The Dark arts - C&D Master Thread

[kjn]

Build tracking isn't that time critical, and we're covered for this turn.

Also, you can do the build tracking via APTmod:

Open the Espionaje screen. You want the values for "Destruir produccin" and "Robar tecnologa" (yes, really, something is borked in APTmod's presentation here).

I regularly pick up the values from here - I get the values faster since I don't have to switch cities, and I don't have to log into the game either.

[waterbat]

Yes, meant no time for civ. thanks though.

[kjn]

We've had heavy whip turns earlier, but I think CivPlayers must have done some crazy Aztec ritual this turn: they performed 8 2-pop and 1 4-pop whip this turn, for a total of 20 pop whipped away.

The following cities were whipped that we have visibility on in some way:

City	Post-whip hammers	Whipped pop	Post-whip pop	Notes
Texcoco	226	2	5
Tlaxcala	217	2	3
Xochicalco	207	4	4	National Epic
Tlacopan	226	2	2
Tzintzuntzen	108	2	3

Given that we have 9 pop whips here, and one of those we can see is for sub-200 hammers and four are for 200-hammers-plus, I think it's quite likely that we are seeing University whips here. What is a little peculiar is that they didn't whip their capital, but maybe it had enough hammers to slowbuild the University, and it's not really worthwhile whipping a size 17 city. We should have confirmation next turn, at which point it should be possible to update CivPlayers tech path as well.

The total food output fell only marginally (rival average 240 to 236), so I think a lot of mines were whipped away here, but that's just speculation.

CivFr also performed a 1-pop whip in a size 4 city.

Rival average population fell with 1,323k with all this, and I have 685k unaccounted for. Some work with the making change script gives three possible solutions, but I know that Tlatelolco no longer is size 11, so I get the following whips for CivPlayers:

11->9, 8->6, 6->4, 4->2

This also tells me they have a total pop of at least 82. Currently I have two cities of unknown size for them, but that will likely increase next turn.

[kjn]

It seems CFC managed to catch the Spanish team with their pants down.

I think CFC feinted to the north, or that the Spanish team thought that the main attack would come in the north, towards KwaDukuza. Instead, they attacked Bulawayo to the extreme south first, and took the city on the first turn of the war. Since the city is on a hill and had walls, that should have been quite a tough nut to crack.




But instead, CFC didn't take a single casualty in the battle - their power increased from 560 to 563k! Impis on a hill behind walls would have very good odds against even knights, and I hadn't noted any stables in CFC lands (ie no 2-promo knights out of the gate), so not sure what the Spanish did there.

CFC's war weariness jumped up to 12, and we had a total drop of soldiers of 19k). 6 of CFC's war weariness comes from capturing the city, so they can have killed or captured no more than 6 units.

Global drop -19
CFC increase +3
Total change for the Spanish -22

Pop loss for the Spanish (8 pop) -4
Loss of buildings (walls, barracks) -5
Unit losses left: -13

Possible breakdowns for Spanish losses are:

3 archers, 1 impi/chariot, 2 workers
1 archer, 1 impi/chariot, 1 axe/sword/horse archer, 3 workers

Not looking good for the Spanish team. They had one newly settled city that I believe was located 3E of Bulawayo that is toast now, and Umgungundlovu is quite exposed now. What's worse, CFC likely has a couple of Flanking 2 or C1+shock knights by next turn...

ETA: CFC gained 156 pillage gold.

[kjn]

So, how badly was the Spanish empire hurt? Here are some figures - and note that the poor Spanish team is rival worst in almost every category that is trackable via APTmod:

GNP: 151 -> 155
Hammers: 72 -> 52
Food: 128 -> 111

Bulawayo was almost entirely geared towards hammers, so the Spanish has likely lost their prime military pump (OTOH, war elephants are easily 2-pop whippable). Their GNP actually increased! They also lost 17F, also supporting they ran lots of mines.

The claimed land decreased with 19 tiles, and the rival worst (ie the Spanish) with 24 tiles, so CFC took over 5 tiles (the city tile, and probably four tiles claimed by Abhi's culture.

For all practical purposes, the Spanish has now also lost control of their source of horses, and also won't be able to use their nearby source of iron.

I also check the production history of Bulawayo, and it's possible the city had a catapult in it, which was lost.

[kjn]

CFC drafted Hansa (6->5) and whipped Baraha (3->2, 32->69H).

[kjn]

The German team continue to prepare for our invasion. They performed three 2-pop and one 1-pop whip before ending turn.

Wismar, 2-pop from 11 to 71H. Now size 6.
Weil der Stadt, 2 pop from 2 to 62H. Now size 5.
Westheim, 2 pop from 4 to 64H. Now size 5.
Wolfratshausen, 1 pop from 5 to 35H. Now size 2.

Also, Warendorf aborted its build (at 41H) and started a new one.

My notes for the German units right now stand at:

17 axes
9 chariots
3 spears
8 quechua
7 catapults

1 galley (in Wismar)
6 workers
1 work boat

[mostly_harmless]

kjn, you don't track the espionage point spending of the other teams, do you?
Could it be that CFC revolted the Spanish city before attacking?
I don't even know for sure, whether spies are around already.

mh

[kjn]

kjn, you don't track the espionage point spending of the other teams, do you?
Could it be that CFC revolted the Spanish city before attacking?
I don't even know for sure, whether spies are around already.

Nope, haven't checked EP spending between teams othen than when I've seen a clear need. That said, CFC haven't had a GSpy born, and only a few courthouses, so I doubt they've generated lots of EPs. They do have Alphabet, so they can build Spy units though.

From eyeballing the CFC EP graph on APTmod it's possible they've run some spies, but I think t's more likely to come from getting three courthouses up and running Nationhood.

I will check the CFC EP values when I next log in - I need to check CFC's war weariness too, but I haven't seen any other military actions from the demos alone.

[kjn]

City building tracking has been updated and brought up to date, in preparation for a T150 State of the Game post.