[SPOILERS] naufragar is in for a penny

[naufragar]

Next turn, we make a play for Adrien's half of the island.


I simmed my first attack to death; this one I'm winging. Now that I actually look at the numbers, this doesn't look great. Adrien can get at least 5 units in that city before I can attack, 2 delivered by galley and one whipped. That leaves 5 (Protective) defenders against 6 of my hitters from the same era. I guess I have zealous faith in the power of those two catapults. Any more than 5 units and we're in trouble. You can tell I'm not taking this seriously because my cities nearby aren't building units to reinforce in case we take the island or in case the attack fails. I'll admit I've been distracted from the game lately. I'm still building units for the attack on Cairo. Macemen right now. I haven't decided when I attack. You can kind of figure out my timeline to knights. Plus I have a golden age due in five turns.

I'll spend some time thinking about whether the marines attack without the (very meager) support out of Lincelt. I'm assuming there are no more galleys in the fog for transport duty. If there are, we're in trouble. Hopefully my trireme can run off his galley. A trireme attacking a coastal galley gets ~87% odds of winning, which is absolutely not guaranteed.

Strategically, I want to grab this quick and painlessly. Even if my attackers get too badly mauled to defend the city from a counter-attack, my presumptive naval superiority hopefully keeps the island safe. The goal is a ten turn peace treaty, and hopefully to have convinced Cairo that my military build up was aimed at Adrien. Apropos of nothing, Rick found a stack in Donovan Zoi's lands that hints that DZ might, too, be willing to dogpile 2MN. These players are sharks, man. At the rate 2metra's losing cities, he won't last long as a distraction.

Just to show I'm still paying attention:



The story of my civ is readily apparent from demos.


I have a production and research edge now, but my crop yield (read: "potential") is terrible. I need to turn my tech and hammers into more land now now now now. It's like a chorus of angry think tankers screaming in my head.

Some technical details about the Adrien invasion: I am probably going to make a concession to real life. I don't think I can consistently play after Adrien (and then later after Cairo). Unless my mind completely changes, I'm going to knowingly give up the 2nd spot to him. He'll have the advantage for whipping defense and reacting, but I don't think we can make it work. He's already in a very tangled turn split himself.

Edit because I'm now actually thinking about the attack instead of just throwing units at a problem: Why is Adrien's galley where it is? If it were one tile south, it could get units from Ethioranje into MUSA in one turn. So my conclusion? There's more than 1 Adrien galley around. Which is trouble.

[Coeurva]

A tile is eligible for a watermill if any adjacent plot in a cardinal direction is across a river (which is what you have discovered now) and no adjacent plot in a cardinal direction already has a watermill.

[Coeurva]

That was wrongly worded at best -- sorry. A tile is eligible for a watermill if there is an adjacent plot in a cardinal direction that's both across a river and doesn't have a watermill.

[naufragar]

Thanks, Coeurva. If I understand you, this means there can be adjacent watermills so long as each one has its own blank tile? So if we imagine a horizontal river, and X is a blank space and W is the mill, we can have X-W-W-X? This is not going to matter too much for me now. I really only have the capitol river, and I'm starting on 1 and probably my only watermill at Solid Domain. Which is a pity. They seem great. As an aside, this is why my turns take 30+ minutes. I forget my tile micro pretty much immediately between turns and have to spend time in game remembering what gets improved where. Should use more signs, I guess.

I was unable to connect this morning, which is annoying because if I play later in the evening, I run the risk of going after Adrien and putting myself in an awkward time slot for a while. On the other hand, I gain a strategic advantage. Chomping at the bit to attack over here.

[naufragar]

Declared war on Adrien.


I think the landing force waits for the reinforcements. There's the three units from Lincelt, but I'm also going to be able to get that horse archer near Factory Drift. The main stack moves 1SW. The cats bombard for a turn, and then everybody charges. We'll see how much he can stuff in. He can definitely dry whip one unit. Can he whip two skirmishers? MUSA is now size 9. I don't know how the changes to whipping in RtR affected the penalty for dry whips. We shall see. I am taking the first half. Sent Adrien the following PM, reproduced here for transparency.

Hey Adrien,

Just a heads up. I've declared war on you this turn (132). I've taken the first half of the timer; I know you're already in a complicated turn split, so I wanted to let you know before you logged in. Hopefully by taking the first half, I've caused the fewest scheduling headaches.

Good luck.
naufragar

In global news, BGN declared war on Rusten. Mackoti looks like he's moving units NE around my border. Still nervous. Speaking of, Mack has built some courthouses, so say goodbye to the city visibility dream. I am 6th in power and still want to build more. Maybe overkill. My crop yield graph actually has a downward trend, which is disheartening. I'm just screwing up the timing of the Cairo attack. Golden Age due in 4 turns, so I don't want to attack before knights. I think. I don't know. I'm at a bit of a loss.

[naufragar]

Played the turn (135) dog tired, so probably made plenty of silly mistakes. For example, my entire empire is building either wealth or research, but hey, Guilds is now a 3 turn tech. But you're here for the real news of the turn:


That's right. Mackoti's in the Renaissance.

[naufragar]

Ok. Enough teasing. This turn, something happened besides the Mackonaissance.


Successfully grabbed Adrien's second island city. I got a little lucky but had the numbers to compensate for worse luck than I got. I'll toot my own horn about the placement of the trireme, which meant Adrien's reinforcements couldn't land directly in the city. Speaking of, there are more units in Ethioranje than it seems. The galley in there is loaded.



In the spoilers is the full combat log. Might've missed a line or two copying it.

Hopefully, losing the overseas trade routes coupled with gaining 2metra cities puts a dent in Adrien's economy. I haven't asked for peace yet. Want to get a treaty as close as possible to my invasion of Cairo. Date still TBD. All in all, happy with the campaign. Had to send 2 catapults and 2 swords that were earmarked for Cairo, but otherwise, this expedition was dirt cheap.

[naufragar]

Finally got ourselves a golden age.





(Look at those beakers. ~1/6 of the whole empire.)

Didn't offer Adrien peace, but I have started pulling units back. Sent a galley down his coast, which is stupid, but eh. The longer I can convince Cairo that Adrien's my target the better. Who knows what Adrien thinks of all this.

Excuse me?


This game is silly.

[naufragar]

Feels like I haven't update in forever, but I only missed one turn? Game's a bit slow currently. On my end, we just keep making units. No knights out yet, but you can see how my power is skyrocketing.


Oh wait. That's not my power. That's Mackoti's.

Mack's at war with Rusten and took a city from him. I'm moving a horse archer to try and get eyes on the area of contention. That power graph is just so damn scary. A bit of an aside: how come no one has attacked me yet? Between Aretas and me, it made sense for Mack to attack Aretas. No offense meant: I was in slavery and building spears, and Aretas wasn't. Still, of all the potential victims currently, why did Mack choose Rusten? Cairo or I would have made easier targets I think. I'm sure our day of judgment will yet come.

Last turn, Mr. Cairo got an annoying border pop.


You can see I've tagged that peak as a problem. I need to take a minute to sandbox this terrain to see exactly what Cairo can see. The hill 1NW of Nessus Shining is currently 55% his culture, 45% mine, so I assume I lose it next turn, and with it the vision into Fernando. I'll whip that library next turn, and Nessus Shining's borders pop in 2 turns, so hopefully we wrest control back. Cairo doesn't have Iron Working. I keep asking myself what I'm waiting for. If you look at the scores on the right hand side, you see Mack about to snag the Music artist. Which is just what I want my Philosophical opponent to get.

Golden Age Demos:


Note that my MfG in a Golden Age is third. Oh boy.

[naufragar]

This weekend (August July 20th-22nd) I'll be away and civ-less, possibly also without internet, so I could use a sub for those days. I'll leave instructions closer to that day, but I also trust the RB lurkers to manage if anything comes up when I can't get to the forums. If someone or more than one someone feels like filling in that weekend, I'd be grateful. The sub will need to start the Space Elevator, but I've left signs on the map. Thanks.