The Hills Send Back The Cry [SPOILERS]

[El Grillo]

Sorry for the brief reports, but things are rather busy, as I'm interviewing for a new job. Also, as REM mentioned earlier, this game is winding down, and I've been gradually doing less and less micro and C&D. I'll probably append some screenshots later this evening, and let me know if there's anything in particular any of you would like to see.

T113 in brief:

- Our forces entered range of Bognor Regis, and we sent a secondary group targeting Sandwich
- We fired all of our specialists in Tossing & Turning so that the capital could birth a Great Person in the same turn (and the National Epic would actually have enough points to generate a second one)
- Khan's GA ended and he swapped into Rep/Merc
- Adrien captured Chatham, and a Great General was born (not sure whose)

T114 in brief:

- We lost 2 Knights out of 10 battles capturing Bognor Regis, with C2 knights facing 75-80% odds, so slightly better than expected value. The injured knights will stay in the city with a pike/mace and heal, while the trebuchets, now accompanied by cuirassiers, will head to Croydon
- The fall of Bognor Regis indeed allows us to settle our planned spot, but it's a forested tile and we forgot to move in our Settler last turn, so it'll be delayed a turn
- Forced peace with Khan expires in 2t, so starting next turn I'll be routing new units to our borders
- War weariness with Ginger ticked up to +2 and +3 unhappiness, so I'm going to try and 2t Rifling and then swap into Police State

At EOT, we birthed a Great Scientist and a Great Artist from our capital and National Epic city, which will allow us to continue our Golden Age and also find a use for the Artist (bringing Croydon out of revolt, maybe?)

[El Grillo]

T115:

Khan offered Open Borders and Incense for free, which I accepted, and then offered Sugar for free and Sheep for Sheep. Just wanted to make sure he got the message: we're going to let him contest 2nd place with Adrien without any active interference on our part. Of course, he still has a large garrison on our northern border, and we made sure to stage some of our new cuirassiers on that border... just in case this is all an elaborate ruse. Geopolitically, it makes absolutely no sense for it to be one, but it can't hurt to be careful. Rifling is due in 1t, after which will we'll swap into Police State and Nationhood and start drafting some of our less important cities.




We're in range to start bombarding Sandwich next turn, and will move into range of Croydon next turn. Ginger has a few CG1 longbows with full fortify, but weight of numbers and odds will carry the day. Depending on the state of our forces and Adrien's progress, we could actually push farther west. My friend says that he wants to use our forces in the field to hit Adrien's knights while we have the tech advantage and there's little culture to wade through. Still not sold on it, but we'll see where we stand in 10 turns when Ginger's gone.






For perspective, since I last posted this comparison on T102:
Khan: 10286 -> 20284 (+9998)
Adrien: 10455 -> 16082 +5627)
Me: 13670 -> 25529 (+11859)
Ginger: 3324 -> 4027 (+703)

My friend's plan: draft rifles and garrison our border cities with Khan, while bringing all of our 2-movers to bear on Ginger and Adrien. Retake the cities Adrien took from Ginger, and then raze Adrien's cities until he concedes. Is it just me, or am I trying to be the voice of reason for once?

Charts:

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

No thoughts to try and eliminate both of them?

[El Grillo]

Both of who?

In honesty, and admittedly this is a bit meta-gamey, but I'd like to get this game wrapped up quickly (or leave it to my friend to play, which will likely produce the same result) while I get my real-life plans settled. Is that unreasonable under these circumstances, and a bit unfair to Adrien? Perhaps, but it wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Adrien and Khan - for the lols.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

More trolols actually

[El Grillo]

That sounds like it'd be miserable under Immortal war weariness - it's already at +2 and +3 with barely any actual fighting against Ginger. I'd actually prioritize Fascism to WW-proof my cities with the Police State + Jails + Rushmore combo

[El Grillo]

T116 & T117:



We proceeded according to plan, picked off 4 longbows on T116, and then launched full assaults on Croydon and Sandwich. Both cities fell, and we used some of the capture gold for Rifling upgrades. Adrien has a small number of knights in range of former Croydon, but a CG2 rifle, 2 longbows, and 2 C2 pikes should be enough to keep him honest. We both spawned a Great General in the fighting.



We turned off research except to 1t Drama, swapped to Police State/Nationhood/Free Market, and began drafting. PS+NH solved most of our happiness problems, at the acceptable tradeoff of a quarter of our GNP. Khan finished Chemistry, and Adrien is 1t to Replaceable Parts.



Khan and Adrien signed peace (?!), so we're back on the paranoia train. All of our drafted rifles and a healthy fraction of new cavalry will be stationed against any Khan shenanigans - the rest will be enough to finish rolling over Ginger and then hit Adrien. The sooner he realizes I have a large enough army to stymie his offensives while still beating Adrien, the better. We've also diverted some units to mapping out Khan's land, and have built some missionaries to spread Confucianism to him for the espionage bonuses and the shrine gold.

Charts:

[El Grillo]

I was immediately reminded that Mercantilism blocks routes in both directions, so swapping into Free Market was absolutely incorrect . For some silly reason, I thought I'd get routes from Khan, but he wouldn't get routes from me. That's roughly 200 hammers and 200 culture forgone... at least I can fix that in 5t, and this is as good a time to get burned and learn that lesson as any!

[El Grillo]

No new turn today, but a couple of observations:

Khan has a Great Merchant headed in for a trade mission, which I'm guessing will fund Steel and some catapult -> cannon upgrades. That puts Khan in a good spot to declare on Adrien again after their peace expires, since Adrien is deficit spending on Replaceable Parts now and is likely 4-5 turns from Rifling, in addition to lacking Philosophy/Nationalism/Military Tradition, meaning that Khan's cannons wouldn't face any flanking threats on the attack. Of course, cannons could also be used to attack us, but again, it makes no sense geopolitically (unless there are heavy incentives in seeding for advancing 1st over 2nd, which doesn't seem to be the case here), and we do have the benefit of cavalry and plenty of cities to draft riflemen from. Khan also knows that we have the espionage advantage, especially with missionaries, and that any attack would be seen coming at least two turns in advance.

I somewhat foolishly left my Galley on the outer sea in Adrien's vision two turns ago while dropping off HAs to scout Khan's land. Furthermore, I've yet to get visibility on any of Adrien's core cities on the west coast. As part of a decapitation strike, I'd like to load the boat with cavalry, get Optics, and find a city (it need not even be Djenne, but that would be a nice bonus) to raze in conjunction with attacks on Ginger's former cities. They'll be coming out of revolt soon enough, but Adrien won't have many tools to pop 2nd-ring borders easily, which will leave them vulnerable on the diagonal. Given that I now have over twice his power rating, I wouldn't expect it to be much of a fight. Then again, I expected Adrien to run straight over Ginger, but his odd delay meant that whipped longbows could replace spears as the primary defenders. I don't want to make the same mistake.