[Spoilers] Mismanaged empire is best empire

[AutomatedTeller]

absolutely - a full t150 report would be great!

[AdrienIer]

Ok

I've recently put signs on all flatland not-yet-improved tiles, with either "workshop" or "cottage" on it. That took some work but I think it was worth it in the end : In a few dozen turns all my cities will be using all their tiles with an even food surplus (that will be going into specialists after they grow enough)

[AdrienIer]

Interesting : Boak played his turn, with 3 fronts, in 15mn. On the other side Barteq (not at war) played for more than 30mn and once again whipped a thousand times.
I have a bad feeling about this I'm actually thinking of using the EP slider next turn to get Barteq's demos

[AdrienIer]

Taotao built the Taj... We are so fucked.

Anyway. First : exploration ! I can almost see Serdoa through Gav's borders. I'll go SE next turn to try and meet him but I doubt it will work. I'd like to meet the guys from the other continent but I'd have to build a spare WB for that... Which I still haven't done. Yeah it's pretty late to realize that.




Now the war.

Here is the situation at both cities. Guess what, they were both conquered.







I realized too late that HAs had good odds on the archers, so I used a knight for Trent Dock. I'd rather keep my knights for bigger fights. TD comes with a lighthouse, ED with a lighthouse and a courthouse.

The new situation is this :







I expect to take Middleport Dock but maybe not Belgrave if a new unit spawns in the interturn.

I decided to use my conquerer's gold to get a hundred EP. Barteq has over 500EPs on me and Dtay 200. This is nuts.




Demos

[AdrienIer]

Wow boak sure knows how to whip.

[AdrienIer]

3 knights should kill one of the 2 defenders (beyond the c2 pike there's a LB).




Of course the first knight does 0 hits (7.5% chances of that happening, compare that to the 3 hits I was supposed to get). The second knight gets 4 hits (slightly better than average) so the third knight can take on the LB. Of course it only gets 1 hit, while it had only 14% chances of doing that or lower. Thanks to those rather poor odds this city can't be captured...

So what about the capital, you say ? Well crap.




Next turn I can expect a catapult and 3 pikes in there (Boak will upgrade the warrior in Belgrave). I need to wait for my 1 movers...




NB : Barteq's graphs aren't that scary, I'll drop the paranoia a notch for now.

[AdrienIer]

City in sight !




Of course I had dreadful luck here, getting only 1 hit on the wounded pike with my 2nd knight (I had >70% chance of winning). In the end I took the city with a chariot at 25% (I had 2 more in case it didn't work, plus a HA that I wanted to avoid using so it could scout ahead).

Here's the situation as I ended turn.




Next turn I should be able to use the cats to soften the defenders enough so the swords can attack, and for the knights to get reasonable odds. The capital will be conquered ! Unless Boak brings back his 2-movers of course.

I expect the conquest to continue at this rythm of a city taken every turn or two. So I have to think about the future. I'm getting literature for the epics (and because it's pretty cheap) but then I'm still considering my choices.

Techs that are more interesting to me than to other people :
Steel for cheap drydocks
Assembly line for cheap factories
~Constitution for mausoleums. They're not a great UB but they could be handy

Possible tech paths :

Beeline steel (gunpowder->chemistry->steel->mil science ?)

Advantages :
Would probably make me the first to cannons and drydocks. Chemistry gives a nice production boost.

Disadvantages :
Chemistry without astronomy isn't very efficient. Same for drydocks, I'm not going to build a thousand triremes. Ironworks without coal is also not amazing.

V2 : astro then steel (optics->astro->gunpowder->chemistry->steel->mil science ?)

Advantages :
Chemistry and steel are better, optics means I can meet Serdoa from Gav's land, building a caravel means I can meet everyone else.

Disadvantages :
Slower. Astro isn't going to do a whole lot right away.

V3-3.5 : Education before gunpowder (paper->edu->(optics->astro->)gunpowder->chemistry->steel->mil science ?)

Advantages :
Edu gets me Oxford and a prereq bonus to gunpowder. I can also divert anytime towards liberalism (for mercantilism), PP or banking+economics (I doubt I'd have a shot at the GM but you never know, plus FM and environmentalism should be worth it).

Disadvantages :
Even slower. Tempts me to not really beeline steel and take several good but not vital techs.

Go for the top of the tree (music->philo->nationalism->Mil Trad->constitution ?)

Advantages :
Gives me a shot at the Sistine Chapel, better 2 movers and representation. Can be followed by a beeline to democracy for the SoL but that seems less likely to happen.

Disadvantages :
Philo and nationalism give me nothing. Music too if I don't get Sistine.

straight to rifling (paper->(PP->)education->gunpowder->(PP->)banking->RP->rifling)

Advantages :
Good eco techs in there, with the possibility of doing a detour via lib or economics for even better eco.

Disadvantages :
Not using my strengths, I suspect some people will take this path quicker than me which gives me no relative advantage.

Conclusion

I'm leaning for version 3 or 3.5, before filling in the eco techs (one or two of banking->economics, lib and PP). My main issue with that being that I'd like to get into representation and this path delays it considerably.

[AdrienIer]

Gav and HAK didn't take any city last turn. I hope they won't get upset that I'm getting an easy conquest while they struggle to take anything. If so they could pull back, and I'm barely ahead of Boak in soldier count even now so I'd have a hard time defeating him 1 on 1.

[AdrienIer]

I logged in to pause but used the time to take a pic of what Boak did.




He sent 2 cats on my stack. That shouldn't stop me actually. The 4 pikes are annoying, and there's probably a 5th one coming with the whip he did on Belgrave. I still expect to win this battle.
He 4-pop whipped both Dimsdale Parade and Longport Dock, which is a sign of desperation, which is pretty good.

[AdrienIer]

So apparently I forgot to take a picture of Belgrave after I through the cats at it. The defenders (including a 5th pike) were at about half health. It was tough but I took it. I made sure to keep the eastern knights away from the fight, because Milton Paradise was vulnerable.




It's good to take 2 cities like that. I have a plan to take Gladstone next turn : I'll give morale to the GG knight and will have a 2/3 chance of taking the city. Of course I'll only do it if there's still just a LB and a warrior in there, if there's anything else or if Boak upgrades the warrior I'll wait for reinforcements.




The good news is that Boak had some important military defeats against HAK.




The bad news is that Barteq's stack is dangerously close.