Dave's Not Throwing Away His Shot

[oledavy]

Turn 146

Possibly the last turn before the war.. Still no walls being built in Mykenes, still no sign of Archduke's army, and still no musket upgrade. I think I figured out why on the last score. 



If I'd had more presence of mind to think about this earlier, I would have sent a unit down there just to sit on the Niter and prevent him from improving it. 

Seriously, so much untapped potential in this game to screw with your opponents through the wonderful combination of 1UPT and DoF's. 

Anyway, I expect the upgrade to come next turn. My military is finally all in position. If I can move in next turn, I'm ready to go. If not, I'll get a last chance to rearrange my units. I'm thinking about shifting units from the valley to Buenoes Aires and mounting my attack on the city sooner. Archduke moved his crossbow out of the city last turn, indicating he may be abandoning it. He is still building medieval walls though. 

The biggest threat continues to be his surviving army from his offensive against Singaboy. I can't find it. While I do have 950 power to his 400, a well placed Crossbow corps could really screw with the siege of Aachen, and I would rather be prepared for that possibility than be taken off guard. 

In the southeast, Singaboy has moved in on Frankfurt 2. I hope he doesn't take it too quickly and get ideas about turning back north towards Hattusa. Still, Dorium is a nightmare of a city to assault, from either direction, so he make retake his city then call it quits. 

In the west, Alhambram finished dropping Helices Defense's. He should take the city on t147/t148. I may have a race for Ithake on my hands. 

I would prefer not to go to war with Alhambram though, as I'm currently depending on him for 8 amenities per turn on the eve of racking up a lot of WW. I also tried to broker a deal with him for salt this turn. 



We shall see. I would rather stay on good terms with him as I need the amenities and I'm sure he appreciates the gold. 

In the midst of this all, Archduke managed to reach Merchant Republic. 



I'm honestly pretty impressed he managed it, although I would have guessed Monarchy would have been a better government for him at this point. Still, with Plato's Republic, he likely can run as many military cards as he want. I haven't noticed him slot in bastions yet. 

What's worrying me at the moment: 

1. Singaboy turning around to take Hattusa while I'm knee deep in Greece
2. Alhambram taking more than Helice, and facing the prospect of war with him to claim the Greek spoils but at the cost of my amenities from him. 
3. Archduke throwing all his armies against me around Mykenes, and giving up ground for free to Alhambram/Singaboy

I'm also vaguely worried about Woden attacking me when our alliance runs out, but that's probably an unfounded fear. He can't leave his border with Alhambram unguarded like that unless they get another DoF, and at this point, Alhambram is Woden's biggest obstacle to victory.

[oledavy]

Turn 147

So, turns out I don't get to declare war this turn. Not unexpected, but this wait is killing me. At least with our turn pace, I get to kick things off tonight instead of having to wait 24 hours. 

The question is now whether or not he'll get to fire first. I don't know if the DoF lasts through the turn, or ended when I hit end turn. 

Anyway, Mercantilism in!



The long awaited Triangular Trade is finally in play, for 28 GPT and 7 FPT. I also looked at Logistics for awhile, and ordinarily I would be sorely tempted, but it would only really help me for the first couple turns of the war, and my GG is already allowing me quite a bit of mobility. 

So, time for a new government. 



Raid in until I finish Humanism. I'm going to try and get as much raiding done in that period as possible. 

Trade Confederation out, Machiavellianism in. I'm building a spy in New York at 20 hammers per turn. Lacking TC costs me 14 GPT, but Machiavellianism saves me 10 hammers per turn. So, I'll keep it in while building the spy, then slot back into gold generation mode. I'm currently saving up with an eye on buying a bank into Hong Kong. 

The other possible place to sink my gold is in getting a pearl tile around Valley Forge. Amenities are my foremost concern at the moment, as this is likely to be a long war, and I'm working on scouts in most of my cities. The salt from Alhambram allowed me to delay taking Retainers a bit longer though, so I'm holding off on it until I finish Humanism. 

Other than that, I'm working on some infrastructure projects, but I'm otherwise really focused southward. Here's the final lineup: 



My final army comprises of 8 crossbows, 10 muskets, 1 knight, 1 battering ram, and 1 GG with another musket in production. Currently the largest military in the game, although Alhambram's military fully healed is roughly similar in size. I have better tech and a GG on him though. While everyone has or is on the cusp of muskets, I am the only one with field cannons. 

Archduke didn't upgrade a musket yet, but he did start walls in Mykenes. 

Helice continues to be ground down by Alhambram. I think it will fall this turn or the next. 

Woden has devised a really slick play to get his military up to snuff in a hurry. 



That's a great idea, and a great use of China's ability. I'm still waiting for him to throw down forts though. It seems Alhambram has had the same idea with a Military Engineer of his own. 

In the northeast, there is a barb camp that spotted Weehawken and is starting to spawn muskets. 



Shouldn't be able to take the city, and may be useful for culture down the road. 

Anyway, next turn, without a doubt, is the big one. Time to kick off the final war with Archduke. 

[Mardoc]

8 crossbows, 10 muskets, 1 knight, 1 battering ram, and 1 GG with another musket in production. Currently the largest military in the game, although Alhambram's military fully healed is roughly similar in size. I have better tech and a GG on him though. While everyone has or is on the cusp of muskets, I am the only one with field cannons. 

You mean 8 field cannon, not crossbows, I assume?

So now that you're kicking off and it's too late to matter: I don't understand why you built so many muskets instead of field cannon. Especially when you're going with such numbers, what's the value in having so many muskets who can't concentrate firepower the way that cannon can?

I have to admit, another major difference between you and I is that you've fought Civ6 wars and I haven't, after all .

[oledavy]

8 crossbows, 10 muskets, 1 knight, 1 battering ram, and 1 GG with another musket in production. Currently the largest military in the game, although Alhambram's military fully healed is roughly similar in size. I have better tech and a GG on him though. While everyone has or is on the cusp of muskets, I am the only one with field cannons. 

You mean 8 field cannon, not crossbows, I assume?

So now that you're kicking off and it's too late to matter: I don't understand why you built so many muskets instead of field cannon.  Especially when you're going with such numbers, what's the value in having so many muskets who can't concentrate firepower the way that cannon can?

I have to admit, another major difference between you and I is that you've fought Civ6 wars and I haven't, after all .

I do think I should have built a couple more. The issue was that I was limited in my ability to do so. Since just about every city built a crossbow that came out about the same time, to get even two more I would have needed a minimum of 5 turns to start a couple more from scratch in my highest production cities and get them out, delaying my completion of ballistics and timeline for upgrading. 

I ran the scenario above back around t135 and concluded if I wanted to finish a couple more crossbows and then upgrade, I would need to keep ballistics unresearched until about t144, and at the time, I believed my NAP ran out on t145 - so I nixed it for fear I would delay my invasion. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have double-checked the date, but I didn't think of it at the time. 

The other reason was that I underestimated the amount of gold I would have. At the moment, I could upgrade 3-4 more field cannons and  have enough gold to comfortably manage unit expenses. However, I got a GM that I thought I wouldn't giving me 200+ gold I didn't expect to have (I was expected the next GM to be industrial and not to even have him by now). 

I estimated around t135, I would have enough to upgrade 7-8 field cannons. Without Fugger, I would have had enough to upgrade 9-10 (I'm giving all these a range because I don't know how much gold I would want to sit on), so I low-balled myself there. 

And so, I built 8 crossbows instead of the 10 or so I was originally planning on and could easily upgrade into now. It was a combination of the unexpected opportunity in Fugger, lowballed faulty math with my GPT, and not checking the turn the NAP would come up.

Finally, the other reason I balanced myself towards muskets is that I am anticipating losing about half of them, while I don't anticipate losing more than 1 or 2 field cannons. While I have 11 muskets total, only 5 are at the front lines right now. If my muskets eat the losses I take like I expect them to, my reinforcing muskets will arrive just in time to take their place in the line. 

So yeah, I think that's about everything that went into my force composition decisions. With the benefit of hindsight, I definitely agree with you that I would like about 2 muskets replaced with field cannons. 

I'm not sure that experience is good for much, but I appreciate it just the same. I thought I had a lock on my last war, and with the benefit of hindsight I overlooked a number of critical details that should have led me to scrub the conflict. I'm a bit terrified I'm missing something here, but so far, so good. Still, Archduke has known I've been coming for a long time though, and may have some surprises. 

Still, I'll say, even though it was immensely disheartening at the time, I'm glad I lost the Second Pelepponesian War. If I had taken BA, I doubt Archduke would have gone after Singaboy. If he had not done that, I would not be as set to do what I'm about to do now. Tactically losing the last two wars has allowed me to finally break out of my strategic dilemma, as outlined numerous times in this thread. In the event that I have read the situation right and am about to become ascendant in the east, I hope it's not too late to matter.

[oledavy]

More details coming soon, but just a quick blurb

I took Mykenes. 

On the first turn of the war. 

4 field cannon shots, 1 musket attack, and the city was mine. 

To say I was not expecting that would be understating it. I was expecting a 3-4 turn siege of the city. Instead, I'm racing through Archduke's territory taking cities almost as soon as I look at them. Field cannons just rip his defenses to shreds. 

At this moment, I'm slightly terrified of my army's power and am simultaneously feeling drunk with power. We'll see if I can reign in my euphoria by the time I face real opposition, but for now, things couldn't be going better.

[oledavy]

Turn 148

Blood still pumping. It was a great start to the war. Here is the last shot of the battlefield before I kicked things off. 



Singaboy made peace for the city of Frankfurt 2, and Alhambram took Helice as expected but also unexpectedly took whatever Archduke's southwestern city. 

I will talk about this more later though. The international situation is evolving rapidly and I may need to take decisive action versus Alhambram or Singaboy sooner rather than later. For now though, Archduke is my target. 

He did get a loan between turns. 



This may make him significantly rougher to take down. Still, into the breach!



Notably, between turns there was no musket upgrade, nor were walls completing in Mykenes. It was basically the best possible scenario for me as the attacker. 

Needless to say, I'm not throwing away my shot. 



Four field cannon attacks and 1 musket attack was all it took. I didn't even need the other musket. 

And holy shit. Of all the scenarios I was expecting when I finally invaded this was not the one. 

Allow me a moment of cathartic relief/gloating here, with the understanding that I always feel guilty to have a role in the elimination of anyone, and that I have the utmost respect for Archduke as a player this game. 

He has been my bogeyman for over 100 turns now, from the moment he pillaged my trader, I've been in what I have felt like was an eternal war with him. Whether it was the turn I thought I lost Lafayette, or the turn during the last war when he mopped the floor with me, he has been a persistent and terrifying opponent. Taking his capital on turn 1 of my long planned war with him felt amazing. I feel like a giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders - fears of what Archduke may spring at least minute, fears that this plan wouldn't work. All are gone now. The war with Archduke is for all intents and purposes over already, it's now a fight to grab all the scraps I can. 

The granary was damaged, and the city didn't have a monument (or I burned it down), but I took both districts intact (including a barracks and armory in the encampment). My selection of Raid is looking worse and worse, as I made it when I was counting on a longer campaign during which I would have time to pillage tiles. Here, the choice is between taking the cities faster or stopping to pillage, and I'm opting for the former more often than not. Still, I will try to get some raiding in next turn. 6 pop survived. I set the city building a monument, and turned to moving my other units. 

Here is where they ended up. 



I played the rest of the turn in a bit of an unfocused euphoric bliss. It honestly felt like I was overruning an AI in single player. I cannot afford to think like that though. Archduke is down, but still very dangerous. More importantly, I have potential looming conflicts with Singaboy and Alhambram. I've won this battle, but the war is still a long way off. 

Still, I think one indulgent turn is earned at this point. 

At any rate, my war plans were predicated on encountering moderate to significant defensive elements, and having to besiege Mykenes for a few turns. I'm scrambling to take advantage of the unexpected victory at Mykenes. I'm basically splitting my forces into three components. The largest is heading west from Mykenes with my GG and taking Ithake, the most important target besides Archduke's capital. My eastern contingent, originally deployed to fight a battle on the plain that has not materialized, is moving to take Dorium. That force comprises of 3 muskets, 1 field cannon, and one battering ram. My remaining forces are laying siege to BA, who's defenses I completely dropped this turn. I may be able to take the city next turn, but I'm leaning towards taking some time to pillage. We'll see if he completes medieval walls, that would delay me a bit. 

Of note, the CH and Encampment in Mykenes have given me 2 new trade routes, bringing my total up to 9. I'm getting those traders out as soon as possible. I should be able to assign my trader that went to Archduke previously next turn. 

I still don't know where Archduke's army is, so I won't rule out having to fight hard for something down the line, but for now, it's all pretty straightforward. Mop up as many cities as I can as soon as I can. 

Here's the rub though. Singaboy is out of the war and doesn't have a DoF with me. His army consists of 3 muskets, 2 crossbows, 1 knight, and a battering ram (+ assorted outdated units). It's not huge, but it's enough to cause me trouble and/or attack Hattusa. There is a real risk now that he will try to take Hattusa or outright attack Hamilton, and I need to prepare for either possibility. If I go after him with my army, I should utterly annihilate him. However, my army is sid- tracked at the moment. This is his one chance to attack me without outside help. After this war, I will be too strong and will likely be able to destroy him at my leisure unless he's fighting me with one of the western players. On the other hand, we've had good relations since the Second Korean War, and he may count on those continuing. 

We'll see what he does, but I'm planning on rerouting units to the Hamilton area to make sure he can't seriously threaten me. 

I may ultimately end up being a victim of my own success here. My t1 capture of Mykenes will likely send shockwaves through the other capitals, and may make them seriously re-evaluate me as a threat. 

The other big unknown here is Alhambram. I depend on him for quite a few of my amenities right now, but he's taking cities from Archduke that I want. If he takes Ithake, we're going to have a major problem. At present, I may be able to tolerate his holdings along the coast - cities that can't be easily reinforced and I can take at any time. We shall see. His army is of similar size, but in terms of units he doesn't have anything that intimidates me. I'm probably the strongest I'll ever be in this game at this point, and I'm not afraid to pick a fight. 

Alhambram will likely play it safe if he can though. Woden is mobilizing, and it's more likely than not Alhambram is the target. Now, if I do earn a 3v1 dogpile on myself, I will be in a lot of trouble. However, Woden will still have immense difficulty in attacking me since that center highlands region works both ways, and has a much closer and more pressing threat in the form of Alhambram. Still, I can't afford to rule any possibility out. I need to be ready for anything.

[Zero_1627]

Again - go Hamiltonia!

It seems it's kind of a race now...

I'm vaguely pleased that non-military (and kind of scorned) victory condition (religion) proved to be viable and serious contender!

I'm NOT pleased about potential effects '1 UPT' rule has on peaceful activities. In war, for army movement, it's fine. But at peace (or even friendship!) - blocking city sites, preventing resource extraction/improvements, blocking civilian units? That's simply Not Good in my book.

[oledavy]

In regards to 1 UPT shenanigans - I think it's the best argument for not signing endless DoFs. Fear of them is one reason I have been more reluctant to sign them with people of late. 

Turn 149

Two turns, two cities. 



The medieval walls were not complete, so I rolled over the city with a musket and two field cannon shots. 

I was able to pillage a quarry and a mine before taking the city, for a cool 50 science and 50 culture. The doubled yields from those two pillages alone justify my decision to take Raid versus Trade Confederation. 

Unfortunately, I made my first mistake this turn. 



Found his army!

But that musket is dead. 

Dorium is a tough city to attack, especially with him siting 2 crossbows on the northern approaches to the cities. The only way to take the city for me is with a GG and 4 field cannons. I need to array the field cannons west of the lake, then push in with muskets. Needless to say, this city is probably going to be the last one I take. For now, my priority is Ithake. 



I set myself up to one-shot Ithake (barring a surprise) next turn. The important thing is not to leave is not to leave it barely alive for Alhambram to take and possibly burn. I need that Industrial Zone to get the Eureka for Civil Engineering. 

The other possibility I need to be aware of is Alhambram declaring on me and immedietly moving to take the city after I take it. Caution is my watchword here. Provided the attack goes well and I don't end up fighting Alhambram immedietly, I will leave a holding force and move my units south to take Dorium and Archduke's southernmost city. 

The southwestern coastal city is in the process of being taken by Alhambram - a third reason to consider war with him. 

Meanwhile, in Alhambram's lands: 



That's a ton of encampments. It looks like he's gearing up for a war of defense in depth. I wish I could have gotten that many encampments down this game - but there may be time yet 

As an aside, even though I captured 2 intact encampments, neither is giving me a trade route yet. I'm betting they don't because they're occupied. As such, while my TR capacity should be at 10, it's currently at 8. 

Alright, international events. 

Singaboy offered me a DoF. I thought about it for awhile before coming back and hitting accept. Singaboy is not a large threat, but war with Alhamabram is looking more and more likely. I would prefer to only fight one war at a time if possible, and where once I was considering rolling on to Singaboy directly after my war with Archduke, that possibility is looking less likely now. He's not a major threat, but he still does have an army, and DoFing him would remove him from the equation and allow me to fight on one front in the worst case scenario. With this in mind, I signed the DoF. 

The risk of course is that he may go for Hattusa. It's a crappy city, but it's still a free city. Still, he may not - he has to know how important the city is for me and that taking it would earn my eternal ire. Preslav is a total peach of a city by comparison. I thought of the solution to ensure his good behavior after I sent the turn on. I'm spamming scouts! I can just send three cheap scouts to surround the city and ensure he can't attack it. I wish I had come up with this solution before I sent the turn on, but with any luck they'll still get there in time. 

Woden hooked up sugar and asked me for 150 gold for it. I shot him back a deal of my newly captured coffee for the sugar. I would like the amenities a lot - it would reduce my dependence on Alhambram. The question is whether he really needs the gold at the moment or not. 

I hooked up another wines this turn and offered it to Alhambram for 4 GPT. A fair trade in line with our previous deals. As soon as Ithake falls, hopefully to me, and my situation in the west looks secure, I will likely denounce Alhambram to open up the possibility of a causus belli war. Woden should also take it for the cue it is. Their NAP comes up very soon, and I'm watching Woden's lands carefully for signs of what he might do. 

He did finish the Colossus this turn. 

Finally, I bought a builder at home in Valley Forge. It will mine -> chop -> chop to get the harbor out quickly. That harbor, combined with the entertainment district in Hong Kong and the IZ in Ithake, will bring me up to 7 districts for the Civil Engineering Inspiration. Civil Engineering is critical for 2 reasons. For one, it has the ultimate builder civic, which will in turn allow me to cram out a massive round of builders soon to rebuild Archduke's empire and improve my new cities. Second, it gives all my cities 200 defenses, and will make me extremely difficult to attack for quite some time. 

Otherwise, my cities are building a mix of scouts, districts, buildings, and a spy. the Athens trade route came up this turn and I moved it to Weehawken to start growing it in the same manner I'm growing Valley Forge and Angelica with TR's. 

At any rate, I'm going to try and spend a lot of time with the next turn so something else like the scout -> Hattusa solution doesn't escape me until afterwards. I need to navigate the front with Alhambram very carefully, and make sure that if I do go to war with him, I'm on the right side of the 2v1. 

Oh, last note, Woden renamed his capital Monsanto. I'm guessing because he's a weed killer these days 

Also, calling right now. Woden is about to get an apostle out to grab Defender of the Faith.

[oledavy]

Turn 150

The deeper I get into this game, the less I feel like I have any clue what I'm doing. We're definitely getting towards uncharted territory now boys and girls. 

What happened between turns? 



Archduke killed my musket, and Alhambram toom Zaycnthusgrad. I do kinda like his campy naming scheme, I must say. 

Woden accepted my deal, and Alhambram reoffered the deal I offered him back (4gpt for wines)

At present, I'm trading:

Coffee for Truffles (Alhambram)
Coffee for Sugar (Woden)
4 GPT for Silver (Alhambram)
4 GPT for Salt (Alhambram)
Wines for 4 GPT (Alhambram)

Anyway, it's the third turn of the war, you know what that means. 



Alhambram doesn't look like he wanted to seriously contest me for the city. He did, however, pillage the commercial hub 

At least the trade route still works. 

The city gave me my first IZ, getting me that much closer to Civil Engineering. 

So, now the million dollar question, do I denounce Alhambram and begin the countdown to war? 

I spent 15 minutes explaining the multitude of factors that feed into this decision to my girlfriend, and I won't bother to replicate the long form version here. In sum though, I'm deferring the decision for at least 5 turns, at which point I need to make a firm decision. The temptation is strong to strike while the iron is hot. I feel like I could take him, it would encourage Woden, and it would allow me to take those coastal cities and get them de-occupied by killing of Archduke after I take them. Once I kill off Archduke, they go to Alhambram, and they'll stay occupied for me unless I can get Alhambram to cede them. 

However, every turn Archduke is alive is a turn I lose massive amounts of productivity from his former core. Woden is making 100 science per turn now, so I'm on the clock. The coastal cities can't have more than 12 population between them, as opposed to the 17 I already have in my three (with 2 more cities to come). Moreover, I want to see what Woden is going to do before committing. So, while we're not signing a DoF with Alhambram and will be vigilantly watching the border, for now I'm leaving him be. 

If Woden does indeed attack him, I will attack Alhambram's Greek conquests while his army is away fighting the Chinese. They aren't going to get any easier for him to hold against me in the interim, not against a sustained campaign. The missed opportunities are taking them before killing Archduke and not taking them before he gets Civil Engineering. But, I may revisit this decision in a few turns, when I reach the point of no return on whether I can land the Nationalism Inspiration or not. 

Who knows though, Woden may just sit like he has all game. If his science rate is better, and he gets Defender of the Faith, does he really need to attack Alhambram? And Alhambram is about to get cossacks. With a religious victory out of the realm of possibility, the onus may be on him to make something happen. I really can't read who has the advantage over there, because it's difficult for me to quantify the relative values of Weedy Movement and Norse Mythology. 

I do think my decision to burn hard to take out Archduke and get my new cities online is a sound one though. I pulled even with Woden in pop this turn (76), and all of mine have more buildings and districts. What's holding me back right now is that occupation penalty. Once I eliminate Archduke, my economy is going to explode. 

My empire at the end of the turn. 



I'm going to try and wrap up the war with Archduke over the next ten turns. All the while keeping a close eye on things to the west and adjusting my foreign policy accordingly. I'm right now working on setting up all the Eurekas and inspirations I can. 3 scouts are inbound to Hattusa, so my eastern neighbor situation is under control for now. 

I out thought myself on Retainers. I won't need them. Ithake/Theodosia had tea, and jade under the city tile. Additionally, I'm apparently getting a 4th niter from somewhere that I can't find. Anyway, combined with the luxuries I'm getting from Woden and Alhambram, and the relative lack of war weariness I'm facing, amenities are not currently an issue. I really regret buying a scout now. 

Still, we live and learn. I may yet need to flip into retainers, so I will keep my 7 scouts and Hoplite around in the interim (+1 Hoplite near completion in Hamilton). Even if they never serve anything more than sentries/tile blockers, they were cheap. 

The game is changing rapidly at this point, and that mistake was a result of me sticking to a previously determined plan in light of acquiring more luxuries through trading and incurring less war weariness than I thought. I need to be more flexible and adaptive to in game events in the coming turns, or I will do something that costs me far more than a couple hundred hammers. 

No though, I just really want to know what Woden and Alhambram are thinking right now. I feel like I could take them in a potential 2v1 at present, but I would falter in a prolonged war. It won't be long before they have cavalry. Right now I'm burning hard for Flight and Replaceable parts. I need to start saving up gold again before too long so I can upgrade muskets to Infantry. I also need to figure out what production modifier a military academy gives to corps and armies. 
Anyway, exciting times! I still can't believe how well this war has gone.  

[oledavy]

Turn 151

The Enlightenment has begun, giving me the Scientific Method Eureka.



Liberalism is not terribly useful to me at the moment, as only 6 cities (3 of them occupied) would benefit. Free Market is close to worthless for me (+6 GPT). I did, however, end up adopting Rationalism. 



I only have a library at the moment, but with a university and library about to finish, it will net me a grand total of 36 science over the next 6 turns. Once I get a few more science buildings out, Rationalism will be in pretty much every government though. Likewise, once I get a few more districts complete/I lose access to luxuries, I will slot into Liberalism on a more or less permanent basis.

At the moment, I have 9 luxuries, and if Woden agrees to this trade (which I can't imagine why he won't, since he needs gold right now)...




...I'll have 10.

 I actually sat down for quite awhile trying to do the math on various policies, including the daunting +5% yields in 6 cities (although I had to guess on which 6 cities they might be). At any rate, I was pretty sure the 36 science from Rationalism came out ahead of most of its competitors, especially since science is at a premium for me right now. I would be lying if I said I was sure though. It would be so much easier if you could control where amenities went...for example, it may not have actually been +5% in 6 cities, as a number of cities already have +1 and it may have just taken them up to the bonus-less +2 level.  

Anyway, enough mulling over it. 

In the mid-term, I will be tailing Woden in science. But, while we both have 3 campuses right now, I have 4 more under construction at the moment. Long-term, I should be set. I just need to make sure I'm not overrun the the interim. Cavalry will be here soon. 

I'm also trying to make sure to leave district slots open for aerodomes. They will be here before you know it. 



All those finished Russian Encampments mean he's burning hard for the next GG. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he's running some encampment projects right now. A Cossack army led by a GG sounds terrifying. Hopefully I'm not the target though. If it seems I might be, I'm going to crush his coastal enclave while I still have the advantage and force him to come through a narrow chokepoint or attack over water if he wants to get at me. 

Woden is gearing up too.



If I was a betting man, that apostle is going to grab him defender of the faith. He finished expelling Weedy Movement from his lands this last turn. 

Additionally, he is about to finish Terracotta Army. 

Both of them are saving gold. 

I really hope they do attack each other, it would be the final major domino that needs to fall to put me back in serious contention this game. But, I can't rule out the possibility that both sign yet another DoF and attack me instead. 

Back in the south: 



I got eyes on his army around his southermost city as I continue to maneuver around Dorium. Depending on what's in the fog, that lead musket might be toast, but it would almost certainly leave a couple units open for me to hit with cannons on the counterattack. Other than a couple muskets and a cannon guarding my new border with Alhambram, all my units are heading down here. The 2 muskets and 4 field cannons in this western contingent should be enough to push in on their own without waiting for the rest of the army, but if I start taking more than a loss or two, I'll pull back, redeploy, and advance en masse. 

I'm willing to sacrifice up to about 2 muskets if it means a swifter end to the war and getting all his cities online sooner rather than later, but not if it looks like I'm going to lose a field cannon or if pressing forward would mean feeding my army piecemeal into a meat grinder. At present though, the battle has not really been joined. Still, moving blindly into unmapped terrain is not fun at all, even against outdated units. I really think I might bring a settler along for extra vision next time. 

Also of note, I got vision on Abydos this turn. It only has 1 pop, meaning that taking the 3 coastal cities from Alhambram would probably net me about 6 pop total (guestimating losses), and 2 districts. Yeah, I think I would rather kill Archduke first, as waiting longer to take him out just so I can get those tiny cities unoccupied would not be worth the lost economic outputs from his former core.