[SPOILERS] Parkin brings the rain down in Africa: Churchill of Zulu

[Grimace]

Unfortunately - unlike single player - resource trades aren't binding here, unless you are at war and sign a peace treaty you don't get enforced peace...

Oh, well, good to know!

It could have been an artist bomb stealing tiles, but more likely he took a city you didn't have sight of (which wouldn't show up in the log).

Then that's probably what happened. I could only see one of Gavagai's cities before I moved the chariot this turn.

He’s got some wicked stacks running in his territory, though. He has a few Horse Archers, but it seems like his big stack is cats and axes. He also has wellies, but I only see one. I think Gavagai is down to one city, and given where mackoti’s stack is, he has 3 turns to live. I’ve started moving units to the that area; luckily that is the only land access for mackoti to get to us.

I have a feeling you'll need some cats visible to Mack (but out of reach) when the final city falls, just so he doesn't think carrying on would be a good idea. I had a glance back at your power graph and it's a bit worrying - unless things have changed? Have you got an idea of the number of cats and axes he has? That would let us set a target for how many cats you'll need.

Yeah, I've got one city building cats right now, and two cities that will finish their current builds and start building them next turn. I'll have one out 2 turns from now, another one three turns from now, and 2 more 4 turns from now. I have 4 wellies moving to the area, all of which will be there in no more than 2 more turns. I can throw a few more units that way, but I don't want to draw down from my border with haram any more than I have to.

Total units I saw:
- Captured city of Yeha: Longbowman, Axeman, 5 Horsies.
- Captured city of Gondar: Horsie, Chariot
- Stack #1: Chariot
- Stack #2: Longbowman, Welly, 6 Cats, 6 Axes
- Stack #3: Welly, Longbowman
He also has a great general just outside of Gondar...might be moving him forward to do a super-promotion.

There's also a barb axe sitting next to Yeha, so it might immolate itself against that city next turn.

Gavagai has:
- Addis Ababa: Sword, 3 Cats, Great General(!)
- Stack #1: Sword, Axe, 3 Spears
- Stack #2: Sword

So except for his stack of doom, nothing too much to worry about. I suspect he has the bulk of his forces right there...I can't imagine he has much military strength further back. If we go to war, seems like an amphibious attack might be the best option for doing some damage to him.

Well as an expert I'd run binary (0%) at this point, then if you think you need cash for upgrades you have that option... What is the next tech target and how long does it take at break-even?

Running 50% so I can get Iron Working with the minimum science necessary for it to take 1 turn. After that, I'm not sure what the next target should be...to get to Guilds for knights I'd have to do Monarchy and Feudalism first. That was loosely my plan, but I'm open to other ideas. We could also go Engineering for the road movement bonus, Pikemen, and Trebs.

[Grimace]

Oh, to further explain re: Iron Working...I would have to run 1 turn of 0% science to build up the money to then run 1 turns of 100% to get IW. If I run 50%, I get it 1 turn from now +9 gold. I figured having it in 1 turn is better than 2 right now. Because if Iron shows up near a city, hopefully it is already mined (and thus will start giving extra hammers right away -- I'm PRODUCTIVE!), and if not, I can move to mine it 1 turn earlier and gain those extra hammers a turn sooner than doing binary.

[Old Harry]

Cool, that makes sense. After iw I'd save cash until you have enough to burn right through to guilds. Unless you plan a monarchy switch or you think longbows,would be handy...

[Grimace]

Turn 130

In world news:
German Joey generated a Great Merchant. Haram declared war on German Joey and moved at least one stack of Keshiks into his territory. He has another point of contact with his civ that I don’t have visibility on, so he may have moved more troops there. Haram is second in power, and GJ is 2nd lowest, so I think I know how this is going to turn out. Thoughts? With mackoti probably eliminating Gavagai in 1 or 2 turns, I’m reluctant to engage in war on another front, but I also really don’t want to be sandwiched between two very powerful civs if haram wins.

I got an offer for open borders from Seven, which I accepted. And then I made a mistake. I had another diplomatic offer, but I had accidentally double-clicked on accepting Seven’s, and I accepted that one as well. And I didn’t even notice any details of it. The only thing I saw was a request for 35 gold. I didn’t see who sent it, and I didn’t see if they asked for anything in return, though I don’t think they did. I have no new trades with anyone. Is there a way to see previous diplomatic correspondence? It’s really worrying me that I don’t even know who it was, AND that I accepted it without even seeing what it was. Luckily at this point 35 gold isn’t a game changer, but it’s the principle of the thing.

On our side we completed IW and we found two sources of Iron – both plains Iron. One is near our newest city of Quail, and the other is near Meerkat. Both have it in their BFC. I immediately started two workers mining the one near Quail (as they were both there working on improvements near that city), and I have two workers en route to the one near Meerkat and they will be able to start mining it next turn.

I switched to 0% science and we’ll make a run for guilds. Currently at 100% science it will take 16 turns (Monarchy 2, Feudalism 6, Guilds 8). And it will take about that much to build the gold for it, so we’re looking at 32 turns. Even adding a couple of scientists didn’t change that. As cottages mature and cities grow, that may go down a couple of turns, but it’s still going to be a long haul, so let’s hope we last that long. Engineering would take 4 turns at max research.

Got some more Wellies, started building some more cats and macemen. Started building another settler for one more city location on our interior, and am also building another worker because we don’t have enough.

[The Black Sword]

Hey Grimace, your recent demos show you 6th in food, when I would have expected your empire to be in the top 5 at least, if not higher. Do you know why the food total is so low? I just thought it could be an indicator of something that you might be able to improve on.

[Grimace]

Hey Grimace, your recent demos show you 6th in food, when I would have expected your empire to be in the top 5 at least, if not higher. Do you know why the food total is so low? I just thought it could be an indicator of something that you might be able to improve on.

Most of our land tiles are cottaged rather than irrigated, plus most of our cities have a population of 4 or lower, so they're not working a lot of tiles. I can only imagine the other civs that are about my size must be focusing more on food (and perhaps a specialist economy) than we are.

[Grimace]

Turn 131
In world news:
Gavagai is eliminated by mackoti, who earned a great general from the battle. Confucianism spread in Gondar, one of mackoti’s cities (formerly Gavagai’s). Seven adopted Hereditary Rule and Organized Religion (he converted to Buddhism earlier).

In domestic news:
Our first two catapults have been produced, a Confucian temple was produced in Nyala (giving it a little production boost; next up Forge), and Hippo’s borders popped. This is a good thing, as it’s the central city on our southern border with haram. Antelope (the capital) finished producing a Market and started on the Statue of Zeus (5 turns). We finished mining the Iron near Quail, so we’ve got the metal and Quail got a significant shot in the arm production-wise.

Since there wasn’t anything worth taking a screenshot of in the map, I thought I’d get some of the stats screens.



Power-wise, we’re about even with Seven, but mackoti is still dominating, even after his conquest of Gavagai’s last city (guess he did it without losing too many units).



Demographics show when we’re running 100% science our GNP is crazy high, but I don’t know how many others may be running 100% right now, so the “Rival best” may not accurately reflect what someone else can put out if they try. It also shows our production is much higher than most other civs (which makes sense because we’re PRO and there are plenty of plains hills and mined resources). Working on getting that soldier count up.



And from the victory conditions screen we can see that mackoti has significantly more population and land than we do, and is currently the leader in both.

[Grimace]

Turn 132

In world news:
GermanJoey started a Golden Age, but it was a little late as haram captured two of his cities (and two that I don’t have visibility on).

In domestic news:
We finished researching Monarchy and are now on to Feudalism. We built several new units – 2 wellies, a cat, and an impi. Next turn we’ll get some more.

Noticed that mackoti’s power took a dive last turn…not sure what happened. He’s not at war with anyone, so maybe he disbanded some units? He’s #2 now, behind haram, whose power has really jumped. I would love to jump in and help out GermanJoey against haram, but I’m afraid if I don’t keep a powerful force on my border with mackoti, he may invade. Guess I just have to build fast. And get knights.

I thought about finishing my current War Elephant builds (2 turns) and then sending my one Ivory to GJ in order to help him out against haram…what do the lurkers think? Think it’ll help him, or do more good for me?

Is anyone still reading this, or am I all alone?

[Old Harry]

Heh - you're doing well enough that you don't need comments on every post! Unfortunately you're going to get most comments when you're getting mechanics wrong...

That said: graphs take a couple of turns to update. Could that be a dip from two turns ago?

Do you know what haram is attacking with? If you show him an elephant and a cat you may be able to discourage him from attacking (edit: you) without pissing him off. I presume he'll notice you gifting the resource, but offering it as a trade might not ring so many alarm bells.

Finally, have you given any thought to TBS' comment about food? How can you improve your crop yield? Can you settle any more cities?

[Grimace]

Turn 133

In world news:
GermanJoey got a great general during the battle where haram captured one of his cities. Someone else who had a great general called “Biggus Dickus” (damn Monty Python fans) lost that great general in battle. May have been haram, but I don’t know for sure. Someone else also got a great general.

In domestic news:
Haram offered us furs for 15gpt…I don’t think so. I declined. I’m charismatic with a lot of happiness resources…I’m good, thanks.

We produced our first Maceman (yay). Also got another worker, a trireme (which I’m using to sit on a chokepoint between two landmasses we have cities on), and a library, and we’re continuing to build more units.