[Spoiler] Team slowwalk of the Reservoir Cats (Suleiman/Korea, slowcheetah + Catwalk)

[Catwalk]

Had a quick chat with Sian. He says he has no problems teaming up with me in PBEM33, and that he will agree to peace when OHP is his or burned down

[slowcheetah]

We better dial up Xenu then, and switch the capital back onto military, we need units. Damned worker steal :neenernee

[slowcheetah]

Turn 77

Previously on Suleiman of the Koreans:
-Slowwalk declared war on Sian and stole three of his workers.
-Sian was annoyed about this, and has threatened only to give peace when On Her Period, slowwalks Pyramids and soon MoM city is handed over to him.
-We told him he'd have to pry it from our cold dead fingers, and then Catwalk killed some of his units on T76 (a Scout and a Chariot I believe).

Now on Suleiman of The Koreans:
- Real-life has interrupted Catwalk's civ time, he now holds the position of DedLurker. An important task because we need to continue winning post count:neenernee
-This also means that there will be substantially less aggressive military action for the moment *Pause for lurkers to groan*, the reasoning behind this is:

1. Our economy is in no shape to mount an offensive anyway (+8gold at 0%)
   
2. An extended period of peace would have been ideal, in order to give us the chance to use Philo's powerful midgame
   
3. With Cats (soon) and triremes defending should be relatively easy. Attacking on the otherhand will be extremely difficult with units no stronger than 5. A lot of catapults would have to be built, which can't be supported by our economy.
   
4. Importantly, I don't think Sian will mount a serious offensive, it would blow his chances of winning due to using too many resources. As a result this war will probably be a 'cold' one from both sides.
   

The Actual Turn

Upon loading the save, the two locations which caught my eye were the tundra and around Too Much Civ.

In the tundra, I moved one spear back onto the forest SESE of OHP, three workers will be chopping that down next turn to speed MoM, and help secure OHP by removing defensive bonuses. Note MoM would have been finished next turn in the plan, however we didn't have marble from Xenu for the first turn.

Tundra

OHP

Also in the tundra, I used our recent worker influx to hook up horses, allowing our first chariot to be built in Headache.

Up near TMC, Sian's chariot took out our axe which had dismembered his scout on turn 76 (bad trade ). I moved a spear to protect our dyes worker, and also a warrior in case he had multiple chariots hidden in the fog.

Happily TMC's borders popped EOT, I am going to prep a spear for emergency whipping there in case Sian gets frisky.

Naval power
We popped a Trireme out of DD this turn, and I whipped JH for one this turn. We need some on the other side but it's going to take a little because none of our cities on that coast are very developed.

Weed of the day (entirely me)

I'm guessing they're allergic to corn.

[Catwalk]

Given that we have two triremes in the NW sea, I think we should use one to go harass Sian N of GMJ and have the other stay behind near our western coast. Will you be sending the chariot up to TMC as well? I think it's our most vulnerable spot at the moment, and probably a fairly high objective for Sian as it's blocking his expansion.

On a side note, I don't trust dazed. I tried to chat him up several times during the day about what information his warrior had from its current location (it could see Sian's chariot). He didn't get back to me, I suspect deliberately. If he had any interest in helping us, he likely would have forwarded this information to us on his own.

[slowcheetah]

I agree on the trireme placement. Chariot's going up to TMC, the two move and ability to get there faster was part of the reason I used three workers to hook horses last turn.

I can't see Dazed being willing to help us out, fighting between Sian and us is only helping him catch up (and he wasn't that far off in the first place).

[slowcheetah]

Turn 78

Code of laws completed, confucianism founded in Dirty Dishes. I was going to send the missionary to HA or OHP, but I think we will have time to produce missionaries for them before firing a golden age. So I will probably send him to one of our cultureless cities.

Sian brought a vulture to the tundra area, I pulled a spear back because he could one move it, and redirected our first chariot to OHP. We'll produce another one this turn which will head up to TMC.

TMC itself is still being threatened by Sian's chariot. I queued up a chariot for whipping there (cheapest troop at a site with 0 hammers). The townsfolk did have some good news though, both dyes and fish were hooked up this turn. Finally, they can dine on purple sushi.

Construction is being teched, for defense. I am going to offer Sian an NAP again once the tech comes in, hopefully he'll realise that all this war will do is slow us both down.

Everybody looks pretty close in the demo's although Dazed is up to 12 cities now (2 more than everybody else). Probably the big winner in this 'scuffle' between Sian and us

[slowcheetah]

Turns 79,80+81

A fair amount has happened in these three turns, but I haven't had much time to update.

Immediately upon opening the save we had two bits of good news. Firstly, the Mausoleum was completed in OHP. This makes it one of the highest producers of culture in the known world (which is important on turn 81). Secondly, a great engineer was born in OHP (a good turn for the girl, pity she was all grumpy and such). Mr Someone was used to bulb machinery, taking us to the medieval age, only twenty turns or so after Sian.

With the machinery bulb, archery and iron working research and a number of troops completing, the koreans shot to the number one power in the world on turn 81.

The research also means we will have access to crossbowmen by turn 83 when iron is mined. Iron has appeared out in our floodplains region (everyone has there own source). Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.


Anyway, these power rises were accompanied with a bit of fighting, there were a couple of skirmishes. The less successful one was up at TMC.

I attacked Sian's vulture with a chariot at 78% odds and lost, then cleaned up with a Spearman, which was the only other unit in range.

Unfortunately, this left my 2.4 health spear in range of his chariot, which polished him off . Overall, a bad trade for me, and it left TMC's defenses at an axe and a chariot, so I one pop whipped a spear in on turn 81.

Down near missing gifts things were going more successfully, Sian brought a mini stack of two vultures and a chariot.

I could have handled that defensively in either OHP or missing gifts anyway, but them pillaging my deer tile would have been annoying. Fortunately, OHP's fourth ring borders popped in between turns. This gave me control of the roaded deer tile which had previously been within Sian's borders. Allowing the two chariots within OHP to attack his stack. This put three chariots, two axes and two spears in range of his ministack.

Battle order

C1 Chariot vs C1 Chariot- 50% odds- Loss, I didnt even scratch him

Chariot vs C1 Chariot- 33% odds- Win (kind of makes up for the no damage 50:50)

Chariot vs Vulture- 76.5% odds- Win

Axe vs Vulture-27% odds- loss

Axe vs Vulture (1.68)-99% odds- Win

I realise I only had one 'certain' win in that string, but I had the safety net that if the chariots screwed up I could abort and both cities would still have enough units within to be safe.

This battle also produced my first great general, I think I'm going to use him for a Medic 3 chariot. However, I am open to other suggestions if anyone (coughCatwalkcough) has a better idea.

Diplomatically-

I signed an NAP with Dazed until his turn 110 (he gets first strike) for a worker, with a no sharing scouting info with Sian thrown in. He also now has open borders with Sian and has offered to trade scouting info for gold. I declined for the minute because I have no offensive plans for Sian in the next few turns, however this may change.

Dazed has definitely come out the best from this war, he got a free worker from us for security, and has leapt up to 13 cities (3 ahead of everyone else), plus he has the lowest power rating. The NAP could prove costly if he gets too far ahead, but I didn't want to fight a 2 on 1 at this point.

I'd really like to end the war with Sian, but I'm not sure exactly how. One idea is to get two galleys and some troops including crossbowmen and threaten to raze one of his core cities (which are presumably lightly defended). But that'll probably take another 10+ turns.

[slowcheetah]

Quick Diplomatic Update

Peace was signed with Sian, for twenty gold and a chariot. Admittedly, we currently have the higher power rating, and have actually been winning the fights.

But, the war wasn't going anywhere for either side and Dazed is getting further and further ahead. Coupled to the fact that I felt a bit bad for the NAP misunderstanding (not bad enough to give up a worker admittedly), and I don't want to pay the unit upkeep for the chariot anyway, the deal seemed fairly good.

We also agreed to an NAP expiring on turn 111 (we get first strike due to turn order). Worringly that's only one turn after our NAP with Dazed ends.

[Ceiliazul]

You gave a worker to Dazed for an NAP, and you gave a chariot to Sian for peace?

[slowcheetah]

Dazed got the better value because I was worried about (an admittedly farfetched) 2 vs 1. There had also been a potential NAP earlier in the game where we had offered and then retracted a worker ( I'm not sure exactly what happened there), and I could afford to lose a worker due to the worker steal.

The peacedeal with Sian was basically a white peace with some metagame 'I feel a bit bad' cash thrown in. I traded a chariot instead of some gold, because I don't need the unit anymore and getting rid of some upkeep costs will be helpful. The only reason anything was traded with Sian was due to the NAP mixup. We both needed white peace to attempt to catch up with dazed's city number again.