[Spoilers] AT (Charlie/Mongolia) has a thread. In which he shall post.

[AutomatedTeller]

thanks. I decided to not attack anyway - there's plenty of border tension for me now, no reason to add actual tension

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 74, In Which AT Kills His Economy Deader

First off, the first trade offer I get from someone else!!




And it's gems for whale? I am presuming that dtay has multiple gems, and he knows I have multiple silver. Why would I trade a resource I have 1 of (whale) instead of one he has multiple of? I'ts possible, of course, that he has only 1 of them, in which case huh? I declined, btw.




GNP is cratering, as expected. MFGGood and crop yield are very high.

The culprit for the GNP drop?




These should bottom out temporarily in a few turns. then there will be a few turns of consolidation, which may mean no new settlers at all, or maybe just for awhile.




this is my deer/ice floodplain city - Painting Pain is named for a study where, I kid you not, scientists measured pain levels someone gets while being shot in the hand with a laser while looking at ugly paintings vs pretty paintings. Why am I not a scientist? I could spend my life doing wacky stuff like that. Painting Pain probably needs 2 workers dedicated to it. I have 7 workers for my 10 cities (with an 11th on the way)

Speaking of which:




barteq moved his chariot around, which makes for some drama. I doubt barteq would go to war over a 50/50 shot at a settler, but I figured why take the chance and moved a warrior out to help cover. Then a warrior moves to the target and the settler/chariot move there and then we settle and an archer moves in and the chariot/warrior cover workers. I really need religion to spread to this area - I have a lot of holes in between cities that Barteq could make painful for my workers if he so chose.




Texacoco has what I assume to be the highest concentration of forces shy of the dtay/ichabod war. Man, that's 60 hammers for a city that isn't even working an improved tile. I presume there are workers near it, but nothing is improving the rice. Texacoco is, btw, ancient aztec for "City doomed to die"




Molach continues to grow in power.

[AutomatedTeller]

btw - I expect to be planting a city exactly where adrien's warrior is in 2 turns. I don't think I'm in a race for that spot, but if I am, I basically double moved him this turn (he's moved ahead of me the last 3 turns, but I moved first this turn).

I think I'm ok moving first now? I can never tell

[AutomatedTeller]

Full update later - but I'm going to lose Unboiled Egg in 2 turns unless Molach has terrible attack luck. he has 4 swords, 2 axes, a spear and chariot that can hit it and he's moving 2nd, so I can only get 1 extra defender. Sure, archers on hills behind walls are strong, and only one of his units has a promotion that helps... but 4-1 means I may kill 3 or 4 of them, but they'll take out my city.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 75, In Which AT Realizes That He Is An Idiot (Again)

At least this time, I saw Molach's power rise. I didn't do anything about it, mind you, but this can't be a surprise to me




I cannot defeat that stack. Ironically, I have the 5th highest power rating and there is basically nothing I can do to stop him from taking a city, maybe two if goes against Huh?. I suspect he won't, since he really can't conquer me - all he can do is pull us into a war that kills us.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 76, In Which AT Puts Up A Losing Defense





My sims has him losing 2 swords (or 2 axes, or something).

btw - I think the Dun is broken. There is no way that it should allow every prerifling unit to be essentially 2 moves if there are any hills. The gallic is tough, but it's at least vulnerable to axes - but if you have a stack of axes, spears and gallics that are all 2 moves for a 25 hammer building... it's broken.




That said, I think this is the limit - I think he looks for peace. he can't conquer me and if he take huh, he can't hold it. he can mess me up badly by razing huh, but generally players don't do that.

I screwed this up - I should have whipped in the walls 3 turns ago and then another archer and an axe or spear, plus I should have had a reserve force nearby to help cover. I think expansion was too fast and I'm spread too thin - but I failed in the most basic task for this city, which was to not get taken by Molach. Well, I'll have lower expenses...


One can see from the game that he took the city. I'm debating going in to see if he offered peace or not. I did notice that he has currency already. Man, this was a strategic mistake - I dont think settling Unboiled Egg was wrong, but not defending it well is a disaster. If it had 2 archers and walls, with another whippable and a mobile defense that could buy time, i'd be keeping that city. That wouldn't have been hard - Huh? would have had to put off a settler for a few turns, but getting another archer and chariot out in Huh would have been easy to do...

[AutomatedTeller]

Oh - I should say - well done, Molach. That stack would have done well against a pretty strong defense, too.

I think 4 archers (or 3 and an axe) would have done ok - I figured that the swords would all die beating the hell out of the archers and one of the follow on units would have failed, which would have left 3 slightly hurt units facing a damaged, but healed unit and a brand new CG 2 archer and the city would probably hold.

3 and a chariot would probably not have held, as the chariot would have been killed by anyone but the chariot.

[AutomatedTeller]

So, I have to do some thinking:

1) If I log in tomorrow and he's offered peace straight up, I'll take it.
2) If he offers peace for a small amount of cash (he has currency), I'll take it
3) If he offers it for 1 gpt, I take it
4) If he offers it for silver... I dunno. I might take it.

Fact is, I'm not in a position to fight him. But I still have power that's near his. He can't conquer me, but he can screw me up a lot. Most important, he can probably take Huh - probably not hold it, but he can burn it.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 77, In Which AT Makes Peace And Has A Surprise

So, I opened up the screen and Molach offered peace for 33 gold. I thought that I'd spend twice that on a warrior upgrade, so that seemed like a good deal.




Oh wait - he's giving ME 33 gold? I debated not accepting, because the only reason I could see for him offering that is if I ripped apart his stack and he won and had like a damaged spear left and a concerted push could take my city back.

But I don't have any forces that can hit him in 5 turns, so I accepted.




I did better than I expected - 1 withdrawal and 3 kills. From a pure hammer exchange, Molach got crushed - 115 hammers lost to 50 for me. Course, he took the city.

Looking back, I should have kicked out an axe and archer from Huh? instead of the last settler - I could have held off on settling. Put another axe and archer in Unboiled Egg and Molach probably backs off - in the least, he has to build up a larger force.

Looks like no structures survived the attack, especially the walls. Barracks of course can't, because of the culture. I don't think the granary did. that stack is an ax, spear and chariot, plus there's a couple of Gallic warriors that aren't in view not shown.





I offered silver for gold to Molach. Maybe he'll think I have no hard feelings

Not much else - oh. CheaterHater built The Hanging Garden's. I might put some hammers into the wall... or I might just build research and tech to HBR...

[AutomatedTeller]

so, I've never really played as mongolia before - keshik's are pretty awesome. Why am I waiting to research HBR?

On top of "ignoring terrain costs", they come with a first strike and a 20% withdrawal rate. They aren't immune to 1st strikes, but flanking II gives that to them and it seems that giving a fair number of keshik's flanking is smart, anyway.