[spoilers] Going Dutch: The Commodore Files

[Commodore]

I suppose we just conquered more land, so I really ought to show you the glory. Three amazing farm tiles; give it time and another two citizens and we can make those more productive workshops in two cases. Proven Guilty is a manufacturing monster, really...much rather it be pumping out EI than culture, but we're extremely close to 80% defenses, so let's do that first.

Gimmie another two hundred turns, we can make this city Legendary!

[Mardoc]

Gimmie another two hundred turns, we can make this city Legendary!

I realize this was meant in jest...but can you maybe find two others? Defending culture cities is perhaps the most effective use of humongous piles of obsolete units. Turn off tech post rifling/steel and you can upgrade an army that'll shred an attacker all the way to...what, modern armor/mobile artillery?

[Commodore]

Gimmie another two hundred turns, we can make this city Legendary!

I realize this was meant in jest...but can you maybe find two others? Defending culture cities is perhaps the most effective use of humongous piles of obsolete units. Turn off tech post rifling/steel and you can upgrade an army that'll shred an attacker all the way to...what, modern armor/mobile artillery?

To...bombers and battleships and marines, if the city is coastal. All high-commerce cities are coastal. Plako just landed Sistine, he might make it (cheese culture win with a spy-EP-capture trick for the third, possibly?)

[spacetyrantxenu]

Is that feasible now with the increased espionage costs?

[Commodore]

Is that feasible now with the increased espionage costs?

Not as efficient as pure culture-slider, I think, but Plako's been already doing a ton of it on the border and makes a billion incidental EPs.

[Commodore]

So...we're in it now. I did the DoW-burn-offer-peace thing to Plako...and I think he mad, bro.

Spiteful, unneeded, probably still didn't matter.

I landed a cheap tithe of musketry to threaten Larak, which he cleaned up handily. This is disappointing but hardly surprising, so there is that.

Should have burned it in the first fight. Should have killed Plako then, actually.

Thanks to the artist bomb, the Proven Guilty front is considerably safer. However, unfortunately, Ur is not never ever going to be falling to a blitz with that heavy a garrison, so instead we're just locked down staring for forever. Sigh, this game, microcosm.

Knights, man. They last for freaking ever.

...and that's where we were, first war turn. The economy was actually feeling pretty good, EIs were moving around, Replaceable Parts was coming in and Rifling was due in the next peace treaty's time. I looked upon Changes, and for a moment actually felt pleased.

No Ottawa, but if a dike happened...

Yeah no. Plako drafted, attacked, punished, pushed frigates down, and finished Rifling. Yeah, so cavalry and rifles are coming up and those, particularly cavalry, are a hard hard thing to deal with with muskets. So while our stratospheric power rating is still awesome...it's kind of also a lie, as we need two EIs to kill each frigate, two muskets for each rifle, and two knights for every cavalry.

Looks painful to be 2metraninja right now, heh.

So. Technologically inferior, geographically challenged, initiative-compromised...let's play. Looks like after I played this one, Plako captured a little city, probably the little island out distant east. Either that or a culture bomb back. Frigate/galleon forces will be a threat all up and down the seaboard, but most of the fighting will be in the Inner Sea and The Peninsula. It ain't fun, but it is kind of interesting and I'll be damned if he profits from my fall. Plako has chosen; he gets The Attention. Enjoy the show, lads, here's the front:

Pop distribution...poor Plako really did get bad land quality. Should have killed him a hundred turns ago.

[Whosit]

I'm glad that the takeaway lesson from this game appears to be "always kill my neighbor if I have the slightest chance to." :P Well, hopefully this war will at least prove to be stimulating if nothing else. Something more interesting than the daily grind of sabre-rattling.

[Commodore]

Looks like after I played this one, Plako captured a little city, probably the little island out distant east. Either that or a culture bomb back. Frigate/galleon forces will be a threat all up and down the seaboard[...]

Yep. Little size two city Backup, with precisely zero garrison, was cruelly captured. Plako also tried to snipe an East Indiaman with his eastern frigate, but Dutch are kind of badass and he failed there. Then Plako had the gall to offer white peace!

Uh, nossir. Raze? Sure. Capture? Nope.

Yeah no. He really should have burned Backup. The East Indiaman had a full belly of Statue of Zeus cuirs. Amphibious Promotion, and they get good if not altogether comfortable odds on the city garrison muskets within.

Horse marines!

Two muskets and the horse archer bite it, and suddenly Backup is returned to the loving embrace of the kingdom and now with an additional four cuir garrison. Which matters right up until the point when he brings rifles, but oh well. Back to growing slow while building a lighthouse, you!

Darn it. I lost fifteen painfully earned hammers on that thing!

Although Plako does have the advantages of tech and geography and size, we have two little things going for us to...not really equalize things, but to give us a fighting chance. One, Tokugawa's Agg/Pro means our draftee muskets are actually able to stand toe-to-toe with his rifles while on the defense, plus built muskets gain amphibious, pinch, and/or formation options. Still not a great way to deal with cavalry, but it sure as hell beats being any other trait set. Secondly, the Dutch East Indiamen are seriously a huge boon in fighting mixed galleon/frigate forces without compensating Chemistry tech. As I proved last turn by sinking his attacking frigate, and this turn by sending the galleon to the bottom of the ocean. Aw yiss.

Plako, you should have taken the peace.

I'm glad that the takeaway lesson from this game appears to be "always kill my neighbor if I have the slightest chance to." :P Well, hopefully this war will at least prove to be stimulating if nothing else. Something more interesting than the daily grind of sabre-rattling.

Oh yeah, it's a war on now. I'm going to enjoy this if he opts to make it real. Dtay will enjoy the spare territory, too. That's not really the takeaway, though...good neighbors are fine, see Pitboss 13, if there are alternate paths of expansion. When you're stuck like a rat in a trap, though...

[Commodore]

Oh! Also! As you saw, the vile Sumerian dogs also tore up my fishing nets out west; this could not be allowed to stand. So I did a standard 2 v. 1 on the offending frigate, sending the bugger down to the depths without a scratch on my second East Indiaman. EIs are very nice for this, as really you have to expect to send two to kill one even with equal frigates. Plako's got a trailing frigate, but I've got two EI and a caravel so we should see it off easily.

Age of sail combat animations are the best combat animations.

We've got the sea for now, but it's going to hurt here on land. In the far upper right, notice what Plako's been adding to his stacks...

Cavalry: basically super-weapons.

[Commodore]

I think we're not having any peace, looks like. Surprising you lurker scum haven't been showing up, we're about to make a bucket or two of blood up in here! Masses of cavalry are incoming, though, so we definitely need some stuff to deal with that. I dialed up Joe, and asked for a loan...let's research some better units, eh? Rifles in four turns, assuming this loan...

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