One Q, Many Subs - NO HOPE

[Qgqqqqq]

He burnt the city, replaced instantly. I extorted 50g out of him for peace, after threatening to burn his whale nets.

What a fucking waste of time.

[Gawdzak]

I played your turn since they were going to roll the turn on you. Hope that wasn't a problem.

[Qgqqqqq]

Thanks.

(Only missed because of the reload. Just glad to finally have another turn out there.)

[Qgqqqqq]

Solely for game recording purposes.

I was hit by wetbandit several turns back. I made a series of tactical/strategic mistakes here, which meant I eventually wanted to surrender the city, but got a small force killed because I didn't want to gift it to him (cultural impacts/make-them-pay/there may be a rule against it now that I think about it?). Anyway, the net result of this was that I had shuffled units out of position and my Ruff border (partly also because there were noisings of Caledorn invasion which didn't transpire - indeed, it appears BGN is swallowing him) was exposed for a brief window. I had also held off on archer whippings because I was about to discover longbows.

Maps:

Turn 115
Northern empire:

Southern empire:

(Out of date, but I'm hardly going to prepare my own reports, now am I?)

Anyway, as you all know, he invaded and moved on several cities. These were all invariably indefensible with the forces at hand, and my catapults were not in position to counter, so I retreated. Of these, only Jojo was a genuine city, with the others strategic plants designed to give cultural influence and a fallback position - Nicenea in paticular I never even made a point of defending, as to do so would increase my looooong borders considerably, and it is really a very exposed position. Neither it nor Antioch had ever amounted to much, truth be told.

After this I began consolidating my position, whipping out longbows and the occasional catapult (stupid move really, I have nothing that can attack out against even nerfedphants) all around, and positioning. My personal view is that a spite whip is when a whip is done more then once per turn, and I haven't heasitated at whipping archers/longbows into cities that I know will never produce them because Ruff will take the city - I mean, if he hadn't taken it, I would benefit, which cannot be said of scout whips.

Anyway, enough of a corollary. It looks like Ruff is reporting, so steal his images - - but he made a blunder last turn, allowing me to keep constantinople a turn longer, upgrading longbows to force his army back and then sweeping out to reinforce (and hold) the gems city. In the south, I sacrificed another city, (Kill Kill Kill? I didn't name any of these ) and moved my garrison back to be able to reinforce Adrianapole and Prycho Pass. This is where, I expect, he may have to stop. He does have a very large army, but it needs time to reposition, to wade through culture and so on, and I am pumping out LB's everywhere I can.

So a successful war, if one that highlights how easy defence can be in BtS. If I had gone for Monarchy/Feudalism instead of CS (which, absolutely no offense to subs, I would have done if I'd had the civ consistently), he wouldn't have been able to take more then my fall cities from when I spotted his maneuvers (1-2 turns pre-attack?).


So why am I dead? Simply put, I never could care about this game. From past the first 20t microplan, I haven't had time to plan ANYTHING in this game, so I've basically been playing on instinct, but this game never gelled with me on a fundamental level. I just couldn't feel it. That, and I've had to use subs for enough turns meant that I never really had a chance to do well. Truth be told, I wanted out of this game for about a month before requesting it, and that was back in May. Between that and the warring, the close bounds, and the lack of a uniformed strategy and I've never had a chance at even lasting through to rifles.

Still, I'm happy now that it's nearly over. And if I manage to hold off Ruff with untenable conquests stuffed with longbows long enough to see BGN rip through us all, well, I'll count it as a victory.

[Qgqqqqq]

Agruffus pulled back this turn, and offered a ceasefire. I had a look and then offered peace. This, quite possibly make this a war in which no units have been killed

BGN has been increasingly more obnoxious with his worker scouts. It seems pretty clear that he'll be the one to take this continent, with Caledorn sweating cities and Ruff stopped in his tracks. I closed borders with him this turn (I had held off because I needed the commerce for archer upgrades), and, in an utter coincidence, moved to hit one of his conquests.




If I had premeditated this at all, then obviously I would have pulled borders a while back. As is, it all depends on whether or not he decides to check around with a sentry unit - if he sees them, then he can certainly get enough engineering units in to hold. I'd put it maybe 50/50, and, regardless, it'll likely hasten my death. Still, good to be doing something active.

[Qgqqqqq]

So yeah attack worked at the cost of just one catapult. BGN wasn't in a position to retaliate, although he is massing knights now. Ruff's pulled back entirely, and I've turned research back on. Hopefully I can get to Engineering before needing to stagnate.

[Qgqqqqq]

Quick instructions: Build longbows/catapults everywhere. Whip if necessary - but don't worry too much. If there's an emergency than respond as you see fit, but I doubt this will be the case.
No operations are planned.

Capital units are heading to central city with the iron, south-eastern city sends units south. Other cities keep units produced.

Thanks!

[Qgqqqqq]

Huh, no updates.

Anyway this turn, Ruff decced again, and moved in a stack of 10 knights. For once he is unlucky that I'd missed the last turn, as my stack of catapults, maces and WE (which I was shuffling north to make sure he couldn't do just such a maneouver, in fairness) was exactly in range

Killed it, losing 5ish cats in the process. Will need to rebuild that stack. Hard to know when I need more cats or when I need more aggressive units, tbh - sure, it worked out this time, but against BGN 3-promo knights and scattered push it didn't.


To catch up on the BGN front - screwed up defense against a force of knight pillagers (who took my capital) but held him off to the south. My fault for a) being more paranoid about Ruff and not shifting down and b) not having enough maces/WE/spears to take out the stragglers. Peace immediately after that, now just waiting for the hammer to fall.

[Qgqqqqq]

Ruff finally coalesced a massive stack outside my iron city. Maybe he thought I'd used up my cats? Idk.

Regardless, I had 10 cats in range and enough longbows and outdated junk to murder the whole thing - just. He has several very miny stacks approaching other cities/directions, but I think I can hold. Theres a chance his nothern force will be enough before I can get enough longbows in there, but we shall see.

More importantly, this lost me my cat reserve. It doesn't matter with Ruff, because by the time he can have an equivalent force built I'll also have built up a bit, but my truce with BGN is about to end, and with his elite knights and me without cats he will likely be able to cut through my south like a hot knife through butter.

Worth it? Of course! Ruff is the main enemy after all, the one who made gains on me before and the one who moved large stacks into my borders and within my cat range. Who cares if it gives a gameleader a slightly better run of it - this is the battle I could win, and I won it.

I spawned another two GG over the course of the conflict. Murdered, idk, 25, 30 units? Lost the cats, and 5-10 normal units. More like the 10 - but remember, most of them were junk axes/spears, with only a few longbows mixed in.

Sometimes quantity really can give quality a whippin'

[Mardoc]

Congrats!

I don't suppose you have a picture or two?