Woden's and Chevalier Mal Fet's [Insert Clever Name Here] Team Thread

[Woden]

I'm confused, I thought the last round of gold was the last one you needed. Do you need one more transfusion?

A few turns back, I stated that I might need another deal of gold to upgrade my last 2 knights if you thought I should. You agreed, so I said to send me gold in 3 turns (2 turns ago). I am getting out of PA for Limes on T100, so if you send me gold on your turn, I can upgrade what I can. I guess I was not clear enough or it slipped your mind.

[Woden]

Nubia-Turn 98

Start the turn with...

I did a policy swap taking out Urban Planning for Natural History, increasing my science by 6.6. Units move closer to the front...

CMF, I hope you moved your chariot by the lake on the road. It was blocking my forward progress a little bit and I want to get my crossbows on those hills south of the lake. If you did not, please move him on your turn so I can move quicker to the west.   

Here is my homeland...

Builder completes at Thoth and mines the plains hill. Builder finishes at Horus and moves to lumber mill the forest next. Horus starts a Commercial Hub and Thoth starts another builder. Just chugging along.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Oh, I gotcha. I thought the second transfer had covered that, I'll send the gold along.

Are you confident about leading with Crossbows? Hopefully we can just approach cautiously until the knights come up - I'll start to transfer my swords over, but my own archers I ought to hold back until they can be upgraded.

[Woden]

My crossbows will stay pretty much were they are until knights come up. His horseman by the lake should not be able to see them behind the hills. My plan is to declare next turn and push onto his southern city while holding off in the north for a turn or 2. Make him think your troop positioning was a distraction and the main attack is coming from the south. This also works well with our delay in attacking, let him think we had a long journey to the south. My lead knights will be close to the front next turn and can move up the following turn. The first 2 will get to the front and hold, waiting for the 2 that are a turn behind. Once those 2 are at the front, I will push on his city (probably on T102 or T103). This will hopefully get Cornflakes to shift units south and be out of position when my main force pushes on the northern city.

Hopefully Rome is advancing on Japper's capital and Kongo/Khmer have most of their forces over there so we can move fast. I should be able to take the southern city fairly fast since it doesn't have walls and I don't think it has even started them. Once the northern city is taken, I may split troops and try to poach Japper's capital with my knights but will have to assess options at that time.

Of coarse, I don't think any of this will work but what the hell, why not?

[Woden]

Nubia-Turn 99

Last setup turn until all hell breaks loose in the world. Start off with some development. Builder at Horus puts down a lumbermill...

best thing to do right now with this tile, 1/5 tile is a better yield than if I mined it, plus gets me...

Went looking for the Roman galley and see this... 

He has met Valletta. I am starting to get a little worried about our city states, I hope you are building ships in Actium to defend Nan Madol and Valletta. Sullla could get a few ships and try to raze both to hurt us. I don't think we have time to wait for the VA. I do have  galley making its way around our north and should be down to Valletta in a few turns. Help protect it if Rome gets frisky. 

Back home...

Two more builders due next turn and I can place a Holy Site at Thoth. Okay, over to the west... 

This is how it looked towards the end of my turn. Thought I snapped a before but nope. Anyways, when I start this turn I noticed the horseman. I was thinking of moving up and taking a pot shot at it but decided to take things slow. Trying to rush things hurt me in PBEM4 (of coarse trying it slow hurt me in PBEM2). I decided to bring my units just east of the hills to block vision and wait until the knights arrive. the forward 2 will be on the "Jutland" and tea tiles at the end of next turn and then 2 more should be there the turn after. 

Down in the southwest, my units are ready to move on the city next turn. I don't think Cornflakes can see any of those units as cities on see 1 turn beyond their boundaries and none of them are hills. I will move on the city but probably won't be able to attack next turn. The following turn I should be able to hit it a few times, depending on how well it is guarded. 

Here is the current Military Power:
England/Nubia: 584/952 (1536)
Rome/China: 805/349 (1154)
Kongo/Khmer: 191/679 (870)
Russia/Germany: 199/354 (553)

We are ahead of Rome/China in total military power by 382 and ahead of Khmer/Kongo by 666. Should be some interesting turns ahead. Looks to be a race to Japper's capital (if at all possible).

[Woden]

Nubia-Turn 100

Busy turn, lots of screenshots. Open turn to...

And...

And...

Thanks CMF! Enough for 1 knight and 1 sword plus a little bit to hold me over until my income can get into the positive (4 turns). Also get a notification for a new quest for a new city state...

They want me to build a crossbow. Very do-able and I even have a few more archers and a slinger I can upgrade if I ever get some more gold. With the upgrades, time for a policy swap...

Out goes Professional Army in favor of Limes.I don't think it really matters much because I don't think I will start walls anywhere before the next policy swap but better to have the option than not too. I will be building walls to set up chopping into universities once I am in Monarchy. 

Theology finishing grants me another envoy, so...

Science jumps to 70.8, right behind Sullla at 74 and change. I will drop Natural Philosophy for the culture per district card once it is available.  Here is a look at my available techs...

I have noticed and it has been reported elsewhere that there is a bug with the tech times not updating until you select a tech or re-select one if you are currently researching something, really annoying. Anyways, I show this because I see Sullla is onto the next tier of techs, meaning he has finished what I suspect is Mass Production. I go and check his city...

 
Yep, Mass Production and he has placed the VA. It looks like he is working on it but no really way to tell until the graphics progress (hammer symbol is show if unfinished, even if not working on it). CMF, you are on the clock now.

Okay, now for what you have been probably waiting for. Here is the west before I move (already moved knights)...

Can see horseman and knights by his northern city and nothing in the south. Well, here goes nothing...

I move one crossbow on a hill to maybe draw his knight away from CMF's swords. Should be safe from attack and next turn I can move and shoot it with 3 crossbows if he moves up. I leave all other crossbows behind the hills, waiting for the knights. Slow and steady. 

In the south, I move units up...

I couldn't hit the city this turn but it doesn't look like there are any units around here. I could lose the archer if he has a knight on the encampment but then can hit it with 3 horseman and my other archer. The crossbow is out of range from the general, so he won't get 3 movements next turn but I didn't want the general on the archer's tile in case he is lost next turn and the general would have been sent back to Horus. I am going to have to be really careful with my generals and not get them sent half way across the world if attacked. No attacks this turn, so no first strike but I should be able to take the southern city in a couple of turns unless a massive army comes, but that would be good as it will open up the north.  I will probably pillage the mines and there is a trader in the city. CMF, when are you planning on having Education done? The mines could help speed it up for me.

Lastly, the current Military Power:
England/Nubia: 584/952 (?)
Rome/China: 822/349
Kongo/Khmer: 191/679
Russia/Germany: 203/354 

I forgot to get our power. It should have increased slightly from the knight upgrade last turn. Only Rome and Russia had slight increases this turn. These numbers should be in flux over the coming turns. Let's hope it is Kongo/Khmer going down and not us. Anyways, I should probably think about a T100 review. I don't really have time this week but I do have a copy of the save and will put something together this weekend. Exciting times are coming...

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

England Turns 99-100

Woden got most of the big news, but I have a bit that happened. 

Salamis is ready for its chop at last:



The overflow will 1-turn the Commercial Hub AND the accompanying trader next turn. Then I can build a builder (I hate saying that) or a granary - I'm debating if the final builder is necessary, and I have until t101 to decide. 

As Woden revealed, on 99 I met the final city-state on the map, Bandar Brunei:



I don't recall the quest, but it was fairly doable. Three commercial city states! And Archduke/Emperor with 2 of 'em - no wonder he's spamming Commercial Hubs (I would too, if I weren't England!). 

At the front, Sullla's offensive has all but stopped:



His crossbowmen have stopped to plink away at Ngaos for experience, but he hasn't aggressively pushed with Legions. I wonder if Cornflake's army gave Sullla pause, and he's waiting to bring up Knights to muscle through. Either way, it increases Woden and I's odds of reaching the Kongo capital, so I'm happy. I wish I had the money to upgrade my own archers now, but I have to save for the VA!   If there's a lot of surplus Crabgold, Woden, it'll be nice to be able to field 5 additional Crossbows to back you up, and then finally my own wave of knights after that as final reserves. 

Don't know if I should prioritize knights or caravels, though - I need to judge the situation on T110 to determine what's more important. 

I open t100 to the war declaration:



The archer goes ahead and plinks the horseman, but he's got a solid hill and some fortification, so I barely scratch the paint ("Horses don't have paint, Chevalier." Shut up). I fortify my own swords - I'm going to be very cautious pushing forward, particularly against an unknown amount of knights and with Japper's army on my flank. I need stay defensive for now. My final army set up:



Lots of chariots in reserve in case Ngaos start to overwhelm me. 

And, of course, Woden already told you, but the Day of Reckoning has arrived. Sullla started the VA just where we predicted. He's not far along yet, though - he still needs to set up chops. 




He has ten turns to finish it. I still feel good. He'll need a LOT of chops for 920 production, and the fact taht he hasn't done it already means he hasn't set 'em up yet. I don't think he'll have time, probably, to get more than 1 or 2 good ones, and I have five.

Woden, Education is due in 2 turns, so you'll get the boost then. Losing Geneva's science cost about 8 beakers, which hurts - it added a turn to Education, and another to Mass Production. Good thing I have some science slippage built into the schedule - we're still on course for a T110 build. I'd be worried about my 15% drop in science, but Woden is close enough to Sullla now that as long as I maintain my lead over Singaboy I'm okay. Archduke is trailing the two science leaders, and Emperor is way in the rear. He just founded a bunch of new cities - he did what I rejected doing 20 turns ago, and built a bunch of settlers at like 20 turns apiece. I'm hoping that more developed, larger cities will bring those build times down and I'll catch up in city count after this wave of builders completes. 

Time for my biweekly dose of pessimism, since I haven't done that for a while: I'm once again dissatisfied with how I've developed myself. Woden has leapt ahead, he's doing great, but I feel like I've barely improved as I've built first chariots (which turned out to be useless since I realized the VA was a larger priority) and then have been slowly turning out builders for the VA Project. Those are good reasons, I guess, but it's dispiriting to see how much everyone else has caught up and passed me while I've backslid a bit. 

I think the root of my problems are my too-small cities. I've been laboring under housing penalties for most of the game now. Founding coastal cities I don't regret, but I probably should have done more to alleviate housing issues as the game has gone on. Tricks like overflow chops and trade routes have kept me competitive, but build times are growing worse and worse as my cities hardly get stronger. I need more population!

So, current plans: Finish the VA, a wave of settlers, then a wave of housing projects where needed, then shipshipships. Actium is building straight ships, since I feel like we're racing for a confrontation with Rome and I need more defenders in the Mediterranean sea, pronto. I've done okay so far, and I'm overall satisfied with my performance as a whole, but I need to do better!

[rho21]

"Horses don't have paint, Chevalier."

Have you considered paint horses?

[Woden]

What the fuck? The strange continues...Rome/China made peace with Kongo/Khmer? I am going to have to wrap my brain around this and chew on it. I will put some thoughts in my turn report a little later tonight. Just wanted to get it out there.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I saw that too! Whaaaaaat!?

I guess it was Sullla's plan all along to just take the border cities and then make peace? Or maybe Singaboy saw that we declared war and offered peace himself so that Cornflakes could throw everything at us? Seems risky to me - we have a good chance to push for the Heart of Darkness now if we can beat Cornflakes' army. The biggest obstacle, again, is my army of obsolete units. We really need to improve gold generation...Exploration will help with that a lot, and if you can get some trade routes going.