[PB61 spoilers] Bing Xi Lao stumbles into the ring

[BING_XI_LAO]

Yes, assuming the display is accurate, Rekenner is indeed a player with 4 cities and 21 units free to send on an invasion. I mean, it explains why/how he wasn't making more cities. If he hadn't ruined the surprise by parking 5 skirms on the border throughout peacetime, then 10 skirms ahead of this war, he would easily overrun all three cities. As things stand I'm certain I will be able to keep one of them, hopefully all three.

I would be mad, but hey, it's my first game and I'm getting to experience something memorable and really unusual. Also it's a noob FFA game, of course people are going to end up occasionally doing stuff that hurts themselves about as much as their opponent.

[civac2]

Well you should have been able to monitor his military capabilities via his power graph.

[BING_XI_LAO]

I chose not to put espionage points towards him after the first war, assuming he'd go the same rebuild route as I. Plus he was putting all his towards me (which I assumed was an oversight), so it was a bit of an uphill thing. Guess it's worthwhile now though.

[BING_XI_LAO]

Whoopee, my scout can see some of the German-Roman war. Looks like the Romans only just got Praetorians online, I wonder if their iron is going to get pillaged. by these Axemen.
Why didn't the Praetorian get nerfed in the mod, while War Elephants did? Just curious, I actually don't particularly like "tall poppy syndrome" mods, but it must have been an obvious target.

As for my own situation, I'll post an update when Rekenner has a real stack next to one of my towns. He's between my copper town and my outermost town this turn, so I decided to mostly protect the copper town, with "only" 5 units defending the outermost town. He could dogpile it with like 20 units, lol.

[Charriu]

War elephants were nerfed because they were stronger then praetorians with their anti-mounted bonus. They are available to everybody, if the mapmaker provided ivory to everybody, which was also a problem. Both praetorians and war elephants performed equally good against their counters axeman and spearman. I was think about nerfing praets and I think I had one version in which they were nerfed. I unnerfed them in the end because though they are strong it is actually possible to deal with them, due to their 1 movement and keeping up defenses. As soon as you have crossbowman they are a non-issue. Of course it is possible to do a praetorian rush by going Iron Working early, but so far nobody actually did that.
You also have to see the unit in context of the whole civ. Together with this great unit the Romans get a fairly weak UB and good, but not the best starting techs for every start. This is similar to Byzantium, which has bad starting techs and a bad UB, but is payed back with an amazing UU.

It's also noteworthy that the praetorians do not benefit from the increased city attack of the base unit, which increased from 10% to 25%.

[civac2]

War Elephants warp the whole game, essentially making medieval war unprofitable because medieval units do not have a sufficiently large advantage over orthodox cataphant stacks. On the other hand, only one faction can have Praetorians. One faction being impervious to attack in the medieval age is much less of an issue. (But even that is not really the case as Praetorians get hard-countered by macemen.) As an offensive units, Praetorians are pretty good but not strong enough to need a nerf.

[Miguelito]

Of course it is possible to do a praetorian rush by going Iron Working early, but so far nobody actually did that.

Mjmd and I did, kinda, in PB56. After maths,  but before construction. It also worked, kinda. Brought down van who was Charlie of Celts which has to be the worst combo to attack into on turn 90. Of course it cost so much that we were pretty much out of the game - although Mjmd was showing good recovery towards the end, had it not been for Noble's utterly dominant game.
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[Charriu]

Not to undermine what you did back there, but I thought about this attack more as a normal attack rather then an actual rush to Iron Working and praetorians.

[civac2]

Not to undermine what you did back there, but I thought about this attack more as a normal attack rather then an actual rush to Iron Working and praetorians.

I agree.

[BING_XI_LAO]

I think I'm fine, actually! Not kidding. Incidentally last turn I put 6 units out of sight behind assabiyah, which are now in the garrison there and in Mateship. I almost have as many units as him in this theatre.
Decided to whip the rax and axeman in the west after taking this pic. Also upgraded the warrior in the southernmost city after moving him 1 step along a road, but I suspect the war will be decided by the time he gets to the front.

Rekenner is going bankrupt. If he doesn't use these units, I think they might start deserting him, which would be nice!
Sadly, I think he will use them.Lok at that pop stat - he is down to 1 or 2 pop in his four towns.