[SPOILERS] Dark Savant leads the noble Inca as half-noble Churchiill

[Dark Savant]

Turn 142 (640 AD) - Part 2

Literature is in.  I'll finally get Code of Laws next.

Literature in hand, I start the Heroic Epic in Casterly Rock, due in 5 turns even with no Golden Age, no chops or whips, and no Organized Religion (though it stubbornly remains religionless).  Casterly Rock just produced a longbow.  I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do with a fifth promotion on a longbow. 

I regain graphs on wetbandit.  His power is steadily increasing, though it's not spiking hard; he presumably does not want to whip his tall cities.  I do have a shiny new City Garrison III longbow in White Harbor now.



I feel it's safe to finally improve some of the undeveloped exposed tiles at Castle Black near .  He's at war with yuris125 and his border situation with JR4 appears tense.




I'm 1-pop-whipping a series of forges on the eastern frontier -- two this turn, two next turn.

I did get two free religion spreads this turn, after complaining I hadn't had any for a while last turn.   It is quite a bit more likely now that Christianity and Taoism have been founded.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 143 (660 AD)

wetbandit's knight stack moves into view.



That stack can fork Calcutta and Vijayanagara next turn.  yuris125 will have to move back to defend against that.

hasn't moved since I last did.  I haven't seen any knights of his, though he must have all the prerequisites to them.

I checked tech trading to see if wetbandit had Paper yet.  He doesn't, but WilliamLP does.



I'll start to track tech.  WilliamLP is very probably building the Mausoleum.

Here's my lottery ticket in Winterfell.  (I forgot to run the priest for one turn.)



I don't think I can wait one turn to slightly increase my odds of a Great Engineer, since the Mausoleum will probably be built any turn now.  I'm just going to roll the dice now.

If I get a Great Scientist, I'll delay the Golden Age by a turn or maybe two, since I'll finish the Moai Statues on turn 145.

More forge whips ensue.  I set research to 40%; Code of Laws is due next turn.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 144 (680 AD) - Part 1

The roll of the dice observes the odds ... for once. 



That's not what I actually want, but I can't say I'm surprised.

I actually considered trying to build the Mausoleum straight-up, but that's going to take like 16 turns in King's Landing, and either or WilliamLP has to be finishing it any turn, right?  So no.  

Code of Laws also came in this turn.  I can research Civil Service in 3 turns with a few scattered Wealth builds, so it's not too much of a delay to get that before firing a Golden Age.  (Swapping to Vassalage and/or Theocracy for military can wait until the tail end of the second Golden Age.)




I'm planning to plant city #22 on the border near .

[Dark Savant]

Turn 144 (680 AD) - Part 2

My scout discovers that yuris125's defense in Vijayanagara is reasonable again.



I'm not sure he'll recover his fortify bonus in time, but we'll see.

He's also covering Calcutta heavily.



wetbandit's knight stack mostly vanished into the fog.  Where? 

Scouts in JR4's territory reveal even more force approaching .



That's five knights randomly chilling in his capital.  I'm beginning to wonder if this is a strike force of some kind.

whipped fairly hard both last turn ...



... and this turn.



My read is that he recently got knights and is waiting to attack yuris125 until he can bring them to bear.  None of these were in his border city with me.

I'm not going to react strongly to this -- this is much more likely to be directed at yuris125 or JR4 than at me.  I'm still not going to stop building longbows in the west for a while, but I'm not whipping any significant military here.

I hope I'm reading correctly.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 145 (700 AD) - Part 1

wetbandit has a significant number of knights now, even without a hardcore whipping frenzy.

They attacked Calcutta this turn, but yuris125 had shifted his defenses towards it and away from Vijayanagara last turn.



That's after wetbandit's attack and before yuris125 has moved, so yuris125 gets to whip one last time and pull away defenders to make a stand at a more defensible location.  (The remaining units in Calcutta are in the lower-left.  Yeah, not much left there.)

Here's an overview of yuris125's land.



There was enough fighting for both to get a Great General.



JR4's Golden Age is over, and uh, he broke out the whip hard. 



I don't think this is intended for me, but I have chariots watching his approach path just in case.

I actually don't know if he's going after (where JR4 had an impressive amount of force already massed, and with  still at war with  yuris125), or superdeath (who isn't showing a lot of strength now), but it's probably one of the two.

A scout poking around WilliamLP's territory discovers his catapult stack.



That's a lot more catapults than I have on that frontier -- most of mine are on the border with /wetbandit.
 
Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to start massing knights myself -- I still need all of Horseback Riding, Machinery, and Guilds for that.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 145 (700 AD) - Part 2

I built a shiny thing!



This feels late for Moai Statues, but I had no stone.

I start research on Civil Service, due in 2.  I'm skeptical I should actually follow this plan instead of throwing everything I can at getting knights now, but then again, if I start to slant my civilization towards knights I don't even know whom I'd be attacking.




Demographics and graphs (in spoiler):

I somehow lost graphs on superdeath, even though his EP with me still shows as 52/52.  I'm going to put some EP into him, because I've stabilized graphs on wetbandit for now.

Anyway, I'm looking ... okay-ish ... for now.

[Dark Savant]

A couple mysteries that aren't:

• superdeath has a Gold resource because he probably popped it.  I should still expect to find it with ocean-faring vessels.
  
• JR4 built a Hindu missionary just to get a cultural edge in his border city -- he's fighting a serious culture war with .  He only needs to gain 1% culture to take control of some good tiles there.
  

That latter still doesn't answer the question of why he has so much military there.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 146 (720 AD) - Part 1

I get a World Map trade offer from WilliamLP.



I figure he's already traded with others -- and he does, so now I've got a map of most of the world.

I'm not sure what JR4 whipped, but at least some of it was castles.  Yeah, he has Engineering -- I've also seen pikes wandering around.

He still has this large military just ... sitting there?



Well, he still has units apparently headed towards 's border. 

wetbandit captured Calcutta without much of a fight.



He has a catapult Great General with Medic III.  That's ... interesting, you'd have to burn a promotion on Morale.

yuris125's stack is still on zone defense.  He's probably going to withdraw to Viyajanagara to end the turn.  He also still has scattered defenders filtering in.



All those scattered war elephants and catapults will help put up resistance, but it's not enough to stave off defeat.

If doesn't strike soon, wetbandit is going to get the lion's share of the spoils.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 146 (720 AD) - Part 2

Castle Black reached 500 culture recently.



I've got +60% cultural defense now, and I can also reclaim that water tile 2 SW of it next turn.  still is only producing 3 culture/turn there, I think -- he doesn't even have a library in kwaDukuza.




Civil Service is due next turn.

I actually thought about building the Mausoleum by hand again, but aside from likely losing the race, the opportunity cost of not switching civics is soon going to be significant, and the gain from further tiles worked is diminishing turn by turn.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 147 (740 AD) - Part 1

JR4 and wetbandit both whipped some this turn.



I haven't noticed many new knights of JR4's.

I do discover that JR4's western neighbor superdeath has a rather light border garrison.



Three archers does not a convincing Medieval border garrison make.  JR4 knows he's got an awful light garrison too, since there's a fourth archer there that's his! 

wetbandit continues his war against yuris125.  His injured forces are recovering in Calcutta, while other knights are advancing north of it.



Yuri has a zone defense stack that might be able to hold this off ... if the knights don't just threaten somewhere else.

still has no knights in evidence and he's shown no sign of advancing.  Yes, is still at war with Yuri.

He did, however, take the time to launch a Golden Age this turn, after I did.



So hasn't been secretly building the Mausoleum after all.  WilliamLP is now the only healthy rival who hasn't fired a Golden Age.