[Spoilers] Ichabod, the Civ King

[Ichabod]

Finished recorded history and changed policies to use the 100% Campus Yield. That's 7 science for me right now, which is pretty meaningful. I'll try to get another Campus up and running soon, to further boost the policy. Since my idea is to go on a straight beeline to Cossacks, it makes sense to prioritize science as much as possible. After I have Cossacks, my science rate can tank, I don't really care.



Bacchus didn't occupy the key tile and actually retreated his units. He probably thinks he can't save the city and I tend to agree. I really doubt is some sort of intricate counter attack plan. Worth noticing that I can't occupy the Camp tile with a ranged units, because reasons. I destroyed the Camp and it doesn't have any HP left, but it doesn't really matter.



Scouting further. Bacchus power shows he hasn't got much left. His Capital is really good, lots of high yields. I wonder if I should let this warrior act as a sentry or try and pillage the pasture or something like that.






After moving and attacking with all my units, that's what I have. I moved the missionary from Carthage forward, so I can spread DotF to Proxy Hatch as well. I could lose the westernmost sword to a 2-horsemen counter attack, but I don't think that's likely. Once I have DotF here, everything is basically safe. The city is really good. Great Bareer Reef, Jade as a new happy, Silk as a happy I don't have for my own (I get it from Yerevan), enough mines to give me the Apprenticeship Eureka. Great prize, right?

And then we have the occupation mechanic. Talk about a joy killer. I can't really finish Bacchus with what I currently have, not if he decides to do the logical play and spam horses from his Capital. He's allied with Preslav, so he gets +5 for horses on hills. If he fortifies 2 horses on those plains hill forests near his Capital, he'll get at least strength 55 units (36 + 5 + 6 + 6 + 2). It's impossible for me to dislodge those right now, even GG knights would suffer.

So, here I am. I won a nice skirmish with my neighbour, I think I used sound strategy and tactics, but I get basically no gain from all that. Bacchus has no reason in the whole world to give me peace, so I'll bever get out of occupation unless I finish him, which I probably can only do with Cossacks.

You can say I should plan my game based on this mechanic and it's valid criticism. But when you play against players with similar level to yours, it's not easy to simply finish him, while it's pretty trivial to spam classical units like horses or swords/legions. You basically force the game to a select few scenarios, like rushing the new player or waiting for a tech lead. Nothing wrong with that, but I tend to find Civ 6 combat very fun and it's boring to only use it against the AI for the first 100 turns of the game.

Oh, well, that's how the cookie crumbles, I guess. I'm sure it's a lot of fun to extort cities from the AI in SP.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Would Bacchus have an incentive to make peace if you offered the return of Proxy Hatch in return for major concessions? Is there any luxury/gold trade that would be worth the city+peace to you, I guess is the real question here.

And how is the rest of the world reacting so far? You are still at war with Frederick, it seems.

[Ichabod]

Would Bacchus have an incentive to make peace if you offered the return of Proxy Hatch in return for major concessions? Is there any luxury/gold trade that would be worth the city+peace to you, I guess is the real question here.

And how is the rest of the world reacting so far? You are still at war with Frederick, it seems.

I thought about offering peace for Carthage last turn, when it was clear that I could take Proxy Hatch. That's perhaps the best outcome for me, a free city, that I can use right now. But it would leave too much of a bitter taste to bite that bullet and I'm I just can't be that utilitarianist. Well, now that I think of it, I couldn't even offer that last turn, since you need ten turns before offering peace (hooray!). I can't even see Bacchus gold due to that, so it's hard for me to gauge if he could give anymore concessions to make the deal more fair in my eyes.

I'm still at war with Rowain from that little skirmish early in the game. I never offered peace, because I don't see why Rowain would accept. Perhaps I should give it a try, since I don't see how he could use those 10t to do something bad to me.

Rowain's power is medium to low and he just recently finished a str 36 unit, so I'm not afraid of him. I have DotF as well, so I don't see him planning an attack. He probably thinks his best way forward is to use his mid-game power advantages, Hansas and the +1 to Libraries GSci. I can't fault that reasoning, since it makes sense for the same reason my attack on Bacchus does not. He can't conquer me whole and partial conquest is mostly useless (especially when my cities are pretty tightly packed, unlike Bacchus' Proxy Hatch).

Krill has huge power and that makes me a bit worried, to the point where I bought another missionary to spread DotF in my northern cities and I'm thinking of a way to slot some more military. What gives me relief is that I'm Kumasi suzerain and the CS vision shows me a lot of Krill's army, that seem to be surrounding it for a conquest (luckily, Kumasi has a decent number of units, so at least they can do some damage). It's very likely Krill will declare on the city, bringing him to 5 useable cities. He'll be in a great position after that. I will have 6 with Proxy Hatch, but that's only 4 useable ones. I have a settler on the move for a 5th and a 6th settler being built, but he has the settler cost advantage, having conquered two useable cities. I think he'll be my main opposition, so Cossacks will likely be going that way, if we ever come to that.

Emp K is very far away, so I don't think he has anything to say about it. I'm sending my Great Writer to try and explore his lands, if he can somehow avoid the barbs.

[Ichabod]

Reading the terrain from Bacchus' warrior move last turn, I knew he couldn't get away from my archer this turn. So, I found him and killed him.



Attacks on Proxy Hatch were trivial. This picture is after one of the swords already attacked. The next one captured the city. I could have pillaged the jada mine for 25 science, but decided against it, as I don't think I'll have a builder in this area in the foreseeable future and I have no Jade for myself. Proxy Hatch is a killer city and it'd catapult me way ahead of the pack if not for the Occupation penalty.

I sent a peace offer to Bacchus, white peace, which would get rid of the penalties, as far as I understand. His power is 70 something, I can see a warrior and a horseman. He has no iron or horses hooked up and he has ~70 gold. So, he can't build horsemen (unless gifted horses) and he doesn't have that much for upgrades into Legions. The problem is that it's not difficult to build legions from scratch in his Capital, and with Archduke taking over, the simple solution is just turning on the spite-defense machine and build only Legions forever.



The horseman in the southwest corner will kill my exploring marrior next turn, but at least he'll be a bit out of position. I think I made a mistake here. My sword currently north of the city could have crossed the river and attacked Bacchus' warrior, taking about 75% of his HP and I don't think he could move in a way that would save him (the best he could do would be to pillage my silks). I think I should have done that insted of the defensive move I've made, to try and protect the silk.

The first missionary charge wasn't enough to convert Proxy Hatch, but I'm confident the next one will. I need less than 10 turns to finish the Temple in Yaroslavl, so I can adopt Church Property. By the time I have it, it'll be worth 12 gold already, perhaps even 14, since I'll likely convert my new city as well. That'll help making my gold situation passable.



The writing is on the wall for poor Kumasi. I hope all those archers can at least give Krill some damage, but he isn't slacking off. I need to be prepared once those units are liberated to march west, as I don't think he'll stop at that.

I think I'll invest further envoys into La Venta, the Iceball religious city. I get a lot from religious CSs, due to my high number of Lavras, but I'm considering taking Yerevan for myself, as they have a nice HS + shrine already. Perhaps I can train the horsemen I want to produce there.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Really appreciate your detailed war reporting here. I like it especially that you note mistakes - I've got a poor grasp of Civ VI's warfare myself (the stupid AI is no challenge at all to beat) so I learn the most when you write that stuff down.

[Ichabod]

With the current updates to Rowain's thread, I'm afraid he's planning on attacking me. The timing would be really bad. I have DotF spread all around, but my army is away on foreign lands. On the bright side, I'm building some horse units as we speak in my core and I can chop one horseman next turn, if needed (that's 46 strength, or even 51 if I can bring my GG back, so not too shabby). And I have some slingers coming back, which are 1-range archers for DotF purposes.

Obviously, Rowain can only raze one city before coming to a halt, but that would be depressing and I'm pretty emotional with these games. If I can hold a bit longer, things will improve, as more units start completing. I need to get some protection against Krill as well.

Perhaps I should have let a token force in Proxy Hatch and brought my army back to my core. Who knows?

At least I have a higher military score than Rowain, as well as DotF, so deciding to attack can't be an easy decision.

[Ichabod]

Here's the movement of my troops on the past three turns. I kept the attack going against Bacchus, while he fortified his position on defensive terrain. My swords are all promoted, so that, coupled with the GG and flanking bonuses, can more or less balance the strength differences. The idea here is to deny Bacchus the chance of getting a critical mass of units for his defence, trying to defeat units piecemeal. The problem with that strategy is that, without promotions to heal my units, my own advance gets severely delayed. This has stalemate written all over, but for now, since I don't think there's a risk for me to lose units, I'll soldier on. The big risk is getting attacked at my core.

If Bacchus was playing anything but Rome, I'd be pretty confident. But not only legions are stronger, they require no strategic resource to build, so the fact that Bacchus hs no horses or iron isn't relevant. Ah, forget that, Bacchus is allied to Preslav abd they have Iron, so he'd get it anyway.












Pay attention to the 3rd screenshot. An archer can shoot over a forest, if the target is on a hill forest. That doesn't make any sense, but it's how the game works. I lost a few units in SP games before realizing this little perk. Right here, I'm using it in my favour. 

You can see that I attacked Bacchus' legion with my middle sword. The reasons for that were: he can't possibly kill that sword, since he has only one square from which to attack and if you count support and defensive terrain in my favour, my unit is way stronger than his. I also fear that Bacchus can produce a legion in the interturn and triple attack my sword on the marsh, so this way I give that unit a higher chance of survival, by damaging Bacchus unit. Finally, even though it's best not to attack units that you are not going to kill this turn as a rule of thumb, sometimes you lack all the attacks you'll need on a single turn, so you have to do it in advance.

I should have some 2 sword/horse reinforcements on the way to this front by now. That way, I think I could probably take Bacchus Capital. Right now, I'm not confident. The way I could make something happen is by killing the scattered units and taking the Camp, than proceed to siege the Capital. I can perhaps do the first parts, but my units would be too wounded to move forward. If only I could siege the Capital and plink at it with my archers for some turns things could work, but even that is hard, as the terrain dictates that my archers have to be bear the City Center to fire, due to hill/forests. Meanwhile, Bacchus keeps producing new units at a constant pace, since his Capital is pretty powerful. And if he gets walls up, it's over.

One advantage I have is that I can use Bacchus' roads, so my movement is not that sluggish. I could perhaps skip the Camp and go for that city, but the problem with that is the ZoC the Camp enacts, which would slow things down too much.

Man, I'd be pretty happy if it wasn't for the Occupation penalty. Bacchus actually offered me Carthage and a few luxuries (perhaps some gold?) for Proxy Hatch. That was perhaps the sensible move, as well as backing to defend my core, but that ship has sailed now.

[Ichabod]

On the domestic front, I settled a new city. It has great non-improved tiles and will share the big food ones with the Capital, to grow as needed. The new builder from the capital will farm two resources (I'm aiming for the Feudalism inspiration and some housing) and chop a HC into a Lavra for Moscow.




Here's the overview:



I'm running the +1 housing for 2 districts policy to grow some cities, but I'll change that next turn to get back into Campus adjacency. I'm having trouble getting Inspirations and Eurekas to line up and my objectives right now are a bit scrambled. The main thing is just getting to Cossacks and Theocracy and I'm heading there, but the execution is far from perfect.

Next turn I'll put two more envoys in La Venta, to further boost my faith income. I'm chopping a HC into a temple as well (that's 105 hammers for 4 faith and 4 culture, pretty good deal), but I still have some way to go before the faith needed for an Apostle (a whooping 400) and Church Property. I hope to make there in time, before I go broke or someone else takes it (I really don't know how I'll fix my money situation without Church Property).

Another plan is to get a third discounted Campus, in my next city. I need 11 districts to get a discount on the third Campus. Right now, I have 8, counting the Camp from Proxy Hatch. I'll finish the Camp in Astrakhan (probably not chopped, but slow built with the 30% card, because the Capital will likely build a Stable at the same time to make it worth it), chop a Lavra in Moscow and the last one is supposed to be Yerevan's HS. Can I do all that in time? Who knows. The timings are very tight, considering I need to grow a city to size 10, get 6 farms up, a second temple up, a watermill as well... I should probably make a decision and just accept I won't be able to do all these, but right now I'm just not able to really decide.

I should probably just go for Monarchy ASAP, as 6 policies is really pwoerful. The problem is that I lose one of the key policies by doing that, the +50% on horseman, which I need to prebuild for Cossacks. Pretty annoying. But that's minor really, I won't ever have gold to upgrade more than just a few horses, the way things are going.

As you can see, things are a bit confusing right now. 

I'll think about it some more when I get the save, but right now I'm thinking that I should probably skip the Civil Service or the Feudalism Inspiration. I either beeline Monarchy and skip the CS Insp. or I skip the Feudalism Insp. (and I probably won't be able to do the Ilkum into +2 charges little trick) and tech it while growing to size 10.

What a mess...

[Ichabod]

I spent a lot of time thinking about last turn. I finally reached a decision on what to do once I realized Civil Service needs Defensive Tactics as a prereq. I divised a plan to get the Inspiration for CS and Divine Right, rushing for the 6-policy government.

For the CS Insp, I need a size 10 city, so a city with 11 housing. St. Petersburg currently has 8, so I built a farm and will build a coffee plantation to get to 9 and a granary to get to 11. Then, I'll harvest a banana tile and a marsh, which will give me about 66% of the food needed for size 10, while the rest will come from actual food surplus, that my Capital has a lot of. It'll take about 10 turns, which is what I need to get DT + 50% CS. Divine Right needs two temples and I'll have that in the needed time frame (15/16 turns, which is needed for the above + 50% DR).

I'll have the first temple in two turns after the chop this turn. Then, I need 400 faith for the Apostle. I'm up to 32 faith per turn. I could have adopted the HS adjacency to get the Apostle in 5 turns instead of 6, but that would mean only about 14 gold, so I valued getting some more hammers and went with +1 hammer per city policy (which may be needed for the 2nd temple to finish in time) - about that, the settler policy could perhaps have been better, it would give less hammers as a whole, but more hammers directed to where I need them and the next city would be settled a turn earlier. I'll adopt Meritocracy once I reach CS, since that policy is bonkers (it gives me +8 culture right now, soon to be 9). 

That reminds me that I changed from Oligarchy to Autocracy. I don't need the +4 strength anymore, because I decided to call out the advance on Bacchus. he's up to 2 legions and a horseman and he has started walls in his Capital, so I can't take it in time. On the defense, with DotF, I have enough strength to forgo Oligarchy (and it would go away soon with Monarchy, anyway). By the way, you can actually change policies in a turn, then change the goverment, then change policies again, so if you are plannin on switching govenment, you can actually adopt a policy for only "half" a turn (useful for professional army and similar policies).

My other policies are campus adjacency, -1 maintenance and +50% horses. I'm building horse units while I still can, for later upgrades, defense against attacks and a plan to take Yerevan. I'll keep that card until Monarchy, so I think I'll have about 4/5 horsemen until there, which is about what I can expect to have enough gold to upgrade into Cossacks (I probably won't even have enough for that, what I'm trying to say is that I can't possible have enough for more than that). 

Overview (some costs are wrong due to the buggy UI) and the retreat (I'm in no risk to lose units here):

[Lewwyn]

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