[SPOILERS] Lewger goes for the Bigwyn

[Bigger]

I think there is some mechanic about how many defending units the barbs like to keep in a city, but given how bad my civ-knowledge has been over recent turns you definitely don't want to take my word for it...

well I know the last warrior won't attack out regardless of the odds. I'm not sure that with 2 warriors left one won't attack out. I dunno. I suppose I could sandbox it .

[Bigger]

so I was wondering what the hub ub was about from commodore and others opposing ad hoc's request for a reload. It certainly had nothing to do with azza/serdoa's war, as there was nothing on civ stats to give that away, no city exchange - and probably we are the only civ even aware of it besides those 2.

I should pay more attention to civ stats:



so merhoc logged out, plako logged in, then merhoc had a score decrease, plako had an increase, decrease, increase.

best guess - plako captured and kept a a merohoc city. then I guess he whipped and settled another city too? not sure what else could be the 2nd score increase, unless he bulbed a tech - ddoesnt seem very likely at all (he's ind/cre but hasn't built any wonders).

anyway, merohoc is stuck at the bottom of the score board and it seems like plako is destroying them. its very possible he'll eliminate them before we can make contact - he seems to be doing quite well. long term, I'd rank 1. serdoa 2. commodore 3. plako as our biggest competition (maybe cfcjester/nakor somewhere in there too).

[Bigger]

and now Plako opposing the reload makes sense. I think Plako would probably oppose the reload even if he weren't involved in any conflicts, the fact that he just finished a battle with the person asking for the reload is bad luck for Merohoc

[Lewwyn]

The real question is, what is frugle and why do you want it?

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I knew that would get a comment. I was playing words with friends on my phone and forgot how to spell "frugal" in a brain fart moment.

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bored, so here's some random pics.

Serdoa gains 10-15 score points every fucking turn now. score doesnt mean he's winning, but he is. you can see why with the graphs.
gnp:

mfg:

we're #3 in MFG, so he's definitely #1.

food:

speculating about where the bulk of serdoa's empire is:

This city is either his capital Mutal, or his second city Lakoma. (awesome naming scheme, btw ). Lakoma has 734 culture, mutal 254. his third culture city only has 8, so none of his other 4 cities have popped borders yet. we can presume that the other 4 aren't very productive yet, but since both Mutal and Lakoma are top 5 cities, he's getting plenty from those 2 (they are both size 8 population, btw).

anyway if this city is his capital, its located N,NE, NE of the rice. not sure he would settle so close to the jungle right off the bat, so more likely its Lakoma and size 4 culture - so N, NE, NE, NE of the rice. its possible its not even on this land mass, although that would mean he rushed for sailing and built a galley to ferry his scout over very early - which seems unlikely. unless he has a medium sized island to himself and ran out of space to explore.

another possibility is that his "island" is actually connected to our eastern peninsula, and we would have eventually found him if our scout hadn't finally died. it might not be a bad idea to load a chariot in the aeneid on a galley soonish and send it north of the barb city to finish scouting that area. we could at least find out if we have another competitior to that land.

anyway, we can't do anything about Serdoa until we have astronomy, probably, but I kind of feel like we will have to invade him at that point. it will probably come down to either him or Brick once we've taken out azza anyway, and I would rather invade the stronger opponent that won't trade maps with us .

speaking of azza, I'm getting less concerned about him coming back for more. we're ahead of him in MFG, and then there's this:

I think Azza is trying to recover his economy. He may be building libraries atm - at least in tenacious D and the living end. he's not doing it with cottages, though. he's building a farm in "The presets"

I guess there's not much else for him to do in that craptastic city. But I am starting to wonder if azza just decided to skip pottery (use AH pre-req for writing). his growth has been slower than it should be (he's only been a tad behind us in food) and not a cottage to be seen.
I guess the plan for presets is work the farm, the one lake tile it can reach, and coast for commerce - and maybe a mine. anyway we'll have to raze the presets eventually, but that farm might come in handy.

anyway, I'll be a tad bit nervous the first 3-4 turns of our peace treaty running out, but after that the axes start rolling in from gilgamesh and maths (and later horse archers too) and we won't have to worry about him reinvading. But I don't think either Lewwyn nor I have decided if we want to 1. found sheep/horse city and just build a massive army to capture A7X, tenacious D, and living end (raze crap city) or 2. expand everywhere we can first, including capturing barb city, settling 3-4 cities over there, and claiming the western gold too. we'll found the sheep/horse city in the next 10-15 turns either way, so I guess we have a bit to decide. it will also help us to see what azza researches after Math.

Thinking about it just now, there's a decent chance azza is as boxed in in the south as he is with us in the north - while else would he found such a crappy city as the presets not once, but twice? If thats the case, we would definitely be better off expanding to the west and the east - with each new city we would be that much better off when we do come to blows with azza.

[Bigger]

Surprised it took him this long, tbh. Can't help but thinking if we didn't have praets on our southern flank we might have been able to nab this in Gilgamesh. Anyway, props to serdoa, he's leverages the IND trait quite well (hasn't hurt that all the other 4 IND's have been forced into war - plako and merohoc with each other, us with azza, and Scooter with somebody, I assume. hehem while he seems to be pretty isolated). Anyway, I expect Serdoa to revolt soon, whip libraries and start running scientist specialists. If he's smart he won't even bother with cottages beyond his 2 super cities.

demos at 50% science on writing (we completed priesthood last turn, so we have a lot of GNP bonuses on writing):


and I'll leave you here with a small sign left by Lewwyn:

we finished a C1 axe in gilgamesh this turn, that will end up 1N of the odyssey in 3 turns. another one coming in 3 turns, and shock axes in Maths, too. Enforced peace ends in 2 turns, I believe.


Lewwyn, I'm on board with opportunism - but they finish their farm at the end of next turn. It doesnt matter so much this turn, but next turn we have to play before azza so we can attack first and nab them the following turn without double moving him - if you want to get them on the farm. Might be difficult as azza plays frequently within an hour of the turn rolling (he logged in to play as I was taking these pictures).
of course if we're patient they might try to chop that forest too.

also decent chance he has a spear or even an axe in the city and we'd have to delete the workers. Probably worth sacrificing a chariot to kill 2 workers though =)

[Bigger]

well fuck. I log in to check things out after azza played and got this:


if only we had 10 more gold, that option would be much better. I guess I have to crack down on the slaves - it says "may" continue if you ignore it, but I've gotten this event 50 times or so and never once has it gone away by ignoring it

the +1 unhappy is going to be even more brutal than the loss of 2 pop. still have lots of whip unhappy stacked. does this stack on whip unhappy or will we lose 2 unhappy in 10 turns?

the good news is that azza is researching currency and not construction next. which means we can do the same after math and start expanding, if we wish - azza would surely research construction if he wanted war.

[Sareln]

I think it adds to the whip counter, as if you had whipped the city iirc.

[Bigger]

wahh. I had no choice.



The Aeneid is size 3, I put it on the wheat and mine (along with cows) since the odyssey is in revolt for a turn and can't work them.
Next turn, the odyssey has 24/24 food in the box and will grow even working the two mines. it will have 35 turns of unhappy now (assuming Sareln is right, which I think he is) so can work the sheep and 2 mines to grow to size 4 the same turn it loses an unhappy.
The aeneid can work the new cottage wheat and cows, but will have to whip something when it reaches size 4.

a C1 axe arrives from gilgamesh next turn, btw.

we aren't going to be able to snipe any workers from azza:

must keep an eye on these units. we need horse archers asap from maths, and maybe a spear for defense too.
borders in math expand next turn, axe completes in 2 turns, then we can start a horse archer. currently takes 10 turns just working the grassland iron mine, but that will change once we can work pastured pigs and get a few more mines down.

so our peace treaty is officially over. azza played first and didn't declare. with the currency research and power graph I don't THINK he wants another war, but the border will be tense for awhile and we'll have to keep a close eye on him. Here's the new power graph:

thats a tad deceptive, though, as a lot of our power is tied up into archers. also, I'm don't think he has our graphs anymore, so he can't be intimidated by it


here's out beginning of turn demos @ 50% science:

here's gilgamesh:

I have to switch from the furs to the uninproved PFH to get the axe done this turn - we finish it with just enough hammers. its worth it, I think, but it might just end up costing us a turn on writing (combined with losing 2 pop and a turn of production/trade routes in theodyssey).


I