[spoiler] Civac fixes it (again)

[civac2]

I will make a bigger update in two turn. In short:

Siege of AT's capital will begin next turn after a couple turns of healing. Gavagai declared war on AT and is going to attack one of AT's resettled border city with a 20+ strong elephant/cat/axe/war chariot stack. I had rerouted some units to take the banana city but they go back to AT's mainland to secure AT's capital and holy city against Gavagai.

Some units I had placed near the Commodore border for safety will also go to the west. That part is/will soon be secured by newly made longbows with Vassalage bonus. (I still have almost no barracks. This way they can get CG1 at least.)

Golden age is less impressive than hoped because the capital is making an artist instead of working supercharged tiles and I whipped so much. In my defence part of that was due to me thinking Commodore was going to attack me. Things are improving as the cities grow. Forges are in the works in most cities.

[Ruff_Hi]

Sorry ... real life has been limiting my time with Civ. I am reading (and learning a lot - thanks).

[civac2]

I decided to bombard down defenses again. Taking the city would have been possible but I don't want to lose as few units as possible against AT. Gavagai has caugt up in power now. Reinforcements are on the way but distances are long. Atm I still have a bigger army in the conflict area than Gavagai.

Yeah, I was wondering if you had finally abandoned this game. I will try to be as comprehensive as I can for the next real update.

[civac2]

Combat chances were worse than I had hoped and I lost 3 catapults and 4 praetorians. Outcomes were below expectations but only by a little bit. In retrorespect, it would have been better to attack the previous turn.



This is what's left:



Three catapults, two praets, an axe and a horse archer are close. Some more units on the way but still need 5+ turns to arrive.

Gavagai's army:



Lower tech and a few units less. There are only 4 units in the city and behind it that I can see. He most have more somewhere. Hopefully, I won't lose too much against the holy city. It's on a hill too. Fortunately, Gavagai is going for AT's coastal city. That will give me a bit more time to take the holy city and set up defensively. I'm not sure what I would have done had he gone for AT's capital.

[civac2]

From next turn, Legerity will stagnate and one-turn praetorians until the GA is over.



I settled the second general. It was a result of the capture of AT's capital.

Tombola hatched an artist and can now work its tiles.



I will likely switch to Bureaucracy, Organized Religion and Hinduism next turn. Not sure about the timing. Confucianism would still be slightly better than Hinduism as it is present in more of the important cities but long term spreading Hinduism will be superior due to the shrine.

Terpsichorean and Terraqueous each spawn a merchant.





I may delay the merchant in Terraqueous for some other GPs.

Cities are building forges.



The war made it impossible to spread Confucianism in advance.

First lumber mill is being worked.



I did not manage to whip the lighthouse in time. So the city has to hardbuild its lighthouse with the lumber mills.

[civac2]

Tombola is the most awesome city in the world.



Demos at balanced research is nice. However, other players are collecting gold. Their peak gnp is higher. Civil Service also has two fulfilled prerequisites.



We have recovered enough to be at +270 gold at 0% research. This is with a 15 gpt loan payment to Jowy. Speaking of Jowy he reaches 220 gpt without GA, so his economy is probably better than ours. We are still behind on infrastructure and have a large army and spread out empire to support. Jowy Wang Kon, almost no units and a much more compact empire. He is also up to 17 cities. I think he finished Machinery this or last turn.

Not sure if I mentioned that Gavagai took this city.



It's uncomfortably close to Legerity. Legerity's enormous culture pressure offers some protection. I will dispatch a scout there to monitor things.

The other dangerous area is the border region with Commodore.



I just managed to get city walls into the cities. The first longbows are assuming guard duty right now. The trireme does not actually block anything. It's there merely for educational reasons.

[civac2]

Amicalola and Superdeath are fighting Lewwyn right now and seem to be winning. Amicalola took and razed a city of Lewwyn's. (Probably with a wonder. I am not following the game properly and missing things like that. Pyramids and Hanging Gardens are still around anyway.) Lewwyn has machinery now.

Jowy is going for the hardcore peacer route and has a very strong economy. He could consider a knight attack. He also just researched Machinery (I think).

Gavagai is powerful and big but seems to be reseaching slowly. I will try to get more info on him.

No idea whatever the f*ck Commodore is doing. He may also consider a knight attack but seems to be just turtling with less than stellar economy.

As for further plans. Currently, I am considering going Machinery (safety) -> Philosophy -> Nationalism and build the Taj in the bureaucracy capital with an overflow cascade while building proper infrastructure everywhere. Then go Rifling via Guilds, Banking, Gunpowder, Printing Press.

Geostrategically, Gavagai is the logical target for more expansion for the same reason AT was. He is big but seems to have issues with his economy. Still a knight attack against 20 cities worth of elephants and catapult seems foolish. We are big enough to get to rifles via endless GAs, FIN and AT's shrine.

[civac2]

Trying to hasten the capture of the shrine may not have been the best idea I ever had.



Maybe we get lucky. If the elephants get damaged heavily that's already an acceptable outcome.



Legerity one-turns 7 EXP praetorians for the remaining GA turns.



Nisus is the city I tormented the most. After whipping a good number of units it also had to get a library just before the ga to counter Gavagai's culture pressure. It just shed its fifth instance of whip anger and regrew enough to work most of its good tiles.



Grimoire gets in on the Great Person thing. Notice the irrigated rice due to Civil Service. There are a good number of cities which can really make use of chain irrigation.

[civac2]

AT did not attack. The rest of the army has caught up. Several units are still injured. I may have to bombard again. City is size 1 now.

The turn opened with





an opportunity.

This sounds very enticing. There are dangers too though. Most of Gavagai's army is on our side of his Empire. Maybe that was Commodore's aim. I sent back War with Gavagai and 4 Gold vs Wheat, trying to say I need 4 turns to heal (and take AT's shrine city). It would be inconvenient if he accepts the offer. (Didn't think about that possibility.) I don't think Commodore will do that though and surely Gavagai would be more than happy to peace out in the worst case.

Part of Gavagai's army.



He has about 25 units in the area that I can see and probably a good deal of reinforcements. Part of his forces are war chariots which are not terribly effective anymore. But he also has catapults, elephants and decently promoted axes, all of which work well against our stack. We have about 35 units of catapults, praetorians, horse archers, axes and a few elephants, spears. I suspect the forces in the area are about even. I cannot allow Gavagai to get a first strike on the stack. But before that even becomes relevant I need to take the shrine city and let the stack heal.

Jowy started a GA and changed civics (see event log above). His trade screen:



Yikes. We are still paying 15 gpt loan payments to him (two more turns) and some of it is gpt from Serfdom but still.

Bureau capital.

[civac2]

Simulation said I could reasonably attack without bombarding.



And indeed the fourth catapult already has positive odds and manages to withdraw. All in all the bombarding thing worked out for AT's flatland city but for the hill cities just attacking would have been better. The odds were not improved enough to justify waiting a turn even with the extra healing accounted for.



I only lost three catapults. However, this city was less well defended than the other hill cities too, AT being thoroughly exhausted.



Shrine is OK. I doubt this would be worth wasting a GP on but getting it this way is nice. The city can be used to birth a prophet for the fourth golden age with one free priest and three priest slots from the shrine. Unfortunately, the pool is not clean as ToA itself provides merchant points.



AT's islands are lightly defended but there are more important matters afoot. Should I make a peace offer? Would that be insulting?