Depraved Danish Debauchery - Catwalk cooking up a storm [SPOILERS]

[Ceiliazul]

t116

Well, can't say AT ain't paying attention: His 2 cities nearest me are featuring a pike and a spearman each.

2 knights finished last turn, 3 more this turn. I'm 2nd in soldier count!

Sailing done, Calendar comes in this turn with some wealth from Achilles. 4 workers are ready to improve the sugar near Achilles, at which point it will run 2 scientists for my education run.

[Ceiliazul]

t120

First I saw this:




Then I saw this:



Wonderful timing, that. My fast workers roaded the forest and that odd Cover Axe attacked the pike at 79% odds. Axe and 3 workers were deleted before ending turn. Note that Stick is at the bottom of the scoreboard, and his power is thru the rough. I suspect heavy whipping, but don't know why.



The workers on the forest were covered by a mace and a longbow. Hopefully I don't find out what Stick's been whipping in the interturn! Assuming my workers and cover units survive, that evens the hammer trade for the city Stick killed... or I killed, depending how you look at it.

[Commodore]

I called them "cheat workers" for a reason. Best military UU in the game.

[Ceiliazul]

Hey, I think Stick isn't going to feed bad about those workers after this turn. Report coming soon.

Teaser:

[Qgqqqqq]

Muhahaha.
Razed?

[Ceiliazul]

Well as the teaser showed, The score leader is showing some seriously lacking defenses in their top two cities. Lava's defense is simply not sufficient. He knows I have knights right?

In the teaser shot, there's a little stub of road on the forest hill in my culture. I built this long ago (before guilds) under cover of an axe. Even fast workers can't road a forest-hill in 1t, so that had to be done in advance. A bare hill though?



Uh oh. Odds against the top defender?



I can afford to lose 2 knights here, and once the spear is cleared the axe should be ~70% odds. I used the combat calculator to figure I have about 80% odds to win this battle. Since AT is in his golden age, I doubt the city will be defenseless for long.

Battle Log:



I won! Now I have 4 knights to win 2 favorable battles. This should be a romp:

C2 knight v c2 spear: 32.2% - WIN! (4.0 health, 13/10 XP)
C2 knight V noob axe: 70.3% - WIN! (4.6 health, 8/10 XP)
c2 knight v CG3 warrior: 99% - WOWOW WIN! (who cares!)

The city looks like this, but of course I must raze it.



AT has a huge stack perfectly across the lake from my attacking knights. he's god enough bodies there to drown half for a human bridge and march the others to kill my knights. I'm sure he would if he could!

The aftermath of the battle, AT has 4 war chariots, 1 catapult and 1 crossbow within range of my units. (There could be more in the fog to the North, but I doubt it. If so, oh well.) The huge stack has ~10 maces, ~15 siege, and a smattering of xbows and pikes.

I think, based on the units spread about here, that I can keep my knights! I have 3 on the former Lava square, and I've covered my retreat. Thanks to the receding Egyptian borders, ALL of these units can be safely behind the mountain wall next turn, and can garrison Achilles if needed.



Whew!

To make matters worse, AT's Palace moved to 'Muscle' which is his Heroic Epic city. Bureau and HE have anti-synergy here on quick speed, and I feel bad for AT. He really should have won at LEAST one of those battles.

So demos:





JIVE! JIVE! JIVE!

I set research to Alphabet both to clear the way for an education bulb and to get visibility on research. The others are SO far ahead that I need to figure out what I'm dealing with here. I'm making strides in the demos, but it won't matter if the others get to rifles before I have real defenses.




End Turn!

[Ceiliazul]

Oh! And I almost forgot... Lava was the world's #1 City since I first logged into this game. Now?

[NobleHelium]

I think the before and after on the score is backwards but okay.

[Qgqqqqq]

Are you carrying on attacking/pillaging, or full retreat?

[Ceiliazul]

Likely full retreat. I'm a paper tiger and this is really most of my mobile army at the moment. I need to get back to base ASAP.

Noble, thanks fixed. And hey, it's ok to be happy for me.