[SPOILER]PB58 - Mr. Cairo residing over the remains of Serdoas Library of Knowledge

[Mr. Cairo]

This shouldn't be too much of a spoiler, but I know from other players that they successfully got the trade routes with Optics. Just ignore the circumnavigation message which is buggy in this version. I know what triggers the bug, but I hesitated to make an update, because I didn't want to break anything.

Yeah, I got them, a turn after I teched Optics, but they're there.


In other news I'm going to attack Ruff soon. I might run into some of Jowy's stuff in there, if I get the chance to wipe out a big stack of his I'll take it.

AT also built the Great Library this turn, I was 4 hammers off, so I could have got it this turn with some tile management, and then it would've been a coin toss, but actually I think I prefer the fail gold, it'll let me tech longer and hopefully get Banking before my GA ends, so I can swap to Mercantilism.

[Mr. Cairo]

So, I declared war on Ruff, moved in my scouting HA, and immediately wanted to take it back and instead offer Ruff OB:

*Apparently I didn't take a screenshot and the turn has since rolled, but imagine seeing a bunch of injured Knights in Ruff's cap surrounded by his culture and no Pikes or Longbows or anything else defending them.*

But, offering a Peace treaty or Cease Fire and then OB would take too long, so time to do it the hard way. I think my main goal right now has to be finding a way to slam my stack into Jowy's Knights while keeping his Knights from hitting my stack. Not an easy prospect. I'm going to have to be very very careful. Luckily, everyone played their turns so quickly last night while I was asleep, so I've ended up being after Jowy in the turn order even though I've played before him the last few turns. I've sent him (and Ruff) a PM so I sure as hell hope there aren't any issues. But playing last gives me a little more wiggle room.

Also, got Banking and swapped to Merc. In Retrospect I think I would have preferred using the GA to get to Nationalism and then on to Gunpowder for drafted Oromos.

[Mr. Cairo]

Here's the situation:


My own army consists of a bunch of WEs, Cats, and HAs, and is sitting in that Jungle Fort up there.

We're in a stalemate. Neither one of us wants to advance much for fear of getting caught in Ruff's culture and vulnerable. His army does outclass mine, but either one of us wins if we get to attack.

I think what I'll end up doing is waiting like this to see what Jowy does, and then possibly offering a cease-fire to Ruff, then OB, and see if I can get in the first strike against Jowy's stack.

I'm starting to get Knights of my own up. Now that the GA is over I went on a whipping spree, so a lot of infrastructure is getting finished and Knights completing. Next turn I turn tech back on for Gunpowder, which will take two turns. Oromo's can take Formation right out of the gate, so are pretty good against Knights. After Gunpowder is Nationalism, and hopefully the Taj Mahal.

[Mr. Cairo]

So after moving his Cat stack, with a few Knights, to the forest 1S of Nisus, I moved my stack down a tile. In response (?) Jowy moved back from Nisus. So I moved back to the jungle fort. And now Jowy has moved everything into Eudaemonic.


Including a Pike, so he has Engineering. I decided that trying to hide the fact that I have Engineering from him is not worthwhile I moved my own Pikes into the stack.

Also, Ruff declared war on SD, I'm assuming for the lulz, so I kinda think my plan to making peace and getting OB to attack Jowy is not going to happen.

However, just delaying Jowy's conquest of Ruff is worthwhile to me. I'm still ahead economically. My MFG and GDP while teching are close seconds to a player in a GA (Tarkeel), so I'm ok with the status quo. And I'm also catching up in power to Jowy, with Oromos coming out that will outclass his Knights, even on flat terrain.
Jowy took more from Ruff faster than I was expecting, so there's not as much opportunity for myself to take cities off of Ruff, so my goal here is to limit Jowy's gains, and for the last few turns I seem to have paralyzed Jowy's main army.
I'm also ok with Tarkeel and AT getting pieces of Ruff, since it'll just create more conflict amongst themselves, and with Jowy, while denying cities to Jowy.

Here's my current tech path:

Although I am tempted to get Alphabet so I can see what techs Jowy has.

And my military compared to what is probably most of Jowy's:

[mackoti]

How oromo is outclassing a knight?

[Mr. Cairo]

How oromo is outclassing a knight?

I meant actual combat, obviously Knights are faster, which makes them better, but in an actual fight, Oromos come out slightly ahead, even without any terrain bonuses. Oromos can take Formation right away, and all his Knights are promoted to either C1+Shock or C2 and I don't think he has Gunpowder, so he can't take Pinch, even if any of his Knights had promotions to take.

[mackoti]

How oromo is outclassing a knight?

I meant actual combat, obviously Knights are faster, which makes them better, but in an actual fight, Oromos come out slightly ahead, even without any terrain bonuses. Oromos can take Formation right away, and all his Knights are promoted to either C1+Shock or C2 and I don't think he has Gunpowder, so he can't take Pinch, even if any of his Knights had promotions to take.

I supose he can research research gunpowsder in a pinch   , and knigs are as you said faster, imune to first strikes and i think even combat 2 gets odds on a oromo, and as well knigs with stable get easier a second promotion. Personaly i think all muskets are near useles besides the janasaries, which dont need a promo to have 25 % and are very good as well against the other units, and the french musketeer, with double move. AGG muskets is a totaly diferent story.

[civac2]

C2 knights beat Oromo Warriors with Formation. But then C2 knights beat most things.

[Mr. Cairo]

C2 knights beat Oromo Warriors with Formation. But then C2 knights beat most things.

Yeah, but not C1+Formation Oromos. Just.

Edit: And they're cheaper, and better at soaking up collateral. He has so many Knights that there's no point in trying to catch up to him, by the time I do I'll have Cuirs. So I'm buildin the Oromos and Cats because they're cheaper, while teching towards Cuirs. With Nationhood, Oromos only cost 1 Pop, which is very efficient, so I don't plan to be building Oromos for very long.

[Mr. Cairo]

So, Jowy has moved forward, and is in a position, unfortunately, to threaten my stack:


I guess the delay allowed him to bring up workers, so I can't just burn the roads. Jowy can take the city and then run up to hit my stack with all his collateral, and then his Knights; assuming the culture vanishes, which I suppose it might not, that aspect of this game remains a mystery to me. So I pulled most of my stuff back, leaving a token force of Pikes and Longbows, not enough to be worth starting a fight over, but not so little Jowy can seize that fort easily.

If you're wondering what all this accomplished:


If I had done nothing Jowy probably would have take all of Ruff by now, but instead I've given time to Ruff to rebuild some of his forces and make his eventual and inevitable demise more painful for Jowy. And given time for the other players, not directly threatened by Jowy and his stack, to take some of Ruff that might otherwise have gone to Jowy.

It's possible I would have been better served just using this time to focus more heavily on infrastructure and teching, putting cities on wealth/research builds instead of units. But oh well, I didn't, so whatever. Maybe next time.