Cairo killed two axes and a worker of mine who was improving the cow (had just finished, yay) with a nice galley maneuver and two immortals, because I somehow forgot those exist and didn't bother covering with a spear (curiously, my other exposed axe pair is covered with a spear ). The worker doesn't really matter, as I don't have a lot of good tiles left nor pop to work all my improved tiles anyway (cities are growing slowly, as they have to share their food) And because I want to maintain that cow pasture, because I also don't have a spear on a boat ready AND because I know about the sunken cost fallacy but deny reality, I'll probably lose another C2 axe to the wounded (2.9/4) Immortal . Flip side, I hold the cow, killed an Immortal of his, getting my best axe to 18XP, and have separated the galleys by a wall of triremes now, hurray.
It would have been totally avoidable if I used my brain while playing.
In other news, I've been scouting FT and superdeath. The former's hammer is going to fall on the latter, in the forms of a wave of catapults and horchers that would easily obliterate us, and may well do so after he's cut through SD.
FT's capital:
good thing we had double fish, else it would have been really mean to have the third food resource overseas
I might be spared FT's hammer, but Commodore sure does come a-knocking:
note the 3-move horcher and the crazy promoted axe/spear pair. Gangadhara was whipped down to size 2 afterwards.
I have little to oppose this right now, Gangadhara with it's archer/spear is certain to fall. I do have catapults finishing in all cities (which in all likelihood will just be 3) this turn, which I'll try to hide. MAYBE I'll be able to hold him off at Mahadeva, or, even less likely, use culture to strike at his stack in the conquered city.
Moved the triremes into defensive positions and offered peace to Cairo. My tiny leverage is that my 3 move trireme can move around in his waters. But he may as well just send a stack on Mahadeva now (but there's of course a risk of him getting into a situation with Comm).
Also, in probably a kneejerk move, I fired a GA with the engineer. I didn't see how I'll ever have iron, so Machinery would be useless, and the hammers could be lifesaving. (but now of course I'm considering that FT will have a spare one at some point and would possibly not mind to prop me up agains Comm, so he might supply it)
I'm deliberating between determined defense against Comm, or trying to exile onto the island in order to prolong my pain (at least I have a nice trireme fleet for the while being). sounds like the better meme (I'm old enough to remember Xenu, though I don't expect as much glory)
edit: oh and FT's iron is 3W of his capital, at a natural 2nd or 3rd city site, because of course it is (map raging is what's left to me, sorry Ref, I know you understnad)
(June 29th, 2020, 15:21)Miguelito Wrote: I'm deliberating between determined defense against Comm, or trying to exile onto the island in order to prolong my pain (at least I have a nice trireme fleet for the while being). sounds like the better meme (I'm old enough to remember Xenu, though I don't expect as much glory)
Apologies pindi, I've not been here long enough to have witnessed it live, but of course you have an even more famous exile story on your record.
With the nearly finished galley in Nataraja I'd have 4; 16 units including 3 cats should be enough to break through the island garrison, and I'd hope to get them shipped over before the cap falls....
Commodore offered peace; that could actually be useful for the island attack plan, but 5 turns of peace would not actually have been enough, and I still need some units for that. So I rejected to at least assess the situation. The archer/spear at Gangadhara had taken two horchers with them before their heroic deaths (and another one fled, shame - that would actually have been the next GG).
And Cornflakes attacked him! If that's real, taking back Gangadhara might actually be an option (and it would rue me to have whipped away its population). It depends on whether Commodore stacks his forces on the city tile where the cats can hit them, if I have enough hitters on hand, and also what Cairo does of course. I'm trying to hide the cats from them, if Commodore feels like sacrificing his scout chariot he can spot them this turn though.
If there is no viable attack on Gangadhara possible I try to get peace with Comm and throw an attack at the island.
Ruff asked for OBs, but I don't want him to scout my feeble defenses. Of course he can read just that from my behaviour and try to attack, but with the superdeath-FT war being official now, hopefully he'll rather try to get a bite out of there instead.
Short term goal: survive SD. Long term: survive Cairo as the terror of the seven seas (well that one where I spawned)
PBspy news:
Ruff took a city from superdeath, and even Commodore joined the party and razed the one which SD had planned in Gangadhara's face.
Cairo whipped away 7 pop in 4 cities, (and he usually almost never whips) so I'm curious what I will login to tonight. I expect either triremes or cats. Not sure which would be the more devastating. With triremes he gets to boat the cap, as I'd have to stack my own ships , with cats I can forget about offense most probably.
The thing is, even if I went for the island, he'd still have those two ocean tiles forever, so I would never be able to defend. It's infuriating. I had superior naval tech and should have dominated on that front, cutting off his supply to the island and threatening the capital, but instead I had to commit triremes to block the way for unattackable galleys, and now I likely won't even have that option anymore. Cairo recognized this better, but also I simply had no similar opportunity (he got two such tiles with capital culture on t50)
(June 29th, 2020, 15:21)Miguelito Wrote: I'm deliberating between determined defense against Comm, or trying to exile onto the island in order to prolong my pain (at least I have a nice trireme fleet for the while being). sounds like the better meme (I'm old enough to remember Xenu, though I don't expect as much glory)
Apologies pindi, I've not been here long enough to have witnessed it live, but of course you have an even more famous exile story on your record.
(June 29th, 2020, 18:49)pindicator Wrote: Hahaha, I definitely approve!
Always do the exile invasion. I ought to go back and restore some of the screenshots for that.
+1 for that. That thread was one of the best read on this forum. Something that probably never happened before and won't happen afterwards. It's so special.
horse archers
That's better than what I could hope for, if it means that his recent research was HBR and not Construction nor Metal Casting. With catapults I should be able to deal with that, barring some serious tactical blunder on my side, which of course is totally beyond me.
Of course, with those whips he seems determined to do something, and I have Commodore invading already, so it all can go south quite possibly. Was it stupid to reject peace? Likely, but I'm trying to achieve something here:
The plan is to lure Commodore into moving a stack on flatland in range of Mahadeva, so the cats can hit him. I'm hiding the catapults on the galleys so far (and I hope he doesn't see the new one on the interturn), and a large number of hitters out of sight of his sentry chariot.
The tricky part so far seems to be to make him actually stack his units. Against 3 of them a cat attack doesn't feel as nice as if they were 6. Also his units are super promoted, so I can't pick them up one by one feasibly. To my great shame, I don't even have a chariot to kill that super axe, but will build one in the capital next, if he keeps wandering around.
It would make sense for him to fork Ajita and Mahadeva, but actually he has just 2 healthy horse archers currently.
With Cairo also getting horchers, I'll go for some new spears. The new catapult in Ajita is probably an error in that regard (but can a catapult ever be a wrong choice?).
If Commodore doesn't attack soon I'll try to get peace and mount the island attack, but I'll need quite some hitters at Mahadeva:
Cairo unloaded his super swords back home. It'll take them some turns to get over to the mainland front, but with the new horse archers that stack gets into a critical size. I probably can't attack on the island before getting a defense victory there, if I can. It is a bit of a relief to have those swords not in range of hitting my cap anymore; otoh, I have to count with the possibility that there's something else on those 3 galleys now. Immortals wouldn't be nice if they can get to my place. You see those triremes? That's what I mean with covering against unattackable galleys
Also I'm still learning new things: who knew that you can't see a hill over flatland from the sea? Everybody who's played this game before? Oh well. I said in my entry presentation that I've mostly lurked
Finally, some good news:
That's the first free one in almost 70 turns! It's actually good for something: the borders pop this turn already instead of next, hopefully getting me my wheat back pronto and some security from Ruff, who hopefully is busy taking SD's capital, and then there's an interesting opportunity for a clash with Fintourist - will FT content himself with just the Pyramids and the silver city? I think he's brought too much to just take 2 cities, and while Commodore has abysmal GNP - about ours, and Cairos, rate - he's starting to get a considerable lead in city count and crop yield (less if I can help it).
). The worker doesn't really matter, as I don't have a lot of good tiles left nor pop to work all my improved tiles anyway (cities are growing slowly, as they have to share their food) And because I want to maintain that cow pasture, because I also don't have a spear on a boat ready 
sounds like the better meme (I'm old enough to remember Xenu, though I don't expect as much glory)
