[SPOILER] Ikhanbod

[Ichabod]

Here's the war theater on the first turn of war:




As of now, I lost, if I recall correctly, 1 Keshik and 2 archers. I think I killed 4 Composite Bowmen (maybe 5, if Pindicator managed to kill a redlined CB I couldn't finish near one of his cities), a chariot and 2 warriors.

As everyone can notice from what I've said above, Pindicator also declared war at Azza, after I propped him to it. Likely just a revenge war, since Pindicator's starting position + Azza's second city made winning the game really hard for him.

Anyway, after starting the war, I realized that the terrain made it difficult to attack Markarth first, so I changed targets and went after Whiterun, where the mobility of my Keshiks and Horsemen could be better explored. Notice also that big road that Azza was building, likely due to a CS quest. That road helped me a lot in the following turns.

I don't have much war screenshots, but I kept attacking Azza's units and getting back with my Keshiks, while positioning myself to attack Markarth and waiting for reinforcements. Yes, I'm in 100% military mode, I'm not slacking up with this war. So, due to my GA and mobility, I'm getting units very fast to the front.

Last turn, after seeing Azza's positioning, I could either kill quite a bit of his CBs or try an attack at Markarth. I suffered a bit with unit placement, but after a good deal of thinking, I managed to attack with all m Keshiks in the area (6), which left the city with almost no health. After that, I could attack with my 2 horsemen and I had a shot at taking the city. So, after my second one attacked:




I puppeted the city first, to see the impact it'd give to my happiness. It wasn't so bad (since the city gave me 2 new luxuries - salt and furs), so I decided to Annex it straight away. The city delayed my next SP for a bit (I'm not sure what I'll choose, I want rationalism, but I can't get it yet).




Azza can revenge kill some of my units, but that'll cost him a lot, since his units can't move after attacking. I think there's no way he can get the city back, due to no meele unit in range. So, he probably can't kill my redlined Horsemen either (since I don't think a garrisoned unit can die only with ranged attacks). I also killed a garrisoned warrior and Azza's Great General, also garrisoned. That was a big loss for him!

After taking Whiterun, I have loads of room to attack Markarth and maybe even kill some of Azza's CBs on this area. Capturing the city gave me all its tiles + the roads, while Azza lost all this. Big bonus for me.







I can attack Markarth from the North, with the units that captured Whiterun, but I can also use the southern reinforcements, attacking through the jungle and forests. That southern pikemen will be used to give the meele attack needed for the city capture, most likely.

These two cities are my main goal in the war. They give me 2 new luxuries and a powerful Wonder (Petra) and they are nice cities. I don't think I can get Azza's Capital Solitude, which is on a really defensive positioning. Azza's second city, Windhelm, is also a beauty, but it'll be hard to capture too (due to difficulty of getting meele attacks on it). We'll see.




I have two big trump cards for the next turns of war. First, Ogedei was born, my first Khan. This will help a lot, since they give a pretty nice combat bonus to units. He's heading to the battlefield right now, using it's 5 moves!




The second one happened after I end turn, but I managed to catch a screenshot of it before I was prompted out.




Valleta, my city state ally, gave me a Knight! That was big! First, it gives cover to my units in the area. Second, it gives me a powerful and fast meele attacker (I can't build Knights or Horsemen due to Keshiks). That'll make conquering Windhelm and Whiterun easier.

Azza is in a difficult situation here, since he can't get the best counter unit to Keshiks, Knights. He has a UU replacement of Knights, Narusomething Elephants, that are stronger, but slower. And slow units get pounded by Keshiks. Besides, much like spears and pikes, Elephants have a mounted bonus that doesn't affect Keshiks, which are archery units.

I think that if I can capture Markarth without losing all my army, this war is won. Azza won't be able to keep up with my production and his defensive Capital position will work against him, making it very hard to reinforce/counter-attack. We'll see how it goes.

[Ichabod]

Some interesting notes about how I played the CS game.

I've already told you that I managed to get some city state allies through resource trades and other quests (barb clearing, for instance). That gave me two city state Allies with no money used, Jerusalem and Venice.







Maritime food is always nice, but Jerusalem faith ended up being not that useful, after Azza beat me to the last religion. Despite this, I used my first spare 250 gold to get influence with Jerusalem, when it was nearing the loss of Ally status. That was because I needed their horses for my army of Keshiks (the fact that they were giving extra influence for gold on that turn also helped).

After that, I dumped 250 gold on Venice too, since I had a lot due to the GA. I wanted to keep the free food and happy.

But the best thing was allying Valleta, while actually getting money in the process. First, I got 40 influence due to my brave trirreme, that discovered a new Natural Wonder.




After that, I used my unit positioning near Markarth to intimidate Monaco, getting me 170 gold and more influence with Valleta. Monaco also got 40 influence due to the birth of a Khan, but I valued the alliance with Valleta higher.







Allying Valleta already gave me that powerful Knight, but it also revealed quite a lot of tiles and gave vision on some of Azza's land. Unfortunately, none of my CS allies are attacking Azza. Well, I can't complain.




Interesting to note is that Valleta can produce Longbowmen, so, if I get Machinery, I can have access to another one of the Imba UUs.

[Ichabod]

Some random screenshots:

Sentenza and Blondie (forgot to take a picture of my 4th city Tuco, which will be a science city, with loads of food and jungle).







Whiterun, which saved its Granary and Library (that was pretty lucky, I think):




Demographics after city capture:




Diplomacy overview:







Military overview:




Economic overview:




Freeside, Jowy's Capital (pretty powerful, in my opinion):




Asgard, Oledavy's Capital (loads of potential, this city can be way higher in size than mine Capital, with all those river tiles - requires heavy worker labor, though):




Palenque, Serdoa's Capital (my main oponent, in my opinion. Loads of Wonders + powerful science civ - he's already dominating in science; as you can see, his capital already has an univesity and, likely, the National College):




That's it. Any questions?

[T-hawk]

Nice going and reporting. Launching a chain-reaction of city-state goodies is always great. Yeah, Civ 5 flips the culture borders too quickly on capture, Civ 4 does it better with the resistance time and tile culture.

How do you know Valletta can produce longbowmen? Is that shown in-game anywhere? I've seen UUs from militaristic city-states but have never known the rules for it.

What happens with faith when the religions are exhausted? Does it still accumulate towards Great Prophets, and is there anything to do with them?

[NobleHelium]

I'm guessing Valletta owns several longbows. I don't know the Civ5 unit icons though.

[Ichabod]

Nice going and reporting. Launching a chain-reaction of city-state goodies is always great. Yeah, Civ 5 flips the culture borders too quickly on capture, Civ 4 does it better with the resistance time and tile culture.

How do you know Valletta can produce longbowmen? Is that shown in-game anywhere? I've seen UUs from militaristic city-states but have never known the rules for it.

What happens with faith when the religions are exhausted? Does it still accumulate towards Great Prophets, and is there anything to do with them?

Definetely agree about culture tiles. It shouldn't work like that. If you capture an old city, that got a lot of tiles, there's a chance you'll get culture very close to other cities, since, as far as I know, all tiles that were acquired by a city revolt to its new owner (just look at that salt tile near Markarth that converted to me after I captured Whiterun).

Regarding Valletta, I hovered the cursor over some info on the CS screen and it said that Valletta knows the secret of the Longbowmen, so they can gift me that unit if I research Machinery (I was looking for info about how many units I should expect from the city and how long it'd take for me to get one). I think it was on the line where it's said that the city is a Militaristic one. I'll check when I get the save.

I'm not sure about faith... I guess (or even better, I hope) I'll be able to buy GPs with it once I reach the appropriate SPs. Hopefully I won't get a prophet, since I don't think there's much to do with it. Anyway, I only get faith from CSs, so it's not like I'm losing too much.

And I have a question, T-Hawk. Do you know what happens if I capture Azza's Capital, which is the Holy City of a religion? Do I become the owner of the religion and get its benefits? Do I risk losing my Pantheon? I really don't understand much abot religions...

There's another strange behaviour that I'll take a look next turn. It seems to me that, after I captured Azza's city, I suddenly popped into the lead of that "Culture race for CS influence" quest. I may be making a mistake, but I think I was far from the lead and after I checked again, I was on the lead. That's strange...

[Ichabod]

I'm guessing Valletta owns several longbows. I don't know the Civ5 unit icons though.

Those archer units in Valletta are Composite Bows, the unit between archers and crossbows (that get replaced by LBs for England).

[T-hawk]

And I have a question, T-Hawk. Do you know what happens if I capture Azza's Capital, which is the Holy City of a religion? Do I become the owner of the religion and get its benefits? Do I risk losing my Pantheon? I really don't understand much abot religions...

You will not get the Founder benefit of the captured religion; Azza will always keep that. Cities you own with the religion will get its Pantheon, Follower, and Enhancer benefits. (That's always true even without any ownership change of the holy city.)

The captured religion doesn't do anything special against your Pantheon, but could eventually displace it just by way of normal pressure. But that's probably good; the sum of the other religion's pantheon, follower, and enhancer beliefs probably is better than just your pantheon alone.

[MJW (ya that one)]

Lol, you made a mistake by annexing right away. The city cannot do anything for 3 turns. During that time you will get a social policy. So you basically wasted some culture for now reason.

[Ichabod]

Lol, you made a mistake by annexing right away. The city cannot do anything for 3 turns. During that time you will get a social policy. So you basically wasted some culture for now reason.

That's true. But here's a thing: I can't save SPs for later, right? I have to spend them on the same turn I get them? (I'm not sure, but I think it works like that). I'm thinking of trying to delay my next SP through captured cities to have time to research a Renaissance tech and go straight into Rationalism.

Of course, this only occured to me after I realized I've made that mistake.