Babylon's Nebula of Cheddar(Phi/Ind)

[The Black Sword]

Sardis fell this turn. Managed to isolate melee units vs my Crossbows and axe which was nice, but I still lost the two 75% shots I had to take. On the bright side the naval battle went well.



Using the 1-movers for the Sardis attack meant most of my Knights could keep pressing forward. 

The capture of Ergili went off without a hitch on T108. Luckily we weren't immediately kicked back into the sea, so we've now managed to reinforce with 6 good units.

It looks like there's two cities to the north of the capital, two to the south and one to the east by Pindicator. Nothing is set in stone, but I guess we might try for the two northern cities with our knights, wait for the 1 movers to catch up for the capital, and let Pin and Corn snap up the last 3. Gav should still have a consolidated stack somewhere that I haven't seen though. 

If I get all that and resettle the razed Gordium, I'll be up 6 cities. That will put me in quite a good spot, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone tried to derail me along the way.

We got a GS to bulb Philosophy recently, I'm hoping the next GP will be a merchant for a trade mission. That will help fund me through to Nationalism.

[The Black Sword]

That will put me in quite a good spot, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone tried to derail me along the way.

Yes, something like this:





In IT crowd I only left the 3 LBs, since it looked like he would kill the last two units pretty much for free after collaterall. They sold their lives dearly, taking 7 attackers down with them, I was only expecting about 4. Unfortunately the two cowards who fled the city only took 1 HA with them, despite having odds.

OH has since razed the IT Crowd and could be dropping his 1 movers beside Kenan and Kel this turn. I should have gathered enough Knights to counter attack though and wipe out his hitters if he tries this.

Pin can raze Shasta N Shasta this turn. I only left 3 LBs again, due to collaterall reasons. I also wanted to evacuate the spears back to Chuck, so I have a chance of holding it from his 2-movers. If he has to wait for the catapults then the rest of my Knights should be back in time. If he doesn't go for Chuck though, he should have enough time to take out Dunk N Dolphin too.

On the Gav front, I thought a while about my options. Eventually I offered him Ergili for peace. He wants both Ergili and Sardis though, and he offered war with Pindicator in return. I just sent back Ergili. I can't hold Ergili while distracted, but Sardis is not culturally pressed and my 1-movers are over there. The knights should be enough to stabilise my homeland, when they eventually get back there. There's almost no point trekking the 1-movers all the way home, unless the other two really super commit to taking me out. So I should be able to hold Sardis, and it will allow us a better staging point whenever we go in again/Gav eventually does get split up.

On the other hand he's got to have a decent stack around here somewhere based on his power rating, even if I haven't seen it yet. Sending 20+ units at Pin instead of at me is a big swing. Could be a mistake.

There's also been some skirmishing at sea with OH, which has gone my way. But it means my triremes are all injured and out of position, while Pin's sail up to pillage and blockade my Moai city.

[The Black Sword]

So I had offered all 3 of them straight peace in this position. Gav still wanted his city back, OH was looking for 500g. But Pin, with a city raze available was the one to take it. That was pretty surprising, I almost didn't bother send the peace offer to him. But he's recently completed more monk wonders in Sankore and the Buddhist shrine, so he's doing pretty well. I guess he was a little worried the other two would take peace and I'd have nowhere else to send my army for 10t.

OH must feel a little hung out to dry here. Pin essentially did no fighting in the end, whereas OH took some losses on both sea and land. This also left OH's army sitting outside Kenan and Kel and my knights don't need to worry about the south ...



I probably would have given OH peace here immediately if I could have. I was looking forward to getting some revenge, but I would prefer to keep my knights healthy and send them at Gav. Hurting Ethiopa feels good but doesn't really help me. Unfortunately, I couldn't really risk not attacking and offering peace, because that would give his collateral a chance to hit me. So I attacked, I had good odds from the start, and they should only get better from here .... I lost 4/9 Knights in the end I think. 

Ok, that wasn't really end of the world, it's only 2 Knights above average when I was expecting to lose a city this turn. But the whole fight was a lot less cathartic than I hoped. I think I could have hunted down his survivors since they can't escape my culture, but again does that really help me win? Pin was heading towards Gav, Corn was probably going to do the same when he discovered Guilds himself, it's more important to make sure I get a big enough slice there. So I offered him peace, he took it, and we've exchanged some crab for crab apologies.

So I've been scrambling back East as fast as I can. I moved into Persian culture again this round and my chariot finally caught sight of a big stack of HA in his capital too.


He has 20 HA's in the cap and a smaller stack of 5 healing to the north after retaking Ergili. He could hit this stack on the landbridge if he wanted. The first 11 combats he doesn't have odds vs Knights and Spears. Then he has a bunch of 50/50s, probably slightly favorable to him vs the Crossbows and Swords. Then my Knights should come back and finish off any survivors. So I'm hoping he won't go for it. I'm going to go pick up the northern cities first and steer clear of the capital until more reinforcements come in. If Cornflakes or Pin move in without a large enough stack of elephants for cover he could punish them. At the least they will be limited to moving 1 tile per turn.

But it's possible he'll make sure to throw his units at me since I instigated this final dogpile.

Also, I found this pretty funny:


Pin's boats are on enforced vacation with no open borders from me. (And I really don't want to open them, even after I get Alphabet, since he could use the city visibility from his EPs).

[The Black Sword]

I had a very different view of our crab for crab offers than these guys:



Not that I put too much stake in those type of things, but usually I try to keep them for more than 2 turns.  

Anyway, he can keep the city for now while setting the cultural borders in soon-to-be-ex-Persia is the most important thing. It's quite likely I come back here after that unless geopolitics interfere again.  I am curious if expects to hold it or just to get a profit out of it in the meantime. Last time I checked cities were still pretty expensive in gpt, even if he does have two good trade routes.

Pretty annoying to delay resettling my city for so long either way.



We're moving to go cut off the northern peninsula. I'm hoping little stacks like these look more appetizing to Gav's horchers:



My GP roll in Legion came out as the 25% Engineer. I was planning for a merchant trade mission to power me to Nationalism. We might get the same Taj time thanks to GE-building it but we'll still be slower to Constitution afterwards. Maybe I should just bulb Engineering and put him to work straight away.

OH is gearing up for a Liberalism run, which might be to Lib Nationalism and the Taj too.

[The Black Sword]

Bagged both cities this turn:


Susa had one whipped spear who managed to win his 33%, the rest of the garrison evacuated south. Three 95+% and no losses taking Tarsus.



Interesting to see what these guys do next turn. I didn't take a picture of Cornflakes stack in the south but it's on flat with very little defenders. If Gav had this stack in the capital last turn he would have had a chance to hit it already though, so he might just be planning on camping in this final city.

I had a think about my great engineer. I could get to Nationalism in 10t and rush the Taj. But I'm pretty sure OH still has a GE available himself and can certainly beat me to the tech. So I decided it was best not to live in a fantasy world and just bulb engineering. I'll pick up a few workshop hammers and the road movement will be useful too. 

My long term goal now will be to start a 3-GP golden age as we hit Chemistry and Constitution to revolt into Representation and Environmentalism. Engineering is necessary for Chemistry too.

I expect OH to try generate the GPs to throw their 3-GP golden age just before they Lib Nationalism, to get maximum value from the MoM. That means they are now a few turns into what will be a 32t golden age. Pin, Corn and I have quite some advantages working for us too atm, but that still sounds scary.

I got a GG at the start of the dogpile btw who has now made it to the Persian front. I could have settled in my HE city, and built stable and a Colloseum for 10xp Knights. But I'm more interested in 5xp knights now while cities are up for grabs than 10xp ones later. So Instead I think I will take a free upgrade on a my sentry chariot and sprinkle 4 times 5xp. Putting one of those on my original GG axe(now mace) will unlock West Point eventually too. I should get another GG from this fighting too, so I can use that to set up the 10xp Knight farm when things settle down.

[The Black Sword]

Invasion went pretty well:


Gav did a pretty good job of getting some kills, despite his tech disadvantage. IIRC, he killed around 10 knights. He could have killed another fair amount of classical units if he wanted but he chose to attack Cornflakes with his remaining HAs instead at the end of the war. Whether the motivation was revenge on his original enemy or surviving a few more turns, I'm thankful for it.

I could have played safer, but I was also on a bit of a timetable as the peace treaty with Pindicator was ticking down.

I think I can win an always peace game from here, so I don't have any immediate war plans. Attacking OH's Ninjago is still tempting though, going back and forth over it. Had to wait for Perseopolis to pop borders anyway. 

OH is lacking land and his Representation and Colossus boni will obsolete eventually. It looks like he will liberate Military Tradition for Cuirs and he will need to do something with them. Pin is building an army to match mine. So always peace seems unlikely either way.

My plan is to use my third golden age to get the full specialist economy set up. I need Chemistry for Environmentalism(+2g per spec) and Constitution for Representation. I'm thinking we might go for Emancipation, which is now in the legal civics and gives +1f per town, to support more specialists. And then Theocracy in the religious slot. Haven't firmed up on the last two though. I have a GS and a GE and a couple of full gpp bars who will hopefully get me a merchant.

[The Black Sword]

Almost ready to throw the third GA. I have the 3 GP ready but I've been waiting for this roll from Angel. If it hits the Prophet, the only use is a golden age and I can do something more useful with one of the others.



We will get to Nationalism on T2 of the GA, along with completing Paya, allowing me to revolt into Theocracy and Nationhood. We'll try stave off the potential dogpile with some drafting. By the end of the GA I can put at least 1 bulb/trade mission into each of Chemistry and Constitution, allowing me to finish in Representation and Environmentalism. We'll see what the military situation is like before deciding whether to keep Nationhood or switch to Emancipation.

I also need to get to some military techs, but this is my last chance to revolt into good civics, so I think they have to come first. It should supercharge my tech rate at least to reach everything afterward. OH already has access to Cuirs and you can see the other two know Music also, so they are probably heading there too.

I'm not 100% sure where an attack will fall. Perseopolis is one possibility, so I ran a bunch of artists to hold its 2nd ring borders. It has a decent sized Knight stack in range also. I might build a Castle there, since Pin already has a large non-Gunpowder based army. For similar reasons, I'm building one in Shasta N Shasta:



This is the only place that can be hit by 2-movers from the fog. Dunk n Dolphin unexpectedly lost its southern tile which is another vulnerability. That tile is getting hit by 3 Pin cities, including Flex Falcon where he's running artists. I'm trying to get it back now with artists myself but I'm not sure it's possible until I pop my third ring which might be too late. This is the only land border I share with OH:


So I'll try keep the largest Knight stack and a bunch of catapults for defense. It's really not a great location for OH to attack so I'm wondering what he will do. He could strike through someone else's land but that will make it hard for him to hold cities. He might also go by sea, even if it will obsolete his Colossus.

I enjoyed a little period of infra-building under OR after Persian Invasion(finally built a library in my Moai!) but everything is switching back over to military now. There are still a couple of decent buildings available but they will mostly have to wait.

Demos with tech on:

[The Black Sword]

Golden age has been going mostly to plan. I got an Scientist to bulb Chemistry instead of the higher odds Merchant/Engineer to bulb Constitution from the Expanse. I had put a bit too much into Chemistry and will waste some beakers on the bulb unfortunately.

OH threw a spanner in my defense plans this turn though:


I didn't realise Privateers don't require Astro anymore. Is that not a bit much? You level up two levels of Naval units(Caravels < Galleons < Privateers) and one level of Land units(the best one at that), all on one tech. That explains why everyone else is going there at least ...

I guess we'll be giving up the seas for a while. I'll mostly be switching coastal tiles to uber-specs once I revolt anyway. OH doesn't have good access to my Moai area, so that might be the one we try to hold.

[The Black Sword]

Dogpile number 3 looks pretty bad. I made a fundamental mistake thinking I might be able to hold off both armies at once. Almost is not good enough. So I'm pulling the Knights in ex-Gav land back to my core. Hopefully that will be enough to stall out OH. He's got a Great Artist though and it's real hard to predict what tiles they flip. That will probably leave Pin looking pretty strong with all that gains, which might convince OH to switch targets. We just want to try stay in the game and we can look at retaking things later.

It also sort of calls into question my general strategy for the last while. Persia is so far away from my core that I need a 2nd stack to hold it, whereas during dogpile number 2 I could have 1 army threatening whichever of OH or Pin stepped in range first. Ever since we've taken Persia it's probably only broke even with the expensive maintenance costs and it's been focusing on infra and growth, not units. Maybe in these tight games with everyone doing well and bordering each other I should have be focusing on more incremental gains that come with defensive depth. Attacking Gav might have been the most profitable move in a vacuum, but not if geo-politics mean I lose it before I realise that profit. 

Pretty disappointed to lose my island city too. OH made a nice play forting into the sea, but I should have been prepared for it. That one's on me. Usually I don't invest so much(growth/infra) in border cities I might lose, hate it when that happens.

[Amicalola]

How are things looking? Are you having more fun with this game now that you don't have to worry about PB59 at the same time?