Turn 159 has been one of the most difficult turns for me to play. I opened the turn knowing I would have to react to the moves azza had made, but I didn’t know what end result I wanted, so I’ve effectively had to decide on a complete strategy for the war and then work out the unit tactics behind that.

 

 

The turn started off well enough, I popped gems, which means that once I settle for the silver up north, I’ll have every source of forge happy. And it got popped on the one hill tile I’ve worked in PRNGG, the one time I’ve worked it, and PRNGG is a prime commerce city. Immense piece of luck, that.

 

 

A slightly disappointing start, azza didn’t fall for the trap, and has sent a portion of his garrison out of Saffron towards Fuchsia.

 

 

The units that azza has sent out, 3 spears and 2 axes. Also note that azza used a HA to kill me chariot, and recapture then delete the three workers on the forest hill. That mini stack is not a threat to anything except any unit I use to kill that HA. If azza moves it back into Saffron, then he has lost the fort bonus which is quite important for those spears against my HA. However, if I were going to attack Fuchsia in two turns they would be a factor, but I just don’t have the units to do that so I’m not overly concerned about them

 

 

Azza still isn’t worried about Vermilion.

 

 

This is where things get interesting. I will not get odds on either spear or the longbow. Any attack will lose at least 3 HA, IMO. I should have odds on the HA and hte axe, but I need to ask the question…what exactly do I want from this war with azza?

Twenty turns ago, when I offered peace to azza, I intended to return and take Fuchsia, and everything outside azza’s core, so Saffron, Cinnibar, and as it turns out, a city down at the bottom of that little peninsula (Violet City, I think). But I didn’t intend to have declared war on Nazul and taken a bunch of cities from them before I returned. I’m now fighting against longbows and HA, not axes and spears, and I can’t see myself capturing all of those cities, and managing to keep a strong border against Nazul. So, what is an acceptable outcome now?

First of all, Saffron has to go. Opportunism is a critical city for me so I can’t accept a city so close to it. If I consider that to be the number one aim, I have to question attacking Cinnibar at this time. I can move every single HA and chariot back and conserve my army before I attack Saffron. But Cinnibar is the second aim, that pushes azza back to Fuchsia, and leaves him with another city at the end of the peninsula to defend. Do I want to capture either of these cities or do I want to raze them? Cinnibar is not in a great position, difficult to defend while I wait for it to come out of revolt, and not a lot of city improvements in it. Saffron, OTOH, can go from 0 culture to over 100 in 10 turns. It’s a reasonable Moai site for later on in the game, and it has quite a few city improvements, a library, granary, barracks and monument. Unfortunately, most of these would be lost if it were razed.

So my aims revolve around taking 2 cities from azza and that is it. After that it’s peaceful building for a few turns, trying to improve my bpt and reposition for warfare with another generation of units.

 

 

Balls to the wall time. 10HA, 7 cats, 1 chariot and 1 archer, able to hit Saffron next turn. If I don’t attack Cinnibar, I can add 10HA and 3 chariots to that stack. 7 cats are enough to make sure Saffron falls next turn if azza adds nothing to the garrison. If he moves that stack back into Saffron though, along with some HA, he can easily have more units in Saffron that I can attack with, and 7 cats would not be enough to reliable win anyway, without taking horrendous losses on the HA, as those HA aren’t al 8XP bruisers, but half are the dregs from the other cities with anything from 2XP to 6XP. In fact, I moved down the archer (and 8 workers total) specifically so I can fort the tile adjacent to Saffron and upgrade the archer so I have two CG longbows and the HA to defend the cats if I bombard Saffron first. But as I would only need to do that if there were too many units in the city, I question the wisdom of letting azza attack the stack first.

 

 

These are the odds I get against the spear, with my strongest HA. If you check the timestamps, I spent most of the day mulling this attack over. In the end I pressed ahead for one reason: Saffron is going to be a bloodbath and azza has to send units to go and protect it. But I don’t have to attack it next turn. But if I don’t attack Cinnibar, azza will just whip more longbows in Cinnibar and I won’t be able to get both cities at all. He already whipped three cities this turn, and Cinnibar was whipped for 2 pop. Any attack is therefore only going to get more expensive the longer I leave it, so unless I’m going to back out and offer peace because I’m scared of losing some HA, I have to attack.

 

 

Hello Caterpie…

 

 

Annoying, one hit away from winning, but at least it means that I can cleanup with a chariot.

 

 

This spear lacks the fortification bonus, so the flanking HA is strong enough to damage the spear to a level that another HA can easily win. Against the previous spear, the flanking HA would most likely have not done much at all.

 

 

Even more depressing, two hits from winning and it is my first F2 HA that did not withdraw. But another spear that I can clean up with a chariot.

 

 

The archer from last turn was upgraded to a longbow. It was attack with either a C1+F2 HA or C3. Either is a reasonable choice in my view, but I do think I screwed up and should have attacked with a C1+F2 HA, for greater survivability.

 

 

And that’s why. There was roughly a 1/4 chance of getting two hits or less on that longbow, and as it turns out it was rather unlucky.

 

 

70% odds to live are good enough, right?

 

 

Um, no. It’s not. That is 4 dead HA now.

 

 

I created the formation HA last turn to defend against possible HA attack, so it makes sense to use it now to attack the HA. 80% odds to live…unfortunately, I missed the next two screenshots…but I do have an aftermath screenshot.

 

 

I beat the HA, but I lost another HA killing the longbow with odds. I should have sent a C2 HA against it, as that would have given me 85% odds to win, instead of only 72%. That’s 5 dead HA, an expensive price to pay, but I’m most annoyed about losing the last one. The others were the RNG, the last one was bad play on my part. After that, I won every battle, using another HA and all three chariots.

 

 

I really need that gold, and there is azzas galley, returning from it’s settling mission.

 

 

A granary…this city is getting razed.

 

 

Another formation HA…luckily, I suppose, I win, and then cover with the G2 archer and axe, so azza is going to have to spend a fair few hammers to kill those units.

 

 

This was not what I wanted to do, as this city did not really fit into my city dot map. I did check and I’ve manage to split up land that I wanted ot use for my NE city into two cities, as I wanted to settle Greed 2N, but the iron will work, it will have to use the wheat to grow vertically but it will suffice for my needs. I needed to settle the city this turn to stop azza from running his HA through and capturing two of my workers, or attacking my weakened units.

Next turn will be rather important.

 

 

There is no revolt to new civics this turn, I need might need Serfdom next turn, so the revolt has been postponed.

 

 

Court house number four. Probably going to build a light house next…

 

 

Once the war with azza is in hand, I’m going to have to consider swapping builds at WTF? over to WE and cats.

 

 

Next turn I might move off both grass hills onto grass farms. Depends on other cities needing the worker attention.

 

 

I really want to slave RVC, but got to wait due to the war.

 

 

I only have one settler built at present, so I really need to finish some moire to replenish my supply…and settle some new cities. I don’t see the azza war staying hot for very long.

 

 

The way things are going with azza though, I’ll have to slave this before the court house just to be safe.

 

 

With Opportunism on the front lines I’m going to have to carry on building units for a bit, even though I want to build the FP in a few turns.

 

 

NS needs worker attention, but can’t really get it until MC has been researched (which should take 6-7 turns). I might persuade myself to slave a light house, but I doubt it.

 

 

Next turn I might have the banana given back to PRNGG, grow onto the hill, and work the plains farm for 15hpt and 1fpt. PRNGG can then just make units whilst PRNGG contributes to the general economy.

 

 

End of turn 163 PD will grow to size 9 and then make 20hpt. There are 6 workers at this city but I only need to mine two more hills. The rest can go and start improving other cities, or just chop jungle.

 

 

Another unit that will likely be slaved before the court house. I could do with a few more grass farms here, there are a few plans I’d like to consider.

 

 

One of hte things I fear is that azza has a HA stack in the fog that is about to “double move” SG. I’m running binary now specifically so I can keep enough gold to upgrade the archers if I have to, and I can revolt to slavery to get the extra longbow.

 

 

PRNGG is weird. I don’t want to use both food resources once PRNGG has finished growing, so I doubt I’m going to work the mines. I think PRNGG will grow to size 13, maybe size 14, to work everything except the horse, peak, grass hills and western banana, so 12 cottages, gems and banana. But I think I want to farm the four unimproved tiles and cottage the jungle grassland so I can get there quicker, and then pre-cottage every tile so I only need 1 worker turn to convert the tiles once PRNGG has grown to size.

 

 

I really need to slave CPH, simply to lower the city maintenance.

 

 

Pop borders and farm three tiles to irrigate the rice. I think I will need 2 workers to do all of this, then mine the hills.

 

 

Next turn, I might steal the sugar back from axe, or farm an extra tile at PD and steal a farm. I’ll decide next turn.

 

 

I don’t want to steal the sugar, really, not when Axe needs it to grow two turns faster to size 3.

 

 

Really, really need culture here. And a few defensive units. my longbows are 4 turns away. The city could end up getting razed in 2 turns…

 

 

I really, really, hate inflation right about now.

 

 

My crop yield is starting to accelerate away, but my power has taken a beat of a beating.

 

 

I wonder how big the dent will be in my power graph next turn…

 

 

And perhaps the least expected screenshot in this report. I offered this to azza in the hope he acccepts. I don’t know if he will, because frankly, since he lost Opportunism, his military play has been perfectly capable, and I don’t think he has any reason to give up on anything at all right now. But if I can get him to give me Saffron, I will get the culture buildings inside it, the library, monument and barracks. I can grow it to size 4 in six turns. ON the last turn pof growth, and four turns after that, using caste system I can work 14 artist turns for 56 culture. With the additional culture from buildings, and building culture, I can get it to 40% culture and with that control of the inner ring of tiles. Opportunism does not need the grass farms, and Opportunism even has a light house. All it needs is Buddhism and tpo build the temple and monastery. I also have made the decision to attempt to build Sistine, if azza cedes me Saffrom for the extra 5 culture per religious building, which will give Saffrom a solid cultural output.

The world map I want so I know exactly where azza’s cities are, I have an idea but I want to be sure. The gold to me is more than two turns worth of saved gold, all things I want, but I don’t think azza has any reason to give any of them to me. He could hope to force me to attack and lose a bunch of units. He’d likely succeed, but he would also likely lose over 1k hammers on units. The question is, does he trust himself to fend me off if he accepts peace, and I declare war for a fourth time in a dozen turns? Funnily enough, I think he should. He’s done it all the others.