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Turn 84
Some dubious moves by Donovan this turn - first his fully-fortified warrior runs to a hill where we get great odds on the fight.
- Chariot vs warrior - 95.6%... WIN! (4 hits  )
That gives us a look at the capital - two warriors aren't going to give our axes any trouble, but if the 1-whip he just did is for an archer things will get tricky. If he whipped for a spear or axe then he might be in trouble because a second chariot will pillage his (only?) copper mine this turn.
But first we get down to the business of the turn. The remaining warrior in Magrathea doesn't have any fortification so its an easy win for our axe:
- Axe vs warrior - 99%... WIN! (1 hit)
We get 48 gold, a granary and a lighthouse. In spite of the 6gpt hit the economy takes we keep the city - as Hitru pointed out in chat, we've taken huge risks to mount this attack, so we need to take even more risks to make sure we gain from this action. In the end I put two chariots on the hills and loaded all our other units back onto galleys.  There's a risk that Donovan can recapture the empty city if his capital whip was for a chariot or if there's a loaded galley 3NE of the city, but if we don't push on and take the capital then we'll lose all these units soon enough, so the earlier the better for the economy. 
In honour of Donovan\s naming scheme I Wrote:Stress and nervous tension are now serious social problems in all parts of the Galaxy, and it is in order that this situation should not be in any way exacerbated that the following facts will now be revealed in advance.
After the turn rolled I had a sneaky look at Earth and nothing had appeared, so the only risk is the amphibious attack from the north east.
Our other neighbour finally settled to cut us off from the rest of the continent. That gives us a trade route which I forgot to use to check on his stuff. I've been expecting this city for a while, it gives a decent enough border (once we pop borders at Free At Last) but it's better for Krill. I hope he doesn't decide to take advantage.
Demos and power. How badly must Gavagai's economy be crashed?
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
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Turn 85
I'm not sure what Donovan can have whipped in the capital last turn which failed to appear, since two axes have turned up. Perhaps they were built before we cut the copper? He also killed our injured chariot with a warrior and somewhere else in the world the first Great Scientist was born.
On inspection the capital has a madrassa, a granary and the Oracle. He 3-whipped it this turn, which could mean a spear, axe, trireme or (hopefully) walls dry-whip. It can't be an archer or chariot.
It took a while to decide what to do as the axes were a bit of a surprise. I think we want to threaten his other cities since the capital is going to prove a tough nut to crack. First we kill the warrior.
- Chariot vs injured warrior - 99%... Flawless win!
Then our chariot attacks the axe on the silk:
- Chariot vs Axe - 50% / 5% retreat... WIN!!!! (down to 0.8/4)
And we discover two more axes. 
We put a woody 1 axe on the silk to protect the injured chariot and leave two axes on one galley covered by the second galley in case it was a trireme that got whipped in Earth. We're hoping there's an empty city to the NW for us to hit amphibiously... At this point taking the capital is looking unlikely, so we'll just try to cripple him, and make as much money as we can so that we can come back later.
Demos and power. Rival worst power went down by 5000 when we killed the axe, so that must be Donovan.
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
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Turn 86
This turn we got lucky again - yeah we lost the decoy galley to a trireme, but it's down to 0.1/2 strength. And yeah we lost a chariot to an axe, but it killed a warrior and took the axe down to 0.8/5 as well. So we should be able to take out some more of his power here... But I'm sure there's a city up to the NW - that coastal (1/0/3) tile that's being worked - so how do we hit that as well as doing all this killing?
Well THH came up with the solution - move the galley 1W to check before using it on the trireme, then we unload an axe to threaten the city.
Ah, crap, another axe... Also the city isn't the glittering prize I hoped - Vogsphere was only settled 15 turns ago so won't yield much gold. His other city - Damogran would be a much more attractive prize. Donovan has a conundrum here. Reinforce Vogsphere with the axe and let us move to threaten the capital again or reinforce the cap and let us burn Vogsphere (no point keeping this one unless he's got ivory or something to the NW). Anyway, back to business:
- Galley vs injured trireme - 100%... WIN!!!!! (we take 1 hit somehow )
- 2.4/4 C1 Chariot vs 0.8/5 axe - 99%... FLAWLESS WIN!
The chariot can promote to shock and 3.2/4 health next turn and spend another couple of turns healing or pillaging. Then we'll be able to hit the cap on t89 with two chariots and three axes. Magrathea can whip another chariot to attack t90 if Donovan doesn't take the city back.
This is the situation at the end of the turn, we have more reinforcements on the way from the south and east. I'm wondering if it's time to start feeling positive about this attack? If that trireme had been a couple of axes or archers we'd be heading home, but it's possible that warriors and triremes are all Donovan can build and with only three cities maybe we can bring reinforcements faster than he can build them...
Demos and power. Losing the axe and trireme puts Donovan down to 56 000 soldiers. I think his techs come to 20 000 power (assuming no archery) and his visible units come to 25 000, with at least 3 000 for pop, perhaps 4 or 5, depending on how big Damogran is. That leaves 6 to 8 000 soldiers unaccounted for. An axe and warrior or a barracks and some population? Or two chariots? Or Archery. Who knows?
Oh, and we're about five turns from getting tech visibility on Krill.
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
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Turn 87
All quiet on the western front - a bit of pillaging, our reinforcements arrive, but no fighting. Donovan completed a 6-point tech this turn so he's probably putting hammers into archers this turn, which will get whipped next turn, then complete to face our planned assault on t89. If they do then we'll probably just pillage everything we can and retreat.
Krill on the other hand is either putting together a dastardly plot or planning to offer open borders when he gets Alphabet soon. TBH I'm not interested in OBs with Krill, we don't benefit nearly as much as with Cairo, Superdeath, etc. However we aren't guaranteed those and being able to watch for incoming stacks would be useful. I guess we just let him build his road.
Demos and power.
After the turn rolled the colossus got built. It was either Krill or Lewwyn, we'll check next turn.
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
January 7th, 2019, 16:05
(This post was last modified: January 7th, 2019, 16:06 by Aurorarcher.)
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Just curious, how did you know the empty galley is the top defender when you stacked your galleys? Does the game always pick the empty one if the other one has something on board? What if both had something? The one with less power on board acts as top defender?
Anyways, enjoying the read!
Posts: 8,786
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(January 7th, 2019, 16:05)Aurorarcher Wrote: Just curious, how did you know the empty galley is the top defender when you stacked your galleys? Does the game always pick the empty one if the other one has something on board? What if both had something? The one with less power on board acts as top defender?
Anyways, enjoying the read!
It was one of those things I'm pretty sure about, but have no idea why. Like when you point a chariot at a city with an axe and a warrior in and the warrior gets to defend even though the axe gets better odds.
I don't know what happens when one is already damaged or two boats have different units on, I just have a mental rule-of-thumb that empty boats defend first.
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
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Turn 88
Donovan produces a warrior and two double-whips. I guess that's dry-whipping archers? This turn we decide against moving to burn Vogsphere and instead move 2 axes to the cottage, one axe to the silk, heal the shock chariot another 5% and move the other chariot to the same tile.
Next turn if an archer turns up the chariots both move to the wheat to hopefully threaten Damogran. The axes pillage the cottage and road. With no archer then I guess we attack! 
Krill offered Open Borders this turn and we accepted for a massive return of +2 gpt. But it's more about the scouting possibilities. At least it'll take Krill a few turns to build the road he needs to get benefit back. 
Our eastern scouting workboat has been going backwards for the last ten turns. This turn he met Krill's workboat and found Superjm's borders. We'll make contact next turn, but probably won't be able to get past without declaring war. We're six turns from Alphabet - the capital will whip a library next turn and then we turn on tech on t90 - but there's no guarantee Superjm opens borders when we can offer it.
Demos and power. Lewwyn built the Colossus. Krill must have opened borders with Superjm without a return trade route? Krill and Donovan have met too, but I guess without a trade route they haven't opened borders.
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
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Turn 89
Donovan got chariots and killed one axe, the other won 95% and 85% battles to survive.
We're probably not making any more progress here.
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
January 10th, 2019, 05:50
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Turn 90
Superdeath offered open borders which I accepted. We already have our quota of enemies so let's make nice with the other food neighbours (the Great Lighthouse isn't all that you know). Superjm built the Pyramids to go with his Stonehenge and adopted Representation. I bet that Krill will point his pointy things this way in the next 30 turns or so... 
Our workboat looks to have reached the end of the line - do we just head back to reveal more islands near us or declare war and try to navigate round Superjm's north for the circumnav prize?
The expeditionary force is pretty much done for - Donovan's trireme got a flawless win against our galley so we have no way of evacuating now. It'll take 9 turns to heal the W1 axe, by which time I expect Donovan to have a couple more chariots to hit us with (I think he built one this turn). Vogsphere still only contains an axe and warrior, so next turn we could move to the plains hill and try to burn it. I'm going to try to lure other trireme (see sign) off to the NW with a galley so that we can get our own boats built before he comes to pillage all our nets, but he'll probably just head directly SW toward the capital.
The southern attack fleet is foiled by this peak. We can't get next to Damogran next turn (I think it's 2N of the hill, but there's a channel N of the hill so we can't land our units), so turning back and garrisoning the gold city may be our best move here. we can however use our northen expeditionary force to reveal Damgran next turn to help decide - either the W2 axe or Chariot should be able to see the city.
Demos.
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
January 10th, 2019, 08:24
(This post was last modified: January 10th, 2019, 08:28 by Ramkhamhaeng.)
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(January 7th, 2019, 16:05)Aurorarcher Wrote: Just curious, how did you know the empty galley is the top defender when you stacked your galleys? Does the game always pick the empty one if the other one has something on board? What if both had something? The one with less power on board acts as top defender?
Anyways, enjoying the read!
The selection of the defender respects picked up units. The defending value of such ships is multiplied by 0.25 during the selection.
The value of the loading isn't respected, I assume.
@Story: Nice to read the last pages, I like ancient naval operations in Civ4 Especially with Great Generals (+2 Ship movement and an unit which can be moved after the landing 'due the moral promotion'. I do not know if this trick is allowed in your PB games.).
I won't say thats the best usage for a General, but my preferred :D
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