[SPOILERS] Laconic plakonic

[plako]

Bacchus is quite a character. No respect to any of his neighbors. Now he has declared war on Scooter and procedding towards me with triremes. This war declararion also means that everyone is at war at the moment.

[plako]

As you probably noticed from event log above Mackoti lost a city to Old Harry. Based on civstats he also lost another that I didn't have visibility to. Those were probably former suttree cities that he got from peace deal. Old Harry has asked for 200-300 gold in couple of occasions probably to support his war effort. If it would be sure Old Harry would stay commited to war because of me paying I would do it. However in AI diplo games there are no guarantees. He could sign a peace treaty immediately after the gift so I've declined and will keep declining.

dtay offered totally silly deal of me trading my only insence for 3 gpt. These really are the trades one shouldn't bother even trying. They feel like an insult.

Mackoti has now both Astro and Chemistry. I'll finish Economics at the end of this turn and convert to Bureaucracy-Caste-Free Market, but then it is desicion time. I probably don't need to be too worried about naval invasion because of the pressure Mackoti is getting from Old Harry, but I don't like the idea of relying on them fighting it out so I had to research Gunpowder (to counter Janissaries) - Compass - Optics - Astro next instead of going towards Nationalism. I was kind of hoping I could have adopted Nationhood at the end of this GA, but I feel I need to secure the seas ASAP.

I also considered to offer Dhal a peace for his city leaving him just 1 city, but I think I prefer fighting this out. It is also likely Dhal don't want to be playing this as OCC for longer period of time. I should gain my 3rd Great General and also some very highly promoted Knights in the process without significant losses. Also his city would also have massive whip unhappiness that would carry over to me, if the city is gifted.

[flugauto]

Where is your 1st courthouse?

[plako]

Where is your 1st courthouse?

Someone is really paying attention to the screenshots .

It is the city of Turkling NW from to the capital (pretty close to it). Not the most urgent spot, but I had some extra hammers that I didn't need for war preparations so I built it.

[plako]

Dhal has emptied the closest city probably planning on to do final stand in his capital.

Barb city. Might be a place to try toget some extra promos. Not an urgent place to capture. Might even make sense to improve Horses for the barbs so that they can build troops faster.

Improving my defenses in the east. Quiet at the moment, but I need to be prepared for Mackoti trying something. My saviors are the skirmish between him and Old Harry and the fact that, if he forces me to desparate situation he would lose more than keeping me as a real winner candidate.

[Qgqqqqq]

Might even make sense to improve Horses for the barbs so that they can build troops faster.

You can't build improvements in enemy territory. Unless you let them capture the workers or something.

[plako]

I might had to just pillage. The city is on hill so attacking is not that cost effective. Would be nice to get rid Dhal though.

[plako]

Considering this. It probably is better to retreat until I've about 10-15 units more before trying to attack. I would really like to get Sugar resource early, but I should spare my power as much as possible. Main problem is that I don't even have enough units to kill all defenders at one go. Without simming I think I would end up losing 10-15 units.

Other problem is opportunistic Bacchus. I'd like to see REdstone coming out of revolt to make it more secure. It makes also fine border city towards north in case I don't end up getting Mar Sara any time soon or if I need to raze it.

[plako]

I decided to retreat for now. I think I've enough to take it, but I've no reason to waste needlessly resources so I can afford to wait.

[Speaker]

Yeah that's rather a lot of longbows. No sense in losing units needlessly. I doubt he'll stick around for too long just pressing enter, so if you retreat, he'll probably get bored and send those units at you, or something.