[SPOILERS] Scooticator and Pindooter give a sporting try

[pindicator]

Prediction: 3 cities captured, 1 razed, zerkers and knights in range of Alcair Dal

Edit: casualty of only one knight

[Ceiliazul]

prediction: Pin will check civstats and edit his prediction.

[pindicator]

Ha, didn't think to check the obvious place

[scooter]

Turn 144

This is a big one, so buckle up. I actually deleted quite a few screenshots and whittled it down to a nice, lean 22, and I'm not covering anything domestic . I'm going to gloss over some of the micro tactical decisions, because if I went into every single decision, this will take me hours to write up. Also, sorry for the delay. Couldn't finish before a meeting, so that pushed it back a bit. Hopefully it's worth the wait. So... I'm going to dive right into the action. Anyway, I went for the capital first.


The Battle of Rhuidean

We're up against 2 whole archers and a warrior. Anyway, I decided not to mess with the odds and try to make these as much of a sure thing as possible, figuring we want to preserve Knights as much as possible. So let's do this thang.



C2 Knight vs cg1 Archer (91%) - WIN (2.0h)
C2 Knight vs cg1 Archer (91%) - WIN (5.1h)

Yep.



Figured I'd use a guy who can promoheal for the gimme.

3xp unpromoted Knight vs Warrior (99%) - WIN and capture (4.8h)



Moneyyyyy. Also, that worker is there free for the taking, but more on him later. Let's see what kind of cash and prizes we've gotten here.





ACADEMY. Our first forge . Granary + Market. CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY. Seriously, this is fantastic. The city also comes with TWO towns and a couple villages that are close. Darius is pleased. So ok, flawless city capture #3 is completed. Let's do Colrada next, eh?


The Battle of Colrada

I went with another C2 Knight first to make absolutely sure.

C2 Knight vs cg2 Archer (96%) - WIN (7.0h)

Fantastic. Cleanup on the catapult next. I took one of our wounded C1 Knights that had a promotion available, gave it to him, then attacked:



C2 8.4h Knight vs Catapult (98%) - WIN and capture (7.1h)



MOAR MONEY.



Ok just a granary this time, but that's our 4th flawless capture.


The Battle of Mayene



Once again I went with the better promoted unit just because I'd rather get a win than anything.

CR1 Zerk vs axe (98.8%) - WIN and capture (granary)





Another granary. Works for me.

---

A couple things happened next that I deleted pictures of because the number of screenshots was getting unwieldy:

1) There was a bare worker on the jungle hill 1SE of Mayene. I moved a Knight onto the grass hill 2S of Alcair to get visibility. It's safe, so I moved a galley into Mayene, then moved a Zerk SE onto the grass hill jungle to capture the worker.

2) Axe into 49ers, so I grabbed one of the two Zerks, chained it forward a little bit (onto one of the good galleys).

So there's a roaded hill south of Colrada that our Knights could reach and then leave, so I decided to take a quick look to see what was nearby in the fog and... helloooooo.




The Battle of the Lost Praetorians

Yep, this is happening. Let's kill some stuff. Best part here is these Praets have promos available, but we can knock them dead now. Shock Knight first.



Shock Knight vs Praet (99%) - WIN (flawless)

Next, I hit with a 5xp C1 Knight. I was hapy with 95%, so I saved the C2 promotion for healing.

C1 Knight vs Praet (95%) - WIN (5.2, promo available immediately)

Thanks to the workers we captured last turn, we can build a road and get a couple more Knights in on the action.



I promoted the Knight to C1 before actually attacking. Buuuut, didn't matter.



C1 Knight vs Praet (95%) - lose?!?! (1.8h)

Well I guess that was inevitable. One more Knight could reach.

Shock 8.5h Knight vs Praet (96%) - WIN (5.7h)

The damage:





And here's the setup for Alcair:



Now, there should be a Praet on that banana at the very least, so we may not have enough to take it next turn with only 3 Knights. I figured wiping out that Praet/Cat stack on open ground was the higher priority. The galleys weren't close enough to land Zerks next to Alcair this turn anyway. Here's how all this looks after the turn:



Hide yo kids. So a couple comments here:

1) Sorry pindicator, but I chose killing an extra Praet over capturing that bare worker he'll probably delete. Hopefully you don't mind that decision.

2) I decided to hold off on Smoke Spicket until we have a catapult. I queued one up in Orioles. That will take 2T, then a turn to move into place, then should be ready to go. I figure some of our Knights will want to pause and heal while the rest push forward, so we can use those once the cat is ready. I just figure spending a cat probably is enough to save 1 Knight in terms of odds, so that's a worthwhile trade.

3) I moved the Spear into RedSpringHold (should be renamed to Flames since it's red). The chariot from Smoke Sprint was the only unit that can reach that city next turn, so the Spear makes it safe. I also moved the axe forward. Figured we can use that for a MP in one of the southern cities.

Next, let's talk about what Nakor cities we want to take:



Here's my feelings:

Chaendar: raze. Lewwyn probably views that as "his" - and we got the dye we want. Would rather not encroach on them.

Cold Rocks Hold: capture. Pretty great city with some valuable resources.

"Nakor City": capture.

ChainRidgeStand: raze I think. I don't really want to fight a border war with a foodless city in Azza's face. Write off this ivory.

ImreStand: So I'm thinking capture here. I think we can hold this. It's far enough away from Azza's nearest city that we should be able to hold borders just fine.

Any thoughts on that? Finally, three stray things:



I kept this Knight here. He'll probably move this Praet onto flat ground next turn, then we'll kill it with this Knight out of the fog.



Getting close. Should get it within a couple turns. And finallyyyy:

[NobleHelium]

Move that last knight into the city... saves movement next turn.

[pindicator]

Excellent job, scooter!  Your war turn write-ups are the best

First off, that was some exceptional luck with buildings.  Every captured city has a granary?  Wonderful!  It looks like Nakor-land is going to be a strong commerce center for our empire once we get those cities out of revolt.  I feel a lot better about farming over those cottages at Red Wings now.

Agree with your choice to hit the praetorians.  Looks like Nakor suspected Azza to be a bigger threat than us, so had most of his units down south.  And the workers may not be deleted; he hasn't done anything like that so far.

Smoke Spigot is probably going to take cultural control of that plains tile soon.  It was really close to 50/50 when I saw it last.  So hopefully it holds off just a little longer.  I would prefer building a catapult out of another city since Orioles has our only Stables, but I think speed takes precidence here.

Agree with your capture/raze recommendations, although ImreStand may end up being a raze.  Let's see what Azza does.

Definitely need to go Aesthetics -> Literature after Engineering, as we'll have the GG by then and will be able to start Heroic Epic in Orioles.  Do we want HE in Orioles or in a city that can build navy?  Also, how do we want to use the GG?  Upgrade an axe to a super-zerk?  Medic?

And why is Adrian Petersen drunk?

[scooter]

Yeah, Noble is probably right on moving that Knight into Tigers.

Excellent job, scooter!  Your war turn write-ups are the best

Thanks . They're fun to write up when things are going this ridiculously well.

First off, that was some exceptional luck with buildings.  Every captured city has a granary?  Wonderful!  It looks like Nakor-land is going to be a strong commerce center for our empire once we get those cities out of revolt.  I feel a lot better about farming over those cottages at Red Wings now.

Agree with your choice to hit the praetorians.  Looks like Nakor suspected Azza to be a bigger threat than us, so had most of his units down south.  And the workers may not be deleted; he hasn't done anything like that so far.

Smoke Spigot is probably going to take cultural control of that plains tile soon.  It was really close to 50/50 when I saw it last.  So hopefully it holds off just a little longer.  I would prefer building a catapult out of another city since Orioles has our only Stables, but I think speed takes precidence here.

Agree with your capture/raze recommendations, although ImreStand may end up being a raze.  Let's see what Azza does.

Sounds like we're in agreement on all this. I do think catapult out of Orioles is the best call, even though it's not super ideal just because of how quickly it can get it out.

Definitely need to go Aesthetics -> Literature after Engineering, as we'll have the GG by then and will be able to start Heroic Epic in Orioles.  Do we want HE in Orioles or in a city that can build navy?  Also, how do we want to use the GG?  Upgrade an axe to a super-zerk?  Medic?

Yeah, I think so, and HE in Orioles works just fine with me. When this war is wrapping up, we can convert that to be our sole full-time military pump.

I was thinking medic, but honestly we may be able to finish this war without one. So that makes me lean more towards upgrading an axe to a super Zerk. Give it morale, send it with the Knights, etc. Sounds nice to me.

And why is Adrian Petersen drunk?

I thought I could use that galley to chain that Zerk forward one more tile - thinking it was 3 tiles away (so move back 3, swap Zerk, move forward d1). Turns out I was not 3 tiles away, so all AP succeeded in doing was moving to a random tile. Although, in the end it's probably not a problem since it's not like we needed that galley moving forward just yet anyway.

Pindicator: can you finish the turn and end it? All that's left is about half the workers and checking city tile assignments. I won't be back until late, so I don't want to hold up the turn. I'm actually not even sure I'd make it back before it rolls.


EDIT: Ok I think maybe I glossed over the Heroic Epic question a little too much. More like: I think Orioles is probably best because it's a great production site and will be able to 2T advanced units and whatnot. Our best coastal option would... probably be Moai? But even that's quite a few less hammers than Orioles. I'm open to being convinced, though.

[NobleHelium]

It's better to have a coastal site for the HE for pumping ships, but I don't think building it at the Moai city is the best way to go - so if there are no other coastal strong production sites then I'd build it inland.

[pindicator]

Finished the turn. Not much to comment on that hasn't already been said, except we need to get some workers up to Pirates.

Also, Damian Lillard!!!

[NobleHelium]

Uh...why was the clock still running after the ball went in?