[SPOILERS] Dark Savant leads the noble Inca as half-noble Churchiill

[Dark Savant]

I made most of my moves for turn 113, and now I've stopped for now because I'm unsure just how hard to whip swords.

The problem is that I've already committed to swords, and they're not exactly speedy compared to horse archers.

I'll think this one over.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 113 (50 BC) - Part 1

Civ 4 never tells you about forest growing outside your territory.



That worker is on a forest which just showed up out of nowhere.

I think I want to settle on the tile south of the wheat.  It's not an incredible city site or anything, but it does have sixseven forests to chop and maybe I can get a wonder there.  I want to get that going soon so it can start on growth and infrastructure now.

There's no sword whipping frenzy this turn; I whip two in cities (Sunspear and The Eyrie) that aren't as highly developed as my earlier cities.




The southern island is shipping troops north, which isn't the direction I was expecting to send military in. 

I'll have furs connected on turn 116 (3 turns).

[Dark Savant]

Turn 113 (50 BC) - Part 2

I forgot to grab a screenshot of this , but Charriu moved a worker to a forest near his capital that I can see, and he has an axe in that area too.

Charriu didn't have horses last I checked.  Someone can be shipping them to him free though, so he doesn't collapse as quickly.



is giving Charriu a pile of free luxuries, but no one is giving him horses.  So I advance an axe towards his worker and position a couple of chariots so they can hit a lone axe covering the worker.

should be getting an alert that he is neglecting culture on his border.



Losing a couple water tiles is no big deal, but if he doesn't build culture, he'll eventually lose control of the three tiles east of kwaDukuza.  (Huh, there's iron there.)

recently built an impi there, which moved away from the border.  I suppose he's more concerned about JR4 -- he doesn't have an impi here at all now, which suggests he doesn't fear me attacking with horse archers soon.  (Well, he's right about that.)

JR4 isn't done building military.



Five whips this turn:



I still have this nagging doubt that swords are too slow here.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 114 (25 BC) - Part 1

The hammer everyone was holding their breath for finally starts crashing downward.



Charriu and JR4 both played before me, in that order, so JR4 has second half on Charriu.  JR4 did not capture Charriu's border city this turn.

Here's an overview of Charriu's current territory (he has one city whose location is unknown -- it's probably on an island to the north):



I still have several turns to get troops in position to capture Pandidakterion (currently garrisoned by three axes, a spear, and an archer), but the clock on that is winding down.

Charriu apparently still has yet to learn that he needs to fear chariots rumbling out of the fog to knock down axes.



Phillip Martin Simms rumbles out of the fog, knocks over the axe at ~79% odds, and captures Charriu's worker attempting unauthorized destruction of trees. 

Charriu does not actually have any units in range of the winning chariot (unless he has Construction -- doubtful, I'd probably have seen walls by now if he has it), so I don't even need to cover it with the axe I had nearby.

The victorious chariot gets vision on Charriu's capital garrison.



You know, maybe I should let JR4 handle that.   Charriu is running light on spears, though.

And with that many swords, I would have thought he would have tried a counterattack, but apparently not.  It is a frontier city in what will soon be three directions, though.

yuris125 finally captured the barbarian city near the southern island.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 114 (25 BC) - Part 2

I should finally have Mathematics in 2 turns.

I still do not know what I should research after that.

• Construction: for half-price colosseums, 2 promotions out of the gate, catapults, and bridges.  I don't think I'll get catapults in time to make a difference against Charriu.
  
• Calendar: for a lot more happiness and maybe a shot at the Mausoleum (no one other than wetbandit appears to have Calendar, but he's had it for ~10 turns now)
  
• Metal Casting: quite a few known tech bonuses, forges, and triremes
  
• Aesthetics: so I can take a shot at all three of its wonders, and maybe also make a play for the Great Library beyond it
  
• Code of Laws: for courthouses and on the way to Civil Service.  This doesn't seem as strong as one of the above four.  (Researching Civil Service is going to cost a fortune.)
  
• Monarchy: for wines and a new government form.  Not nearly as appealing as the other choices, I think.
  

I'll need to check how many people have which techs once Mathematics is in, but I need to start thinking about this more now.  I really have no idea which is best.

Pyke 2-pop-whips the settler it is producing.  I'll then have no settlers in production again.  Much of that is because I'm growing towards the new happy cap; a lot of cities are growing in anticipation of the furs I'll connect in 2 turns.  I plan to start more settlers then.

Swords are still crawling towards Charriu.  I hope I'm not too late.  Incidentally, JR4 whipped 4 more times this turn.




All is still quiet on the western front.  wetbandit is noticeably low in power, but he's getting away with it because I'm attacking someone else, WilliamLP probably also will attack Charriu, and yuris125 has even lower power.  If I weren't next to Charriu I might well be attacking him instead.

[Dark Savant]

I'm not sure whether to be terrified of JR4 or grateful.

I can probably take Pandidakterion and shove enough units both there and in Pentos to deter an attack by JR4.  Though I don't think I have enough spears and archers en route for that to be safe; I should stop sword production after the ones I'm producing and swap to those.

Okay, so JR4 can advance on Academia.  That's so heavily garrisoned that it's not worth trying to crack myself; capitals are not super awesome on this map, and it doesn't have any wonders.  Didn't JR4 see that?  He had a scout running around Charriu's territory recently, and it must have passed over its copper and seen its garrison.  My guess is that he has enough horse archers to crack it, but it'll be costly.

And what happens if JR4 takes that, and even also Charriu's last mainland city I know of?  (Though I think WilliamLP is going to declare war and take the latter before either JR4 or I can.)  He'd then have a decided salient in between me and WilliamLP.  That's going to be an enormous pain for him to defend in the long run.  JR4 would be paying a lot of hammers and commerce for the privilege of being a buffer state (like Belgium or Paraguay) in between me and WilliamLP.

So if he realizes that, those horse archers might attack me.  I need to up spear/archer production.  Now.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 115 (1 AD) - Part 1

Some action on the foreign front.



JR4 did capture Charriu's border city this turn.  What I can attack Pandidakterion with before JR4 can get there is 3 swords, 5 axes, and assorted chariots, spears, and archers.  I have several more swords coming up behind that, but that will take ~3 extra turns and I'm not sure I have that much extra time.  Okay, so I overbuilt swords, as it happens.

wetbandit used Louis Pasteur to fire off a golden age.  And he revolted to Confucianism (I thought he was the founder, but this confirms it) and ... Bureaucracy!  Wow, he already has Civil Service ... he's really making use of his Pyramids build and not building so much military.  Maybe I should perform some more Wealth builds.

Charriu is actually trying to chase my chariot with a spear out of his capital ... so it just lost its fortify bonus. It's not going to be able to catch my injured chariot and worker.

Here's Charriu's current defense in Pandidakterion:



Those unguarded workers on the hill are there partly to try to bait some of the defenders out of Pandidakterion so they lose their fortify bonus.  Probably a vain attempt, but I want a road there anyway.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 115 (1 AD) - Part 2

I whip a couple extra spears in less-than-mature cities.  Some will take a while to reach the eastern front, however.

White Harbor whips a Buddhist monastery, because it had no whip unhappiness remaining, and I wanted to be sure I retain the upper hand in culture on the border.  I'll be developing its jungled corn soon so it can finally grow some more.

A few cities swap to Wealth.  Mathematics is due next turn.  A few cities are going to grow into unhappiness, but furs will be online next turn.




I'm hoping to swap to primarily domestic builds soon.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 115 (1 AD) - Part 3

Latest demographics and graphs.







As I was writing this up, played and whipped 6 times.  I wonder what he's up to.

[Dark Savant]

Slow-ish day at work (lots of people are away for the whole 4th of July week), and I haven't done an off-topic post in a while!

Why don't I talk about A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones misconceptions?

• The book/TV show go out of their way to kill 'em all and be depressing.
  
  Most of the time, what truly happens is that heroic tropes don't just happen because the stories say so.  Things instead typically happen for logical reasons.  If the logical result is tragedy, then tragedy happens.  (The main exception to that is trial by combat, at least in the main series.)
  
  Aside from that, Shakespeare, JRR Tolkien, and Agatha Christie all wrote well-known works that are far deadlier than the books or TV show.  All three are the opposite of obscure; it's as if people reading the books have never read anything else!
  
  If you want a happy ending in Martin, you make your chance of it much better if you competently set it up, and don't screw up.
  
  
• Jaime Lannister is going through a redemption arc.
  
  Dubious -- it might happen, but I'm very skeptical at best.  Redemption doesn't just happen because it's a thing that happens in stories.  Jaime is half-assing it, and that's not adequate for redemption.  Theon Greyjoy is the character actually pulling it off.
  
  Books only: Jaime might still be saved by Brienne, but that's really his only chance.  And since GRRM does tragedies of logical consequence -- well, we've seen that Brienne is absolutely willing to give up her life for adults whom she believes are worth it.  There aren't many who are, but Jaime is one of them, and if she gives up her life for him, Jaime is morally doomed.
  
  
• Taking Ramsay Bolton seriously when he says, "If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention".
  
  TV only.
  
  No one in their right mind trusts anything Ramsay says.
  
  
• There was no reason for Lady to die.
  
  Books only; this actually is true in the TV show, for reasons D&D couldn't have known at the time of making the episode, since A Dance with Dragons hadn't yet been published.
  
  There actually is a reason.  Let's suppose Lady's fate was instead the same as Nymeria's: she gets shooed into the wilderness, and never significantly interacts with humans ever again.  Things actually go badly if so much as that happens.
  
  Hint:
  
  Take a look at both Robb's and Jon Snow's last words, then pay attention to what Sansa says throughout the books.
  
  
  Full explanation:
  
  All of the Stark kids have the instinct to attempt to transfer consciousness to their direwolf if they think they're in mortal danger.
  
  When they do this, they say the name of their direwolf.  Grey Wind is apparently already dead (in the books) when Robb says his last words "Grey Wolf", so this fails for him.
  
  When Jon Snow does this (his last word is "Ghost"), this succeeds -- and he falls unconscious, just like Bran does when he consciously wargs Summer.
  
  Sansa instinctively does this too, during the siege of King's Landing.  She says "Lady" just as she's concerned King's Landing is about to fall and she despairs that she will be the victim of violence.  This fails because Lady is dead.  (There's no distance limit to warging -- Arya does it from much farther away than this would have been.)  If Lady is instead alive, she'd have fallen unconscious.
  
  And what happens almost immediately afterwards is that Sandor Clegane comes crashing into the room.  Sansa only prevents herself from being raped because she's able to sing a song, and that's enough to cause Sandor to decide not to do it.  If Sansa is instead unconscious, guess what happens?
  
  
  
• If the supernatural straight up says something, let's just ignore it!
  
  Books only.  A supernatural vision of Eddard appears to Arya and says "the lone wolf dies but the pack survives".  You'd think both readers and Arya would take a blatant supernatural vision seriously, but neither seem to!   Yes, she later remembers this and actively rejects it for the reason that the rest of her pack is dead.  (It, um, isn't.)
  
  
• Arya isn't going to die because his wife made him promise not to.
  
  One of the widespread myths in the fandom, up there with "Civ 1 Gandhi especially loves to use nukes".  It's a fandom fabrication.
  
  There's a lot that suggests that Arya is going to die, foreshadowing that is absent for Bran and Sansa.  Note that for the latter two, we've already seen multiple episodes of "oh no, foreshadowing one of these two is going to die.  LOL JK!"  My favorite is where Sansa dreams she's getting stabbed repeatedly and is bleeding to death.  That dream does mean something -- she wakes up and finds she's having her first ever period.
  
  You'd think people would have learned the lesson not to make up nonsensical myths.
  
  
• The next book is taking forever!
  
  Try looking at wordcount per year.  Martin actually compares favorably to most other well-known authors, the main exception being Brandon Sanderson (who is on another level).  Keep in mind that he actually had a lot of books 2 and even 3 written when book 1 was published, when no one cared; this extra material mostly ran out once book 3 hit the shelves.
  
  Or compare the wait to The Amtrak Wars or The War against the Chtorr, both of which have had much longer waits, and both of which still might actually be progressing.
  
  Or, if you think even dying leaving the work unfinished will mean it will be forgotten ... Well, that hasn't stopped Schubert's 8th Symphony or Dream of the Red Chamber from being popular (and both are almost as old as the United States).
  

This has been a Dark Savant Blog/postcount++ Post.