[Mjmd #60] Why even buy toys for kids?

[Mjmd]

T157

As you are probably already aware SD razed Parents. I don't know if it was Vodka odds of 15% but my tests did reveal it was low odds chance. Main thing is his first chariot got the pike to half health. In my multitude of world builder tests anytime the first hit dropped the pike that low it went poorly (and the 52/100 is at least tied for lowest results I got). He did take with 11/12 though. That 1 random HA I should have moved down might* have made the difference, but maybe not with that much luck on first hit. His attack on 2nd elephant also got that one to 58/100 which also is pretty good roll. Again with only 4 defenders its just soooooo swingy.

Anyways biggest loss other than a huge city with infrastructure is the Parthenon. Most of its major tiles can be worked by other cities. It was also the 3rd culture city for the 1% that matters although Logs could replace. But ya instead of building courthouses this golden age I've been relegated to building tons of units and now tons of Caravels. SD has implemented a full blackout of Sands so its starving every turn from now on. Plan is to get to Vassalage asap for combat I promotion on caravels. I also get to sally out from my cities meaning he can never hit my injured ones (for instance won a 46% odds fight last turn and now it gets to heal fast in my city).

Edit: just to add insult to injury I got a GG spawn in Parents before it got razed.

[Mjmd]

T161

Literally no game is reporting atm so here is my salt:



I won two 32% caravel battles, but then lost a 97%......... I ended up having to finish off with a galley that I then had to delete (had is a strong word, but I'm trying to prevent him from getting more promotions and he could have), so I ended up down a galley basically (killed 6, lost 6 +1 I believe).

I just revolted to vassalage, which will give me the leg up on the seas going forward. Also I'm 1 turning formation elephants from Heroic Epic city tools for the next 3 turns during GA at least. Hoping for a non prophet next turn PLEASE. Will then of course have to hope for not that kind or prophet for 3rd. Scientist would probably be the best because at least I don't feel bad about using duplicate scientists to bulb (for Thrawn reference they are more efficient at bulbing techs than other types).

[Mjmd]

T162

Got a merchant! Sure I would have loved a spy, but 3rd most likely type is still great. Now I just need a scientist which is highest odds or one of the rarer types (spy / engineer / artist). Using last two turns of GA to work max non merchant specialists in Rocks.

SD retreated his remaining fleet. I expect it to be back. I'll start whipping cities again in 2 turns. I would like at least a couple turns of GA where I'm not whipping off good tiles.

I might test if GKC wants to defend Antium on a hill or swap units to Neopolis if I move in. I may just have to wait for Jowy to attack Antium (should be moving on Rome this turn?) but 1 turn poking in maybe?

[Mjmd]

T164

Being out of golden age feels weird. I could speed next GP up, but I have at least 4 major cities I would love to grow more. Plus then I don't have to feel bad for whipping for a second.

Well even though I lost the 97% battle earlier I continue to win pretty much anything near 50% (in this case exact 50%). Last turn I cut off 2 escaping caravels SW. He decided to go around so he was on defensive terrain. My first combat I caravel won its fight at 50% vs  his un-promoted. More importantly was his injured 2.3 combat I caravel, which my combat I caravel on at 84%. I had enough other ships to cover from his 2 other in range, so I will have two more combat II ships! Vassalage definitely was a good call.

Question on espionage. The screen shows SD has research visibility, which I would expect, but am I just missing indication for city visibility. I believe he should have?

792 / (477+100) = 1.37 which is above the 1.2 threshold.



I've been putting small amounts in last couple of turns to have him lose and then SD put over 100 into me again this turn.

[Tarkeel]

Question on espionage. The screen shows SD has research visibility, which I would expect, but am I just missing indication for city visibility. I believe he should have?

Only graph and research vision is indicated on the screen. CIty vision/investigation is on a per-city basis, so would be hard to indicate properly. Given his costs are 78%, it seems likely he has vision on some cities at least. (cost for vision varies based on factors such as distance and religion)

[Mjmd]

T166

Something about the second largest army and an overall underdeveloped empire means I'm barely solvent. Not having an economic trait is hard....... If you look at the graphs I'm basically competitive 3rd in a golden age and then just garbage outside of one, but still 3rd mind you! My overall goal is 2nd in this game. 



Relying on said 2nd largest army and Jowy needing me vs Amica in the future I moved in this turn against GKC while Jowy's army is healing. I also sent him some diplo messages. Hopefully once he seems me resettle the city we will be good friends.

[Mjmd]

T67

Amica made it through Lazteuq faster than Jowy and I combined made it through GKC........ GKC left only 5 units in it to move the crossbows to the walled hill city. I'll raze next turn and resettle turn after (I had expected to spend a turn bombarding so let city producing grow to size 5).

Anyways, I don't see Amica losing from here. Lazteuq needed to hold out MUCH longer. Honestly I'm kind of confused what happened. He had good production and at one point a good army, but my scouts were mainly elsewhere, so ah well. Jowy wants to go to war vs Amica in like 30 turns........ If Lazteuq had held longer maybe I could have done something, but its just going to be WAY too slow now. Hell Jowy needs to start producing a bigger army before Amica stabs him.

Anyways the hope of my very poor empire rests mainly in this group of cities. The blob middle will contain 3 very good commerce cities and 1 high production city (Blankets as I was trying to figure out what to do with 3 food resources and Ice had access to developed cottages). Tools is my heroic epic city pumping out formation elephants atm. Parents is coming along......... 

[Mjmd]

T168

In western sea SD showed up with multiple caravels spread out, will end up losing 2 to kill 1 and have to whip some up here which I don't want to do atm. I moved the caravel I had finished his off with in a stupid direction (morning brain).

SD left his main caravel stack in range of Sand even though I've been building up there for forever. I lost 6 (7 assuming with last one in range of his backup stack) to kill 12.

I waffled for a long time on the GKC raze. It had kept a lighthouse and granary, but at the end of the day decided to go with original play of resettling next turn to keep Jowy happy. Some of ya'll may have noticed my utter lack of units on the eastern front along with lack of tech equality. Jowy SHOULD know we have to work together against Amica to even have a sliver of hope, but honestly I'm not seeing it (I'm fine keeping playing at least for another 10 turns to see what happens).

[Mjmd]

T169



Again don't underestimate SD. He had a 3rd caravel stack hidden the fog. I knew he had a few more, but he has to be producing almost pure caravels. Anyways he got a little lucky at the top and I only won one defensive battle, so my grand fleet is down to 4 caravels (7 in that area total) vs his 9. He set all his to auto promote and there is a undamaged combat II at the top so no point going back in with mine. Total between the two turns and fronts is 17 kills for him and 14 for me. Probably honestly ok with that other than he got a ton of highly promoted ones now which he didn't have before (most auto took combat although he got a first strike and medic in there).

[Mjmd]

T173



SD hasn't been scouting most turns as far as I'm aware. Last turn SD had two workers in the city (and no sentry chariots to be seen). Somehow he knew last turn to scout with worker (assuming) and move his stack a little???  . Again he had been sitting in beds for forever, so I may have built 19 swords......... He did add the castle in the last couple of turns.







Oh SD THAT WAS THE PLAN you know before you attacked me . If we were going to join war with Amica the time to do it would have been at the BEGINNING of the Lazteuq invasion instead of you know fighting constantly with each other while Amica conquered all of Lazteuq.



 Anyways this turn has been in the works and was completely predictable. See my quote from T151.

So for Thrawns benefit / anyone else confused about the after saying SD kept Beds. It is on the other side of Amica kind of, but more importantly he almost needs to keep going, because it will immediately be mine again when Paper pops 3rd ring borders and I get engineering.

Its actually relevant that even though I've NEVER worked that incense that it being there made Tarkeel move the fish allowing me two cities on that spit of land vs SD one city 1 tile farther away.





Sadly sigh morning turns. Combination of poor execution and bad luck. I should have sent an axe or two at city vs swords, but the axes ended up mono winning on the back end anyways so wasn't punished there, but maybe could have prevented a sword lost or two on city attack. In main battle for some reason even though I remembered to promote 5 swords to combat I against his cats to gain 6% odds, I forgot to promote three elephants to formation (which I should have just done ahead of time and I lost one of them and probably lost some combats at the top because of it).



I lost what felt like (felt like being key as I looked back and it was only slightly worse than %) a lot of 68-75% battles.



Anyways lost 3 cats and 2 swords (both had odds) taking the city vs 4 axes and 1 pike.



Main stack then started suiciding cats. Main stack battled ended up me losing 11 cats, 5 elephants, 4 swords VS SD losses of 11 elephants and 15 cats. Like I said the elephant losses probably should have 2 vs 14 or 3vs13 something like that. Obviously by the 19 original swords you can tell I thought this battle would be in the city so I didn't bring a lot of HA (I could have whipped an extra round of them and had planned on it, but again that bad caravel battle changed plans and I didn't think it was needed as again SD HAD been sitting there without sentry chariots for ages). I'm really confused why he didn't just move his stack INTO Amica's territory 1NE or just fully retreated if he really wanted peace.  That was the reason I was hoping Lazteuq would hold off longer. I was actually debating about flashing SD my stack to make him retreat and rolling into Octopus. But then Amica rolled over Lazteuq, so I delayed for more numbers (I had library whipped in queue for a while trying to time out)







Anyways, game is probably over, but at least I got a little revenge even if it wasn't quite as good as I hoped. I do have odds on another golden age next turn which would make me relevant for 12 turns, but I'm just sooo far behind. Anyways sent SD a peace treaty for all his gold and gold per turn.



Edit: don't expect him to except. I can't even keep pushing that way though as Amica could stab. Again just a really stupid city for us to be fighting over.



Oh Lazteuq sent me a very high offer for 1 of my gems and 1 of my wheats. I didn't mention it in PB56 wrap up but I kind of hated him giving away all his gold there. I resent it with some extra resources to make it an actual fair trade at least (all my extra happy and a couple health resources).



Going to finish boring parts of the turn later. Wanted to get this off my chest while it was fresh.



Random other thought is that mod addition to swords did get me to build some. I needed a cheap high power unit to break through. Now didn't end up way I wanted, but they did ok still. Probably was easily worth an extra 4-5 units to go with the cheaper swords anyways.