[PB37 SPOILER] Coeurva, Bacchus -- Cyrus of Carthage

[Bacchus]

The trade route icon shows up next to Gavagai's name on the scoreboard... but we still lack contact with him.
That takes into account the tiles HE scouted too, as far as I know.

[Bacchus]

I have to say it's awfully nice of him to found Atlantic City for us. I agree that we should be able to prevent him from stuffing the city full of spears, and just pick off axes with chariots. After which we could well proceed to take the capital too, as he will have no army. Unenviable position.

I do hope he will also put nets on that fish for us :D

EDIT: The awful research rate is awful, but slowly we will get there. Just another 5-8 turns in the financial gutter.

[Coeurva]

CivStats shows an increase of 12 score points for Krill right after logging in, and that can only mean one thing.

I'm curious what he took. Probably not Monarchy, since CHM should carry him to size 10 anyway, but that leaves a lot of options. HBR? Maths? Alpha? Metal Casting? Aesthetics into SoZ (dear god)?

I have to say it's awfully nice of him to found Atlantic City for us.

I think his plan was to deny Sicil's second-ring tiles... perhaps? Or he thought he could easily hold this city with his seven axes (I missed the opportunity to rename Vermin "Thebes", dammit -- but we never had seven axes of our own, anyway). I wonder if he forgot that barracks provide +1 culture in Krillmod.

I agree that we should be able to prevent him from stuffing the city full of spears, and just pick off axes with chariots. After which we could well proceed to take the capital too, as he will have no army. Unenviable position.

It will be difficult to take his capital, as it produces at least 9 hpt, can be whipped into the ground and will see reinforcements from the Stonehenge city, and axes will only draw fortified axes as the top defenders. We might well be able to pillage, though, if we can force his spears to hold still inside the city. We can't cut off his copper -- he has two sources (one of them vulnerable to a naval assault, though).

Our mid-term chances are another story. Now that the Oracle has fallen, CML will be hard pressed to find a counter to 2XP NumCav.

I do hope he will also put nets on that fish for us :D

Clams :/ -- but yeah, it would be appreciated nonetheless. I think he'll try to chop a spear instead, though.

Even taking Atlantic City isn't a certainty, but we have good chances. The annoying part is waiting for this city to hit size2.

[Coeurva]

T74.

I hate myself. I didn't move the second chariot into Ignis for a dumb reason. Savant has a 50/50 chance to raze this city now. We're 1t away from moving the spear into it, 1t away from whipping a spear inside the city (Savant is second to play), 1t away from popping borders to kick his chariot out, and should have two chariots inside the city. It feels as though I was being taunted for my mistake, as none of that matters if Savant simply decides to attack and wins the coin flip against our own chariot (his Sentry chariot sits 88 of the city). Judging from Savant making about a dozen posts in a row yesterday, he's definitely considering this possibility. Hooray!

The only amusing aspect is that razing Ignis will arguably help our economy (and we could still produce the GSci at Whitehall). I hope that our Power spike (we're Rival Best for him at 94,000 soldiers, and he can see the 85,000 spike in the graphs) deters him, but probably not. His work boat can also see that Whitehall is empty.

We've also killed yet another CML axe (chariots can actually attack the city from inside Vermin... at 90.9% odds, no less; covered it with three axes) and both his warriors at Rhapsody, gaining a Great General (Chandragupta Maurya), but I don't really care about that now. CML actually shot us a peace offer, but I declined -- if he threw in Atlantic City, I'd take it. I don't know if city cession is allowed, though.

Bacchus, any ideas on what to do with Mr. Maurya? I'd rather have had Seleucus and traded Ignis for 500 war elephants.

EDIT: My hope is that Savant is in a split with Gavagai and doesn't want to risk an attack, but this is all stupid regardless. On my part, of course. Can't exactly blame Savant or anyone else for making the best decisions in a game about making the best decisions.

[Bacchus]

Remember, a bunch of Savant's power is Barracks. If he goes for a 50-50 against a power-superior state with a Great General (and CHM), I think he should get exactly what he is asking for -- a tilted destruction of his game in return. Morale Axe plus a bunch of chariots which we already have can do wonders in forking and pillaging. I mean, taking a coin-flip on not actually gaining anything, just pissing us off, what sort of neighbourly behaviour is that. (For the same reason, we HAD to expect CML to do something exactly like he did in response to our actions, and I only advocated aggression because I felt we can take in our stride whatever CML throws at us).

But yeah, don't do stupid things like that. What was the dumb reason?

[Coeurva]

Wanted to move a different unit (Avoirdupois) back into the capital, but had the chariot selected. I.e. playing turns when really wanting to do something else.

[Bacchus]

Yeah, that happens. Civ6, incidentally, won't even let you select another unit until you move whatever it wants you to move. Causes so much pain.

On the general, let's have a think for a while. It could be, given that we are unlikely to war against Savant, that he is actually better spent as an instructor. But putting him on a Numid cavalry for a free upgrade to an insanely promoted knight is also a possibility. And of course a massive chariot medic.

Maybe the sexiest thing to do would be to wait until we have some numids, and join it to a stack, to give the numids c2-march, and a chariot medic3. A mobile stack that heals 25% after attacking sounds terrifying.

[Coeurva]

1UPT and not selecting the order in which units move? That sounds painful indeed. Might as well drive through Hamburg and get the same experience.

Barracks + stables + Military Instructor = 6XP NumCav (promote at 2, 4, 8). If we were playing Mongolia, this option would be outstanding, but we're not. Still, considering that our chariots gain 3XP from 91% battles, earning that third promotion one battle sooner could prove useful. If we can pick up the copper mine, and I don't think CML can prevent it, Vermin can build Numidian Cavalry in 4t without whipping (15 hpt).

We have a 5XP C1 chariot waiting on promotion (I promoted the other to Shock, allowing it to heal and strike at CML again next turn -- would have taken 3t otherwise); this one could take Medic I without the GG already. It's currently at 1.4 str, covered with three axes, 7 of Atlantic City.

We could take the promo that gives double experience (was it called Leadership?), use it on a chariot for the free upgrade, and defer the choice while saving XP for other units. It shouldn't be difficult for that unit to reach 17XP.

I like the March-promoting plan as well, but C2-March should be possible on NumCav without consuming the GG, by building stables in the relevant cities (Vermin, Rhapsody, Sicil), since we only need 4XP to promote twice.

[Bacchus]

Typo, it's C3-March. C1 native, c2 from barracks, c3 from stables, and then a smattering of 3xp from GG to get to 8 and March. And in fact we could just take one of these numids and make him into Medic3 instead. Kinda sad that it's trickier to get a battle-hardened chariot there than to build a new unit.

Also, could a genlurker please opine on whether us asking for peace and Atlantic City is legal?

[Bacchus]

Of course, we could also go full retard with Colloseums and Feudalism and just build March numids from scratch.