[GEM] Kaitzilla vs. The World

Turnset 47 (T259 to T260)

T259 - Barbarians: 1 Warrior died.

KHMER JUST DOW'd Korea!

I did not expect that.
How the hell did Surya even get to Korea?
Single units do not start wars.
It had to have been at least 3 units.
Khmer doesn't have open borders with the Yue or China, and it's not like he could sail an invasion to Korea either.
The Yue don't have open borders with Khmer or China either.

Looking back, I thought Korea was a possibility.
I suppose the closeness of Korea combined with the Annoyed attitude allowed Khmer to pick Korea as a good war target besides me and the Yue.

One crazy thing I just noticed is the power graph over the last 22 turns.
Khmer has been plotting/preparing for war and yet didn't build any more military units?

Everything about this business against Korea seems strange to me, but it is the reality.
Wang Kon is a Protective civ with 3 cities, so he might be able to hold for a time if he can defeat Surya's stack that just stepped into his land.
The real question is how Tokugawa conducts amphibious invasions since Korea is also at war with Japan.
I predict Korea will hold for a while.

Spain signed peace with Scandinavia, the very turn after goading me into war against them.

Ragnar has an Axe now threatening the Tashkent frontier to go with his Archer.
Moving forces down to deal with them both soon.

My scouting has revealed Spain in its entirety.
The Pyramids will be very tempting to capture some day, but I will likely get a -1 diplo hit with every Hindu civ and ruin trading possibilities with a Friendly civ if I attack her.
Even worse, if you are running Representation and you lose the Pyramids, you will revert back to your old civic you were running previously.

T260 - Barbarians: 1 Spear died.

It might be time to make a Deal With The Devil.
If I join Khmer and Japan in their war against Korea, I will be able to sign Open Border agreements with both of them.
War allies can always Open Borders no matter what their relations are at.

Pros:
1) Sign Open Borders with Khmer and Japan.
This will allow me to scout their empires, get foreign trade routes, and keep an eye on their activities in the future with units and passive espionage.
2) Gain better relations with Khmer+Japan every 8 turns we are at war together and every 25 turns of Open Borders to help reduce DOW's in the future.
3) Korea doesn't have open borders with anyone, so it is very unlikely they can hurt me.

Cons:
1) Ruin relations with a 3-city civ that is on the way out.
2) Get -1 Relations with Poland, Ethiopia, and Egypt who are all Pleased with Korea.

Shared Hinduism should mitigate the diplo hit with Poland+Ethiopia, and I don't care at all about Egypt.
On paper this 2nd war on top of the Ragnar war looks like a good idea.
Even giving foreign trade routes to Khmer won't accelerate them too much because they already have trade routes with Cyrus of Persia.

No Korean units nearby according to my military advisor.
I DOW'd Wang Kon of the Korean Empire!

Signed Open Borders with Khmer and Japan.
Getting eyes on Suryavarmen's cities will be a huge relief.

Estrsucan finally expanded borders in South India.

Gifted Fish to Hungary to build relations.

Library whipped in Kashgar.
That will let Kashgar expand borders in 15 turns and give me a 2nd source of copper in case Bronze City gets razed again.

Produced my 1st Archer unit.
Will send it north to test out the "bombard" feature on a barb.

China and Yue are growing in population.
Ragnar's Axe and Archer joined up west of Tashkent.
The tech situation remains static.

I did not know there was a range limit. I've had the Mongols declare war on me from the other side of a Pangea map and send their troops by land across (pretty much) everyone else's territory.
Of course they're the Mongols so they tend to send horse archers against musket men.
... Or is that something with just this mod?

Niccolo Edwards said:

I did not know there was a range limit. I've had the Mongols declare war on me from the other side of a Pangea map and send their troops by land across (pretty much) everyone else's territory.
Of course they're the Mongols so they tend to send horse archers against musket men.
... Or is that something with just this mod?

Click to expand...

I've looked around for a bit and can't find any proof for the idea of range limits.

There is plenty of evidence for the AI favoring closer targets over distant ones, but nothing to keep an AI from DOWing across the entire world.

So I was mistaken.
There does not appear to be a range limit for AI wars, and I'm very sorry for the bad info!

I think its a matter of risk and cost vs. potential reward with the AI, mixed in with the AI's diplomatic stance and world events. But that's probably wrong; I haven't played nearly enough, nor dug into the inner workings enough to actually understand. I'd be interested in seeing the formulas the AIs use to decide on war though.

Sury is so triggerhappy. How about join him in the war against the treacherous Koreans?

Edit: Written before turn 260 was posted. Good luck. You and Sury can be a hell of a pair.

Turnset 48 (T261 to T262)

T261 - Barbarians: No deaths.
Barb Archers aren't using bombard for whatever reason.

Both gift Settlers have finally reached position in Babylon.
Time to find out if my -1 relations with Hammurabi can be improved.

First up is Gift City 1, a city 4 tiles from Hammurabi's capital.
Hammurabi will take it! (Liberate)
..
....
+3 Fair trade relations and +1 You Liberated our city

No idea why this city gift gave +3 trade relations and the city gift to Rome on T240 and Israel on T242 gave +1.
I speculated earlier that the fair trade bonus values decayed the longer you knew a civ, but I met Babylon first on Turn 53, then Israel on T58 and Rome on T81.
Should probably just accept the +3 and not go crazy overthinking it.

Now for the 2nd city gift!
One more (Liberate) will get me to +3 Liberated City and +4 Fair Trade.
Gogo...
..
.................
Gah!
Babylon won't take the 2nd city gift.
It isn't showing up as a (Liberate) option and Babylon's financial troubles won't let him take it as a regular city gift.

I don't understand this either.
Gift City 2 is 11 tiles from my capital and 8 tiles from Babylon's capital.
It has 0
It should be showing up as a (Liberate) option since it is closer to Babylon's capital than mine.
The city is 5 tiles from Persia's capital and it shows up as a (Liberate) option for him.

Curses!
I just wasted like 300 on that Settler for no diplo gain.
Now I got to wait ??? turns for Open Borders and Shared Resources to grow to +2 before I reach Pleased with Babylon and don't have to worry about an attack.

The city itself doesn't lose too much gold.
Call it 17*0.15=2.55 for # of city maintenance costs empire wide, and it only loses me 1 gold per turn to hold onto it.
Don't want to give it to Cyrus.
If I get into a war with him and he holds Gift City 2, it might cut off my trade routes with the west since I don't have Sailing.
Will just hold onto Gift City 2 as my 18th city until Babylon fixes their finances and I can gift it to him normally and lock in +4 Fair Trade.

Time to start planning ahead a bit.
Now that I am safe from Khmer for the moment, should I DOW Cyrus?
Only Rome, Babylon, Netherlands, Arabia, and Khmer are Pleased with Persia.
I am +35 per turn thanks to lots and lots of cottages, so I can afford to build more Axes now.
On the other hand, I still got that Poland's Stack of Doom to worry about since Mieszko hasn't moved it from Gdansk.
He could still be targeting me or a few others.

Mmm.
Attacking Cyrus feels a bit premature right now.
I'm already at war with 2 Deity AI and am still worrying about Poland.
Leaving 5 units on the border with Khmer and sending 2 in to scout, I only have 2 Axes moving towards Pataliputra to wait and see what Poland does.
7 Axes aren't nearly enough to do anything to Cyrus.


Next is Wonders.
I can probably get Aesthetics in about 10 more turns if I push for it.
None of the AI have Aesthetics yet.
That means I could build Parthenon (+50% Great People Points), shwedagon paya (Any religious civic), or Statue of Zeus (increased War Weariness for enemies).
Need Meditation for the Shwedagon Paya.
I've got Marble, Gold, and Ivory to produce all 3 at +100%
Delhi, Varanasi, and Biskek all have forests to chop and good production.
Will keep it in mind.

Library whipped in Dhaka.

According to the trade screen, Shaka is the owner of Timbuktu (isn't that Mansa's capital? stupid barbarians!)
Scout workboat near Indonesia found a fat Japanese city named Satsuma.
The 2 units exploring Khmer haven't found anything interesting yet.

T262 - Barbarians: 1 Spear and 1 Archer died.

The Korean civilization has been destroyed.
WHAT? ALREADY!???

I know Wang Kon had 3 cities on T260 from the trade menu.
That's crazy...
At least I signed Open Border agreements with both blood soaked empires before the war ended.
The Deity AI are finally taking advantage of the frightening power of 2 units.

Goujian of the Yue Empire is no longer plotting war.

Ragnar's Axe+Archer combo was dealt with.
Axe Lost at 68.5% odds against Ragnar's Archer west of Tashkent. (No damage)
Axe Won at 68.5% odds against Ragnar's Archer west of Tashkent.
Chariot Won at 99.9% odds against Ragnar's injured Axe west of Tashkent.
Just need to earn 4 more experience killing non-barb units, and I'll get my 1st Great General.

I agree, especially on Mara speed.

Not to mention if Korea does hold for a bit, it is possible Khmer may weaken in the power rating enough to possibly take a shot at him later.

Niccolo Edwards said:

I think its a matter of risk and cost vs. potential reward with the AI, mixed in with the AI's diplomatic stance and world events. But that's probably wrong; I haven't played nearly enough, nor dug into the inner workings enough to actually understand. I'd be interested in seeing the formulas the AIs use to decide on war though.

Click to expand...

So far the closest anyone has gotten to articulating the inner workings of AI DOW's is still DanF5771.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7190899&postcount=84

Major Tom said:

Sury is so triggerhappy. How about join him in the war against the treacherous Koreans?

Edit: Written before turn 260 was posted. Good luck. You and Sury can be a hell of a pair.

Click to expand...

I've never been in so many wars before Alphabet.

Drakarska said:

I agree, especially on Mara speed.

Not to mention if Korea does hold for a bit, it is possible Khmer may weaken in the power rating enough to possibly take a shot at him later.

Click to expand...

I am shocked, simply shocked that a Deity AI fell in 2 turns.
Those protective Archers in the capital probably had crazy promotions from all the barbs attacking.
Wang Kon having only Warriors defending his cities is the only thing I can think of. (Didn't tech Archery yet, like Egypt)
Or maybe Japan+Khmer simply had massive stacks of units.

Turnset 49 (T262 to T264)

T262 Continued - Espionage efforts have revealed Poland's demographics.
I have a 0.746 Power Rating with Poland, so they are almost as strong as Khmer.
The Stack of Doom in Gdansk still hasn't moved after 13 turns of sitting.
Mieszko has plenty of Open Border agreements, so I don't know why he isn't marching to his target.
Will switch over to Qin so I can see his demographics in about 12 turns.

Discovered 2 new Khmer cities with fat populations.
So far all cities are being protected by at least 3 units.

Shaka Zulu of the Zululand Empire has quite a few units sitting in Kushans (A barb city name I think).

Biskek down near Khmer expanded borders and now has a 20% defensive bonus.

Isabella canceled the trade of Horses for Stone.
Canceled Horses to the Netherlands for Pigs.
Traded Horses to the Netherlands for Stone.

My empire has now reached a comfortable +40 per turn surplus, so I'm going 100% teching on Aesthetics for a turn or two.

T263 - Barbarians: 2 Spears and 1 Warrior died.

Hanging Gardens built in Rome.
Japan owns The Great Lighthouse and Stonhenge.
Rome also has the Temple of Artemis according to the top 5 city menu.

Louis of the French Empire DOW'd Ragnar!
Tokugawa of the Japanese Empire is plotting war again.

Louis now has Alphabet (probably bribed with it to DOW Ragnar by Rome or the Netherlands)

Gems City popped borders.
Should help a lot against barbs.
Library whipped in Khotan near Khmer lands.
Granary completed in Gems City.
Finances are looking quite good now!

My 5 Axes are stuck on the Khmer border since I'm now at -2 (Annoyed) relations with Khmer.
The different religions penalty grew to -3 recently which was just enough to drop me from Cautious.
That means my no_war_prob fell from 50% to a measly 20%.
Will try to hurry a Settler to the jungle near Khmer and do a city gift for a relations boost since the Korean war ended so suddenly.

My far eastern scout discovered Genghis Khan's capital Beshbalik to the north of Qin's Chinese Empire.
Beshbalik is a sad, sad 1 pop city surrounded by ruins and barbs.

T264 - Barbarians: No deaths.

OH *@^$#
Persia AND Khmer are now plotting war.

Persia is Pleased with Babylon+Khmer. (Cyrus has Open Borders with Babylon)
Khmer is Cautious with the Yue Empire (a Land Target) and Pleased with Japan+China. (Of these empires, Khmer only has Open Borders with me)
Both Persia and Khmer are Annoyed with me, and I am a Land Target for Cyrus.
I'd estimate 90% chance Cyrus is targeting me and 50%/50% Khmer is targeting Yue/me. (Made up statistics )

Battle Stations!
Every city with low whip anger will be whipped!
Every Axe, Spear, Chariot, and Archer that has 1 turn left in the build queue will be produced.
(Please note that start to decay every turn if you leave things in queue too long)

My economy is much stronger now, and I can see if Khmer is coming from inside his own borders.
Khotan and Biskek are large and growing cities that can whip tons of units to reinforce the 5 on the Khmer borders.
Time to clog up the mountain passes and start stuffing units down into India.

**Glances at Poland**
Don't you dare , I'm busy!

Relations with Babylon are more crucial now than ever.
Canceled Open Borders with France who is Babylon's Worst Enemy.
If Babylon starts plotting war before my Open Borders/Resource Gifts get me to Pleased, my head might explode.

Hannibal of the Carthaginian empire now has Alphabet.

Power Graph has me weaker than Khmer and Poland, but stronger than Israel and Persia.
My scout workboat encountered some world-buildered ocean tiles and won't be discovering Australia.

Babylon still won't take Gift City 2.
I'm willing to hold the city even though Cyrus might raze it during the 1st turn of a war.
If it gets me the chance for even +1 more relations with Babylon, I'll hold onto the gift city undefended until my Axe gets there.
Hopefully Hammurabi improves his finances soon.

Workers were produced in Dhaka and Tashkent. (16th and 17th)
Barracks 2-pop whipped in Estruscan, with overflow going into Scout for overflow money.
Barracks 2-pop whipped in Biskek.
Axes are being produced everywhere.
Any Spears or Archers produced can garrison cities while I send the garrison Axes south.
All fresh Axes in the north will replace veteran 10xp axes who will be sent south.

I fully intend to crash my economy again from unit maintenance costs.
My scientists can do all my teching.
Each one produces +5 after all thanks to Libraries.

The sudden demise of Korea was definitely way too sudden!
I agree that probably Warriors were all they had, like Egypt.

But a two front war against Deity AI neighbours, with 2 units?
Yeah, it'd better not happen...

Noyyau said:

The sudden demise of Korea was definitely way too sudden!
I agree that probably Warriors were all they had, like Egypt.

But a two front war against Deity AI neighbours, with 2 units?
Yeah, it'd better not happen...

Click to expand...

I shudder at the idea of it.
We all know what happens to those who fight wars on 2 fronts.


Link to video.

I just want to say Kaitzilla for putting all valueable micro mechanics of macro and micro in CiV4 in this awsome story.

I allways had a lot of excusses to not reading/finding them and eventually knowing them, well you didnt gave me a chance to find more excusses by putting everything in one place.

Since i will be playing a lot of HoF now days i just need to know them if i want to competite with best of bests and not humiliate( too much ) myself, or at least know where to find it.

Iam after 6h (page 7 so far) of making notes from this thread and i dont want to even think how much time would it take to find it without it.

So yea i realy appriciate your effort, and thanks again

yyeah said:

I just want to say Kaitzilla for putting all valueable micro mechanics of macro and micro in CiV4 in this awsome story.

I allways had a lot of excusses to not reading/finding them and eventually knowing them, well you didnt gave me a chance to find more excusses by putting everything in one place.

Since i will be playing a lot of HoF now days i just need to know them if i want to competite with best of bests and not humiliate( too much ) myself, or at least know where to find it.

Iam after 6h (page 7 so far) of making notes from this thread and i dont want to even think how much time would it take to find it without it.

So yea i realy appriciate your effort, and thanks again

Click to expand...

No sweat.

Good luck in your games Yyeah!

Turnset 50 (T265 to T266)

T265 - Barbarians: No deaths.

Goujian of the Yue Empire demanded I convert to Judaism. NO!
I'm way to busy to spend Anarchy turns building relations with a civ surrounded by killers who doesn't have open borders with any of them.

My Archer in Gems City doesn't have any options to bombard a nearby barbarian.
Either I don't know what button to press, or Archery units can't bombard in this mod.

**Edit**
Apparently the Giant Earth Mod doesn't have Archery bombard turned on by default.

My shared war bonus increased with Rome is currently +3 and needs only a few more turns to increase again.
With shared war, +4 is as high as it goes with Julius, so we need Ragnar's war to continue a bit longer.
The bonus will go then to +3 whenever we aren't sharing a war, and +4 whenever we are.
China, France, and the Netherlands will take a while to max out Shared War bonus since we weren't war allies in a previous war.

Barracks whipped in Delhi with overflow going into Archer+money.

Moved my Vision Chariot to 1S1E of Gift City 2 to sacrifice in case Cyrus DOW's next turn.
The Spear will easily kill my Chariot, but won't be able to capture the city.
It will give me time to gift it away to Egypt or some other small civ I have Open Borders with and Persia doesn't.
Then I can put troops in that city and Cyrus won't be able to attack them even though they are close to his capital.

My road to Ethiopia is half done.
Soon I will be able to gift resources to Zara and get a Friendly civ even faster.

Reinforcements are starting to stream south into India.
All the Spears and Archers will garrison cities so the garrison Axes can then move south.
I need as many Axes and Chariots in the south as possible as fast as possible.

Scouting has revealed another fat Khmer city named Angkor Thom.
Suryavarmen has Workers everywhere and a single unit protecting each one too.
My workboat continues to be frustrated trying to contact Lincoln of the Australian Empire. (One of 5 unmet civs left in the game)
The European scout has finally reached the Roman Empire.
Mansa's single city has been discovered in southwest Africa.
Without Open Borders, I will have to go around it. (Mansa is the Worst Enemy of an important civ. I forget which one, probably Zulu)

T266 - Barbarians: 1 Spear and 1 Archer died.

Genghis Khan of the Mongolian Empire demanded I cancel my deals with Babylon. Nope!

Ethiopia is plotting war!
Not a big deal, he is Pleased with me. (90% No_war_probability)

The border with Khmer is being reinforced.
I got 3 Axes clogging the south pass and 2 Axes clogging the middle pass.
Still working on the north pass.
Scouts have discovered the Khmer capital Yasodharapura.
It's a big 14 pop city flatland city defended by only Axe, Spear, and Archer.
Still no sign of Khmer stack of units anywhere.

Cyrus' power is surging.
He must be whipping units.
Worryingly, new units are appearing in Gordium which is very close to Varanasi and Pataliputra. (Stack of Doom is forming on my border?)
I can't let Pataliputra be captured before the Great Scientist is born. I just can't.
Will form my defense of Pataliputra inside of Varanasi. (Weird right?)
Due to roads and rivers, it takes 2 turns to move from Pata to Vara, but only 1 turn to move from Vara to Pata.
If Cyrus moves for Pataliputra, I can reinforce it instantly, but if he moves for Varanasi I will just stay in place.

Moving an Axe over to help my Chariot pillage Cryus' only source of Copper on the 1st turn of war.
3 Chariots can move onto a hilltop and pillage a mine in a single turn!
My northern axe will help pin down Cyrus' tiny hilltop city north of Varanasi+Pataliputra.
Estruscan, Chinook, and Dhaka are going to have to protect themselves.

Still keeping an eye on Poland's Stack of Doom in Gdansk which hasn't moved since T249.

Hannibal is now the Worst Enemy of Babylon instead of France.
Signed Open Borders with France.
Gifted Rice to France for relations boost.
Cancel Open Borders with Carthage? mmmmm
That's a much tougher call.
Unlike France, Carthage is a strong civ that I have good relations with.
Going to gamble and keep open borders with Carthage, pray that Babylon doesn't demand I cancel my deals with Hannibal.

Asian scout is heading southeast from Mongolia towards Korea to see what happened.
European scout has discovered that the mapmaker really likes the Roman Empire.

Turnset 51 (T267 to T269)

T267 - Barbarians: 1 Axe + 1 Warrior died.

The barbs have Axes now!
Will create and send a Chariot north soon.

Spain is now plotting war.

Ragnar is willing to sign a Cease Fire, but the war is too profitable to stop now!
He is down to 4 cities.

Bronze City completed Granary.
Starting to create mines near Varanasi so I can chop a World Wonder in about 15 turns. (Parthenon hopefully)

My scout Workboat continues to find ocean tiles where there should be coastline.
Will keep exploring the islands of southeast Asia.

Going to 0% slider to preserve a cushion of money.
My +40 per turn surplus is gone and I will soon go negative as my army continues to grow in size.
Best to let the scientists slowly finish Aesthetics.

T268 - Barbarians: 1 Warrior died.

Poland is no longer plotting war!
Babylon is now Pleased with me and can't plot war against me anymore!
In a single turn my western front has gone from menacing to peaceful.
Just need the Hinduism Shared Religion bonus to get me to Pleased to Poland and I will be safe from them also.

Persia now has 5 units in hilltop Gordium and are still whipping more units.

The Khmer stack that invaded Korea has been spotted in northern China! (4 units)
When did Khmer sign open borders with Qin?
This is a golden opportunity.
If the Khmer stack goes west, Khmer is marching to DOW me. (probably)
If it goes south, Khmer is marching to DOW the Yue Empire. (probably)

The existence of barb Axes makes me very nervous for my China gift Settler.
Even with an Axe escort, it could still be overwhelmed and captured, especially if Cyrus DOW's me soon and that Cyrus Axe joins in.
At least Persia doesn't have Open Borders with Qin, so I'll be from safe Persia while I'm inside Chinese borders.
Won't be safe from barbs though.

The Kashgar road to my 2nd source of Copper is half done.
It is not as urgent to get now that Poland isn't plotting war, but will still be nice to have just in case some fluke razes Bronze City.
At any moment a barb Axe could burst out of the fog, win a 32% battle (no fortify bonus) against my Combat 1 Axe and capture my 2 Workers, but I'll just have to risk it.

African scout has revealed that Ethiopia own Djenne, much like trade window shows Zulu owning Timbuktu.
The barbs have wrecked so many civilizations!

T269 - Barbarians: 1 Warrior died.

The Khmer stack in China vanished even though I have "show enemy movements" and "show friendly movement" enabled in the game options.
First I'll check west since the stack can only move 4 tiles on roads.
If the stack went west, then I am likely Khmer's war target.
..
.........
Nothing there!
Next I move south onto a hill to see if Khmer went south towards the Yue Empire.
..
.........
Yup!
That is strong evidence that Yue is Khmer's target and not me.
Will try to follow that stack to make sure.

A 2nd Khmer stack has been spotted northeast of Biskek.
If it moves southwest it will indicate I'm the war target.
If it moves east, it is more evidence that Yue is the target.
Still no stacks spotted east of Khotan.

Cyrus now has 2 stacks in hilltop Sardis and hilltop Gordium.
He has Open borders with Babylon, so even if his target was China or the Yue he would be heading northwest and not east towards my borders.
It is starting to look like I'm Cyrus' target.
3 Axes have finally arrived at Gift City 2, so Cyrus' Spear won't have the chance to capture the city or prevent me from pillaging his Bronze.

A barb Axe has appeared near Bactra!
Will have to recall my Settler Axe, build a new Axe in Bactra, and pray I can win the battle.
It is too dangerous for the Settler to take even a single step out of Macau, so it will wait in the city for an Axe to return and escort it east.

Turnset 52 (T269 to T271)

T269 Continued - The road to Africa is complete.
I now have trade routes with Ethiopia, but amazingly I don't have a single spare resource that they want.
At least I'm starting to fill in the blanks for west Africa.

Numerous islands are beyond my Workboat's ability to scout thanks to the mapmaker.
A 2nd Jewish missionary from Israel has been spotted in the Roman Empire.
Hopefully David spread some Hindu missionaries around too.
None of the tech leaders has Aesthetics yet, but I will in 7 more turns.
Unlike Alphabet or Mathematics, most AI don't tech Aesthetics for a long time, so it is a good trading tech for the human player to research early in the game.

T270 - Barbarians: 1 Axe and 1 Warrior died.
Phew!
My Settler escort Axe defended against the barb Axe without taking much damage, so it can continue to escort my Chinese Settler.

My Chinese scout lost track of Khmer's stack.
It could be in Louyang heading for my border's or near Xuzhou ready to invade the Yue.
Thankfully, the 2nd Khmer stack northeast of Biskek is moving east!
I'm almost sure Khmer is going to attack the Yue Empire now.

A Cyrus DOW on me looks imminent.
There are now 11 units in Gordium and only 2 in Sardis.
Will pull Axes from the Khmer border and Dhaka garrison.
Whipped an Axe in Estruscan and will overflow into another Axe.

I am now +6 relations with Babylon.
Fair Trade magically went from +3 to +4 for no reason, and Open Borders + Shared Resources finally maxed out at +2 each.
Also, the Shared Religion bonus with Poland increased and I am now Pleased with Poland too.
That means neither Babylon or Poland who has a huge army can plot war against me now.
My west is secure.

Ragnar converted to Hinduism.
Hungary now has Alphabet.
Barracks 2-pop whipped in Chinook, will overflow into an Archer.
Scout Workboat has discovered 4-pop Yue city on an island named Shandong.

Canceled Silver and Ivory trades to Babylon.
Now that I have +2 "We Appreciate the years you have provided us with resources", there is no longer any reason to gift Hammurabi 4 resources.
I know that +2 Open Borders resets to 0 if you cancel the Open Borders deal and that +2 "appreciate resources" remains if you cancel all resource trades.
I think "appreciate resources" might slowly decay from +2, so I always try to trade 1 resource with an AI after I've maxed the bonus out.
Does anyone know if the "We Appreciate the years you have provided us with resources" bonus vanishes or decays?
I think it might go away if you DOW the AI.
Really should test all this some day...

T271 - Barbarians: 2 Archers died.

The Khmer Empire has declared war on Goujian of the Yue Empire.
EXCELLENT!

My west is secure.
My east is secure.
I can now focus entirely on Persia

Withdrawing the entire Khmer border force towards Cyrus now.
If I was playing against a human, I would be in serious trouble right now.
A truly intelligent AI would DOW by moving halfway between Varanasi and Pataliputra.
That tile is protected by a river which means my enemy would have a +25% bonus if I attacked them there.
Even worse, Pataliputra is almost done with a Great Scientist, so I'd be force to move all units there and let Cyrus take Varanasi.
Thankfully, even with the ImprovedAIMod, the AI is still dumb. ^_^
Cyrus probably won't use 2 units to their greatest effect by threatening multiple cities at once.

So far I have 9 defenders in Varanasi and Cyrus has 12 units in Gordium.
Even at 100% science slider, I can't finish Aesthetics in 1 turn so I must wait until T273 for trading.

Poland now has Alphabet.

Will risk that my Shock Axe can protect my Qin Settler in case of DOW next turn.
Moving a Chariot north now to deal with barb Axes.

Scouting reveals that Willem has no idea which way Ragnar is located.
He's just wandering around with an Axe slowing down 7 Chariots.
Also, Goujian is ready to rock Khmer unlike Korea.
It won't be a 3 turn war.

Whohoo things have taken a turn for the better!
You had intended to attack Cyrus at some point anyway, might as well not receive any diplo penalty by letting him DoW you himself.

I was very happy to see the surplus of 40+ gold at 0% research...until you started whipping army I just cannot wait when you will start trading Aesthetics. May be you cannot wait even more, since it will be a huge step in development of the empire.
So, just looking forward for the next turns

Noyyau said:

Whohoo things have taken a turn for the better!
You had intended to attack Cyrus at some point anyway, might as well not receive any diplo penalty by letting him DoW you himself.

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Exactly right.

If Cyrus DOW's me I can avoid a whole bunch of diplo penalties.

RedKirrHelper said:

I was very happy to see the surplus of 40+ gold at 0% research...until you started whipping army I just cannot wait when you will start trading Aesthetics. May be you cannot wait even more, since it will be a huge step in development of the empire.
So, just looking forward for the next turns

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Trading techs is about the strongest thing in Civ 4.
I wouldn't have Fishing, Hunting, or Archery right now without it.
7 AI have Alphabet right now I think, so there should be plenty of options.

I too can't wait to start tech trading with something big like Aesthetics.

Kaitzilla said:

At any moment a barb Axe could burst out of the fog, win a 32% battle (no fortify bonus) against my Combat 1 Axe and capture my 2 Workers, but I'll just have to risk it.

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Sounds like the GEM developers missed this when upping the movement values, perhaps extending visibility by 1 square above the base game??