[PB69 SPOILERS] Magic Science and Nobody Else in Pitboss 69

[scooter]

Nice reports, so it deserves some comments/questions. Here’s a few.

First, we do have a testing subforum here: http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/forum...php?fid=30 if you ever need to test posting. In general I write all my turn reports in a text editor and then paste them into the full reply, then hit Preview Post to make sure it looks the way I’m expecting. I then edit in text editor and re-paste if I need to make changes. I’ve lost too many reports to weird glitches to really trust full replies.


As for the actual game.

I absolutely hate being caught flat-footed like this. For me, this is the part of Pitboss that causes me to not enjoy Pitboss. I can handle setbacks and even elimination with good cheer, but not this. Other Realms Beyonders have other weaknesses; this is mine. I don’t know what to do. Previous turn, all calm, incredibly normal turn. This turn, chaos, many overlapping momentous choices, the fate of my game is decided now, literally in the next 1 hour, or 2 hours because I play slowly, . Well, that’s how I felt at the time.
It is better for these things to be spread over more time. Then they can be calmer, more contemplative.

I think this feeling is pretty normal. It’s especially unfortunate if these specific moments collide with real-life moments. The best solution is… uh, to not be caught flat-footed . Which isn’t helpful on its own. My best attempt at a solution is to frequently ask myself “how can I win?” and “what could cause me to lose?” when I happen to have some extra time to think about the answers, and that can help me head off issues before they happen. Doesn’t always work though, and when stuff happens anyway, it’s tough.

I can build The Colossus. Should I?

How much coast are you working or would you be working in a post-Colossus world?

[Magic Science]

Turn 129 and Turn 130 and Turn 131 – 350 AD and 375 AD and 400 AD
Pre–Drama
   
Info Screen Demographics. Turn 129.
The First Cambodian Golden Age is over. .


   
Info Screen Top 5 Cities / Wonders. Turn 130.
Mei once again graces the Top 5 Cities screen. .

Naufragar built the Apostolic Palace, so it is Buddhist and he is the Resident. Maybe this is what he has been using his hammers for instead of training an army to conquer Gin-guelito. This was predictable after he bulbed Theology, and it should have been predictable long before that, since of course he would generate another Great Prophet with Stonehenge and The Oracle in the same city.
I am not sure what to think of this. The hammers seem nice for him? They will probably convince Pindicator to adopt Buddhism instead of Judaism. They could convince Commodore to be more Buddhist and less Confucian. So this is worth gold from the shrine as well as hammers from the buildings (including the shrine, ). The proposals seem bewildering. Will they have any relevance in a human, PBSPY, CtH situation?

Pindicator built the Mausoleum of Maulossos. I think Golden Age turns are especially valuable for my Serfdom civilization with most tiles yielding both hammers and commerce, but I knew all along that my plan did not include the possibility of building the MoM. However, the Wonder is in My Little Pony on Pindicator’s east coast. That is within range for vulturing, or even temporary sniping for just a moment to detonate a Golden Age. Pretty dreams.
Also, I reconsidered my giving Ivory getting Spices deal with him. My Scout sees that he has War Elephants but no Iron and no Ivory of his own, so my Ivory is acting as a strategic resource for him. I had not thought of that possibility. .  Should I be trading a vital strategic resource (worth the beakers of Iron Working to Pindicator for now) for trivial happiness in return? I am still reconsidering. Pindicator is spending gold at the moment, so I cannot renegotiation for money payment, and the Spices happiness might be important despite Hereditary Rule depending on how my garrisons shift for the upcoming war.


   
Central Cambodia. Turn 129.
The tile assignments are different here than they were previously or in plans.

Bolan-Ban gave up the Cow, since there is no point in growing more until there are more Coast tiles in culture to work. I should have built the Library first here, , but Judaism will expand my culture here before too much longer. The Missionary was pre-empted by a free spread the very turn he was scheduled to disembark and manual spread. Well, it will be useful to have a Missionary still unused for the upcoming war.
Bei took the Cow and gave up the Corn and did not give up the Grassland Mines.

Mei took the Corn and did not take the Grassland Mines. There is lots of overlap here in Central Cambodia. I decided not to have Mei take the Mines because that would be taking away war production to spend on infrastructure instead, which is not what I should be doing right now. It is alright for Mei to build its Forge more slowly (approximately 10 turns instead of approximately 5 turns) while Bei trains units more quickly.
2 Workers will be at Mei now, mainly to build Windmills. The 1 Workers in the southeast is actually for Bolan-Bie and not involved at the capital; disregard him.


Post–Drama
   
Power Graph. Turn 131.
This is important context.


   
Just as I feared, Naufragar has declared war on Gin-guelito and captured Cathy Ames. I knew this could happen any turn, but I am surprised because Naufragar still has less Power than Gin-guelito on the graph. Maybe there was a sharp Slavery-less increase in the last 2 turns? Probably not. I suspect Naufragar lacks the strength to conquer Gin-guelito, but of course he could be training the necessary units right now. But that doesn’t matter much because he doesn’t need to conquer Gin-guelito totally to deny me the better part of my spoils, thanks to our perpendicular geography against him.
That should have been my view all along: Naufragar’s superior geography against Gin-guelito, perpendicular to mine, means I needed to strike stronger and sooner to secure the same spoils. His little weaker strike is all it takes to cut me off. Well, I am later and maybe weaker than him and by my own choice. Time will tell if it was worth it to enable the recent switch to Serfdom and all that.
What to do now?

I must capture Bibracte and Joker. I will accelerate my vague plan.

The defenders of Fort Ivory + reinforcements from Bolan-Mei can advance Turn 133 and capture Bibracte Turn 134, probably. Then they will heal for 2 turns, advance Turn 137 and capture Joker Turn 138. For capturing Joker, the eastern force will be helped by a western force coming along a new road SE of Bie.

Can I do better than that? Maybe. It all depends on if Naufragar leaves me an opening. I think I cannot count on beating him like this; we are too closely matched. But maybe he will not train enough units, or he will make a positioning mistake, or something, and I can move my combined army south and pounce and take Cathy Ames and then Iago.

Should I raze Bibracte and Joker? I do not know. They are positioned in the best places if I do not control Cathy Ames and Iago. If I do control Cathy Ames and Iago, then it would be better to raze both of them to clear the way to resettle one city on the ruins of Mack, and the other a bit North/West of where Joker is presently. Maybe I can train a Combat Settler, raze both cities, and wait and see where to resettle, possibly exactly on the ruins.


This might end with me turning around to attack Superdeath, who is still relatively weak, though not as badly as earlier. Oh, and indeed he birthed a Great Merchant precisely when I predicated. .

BING_AC, relevant to Superdeath: They are doing well by all in-game metrics, but BING plays short turns. The signals are mixed. .


Lastly, yes my Farming Worker 2S of Da is vulnerable to a surprise attack off a Galley, but I bet Gin-guelito has better things to do than build a Galley just to cause me petty trouble, so I will not put a single unit of mine out of position to defend that Worker.
Lastly lastly, I decided to go ahead and discover Horseback Riding so I can train a few Ballista Elephants.

[Amicalola]

Fwiw, I found the BE effect helpful on the attack, but no difference on the defence (compared to normal elephants, which are very good already).

[Magic Science]

Turn 132 and Turn 133 – 425 AD and 450 AD
   
On Turn 132, Naufragar made a binding Peace Treaty with Gin-guelito (please imagine that the Event Log is open to show this in the screenshot, ). I think this event is neither triumph nor disaster, but a great neutrality. So what?
This Peace Treaty does not mean I can capture everything I want from Gin-guelito without interference from Naufragar, because I cannot capture Iago in less than 10 turns. I will still have to contend with him for the capital. And based on his Power, I think he needs 10 turns to train more units too. This Peace Treaty does stop Naufragar from capturing Joker before me, but it also means Gin-guelito can afford to send more units from the south to reinforce it better. Overall, a complicated wash.

Meanwhile, 13-city Commodore built The Hanging Gardens (+104), and immediately slaughtered even more of his citizens for hammers (-149) (once again I ask you to please imagine the Event Log is open to show this in the screenshot, ).
The context for this is that a few turns ago Commodore somehow suffered a catastrophic shark fin on the Power graph. My guess is he tried to invade Gavagai and underestimated the might of Praetorians, or maybe he did not know Gavagai had Horse Archers. He made a binding Peace Treaty with Gavagai and did not lose any cities in response, probably thanks to the growing threat of Pindicator looming over Gavagai, but still, he needs to rebuild his army fast. That is probably what this crazy round of whipping is about; the Power graph will soon tell.

Meanwhile, Pindicator’s Power is growing quickly with Catapults and War Elephants. I think he will invade Gavagai for real again soon (the war has never stopped), and then we will see if Commodore can recover from the shark fin in time to take any of Rome for himself.

Lastly for foreign news, I noticed recently that Superdeath has built some Ziggurats and now has Espionage dominance, which he has used to get research visibility on me. This is unacceptable, so all Espionage has been redirected from Naufragar to Superdeath, but I am not sure if I can deny him research visibility before building Courthouses of my own, though.


   
On Turn 133, I finally decided to cancel the Spices for Ivory deal with Pindicator. I offered this Fish and money for Ivory deal instead.
The Spices are useless except at Mei, and Mei can easily cope if I reposition backlines garrison units and hurry up and connect my Wine already. But money would be useful. I think the ability to train War Elephants right now without researching Iron Working is worth at least 6 gpt to him.
The Fish is a minor thing. I do need Fish for Health, but Pindicator is already giving me free Fish at my request, but I would prefer for my Fish supply to be associated with this other deal so it is more secure against cancellation. If this Fishy version of this deal goes through, I will cancel Pindicator’s Fish gift, if not, no big deal.

Nice reports, so it deserves some comments/questions. Here’s a few.

First, we do have a testing subforum here: http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/forum...php?fid=30 if you ever need to test posting. In general I write all my turn reports in a text editor and then paste them into the full reply, then hit Preview Post to make sure it looks the way I’m expecting. I then edit in text editor and re-paste if I need to make changes. I’ve lost too many reports to weird glitches to really trust full replies.

Thank you for the tip about the testing forum.
I also write my reports in an external text editor, which is why the weird behavior was only annoying and not infuriating. None of my report writing was lost. It was only blocked for a few days.

As for the actual game.

I absolutely hate being caught flat-footed like this. For me, this is the part of Pitboss that causes me to not enjoy Pitboss. I can handle setbacks and even elimination with good cheer, but not this. Other Realms Beyonders have other weaknesses; this is mine. I don’t know what to do. Previous turn, all calm, incredibly normal turn. This turn, chaos, many overlapping momentous choices, the fate of my game is decided now, literally in the next 1 hour, or 2 hours because I play slowly, . Well, that’s how I felt at the time.
It is better for these things to be spread over more time. Then they can be calmer, more contemplative.

I think this feeling is pretty normal. It’s especially unfortunate if these specific moments collide with real-life moments. The best solution is… uh, to not be caught flat-footed . Which isn’t helpful on its own. My best attempt at a solution is to frequently ask myself “how can I win?” and “what could cause me to lose?” when I happen to have some extra time to think about the answers, and that can help me head off issues before they happen. Doesn’t always work though, and when stuff happens anyway, it’s tough.

Yeah. In this case, it was a bad real-life collision. I could not afford to spend 2 hours playing Civ IV, but I could not help myself but spend 2 hours playing Civ IV.

Thank you for the anti-flat-footedness advice. In this case, I had thought plenty about how the probability of it happening, and why it would be bad, but not nearly as much about what to if it did happen. .

I can build The Colossus. Should I?

How much coast are you working or would you be working in a post-Colossus world?

.
I am working 9 Coastal tiles now.
I would and could work 35 or so Coastal tiles post-Colossus.
Bei will finish Moai Statues relatively soon, so it will grow quickly onto more Coastal tiles, and Bolan-Ban has nothing to do but grow onto more Coastal tiles.

On Turn 133, I decided to build The Colossus in Bei. It will take 7 turns and finish EOT139. That is with no whipping or chopping or overflowing. The Wonder feels so cheap and easy.
The Colossus is an incredible infrastructure building, far better than a Market or a Library or whatever. It would normally be a no-brainer to build, except that this is wartime, so it is a no-brainer to produce units instead of infrastructure, except that The Colossus is contested, of course. If I do not build it now, I may never get the chance. It can’t be that much longer before someone else besides Gavagai and me discovers Metal Casting, right?
What will the war be like? Will 2.5 Catapults make the difference? Maybe. I do not know. I wracked my brains but I do not know. My final gut feeling is to try the peaceful productive thing, even in a time of war, WITHIN REASON, and see what happens. Just like continuing with my Golden Age plan despite Naufragar’s discovery of Construction. That worked well, I think.

Now let’s see how this goes. .


   
Welcome to the Third Celto-Cambodian War, lots of stuff is going on. .
Unfortunately, I have the 2nd half in this war. That is a bad place to be against the Celtic Ginger + Miguelito complex. Naufragar was wrong to play clock game chicken to try to get it. They left me only about 1 hour to play, which is this screenshot shows 9 minutes on the clock.

The main event is in the east, between Da and Bibracte.
The Defenders In Bibracte, fortified behind Walls on a hill: 2 Axemen, 4 Spearmen, 2 Chariots (1 Combat I and wounded)
The Attackers On the Celtic Jungled Hill: 1 Crossbowman, 6 Axemen, 2 Spearmen, 2 Chariots, 1 Combat Worker, and a partridge in a pear tree (many chosen and unchosen promotions among them all).
The Counter-Defenders in Fort Ivory: 1 Crossbowman, 1 Spearman, 4 Archers, and 1 Chariot.
Da Itself: Empty. .

If they do not reinforce Bibracte, I will capture and raze it. My 6 Axemen will attack first. 2 will attack the defending Axemen and die, but not without inflicting great damage. 4 will attack the Spearmen, and 1 of them will fail and die. Then my 6 other assorted hitters will kill their survivors, and farther reinforcements will protect my survivors.
This will be a close-run thing.
If they reinforce Bibracte even a little bit, I will not capture it. I will not attack but wait for more units, especially Catapults. I may or may not retreat from the Celtic Jungled Hill. There could be 1-mover reinforcements hiding in the fog on the ruins of Mack, the Stone, or the Plains Hill 1W of Bibracte. The Peace Treaty increases the chance of this.

Also, I decided what to do about Bibracte and Joker, if I capture them. I will raze Bibracte and resettle on the Jungle 1SE. That spot claims the Cows, is on the Coast, and is slightly shielded from Naufragar by the bay. It’s not as defensible as a Plains Hill, but it’s not too bad. It will be alright no matter how the war turns out, and it does not require razing Joker.
I will not raze Joker. It’s fine where it is, on a Plains Hill, claiming Stone. It would be worth it to raze and resettle it to make room, but if that is not necessary, then it would not be worth it to raze and resettle it to claim an extra Plains tile or whatever.

Meanwhile, a forward party of 1 Crossbowman, 1 Axeman, and 1 Chariot is going to investigate the garrison of Joker. It was a mistake to not do this long ago. The part will arrive in sight next turn.
And the Chariot watching The Celtic Gate moved away towards Da to join the fight, since its job will now be done by those other units.
And there are Combat Workers, especially in the east. 2 are roading from Bie to Joker. 1 I mentioned in the west is roading the occupied Celtic Jungle Hill, maybe. It is interesting to decide which Workers, and when, and how, to redirect from normal domestic jobs to do this instead. I am back to cutting it very close with Worker labor, just like the old days when I first discovered Machinery… which was less than 20 turns ago. .
There is a Combat Missionary as well, 1NW of Da, . He has nothing better to do, and newly captured cities could certainly use Judaism right away.

Lastly, Gin-guelito spent a few units to capture and raze Numidian a few turns ago. That could be relevant.
There is so much to say about this war.

Fwiw, I found the BE effect helpful on the attack, but no difference on the defence (compared to normal elephants, which are very good already).

Hi Amicalola. I’ll get back to you about this. .

[Magic Science]

Turn 134 – 475 AD
Part 1
   
diplodiplodiplodiplo
Pindicator rejected my new deal and reoffered the old deal, which of course I rejected.
He also cancelled our Crab for Crab deal (worse than leaving it alone, but it was an old deal anyway) and the Fish gift (Mei is unhealthy now).
Those cancelations feel like an unnecessary escalation, but as long as he doesn’t cancel Open Borders too it will be alright. One of my Scouts is watching his eastern coast now. There is nowhere for Galleys to hide.

For my part, I tried proposing my new deal again, this time with Pindicator paying 5 gpt instead of 6, and a Crab for Crab rider. I do not expect success. He must not need Ivory as badly as I thought, at least not anymore, so he is not willing to give more for it than an otherwise useless surplus Spices resource. Oh well.
Lastly, I proposed a Fish for Crabs deal with BING_ac. Mei needs Fish. I have no idea if he will accept.


   
No comment.


   
The Battle of The Holy Foothill
Holy shit. This is incredible. This is crazy. The Event Log cannot show it all at once. .

It turns out Gin-guelito (for the record, Miguelito played this turn and the last few without, I think, any help from Ginger) had a massive stack of units hiding 1SW of Bibracte. They used them all to attack my invading army 1NE of Bibracte. They failed catastrophically.

Celtic Losses: 17 AXEMEN (!!!), 1 Chariot, and 4 Spearmen.
Cambodian Losses: 1 Crossbowman (killer of 5 Axemen, a true hero ) 1 Axemen, and 1 Spearman.
Really. Really.

I was extremely lucky, but I am not sure how I was lucky.
Was it combat luck? Was the expected outcome for my army to be wiped out at a reasonable cost for Miguelito, but that did not happen because my dice rolls were outrageously good? I don’t think so, but I did not expect there to be so many units in range to attack, so I admit my estimation could be dead wrong here. This seems like a perfect opportunity to see about this “Vodka” thing the cool kids always talk about. .
Or was it “opponent luck”? Did Miguelito make a terrible, terrible error in judgement? He attacked, and did not stop attacking, when he should have just defended. Only 2 more Axemen and 2 more Spearmen in Bibracte would have beaten my little pre-emptive attack, and he had 19 units, a lot more than that! Why not just easily defend?
Or was it pure stupid misclick luck? Did Miguelito literally just select some stack movement/attack option and accidentally send all his units into my army? This seems sadly plausible. I hope it was not this.


I accounted for the possibility of a counterattack when planning this attack, though I admit I did not expect such a large one.
Overall, I am not ready to attack yet, and my army should be too small to capture Bibracte. Properly, I need a few more turns to train units. However, Naufragar’s attack gave me means (distraction) and motive (capture my spoils before he does!) to try something sooner than I planned. That is what is happening now. I decided to try anyway even after Naufragar established binding peace, because I sincerely thought “What could go wrong? Probably nothing”. The Jungled Hill, aka “The Holy Foothill”, on the short route to Bibracte is as defensively potent as Fort Ivory. Moving my units there does not make them vulnerable and exposed. All they lose is their fortification bonus and some of their strength in numbers, since some units had to stay behind at Fort Ivory to protect Da.
I knew my too-early attack might fail, but it would fail because more defenders came to Bibracte, not because my attackers were wiped out, so it was a safe chance to take. I thought Gin-guelito would never dare even try to attack my attackers on the Jungled Hill. It seemed crazy. Lots of them had pending promotions! That’s how confident I was.

So what happened is basically a miracle. What should have been a boring failure (reinforcements reach Bibracte in time, I retreat) instead became a spectacular success (enemy army breaks itself on my defensive position). And Naufragar is stuck in binding peace until Turn 142. . HA! I had the sense that I needed a lucky break to beat my equal rival Naufragar in the contest for Iago and maybe still Cathy Ames. I thought if it happened it would be from him, his error or his bad luck, but this error or bad luck from Miguelito could do the trick too.
Can I capture Iago before Turn 142?


   
The Battle of Bibracte
The Defenders: 1 Axeman and 2 Spearmen (all badly wounded, none promoted*)
The Attackers: 5 Axemen, 1 Spearman (all badly wounded, most with pending promotions), and 3 Chariots (healthy, with pending promotions).

1 Axeman had 2 promotions pending. He promo-healed with Combat II and Shock, then attacked the enemy Axeman at 91% and WON.
Another Axeman promo-healed with only Combat II, then attacked the healthier enemy Spearman at 90% and WON.
Finally, my unpromoted Chariot took Flanking I, attacked the terribly wounded enemy Spearman at 97%, and LOST (pictured above). . That guy was going to be my Sentry! Well, now that I have a Great General it will be no trouble to get some Sentry Chariots, one way or another.


   
Really finally, a Combat I Chariot took Flanking I as well, then attacked the now even more terribly wounded enemy Spearman at 100.00%, and WON.
I razed Bibracte as I planned. Bolan-Mei will build the Settler for the Jungle 1SE whenever I feel the state of the war allows it. Maybe between 10 – 15 turns from now?

1: How to protect my scattered victorious units from that Axeman and Spearman in sight, and possible Chariots in the fog?

2: What to do about Joker, which is empty?!

[Magic Science]

Turn 134 - 475 AD
Part 2
   
1: Looming over all my actions is the possibility that there are many Celtic Chariots lurking just out of sight in the south. If my prospective Sentry Chariot had survived, then I could see the relevant tiles and know for certain, . Oh well.
Due to the threat of Chariots, I did nothing to protect my own razing Chariot from the Axeman/Spearman pair, but I think it will be fine. They would die in return if they killed my Chariot, and they probably need to go defend empty Joker instead.
The many wounded units on The Holy Foothill stayed in place to heal. 1 Chariot there promoted to Medic I. 1 healthy new Spearman and Chariot moved from Fort Ivory to protect them.
Fort Ivory still has 1 Crossbowman and 4 Archers, so it and Da behind it are safe. I thought about moving the Crossbowman to The Holy Foothill, but felt that it would be unbalancing and unnecessary and would leave Fort Ivory too weak. Also, my Great General was born in Bolan-Mei, so he made it here this turn. I think he should settle in Bolan-Mei (more hammers) or maybe Bolan-Bei (Coastal), but for now he will lurk around in the warzone and see if any good opportunities for him occur.
Also, my Combat Missionary is on The Holy Foothill as well, . Again, he doesn’t have anything better to do. Maybe he can be a martyr, and suicidally run deep into enemy territory to see lots of tiles, if necessary.

2: Accelerate the attack even more, and see if I can capture Joker even sooner!
The Defenders: It whipped something this turn, and the previously mentioned Axeman/Spearman pair can reinforce, and it could whip again T136. More reinforcements? .
The Attackers: 1 Chariot T135. 1 Crossbowman and 1 Axeman T136. 1 Ballista Elephant, 1 Axeman, 1 Chariot, and 2 Catapults T137. Also, the Chariots from around Bibracte could dash across and attack too, maybe.
I feel optimistic that I can capture the city T137. I guess that will probably be what I use my Combat Missionary for.

After that, units from both Joker and the ruins of Bibracte can hit Iago in 4 turns of movement. Maybe I can capture the city in the nick of time on Turn 141, when Naufragar is still bound to peace. Bound to peace with Gin-guelito. He could attack me at any time. I must be careful of that, in the warzone and at Ban.

[Magic Science]

Tech thread drama. . It was pointless to engage, and I will not engage further. I will just ask for time when I am unfortunately forced to, and say nothing else.

We are all desperately hoping that the mysterious, totally uncommunicative, plural intelligence in control of Celtia will continue to hit "End Turn" in time for a little while longer until it is eliminated. That is what is happening, and it is frustrating. I think that is the cause of all this other stupid barb-slinging.

But the end is in sight, one way or another. .

[Magic Science]

Fwiw, I found the BE effect helpful on the attack, but no difference on the defence (compared to normal elephants, which are very good already).

I think that for the Ballista Elephants' special power to be useful, it needs to cause you to have different combat matchups, not just the same matchups in a different order. So, if your army or your enemy’s army is homogenous, it is useless. It needs to at least be something like this:
YOU Ballista Elephant + Whatever Unit X vs. ENEMY Mounted Unit Y + Non-Mounted Unit Z. For which Ballista Elephant’s have better odds against Mounted Unit Y than Non-Mounted Unit Y, and Whatever Unit X has better odds against Non-Mounted Unit Z than Mounted Unit Y. So, your Ballista Elephants can use their special power to get their favored matchup against Mounted Unit Y, and clear them out to make way for your Whatever Unit X to get their favored matchup against Non-Mounted Unit Z. So, both categories of your units get their favored matchups instead of both getting their unfavored matchups, thanks to the power of Ballista Elephants.


For example:
MY Ballista Elephants + Chariots vs. NAUFRAGAR’S Chariots + Axemen.
My Ballista Elephants can use their special power to kill the Chariots first, then my Chariots can hit the Axemen right away. This is the superior alternative to BE’s vs. Axemen and Chariots vs. Chariots.
It is more complicated than that since there is a mismatch in the numbers of each category, and Ballista Elephants are only a small part of my army anyway (4 of them vs. 10 Crossbowmen and 6 Axemen), and there are Catapults in play now, but I think the basic idea is true.


I had not thought about the difference invading someone vs. protecting myself would make on that special power. . I guess when I defend, I prefer to use my tile defenses if I can, and stack compositions will be different too.
The current war with Naufragar is not exactly attacking or defending. Also, it has involved only one actual fight so far: my Spearman vs. his spying Chariot. . The rest is just paranoia and posturing. But he probably already told you that.

[Mjmd]

To be fair because they have that power people are very leery of engaging in situations it would make a difference so ironically it makes it less likely to be used.

Can you do the lurkers a favor in your next essay and include graphs?

[Magic Science]

The use of tense in this catch-up report is atrocious. Beware.


Turn 135 to Turn 140 – 500 AD to 600 AD
   
Behold, the Combat Jewish Missionary, first of his kind, and last!

I decided it was worthwhile to sacrifice him to get total vision of the region, and I still think it was worthwhile in hindsight. However, it would have been even better to have thought ahead and trained a Scout for this suicidal job instead. Also, this would be unnecessary if I had a Sentry Chariot, but I still don’t. That 97% defeat. . My Great General could make some Sentry Chariots too if he committed either way, but he can’t settle or lead yet, he needs to be ready to sprinkle experience at a key moment to heal all my units, or do a Morale trick, or something like that.

The western Chariot there participated in the Great Revealing as well, but he was supposed to survive by threat of reprisal like the Chariot that razed Bibracte, but he died easily because his tile has a road on it, so the Spearman from Joker just killed him and ran back into the city. .


Anyway, the key insights of the Great Revealing were this:

ONE: It looks like The Battle of The Holy Foothill massacred almost all of Gin-guelito’s northern (north of Iago) army. Now they are hastily bringing reinforcements from the south. On Turn 136, I counted 8 Axemen and 2 Chariots coming in, plus the 1 Axeman and 1 Spearman in Joker already, plus 4 Workers, for what it’s worth.

TWO: Hosavian forces in Cathy Ames consist of: 14 Axemen, 7 Catapults, 2 Spearmen, and 2 Chariots. . Beware!


I entertained the scheme of trying to capture Joker T136 with all my Chariots before the reinforcements could arrive, but in the end, I decided it would not be worth it. If I kept it, they would just take it back and kill my units cheaply. If I razed it, I would need to resettle it, and in the intervening turns Naufragar would have the chance to do something, and they could still kill my units cheaply.

“There is no need to do anything clever against them,” I thought, “They are weak. I can simply march my whole army against Joker and capture it on Turn 139 or so. No problem.”

But then…


   
Turn 136.
. Naufragar has Open Borders with Gin-guelito. . Diabolical.
Let’s rewind a moment. And use a slightly better screenshot.


   
I want to claim Joker (which is rightfully mine anyway, RIP Old Bolan), Replacement Bibracte, Cathy Ames, and Iago. I fought hard against the Celts too, Naufragar couldn’t have done it without me, and I will not accept being cheated out of my reward. .

(Achieving an equitable split with my war “buddy” is difficult because we are not attacking parallel from far opposite sides, but perpendicular and close together. We cannot just meet in the middle, as is often the case. Though Naufragar could have chosen to attack farther south than Cathy Ames and made the issue less difficult)

My plan after Naufragar captured Cathy Ames and then made a Peace Treaty was to capture Bibracte and Joker from Gin-guelito, then assemble my army there and be ready to threaten Naufragar with it on about Turn 142, when his Peace Treaty with Gin-guelito runs out. I couldn’t take Cathy Ames from his roughly equal army, but I could force him to keep his army there protecting it, not conquering Celtia in the south. Neither of us want to be stuck like that for long, especially him.
So, my hope was he would surrender Cathy Ames in a Peace Treaty. Then we would be safe and free to race for Iago, which could go either way, probably his way, and he gets everything else in the south while my mounted units run with impunity among his own and pillage everything, maybe even raze a city before he can capture it. Then I pose defensively in my new land and move on to other plans.

But then Naufragar got Open Borders with Gin-guelito. I never thought about this possibility. I thought the impassable Celtic culture would keep him away for a little while longer. This Open Borders deal was a stroke of genius.
This means that our armies could threaten each other now, but I was not ready.

First thing is that my units from around Da couldn't take the quick path to Joker, south of the Peaks through Celtic culture. If they did, Naufragar’s army in Cathy Ames would sally forth and cheaply kill them all. So they had to go around, which delayed the capture of Joker. It delayed the capture of Joker so long that by the time the reinforcing units from Da arrived, enough newly produced ones had come from Western Cambodian that the reinforcing ones no longer made the difference. .
Also, I needed to be very careful about the possibility of Naufragar’s army getting the first strike on mine over Celtic roads. His army could wait behind Joker and attack mine when it invaded, or after it had conquered the city and was weakened.
I had an idea to send in a forward party with Catapults to bombard Joker, but that idea was shut down.

Anyway, the solution was to send some units from Da the long way around and fortify with the remaining units.
(I also pillaged some of the roads out of caution. Also, I saw a Celtic Settler on Turn 136, but decided not to do anything about it. If they resettle Bibracte, it will be embarrassing and annoying, but it is not worth it to stop them, and I can just raze it again before long)

When they arrived through The Celtic Gate, they would unite with the many units from the west and finally attack Joker. I prepared 2 suicidal Scouts to send into Celtic territory to check if Naufragar’s army was lurking there. If his army is there, then I will call off the attack, and I guess the stalemate during which neither of us is free to conquer the Celts starts now. If his army is not there, then go ahead.

As of now, that will happen on Turn 141, next turn.

Then I can get back to the original plan of controlling Joker and Bibracte’s zone, threatening Naufragar, demanding Cathy Ames, racing for Iago, etc. Same plan in the end, just with a different bumpier road to start.


I realize as I type this that I have not explained that I declared war on Naufragar on Turn 136 when I noticed the Open Borders deal. . Important detail to neglect in the catch-up report! I declared war simply to kill a spying Chariot near Da, and because I felt Open Borders meant it was about time to drop whatever pretense of cooperation remained. Meanwhile, another Chariot was hiding safely in Joker. Since then, I have stayed at war because I cannot afford to neutralize my threat by making a binding Peace Treaty until he is willing to give me Cathy Ames in return. There is no way Naufragar would surrender the city yet, and even if he did, I could not reach it to defend it, so Gin-guelito would take it back, and then Naufragar would take it back from them, while still at peace with me. Also, I have not resettled the area where Bibracte was yet, so if I made a Peace Treaty, Naufragar could cheekily poach that area with impunity. Same goes for Gin-guelito.
Both of them proposed white peace recently, but for all those reasons I rejected. I would reject a Cease Fire too, since it’s just useless.

Is that everything?


   
This is the present day and situation, Turn 140.

The Invading Army (scattered across 4 tiles): 10 Crossbowmen, 4 Ballista Elephants, 6 Axemen, 5 Chariots, 1 Horse Archer, and 5 Catapults. The Great General is there as well, on Old Bolan’s tile.
I am unsure about my army’s composition. It might be wrong. I never thought deeply about it like I meant too. I just assembled it 1 build-queue at a time.

There could be Swordsmen, but there is too high of a chance that this situation is decided in a fight in the field, or in defense of a city, not attacking a city. I am happy with this choice.
The Ballista Elephants are there to wreck any attempt at attacking me with Chariots, and in case Naufragar or Gin-guelito unlock Horse Archers. As I write this I realize Naufragar could train War Elephants just like me, which I somehow totally failed to consider because I had seen none from him yet, except I am saved because he has no Ivory or Iron Working, unless he gets some from his great trade buddy Commodore, but I check that screen every turn, unless I did not notice. . Lucky me. Anyway, I am happy with this choice.
What I am unsure about is if training so many Crossbowmen was correct. Axemen are the backbone of both enemy armies, and Crossbowmen perfectly counter Axemen, but maybe I should have just trained lots more Axemen of my own. Quantity over quality. 10 Crossbowmen = 17 Axemen. I am tentatively happy with this choice. There is also aesthetic joy in using my technological superiority; no one else has shown any sign of knowing Machinery. Backwards brutes!

Meanwhile, offscreen to the west, there is Ban, a loose end. Naufragar could attack there, we are at war, and it is defended only by 1 Axemen, 1 Spearman, and 1 Archer, fortified behind Walls. The situation is not as bad as that makes it sound, though. I can see Naufragar coming 2 turns in advance, the stream of units coming from the western cities, including Ban, to the invading army could easily turn around and defend Ban instead at a moment’s notice, I could bring the Archers from peaceful Bolan-Bei, bordering Pindicator, and upgrade them as well as the one in Ban already. Even build another Archer in 1turn just to upgrade. Still, if Naufragar showed up at Ban with the army I saw at Cathy Ames, he would probably capture the city. I count on him not wanting to escalate this war beyond squabbling over Celtia, and on Ban being well defended enough that it would take enough units to capture it that if he did do it, I would have an opportunity to overrun everything in the region of Celtia, even his city of Tortuga. Naufragar would not allow that to happen, so he will not capture Ban, I think.
If I could declare a special kind of war that only counted east of Tortuga, I would, and I think Naufragar would consent.


   
Lastly, everything else, not just technology. But technology first.

I need Meditation and Priesthood, though they are so relatively cheap now that they barely count as technologies I don’t already have (thought formulated unposted before I discovered Meditation, ). Meditation for Monasteries, which I could use for culture at Bolan-Mei (vs. Superdeath, over tactically important Windmill), and at Bolan-Bei (vs. Pindicator, over tactically important Ocean tile), and at Da (vs. BING_ac, over Silk and Peak and more), and for the prereq bonus on Priesthood. Priesthood for Temples, for the Priest specialist at Mei and maybe elsewhere, and for the prereq bonus on Code of Laws.
But what else? I felt strange and lost. For so long I researched things in accordance with the plan to fight for Celtic land, and now all those things are researched, but the plan is not over. I am in limbo. I should research things now to be used later, for the next plan. What is the next plan?
I chose to research Engineering. To make a long story short at the end of a very long report, the next plan might be to attack Superdeath. With Castles I can better defend against Naufragar at less cost, so I can use more units to attack Superdeath, and with the improved roads I can reposition back and forth quicker. Next will be Code of Laws. My GNP is low and I need a moment to build infrastructure to solve that, and Courthouses are the perfect building, along with Castles (very cheap!) for the +1 trade route component.

I built The Colossus. +14 commerce and counting. Next up, Moai Statues.
I finished The Master Blacksmith and chose the free Great Engineer specialist at Bolan-Mei. Apparently, I tied BING_ac for this quest, and we both got the reward. The other rewards were Shock on Swords, no good for my unit composition, and Copper somewhere, no good for my improvement scheme.
I got a Great Merchant, which is according to plan, but I am unsure about my Great Person plan.

Naufragar tried to win a Diplomatic Victory, but only Gavagai supported him. . I need to learn what Naufragar could do with the other resolutions in CtH Pitboss conditions.
Pindicator made a binding Peace Treaty with Gavagai, probably because of Gavagai’s impressive Power growth. Maybe Commodore will be attacked instead? The other Hate Triangle must have an equally complex political situation.
Someone got a Great Artist from Music. I worried it could be Naufragar until Pindicator detonated his Golden Age. Superdeath has a Golden Age as well.

THE END. There is always so much to say, and somehow I never say it all.