[SPOILERS] Bacchus and India's many gods

[Bacchus]

Apparently some progress-linked costs are now updated automatically in queue -- researching Divine Right delayed the completion of the harbor project by a turn (2 cogs!). Otherwise all on track: adopt Monarchy and start making a ton of envoy points, get some amenity problems. My bad -- will also adopt retainers next turn. All amenity problems will end in three turns in any case, when my trade Dela's with Rowain expire. I will report him some luxes, but fewer than currently.

Rowain has a horse flanking Ichabod's lands, glad to see signs of some action.

Six more chops to fall, yielding some 400 faith -- it's all extra, actually, so will be happily sunk into the admiral. The bottleneck remains cartography, but the settler required for the second harbor will depart very soon.

I am also considering brute forcing five knights in a frontal attack, but probably won't.

[Bacchus]

109 -- the harbor project produced a crapton of points, over 30, so I can patron the admiral for just 240 faith, which I do. Ichabod will probably be pretty angry, his path to Enlightenment has just gotten pretty difficult.

Military Training arrives, I adopt retainers to solve amenity problems. The envoy from the civic goes to Preslav, earning me suzerainty and a useful bit of the map:



There is that Royal Navy Dockyard, which just had a large bit of its usefulness snatched away. Preslav has a crossbow -- nice. That city is a bit of a nightmare to attack, so I don't think Ichabod will, and I'm hoping it will produce some more units whilst at war. Also denies Ichabod extra cogs in camps, which is never a bad thing. I consider bringing my sentry Varu down to make taking this city even more difficult, but then looking at foreign military scores I note that both America and England have rebuilt their armies to >300 points. Rowain still has that flanking horse in place, so I'm sure that he plans further offensive action, as indeed he must -- he is behind in both science and culture. I am of course horribly behind in science (Ichabod is making 55), but I am also comfortably leading in culture.

Testing shows that upgrading chariots to knights under professional army costs only 90 gold. That frees up a large chunk of my treasury, so I buy a battering ram. Four knights armed with it will take Brussels, which has built a hilarious amount of units:



I purchase my first Apostle, might as well start getting them seaside. I also plan on building the Mahabodhi, even though I no longer have access to Corvee.

[Bacchus]

Frankly, I think I may win this, even if that would be mostly down to morale.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

What do you see as your most likely path to victory? The religious sneak attack from the rear? Or do you think that a straightforward military victory is viable?

[Bacchus]

By now it will have to be religion one way or the other -- because I haven't founded cities, I don't think I would be able to convert a space advantage into victory whatever I do. I think I could military take and hold everything up-to Lay Lady Lay, not even so much through force of arms as through favourable geography, my position is ridiculously easy to defend. Consider Bobrka: there is a one-tile chokepoint there, which I would not be holding. Instead, I have two units occupying the only two tiles it's possible to move onto from that chokepoint. Let's say he puts a unit there, it gets shot by the city and some archers. It then has to attack across a river into a hill, so even if it has an era's advantage, it will be looking to deal 30 damage against the defender. On my turn, I just phase out that defender for a fresh one. Ranged units make that a little more difficult, but not much.

If the above assessment is right, I would have space for over a dozen cities, not even counting iceballs. Problem is, I hardly have tools to make use of that. I'm actually going to start cranking out some settlers now, but I don't think I would catch up before Ichabod reaches Field Cannons/Cavalry, which make any offensive action impossible until at least Tanks, which is miles away.

I could invest into a massive Knight army right now, but then -- why would I take cities, spending massive amounts of HP, and having to bring battering rams/siege towers, if I can just accompany knights with Apostles and move at 4 speed?

[Bacchus]

Settler leaves to plant the fishing village for the second harbor. My district discount situation is that everythng that I have less than two copies of will be discounted, so it will only take 1.5 forests to build the second harbor. I have 2 campuses, 2 holy sites, 2 commercial hubs, 1 theatre (another placed), 1 encampment, 2 industrial zones (placed), 1 harbor. The districts I can build also include entertainment complexes and aqueducts which don't count. 9 districts is a crucial point at which everything up to 2 gets discounted, then at 17 everything up to 3 gets discounted. 17 is a tall order though with just 5 cities.

First Apostle arrives with the Chaplain promotion, which will greatly increase my staying power, not a bad catch. The other option was debater.

I use the admiral and the admiral-turned-quadrireme to explore some of my coast:



I can actually make some headway even before Cartography. So crabs.

You can see the purchased ram, which I will use to take Brussels. Couple of chariots complete just before Mercenaries, I will complete Stirrups together with Mercenaries, adopt and upgrade. I will have five chariots available to upgrade, and gold enough (450) to do the upgrades, but I'm not sure I want to take on 10 gold in maintenance. But I probably will -- why send fewer knights when you can send more, amirite?

[Bacchus]

Seems like Rowain is maneuvering to resume his attack on Ichabod as soon as the peace runs out, which I can only applaud. I have a forward Varu, which I push forward towards England to suggest to Rowain that I'm ready to participate with at least this one unit.

Stirrups and Mercenaries come in next turn. Brussels has a ton of troops in awkward positions, so I might actually not stop to take it, but proceed to the sea directly.

No-one has researched a Renaissance tech yet, so at least Ichabod doesn't have Muskets. Not that I'm worried -- they are useless offensively due to lack of speed, and defensively he won't have enough to be a nuisance.

Second apostle has very unforunate promos -- Heathen Conversion and Create a Relic Upon Dying in Theological Comat. I keep them in place -- who knows, I may run into some barbs worth converting.

[Bacchus]

I just played Turn 112 btw.

[Bacchus]

Turn 114. Oh this is fun. Ichabod gained a late Renaissance technology. The options are Astronomy and Siege Tactics, and I'm pretty sure it's the latter. Much like we did with Archduke in PBEM2, it seems he saw that military science is really a very closely achievable tech, and I think he is beelining it. It means he nailed both Castles and Siege Tactics without Eurekas, and will do the same with MilScience. Not sure that halving your science rate is a smart thing to do, but in his case in just about puts him on parity with me :D As I mentioned somewhere above, Ichabod is also making gold like crazy, probably with citizens in markets. Fits the upgrade path.

In the meantime, my apostles are testing the waters, the first ones are now embarked. I also planted Mumbai, which appropriately is a port, and will complete its harbor the turn after next, yielding me cartography. Pretty intense, Cavalry will be annoying to deal with, but all will depend on where exactly it is deployed. Fun!

Rowain's scouting is fucking about and making conquest of Brussels a little difficult. Still, it seems I have time, as my third apostle only just popped.

[Bacchus]

Take a quick stab at Brussels:



My military strength after the round of upgrades has jumped to 460 and now is by some way the largest in the world, Ichabod is at 400. Everyone will be wondering where that strength is going of course, so I think taking Brussels is important, even if it results in a delay of a couple of turns. The city itself will fall the very next turn as you can see, healing will take a little longer, albeit I will try to make use of farms. Brussels has an IZ with a Workshop and a pretty good adjacency bonus. I am not stopping to pillage quarries for culture, because I'm not exactly lacking it.

Harbor gets chopped next turn, so I get Cartography the turn after. Timing not quite ideal, but pretty good.