[Spoilers] 0x49-y: Marxist-Joaoist Praxis

[Oxyphenbutazone]

Ok so why the sudden turnaround from despair to cautious confidence? Well it comes down to Willa Island:



Scooter piled in absolutely massive garrisons here: 8-10 units in each city, including most of his berserkers in addition to a smattering of pikes, longbows, and knights. This move completely doomed my initial war plans. Any invasion force I landed on the island would be at risk of attack from 30+ units, meaning I would have to commit the bulk of my army just to ensure that I wouldn't get wiped out on the beaches. Moreover, every city I would try to capture would be extremely expensive in manpower and, more importantly, time. If I spent 10 turns subjugating Willa island, by the time my army was healed up and ready to hit the mainland, Scooter would already be close to cannonss, which would give him an insurmountable advantage against any of my landing parties.

The entire game has basically narrowed down to this race: will scooter tech steel and whip out a round of cannons to neutralize my offensive, or will I wipe out enough of his empire so that his economy and production base is destroyed before he can get there? And with scooter's aggressive defense on Willa Island, for a couple turns it looked like he was all but guaranteed to win it.

But then I realized... Scooter's units are completely trapped

With my total naval dominance in the southwestern sea, scooter has no ability to evacuate his garrisons from the island, or strike out offensively against me. All his units can do is sit behind the city walls and slowly drain scooter's finances with unit maintenance. This totally shifts the balance of our war. A third of scooter's entire army is now useless without me having had to fire a single shot. And with my blockades in effect, all of his cities on the island are also drains on his empire, with no access to food, FIN coast, or resources from the mainland to enable them to offset their maintenance costs or whip out units.

So the new war doctrine is to completely bypass Willa Island and strike directly at Scooter's core. How's that coming along? Well...



I have big plans for this fleet, but you lurkers will have to wait a turn or two to find out exactly what they are 

Meanwhile, Scooter just teched chemistry last turn, evening us up on military tech. I'm sure he will start pushing out a bunch of frigates to begin to challenge my naval hegemony, but unfortunately for him the 9 turns headstart I got from my bulbing gambit has given me quite the incumbent advantage.



And of course, we have other plans brewing beyond the principal naval strike. As you guys probably already know, I was able to take out one of Scooter's better cities on his east coast after he left it defended with just 2 longbows and a spearman last turn. That battle spawned my first great general (legit the first benefit I've gotten from my leader traits in 25 turns), which I spent on a stack of 4 knights, 3 of which will get upgraded to c2 + amphibious marines. And the last of the 4? He's going hunting 

[Thoth]

[T-hawk]

So the plan was to bypass Scooter's island and go for his core... yeah nobody could have guessed that, we only could have with spoiler information from where Scooter's units are.

That last one is going to aim for sniping cities from Luddite?

[Jabah]

How costly was it to take the city with 2LB+1pike (I guess with full fortification but 0% defence) ?

[Oxyphenbutazone]

So the plan was to bypass Scooter's island and go for his core... yeah nobody could have guessed that, we only could have with spoiler information from where Scooter's units are.

That last one is going to aim for sniping cities from Luddite?

Yeah I wasn't earnestly asking for plans lol it was more of a rhetorical remark

[Oxyphenbutazone]

How costly was it to take the city with 2LB+1pike (I guess with full fortification but 0% defence) ?

Only lost a couple muskets IIRC

[Oxyphenbutazone]

Jeez playing a naval duel is stressful, like a third of my day today was civ. The problem is I've already made a number of blunders that have set me back significantly (though to be fair so has scooter, perfect play under these conditions is impossible) so I feel really paranoid every I move my units around. Anyways, some of scooter's troops may escape Willa Island, but I'll make it tough for him at least. Things could still really go either way, the Viking + circumnav advantage is so huge, and Scooter's supply lines are a lot shorter than mine. It's funny, I feel like I definitely would be favored to win if I had the move advantage and not him, goes to show how powerful vikings are on big & small.

Scooter has played a truly impressive game and by all standards he should win: FIN/SPI going into the late game, GLH, MoM, naval movement advantage, the list goes on. The only reason I'm still in this game is because of my chemistry bulbing gambit, but if I don't keep pressing my advantage now things are looking pretty grim. On the plus side, Scooter finally finished his double MoM GA, and my espionage tells me that his economy isn't too much better than mine. If he can get to either Mil Sci or Steel the game's over, but it looks like that could be 15+ turns away. I still have a shot and I'm gonna keep playing for the win.

Oh, and I sniped another city this turn

[yuris125]

NOOOO you burned my city

[Commodore]

That poor city site, first Scooter burned it under Yuri, now you burn it under Scooter.

[GT]

Eagerly awaiting how this is turning out