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

[Grimace]

If you research Education to 99% and save up some cash you could then:
Turn 1 - research Education at 100% for almost a full turn's overflow
Turn 2 - research Archery at 100% for another nearly full turn of overflow
Turn 3 - decide if you put three turn's worth of research into Liberalism

You could even part-research some other cheap techs or Philosophy to get you more turns of safety. I was imagining that you'd use a Great Scientist generated in your GA to bulb part of Education, so you might need Philo, but I dunno what timings would work for you...

Ah, ok. That's a good technique to know. It's heavily going to depend on what kind of GP we get. Prophet is most likely, but there's still a good chance of a scientist or engineer, with a small chance of an artist.

It sounds like a bank in the shrine city is worth 20gpt + whatever your breakeven tech rate gives you /2. That's pretty good, but it would mean you aren't going to compete for Liberalism. With a GA due in 15 turns or less going for Liberalism might just work... The presence of Mack and Seven in the game makes it less likely, but that's a good way of never trying anything.

You know what, I might as well give it a try. mackoti was researching Alphabet, so he's definitely not beelining Liberalism. Seven is at war, so his focus may be different. And even if I don't make it the techs I pick up are not useless. If I get a prophet or an artist (or even an engineer) I can burn them for a GA and swap civics as needed to help along this process.

[Grimace]

Turn 149

Two great people were born into the world this turn -- a GE and a GS. Not sure who got them.

We went to 100% research on Philosophy and will finish it in 3 turns. We move some more reinforcements forward, and now have a nice stack starting to pound on haram's door. He's reinforced, but unless things are drastically different in MP compared to the AI, usually attacking a city is more favorable than defending it if the attacker has siege weapons. If I were him I would consider pulling all but a token force out, letting me capture it, then try to retake it. It would suffer some loss of improvements, but he'd be more likely to do more damage to me. What's normally the technique in those cases?

I believe I have enough of a stack to take Tabriz, so I think I will send my next set of reinforcements against Otrar. It only has 2 units in it at the moment -- a longbow and a mace. I should be able to take it with a few knights, especially if I have a couple of flanking-promoted ones.

Other than that, not too much happened this turn. Here's the domestic advisor:



As you can see, mostly units being produced by my more productive cities. I'm building 2 units then a piece of infrastructure in the smaller, newer cities, so they don't stagnate too badly. In the bigger cities, almost exclusively units with an occasional building.

Though I was pondering building a wonder in our capital. The Hagia Sophia is available (mainly for GE points...the extra worker speed won't help us much since our land is mostly developed). So is Notre Dame, the Temple of Artemis, the Shwadagan Paya, and Chichen Itza. HS would take 9 turns and give us +2 GE points. ND would take 10 turns, but +2 happy for every city. ToA would take 7 turns and give us some GM points, a trade route boost in our capital, and a free priest. SP and CI don't appeal to me much...both give GP points and don't seem to be worth the effort for us at this time. Thoughts? Should I just stick with units and infrastructure and leave the wonders alone? We have both Stone and Marble, and we're Productive, so it's so hard! If we were Industrious it would be basically an obligation!

[Old Harry]

Extra happy from Notre Dame might be useful later in the game if you get into a drawn-out war. Chichen Itza might not seem like it does anything, but there is a deterrent going on there. Has your cap got all the infra you need yet?

[Grimace]

Extra happy from Notre Dame might be useful later in the game if you get into a drawn-out war. Chichen Itza might not seem like it does anything, but there is a deterrent going on there. Has your cap got all the infra you need yet?

Yep. There are no buildings we need that we don't already have in our capital. I did, however, decide to continue building units, and I'll explain in the next turn post.

[Grimace]

Turn 150

As a very surprising surprise, haram managed to push out Guilds amazingly fast. He went from having 6 turns remaining on T147 to 1 turn remaining on T148. I can only assume he got a great person (I think Guilds is bulbed by a GM?) because I can't imagine how he got that many beakers otherwise. Even at 100% research it took me 3 turns and I think I've got more than him.

Anyway, it looks like he whipped out 6 knights last turn (he plays in the second half of the turn), and he has a stack of 10 keshiks heading for Tabriz. I did some quick calculations, but without my cats (and I used them turn burn down his defense from 40% to 10%) I can't possibly take the city before his keshiks reinforce. Looking back, I probably should have attacked instead of bombarding, but in that case even if I had succeeded he may have been able to hurt me badly when his new units arrived.

The only good news is that he has no way to get reinforcements to those other two cities as long as my units are there. So I may alter my plans and just leave a strong enough force to hold him in Tabriz and take the other cities (which should only take a small portion of the stack). As a result of this, I also changed plans and decided to just build units everywhere that doesn't need something else more important.

It's really a shame that we can't do any kind of actual diplo in this game...if I could talk to GJ, we could coordinate to really mess him up. Unfortunately, all I can do is hope he pushes as hard as he can while I draw pressure away.

mackoti is now researching Education, so I think we have no real chance at Liberalism. That being the case, what should our next research target be? I'm thinking finishing Philo->Paper->Printing Press (for the massive commerce boost), or Philo->Banking->Paper->Printing Press.

[Caledorn]

On a bright note, no diplo mean you don't have to worry about being ganged up on either, so it means that your skill is far more relevant

[Grimace]

Turn 151

Lot of stuff going on in the world this turn. Mackoti kicked off a Golden Age, so one of those great people the previous turn must have been his. He immediately converted to Confucianism, and switched civics to Bur/Caste/Pac, so it does not look like he has war-like intentions in the near future, at least as long as his GA lasts. Seven popped a great scientist.

Haram offered 250 gold for peace, but I declined. I’m damn well going to capture SOMETHING before I take peace.

Mackoti offered a world map trade, and I accepted, which gave us visibility on almost the entire world now.

Wetbandit declared war on Donovan Zoi and captured two cities; DZ is still at war with Gawdzak as well.

Haram moved some of his units out of the city and has his stack of Keshiks camped 2 squares from Tabriz. I would guess he’s ready to recapture should I capture it. But I didn’t do this thinking it would all be easy, so what the hay. Let the battle begin!

I used one more cat to bombard the defenses of Trabriz to 6%, and then started attacking. The first catapult I gave a Barrage promotion. He lost, but did damage to all of the units there:



The second cat I gave a city raider I promotion. He lost, did not damage the primary defending longbow, but did collateral damage:



The third cat I gave a city raider I promotion. He lost, but damaged the primary longbow and collateral damage:



At this point, I figured I would use a knight to take out the most powerful mace then finish the rest off. My goal is actually to capture the city with a knight so I can withdraw him after capturing to allow haram to take it back if he wants without losing a unit. I’ll have too few units with move left to successfully defend it from his mass-o-keshiks, so I won’t even try.

C1 Knight vs damaged mace, 88.2% odds: LOSS, no damage to defender (#$&* you RNG ).
At this point I decide to sacrifice another cat, which loses (at ~47% odds) but succeeds in damaging the maceman.
C2 Knight vs damaged mace, 99% odds: WIN, knight at 8.4/10.
C1 Knight vs damaged longbow, 97.9% odds: WIN, knight at 4.9/10.
C1 War Elephant vs. damaged longbow, 93.9% odds: WIN, no damage to attacker.
C1 War Elephant vs. damaged longbow, 95.1% odds: WIN, no damage to attacker.
C1 Knight vs. damaged spear, 98.9% odds: WIN, knight at 8.4/10.
C1 Knight vs. damaged axe, 99.9% odds: WIN, no damage to attacker, city captured.
The only building left in the city is the wharf. I pulled the knight back to the stack on the hill, and will wait to see what haram does next turn. If he doesn’t recapture the city, I’ll move my full stack in and try to hold it. If he does, I’ll kill whatever units he puts in it.

In the meantime I have a second (smaller) stack ready to start moving towards Otrar next turn. It’s both and bad the terrain here is so hilly. Using 2-movers wouldn’t have given me any benefit over 1-movers for this assault because there are two hills between flat land and Tabriz, but that allowed me to make use of my cats.

[Grimace]

Turn 152

Not too much happened in the world, but when I logged in I got this:



Not sure what he's doing here except just asking for money. He's fairly powerful, but we don't share a border. I declined.

Donovan Zoi got a great prophet, so we may see him pop a golden age. haram took Tabriz back and left a single longbow in it. I used a C2 knight at 95.9% odds to destroy the longbow and take the city back, then backed out of it again. I'm just going to hold here with this stack and send my reinforcements to capture the two back cities. Then once I have those I can move overwhelming force forward and take and hold it.

Heck, and this rate of exchange Tabriz may end up getting razed. It's down to pop 4 right now...I'd prefer not to raze it because it's in a pretty good strategic position, but we'll see what happens. I'd rather raze it than let him keep it.

[Grimace]

Turn 153

Donovan Zoi, unsurprisingly, kicked off a GA this turn. But he also lost another city.

I noticed that haram moved his stack of 10 Keshiks a ways away from Tabriz, so I decided to take a risk and capture and try to hold the city this turn. They can get back, but it'll take 2 turns and I'll be able to see them coming. I'm also hoping I can upgrade my Impi to a pike this next turn since the city is now mine.

Something weird caught my eye, though...any idea why haram would have a worker build a fort on this little one-square island with silk on it? I believe he has calendar..does a fort give you access to the resource under it?

[Old Harry]

Has he got catapults that can hit Tabriz? And have the Keshiks moved off to threaten another city? Overview shot please!

Yes, forts hook up resources - perhaps he's nearing Calendar but needs the happy as soon as he gets the tech, rather than waiting for the plantation to be built? You can do the same thing for Oil at Combustion... Can you interfere with his plans?