[PB66] Tarkeel and civac explore the untamed wilds

[Tarkeel]

Turn 160 (1000 AD)
We're back after the holiday break, which was longer and slower than expected. Last turn we noticed that GKC had finally evacuated his crossbow from the island, leaving only an archer, so we loaded up the boats at Erudin. Since we played after him that turn, we had to wait for him to play this turn, which took some time. Just as we'd given up waiting, he logged in to play 10 secs after we, while I was still crashing on login so nothing had been played.


There was a great general on the island last turn, and we were afraid he'd go for a super defender, but it seems like GKC doesn't want island exile so we declare and go in.

Trireme vs Galley, 88.11%: win
C2 War Elephant vs Archer, 25.10%: loss, scoring only one hit
C2 War Elephant vs Archer, 48.38%: win, on the last hit

We got a it lucky with the second combat, but had two more crossbows on the second galley. We're lucky and the city comes with both a lighthouse and a settled great general. We caught Magic Science moving some suspicious units in Mjmd's territory last turn, and had to evacuate our workers, but I think this is what he was going for:


We also resettle New Steamfount on the ruins, bringing along a missionary to speed things up.

Vanrober is now suffering a full-scale invasion threatening his core. Tech-wise, Mjmd Liberalism'ed Nationalism on T159 (as expected) and Guilds on T160; P&P researched Philo T159 and Nationalism T160; Gavagai picked up Drama T159; Superdeath researched Paper T160 and Alhazard picked up Civil Service T160.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 161 (1010 AD)
We picked up Calendar and some free happy on our way to Guilds, which comes in next turn. Most of the cities are prebuilding HAs, but we don't have a big wave of whips lined up. The only other new tech was Alhazard researching Theology, he's likely to swap civics in 2 to 4 turns.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 163 (1030 AD)
The drums of war are sounding. We picked up Guilds last turn, and Heroic Firion Vie cold-whipped a chariot to cause enough overflow to 1-turn knights for a while. We held off on other whips so as to not arouse suspicion, but the stack of slow-movers has been slowly making it's hidden way to the front. This turn we finished another three knights on natural production, and since the slow moving stack is in position to attack next turn, we turn on the whip everywhere else.


We've been putting on a show for Alhazard; Kedge (which he can see with his sentry) whipped a pike last turn, and the overflow will finish a knight this turn. We have suspicious scout and worker moves at Overthere, trying to draw his forces west, while our strike will be in the east. He's still not got Engineering, so we have the movement advantage. We're also dumping full commerce into EP this turn for city vision. The goal for the small naval raiding force is to threaten Houston and Busiris, and force him to defend there; it will get another wellie next turn.


Hazard has been underbuilding units for a while; the slight bump 10-5 turns ago was mainly longbows; the rest seems to be population and infrastructure. He should stille have some 15 war chariots and a handful of catapults that can hurt.


P&P is sniping one of the islands near our GKC vulturing, settling on furs and claiming sugar on another island. We'll just have to swamp them in culture later on.

On the tech front, this turn Hazard got Guilds, P&P got Constitution and Ginguelito got Machinery. Back on T162 we finally picked up Guilds, while Mjmd got PrintingPress and Amica got Machinery. I missed that Vanrober got Gunpowder on T161, but I don't think that's enough to stop SD.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 164 (1040 AD)
It looks like we achieved more or less complete surprise, despite dumping EP last turn. The only moves Hazard made, was to evacuate most of the garrison in Akhetaten.


This tempted us into making some last-minute changes, and diverted the first wave of knights to land at Akhetaten's gems instead of linking up with the main force. We also landed some units at Houston to tempt him into countering, and the main stack is advancing on Alexandria. The three knights there can possibly threaten Pi-Ramesses next turn as well. The biggest bonus (and surprise) was that by stepping on the cottage at Alexandria, we delayed his Engineering to 2 turns.

In other wortwhile news, Mjmd declared war on Gavagai last turn. Hazard actually side-tripped to pick up Calendar, and Ginguelito picked up Monarchy.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 165 (1050 AD)
Alhazard's reponse to the invasion has been to whip almost every city (predictable), and evacuating almost every city (very surprising). Thanks to city vision, there's only one tile we can't see on the mainland part of his empire. Almost all of his forces are concentrated around the capital:




Besides what's marked, there's also a HorseArcher and Catapult in Memphis, and the stack next to it is the first evacuation wave from Akhetaten. My first instinct was to burn Akhetaten and Pi-Ramesses, and use the freed culture to move the mainstack into Alexandria to defend. If we'd roaded the sheep at Paineel we could have moved the main stack into Akhetaten in two turns, and he's positioned so that only very few two-movers can reach Akhetaten next turn. Instead we're going to burn it. We did decide to keep Pi-Ramesses though.

The bonfire of Akhetaten: The lone axe triumphantly marches in, is desperately tempted by the Granary, Lighthouse, Courthouse and Forge, but still manages to set it alight (pocketing 168g)
The sacking of Alexandria: A brave knight storms ahead of the pack, capturing it with Granary, Lighthouse and Forge, and 87g.
The pillage of Pi-Ramesses: The scouting chariot branches off to deal with it, seizing a Courthouse and Forge along with 147g.
The raiding of Houston: The useless crossbow stamps in to better defend, seizing a Granary and 20g in the process.

That's 4 cities without a single casualty on either side.

We expect him to stage his slow-movers on the (currently unroaded) tile NE of Hieraconpolis, or N of it if he's playing badly. Our short term goal is to safely get our stack to the tile N (or NE) of that, but our best hope right now is to strike him as he attempts to counter in the east.

The leaders are racing away in tech now; P&P got Gunpowder and Mjmd Engineering. Vanrober seems to have stopped the Superdeath invasion, but he's been crippled by city losses.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 166 (1060 AD)
Despite whipping 15 cities last turn, Alhazard found another 5 to whip this time, including a naked 4-whipped Knight in the capital. He's running out of pop to whip, and he doesn't have the hammers to slowbuild anything. He still has a respectable 10-knight force, most of which can take 3 promotions out of the gate. We have 23 so far, and are mainly 2-whipping with overflow into a second knight, so are getting quite the mileage and still have some gas left in the tank.

Alhazard is still evading contact. The eastern forces have concentrated in Busiris, and the main stack is assembling at Thebes. Crucially, his knights have assembled out of range of anything interesting. The relevant stacks are highlighted:


We're sending an expeditionary force eastwards to deal with Lisht firstly, and then Busiris. The main stack of knights have staged so that they can either move to Busiris stage after Lisht falls, or strike either Hieraconpolis or the bait-stack N of it.

There's not much actually happening, but we still need very careful planning to move the units just right. Demo's are looking decent, despite whipping heavily in a war.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 167 (1070 AD)
Mjmd is being shifty again. He got peace from Gav after losing a city, and rolled the turn late without playing a double. Could be just time constraints, but he sent us this cryptic diplo:


Is the fish with gold supposed to signify that we've had everlasting peace (we haven't; he's bullied several times) or a wish for future peace? The second part seems more like a threat to do something drastic against our southern holdings. It could also be interpreted as "give me the gems", so we're tried trading the gems for his spare gold. Imagine my surprise when I saw he had gems naturally, and no gold! He lost one to Gavagai, and is selling the other to Vanrober for 10gpt, the same amount we offered earlier and he didn't want to haggle over. Chalk this up to another incident of what is Mjmd thinking about?

Alhazard concentrated his forces in Hieraconpolis and the tile E of it, and the two eastern cities actually whipped triremes.


First things first. The ravaging of Lisht: The sacrificial chariot takes the city, which comes with a Granary, Forge and Courthouse, as well as 90g. We're sorely tempted to keep it as it will takes to regain that infrastructure. This would mean we have to defend the city until Busiris is dealt with, but given that Hazard is running out of pop were greedy and take the chance.

Since the Knights and WarElephants are left unpromoted, we look into a first strike against them with our small 12-knight expeditionary force, but it doesn't seem worth it. We're sending 9 knights to make sure Busiris is dealt with and the east is safe, then we'll go in with a small force in the north to divert some defenders just before the main stack goes in.

Edit: Added some pics

[Tarkeel]

Went back and added some pics to the previous post. Note that the forces overview is from before we made any moves, so is only correct for Hazards forces.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 168 (1080 AD)
With all the war moves last turn, we forgot to answer Mjmd, and then the turn rolled before we had a chance to rectify. Mjmd hasn't forgotten us, and sent this:


We're pretty sure the gold is meant to signify a NAP timer, something we are agains in principle. I don't see that Mjmd is the one that needs to be taken down in the next 50 turns, but that could change 40t from now, so we're sending back plain fish for fish.

Meanwhile, Hazard finally did something and assaulted Houston with WarChariots; losing one at 8.9% odds (but inflicting 3 rounds of damag) so the second could win flawlessly at 87.9% odds. Busiris completed a galley to evacuate the GreatArtist and a knight. We send in the knights to threaten (and hopefully take) Houston and Busiris next turn.


He's still turtling in the core, moving his mounted units to a position that can defend from both north and east, and the catapults to a position that can only defend from the east. We send our knights to the hill E of Paineel, where they can threaten invasion in the north and defend against the south.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 169 (1090 AD)
Hazard actually deleted everything that was left in the east. We think he might have shuffled the previously loaded knight and GreatArtist onto the freshly arrived galley, and the remaining knight and a C2 WC on the other. Most importantly, he did not move it away the ships, so we have to act as if there are 3 knights loaded.

A brave fresh knight takes Busiris, which again comes with the full compliment of granary, lighthouse, forge and courthouse, along with 114g. Recapturing Houston only nets 1g, and no buildings.

The main battlefield is still static, but we start shaping it by cutting the road 2S of Alexandria with a chariot, and then pillage the town S to cut that road as well, making the city safe for counter based on where Hazard's workers are. All of our slow-movers assemble on the tile E of Alexandria, which we also pillage in a desperate attempt to make him think we've gone north.