[SPOILER] Close to Win

[Charriu]

T107:

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That was a very short war between AT and Jowy. I really had hoped that there was more in ATs city. I moved in a single axe, because maybe I get to snipe this city from Jowy via ATs roads. But I highly doubt that this will happen, but hey it's not like this is costing me much.

I also established contact with the last player pindicator. Now him having 13 cities is no surprise seeing his recent conquest of team Girarober. I also send him a his gem for my copper deal. I doubt he will take it, but hey more happiness is always welcome.




Back in the south the situation hasn't changed much. The forest is down to 1 chop, so I declared war against Jowy. Main reason is to prevent him from double moving me and with that moving his worker to safety. I didn't attack so far as the protection from the forest is too high. I see the following scenarios playing out down south:

• Jowy chops the forest and maybe reinforces his troops. In that case I might attack him next turn
  
• He goes away leaving the forest intact, which is a win for me as I will reclaim that tile in the near future
  
• He stays in place, maybe starting a road, and reinforces. In that case I just have to wait until the tile is mine again. I doubt he has enough to break my defense in HillStormGiants.
  

[Charriu]

T108:

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Jowy chose the option to chop and sacrifice his worker. He also offered me peace, which I rejected. As you can see I moved most of my force in to protect the worker. I somewhat doubt that Jowy has enough to wipe my whole stack. This is what I know he has:

In the north:
5 axeman
1 spearman

In the south:
1 axeman
1 spearman
1 chariot

Now he certainly has more, but looking at the graphs I somewhat doubt that he has 6 axeman in the south. But of course I could totally be wrong about that.




Back in the north he moved his forces back into the city. Considering that I only moved in one axeman, this is a great result. Pinning his forces in the north is good for the southern campain. Thinking about it some more, I also want his city intact so that he keeps in conflict with AT.

[Charriu]

T109:

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No movement from Jowy in the south and up here in the north he moved in a chariot. Now I expect him to move in to pillage my ivory, which hurts a bit. I also move my troops in the south back into the city and offered peace. Here are my reasons:

• I got a worker, which is great as I have good use for that
  
• I suspect him to have more units then the 1 axe and 1 spear in his southern city and that is a force that I can't crack
  
• Saving some money from supply
  
• Preventing the ivory pillage
  
• 10 turns of peace would be nice to build up some forces
  

Now the 10 turns of peace are actually the most important. I noticed that due to my financial need to tech currency and keep the maintenance low I've fallen back in soldier count considerabely. I need to build up some forces soon to prevent any opportune attacks against me.

I also got an OB offer from pindicator. Now here a diplomatic blunder of mine happened. I rejected that offer and send him an gems for open borders back, because he gets more out of the open border than I get. Later during that turn I noticed that pindicator actually agreed to the gems for copper deal I send him. I only just got this now because I double moved him last turn. That deal is in my advantage as he has no use for the copper, so I send him a blank OB offer back. Sorry pindicator for sounding unreasonable and confused.

[Charriu]

T109:

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I'm also thinking about doing something very unusual. The way I see it Jowy is building up a huge force and may sooner or later attack me or AT. Here in the north I suspect him to attack AT in WhiteKeys. Now my plan is to station 1 or 2 of my Guerilla 1, CG I, Drill I archers in WhiteKeys and try helping defend it against Jowy. I think defending WhiteKeys is also the best long term defense of my territory up here.

[Charriu]

T110:

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Currency is finally in. Now the 43 gold I'm making is not the actual value. I did switch some things around so that I made 50 gold. That's a good time to have a look at how the PRO and FIN players are doing. Here they are:

PRO:

Mr. Cairo: 64 gpt
Me: 50 gpt
pindicator: 44gpt

FIN:

Mjmd: 59 gpt
Jowy: ?? gpt, but probably higher

Others:
Superdeath: 32 gpt
AT: ?? gpt

Bare in mind that right now I don't have any foreign trade income. Still running mostly +2 trade routes. Next goal after Currency is Sailing and settling the deer island for even more money.




Jowy accepted peace and we traded 1 chopped forest for 1 worker in our short conflict, a good trade. pindicator also excepted my gems for OB deal, so now I have 2 gems.    Now one thing I was wondering was how Jowy established contact with pindicator and I found the answer. Look up to the top left, there you see a warrior from pindicator and underneath it is a warrior from Jowy.

I also have to say I was really careless with no garrison in JuvenileWizard. As you can see a barb galley moved in. It actually killed an exploring work boat from pindicator. I immediately moved my chariots to the city, but then I remembered, yes, I have the Great Wall protecting me. Good that I built that. Now the barb galley can move towards Mjmd and annoy his newly snow city.

[Charriu]

I will get a great spy soon. Now I do want to use that to start a golden age, but not immediately. So I thought about how to use it. Now these Great Spies are invisible and undecetable. Wow, great I could explore enemy territoy with it. Mh what do the rules say about spies:

Rules:

In-game options
- Map size: Standard
- Difficulty: Monarch
- Speed: Normal
- Era: Ancient
- No tech trading
- Barbarians on
- Events off
- No tribal villages
- No vassal states
- True AI Diplo
- No spies

Oha

I do believe that 'No spies' includes great spys. To bad.

[Ramkhamhaeng]

No, you can use Great Spys.

[Charriu]

Really? What do other lurkers think about that?

[mackoti]

Really? What do other lurkers think about that?

defenetlty you can use the great spy to explore rival teritory.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

I think its fair to use it for a golden age or to explore enemy territory.