My name is Ozymandias, King of China: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Last turn, SAT had 120 power.

This turn, they have 119 power.

Wow, that means they lost hardly anything, and what they did lose was replaced by ~3 power from captured population and any units completed at EoT.

In short, SAT are extremely dangerous right now. They are going to focus on finishing off Sian, as Sian's capital culture is swamping SAT's conquests.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Chatting with Lewwyn, possibility that SAT have horse archers. Next turn, I can scout forward with a chariot and check out that forest hill. If yes, I have a spear out on T64, garrisoning Chlamys on T65.

In other words, dangerous. Let's hope I can get a save tomorrow.

If SAT's 40 power spike as from HAs, I'd estimate he'd have 5 of them. Enough to take Chlamys, doubtful he'll have enough to take TCR. And it would be a dumb idea because it would be ignoring the timing window of taking Loincloth.

[Commodore]

So what's the status of the Colossus plan?

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Completely within my imagination

[Nicolae Carpathia]

False alarm! No horse archers visible. In that case, how the hell did Sian lost his 40% defence city to a slow mover stack?

Another possibility: If SAT doesn't re-garrison Chiton, I'm going to raze it with a chariot. I expect him to move his Holkan onto the city tile. But if he doesn't... well, I've just 1-turned a spear from TCR, to deal with any retribution.

F5 screen, showing SAT's units in the area. Axes are badly injured, one of the chariots is C1 and at 2.9 strength. Nothing scary. Just need spears for the south-east. I originally didn't have any spears on my east because my neighbour didn't have horses. Now, my neighbour DOES have horses !

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Tank's about to attack.

How fortunate that I had already invested some hammers into a spear a few turns ago. They won't be wasted! The spear got whipped, I'll hammer and whip another spear in 2 turns. Next turn, I can use a road to reinforce my city with another spear.

3 spears is easily enough to handle this rabble.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Let's start by talking about the less scary stuff.

Sian didn't kill a chariot of mine last turn. For that, I scouted his capital. 2 archers, hence he's not attacking unless he's doing a ragequit or something. Sian'll pop out another one at end of his turn.

Another chariot scouted his south, near SAT's recent conquests. I'm surprised he's not moving out sooner, that city's pretty junk with the cultural borders pressing on. Axes get 20% odds on the archers, they're not getting better, and Sian's simply going to spam more of them

The upside for Sareln is not only does he have 6 pop that can be turned into axes, but the city managed to keep both a Granary AND a Forge. And it turns out forges still grant +25% hammers even without the Metal Casting tech.

Made a stupid scout move, ended up next to an archer . It's getting deleted. I'd have liked to get contact with Stick, but it's not particularly vital, and the scout is eating up maintenance anyway. I'm at my unit cap and am paying 7g already. Oh well, Delete!

Tank's moving in with an archer. Hmm, this could be even more dangerous than I originally planned, if I don't play it right. If Tank moves his archer onto the hill 7 of Lck, I will need 1-2 spears to knock the archer from being top defender. And if I don't severely damage that stack before it moves further inland from that hill, it get into my vulnerable interior.

So I just need to play it right, and that involves responding in force. If Tank moves onto the hill on T66, that way I can probably kill 3 of them with spears, and whip out a fourth spear at EoT. The survivors will remain inside the city with its defensive bonuses, and anyone not redlined will probably still have odds.

EoT, CD4 will finish another spear, can potentially move 2 south on T66. The axe remains in position this turn, so as to emergency stuff itself into Lck.

So what will TCR do? I'd like it to 2-whip out a Missionary next turn, so to get culture into RAG1. Alternatively, I whip out a spear this turn or next turn. If whipped this turn, it can move 2 west on T66, and into Lck on T67. If whipped next turn, I can get it into Lck on T68. When will I need it?

That's right, if the archer is allowed to march onto that hill on T68, then I will need to clear that stack asap before it can strike into my interior. Hence I may very well need it on T67. Fine, I'll delay the culture .

I can not lose this. More than just this empire, but my very reputation as a scary competent warmonger depends on this .

End of turn demos. Top of Food and Production. No longer 1st place in GNP.

...you know what's the fucked up thing? The only reason I was top of GNP for so long was because I had a long run at 0% science, and then suddenly shot up to binary research the moment I got my libraries up.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Tank's skirting around me towards the southeast. That's good, I'm less vulnerable there, gives me more time to whip.

I whipped another spear into Lck, and moved another out to play zone defence between Lck and TCR. Hence 3 spears in Lck during Tank's turn. I've run a decent number of sims, there is low chance that Tank can kill Lck with 5 HAs and 2 Chariots. If he brings the city down to a single redlined spear, I can reinforce with another 2 spears.

More likely is that Tank will move his 4x HA stack 11 of TCR. To pre-empt that, I used 2 workers that were previously quarrying my stone to road the tile 1 of TCR, allowing me to strike outwards and kill 2 HAs. If I get that opportunity, I can reinforce with 1 spear, and potentially chop out a second spear during my T67 (though I'd rather build a missionary).

Between the delayed Stone from the invasion, and the hammers diverted to a spear, the Hanging Gardens has been revised back to T70. That's like the second time a wonder which I want is delayed by military action. But this time, it's bad, SAT's settled a ton of cities, and he's had Iron Working for a while. Does have have Masonry to connect the stone? I don't know. He'll want it and Maths for Construction anyway.

But his GNP sucks, while I put beakers into Polytheism and Monotheism, I don't know if SAT's had enough spare beakers for Maths and Masonry before I finished IW.

In any case, the HG plan is to put turns into a settler on T67, whip on T68, whip Aqueduct on T69, chop the tile under the next settler on T70, completing the HG in a single turn. A little inefficient because I lose hammers from the settler as it passes through the aqueduct, and my city goes down to Size 5, but a few turns of max food should get it back to speed. And my satellite cities can keep growing the cottags.

However, the last thing I want is lose the HG after racking up that much overflow, I won't even get any failgold out of it! Hence, I'll send my chariot through SAT's land towards Stick. In fact, next turn, I'll ask Stick for open borders, to scout out Tank's west. By co-incidence, I will spot SAT's stone on T68-T69, letting me make a decision

[Nicolae Carpathia]

A pictureless update (boo, hiss).

Last turn, Tank didn't move onto the expected tile, he only moved onto the pigs. For that I killed two HAs with 2 spears, both were redlined and I didn't bother covering them because I lacked units to protect both that tile and my city.

I also moved a spear onto that hill 7 of Lck, to block the archer from moving onto it and running into my core. Maybe I should have 2-pop whipped another spear and covered my redlined 2 spears with a fresh one.

In any case, this turn, one of the pig HAs moved inland towards TCR, and I killed it with a HA. Tank killed my 2 redlined spears with a HA and a chariot, and I killed them with an axe and a chariot. The current tally is 4HA and a chariot killed vs 2 spears lost (assuming Tank takes peace). Right now, I have 2 spears facing off against 2HAs and 1 chariot. Easy.

My reasons for delaying peace until I'd killed more of Tank's units was partly a matter of honour: I can't allow people to hurt me without making them bleed for it. I'm trying to maintain my reputation of death and bloodshed, I want to scare people . The Great General that got born

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Doh, I just realised something, I could have revealed if SAT knows Iron Working by defogging SAT's Iron tile.

But alas, I moved my chariot past it during this turn, and I won't be revealing it next turn either. SAT still hasn't started improved his jungled pigs, even though he's had a safe front for a half dozen turns, and and sunk lots of turns into extraneous roads and cottages. Oh well, next turn I'll reveal the status of SAT's Stone tile.

In any case, on T68, Subtraction had 16h, and Addition had 19h. Empty boxes on T67. Whip overflow?