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

[Old Harry]

He may have 2-movers in the fog, but yeah, that's a pretty strong defensive force! Cuirs in 6 turns too!

BTW that pike can't promote as it isn't glowing. Although if there are a couple of workers around it could kill your knight...

Re: dotmap - I'd want control of the choke point with tabriz or a city 2e of it to have the peak 1st ring. Which do you prefer? After that the food is all a bit awkward to get to. Would have to build a lot of farms. Oh and I wonder if Haram teched so fast using pillage gold earlier? I don't see any cottages at all!

[Old Harry]

And re: wealth builds: they just count the same stuff twice, making the graphs look intimidating without actually building stuff. So his land isn't necessarily better. But it is Mack, so it probably is .

[Grimace]

Turn 171

Nothing at all in the log for this turn, but I think only 3 leaders played after me last turn. I wanted to get my turn in now because otherwise I wouldn't be able to play for another 16 hours or so.

Not much happened in our civ, either. Continued moving units and the war should resume next turn. First attack will be out of Wildebeest to go after Tabriz and capture it. At the same time I'll move 6 triremes into engagement range of haram's two triremes in his southern/my northern area. I suspect he'll attack with both and if either survives retreat it into his adjacent city (can't remember the name right now). Which is fine with me...I'll go ahead and pillage the fishing boats they were protecting. Or he can retreat them without fighting and get the same result. Even if I lose both battles, I still have 4 triremes left.

Second stage will depend on harams responses. Ideal situation will be to leave a significant holding force in Tabriz and move east to take an ex-GJ city he captured that's sitting by itself over there. Alternately, I can continue towards haram's core and leave that city for follow-up troops. In the north, I have two galleys full of knights that I'm going to move forward and land deep in haram's territory to see what hell they can unleash. They'll be escorted by a number of triremes dependent on what haram does with his triremes. I'm hopeful they can rape, pillage and burn (in that order), and draw off troops from other areas. I would love for any of those events to pull some of that stack away and give me an opportunity to strike out of Sitatunga.

That's my loose plan, since a lot of it depends on haram's responses. His only real play is to try to drag it out long enough that war weariness comes into play, or that someone else attacks me and draws my attention, because I have sufficient forces and production capacity to eventually crush him...it's just a question of how long.

[Grimace]

Holy crap, what a round!!!

Turn 172

In world news, nothing in the log.

In domestic news, nothing particularly interesting happened, except that war resumed! SMASH!

First moves, triremes into attack/defense position. Haram has the option to engage or retreat, I’m happy with either result.



Second moves, knights move to attack Tabriz. No cultural defense yet.
F2 Knight vs C2/Form Welly: 20.7% odds…WIN! Knight 31/100 (earning 5XP!!)
F2 Knight vs C2/Form Welly: 20.7% odds…WIN! Knight 31/100 (5 more XP!!)
F2 Knight vs Pike: 27.2% odds…WIN! Knight 16/100 (4 XP!!!)
F2 Knight vs C2/Shock Welly: 27.7% odds…LOSS! Welly 46/100
C2 Knight vs C2/Shock Welly: 99.5% odds…WIN! Knight undamaged
Wow…I have never had such good luck! The RNG was extremely kind to me. None of haram’s 1-move units can make it there before I have a chance to move more units in. If he has keshiks or knights close enough, they might be able to attack, but there are 5 full strength knights in it.



As you can also see in the screenshot, haram has a lone keshik on the hills…not for long!
C2/Form Knight vs F1/Sentry Keshik (5.7/6): 99.9% odds…WIN! Knight 88/100
Also, check out eagerday, the ex-GJ city. Protected by a single spear…yeah, it’s not going to last long.




I found his stack of 2-movers. Unfortunately, they are 7 roaded tiles from Tabriz.


Next turn I should have sufficient forces in the city to hold it against them.

He also has a mace and seven cats on the tile north of that, so again, not much use. I picked a good time to invade!

[Old Harry]

Brilliant! Clearly some excellent generalship there! If you could just explain what you were doing to get those rolls that would be appreciated...

Also I wonder if Seven might think now is a good time to make a move too?

A couple of things in the east:
- I'd build Culture in Tabriz when it comes out of rebellion - getting second ring and 20% defense there could be vital.
- A city on the hill 3E1N of Tabriz would lock down that border. If you think you can push on and take Hitshowers that's unnecessary, but if this is as far as you want to go then you need to get cultural control over the roads in that area. Its not a good city, but it is a good choke point and after popping borders it's okay.
- Pillage the roads in neutral territory?

[Grimace]

Brilliant! Clearly some excellent generalship there! If you could just explain what you were doing to get those rolls that would be appreciated...

Hahaha. I prayed to the RNG gods prior to attacking...guess my prayers were heard!

Also I wonder if Seven might think now is a good time to make a move too?

I would not be upset to see that happen. I'm not sure what to do about eagerday, though...it's going to have pressure from both GJ and Seven (Seven's being the worst)...should I keep it or raze it? It's in an awkward position for GJ, so it doesn't benefit him to take it. Geographically it's a good location for blocking Seven's expansion in that direction, I'm just worried about his culture.

A couple of things in the east:
- I'd build Culture in Tabriz when it comes out of rebellion - getting second ring and 20% defense there could be vital.
- A city on the hill 3E1N of Tabriz would lock down that border. If you think you can push on and take Hitshowers that's unnecessary, but if this is as far as you want to go then you need to get cultural control over the roads in that area. Its not a good city, but it is a good choke point and after popping borders it's okay.
- Pillage the roads in neutral territory?

- Definitely building culture first. I need the first border pop. Unfortunately, no hammer-heavy tiles available, so I may borrow the pastured pigs from Wildebeest for a bit.
- It would be a good spot for a filler city anyway, but yeah, I plan to push forward once my siege train arrives. I'm not going to be able to take hitshowers just with knights, that's for sure.
- I will probably pillage the roads to the east of Tabriz so he can't easily flank me from that direction, but I'll also throw a pike or two to be a roadblock. He could knock them out, but even with knights it wouldn't be cheap.

[Old Harry]

Eagerday is a conundrum. You could resettle to the NW for a more defensible location but that loses the seafood and any infra that survives. Hmm. I presume he'll have upgraded the spear and whipped something extra this turn - if its a pike or LB you could just retreat your Knights for use in the main attack and see if Seven is tempted by the city? If it's an attack unit like a Knight or Mace you should probably kill them.

Any plans for the road SW of Tabriz?

[Grimace]

Conundrum is a good word for it. It's not in a bad location, really, except for Seven's culture.

You know what? I'm going to capture it if I can. It's a good location, it would dovetail nicely with the city you recommended (which would dovetail nicely with a city 1NE of my knight on the hill where haram's keshik was). I'll deal with Seven's culture if I have to. I'd rather I had it than him.

I plan to pillage the road on the tile SW of Tabriz next turn (unless he's moved his units there, obviously) to make it harder for him to attack, but I'll probably build it again once its culture expands and I've moved my stack forward.

[Grimace]

Turn 173

Photobucket is down for maintenance right now, so I'll edit in screenshots tomorrow.

In world news, not a thing in the log. Seven is going for Music, retep Philosophy, GJ is going for Guilds, and haram is still 2 turns from chemistry. He's up to a little over 1000 gold now, so he can probably go to 100% science this turn and finish it by next turn. Unfortunately, he still has to go from there to either Military Science or Steel, while I will have Military Tradition in 2 turns.

In the southeast...
- haram, not surprisingly, whipped a pike in eagerday, leaving it with a pike and a spear, which is too much for my sentry knight to take on its own. Instead, I moved him to pillage the horses. Yeah, haram has other sources, but you never know. He may move the pike out to attack my knight and kill it on his turn, but I'm willing to accept that tradeoff. Plus if his pike is damaged I have another knight within range to hit it next turn, which would open up eagerday to capture. It's pop 2 right now, so it's unlikely he can whip another defender quickly.
- he didn't move his stack of knights & keshiks forward very far. I pillaged the two roads outside of hitshowers culture on both the east and west of Tabriz so he has no chance of hitting the city this turn.

In the north...
- haram retreated his triremes into Tiflis. I think he may be thinking I'm going to hit that city because he's stacked a few defenders in it, but it's definitely not a worthwhile target. It's separated from the rest of his land by a peak, so it only has sea access. As long as I can knock back his galleys, all it can do is just sit there. I pillaged its seafood, so that will slow it down.
- I started moving my galleys forward to meet up with a stack of 3 triremes. I'm going to continue to move them north and threaten his capital which is currently just protected by a single archer and adjacent to the sea. Even if he reinforces his capital, he has to pull troops from somewhere, and he's starting to run out of places to pull them from.
- I also moved a stack forward from Leopard to threaten Sanchu in my northeast/his southeast. Sanchu has a longbow, pike, spear, knight, and archer. My stack is 4 knights, 2 maces, 2 wellies, 2 pikes. Sanchu has 40% cultural defense, so it's unlikely I can take it with that force, but it forces him to keep those units there or seriously risk losing the city. And I can always bypass Sanchu and push deeper. Leopard will have 2 more knights in 2 turns, and currently has a mace, axe, and impi ready to be upgraded if need be. There's also another impi hanging out within 1 turn's move away. So I can hold the city against the forces he has in Sanchu if he decides to sally (which is unlikely).

In the southwest...
- He still has his welly/cat stack sitting 3 tiles from Sitatunga, so I haven't been able to venture out. When I get cuirs, I'm upgrading all my knights and going after them, though. Cuirs get better odds on wellies than knights, and with flanking I can hammer those cats.

In the northwest...
- I have two triremes moving up to pillage crabs near another city of his. After that, they will move east to help cover Tiflis.

So that's what's going on now, and I'm off to bed. I'll post screenshots tomorrow.

[Old Harry]

all that sounds very promising... Although:

In the southwest...
- He still has his welly/cat stack sitting 3 tiles from Sitatunga, so I haven't been able to venture out. When I get cuirs, I'm upgrading all my knights and going after them, though. Cuirs get better odds on wellies than knights, and with flanking I can hammer those cats.

How are you going to hit the cats before they hit you?