[SPOILERS] Magic Science and Nobody Else in Pitboss 66

[Magic Science]

Turn 85 to Turn 87 – 750 BC to 700 BC
Part 1
   
Yes, I am at war with Plem-adilly, but Civ IV decided that I should deal with Mjmd’s diplomacy first.

I turned him down to look around, then sent the same offer back. (TURN 86 SPOILER: He sent Open Borders with a Fish for Fish rider back to me again next turn, and I accepted).

The idea is: I should have Closed Borders with all my neighbors (Plem-adilly, Civ-eel, Mjmd, and GKC) and Open Borders with the neighbors of my neighbors who are my prospective friends (superdeath, Alhazard, Amicalola. Maybe not superdeath for much longer, because his border with Mjmd is minor). But I think it is worth breaking the rule for now to explore the interior of my neighbors’ lands.


   
Hahaha, no.

However, this Peace Treaty offer is valuable information. I think it confirms Option Two: “The best defense is a good offense”, so my cities should be relatively safe in this war.


   
Hmm, still no.

I could see the evil Chariot on the plains 1NW of Mount Olympus, which is too close. There can be no lasting peace until the Chariot and the Scout are gone, one way or another. BEGONE. JUST GO AWAY. .

Also, I should at least check the vulnerability of the Roman border cities.

And again, my own cities should be relatively safe, so there is no need to rush to peace. (There were no other Roman units visible around the edges of the diplomacy screen).


   
My first move was to send the newly trained Scout north to see Circei, and he found no enemy units. Good news! Also, Plemadilly chose to perform a minor teleportation trick with their evil Chariot instead of pillaging a second road, so trade with Demeter could be reestablished on Turn 86. More good news!

Oh, and Dude the Warrior was destroyed by a Roman Praetorians, but whatever. I barely remember their names anymore.


   
So I moved the Scout onto the hill to see if there were any enemy units close enough to protect Circei, and there were. 2 Praetorians! My Axemen can just barely get the upper hand against those monsters while defending fully fortified on a hill (like in Demeter ); forget about attacking them in the field. (I need Masonry for Walls ASAP).

So the new Scout was doomed and the Roman border cities were safe. I made defensive moves.

[Magic Science]

Part 2
   
They can pressure 3 places: Demeter, with 3 Praetorians, and Poseidon, with 1 evil Chariot, and maybe Artemis, with maybe 1 unknown Galley full of unknown stuff.

In the end, the best moves were relatively simple:
• Move an Axeman and a Warrior towards Demeter, protect them with a Phalanx. Next turn I can whip an Axeman in Demeter, which will bring it to 3.
• Put another Phalanx in Poseidon, so it can move out to attack the Chariot if it comes south to disrupt the vital chopping work, and put the Warrior from Zeus on the Deer to block the Roman Scout from blocking that tile, because I need that tile for The Colossus!
• Move another Phalanx back towards Artemis, and move another Axeman away from Apollo towards the front, just in case.
• But no Cease Fire quite yet.

But these moves took forever to decide and execute. Sure, my natural indecision is to blame, but this is also a surprisingly complicated situation. I think it is because I cannot simplify/elide/ignore (word choice?) Worker-turns and city build queues at this early stage. It really hurts to pull Workers away from domestic tasks to do the simple best combat thing, and the 2-3 units that Demeter can train could make the difference. So those things interact with the dance of military unit maneuvering in complicated ways.

Next turn.


   
Turn 86, they retreated the Chariot and Scout, and advanced the Warrior and 2 Praetorians, destroying my Scout. Annoying, but Demeter was easily made safe. Move Charriu III the Phalanx as well as the Axeman into Demeter, and whip the next Axeman just as planned. This leaves 1 Phalanx against the 1 Chariot this turn, and then 3 Axemen, 1 with full fortification, against the 2 Praetorians. They cannot get through.
Also, I cannot get through, and their annoying units are retreating, so I sent them a Cease Fire.

Next turn.


   
Once again, Civ IV decided that I should deal with someone’s Open Borders offer before the raging war, this time from Gavagai. I contacted Gavagai! His Chariot saw Hestia’s culture from GKC’s territory.

I turned him down to look around, then sent the same offer back. It turns out that Gavagai has a Peace Treaty with Mjmd, so this is in accordance with my Open Border regulations. I bet JackRB was Mjmd’s other land neighbor, so I think that makes Gavagai my new best friend alongside Alhazard. Now I just need to contact Plem-adilly’s other land neighbor, my other best friend. Gin-guelito or vanrober? They are the only 2 left, because my scouting is the best in the world. 

Oh, and the Civ-eel vs. Alhazard war continues, but with no War Weariness, so it must be a boring scouting war. BORING.


   
Plem-adilly sent back my Cease Fire offer, and of course I accepted, bringing the Third Greco-Roman War to an end.

It is unlikely to start back up again soon, because all their units retreated out of sight, except for the Scout. I moved my auxiliary Warrior and trailing Axeman to force it to flee or die, so surely, surely, surely it must now finally flee. If not, we have a quick fourth war. For now, it just means that our turn-split continues for one last turn at least.

Also, I have another Galley now, named Argo I. Like Hera’s Dream, he is also a bit earlier than needed due to bad strategy and simple mismanagement of Zeus (there were delays and overflow shenanigans and whips and unhappy faces galore that have gone unmentioned), but not too much earlier. Soon an Axeman will go across to explore Daggerland’s interior and slay its Barbarians in advance of the Settlers. I might send a Worker across as well to build roads and partially chop forests. The economy looks terrible right now, but it will recover quickly starting soon, and then I can settle new cities once again.


   
The other big news of the turn was that the badly mismanaged Colossus project was finally finalized. It was set to complete EOT 90, but I worked out a way to complete it EOT 89 instead. This is simply by sacrificing many Worker-turns to chop the neutral lakeside forest far north of Poseidon. That is nothing fancy, but I somehow had it in my head that there was no way to chop it down before Turn 90. Well, in the chaos of the war I partly forgot about what the Worker being trained in Artemis could do.

Though now The Blob’s development will suffer even more. Hermes is working an unimproved dry grassland flat. It hurts. .

…

Now that I am peaceful and involved in no turn-splits for the first time in a while, expect a domestic overview report next turn.

Any questions for that report? Like on what turn I finish the Colossus?

[Magic Science]

One last thing: I am pretty sure that True AI Diplomacy was supposed to be turned on for this game, but it is not. Too late now, and no big deal, but it is unfortunate that I will not get to play with those new toys until another game.

[Magic Science]

It is unlikely to start back up again soon, because all their units retreated out of sight, except for the Scout.

Nope. . They sent a PM informing me that we are at war once again. The Fourth Greco-Roman War. What could this possibly be about? Stay tuned to find out.

[Magic Science]

Turn 88 – 675 BC
Part 1: Main
   
The Fourth Greco-Roman War is about capturing Demeter.

. FRIGHTENING. .

No domestic overview this turn, sorry, still soon though.

…

They have threatening Demeter (in my vision): 2 Praetorians (1 with Shock), 4 Axemen (2 with Shock), 1 evil Chariot, and 1 Warrior. (1 Shocking Axeman, the evil Chariot, and the Warrior are 1 tile behind the others).

I have protecting Demeter: Charriu III the Phalanx (with Combat I), and 2 Axemen (1 with full fortification).

The situation is grim for my beloved fourth city.


   
This is what I did in the north:

Move 1 Axeman back to Demeter, and dry whip another 1 in Demeter. (they still play first and I play second). Move the Warrior to the wilderness road.

Next turn I can immediately whip a Phalanx (19/35 production invested) in Demeter, and in 3 turns more Copper reinforcements can arrive over the wilderness road.

That’s about it. .

…

I think Plem-adilly will capture Demeter. They got me. It was the 4 surprise Axemen that did it.

If the usual pre-catapult necessary 2:1 ratio of attackers:defenders held, then the city would hold too, but it does not, so it will not. The varying levels of fortification and different possible orders of battle make it a bit more complicated, but basically: they have 4 units that are favored to win outright even before any of my units are wounded at all. Only my 1 heroic fully-fortified Axeman can resist them. All the others are just a few +% short. I needed a Monument or a Wall, or maybe some Archers, but my economy crashed too hard too soon.

Now, this is still pre-catapult war involving just a few units on each side, so I think I could still win the Battle of Demeter, but I need excellent luck.

…

I have more to say about my choices and their choices in this strange violent sequence, but I think I will save those words until after the battle is over, one way or another.


   
This is what I did in the south:

1 Phalanx and 2 Axemen are what I have for reinforcements for Demeter. They are annoyingly delayed by the need to protect my lakeside Workers first from Civ-eel’s Warrior, then maybe second from Plem-adilly’s evil Chariot. Plem-adilly can see those Workers with their Scout, they might try to interfere.

Also, moving them towards Demeter makes Poseidon and The Blob even more terribly vulnerable.

These 5 cities are each defended by about 1 Copper unit + change(?), but it is more complicated than that. Each badly defended city is badly defended in its own special way. .

For the 4 cities of The Blob, that is an unpleasant but acceptable risk for now. That is because Civ-eel or GKC cannot capture and then keep any of them, but only capture and raze and NOT resettle. I would resettle and they would gain nothing, not even communicatively, because we are just about done competing for tiles. I bet they will not attack me yet, and Civ-eel may still lack Sailing anyway.

For Poseidon, that is no longer an acceptable risk. It is about to be the home of the Colossus (please please please ), and will be much too tempting and damaging of a razing raiding target for Civ-eel. And look, their Work Boat is watching the empty city! . Why did they train that Work Boat?

I hate taking any units away and I need more units ASAP. Gogogogogo.



Part 2: Extra
In this trying time, we must remember to take a minute to stop and appreciate the little things in Civ IV. That is what this extra part is for. .

   
My beloved Work Boat Cassandra has proven the world loops north-to-south! . I bet no one else has done that yet. .


   
And at least the Info Screen is feeling optimistic about my chances of constructing the Colossus. . Thanks, buddy.

[Magic Science]

Turn 89 – 650 BC
   
Well, they got me. They captured Demeter.

In the Battle of Demeter, they lost 1 Praetorian and 1 Axeman, so their surviving forces are: 1 Praetorian, 3 Axemen, 2 Chariots, and 1 Warrior.

In the Battle of Demeter, I lost 1 Phalanx and 4 Axemen, so my surviving forcers are: nothing, of course.

…

I think I was slightly unlucky in this battle, because I think the most likely outcome had them losing 1 more unit. But it did not make much difference, because the battle was not close.

They had 1 more Chariot hiding in the dim fog, which made cleanup slightly easier for them. But again, it did not make much difference.


   
I am very afraid. Will Plem-adilly continue attacking? What will happen if they do?

And this is the last turn of The Colossus project, one way or another. 1 World Wonder or 250 units of gold, what will it be?

…

Most of Plem-adilly’s superior units are badly wounded and must wait and heal, so I have some time to prepare. However, that 1 healthy Chariot and the 2 Workers in the dim fog behind it are enough to cause me significant trouble in the meantime. There is also 1 healthy Axeman in the dim fog.

Because of all my roads are in neutral territory, that Chariot has absurd mobility. I pillaged one of the roads with my Warrior, but their combat Workers mean that is probably futile. So, the Chariot threatens my lakeside Workers, my grassland hill Worker, my lakeside Axeman, my reinforcing Axeman from Apollo, and of course my Warrior. It can also make it to within 1 tile of Poseidon, so it threatens Poseidon on the next turn.

They could have run away to safety (except the Warrior), but that is unacceptable. The Workers had to stand fast and chop, for the sake of The Colossus. I need that Wonder. In fact, I need that Wonder a lot more than I need Poseidon, and I wish it were possible to disentangle the two. So, I moved my Phalanx to cover the lakeside Workers and Axeman. That leaves the Warrior as a sacrifice, and the other Worker and Axeman will just have to hope the Chariot does not move far enough forward to see them. If the Chariot charges Poseidon, then I can build a lakeside road with those Workers and catch if from behind with the Phalanx and Axeman, but then I might lose the Workers. Well, it is worth a try to save them.

EXCEPT I JUST REALIZED THEY COULD PILLAGE THE ROAD 1S OF MOUNT OLYMPUS WITH THE OTHER WOUNDED CHARIOT IN DEMETER AND RAZE POSEIDON WITHOUT REAL OPPOSITION ON TURN 91. FUCK ME.

Oh, and if Civ-eel attacks Poseidon with a Galley then I am fucked as well, of course. 


   
My next technology will be Masonry, for two reasons.

ONE: The Pyramids! The plan all along for Metal Casting was to build a Forge and birth a Great Engineer, and of course that Engineer should construct the Pyramids for me if he can. This plan seemed better back before my research rate estimates failed. EOT 85 Pyrmaids? Sure, plausible. EOT 98 Pyramids? No, ludicrous. Still, I planned to be ready to turn on research for Masonry on Turn 96 even before the Fourth War, just in case. I thought EOT 89 Colossus was absurd, yet here I am with at least a coinflip chance.

TWO: WALLS! Possibly more important. They are nearly the only way for my unpromoted Axemen to be favored against Plem-adilly’s monstrous Combat I and Shock Praetorians and Axemen. Poseidon is on a flat, so for that city it really is the only way. Until then, my only hope is to have a 1:2 attackers:defenders ratio. Absurd. Zeus and Hera began a frenzy of Axeman production this turn, and around the Pantheon a frenzy of military migration towards Poseidon began as well. It should have been last turn, but sometimes I fail to think ahead. And maybe I should have evacuated Demeter to save those units. That option simply did not occur to me until afterwards.


   
Here are the demographics. It would be a shame to lose the game before the belated first issue of “Ignoring the Issue of My Lack of Skill, Can I Still Win This Game Without a Miracle?” is released, but it seems that I have done so. Oh well.

[Magic Science]

The turn has rolled. It is Turn 90 now, and The Colossus project is finished, but I need to wait for my half.
This is so tense. I have to know. It's like Christmas morning all over again.

Technology: No.
Land: No, I did not settle a new city on Turn 70.
Population: Yes, I will gain 3 pop for 9 points.
Wonders: PLEASE.

PBSPY says:
Magic Science: score increased to 221 (+25)

HAHAHAHAH YES IT IS MINE.

[RefSteel]

Okay, so I'm not sure whether to offer congratulations on the Brazen Giant With Conquering Limbs Astride from Land to Land or condolences on the goddess of the harvest, so ... maybe both?  Or should the first be held in abeyance until we know more about the war situation?  EIther way... ahem....

This is definitely translated (um, extremely liberally, and the original is lost) from the ancient Greek and in no way made up on the spot by me without even a reference source this time or anything:

My heart is filled with shame and fear, with sorrow and with pity
To learn that Demeter is lost and reck not what the battle bodes
Nor what my victories have cost my friends on still-uncultured roads!
O would that I had been at home
Defending 'gainst aggressive Rome
Instead of razing city after undefended city!

Yet can my heart rise even now in spite of Roman Praets?
I lived not behind gates and locks, a seeming-safe, endangered bore,
Nor built sandcastles in a box, but sailed the seas in search of war!
Rome cannot take from us, from me
The mark we've made on history,
Our stirring of the world in defiance of the Fates!

O Ye who watch us from on high and gave to me my name:
Ye Lurkers whom we honor thus, well-knowing Ye know all!
Though Ye could blame and laugh at us, foreseeing how we'll fall,
Mock not the weed in every field,
A pungent odor though it yield,
I beg thee:  Cheer our triumphs, for we have enough of shame!

[Magic Science]

Wow, I never inspired a poem before, awesome. And “still-uncultured roads” is an excellent phrase for poetry about the reality of Civ IV.

I care more about the congratulations than the condolences (my first World Wonder in a Pitboss, cool), but yeah, you should wait to give them until we can be sure that Poseidon will survive the next few turns.

[Magic Science]

No time for a report now. BUT:

   

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