[SPOILERS]The 3 Muscateers playing Ragnar of Rome!

[Catwalk]

t111 city tour

I didn't get around to finishing the city tour last turn, so here it is for t111 instead. Dark green boxes indicate improved tiles I want that city to take over, light green tiles indicate unimproved tiles I want it to take over (or other problems), a red cross indicates tiles I want to ditch or switch to another city.

All screenshots placed in the same spoiler, commentary added underneath each city.

I've been trying to grow AA, which has been difficult with all the 1-food tiles I'm utilizing. I've been focusing heavily on production here in the past, which has paid off handsomely in the form of wonders. Ditching the 3 tiles noted and adding a grass farm gives me a food surplus of +10 for 6 specialists at size 17 with Mercantilism. Including the free one from Mercantilism, that lets me use all 5 slots with 2 merchants, 2 scientists and 1 engineer, need 1 more slot. A temple would give me 1 priest slot, might use that.

BB is still my workhorse, it has been drafted into the ground lately. It's working out well economically though, it's making very good use of plains cottages in GA. The noted tile changes gives me +2 food at size 13, letting me run an extra specialist that can be whipped or drafted off.

If BB is a workhorse, CC is bordering on child labour. It's been whipped and drafted repeatedly, and I've completely ignored commerce. Due to working plains hill mines it's had a hard time growing, getting some grass farms online has helped. Farming 4 plains tiles lets it max out at size 12 with an engineer and a priest specialist. Will also farm over the grass cottage to help it grow, will ditch the plains hills temporarily first chance I get so I can grow it properly.

DD is looking great, I just added barracks so it can help draft invasion troops. I want to cottage one FP farm for a food surplus of +10 at size 17. It has 6 specialist slots already, 7 when I add a temple. It could theoretically grow to size 19 with the two water tiles, but they're ocean tiles and won't be worth it after Colossus obsoletes. I'll work them until then though, soon as I'm free to grow it.

EE used to be my production and whipping city back when I squabbling with waterbat, now it's becoming more of a commerce city. At size 12 it'll have 3 specialists and very decent production. Need to add a library and a forum here soon.

GD will become an excellent GP producer very soon, growing rapidly to 6 specialists at size 18. I just produced a Christian missionary that will go here, so I can get religious buildings and bonuses.

So much growth potential here. I've neglected tile improvements since I had all those awesome water tiles to use, still have 3 grassland tiles to figure out what to do with. I'm mostly leaning towards cottages all over and putting Oxford here. I have room for lots of specialists here, and with its production level I want to add at least one wonder. Only one currently available is Sistine Chapel, and I'm cooling on that one. It'd be nice to borrow the grass hill mines while CC is growing, so I need to think of something fast. Only other wonder that's nearby is the Spiral Minaret (requires Divine Right, looks like Azza wants it too), much later I will get access to the Statue of Liberty. Suggestions?

II was meant to be one of my best cities, instead it's become GD's little brother. As mentioned countless times already, the fact that its predecessor Frosty Frog was razed by waterbat (when I messed up defenses) slowed my development here and meant that I lost cultural control over the fish and the deer. With those two it would have been an awesome GP farm. Azza seems to be thinking the same as his National Epic is in his mirror city F. I'm strongly tempted to blow up my artist here, but I highly doubt waterbat would consider that in accordance with our NAP I don't see any other ways to capture those resources short of capturing Candace, I'm still 160 culture points short of reaching 4th ring culture. Maybe run a bunch of artists here if I switch to Caste System temporarily? If I switch in 3t I'll need 7t of 3 artists. Another option is spreading Christianity and putting up 2 monasteries. I'll check old saves to see how much my control level has gone up each turn the last several turns.

Similar story here, decent city that's been founded too late and is culturally cramped. But I'm fighting back here! Hermitage has been built, doubling all culture (except for hammer culture). Should I fail to take F I will put a whole bunch of artists here to try to push Azza back. It would be very hard to do so as he has his National Epic in neighbouring F along with two monasteries, a monument and a library. And let's add the Taoist shrine along with it Azza has definitely been focusing on waging cultural war here, and he's done a very good job of it. This is what I wanted Imperial Impala to look like. JJ has been a drafting camp for a long time now, it doesn't have all that much growth potential and is right where the action is happening. I cut down the forest on that fur tile earlier when I feared an invasion was imminent. Kicking myself for that now, especially considering I wasn't able to cut down the other forest anyway. The fur would be a pretty decent GA tile with 2 hammers added to it, it sucks as is and I keep drafting it away. Adding insult to injury, I recently lost two water tiles that I actually need. Grrrr Azza!

KK is the overlooked second child, founded when I was busy doing other stuff. I'm planning on letting EE steal the plains and grass cottages to the north, so I need to get around to cottaging those grass tiles to the south. I also want to replace the FP farm with a cottage as soon as it's grown enough. What's that? I need more workers? Can't be.




Now this is more like it! The island cities have sprouted up like weed, not bothered by such mundane things as happiness and military. More importantly, they have provided 2c trade routes for all my cities and will themselves have a full set of 3c trade routes even with Mercantilism. These cities were crucial in ensuring my economy stayed sound during my expansion spree, being guaranteed 8c in trade routes from all new cities helped massively. I'll designate the two big cities as GP farms, letting the smaller cities use 4 out of the 6 grass hill mines. SS was founded a bit after the other ones so it's playing catchup. I need to watch out for Superjm invading me, but it seems he's fairly peacefully inclined in spite of me swiping the whole island. On that note, I decided to accept his suggestion of declaring war on Xenon for a 20t NAP and border agreement, although I asked for another 2t before I would have to declare. I might offer peace to Xenon right away, but that would sour relations with Superjm. He'd probably be quite pleased if I helped him invade Xenon, so it could be well worth it.

MM has gotten the pig back so it's growing again. It can borrow a few more cottages to support its growth, and I have 4 workers south of here so I can easily spare one to put up another cottage on the vacant grass tile.

This was settled much later than I wanted, but growth has been rapid due to multiple FP farms. The bare FP also had a farm, but Azza's dastardly war chariot pillaged it. The good news is that I've finally tracked it down N of here with a maceman. Since he doesn't have OB with Xenon it has nowhere to go Just whipped a galley, will spend 2t building culture to get a border pop (3 base production, 16 overflow).

QQ was also settled very late due to an apparent resource shortage, but it's grown very nicely. It got a judaism spread which was just barely enough to pop borders while I switched back to Judaism during the waterbat campaign. It's set to take off now, lots of good water tiles to utilize and a grass hill mine to help it construct buildings. It can become an excellent commerce city at size 14, excluding the 3 ocean tiles which probably won't get the Colossus bonus by the time it grows to that size. Will do minimal whipping here and focus on growth.

RR is good on paper, but its development has been neglected. I never got a missionary down there as planned, and I forgot about using Music to build hammer culture so it still doesn't have a border pop. Once it pops borders and gets another two FP tiles online it should do nicely. I will need a specialist slot here soon to take proper advantage of Mercantilism.

I've finally gotten around to settling the jungle, and it worked as well as I could have hoped for. Superjm didn't feel like venturing deeper into the jungle, so I have both Ivory tiles to myself. It'll have a nice food surplus of +8 while growing (+9 with lighthouse) and the ivory is a cool 2/3/4 tile in GA!

Nor a mirror of TT but very similar. Borders will pop shortly, letting me net those fish with a workboat from RR. It shouldn't take more than a few turns to control the ivory tile with 20 land culture points per turn, Superjm's city only has a library for culture.

In other news, I have all but agreed to a NAP with Superjm on condition that I declare Xenon. I wanted the declaration date pushed 2t, I think he will agree to that. Azza has repeated several NAP offers, including one that only had 200 gold and 2 trebuchets for me. Given how many troops I have by now that was probably a bad deal for me, so he's definitely set on not budging an inch. I moved most of my troops on the wine tile to spook Azza:

Lots of creative skills in use there I have a worker there as well to road that tile, which is actually the main objective behind the maneuver. Once I road this tile I can 1-move Fisher, forcing him to commit more troops to defending it. What's worse, I can 1-move it with troops that are out of sight to him (staging on the tile S of JJ). I will probably bombard Fisher next turn while covering the worker, hoping to lead him to believe that I'm going after it first. Once I move on F I will be able to supplement the invasion force with another 2 muskets which will be landed via a galley. I'm hoping this will throw off his defenses a little more, 2 strong muskets may be the difference between victory and defeat.

[Catwalk]

Just realized another use for the great artist: Bomb F after capturing it! That would be pretty awesome, solves multiple problems:
1) Saves me from several turns of rebellion, giving me economy right away.
2) Gives me massive defense bonuses right away.
3) Gives me massive cultural influence on Azza's land right away, as F is generating 30 culture per turn. If I do well in the first battles and want to strike deeper, this would give me an excellent position with which to do so.

Any thoughts on this?

Also, I had a closer look at the fish by Imperial Impala. My cultural control is currently at 29% and it seems to be growing by 1.3% or so per turn. Candace and Ferb only get 6 culture per turn each, and Ferb applies last ring culture to it. Running artists to obtain control and get 4th ring culture should work quite well, once I have Representation. If I switch to Caste System together with Representation and Pacifism in a few turns I will be able to switch back to Slavery before GA expires.

EDIT: Investigated it a little more with old saves and concluded that it currently has 182 culture. It generates 4 cpt until t120, then his library doubles and he will go up to 6 cpt. On t126 he will reach 250 culture and get 4th ring culture. Next, I'm going to calculate how much culture we've both applied to the fish

[Catwalk]

t113 report

I have sent the first invasion forces into Azza's territory, consisting of a large group of macemen and musketeers + 5 catapults + various riff raff. My 8 bought catapults will be 2t delayed, so these 5 will likely bombard F's defenses for 2t while waiting for the remainder to arrive. Azza has 5 pikemen that I can see, that's going to impair his defenses a lot. He has an unknown stack either on the forest or W of it, consisting of at least 6 catapults and 5 macemen. I feel confident I can take F, but it can be costly and/or slow if he gets a castle there before I start bombarding. I think I want to move my stack to the forest fort S of F, pillaging roads with my chariots to make reinforcement difficult and to prevent him from striking at my reinforcements. Even with a castle and 100% defenses I can bring it down in just 3t with my full catapult force. I will strike at his stack outside of F if I get the chance, anything approaching 1:1 casualties would be a big benefit for me.

I have also sent 2 galleys down to F, filled with 3 musketeers and 1 praetorian. It can reinforce the siege of F if necessary, but I'm planning on sailing deep into his territory. I don't think I'll be able to capture anything, but I will be in striking distance of both his capital, his Moai/horse city and a small filler city NW of the capital. This will force him to spread his troops, complicating his defenses. If I go for the bombardment plan, that helps buy me time to down his defenses before striking. I would love to be able to threaten his island, but researching Astronomy means giving up Colossus and I think I'm better off delaying that for the time being.

I got Constitution at EOT, so next turn I'm set to revolt to Mercantilism and Representation. I'm tempted to switch to Caste System for the specialist slots, I will still be able to switch back in 5t before GA ends. Also tempted to switch to Bureaucracy, but AA really isn't a great Bureacapital. I think I will keep it for another 5t and draft muskets all over to take advantage of happiness surplus, then switching to Bureaucracy in 5t. I have all but stopped training troops, still drafting 3 muskets every turn. My western cities are starting to feel the hurt, so I'm going to draft other cities from now on. Demos are strong and still growing:

Taking my NAPs with waterbat and Superjm into consideration, I think I'm in a solid winning position. I've discussed the diplo system at length in Civ General lately, and I have to agree that the ability to sign NAPs that are unbreakable (for all practical purposes) is probably too strong. I do think that limiting the duration would help some with that. Still, the NAP with waterbat was not obtained by trickery. And Superjm was busy fighting a war on two fronts. Azza has mobilized slowly and could have put a lot of pressure on JJ. I didn't have NAPs with Superjm that prevented him from joining in, those were all short in duration. I think Nationhood contributed more to escaping the catpile than NAPs, getting 3 troops practically for free each turn is crazy. Just look at this power graph:

Also, look at waterbat's power. His power kept spiking up until his stack loss, whereas Azza's peak didn't last very long. I'm not sure if Azza was trying to drag waterbat in without committing much himself, it looks like his focus was still on growing. He still has a very strong economy at this point, whereas waterbat whipped his into the ground for a second time. He came very close to causing major problems, I just barely managed to get enough troops by the time he invaded. He made a critical mistake in dividing his troops and underestimating the size of my hidden stack, allowing me to land a lucky strike against it. If not for that, I very well may have conceded Great Dane to waterbat in exchange for a 20t NAP. I even offered Azza a 20t NAP in exchange for Jagged Jaguar at one point, when I feared he was able to take Porny Porcupine through a naval invasion. Had both of those events happened, the catpile would have essentially succeeded as I would have lost two major cities. I would still be in a good position to keep growing, but so would Azza and waterbat. Azza could have teamed up with Superjm against Xenon and Sareln, making big territorial gains in no time. My wonders would still give me a long-term advantage, but I think it would have been pretty close. Losing both silver and wine would also have stung, +4 happiness with forge and forum.

[Catwalk]

t114 mini report

- Civic switches:
Hereditary Rule => Representation
+7 upkeep, generally improved happiness situation, crisis in Jagged Jaguar which relied on garrison happiness (currently 6 out of 7 unhappy faces, goes down to 2 out of 7 next turn), +3 bpt per specialist

Slavery => Caste System
8 citizen specialists upgraded

Decentralization => Mercantilism
+8 upkeep
Lost 29 commerce per turn in trade revenue
Gained 21 specialists
May have denied Superjm and waterbat a few gpt in trade revenue

Theocracy => Organized Religion
+7 upkeep
Currently constructing buildings almost everywhere

I decided to keep Nationhood for now, +2 happiness from barracks is nice and I get major civic savings over Bureucracy. I also intend to keep drafting 3 muskets per turn across my empire, no longer focusing them on the invasion of Azza. I also decided not to take Pacifism yet, military upkeep would have been a massive 84 gpt.

In 5t or so I want to change again:
Nationhood => Bureaucracy: Hoping to have a palace in HH at this time, and expecting to extend the GA by another 9t
Caste System => Slavery: Expecting to have a few more libraries in place in 5t, also expecting to have finished pumping artists against waterbat and Azza
Organized Religion => Pacifism: Expecting to lose a bunch of troops and completing a good amount of buildings, making this switch a good deal

[slowcheetah]

t114 mini report

- Civic switches:
Hereditary Rule => Representation
+7 upkeep, generally improved happiness situation, crisis in Jagged Jaguar which relied on garrison happiness (currently 6 out of 7 unhappy faces, goes down to 2 out of 7 next turn), +3 bpt per specialist

Slavery => Caste System
8 citizen specialists upgraded

Decentralization => Mercantilism
+8 upkeep
Lost 29 commerce per turn in trade revenue
Gained 21 specialists
May have denied Superjm and waterbat a few gpt in trade revenue

Theocracy => Organized Religion
+7 upkeep
Currently constructing buildings almost everywhere

I decided to keep Nationhood for now, +2 happiness from barracks is nice and I get major civic savings over Bureucracy. I also intend to keep drafting 3 muskets per turn across my empire, no longer focusing them on the invasion of Azza. I also decided not to take Pacifism yet, military upkeep would have been a massive 84 gpt.

In 5t or so I want to change again:
Nationhood => Bureaucracy: Hoping to have a palace in HH at this time, and expecting to extend the GA by another 9t
Caste System => Slavery: Expecting to have a few more libraries in place in 5t, also expecting to have finished pumping artists against waterbat and Azza
Organized Religion => Pacifism: Expecting to lose a bunch of troops and completing a good amount of buildings, making this switch a good deal

Aren't you fighting a war with Azza to try and end the game? Why pacifism over theocracy?

[Catwalk]

I'm not fighting Azza to squish him, though. I expect to take F and maybe raze a coastal city. I should be able to hold on to that with my current army quite easily. In the meantime I'm making sure my snowball keeps rolling, and with all the specialists I'll be running in 5t, Pacifism is very appealing.

Just researched Paper, planning on making a run for Liberalism if noone has Education next turn. Then probably Rifling.

[Catwalk]

I will post a proper report tomorrow, don't have time for one tonight. I've moved my troops up to F, and I decided to unload my troops on the forest tundra fort S of it in order to control the surrounding area better. I have 6 catapults ready to strike next turn, another 8 will be in position the turn after. Azza has a castle, so wittling down his defenses will be agonizingly slow. I think I might do some bombardment anyway, he will still lose 12% first turn and 28% each turn after that. So 3t would be enough to take him down to 32% defense, 4t would take him down to 4%. He has reinforced his coastal cities, I am bringing my 2 galleys back to let him think that I've loaded troops on them and then plan on sailing them up to his cities to scare him.

Azza decided to research Divine Right and found Islam, I take this as a good sign as the only useful thing he gains from that is The Spiral Minaret. If he's still partly in builder mode, I may well be able to take more than one city with this campaign.

[Catwalk]

I just had nightmares about Azza outmaneuvering me and capturing one of my cities with 3 war chariots that he upgraded to cavalry. I remember I kept wondering in my dream how that was possible, because I'd double and triple checked his ability to break through my lines. What's worse, all forests and resources had disappeared and so had Jagged Jaguar! Maybe this game isn't healthy for me

[Catwalk]

The siege is underway. I have 51 fighting units + 14 catapults:

6x musket C1 + 1p
2x musket C1
2x musket C1 (1t delayed)
= 10 muskets
1x praetorian C1 + C2 + shock
1x praetorian C1 + shock
1x praetorian C1 + 1p
2x praetorian C1 + 1p (1t delayed)
= 5 praetorians
3x longbow 1p
1x chariot 1p
1x chariot sentry
= 5 riff raff
3x mace C1
13x mace C1 + 1p
3x mace C1 + 2p
1x mace C1 + shock 7.3/8
1x mace C1 + shock
1x mace C1 + shock 6.2/8
1x mace C1 + shock 5.4/8
2x mace C1 + shock 1p
1x mace C1 + shock + CR 7.8/8
1x mace C1 + medic + shock 6.2/8
1x mace C1 + C2 + shock 7.7/8
2x mace C1 + shock + CR
= 30 maces
2x crossbow 1p
1x crossbow C1 + 1p
1x crossbow C1 + shock 5.2/6
1x crossbow C1 + shock 4.3/6
= 5 maces
4x catapult 2p
3x catapult 1p
7x catapult 0p (arriving next turn)
= 14 catapults

He has 31 fighting units + 8 catapults + 2 trebuchets:

1x longbow CG1
4x mace C1
3x mace
1x horse archer
4x crossbow
1x longbow
1x pike C1
7x axe
5x pike C1
1x archer CG1
3x war chariot
8x catapult
2x trebuchet

I won't be invading until next turn, so I will bombard for one turn first. I'm debating a few different siege plans:
1) Taking accuracy on the catapults bombarding this turn, and using them to bombard next turn as well. This will take defenses down to 44% (26% for muskets). Then barrage with the remaining 7 catapults.
2) Bombarding this turn without accuracy and using all 14 catapults to barrage next turn. This will take defenses down to 86%.
3) Bombarding this turn and next turn with all catapults, then using all catapults to barrage the following turn. This lowers defenses to 58% and gives me 14 catapults worth of collateral.
4) Accuracy on 7 catapults, bombard with them 3t total. Bombard with the other 7 catapults for 1t, barrage the turn after. This reduces defenses to 2% and gives 7 catapults worth of collateral.

I'm conservatively guestimating that he will reinforce with 3 maces for each turn I wait. Any suggestions on bombard vs barrage, and how long I should wait? A very crude WB suggests that I can defeat him next turn at roughly 1:1 casualty rate.

A key factor here is that he has 10 siege units which are sitting ducks. Am I at risk of being barraged and pounded? I think I have enough units that he won't injure them enough to make a succesful offensive. Moreover, I have a medic in my stack and most of my units get to sit still for this turn so they will heal next turn. I also have a promotion available on over half my units for further healing, and I have brought 2 great generals along in case I need them.

cheetah and xenu, if either of you have the time to look at the save and offer input that'd be fabulous. I expect to forward the save later tonight, going out for a birthday party now.

[Catwalk]

I decided to get Accuracy upgrades on 4 catapults and bombard F down to 78%, didn't realize that Barrage or City Raider was needed for Accuracy. I then used a great general to give another promotion to the 8 catapults which are 1t away. Next turn I will have 15 catapults available, letting me bombard F down to 36% and then attack the turn after. I prefer that approach, counting on the weakened defenses to be worth more to me than the cost of Azza reinforcing.

I got Education in 1t, can get Liberalism next turn. Noone is a threat to beating me to it, so I will be able to let it sit for a while and wait for a more expensive tech to be unlocked. Democracy is the most expensive tech in close range at 2682 beakers, compared to 1341 for Economics, 1532 for Printing Press (unlocks Democracy and Replaceable Parts), 1724 for Replaceable Parts and 2299 for Rifling. I think I want Economics first in order to grab the free Great Merchant.

I have another 4t of GA, this plan would let me do another revolt before then. Lots of options:

Representation => Universal Suffrage (+1h from towns, rush with gold)
Probably not worth it as long as I'm running Mercantilism, also don't have enough towns yet (only 9).

Nationhood => Free Speech (+100% culture, +2c from towns)
Also not worth it, I'm still drafting muskets and I have too few towns. The culture would be nice, but I needed that bonus a dozen turns ago. It's not quite as critical now. I'm also liking the +2 happiness from barracks, helps a lot with draft unhappiness.

Caste System => Emancipation (+100% cottage growth, happy penalty for other players)
Would be great, I have lots of cottages in need of growth and I want to get into the other cottage oriented civivs soon.

Caste System => Slavery (back to whipping)
Also useful, but not as useful as boosted cottage growth. I want to get Universal Suffrage soon, lets me boost new cities at no cost to themselves.

Mercantilism => Free Market (+1 trade route)
Not worth it as long as I'm in Representation, and I think I prefer Mercantilism even without Representation.

Organized Religion => Pacifism (+100% GPP)
I think this will be highly profitable after I bloody myself against F's defenses, I will have around 40 base GPP in 5 cities where I plan on getting a great person)

Organized Religion => Theocracy (+2 XP for new units)
Will definitely go back to this later when I need to do another troop pump, right now both Organized Religion and Pacifism are worth more to me.


So it looks like I'll only be switching to Emancipation and Pacifism. Universal Suffrage is tempting though, especially without Slavery. I should have another GA before too long, hoping to switch to US + FS within the next 15t to take advantage of my growing amount of towns.