[59] Miguelito and Rusten move stacks to berimbau rythms

[Miguelito]

Ok, why did I think knights cost 100h ? It's not like we didn't whip enough the last game... Viola suddenly had produced one already, and I could not whip Lavandeira for 2 pop - of course this is welcome and makes everything a good bit easier .

Last demos before the whippening:


Last turn we were top MfG still, and top GNP. Someone big fired a GA. Let's see if this is our zenith, or if we'll come back stronger.

After the first round:


Could be worse
 


I hope we can afford the grocer in CC, and another in Bonfim after 2 or 3 knights.

A little extra on Bonfim btw: In the shot from last turn you could see that it was at 19/17 health, and grew this turn. Meaning that had we not whipped this turn, the city actually would ha ve benefitted from the Exp health bonus!


I think we could consider declaring next turn already. Kill the warrior on the border with a chariot (for 6 XP so that we can make a morale medic if we want to), cover with a minor stack (crossbow, 3 axes, spear, HA, sentry chariot, maybe the first knight, if we don't want to conceal him?), and move the catapults into his sight. We could then move up to his city and start bombarding while assembling sufficient knights.
Donovan just ended his GA without reaching Engineering. But it is not like we were giving away an element of surprise, and even if we provoke whips now that pop will not be pikes or castles later. So I don't see a downside in delcaring already. Judging by his power he also should not have a dangerous catapult stack that could become dangerous for our 1 movers, which will move over hills and forest (Donovan generously left our border unchopped, many thanks ). I'd appreciate your opinion here of course.

[Rusten]

Sounds good to declare early. Especially if it looks like he knows it's coming, but I can't give that much of an opinion until around 11 pm.

Does he have HBR? If not then getting a head start with 1-movers and cats should be good for sure. Although I doubt he could have too enough of them either way.

[Miguelito]

Attention, if we want to aftercare this turn we mustn't log in before Donovan. I would not mind at all playing first, because I think going second we'll hold up the game, but we've played second for the last 2 turns.

[Rusten]

I have all tomorrow morning/early afternoon available. I can wait and log in at some point then instead.

[Rusten]

Good news: Border city is still size 6.
Bad news: DZ has engineering now (I still fancy attacking of course). He didn't pre-whip a spear, but he will have at least 1 pikeman when we attack the city Nevermind, I'm sleepy and goofed on the tech screen -- he does not have engineering!   
Looks like you forgot to whip a city (furs).




Roading this hill with the worker is planned I presume? Will speed up our catapult stack by 1 turn. Not too worried about not standing on a forest against DZ in his current state. A few knights that catches up should be sufficient (Bonfim+O.M) in addition to what we already have. I say declare war now and move stack next to Sawblaze next turn. Protect workers with city spear+archer (and knight?). It shows that we have knights, but I mean it's perfectly visible through the tech screen anyway. Up to you, you could easily cover with just spear+archer+xbow+HA+axeX2. Maybe I like that better, you always want to allow your opponents to make mistakes. No need to force-feed the information.

Taking another look tomorrow during the day.

edit: The best way to deal with Icewave is probably to take it with leftover/reinforcing catapults and axes, but it can wait.

Now that I realized he doesn't have engineering I'm even hopeful about Canoa+Madeira knights doing damage after being dropped 2NE of Whiplash.

[Rusten]

Nevermind the comment about the whiplash drop. I just realized you've placed the galley in range of unloading 2 knights in O.M. next turn (with full movement available). That's way better, and means +2 knights to protect the stack. I agree with DoW for sure.

[Rusten]

I don't love whipping the fishing villages with only 4 food per turn another time from 4 -> 2, but I think the extra knights are too good to pass up, and it looks like you played with this in mind as the overflow lines up perfectly in both. Knights right now are more valuable than knights 15 turns from now after all.

edit: And logging in now I see that the western galley+trireme stack is not in range of O.M. Should've had this 1SE of current position already I think. 
Start sending Camunjere catapult down south to eventually capture Icewave?

[Miguelito]

War is declared. Like a true man, I blame everything that follows on my kids keeping me from sleeping regularly (don't worry, it's not too bad).

As you already noticed, I've been negligent planning galley movements. I actually felt very smart about not whipping Iemanjá yet, because the knight would only board next turn - didn't think about unloading it the same turn   - well this turn I really screwed up, moving the galley at Jogador south without the knight on it . Very very stupid and delays 2 knights for 2 turns, and then the follow up, I hope you can excuse me.

The rest is going to plan. I popped the worker on the stone to get a 7 XP chariot, so I had to cover 2 hills. I don't think he has a massive HA force in the fog, but if he does we might lose some units, but kill some of his, which hurts him more.

I eratically started a galley in Corta Cana because I don't like how long it takes to get units from the islands, and we'll keep ferrying once we can draft.

Icewave I think is an excellent musketeer target, or is that too far downthe road?

[Rusten]

I don't think he has a massive HA force in the fog, but if he does we might lose some units, but kill some of his, which hurts him more.

Last time I checked he didn't have HBR, so the worst he could do is chariots or randomly have 2 workers nearby to complete a road.

Musketeers for Icewave sounds alright, the tech is only 4 turns away.

edit: DZ has engineering now.
You chose to whip catapult over knight in O.M.?! I guess it makes sense if you stop to bombard, and with us lacking some knights still, but knights eat archers even with full cultural defense.
Would've been better to let Bonfim grow end of last turn I think, I changed from that hill on purpose because it could take the Levandeira lumber mill, but no biggie. We have bigger things going on.

[Miguelito]

Would've been better to let Bonfim grow end of last turn I think, I changed from that hill on purpose because it could take the Levandeira lumber mill, but no biggie. We have bigger things going on.

How did I manage to screw that up ? I changed a grassland hamlet to the hill for the extra forge hammer, and somehow didn't look at the food bar. Oh well.

First skirmishes in the side theatre:


Losing 90% is annoying, but the risk of losing the knight was considerable, so I won't complain. Cleared afterwards, but we have no very good way forward.

I was worried about catapults hiding behind Sawblaze, so I sacrificed the sentry chariot (we may have to replace him with the HA):


Only after moving the big stack it occured to me that I could have covered with Woody axes and the knight, duh. We spend a turn bombarding while the knights keep trickling in, then strike t127. There will be pikes, but after collateral I hope we'll be ok. Should we promote some of the 5XP catapults to accuracy, or just CR2?
Should we save those forests for something big? Kremlin, Pentagon, Redentor, National Park.... lumbermills meanwhile of course.
He has that strike force of 4 chariots which I can only approve of. If I'm not misreading F4 completely, he has had HBR since t119 or 120. BUt no HAs in sight, good.
That hill dot - how about 1N? Gets the same resources, but also the wine on the island.

We found Mr. Cairo with the awesome but slow Darius of Aztecs combo. Sadly, from his resources it seems that he hasn't had too much success with it. I should check past relations with Amicalola