khan of France

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Welp, there's a non-zero chance I'm going to lose Assyrian. I have a C2/Formation mace standing in a forest, and he's backed up by a pair of horse archers and a chariot. I have 3 more HAs that can reinforce Assyrian in 2 turns. Sareln has 4 horse archers in the vicinity, he's much closer to his core via roads. I on the other hand have 2 galleys as my logistics chain.

Oh, and Ioan just declared on me, but he sued for peace the same turn. He probably wants a safe front to hit GE. I would have denied him, but now Sareln's showing pressure, and there is only so much I can do to help him out.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Good, Sareln hasn't moved in. Depending on how the culture falls, and if Sareln is brave enough to use sacrifice 2 workers and a HA to kill 2 of my own workers, I can potentially do some really sneaky road shenanigans.

The gist is I want to pop my borders up next to a newly settled city of Sareln's, build a fort on tile, unload a pair of maces onto that fort, road up to that city, and hit it. All on the same turn. I'm nothing if not ambitious. Let's hope for the best.

Of more interest, Sareln finally teched paper and birthed a GScientist. I should see him blow past me in tech for a while, he gets cheap universities and easy Oxford, I don't expect him to build up for a timing attack, and I expect him to have a much higher break even slider rate to make those buildings more effective. I hope he doesn't try to compete for Liberalism, and instead saves gold while building up his multipliers so I can sandbag for Military Tradition in peace. I should also trade maps with Gingereagle, but I'm scared he'll trade them to Sareln. I also expect Sareln to have uncovered much more of the map than GE has. Tell me, when trading maps in multiplayer, will an uneven map trade show up in the F4 tech screen as "+1 fair trade"?

Also, I finally birthed a GProphet! He's going in my shrine, Buddhism is easily the most spread religion simply because my empire is so big. I'm also building University of Sankore, but I'm tempted to detour for Theology and Divine Right simply because I can. Probably not a good idea, I don't want to get too distracted, teching engineering weakened my Gunpowder-Nationalism-Liberalism-Military Tradition plan in the first place.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Boo, popping borders didn't give me the cultural control of the tile next to the city. I'm going to have to wait on the 1-move attack for a turn or so.

GE traded maps with Sareln, and he then traded maps with me. Thanks dude, now I have vision of Sareln's entire empire. Screens once I get home. He's in pretty bad shape, he's very cramped and has less than a dozen cottages. He also traded Incense to me for Deer (probably because he can). I sent him Stone for free, hopefully he'll give me marble if I request it around the time I land Liberalism.

In other news, Sareln immediately bulbed education, he really wants to force me to stop sandbagging Liberalism. Bah, may as well take Nationalism with it, and tech Gunpowder and Military Tradition the old-fashioned way. I really want the Taj.

Oh yeah, and I haven't even opened the save yet. There's a chance Sareln's declared and ruined all my plans.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I was wrong! The borders did pop, but at the beginning of turn. A few worker actions later, I could bring 3 Maces + 5 Horse Archers + 1 chariots to bear against 2 axes and 5 Horse archers.

Unfortunately I made a couple of bad rolls and Sareln was left with a single axe at 1.0 strength . Argh, I see Sareln has 2 horse archers and a chariot in range to save the city. Oh well, I have 1 mace that can heal up to 5.1 strength, 1 scratched triple-promoted mace, 2 redlined HAs that can promote, 3 fresh HAs, and 1 fresh mace. Let's hope Sareln doesn't have too much else within range next turn. I expect the troops at his front with me make up the bulk of his army.

Pic dump of everyone else's empire:

GE is really badly cramped, but so is Sareln. Ioan on the other hand can potentially become a monster. Either I hit his core asap with Cuiraissers and Musketeers, or I eat Sareln first.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Whoo more blood! Just razed Sareln's size 1 city, he decided to abandon the city. Killed the axe anyway, then sued for peace to rescue my HA. I'm in position to resettle that site in 2 turns anyway. I see no evidence of Sareln having a settler ready anyway. Besides, I can pillage a road connection from Sareln's core, and leave that site isolated.

In other news, finished University of Sankore, decided to start Notre Dame because I expect to be whipping some of my cities like crazy once Military Tradition comes in, and I decide to commit to an attack. Even if I lose it, I could use the failgold. I also whipped 15 population points for universities. Oxford university starts next turn, should be finished in ~5 turns. I would have built a Taoist Monastery this turn, but alas I failed a spread, so I dumped some hammers into a catapult instead. May as well use the +2xp.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to burn through 2 turns of max research to guarantee Liberalism, because Sareln just teched Education.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Argh Sareln.

Well, we made peace, fair enough. But now he's going to force me to stop sandbagging, and go straight for Liberalism. Oh well, Sareln isn't going to find Liberalism very useful, Free Speech is worth little to him because he has less than a dozen towns. I have a few dozen now.

Even worse, Sareln's next PHI great person has appeared. It's a Great Artist.

Oh fuck. If he bombs Lalibela, I'll lose the sheep and stone, and may even lose the tiles in front of my city. If he bombs Hawulti, I'll potentially lose control of the isthmus. This is a major problem. Luckily I have a great person appearing in that city in 5 turns, it has ~90% odds of being a Great Artist, so I can always counterbomb. Not a great use of a GPerson at this stage of the game . I'd rather use him for my 2nd or 3rd golden age (depending on if GE gives me his marble).

I have no idea where his GPP has been coming from, he's got the Great Wall and MoM in that city, but I can't see a theatre in that city. It's normally considered an unlucky roll, but that thing scares the shit out of me.

I'd not even prefer it if Sareln used it for a Golden Age. He's overdue for one. His play hasn't been optimal, I suspect he's been wating for one before he switches into bureaucracy (he's still in Barbarism!). That's not a good idea, Bureaucracy would be a strong for him even if his capital isn't great, as his empire is small and hence civic expenses are low. I on the other hand am beginning to regret going the Civil Service-Paper-Liberalism line instead of the Feudalism-Guilds-Banking line, my expenses are incredibly high and gold multipliers would be huge for me.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Sorry for lack of updates, been a bit busy recently, too bad as it's impacted on my management and generalship. I will say that I've libbed Nationalism, chopped out most of the Taj (thanks GE for the marble), and am going to complete it the turn I finish banking.

Ioan got a Great Engineer, and used it to rush Notre Dame. That's okay, I never really needed it, got 207 failgold from that (better than wealthbuilds!). I'm even more glad as that means I can go for the Apostolic Palace, I've already got lots of Buddhist buildings for the Sankore bonus. Even better, that puts me on track for the Spiral Minaret, between that I'm set to run away with the game.

Oh yeah, and I just burnt down the Jewish holy city. Ioan's the only one who really scares me, and he's hurting.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Since the save isn't moving, and I'm at home (with lots of work-related reading to do), I've opened up some older saves.

Here's the slow moving arm of my stack that hit Aurita. Notice the tile labelled 51/48? I was originally going to wait for the tile to flip before I would 1-move with a stack 1W of my city (which in this picture has a stack of 7 HAs on it). But then I noticed that the garrison in Aurita wasn't particularly large, this may be an excellent time to strike while Ioan was distracted by GE. Even after I spotted a small stack of a knight and a few axes/maces behind the city, I tested it out on worldbuilder, and by sacrificing all those cats I could kill Aurita with what I had. So in I went, not the best time (in fact, if I had arrived a turn sooner I'd be even better off, but I was originally planning to hit the other side of that lake. Unfortunately, Ioan got a culture expansion and that fell through).

Ioan hit me with 3 catapults and a few HAs/Knights, but a cover-promoted mace took care of the former and my healed and promoted on my turn. I think I got a bit lucky, 6 of my cats were enough to bring most units down to 1/2 health. I had 1 more catapult left, I actually forgot about him for a few attacks until I remembered I could still bombard. Overall, I got good rolls and took out the strong defenders with counter-promoted maces and cleaned up with HAs. I actually left a few units poorly supported and lost them the next turn, but I got my revenge in the end. The last few turns have been really sloppy.

Taj just came in, the same turn banking came in. What I did earlier was use a culture build to pop my borders to 3rd ring, so I could immediately chop the forests to finish most of the Taj. I queued up the Taj after this, so I used the culture bug. I wasn't actually sure if it worked, which was why I bought it up in another thread. Anyway, it was a wash, using it lost me 10 overflow hammers and gained me 8 bug hammers, so no biggie.

Next turn is Theology so I can start on the Apostolic Palace. I'm going to switch to Free Speech and Mercantilism next turn, then to Nationalism/Theocracy once my golden age ends (assuming I'm going to press home my military advantage). To get that military advantage, I'm going Gunpowder/Military Tradition next. After that, I'm not sure, gold multipliers are going to be huge for me, it should last me a long time. Probably Alphabet/Printing Press (as I have a GScientist to burn). Maybe I could even slot it in before Military Tradition. After that, Compass/Optics/Astronomy? Nah, I'm not sure if I'll have the spare production if I'm going into a real hot war (everything up to now doesn't count). Replaceable Parts/Rifling? Shame it will obsolete Musketeers. Divine Right? I already built a ton of Buddhist buildings, so my city tiles essentially become 2F5H9C tiles. Considering my size, that would set me on track to utterly run away with the game.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Our civilization has entered a golden age!

Yeah, this is sorta why I bought up ending the game. I'm kinda far ahead. Sareln is bottled in. GE is a joke. Ioan's GNP just tanked, he has awfully high production and therefore I suspect he's been going for a hammer economy, which is good in the short term but weak in the long term (especially as you unlock more and more +science and +commerce multipliers.

Here are some pictures of 100, 0 and break even science before the civics switch:

Here is the same, but after switching to Free Speech and Mercantilism. I have ~34 towns, that's why I think it outcompetes Bureaucracy (especially outside a golden age). Probably not great within a golden age, doesn't feel as strong as I'd hoped.

Should be noted pics were taken before I finished off some micro. I've been switching some mines to windmills to take advantage of the +2c, I may switch back later. I'm also working a pair of scientists in my Moai city, as I'm building a Pike there to deal with any errant knights and I didn't want to lose overflow. I'll be starting the Apostolic Palace next turn. After that, I'm going Alphabet-Printing Press and Gunpowder-Military Tradition, I'm just not sure in what order. Probably go economy first, I have enough military to deal with Ioan getting frisky in this war, I'm planning on switching to Nationalism at the end of the Golden Age so I have the option of cracking heads. It's just that I feel Ioan may be going all in, in which case I'm better off turtling and going economy. I've already got the most land and population in the game, and my infrastructure is strong enough to probably carry me to a space win, but I doubt what few lurkers I have will appreciate a peaceful victory (considering how in front I am). Not quite PBEM13 in front though, but I'm not FIN/IND.

After those 4 techs, I'm probably good to go Divine Right to get the Spiral Minaret out, that way I have the religious building trifecta (damn strong and synergistic).

Finally, demos:

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Ooh, what did I say about Ioan getting frisky?

What he can't see are the two maces, 2 knights, and horse archer in range. I've been hiding my forces behind the city. Then again, I'm not really sure what he was hoping to do walking onto flatland without even enough units to take down the city. It could always be a distraction, but I haven't really shifted my forces from my central front.

After the Barrage 2 catapult got hits in on everyone, my C2 Knight had odds on his C2/Shock Knight. After that, my free C1 gave me odds on nearly everything else. Won a Shock HA vs Mace fight at poor odds though, Ioan just had some bad rolls here. With that gone, and a few more turns of healing, I can probably burn down Violeta (Ioan's magnificent Moai city) with some cuiraissers and musketeers (and maybe even some upgraded knights), assuming he doesn't have more stuff in the background. Ioan just popped out a GMerchant, unlucky him because I won't be taking peace for a while. If we do take peace, then I'm teching Economics to get another few turns of 100% research.

Whoop, go GE! Take your revenge! I hope my distraction was enough! Unfortunately, I doubt GE can take that city at all, not with the castle and longbows. GE is barely medieval, Ioan is solidly medieval, so no enormous production/technological advantage. I was originally thinking of cancelling the Marble deal I have with GE, but I'd rather not as it could distract him from his true calling (vengeance upon Ioan).

Also, I resettled that barbarian city I should have kept. Gah, it would have been so developed by now, with granaries and forges and Buddhist buildings and everything! Oh well.