Where to will Singaboy steer the Teutonic power?

[Singaboy]

T119:
Time to chop that 1f2p forest instead of adding one hammer. It will yield 68 hammers and true enough, it adds to Mainz. The result is that Mainz will finish its CH in 6 turns instead of 10 turns. In 3 turns, the rain forest chop should add even more hammers to it. It might be done by then together with Ulm's CH. This would be brilliant in order to speed up two additional trade routes, which would speed up development in Bremen and Frankfurt2. One of the trade routes will be sent to Preslav to gain yet another envoy to make sure Archduke doesn't take the city away from me. Also, with medieval fairies comes a civic that gives 1 additional gold per envoy. Much better than the +2 envoy points when there are hardly any city states left.

By the way, north of Seoul is a new barbarian camp and I send the chariot there in the hope of gaining experience and netting the camp. There are two Hattusa swords next to it. Hopefully, they only wound the spear while I can then clean it up next turn.

My income has gone up by +3 thanks to working the cotton at Koblenz. This will compensate for the barracks and armory maintenance I will have to pay soon.



In the screenshot below, you can see that Mainz will grow in 3 turns and finish the CH in 6 turns currently.

[Singaboy]

T120:
I get a sneaking feeling, Archduke is plotting to attack me when the being friends arrangement expires. He is currently sending a trader towards my capital, most likely to get easier and faster access to it.

oledavy is doing the same and I sure hope, it's not with the same intention. oledavy also sports a musket as expected. I don't attack the camp as I wouldn't end up winning and only weaken the foe. My hope is that Hattusa takes the camp and deprives oledavy from taking it.



I need to be prepared for a possible attack, better than the last round. Hence, on turn 122, I will swap both Aachen and Seoul to finish their previous military, a crossbow and a knight. As Ulm is finishing its CH on turn 122, the impact on my gpt is limited. I will have iron next turn too, so knights can heal. I might switch Ulm to build another crossbow too, though I had planned to start two traders. That can wait until I can assess the military situation a little better.

Aachen ideally would try an finish the armory as soon as possible, but another knight might have to be built first. As Mainz is finishing its CH as well soon, I might go for a trader there instead. I want to get a market up and running in Mainz to be able to employ a specialist as Mainz is running short of useful tiles.

[Singaboy]

T121:
Aachen has finished its barracks, which cost me 1gpt but gives 1extra production. Before starting the armory, let's finish the knight as my military rating is starting to fall behind. Do not want to give Archduke the wrong idea that it will be a walk in the park through my territory. As I connect iron, he must be disappointed that I now have a copy of all three critical resources. Once Mainz has finished its CH, I will have two copies of niter

The builder from Ulm with one charge left, moves to Seoul to improve a mine there or cut something. The builder at Bremen will connect the wine next before moving on to Koblenz to use his 3 charges there. The builder at Mainz is going to cut the rain forest and then farm the same tile for some serious Feudalism bonuses. I am really hoping with the chop next turn, the CH is done for added income. Mainz will go for traders, Ulm for a crossbow. Seoul will swap to a crossbow next turn too.

As for civics, next turn, it is time to switch away from Medieval Fairies to wait for the Eureka. Gunpowder still needs a few turns before waiting for Aachen's armory, which is high priority. It will take 6 turns due to some production overflow.

[Singaboy]

T122:
I guess I am right to say that Archduke is preparing to attack me. Well, bring it on. The knight in Aachen is done and production goes full steam to an armory, done in 6 turns. Seoul is swapped to a crossbow which is ready next turn. Ulm goes for a crossbow too, ready in 4 turns as well.

Mainz gets its chop and the CH is ready in 1 turn too, giving me the gpt support my units need. I am trying to send Alhambram cotton for 100 gold. Would give me some flexibility to upgrade the chariot in Seoul to a fourth knight. Mainz is working even the crappy tiles currently, it takes another 2 turns for the city to expand to better tiles. The builder there will farm the former rainforest hopefully adding another housing to make it 10.



If the friendship runs out next turn, I will declare war on Archduke and kill off its trader. The timing for the trader is a little unfortunate, I think. Unless he wants to wait a few turns for it to go back. The other good thing I have running in my favor is the hilly terrain and the fact that I get +5 strength from Preslav for the horsemen and knights on hills.

I swap the civic to theology for the potential envoy as well as a civic switch in 6 turns. Medieval Fairies will complete automatically with additional 2 trade routes.

[Singaboy]

T123:
A turn until the friendship with Archduke expires. oledavy's friendship will last til T130, so I have 7 turns where I do not need to worry about him backstabbing me. First, I farm the chopped rain forest tile and the result looks beautiful. Mainz is awash with food, but suffers from a 50% housing penalty. Next turn, the flood plains are supposed to be added and I will move to farm those in 3 turns. Mainz can still build a water mill and add yet another 1 food to three wheat tiles. As Mainz has finished its CH, the niter underneath it, is automatically connected, giving me 2 niter. This is awesome once I have gunpowder. I am almost at the 50% mark and swap out of it.
Next turn, I will also have the chance to swap some tiles, for example giving Mainz a cotton tile in exchange for the 6f wheat tile, that Ulm can work for faster growth. It will be +7f for Ulm due to the water mill



At Seoul I chop the rain forest finishing not only the battering ram, but also giving a good head start for a trader. This means that I now will get traders in 3 and 4 turns, getting me Medieval Fairies in 5 turns. I can swap away from Theology in 4 turns, so I have a civic to finish for quick swap in cards.

At Bremen, the builder moves onto the wine tile for more amenities next turn. Aachen is still working its armory, ready in 5 turns. The southwest is, where the action is taking place. Archduke sports another horseman there, presumably to block my horses from moving beyond his hoplite.
His trader is in a precarious situation, and sacking it, will give me enough gold to upgrade the last chariot. Doesn't make my gpt situation any better, but what do you do.
The question now is, do I move in aggressively or do I sit there on the defense. This is quite a tricky situation as defense is always easier. Archduke's defense is still only at 28-33, meaning he has no knights yet. He owns two iron and two horses each, giving him more flexibility to build military units. He has quite a bit of gold for upgrades, and I assume he will upgrade to knights very soon. He has almost enough gold for 3 upgrades, which will make the situation a little trickier. Knights will benefit from only one of his two generals, maybe that's why he is hesitant. We shall see. If Dorium gets walls, I will have to wait for the battering ram to reach the front, which can take a while. I will have to play defensively then. I will always have the opportunity to swap to the +5 city defense in 5 turns, if necessary.



This could well go awfully wrong and I get overpowered by Archduke, but at least I go down fighting instead of turtling around. The western players Alhambram and Woden are far ahead in score, Archduke and myself last with the same score. That was my goal after all since losing Frankfurt: to make sure Archdue won't get far in this game, too.

[Singaboy]

T124:
Two bummers this turn. The first is that the friendship between Archduke and myself is still active. This is turn 31 or maybe they only count it from the turn after accepting it? Very weird stuff.

The second thing is, Archduke clearly upgraded one or two horsemen judging from his defense strength and Dorium got its walls. I will need to at least wait for the battering ram to appear. More likely, this will turn into a stalemate in the hills of Kilimanjaro. A pity, but I won't just suicide my troops. The only chance I could have is to pillage both iron from Archduke to make sure his knights do not heal. My southern horseman could try to move east to pillage the iron southeast and a knight could pillage the iron at Dorium. This will depend on the situation though.



The wines are connected and I send Woden a copy of the cotton in exchange for jade (?). Would be nice to get another luxury in. The effect are immediate and science improves to 29.4, still a far cry from the rest. The rest of the turn, I look at the screen in amazement of the terrible UI. Seould suddenly has 5 housing, Mainz has 10 and Ulm has 9 after shuffling tiles around. This is weird. On top of that, when swapping tiles between Ulm and Mainz for faster growth for Ulm, it doesn't get reflected as usual. This is highly annoying. Ulm should grow in 4 turns now, however getting 7f from the what tile. Mainz sill grows in 2 turns and if the cap of 10 housing is correct, I should be able to net the Eureka there for civil service. That would be neat.

In terms of military rating, Archduke's and mine have shot up to the 400s thanks to additional troops. Alhambram has an impressive score of more than 800. Now, if only he or Woden would finally attack one of my two neighbors. This way, the eastern trio is only engaging in stalemates.

[Dreylin]

Checking in.

Things look tense. I wonder if TheArchduke is just preparing for your attack rather than planning one of his own, but then his play up to now suggests he thinks that Building is not an option and his only route is through the sword. I'd suggest holding off making the first move (if you even have that choice), but there's power in that first move and you do only have a short window before oledavy becomes relevant again.

Would you sign another DoF with TheArchduke if he offered - even offer one to him - or do you think that ties your hands too much? Being in Builder mode seems to be favouring you more than him.

Also don't neglect Seoul's defenses just because the oledavy DoF has some turns left; if you are still at war with TA at that point I'd expect to see an opportunistic strike...

[Singaboy]

T125
I decide to heed Dreylin's advise and request a renewal of friendship with Archduke. As the strength of both of us is equal, a war will only result in a stalemate and do nothing to advance any of us.
On top of that oledavy and Woden have an alliance now. My way forward would be to try and renew the friendship with both Archduke and oledavy and then expand a little in the north taking Hattusa. This would surely anger oledavy, but there is nothing he could about for some time.

If Archduke agrees to the friendship, I will move my units towards Seoul to ensure deterrence of oledavy. If oledavy then agrees to a renewal of the friendship I will move on to Hattusa and take the city. I surely have the necessary forces right now and in 3 turns, will have access to musketmen.

In the meantime, I try and take a most defensive stance here, in case Archduke declares war and moves in. I can still pillage his trader next turn. My knights and horsemen occupy the frontlines and hills. The sword blocks the hoplite as the sword has a much higher strength against it. Even if Aarchduke moves in against me, he will face quite an obstacle. Reinforments are on the way from Seoul. Just for the record, the road directly east of the iron has been pillaged, so Archduke could not move in with lightning speed.




Ulm changes to a builder from the crossbow. Only if Archduke attacks, will I complete it (in one turn). Two cities will grow next turn and a trader done. Let's see what Archduke will do.

[Singaboy]

T126:
It seems reason and moderation are not in Archduke's book this game. Instead of accepting my friendship proposal, he comes back with this ridiculous demand. I get the message

War it is then. The trader gets teleported back to him unfortunately. Next turn, I would have enough gold for the knight upgrade, though I rather preserve that gold. With more military units, my income is not going to improve.

I make one single attack on Archdukes horseman with a knight. and check out his forces.

He sure has a lot of crossbows. I got to be careful not to end up in a crossfire here to get my troops eliminated. Archduke also has a horseman near Seoul. I don't mind him pillaging tiles there, as Seoul has nothing much useful to do currently and started a builder. If I can take out the horseman there, it will not serve him any good. Nevertheless, I send the chariot and crossbow back to Seoul. Ulm, swaps back to a crossbow which is done in 1 turn. In order to even out my finances, I will need to start on markets soon, starting with one in Mainz once the current trader is done. I can also send a trader to Preslav to gain another envoy and get 6gpt currently. I will change civics soon and get the +1gpt per envoy policy gaining me some vital gold. I farm yet another tile at Mainz and it will grow to size 10 in 10 turns, just nice for a civil service Eureka. Next turn I will swap the technology back to gunpowder to finish it together with Aachen's armory.

[Singaboy]

Interlude  

After thinking about the game for a bit, I have made the decision that I am done with the friendship nonsense. We have three people fighting it out while Woden runs away with the game and Alhambram sitting at the sidelines doing nothing about it?

This is not the game I thought would happen. When I saw the oledavy took the early lead, I tried my best to throw in a spanner to slow him down. Well, both oledavy and Archduke stopped me abruptly doing that, fair enough. But, neither of them ever looked westwards to slow Woden down? I can't reach either (Woden or Alhambram) of them from my position. I would have expected them to turn their attention west after knocking me down and ensuring I am no longer a real threat to winning the game.

Yet, Archduke forces me into a war again by showing up with his troops and demanding 80 gold. What on earth is he thinking?

Before the game I have to admit, one of my big mistakes is not studying the diplomacy in greater detail. Of course, this just adds to my habitual focus on military (AW anyone). I had no clue that trade deals would last 30 turns (a ridiculous amount of time in a game with 500 turns). Worse, those friendship deals last 30 turns as well. Way too long. I would say, if a peace treaty lasts 10 turns, a friendship would be maybe 15 turns or so.

Nothing can be done at this point in time about the mechanics and the state of the game which had been lost since the fall of Frankfurt. However, Archduke's borderline insulting behavior has gotten the better of me now. I will try from here on, to eliminate his army and somehow take him out. Might be a big challenge as he has a general in his favor, but is I have seen his main army, it consists of mainly crossbows. If I can get him to expose those units and take them out, together with the ability to produce musketmen, I want to try and take him on. His resource cities are the cities most exposed to me. That might be a good starting position there for me to move. I do hope he starts by pillaging at Seoul exposing the horseman. Seoul is just a fringe city and pillaged tiles are repaired in an instance. He is not going to take Seoul with a horseman or too anyway. If he moves in, i will take his horseman out sooner or later. If I can manage to cripple his army in the southwest without too many losses, I can then move in on Dorium.
Let's see what happens next turn. Let's see how many of his crossbows he is exposing trying to hit my frontline units.

In 2 turns, I will have the ability to get musketmen. At the same turn, Medieval Fairies are done and I am going to change civics. I am going to enable the +1gpt per envoy civic giving me a little more room for military units. At the same time, I might swap the upgrade discount to the additional defense civic. Seoul might get attacked by oledavy again and such a civic might be handy.

Well, for now, it's time to wait for Archduke's response.