[SPOILERS] Parkin brings the rain down in Africa: Churchill of Zulu

[Old Harry]

Presumably Haram's GNP is uninflated by religion/wonder culture, your GNP is less indicative of your research power... You should be able to use an F1 screen at 0% and 100% to figure out how much of your GNP is research power.

I've been watching the demographics, and I'm fairly sure the only person doing more science than me at 100% is mackoti. haram has a surprising amount of unimproved land, whereas I'm cottaged up the yin-yang.
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Looking at the last Domestic advisor you posted your GNP seems to be:
234 gold
489 beakers
194 culture
32 espionage
I assume this is at about 70% science but it shows that your culture and espionage are about 30% of your gold/beaker potential... My guess is that with your shrines you have a better break-even rate, but that Haram's got a higher 100% beaker rate somehow. Or he's really good at overflowing beakers.

[Grimace]

I'm just not sure how he's doing it. He has fewer cities than me and they're less cottaged. He had to have spent at least 1000 gold when I invaded him upgrading axes to maces and archers to longbows (obviously he didn't do it across his empire, but he upgraded at least 6 units that I'm sure of). Add to that all the whipping he did to build units (and he whipped a lot...you can see that in civstats)...I just don't get how he is able to tech so quickly.

[Grimace]

Turn 160

Absolutely nothing in the log this turn except that Donovan Zoi's golden age ended.

I took a shot of the financial adviser. This is us running at 100% science right now.



I'd be very surprised if haram could match that science production, but somehow he's doing something amazing. I just wish I knew what it was so I could copy him. Overflow might account for some of it, that's for sure. I didn't overflow a lot into Banking because I dropped the science slider some in order to keep some extra money so I could promote a few impis to pikemen if need be against haram's keshiks or knights.

Anyway, I took a screenshot of the southeast portion of our empire where there's now some available land and wanted to get input on city placement:



Obviously I think the red dot is best placement in that area (feel free to disagree, just give me reasons why). For the others, do you think green or blue would be better (or something entirely different)? I'm inclined to go with green. It's a little "in your face" for GJ, but his capital's borders aren't going to expand quickly right now, and I can get a couple of border pops fairly rapidly with a religion and some buildings.

Also, you can see where Ning-hsia is, and Sitatunga (ex-Tabriz) is just off the edge of the map NW of the corner of my culture. I can get knights from there to attack Ning-hsia in two turns.

I also started moving new built units to Elephant (center northern portion of the screenshot) so that I can move against haram through GJ's territory if I decide to continue to attack. I'm thinking an attack out of Sitatunga and a second stack through GJ's territory.

As you can see in the screenshot, GJ lost his only source of Iron, so I offered him an Iron for 1gpt trade to give it back to him so he can build maces or swords or pikes (not sure if he has access to maces yet...I haven't seen any). I have 3 sources, so it's no big deal for me. The longer he can effectively fight haram, the better off I am in this war.

[Grimace]

Turn 161

In world news, haram captured GJ’s capital city. GJ must have almost no forces left. Retep kicked off a golden age, so he must have held onto a great person from earlier. Haram is researching Gunpowder, but he’s at 0% right now. We’ll have printing press in 2 turns, then on to Gunpowder for us. Mackoti is already researching Scientific Method (!!!). I think I can see who's probably going to win this game.

We got a great prophet, so I went ahead and used him for a Golden Age and switched to Hereditary Rule. We may need the happiness if the war drags on. We started bombarding haram’s third city…I took it from 50% to 38%. I’ll have two more cats that will move into range next turn and start bombarding the turn after, so it will go:
50%->38% (done)
38%->26%
26%->6%
I’ll probably just attack at that point, since 6% shouldn’t be a game breaker one way or the other. Two more turns of bombardment, then attack. I could have moved more cats out of Sitatunga and made it faster, but I want to keep them there for defensive reasons, as haram still has a decent stack in near-striking range.

Other than that, not much happening this turn. I completed two triremes – one which will move down to defend the newly conquered cities (along with the galley that was finished two turns earlier), and one which will be part of a naval attack on our north border with haram.

I also lost demos on wetbandit, so I juggled EPs in order to get them back next turn.

[Grimace]

Turn 162

In world news, Gawdzak captured another DZ city. Haram captured a GJ city and razed another one. Seven generated a GS. Gawdzak kicked off a Golden Age, so that much have been his Great Merchant earlier.

I offered a World Map trade with GJ so I can see what his empire looks like now. That will help me plan my second front – I’ve decided that I’m going to continue to war against haram as long as I’m able. I'm pretty sure he'll accept because he shouldn't have a reason not to. I've been providing him with resources and haram would have been doing even more damage to him if I wasn't occupying a good part of his army.

In domestic news, Topi (ex-Otrar) comes out of revolt next turn. It already has a granary, lighthouse and forge, so the first build is an Ikhanda for the maintenance bonus and XP. Shot of the warzone and my stack (adjacent to Almarikh). There are also 3 more knights on the tile to the right of the stack to keep anyone from slipping out. And they have enough move to attack the city if necessary (though I don’t think it will be).



Here’s a shot of the north border, where I will also be launching an attack. At the far left I have three triremes in a stack, and the right is just one trireme. Leopard (the right-most city) has quite a few units in it right now, including 4 knights. When I have 6 total (in about 3 turns) I’m going to send them against Senchu, which has a Longbow and an Archer protecting it. Next turn I’m going to send my triremes against haram’s two triremes that are protecting that fish south of Tiflis and pillage it. I’m moving two galleys up and may launch an attack against Tiflis to capture it, too.



And last, here’s my border with GJ. You can see how much damage haram has done. I’m hoping he doesn’t move those keshiks away because I have two knights in Kadu that would love to meet them. In any case, I’m building some settlers because there’s no point in not settling in that direction. I never got any input on city locations, though. Any thoughts from my earlier post?

[Grimace]

Turn 163

In world news, GJ lost another city. Seven dogpiled onto Donovan Zoi (the poor bastard) and also managed to get a Great Merchant. Speaking of great people, our next one is due in 17 turns, though that will come down a bit (hopefully) in 4 turns when I complete the University of Sankore.

In local news, we finished Printing Press and our economy immediately got a huge shot in the arm. Check out the financial advisor now. Compare this to the one just a couple of turns previous…over 300 more beakers at 100%!



Otherwise not much happened this turn. I moved my stack of triremes to attack haram’s on my north border. I sent a knight to go after a couple of keshiks he has in GJ’s territory just to force him to do something different. Bombarded the lone city for the last time – next turn we take it!

[Old Harry]

Sorry, I missed this as my phone doesn't like photobucket...

Anyway, I took a screenshot of the southeast portion of our empire where there's now some available land and wanted to get input on city placement:



Obviously I think the red dot is best placement in that area (feel free to disagree, just give me reasons why). For the others, do you think green or blue would be better (or something entirely different)? I'm inclined to go with green. It's a little "in your face" for GJ, but his capital's borders aren't going to expand quickly right now, and I can get a couple of border pops fairly rapidly with a religion and some buildings.

Red isn't great - Haram will take that clam once he's done with GJ, but if it's just a border filler then being on a hill helps. You should really wait until your new cities are making you money on settling before going ahead with it (check what happens to your income next time you settle a city.)

I'd probably settle 1E of blue and NE of the cows. But only if you've got the forces in the area to hold them. I don't quite understand why Haram razed a size 17 capital - perhaps he thinks you have enough power to make it impossible for him to hold on to it? If that's true then perhaps you can grab the rest of GJ's land too?

Edit: He didn't raze it did he? You just need to uncover it again . Anyway, you'll have about ten turns to hit that city before it comes out of revolt, so what can you put together?

[Grimace]

Red isn't great - Haram will take that clam once he's done with GJ, but if it's just a border filler then being on a hill helps. You should really wait until your new cities are making you money on settling before going ahead with it (check what happens to your income next time you settle a city.)

I'd probably settle 1E of blue and NE of the cows. But only if you've got the forces in the area to hold them. I don't quite understand why Haram razed a size 17 capital - perhaps he thinks you have enough power to make it impossible for him to hold on to it? If that's true then perhaps you can grab the rest of GJ's land too?

I'm planning to take as much as I can once I have enough force to start hammering haram's military. I'm going to build a few settlers and just bring them along with the army, dropping them off as I push forward.

Edit: He didn't raze it did he? You just need to uncover it again . Anyway, you'll have about ten turns to hit that city before it comes out of revolt, so what can you put together?

He sure did raze it. Observe:

[Grimace]

Turn 164

In world news, GJ got a great general. Confucianism spread to two more cities, including Sitatunga. Mackoti generated a GS.

In war news, haram attacked the lone knight I sent after his keshik force with knights of his own. Lost the first one (at 79% odds) leaving my knight at 77/100. Then killed it with his second knight at 88.5% odds but got taken down to 64/100. Then he suicided his catapult in Almarikh against my stack and lost it, but did some collateral damage. Then he launched his two triremes at my stack of three in the north. His had C1 and the +15% for first move, and mine had +10% defense from the coast. His first beat my trireme, then his second lost but heavily damaging my survivor, then he moved the damaged one back into Tiflis. As a result of these battles, we finally got our first Great General!

I moved my damaged trireme back (after promoting it to C1) and it’s out of range of a single turn's move of his trireme now. I moved my undamaged one onto his clams and pillaged them.

Then the battle for Almarikh began!
CR1 Treb vs CG1 Longbow: 11.2% odds…LOSS…Longbow down to 70/100. Damaged all units in the city.


Cat vs CG1 Longbow: 1.2% odds…LOSS…Longbow down to 44/100. More collateral damage.


CR1 Cat vs C1 Mace: 9.1% odds…RETREAT…Mace down to 33/100, Cat at 72/100. More collateral damage.
CR1 Cat vs CG1 Longbow: 37.7% odds…LOSS…Longbow down to 42/100. More collateral damage.


C1/Cov Mace vs CG1 Longbow: 88.8% odds…WIN…Mac down to 16/100.
F2 Knight vs C1 Pike: 61.7% odds…LOSS…Pike down to 31/100.
C2/Shock Knight vs C1 Pike: 86.6% odds…WIN…Knight down to 24/100.
C1/Shock Knight vs C1 Pike: 85.1% odds…WIN…Knight down to 5/100.
F2 Knight vs CG1 Longbow: 97% odds…WIN…Knight down to 81/100.
C1 Mace vs G1 Archer: 99.2% odds…WIN…Mace down to 52/100.
CR1 Mace vs C1 Pike: 99.8% odds…WIN…Mace down to 81/100.
C1 Knight vs C1 Pike: 99.6% odds…WIN…Knight down to 81/100.
City captured! Granary, Lighthouse and Courthouse intact. Set a Forge as the first build.



So starting next turn, damaged units will go to Tabriz to recover, along with a couple of knights, and the rest head towards GJ’s old territory to form a new attacking force with the new units I’ve already been sending there. We'll have Gunpowder in 2 turns, at the same time as haram, but it won't really help either of us much right now.

Big question: what to do with the GG? We can settle him in Fox (our HE city) and give an additional boost of XP to units being produced there. Or we could attach him to a unit to open up West Point. I’d have to move him a long ways to catch up with an L3 unit, though, so that would take probably 5-6 turns. I’m inclined to settle him, but what do the lurkers think?

[Old Harry]

I usually use the first gg for a super medic, then subsequent ones in the HE city. But it depends if quick healing is going to be useful and what promos settling him would allow.