[PB28 SPOILERS ] Fenn Presents: A Comedy of Errors

[Fenn]

That's simple - I'm going to have to take somebody else's. And by that I mean Jowy's. The question is if I want to take his island holding(s) first, or just pile into Velociraptor right away - it's still only defended by 5 units, but Jowy's Power keeps rising in general. The island city is assuredly lightly defended, but A. I only have one Galley in the area, and B. attacking there would mean those troops wouldn't be available to defend on the mainland. It might still be better to try to make gains on the islands and just hold the line on the continent though.

It's going to take some turns of buildup before I could consider myself ready to attack; I need HBR and Horse Archers as well so I can deal with Jowy's Catapults and generally have a decent 2-mover, plus Trebuchets for besieging Jowy's cities.

Machinery came in this turn, and some my Barracked cities are starting in on the CKN - Yaws and Leprosy can just about 2t them. But soon I plan to have the majority of my cities building military. If I'm going to commit to war, I need to really commit.

[Fenn]

Update: Have not gone to war yet...instead, I generated a Great Engineer this turn. Next turn I will finish researching Civil Service, then pop a Golden Age and swap to Bureaucracy. I don't think I'll swap to Caste System though, my having lots of infrastructure does mean I have plenty of non-Artist spec. slots. Plus I only like two workshops in my whole empire.

My Workers have been busy building Windmills and some Lumbermills ever since Machinery came in, but Watermills don't seem worth it yet. I've been going for a round of CKNs, plus some Horse Archers and trebs in my production cities...I might still declare war on Jowy just to take Velociraptor. We'll see though...he triggered his own GA a couple turns ago. Either way CKNs will be useful for defending the island cities I'm about to settle. More on those next turn!!

Longer term, I'm thinking of heading for Emancipation:
Emancipation: Available at Banking, Low upkeep, +1 commerce from cottage, hamlet, village. +1 food from cottage. +2 commerce from mines, +1 hammer from farms.

The bonuses to Mines and Farms are what I'm especially interested in, I think they'd be a good fit for all the mines I have lying around.

[Fenn]

Turn 140



Our second Great Person; I hope to follow him with a few more before this Golden Age ends. I feel like I got mine pretty late compared to the others' - Jowy's just ended on this turn - but here we are.



Making the switch to Bureaucracy, and Caste System too - I won't be staying there long-term, but the unlimited specialist slots sound like a nice idea when GPPs count double, and I have no plans to whip heavily during a GA.

Adopting Bureaucracy actually slightly decreased my gold saving rate, but I think it's still worth it - my capital is my best city by a decent margin.



Clap is a newer city I hadn't shown any pictures of. In my excitement for the Golden Age I forgot to whip the Forge here before I swapped to Caste. Would have been a good idea here with the huge food surplus, but with the help of a chop previously I can finish this naturally. From there it's on to a Lighthouse and Courthouse.



The southeast island; Jowy has two cities here, albeit defended only by a couple of Vultures. That c? sign was put up before I noticed, but I may be able to squeeze in one or two more cities peacefully. Off to the east you can see a Whosit Work Boat - he made contact this turn and offered Open Borders (which I accepted). The only person I could have OB with but don't is wetbandit: he seems to be leading the game right now so he doesn't need my help.

The new city, Rabies, has two CKNs garrisoning it and increased my income upon founding it. I've already got one Worker down here and will ferry two more over to chop forests, clear jungle and improve tiles. A Work Boat is also on the way. That Clams tile is another forested coast, so under the GA it's a very respectable 2/2/3 tile.



Plague has finally run up against the health cap, but it's got so much food I think I can just wait until Grocers to address the unhealthiness situation.



Here is where I'm thinking of making war. Jowy has a very small garrison of ancient age units in Velociraptor, which is cut off from reinforcement. My tentative plan is to capture it, make peace with Jowy, and then perhaps make war against Mardoc who I think will not have much to offer against CKNs, Horse Archers and Trebuchets. It would hurt to betray my sort-of ally, but team AM are weak(er than me) so they've gotta die sometime.



Here is the southwest island. I have a Settler inbound to the Sugar/Rice/Crab spot and will produce another for the Marble spot. The barbarian city to the west is defended by just two Archers and has a Worker; I might capture it intact, even if it makes claiming the north Fish a bit awkward (still possible though). This island ought to be in Yuris's area of influence, but he's been at war with wetbandit and has taken a pounding:



His Ivory city here was razed at some point recently. I don't think he'll be able to offer much competition on this island. Mardoc has access to the island as well but I haven't seen a single unit of his around.

Any questions?

[Cheater Hater]

So are AM just that small sliver of territory? How does our northern border with our competitors look? Any ideas on where they are tech-wise? (notably how many WEs/Cats you've seen from Jowy at least, and if AM have Construction yet).

How many cities do you think we can put on the islands we can reasonably take? How many cities would we get under the Jowy->AM war plan? How many CKNs do we have to accomplish war?

[Fenn]

You can see it on the minimap - AM are just a small slice of our continent at this point. They don't have construction yet. Jowy's shown a pair of catapults on one of his border cities, but otherwise I haven't seen any of those or WEs in numbers.

The southwest island can hold 5-6 cities, but only about 4 'real' ones. Likewise the southeast island with Jowy I could fit in two more of my own but they'll compete for cultural control over the Stone and Dyes which is likely to cause border troubles.

Next turn I'll grab pictures of the border and of the military screen. Capturing Velociraptor + all of AM's cities would give us about eight, but doubtless I'll raze and resettle a couple of those. AM are significantly behind in both MFG and GNP; it's only a matter of time before Jowy techs to Knights or something and sweeps them up. Speaking of which I need to think about how to defend against Knights.

[Fenn]

Turn 142


Here's the other Jowy city to the north I can see. The Catapults have left, leaving just the horde of Vultures and Spears. Not too threatening, but they might overwhelm a city with sheer numbers if I'm not careful.


Only 10 CKNs and one Trebuchet means I'm going to have to build up some more before I can attack. But I'd better make my move soon, because Jowy has Feudalism now:


Only one Longbow so far, but let's not wait for there to be more.

[Fenn]

Mardoc's cutting into my plans on the southwest island:


There's a Settler with that Horse Archer. Honestly I don't mind if he settles there; I'll eventually want to conquer it, but for now I don't anticipate much hostility from him in this quarter.

The barb city, Circassian, is defended by two Archers still. I have 2 Chariots, 2 HA, and 2 Axes on the island, but one of those units will have to stay in Measles as military police. Circassian's not on a hill but I'm not sure of the chances 5 units have against 2 Archers. Really should have brought a Swordsman or Trebuchet here.

[Fenn]

Turn 147

Those of you who've been following the other player threads may know that I declared war on Jowy last turn. The purpose of that war was to capture Velociraptor, which was isolated from the rest of his empire, and to raze one of his border cities near Mange in the east if they were lightly defended. I moved in on Velociraptor with about 30 units, mostly Chu-Ko-Nus, against a defending force of 3 Longbows, 3 Vultures, 3 Spearmen and 2 Chariots.

Well this turn, Jowy offered peace for ten turns in exchange for Velociraptor. Naturally, taking Velociraptor intact (minus some pop lost to whipping) with all its infrastructure without losing any of my units was very tempting, but I had to weigh that benefit against the strategic implications; Jowy would likely use the ten turns of peace to prepare for war against me, possibly attacking with Knights the next time.

In the end I accepted, since while I might have razed one other city had I fought on, I wouldn't have gotten much farther than that (Jowy's Soldier count is still higher than mine, even after all the military building I did), and it would have been a much more aggravating loss to him than a city surrounded by enemy culture that he was probably expecting to lose for a while. Might as well quit while I'm ahead.

Besides, having my siege forces intact and ten turns of peace with Jowy gives me a pretty good opportunity to eat Mardoc if I want...



Jowy's defenders teleported over here when we signed peace. I had more than enough units to chew through this, but it wouldn't have been pretty.



Here's Velociraptor itself. That's a very nice set of buildings here, only missing a Forge and Market. Not a lot in the way of improved tiles - no thanks to AM's culture - but it should do well enough for itself. I'm running two Caste Artists to get the borders popped immediately. I probably won't be able to keep the Silver up north, but I can try. But this culture stuff might not matter much depending on what I choose to do with Adrien/Mardoc.



Oh yeah, this was the last turn of my Golden Age. I was a turn too late for Feudalism and Serfdom - blame my sloppiness there - but I did tech Monarchy in time for the HR switch. I've actually decided to stay in Caste System after the GA ends; I have a Great Scientist who was born two turns ago, and a second GP coming out of my other GP farm in a few turns, so if I need to swap to Slavery in an emergency I can probably do it. Plus Caste's unlimited specialists are pretty handy for now until I can get to Emancipation. After picking up Construction, I'll probably head for Guilds and Banking. Might want to detour to Literature to get the National Epic, it'd be a shame to trigger my second GA without having that built somewhere.

[Fenn]

Turn 148


Scouting Mardoc's territory since we have OB...now here's the first big stack of his I've seen. Lots of Catapults, which makes sense since his overall power and MFG are low compared to his neighbours meaning you want to invest in collateral. I'm going to want to build more Horse Archers...or more Knights, Guilds is only a couple of turns away.

As for my own collateral, I'm not sure what the best balance between Catapults, Trebuchets and Chu-Ko-Nus is. Clearly some Trebs are useful for bombarding city defenses and attacking cities in general, but given the melee-heavy composition of AM and Jowy's armies, CKNs seem a little better in the open than Catapults.



Next turn I'll attack this barb city; I have 1 Chariot, 2 Axes and 2 HA vs. 2 Archers. Just one Sword or CKN would make this a breeze, but I think I can take this city with what I have.

I have a Settler in production; I might send him to this island to claim a Fish/Crabs/Sugar spot SW of Circassian, or a Sheep/Iron filler near my border with Jowy. We'll see. Both spots are getting settled in the end of course.

[Fenn]

Turn 149
Circassian was easily taken:



I attacked with the Axes first since they're my least advanced units; one actually succeeded but my unpromoted HA had ~64% odds vs. a fresh Archer so the odds overall were much better than I'd feared.



Sadly, the city came without any infra (well besides a Monument) and it's not exactly where I'd have founded it, but it's a free city in a good spot so I'll take it. I have two Workers to help it out, one captured barb and one I ferried over in advance, and they'll have to start from scratch since the barbs never saw fit to improve their irrigated corn.

I've also got a Work Boat on the way, so in 10t (or less - I can employ Artists) the Fish can be worked.



Back to foreign matters...Jowy's Power isn't actually rising very fast. Best-case scenario is that he really doesn't want to fight a long war with me, but that's a dangerous assumption to make. Regardless, he's much less appetizing than poor old Mardoc/Adrien. I might still wait until I have Knights to attack, they have lots of catapults and they surely have a better grasp of tactics than I do.

I also took the time to rearrange my Espionage spending to emphasize people I don't have graphs on yet. I have tech visibility on Dreylin and Yuri, by virtue of them spending almost nothing on me, but getting it on anybody else is going to be impossible so spreading the points around feels like the wiser course.

The next Great Person is due in 3t - if it's another Scientist, I might use my first to build an Academy, although a T152 Academy is so depressing he might be better spent on a bulb.