Turn 127, 30BC

[vulture]

So we have the largest population (by some margin I think) and the highest literacy. Not to mention the highest GNP. I guess we are the sleeping research monster...

[DeepO]

Maybe it's best to take the Voice, and gift Miller town back as part of a peace deal now, so we can see more clearly what the effect of war weariness is. Also, was it already decided where we want to move Voxian towns?

As to research: we should end in some 10 turns, so we can have another 3 or 4 turns of 100% tax... it doesn't matter really when we do this, as no further libraries are planned for the moment, but I guess the money can come in handy.

With permission, I'd like to tell the Legos this fastest eta: 7 turns at the minimum, but we'd rather have 11-13 turns at least. I don't think they will mind, as there won't be anybody wanting to buy techs for quite some time.

One consequence is that 2000 gold won't be possible to get as our money pot for the invasion, we need to start cutting into that budget... 1000 - 1200 yes, but 2000? That's a lot of gold

upgrading horsies: good idea, certainly as it wil be masked in the power graph by the Voxian cities we gain. But keep some money handy, we'd want some inspections later on too.

DeepO

[DeepO]

BTW, how many settlers can you spot for Vox? I wonder if that galley of theirs is also holding some units...

DeepO

[DeepO]

include 1 elite WC into the first or second wave, you never know we get lucky again. Further, is it possible to have 2 settlers ready for the first wave? If so, it could help us greatly: they can settle both NM7 and NM33, give us an instant unload city for our future waves. If I count tiles, it won't matter for the second wave, so we could in principle also put that second settler on our second wave, if we unload him right.

If we do have a few galleys close by to unload a smaller second wave the turn after invasion, it could matter, though, otherwise we have to wait 3 turns before the rest of our troops arrive.

DeepO

[asleepathewheel]

Are there any restrictions on the vox given engineering?

Arnelos has complained of crossing rivers. We could give them engineering for that luxury, which would speed units to the defense much faster. Granted it will speed towards defense of barci too, but if we wait a few turns, perhaps everything south of the border will be opened. Plus, they would be less likely to expect an attack from us then, if we basiclly just gave away a good tech.

[DeepO]

The rivers of RP are kind of strange... I would not give them Engineering! If they want to trade us a city for it, fine, otherwise why would we give them something for free. We might look out, and see once Vox or Lego gives them Engineering.

As to their rivers: the strange thing is that for all UUs, those aren't defensive at all. These can land next to e.g. Zaragoza, be relatively safe from direct attacks (not cat fire), and once they attack they have enough movement points to cross the river, attack the city, and if possible return to over the river in one turn. I would not have placed my cities there if I knew riders were coming.

BTW, we don't need the lux, I think, if we can take it in under 10 turns, and keep it the rest of our game

DeepO

[DeepO]

dp

[Aeson]

1. Vox 126. Vox gifts all cities on Stormia (Estonia) to GS, save the Voice, as well as Engineering. Accepted. All cities include Wittlich City, Miller Town, Beta-by-the-Sea, and Harry's Hideout.

2. GS 127. GS accepts cities and tech. Declares war, occupies The Voice. GS offers peace, Miller Town and any gold captured from the Voice back, accepted.

3. Vox 127. Vox accepts peace and Miller Town. Moves all forces into Miller Town. Offers Miller Town, unnaccepted.

4. GS 128. GS offers 60 gold and accepts.

5. Vox 128. Vox accepts 60 gold for Miller Town and all forces *blip* to their new capital. The peace is final.

Ratified by Gathering Storm

Ratified by Vox Controli

So we take The Voice, then offer Vox peace and Miller Town accepted.

[Aeson]

I agree with Arrian, keep the Vet WC's up north to block landing sites. We want to keep a garrison in Elipolis just in case, probably 3-4 Pikes and a couple of the Vet WC's. Then we can rely on upgrading the WC's to Knights to repel a landing if they somehow find a spot to land.

An initial 'crossing guard' proposal:



At first we need 7 units to block all the first turn landing sites. Workers do just as well as any unit, and we need to improve some of the tiles anyways. Eventually we can have 2 of those spots as city sites. The Mountain would be a good location for a lookout tower, and then we could move the North Galley further W, or stack it with the S Galley.

One turn warning will give us enough time to at least upgrade a couple WC's to Knights as long as we have the money. The lookout Galleys can also be used to try to sink ships in a pinch.

[nbarclay]

I pulled back two more MedInfs from the northern front. Even with them leaving now, it's going to be four or five turns before they can load up on galleys, but I'm hesitant to pull out any more than that with Voxian troops still around. I also went ahead and upgraded three horsemen to knights.

Right now, Inchoff is scheduled to complete a temple in two turns and Blizzard in three. If we're planning to use one of the two settlers we'll have in the next couple turns to fill in the gap in between our northern cities, we probably want to change those builds to something else, although having additional temples for the culture wouldn't be the worst thing in the world no matter what. If we're planning to commit the settlers to the invasion and/or to going ahead and replacing Dissidentville, we probably want the temples to finish so the cities can get more production.

[notyoueither]

Nathan, you have the DoW, occupy the Voice. offer peace, Miller Town and the gold pillaged from the Voice done?

[nbarclay]

Turn and shots sent.

Edit:
Yes. Peace, Miller Town and 10 gold to Vox. (I had to take The Voice without declaring war first because our previous peace treaty hadn't expired, but that shouldn't matter.)

[Aeson]

Now the AI wont trade upfront for gpt with us us!

Suprised that our power graph didn't move much at all. Guess it will kick in next turn?

How many shields is Arashi at BTW? If it's 18-19, I think we should build 4 turn Knights there. At 20, Med Inf would be good too.

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Edit: Actually, can I be put on the Save email list now too? Will cut down on all my questions I keep asking I promise!

[notyoueither]

Power would come next turn. This turn we did not start with those cities.

[nbarclay]

Arashi is at 16 net if I remember right, which is why I have it on pikes. We could get more out of it at Tempest's expense if we want to; right now I have things prioritized in Tempest's favor aiming for a wonder prebuild, but we may want to reconsider that now that we're presumably going to war. We may also want to consider switching some harbor builds in southern cities to knights and putting the cities on war production.