Gavagai comes back to his roots

[Old Harry]

[Gavagai]

No screenshots because I am depressed. The war with Donovan is going as bad as it possibly could. Yes, I took his capital but it was given with my setup. I cannot move any further, however, and I allowed DZ to pick up two cities on my periphery. I advanced to Packman but was repelled. He picked up an Xbow and HA with 2 HAs I did not expect him to have and flanked my Treb into uselessness. I will have to retreat and maybe go after his own periphery. His core is untouchable until I have WEs and a lot of siege.
You may ask, why my stack is so vulnerable to HAs. Well, this is because DZ had no horses until recently. I spammed Xbows, because they can kill anything that is not mounted. Of course, he took horses from BGN when it was too late to change my army composition but early enough to build more HAs than I anticipated. My luck...
I will win the war eventually but I do not see myself winning it early enough to come back into the game. Also, Commodore attacking DZ is a possibility, but if he does it, I will do all what I can to through the game to Rusten.

[Gavagai]

Do not see what I could have done differently with this start, may be it is genuinely unwinnable, especially given that a bit of Commodore's land I have uncovered is almost better than everything I have by now. I was very lucky already that Donovan decided not to REX.

[Gavagai]

Most of DZ's units have three promotions, by the way. At tech parity it makes him very easy to take efficient trades, even when he is numerically disadvantaged. "Piñata", Mardoc said? Fuck you, Mardoc

[Gavagai]

"Interesting position", Krill said? Fuck you, Krill

[Gavagai]

I wonder if Rusten realizes that this is a declaration of war.

[Gavagai]

I may have to swallow it but seriously, what the fuck is wrong with this guy? I hoped everyone on RB has learnt that I don't tolerate troll-cities settled in my face but NOOOOOOO, humans are such slow learners...

[Bacchus]

There there.

[Mardoc]

Most of DZ's units have three promotions, by the way. At tech parity it makes him very easy to take efficient trades, even when he is numerically disadvantaged. "Piñata", Mardoc said? Fuck you, Mardoc

I guess I have my answer to my initial question of 'how does he shed the reputation'.

[Krill]

Most of DZ's units have three promotions, by the way. At tech parity it makes him very easy to take efficient trades, even when he is numerically disadvantaged. "Piñata", Mardoc said? Fuck you, Mardoc

"Interesting position", Krill said? Fuck you, Krill

I wonder if your war would have gone better if Donovan had actually played this straight, and that he actually played this start correctly.