[Spoiler] Fintourist loses his multiplayer virginity

[Fintourist]

Ok, this becomes a bit of a monologue, but as a continuation from my last report there are two things that I want to quickly address:

1. War Weariness
I already hate it. Skirmishing with Sareln has brought 2 unhappy faces in my larger cities and when warring really starts many more will follow. Until now I've been careful with balancing whip (& now drafting) unhappiness with my growth, but war weariness will most definitely be a pain in the ass. And it is much less predictable and controllable Quite possibly it will be the deciding bottleneck of my war activities in the coming 50 turns. I doubt I see many more peaceful turns in this game anymore.

So yeah, I just wanted to mention this and explain that I understand the problems I'm heading for. This is kind of a background rant for my future complaints

2. Diplo Efforts
In order to tackle awaiting happiness problems I proposed two deals. I offered deer for wine from Azza and I offered white peace to Sareln. My hopes are not too high, but let's cross fingers anyway. I actually already have a new save in my mail, which lets me see their responses but I need to get home first If they both decline I probably try again and include some kind of gpt offer.

[Fintourist]

Turn 157

I played Turn 157 yesterday quickly in the hurry. Neither Sareln nor Azza accepted my offers, which was kind of expected. However, the most annoying news were Sareln whipping a galleon in Lemongrass creating this situation in my waters:



Yeah, Lemongrass is a base opens possibilities to fork several of my cities and attack . Especially if Sareln decides to approach my latest city "Fist Bump", I might be in danger to lose a city. My more developed cities have the capability of whipping/drafting defenders if needed.

Anyways, I decided to advance my main force towards BaII/Hydra anyways.. Next turn I still have a chance to delay my attack and concentrate on Sareln if I feel too threatened. At the moment I am mentally prepared to spend next turns fighting on two fronts. Let's see if Azza joins the party at some point

I sent Sareln a new peace offer where I offered 10 gpt. My hope is that he decides to take the peace and use his units for capturing lightly defended cities from Viqsi. Unfortunately Sareln's latest actions indicate more of a revenge mentality. If he does not accept my offer I will whip 3 Frigates next turn. On T159 I should have 4 Frigates surrounding Lemongrass. The only way to maintain my ability to sleep will be to create a clear naval dominance in the area.

All these defensive whips & drafts will be economically harmful, but I hope to compensate them with gains from BaII/Hydra. I did not know that Civ4 can turn into this kind of combination of ball juggling and tightrope walking.. Nevermind, challenge accepted!

[Old Harry]

I don't know much about Sareln's play style, but if someone did that to me I'd be out to ruin their game so that people would think twice about doing it in future. Perhaps sareln is nicer than me though...

[Fintourist]

Yeah, I guess you're right. I probably just have to take whatever comes that way. Further warring against Sareln is simply not attractive just yet. Consuming developed cities of Hydra/BaII sounds juicier. Lets see if my approach ends up being a catastrophe. It will be fun though

PS. Its 3 AM in Finland, but I'm just about to launch the crucial T158. I simply cannot wait. The report will follow tomorrow.

[Fintourist]

Turn 158 – part 1

The big turn is here! I’ll do this report in two parts as there is again lots of stuff to show. The first part will concentrate on war stuff, second one discusses some domestic issues and big picture thinking. But first things first!

Operation Heads Off

It became fairly early clear that Hydra is the opponent who has fallen economically behind in this game. Additionally neither Hydra nor his replacement, BaII, has built any military at all. This is a combination, which truly invites neighbors to come and snipe some cities. So here I am. The opportunistic invasion of Spain has begun!

It seems that when it comes to warfare, I’m pretty much a one-trick-pony since this attack follows very similar patterns as my previous strike against Sareln. Fortunately, my only trick seems to be pretty effective at least for now

Again, my turn started with scouting moves with units that I had previously transported into Hydra’s/BaII’s lands/waters:



As one based on power graphs could expect, the core cities were practically not defended at all.

My attack was executed kind of like a wave from West to East. The first target was Hydra’s most western island city:



My galleons had progressed last turn into attacking distance and now it was time to move in:



The lonely axe in Valencia was easily killed, city changed hands and it was time to move to the next island city, which is located closest to my core.



Btw, this Galleon was actually the one that I showed couple of turns ago when I revolted into Nationhood and was loaded couple of turns ago near the map center.



Santiago was also guarded by a single axe and it fell easily. Now it was time to target BaII’s core cities:



Barcelona required two easy kills of warriors. Destroying the freshly born Great Merchant brought a cruel extra flavor to the attack. This city actually held some pretty valuable infra:



The final attack target was the city of Seville (other core cities could not be attacked easily out of the fog).





Killing one guarding warrior was again just a formality.

When creating this attack plan I had the luxury of one extra Galleon, which was flexible to transport units in case of any surprises. As everything went smoothly I decided to use it and raze BaII’s latest size 1 island city, Zaragoza. I debated this a bit due to 24 % chance of losing a Janissary and extra war weariness that razing causes, but in the end I wanted to remove the city especially due to the vision that it gives to BaII.



And this last attack also earned me my first great general! Now I need to think what will be the best use of it.. Maybe save it for some kind of crazy demoralizing commando move against Azza or Viqsi. I’ve always wanted to do something like that…

Here’s the situation after my all war actions (I also captured couple of workers that will be transported to help my new island sites):



Next turn I will attack Toledo. I have 5 Janissaries ready to attack it, which should be enough to handle one warrior and a probable dry-whipped maceman.

After Toledo the next steps of the war are still somewhat unclear. I’m debating whether I should march towards the capital or whether I should target Madrid & Cordoba first. As you can imagine, I don’t have huge mega stacks here available. I brought only 14 Janissaries, which are all still alive, some more wounded than others. Furthermore, due to threats from Sareln and Azza I won’t be able to bring huge amount of reinforcements here during the next couple of turns. Therefore I have to be clever about how and where I will use my Janissaries. In any case I want to keep pressuring BaII and hopefully take at least one extra city soonish. One captured city means that there is one city less producing units. Luckily BaII cannot yet produce units that get any kind of odds against Janissaries. That is of course the reason why I executed this kind of confident attack in the first place..

And btw, note that I also unlocked Heroic Epic. I guess it’s time to tech Literature and connect the marble that is located next to my new island sites.

And finally here’s the recap of the happenings:



Everything went exactly as planned/as I hoped. Therefore I truly need suggestions for city names!

[Old Harry]

Ilie Nastasie? Racket abuse? Grunt? Smash? Overruled?

I'm not judging you... I think there is a saying about candy and babies though isn't there?

I was a bit surprised you kept Barca and Seville - I guess you're pushing on to take the capital - what about the rest of his cities after that?

[Fintourist]

I was a bit surprised you kept Barca and Seville - I guess you're pushing on to take the capital - what about the rest of his cities after that?

Yeah, keeping those cities was kind of bold, but I felt that I have a good chance of keeping them as even one promoted Janissary as a defender will be annoying to remove for BaII.

I see first how the attack on Toledo goes and what BaII does and decide then what to do and how to progress. I haven't done yet the calculations regarding how many units BaII can get in place during the next turns if I decide to walk slowly towards the capital. I think I might be able to trick BaII in keeping garrison in Cordoba & Madrid (and thus not bring all units to capital) with empty galleons I've skipped HBR and guilds line as I doubt my opponents have any non-coastal cities beside capitals, but this is the one moment where I would love to have couple of 2-movers that could quickly knock out the capital as well.

I think I have now committed myself to this attack at least to some extent. I hope to push forward with new draftees and capture or raze cities one by one. Next draft cycle begins again in 5 turns and who knows, in 15 turns I might not be that far away from rifles.. How much I can commit troops to this invasion will largely depend on actions of my other opponents. I'm sure that Azza will also wake up at some point and start harassing me. His caravels are circling near my border cities in the same way as I have done before my attacks.

Btw, when I picked Ottomans I speculated that Janissaries might be an useful defensive unit against knights in the mid-game, but I definitely did not guess that I will be using them so much. I'm happy to have them instead of War Chariots that I also briefly considered

[Fintourist]

Turn 158 – part 2

Ok, it’s time for the second part. Unfortunately everything in my little empire does not go as smoothly as boating opponents. There are two big issues that are and will be bugging me.

1. Sareln
Sareln did not accept my increased offer for peace, which I interpret as “I’m coming for you”. He did not move against my cities yet, but I have to be prepared. In the South the city that I captured from Sareln is kind of expendable and it has already couple of fortified Janissaries on a hill as city defenders, which is fine for now. In the North I have this tricky situation that I showed you previously: Therefore I felt forced to proceed with my plan and whip bunch of Frigates this turn. Next turn I will move them in position to guard my cities from forking/boating. Hopefully I’m not too late! I don’t want to draft my Northern cities for a while!

2. Happiness
War weariness from Sareln & BaII/Hydra, drafting & whipping penalties. Yeah, things aren’t easy currently. In addition declaring to Hydra caused me to lose my source of gems (+2 in most cities). I captured now my own source, but it will still take time to get in within my borders. Nevertheless, as calculated, this turn I still have everything under my control.



You can see that I finished quite a lot of stuff this turn. In addition to Frigates I whipped couple of universities as I will turn tech again on next turn. This drafting and whipping has truly hurt my economy and thus reduced my lead, but it has to be seen as an investment for the future. The amount of available land is not going to increase and if I manage to get some of the cities that I captured from BaII functional, these sacrifices will be worth it.

When I ended my turn the war weariness from this turns actions kicked in and brought two of my cities into unhappiness. I’m hoping to fix it with this:



Viqsi has large cities and can surely use +1 happy & health. I hope she does not value screwing up with the leader more than that.. Fingers crossed. Ivory would be awesome and give me some breathing room.

Ok, now some quality time with girlfriend and then onto T159

[Fintourist]

Turn 159

And things keep rolling!

For a completely unknown reason BaII did not whip or upgrade anything in Toledo:



My Janissary killed the lonely warrior without taking a single hit and Ottoman civ is one further city larger. I forgot to take an overview picture of the area, but I selected a middle way with my invasion approach. I have some Janissaries on boats ready to hit Cordoba or Madrid if BaII is careless while sending 4 Janissaries on march towards the capital. Next turn I can still decide if I really want to commit my troops for a crazy 3-turn walk as I will have an opportunity to either turn around or add more Janissaries to join the walk (I have couple of them in a position where they can still catch up. BaII is walking 3 warriors towards the capital so maybe he is planning to organize a decent defense through upgrades? Well, I follow the situation and try to make most out of it. Taking the capital now would of course be awesome, but razing Cordoba or capturing Madrid would satisfy me as well. Well, in the big picture the time is still on my side.

Domestically the best news was Viqsi’s acceptance of my proposed trade! I’m that my citizens have enough ! I celebrated this event by revolting back to Bureaucracy (I remembered to draft 3 units before the switch though) and turned tech on.



1083 raw beakers sounds good and next turn it will get even better as I finished couple of beaker multipliers (delayed by frigate whips). You can also see that my frigates are now surrounding Sareln’s island city. My ships now block the possibility of amphibious attack. Sareln has currently two (most likely) unloaded galleons in the city.

40 % multiplier that I get when researching scientific method makes my GA-boosted demos look nice again:

[Old Harry]

Why haven't the others given up yet?