RB Pitboss #1 [SPOILERS] Willem of Persia

[shadyforce]

A quiet turn. Elkad pillages that plains forest road with his GG Knight so it will take 5 turns to get to the gates of Kerkouane. My forces are assembling. Unfortunately, the bulk of them have to wait just outside Sicca which costs me a few coins. I've also decided to run 70% espionage this turn to get visbility into a good few of Elkad's cities.

This turn, Elkad finished the Mausoleum and then switched to Theocracy, Slavery and Nationalism so he will probably draft, whip and build enough defence to protect Kerkouane unfortunately. He drafted Muskets in Carthage and Utica, and had 3 other population hits on top of that.

[shadyforce]

Elkad's golden age ends and his ETA on Printing Press remains at 6. I now have visibility around the 4 cities of his I have discovered and I'm trading maps with Rego to get the other 2. He is drafting plenty of Muskets at the moment and will probably have enough to hold me off by the time I can get to Kerkouane, especially if he builds a few cats (I have only seen 1 cat so far, down near Carthage).

I have renamed Sicca to The Jail to fit with my theme since it seems that Elkad has given up on recapturing it. Daniel has total control over the seas so there is no naval threat either. I'm rebuilding roads and I'm considering settling a city between The Jail and Elkad's borders just to assert cultural control over that neutral territory. I have another Settler coming out of The Hospital who will probably found a city in between it and The Grocer. Maybe I should be founding that Rice city but I'm holding off settling it for now.

The Harbour has 3 turns left on the Maoi Statues and will then switch to a military setup. I believe it already has a Forge too so it will be get up and running quickly. The Castle has finished it's forge and I will start the Heroic Epic if someone can lend me Marble to speed it along. With Marble it will take 7 turns, maybe 6.

The Grocer will grow in 2 turns at which point I will run 2 Scientists and an Engineer and I'll have my first great person (aside from the Great Artist) in a further 7 turns. At this stage, a Golden Age for a mass civics swap seems likely though bulbing down the Sci Method -> Physics line is also possible. An Academy would be pointless because I'm on gold duty and will be for the foreseeable future.

I have markets being built in a few places, forges being finished off elsewhere. And I'm going to try and grow cities to prep them for some drafting once Nationalism and Rifling is online. I'm not going to waste any time drafting Muskets. Yaz and Elkad are killing their economy drafting soon to be outdated units out of necessity which in itself is a victory even if I make no further gains against Elkad and Rego makes no further gains against Yaz.

The news that Broker and the Lins are joining the rejects alliance (Rego's name) is not good, particularly for Kodii who will be in trouble unless he gets a good defence in shape. I guess getting Cannons, Rifles and Cavalry in play as quickly as we can will save him as well as enable myself and Rego to once again take the offensive.

The general plan for me is:
- Catch up on some much needed infrastructure (forges+markets+maoi+HE)
- Grow cities in preperation of the draft
- Build lots more cottages
- Found a couple of new cities
- Secure the neutral territory near The Jail
- Charge for Kerkouane

Interesting and exciting turns ahead.

[shadyforce]

I presume that I will have visibility into Thaenae and Thapsus next turn because I have enough EPs to do so.

Visible military:
Kerkouane: 2x Musket, 2x Longbow, Warrior, Scout
Carthate: CG1 Longbow, Musket
Hill beside Carthage: Musket, Catapult
Utica: Musket, Warrior
Hadrumetum: Warrior
Top of screen: GG Knight (Flanking I+II, Mobility, Morale, Tactics, Leadership)

The majority of my stack is on the forest tile 1NW of the blue circle.

Total forces: (A bunch of outdated junk that's costing me money.)
6 Cats
6 Jumbo
2 Mace
3 Pike
2 Horse Archers
1 Crossbow
1 Longbow
1 Immortal

The plan:
T147, move stack to the forested hill, explore with spy
T148, move stack 1SW, move spy to red circle
T149, cut red circled road with spy, cut orange circled road with HA or Immortal or something, move stack 1E
T150, attack and hopefully raze Kerkouane

This is perhaps a bit optimistic. In reality, I don't think I have the forces to hold off a Musket attack om my stack or to take the city. But maybe the cutting roads trick will cut off units from defending the city.

[shadyforce]

Bad news, I didn't move my units last turn. I logged on to have a look around but Elkad had not yet moved and when I woke up this morning, the turn had already ticked over. My cities have full queues and militarily it didn't make much difference since I wasn't planning on advancing anyway. But I lost some worker turns and a settler was idle for that turn.

I've been told that when there are cottages and the like on roaded tiles, they get pillaged first so my plan would never work. Elkad has ample defence to hold me off and may even go on the offensive.

The plan is to found a city near his border from which to maybe stage an attack later. The two main purposes of this city is to be able to keep my army near his border without the army abroad costs and to get cultural control and visibility on the roaded territory between The Jail and Kerkouane.


I intend to found it on the marked tile. It's not idea since it's not on a hill and there are hills nearby. But to found it on the hill would make it harder for me to control even the first ring. Also the given spot can build a lighthouse to work the 3 food lake.

My settler is on route (1 turn delayed ) and I have 4 workers in the area. Roading and chopping the forests 1S, 1W and 1NW of the city are very high priority. And I will run emphasise culture heavily at least until I get to 100 culture. I'll build culture until the first ring pop (like in The Jail) and I'll probably put a chop into the Theatre before a Granary.

Plus, if the city is razed then so what? It's slowed down any advance to The Jail he may have been planning, burned more of his units. It's not like city elimination is on. I need to come up with an appropriate name for the city though.


In other news, I'm founding another city in my eastern isthmus. Here is an overview shot of the area:


I also have a Rice city and a filler city to found, both have a single food resource and grass and coast tiles to work.

City status:

Central Command: Size 12, just finished a Market, starting Bank which I may whip for 3-pop.
The Bank: Size 6, building a Theatre and growing to work all it's cottages.
The Factory: Size 8, just finished its Forge, got it's mines back from The Harbour who borrowed them, now on a Settler due in 5, then mounted units.
The Harbour: Size 8, just finished the Maoi Statues, now on a Forge due in 13 but it's on max growth.
ThecCastle: Size 7, just finished a Theatre, starting the Heroic Epic, due in 5! Then will probably finish it's stables and churn out units.
The Grocer: Size 6, is working 2 Scientists and an Engineer, GP due in 6.
The Lighthouse: Size 6, just finished a WB for The Jail, now on a Market but set to max growth.
The Hospital: Size 4, Just finished a Settler, now on a Theatre due in 2. Will then grow a bit to work it's cottages while building a Barracks.
The Aqueduct: Size 2, growing and slow building a Forge.
The Jail: Size 2, out of resistance and building Culture. Borders pop next turn and it will switch to a Granary and then Theatre.

I'm going to try and get the Globe up soon. I'm not sure where I'll put it. Nowheer has a particularly good food surplus except Central Command. Maybe The Lighthouse. My 8 theatres are probably going to go in:
- The Castle (done)
- The Lighthouse (done)
- The Bank (in progress)
- The Hospital (in progress)
- The Jail (soon)
- The new city near Carthage
- Rice town
- An Other

Finally, does anyone have an idea what this means:

[shadyforce]

Oh, I didn't realise but Daniel has 3 presumably full Gallleys a turn's movement away from Carthage (as in ready to raze the city this turn unless Elkad retreats some units back to the city). This could force Elkad to keep many defenders home. Next turn, Daniel can keep a dual threat on Carthage and Utica. Maybe I should consider advancing my troops anyway.

[Sullla]

The 2 "free commerce"? Well, you are Creative remember...

[shadyforce]

Ah right! I thought something was wrong because the city was totalling 2 more than I expected as well, not realising the library had doubled up.

[novice]

I need to come up with an appropriate name for the city though.

The Theatre seems appropriate.

[shadyforce]

That's right! I forgot that I didn't get to settle a 'Theatre' in the Rego war. Thanks novice.

[shadyforce]

The new plan:

It is now T149. We estimate that assuming Elkad continues along the Replaceable Parts -> Rifling line, he can get Rifles by around T170. We can get Rifles by around T167. That's not a very big window and in fact once Rifles get distributed around, especially to Munro and Exploit, we're in trouble.

Therefore we are trying to hatch a plan to seriously cripple or eliminate Elkad well before T170.

On T155 Daniel will have finished researching Steel. (We also will have Nationalism by then.) The plan is for myself, Daniel and Rego to each build around 5 Cannons each by T157 (using the whip, pre-built Trebs in queues or updated Trebs at 80 gold a pop). Kodii will run gold after Nationalism to help fund this.

Then on or before T160, I will combine about 10 cannons to my existing stack of 8 Cats, 6 Jumbos, 3 Maces, 3 Pikes, misc others as well as whatever drafted Muskets and built Knights I can manage (probably 3/4 each) and make one serious push into Carthaginian lands.

And simultaneously, Daniel will land a smaller stack with 5 cannons near Carthage/Utica.

Since Elkad will have nothing with odds on cannon and should be seriously outnumbered given his limited draft abilities with only 6 cities, then we should tear through his lands. 10 turns to kill him is our timer.

With that in mind, we will not be advancing our stacks. Instead we will wander around looking threatening but save out units to do the mopping up when cannons come online.

I will definitely still settle The Theatre on Elkad's border. In fact, I hope he tries to raze it because even if he is succesful, he will burn through lots of units to do so even. I'm not sure how possible it is to get a bit of cultural control against Kerkouane in only 10 turns. I'll be chopping a theatre pretty much on turn 1, running 2 artists if I choose Mercantilism and probably building culture as well. That's 14 per turn. It's like settling a great artist! Should get first and second border pop 2 and 9 turns after founding the city.


Mercantalism vs Free Market:

Free Market gives me a total of about 100 commerce in trade routes across my (by then) 12 cities. With Mercantilism, I'll have about 36 commerce. So a gain of 64.

I'll have different specialists all over the place, but lets say each is worth about 3 commerce then that is a gain of 36 commerce. And I can specialise my cities as appropriate (eg Engineers in my production cities, artists in my border cities, merchants in my commerce cities and GP points in maybe 2 or 3 cities that will actually produce a GP in the game but at a cost of 28 commerce per turn. Worth it?