[PB28 SPOILERS ] Fenn Presents: A Comedy of Errors

[Fenn]

The thought occurs that if I wait for Knights, I will definitely not be done eating AM in 10 turns' time. Will have to consider doing the war/10t peace dance with Jowy, even if for only one cycle.

By the way, if there's anything I've been omitting that you lurkers want to see, just ask. I've been mostly cutting out the nitty-gritty city with city management and other details - this far into the game, they're fluff to the viewer IMO - but maybe it's more interesting for you than I realize.

[Cheater Hater]

I'm still here--what defenses do we have it Jowy attacks us with Knights (aka how many WEs do we have and/or when can we get Pikes)? Would any other of Jowy's forces be a threat (as obviously Longbows aren't the best attacking units)? How much do you want from AM, and how long do you think it'll take? What are the chances Jowy joins in against AM, and what does that mean for us?

[Fenn]

Currently we don't have any WEs or Pikes which, yeah, is pretty worrying. Guilds completes at the end of this turn and after that Engineering is 3t away at 100% science, and getting some Pikes online is probably wiser than going all the way to Banking. I don't actually know if Jowy's got Guilds himself; we don't have OB so I can't see what he has researched, but I'll get research visibility in 3t by spending all of my EPs on him. If he does invade, I have about 22 Archers I can upgrade to Longbows or CKNs, and a second GP so I can revolt into Slavery, painful as that may be.

Otherwise, Jowy still has lots and lots of Vultures buffing up his Soldier rating, some Catapults, and at least a few Horse Archers running around. He does have Machinery for Crossbows and Trebuchets ( I know this because he's building Windmills in his territory), but without OB I can't tell if he has any units of those types yet. One clue is that while his Power is going up, there aren't any sudden spikes, so he at least isn't mass building Knights.

Current garrisons in cities bordering Jowy look like so:






Mange is the one I'm most concerned about strategically, it being my Moai city, not easy to reinforce, and stealing some tiles from Jowy cities' BFCs, but Jowy could attack any one of these locations.



Very suspicious road building here. I might start chopping some of these forests actually, at least Knights will be expensive enough to not make it a total waste.



This doesn't have anything to do with the rest of this post (well I like that my GNP is almost as good as the FIN guy with Colossus), I just wanted to reiterate that wetbandit is demolishing everybody else in the demographics. Every relevant metric except Power looks like this.

[Fenn]

Attacking Mardoc/Adrien will be very risky if I can't guarantee that Jowy won't attack me while I'm occupied. My Power rating is getting pretty close to his, but stretched across two fronts I would be at a significant disadvantage if Jowy chose to attack me in the east while I was occupied with AM. I do have a (slight) advantage in MFG so in a prolonged struggle I would probably win, but he could definitely do serious damage.

That's why I'm building a Spy to send into his territory; If I can spot a big stack (or any amount of Knights) before he uses them against me, I'd have a much better chance of keeping all my cities.

But as you say, if I attack AM Jowy might well attack them too, and he has a much border to strike across. I don't have many 2-movers and won't until I can get Knight production into full swing, so it's not going to be possible to alpha strike AM and prevent Jowy from taking any cities. The division of spoils depends on where AM send their stack that I mentioned earlier, because apart from that the only units I've seen so far are groups of 1-3 Archers/Spears/Axemen sitting in his cities, and a Horse Archer in the SW island.

[Fenn]

My other GP was born - he's a Merchant, so my 2-GP Golden Age is secure whenever I need it. I also built my first Knight, with a Horse Archer build in Leprosy transferring to a Knight for a 1t build. If I'd really been on top of things I could have set up lots of HA->Knight transfers when Guilds hit, but I feel a little guilty even playing 30 minute turns in a casual game.

What else...research visibility on Jowy is a turn away, and so is Engineering. Not sure what to do with my commerce after that; I have a lot of Archers and some Chariots which would love some upgrades, but Banking and the top half of the tech tree call to me. But if I'm serious about war with AM and possible defense against Jowy saving it for upgrades would be a better use of my money.

[Fenn]

Well, I have tech visibility on Jowy, and confirmed that he does have Guilds - he's teching Banking like myself. Time to slot in a couple Pikeman builds, and turn off EP spending towards him.

Still planning an attack against AM, but I think I'll wait until I can do another war/peace cycle with Jowy in six turns' time. By then I'll have more Knights to menace AM with, and I very much doubt they'll improve their situation any. I could probably conquer them eventually with the forces I have, but without Knights it'll take a while and leave lots of cities for Jowy to snap up.

[Fenn]

I knew this might happen, but I'm still mad about it.

[Fenn]

I saw this coming somewhat - Jowy whipped 4 times a couple of turns ago, he's been building roads next to my borders, and his power has not stopped rising. I just hoped that it was defensive units he was building, or he was going after AM instead of me.

Too bad. I'm not going to make it easy for him - all my units that were heading for AM are turning around and going to places where they can reinforce multiple cities. I think my eastern half is where he will strike, but he may have a secondary force in the north. Regardless, I'll finish Literature this turn then run 100% gold and start upgrading Archers and Chariots; next turn or the turn that he declares on (probably the same thing..) I'll fire my second GA and swap to Slavery and maybe Vassalage. Losing Bureau will sting, but I didn't have an Academy in Plague anyway so it's not a catastrophic loss, and I could use the military support discounts.

[Cheater Hater]

I knew this might happen, but I'm still mad about it.

On the bright side, that means that you'll have more time to focus on your other games

It doesn't look like he's actually declared yet--any ETA on when he would want to (aka how many turns are the Knights from your borders)? How close are you to Engineering/how many Pikes do you have? If you're finishing Lit this turn, where is HE going (assuming we have an HE unit) and when will it finish?

[Fenn]

He can't be more than a few turns away - two turns ago I declared and offered 10t peace; the next turn he offered peace for Velociraptor and Mange, which I of course could not take. Seeing this message, I've triggered my 2-man GA and swapped to Slavery and Vassalage, and started upgrading Archers into Longbows. His units are sitting 1t away from my borders, just out of sight.

Literature was for the National Epic mostly in case I didn't end up at war and could afford to put hammers into it; it was 90% done so I spared some commerce towards it. No 10xp unit sadly. I should have beelined the tech for Theocracy earlier, would be really helpful here. At least Barracks+Stables+Vassalage will give me badass Knights.

Also offered wetbandit 10gpt for Stone since he has two. It'll help for Walls/Castles if I build those, or maybe even Chichen Itza haha.

I've had Engineering for a few turns now, and four Pikes currently, but I've got 3-4 cities pumping them out, so I'll have about one Pike going each turn. Mange is building a Castle as it's almost guaranteed Jowy will try to strike there, otherwise everybody else is building Pikes/LB/Knights/CKN.