[SPOILER] [PB38] OT4E plays this one because lurking around takes too much time

[OT4E]

Hmmm...
This guy is serious

[OT4E]

This must be everything Elkad has. So he literally has nothing at his other borders with whatever neighbors there are.

I deleted workers and offered peace. Unlikely he will accept. Who cares... I see some irony that people say I am aggressive but I am just always put in the situations I have to fight hard for each tile of the land.

Neither I think Elkad can get anything with this army. But no chance I can kick him away quick.

There is a chance that OH will raze our island city. This will be serious damage. Though he didnt express any hostility for a while.

I whipped first couple of numidians.

No progress against GJ, he has no other coastal cities nearby. So I withdrew 1 galley and will use them as supply chain.

Also he is bringing archers to the frontline. I wish we could raze GJs 2 cities leaving him. May be war with Elkad will throw him some dust into eyes and we manage to do it. Or contrary war with Elkad will turn into real battle and we will be unable to spare anything against GJ. Lets see.

We are going to get some problems with happiness. No it is not warwearness yet. :D Need to schedule calendar on some day.

[chumchu]

Good call. Taking the island city for free is good enough.

About Elkad. He might be thinking that he can get in on a dogpile with our other neighbors. He has a really big stack but is very predictable. I think we should stack archers as defenders in Carthage and Thaenae. Mix in a shock-axe if we have one as well. Then ready some two-movers for a counterattack at his vulnerable backline cities like OH did to us.

[OT4E]

I also think about couter-attackon Elkad. He cant have a lot of extra units in the defense and we can probably capture 2 of his cities behind this crazy front he has planted.

I doubt he will attack us, it looks more like an unapproprite defense or indeed he was waiting for a chance to enter dogpile or at least he was waiting for hwachas.

Btw Elkad can consider me a jerk because earlier I left unprotected worker against his warrior but the things became different when he appeared with that settling party. We cant treat him as a potential friend anymore.

[OT4E]

So we are in position to attack GJ:

[OT4E]

I forgot to mention that Elkad has offered peace for 20 gold which I accepted.

The plan is to deal with GJ, get then make a raid on Elkad's core. No point in storming his front city. I'd better capture or replant some of his back ones and this city will be doomed anyway.

This is valid if everything goes well with GJ. Again he didnt slave much and I dont believe it is possible to produce enough defenders by natural production at this stage.

The alternative plan if everything goes well with GJ is to consolidate more troops and try to break through his cap. If we somehow make a successful rush on it we will be ableto finish him in measurable time.

But this sounds almost impossible for me. I am almost sure he will turn into slave-to-death mode. And he has enough cities to stop even very dedicated attack.

As to what I see we will most likely get those 2 forward cities. But I really dont like to make such forecasts.

Meanwhile OH is growing. He has Alphabet, Currency and Metal casting. In general all of his cities are bigger than ours and most likely work all improved tiles.

Our economics and domestic business overall yikes. Our gnp is about 50 while average is above 120. Cities with high food count has either high unhappiness or have just reached happy limit. Other cities are slow growing because of low food. And I still cant share enough worker labour to make farms because they all are busy chopping and making mines to stop slaving. Unfortunately I cant find good use for flood plains near colossus city, because both cities nearby are growing well without them.

The plan is to focus on growing islands and new coastal city with deers without whipping. With collossus they will carry us to 100+ commerce. Then we must find some source of happiness. I really want those furs from GJ... Then Caledar promises us +2 happy faces when we discover it.

We are in about 15 turns from GE. It will bring us Machinery, but to survive till knighs we will most likely need another GP and golden age. However I think we can deal with knights with numids and catapults if we expand our cultural borders.

So far #3 power we have.

Any thoughts?

[OT4E]

Sid really decided to compensate me for all games I have ever played before:

[Krill]

What were the odds? Sometimes it's better to screenshot a maxed out window of the combat log.

[OT4E]

Well this time only the spear had positive odds, I attacked at 25%. But I also got lucky with archer 69,7%. Only killing both allowed my chars to get access to his axes at 88.1%

[OT4E]