[Spoilers] It's time to play the music

[wetbandit]

So that part I lifted is from vanilla before BTS patched out adding the cultural output of the city to the bomb. As I understand it, that no longer happens and instead the amounts I listed there would be what hits those tiles. CRE's only effect is the +2 cpt going forward.

And the mechanics for post-BTS bombs, since everything posted on civfanatics is correct (especially the wisdom of attacko), are in this link.

[Old Harry]

Turn 122

Lots of stuff going on this turn. First Mackoti built the SoZ . Second we got an artist instead of a scientist, so he'll make his way to the front lines . Third Animal is now our capital. Fourth our spy got ganked, meaning OT4E knows we know what he's got in reserve. He might not know we know what's in NC though. I hate building spies - they always just die straight away . Fifth it looks like TBS' galley found Mack. Sixth NC's borders didn't pop eot121, so they probably will pop at the end of this turn.


If they don't pop though OT4E won't see our extra cats here. Either way we move in next turn.


Should the Vulture move up to threaten Cutthroat (one Quechua) or down to Ollyantambo (four Quechua) next turn?


In other war news - Pindi is fighting AGG/CHA 2metra, but is it serious?


Power graph. We're fighting at tech parity and while we're a bit ahead on production this could be really stupid.


Two cities on the best city screen .

[Old Harry]

Turn 123

Lost our chariot to a 50/50 fight. Moved the Vulture up to the hill, but there is a road on the jungle SE of Cutthroat, so I think he may be a gonner too.


Moved our stack in
- he has 7 Cats, 7 Axes, 3 Swords, 4 Spears and 4 Quechuas that we can see,
- we have a Sword/Vulture pair on the grass hill, another on our Galley and 11 Cats, 6 Swords, 7 Vultures, 2 Spears and 2 Chariots in our stack.

He's getting HBR this turn, so we're building a couple more Spears just in case.

I'm not sure of the best plan for the galley units - dropping them on the plains hill E of NC is an option I suppose, moving them and the other pair to the grass hill W of NC is also doable. Putting them down on the grass 1N of NC means they are out of range of the stack... Note the Great Artist who won't be in range to bomb next turn, but can the turn after. I think next turn we either bombard the walls of Rocky or move our stack NE to threaten NC instead. Any thoughts?


We got graphs on Mack, nothing ground-breaking here...

And our demos.

[wetbandit]

Just when things were getting exciting...

[Old Harry]

Turn 124

This is the scene that greeted Ipecac when he logged in this turn. Too many cats and units in general in Rocky for an attack to work. What should we do?


It looks like Mack loaned 400 gold to OT4E for upgrades. This pretty much cripples him though, Feudalism is a very distant prospect, so as long as we can cope with his current army (second largest in the world) we should be able to pick him off when we get ahead on tech. He also got HBR last turn, so in reply we're completing 4 spears around the empire this turn.


Our jungle Vulture was unmolested, so she moved up to investigate Cutthroat. We shouldn't be able to burn this city, but hopefully it ties up resources OT4E should be sending to the front.


This is the final disposition. Wetbandit pointed out that I should have dropped the Sword/Vulture pair on the floodplain to protect the artist if there is a stack of 8 Chariots and 3 Workers on the pig tile. There is a chance OT4E sends his stack at Statler, but we'd take Rocky then so that's a pretty good trade.


Revolting to Bureau/Serfdom costs 5gpt. I pondered the saving of 13 gpt on units from Vassalage but looking at Animal now I think Bureau wins hands-down. As long as we don't get embarrassed militarily.

[Old Harry]

Turn 125 part 1

OT4E killed our Vulture with his C1 Chariot at 30%. That means it's got about 6-7XP and could take Shock. And we're owed some combat luck.


NC just has an Axe and a Sword in it now. Rocky has 2 Swords, 9 Cats, 9 Axes, 2 Spears and an Archer. That means we're missing 2 Spears, 4 Quechua. OT4E only spent 100 gold last turn, so he could have upgraded one Quechua.


So I bombarded down with 5 cats then used a Sword over the river to try and scratch the Axe enough that the Sword will defend.
- Sword vs Axe over the river - 25%... WIN!!! (down to 12HP, up to 5XP!)


- Sword vs Sword - 75%... FLAWLESS WIN!!!!


We get 75 gold and a lighthouse to go with the Temple of Artemis. Okay, I'm entirely happy with our combat luck now .


Then I remembered I'd built a Scout to check what's going on over here.


I haven't ended turn. We have two choices - hide the artist on the plains hill 2N of where it is now or bomb Nuevo Cuzco.

The reasons for saving the bomb are:
a: Not using the artist means our next golden age in 25 turns
b: Its possible that OT4E didn't spot the artist and so will not be planning with that in mind - if so we could catch his stack out and wipe it without huge losses on our side

The reasons for bombing this turn are:
a: There might be a stack on the tile 2SE or 2S1E of NC whose movement we would impede

I think we should move our a Vulture to the pigs tile to check what's in the fog. If the bomb this turn doesn't look appealing then we would move the mini-stack on the plains hill mine (3 cats, 2 swords, vulture) to join the main stack, bomb next turn, use 10-12 cats to bring down Rocky's walls, use 2-4 cats to soften up the inhabitants of RB, then our Swords to do some killing. I'll have a go at setting up a sandbox to investigate that before logging in to end turn. This is the sandbox for attacking NC that I'll base it off.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mkk8xefvdpo7d8...dSave?dl=0

In other news we can get Horseback Riding or Metal Casting this turn with a wealth build in Dr Teeth, but I'd rather hold off doing any more research until the Academy is built. Right now Horse Archers would be really handy for getting to the front quickly and beating up catapults stuck out in the open. The Academy will be set up on t127, waiting until then will gain us about 50 beakers.

[Old Harry]

Turn 125 part 2

So we went back and forth about the artist bomb, but discovering the mini-stack of Axe, 2 Spear and 3 Quechua we thought we might trap them...


Trapped! Also what is this? An exposed Woody III Axe? If only we had a chariot on hand to do something about it. Also we came sooo close to taking a first ring tile from JJ. Also also - I surrounded the galley - he'll be able to pillage one clam next turn but 2 vs 1 should win, right?


Chariot vs W3 Axe 95%... WIN (4 hits, 2XP)


I deleted the Chariot to stop his spear gaining free XP next turn. Then I moved almost our whole stack (except the bombarding Cats and a couple of units to garrison NC) to the pigs tile and the smaller stack from the plains hill to the floodplain.

We have another chariot that could get 50/50 on Jungle Juggler next turn if we're feeling lucky, otherwise we just move some Vultures next to the city and take it t127. We *should* be able to wipe the Axe/Spear/Quechua stack while more Swords stream in for the Rocky attack. The main cause for concern there (apart from him retreating his stack somewhere hard to reach) is that the tiles N of Rocky only have 51% Sumerian culture on them, so we need to keep an eye on whether that is going up or down, and we need to be ready to attack on the turn it goes below 50%...

Our first non-golden age demos in a while don't look too bad. Having so many soldiers at this stage isn't ideal, but if they get us more land then they're doing their job.

[Old Harry]

Turn 126

Stupidly I hadn't brought any workers with the stack, so OT4E pillaged a cottage and the road, deleted two Quechuas and got away.


At Rocky he retreated his reinforcing Catapults and moved an Axe to stop the Scout following them. Rocky contains 9 Cats, 9 Axes, 2 Swords, 2 Spears and an Archer. I suspect he'll whip another Archer next turn. Some thoughts occur:
- Use 10 cats to drop the walls of Rocky, use the remaining 4 to suicide and scratch his Axes enough that he doesn't think suiciding his cats and attacking out is a good idea then use more Cats the next turn to clear out the city. This idea isn't so hot because his units will heal before his turn so he can probably attack with them at almost full strength
- Put a chariot on the grass hill 1S of our stack where a spear can attack out (and die) meaning one less spear to attack if we want to attack with massed Chariots. And if he doesn't attack out we can pillage the road SE of Rocky. This is also a terrible idea since Swords and Cats will defend happily against Chariots so he'll definitely attack out.
- We have 12 Swords, 8 Vultures, 3 Spears, 2 Chariots and 14 Cats, I plan to do some simming to see how far bombarding is useful. I was pondering threatening Jungle Juggler this turn, but I think we need to take Rocky and get control of that jungle road and the Great Wall first. Our culture is increasing on the tile to the NW of JJ so there is a chance we can hit from two tiles away in a few turns.
- When we do attack we'll generate our first Great General - anyone got any thoughts on how to use him? Medic or settled in the HE city?
- Horse Archers could start showing up in small numbers now, we need to be aware.


Galley vs Galley - 32%... WIN! (3 hits)


This place is going to be ridiculously good.


In foreign news TBS has Machinery already, but is still in base civics + Slavery. Knight rush on Pindi or Commodore?

[Old Harry]

Turn 127 prologue

He's pulled out of Rocky and left one spear in JJ.

[Old Harry]

Turn 127 main

Simming makes me think we bombard down to 2% with 12 cats, then get ~20% and ~50% with two suicide cats. Then get ~50% with a sword, then the battles will be about 80%. Wetbandit pointed out that we get control of the tiles to the south of the city, so they can only hit with 2-movers from the fog, so we put a couple of spears in the city once we've taken it.

Bombarded to 2% with 12 cats.
Barrage Cat vs CG2 Drill 1 Archer - 17%... LOSS (3 hits)


CR1 Cat vs 2.6/3 CG2 Drill 1 Archer - 44%... LOSS (1 hit )
4.7/6 CR2 Sword vs 2.1/3 CG2 Drill 1 Archer - 65%... WIN! (3 hits)
Sword vs 3.9/5 C1 Axe - 47%... LOSS (1 hit )
CR1 Sword vs 3.9/5 Axe - 82%... FLAWLESS WIN!
CR1 Sword vs 3.0/5 Axe - 94%... FLAWLESS WIN!
Sword vs 4.9/6 Sword - 73%... LOSS (3 hits and OT4E gets a GG )
Sword vs 4.9/6 Sword - 73%... WIN (5 hits!)
Sword vs 1.5/3 CG2 Drill 1 Archer - 94%... WIN (1 hit and we get a GG in Animal!)
Sword vs 1.3/6 Sword - >99%... FLAWLESS WIN!
That feels like we lost one more unit than expected (which was the one that got him the great general), but after last turn I don't think I can complain. The city comes with 43 gold, all the first ring tiles and the Great Wall with three turns of revolt. Oh, and some workers to capture .


This is the situation at the end of turn - except I deleted the chariot and workers. There is a small force of 2 Swords, 2 Vultures and Spear poised to take JJ next turn unless there is a huge force of HAs in the fog (quite possible - need some more spears).


Something else to worry about. I hope its empty, but I don't want to take any chances so our galleys will drop a chariot next turn. If its got two swords or HAs then we're in trouble.


I think JJ should fall to us. If not next turn then we'll send our cat stack that way some time soon. The question becomes how we stabilize this border. Do we push on to Cuthroat or settle for what we already got? Assuming OT4E retreats his stack all the way back to his culture we could put sentries in the jungle and on the water. There aren't any good city sites in that jungle anyway - except maybe the gems - so if he settles up on us again they will just be a drain on him...


With the majority (hopefully) of the fighting over my thoughts are turning back to the wider game. We're building infra in a bunch of cities (okay some of it is Barracks, but also more Zigs) and the question becomes: How do we keep up with Mack and his size 19 bureau-cap? BTW the Academy gets us 40 BPT at 100%. Doesn't seem all that much.