novice, don't get your hopes up, and please don't take this post seriously. I'm only writing this because I'm bored on a Saturday night and too ill to do much else.
For the lurkers, here is the basic attack plan against dtay. It involves the usage of two Great Artist Bombs to attack out of thee FoW. It would also require quite a few fast movers, but at present dtay is leaving 2 longbows in Willow lake, so such an attack should work, if we had enough knights. The moment dtay puts a Rifle in Willow Lake, the whole attack is off. And if dtay attacks us in 5 turns anyway, this doesn't work either unless he makes a stupid mistake.
- Stage the minimum number of knights on the WL tile. Stage everything else on the PV/Av tile.
- Artist bomb PE, gain the tiles 888, 887 of PE.
- Attack WL and don't get screwed over by the RNG.
- Artist bomb WL, drops out of revolt, and gain the tiles 888, 887 of WL stopping immediate reinforcement on the next turn, and the tile 11 and 1 of WL.
- Attack PV and then Av with the fast mover stack situated 3 of PE along the roads that are now within our culture.
- Sit tight and don't die when dtay logs in, blows his top and throws everything at us.
- ...
- Profit
So, that's one plan. It consumes our Great Artists, it uses up pretty much our entire fast mover supply, and it gives us a position from which we could theoretically get back to #1 in land area. It would only work if dtay throws all of his forces at Pindicator, and can't revolt into Nationhood to draft pop in former CH land. dtay would have between 8 and 12 cities from which to conitnue to build troops to our west, plus his core which frankly doesn't have anything better to do at present. We'd have to hold our two fronts with newly produced cannon and drafted Muskets, and in all honesty whether we could do that comes down to what dtay does with an attack on Pindicator, given I've already said none of this holds if he attacks us.
Here is an alternative plan, which is probably more fun to do but is fair enough into the future that either we're already dead to dtay if he attacks us now, or already dead to dtay if he attacks Pindicator first and then attacks us.
This picture assumes 5 move Galleons. We can get those if we have Theocracy and Drydocks, and as we are heading towards Steel, have at least a coin toss of SP this turn, and have a plan to spread religion to all cities, I think that is a real possibility. We need 1 fort, and we can attack from the FoW, in JD and hit three separate cities, giving us easy micromanagement on the first turn of war to take three cities. Cannon can't attack off boats, but Frigates can bombard a bit if needed. We should have no real difficulty building a few CR2 maces either, given Police state, they cost 47 base hammers with a forge. Plus drafted muskets to build up numbers, and any potential left over knights, and it's not hard to imagine the possibility of running straight through Ruff.
What I haven't said, is that given 5 move galleons, is that it should be possible to also drop off a faster mover stack in specific cities to then take all of Ruffs inland core cities on the second turn of the war. Unfortunately, without an Artist bomb, I don't see how we could hold these lands from BGN when he came calling for the rest of his continent.
So, there are two different plans on how to play out this game. Short of some act of God, I don't believe we'll have the chance to try out one of them, never mind both. Given that we are about to drop our economy into building and drafting units for the rest of the game, I don't think that it's an impossibility. Just have to get Astro after Steel, use Harbours and Observatories to shore up tech rate, and then finally head to rifles and hope we can follow a few other peoples path. Maybe get PP after Steel. Whatever.
Now, for the more boring bit. Cities, and letting novice ridicule my inattentive MM.
The former capital, will watermill the two plains farms before growth...or maybe just draft away the pop. I suppose that the 4 base hpt working the tiles would give compared to the 80 hammer musket every 10 turns isn't actually that valuable. So maybe just windmill that plains hill instead.
Finish the second GA this turn, then really need to get some units with defensive bonuses sitting here. Most likely will store hammers in various military builds then pop them all out once in Theocracy. Musket>Pike>Knight? Will go back to growing after this turn, we have the happiness to here as well. Ideally would use this city to build Galleons with a dry dock but as dtay is right there and the larger threat, that isn't going to happen. Units and more units, not investing in this city, because if we have to throw it away to protect RC, I will do that without hesitation.
God I hate this city. Grow one more pop. Workshop two plains tiles. Workshop the forest. Watermill the river plains tile. Stop work the spec and drop onto the second plains workshop, don't draft, make 34 base hpt, 51hpt with PS and forge, for 2 turn cannons.
Yay unhappy city for 1 turn.
Draft this sucker into the ground after completing a barracks and spreading Toaism to it. Still has +2 unhappy from whipping, which shall be gone in 22 turns lol. I changed the micro to finish the forge with no overflow, but will use the workshop for 1 turn, and a coast for the rest to get a 2 turn barracks with that forest chop and grow in 5 turns total, eot T166.
Growing this turn, then stealing a farm from FP to grow at 1fpt. Gradually growing to size 20, so that it can continue to 1 turn military builds once we start needing 1 turn cannon and shit And novice, it's important to maximise our major XP centres
back on knights after this to deal with that potential attack on dtay. We will likely have to workshop over the grass village, but the plains town and wine can always be given to FP, and steal back the sugar to feed them.
If giving up the farm to RC, then need to workshop the grassland and watermill the other farm. 33 base hpt, so maybe growing to use that last plains tile as a plains farm isn't that bad...another city capable of 2 turn cannons in that case. But it's better to draft this city into the ground if dtay attacks.
Build up hammer overflow now to ensure constant 1 turn missionaries until all cities are Taoist. Then build a dry dock and spam boats?
Grocer gives back health so +1fpt. I believe that putting a windmill on one of hte hills is the right play then, but getting some more multipliers down a few turns sooner is better IMO. Forge>Uni is likely best due to the slider position being quite low when the uni would complete. 114 base commerce, should increase up to 124 base commerce, but as we are leaving Bureaucracy in 5 turns, well, that bpt will drop by about 100bpt at max. OTOH, costs will drop by 55 gold so there's that.
What did we do to you...I've said it before, that we're going to have to steal the fish from MG and grow KM a bit, but due to the high happy cap, we are more likly to draft this city really hard whilst doing so, at least 3 drafts before stopping. Religion is easy to spread here unless the RNG hates us, but the barracks, well, we're going to have to push that quite hard during the GA, most likely taking all the hammer tiles to get it finished and even starving slightly to do so.
Finish a GS from here in 3 turns without changing tile allocations. No need to stagnate, and then start storing food again working coast in the GA, whilst getting that barracks finished before drafting into the ground again. I hope to transport over a few workers to this city using the galley that is sitting just outside, to get some workshops down. This city would be the ideal place to build a dry dock and a few galleons, so that Plako can get used to the idea of us having a navy and not get shit scared if and when we move galleons into his waters to attack Ruff. With 5 workshops, this city can make 36 base hpt, with forge, PS and dry dock that's 72 hpt into galleons. That's what, 8 galleons every 9 turns? We'd only need 1 more city with a dry dock and we'd have plenty for an invasion of Ruff. And this city only needs to be size 11 to do that.
Pushing culture here to try and take the crab, I think we are putting in more culutre that Ruff at presnt so we might take it. For any attack on Ruiff, we would want to fort the plains tile marked on the turn of any invasion, and after we captured Boston and the culture reset, we would want to fort the desert tile which should at that point pop into our culture. We would then be able to attack newton, and with 5 move Galleons would be able to unload untis in the city and immediately move them, if the units had been loaded into the galleons on a previous turn. However, JD itself has nothing to do in those plans except to provide units and will do so by being constantly drafted IMO. We therefore need a barracks here.after the forge, although I believe the worker may we worth finishing. I don't mid writing off a few hammers though.
The second most important city on this continent in domestic matters, PM has to grow 3 pop, and will need to have the two plains tiles workshopped, the plains forest workshopped, give up the plains tile 89 of the city to JD, and the the tiles 9 and 96 can be watermilled. This should put the city at 35 base hpt, but once RP comes down that should increase to 36 base hpt for nicer rounding, and is still enough for 2 turn cannon. If the main continent falls, then this city is useful to have set up for pure production, and I believe is a legit place to build the IW.
Who cares draft it into the floor. Changed the micro here, gave the forest to KM and worked a merchant due to KM micro.
Most important city on the island. Will chop the forests 88 and 887 of MG for the GT, the latter forest will direct into the city on the turn it is chopped as MG will then have greater culture on that forest...or should do, anyway. Always a chance I'm wrong on that one, but it's not that important. We can then draft a musket a turn, and make this a much more annoying stronghold for dtay to deal with if he cracks the mainland, and also be able to provide a good source of troops for any invasion of Ruff. Can reach 15fpt at size 5, 16fpt@6 if we farm another grassland, so that's just something we are going to have to do. Going to have to drop down 6 pop in size, but that is what gives us the opportunity to give the fish to KM to help that city with growth a bit.
We can workshop all 5 tundra tiles for 0/4/0 tiles. We need to do that. WA should never be drafted but would the the best dry dock city we can get in this area of hte map, capable of working all the map tile plus an Engineer for 43 base hpt, enough for 1 turned 5XP galleons, negating the need for other coastal cities to contribute to naval production. Then we can swap between that and pushing out GP as we need them. Needs to build the Market, maybe the barracks for happiness and a dry dock. A Harbour is probably worthwhile for the health and should give a good amount of commerce but that's a decision for later. I'm unsure if the bank is useful, but a courthouse probably is given the size of the city. This is a surprisingly productive city for such a cold area of the map.
I'm going to end up hurting this city so much through drafting...but it just isn't a good enough production city to do anything except build the occasional unit, even with PS and a forge, it can barely make 3 turn knights, and at best 3 turn cannon. So draft city it is.
Draft it and regrow.
As above.
The plans for how to deal with dtay notwithstanding, the only real choice here is to draft it into the ground because it is indefensible if stay choices to attack. Forge after Barracks is OK IMO, for +3 happy and more drafting, but a few workshops will go down here in the near future.
Draft into the ground after Barracks completed.
I'm sensing a pattern with these tundra cities.
Grow 3 pop, 32 base hpt, 48 adjusted with PS and forge kinda sucks, but once Rp is down that jumps to 38/57 hpt, along with RC this is hte city that has the most mines. Nice production city, but likely to get drafted hard if dtay invades so not going to give it a huge garrison. Not easy for him to reach due to the forests and the hills, nor does he have naval production in this area.
Er...what are we doing with this city novice?
keep on working artists until granary and then light house is completed, but I believe should be getting am ine down on one of the tiles to help out with that. Just keep the fish from dtay. We are ahead of him in the race to 40%.
Who cares about either of these.
We have the 8th highest soldier points, and I believe that pop and infrastructure has a lot to do with that.
Our EP production sucks so we are constantly losing graphs on players, but if that is hte cost of maintaining vision on dtays research then it's a price worth paying. Now that we have a few more court houses completing then we should be able to maintain Old Harry and Fin Tourists graphs in addition to Ruffs and dtays. Plakos would be nice to have back, but beyond that the rest are not necessary so long as we check F4 tech screen regularly and prior to research. As you can tell, TBS is about to go hurt with GermanJoey or Dazed. Considering Dazed has that rabid aggressive culture bomb in TBS' face, it should be Dazed that gets smacked about. Ruff has high power, because he was fighting Q but now that he borders BGN he should have the majority of his forces on that border not in coastal cities next to us.
Falling again in crop yield. Nothing we can do about that. MFG is sad.
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