[Spoilers] rho21 follows the works of Homer... D'OH!

[rho21]

And another turn!

Turn 182

Score tracking
Kongo claimed a great writer.
The Aztecs got a great admiral (an out of date one), and founded a new city. I believe they also completed a settler and built a new campus building.

Military
The Aztec battleships have remained in place bombarding Apollonius. They're probably just farming XP.

Near Diminished, a number of Kongo's advancing forces appear to have been wiped out. Ouch. Their ill-fated advance has stopped for now. My battleship arrives next turn.

In the arctic, a galley has been sent out to menace my great engineer. In practice it is actually just a tasty one-shot snack for one of my battleships. I can start to bombard the city next turn.

Housekeeping
Combustion complete. Economics comes next, due in 4 turns.

Oil Well built at Meton, boosting Plastics and providing a tasty 15 tile.

Rice harvested at Xenocrates for 162162, leaving the city on 13 population and 139.6/152 in the bin. I could harvest again to take it to 14 population and enough to grow to 15, but I believe that goes wrong and the growth doesn't happen when the net food surplus is zero: as it would be due to lack of housing. So I'm going to hold off a turn so I can get another farm placed.

[rho21]

Turn 183

Score tracking
Kongo developed Mercantilism.
The Aztecs built an industrial building and finished a civic, their first in the late industrial column.

Military
The Aztec battleships are still at Apollonius, which is now reduced to essentially no health. That means my battleships can continue their bombardment plans.

In the arctic, my battleships attack at 70v55, doing 25 and 23 damage to the walls of Hairshirt.
In the south, it's 70v64, causing 22 damage to the walls of Diminished.

Housekeeping
My archaeologist gets to another artifact. It's ancient again, and again a choice between Yerevan and barbarians (so obviously I choose barbarians). Now, if I can get lucky and find a third ancient artifact, I'll get the theming bonus (and the boost to Cultural Heritage with it, for whatever that's worth). I'm going to cross my fingers and try the dig site near the Kongolese capital.

Wheat harvested at Xenocrates for 162162, taking the city to 14 population and 149.8/165. With -7 net amenities (stupid concentrated war weariness) and -2 housing, it's going to take forever to grow again, so I need to harvest once more. That means either sneaking a builder to the wheat over the river (in range of the knight corps), or purchasing a third ring rice tile. I think I'll try the wheat. The loss of a 2-charge builder wouldn't be the end of the world, and I can defend it reasonably well - almost certainly enough to kill any unit that comes after it. For this purpose I form a musket corps (65 strength, for whatever reason this doesn't boost my base city strength) and line a few field cannons up in defensive positions.

Strangely my war weariness has gone up recently (now -6) without the loss of any more units. Does Apollonius getting bombarded count?

As I end turn, there's the sound of a new barbarian camp.

Here's a view of the bombardment of Hairshirt.

[rho21]

Turn 184

Score tracking
Not much to report, except the big news of the turn, which is in the military section.

Military
Well this is going to be exciting. All the war weariness at Xenocrates has caused a revolt. Unfortunately it seems revolts use the newest equipment you have researched, not whatever you're fielding. So I have 3 tanks and an artillery to deal with! I do have a lot of units there, and they benefit from defender of the faith, but it's still going to be a nuisance. Free XP though, hopefully.

The new barbarian camp mentioned last turn is SW of Diminished, sadly, so the Aztecs will grab it.

In the east, the Aztecs have captured Hamka's from Kongo, renaming it to Lotus. Note that's captured, not razed. They also have a musket visible off the coast of Apollonius. It appears they're bringing an invasion.

So, that's some pretty bad timing with the revolt, all told. Not only do I need to hold units there to deal with it, preventing them from heading east, it also stops my plan to grow Xenocrates to size 15, required for the next civic switch, which I need to do unit upgrades. I can just pay for a rice tile (255) to harvest that, but that obviously cuts down the number of units I can upgrade.

In the east already I have 2 cavalry, a musket, a horse, a field cannon and 2 archers. Obviously I need more units over that way ASAP, to deal with any land units the Aztecs are bringing. I could also use my bombards (upgraded to artillery on the way) in the east to deal with the city defences.

I'm not certain on the amphibious rules and don't know whether they will have enough moves to land and attack Apollonius on the same turn. I certainly can't blockade their landing with all these battleships about. Apollonius won't be a huge loss anyway, it's not a very productive city. More annoying will be the walls if they decide to keep it. They're incredibly annoying to take down, and very inconvenient for appearing immediately on capture. I'd love it if an RB balance mod could give a conquered city damaged walls to repair rather than full health ones.

My knights near Diminished all get moving east. They can hopefully upgrade to tanks as they go.

The battleship at Diminished does 15 more damage to the fortifications. We'll have this city down in the next 10 turns or so, provided it can stick around! I might move it west soon to try to ambush any units that try to clear the barbarian camp.

Here's how things start at Xenocrates:

The artillery isn't a big problem. Let's see how many tanks I can kill, without exposing my field cannons to a serious counter-attack. The tank to the SE obviously needs to die first. I direct the city and encampment shots that way first - yes, apparently static defences *can* fire over hills - doing 20 and 19 damage.
The field cannon at Diocles can only attack this tank; it does 27 damage.
The two bombards pick up some XP too as they're going to take forever to make it to the east. They do 13 and 10 damage.
Finally a horse moves in to finish off the tank, taking 65 damage in the process.

Two of my field cannons can now only hit the artillery, sadly. I should probably have used the static defences on a different tank. The field cannons will be vulnerable to attack by the tank on the far bank of the river. I'm not all that worried though, between defender of the faith and the river crossing bonus they should survive. They destroy the artillery easily.

My remaining two field cannons attack the tank on this side of the river, doing 32 and 24 damage.

I position my musket just W of Xenocrates to block any attacks on non-melee units. It fortifies and shouldn't take too much damage from the tanks. It might die if the Aztecs send a field cannon forward to attack it too, but then I could kill the field cannon in return, which is a worthwhile trade.

This is how I leave things:

In the arctic ocean, one battleship promotes, the other continues dropping the defences of Hairshirt.

Housekeeping
The Oracle is complete at Pythagoras, which starts on a field cannon.

Looking closer at Xenocrates, the options are paying 255 for the tile giving a civic switch on T186, or waiting until T188. Given how fast things are moving, T188 will be too late, I suspect. I can decide next turn.

Here's a view of the east:

[rho21]

Turn 185

Score tracking
Kongo discovered Astronomy.
The Aztecs finished a civic and most of their income has disappeared so I assume they've dropped an economic policy and will be doing some upgrading shortly.

Military
The rebel tanks at Xenocrates didn't attack, they just moved about on the far bank. Easy pickings this turn.

Over in the east, things are less good. Two of my units have been bombarded by battleships: a cavalry is badly wounded and a musket was destroyed. I'm pretty surprised at this: how did they have the line of sight to detect those units, given that battleships can only see two squares? (Well, mine can only see that far!) Actually, the cavalry's on a hill, so that one's fine. Not sure about the musket though. Anyway, there are now two Aztec muskets preparing to land.

My forces fall back a bit, definitely out of range of battleships for now. We'll see how things look when all my units show up from the west.

In the north and the south, my battleships continue their gradual bombardment of Aztec cities. I expect to be able to raze Hairshirt in about 3 turns.

Housekeeping
I don't think I can wait for the civic switch, so I buy the rice tile at Xenocrates for 255 and immediately harvest it to push the city to size 15 and boost Urbanisation, which will now finish next turn. 162 from the harvest is a nice addition too.

Apollonius has completed a builder, which I extract from the city with all haste before it can fall.

[rho21]

Turn 186

Score tracking
The Aztecs have founded the city of Driver 8 near Diminished. They also finished a tech.
Kongo recruited the first great musician.

Military
My battleship in the south earns a promotion after another bombardment of Diminished. Fortifications are about half damaged.

In the north, the walls of Hairshirt are almost down. I now expect it to fall next turn.

Turns out the Aztecs were unable to land their muskets and continue to take Apollonius. Sadly, I'm slightly too late to make them pay for it. I can hurt a musket, but I don't think I can get a kill, and anything I send will be destroyed. So I'll just take up a defensive position and see what happens when my tanks roll up.

Housekeeping
Economics and Urbanisation are complete. Next up are Replaceable Parts and Mobilisation.

Professional Army has to come into the government now. About the only thing I can drop is Press Gangs.

I have enough gold for 5 knight -> tank upgrades (at 230 each), but for logisitical reasons I only end up doing 2 this turn. At 80 strength (90 in my own territory), they really pack a punch. That will significantly strengthen my cities against further bombardment, too.

[Garath]

I know they are absurdly expensive, but given how significant they seem to be on both sides at the moment are you trying to build any more Battleships? Are you worried about the Aztecs doing so?

[rho21]

I've been building privateers instead, with the plan of upgrading to submarines (which can be really effective against battleships). Just about to get the first one out. Not sure if I'll have chance to build even a second one, especially as I've had to drop Press Gangs. Battleships take 24 turns right now at Perseus, while a privateer is 16, or 8 with Press Gangs.

It's definitely a big regret for this game that I wasn't able to place more coastal cities to let me make more of a play navally. It's a tricky balance, of course: too much focus on navy and I would have been overrun on land instead.

[rho21]

Turn 187

Score tracking
Nothing much this turn.

Military
Kongo has lost a field cannon corps near Diminished. I think they were trying to tempt an attack so they could destroy any attacking units. Their counter-attack failed though, leaving a heavily damaged cavalry corps. I reckon that's worth losing my own cavalry to finish off. It rushes forwards and attacks at 62 v 69, suffering 19 damage. Between the city, a crossbow corps, a musket corps and a great general I very much doubt it will survive.

My alliance with Kongo has worn off, at approximately the most inconvenient moment possible. I've sent a friendship request, but now I can't upgrade my knights to tanks in Kongolese territory this turn, as was the plan. They will have to swing a bit further to the north and wait a turn or two to upgrade.

Much worse news is that I've lost a battleship in the arctic.
Not entirely sure how: I know it was finished off by a field cannon, but I can't tell what else fired at it. I'm pretty sure field cannons can't fire over intervening terrain, so I have to assume an artillery corps did most of the damage.
I can now either proceed to raze Hairshirt and probably lose the other battleship, or fall back. I do the latter, hitting the field cannon for 46 damage on the way.
Hairshirt is in a really annoying position: my battleships haven't been able to attack it from nice safe open sea due to all the sea ice blocking it.

Apollonius has fallen as expected and been razed. No point attacking the muskets here.

The Aztec knights SW of Xenocrates have finally moved. Either they're scared of tanks coming bursting over the hills or they're about to be upgraded to tanks themselves.

Housekeeping
Perseus has finished a privateer and starts another.

Now is the moment to snipe Albert Einstein if I'm going to, I reckon, at a cost of 1785. The Aztecs are still 6 turns away, but they have faith of their own plus might well be running projects. Einstein's replacement will be Modern too, and so grabbed by the Aztecs very soon, but both Turing and Nobel are weaker prizes: Turing provides 2 boosts, Nobel 1 boost and some great people points. I pay for Einstein and it turns out to be Turing up next.

[rho21]

Japper is back, the game continues. Though perhaps not for too long, if I recall correctly. There's a glorious tank charge due shortly, but if I can't fix falling behind in demographics it might be time to concede.

Turn 188

Score tracking
The Aztecs spent 230 this turn. Based on city strengths, I think that was a tank upgrade.

Military
My cavalry by Diminished was destroyed, as expected. Japper has advanced more forces there anyway. Not sure what they're hoping to accomplish with city walls about.

Kongo proposed a renewal of the alliance so I can upgrade a couple of tanks this turn. That boosts Composites. I also turn two knights into a corps. I'll do the same for a couple of field cannons as soon as the new ones start coming off the production line next turn, which will be enough for the boost to Mobilization.

Housekeeping
Einstein activated, he boosts... Rocketry. Oh well, not the best draw. Still, he did increase my base rate by 24. Still, that only halves my deficit against the Aztecs. Very concerning.

At Hippocrates, a chop yields 133133 and finishes the zoo (6 turns ahead of schedule). That should alleviate the war weariness a little. Hippocrates starts a field cannon.

At Meton, another forest chop finishes the field cannon and gives ~190 overflow towards the campus.

Diocles finished its aqueduct. Next turn it will grab the stone tile for the encampment. This turn it starts work on a monument for lack of other things to do: a military unit would take far too long to reach a stage where the stone could be chopped through it to give overflow into the encampment.

[rho21]

Turn 189

Score tracking
Nasischijf has been captured by the Aztecs. That's from undamaged in one turn, with I think only 1 battleship of assistance as I can see two further north. Nasischijf has been renamed to Undertow.

The Aztecs also finished a civic.


Military
A quick peek at Undertow reveals a caravel present in the city. Oh how I'd love to be able to take it and destroy the caravel. Sadly, my tanks will barely even scratch the walls. I back off for a few turns until my bombards (which need upgrading to artillery on the way) can make it there.

Kongo was driven back with losses at Diminished. My battleship can no longer see the city centre, so can't bombard it. Instead it heads off to the west to defog the southern passage.


Housekeeping
It's time to expend the final archaeologist charge. I'm looking for an ancient artifact that isn't from Yerevan or the barbarians. It's worth a ludicrous amount of culture if I actually manage to get it, between the theming bonus and a boost for having a themed museum.
I get a Kongolese artifact, but unfortunately it's classical rather than ancient. Oh well.

Menaechmus has built a field cannon and starts another. The field cannon forms a corps with a promoted one nearby, boosting Mobilisation.