[SPOILERS] How do you make this thing work: Krill randomly mashes some buttons

[Krill]

Archers took off 21+15 health, so dropped the horseman to about 51hp. The slinger is on a forest hill and is therefore about 11 strength, the horseman is at 31 (or is it the slinger gets +2 due to the warrior adjacent to the horseman?) Either way, if the slinger is attacked it will not be one shot and it has a promotion, and then I clean up the horseman. If the horseman pillages, it can only attack the warrior (which is at 27/45XP) and then it dies to three ranged attacks. If it runs off it can only run to the horse, in which case I ping it with the archer, and move the newly built sword to intercept and then kill it. If it runs past the iron and heads to CS then it will delay the Campus.

The citrus is hooked, so completing Myst end of turn to revolt to aforementioned civic cards, the horse is will enter borders in 5 turns, and could be pastured. I might be forced to pasture the horse simply because it's the only pasture I can get quickly enough for the HBR eureka.

Just waiting on next turn and for when Jester finally comes to the conclusion that peace might not be the worst idea ever.

Also, retreated the archer in reply to Jester retreating his archer. I have nothing to support the archer. Sending units in unsupported is...not smart.

[Krill]

The analysis is straightforward now: I hope Jester pillages the iron and attacks the warrior, that gives me an extra 18 culture (3 turns worth, woo), and I can repair the tile for limited cost. The attack on Kandy is delayed, but that's not too difficult to deal with. If I can get two more attacks, one on each archer, then I will have three promoted archers and a promoted slinger, and I'll have the GG next turn.

If I dump the GG onto a unit, I'm thinking of promoting one archer to Garrison and then giving it the GG to take Incendiaries to help with attacking Kandy. If I take Kandy, then I can swing around the north and then the lack of units for Jester will start to show. So...if I can keep the pressure on, I'm pretty sure that I have a window to push out two settlers.

Also, the scout in CS is only for this turn: I will finish the campus when safe, overflow out the produciton that is not affected by hte modifiers for the settler to finish the scout in 2 turns total, and then carry on with the settler. I need to finish the settler in CS after I finish the settler in VV as VV is slower producer. VV will overflow out about 8ish production, so if I just accept that I won't get the modifiers on that, I should be able to finish the settler from VV in about 8 turns. CS would hit the limit in about 7 turns, so the delay on the scout and campus build is helpful. EF continues with the granary...and I think I need to be worried by the shitty culture output. Alhambram is last with 9.9

[Krill]

I'll always love turns like this, in any civ game that is vaguely balanced. They are some of the most fun turns to play, it's a puzzle like no other.




The injured horse is at 51hp. The injured archer on the iron is at 47hp, I know that because that is the one ambushed earlier. The injured archer near VV is the one that got hit by both cities much earlier still. I have a mil score of 181, Dave is at 131. We both have 2 envoys in Kandy, and the GG (Hannibal) is recruited this turn. I can revolt civics and need to pick another tech and civic to research.

What do you do?

[Krill]

OK, thoughts:

That horseman is dead. I'm not concerned about the why right now (First thoughts are that Jester considers the delay in me building further swords benefits him more than hte loss of one horseman, which suggests he thinks I'm about to smash him when I'm not planning to invade).

That archer is bait. Too obvious, as Jester must know that my archer is on the rainforest tile (he has vision of everything else). He has shifted the 1 promo archer from the sheep, so the archer that was on the rainforest has moved to the copper. That means there could be a new unit on the sheep, and 131 pop rating would suggest continued unit production.

But I have the GG now, so do I have an opportunity to spring the trap, killing that archer and still getting my archer out alive (or can I kill more units for an exchange?) I need more information, so the obvious choice is to pull the GG and move the hoplite 9.

At this point, this is what I see:




This gets a bit complicated. I now know I made a mistake last turn and should have moved the sword in the encampment onto the wine, as it is I'm not sure if I can kill the copper archer next turn on attack, before it can attack twice to kill my promoted archer (although if it does, I would definitely kill it but I'm not sure if I would lose any further units in reprisal).

[Krill]

OK, what happens if I move the archer forward? It gets twatted by the copper archer, but the horseman couldn't reach the archer and attack. The injured rainforest archer can't attack either...but if the horseman doesn't run onto the grassland aadjacent to the copper, I can block that tile with my sword, retreat my archer and it's safe. That puts the sword at risk, but hte sword can take a bit of punishment for a single turn, then retreat via the rainforest my archer is currently on...or more likely fuck up the archer if Jester leaves it on that tile.

OK, let's take some time and think about this as an option...

[Krill]

OK, going for it. The question is then what do I do with the hoplite? Can it survive two archer attacks and a horseman? Probably not, and if it did it would be close to death, so it must be retreated into the city. If Jester goes for the archer with the horseman, and I think that is his only horseman at this point, I'll be able to break up his line of archers, potentially kill them and definitively march on the iron city.





I used the slinger to finish off the horseman, gave up the XP. The archer on the iron is dead, and if the horseman doesn't move now it will not get an opportunity to attack the archer. Unless Jester Suzerains Kandy so they declare war, but I'm not expecting him to do that. Could be wrong though. Dropped the envoy from Myst into Hattusa for double envoys, revolted civic cards, new envoy in 7 turns. He has a defensive line in place, moving the horseman breaks that. Finishing the campus this turn will push me to 15 SPT, scout next turn then onto the settler as hoped. I think I will actually improve the horse after fixing the iron (costs one turn on having the horse, but doesn't change the turn of chopping the forest for the watermill overflow).

The envoys in Hattusa are actually safe as long as I stay at war, so it begs the question, should I consider peace at all with Jester? If war stops him from removing Hattusa, but I am still able to take Kandy, what is the benefit of peace given Jesters actions and propensity to throw away units for no cost? So far I have lost one warrior. I've killed a warrior, archer and two horseman.





I'm still working through district placement at the moment. Part of hte reason I've changed my mind about hte horse is that I'm considering removing the cow at CS and placing an IZ there with up to 5 mines, or maybe 4 mines and two IZ adjacent, or maybe 3 mines, and IZ and Campus in a triangle with the campus next to the mountains...anyway, I feel better about science, and I suppose I could drop down an Acropolis if I'm really worried about culture. it's not like the war isn't helping with that problem.

[Krill]

Also the new GG is Aethelred. I thought briefly about selling Caravansaries and keeping Strategos, but I decided I need the gold at the moment, likely to need the gold to buy two tiles from n the new cities. Probably get to plan around two swaps to use land surveyors and into Strategos in the next set of swaps.

[Krill]

Looks like I got away with the archer kill.

I'm going to take a risk though, and see what else I can get.




Baiting Jester to go for the injured archer, but it's also the better tile for the archer to heal on than the rain forest. I don't think he can kill it but I could be wrong. Most likely outcome is retreating each archer one tile, pinging the flatland sword and leaving the horseman where it is. Maybe attack the hoplite, but probably not. And I'd take that as a victory, because I will have a window to attack Kandy. Power levels are 192 v 122 now. Anything aggressive with the horseman attacking a sword will almost certainly lead to the horseman dying, or the horseman taking damage and neither archer being able to attack next turn due to tile congestion. Planning to heal the warrior in VV, should be healed and moving on T64 and upgrade to a sword after moving one tile towards Kandy. The southern archer can head over there now.

Science is looking good now. Thinking about a potential wonder build, but in reality I don't see how I can get the inspiration for DaP. Mids would have been nice but alas not to be. But an Acropolis instead of a monument in EF is a possibility, would give more culture and cost about the same.

We'll see what happens but I think at this point Jester has to reconsider how he is planning to defend, and trying to kill individual units as I move in to attack him, so he should not be organised to deal with me moving on Kandy.

[Krill]

I'm already thinking the archer bait is a mistake, if the archer does die...then how can I take Kandy? Second thoughts are rarely good to me...

[Krill]

Turn played before off to work.

Another archer killed. That's 1 warrior, 2 archers 2 horsemen for 1 warrior so far. Now to cycle units back, let them heal and go kill Kand, whom just declared war on me.

It didn't give me the inspiration for Defensive Tactics unfortunately If I get the inspirations for Games and Rec, due in 7 turns and for Fued, due whenever, I will need a further 212 culture. And war culture can't be put towards it until I finish that watermill now.