The Dark arts - C&D Master Thread

[kjn]

Checked CFC's espionage values, and there is nothing to indicate any active use of spies and espionage there.

They have placed 83 more EPs on their opponents than we have, but I think they met their first neighbour earlier, has more courthouses, and haven't spent turns in anarchy. They have 170 EP invested against the Spanish team, and the Spanish has 175 against them, so I doubt they used a spy to help take Bulawayo.

[darrelljs]

My notes for the German units right now stand at:

17 axes
9 chariots
3 spears
8 quechua
7 catapults

So they have more Catapults than we do? I was kind of curious (and I'm sure this is a dumb question), but do we have enough?

Darrell

[kjn]

Bad news - I doubt the Spanish got HBR this turn.

They had a score increase of only 7, and several pop growths. Their power graph on APTMod also shows no marked increase.

I think they were on the margin to get HBR this turn, and the loss of commerce from Bulawayo and maybe trade route losses (due to cities larger than size 10 being whipped) meant they came up just shy. I really hope they didn't depend on a slider running at less than 100%, but they had -77g this turn, which should fit reasonably with the cost of 7 cities and a decent amount of units.

[kjn]

Gah. Got all my notes eaten by the stupid non-undo-able form here.

WPC grew two cities and probably researched a classical tech, tentatively Monarchy.

The Spanish grew three cities, and did not receive HBR this turn.

Apolyton grew two cities. I think they have just completed a settler in Istanbul.

The Germans revolted to HR, and grew 2 pop, leaving 15 score points unassigned. Might be have finished a cheap tech. Archery is quite likely, even though I had noted it down for them earlier. I doubt they have enough research capacity to one-turn a classical tech, so not sure what really happened here - a score increase of 15 is quite a lot from land. They burned through about 100g running max research, 245g remaining.

CivFr grew the city of Sidi Brahim to size 3 and two more in the fog to size 4, from rival best in population. I think they received four land score 1t early.

CivPlayers finished four universities in visible cities, and grew their gold reserve with 250g. Expect them building Oxford soon. They also had four visible pop growths, leaving circa 16 score unassigned, probably some more pop and probably land. I also think they finished a settler, in Tzintzuntzen.

CFC grew back six pop from their whips and drafts last turn, and I also think they grew their newest self-founded city of Bombay to size 2.

Univers grew one visible city, and might either have grown up to two more cities in the fog or received some land score. My guess is all pop.

All visible power increases on APTmod are modest.

[kjn]

Now I'm pretty sure CFC took KwaDukuza - CFC gained 17 score, fitting a pop increase of 7, and the Spanish lost 30. Circa 20 from pop, and the rest from land.

Even if they get HBR as this turn ends, they will have to start the war elephants T150, and can only whip T151, having them T152 - Umgungundluvu is likely to fall by that time, and then CFC can simply overwhelm the elephants with knights.

Will confirm after CFC has logged out.

ETA: Confirmed via APTmod.

[kjn]

It seems the Spanish team abandoned KwaDukuza before CFC conquered the city. CFC's war weariness is only up to 17 (was 12 T148). CFC's power increased with 3000, and I think the Spanish had a power loss of of 7000, for a net change of -4000, consistent with the change I could see in the rival total power.

CFC also whipped the city of Bono, from size 5 to 3. It went from 33 to 108 hammers invested.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I may have missed this in all the other discussion today, but how much does CivPlayers closing borders cost us in trade route income? If it is any significant amount, perhaps we could offer to reopen borders and offer a paltry sum in gpt in return. The economic benefit of this act would be very small for us in all probability, but it could signal to CivPlayers that we do intend to be fair in our dealings with them and want closer relations. Yes, it's a stretch, but a low cost stretch.

[kjn]

I may have missed this in all the other discussion today, but how much does CivPlayers closing borders cost us in trade route income? If it is any significant amount, perhaps we could offer to reopen borders and offer a paltry sum in gpt in return. The economic benefit of this act would be very small for us in all probability, but it could signal to CivPlayers that we do intend to be fair in our dealings with them and want closer relations. Yes, it's a stretch, but a low cost stretch.

Not more than +2 commerce empire-wide, the only larger than size 10 they have right now is Tenochtitlan, and we can't take full advantage of that yet since Adventure and Horse Feathers are quite close to it. Once Eastern Dealers or Forbidden Fruit are on size 12 or 13 that should change, though. Or if they grew some of their core cities back to size 11 or more.

[kjn]

Interesting. Verry interesting.

The Germans started this turn with 245g. Now they have 285.

CivPlayers started this turn with 629g. Now they have 589.

CFC got 126g from pillaging KwaDukuza. When they took Bulawayo (also size 8) they got 156 pillage gold.

[mostly_harmless]

Nicely spotted!