[SPOILERS] Serdoa plays in PBEM46

[Serdoa]

God Azza, fuck you.

He attacked with 2 Keshiks my copper city. I have a spear in it right now and another 2 are on its way and will be there in 2 turns. Might be too late, we will see. If he razes the copper-city I am obviously a little bit fucked, but I will grab Archery in the meantime, which should let me hold out long enough to grab IW, to get Iron (I am certain we do have some).

It will be interesting. If he delays his attack to destroy my copper mine he will probably not take my city. But attacking into a spear and a warrior with 2 Keshiks does also sound like gambling. What he probably still will do and I can only hope that RNG is with me.

[Serdoa]

Oh yeah, he only has 5 Keshiks total, with 2 only finished his last turn. So at most he will attack with 3 right now and he needs at least 5 turns to move them in my direction. Wait, 3rd Keshik was finished EOT47, so he can have only move him T48, T49 and T50 by now. Means he should have him only next to me earliest this turn. But only if he created him in the city closest to me - and from my C&D I doubt that. If that is the case, he will only be able to attack on T53. And thats too late.

[Serdoa]

Ok, so I am at work, but below is an overview of the actual battlefield. When I get home I'll get an actual shot from the game.



His Keshik next to Umoja sits on my copper. Either he attacks with both Keshiks the city this turn or he pillages my copper. If he attacks with both and wins both battles, I will be pissed because it would just be dumb luck without any strategy behind it. But I guess chances are very good for that because despite me having spears (clearly indicated by the power-graph which he should follow if he intends to attack me) he still moved his Keshiks in. And he got extremely lucky to begin with because my original plan had foreseen to have two spears in that city and a warrior 3 tiles in front as scout by now. I just changed it because he had only 3 Keshiks by last turn and I did not expect that he would attack with just 3 fucking Keshiks. I mean honestly, 3 Keshiks Azza? Thats all the force you bring to a war against a player who is known for ancient/classical era war? Really? I have two spears in my gem-city, so he won't take that, even if he pillage my copper. He really can only take that one city - and that is not because he played so good but because he made a completely crazy attack. When you see the screenshot, you will realize that he declared war and moved on my copper without vision of my city center. WITHOUT Vision. With two Keshiks... I mean come on, even if I had only one of my at that time three spears in there, you still would not take it as it was size 5 and could easily whip another one. Why would you do that?

So, anyhow. No matter what happens with the copper city, I will have Archery next turn or the turn after. He can at best get another Keshik to my lands before I have whipped / built several archers. And I have 2 spears on one side and 3 on the other. Yeah, sounds like a great plan Azza *sigh*

Right now, I hope he attacks, loses the first battle and decides to retreat. I would offer him peace and leave him alone if he does that. Than he can go and attack Hydra - whom he should have attacked in the first place, as the guy hasn't built any military whatsoever. It really is annoying that I get attacked simply for being perceived the strongest player. At least thats what I expect was the reason to attack me, as he has other neighbours being closer and other neighbours being less well defended.

The "right" play of course would be to pillage my copper. Without knowing that I have several spears on their way down there, that seems the logical thing to do. Pillage the copper, and attack than, having made sure that no more spears are built.

[NobleHelium]

He can pillage and still attack on the same turn, no?

[Serdoa]

Yes, you are right, he can. I forgot that pillaging is only one movement point and not taking all movement left. Didn't help him, he lost the first battle against the spear as predicted. Now he has only one Keshik next to the city and I have at EOT 2 warriors in it. With 2 spears next to it and his Keshik. He can't take the city, he can't keep sitting on my copper. And I have 3 workers available to reconnect it next turn if I so desire (haven't decided, still need to actually play the turn).

He did bring another Keshik up to the other side of my empire. I have 2 spears sitting there, waiting for him to move in. Another spear is playing zone defense. Yeah, I don't think that invasion worked out at all. Not even sure I need to research Archery now. But if I need to, I can 1-turn it. I'll make some screenies when I play the turn so you guys get a better idea. Oh, and I'll keep expanding. Either next turn or the turn after I will settle city 6. He didn't delay that at all. What he delayed (and maybe made impossible) is a wonder-build I worked on. Though that means my city has now 5 turns won to do something else and I haven't lost any hammers by abandoning the wonder-plan as I hadn't invested anything yet.

So, in total, this invasion might cost me no more than a spear and 5 worker turns. Thats a pity, but I will still be at 6 cities while Azza is at 3...

[Serdoa]

W A R

Yeah, ok, you knew that already. But a war turn update needs a proper introduction.

So, first we have here an overview of my lands at the start of the turn (spoilered for size)

In the north and in the south we have one Keshik each. As I had already written in the last post, Azza lost one Keshik when he killed my spear. Here is the log for that:



And combat-log



Yeah, so he lost the first Keshik at 13.5% odds, as could be expected. I am not certain why he even attacked in the first place. Hoping to get a lucky win? That should not be the tactic you need to employ on T52 when you do a Keshik-rush. Well, for that matter, your Keshik-rush should consist of more than 3 Keshiks in two different places. Anyhow. After that he made another attack at 44% odds and won with just taking one hit. I think he got lucky there, he could very well have lost this battle or be sitting there with a heavily damaged Keshik that I could maybe even win against with a Warrior. I don't understand this attack, I really don't.

Anyhow. The situation now is that I have 2 Warriors in Umoja, so he can't take the city. The two spears near my capital have been moved towards Umoja as well. If he does not pull back, I will kill his Keshik and reconnect my copper anyhow. His 3rd Keshik (built T47) has shown up in my north, so that one will not interfere. He has 4 more, built on T50, T51 and 2 on T52. He needs at least 3 turns movement before he can attack me on the 4th. Means the earliest he has another Keshiks ready to attack one of my cities/the copper tile on T54. Imo, that leaves him with 2 options:

1. Pillage the road with his Keshik on his T53, move away.

T53: I move 2 workers and two spears on the copper, finishing another worker in the cap as well. With two Keshiks, one damaged, he won't dispatch them T54.
T54: I will reconnect the tile via road on T54 and put another spear on the copper (I can upgrade one of the warriors). He won't dispatch those 3 spears with the maximum 3 Keshiks he can bring on his T55.
T55: I rebuild the mine on the copper with my 3 workers and can whip the prequeued warriors who will autougprade to spears.

2. ...



I hope he will take the offer. I don't see him gaining anything in this war but he can certainly set himself back even further. I've offered the peace also for another reason: Players know me to hold a grudge. I hope with this offer I can convey the message that I am not holding a grudge if he moves out now. And without that, he is free to use his Keshiks to harass someone else. Like THH, who has a total of 6 warriors defending his lands. 6 Warriors (!). Azza, why didn't you attack him? Honestly, why me? I mean, actually, why anyone? Did you really think this gameplan can work? On a 32x32 toroidal map which has such high costs that you certainly can't keep the cities, even if you take some? What was the idea? Hurting your opponents while you expand? You have fallen pretty far behind in that regard (4th city planted T52, I will plant my 6th on T53 with the 7th already in production). Whatever your plan was, you still have time to remedy yourself and actually catch up.

But yeah, lurkers, ask him please why he choose me in his thread, I'd like to read that after this game. I certainly am known for fighting in the ancient era, so he couldn't expect me to falter simply. I am known for doing much C&D, so he could expect to surprise me (even though I admit I was surprised that he really attacked with only 2 Keshiks). The only guess I have why he attacked is that he thought I am the strongest player and it would help to even the playing field. But thats hardly the right thing to do in a 4-player-FFA imo. And Azza also doesn't strike me of the type of guy who would do that. So, yeah, I am at a loss on that point. I simply can't understand it.

(Pictures of all cities in next post).

[Serdoa]

Char



Working for this one turn an umimproved tile. Not happy with that, but I lost some worker turns and due to the needed whips into spears last turn + the gems are delayed two turns to connect I simply have to many unhappy right now in Umoja and I need to buid a Warrior there. What has that to do with my capital? Well, they share tiles and giving the 1-1-5 fur to Umoja was the only tile to not make the city grow and not waste many hammers due to the overflow rules (I still waste 1).

I get now 2-2-5 out of it (1/2/0 here and 1/1(-1)/5) in Umoja. With a different combination I could have gotten 3(-1 avoid growth)/1/7. Basically I decided that 1 hammer is worth more to me than 2 commerce. Is anyone even interested in this? I guess not.

Anyhow, the city will finish the worker next turn, regrow on a warrior the turn after and if Azza takes peace I'll delay connecting the copper for a turn, growing to size 4 while finishing the warrior. Then probably size 5 and 6 and 2- or 3-pop-whipping a settler. Not certain yet.

Mar Sara



Not sure what to do with this city. I need the good tiles sooner or later for the capital or the gems-city, so most of its tiles will be not that great. Guess I'll use it for the time being as whipping-place to get more workers.

Umoja



Copper-city. Will build a wonder now that this invasion is hopefully over.

Tarsonis



Will finish the Library, and get a GP produced quickly afterwards.

Korhal



New city. Pig is being improved right now. Actually the pig should have been finished next turn, but will be delayed by one turn due to the war. I couldn't move my galley into the city to unload the worker there and move it on the same turn.

I've also loaded the settler for city 6 right now. I might delay it a few turns though, I haven't decided. Depends if I get peace from Azza. If I do, I settle immediately as I will have a worker available. If not, I'll wait a turn or two.

Btw: I forgot to take a demo-shot, but despite the war, I am leading in food. And despite a 0% research rate right now, I am leading in GNP. I'm fine with that. Still, making this post and talking about my cities I realised how much I actually lost, only because of that war. So many small things that together blow every plan I had out of the water. Really unlucky that the civ with the 2nd highest soldier-score gets attacked.

[NobleHelium]

You won't be able to upgrade the warrior to a spear without copper. I found the commentary about the tiles between Umoja and Char to be interesting.

[Serdoa]

Right. Well, 2 Spears against 3 Keshiks on a hill should still be fine. Thats str 9 against str 6.

[Serdoa]

Ok, very interesting. I wonder if anyone guessed correctly what Azza did. Because it certainly makes no sense for me:



Yes, he really did destroy one of my warriors in the city and retreated then. Why not cutting the copper-road and retreat instead? This way I could have not done what I did. And that was getting revenge:



Odds with my warrior. Coinflip-chance to kill his Keshik or lose 10 hammers. I certainly don't want that Keshik running around and my 2 spears do cover my city nicely enough. Especially with me being able to whip a spear next turn if necessary. Or several, as the other cities could as well. So, lets attack:



The fight at the bottom is the one he took on his turn. Despite dire odds, my brave warrior hit him 4 times. And my other - also brave - warrior killed him now. So thats one less Keshk to worry about. He has produced another one this turn though, so he still has 6. I have 5 spears though, so I feel good about my chances. I still don't understand why he attacked me though. Harry was basically as strong as I was AND has with FIN and SPI two traits that will come into effect only now. Hitting the guy with EXP/CRE who will actually start to fall behind now anyway - but will certainly remember you when he can finally build Cataphracts - seems like a really, really bad decision.

Even worse, I offered peace and he should have seen that he can't win this (he could see all but one spear and should realize that I get more starting next turn). Why is he not taking it? Why not re-offering if he first wanted to see the situation? I mean really, what does he achieve now? He gets himself into a hole, he drags me down with him. And? He is not going to win this. Harry is. Easily now. *sigh* I really am surprised sometimes. I mean I stated at the start of this game that Keshiks are not going to help win this, as they come to early and you can't keep the land, even if you take some, as the costs are too high. But if you are going to use them, why not use them on the guy with only warriors for defence? God... I am still pissed.

Anyhow, offered him peace again and hope he'll take it now. If not he'll probably lose another Keshik next turn, maybe 2 (one should be near my copper-city by now and might take my wounded warrior as bait to run directly into one of my spears).