[SPOILER] Close to Win

[Charriu]

T116-T117:

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There's still a lot of distrust between AT and Jowy. Jowy started pillaging the roads to White Keys, which must annoy AT a lot. Honestly, not signing OB with Jowy would have prevented this. Well they might come into conflict. Meanwhile on the other side pindicator declared against Mjmd.  Wow, I did not see that coming. If this is a serious war I might join in. I will tech Iron Working shortly and I do not need to connect Iron for Gallic Warriors. I still need a few turns to muster forces, but that's fine because that way I will know if this is a serious war; Mjmd might retreat more forces to the west and/or I need an army first.




Down south my Great Spy uncovered Jowys border city. 4 axes and 2 spears look more like a defense then an attacking force. I also don't expect that Jowy hides an attacking force behind the city as he might know that I can't have vision on his city without the Great Spy.

So it looks like both my neighbors will be in conflicts in the near future and I might have to think about who to attack.

But the turn also has bad news. As you can see my galley found a barbarian galley down south. What is the bad news you might ask? Well there is a worker and a settler on that galley. I do hope my galley wins the 68% chance of win. I did this move because I had expected the barb galley to have gone elsewhere by now and because I want to settle the spot 1S of the deer. Well let's hope RNGesus is with me.

[Charriu]

I went back into the game to move a spearman around. I'm planning to settle a city at the border with Mjmd and I figured having another unit there can't hurt. While in I noticed that pindicator and Mjmd are still at war, but more importantly AT declared war on Jowy. That is just awesome.  

This leaves me with a lot of options:

1. Join in the war against Jowy
   
2. Join in the war against Mjmd
   
3. Only join in either war for small gains and if opportunities arise
   
4. Stay out of war and take the peace time to build up a tech advantage
   

I have to think about all of these options.

[Charriu]

T118-T119:

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Praise RNGesus. The galley survived if barely and dropped of its load on the island. Also very important Jowy and AT signed peace again, which is a bummer.  





Mh could the conflict between pindicator and Mjmd around this barb city?




I've founded two more cities in T119. KeenIceWitches will be a very sorry state of a city. I desperately needs a border pop against Mjmd and the whales connected for any food. You might rightfully ask why I settled this place? It has the hill under hit so it makes a good border city but most importantly it gives me access to 3 more luxury resources in Fur, Whale and Silver, which I don't have right now. Build order here will be a Dun->Granary->Lighthouse to make this city at least a fishing village.




Next I founded my island city: LavaTritons. Now back in my initial planning this city would have granted me +3 trade routes, but I already got those via foreign trade. Still it's good to have domestic +3 trade routes as a backup. I also plan to build the Moai here with all those water tiles. I also plan to build a lumbermill on the forest 1W of the deer, because those hammers will finish the Moai sooner then chopping the forest for the one time 30 hammers.




I also finished Iron Working this turn and I only have one iron resource in my borders. Now this is a rather awkward position as I had planned to settle a city on the iron and one city on the plain tile peninsula east of my capital. I'm thinking about settling 1N of the iron, which denies the peninsula spot, but is overall a better single city.
As you can see Mjmds stupid border city west of FlyingBarbarian also has iron, but Mjmd so far has not discovered Iron Working. All the more reason to raze that city. Lastly that border city of Jowys at ATs border also has Iron.

I started Metal Casting next. The forges will be very useful in the future and I can start some workshops. More importantly it opens up Machinery, which opens up Watermills, Windmills and Lumbermills of which I want to build some. The Crossbowman might also be useful.





Lastly what to do about any wars in the near future. Right now I have the problem that I don't really have an army to fight a lengthy war. I would need cats to be competitive here. With AT and Jowy signing peace a war against Jowy is also out of the picture. I still don't know how serious the pindicator vs Mjmd conflict is. pindicator is still at war with Superdeath. The big question here is is it better to have Mjmd as a blocker against pindicator or split Mjmd up, which makes pindicator even bigger. I'm somewhat thinking that the first option is better. I think I will milk my good defensive turtle position some more and try to tech up. This would involve going for Feudalism next and then start a golden age to switch into Hereditary Rule, Vassalage, Serfdom and Organized Religion. Boom some more and after the golden age look for some conflict. I have barracks in all of my production cities so I would have double promotions for all those units build there.

[shallow_thought]

Looking good. I would, howver, expect mjmd to get a bit irritated at you pushing for that silver, if he ever gets a chance to do anything about it ...

[Charriu]

I absolutely expect him to be irritated by that, but like you said what's he gonna do about it. I moved the following into the city for defense:

2 axes
1 archer with all PRO and Celt promotions
1 spearman

I also converted it to Judaism and the Dun will be finished in 6 turns or via a chop if need be. That way my culture comes up to speed fast. He has nothing in his city right now and therefore can be lucky that I didn't attack right away, which wasn't possible because of a double move from me.

Back in my other two border cities

FlyingBarbarian has

1 archer
1 axeman
1 spearman will finish in DiplomatKobolds and move there

ExploringFauns has

1 axe and 1 spearman covering a worker on the border
the city itself has

1 archer
1 axeman
1 Gallic Warrior finishs next turn


I also did a few tests with Gallic Warriors and thanks to their Guerilla promotion line and higher base strength of 6 they also make for a great addition to the defense of my cities. That's why I'm building a few to diversify the defense of my border hill cities.

[Charriu]

I just got a message from AT. He declared war.

[Charriu]

T120:

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Just noticed that I forgot to report on the last turn, so here is my rather short report. Nothing especially interesting happened (except for the war declaration later). Mjmd and pindicator signed peace, so it never was a serious war. Superdeath got a Great General from constantly fighting pindicator. I also must have missed to mention this, but I think Jowy is in a golden age right.

[Charriu]

T121:

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AT moved in in full force. Honestly I'm very disappointed and can't understand this move. I do understand that him being AGG/CHA he wants to get his military advantage into action before he falls off, but why, why attack me? First of all he was in a war with Jowy a few turns ago. With that force he could have easily taken Rowe from Jowy, a flatland city that is annoying for his city of White Keys. I may have even joined him in a war against Jowy. Or he could have attacked Mr. Cairo to whom he shares a bigger border and Mr. Cairo is most likely a bigger threat to him then me. His city of White Keys is also a little bit isolated with all the Jungle between his core and the city.

Instead he chose to attack me. Now I understand that thanks to the Open Border he knows how strong my military is, but even then he must have to think about the consequences of this war. Capturing all of my cities will be a very bloody conflict and even then he will just have a very awkward empire between Mr. Cairo, Mjmd and Jowy. And Jowy's only option here would be to attack him.

The biggest danger is that Jowy most likely will join him in this war. They do have a 10 turn peace deal right now and I'm the biggest obstacle towards Jowy. I bet you Jowy will join in this war. And if Jowy joins Mjmd will join soon after and we have a "nice" dogpile against me.  
You may ask why this is a bad decision for AT? Because only very rarely the player who starts the dogpile profits the most from it. AT will loose a lot of forces in this conflict, but will only gain few cities compared to Jowy and Mjmd. After the dogpile against me he will face an even stronger Jowy, who will attack and conquer him most certainly.

This was a very stupid move by AT and I will make sure that he regrets it if this conflict will be my end.


Now onto the actual battle. As you can his army mostly consists of 1 movers, 2 chariots that might be annoying and 4 catapults. Without the cats I count 17 units. That's most certainly enough to take my city of GoldsmithSkags. Now here is my response to that:

1. I sent Mr. Cairo a "war against AT for my wine" offer. He already has a chariot nearby and therefore knows that ATs main force is down here. This is now his best moment to strike against AT. (See I told you this is a stupid move by AT)
   
2. I moved a worker up so that I can chop the forest 1SE of GoldsmithSkags. It already is prechoped. By chopping this forest I can prevent his Holkans to move close to BerserkHalfling via Woodsmen 2. With that he could move 6 Holkans and the 2 chariots towards BeserkHalfling
   
3. I started a spearman in BerserkHalfling to be whipped next turn.
   
4. I moved a Gallic Warrior up. This warrior can move to the stone tile next turn and aid in the defense of BerserkHalfling
   
5. BerserkHalfling currently contains 1 axeman and 1 archer and of course a Dun. With the spearman and potentially the Gallic Warrior I'm up to 4 units here and could whip another unit before he can attack. That means he most likely can't take the city with just 6 Holkans and 2 chariots
   
6. Back in GoldsmithSkags as you can see I already have moved units up there and the city now contains 5 units. I highly doubt that he will suicide his 6 Holkans against the city. Another Gallic Warrior will be finished next turn and there is another axe and archer on the hill 2S of the city. This brings the total unit count up to 8. Way too few to hold the city, but it will cost him.
   
7. All cities with the exception of the smaller cities in the south started unit production if the didn't already. My 3 chariots are on their way up north to aid the defense.
   

[Charriu]

T122:

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AT didn't stop or offer anything, not that I had expected. So we might come down to a showdown this turn. I renamed all my units so that I can better see what happened. If starts bombarding down my defenses, great more units for me.
But I expect him to suicide his 4 cats into me and then just crush the defense with overwhelming numbers.

I don't seem to be the only player in trouble. pindicator took a city from Superdeath and it looks like Superdeath took a lot of losses from that fight. He dropped from 0.977 power ratio to 1.580 and he already lost something last turn as the power graph has shown. He also got another Great General (or pindicator).




Meanwhile my Great Spy starting exploring Mjmd.

[Charriu]

I forgot to mention this, but Mr. Cairo did not accept the offer and did not declare war on AT