Sengoku Chevalier: Hiun no Kishi

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Congress results. Greenline makes nice and helps us with Harbors, tries to with trade - except I thought clipping Rome's wings was better. Archduke is a bigger threat to actually win but he's on the other side of Rome and Whosit is scary so fuck'em. Anyway, our wires are crossed and Whosit dumps all his envoys into embargoing Yongle, so, sorry Krill. 

I settle my 7th city, this one right in Whosit's face. Surely THIS will provoke him to kill us?

 

If this doesn't, I dunno, guys!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Cities going down and trade routes gradually sharpening up:

 

Interestingly, we're actually drawing near Whosit's yields, despite being dramatically behind in population, production, and military power (also: his military power is spiking. Is he finally preparing to attack? Should get out a round of Samurai next). 

Greenline has somehow become an also-ran, despite Korea's early advantages:

 

See, the Seowon is actually a trap. Too much science too early means you drive up the cost of your districts, making it harder to get early infrastructure down before you have the ability ot support it. Since chops scale with district cost, if you wait until you have Serfdom & the Ancestral Hall, you can then go on a building spree via chop to get out trade routes and industrial zones, which will then support your building for the rest of the game. That's why I've accelerated past Korea, I think, despite the wretched start. 

Now, if Rome doesn't murder me for, say, 90 more turns, we'll be cooking with charcoal...

Still think Khmer is going to win, though. He has China-level yields with a vastly greater population and more cities. He'll overwhelm Krill eventually.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Whosit's deployed muskets on the border, and has Imhotep to build the Terracotta Army for himself. :o Could this be his invasion at last? 

I'll start kicking out another round of Samurai, as I said, they can trade creditably with Musketmen. Especially since Krill and I have a military alliance for +5 strength. If I bloody Whosit's nose he may back off, as he did Korea. Is it time for me to start paying attention to this game again?



More cities being founded, aqueducts going up at home which will unlock Niter & boost my industrial zones, and my first campus is being built. Interestingly I've nearly caught Rome's science yield without a campus, though it's possible Whosit is not in Free Inquiry and so I'll drop back again once the Age ends in a few turns. 

Next goal after Industrial Zones is probably holy sites for more growth? Then work towards Grandmaster's Chapel? Dunno. Haven't thought about it!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

All settlers are out - though I've got one loyalty-challenged spot and 3 tundra plants that need settling - and I'm chopping a temple in Korutu next turn for the Divine Right boost, so I should have a new government next turn. Also 4 campuses placed which will boost science once I get them built. Aqueduct in 4 turns for niter and then we're at tech parity with the Romans, whose military power is spiking and they're about to hcop the Terracotta army. 

So, need to get out some more muscle, I suppose. 



3 more cities here over the next 10 turns.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

We stagger into Monarchy way behind everyone else, but at least we're in medieval governments now:


I slot Feudal Contract & Conscription for production and gold, Urban Planning & Naval Infrastructure for production, gold, and science, and of course Serfdom to keep churning out builders for chops. 


Roman forces near our planned southern isthmus. I have a Samurai to escort the settler, need to plant a horseman on the site itself. 

Two samurai and two archers (triggering Machinery -> Crossbows) finishing in the next 5 turns. Need about 400 power to catch up to Whosit, though, which is about double my current military. 

Why didn't he ever attack? He's missing his window if he delays much longer. Baffling. But I'll take it.

[ljubljana]

hey, wow, that's a lot of yields catchup in a pretty short window of time! and it looks to me like you are the only one that still has backlines to fill, in an era where offensive war against you will be really difficult? iiiii do not hate this position for you and think you have, at least, cleanly leapfrogged greenline, which is better than the start would have suggested is possible

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I can kick out Samurai once every five turns from my capital, which translates to roughly one a turn as long as iron supplies hold out from my core. I should be able to pack those around my forward cities and at least bog down a Roman advance for China & Korea to exploit.

Krill has done brilliantly with Yongle, as expected. Archduke has the better position but perhaps not the better civ. One of those two is the favorite, I think. Whosit may try to eat me, which is his best move at this point (invading Korea opens him up to China, eating me gets him no new neighbors). I will now endeavor to prevent that.

Oh! I also shall have 3 crossbows, a handful of horse to watch the southern cities, and I will try to place encampments on the border cities. If Whosit lets me get away with all that, I should be fairly secure and get my industrial zones & campuses up in the interior. Then our best bet is to hope for the western triumvirate to drag each other down in a slapfight and I find a way to nip through the gap? Realistically we're still not winning this game, but we're not losing AS BADLY as we were in August.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Mother of pearl, I forgot to swap off Machinery this turn. Oops. That's a bit of science and production lost, as my archers in queue will upgrade to crossbows. Bugger. At least I, uh, save some gold? Not worth it. 

Another city founded and begins its harbor, Whosit is attacking Zanzibar. Interestingly we've just about matched his science per turn, although eh obviously has a huge start on us, and has a significant culture edge. He's fielding Field Cannons, meaning he's got Ballistics, so that's a problem. Those will massacre my horsemen, meaning I need to get to at least coursers. 

I think I can stuff all my units behind the frontline city, Iruka, and bombard from behind. Once he takes it I can take it back same turn and massacre whoever's inside. 

Hm, worth building a few naval units on the northern ocean? Two galleys or so? Not sure. I have a lot of harbors there and if I can upgrade them to Caravels I can probably hold that sea, and even threaten his flank.

[ljubljana]

Hm, worth building a few naval units on the northern ocean? Two galleys or so? Not sure. I have a lot of harbors there and if I can upgrade them to Caravels I can probably hold that sea, and even threaten his flank.

this seems like a good idea to me.... if you can upgrade some quads up there, i think taking iruka becomes a practical impossibility (not that niter or square rigging are that close). and you've got two shipyards to whosit's one, and the possibility of bringing more over in the long-term via a canal city in the far north (i think....? pricey though). seems like a window of localized production advantage that should be exploitable, at least in theory. plus i think you can teleport a great admiral over there too to help out, which i doubt whosit has access to. what does their naval tech sitch look like at the moment?

how plausible are hong kong-killing operations looking? has it upgraded its walls past the point of siege tower-ability?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Hm, worth building a few naval units on the northern ocean? Two galleys or so? Not sure. I have a lot of harbors there and if I can upgrade them to Caravels I can probably hold that sea, and even threaten his flank.

this seems like a good idea to me.... if you can upgrade some quads up there, i think taking iruka becomes a practical impossibility (not that niter or square rigging are that close). and you've got two shipyards to whosit's one, and the possibility of bringing more over in the long-term via a canal city in the far north (i think....? pricey though). seems like a window of localized production advantage that should be exploitable, at least in theory. plus i think you can teleport a great admiral over there too to help out, which i doubt whosit has access to. what does their naval tech sitch look like at the moment?

how plausible are hong kong-killing operations looking? has it upgraded its walls past the point of siege tower-ability?

Hong Kong is on hold since I can't tie up so large a proportion of my military while I don't know Rome's intentions. I've only ever had about 3-4 Samurai, which is not enough to overwhelm their men-at-arms AND take the walls, and my cities have been building settlers/harbors which I thought were higher priority. After this military push (target is 800 power) we might be able to finagle a peace treaty of some kind with Whosit - if he can't eat me easily, perhaps he'd be persuaded to go and try to eat greenline (I don't think he'd run away with the game even with Korea) or to try to rein in Archduke (17 pop in his capital!) or Krill (look at those yields!). At that point we can gobble up Hong Kong as the final piece of our empire (as well as settling those two border cities, which I have on hold until I have the military in place to actually, y'know, defend them). 

WHosit has only the former La Venta near the coast. Niter is only 2 turns away for us, as soon as our Aqueducts complete, which will also boost two of our industrial zones (After I get the key military techs like Machinery, I want to beeline factories, which should finally unlock the full potential of our territory). So we can begin hoarding for frigates soon enough. The major thing is taking two build queues out of the land military loop for a bit, and the caravels are nice-to-haves but not essential. So it's a potential project for AFTER getting a full force of samurai into the field.