Dazed didn't bulb philosophy, but he now has Civil Service. He surely didn't bulb that using the scientist, though. Oh well - I'm not going to worry my pretty little head with it.
Dazed's fur city wasn't a new city, but a somewhat older city expanding its borders. I unloaded my sentry chariot so I'd have one empty galley to defend against his galley, if he attacks. I might still have a chance to do some damage here; next turn, I'll probably move the sentry chariot first to take a look a the city, and then decide how to proceed.
Novice has broken the blockade, and I completed walls in Comoros for additional security at the end of the turn. I'm also starting to plan my next offensive move in this area. It's a brilliant tactical maneuver - can you guess what it is? (Don't answer that if you're spoiled.)
(Note: I haven't taken any actual steps towards implementing the plan yet, so there aren't really any clues to search for in the picture.)
My archer and worker made it safely across the wild seas. Settler and second archer to follow next turn.
I set my slider to 50% this turn, which should probably let me finish feudalism in three turns at 100% after that. At 50% research, I'm currently #1 in GNP.
City shots:
Djibouti will whip the Rathaus next turn, and finish the pyramids with the overflow from that and two chops. I'm starting to hope I do land it now, both for the police state civic and for denial.
Looks like Dazed chose to ferry across workers before defenders, so I may have caught him with his pants down. Of course, this could still end in tears, as he could theoretically unload a couple of spears on my horse archers and sink my galleys.
On the one hand, it feels strategically questionable to harass Dazed like this, since I could kind of use those troops on my other fronts. On the other hand, I feel like my best long term prospect is to shore up my east front and eventually consume Dazed, who will have a hard time to stay alive without iron. So if I can keep giving him minor setbacks, I probably should. But it could backfire, by causing him to focus on me while letting his guard down on the Boldly front.
Some unsettling scouting in the east:
If Novice moves in with a big stack, I may be in trouble unless I can flank away his catapults. Of course, he knows that I have horse archers, so hopefully he'll be conservative here. Incidentally, I guess he must have had iron working or some time, because I never saw him research it, but there's a swordsman there.
Some inconvenience in the southeast:
Boldly moved his island-roaming impi to the hill where I was planning to settle. Hopefully he keeps patrolling, otherwise it will take me a few turns to dispatch it. I could have used my GG axe here, but I didn't dare to move it away from Comoros.
Further south, I moved a sentry chariot to gain visibility on Boldly's city on the south tip of the island. I forgot to take a picture, but it's size 6, with two axes as a garrison. (Not a very safe garrison...)
Next turn, I'll either get 180 failgold or complete the pyramids.
I was tempted to run a turn of espionage slider against Novice to gain permanent visibility on his two cities. But I'll get feudalism first, at least. And after that, I guess it will still be a tough call whether that commerce could be better spent on longbow upgrades or research instead.
It just occurred to me that it's a fairly ominous sign that Boldly hasn't revolted into bureaucracy yet. Maybe he's waiting for more civics to become available... and maybe he can't afford the anarchy, because he's about to finish a wonder. :/
Well, not really, though I guess it might be time for a follow-up if I find myself with a lot of spare time. But the turn was a bit of a letdown.
First of all, I did lose the pyramids - but to Novice, not Boldly. Makes sense, since he did research masonry way back when. I'm guessing his build may have been a bit delayed by a blockaded stone city or something.
Maybe it will work out from a meta perspective, cementing his position as the one to drag down? (Trying to find the silver lining here. ) I'm still bummed because it would have been pretty cool to run a police state.
Here is what really concerns me the most about this turn, though:
I did not see that coming, and I can only hope Novice didn't, either, although it looks like he's well prepared to take advantage. With Byte popping its 60% borders, he reclaimed both of the tiles right next to Comoros. So needless to say, it is now a LOT more difficult to defend. With those two spears I've highlighted, he could march a stack right up to the city and bombard. I would then have to attack those spears to try flanking away the catapults, which is something I need to research, to see how feasible that is. He could also just position a stack in the fort, and then attack me directly from there. That's probably what I would do. Can you flank catapults in a fort? With my luck, I'm guessing not. Anyway, in his shoes I would probably try to bring some more catapults first, but the situation is certainly dicey here. Good thing I'll have longbows soon, but against enough catapults, nothing will hold. Maybe I'll have to race for the music artist to get out of this bind.
In the north, Dazed evidently couldn't stop me and I'll raze his island city and retreat with my galleys and land units intact, including the captured worker. Boldly also moved off the hill that I wanted to settle on, on that other island. So I'm not unhappy about the developments on those fronts. But I am very worried about the Novice front.
BTW. Dazed did revolt into multiple civics this turn. But he went with hereditary rule, and probably wasn't chasing the pyramids at all.
I did a little research and simming and discovered some good and some bad news.
Good news: Even just a single longbow will bolster my defenses very well against an attack by the units that I can see from Novice (1 sword, 5 phalanxes, 2 spears, 5 chariots, 4 catapults). So in the short term I just need to make sure I can get some longbows into Comoros ASAP.
Bad news: There is no way to upgrade to a longbow in the queue, so I am still three turns away from actually having longbows in my city. And catapults can in fact not be flanked in forts (forts work like cities for tactical purposes). So my tactical situation is almost comically bad here: he can just put a stack in the fort, knowing that I can't attack out very effectively, and then hit me on the next turn. So if he does advance a stack, I'll just have to park my horse archers in the city as additional defenders.
Good news: As cannon fodder, horse archers do also work out decently. They can absorb collateral damage, and once the archers get redlined, the horse archers can serve as defenders against phalanxes and chariots.
Bad news: He can just keep building catapults and eventually overwhelm me.
Good news: I can just keep building longbows and eventually pop my borders and/or get to knights. And for every longbow I add on the defense, I estimate that he'll need to add at least one catapult + one real attacker to his stack.
Ok, so in short, the conclusion is that I just need to survive the next couple of turns and then things might be looking up a bit. Same as always...
After simming ahead a couple of turns in the sandbox, I finally went ahead and played the turn. I'll have enough gold or three longbow upgrades on turn 92, at a pricey 71 gold each. So I'm just focusing on getting as many units as possible into Comoros before then. I'll be settling two cities next turn, maxing out my trade routes, unless Boldly takes and wins a lucky shot against my settler/archer pair, in which case it will only be one city.
In the north, Dazed evacuated his remaining worker and left his city undefended. So I razed it and headed back.
I did have the opportunity to take the above shot at Mars Hill, but decided not to. Enough harassment for now.
I'm taking the spoils and going home to secure my other fronts.
On the eastern island, Boldly is building a road across the island, apparently to connect ivory. Kind of bizarre move, when he could just settle another city there instead. Maybe this means he can ill afford another city? Who knows. I couldn't resist the temptation to set a little trap here, so I decided to spare one horse archer from the Novice front and put him on that galley along with a worker. Next turn, I can settle the city, unload a second worker and the horse archer, build a road segment, and possibly surprise him somehow. In any case, disrupting that road project seems worthwhile. I'm covering my settler here with a guerilla I archer on a jungled hill, but it is just one unit, so it's a slight risk.
Some more overview shots:
After ending turn, I finally got another natural spread of hinduism.
I also gained research visibility on Dazed, who is about to finish monarchy.
I founded two new cities - Liechtenstein and Monaco - on T91. My economy at 60% research, before and after:
And yes, those screenshots are in the correct order.
On T92, I did a fair amount of whipping, including three more rathauses, and switched into caste system and vassalage. The situation at the Novice front is probably under control, as he has two catapults positioned three tiles away, in a defensive posture. If he wanted to hit me they would probably be elsewhere; he would either just move everything into the fort, or if he wanted to be more sneaky, load up his boats and unload them in the fort on the turn of attack. Anyway, I've stuffed the city with archers, but held back on upgrading any of them so far. I did spend a turn of 50% EPs on him, so I'll have city visibility on him when the turn comes back to me. Comoros will pop its borders to 40% in two turns, using three caste artists. That should let me reclaim the closest tiles pretty soon. I'm also working 5 scientists in Brunei during this period of caste system, which will take me some of the way towards my third GP. I figure I'll go for an academy in the capital if I can get a scientist. But if not, I guess it's not the end of the world.
On the Boldly front, I could have sniped two workers on the turn that I settled Liechtenstein, but I chose not to as I would have had to delete them and it would expose a valuable shock horse archer. Maybe that was wise, as there was apparently an axe in the area, too. I popped the borders with an artist on EOT92, revealing that two of those workers are still exposed. I also got a free religion spread - nice. Boldly is probably annoyed with me cutting him off from his ivory here. He really should have planted a city instead.
Dazed revolted into hereditary rule, but it looks like Novice intends to get bureaucracy before revolting. Or maybe he's planning a golden age soon.
(Don't answer that if you're spoiled.)
Settler and second archer to follow next turn.
) I'm still bummed because it would have been pretty cool to run a police state.
