Chief Tain - May the Svarts be with you! [Ilios Spoilers]

[NobleHelium]

Yeah, I was mostly asking whether you would have been able to do similar damage to his stack had you gotten the epiphany earlier. Which apparently you wouldn't have.

[Ilios]

So, a couple of turns have passed, here's an update.

As expected, Ichabod razed Kuromatsu (size 6), and moved the remains of his stack to the forested hill north of Heishan. I repeated my successfull earlier formula, sending waves of Tigers and drafted Warriors at the stack, then finishing off with my Hunters and Priests.

I now have quite a large number of experienced troops, and Ichabod kept his second invasion army inside his borders.

This turn, I saw that he moved his troops back into his city:



Now, Ichabod switched to Aristocracy and Crusade from City States and Religion a couple of turns ago, presumably to get rid of War Weariness, which must have spiked enormously, thanks to killing two cities and a lot of my troops, and me decimating his entire stack (I should check, but I probably killed at least 40 units of his).

For the uninitiated, the Crusade civic, which is available only to the Bannor, and only when they are at war AND they have discovered the Fanaticism technology, gives a 25% production boost for units only, extra happy from the state religion, and a whopping -75% War Weariness. The downside is that while running Crusade, only units and combat related buildings (eG Training Yard, Archery Range, Walls, etc) can be produced in cities, and that the Bannor player cannot initiate any diplomacy with the civ he's at war with.

So, even if Ichabod would want to declare peace, he wouldn't be able until he switches out of the Crusade Civic. Since he moved his troops back into his cities, I have taken a guess that he doesn't want to continue hostilities, so I offered an immediate peace treaty. Yes, he attacked me. Yes, he razed two of my cities and killed troops of mine. But I destroyed his stack, so for me, we are even. I mean we could continue pummeling each other, while we watch Lewwyn and Ellimist race ahead of us. But let's face it, neither of us has a military edge at the moment (our armies our roughly equal in strength), so we'd just be handing victory to someone else.

If he doesn't accept, well, then I suppose we war on.

So that was the eastern theatre. Let us now switch to the western theatre:



Tholal's stack as been in the same position for a couple of turns now, using his Centaur's excellent mobility to move into my borders, pillage a road and cottage or two, and move back out of range in the same turn. I have now moved all the units I felt I could spare from the eastern front into this city. If he doesn't get the message, I have four Workers at the ready who can instantly finish two road sections, allowing my troops to kill his stack.

If Ichabod accepts my peace proposal, and Tholal follows up with a peace proposal of his own, I'm going to decline. I had offered him peace earlier, which he declined, so he's had his chance. Peace with the Bannor will allow me to fully concentrate the Svartalfar armies on the Kurio threat.

The current Military:



I'll see if I can show my units individually next time I take this screenshot, so you can fully appreciate the amount of experience my troops got from taking out the Bannor stack.

My Heroic Epic city (the old capital) has been happily producing a Priest every two turns, so the investment has certainly paid off. At some point, I wasn't sure whether to put the HE in either the old capital, or Kuromatsu, the city that was recently razed by a Bannor Tiger.

Empire finances:



Together with the earlier screenshot of the Svartalfar military, the empire finances makes me compare my Svartalfar with the Prussian Empire, which was described at some point as being an army with a country, instead of a country with an army.

But seriously, my finances need improving. The first expenses mentioned, army upkeep, can be easily reduced as I plant new cities and I grow my existing cities (most cities have a happy cap of 20!!).

The second expenses, city upkeep, needs a more drastic change. I've built a couple of Courthouses in cities which are second ring distance to the new capital, but that doesn't sufficiently reduce costs. So, I've grabbed Cartography this turn, and I'll be switching to City States/Consumption once I've fired my second golden age in a couple of turns.

I'll grab Sailing next, so that I too can profit from foreign trade routes. I basically gave the Sheaim access to the Svartalfar economy, so I could score some goodwill points, and to make sure a two front war, didn't become a three front war.

I'll ask for Open Borders with Lewwyn and DaveV as well.

Demo's:



Depressing, until you factor in my recent losses. I'm only leaving Ichabod in front re MFG, and he's currently in a golden age. Still, I have a lot of catching up to do.

And finally, the Power graph, for fun:



Ellimist or DaveV, who will Lewwyn attack? (surely not me!)

[Ilios]

Text has been added to the screenshots in the previous post, enjoy!

[Thoth]

Oh, you mean you only update when you're in the lead?

Last time I checked Mardoc and I were anywhere but in the lead in XVIII.

:neenernee

You're welcome!

[Ilios]

Last time I checked Mardoc and I were anywhere but in the lead in XVIII.

True. Then I don't know why you guys aren't updating pbem X.

[Thoth]

True. Then I don't know why you guys aren't updating pbem X.

No idea about Mardoc, but Mr. Yellow and I have been doing our planning via chat/email....and I've been too lazy to post the dialogue in our thread.

So did you accept that generous peace offer?

[Mardoc]

No idea about Mardoc,

A turn every two days when it's moving smoothly just isn't enough to keep me interested, really. And I post more when I'm excited/interested.

[Ilios]

So game is done, here's a couple of pics from the last turn.

Fired a GA:



Changed civics:



As you can see, I had sneakily researched KotE to within a couple of beakers to completion.



So I would have been able to grab Corruption of Spirit the turn after.

Then max gold.

Then max Ritualists.

Boring? You betcha!

[Ichabod]

I knew you wouldn't understand my message. I wanted you to ask for peace later!! I was sure you wouldn't want to give half your cities.

I wanted to accept your peace offer, but that would put me out of conquest (since I was tied to a stupid peace treaty with Hybo) and I didn't want to attack DaveV to not spoil that I was going after him.

[NobleHelium]

It's Crusade Ichabod, not Conquest.