[Spoilers] Commodore as Washington of the Mongols

[oledavy]

On we go, off to the doomed war!

Thanks for sticking this game out and continuing to report Comm

Best of luck taking down Mackoti in the Mongolian Ride of the Damned

[Commodore]

Thanks for sticking this game out and continuing to report Comm

Best of luck taking down Mackoti in the Mongolian Ride of the Damned

Um, we might be burning the village (TT) to save it. I got all excited this turn when I confirmed that Mackoti, due to his Colossus, still hadn't researched Astronomy. I queued up a merry round of galleons!







Right, so, on to war with TT. I have the gold needed to upgrade everything in this stack to rifles, and if you notice, I own the tile 1NE of Reach. That city is mine, baby. See also selected cavs? I feel kind mean.



Gaspar is on the fast track to machine guns and infantry, defensively minded to take on Mackoti's own cannon and infantry (he's just off from Assembly Line). Fortunately, neither is overly focused on me right now. So, I keep building. This is you empire on Emancipation:



Boy I must be an annoying neighbor.

[oledavy]

I got all excited this turn when I confirmed that Mackoti, due to his Colossus, still hadn't researched Astronomy. I queued up a merry round of galleons!

You don't see that too often - skipping astronomy and going straight to combustion.

[Commodore]

You don't see that too often - skipping astronomy and going straight to combustion.

Heh, yeah, this has been a silly game, really. One fun little wrinkle exists due to my Charisma that you don't often see: I can make galleons that start out faster than his transports.

Once drydocks come online, swapping to Theocracy/Vassalage and building with drydocks all ships pop out with 8xp, which is enough to take Flanking 1 and the Navigation 1 and 2. The resultant 6-movers can actually outrun his vanilla transports. On a more open ocean map, this might actually be viable, although on a tight inner sea its just trivia.

[oledavy]

On that note, who got circumnavigation in this game? I don't recall.

[Commodore]

On that note, who got circumnavigation in this game? I don't recall.

She's flatter than Miss Kansas. No circumnavigation to be had.

[oledavy]

She's flatter than Miss Kansas. No circumnavigation to be had.

Forgot that...

[Commodore]

We're in the money, lads.



And, as there's no such thing as too much of a good thing, I got some more.



Pity this lovely late-game flowering is coming too late to make a marked impact on the game. I am building up enough to cover my own bases, but stretching further to consume TT's land as well would be foolish.



So, let's defend ourselves using Puppet Spam. Come, my little vassal-wall, here are some killer props:

[COLOR="Sienna"]Hey TT,
Well, I got all excite for a moment when I realized that Mack didn't have Astronomy yet, but then I saw his first transport. :P He really is running wild over there, but I have a proposal for you. Old terms done away with, instead starting now:
1. NAP for as long as either party feels they have a chance (ie, if you feel yourself about to crumble (or vice-versa) let me know so I can push the defenses out below my core.
2. I provide 4 catapults for upgrading to cannon, at least 5 flanking II cavalry, and 5 rifles for you to keep the borders afloat, and once I get Physics I share scouting info/airships with you too.
3. You provide your next GP, non-Prophet variety, to me.
4. If it looks like more military assistance is needed, I will provide what I can extra on loan (ie, most of the garrison in Sphinx for starters).
This seem interesting to you?[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hey Commodore,

I can accept that deal. As long as I can hold the chokepoints I reckon I might be able to hold him off for a while, especially with a few advanced units to help as top stack defenders.

Do you reckon that we might be able to get Gaspar in on this deal? If he could gift me some gold to get to Steel for Cannons then that would be
very useful to me.

I reckon the best hope is for me to try and hang on as long as possible against him but it is also the case that he is powering along big time without the land I have so I can only do so much and he is going to keep building and building military and I can only keep relevant for so long.

What I guess you have to decide is if my living is going to make you catch up more than taking my land.

TT[/COLOR]

Ain't really a matter of land, son, I got more than enough to launch a spaceship right here.

[COLOR="Sienna"]Hey TT,
Looks good. I know Gaspar is beelining infantry/machine guns, and I get the impression the mysterious forced NAP is almost over. Mind figuring out how much it will take to get you to Steel? I can definitely swing the loan, fair enough. Mind giving an idea how long a new GP would be? I need to time my GAs well if I can even think of catching up to Gaspar and Mack.
I can get you the cavs and cats this next turn if you're solid on the terms.[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hey Commodore,

It will take 8 turns for me to get Steel at 100% but will need ~700g to manage that. The next GP would take a while to create simply because I've been full military and whipping for quite a while.

My one worry with this deal is looking at the power graph. Mackoti is so incredibly far ahead of us that I question how much use you gifting your forces to me will achieve. Will it just be prolonging the inevitable and maybe it should just be a war between us as you planned as its the one I may have the best chance to make any kind of impression.

Its up to you,

TT[/COLOR]

Balky little fella, ain't he? Well, I got accepting at first but Mackoti's secondhand complaints bolstered my resolve.

[COLOR="Sienna"]Hey TT,

Well, it depends on what you mean by an impression. The core "rump" is pretty well defended from boating and I know Gaspar must be making Mack a bit nervous. On the other hand, if you're feeling despair I'd obviously prefer that I get the defensive depth of the Reach/HRE core lands rather than Mack. But if you feel like your best chance to leave an impression is in inflicting losses to the #3 guy...fair enough. I'll hold off on gifting this turn, evaluate things as you need to this next turn, I guess get me an estimate on what you need to hold your remaining territory, and I'll see what I can send without exposing myself to his fleets. If you see a privateer out and about soon don't worry, I'll be scouting with a fast sentry unit for an invasion fleets.

-Commdore


11:59 PM (16 hours ago)

to Twinkletoes89
Still up to you, but talking to Gaspar, it seems like Mackoti is complaining to him about how much trouble you're giving him. I'll send along the cavs and cats next turn, and add loaners as I make them, if you're still up for fighting.[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Yellow"]Commodore,

Fair enough, I shall do what I can with them. The more force you can give me to hold my two chokepoints, the longer it will take for macki to get through to my capital and main cities. I will need pretty much whatever you can muster and if Gaspar could get a couple of machine guns over in the not too distant future then that could make a major difference.

He will break through at some point, that much is probably inevitable but I'll do what I can until that happens. My advice is keep a couple of fast movers on my border so if he does break through you can grab/raze a couple of cities before Mack's cavalry heavy army gets there. When it gets to that point, let me know what you plan to go for so I can whip everything else down to as low pop as possible.

TT[/COLOR]

Well, there we go. Who knows, might make the fight more interesting down there, might make defeat in detail easier. I'd feel a lot better if I saw Gaspar starting to draft, I think he and Mack are in an infantry race.

[Ceiliazul]

Sounds like TT is outperforming expectations. Nicely done there... every turn he survives sees you catch up a bit more.

Transports?? That means destroyers too. How close are you to combustion?

[Commodore]

Sounds like TT is outperforming expectations. Nicely done there... every turn he survives sees you catch up a bit more.

Transports?? That means destroyers too. How close are you to combustion?

Well, I'm not entirely sure how big of a hit Scientific Method is going to be...I have a lot of AP/UoS/SM monasteries that are about to go kaput. About six more turns at 100% at my current rate, which I guess I can sustain without researching Scientific Method yet, I certainly have the gold. That might cut down on the rushbuying of military though, which is how my puny ~450 hammer MFG is outproducing Mack's ~600 hammer workshop monster currently...