RB Pitboss #1 [SPOILERS!] - Kublai Khan of Rome

[Munro]

Great update, Munro!

Who's doing the killing vs. Elkad? Dreylin?

Yep, Elkad fought to the last as expected, and wiped out Dreylin's first stack a few turns ago, but Dreylin had a secondary stack that is cleaning up what's left (with the help of an ICBM). Elkad should be wiped out at the end of this turn.

Interesting that Rego hasn't sent any troops from what I can see (just a few airships and bombers which aren't doing anything since he hasn't gifted them and isn't at war with Dreylin himself), either to Elkad or Alex. Suits me fine, but it doesn't seem like any of the alliances we've faced over the game, since joining up with Dreylin and Broker, have really been that committed to each other. It was the same story with Kodii too, dsp just let Broker and I gradually beat him back while dsp was staking out my capital. Those 30+ rifles which dsp sent to try and capture NIH could have done a lot more good in defence. There was no chance I was going on the counter attack at that stage.

Anyway... I've also flagged my uncertainty of SC with Dreylin and Broker now (email exchange below) and checked out the sub behaviour in WB. You can see enemy subs in port, so Alex definitely has at least one sub still out there somewhere (unless he's deleted it). So I still need to watch out for both my transports, and potential tactical nuke counter strikes...

Munro to Paul, League
20 Apr (3 days ago)

Hi Dreylin,

How's the war going against Elkad? Looks like you got your stack kicked... I see a few empty cities of Elkad's as well. Guess he went for an all out counter-attack.. I assume you still have everything in hand?

Any thoughts yet about what you're going to do post-Elkad? Are you interested in joining me in the war against Alex or are you going to take a break from the warring?

Cheers
Munro

Dreylin and Kalin to Andy, me, Paul
22 Apr (2 days ago)

Hey Munro,

Yeah, he threw everything at my stack and mostly destroyed it. As you know, I nuked his survivors off the map and am following up with my secondary stack. He retreated back into a single city, so am moving towards it in a couple of smaller stacks. Took 3/5 cities this turn, should be able to take the defended on next turn, but sadly due to terrain (& fallout) I won't get his Capital until the turn after.

I'll probably pause and regroup at that stage, but I'd be willing to help out with Alex by acting as a distraction in the South ... not that I'm guessing you need much help though!

BTW, I will finish Refrigeration on the inter-turn; not sure what I should be targetting next but I'll probably spend another couple of turns saving up gold.

Cheers,

Dreylin.

Munro to Dreylin, Paul, Andy
09:15 (27 minutes ago)

Hi Dreylin,

Nice work! Looks like Elkad will be done next turn. Yeah, if you can help provide a distraction and open up a second front against Alex in the south, that would be very useful. Rego has quite a large force in the neighbourhood though. He's shown no signs of using it (yet) to help protect Alex (and doing so would immediately make it fair game for our nukes), but it's there, so you might want to make sure you've got your borders secured first - or even just DOW and harrass him a bit with jets and bombers to keep his forces divided.

I did capture another city this turn using my amphibious raiding party (and destroyed what's left of Alex's naval force, in port). I'll also be reopening Alex's eastern front with a bunch of 2-movers coming in to attack him next turn and wipe out one of his frontier cities that also has a full air force stationed there.

Alex has only the one tactical nuke left (I already destroyed one in its silo when I razed his capital) and at the moment it's up on his eastern front, so no threat to you there. I have build visibility on all his cities so can see he's not building more (just one ICBM due in 7 turns, and a bunch more due in 10+ turns in his detached northeastern area).

I am also 3 turns from SDI. Are you both building SDI as well? What are your ETAs? Dreylin - are you going to build Apollo and Space Elevator as well?

BTW - Broker; any ETA on when you will start building troops in all your cities and will have some to spare for the war effort? If you can help us get Composites and Stealth first (even building research to speed things up) that would probably be more useful to be honest, so I'm not assuming anything until after then, but what are your cities up to at the moment?

I've also dropped SC / TT from this thread just for the time being as I haven't been getting many warm and fuzzies from SC lately and I've asked him what his understanding / expectations / plans for the alliance are; I think it'd be worth agreeing something concrete so that we're all on the same page before going ahead with the next round of tech sharing. E.g. we agree to something like:

- full tech sharing within the alliance, no tech sharing out of the alliance; (Munro provides gold towards the other 3 researchers as well)
- 4-way OB, NAP (includes no ROP for enemy units, no gifting of units to hostile civs, no hostile EP action etc)
- 10 turn cooldown period (at least) required to break above agreements

This just encapsulates what I think we are already doing but would be good to have it down in writing so that SC is on the same page too and we know where we are with him; the 10 turn cooldown I think is reasonable since SC has just joined and may not want to be committed for the rest of the game; I'd be happy to go higher than this (for the rest of the game if people want) but expecting more at this stage is probably not reasonable.

- Are we happy formally agreeing to this between the three of us?
- Should we hold off sharing out Laser and Refrigeration until SC either signs up to the above as well, or we can do it as a direct in-game swap for Advanced Flight? (I'll then get it for free via the Internet).

Thoughts?

Also, I'll forward you my email trail with SC so far, to see what you think.

Cheers
Munro

[Swiss Pauli]

Thanks for the updates...and keep 'em coming

[Munro]

Here are some screenshots from the last few turns. Tearing through Alex's eastern border now after wiping out his airforce. Bombers are doing a lot of the heavy lifting but we have some mobile arty helping out some of the aggressive Mech Inf. as well.

The nuke ban passed last turn, so I'm stuck with what I've got from this point on - about 8 of each type. (ICBM and Tactical Nuke). Should be enough for what I'm planning.

Getting a GE in about 3 turns from one of my purebred Industrial Park / Forum cities, which I owe to Broker in exchange for a GG a while back. Should get another great person maybe a turn after that from my NE city which I'm hoping to use to trigger another golden age, and switch into Feudalism. Along with Pentagon, West Point, Theocracy, aggressive trait and 2 settled GGs, that will give me Combat 5 mech. inf. right out of the gate - or, more cruicially, commando. This opens up all kinds of diabolical opportunities for burning things...

[MJW (ya that one)]

Thanks for the good update; I really like the graphs. Congrats on your super-promotion city!

[Cyneheard]

Instant. Commandos.

*Intercepted Enemy Broadcasts Follow*
Alert! Alert! The enemy is at our front door! All troops, report to the front lines. I repeat, all troops report to the front lines! Wait...where did my capital go?

And can we see the picture of your super-promotion city?

[Ilios]

Along with Pentagon, West Point, Theocracy, aggressive trait and 2 settled GGs, that will give me Combat 5 mech. inf. right out of the gate - or, more cruicially, commando.

Do Armored units start with Combat 1 as well?

[Dantski]

nope that doesn't apply to armored units, but then mech inf aren't armored if you were thinking about them

[Munro]

Instant. Commandos.

*Intercepted Enemy Broadcasts Follow*
Alert! Alert! The enemy is at our front door! All troops, report to the front lines. I repeat, all troops report to the front lines! Wait...where did my capital go?

And can we see the picture of your super-promotion city?

Here you go:



Will take some more pics soon. I captured Alex's second capital, The Factory. Unfortunately for him he popped a GG in there during the amphibious assault so lost that as well. Have a couple of CG3 mech inf. in there protecting it now.

Alex is putting up a robust defence, moving his defenders around to stop my vanguard troops from getting any easy wins and taking some of them out with fighters and bombers (he has a lot of fighters and bombers).

He's almost out of ground troops though... unless rego gifts him some soon he's going to start losing more cities.

Broker popped a useless great prophet which he's swapping with me for a 10% chance at a great artist in 2 turns. So I'll be starting my GA next turn and switching to Feudalism...

Bring on the commandos.

[Munro]

The Lighthouse and The Colosseum fell this turn. The Grocer and The Aqueduct should go next turn.



Alex still has his tactical nuke in The Grocer. I have my troops split on either side of the city so he can't hit both stacks together. (Although you can nuke your own lands, you can't nuke your own launch point - one of the few restrictions other than not hitting friendlies).

In any case he now has so few ground troops that he would struggle to clean-up the wounded if he did even launch. So he might rebase it next turn (at which point it may soon just become Commando fodder).

Meanwhile, another mini stick rallying just out of sight, within striking range of both The Bunker and The Supermarket, in Alex's northern colonies. Rego also has a moderate sized stack within counter striking range of these cities, so could retake any that fall (although he hasn't yet done this on Alex's mainland).



Jet fighters doing their stuff... 2 jets between them took out 6 of Alex's fighters and bombers (at the loss of 1 jet).


Good place for a Red Cross: Ironworks city that can also build a dry dock. Since switching to Feudalism, all my naval units now start with 10/2 XP already... and my capital is now producing 17/2 XP units.



Started a golden age to switch to Feudalism, and producing 100+ gpp in my NE city. About to pop another great person at the end of this turn, and should get another two from this city and one other, before the end of the GA, so I can probably start another one soon after this if desired.

[Munro]

Forgot to take screenshots, but I took a couple more cities this turn. The Grocer fell as expected, but Alex pulled most units back to The Aqueduct. I killed them all bar one lonely archer (and his tactical nuke) but didn't have enough units to finish the job. It should fall next turn. Alex is almost completely done now. In his core cities in the southwest, he has only a handful of rifles, war elephants and archers left, plus his 1 tactical nuke. All his modern units are dead.

He has about 15 infantry and rifles left up in his 3 cities in the northeast, but my small task force started its attack up there this turn as well.

I also captured The Jail (Alex's far western city) and have about 4 promoted CG Mech. Inf. in there now. This now gives me a direct land border with Rego, and he has about 50+ units and 8+ bombers all within easy striking distance. So far he has stayed conspicuously out of the fighting, but will this be a trigger for him to attack my captured cities, or will he wait to be attacked?

Rego got Satellites this turn, and Sunrise gets Composites next turn, so Rego will have Modern Armor also. He still has double my power (and that's without really upgrading any of his troops yet to Mech. Inf. or Modern Armor). So things could start to get really interesting very soon...