LK151 - WM, where are we?

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

In the process of bombarding and trampling two musketmen outside Brasilia we gain our first Great Leader, who immediately founds the First Knight Army in Brasilia (11-2).

We bombard and rout a third American musketman, near Artie Nielsen (12-2).

The Sioux, whom we brought into the anti-American coalition, now bring the tundra-bound Australians in. I hope this won’t produce traffic jams in our lands. It’s unlikely to have any other effect.

The Americans seem to get the better of their bloodbath with the Venezuelans this interturn. We aren’t attacked.

The Babylonians build Copernicus.


540 (4): We pick up 186 gold from the backward Australians for Republic—the bribe they received from the Sioux to enter the war.

We crush four knights around Natsu Dragneel and three musketmen outside Brasilia (19-2). The First Knight Army shows its inexperience and redlines, but it records our first army victory, so we begin Heroic Epic in Brasilia where we have a modest pre-build. (Later we move the HE build to Natsu Dragneel.) In the fighting near Brasilia we gain our second Great Leader, who forms the Second Knight Army in that town.

We sell education to Persia for 18 gpt and 35 gold.

The Sioux are the first to Navigation. Since it’s an optional tech we aren’t very interested.

We see only five American-Venezuelan combats, as the fighting moves west. The Venezuelans are advancing on Dallas.

We again aren’t attacked.


550 (5): The Babylonians have Military Tradition. It’s quite unusual for the AI civs to produce MilTrad while Physics-ToG-Magnetism are still unknown. There’s nothing we can do about MilTrad while it’s a monopoly.

All along the front we cut down two knights and two musketmen (23-2). (For the lurkers, all the enemy units we fight are American at this point.)

A little reconnaissance into the fog shows that Cana Alberona, our wines town, is so hemmed in by Venezuelan cities that it won’t gain a single tile when its cultural expansion comes on the interturn. I retract what I said about not fearing a flip there.

We move a substantial force based on the Second Knight Army adjacent to Cincinnati. This is a worthless hill town, but it’s so close to Brasilia and Dr. Carl Hill that it makes the defense of both awkward, so I want to raze and replace it before we move our strike force farther south to New Orleans.

Facing minor American attacks around Dr. Carl Hill, we slay a longbowman and redline-retreat a knight (24-2).

The Venezuelans take Dallas, unfortunately holding it rather than razing it and creating an opportunity for us.

The Aztecs declare war on Venezuela. The two are separated by the Sioux, so it may or may not matter.


560 (6): Cincinnati is defended only by two musketmen, and we take the town without loss after a long, rather inefficient bombardment (26-2). We capture two workers, and hold the city for tactical convenience since it would only have yielded one worker if razed.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

All along the front we pummel two knights and a musketman (29-2). We’re able to use a trick I like a lot, putting just two veteran knights in an army and then having the army make two safe attacks against redlined opponents. This almost guarantees that one of the veteran knights will promote to elite, so that when the asterisked elite that generated the army is added in the army will have 14 HP and be quite robust, even before it’s allowed its fourth unit.

We ride down a longbowman landed from the sea two tiles NW of Fortaleza (30-2).

We dispose of a longbowman landed near Erza Scarlet in the Philippines (31-2)

We abandon Cincinnati and replace it with Ezequiel one tile farther forward.

The Americans offer peace on even terms. I think not, Abe.

We aren’t attacked.


570 (7): We bludgeon a knight and a longbowman on our approach to New Orleans (33-2). We aren’t seeing many American units outside cities now, which is good in a sense, but reduces our chances for armies.

At New Orleans we intend just preliminary attacks by our two knight armies…but they’re sufficient to storm and raze the city when it proves to be garrisoned only by three musketmen (36-2). We gain four workers.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We aren’t attacked on the interturn.

Fortaleza completes our first bank. It’s worth 11 gpt to us at 100% cash.


580 (8): We replace New Orleans with Uxia Cambarro, on the same site.

We pick off a knight and a longbowman in minor engagements (38-2).

Our two knight armies move next to Atlanta, with supporting units one tile back.

We pick up three workers and 11 gold from Russia for Astronomy. It’s obvious why the workers are available—the Americans are outside Moscow (which, however, Russia still holds as of 650 AD).

We let the hopeless Songhai have Literature for 30 gold and 1 gpt, which just meets the 50-gold self-respect criterion.

We redline-retreat a knight at Uxia Cambarro, but aren’t otherwise attacked.


590 (9): We hack down the redlined knight outside Uxia Cambarro, and also account for a musketman near Ezequiel (40-2). Except for army attacks on cities, most of our victories are with elites, but we aren’t getting enough opportunities.

We seize and raze Atlanta, held by three musketmen and a longbowman (44-2), and gain five workers. Our armies take substantial damage and will have to heal, though.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We move a secondary force (i.e. without armies) next to Buffalo, the city irritatingly close to Artie Nielsen on real-life Hainan.

We bombard and expunge a musketman wandering around Wendy Marvel, and capture a catapult (45-2).

We sweep a knight off the tile where we intend to found the city replacing Atlanta (46-2).

We replace Atlanta with Captain Obed Marsh, one tile to the NE.

We sell Banking to Russia for 50 gpt and 41 gold.

The Babylonians and Sioux now both have Physics and Printing Press, while retaining their respective monopolies (MilTrad and Navigation). But any twofer would have to start at the monopoly price, which we can’t remotely afford.

We buy workers from Indonesia (99 gold) and the Aztecs (105 gold).

Our heroic exploring curragh Down Under Plunder is sunk by an American caravel off Sumatra (46-3).

The Australians declare war on Russia.


600 (10): We renew our ivory supply by sending Indonesia Engineering, also pocketing 4 gold.

With Printing Press now in circulation, we’re able to get communications with the last unknown civ, Argentina, just by trading contacts. They’re pathetic, of course—two cities and they still haven’t discovered Polytheism. They must be somewhere in the tundra but where isn’t clear—perhaps northern Greenland.

We bombard, capture, and raze Buffalo, defended by two musketmen (48-3). We gain two workers.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

610 (11): We unstring a longbowman outside Uxia Cambarro, and another near Ezequiel (50-3).

We move a fast force of armies and knights adjacent to Los Angeles, and a mixed force of knights, trebs, and musketmen adjacent to Tampa Bay.

Music Theory is in circulation.

One American knight redline-retreats at Captain Obed Marsh.


620 (12): We take and raze Los Angeles, garrisoned by three musketmen (53-3). Between the razing and captures we gain seven workers and three cannon.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

Our bombardment at Tampa Bay is only marginally effective, but redline-retreats preserve our knights, and we storm and raze the city without loss (held by three musketmen and a longbowman; 57-3). We gain six workers and a cannon.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We bullyrag a longbowman outside Ezequiel, and two knights around Captain Obed Marsh (60-3).

We sell Monotheism to the Mongols for 9 gpt and 62 gold. They aren’t likely to come up with anything more.

We merge another nine workers.

The Aztecs demand dyes away from us.

We redline-retreat a knight attacking Paul Marsh.

The Babylonians have ToG, so they only need Magnetism to enter the IA.


630 (13): In skirmishing we smite four knights and lose one (not elite), though it was attacking a redlined enemy (64-4). We’re on an 0-for-23 streak generating Great Leaders, after a good start.

On the northern front (RL Bangla Desh) our armies heal, and on the southern (RL Indochina) we drag our siege train forward, so it’s a quiet turn.

We replace Los Angeles with Wilbur Whateley, founded one tile to the south.

The Sioux, in best AI style, are bringing every possible ally into the war with America—now the hopeless French, who on this map occupy Tierra del Fuego and not much else.

We hand-build Heroic Epic in Natsu Dragneel.


640 (14): We move a large force based on bombardment units next to Oakland, in the location of RL Hanoi.

Our attack on New York is almost a disaster, as the First Knight Army falls from fourteen HP to one in defeating a single musketman, and the Second Knight Army hits the red on its first victory as well. But the defenders number only three, a knight finishes the job, and we seize and raze the city (67-4). We gain five workers and two cannon.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We replace New York with Randolph Carter, one tile to its north.

We buy a worker from Venezuela for 130 gold.

We sell Astronomy to Persia for 347 gold.

We slay a knight and a longbowman attacking towards Randolph Carter (69-4).


650 (15): We send Education to India for a renewed supply of spices, 28 gpt, and 76 gold.

We sell Chemistry to Russia for 55 gpt and 42 gold.

We scoop up 260 gold of the bribe money the Sioux have been spreading around to bring uselessly distant civs into the American war, by selling old techs to three backward civs.

We bombard, capture, and raze Oakland, held by three musketmen (72-4). Between captures and razing we gain seven workers and a cannon.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We found Charles Dexter Ward on the ruins of Oakland.

We mop up a musketman and a longbowman (74-4), and finally gain our third Great Leader, who forms the Third Knight Army at Wilbur Whateley.

We uncover quite a lot of the world with map trades.

We merge six more workers into cities, for a final total of forty-six. We have fifteen cities at size twelve now, working fully improved tiles, and another two at the maximum population permitted by terrain.

Thirty-nine elite victories this round produced three Great Leaders.

 

[Northern Pike]

The battlefront:

 

[Northern Pike]

Military

We’re listed as average relative to America now, so the odds are that Abe doesn’t have much strength left beyond city garrisons. We should be able to push forward to America’s complete destruction (apart from the usual islands and outliers) without ever making peace.

We’re within three tiles of Washington, though given the need for our armies to heal and then approach the city in the right way, our attack probably won’t go in until 690.

When the time comes for our assault on Washington, we’ll need to advance an extra tilerow to avoid attacking across a river. The bombardment units will need to set out well before the armies, of course, but the Third Knight Army (which doesn’t need to heal) can cover their advance.

We should be able to take the three remaining American cities in Indochina and Malaya without using armies or reinforcing the area—just a slow grind forward with our bombardment units. We will need to send two more settlers that way to replace the cities we’ll be razing.

The asterisked elite that needs to join the Third Knight Army is some way east of it, near Uxia Cambarro.

We can use our worker pumps as de facto settler sources by letting strong cities build settlers in two turns, and then immediately replacing their lost population with worker merges. This will probably be necessary soon.


Triggering Our Golden Age

We’ve made such good progress against America that half of our formula for triggering our GA with Wonders—taking Seattle (with the Great Lighthouse) exactly when we want—shouldn’t be a problem. Thus we have a palace pre-build going in Brasilia, at just about 300 accumulated shields now, in the hope that we’ll be able to build Bach there. Since the AI civs took longer than expected to discover Music Theory, and don’t seem to be building Bach in their strongest cities, I’d say that we have about an even chance. The only AI pre-build in play is Babylon’s build of Newton, which I don’t think matters because they’ll certainly complete it.

If we’re beaten to Bach, the accumulated shields in Brasilia will just be our pre-build for the Pentagon or the MA, so we have nothing to lose by trying for our GA. We don’t have Music Theory yet, since there’s no point in attracting demands for it and it’s a cheap tech we can pick up whenever we want.

We’re twelve turns away from the 600 shields needed for Bach in Brasilia, so we probably won’t want to take Seattle during CB’s round, but we’ll need to be in position by the end. Brasilia’s intentional food shortage will need correcting towards the end of the next round, too.

Just to recap, we have to build Bach when we’re holding Seattle.


Techs and Trade

Babylon still has a monopoly on MilTrad, and also on ToG. Only Babylon and the Sioux even have Physics. The cheap optionals—PP, Music Theory, and Navigation—are more widely distributed.

In six turns our large payment of 330 gpt to Babylon will run out—but so will the 153 gpt we’re receiving from Venezuela, so we’ll need to reclaim that money immediately with a tech sale, if possible. Once we have the 330 gpt back we may be able to buy MilTrad at the monopoly price and then trade it for Physics, though it’s a painful way to execute a twofer.


Cities and MM

We’ll want to rush Randolph Carter’s temple next turn, and also Charles Dexter Ward’s.

Five Wheat Feat is a regular two-turn worker pump and requires adjustment every time it produces a worker. Cure Dream is an irregular two-turn pump and requires attention every turn, unfortunately.

As long as Rio is above size five, we can produce settlers efficiently there by keeping the city at +10 food and not worrying about the shields. Once it falls to size five it can function as an ordinary 5 --> 7 settler pump. Greebley, I’m afraid that with our offensive beginning to roll taking Rio off settler duty wasn’t practical.

Our towns producing four-turn knights at 18 spt can be reduced to 17 spt in the third and fourth turns of the cycle for extra food or commerce, if you can bear that degree of MM. Claudia Donovan and Artie Nielsen are set this way (17 spt) at the moment.

Fortaleza is on last-turn-of-the-build MM and will need adjustment when it produces its knight.

Captain Mal Reynolds will produce a settler in two turns, so as not so waste its full food box. After this we should merge in the nearby worker to return CMR to size twelve at once.

The workers we have in our far east (Manchuria and northern Japan) are sufficient for the minor tasks remaining there, so we shouldn’t send more in that direction until Dr. Jeremy Franklin has its aqueduct and can receive merges.

Mrs. Frederic should build a bank after its courthouse. This is a classic low-shield, high-commerce city where we shouldn’t waste time on slow production of units. The food shortage there is intentional and won’t be a problem in the next ten turns.


Exploration

Our galley DoYouKnowTheWayToSanJose? has been bounced around a bit by Babylonian boot orders, but can now proceed north to define the rest of the Atlantic coastline.

We have an explorer working on the last fog in Eurasia.