[SPOILERS] The Chemistry of Victory - Mardoc plays Mehmed of Sumer

[Mardoc]

TheStick closed borders, but no one else has. Yet, anyway. So the GLH is a great profit instead of a small one. Still means my overseas expedition needs to be a priority so I'm not vulnerable to this sort of thing, though. I've got a settler on a boat, which will add a vulture and head off immediately. 2 more galleys in production, which will probably take another garrison unit, another settler, and 2 workers.

Meanwhile my scouting galley has found a Panama type of place. Heading south in hopes of a canal. I'll probably send the galley who's bringing the settler north afterward, just in case that turns out to be faster - but I do need to have some of them start a shuttle service.

[Mardoc]

The pace is weird right now. Went a day and a half for the previous turn, and then only a half day for the one played this morning.

I've got 3-4 excess happy everywhere, now that I've gotten my Calendar resources all hooked and revolted into Hereditary Rule/Organized Religion. So I'm mostly just growing all cities, which slows production for the moment as the whip gathers dust. It'll be worth it, lots of mines and cottage to use, but it is a temporary slowdown. Found an interesting quirk. Last turn I selected Archery as my research, then hit the revolt button. I still finished the tech! I guess that must be how overflow is handled. I'm now researching Feudalism, due in 4 - at which point I'll be comfortable starting to extend my borders again and pushing into the center of the mainland.

Jowy fired a Golden Age, and TheStick turned research back on, making my situation look less powerful. I'll have research visibility on Jowy in ~3 turns, at which point I may know whether Knights will work or not. Maybe I should go ahead and research Alphabet just to be sure where people are in the tree? It'd probably just be depressing, though.

Got my first settler en route to the New World, enough to make me feel galleys are slooow. Another one will join the fleet in a couple turns, unless I decide to ship workers first.

Meanwhile my exploring galley is heading southeasterly. This is a big big new world, I almost think I ought to aim to settle the Panama equivalent in order to get circumnavigation. Still have a lot of turns before that's relevant, though, maybe I'll find the southern edge of the continent first. It's a debate - getting another overseas city will be worth a lot of cash right away, I don't really want to delay that to settle Panama instead of the first available spot. But circumnavigation would help all game long. I'm almost tempted to put my whole effort into settling the new world instead of the center of the mainland, but I don't think that's feasible with 2-move ships. It might maybe be worth delaying vengeance on Jowy over, though. Gotta be easier to settle empty land than to fight for occupied land.

Other news? Not much, really.

[Mardoc]

Bob closed borders with me this turn, making the New World even more urgent. Although...I did offer him 5 gpt for reopening, which I figure is about half of the value I'd get. We'll see if he bites.

Other than that, just kept growing and teching. Got a free spread of Judaism to a city where I'd just whipped a library for culture Not going to object, but the timing was a bit annoying.

[Mardoc]

Bob counteroffered 10gpt. Uh, no. Bob, you've only got 12 cities, that's 12 trade routes boosted, or 12 gpt. Maybe 13 if one of those cities is particularly big or far away. I'm not going to give you all the benefit of opening borders and none for me!

I dunno if it'll work, but I tried to express that in a counteroffer. All Bob's cities + 12 gold, in exchange for Open Borders and 6 gpt. Hopefully he figures out what I mean, otherwise...well, I've two settlers headed west at the moment and my trade routes with Jowy are recovering. Won't need Bob to open borders soon.

Meanwhile, Jowy's justification for holding the save makes me want to beat his head in. Guilt for heading straight to Guilds = 0!

Got tech info on Jowy this turn, he's currently working on Code of Laws. So he's not quite as backward as I hoped, but he's not heading toward anything super scary at the moment either. Meanwhile TheStick built the MoM, revolted to Caste/Bureau, and in general continued running away. But I'm still having fun, so it's ok.

Also got four city growths, two Zigs completed, progress on Feudalism and another free spread of Judaism - this time to a city that had no other culture. Only three cities lack my religion at the moment; I'm building missionaries even though I might get the spreads for free. I want that OrgRel bonus ASAP, and I'm going to need to send some missionaries to the New World anyway, it's too far away to count on free spreads.

Maybe pictures tomorrow. We'll see how things are going and if Daylight Savings wrecked my sleep schedule or if I have energy.

[Mardoc]

Not a lot this turn. Other than Jowy holding the turn well past his timeslot and mine, probably costing us a day on the turn pace. So another report with no pictures for the lurkers.

Growing cities is boring, even if it's good for the demos - hardly anything completes. It does mean that I'm working a lot of cottages now, and the capital is about to start poaching those from Ethane and Ethylene. Maybe I should delay Guilds and go for Civil Service instead? Methane's strong, and it's got a lot of potential on top, getting into Bureau would be useful. I don't know that I want to spend yet another turn of anarchy, though; maybe hold off until I get a Golden Age lined up. Probably the next big event will be the birth of my Great Scientist (5 more turns); I've got another city working on one for probably a GA later. Probably should start investing in a Great Prophet somewhere, too.

Well, probably wait and see what Jowy does. I've definitely got his tech path visible now, and soon should have city visibility too. Knights still make sense if he has only ancient units to oppose them.

I do think I need to settle (and/or 'acquire') more cities soon, GLH should make them pay quite rapidly, and my workers are starting to run out of tasks. It's just hard, when I've got all this happiness left to consume.

Bob either misunderstood my message or chose to ignore it. Oh well,
settlers keep rowing west; next turn I'll add a pair of workers to the convoy. I'll need to build a couple more galleys and load them, I think, so that I can get a really good critical mass going in the new world. Eventually I'll want to settle it from settlers built over there, but it'll take a while to get the cities up to the point where they can support expansion faster than shipping settlers. Even at 2 tiles/turn.

My exploring galley found something sorta Brazilish, he's now headed S instead of SE. Maybe he'll be able to go westish again one of these turns. Definitely increases the value of establishing a city in Panama.

[Mardoc]

Had a couple more turns, nothing especially enlightening. Been busy with moving, though, so I haven't found time to report.

Feudalism and Horseback Riding are both in. Machinery and Guilds next. Jowy's been keeping a WC moving around in my lands, so I'm going to have to build my army all in a rush. But that's the right thing to do anyway, in general.

He's researching Civil Service, due in eons. Which probably just means he's switching to binary science. Still, every turn on that is a turn of at least GLib beakers not going toward defense techs. I'll start getting city visibility on him in a couple turns, after which I probably want to start dumping EP into Bob and Stick again.

After I unlock Knights - probably I'll head for Civil Service myself, and other econ techs. That'll give me the option of Maces, as well, in case Jowy makes it to Engineering or some such.

I've got a Great Scientist due in...3 turns now? Going to become a capital Academy. Another in progress who will probably become my first Golden Age.

I've nearly caught up to my happy caps now, and almost all cities have sufficient improved tiles to work. Those that didn't - well, they're becoming my Scientist farms . Which means settlers, are going to be priorities again, not just growth. For a little while, that is - also need Stables and Barracks and pretty soon to whip out a Knight or two per city. Although I'll still need settlers, some of Jowy's cities badly need to be razed and resettled .

I'm pretty solidly #2 in GNP, 3 in food, and that's not been changing or likely to change, unless killing Jowy is more profitable than I expect (or no one else knows or intends to do anything about the New World). TheStick is still going to win this, but I can probably make him work for it. And kill Jowy before it ends .

[Mardoc]

So, pace has actually been pretty good lately. But I've been busy, and there's not a ton of good stuff to report, anyway.

Circumnavigation fell. It went to Sian, of all people! Disappointing not to get that, but at least it wasn't TheStick or Bob. I think maybe if I'd guessed right and sent my galley north instead of south, I could have had it. Ah well.

Bob eventually came back with a counteroffer of 8 gpt. I decided to take it. Turns out I was slightly underestimating the value, as he gave me some 3 commerce TR's - but then he also displaced some of my intercontinental TR's. I counted 18 gpt of trade, but didn't spend the time to subtract those cases where he replaced an already 2 gpt route - probably about 14-15gpt net. So 8 gpt is fair(ish). Assuming he doesn't benefit himself, anyway .

My New World expedition has grown, and continued heading west. Now three settlers, 2 workers, and a Vulture, Spear, and Chariot are going that way. I think I need to pause my investment headed west, and instead focus on Operation: Best Served Cold. Three New World cities ought to be a pretty decent core to grow from, anyway - and it's certainly enough to saturate my trade routes so I can stop bribing Bob.

The first settler lands in about five turns, with each subsequent boat a couple turns behind. Then I'll return the galleys, and hopefully by the time they get home I'll have the leisure to reload them.

I got my Great Scientist, he's heading toward the capital now. Soon I'll have an Academy.

The Jowy-crush plan seems mostly on target. My research was faster than expected, so I won't have time to fit in many barracks or stables. Guilds is due in three turns, so honestly I ought to start putting Horse Archers in queues *now*, so they can auto-upgrade. I might slip in a couple barracks anyway in high production cities, but, well, I'm not sure the XP will be necessary here. I'm getting vision on Jowy's cities, and I should go through like a hot knife. His front city has walls and a whole bunch of axes/WC's, plus 1 spear. Even full-fortified axes behind walls should get crushed by unpromoted Knights, so I expect that to mostly be a training exercise for my knights. And I ought to be able to hit that on the first turn of war, as long as I put a road on my border first.

His other cities seem mostly empty. Notably, I don't see any modern units or cats. And he's researching Civil Service, presumably drawing down his cash reserves and eliminating flexibility

I think the most important thing for me is to be fast. I can kill ancient units at great odds, anything but spears in high defense cities, even before my knights get promos. So I think I'll aim for about 12-15 knights in the first wave, and continue producing more until it's clear he's been broken. Basically two knights per out of vision city, and 1 per in-sight city. I could supplement with cats or maces later if he bogs me down, but I think knights will do better. Even best case for him, unpromoted knights ought to have something like 30% odds on his well fortified spears, and nothing else should have a chance. Once I get a promo or two on my units, not even spears will have odds. But if he makes it to longbows or pikes, or has time to build a critical mass of cats, then I'll be in trouble. So strike fast, and accept casualties in order to deprive him of research power, and everything will be golden.

Which means - I'll be striking within 10 turns. Possibly less. I'll start whipping knights from the Bob-border in 3-4 turns, roll the whips toward Jowy as my stacks advance, close borders the turn before when I need to stage, and charge! And continue whipping out more knights to replace any casualties or any needing healing time - until it becomes clear he can't stop me.

Then the only question will remain: where do I stop? Jowy might manage to scrape together something that halts my progress - although I want to kill him, I can wait for another military jump if I have to. Sian probably can't, so if I kill Jowy I should kill Sian too just for the extra cities, even though he's been my only friend this game. TheStick? Techwise I'm sure he can - but maybe he doesn't prepare. I'll keep an eye out for opportunities; if I can raze half a dozen of his cities it'd be worth trading my remaining army for that.

Although realistically TheStick ought to build an army when he sees me building one. I might even meet him mid-Jowy somewhere.

[Mardoc]

So I guess you guys might want pictures with your words. Not sure I can do many words tonight, but I did take some screenies.

Sooooon. Soon I will have the ICTR to pay for my conquest.


...which is still looking pretty easy


Finishing up the last couple things in queues before all war all the time.





And demos look...so-so. But soon I will trade in that high GNP for more land and pop by way of soldier points, which ought to flip-flop my 1st and 4th place categories. Always presuming no one else gets the same idea.



Now time to go settle a capital on Deer.

Might have time for more reportage on Friday: any requests?

[Mardoc]

Played last night. Nothing really new, though, just proceeding along the plans I previously had. Jowy's moved his scouting WC to a more awkward position for surprise; I'm still debating what to do about that. Close borders with him early and let him suspect but not know? Try to dodge his WC with my stack? Need to stare at the map a bit, I think, and see what Jowy does IBT. If he goes back to his original spot I can get the timing right.

Don't really have a great option - but I'm pretty much committed to the war by virtue of the Guilds beeline and my investments. At least he's still researching Civil Service. I won't manage a lot of surprise here, but he doesn't suspect yet I think.

Next research goal? I'm debating. One possibility is to ride the coattails up to Civil Service, unlock Maces in case I need to do something slow and strong somewhere. Another is to head to Engineering to get myself 3-move roads; I'm going to need them for reinforcements and eventually to defend myself from Bob and TheStick. Or I could spend some time staring at the tree and figuring out what I'm overlooking; that might be useful too . I think I lean against CS, because I'm not going to *use* it soon - can't revolt to Bureau mid-war really, and Maces are the wrong tool for offense. Just want to make sure I grab it before Jowy passes away with his known-civ bonus.

TheStick popped a MoM Golden Age, just in case there was any doubt about likely winner of this game. I've got several Great People cooking, but none due soon. Ideally I'd fire a GA or two right after finishing the war, to catch up on infra and tech.

I've got the Stone city on the spoke ready to found next turn, with a longbow on a hill to defend it. It won't be a great city quickly, but it's a bridge to Jowy's sea in case that helps with tactics, and I think that's better than just saving the settler. I'll probably raze and replace some of Jowy's cities, but I can always whip out settlers after I've got control of the land. Don't count chickens and all that. Besides, stone will be handy for Moai and maybe emergency walls/castles if I miscalculate somewhere. And it's a coastal city so it'll pay for itself, I'm pretty sure. If not now, then as soon as I get my New World cities founded.

Which should start in 2 turns. My chosen spot may be silly in the long run, but it makes a good beachhead and the New World is big enough to make up for a dotmap mistake here or there. That is - I think the value of founding it fast is higher than the value of waiting for good dotmap info. ICTR immediately, and I want my overseas settlement to grow fast. Aim to whip out a couple Knights for scouting and barb city acquisition before settler production and it'll be fine.

Really, the next 15-20 turns seem likely to be the best in the game for me. Wielding Knights should be a lot of fun, and make my situation look pretty good for a while. After that will be the slow decline where TheStick pulls back to victory.

[Mardoc]

Ok, turns out Engineering is already unlocked. I just gotta spend 4, maybe 3 turns researching it. Right before a land war with long distances to travel? Seems obvious to me!

Jowy moved his scouting WC to a place that's actually not bad at all for the moment. We'll see if he's tempted to go scout the new city, or would rather turn around and come look for knights. But one more turn where he seems not to suspect anything.




Why, yes, I did mention a new city. Look!



Kinda sad not to have workers here yet, but they're busy chopping things at the moment. I guess it'll make a good excuse to have them on the Jowy front when the balloon goes up.

Which...is gonna be soon. I'm committed, alright:


Plan to whip most of these next turn, whip a second from most cities in three turns, and then slow up a bit to let them regrow and maybe knock out a couple knights by handbuilding. I think I'll have enough...why?

Well, here's the OpForce:



Yeah...not sure why Jowy thinks a million axes is the right answer to, well, just about anything. But I foresee many high-odds battles for my Knights as they carve through these.

Sadly, that'll probably not happen until midweek. Three turns to make the Knights, another couple-few for them to make it to the front, that's not happening this weekend. Ah well, it gives me something to look forward to.

Edit: Oh, One More Thing! I'm quite aware that my tactical sophistication here is...lacking. This war is MARDOC GOT BIG STICK. HIT JOWY WITH STICK UNTIL HE BREAK OR STICK BREAK. But...I still think it'll work because I'm far enough ahead, and Jowy hasn't built cats. If half those axes were cats, I'd have to be much more careful about this.