Looks like our brave little swordsmen will be wearing coonskin caps real soon!
Looking forward to the tea party at Mamizou's
!
Looks like our brave little swordsmen will be wearing coonskin caps real soon!
No way the just and true Kobito would ever disturb the peace. Our evil twins have taken control and are responsible for eveything that happens at this point ;)
While I'm not too big into 4X games, I'm gonna give this LP a read...
Sometime...
Soon... I promise.
I get you. SSLPs are very daunting, even just for the consumer. I've read far less to the end than I wish I had.
Update nr. 19 - Ok, we lied in those last two updates
Turn 91 - 625 B.C.
Last time, we did not stop at the end of a turn, but at its very beginning. We had not even chosen a new tech, so we start thinking now. There are a bunch of good options, among them cartography. We could indeed start the age of discovery and venture onto the oceans, but as scientifically underdeveloped as we are, it would take 23 turns. Let's not do that for now. Horseback riding is a leftover we should be picking up. It'll only take 3 turns.
At this moment, it suddenly hit me that a change of government is going to be appropriate. We switch our civic development from recorded history to military training, which has been mostly finished except for its final 2 turns. This wasn't planned ahead by me, but it was quite fortunate for us. If you want to be flexible for all eventualities, it's smart to keep a civic lying around you can pick up in a few or even one turn. That way, you can change governments and civic cards on short notice if you need to.
I mentioned something big was going to happen and it's finally here. First we contact Kaguya, and suggest the most despicable of all trade items:
(https://i.imgur.com/6ZKxNyX.jpg)
I hate when Joint Wars are declared against me. It happens a lot. But there are times where I'm the one declaring and that is a lot more pleasant. When you click the Joint War, the game forces you to pick a target both you and the addressed know. "Mamizou Futatsuiwa" is the only option. We negotiate a little back and forth with Kaguya and here's a setup that she would agree to:
(https://i.imgur.com/oi8XmXY.jpg)
Just asking her out to a war wouldn't have worked. She wanted something on top, so we gave her sweet tooth some sugar and she gave out the pocket change of 35 gold. We accept the deal...
(https://i.imgur.com/P9jmM5T.jpg)
This is the obligatory "are you sure you want to be an asshole?" warning message. A joint war counts as a formal war and is seen as less heinous by other powers than a surprise war. The difference between a regular formal war is that the target needn't have been denounced by or have denounced you from their side at least five turns ago. It's not uncommon that people declare joint wars that have good opinions of each other and the ensuing diplomatic randomness is a typical point of critique against Civ 6. We click to confirm and Kaguya responds "excited!" A sound effect like a sword pulled quickly from its sheath is heard. Know what this means?
This means War!
You know, our army was already too big to use only for defense. There's little sense in just having our soldiers standing around, waiting and getting paid for nothing. Besides, when your unique unit is the most advanced to use, your civilization tends to be at its strongest military-wise. We don't want to waste such an opportunity.
(https://i.imgur.com/uYNJnG6.jpg)
As always, Wakasagihime has some sharp fish ears. Mamizou's relationship symbol has changed to red with two swords crossed on top. This means all of her units are now hostile. Once started, a war must run at least 10 turns until a peace treaty is even possible to negotiate. Let's begin:
(https://i.imgur.com/oypjjzO.jpg)
All of Mamizou's units that were roaming around our borders believing they were next to someone docile are now in a predicament. Since we have ranged units in all cities, none of them are defenseless. The embarked horseman takes 43 damage, the embarkation made him a good deal more vulnerable.
(https://i.imgur.com/SlpQnJF.jpg)
Each of our three west-wing swordsmen advanced 1 tile northeast onto the plains. Their goal is New York, which will take a little longer to reach due to the region being full of forests. We had the option of attacking the marked archer to the south, but I think it was more important to get a move on. He can't both give chase and fire in the next turn, so I'm not too worried about having him in the back of our army.
(https://i.imgur.com/nMGtBwj.jpg)
Our spearman in the west will try to slip back into the lands owned by us. Poor guy, it was disadvantagous that he was stuck in no man's land for so long. Yet it would have been ridiculous to delay the war just for him. The embarked warrior of Mamizou could move onto his tile and attack, but the fact that he would do this from the sea onto land would cost him a lot of combat strength.
A few troops move, but Mamizou initiates no combat in her action phase.
Turn 92 - 600 B.C.
We start this one with what might be the first "misclick" of the campaign:
(https://i.imgur.com/3UM6Khv.jpg)
I sent the archer on the tile with the sugar thinking we'd still have a movement point left to fire at the barbarian horseman, but I was wrong. I think the tile might have still counted as marsh, taking 2 movement points. Or was it on a hill? Can the sugar resources even appear on a hill? No matter, the lesson to learn is that when in doubt, it helps to hover over a tile, wait for the tool tip to appear and see what the terrain is. Hopefully the horseman won't use this opportunity to retaliate.
In this time of war, the battles are what counts. We're going to keep information about our build options to a slim, pragmatic minimum.. Lilliput's granary was finished, making lots of room for housing. We start working on the pre-placed encampment, 11 turns.
Someone's in trouble:
(https://i.imgur.com/jamTnke.jpg)
This is a situation where any bravery would be foolhardy. Our isolated spearman is facing a warrior backed up by an archer. The confrontation, if accepted, would even be hopeless if he were just up against the warrior. Remember, rock beats scissors. There's the idea of trying to stall these two units through the spearman's sacrifice, but no thank you. Everyone's far away from the main battlefield, these two units of Mamizou will likely not play a factor in the war.
Saying it simply: The spearman will FLEE FOR HIS LIFE! We move him onto the hill in the southwest. The most promising idea should be to embark into the pacific and somehow lose our enemies.
(https://i.imgur.com/3fTC022.jpg)
That's how everyone's supposed to march: The west-wing of our swordsmen advanced again and the single, eastmost one moves northwest to build a complete chain with his companions. The fake New York the Tanuki have made at the place where there's not even real New York has a population of 5 and strength value of 22. That's relatively low. The typical strength of your cities depends on the most powerful unit you've ever constructed in your empire. Mamizou doesn't seem to have anything too powerful, but a larger amount of her units have been revealed in our sight range than I had expected: 2 barbarian horsemen and an archer. It is some kind of defense at the very least...
One of our scouts throws himself onto the lonely goody hut of the unknown South American island. It was 40 gold, some pocket money isn't too bad.
During Mamizou's turn, our spearman gets fired at by her archer for 31 damage. It was to be expected, I could see him still being in firing range. Funny that it was a barrage from the mainland over water, just in the same manner as we softened up the barbarian camp of that corner many turns ago.
Turn 93 - 575 B.C.
Yes, please let us modify our culture. It's not even important what we got:
(https://i.imgur.com/S3xhNsO.jpg)
John Gay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gay) has a name that I would make fun of and feel oh so clever and proud about it, were I ten years old. I'm not. He was an English poet and playwright of the 18th century. I've seen the quote also being attributed to Benjamin Franklin. From the looks of it, that last one is a misconception.
(https://i.imgur.com/eoEkdTw.jpg)
Flat-out conquest isn't the only reason you might want to fight a war. Assume yourselves more as bandits and pillage a plantation for example, you'll generate a considerable amount of gold.
(https://i.imgur.com/znorXQc.jpg)
This card would help Lilliput right now, but I'd say it's only really worth equipping if you time it so that several cities create encampment-related projects at the same time. It can be a boon a good while before a war starts, if you want the units you build later to not just be plentiful, but of good quality.
Anyway, here's why we wanted to be able to change civics early in our conflict:
(https://i.imgur.com/Xl3Seei.jpg)
We're throwing out our Roman emperor and replacing him with a Spartan council. That, or perhaps the Japanese Samurai caste could be considered an oligarchy, a "reign of the few". While we are losing a military policy slot, the +4 combat strength and the quicker experience gain makes this government much more suited for being at war than autocracy.
Our units will be stronger now. Mamizou I think also reigns in a oligarchy right now as Wakasagihime once told us, so our bonuses cancel each other out. Going equal is still better than being at a natural disadvantage.
Our policy cards have to change due to the different layout of slots. Conscription, Urban Planning and Revelation stay, but Agoge has to move for the arguably less valuable Charismatic Leader. We set our civic to Defensive Tactics, unboosted and an expensive one with 11 turns.
Perfecting our military tactics has earned us an envoy to send to Hattusa, and once we do...
(https://i.imgur.com/a6v6xnW.jpg)
We become suerain and automatically pull them into the war. It's technically a 3 on 1 now. The Hattusans will not turn any tides, but I think I saw a scout of Mamizou bumbling about down there. He's now up to be hunted by them.
Our archer at Blefuscu was approached by a barbarian horseman of Mamizou, but not attacked. We retreat him back to the safety of the city and shoot from there: 45 points of damage, the enemy is in the red now:
(https://i.imgur.com/3KqP4pG.jpg)
More important than anything else: We're in attack range against New York now:
(https://i.imgur.com/u6sQ6fq.jpg)
The calculation pits a combat strength of 23 to 44 in our favour. While the barbarian horseman inside the city will not take part in the fight itself, his presence gives the city itself a considerable passive bonus. I like that the game lists all those modifying factors, it makes the battle system very logical and understandable. We commence the siege and deal 61 damage to the city while taking only 15 in return. That's the power of the Shining Needle Swordsman for you!
At the very end of the turn, my eyes darted to our treasury and I thought it was time to take out 260 of those 456 gold we have and quick-purchase a trader in Shining Needle Castle. It was annoying me that we were still using only 1 of our 3 trade route slots, just not finding the time to build those traders anywhere. When we eventually set a route, we have to be careful of Mamizou's units: She may be able to destroy the caravan.
On the bake-danuki's turn, she did attack again: A greatly injured barbarian horseman was thrown onto our northermost swordsman. The horseman was completely crushed of course, but did deal 8 points of damage to us for his sacrifice.
Turn 94 - 550 B.C.
We can also get on horses now, and we don't even have to be called "barbarians" for it:
(https://i.imgur.com/Gbf3KL2.jpg)
John Steinbeck (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck) was an American author and also a winner of Nobel- and Pulitzer prizes. I get a feeling the quote might be from his novella "The Red Pony".
(https://i.imgur.com/ROFokjr.jpg)
The stable has much in common with the barracks, but only one of them can be built in an encampment. You will have to decide if that city owning the encampment should specialize in building infantry or cavalry and, unless you want to waste potential, stick to that specialization.
(https://i.imgur.com/HM1CTib.jpg)
Horsemen are not only very powerful (almost as strong as our unique swordsmen) but also very swift with a movement score of 4. Churning these out is a strategy for dominating the classical era. They do get a lot worse in the following eras, as it takes very long to reach their next evolution.
We set our technology focus to the 23-turn-taking cartography, but before this one even ends, I spoil that we reconsider to the much quicker mathematics (8 turns).
Blefuscu's guarding archer has no one to shoot at this time and uses this short break to pick his promotion, Garrison, for +10 strength in a city center.
Shining Needle Castle has finished its settler and we now discover our pious side and start making the pre-placed holy site. 9 turns. While it might be smart during wartime to keep building units, they would take a long time to get into Mamizou's turf. Hopefully, the four swordsmen will be alright without further backup. I also feel like it's a little too dangerous right now to send out our settler anywhere, even if escorted. We're going to leave him in town until the coast is clear.
Meanwhile, Aya's and Momiji's heightened senses see another goody hut in South America. We should find out what was inside in another 2 turns. The trader we bought last turn gets a destination by the way, Shining Needle Castle -> Eientei, raking in 6 gold per turn. This trade route runs northward over the Great Plains and should be difficult to reach and destroy for Mamizou.
So finally, what's new at the siege?
(https://i.imgur.com/rXXr73f.jpg)
Unit 2 advances on New York, dealing 83 damage and suffering 13. City hitpoints always start at 200 by the way and regenerate 20 each turn unless the city in question is completely surrounded by enemy units. Then a symbol will appear on it signifying that its cut off from outward supplies. Unit 3 follows up with their own attack for 73 damage and 11 onto themselves. Now New York has but a tiny sliver of resistance left and is looking as if struck by a natural disaster:
(https://i.imgur.com/ee8Kwag.jpg)
We could call ourselves a natural disaster if we want to. Unit 1 goes in, takes 12 points of damage and puts the city in our grasp. Cities will only be conquered if a melee unit reduces the hitpoints to 0. Archers, catapults or other ranged units can only reduce them to 1.
(https://i.imgur.com/OIb9jKt.jpg)
3 different districts needed to be in our empire to trigger this eureka, our commercial hubs didn't count double. Apart from already having a campus as well, the reason this happened now is because there was a holy site in false New York. We're currently its owner. Emphasis on "currently":
(https://i.imgur.com/cg5dYFZ.jpg)
This window demands a decision whenever you take over a city. "Keep City" will make it one of your own, but the city will be in occupation mode as long as your war lasts. Occupied cities are in a state of martial law and will not grow. Furthermore, if you don't negotiate a so called "ceding" of the city when the war ends, it will still feel as a foreign city and create additional war weariness should you ever go to war with the original owner again.
"Raze City" is a very nuclear option. Pick this, and the conquered city will be immediately deleted, as if it never existed in the first place. In Civ 5, cities were only gradually razed and the razing process could be aborted at any point before the city vanished. Your opponent also had the chance to conquer it back before this happened. Capital cities cannot be raised, neither can city-states.
In this case, we raze bootleg New York to ashes! The idea behind this is that any city you keep, you kind of have to take responsibity for. It'll want some of our amenities shared and getting too large and bloated is bad for your whole empire. I don't think the placement of this one is too beneficial and while it would be decent as a base of operations for the current war, we shouldn't commit to keeping it. With a click, it is gone.
Razing a city will count as cruel and will create additional warmonger penalties, tarnishing your international reputation. Since Kaguya is our ally in this war, she should tolerate anything we do. I hope. We'll see.
No longer needing to help with city conquest, unit 4 steps on the tile to his northeast where the enemy builder is. He gets enslaved and is now under our control. He has but one charge left, yet that's better than nothing.
(https://i.imgur.com/hhRTAOk.jpg)
Ah, forgot to mention: City-states hand out one quest per era. You check on the city-state overview what they want you to do and if you comply, you gain a free envoy fixed to the respective city. Granada wanted us to build a holy site. Temporarily stealing the one from Mamizou was close enough to "building" I guess...
Within Mamizou's turn, our offense takes a bunch of chip damage. Unit 4 is first shot by an archer for 9 damage, then charged by horsemen for another 9. Those horsemen are punished with 84 points of damage by our automatic retaliation. Unit 1 also gets pelted by arrows from the north for 14 damage. Everyone's still fairly healthy after all that.
As you can see, the game gets really intricate when a conflict breaks out. There's so much micromanagement when you're commanding your troops and choosing your attacks. That's why we're stopping for today after only 4 very eventful turns. Next time, more of this carnage. Will Mamizou's capital hold?