[Spoilers] Bacchus debuts on RB showing unmatched vision and slick dice-rolling

[Bacchus]

Cool, thanks. Now I just need to figure out whether to start spending before getting libraries or not. In terms of net beakers, one wants to save up before getting the +25% modifier and then switch science on, ideally until markets level the modifiers back. But that entails suffering through a long, long period with no technical advancements whatsoever and I still have Monarchy (Polytheism, Priesthood) and Currency (Mathematics) to research. Monarchy is a bit less pressing due to Ivory+Gems and hopefully a buddhism spread soon enough; but Currency can't really suffer much of a delay, as every turn delayed is a loss of 8-10 gold minimum.

[Bacchus]

Retep switched science on and will have HBR in 8 turns. I plan to have 2 spears on the northern theatre by then, and have hammers invested for a 1 pop whip in both northern cities. If he goes for an early-early rush, he can whip into nearly completed chariots and get a round of 3 HAs attacking my northern towns in 10 turns, albeit I will see roading for that. If he delays, he can get 9-10 HAs by whipping into the ground about 16 turns from now, so attacking 18 turns from now. To face that, I only need about 5 spears, even minimally fortified they will have 57% chance of taking two hits or less on the first round of attacks, which leaves them standing 63.7% or better. If I'm worried about preserving units, though, I should try to muster up 6-7 defenders, but I really don't want to waste hammers on spears of all things.

Good thing is that we'll see retep roading towards us if he does decide to suicide his HA stack southwards, rather than eastwards. Another good thing, is that I'm sure William won't be able to kill him in 8 turns, so some fun could very realistically ensue.

[Bacchus]

Whipped the capital into the Barracks 7->5, regrowth to 6 is in two turns; at that point I'll be able to give the wheat back to Double Star for it to grow quickly onto a grass mine and continue spamming settlers (5->3 whip first, regrow and slow build). Whilst growing to 5 DS will chop out a spear for northern defenses. Following the Barracks whip the cap will complete an axe in 1 turn, with 15 overflow, and a spear in 2, base prod of 14 there, which is quite nice; 18 maximum pre-workshops, but I have yet to improve the plains hill mine — will do so before we start spamming Numidian Cavalry.

[Bacchus]

Found William's reinforced Quechua atop a hill with my scout. Scout is across a river in a forest. I had a chariot handy to bring up and defend, should he attack, but alas -- he can see the chariot. If he doesn't move the quechua, I can hit with the chariot straight up, but the odds aren't great to be fair.

[Bacchus]

Axe goes out to take out a barbarian spear... Takes 6 hits. Well, at least it didn't die. If another barb appears now, I have no idea what to do, but thankfully the fogbuster moved back into place, so there shouldn't be more.

William didn't take the bait, but turns out he's underdefended -- he is bringing a spear from the north. Sitrep after both moved:


Given the spear movement, it's tempting to extrapolate that his east is underdefended and go for a little harass, but I also need the chariots to be able to return home in no more than 6 turns (retep's HBR hits in 5). So they mobility is limited. My real hope is that he goes chariot a-hunting with that spear, as I have an axe coming map fresh out of barracks.

Retep is not building roads towards us, even though his worker was already in place to start on just such a road after a chop. So i'm optimistic, but nonetheless am beefing up defenses. A spear comes out next turn out of Double Star, the next out of cap and the next out of Forever Machine.

In other news, Plako still doesn't care that we are spying on him, so we got graphs:


Yeah. MFG is even worse, GNP is better (but Cre). Graph features our farmer's gambit catchup. We'll see in a couple of turns, whether we'll be called on it.

[Bacchus]

IW revealed not one, not two, but three lots of iron on various borders and in one case within them:

Ein

Makes an awesome city to give the pig over to. Will be workshopped and become a production city


Zwei

Nice city on the desert tile below oasis to become the border city with Inca and have a cothon.

Drei

Far out into the jungle, but still close to us than to Dhalpir.

Also, this was a good time to trade maps with Greece, and turns out Mongolia is really screwed.
Khmer:


Inca:

Amusingly, there is a grass iron hill just out of range on Inca's William Tell, but IN range of the Greek city they razed to build theirs.


Mongolia:

Not much fun there.

Greece:


Also, the Greeks have sent an exploring workboat, and just look at this:


Did someone say... balance? Interestingly, this is worse news for the continent next door, than for us. Reason? Well, see that cow-rice spot in the bottom left of the last screenshot, that's our continent again and, in fact, some 7-8 tiles from Plako's capital if I figure correctly. So actually the two strongest civs will soon have a front, a maritime one at that and some islands to contest. Hopefully, this means that our lands will become a distant irrelevancy for both.

[Bacchus]

I decided that I actually will whip a spear in C of Consience off 4 hammers to get 20 OF into the granary (damn you, Krillmod!), before leaving one on the queue. This will give me four actual spears on the theatre by the earliest time retep can strike with HA's (if he saved hammers, so that the first lot are released on the turn HBR is researched), and three more on the queue ready to be whipped -- 2 in the frontline cities and one in the cap. Another unit will complete naturally in the cap by that time, but it will most likely be an axe.

Ichabod offered a Gold (1) for Gems (1) trade. We both get second copies of the corresponding luxury soon enough, but it still benefits him way more than me. Still, something that I would prefer to have for the medium term, so I accepted. With three luxuries and sugar upcoming I'm thinking about giving Monarchy a pass for a while. In fact, due to having Marble, I might just go for MoM.

[Bacchus]

After a bit of thought, I'm leaning towards Sailing -> Metal Casting, rather than Mathematics -> Currency. In the coming turns we will start getting a lot of seafood online, so lighthouses will come in very handy, and at this stage an intercontinental trade route, which we can get by settling a strategically important island will give us as much cash as Currency. And as by then we will be working an average of one sea resource per city, Collosus will do too, even if we don't work a single non-resource coast. I also want to start spamming workshops in Double Start and the capital, I realised. I've been toying with this path for a while, it sacrifices extra hammers from chops after all, but given the fairly low enthusiasm for wonders, it might be worth a go. Then again, maybe everyone will see how long it took for GLH and Pyramids to fall and decide that it's the time to shoot for wonders.

[Bacchus]

Plako got the GLH, Lewwyn (Gandhi) got Confu and revolted. GA Caste extragavanza to follow, I assume, and I'm guessing they are one of the tech leaders. We are just about average on everything, GNP slightly above average with science turned on, MFG slightly below, CY slightly above. Granary-boosted Double Star grew from 4 to 5 in 1 turn, will grow from 5 to 6 in 2, and then triple-whip a Settler for another source of gems and an extra empire-wide happy. Otherwise, just building up military to prevent any easy takes from our over-powered neighbours. I'm particularly worried about William's wroth as this is happening:


Barbs settled perfectly into the Incan dotmap, can't have that. Thankfully, we already had to chariots on the theatre, which will make short of work of the three warriors. Last turn, a C1 chariot took the first one out losing only 0.6 and getting 2 XP for a full 5. Unfortunately, William saw the second, lagging chariot move out into this direction, so will probably start bringing troops. Then again, he only has 1 spear in the locale as far as I know and I doubt he'll go chariot-hunting at the expense of leaving his city unprotected.

I'm waiting for him to take the turn due to any potential sequence considerations, but I checked the surroundings, before moving the second chariot in and there are no units or even roads in the fog to the immediate north.

[Bacchus]

Cherokee fell, but both chariots took 4 hits. Especially annoying for the effective strength 4.41 chariot which went against the 2.9 barb. Then, on disappointment, I fucked up the tactics -- if William moved the chariot he had on the theatre in pursuit, he will be able to attack and kill. This was avoidable, embarassingly.