[Spoilers] Woden takes on the World (PBEM18)

[Woden]

You sound a bit more downbeat (realistic?) today - fingers crossed it goes well!

I am just being realistic. The key to my attack will be taking Fortaleza before he can get walls up. That should help the loyalty issues at Fez and help me hold Recife. 

Turn 115
The quadrireme is finished at Fez and my second catapult finishes at Rohan. Osgiliath and Gondor also finish their projects, netting me 70 GE points this turn. Fez starts a Cothon, Rohan and Gondor start crossbowmen, and Osgiliath starts its dam. I need to make sure my industrial complex is safe from floods. 

With the quadrireme out at Fez, I switch research to Square Rigging and Theology. Looking around, I notice Brazil has a second new city between Belem and Rio...



Kaiser came asking for me to join his war against Ichabod. I considered it for a minute but then saw this...



Okay, you are probably looking to hold the tile you want to settle but really man! You have seen my units that were exploring your lands retreat back to my lands and I have a bunch of upgrade gold. You know I am not here to block you city, I am bringing him home to upgrade. He previously blocked my builder from hooking up my cocoa at Rivendell for ages and now trying to block my horseman from going home. I really need this guy back ASAP so he can pillage Manuas' commercial hub for more upgrade gold. This pisses me off. His warrior at Misty Mountains better not get in my way either. WTF is a warrior going to do at this stage of the game?

Anyways, big upgrade turn next turn and then war on T117. Ichabod will probably declare on me on his T117 because I am going to move my catapults into his LOS and my spearman will move next to Porto Alegre's mines. Regardless, war will occur on T117. Problem today is that suboptimal will not get to his turn until tomorrow so no new turn today (this is yesterday's turn).

[Woden]

Turn 116
It begins...

Open the save to...



And...



I swap out Press Gangs and Feudal Contracts for the half cost upgrade cards. I start the turn with 1,346...



I upgrade 3 Frigates, 2 knights, and 3 corsairs, all at Fez. I am left 4 short (156) of another knight upgrade. Next turn, I will upgrade a knight at misty Mountains so he can pillage a mine at Manaus in a few turns. I also activate my great admiral to form a fleet on one of my Frigates. 

For research, I slot Guilds (2 turns left) and Gunpowder, with enough overflow to finish it next turn. The plan is to put a turn into Guilds and then dump a few turns into another civic while I do some pillaging and upgrade my muskets at Misty Mountains. 

Kaiser offers me a deal, or rather a gift. He is giving me incense, probably as a bribe to join the war this turn or maybe it was a mistake and he forgot to at joining the war. In the above screenshot, you will notice Ichabod has moved his sword out of the city, guarding his missionary (probably on his way to reconvert Fez). So, I see an opportunity here for a first strike. I am pretty sure Ichabod would declare war on me on his turn, since I moved up my catapults and spear towards Porto Alegre, so why not start this a turn early and damage his sword...



I shot his sword with my encampment. He is going to have a choice next turn. He can shot my spear with his city attack and possibly kill my spear with the sword, which is ideal. This will leave my catapults alone to attack his city walls and I can kill the sword with my encampment. Or, he will retreat and heal, leaving the area around the city to be pillaged. The worst outcome, would be if he attacks my catapult in the open because I probably would have to retreat to heal. Not sure if the catapult can take 2 hits and still survive. But if he does attack my catapult, I can pillage with the spear and a corsair freely. So, regardless of what he does, I should be looking good. I also attack his corsair at Belem with a city attack.

One more opportunity presented itself. A injured Brazilian horseman moved next to my eastern horseman. The attack screen showed a kill but got a bad dice roll and it lives with almost no health...



Finding his horseman over here might be good news. Ichabod might have brought his army to this side of his emprie to help out Canada. If he has a healthy knight or Corsair behind his horseman, my horse might die but I will know his western side is lightly defended and I might be able to pull this off. 

Overall, most of the action will occur on the west coast for the first few turns of the war...



The plan will be to send my Frigates south to bombard Maceio and then raze it with my southern Corsair. My 2 knights and the corsair in Fez will push on Fortaleza, pillaging a mine and its holy site on T118, then surround the city and take it around T120-T121. The northern Corsair will move to Porto Alegre and pillage its mines and holy site while the catapults work on its walls. Once Fortalez is taken, I will send half my cavalry north to help take Porto Alegre and the other half will hold Fortaleza. My Frigates and Caravels will sail south along the coast and take the coastal cities. Brazil should have 5 fewer cities in about 10 turns. I will go over my plans in the east once I can upgrade my muskets. For now, all units in the east will hold and see if they can draw some Brazilian units close to my city defenses.

[Woden]

Turn 117
As typical when you start a war, the turn took a couple of days to get back to me. Open the save to….



Ichabod attacked 2 units on his turn, my catapult at Porto Alegre (almost killing it) and my Corsair near Fez. I check the attack screen at Porto Alegre…



Looks like he is running Bastions for the extra strength walls. He did complete a civic on his turn.  Poor timing on my part.  I retreat the catapult back to Helm’s Deep to heal. Might need bombards to crack this nut. I put in Metal Casting, due in 8 turns un-boosted but will upgrade a few archers in the coming turns plus I have a few finishing in 4 turns, regardless.
I move my units up and take most of the walls out at Maceio. I was so excited about attacking Brazil last turn, I didn’t notice he chopped out walls last turn. Luckily, he placed a mine where the forest was, and I can delay taking the city by a turn to get some more gold. I just realized I should have swapped civic research to Guilds instead of Divine Right. I could have got the extra pillaging card in play because I have decided I need to finish Divine Right soon for the 50% to cavalry card.  Always think of the better play as I write the report and look at things again. I can always delay some of the pillage a turn or 2. Here is how it looked at the end of the turn…



I moved the injured Corsair out of range but still within range of taking the city next if I want. He will probably try and skirt around the city to go for the mine next turn when the walls are down. Then I will keep a Frigate there to bring the health down to near zero to raze the city the turn after.  Also note, Ichabod had a galley over here and I trapped it with my Caravel. He will probably suicide against my Caravel next turn, but it is one less unit to worry about.
I switch production at Helm’s Deep and Rivendell to Encampment projects. I want to General here to help. Ichabod probably can faith buy the next one in a few turns, thanks to his insane faith income and the Theocracy discount. I will have the worry about, but it will help out to get one of my own. While looking at…



The wonder production Great Engineer is no longer available and was replaced by the one that provides an additional district. Looks like Ichabod faith bought them last turn. That changes a few things, no longer to I have a chance at the Colosseum. I move Magnus to Mount Doom to double stone harvest the Mausoleum. I will slow build the Industrial Zone at Rohan.

After razing Maceio, I am wondering if I shouldn’t just raze most of his cities, or at least the ones that will be hard to keep. I would keep Porto Alegre and Belem and the city by Misty Mountains but if I keep Fortaleza and Recife, it will take units out of the fight and I might have to defend the captured cities, as well as attacking his other cities. Another consideration is what might suboptimal do? If he joins Brazil and Canada, he could do some damage as I am locked keeping my Frigates along Brazil’s coast to retake the cities that flip free. All I really need from this war is to hurt Ichabod and razing a bunch of his cities will do that and I can replace or found more cities quickly if I want. They would be less developed but all of Brazil’s coastal cities will be size 1 by the time I take his capital. I will still get a few mice cities along my border and his capital and if I raze his few coastal cities and Fortaleza, I can push on his capital sooner…take Porto Alegre and then move the bombards south along the road to Rio. Once his capital falls, I can keep everything east of there. Ichabod would be pretty spent by then. IDK, just a thought. I just can see taking a bunch of cities, then running out of units to hold them and really not accomplishing anything. If I raze them, he can’t retake them.

[NobleZarkon]

 I just can see taking a bunch of cities, then running out of units to hold them and really not accomplishing anything. If I raze them, he can’t retake them.

That seems to be the meta in Civ VI now with loyalty especially in a MP game where you don't need to worry about diplomacy in the same way.

[Woden]

 I just can see taking a bunch of cities, then running out of units to hold them and really not accomplishing anything. If I raze them, he can’t retake them.

That seems to be the meta in Civ VI now with loyalty especially in a MP game where you don't need to worry about diplomacy in the same way.

I have been resisting the fact that razing cities has become meta because I was hoping there would be another way but I just don't see it. Cities flipping 2 or 3 turns after capture is just crazy and stupid. You end up recapturing cities over and over again if you get stuck at a well defended capital or city. Then the cities lose population every time you recapture them, you end up with a city that was 10 pop becoming a 1-pop town. Luckily, his more well developed cities are close to my border and I will keep them but a few cities that I might have to raze do have holy sites and campuses that will go to waste. We might have to think about a mod that might limit loyalty flips, maybe something that cuts loyalty in half or  gives a grace period (like 10 turns) when a city is captured before loyalty comes into play. At least then, you might be able to reduce loyalty in the city by taking neighboring cities before it flips free.

[Woden]

Turn 118
Let's see what damage we took from Ichabod...



He attacked out of Maceio with his chariot and double attacked my Corsair Courser (finally remember to look up how it is spelled) at Porto Alegre, shot once with the city walls and attacked with the sword. This is good, he left my spearman alone to pillage a mine. Also, notice a trade route heading towards Fortaleza. I can reach it with my Courser. Let's do some pillaging. Overall, I pillaged 3 mines (220 each) and a trade route (140), enough to upgrade 4 muskets and a Frigate (which I do). I kill the chariot with Fez and move the Courser up towards Maceio. My Frigates do there thing and drop the city to no health. Here is how it looked at the end of the turn...



I am very lucky that flood happened on the southern river and not the northern one. It might have really hurt me if it had damaged or destroyed all my cavalry. I swapped civic research over to Guilds and realized that it was not that bad that I didn't finish it this turn, I still needed both upgrade cards, so there was no place for Raid before I pillaged. Next turn, I will pillage his Theater District and Holy Site at Fortaleza with Raid in place. I will keep the gold upgrade card running and upgrade a bunch of archers with the next pillage gold. 

Over in the east...



Both Ichabod and Kaiser founded cities south of me. Ichabod replacing Hattusa and Kaiser founding a city where I wanted to put one. Not really going to complain, I did settle all those cities north of his capital in what was rightly his land. I upgraded 3 muskets by Misty Mountains, with the 4th being by Helm's Deep. I will start moving the muskets up next turn. I moved my knight to take a look between Belem and Manaus. No sign of an army. He does have a Knight and Courser at Belem but they may be heading west to Porto Alegre. I haven't see much of Ichabod's army, so maybe he was off east and bringing them back. We will see. I am sure they will show up in thee next few turns, just not sure where. Ichabod might have enough faith to purchase the next General next turn and certainly will the following turn. If his army and a General show up at Manaus, I might have to retreat my muskets while I work in the west and wait for more reinforcements. Might be a slog through the terrain by Misty Mountains.

[Woden]

Turn 119
Start off the turn with...



This allows a policy swap...



I swap out Caravansaries for Town Charters. This will drop my income by 6 but adds 11. I also slot Raid over Retinues. My next upgrades will not require resources. Now that that is out of the way, let's look at the damage Ichabod has done on his turn...



He shot my spearman with the city defenses at Porto Alegre and shot a knight with a crossbowman at Fortaleza. Unfortunately he did not move the crossbowman into the city and is protecting the Theater Square, no free culture for me. I move my Courser to the pasture, pillage it, then attack the city. The knight pillages the Holy Site and attacks the city. The other knight moves to where Courser was and attacks the city. Finally, my injured Courser moves to the pasture west of the city. As for the Frigates, I move them towards Recife and the one in Fez attacks Maceio. Here is what it looked like after my moves...



Fortaleza started the turn off with 184 health and ended it with 75 health. It will heal 20 on Ichabod's turn and I will probably lose my Courser but I should be able to raze the city next turn. Over by Maceio, my Courser is in position to pillage the mine and raze the city next turn. Then the assault on Recife will begin. I did move my Caravel a little further south looking for any boats Brazil might have out in the open. It will take a few turns to take down the walls at Recife. With Maceio and Fortaleza gone, my loyalty issue at Fez should be clear up. 

Kaiser had a deal for me, he is returning teh 6 niter I gave him a while back. This is good because without the resource card in play, I might need it to upgrade both catapults. I did earn a governor title but decided to keep it a little while, not sure where to best use it.  

Over in the east...



Ichabod has moved a knight onto Manuas' Holy Site. I move my knight back and my muskets up. With his high city attack strength, I don't know if my knight could withstand the attacks to pillage his mine. I really need more Coursers with their 5 movement points. Pillage requires 3 points if you move on to the tile in the same turn, so while my knight was next to the tile and it costs 2 to climb the hill, it could not pillage it this turn and with the jungle and forest tiles I couldn't pillage and retreat, so would have a minimum of 2 city attacks and knight attacks, which would kill him. I do kind of what to keep my knights around to upgrade in about 8 turns. 

The attack on Manaus might stall out. Not sure I can get my muskets up to the city to take out its walls quick enough before he cuts through them, especially if he has a crossbowman in the city. I might have to just threaten attack to draw units over here and send a bunch a cavalry around to take his capital from the west once Porto Alegre falls. We will see. No real sign of his army but I should them start popping up. His horses should be near the fronts, even if they were over by Venice. 

Next turn should be a bigger turn with Brazil losing 2 cities. I have been rethinking about razing his 2 coastal cities. I can take them with my navy fairly easy and if I keep them around for a little bit after capturing them, I might be able to draw some of his forces away for other cities. If I raze them right away, he can focus more of his military power on the fronts. Something to think about.

[NobleZarkon]

Interesting turns!

Which Governors do you have at the moment? Victor to Fez perhaps then reassign as you get deeper into Brazil's territory?

[Woden]

Interesting turns!

Which Governors do you have at the moment?  Victor to Fez perhaps then reassign as you get deeper into Brazil's territory?

I currently have Pingala, Magnus, and Victor and 1 available title. Once I raze the 2 closest cities to Fez, I should be able to move Victor. For my available title, I can get another governor but Black Markets on Magnus might be better to mass produce units. With Ichabod running Bastions and having DotF, this war is going to become a war of attrition once he can get his army in to position. His five cities east of his capital are going to be easy to take but I feel it is going to become very difficult to take his western holdings, so I am going to need a bunch more units, especially cavalry.

[Woden]

T120
Ichabod delayed the turn a day. Not sure what is going on there but this game is going to become difficult to keep interest if we only get a turn in every two days. 

Anyways, what is waiting for me...



He was able to chop out walls at Fortaliza and his army finally showed up. Ouch, that sucks! No taking this city this turn. Well, at least I can still pillage a mine and take Maceio...



I raze the city and it reduces the loyalty pressure at from ~-8 to -5.  Down south, my southern Caravel is close to the western shore and finds...



Luckily, the galley is in range of both my Caravels, so I kill it. That will delay taking Recife by a turn but worth it to kill a potential threat if it was upgraded to a Caravel. My Frigates start working on Recife and should have walls down next turn. I suspect Ichabod will shoot my injured Frigate and give him a promotion. 

Thanks to completing the walls at Fortaleza, Ichabod was able to kill a Knight and Courser. I expected the knight but not the Courser. I look thinks over to decide wat I should do with my remaining Knight and Courser. Neither of them can cross the river to safety. One thing I notice as checking attack screens, is that Ichabod is running the +4 strength for attacking someone following another religion. Like the loyalty BS, this is a poorly implementation system. My religion is not spread around yet and in fact, I just need 1 more city to be following Ichabod's religion. In the the base, you need half your cities following a religion to be "following a religion" but now, just because I founded a religion, I get pinged for "following a religion" even though I am not converted to that religion. This is BS and lazy game design. Anyways, I decide to send my Knight and Courser up to Porto Alegre. One will get attacked by the city but the Courser will be able to escape and the Knight can pillage the Holy Site. I want the faith to start an Inquisition and get Ichabod's religion out of my cities and hurt is income. He is getting 3 per converted city, so if I can get it out of my cities, that is 18 less he has for upgrades. Here is how the east looked after movements...



Elsewhere, Ichabod did kill one of my archers by Rohan. Must have a archer/crossbowman on Bilem's Holy Site and he has a Courser just south of Rohan. I move my musket up to protect my other Archer. Over in the east...



One of my Muskets was shot by the city. I move my units up and can start attacking the city next turn but might retreat them if more units show up. I don't want to lose this force too. I will pillage the mine for upgrade gold but may need to try save most of my muskets. As expected, Ichabod did faith buy the next General, so he may also show up in the city next turn. My attack plan is shifting now. I think I might turtle up for a few turns to get more cavalry out whiel I work on Porto Alegre and his coastal cities. I think I am also going to delay Divine Right until I can get the 2nd Bombard upgraded so I can take out the 50% upgrade card for the double production card for Industrial Zones. Once the Dam is done at Osgialiath, I will have a +10 and 3 +6 Industrial Zones taht can be doubled to match his work ethic Holy Sites. I will need Magnus and Black Markets at Gondor to spit out a bunch of knights while I work on Ballistics, then can do another focused attack with the knight upgrades.  

Here is the current scores...





Ichabod's total is 6 less due to the city I razed. Next turn, I upgrade one Bombard and I will need to wait a few turns to get the niter for a second upgrade. Porto Alegre's walls should fall fast once I start shooting with the bombards. I might actually need a few more for the next big push.