Where to will Singaboy steer the Teutonic power?

[Singaboy]

T161:
War it is! In a somewhat surprising move (maybe not), Alhambram declares war on Woden. Maybe this is a surprise attack. It seems, all have denounced each other and Alhambram confident enough to strike Woden. He certainly has the military power. His strength (1600) is almost triple that of mine (600+).

oledavy suggests open border, but I wouldn't see a single reason why that could be beneficial to me. he is blocking Hattusa and roams about with his scouts. I got enough of his nonsense. I am not ready to strike at all though. This is the last turn of ballistics and I can now trigger the tech once I built a second fort. The military engineer will finally be done next turn. Two additional crossbows will come online next turn too.




The southern builder connects the wines, which I offer Alhambram in another exchange for a luxury. We have quite some good trades going there. I hope he will keep his luxuries. The bombards are moving towards Seoul, where they will be stationed as a welcome party for oledavy and to take on Hattusa troops should they want to enter my territory.
Seoul has its encampment done in 3 turns. Mainz is now going for a water mill for faster growth to be able to produce settlers while not shrinking in size. Frankfurt is going for a builder, but for only 1 turn, before it goes for a CH, once the tile has been claimed by Aachen.



Military production in Ulm, Koblenz and Aachen (next turn) will go for more crossbows and muskets before the war will start in 17 turns or a little earlier in case I have an alliance with Alhambram.

It will take now 20 turns to reach cavalry, so maybe I am still alive in 20 turns to actually be able to upgrade a few horsemen, which will be built in Aachen and Seoul in future. Not sure where to get the gold from though.

[Singaboy]

I have been thinking about the next moves for a bit. With the other three seemingly starting an all out war soon (Alhambram already at war with Woden and hitting one of his cities), there is a chance that all three will be fighting each other soon. Maybe oledavy will hit Woden or try his luck with Alhambram or vice versa. It seems, everything is possible.

Now, I am locked in friendships with all of them. However, I am only interested in an alliance with Alhambram (being an ally with oledavy would only mean utter destruction once he achieved his goals in the west). I have been trading with Alhambram for a bit now and I assume soon more luxuries etc might be available.

In case a full war breaks out between all of them, it might be the small window I have to inflict some damage on oledavy before going down in flames. Ideally I would love to take Hattusa and raze his capital. Far fetched I know. If he is fighting in the west, his armies might be too far away.

What do I need to do to be ready for war? And what are the exact mechanics if I send an alliance to Alhambram? The whole thing can only work if oledavy and Alhambram are fighting each other. A Woden-oledavy war wouldn't help me to get out of the DoF prematurely. So, first of all, I will have 5 crossbows next turn. 4 of them can be moved towards Hattusa, where they can join 3 muskets and 1 knight currently. In the meantime, Koblenz, Ulm and Aachen will produce more crossbows. Ideally, at the start of the war, I will have 8 crossbows, 5 muskets and 1 knight. Whatever gold I have to upgrade will be used to upgrade most of them.
This means, next turn, I will move the military engineer to drop a fort close to Aachen (I doubt forts have much value in the face of field cannons). Might drop one close to Aachen to bolster troops to defend. After that, the engineer can move to Ulm and drop another fort nearby Ulm. Dropping the fort will trigger ballistics and the ability to build crossbows. Hence, it would be great to get 3 additional crossbows in around 4-5 turns. At the same time, the mil. engineer should be in position to build the second fort.

Now for the tricky part. The turn I drop the second fort, gain ballistics and upgrade my crossbows, I will need to send the alliance request to Alhambram. However, it will take effect only the turn after and means that oledavy and Woden have 1 turn to react. That is not ideal. How do I get Alhambram to send me an alliance request the turn before I need it? Without full diplomacy, this seems entirely impossible, unless I send him a trade indicating the turns with a coin. However, for him to read it in a way, that it means to send an alliance request is frankly, pretty delusional.
On top of that, I actually have no clue, whether his request would result in automatic war with oledavy (if they are at war).

Does anyone here know the mechanics of an alliance? Maybe I can find something on the topic.

Regardless of all the nitty gritty, the war will mean the end of my game in the short term, rather than long term. I am certain, the technological advantage of the others will just grind my inferior units down pretty fast. The goal here is to inflict maximum pain.

[Singaboy]

By the way, my own research into the topic has just shown me that 'aliiances' do nothing to war declarations. This means, that allies would not follow into that unless you have a 'joined war' agreement. Alliances are only giving 'open borders' as well as the chance to do research agreements.

If that's true, I will have to wait for T178 for a DoF to end with oledavy.

[Singaboy]

T162:

Woot, Alhambram has declared war on oledavy. With my limited recon capabilities, I am not sure how both wars are going. I am eagerly awaiting scores to military strengths to drop to more bearable levels. Two DoFs ran out and Woden immediately denounces me. I guess he wants to declare war on me for a Eureka. Never mind, I might cross his plans. I need to read up on this.

Alhambram yet again agrees on my trade proposal. He want to send me yet another luxury for 4gpt, but I can't really afford that with the mounting cost for my army. Sadly, I need to decline it. However I send him the renewal of DoF.




Yeah yeah yeah, cocky Woden


I get two additional crossbows this turn, Koblenz starts another (4 turns). Seoul is still on its encampment, done in two turns. This will also add additional 6 hammers to production of muskets or crossbows. Mainz is almost done with its water mill. I will start either a settler or builder there. I will need to swap policies soon in order to get 5 builder charges. This would be in exchange with Colonization. Ulm goes for a builder in between, but wills swap to a market to keep the cash flow positive. Aachen starts another crossbow (3 turns). The beauty is that the tile between Frankfurt and Aachen has been claimed and Frankfurt has dropped a CH there with an immediate effect (CH doesn't have to be finished) on Aachen's and Frankfurt's Hansa. 16 hammers a turn for Aachen is nice. Together with Preslav's unit production support, the city is making 47 hammers a turn (display not updated this turn). This means, with Feudal Contract, the city makes 70 hammers a turn for melee or ranged units. Considering, that Aachen doesn't even have great tiles to work with for production, this shows the power of Germany.
 


For civics, btw, I am aiming for Mercantilism and triangular trade, which would boost my income again. It will take a while though to get there, unfortunately, especially with Eurekas out of reach here.

[Singaboy]

I checked on Eurekas. No wonder Woden is keen to denounce me when we have no common borders and are far from each other to inflict any damage (and he must be busy fighting Alhambram). In order to get Eureka for nationalism, you denounce and declare war 5 turns later. I understand now why these guys denounced each other previously.

Due to me playing against an inept AI or AW, I wasn't really aware of that Eureka before this game. The later we get into the game, the more opaque all this gets. This might also explain my blunder on printing as a per-requisite for Cavalry.

Well, I shall declare war on Woden on T166 then, denying him the pleasure of a Eureka.

[Singaboy]

T163:
Besides Alhambram accepting my DoF, nothing much is happening. Woden has lost a city in the west and I am sure the war there must be exciting. Woden's military strength dropped to 1200, while Alhambram's remained at the same high 1500+. oledavy's strength has been at 950 for a while now and he seems to be pounding one of the former Greek southern towns. My military strength is now 680 and will increase. Especially, the turn I am upgrading my crossbows, there should be quite a jump. Not yet though, there are still more than 10 turns left.

Mainz with its new water mill is now in sync for producing yet another settler, done in 5 turns together with city growth. The capital Aachen, as reported, makes now a staggering amount of hammers. With crossbows costing 180 hammers, I can do then in under 3 turns (75*3 with a big overflow). I am going to use that overflow for a quick 1 turn monument to boost culture a little more.



My hope is that Alhambram continues to pound Woden so hard, that oledavy gets scared to lose the game via religion. I need oledavy to commit his troops in the west or I will be overrun in no time come T178. Of course, if Alhambram takes out Woden, he wins via religion, but that is a risk I have to take. I can't win this game anyway, but a strong oledavy is my demise, so I need Alhambram to keep oledavy busy.Let's see what happens in the coming turns.

[Commodore]

Why upgrade your crossbows next turn?

[Mardoc]

Why upgrade your crossbows next turn?

I read him as saying the exact opposite here:

Especially, the turn I am upgrading my crossbows...Not yet though, there are still more than 10 turns left.

I read that as 'I'm not as far behind as the Power number suggests but not doing the upgrade til the last minute'.

[Singaboy]

Mardoc is correct. Of course, I won't upgrade my crossbows now. First of all, I leave the military engineer with 1 charge delaying ballistics. I do not want to lose the ability to build crossbows. I will have easily 10 crossbows before the war with oledavy starts. Currently, I have 6 muskets and expand on them too. I will have such an army to easily crash my economy. Hence, I need to delay upgrading as long as possible.
It is a balancing act between economic buildings and a bigger army. I will go all out on building military units once the war is under way as I will surely lose a lot of units to oledavy's much better army. My goal can only be to raze and replace Hattusa and then inflict as much damage as possible on oledavy to convince him , the war is not worth the effort.

He needs to expand east to consolidate his lead. But, if it is too painful for him, he might have second thoughts. Anyway, in the end, I will surely go down in flames.

[Singaboy]

T164:
Seoul finished its encampment and starts a crossbow (5 turns). This will be crossbow #8 with the others being produced in Aachen and Koblenz. Looking at Aachen, there will be a huge overflow next turn as I am at 175/180 hammers. That means that 70 hammers overflow will result in an instant monument. Of course, that will slow the next musket/crossbow a little, but that's fine for the +2 culture I will gain. I want to get triangular trade fast to support my economy. However, currently, it takes 4+13 turns to get mercantilism. A little late for the war, which will start on turn 178/179. Let's see whether this can be shortened a little bit.
I am planning to produce another crossbow in Aachen and use the next overflow for a market there to support my economy. As other cities finish their economic/other builds, they can start supporting unit builds too. Ulm is finishing a market next turn and can then go for a musket, for example.



My first settler is on the was to the southeastern coast and will be able to settle in 4 turns. The second settler, produced in Mainz (4 turns) will replace Hattusa.

On the international front, Woden is losing the war it seems. His military strength dropped to 1100 while Alhambram seems to not lose units and not getting injured or at the very least, replaces his losses adequately as his strength is still 1500. oledavy is about to take a southern Greek city from Alhambram. I do wish to see a faster meltdown of Woden to get oledavy into panic mode. Please throw your units west, pretty.

Woden comes up with a weird present. He gives me one of his luxuries, 2 turns after denouncing me? Maybe he is trying to tell me, "hey Buddy, I will declare war on you but it's all fine." Well, whatever, this is not working with me and I shall declare war in 2 turns to cross your plans on a Eureka