Gaspar & Noble make their triumphant? return; mostly just get asked about "The List"

[pindicator]

Oh - so you are playing Chieftain then for the totem buffs?

[NobleHelium]

Okay this will have to be somewhat brief and quick, but here's what happened on subsequent turns after we kicked off our attack by taking two cities and razing the third behind it, per Gaspar's previous post.  Remember that SD agreed to peace the turn after that, presumably realizing that he could take his lost cities back from Serdoa when their treaty expires several turns afterwards.



On t133 we were able to use Morale GGs to take Mon Cala by surprise.  Morale is like discount Commando, but it turns out discount Commando is still pretty fucking good.  This was great because it allowed us to capture the city with a whopping 8 population.  Our other Morale GG Hyrri, who razed Atollon on the highlighted tile the previous turn, was killed by Serdoa's GG HA on the interturn but then his GG was not visible on our turn.  However, there was a chariot on the tile and the city ruins was pillaged, which was very curious (or "sus") and told us that Serdoa wanted to pillage the road also.  Fortunately we had an HA in Highgate that could kill his chariot which revealed the GG on the tile to the southwest, which we were able to take out with two other HAs.  The HA that killed the chariot was able to retreat back into Highgate.



With Mon Cala now named Chamber of Sins, Selonia was cut off and we surrounded it with several cataphracts of various dispositions.



On t135 we were able to take the city.  The longbow was helpful for weakening one of the defending longbows.  Do not sleep on longbows as offensive units, I have boated cities with longbows before.   Units are streaming in continually from the north, thanks in large part due to our treaty with SD freeing up cataphracts that would otherwise need to defend.  Assorted one-movers are also moving up which will be useful and important later.  We are also scouting the former Atollon spot every turn using the March cataphract in Highgate as it heals up.



Two turns later on t137 we finally got a new cataphract in the area with unused promotions which let us make a new sentry.  We saw that Saleucami was surprisingly poorly defended so we moved in on the hill, with the idea that we'd be able to hit the city next turn over the river.  This was a significant change of plans from our preceding turns where we were positioning units to hit Alderaan from the east, per the previous screenshot showing units congregating northeast of Ebony Barracks. We also applied yet another GG onto one of the two remaining HAs to make another Morale Cataphract (not yet promoted).  Experience was sprinkled onto four other cataphracts to give March to Lioneye, C4 to our regular March cataphract, and then to make two other C3 cataphracts.



Demos for t137.  Things are starting to look up, I must say.

[Gaspar]

Oh - so you are playing Chieftain then for the totem buffs?

Yeah. In my current setup, having both totems down gives me more than double shaper/guardian DPS. I'm also full converting to fire, so the other nodes do a decent bit as well. Its nothing too groundbreaking, but its the first time I've done it and its worked well as a league starter, clearing early maps with very mediocre gear because I was getting such a boost from the totems and scaling ok as I find/can afford better stuff. I'm hitting the same wall most non-meta builds hit at higher tier reds where I don't kill the big bads quite fast enough to facetank but I don't have enough defense to have time to wait, but I'm going to stick with it a bit longer before rerolling something with a higher ceiling.

Re: this game - sorry I haven't had the same vigor towards updating that I normally have, but we will definitely finish catching you up. The war against Serdoa has been quite interesting and there's a lot of curiosity on the horizon. I think the game could play out in any number of ways from here from another 140t to being over in 25t. Betting on the middle there is probably the smart money, but we shall see.

[NobleHelium]

I'll see if I can post an update tomorrow. I thought Gaspar would want to post the next update because of what happened, but he's unfortunately fallen under the weather and definitely doesn't have the energy to be writing any reports.

As for the more recent turns, it is generally an extremely complex puzzle of logistics as we are constantly trying to juggle three or four different initiatives at once while trying to predict opposing moves and cover multiple scenarios. Perhaps I will eventually try again to read Ulysses Grant's memoirs.

[Gaspar]

As Noble suggests, I am not up to writing any reports. Reports of my demise have been correctly estimated...

That said, what is with people and triremes? We have killed 7 triremes this game plus a forced deletion of an 8th, SD has a stack of 5(!) triremes near our border. Rusten has at least 5 triremes that we know of... Like, wtf?

That is all.

[mackoti]

As Noble suggests, I am not up to writing any reports.  Reports of my demise have been correctly estimated...

That said, what is with people and triremes?  We have killed 7 triremes this game plus a forced deletion of an 8th, SD has a stack of 5(!) triremes near our border.  Rusten has at least 5 triremes that we know of... Like, wtf?

That is all.

I remeber a game where were build like 30 triremes each player if not more.A pbem with zalwake and novice if my memory serves me right.

[NobleHelium]

All right we concede. SD catted our ten longbows in Crystal Veins so that Lewwyn could come in with almost 25 knights immediately afterwards. We do not have any meaningful units nearby to defend against that. I do believe the game is over as there is no way Bob can compete with Lewwyn after this and everyone else is even further behind.

Very unfortunate timing for our spy in SD's lands to get caught and it did not occur to us that Lewwyn could be going for a move like this.

You can wait until Gaspar comes in to confirm in case he changes our minds, but I doubt it.

[Gaspar]

If anyone ever wondered why I lost my affection for this site, this is why:



So Superdeath, who for some reason has had it out for us all game while ignoring that Lewwyn has been in first place since the beginning, somehow coordinates with Lewwyn enough that he has 6 cats and a CKN to throw into our 10 longbows behind walls at Crystal Veins so that Lewwyn doesn't lose a single knight in the attack. I'm sure someone will ride on in their white horse to explain how this is anything other than kingmaking, but I don't really give a fuck.

Noble and I played a fucking hell of a game. We scratched and clawed and if Rusten had any competence at mounting a defense or if Superdeath hadn't decided we were the boogeyman from minute one, we'd be winning. Hell, if our spy in China hadn't gotten discovered the exact turn we would have needed to be there to see Lewwyn's knight stack coming through China, we might still be winning.

Anyway, we concede. Well played to Lewwyn, a deserved winner even if I believe we could have won. Well played to Serdoa, sorry we had to stab you but it was the only way to stay competitive. Well played to Rusten, though maybe a few less triremes and a bit more land defense when your neighbor's power is spiking next time. Well played to Bob, you were just annoying enough to keep things interesting.

Anyway, somebody hit me up on gchat if there's ever another WW game.

[pindicator]

So Superdeath, who for some reason has had it out for us all game while ignoring that Lewwyn has been in first place since the beginning, somehow coordinates with Lewwyn enough that he has 6 cats and a CKN to throw into our 10 longbows behind walls at Crystal Veins so that Lewwyn doesn't lose a single knight in the attack.  I'm sure someone will ride on in their white horse to explain how this is anything other than kingmaking, but I don't really give a fuck.

I have been there before with Superdeath, know exactly what you mean

[novice]

If anyone ever wondered why I lost my affection for this site

Can’t say I ever wondered, ufortunately.