[LURKERS] Civ 6 PBEM 15: May the Odds be Ever In Your Favor

[Banzailizard]

The interesting thing will be to see if Woden can bring off an early war. He's always had a bad habit of - well, if not full-blown McClellanism at least a bit of Rosecransism. He likes to build up until everything is just so, and continually delays to prepare more when he should attack.

Not this time it seems, Woden is on the war path, and he is going to leverage that extra movement.

I don't see much hope for Jester at this point.  Maybe if he gets walls Edirne with a chop it will buy some time, but with Persia's extra movement its not even like siege units will be that slow. The only real question is now, how much of a pain Jester can make Woden's attack. If Jester folds right away then woden has a big advantage.  If he can hold out it might drain resources and push back the break even date of the conquest.  Also why is Jester building a granary in Constantinople? A city with 5 surplus food and 8/11 housing? I mean I get that he is trying to go tall with Pingala, but surely there is something better to be built there.

[MJW (ya that one)]

I call the game for Woden. Jester is toast because of middle start and being worse than the other players and Woden will be better off because the remaining two players will be very close to eachother which will lead to them fighting. Persia might actually get their sneak attack ability off too.

I was joking when I said that because anyone with half a brain would DoW (especially after the oligarchy pick, woden should have went Classical Republic to trick CFCJF then oligarchy and then autocracy). Persia and other civs/leaders like it will have to be banned because of this (and maybe going to leader pick because the "extra" leaders are no longer useless).

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I don't know enough about combat in GS, mostly how resources work - how big of an advantage are Woden's half-cost Immortals?

Right now, it looks like he fields 4 immortals and 2 archers against 2 Ottoman swords and 2 archers. The +2 movement bonus will be a big advantage, but I'm not sure that Woden's strength is overwhelming enough to let him quickly take Istanbul. Edirne should fall fairly easily without walls and only 2 units to defend against nearly all the Persian army, but if Woden bogs down outside Istanbul then it's still a 3-person game.

[williams482]

Agreed that Erdine is toast and Istanbul is uncertain. Four immortals and a ram probably won't break through against sword-boosted walls (provided Jester can kick out a few more defenders), but adding a few healthy horsemen to the fray will probably do it. I think this will come down to how quickly Woden's second wave can get into action.

Sidenote, Jester complaining about the map would be funny if he had any idea how much worse everyone else's start was.

[williams482]

Well hey, now I'm not so sure. Jester got those walls up in a hurry, and it looks like he did a good job keeping his sword safe while Woden took out the encampment, which looks like it will be online again next turn. Three immortals can still do some damage, but this is a real battle now.

[MJW (ya that one)]

Well it looks like Woden didn't bring enough units. This also explains why CFCJF didn't declare (you can see power on the win conditions tab). Persia, and picking by Civ, is saved.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Jester had that builder right in position to chop walls, and it saved Edirne! 

Now if the two settle into a stalemate, this looks like pindicator's game to lose.

[MJW (ya that one)]

In response to Woden's latest post:

[MJW (ya that one)]

CFCJF said he would wait until he say Woden's horse count drop. If I understand correctly that would happen AFTER Woden got his units into the proper position and Woden could have launched an even better attack. But CFCJF could have changed his mind... There was no reason to NOT declare on Woden so CFCJF should have just did that. I feel inexperience in playing strategy games in general; taking unnecessary risks...

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Jester, I think, is probably a fine single player. But in PBEM4 he also maintained inadequate defenses against aggressive neighbors. He lost an early city there, too, and never recovered.

I need to look over PBEM5 again - I paid so little attention to that game that, outside of Alhambram's slow Arabian start, I have no real idea what happened.