[SPOILERS] Cornflakes Returns to Civ 4: Forget 1UPT, STACK OF DOOM!!!!!

[Cornflakes]

T85: Swords are rattling in the north

   

That's 2 chariots and an axe headed towards Elkad, with 2 workers roading. I was expecting to see an impi or two or three lurking in the jungle to the north when I climbed the hill, but no other units were in sight. I suspect this is a settler guard for DZ rather than an actual attack force. Maybe 1W of Marble? That would be a rather annoying location but not out of the question.

I think BGN's non-double-turn was a settler race since both JR4 and BGN founded cities and they share a border. BGN founded his 8th city compared to JR4's 7th, with 6 currently for me and the rest of the field. My civics cost is 15 gpt so BGN's Organized trait is paying the maintenance costs for his 2 extra cities. I noticed a trade connection established with DZ and Wetbandit. I suspect Wetbandit has researched Sailing and has a road connection to DZ. I don't think I have a direct connection to DZ yet. Here's a look at their trade screens:

   
   

The biggest surprise for me was the luxury difference. I have 4 luxuries / 6 total happiness counting Forges. Wetbandit only has 1 luxury connected. He is Charismatic so that somewhat makes sense to not prioritize luxuries as much. But my luxuries are commerce tiles as much as they are boosting happiness. Both have more food resources connected than me. I have an additional 1 wheat + 1 sheep not connected but I assume they do as well.

[Charriu]

Elkad and DZ aren't very active reporters, so please keep the reports from the north coming.

[Cornflakes]

Elkad and DZ aren't very active reporters, so please keep the reports from the north coming.

I'll mention it my updates as long as I have a war correspondent in the area. I will be in and out of town over the next couple weeks so reports will likely be more sparse. For now here's an interesting tidbit:

   

Autoraze? It seems I was wrong about DZ's intent. The city had a granary but with copper and no food resources so it's possible it never grew to size 2. Elkad was already lagging the field significantly in food and city count. Over the last 10 turns or so Elkad caught up in city count, but tanked his GNP in the process. Elkad still has a decent military and presumably sufficient reserve population to not get eliminated in the short term but unfortunately I think this does end his chances for the longer term. DZ doesn't gain much from this attack, but on the other hand there's not much Elkad can do to punish DZ and it does give him a more comfortable border.

Does this influence my short or long-term plans? Initial thoughts are that long-term it may shift my first target for attack to Elkad as a softer target even if his land is a little more difficult to integrate with my empire. At a minimum I want to able to pile on divide the plunder if Elkad is attacked by one of his other neighbors. In the short term I'm more inclined to plant the northern LIGHT_BLUE dot border city sooner rather than later. The current settler is still going south to the peninsula since workers are already lined up to support that location. I will start figuring out how to get workers aligned to support the northern location and build an axe/spear pair for defense. Ice Age might go straight into another 7-turn settler build (or maybe 6-turn with overflow from the current settler). Great Unconformity will definitely continue on to Colossus next since those lake tiles will be excellent to grow onto after the floodplains, in addition to the half dozen other water tiles in the short term throughout the empire and dozens long term. With IND especially the Colossus looks like a great Hammer > Commerce conversion ratio.

EDIT: I went ahead and logged in for a moment. Indeed, DZ razed Elkad's city and also captured a worker.

[Cornflakes]

DZ made peace with Elkad ... but Wetbandit declares war and it looks like a real war. The log indicates that Wetbandit preceded his DoW by war/peacing JR4 which I interpret as indication of a premeditated war against Elkad anticipated to last mire than a couple turns. Could this be a collapse to the north? Elkad is not the lowest power right now, that tank goes to superdeath who is significantly (20%+) below average power ... I’m actively resisting the temptation to fear for war. But I would go broke and get stuck in the Bronze Age

[Cornflakes]

Wetbandit made peace after only 2-3 turns with no noticeable impact, and then BGN immediately declared on Elkad. A scouting workboat of alBGN is near Elkad’s coastal city so I suspect that is just a petty scouting war.

I am 2 turns from Alphabet with enough gold for an extra turn of 90% research. I’m at 25% break even rate now and all rivals except Elkad I’m pretty sure have founded at least 1 city and some 2 more than I. My MGF is double the next closest (90 vs 47) so I am planning to put that MFG to work through research builds. I’ll hit Masonry > Monotheism to unlock religion and Organized Religion civic so that I can spread the religion for happy and make use of the 25% production bonus. Then I’m debating between currency and Code of Laws. That choice may come down to how many people sign open borders with me. I can get routes with DZ over the shared lake, and I built a road connection to Superdeath. I’ll probably need Sailing for anyone else but I’m not entirely sure how trade routes work through the territory of rivals if I don’t have a direct route.

If I put the 40 surplus hammers into Research then I’m 10 turns from Currency or about 7 from CoL.most of my currently-unlocked infrastructure (Terrace + Forge) are already constructed so Research seems like an adequate use of hammers at this stage.

[Cornflakes]

T94: Sorry Elkad   ... Also sorry lurkers for the wonky looking screenshots. I upgraded to windows 10 (support ending on windows 7 ) and the screenshot key capturing weird now. 

   

Elkad has a settler headed for the area between us. With Elkad already targeted by DZ for a city raze and all of his other neighbors with a DoW (including Wetbandit still at war) I decided that it was OK to make an enemy.

Quechua vs. Archer 43% ... WIN! Inca UU comes through.

   

I do not delete the captured worker. Let Elkad capture back and then offer peace

   

My settler will be in position next turn, settling T96.

[Cornflakes]

Here are a couple photos from my laptop which is still on Windows 7  these are a turn old but not much has changed:

   

Elkad showed me a sizeable stack, but I settled anyway. I have 3 workers to quickly chop out walls followed by a Terrace (1-pop whipping the terrace like usual after the chop). The walls won‘t complete in time to defend if Elkad attacks immediately, but odds will be slightly favorable due to the hill and I can get more defenders in than Elkad can bring on the attack (including 3 spears to protect against any chariots that Elkad may have in the fog). 

[update from next turn, Elkad did not advance. He did not accept my peace offer, sending back a cease fire. I declined the cease fire.I would rather have open war with enforced turn splits.]

Ice Age will build an Axe then walls to fortify that front. I’ll get out a round of 2-turn chariots from other cities in the empire to use as mobile defenders (4 total). I’ll keep them in a central location where they can get to any front as necessary. I’m slightly concerned that JR4 might take advantage of my Elkad war to stab me in the back at Woolly Mammoth   JR4 war-peaced BGN which is a sign of impending attack on someone else 

   

Judaism was founded at Woolly Mammoth! Best place for the +5 culture to be located   I’ll build a missionary first to accelerate the spread throughout the empire, then follow up with another spear build for security. the extra units will hurt my economy unortunately . I’m starting to doubt the wisdom of killing Elkad’s settler and turning his wrath on me rather than keeping it directed on Donovan for the city raze.

[Hollybombay]

Any updates? No big t100 state of the world?

[Cornflakes]

Was out of town when T100 came around, I’ve been working overtime squeezing in the turns, and turns themselves now take as long at turn + report back 50 turns ago. I’m still #1 MFG by a margin of about 115 to 65. My food has stagnated and dropped to #6 but I think I ran out of land quicker than other players.

Elkad signed peace so nothing interesting to report there. Research is a little slow at about 10% now. I have obtained Code of Laws so expenses will start coming down, which is even more important because inflation hit starting T100 I believe. I’m tracking inflation rate, we’re at 5% already by T107 so inflation will make a noticeable impact. 3 courthouses will be finished end of turn and then it’s back to Research builds to aim towards knights

In 7 turns I’ll have a pure Great Engineer to bulb Machinery. 20 turns later I’ll have about a 70% chance at another engineer to bulb Guilds. In these 27 turns I’ll need to research currency + archery + iron working + Monarchy + Feudalism + HBR (total around 3000 beakers, 2400 raw beakers). My plan is Guilds + MFG > >>> win. For 25 turns I could devote half my MFG to research and get 1500 raw beakers. I’ll surely be able to get the necessary beakers for the rest. Then it’s a dice roll on engineer to bulb Guilds or another 10 turns if I miss the engineer.

Unless something changes (like Elkad tilting and throwing everything at me) my tentative plan once I hit total war mode is attack Superdeath first for Pyramids to enable Police State. From there roll over Superdeath completely to eliminate any accumulated war weariness. After that, evaluate and potentially launch a decapitation strike against the then-strongest GNP to ensure I’m not facing the next generation of military.

Maybe I’m delusional about the long vs. short time horizon planning. It’s quite possible that someone focusing on GNP could reach the next generation of military tech, but I think in a 7 player game I’ll be quick enough and be able to pound through the rivals. Once I reach Guilds I may pave the cottages with water mills for the production.

[Cornflakes]

No turn ready on a Saturday means you get a report

T108:

   

I have been running an engineer specialist here is Ice Age non-stop since the forge completed nearly 30 turns ago in order to get a pure engineer for Machinery bulb. Ice Age has stagnated as a result but with 15hpt it has still been a decent contributor to the empire.

   

Great Unconformity has also been running an engineer near-continuously (up until a couple turns ago when I built Colossus). Once the engineer is born at Ice Age I'll turn the engineer specialist back on here for approximately 70/30 engineer/merchant 21 turns later (27 turns from now). As mentioned above, my goal is to have all necessary prerequisites for Knights completed in 27 turns. I'll devote the necessary MFG to Research, and the remaining will build enough military to keep my spiky enough to deter aggression. Probably emphasizing Trebuchets and spears since those will have the most value in the Knights era and will be able to stop HA attacks. A crossbow or two may be built depending on when I go for Iron Working + Archer (likely right after Currency just for the defensive value of crossbows vs. Swords).

   
   
   

My power is now lagging while Elkad is spiking   3 turns remaining on the peace treaty. I'm sending in Chariot scouts now to see what's up. I'm fairly certain Elkad does not have Catapults yet and I have walls in my border cities. Above everything I need to make sure that I don't lose all of the accumulated engineer points at Ice Age in the next 6 turns.