Round 5: 25 BC to 545 AD, Part 1: The Battle of Old Serai
Okay, so I opened the round with a crazy-a$$ decision that will probably prove controversial:
Yep, I changed research from Code of Laws to... MUSIC?!?
I can just imagine pigswill rolling his eyes over my absurd obsession with his namesake. Well, it ain't just the piggies, though yes, part of the goal is to get the free Great Artist to use for a great work in Kumbi Saleh to claim the pig tile. That's all about making that a viable city, frankly. There's more to it than that, however.
Remember how I had my doubts about researching Currency. Why? Because it's a tech the AI loves to research. As time goes on, I grow more wary of duplicating the AI's efforts. So I thought, yeah, Music is expensive and doesn't offer too much in return--but that makes it one heck of a trading tech. So that was my goal: be the first to Music, get the GA, and then trade it to catch up on techs I'd missed along the way.
This may be a bit of cheekiness--or even, dare I say, arrogance--on my part as well. I'm feeling pretty confident at Monarch level now, and the fact that I'm playing as a Financial and Spiritual leader only adds to that. So this play-out-of-left-field is reflective of a desire to do something different, something potentially challenging, and see how it plays out.
So how
did it play out? I hear you cry. You'll see. Eventually.
To compensate for this oddball tech target, I followed much of the other advice I was given. I changed the build in Kumi Saleh and most of the other cities to military:
This included giving up the Great Library in Timbuktu. Sniff.
And I also whipped that monument in Hittite:
Now, on to the main event.
As you might gather from the title, the majority of this post will be preoccupied with one particular battle: the taking of the city of Old Serai.
In Civ terms, it was a pretty conventional fight. Veterans and higher-level players be warned: there probably won't be anything too earth-shattering in the next few screenshots and lines. But I've had some requests lately to show a city capture in more detail from beginners, people playing on lower levels, builders wanting to be more warlike, and so on. I thought this was the best battle from the war with Mongolia to use for didactic purposes, because this is where Kublai had the biggest concentration of forces.
So first off, let's have a look at the disposition of our armies just before the fight:
You can see that Kublai has a rather astonishing (at first) garrison of no less than
seven Archers in the city--1 with City Garrison 1, 3 with Combat 1, all of them fully fortified. If you remember, however, that I've been pillaging in his territory to (a) prevent him from accessing his iron and (b) crippling his economy so he's having trouble researching, you'll realize that Archers are the best unit he can build, so of course he's gone crazy with them. And since this city is surrounded by my territory and we're at war, it also makes sense that he'd concentrate his forces here.
On my side, I have 5 Swordsmen (3 with City Raider 2 (and 2 only 1 XP from CR III) and 2 with CR I); 4 Catapults (3 with CR 1, 1 with no promotions--oops, that's the one futurehermit spotted being built in Gao); and one Woodsman II Axeman who's the stack protector and backup attacker if needed.
2 of my Catapults are unavailable for the city attack. 1 because I just used it to remove the last of the city's cultural defenses (something the other Cats that arrived on the scene a few turns earlier had slowly been whittling away). The other (the promotionless one) because it just moved onto the hill this turn.
So I have enough units to take the city on this turn assuming one of the Catapults gets lucky and
none of the attackers die, including the Axeman. I shrug and realize I may have to capture the city on the next turn. Since Kublai has nothing to counterattack with, that's no big deal. Notice that I don't have a good city defender present; normally I would, to defend the city once it's taken, but I'm planning on razing Old Serai, so I don't need one.
My first Catapult attacks with 28.8% odds and withdraws, living to fight another day and earning 1 XP in the process. Hooray! Thanks to the first one's collateral damage, the next one has better odds:
This still looks like a typical Cat suicide run to me. I launch the attack... and get lucky; the Cat kills its opponent, earning its Level 3 promotion in the process! And I have exactly enough units remaining to take the city. (The whole thing kind of reminds me of a World Cup penalty shootout.)
In this shot you can see how the defenders have been weakened:
The good news here is that one
very weak Archer at 0.7 strength. Normally a Woodsman II Axe will get very bad odds in a city raid, but against that poor schmuck, it's a sure-fire win.
Now that the collateral damage has been done, it's time for the City Raiders to do what they do best. My CRII Sword gets excellent odds:
(I suppose these aren't technically "odds", but "win probability" or something like it is such a mouthfull.) Now, we've all lost units at those odds, and this guy is 1 XP from Level 4, so I'd hate to lose him. But that's the chance you take in every battle, right?
Against more formidable opposition, I might elect to first attack with a rookie unit--theorizing that I might lose it, but that it will damage the best defender enough to make it easier pickings for a veteran. In this case, however, I'm concerned with capturing the city on this turn--mainly so I can move on to the next city ASAP--so I let the best attack first.
As a result, every unit gets very high odds against Kublai's injured Archers:
Including that Woodsman II Axeman:
And they all win. So before the turn is done, the city is mine:
Like I said, pretty conventional, a foregone conclusion, even. Textbook. And as a result, I have 2 CR III Swords and 1 more CR II.
Normally I would have required more of a mixed force and more Catapults. But normally, I would have been up against an Axeman or two, maybe a Chariot and a Spearman. To avoid this, I denied Kublai horses by capturing Hittite in the previous round, and denied him iron through pillaging as well. To give the AI credit, it also tries to do this; ever notice it pillaging your strategic resources (copper, iron, horses) right off the bat? Still, it isn't usually very effective, because I usually protect that resource and/or have more than one available. In my Stack o' Doom strategy article I wrote about the two types of stacks--pillaging and city capturing--and here's an example of using both of them.
I razed Old Serai, deciding to build a new city 1 tile east as Validator urged. The gold proved very handy for keeping my research elevated as I chased Music and the free GA.
Back to the other events of the round.
As my stack healed and then pushed on to Turfan, Isabella came by, asking for a favour. A
big favour.
Hmmm... Again, normally my instinct would be to tell her to get bent. However, I quelled it. I wanted Isabella as happy with me as possible (to avoid an attack on my weak north), and already I had to overcome some "close borders" demerits. Giving Mysticism to Mehmed earlier reminded me of the value of giving in to the AI's requests.
In addition, I'm working on a theory, and I'd love to have someone confirm or deny it. In a recent offline game, Louis came to me with a similar request for an expensive tech which I turned down. I then offered him a trade for it--I had a couple of techs on him--and he refused. I kept offering him better and better deals for the tech he wanted, and he refused them all. 2 turns later, I no longer had the tech on him. So... does the AI only ask for a tech like this if they've already nearly finished researching it themselves? Inquiring minds want to know.
In addition, Mehmed already had Alphabet (and Literature too, in fact), so better I should get the credit for helping Izzy rather than him.
A few turns after this, I founded the replacement city:
It will be a while before it's viable, but that will keep the AI from trying to claim that space. Meanwhile, my stack--now with a War Elephant, Medic I Chariot, and Spear in tow, approached Turfan.
Continued in part 2...
which is a very good boost and with some more religious buildings hinduism will spread more. 
