Dare you enter the Whizzard's Realm? Magic and Mysteries abide.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Our target

Essentially the Dutch are probably in the weakest position right now with Ottomans out. They lost 2 islands to mack 20odd turns ago, and had a slow start to boot. They have a lovely wonder of Notre dame which I believe we can gain effect of on turn of capture which will be really useful too. they have been lagging, not whipping much and currently only have 13 cities, but we will struggle to take the copper island between him and mack. Sadly out of the bigger players they are going for rifling  

They have been getting more barracks in their cities, but overall they seem very lightly armed currently - we were in this situation pre rifles, we just reached it like 10-15t ago, and had more pop to whip out. I expect a mix of longbows, pikes and a few knights like we had. PRobably no muskets or maces. Catapults if he is clever, although I doubt they will help hugely without big hitters. Their whips last turn didn't really add any power. What are they whipping? The barracks? Universities for Oxford perhaps?

What we can see - we get odds on the pike with promos. They also see our power increase and are making us more cities? In the 2 we can see a warrior and a pike/longbow pair. At least one East Indiaman is on the sea to the south, either new or the galley upgraded. No other real input on the makeup of his forces apart from this though.

We know all city locations bar one, and that one I know is in the SE of his empire somewhere from a sugar hookup. There are a lot of big targets and prizes. Obviously the closest is jungle all over. This is a rocking site with lots of food and resources, should be easy to keep intact. Next is krill next door. This has Notre dame on site. However it also has 60% cultural borders I believe as is his most useful city on a hill. I expect a possible stand to be tried to be made there. His cap obviously is large and a key commerce centre. Global warming has good output and is protected by the East Indiamen, and quite a few of the other cities have high pop to whip from.

So what is the angle of attack? Well we have 3 workers 1 of Tar Valon, and one 98. We put 2 workers 66 of Tar, and 2 989. Cover these with units also. Move the cav stack to be 11 of Tar valon. Then they can attack to either square the following turn when the roads are built. We can quickly complete roads to Jungled Fish and Jungle all over and we should uncover the culture from other roads to speed up the attacks. I am quite keen on going through Jungled Fish primarily, as we will be 663 of Jungled fish in 2 turns, inside it in 3 turns, then moving on to threaten KND in 4 turns and forking it and his cap in 5 turns if no attack presents itself. To be fair we can make the same movements from the Jungle all over site, but Jungled fish opens up a great supply route and is easy to road, and also could be more thorny on the hill to sort if we let him cram sites. 

As predicted, around 18 cav available in the first wave, and then about another 6-8 backup a turn later. Also sending some missonaries to culture up fast, and the workers. 

We have peace with Scooter although this does depend on getting peace with mack also. I do not want to be open to being hit by his stack. If we can secure 10t of peace next turn it is a go.

Will get a load of cannon ASAP when Steel is done, should be able to maintain the 3t tech time with capture gold. We are close to a GG too actually nicely. First one should probably secure a level 4 unit for HE and attempt a level 6 one to open WP.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Oh ho ho! RMOG preemptively war/peaced us, no dice. Then didn't seem to obviously make any aggressive moves or gain any more power. We now have over a million soliders. They are at 400k. I'll put pics up in a bit, 21 cavs will be moved into attacking positions next turn, with 4 knights and a rifle. Also have the frigate moving in to bombard Jungle fish down too. We can get 2 shots in before we hit the city, worthwhile as it is on a hill. I think they were 2-3 turns too late with rifling. I just can't see them getting enough in time. We will have steel in 3 turns, I'll try to have overflow/chops/upgrades chained to allow instant builds of cannons.

[El Grillo]

I logged in to take a look:

Advisor screens:

City screens:

Some observations:
- The GP out of UU turned out to be a GS
- mackoti's forces are holding position
- everyone is on full spend, unsurprisingly

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

I logged in to take a look:

Advisor screens:

City screens:

Some observations:
- The GP out of UU turned out to be a GS
- mackoti's forces are holding position
- everyone is on full spend, unsurprisingly

Quick question - do you think we should war peace mack or trust him to hold to his word? Cannot decide...

[El Grillo]

Tough call. I very tentatively think that you can trust him as long as his stack stays put. Once he sees Steel, I don't think it makes any sense for him to try attacking.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Tough call. I very tentatively think that you can trust him as long as his stack stays put. Once he sees Steel, I don't think it makes any sense for him to try attacking.

I agree. He also has no rifling, and is nationalism and MT short of cavs, so I don't think it likely him coming at our west - but it is the damaged stacks in RMOG territory that concerns me most... Like in 33 when Scooter made it awkward for me to finish off Pind.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

So I opened the game to this   No chance. I'm not sure if they are expecting a war now or just thinking it was a good idea because they saw Scooter do it last turn.

Actually tried editing a SS to get all the info on one page. That's 20 cav, 4 knights and a few rifles. Quite a few more to be added as the turns come. 

Next turn the workers on both tiles will build roads, and our units will be in range to hit Jungle all Over, Aggro Jungle and Jungle Fish. Also the frigate will move up to start bombarding Jungled fish, and deter counters from 5 move East Indiamen. 2 more workers will move to the mined hill labelled fork tile so it can be roaded on the turn we hit, and setting up a blitz style attack. Note that if he takes gurilla 2 the rifle can actually hit the city next turn, which might be useful depending on what is in there in preventing a rifle coming out. 

Their best hope here is to raze the roads once the city is taken preventing us going faster - hence the worker moves. Luckily there are a lot of cottages along the roads making this more difficult.

Hadduka Temple is a little exposed to an aggressive counter, although 3 longbows should be enough even against 4 knights straight off a ship, and now the stone is not needed it is of no huge consequence.

Looks hopeful currently. Sending a few missionaries over with the second wave too.

Some awkward shifting out west to get these cavs/knights back into play.

Last ground units from here. After we will switch to boats. Tempted to upgrade the galleon that is in port in Tar Valon so we get a galleon quicker. 

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Well on ending the turn and doing a few final moves mack made the offer for us. 10t of peace locked in! Feel safer going for it now.

Made a few more moves towards RMOG. Set us to break even with a bit more gold in case upgrading the galleon seems like a good idea.

Also city counts:

Mackoti 26
Us 18
Plako 18
Scooter 17
RMOG 14

[Fluffball]

Your power graph curve was very aesthetically pleasing until the last couple turns. 

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Your power graph curve was very aesthetically pleasing until the last couple turns. 

Partly the poor results against the ottomans, 3 rifles and a cav lost remember. When the last 2 turns kick in it'll be right back up there. We have 150% their solider count, and perhaps as many cav/rifles as they have total units.

I don't know what to expect from RMOG, whether they will kinda capitulate and just click through the turns and whip where possible, or have a proper active defence... My only slight concern is how close we are to our happy limit - the ND wonder is a huge early target in this war. If we start having issues markets will be the way to go, as that is +4 happy although it isn't cheap to make them. We might also be able to get a trade on with plako for another resource. This was part of the steel > steam power choice. A few cannon to break through tough to take cities could be crucial, but we have to have won control of the southern sea to get them to the battle in a timely manner. I've whipped really hard with lots of cities hitting the 80 turns whipping anger threshold, I'm trying to make it 3 pop whips now unless no other option only. I always have an issue where I seem to take just enough units rather than a definitely finish the job amount. I doubt I could have got many more units here if I had tried harder, except not killing the ottomans.