[SPOILERS] Charriu and Zalson are fighting the honorable post count war!

[Charriu]

Yes, I will try to conquer RFS.

[Charriu]

T63:

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The barbarian decided to be a good barbarian and did not move to the spice. Good boy. That means I may not have to suffer an angry citizen in Wing Raptor. Unfortunately this means that I have to chop a different forest. Initally I wanted to chop the forest 1N of the spice. Now I will chop the forest accross the river. I really would have liked to build a lumbermill on this forest later, but a Watermill will good as well.



The danger from Shallow is still not gone. It's very likely that he will move to the hill 1SW of him and from there he will see my borders. I will fortify War Wilhelm on the hill just so that I know where Shallow is heading.

In other international news: Superdeath acquired his 5th city and I also misscalculated his population. He wasn't running such a low pop all the time. Nonetheless he's still happily whipping (12 times now).

[Zalson]

shallow_thought is 100% going for the barb city. if we can get the chariot up there, we might be able to snipe it for $.

[Charriu]

T64:

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Mh, I'm not sure that he's going straight for the barb city with this move, he may not even know that it's there. But he moved away from Karlabos, which he also does not know is there except if he's watching the improved tiles. You can also see that the barb near Wing Raptor successfully died at the hands of my archer. Why can't every barb be like him.  

RFS and Coeurva finally have contact with each other. I think I forgot to mention this 2 turns ago. And RFS just discovered Writing, because I can now trade maps with him.



Exploration to the north continued and I found another barb city under the fog. This barb city is close to the improved cow tile from Coeurva so he will likely take this city soon. It's to far away from me to do anything about it. About your idea to attack the ivory barb city (Yayoi). The problem is that I need my chariot to escort my gold settler and the workers there and explore the land there before settling. I will produce another chariot in Wing Raptor in T72, who could take care of this city.
Oh and another thing I connect the ivory this turn so 1 more happiness for everybody.

[Charriu]

T65:

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Wesley uncovered the barb city, which contains 3 warriors like the other. More importantly I don't see any border from Coeurva under the fog. Interesting. Wesley will move 1NE next. I want to make sure that Superdeath is my northern neighbor and maybe get in contact with Magic. Speaking of contact as already mentioned I started putting espionage into RFS again, but he did the same. We are now at a 113/116 ratio. I don't know how much we get out of that as long as nobody else puts points into him. I will have to check his ratios with the other players.



Magissa, our southern island resort, was founded this turn. Also I don't think that I need any defenses for Magissa so soon. The reasons are that if there is any enemy fleet aproaching, I will see it long before it can attack, because of my culture in Wing Raptor and Karlabos.



As expected Magissa gave us a big increase in GNP. That should give a nice peak in the graphs. My food also went up nicely and I'm almost even with Coeurva. Unfortunately I could not improve the crab this turn because of the barb near Wing Raptor some turns ago. The galley returned to Wing Raptor and will spy into RFS Lighthouse city.

Next turn Writing will be finished and I will start Iron Working in preparation for the attack on RFS.

Graphs:




With the addition of Magissa we should stay at the top of GNP for a long time.



Shallow's rise in hammers is somewhat frighting. I should get better in this category as soon as I have iron.



Food is recovering nicely and I should stay in the Top 3 for the next turns.



I have to check what that power increase from RFS is. Propably some barracks as his culture started to increase too and he does not have Mysticism.

[Charriu]

T66:

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RFS showed up out our border again. Nothing to be afraid of, my Cha Carmen is here to scout the rice area for any barb cities. Next turn my galley will have vision on RFS city. Also our espionage rating is now 113/120. When exactly should he loose graphs on me?



Shallow's border's popped. I could see him founding on that grasland hill. That would make a good defensive position against me. I certainly won't settle that spot; I learned my lesson Interstingly his axeman hasn't moved. Maybe he forgot to move him?  

Which brings us to the main event of this turn.



Superdeath captured that ivory city from the barbs. Just in case that there are any Impi's in the shadow I escorted my workers on the border. I think if I would have taken that spot, I would have razed it and settled 1S of the gems, but I also don't know if there are food resources for this city, but even then it's surounded by many jungles. I would deem this a poor city. There's another reason why this is poor. This is his 6 city and he's gone from 3 to 6 very fast, so he may not have the worker power to support them. The good thing is that I would rather see the gems in Superdeath's hand right now then Shallow's. Note also that he has a Impi near Lybian, so that may be his next target.
I'm a little bit afraid of Superdeath, because he knows where I am and has graphs on me. Don't get me wrong I don't fear him totally destroying me right now, but he could deceide to take me down with him. He tended to do crazy things in his last PBs and did so in this PB, too - the war of no gains. That's mainly because he's not focused like he said so himself in the planning thread for the next PB:

I could dedlurk one of the new guys

I too, am up for a civ 4 game.

Wow, how do you manage to play 3 PBs at once.

simple! by not being focused on only 1 pb at a time.. it gives the other players a better chance at winning

The good thing by taking the gems spot and maybe taking Lybian in the next turns, he will be in focus of Shallow and Coeurva. Especially Coeurva will be annoyed by him settling so fast in the northern area. This could divert any future praetorian attack towards Superdeath, which is good.

[Charriu]

T67:

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Shallow just connected silver last turn. He propably got it in the city he founded during that reload thing with Magic. Boy that must be annoying for Magic. He really has bad luck this game. I also noticed that Shallow (Hitru) has founded or conquered his 6th city this turn. I also whipped another settler in Wing Raptor this turn and will found my 6th in a few turns, so I'm catching up, I think.



Wesley uncovered more terrain and of course the is a cow in the second ring of the formaly barb city on the ivory. Also note that Libyian has a spice, wine and silk all in it's second ring. Unfortunately it's to far away from us, but it could be a nice city in the future. There's also more mountains 1W, 1N and 1NE of that mountain in the north west, so Superdeath has a nice natural border towards Coeurva there.



I finally god vision on RFS's city. It's lightly defended with just one axeman and it contains a granary and barracks. He did chop the two forests 1N and 1NE of the city since last time I got vision on this area. But most importantly for our conquest plans is, that there is a new forest 1NE of the corn. Question time would it count as a double move if I move my galley away from him next turn. That way he would not know that I had a look into his city, so it would be to his disadvantage. Just asking so that I know if I have to move after him next turn. RFS also double whipped a settler last turn, so we will propably see his 4th city in the next turns. Maybe I try a surprise attack on Lighthouse with just 1 chariot and 1 archer for defense after the conquest . Mh that might work and could be an easy conquest. Have to think about this, but I have to do it quickly.



Last but not least, I got vision on the general rice and gold area, so far the coast looks clear. I will move the chariot to the 1N of the rice. From there I should see if Coeurva settled the cow or the barbs did. Depending on that information I will settle the rice first in case of a barb city or the gold first if it is Coeurva. I also promised you an updated dotmap. It's already a bit late here, so I will do it tomorrow.

[Charriu]

Attacking Lighthouse early



I gave the attack plan a bit more thinking. First of all I already have one chariot (Cha Carmen), but it's currently occupied with exploring the gold area and securing it for the next settler. By the time I can move it back for an attack I already have finished another chariot in Wing Raptor in T72. So I've come up with the above simple plan.

T72: Bord chariot and highly promoted archer Archie into the galley waiting on the red star tile (you can see Archie's promotions in the above screenshot (city garrison, first strike and shock)
T73: Move galley 2W and unload chariot on forest tile (blue 73). Declare war and take the second half of the turn split. That way RFS can't whip and produce another unit in time in Lighthouse.
T74: Attack Lighthouse with the chariot and take it. The chariot should have around 77% chance of winning.
Should the chariot not be able to take it and the axeman be damaged enough. Move galley 2W again and attack and conquer Lighthouse with Archie in an amphibious attack. The axeman should be damaged enough from the chariot attack.
In the case that the chariot is succesful I also move in the galley and unload Archie to the city for defense. With his promotions he should be able to repel any counter attack for the beginning.

RFS's current army should consist of
4 warriors
1 spearman
2 axeman

I suspect the 1 warrior will still be scouting around my area or be way out of place to act in any way. Like I mentioned in my report RFS double whipped last turn and will now move his settler to it's location. He will propably need to escort this settler which subtracts another unit from a counter attack. And he also needs a guard in his current third city. With the lost axeman this leaves only 3 units that could counter attack and by doing that he would need to abandon his capitol.

Of course there are disadvantages to the plan:

• I don't have any workers nearby to support Lighthouse immediately. The next nearby worker will produced in Wing Raptor in T77
  
• I will be running very low on units in my home front. I need at least another archer for the gold city which will be settled in T75 and the settler for this in T73. There will be an archer produced in Karlabos in T73. With War Wilhelm keeping an eye on Shallow I could shift the spearman in Karlabos around so that I could move another archer to the gold city from Siren, but it will be very tight. Cha Carmen will be needed for happiness in Wing Raptor. I can also finish 1 archer in T75 in Exdeath, which could free up Cha Carmen from happiness duty. Carmen will propably go to the gold area for protection
  
• This means that I won't have enough troops to support Lighthouse in any future counterattack. Luckily Lighthouse is at the coast, so it will be connected to my trade network immediately. I will propably need to whip another archer there just to be safe.
  

Another thing to think about is what to do if there won't be just 1 axeman any longer. By the time I will know it, I already have declared war on him. It should be easy to retreat my chariot in that case and get a peace deal again. But in this case he will also be warned for any future attacks and may start unit production.

[Cornflakes]

I would advise against a limited attack that you describe. Chances are high that either a 2nd unit will be in range to get inside, or be close enough to re-capture on the following turn. Plus you’ll make a strong enemy before you’re ready to put the hammer down. If you could get 2 chariots on the ship and unloaded on the forest, along with 2 others (archer + axe) to load onto the now-empty galley from the plains 1W of horses. That gives you 2 amphibious attack’s and 2 chariots and might be a viable attack force. If you get lucky you could potentially have 2 units on the galley still to threaten the city across the lake 2 turns later. But still I’d want additional military following closely behind to press the attack further. A tiny attack now will just set you up for a slug fest, with another rival swooping in from behind to profit.

What is your timeframe to get Iron Working? How would the logistics work out to press the attack as soon as you get Iron Working? Can you get a 2nd galley out from a backline city (Karlaboss or island)? I think whenever you do declare war, you need to be prepared to carry the war all the way to the capital with follow-up units streaming over the border (i.e. full-unit-production mode)

Regarding double-moving the galley away I don’t think there is a clear need to leave it in place. I would just play the next turn at your normal time, without making particular effort to log in immediately or wait.

[Charriu]

I would advise against a limited attack that you describe. Chances are high that either a 2nd unit will be in range to get inside, or be close enough to re-capture on the following turn. Plus you’ll make a strong enemy before you’re ready to put the hammer down. If you could get 2 chariots on the ship and unloaded on the forest, along with 2 others (archer + axe) to load onto the now-empty galley from the plains 1W of horses. That gives you 2 amphibious attack’s and 2 chariots and might be a viable attack force. If you get lucky you could potentially have 2 units on the galley still to threaten the city across the lake 2 turns later. But still I’d want additional military following closely behind to press the attack further. A tiny attack now will just set you up for a slug fest, with another rival swooping in from behind to profit.

What is your timeframe to get Iron Working? How would the logistics work out to press the attack as soon as you get Iron Working? Can you get a 2nd galley out from a backline city (Karlaboss or island)? I think whenever you do declare war, you need to be prepared to carry the war all the way to the capital with follow-up units streaming over the border (i.e. full-unit-production mode)

Regarding double-moving the galley away I don’t think there is a clear need to leave it in place. I would just play the next turn at your normal time, without making particular effort to log in immediately or wait.

I also had a little bit more time to think about it and I agree with you about the early attack plan. Iron Working should be done in T77. But I propably won't start the war right when I get Iron Working, as I may not have enough units for this. I also need to settle the gold city first. Only after I settled this city I want to go into full-unit-production mode.