[SPOILERS] Bacchus and India's many gods

[Bacchus]

I just want to vent a little about how pissed I am at Kaiser and, somewhat less, suboptimal. This is a really cool map, and we would have had a very interesting game with a variety of approaches and unobvious win conditions. I was probably most favoured by the map, from what I see, but with distinct problems of my own -- for example I have no iron, and this fact is public through the trade screen. Boy, would I have been screwed, if I didn't pick India!

Edit: of course, in MP you always take the risk of the game getting thrown by others, it's not as if I was hoodwinked into this, so don't take it too personally if you read this -- Kaiser and suboptimal, its just frustrating.

[Sullla]

I'm glad you enjoyed the map! One thing I should point out is that this map was randomly rolled in the pre-Cornflakes era where we didn't have any map editing tools. I could put the maps in reveal all mode to see all the tiles, but I actually had no idea where any of the future strategic resources were going to pop up, since they aren't revealed on the map at the start of the game. I still don't know if you have niter or coal or whatever if the game makes it that long. It's a good thing that we don't have to worry about this stuff from a MP setup anymore.

[Bacchus]

Yeah, Sulla, I do remember how the map was made, so no issue from my side on the abscence of iron, especially as it all worked out here. I actually think that maybe we shouldn't give everyone equal access to strat resources, because it makes civ choice that more interesting. Except it makes Rome even more OP.

[Bacchus]

Some Varu bullying going on:



England seems in a bad way, I'm not sure where his considerable army is, and now he locked in that sword as garrison, so it can't really contribute to damage, suffering as it does from a -15 stacked penalty. The nearly dead, cross-river attacking horse is also a non-factor, the only worry is the archer. I don't think I will quite take the city next turn though, which is a bit annoying.

[Bacchus]

Why I like Civ6's movement system:



Last turn I moved up the southernmost Varu to the river, ensuring that nothing can easily cross it, and also scaring the archer away. This turn, I am going to step back onto the iron hill, which puts the Varu into almost complete safety, as nothing has enough move to both cross the river and attack onto the hill. Attacking through the city would be an option, but any unit there will suffer a -15 penalty, so welcome to do so. Rivers and rough terrain become very meaningful, and actually appropriate to the strategic level of the game — just ask whoever had to cross the Rhein, or fight through the Ardennes (hilly forests). As long as you interpret units more as armies, it all makes sense. My late-classical heavy cavalry army executed a rapid advance across clear terrain, denying the opposition an important bridgehead, and can now fall back to the safety of rough terrain.

After the moves:



In the north, Rowain is purposefully consolidating Arabia into his empire:


We are natural allies with him, but I can't help but worry that he'll try something tricky on me. It doesn't actually matter, my only way to victory (as for Rowain) is if the other will cooperate, so I might as well assume that. This game will be a nice test of whether such natural diplomacy is possible in CTON-ish games. My expectations for this theatre are that Rowain captures I Believe in You, and then enters into a slow border-grind with England. The plan for Varus is to retreat south-east and capture whatever Kaiser's last standing city was. But I need to peace Preslav and heal first.

Little else to report. I switch to Mil Training for the envoy, another option is Feudalism, but I'm in no rush to get it.

[TheArchduke]

Nice job! Seems like you can keep this game going for quite some time.

Rooting for you, obviously.

Also thanks for reporting a bit more, -15 seems scary on those elephants, are you sure those bonuses stack?

[Bacchus]

Nice job! Seems like you can keep this game going for quite some time.

For me, the game will end no later than within turns of Ichabod launching an inquisition. For Rowain, a slightly different matter, I would he has a real, if small chance of contesting this game along traditional lines (military expansion). Amusingly, the closer Rowain comes to winning, the closer I come too.

[Bacchus]

Ooof, I underestimated the damage concentration potential. Ichabod killed a Varu that was occupying a farm, by hitting it with an archer, a horse and a sword. If I want to take the city, I would have to trade another Varu probably. Painful. An unfortunate setback, but I reckon that further attrition only benefits me, so I go ahead with:



I get a chance to resurrect Arabia as a zombie AI, which I pass on of course, and raze the city, but not before it's farm gives me a boost for Feudalism.

The theatre is soaked in blood:


Both Varus are eligible for promotion. The only real intrigue is whether that encampment can one-shot the redlined Varu. If yes, everything is going to die, rather embarassingly.

[Bacchus]

So, this time my estimate of Varu's resilience is a little better. The encampment is not enough to one-shot the redlined Varu, Ichabod also uses the Chariot to finish it off, the chariot loses about 1/3 it's health. The easterly Varu gets shot at and redlined. The redlined horse moves 1SE and promotes. Not sure how it has enough MP to do that, but ok, I thought promotion took 3MP. On my turn, I promote the Varu to barding. I think he should be able to withstand a shot, a horse attack and a chariot attack, we'll see. In any case, it's a whole bunch of war weariness for Ichabod.

[Cornflakes]

I believe promoting only takes fractional MP, i.e. after roads get upgraded you could promote a unit with only 0.25 MP remaining.