Zara, The Newly Minted System Lord(TBS)

[SevenSpirits]

Beakers and gold are calculated first.

Then, city by city: food, culture, production, gpp. Finally, if the city has enough food it grows.

HG pop will be assigned immediately unless the city is unhappy. So they will help produce gpp in the HG city and all four of those in subsequent cities. They will also cost food (in post-HG cities) and contribute unhappiness and unhealthiness.

[The Black Sword]

Thanks Seven, looks like I would have been working some pretty bad tiles without that.

[The Black Sword]

Ok, so I promised information about retaking Cronus on T79. I'll get to that in a minute because Azza rudely tried to take the initiative:





He's been offering these ridiculous peace offers for a while now. Anyway, that stack may look scary but Anubis is a whole other kettle of fish to Cronus. Extra 20% culture defense, 5 skirms, most of which have built up substantial fortify bonuses. In the 10 sims I ran, the city never fell with just those 5 defenders. I was tempted to leave the garrison alone to tempt him into attack but I whipped in the emergency spear to help deal with the stack if they went for a different target. My main worry was him going for Osiris but I got enough units around the place that it should be safe. All my units are congregating around Ra so that should be trivial to defend.

Wish I had put 3h into a sword btw, so I could emergency 2-pop instead of emergency 1 pop whip.

Anyway, I opened the next save to this:



Hmm, that's a nice big stack of HA, in range of 2 spears and 5 HAs. It's in my territory, where I get double GG points and I haven't unlocked the HE yet. I can cover with another spear + skirms from Anubis. Might as well get something useful from this stupid war!



In the HA vs HA fights, the attacker has the advantage btw, due to the withdrawal chance. It was a bit annoying to lose the second spear fight, but obviously it's better to lose the extra spear than the extra HA. After I got he general, I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue. I offered him a straight peace treaty at that point, despite the fact I'd still like to retake Cronus. Given his stance so far though, I doubted he'd agree to that just after I got a GG and he didn't, so I felt I should continue to attack with the HAs rather than defend next turn.

Unfortunately, the GG was born in Yu, on the opposite side of the empire. I was sort of hoping he'd spawn close by in Ra or Anubis and I could shift the other odds in my favour. At least he didn't spawn on an island though!



Azza's counter-attack hurt and he re-offered Anubis for peace.

Those chariot vs skirm victories were particularly annoying. Due to the skirmisher firstrikes, those combats were 40/60 against him, though I'm not sure if that takes into account the chariot's withdrawal chance. Still, at least my cheap units shielded the expensive experienced HA from harm which was the their main role.

He made a big tactical mistake by retreating to that hill though, as opposed to the forest SE. I suppose he didn't know I had no units over there to counter attack, but maybe that would have been a better use of one of his chariots to check it out. It stands to reason that I brought as much units as possible to this engagement and I'm unlikely to match the 3 potential attackers I have over here. That's 2 more HA's on the tile to the SW but again I have a spear to cover so that will be a bad trade for him.

I promoted my 3 HA's and attacked:



First attack was 65% combined win/withdrawal, next 2 90+%, happy with that result. I pulled 2 more skirms from Anubis to be sure my injured HA's won't be defending if he promotes and attacks. I overflowed a spear so it has 2 powerful defenders and should be safe.

At this stage, I'm not too worried about his counter-attack and I want to retake Cronus so I didn't offer any peace treaty.



I timed 3 cats to arrive on that hill T78. Turns out that maybe wasn't a great idea. I could afford to whip Ra's forge and then it's catapult and still make the hill on time so that's what I went with. If I'd whipped the catapult earlier though, that might have made quite a difference in the previous fights. Anyway, that's 3 cats, 2 axes and a skirm and I was going to add the rest of my army to that. I'll have to see what shape they're in and decide what to use my GG for. I'd like a free upgrade for a warrior -> axe to add another good attacker, but a healer would also be very good to get my army back in shape in time and a 1 move healer isn't ideal. Sprinkle promote could also be useful, we'll see.

I feel quite confident though, since he's only got 2 spears in the city and I've hopefully trashed his main army. His own GG could be annoying though.

[The Black Sword]

So, that's the war, it's going well, but what about the game? The real competition is dtay, not Azza. Well, actually the
game is going pretty well too, but I feel if I'm neck and neck with dtay at the minute, how well could I be doing if I didn't
have to whip all these annoying troops and trash my happy caps?



I think I'm slightly ahead in real GNP. Dtay's been saving gold before his Music run and I think he was making something like 75gpt.
I was around that level too at 0%, though it's now gone up to 100gpt after I landed the Hanging Gardens. I sort of assume
that I have more Libs up, being the Cre civ, but it is possible he's got more commerce concentrated in fewer cities and
his science multiplier is just as good. I suppose I also have the Mints effecting my gold multiplier too. In any case
I didn't expect his GNP to be this high with research turned on, I'm only 218 at full burn and have a lot more culture.

Production is where I have a real advantage over dtay, I'm pretty sure he isn't that number 2 figure there. I guess, being
Fin he isn't working any mines, just cottages, though to be fair I'm not working many myself. Nirrti is the only place really
where I had the early Mint and is pumping military. I'm also working the plains hill copper in Osiris and am reconfiguring
Apophis to hammers to get the Pyramids finished. Additionally, I now have quite a few Mints around the place which must have an effect. This is also a stealth hammer bonus because it improves my whips but doesn't show up on the demos.

In crop yield unfortunately, I seem to be constantly trailing him. I briefly overtook him with the Hanging Gardens before I
whipped a lot of that away. In terms of real food surpluses though, I expect I'm ahead or a lot closer. Dtay also seems to have
a consistent pop advantage on me and each pop adds 2 food to the demos that aren't doing anything. Of course, having more
pop is definitely a positive for him but I like the fact that my output is as good/higher on less pop.

Unfortunately, that population disadvantage is directly related to me being forced to get so many units for the war with Azza.
I'm a little bit annoyed that he appears to be throwing his game away at me over this. It was more his mistake than my malice
that led to the city raze IMO. I originally wanted peaceful relations before he left everything open. And he was certainly not down and out at that stage, though obviously he wasn't in great shape either. The most annoying thing though, is that his other border is with dtay and it looks to me like there's still land down there to be settled. I was actually thinking of giving him straight peace, and then hopefully he'd have no one else to use his HA stack on but dtay, but the turn I was going to offer he left his units open for me to get my GG. He probably wouldn't have accepted anyway.

My game plan hasn't changed much, the Pyramids eta is T80 and I hope to get Civil Service on the same turn to double revolt turn 81. Delaying the Pyramids was quite a risk but it remains the case that no-one else has stone so it looks like it's going to pay off. I'd like to detour to Literature and either Calendar of Monarchy after that, but it depends on how hard dtay goes for Nationalism. Lit has moved up a bit since I can build the HE as well and thanks to the wonder builds, Apophis should pop 4th ring borders relatively soon and pick up spices for a second calendar resource, which would be nice. I'm trying to grow my cities a bit more right now too, but all the cheap infra is very tempting.

Does anyone want city screens or anything else to complete the slightly off-date 1 AD update?

[SevenSpirits]

City screens would be great!

[The Black Sword]

Future NE city.


I'll probably 8->4 whip a forge here.


I'm thinking this could be my Globe Theatre draft camp, not 100% sure yet though.


I wanted to overflow either a Colosseum or enough of a forge to whip but I needed the Spear due to the last engagement. This is supposed to be my mega science city but it will be ages before it recovers.


The future Taj Mahal in forest form.


Will work a scientist to speed up the GM by 2t but I'm afraid to work one for longer and contaminate the pool further.




Really could use that third mine for 16 -> 20hpt with the Mint.


This is why that hasn't happened yet. HG and Pyramids have been very worker intensive. I'm mining then re-pasturing that pig to complete it T80.






Delaying growth for the gran bonus.

[The Black Sword]

Azza attacked with the 2 healthy HAs, trading them both for a spear. His injured guys retreated to Cronus. Next turn that won't be such a safe place!

I managed to get one of my HAs to 7xp killing those last two of Azza's. So I made him the GG healer with 10xp and gave another axe 10xp, still debating Woody 3 vs CR3.



Azza decided to open another front:



My thinking: He knows he has the Colossus, so he knows I have triremes, is he crazy? On second thought, he probably has his GG on this boat though, which might manage some trouble. In particular, I should have set up Heruur to whip a land unit instead of the Trireme. I might have to dry whip a skirmisher there instead next turn.



I should be able to run 100% research the next 2 turns to finish CS on the same turn I whip the Pyramids to completion. I think I'm also going to risk another scientist in Baal to get the GM out on the same turn and be moving during the anarchy turn. Otherwise, I'm not fully sure I can blow through the entire gold reserves by the time I hit Nationalism.

Btw, Anubis is only spending this turn unhappy, then it can grow to 6 and 3-whip the forge.

I don't see any tech visible for dtay, so he must have 1 turned something, my guess is Monotheism. He's also 2 cities up on me now. I have 1 settler moving and hopefully will retake Cronus to rectify that. I wanted to whip Osiris for another settler to be moving during the revolt turn too but that doesn't look to be possible now. I've been searching for where I could whip it instead but everywhere seems to have other priorities. The only option would be to nix one of the forges for him, which might be an idea.

I'm thinking I should also failgold The Great Wall, finishing in Heruur, my National Epic city when i get a chance, but with the GM trade mission coming in I don't really need an extra source of gold for a while.

[The Black Sword]

2 cats and a skirm seem about average losses. I went for CR3 with the axe to move the odds from ~70% to 99%. I figure he should be useful for future amphibious attacks too. After that I lost the skirm in the 50/50 fight and then I had odds on the rest of them.

I was surprised when the borders popped immediately after I ended turn. I thought I'd only get that if I had captured the city before it ended revolting. That's a nice little bonus.



Meanwhile, Azza let me off the hook in the West, he didn't move his galleys up:



So I could whip out the triremes without worry. I'm not sure why he'd just leave them there, they're vulneruble to my ships staging 1W of that T85 sign.

I did offer Azza peace after taking Cronus, but I had to whip the triremes anyway, I doubt he'll accept. If he does, I might look to cause some trouble at my border with dtay. It looks like I have the military upper hand at the minute, so I don't need the peace, but I'd like 10t without worry to really focus on this Taj Mahal race. Coming back with drafted maces would be just fine. It is nice to see Azza settling a new city and putting some resources not directly focused on me.

Here's one of my favourite cities right now:



Grows every single turn. It'll whip in a Library and then complete the Moai with the overflow+chop. Then it's onward to size 14 and 3c internal trade routes. I'm not sure I want to delay that for the courthouse, if not it will definitely get one soon after. (Library will be better than courthouse due to growth and running 100% science from the GM).

Demos before ending turn:


Looks like dtay 1 turned another one of the religious techs. He's definitely number two in production now btw, he had a huge spike upwards, I wonder what it's related too. Maybe he set up a unit pump? Dhalphir also had quite a spike in crop yield, relating to settling a number of cities as well. He's definitely number 3 but the gap between us is still pretty big.

[The Black Sword]

Sheesh, I thought they were determined to keep my civ ruled by Barbarian Despots forever.



Made possible of course by:



The following turn I was ready to settle Bastet, and look, Azza's galleys are still inexplicably sitting within my sight.





I forgot to rename the triremes. Clearly affected their spirit. Bastet was my 14th city, putting me on par with dtay again. His demos really appear to have dropped off though.



That's him saving gold, but not at 0% and I'm on breakeven research on a tech with no arrow pre-req(T82 Mysticism btw, go Creative!). And of course I can hit the gas on my research at any time via Representation scientists. At the end of the turn, via growth and the new settle I had even managed to catch up on the food number. I'm not sure why the sudden downturn for dtay. I now suspect the high GNP while teching Music included a lot of gold building, + these latest cities are probably very expensive in maintenance for him. Still doesn't explain everything though. Anyway, despite my confidence, I'm pretty sure I'm going to pick up Philosophy before any possible detours to Calendar or Literature. Still have to be careful of his golden age and a GS was born in a distant land recently, very possibly China.

I got my great merchant on T80 btw, he's now on the way to Dhalphir's islands, I suspect Dhalphir has a city working that crab just to the East.



I really feel like I should be taking advantage of my naval bonuses to hit dtay's expansion here. Unfortunately, I don't really want to open up another war while still engaging with Azza. Maybe I should aim to have some maces on galleys to strike here as soon as I get access to them though.

Speaking of Azza:



He's still whipping his cities into nothing. I have good defences in place, but I'm a bit worried about a stack sitting on the forest 1 W of Cronus. It should be able to whip in walls at least if I'm in trouble.

Some random cities:

Moai is completed next turn in Hathor and I wasn't too sure what I wanted to build here. A 2.25 modifier seemed nice.



Amaunet is ready to grow. Up to now I've been cottaging all my riverside tiles, but I think I'll probably farm the remaining ones, except for Anubis.

[The Black Sword]

Things are definitely looking up:



Demos before I pressed enter on T84. Dtay is definitely on 100% research right now, my GNP would be 350 on 100%. Looking at the graphs, I'm pretty sure that recent GS was Dhalphir, though he really did not do a lot of gold saving beforehand. Dtay is probably still waiting on his first manual GS from TGL. I'm guessing that'll go for an Academy in his capital, but it can't be too far away and he's blowing through his gold towards Civil Service instead of saving. A bulb could certainly be on the table.



Looks like I'll get to do the Trade Mission next turn. So I'll easily complete Philosophy on 100% research, the same turn dtay takes CS, which is a nice advantage. I'll have to try calculate the tech rates after that, I assume he'll throw his GA as soon as he hits CS.

That seems a rather tight border dtay and Dhalphir have btw, compared to our one:



Hopefully that's one neighbour I've succeeded in getting on my side.

There are some minor developments with the Azza situation:



I pushed forward with my Trireme last turn, thinking to finish the pillaging job I had started before. To my surprise though, I ran into 2 more Azza galleys. I really did not expect him to invest so heavily vs an opponent with MC and circumnav. Anyway, this turn they're covering his last nets NE of GeeLong so I retreated to heal up.



Positioned some units to keep him honest about that cities defenses. I completed 2 catapults this turn to take me back to 3. I'm still pushing HAs from Nirrti and a lot of places are putting out skirms with spare hammers. If he does sit on the forest tile, I plan to just whip the walls and sit more defenders on the tile that he can kill. If he attacks then I'll counter. With super efficient skirm defenders, that seems like it should work.

Here's the worst Bureau capital you've ever seen:


Got another forest growth though. We're definitely run by the green party.

Moai Goodness:



Overview:


The signed whips are in part due to some shenanigans to give this city the Rep bonus:



It turned out to be easy enough to get Anubis in there because it's so early in the city order. Working the Rep scientists as I wait for the cottages to be put in. I could certainly use more workers but with Colossus coast and Rep specialists, I feel I should be able to get by with the 12 I have.