[Spoilers] CH tries to be more than a warm body

[Fenn]

I doubt you can get to Maersk before taotao does - the city has such a small garrison (the Impi isn't even at full health...) that taotao could probably grab it with just 2-4 HA. So I don't think peace with Serdoa will help you capture Maersk (granted toatao could be gassed now, but if he has enough HA to send them scouting your territory I bet he has some more in the fog).

That said Serdoa has 12 units visible to you atm, and can probably bring more. Do you think you have enough hitters of your own to kill 12+ units if they advance to the grassland? Do you have enough defenders to keep Cori from falling if they attack? If not peace might be the better option here, unappetizing as it may be.

[Cheater Hater]

I played the turn; I don't want to do a report now, but the pictures are here, and there are three main points I want to hit:
* Serdoa/NH offered flat peace, and I immediately took it--losing Vilcabamba isn't that bad, especially if I get the old Nairobi spot quickly enough (MP is starting the settler in two turns, aided by a chop).
* I retook Anglola/Hua--we got awful luck in the combat, but the Lighthouse and Market survived, so that's good (could the Granary/Terrace have survived, either because you always lose UBs/the culture on the Terrace makes it always lost?)
* Yes, taotao certainly still has an army--he could probably take this whole continent if he wanted to (with the exception of REM, who is also nearly finished with Commodore).

[novice]

Terraces can survive capture. Each building has individual survival chances in the xml. Culture => no survival is just a heuristic. Academies always survive, for example.

EDIT: And UBs can survive too, they get converted to/from their non-unique counterpart.

[Cheater Hater]

Terraces can survive capture. Each building has individual survival chances in the xml. Culture => no survival is just a heuristic. Academies always survive, for example.

EDIT: And UBs can survive too, they get converted to/from their non-unique counterpart.

Thanks for the info novice--Academies survive with their culture? I know wonders lose their culture, but I don't remember if I remember seeing an Academy be captured.

Not much new with regard to the turn (pictures are here)--DZ died, and Elkad made peace with REM, which means the only remaining war is REM/Commodore (and Commodore was down to his last city as of last turn). Right now I want to get some more scouting done thanks to my OB agreements, and start getting some more cities placed--obviously I'm going to get the Nairobi spot settled quickly (and in retrospect I probably should have kept it), but I'm also wondering if I should get the southern filler cities settled as well. One nice thing is that capturing Angola meant I got four new Workers (presumably he preferred to give them to me than taotao--if you're out there in lurker land DZ I'd appreciate your thoughts, and sorry about the harsh words in the heat of the moment)--right now they're chopping quickly so I can get Angola back to full strength, but the main thing they need to do is develop the Nairobi spot, as well as cottaging all of MP and freeing up more Workers for the tundra area (especially that irrigation chain I want post-Civil Service).

Speaking of Civil Service, tech right now is an interesting question--I finished HR, now I'm 2-turning Monarchy and am planning on possibly hitting Feudalism so I can lock in my safety with Longbows, possibly revolt into Vassalage (which is apparently really good now, especially since I'm above the unit cap), and leave open the option to go on the offensive with Knights.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Academies always survive. I probably captured a half dozen at least in my most recent game. It may give you encouragement to know that I was Inca on this map and I swept all my enemies into the sea. Degree of difficulty is not mackoti class but do your best!

[Donovan Zoi]

Th One nice thing is that capturing Angola meant I got four new Workers (presumably he preferred to give them to me than taotao--if you're out there in lurker land DZ I'd appreciate your thoughts, and sorry about the harsh words in the heat of the moment--

Hey CH, I was planning on giving you an explanation on our scuffle once my demise was official, and that time has come more quickly than I anticipated.

I never expected any more than Angola by attacking you, as the plan was to grab a hill city and hopefully hold it until I could get to Optics and sail the seas in search of unsettled land if any existed. In setting this up, I had to mask the intent of my 3 workers by giving you the impession of an emergency chop when I really needed a road on that tile to be successful in my attack.

On the next turn, I was still undecided on whether I would still go through with this, but as my Sentry Chariot entered that forested hill I saw you were coming for me anyway with your Axes and Cats. So my guilt subsided just enough to be fine with the trade off of Nairobi for Angola. After that, I had to try a peace offer w/some gold, knowing full well you wouldn't accept. But hey, it was the only play I felt I really had.

As far as the workers go, I decided I wasn't going to delete them out of spite and instead would just let them go to their captor. By this time, I was pretty much done looking for lurker advice (which I don't do much of anyway [obviously ]) so I just kept them on the board.

No hard feelings in the slightest from me regarding your comments -- I would be pissed too! And I am sorry that my strategy lost you a city to Serdoa, but I'm glad to see you and the English have resolved your differences for now.

Good luck for the rest of the game!

[Cheater Hater]

Th One nice thing is that capturing Angola meant I got four new Workers (presumably he preferred to give them to me than taotao--if you're out there in lurker land DZ I'd appreciate your thoughts, and sorry about the harsh words in the heat of the moment--

Hey CH, I was planning on giving you an explanation on our scuffle once my demise was official, and that time has come more quickly than I anticipated.

I never expected any more than Angola by attacking you, as the plan was to grab a hill city and hopefully hold it until I could get to Optics and sail the seas in search of unsettled land if any existed. In setting this up, I had to mask the intent of my 3 workers by giving you the impession of an emergency chop when I really needed a road on that tile to be successful in my attack.

On the next turn, I was still undecided on whether I would still go through with this, but as my Sentry Chariot entered that forested hill I saw you were coming for me anyway with your Axes and Cats. So my guilt subsided just enough to be fine with the trade off of Nairobi for Angola. After that, I had to try a peace offer w/some gold, knowing full well you wouldn't accept. But hey, it was the only play I felt I really had.

As far as the workers go, I decided I wasn't going to delete them out of spite and instead would just let them go to their captor. By this time, I was pretty much done looking for lurker advice (which I don't do much of anyway [obviously ]) so I just kept them on the board.

No hard feelings in the slightest from me regarding your comments -- I would be pissed too! And I am sorry that my strategy lost you a city to Serdoa, but I'm glad to see you and the English have resolved your differences for now.

Good luck for the rest of the game!

The problem is that there's no way I could let you keep Angola (btw thanks for giving me a new name I don't have to abbreviate ), and you still had barely any units at that point. Even if I didn't attack you (or took that peace treaty), there was no way taotao was going to let live until Optics, right?

Honestly, I don't think much changes if you don't take Angola, other than the buildings/pop lost there--Serdoa/NH still declare after I move my troops in, I can't defend VB, and I still probably burn Nairobi to prevent them from taking it. Heck, your HAs from the north (which seemed completely worthless, since I actually had some defenses there--presumably you didn't realize I had OB with taotao?) might have saved me a city, since it meant I didn't commit all my troops to the attack.

[Cheater Hater]

It's nice to not have to be writing war reports all the time! I have a collection of pictures from the last two turns, but the biggest news is that I found yet another big stack of Horse Archers from taotao. My hope is that I'll have enough gold to finish Feudalism in five turns (saving this turn, then 4 turns of 100%--though the last turn won't be 100%), and then I'll need a bunch of Longbows to help survive. I'll also have Vassalage--is it worth eating the turn of anarchy to swap into it? Or maybe I should run a bunch of specialists to speed up the Great Person from Cuzco and use it for a Golden Age no matter what it is?

[Fenn]

Vassalage isn't worth the turn of anarchy, IMO - you'd be better off running specialists to get a Golden Age from a GP. You could use the Golden Age for Hereditary Rule too. If you could get Code of Laws in before the GA pops that would be good too, so you could run Caste during the GA for the GPP, and swap back to Slavery afterwards if need be.

[Cheater Hater]

Vassalage isn't worth the turn of anarchy, IMO - you'd be better off running specialists to get a Golden Age from a GP. You could use the Golden Age for Hereditary Rule too. If you could get Code of Laws in before the GA pops that would be good too, so you could run Caste during the GA for the GPP, and swap back to Slavery afterwards if need be.

I already have CoL--I got it right as the wars started.

Not much new today--I found a couple more stacks (though none of them were from taotao thankfully), and I'm actually starting to run into happiness problems for the first time in a while--I can't find anyone to trade my excess gems with (Serdoa traded away all his excess Gold, and REM must have captured some from Commodore), and I still don't have Calendar (maybe the +2 happiness from the Silk is worth getting Calendar now for?). However, that also got me to look at Colosseums, and if you've forgotten, they actually give XP to pre-Gunpowder units now, as well as a second happy right away (in addition to the Culture slider stuff I'll probably never use). I'm also Charismatic, which not only means the Colosseum gives me the second promotion right away, it also means I have cheap Colosseums! Olly is getting a Colosseum now for the XP, and Vilcas will probably need one soon since it's bumping up against the happy cap (though it thankfully doesn't need many more buildings--it's finishing the Courthouse now, gets a Harbor next, then doesn't have anything until Grocers and Banks, unless I want it to have a Barracks). Cuzco probably wants one soon as well, but it's not growing for a bit (it's building the deer city Settler starting next turn, then the necessary Work Boat, then it might move right on to the southern F right away--though I'm hoping to get that forest chopped first to avoid wasting it).

One other quick thing: should I settle the Nairobi site on the old site, or on the original F I planned? Now that the Maersk site has been moved 1NW, the old Nairobi is a better city (since it has less of an overlap), but I also don't want it to get culturally swallowed by taotao.