(Oh, and accordingly, I think keeping Strategos was definitely the correct move. I really don't want Aztec to have a Great General on hand at just about the point they will start looking around for tasty player Civs to attack!)
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[Spoilers] rho21 follows the works of Homer... D'OH!
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Forgot to mention last turn that the Aztecs were not at war with Valletta, so that damage didn't come from them.
C3 has just that one good tile in the first ring, everything else is 2  1 grassland forest / stone. There's not all that much to get excited about in the second ring either except the lovely campus site.C5 by comparison has a pair of 2 2 tiles to start with, and a grassland cattle in the second ring.Anyway, Turn 50 Score tracking Egypt gained a population. The Aztec military jumped in power again, this time by 37. Perhaps another eagle warrior and an archer upgrade (the strength for those shows up two turns after the upgrade, for whatever reason). Tough to say. Their gold has also jumped up, so I assume they cleared a barbarian camp. Lastly, their gold per turn has gone up by another 2! Eastern Theatre A Kongolese scout shows up north of Euclid, near crater lake. I continued with my plan to buy and immediately mine the iron tile. It just makes Euclid so much better as soon as it grows a fourth population. Western Theatre All the news from the west on turn 50 is unwelcome. Valletta did indeed kill my warrior, using a newly-created archer. Aztec declared war on Valletta, presumably to gain builders but it's possible they have an attack force. Kongo's settler moved NW. I can probably retreat the injured warrior that was trying to make it to a farm to pillage. It's guaranteed if I leave the archer behind for a turn, but I don't really want to do that. Would be much superior for Valletta to attack the Eagle warrior than my archer. And I'd need to shoot the warrior, which would just leave it vulnerable to capture. My guess is that Kongo's settler is going to the forest NE of C6, but it's possible it's aiming for the swamp 2NE, which would conflict with C3. Well, I definitely want to settle C3 at some point, so it should probably be now. Thankfully I can block the conflicting city site. Moving my archer to the swamp will sandbag all the likely locations around here just long enough for my settler to found at C3. Assuming Kongo don't just declare war and kill my archer, anyway. They have a second archer in range so could do so, but they're a fair bit weaker in overall military strength so probably won't. Housekeeping Now researching iron working. At the end of the turn I heard the sound of a new barbarian camp being founded. Round-number roundup™ Civ Comparison
Not great reading compared to last time. Aztec is exploding into the lead, Egypt has caught back up to the pack, Kongo and Greece have been pretty stagnant. Now I know why this is, in the lull between the second city being founded and other settler appearing, but it's still concerning. Having to beat an ignominious retreat from Valletta has put a serious dent in my expansion plans. I need to make a more co-ordinated assault in 10 turns or so, assuming that's still an option. Great People Hannibal (60): Greece 26 +2/turn, Aztec 7 +1/turn John the Baptist (60): Egypt 3 +1/turn Aryabhata (60): Greece 14 +1/turn, Kongo 10 +1/turn Research and boosts
Not much changed since last time. In 3 or 4 turns I'll be able to start a run of finishing 4 techs in as many turns then get going on Apprenticeship.
Progress is being made, but it's concerningly slow compared to my rivals.
Turn 51
Quiet turn, this one. Score tracking Aztec and Egypt both gained a tech. Eastern Theatre The new barbarian camp is on the coast near C10 (NE of Yerevan). Should be able to swing that way on the way to attacking the city state. Western Theatre Phew, Kongo didn't attack. Not that I'm hugely surprised, just grateful. Their settler moved west onto the forest. C3 is mine next turn. My warriors are retreating to heal, my northern archer is moving to have a peek at the barbarian camp in case there's a chance of clearing it. Wondering whether there's time to slot in an extra warrior at Pythagoras after the trader is done, to replace the lost one. Not that I'm likely to have the money for sword upgrades particularly soon.
Turn 52
Score tracking Aztec finished a ninth tech and has incense connected. That's the lead on completed techs, but it'll only last a few turns. I'm still a few  /turn ahead, incidentally. Aztec's  and income are both falling rapidly, suggesting some upgrades. Quite probably to swords.Egypt produced a settler. Eastern Theatre The first hoplite is complete at Euclid. It wanders off east with the newly-healed warrior to see if they can shut down that barbarian camp before it causes trouble. Western Theatre Kongo has founded Gehaktbal on the forest, as expected. I respond by founding Hippocrates on the C3 spot. Hippocrates starts on an archer because I'm unsure what to build there, and this way the production will have a 50% boost for now. I'm considering a granary, as it has no 3 tiles except a second ring swamp which it won't grab for ages.Housekeeping It occurs to me that I can chop through a unit in Pythagoras to get extra production into the wonder. Accordingly, the builder from Euclid has headed that way, with slinger escort as the Kongolese scout is still poking around. A question for next turn is which trade route to run. Using Pythagoras as the destination would give an extra because of the campus, but I can see advantages for pretty much any internal route.
It's certainly high on my list. The problem with Hippocrates is that it doesn't really have any good tiles to grow onto: mostly they are 2
1 and can't quickly be improved from that. It will grow quickly though, which is an advantage.Not that the other two cities gain more from growth either: they are both about to grow to size 4 and work nice tiles, then have nothing else until after some border expansions. Of course I'll want to throw down some farms at some point to grow one of them to size 10 for the Civil Service boost, if that can be done in time. The main questions are where the production would be most useful, and which road would be most convenient. Production somewhere I'm (potentially) competing for a wonder is always an advantage. Roads:
Anyway, the new turn just arrived, time to boot that up.
Turn 53
Score tracking Kongo finished a seventh tech and grew a population. Their second city is now size 4. Aztec finished Political Philosophy and has adopted Oligarchy (+4 strength for melee units). They also finished a second encampment and their power is through the roof. I'm convinced they are indeed upgrading eagles into swords.  If they can roll over the Egyptians before the rest of us can complete our early expansion, that will be an immediate game over. Thank goodness they won't have a general to add to that. Hopefully. I am still well ahead in the race to claim Hannibal, just over halfway there.Western Theatre The spearman from the NW camp charged towards my probing archer. I don't really want the archer to be taking much damage, so I moved it out of range. Housekeeping The trader is relocated to Hippocrates. I think Hippocrates -> Pythagoras gives me the most immediate benefit. Pythagoras starts on an archer, as that works out best for overflow from the forest chop. I'll be able to transfer the archer to the eastern theatre for the attack on Yerevan.
Turn 54
Score tracking Kongo gained a tech. My swordsman assumptions may be wrong, as the tech screen claims the Aztecs haven't advanced past ancient tech yet. Not sure what else it could be though. Eastern Theatre Barbarian camp in sight; no units about except the default spearman. Western Theatre Not too much to report. I'm thinking of transferring one warrior over from the eastern theatre in exchange for the archer. One more unit to heal up, then I can think about resuming the attack on Valletta. Housekeeping Trade route established (it's taking the western route and I have a warrior escorting it for now), which means the run of single-turn techs begins next turn. Lined up are:
Shame I can't do more than one a turn, really. At 16.3 /turn I'm going to have about 50 overflow after all that.After that lot it's on to Apprenticeship, which costs 150 once it's boosted in a couple of turns.A view of the barbarian clearance party:
Turn 55
Score tracking The end is nigh. It appears the Aztecs have taken Egypt's second city, leaving them with just their capital. Less importantly, Kongo gained a tech and a bit of military strength. So, I need to choose the best response to this. I see four options:
Not much else happened during the turn except placing the commercial district at Euclid. It will cost 117 to build.
Unless you win hard, which currently I doubt, attacking Kongo seems much worse than hoping they are also capable of seeing that working together against the threat is better than an attritional war.
Throwing west is what I was hoping for earlier, with more time to prepare, but after even Valletta didn't go well, and with much of your forces currently attacking that camp in the east, it seems implausible right now. Concession seems distinctly premature, even though I agree that the situation is grim. So I vote for option 2! One thing's for sure, though - reading the Aztecs' thread after the game is over is going to be interesting! I want to know just how pushed this military really is, and what it came at the expense of. How much does it have to be the Aztecs that do it, for instance? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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