Miguelito retreated to his capital so we did not get to slaughter his wounded units..
.. at least yet. His units still need a turn to travel before they can start healing, so we will assess the backstab risk next turn and potentially move in with our 2-movers and/or catapult stack.
We ended up valuing speed and went in with our 2-movers so that we could take advantage of Miguelito's wounded units:
GG Migu! We rolled nicely in the beginning, but got a bad stretch in the middle of the fight. Especially losing a knight at 94 %odds hurt. Overall 6 dead units instead of expected 5 was all okay and we managed to barely take the city in one turn.
Domestically this was also a big turn as we switched to OR, Mercantilism and Representation. After these captures our border is even more impossible to defend without having the biggest army so in the big picture we just keep producing units, try to consolidate these gains and then we can see if we can be offensive again..
(July 23rd, 2020, 03:16)Charriu Wrote: If you win this PB in the end, then only because you were so lucky.
Turns 144-150 / Turn 150 overview
We have a few quiet turns behind us. Healing units and waiting for Miguelito’s cities coming out of revolt, etc. The main event was finishing Engineering last turn, which is a really big tech for us.
So let’s provide some content in the form of a turn 150 overview of the empire and all cities.
We had 6 cities that can be consider as our natural territory.
Angel – I think our starting area is lacking in long-term quality vs some others, but our capital is the best one we have uncovered. The immediate thought on turn 0 was Bureaucracy and that was reached through an unconventional Civil Service Bulb. With Bank built last turn, our capital is one of the two stars of our economy (Merc-Rep specialists being the other)
Behemoth – Our only starting city that really had real foodhammer quality. It has been producing military non-stop all the game. Heroic Epic soon to be added.
Cerberi – Typically you want way more foodhammers for your 3rd city, but this city has been stíll doing work for us. Fish was a fast resource to connect in the early snowball and silver tiles helped maintaining a balanced research speed throughout the early days
Dragon Fly – Iron working brought here some quality, but in essence sharing food and growing cottages for the capital was the main job for the city.
Evil Eye – This city has reached the 3rd phase of its existence. Job 1: Provide trade routes for the empire. (My opinion is that many civs delayed Sailing / their first island city way too long.) Job 2: Provide our first great person. Job 3: Grow into Moai ship production station. We are not yet doing much with the ships, but we could be first to Privateers and take over the coasts if we want..
Iron Golem – Filler-ish city that grew couple of cottages for the capital and provides some hammer output
We captured 3 cities (F, G & L), settled H near a razed Elkad city and I guess M is located more on a no man’s land that Elkad’s. The misery of the war allowed Cornflakes to grab the jungle and make our border quite uncomfortable. Commodore’s recent artist bomb claims the area north of H and M, but that’s a smaller problem..
Familiar – Our second military station that gets now a bit stronger thanks to fresh Caste-Engineering workshops. Units all game long. Maybe a courthouse if we feel putting more emphasis on economy.
Gremlin – The development of Elkad’s former capital was delayed due to Elkad’s cultural and militaristic pressure. I think we can turn this into a minor commerce center if the game goes long.
Hobgoblin - Our second commerce-focused city
Leprechaun – Elkad’s copper city is our 3rd city focusing fully on military
Minotaur – Forever doomed to size 1!
Superdeath territory Naga, Ogre
Getting and maintaining the control of the Pyramids was/is of course big to us. We have tried to be non-threatening at the border so that the area would demilitarize and we would not have to keep so many units in the south, but unfortunately that’s not happening.. Of course, after taking Miguelito’s core cities, we have pretty much boxed Ruff in and made him into a natural enemy. I guess Ruff could expand by taking an island off Cairo, but otherwise we are on the way..
Naga - SD’s wonder city came with a settled great prophet
Ogre – This is a city we razed and resettled. Not yet sure where to go with this one..
Miguelito’s territory Pegasus, Roc, Satyr
Getting started here. As for the immediate worries, we should get the first ring culture of Hindu holy city for us, which helps, but in essence, only way to defend the area is to have lots of units around..
Pegasus – Quite a nice commerce city eventually
Roc – Some developed cottages around the city, but I think we will just turn the holy city of Hinduism into military pump..
Satyr – Due to Cairo’s cultural pressure, Miguelito’s capital is not too strong of a city for us. But given enough time it can contribute to the great Incan army..
Other stuff
Even with 0 % research, we have the highest GNP, most food, highest production (when Ruff is not enjoying golden age), biggest army and still room to go.. So I guess thanks to our own grinding and favorable macro events (Commodore-Cornflakes war, Miguelito-Cairo war) we are pretty clearly leading the pack. Engineering helps, but our biggest weakness remains our long and vulnerable border. We would be comfortable fighting any neighbor 1v1, but fighting off an attack from multiple directions could still be tough.
Our 2-mover army is of course flexible. It can be fast relocated to fight off an attack or capitalize on opportunities. Cornflakes has just moved into Commodore territory so let's see if we get a chance to do something.. Pile on Commodore? Backstab CF? Use the space to hit Ruff?
Cornflakes won a big fight against Commodore and now we are thinking about piling on.. I'll sleep on this and make the decisions in the morning. Should we go for a new war, I think it would be practical if Commodore would play the turn first and we would not create a 3-way split, but let's see what happens. Just wanted to type out that we are not trying to achieve any advantage by waiting.
(July 21st, 2020, 16:28)Fintourist Wrote: Miguelito and Cairo had a big fight last turn and they continued the fun this turn. Our sentries followed the action, and sorry Miguelito, this is just all too tempting..
Does that imply that you'd have let me live had I not gone to pursue Cairo's stack? If so, I still regret nothing .
Good luck with the game. Reading through that combat rolls was incredible, and I can only try to imagine your frustration. From my perspective ingame though, you never really left the pole position. And of course if you manage to win here, you can feel extra smug about it given what you had to go through
While I'm here, how do you get that prompt to type in screenshot name? Mine just get saved with generic names automatically.
(July 21st, 2020, 16:28)Fintourist Wrote: Miguelito and Cairo had a big fight last turn and they continued the fun this turn. Our sentries followed the action, and sorry Miguelito, this is just all too tempting..
Does that imply that you'd have let me live had I not gone to pursue Cairo's stack? If so, I still regret nothing .
We were still discussing that with OH and Hitru, but probably we would have moved in with the idea of taking the city with catapults. It was not clear-cut as we already have quite a long border and getting stuck in the middle of your culture has its risks. But I guess Cairo's attack left you thin enough that we felt like we have an opening regardless..
Quote:Good luck with the game. Reading through that combat rolls was incredible, and I can only try to imagine your frustration. From my perspective ingame though, you never really left the pole position. And of course if you manage to win here, you can feel extra smug about it given what you had to go through
Thanks! I have to say that sending those units to death one by one made me physically ill. Every 90+ % battle still feels like a certain loss..
Quote:While I'm here, how do you get that prompt to type in screenshot name? Mine just get saved with generic names automatically.
With my laptop I'll get it with SHIFT+Print Screen while Print Screen alone gives me automatic file names.
***
Btw, reading this thread, do not feel too criticized about the location of your 3rd city. It was just pretty to comment about. I think grabbing that city and trying to hold it is a decent risk-reward attempt when you play for the win.
Oh there's a lot to criticize about that plant, you're not the only one who did, and Commodore made a pretty substantial critique in game.
I'll just say that I had an incomplete picture art the time of founding, mix of bad play and maybe bad luck.
Speaking of that plant.. We decided not to be boring.
Let's see where and who Commodore wants to fight. And let's see if Ruff thinks of this as an opportunity to do something. Thanks to awesome Engineering movement speed it's hard to be super-worried..
This can very well be a mistake though as just staying out of the conflict and eating could have lead to further destructive fighting between Commodore and Cornflakes and even better opportunities for us.. But at least this approach should be more fun/interesting
Two 67 % battles later we (read I) decided again to be boring.
Hitru and OH were feeling more the aggressive option: Capturing the city and pushing further into Commodore's core. However, I was the most conservative one.. I'm pretty sure we could have pushed further and make it work, but there is value in letting Commodore (hopefully) spend all his resources fighting Cornflakes.. Meanwhile we have a decent chance of setting up a comfortable border here, which leaves again all options open:
Fight Ruff, who has emerged as the no.2 civ in terms of population (and clearly in soldier points)
Backstab Cornflakes if he is doing too well
Come back to Commodore or even Cairo for more land due to their low power.
But say your regards to the most controversial city of the game..
Of course, after taking Miguelito’s core cities, we have pretty much boxed Ruff in and made him into a natural enemy. I guess Ruff could expand by taking an island off Cairo, but otherwise we are on the way..
I'll sleep on this and make the decisions in the morning. Should we go for a new war, I think it would be practical if Commodore would play the turn first and we would not create a 3-way split, but let's see what happens. Just wanted to type out that we are not trying to achieve any advantage by waiting.
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Every 90+ % battle still feels like a certain loss..
