January 17th, 2018, 22:52
(This post was last modified: January 17th, 2018, 23:57 by Woden.)
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One last note:
I am not 100% sure I will be able to build a galley at the middle canal city. Both the waterbodies are freshwater and I think you need ocean to build galleys at the city center. If anybody knows if I am wrong, please speak up. Can galleys be built is cities on freshwater without a harbor? If I can't, I am going to have to hurry to get a coastal city for the 3rd envoy into Valletta. I can still use the 2-for-1 card with the envoy from Mysticism but it would be nice to get the Suzerain of Valletta and use some of this faith.
January 18th, 2018, 07:23
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Turb 46
Note to self: To be finished later
Score report:
I had a busy night last night, so I played the turn in a hurry, and didn't take too many pitchers for you guys. Mostly it was a quiet set-up turn.
Galley #2 (tentatively Ocean) further explored, drawing near the limits of Woden's exploration down the coast. This is where my next city plant is intended to be:
The horses are nice, but this city will be slightly harder to defend, I think, than the central canal, at least until I have Quads or Frigates which can flank attackers on both sides. Still, once it has walls it'll also be only assailable from one tile, so neither city will be able to be taken by storm, but will have to be sieged down. Woden, I think it's a good call to send you gold - a Russian plant on that river could see his extra tiles snake all the way up to the ivory, and we don't want that if we can help it. I'll send the deal the turn before you settle, so you can grab the tiles right away.
On the other front, most of my units shuffled closer to Aranyaka:
Two things to note here. One is how solid a defensive plant Aranyaka was. Cornflakes has but one archer, yet our conquest of the city is slowed to a crawl by the rough terrain surrounding it. If he'd settled on the coast, like a sane human being, this city would already be in our hands - much easier to surround from the landward side, and my galleys could have contributed. That's even WITH the illegitimate archers. This sort of reinforces my suspicion that gold wasn't the only way Mike was seeking a leg up, but that's neither here nor there now.
The other thing to note is how awful war is without a Great General. 80% of tiles are either hills, jungles, marshes, or forests, meaning most of my units move 1 tile per turn. I'm very worried that this slow approach, forced on us by the terrain, will let Cornflakes scramble out walls or an emergency garrison or something. Actually, only walls would screw us at this point - even another archer popping out should be quickly overwhelmed, and I have enough warriors following on that I can lose 1 or 2 and still capture the city. However, as soon as the settler in Trafalgar is done, it's going to hurry out a battering ram in 4 turns. That makes it about 12 turns before it's at the front, which means we SHOULDN'T need it to take Aranyaka. Instead, it'll be in reserve for the push to the capitals down the road. If Cornflakes DOES save the city, then it can swing the odds back in our favor. Medium-term plans, though. For now I just gotta take the city as quickly as possible to prevent shenanigans.
Two other things of note: Singaboy finishes the Hanging Gardens, and I somehow meet the Archduke! I can't spot any German units, and the notification centers on my capital. What does that mean? Is there a German scout who wandered by? I'm keeping one unit at home to guard the trader while I wait for the settler to finish, so maybe I can poke around a wee bit in the fog.
Western scout report: Nothing new, I just crossed the river to the north. Once I get back into new territory with him I'll resume pictures of his progress, but for the next ~5 turns he's just marching to Team Relic's frontier with Team Empire.
January 18th, 2018, 12:43
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Walls won't screw us at Ar...whatever that city is called, only slow us down. Archers do 50% damage to walls (while melee do 15%) and ancient walls only have 50 HP. If my archers normally due 20 damage, they will only do 10. So with 2 archers, the walls will fall in ~3 turns, depending on how the dice rolls.
Biggest issue would be if a warrior pops out to bring the city to 20 strength or even worst, if he then upgrades to a sword (strength 36). He could even upgrade/build a sword at his capital, city strength then increases to 26 and my archers will have a hard time doing much damage with the -17 penalty.
January 18th, 2018, 13:25
(This post was last modified: January 18th, 2018, 13:26 by Woden.)
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If we use one of your warrior as bait and are willing to lose 2 warriors we maybe be able to speed up taking the city. If you move both your warriors next to the city in the coming turn and I move my archer in the south into position. He will probably shoot at one of your warriors. Next turn, I shoot with both archers for a rough combined 40 damage. You then strike with both warriors for a combined 70 damage, leaving the city at 90/100 HP. It heals 20, so at 110/200 and he kills your warrior. I hit it again with both archers for 45 damage. You move up your 3rd warrior where the killed warrior was and hit the city with your other warrior for 25 damage. City is now at 40/200. Heals 20 in between turns, he shoots and red-lines or kills your damaged 2nd warrior. City is at 60/HP. I shoot with both archers for 40-50 damage and you take the city with your 3rd warrior on T49. We potential lose 2 warriors but take the city in 3 turns. Is it worth it? I don't know.
January 18th, 2018, 13:30
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I think two warriors is worth knocking that city out. We also kill an archer, so the hammer trade is very much in our favor. Delaying risks them rushing reinforcements up that road, or building them out of the city. With our follow-on units piling on, I think storming the city is a sure hting.
January 18th, 2018, 19:38
(This post was last modified: January 19th, 2018, 07:20 by Chevalier Mal Fet.)
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Score edited in!
Turn 47
Score report:
Notes: China settler #3 out. Rome settles city #3. No change in empire score for a while from Emperor/Archduke, so either they're content at 2 cities apiece for now or a settler slipped out at the same time population grew. Keep a weather eye out for their third cities.
Singaboy finishes his second district. Nothing on the great person screen - another Holy Site?
Archduke and Emperor K combined for Archduke to spend 240 gold cash-rushing something. Archduke's military score also shot up by 35 - could that be a swordsman coming out? Seems wasteful to buy a swordsman, so probably not. Hmmm...
Sullla's military score takes a plunge. Seems too late to be fighting barbarians - feisty city-state?
Another set-up turn, but things are going to get loud after this turn. Let's jump right in. First off, what you all came here to see, the front:
My two warriors rush up adjacent to the city, but can't attack this turn - that defensive terrain again! The flank guard slinger curls around and will help add some marginal damage from the rear. Behind, I have two more slingers and another warrior, and that will be about it. Cornflakes has one archer, plus whatever he might build in the city, and whatever might be barrelling up that road (ugh - I resent the road's existence, and whatever marginal hammers he's gotten in Aranyaka from the trade route, since I'm pretty sure the trader was one of the illegal units. It was one of the builds that tipped Woden and I, at least. Hopefully it doesn't make too much of a difference in the end).
Anyway, the plan is KISS: We have enough damage between three warriors, two archers, and a slinger to storm the city in ~2 rounds of attacks. I shall likely lose one warrior, unless Cornflakes goes for Woden's archer, but I think that'd be a mistake. A second is possible, too, and any units coming up can smack my slinger hard. I'm willing to shrug off those blows, though - the civ can survive the loss of some minor units (I can replace them even in Actium in a mere 4 turns per unit), but Khmer won't be able to recover from the loss of its second city (witness what happened to Kaiser in PBEM3 [I don't need to spoil that, do I, Bacchus and Rowain?]). So screw overthinking this and laboriously moving into a siege - now that all our units are up, let's just rush it.
I hope I don't regret this, but I feel confident. I'd certainly rather be in our shoes than team Relic's.
Scouting reports:
I swing just past Japper's capital, but I'm not willing to go close enough to get a glimpse at the city. It'd let us know when he upgrades to Horsemen or his Fancy Swordsmen (I can't spell the real name), but I'd prefer to keep the scout alive to finally contact Sullla/Singaboy. Anyway, the swing past the city reveals that Japper is totally overrun in jungle, with chocolate lying everywhere:
I'm a little jealous of all the chocolate AND the natural wonder, but maybe he didn't get horsemen or something so I'm sure it evens out. Anyway, plan now is to head north and hope there's another land bridge besides the one Japper's colony sits on.
Meanwhile, my galley finally starts exploring south of the land bridge and reveals even more exciting news: There's ANOTHER island in this sea!:
At least I think it's an island. Could be a weird peninsula. Anyway, I found the thick land bridge connecting me to Japper and Mike disappointing (especially since it's all on my continent! What a rip-off!), but this unexpected archipelago encourages me in my naval endeavors. Even if we get approximately equal land area to the other powers, if Woden and I have these islands, we'll still have more land area than everyone else - and all defensible, too!
Final news of the turn is at home, as Emperor's scout is still hovering around:
Escorting both the settler and the trader is impossible with the units I have on hand, so I'm hoping Emperor will just blow on by. If we succeed at Aranyaka and I can spare the units, I might blockade him at the Khmer isthmus so he can't contact Team Relic. I'd like to keep our opponents as in the dark about each other's situations as possible. I suppose if he stumbles into our army we could just murder him...but I don't want to fight a war with Emperor and Archduke.
Okay, dinner time. I'll get a score report up within 12 hours, swear on me mum.
January 18th, 2018, 20:21
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Nubia-Turn 47
The calm before the storm. I move my units into position...
Both archers will be able to shoot next turn. If he moves out into the road-ed forest to shot my archer, all the better as it will drop the city strength to 10 (unless he builds/upgrades a sword on his turn).
Over in the southeast...
I smell a trap. I notice three things here. First, the warrior is full strength so it didn't attack. Second, the scout is injured. Third, the barb spearman was at 61/100 HP and is now gone. I don't think the barb spearman would move out of the camp, especially since he is injured. They typically stay in the camp if injured. These mean there are multiple units in the south, at least 2 maybe 3. If I were to move and take the camp, I am almost certain Russia will kill my warrior. I decide to live to fight another day and move him towards the middle canal city. Next turn, the archer should be within range to help out if Russia gets frisky. Another reason for this caution...
Germany's MP is now 150. Either still kicking out units or archer upgrades. Not higher than us but definitely worrisome.
In the north...
Archer shoots at spearman who let the camp(?). I wonder if Kandy has a warrior over there. I notice now that I probably should have moved up to the flat stone so I could take the camp next turn if it was still vacant...Oops! Can't make it in 3 moves, IDK why? It is on a marsh but I still should have the movement points. Must need a movement point to take a camp.
Next turn should be interesting. I am half expecting something to appear from Khmer's capital (along the road) when I open the save. He should have had time to build a unit there by now but who knows how rough the terrain is down that way. I guess I will know when I play next. Until then...
January 18th, 2018, 21:28
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Yeah, Germany's big military spike is worrying. I don't think either team has the tech to overrun us if Molotov-Ribbentrop tries for an opportunistic war, but holding your forward settle is going to be a challenge if they come for it in force. We need to think about steps to defend that city just in case.
Ideally the other team plays an isolationist game behind DOTF and tries to culture their way to victory (or combine Cossacks and Hansas).
January 18th, 2018, 23:42
(This post was last modified: January 18th, 2018, 23:43 by Woden.)
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(January 18th, 2018, 21:28)Chevalier Mal Fet Wrote: Ideally the other team plays an isolationist game behind DOTF and tries to culture their way to victory (or combine Cossacks and Hansas).
You do realize you are talking about TheArchduke here, right? 
January 19th, 2018, 00:05
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Hey, Choral Music and DOTF make a natural combo!
actually, really ideally, they'd use their Cossacks and Hansas to attack Sullla/Singaboy and the two tear each other to pieces. 
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