Freeciv LongTurn (LT57 report)

[HansLemurson]

Turn 61

Wonders:

2 Wonders each!

Top 5 Cities:

This will be the last time I have this many cities in the top ranks, since kevin551 has surely built Sewer Systems now.

Demographics

Scary Scary Czech stats.  You'll need to get used to this.
He basically has an extra half-an-empire over me.  That's a lot of untapped potential.
I'm still #1 in Population for now, though.
I pumped in a bunch of research to try to get Monotheism and maybe something else researched before the Great Library finished.


Events (most recent at top)

More upgrades, and the Great Library has finished!
Hmm...it looks like it finished before my tech research, so I got Monotheism as the free tech.


Science

I have 400+ bulbs just sitting freely, ready to be assigned to whatever I want.  I can in theory switch to a tech in the middle of the turn and acquire it instantly.  
Not sure if there's anything like that I'd want, though.  Not yet.


Roman Embassy

I sail northeast from the port of Narva on the island of Osilia to deliver a Diplomat to Neapolis to get an embassy with the Romans.
Note the explorer sitting on the mountain to prevent landings there.
The Phalanx next to Neapolis is guarding a worker that's busy clearing swamp.  
The grayish terrain is Tundra, which is pretty worthless.


Roman Report

Romans are researching Banking too.  Seems like a team-wide strat to go for Democracy.


Research Plan

At the last minute before the end of the turn, I decide to dump all my money into Science, and set my goal to Sanitation.
I wanted to see what effect setting a goal would have without any specific technology assigned.  
Despite Medicine being the next target (should have scrolled over in the tech tree to show that), it won't get researched until end of turn.
This is a counter-intelligence tactic you can use to disguise your true research plans.
We'll see if I feel the need to use it again.

Homeland

With Monotheism researched, a lot of cities are now building Cathedrals.  This is really just a pre-build for Sewer Systems though.
Annoyingly, Bronswiek suffered a Plague at the beginning of the turn, and this unbalanced its Luxury production, ending Celebration there.  Rats.



Dangerous Waters

I decide to sail my Caravel in Sardinia out to explore foreign waters, and am greeted immediately by the sight of Pirates.
A veteran Square-Rig.
I set my Caravel on a go-to order which should execute at the beginning of next turn.  
There's a chance I'll get in another turn of exploration before being hunted down.  kevin551 is surely setting a go-to order of his own to kill my caravel.
Coin toss!

Turn 61 End of Turn Intel

These screenshots are a bit wider now that I have 2 nations to keep tabs on.


Turn 62 Start Intel

Czech: +157 gold, +149 science.

Romans: +75 gold, +69 science.  
If we assume 23 science from the Observatory (size 14 city, total guess), then  40% of his econ represents 46 Science, meaning an economy of 115.  
60% of that would be 69 gold.  He's earning more gold than that, so he must have markets.  Also my estimates could also be wrong.  But they'll be in the ballpark.
Chill doesn't have the same reputation in skill that Ste does.  Doesn't quite know how to grow his economy.  
I expect him to be a weak point that I could maybe exploit in a future attack.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 62

Top 5 Cities:

Size seventeen cities: sure sewer system sign!

Demographics

I don't expect to surpass the Czechs ever again in the main stats until their eventual destruction by nuclear fire.

I'm still #1 in economy, and was able to flex my research muscles last turn to try to get Sanitation for myself.


Science

Drat! I was soooo close.  Just 53 bulbs more and I would have gotten it.  Oh well, that's what I get for maxing gold for so long.

Right before TC...

I took a snapshot of the naval situation near Scotland and Iceland.  Several Indian vessels loitering annoyingly in our waters.
Bracketed in Blue, right next to the minimap is a veteran Square-Rig of India right next to an Irish v2 Square-Rig.  
A bit worrying, but should be fine if Louis94 can get the initiative on Ghamath.
Bracketed in red near the top, northeast of Hamilton is a green Square-Rig, also Indian.  Don't like the looks of that either, but it's an easier target.


Right at Turn Change...

The green SRC (square-rigged Caravel) zips forwards and attacks the Irish vessel, dying in the process.
Ghamath was not online at the time, so it was clearly a "goto" move that was set and executed immediately after TC.
What he was thinking with that move is unclear, since the odds were not in his favor.
Maybe he set a goto order on the v SRC, but it failed due to the Unit Wait Timer.  
If you issue a goto order 9:59 before TC, it won't execute.  You'll get a failure message saying the unit can't move for another 1 minutes.


In any case, though victorious, the Irish vessel was heavily damaged and would be vulnerable to death.
I advised Zoe to attack with her own warship, since even if it lost, the Indian vessel would be too crippled to do anything.
As things turned out, she won!  And quite handily too, retaining the majority of the ships HP.

Massive List of Events

Lot of stuff going on here.  Again, most recent events at the top.
You can see that i was unable to move a vessel of my own due to the Unit Wait Timer.  But it wasn't hard to find things to do for 20 minutes, frantically taking screenshots for intel and other beginning of turn activities.
You can also see that I lost a Caravel to a Pirate attack.  This was the "Dangerous Waters" from last turn's report, and it looks like kevin551's goto order to attack executed before my escape order.
I'm very low on ships now.

I also have an annoying mixture of Plagues and cities stuck at size 16 because I can't get them sewer systems yet.  Oh well, next turn...


Caravan Ferry

Shipping over more caravans from Slovakia to help with future projects.  
Probably Michelangelo's chapel.


Aramean Islands

Here we see an Irish warship scouting out the Aramean Islands.  There's been a lot of talk among jwrober, louis94 and Zoe about attack plans, so this looks to be recon.

Armada Prep

I took a glance in the city of Dumbarton and was greeted by a vast army.  The Icelanders have been busy building up an attack force of knights!
Well over a dozen knights there.  They are awaiting the arrival of Irish Musketmen (The Irish were the first to Gunpowder) to guard their landing.
The intended target would be landing next to Bethsaida to cut it off from reinforcements, then storming the city to gain a foothold.
Once you have a foothold, you can deliver unlimited troops that are ready to attack the moment they unload.

Until then though, you are at the mercy of the enemy army and the cruel cruel "Stack Kill" mechanism.

I'm worried about this operation.  I voiced my concerns, but we're concerned about "Losing the Peace" and so want to deal damage to an enemy.
I'm crossing my fingers that Panch93 has been negligent in his defenses.  He's researching Gunpowder too, so the window of opportunity for this attack is very narrow.

Osilia Report

Haven't taken a look at this island for a while!
I've been busy irrigating it, and am now swampifying its forests to make grassland.
Bargen and Revel are both building Square-Rigs as a production stockpile.  Their true goal is to build Knights once Sun Tzu's Art of War is done.
Goslar is starting on its desperately needed Courthouse.  It is losing so much food and production to waste...
Narva needs a Courthouse too, but for now is going to complete a unit of some sort.  Probably the Diplomat you see, but maybe a warship.  Not sure.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 63: Czech Yourself before you wreck yourself
Top 5 Cities:

Stortebeker growing 1 pop per turn. kevin551 must have arranged for that city to have a +20 food surplus.
I should be able to do that in Vectron's Glory too.

Demographics

#insightful analysis


Science
[img].png[/img]
Went for Gunpowder.  No screenshot, but I think you can use your imagination.
Went to maximum science to get it ASAP due to...recent events.

Coastguard

I decided to deal with the Czech Caravel that showed its face last turn.  Don't want to let it do any mischief.
64% odds aren't great, but if it has Cargo, it's definitely worth it to send the passengers to the bottom of the sea.


Battle at Sea

It's a close call!


But I didn't win.  The Caravel will survive, but its units won't be causing any trouble for a while.
If had completed the Square-Rigged Caravel in Bargen like I'd started last turn, I would have been able to "finish the deed" this turn.

But that wasn't my plan.  My plan was to store up production in Bargen so that once I finished Sun Tzu, I'd be able to produce v2 Knights from the city for island defense.
I debated between the "Make Knights for island defense" and "Make boat to kill boats" plans for a bit, but decided to leave the decision until later.
...

...

...
Later:

I was greeted in the morning to some rather unwelcome news:  Ste (and allies) had decided that THIS would be the right turn to launch a major invasion of my island.
I was kicking myself for having delayed Sun Tzu and thus the Knights of Osilia for so long.
If they'd waited another turn, I could have had 4 Knights available to greet them, but as it stands, I can only field one.

I do at least have two Swordsmen than can do damage to the attackers.

I pondered my situation for a long time, and consulted with team-mates about what to do.
We decided that the most dangerous target was actually the Diplomat 2U2R from Bargen.  
A successful diplomat can take a city and all its defenders (though that was unlikely).
More likely, it would be used to try to incite a rebellion in a city that had been taken down to size 1 by combat so that it could be captured intact.  Size 1 cities are also a lot cheaper.

My plan is to do what damage I can, and then build Settlers or Migrants as appropriate to shrink cities so that they can't be taken alive.  
Whenever an attacker is victorious against a city without walls, 1 population gets killed.  The plan is to put just enough defenders in each city to ensure it gets burned down.


Counter Attacks

My first move is to open up a path to the Czech Knight guarding the Diplomat.  A Swordsman (don't ask why it's holding a Spear...long story) has good odds to make the kill.


And succeeds!


My knight is able to sally forth and is victorious!
It has enough MP remaining to retreat back to Bargen, and also received a promotion to v2.

Second Sword

With that mission accomplished, I was free to simply cause as many casualties as I could manage.
74% is good odds, but still a chance of death.  
If I lose the sword, I'll have to buy a Settler in the city in order to shrink it enough to ensure death.


My sword however won.  It got a promotion too, for whatever that's worth.  It'll die just the same when Ste can attack next turn.

Combat Report

And here are the events depicted.  (most recent at top)

Hunkering in Bargen

With all my other cities written off as losses, I pull everything into Bargen.  The Pikes and the Workers that had been irrigating the island now shelter in and prepare to defend the city.
I disband a warrior in the city to ensure that I'll build my 2 knights next turn.  They'll be able to strike against even more Czech units.

There was some discussion about building City Walls instead, but it was decided that I should go for the knights since Ste would be too cautious to just do a suicide attack with the 2 knights that could reach.
I still controlled the territory around the city, so the forests are a barrier to movement since he can't use foreign roads.  Bargen is turning out to be a better fortress than I'd thought!



The Osilia Situation

Here's what Osilia looks like after my defensive plays.  Situation still bad, but I should be able to keep one city.
Also look to the south at the Caravel next to Derpt.  It is going to zip into Bargen's port right at TC with a Goto order, delivering 3 veteran pikes to the defense.
This will both protect the city and deter the attack when Ste sees it sail in.  I've made a reputation for sending in fresh shipments of defenders "just in time".

Island conquest is hard!  Ste is only succeeding here because I was so woefully unprepared.  If I'd had a real defense force, I could have driven Ste's army into the sea.
But I wasn't expecting an invasion this large.  But that's why he WENT this large, since the more troops you use, the lower your proportional losses.


Disbanding?

The Knight in the Badian city of Nightcap is supported from Narva, and will die when the city falls.
I disband it so that kamBLR will at least be able to use half of it's production value.  
Better to gain 16 production than nothing, but it's a sad end to a unit that went on such an adventure.

Lemuria

YKnot is sailing Caravels over to help give intel and transport capacity.
...I think.  Not really sure how this is going to help.
I switch production on Lemuria over to military now.  Doesn't matter if I lack Barracks, since Sun Tzu will be giving a basic level boost to all new units.
Some cities I allow to finish their buildings. I'll benefit from a size 9 Deventer.
So will the enemy.
Am I being too greedy?

Also pictured: More banter between Ste and myself!

Homeland

I spend a big chunk of change buying Sewer Systems in my 3 best cities.  In retrospect, Mount Vectron maybe didn't need one since it's going to crowded so much by its neighbors.
Oh well.  Hopefully dropping 400 gold on sewer systems while I'm in the middle of losing an island due to lack of military won't come back to bite me.
I hope that the growth of those cities will pay for itself in the long run.

T63 End of Turn Intel

#Commentary

T64 Start of Turn Intel


Czechs:  +213 gold, 117 science
Looks like Ste wants gold more than he wants Democracy.  What, is he in a war?

Romans:  +21 gold, 129 science
Slowly creeping along.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 64
Top 5 Cities:

Stortebeker going up, up and UP!
Vectron's Glory has finally entered the race, though.  However, with 2 wonders in it, it's not going to disappear from the list.

Czech Assault!

Goslar:  A Swordsman is killed, along with the Migrant I built to drop its population.
Revel: The settler built in Revel is killed.
Narva: 3 pikemen in the city manage to kill several knights!  Bad luck for Ste, good luck for me.

We...didn't start the fire?

Here's the aftermath of the Czech assault.  Narva and Goslar were captured without being burned down as planned.
This was...not what I was planning.  What went wrong?
Revel at least was Size 1, and so Ste opted not to capture it yet so that it wouldn't be destroyed.

Banter:

(T64 - 06:02:40) <Ste> Hans, there is somebody at the door. Might be a parcel for you? Better go and check.
(T64 - 06:06:14) <Hans_Lemurson> You guys are much gentler partiers than expected, didn't even burn down any cities!
(T64 - 06:07:23) <Cgalik> : Why didn't the cities lose population?
(T64 - 06:08:01) <Ste> our knights are wearing gloves
(T64 - 06:08:48) <Cgalik> : nevermind I forgot who I was talking to. ste kevin don't answer quesitons. I'll ask other teammates
(T64 - 06:10:41) <Hans_Lemurson> I was counting on you being very rough so that you'd burn down the cities and I could collect the insurance money
(T64 - 06:10:47) <Hans_Lemurson> You owe me big, Ste!
(T64 - 06:11:49) panch93 has connected from user-panch93-host (player Panch93).

(T64 - 06:13:50) Lost connection: ghamath from user-ghamath-host (read error) (player Ghamath).
(T64 - 06:14:01) ghamath has connected from user-ghamath-host (player Ghamath).
(T64 - 06:15:09) <Ste> Indeed. I'll pay you back shortly, Hans :-)
(T64 - 06:15:24) <Hans_Lemurson> I look forward to getting what I deserve
(T64 - 06:17:35) YKnot has connected from user-YKnot-host (player YKnot).
(T64 - 06:17:39) <Ste> Only the very best for you my friend.

After some discussion, we realized that some time ago, the "Kill Citizen" flag had been removed from several unit classes.  
There had been a lot of complaints about how conquest often just resulted in burned-down cities as people would just spam migrants in cities under threat, reducing the pop by 1 and also creating another pop loss from the extra kill.
So, scorched-earth tactics have been nerfed.  I can't say I'm disappointed, since I'd certainly feel cheated if everything I touched turned to ash.

Combat Events

(most recent events at top)
There were 3 "Your Pikemen survived" notifications!  And I only HAD 3 pikemen defending Narva.  That means they all took a knight with them.  Unexpected fortune!
Also note the "Changed Homecity" notifications.  When Narva and Goslar were captured, pikes supported from those cities were sheltering in Bargen.  
This meant that they got re-homed to that city rather than being disbanded.

Also note the creation of two Knights in Bargen.  These will be important later.

Demographics

This is the last time I think I will ever be #1 in population.
Economy slowly shrinking as my cities fall out of celebration.  
I think I'll give up on celebration for now.  I think it's costing me more than its gaining me.  For the loss of 100 gold/science, I get an extra ~50 Trade.  Sure that trade gets multiplied, but it's not enough.

Science

Gunpowder.  I need top-tier defensive units, and I need them yesterday!
Fortunately, as the richest nation in the world, I can afford to dump massive resources into technology and gain the upper hand.

Counter-Attacks: Settler Rescue

Ste is keeping his units paired to protect against bribery, and provide some backup should a unit be wounded but not killed, yet also minimizing his exposure to stack-kills.
Also, with only 4 potential tiles to approach Bargen from, if he's going to have to double-up if he's going to have enough to storm the city.
It does mean however that all my victories count for double.  Just another example of the "Supremacy of Initiative" that is inherited from Civ2.  Strike first or die.

My first knight from Bargen charges out and kills a pair of enemy Knights a hill.  One was a wounded knight that had levelled up to 4th level!  Very dangerous to let live.
My knight survived with enough MP left to retreat back into Bargen.  Success!
I forgot about Zone of Control however, and so had to send a Pikeman out to escort the Slovakian Settler to safety.
That settler has had quite the adventure!  We may just keep it around as a team mascot.

Second Strike

I opt to attack a Pike+Knight pair on the forest.  Could have gone for the Knight+Knight pair to the left, but one was a v2Knight which gave me slightly worse odds (77% instead of 93%), and I wanted to maximize my chances of having MP left to retreat back into Bargen.

You can also see in Bargen, a v4 Worker.  My workers quickly planted a forest on the city tile last turn, giving the units there an extra 1.25x defense bonus against potential assaults.

Sarcifice of Heroes...

Although victorious, my knight took too much damage in the field.  
Following the "don't give your enemy free promotions" doctrine, I had to disband it.  So sad.
Still, this was a profitable turn of counterattacks. 3 Knights and 1 Pike killed, and I only lost 1 Knight myself.  
Also Ste's attack force that can strike Bargen is now greatly depleted.  
Bargen should survive.  Especially since it's going to get City Walls next turn.
It is now a fortress city and should be able to harass and contest Ste's ownership of Osilia.

Homeland

I'm out of gold due to going max-science last turn.  Scraped together just enough to complete essential projects in my colonies.
Vectron's Glory builds an Amphitheater so that it can keep growing uninterrupted.  It's pulling in +20 food/turn, and so will grow once per turn for the foreseeable future.
How foreseeable is that?  We'll see.  It does have an awful lot of desert nearby...  It might have to drop back to growing every-other-turn soon.  But I don't think I'll regret the city getting more people sooner.

Mount Vectron, Lubeck and Meideborg all build Archers.  Why Archers?  Because they cost half as much as Muskets, and can be upgraded for free by my Workshops.  
And I won't be able to build them next turn once I have Gunpowder, so better do it now!  Also they're going to be v2 units since I have Barracks in those cities in addition to Sun Tzu's bonus.
When Gunpowder is discovered, all of my obsolete Barracks will be disbanded, and I'll have to replace them.  This isn't all that bad, since it will give me an infusion of cash right when it's extremely valuable to make sudden upgrades.
I'll build BarracksII again in my production-centric cities soon.


Turn 64 End Intel


Turn 65 Start Intel

Czechs: +219 Gold, +29 Science
Looks like Ste really wants money!  
You can also see that he's still getting his base Science income from the Observatory even at 0% funding.  
17 base science (size 16 city +center tile) multiplied by 1.75x for enhanced Library = 29.75, which presumably is rounded down.

Romans: +116 Gold, +132 Science
Hmm...somehow I don't think Chill is actually earning that much gold.  
Probably being gifted gold by team-mates.
Also notice how the price of Gunpowder has dropped.  That's because somebody (me) just researched it.

How do you guys like the battle reports?
Intel reports?
Anything I can do better to make events easier to understand?

[NobleHelium]

Red text on blue background is bad.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 65: Bang!
Top 5 Cities:

VG is showing its ability to keep up with the head-starters.  
However, I only have one city pulling in +20 Food/turn, and 

Demographics

Somehow I lost my rankings in the Population category.  What happened?
Econ still good though, even in the absence of celebration.  If I get nation-wide Banks, I should be able to do nation-wide celebration.
But that will cost time and money...and those are precious commodities these days.


Science
[img].png[/img]
No screenshot, but I went for Banking.  It's super cheap now, and I'll want it for access to Democracy and also the ability to have banks in cities to allow them to celebrate more effectively.


Events

I had my last round of Warrior->Pikemen upgrades.  Still have 4 warriors left that haven't gotten the magic touch. They'll get to be upgraded to Muskets directly!
I built several archers, and a little bit of infrastructure, but most importantly, I finished Gunpowder.



TITLE

First priority is to get some of my units upgraded.  I had been worried that Ste might be able to mount a last-ditch attack on the city, but I'm not really sure what I was afraid of.  
It would have been suicidal now with city walls even without gunpowder.
Note that the Barracks in Bargen is gone, thanks to Gunpowder making previous forms of combat obsolete.

As a reminder, here are the stats of the relevant units:

Code:

Pikemen:    Cost: 25, Atk:2, Def:3, Mov: 3, HP: 10
Knights:    Cost: 32, Atk:6, Def:3, Mov: 4, HP: 10
Musketeers: Cost: 40, Atk:3, Def:3, Mov: 3, HP: 20

Note that Musketeers have 20HP.  You might remember that from Civ2.
This means their effective combat power is 3*20 = 60, equal to that of a Knight's!
But both on offense AND defense...so I now have a lot of firepower available in this city!

The upgrade cost formula is complicated.  It basically says "How much would it cost to rush-buy the new unit if you disbanded the old one first?".
This means it's a unit rush-buy which has a scaling cost factor.  Each new point of production in a unit costs more to buy than the previous.
$2/prod for the first one, and then an extra $0.10 for every production after that.  The price of rushing units goes up quadratically as a result.
There are discounts to this, like the technologies of Invention and Robotics.  Invention used to give a 50% reduction to upgrade costs, but now only gives a 20% reduction.
(It used to be that it was literally cheaper to build masses of cheap obsolete units and upgrade them with gold than to actually build the modern units, which lead to some hilarious gambits where people would try to hold off on key techs for a while just so that they could build the older units.  While cost effective, it was dangerous if your opponent "pulled the trigger" first.  Cgalik once lost a game when his 100+ Horsemen were all massacred by a Mechanized Infantry assault.)

Muskets cost 40, Pikes cost 25.  Disbanding a Pike yields 12 production, so that means there's 28p left to buy.
The first production costs $2, and the last costs (2+28/10 =) $4.8, giving an average price of $3.4
$3.4 * 28p = $95.2
$95.2 * 0.8x for Invention = $76.2, thus the upgrade price is what you see.

In terms of cost effectiveness, I'm taking a unit that would cost 25p to make and turning it into a unit that costs 40p, gaining 15p of value.  The cost is thus $5/production, which is a bit pricey.  Buildings only cost $2/production, and rush-buys of units usually end up about $3-$4.  It's not something I'd want to do empire-wide, especially since I have the extra workshop for free upgrades.  
But what's the price of injecting power into a combat zone at a critical moment?

Strange Borders

Borders are supposed to favor the oldest cities, and I founded Bargen before Goslar.
However, Revel (now in ruins) was the first city on the island, and maybe it was something to do with its influence that leaves the enemy in control of the forests.
That will open up Bargen to the possibility of a direct attack from Goslar.

Ste was not online at the turn-change, so I had time to ponder my options and Act instead of just Re-acting.
I decided I should go on the offensive and clear out the threatening knights at the doorstep of Bargen.

Storming Iron Mountain

I decide to send my knight on the assault first.  Both units were v2, and Knights attack with 6, but the defense on a mountain is 2x, so it was a straight-up coin toss.
A coin toss I lost.
My knight is not visible because it had already died when I snapped this screenshot.

Gunpowder's First hurrah!

My v2 Musket had better odds versus a v1 knight.  It was still risky, but much more in my favor.  
And even if I lost this battle, there were two wounded defenders on the mountain, and they would not survive a third attack
They didn't survive the second.  
My musket promoted to v3, and now fights with 200% strength instead of 175%.  
Due to the way the battle animation works out, the upgrade is visible even before the animation finishes.


Clearing the Forest

I now take MUCH better odds attacking knights on Forest rather than Mountain.
I won and was promoted again.

I have killed 4 knights at the cost of 1 knight of my own, and all it took was pouring in ~$300 into a frontline city.

TITLE


I did a tally of the combat losses, and Ste has lost about 14 knights so far.  That's the vast majority of the force that landed on Osilia.

I made some complaints on the Discord channel about knights being OP, but kevin551 told me to shut up and enjoy my gunpowder.
I told him I was talking about MY KNIGHTS.  My knights inflicted 3:1 losses on his invaders simply because they could attack.

In any reasonable game without the ridiculous first-strike advantages that LongTurn has inherited from Civ2, Ste should have been able to wipe the floor with me.
He achieved total strategic surprise with overwhelming numbers, and what does he have to show for it?
Half his army gone to claim half of an island.

Imagine what would have happened if I'd had a force of 8+ Knights on the island...I would have slaughtered his army on the beaches.
I joked that I would have called this situation "Honeypot 2: Chivalric Boogaloo", but the joke wasn't well received.  

It was exactly this notion that made me so lax in my defensive planning for Osilia.  "He'd be crazy to try it!"
He wasn't crazy, he just had a bigger commitment to military force than I had imagined.

I should have realized this would happen after the show of force I saw on Bronn.  I was just complacent and paid the price.

Fortunately I've been able to make Ste bleed for every inch of ground, punishing his overly exposed positions.


Czech shipping

I witnessed another Czech caravel sail into the port of Goslar, doubtless bearing a load of defenders.
The battle ain't over yet.  Both of us can continue to flood the island with troops until it drowns in blood.
Ste has more production, but I have more gold.

Ste is also vulnerable for a short window to a Diplomat inciting these cities to defect.  He's going to become a Democracy soon, which will make his cities immune, but until then, I have a golden opportunity to unleash a "weapon of mas destruction".  Given that the cities were originally mine, the incitement cost will be halved.  They are also small, lowering the cost further.  If he has a large army in there, I can take it out in a single blow.

Ste would be a fool not to stuff the city full of defending Diplomats.  I would be a fool not to flood it with Diplomats.
There will be a "War of Words" beginning soon.

Colonies

I'm going all-in on Diplomats.  I'll need many to overcome defending diplomats, and more still to ensure the incitement succeeds.  
I'm building them here because it's closer to the front and so will use less transport capacity.

Also visible in the image, East of Lemuria (2U2R from Rostock, next to whale) is a Slovakian Caravel that has transported a load of knights over, and which will be available to help me ferry units.

The Breton caravel in the left of the image I think is just acting as naval recon.


Homeland

Ossenbrugge, Estland, and Lubeck all complete one last round of archers.  I can't assign Archers to my build-queues, and any archers in production will get switched to Muskets.
....Unless of course you rush-buy the archers!  Then the production is locked in and can't be changed.

I had just enough cash to buy Hameln's sewer system as well, but that's about it.  Everything else just has to wait until I get more gold.

Turn 65 End Intel

#Commentary


Turn 66 Start intel


Czechs: -106 gold, +340 science.
Ste is doing defecit spending to get Gunpowder ASAP.  Don't blame him.  I wonder what the luxury spending was for.  Maybe he thinks he can spark celebrations under Monarchy?
He almost got Gunpowder on T66.  He must be so annoyed to come up 14 bulbs short.

Romans: +61 gold, +147 science.
Slowly ticking along.  He's going to suffer when researching modern era techs.  
He's never going to be a major opponent, which is good!  I can't afford to face two threats at once.

[HansLemurson]

Red text on blue background is bad.

Yeah, I'll try to give better contrast to my image labels.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 66

Top 5 Cities:

Vectron's Glory keeping pace, but at this rate, the Pirates could become dangerous in the population race.
I'll have to look around to see if I have any other cities even capable of getting +20 Food.

Demographics

4th place in population and cities.  Getting invaded will do that to you...
Production for most nations has probably stagnated as all the land-tiles are taken, and all growth is now from the sea.


Science

Researching Banking.  I have a healthy passive income of 52 bulbs/turn from the Observatory and Great Library in Vectron's Glory.  
I'll nearly complete the tech next turn.  At a price of 180, that means half the world has it.  
If somebody else researches it before me that will lower the price further and I'll be able to bag it.

Upgrades

Got my first 3 pike-to-musket upgrades this turn.  Unfortunately not at front-line cities, but you take what you can get.
Also, the Scots were able to spend their surplus research from getting Navigation to pick up old cheap techs like Monarchy and Feudalism.


Naval Fights

Cgalik spotted an Incan Caravel laden with units, and sent his square-rig out to deal with it.
He succeeded, but his ship was crippled in the process.  1 Caravel carrying 2 units was sent to the bottom.


Incan Revenge.

Later in the turn, the Incans predictably exacted revenge.
Neglectfully, Bamskamp left his ship next to the shore, and Cgalik contemplated sending a Diplomat out to bribe it.
Nobody had the gold to fund such a venture though, so it was able to sail back to safety at TC.


Irish Navy

The Irish Navy, on patrol by kamBLR's islands took down one of kevin551's Pirate Square-Rigs that have been patrolling and threatening our waters.
Kevin, as his nation choice implies, likes to go big on Navies, and last game was also the dominant power on the seas.

Colonies

The situation around Bargen seems stable for now.  Ste is hunkering down, having built a City Wall in Goslar. 
We're in a bit of a military stalemate here, neither side possessing the numerical superiority needed to storm fortified cities.

And so I'm going All-in on Diplomats!  Diplomats coming out from every city.
I'm going to buy my cities back if it's the last thing I do.  Unleash weapons of Mass Destruction.



Homeland

I spent down all my gold this turn on strategic purchases.  I'm going to have to hold onto my gold though if I want to be able to pay the incitement cost of Goslar, which could be considerable, depending on what Ste has put in the city.
But this turn I bought Sewer Systems (finally!) in Bronswiek, Duorpm, and Estland.  
Hannober and Riga also got their Markets, which will give them more happiness, and me more gold.

Lubeck is getting started on Magellan's Expedition, which adds +1MP to all ships, and greatly boosts their promotion chance when winning combat.

Caravans!

With the help of Slovakia, who is determined to feed me to the greatest extent possible, I allocate 4 Caravans to build the Small Wonder.
This was actually a slight excess, leaving me with 215/200 in the city.  That 15 overflow will suffer a 50% penalty if I build something other than a Small Wonder next turn.
Oh well.  Slight inefficiencies here and there shouldn't kill me (he says after micromanaging his cities...)


Turn 66 End Intel

#Commentary

Turn 67 Start Intel

#Commentary

Czechs:  +258 gold, +??? science (probably +29, since that's the yield of a size 16 city with the Observatory)
Ste decided to "coast to a finish" on gunpowder, and gather gold that he can use for strategic upgrades or other necessary infrastructure.  Or maybe as a buffer to fund max-science again.

Romans: +64 gold, +170 science
Still creeping along, but he'll have his muskets soon, thanks to all the price discounts.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 67

Top 5 Cities:

I'm the only representative of non-piratical glory.  I must stand strong!

Demographics

Baden became a Democracy this turn, and with the reduced corruption and more cities celebrating, he took the #1 spot in Econ!
My "Passive Research" rate is also not to shabby.  Although REAL research would be better


Science

Got banking last turn because another nation dropped the price for me.  I'm setting my "goal" to Democracy but not actually starting researching it yet so as to disguise my intentions.  
Probably doesn't matter all that much.
I want Democracy soon, but I also need to store up piles of cash to try to buy back my conquered cities.

Amusing Events

I didn't know there was an announcement for size 20.
I've also never seen the Flood event before either.  I guess it...randomly destroyed 0 buildings?


Breton Navy

The Breton Navy attacked a Czech warship performing recon off their coast.  Unfortunately, the first attack failed at 77% chance of success, and the follow-up attack won with heavy damage (and no promotion  ).
Hopefully YKnot will get his Warship will make it back to port safely.


TITLE

I sent a Diplomat out to check the price of inciting Goslar to rebellion against their evil oppressors.
I knew I wouldn't have enough cash, but this high price means two things:

1. Goslar has a Courthouse (probably bought the turn before the wall).
   
2. There are a LOT of units in Goslar.
   

Czech midturn intel

Won't be able to collect end-of-turn stats this turn, and my team-mates wanted to crunch the numbers on likely stats about the city, so here's Ste's basic info.

Spreadsheets!

My team, being a bunch of nerds, of course have made a spreadsheet for calculating exactly this sort of thing, reading through the github sourcecode as necessary to find out the real calculations.
According to our estimates, this cost implies a garrison worth around 500 production is present!  
Unless of course one citizen is happy, in which case only 200 production.  

Incitement looks like an expensive proposition (but still cheaper than assaulting a heavily defended fortress).

[Lazteuq]

How does population growth work in Freeciv? I get the impression it's always 20 food, in contrast to civ4 where it costs 20+2*size.