Luddite/Pindicator

[pindicator]

Got preoccupied with house matters and I wont' play the turn tonight. Let me know if you have any ideas with the save, luddite. But right now I'm thinking we need to send what forces we have north to aid mackoti. If he crumbles, we're next.

[pindicator]

No full report, but I did send a knight into mackoti's lands to see what the battle situation is. We should have left one behind when we retreated from novice but we'll get eyes on the situation next turn. I whipped in a couple catapults and our HE city can almost 1-turn cats. Depending on what we see, we may send a force north, or we may simply gift mackoti troops.

[pindicator]

So I sent a sentry knight north and here is what we found:



Mackoti has a small stack of knights - 8 or 9 or so - and about a dozen catapults. He's going to fall and we will be next. But I am not about to just roll over and play dead, so here is what I did:



Hopefully they arrive in time. I have catapults another turn back, but I'm going to keep them home. They will not arrive in time to help any battle in the north. If I had followed my instincts and gifted them 2 turns they may have arrived in time. But I've also lost track of NoSpace's southern galleons. If they realize we have sight on their cities and are hiding in the 2 fogged tiles of the northern sea then we are going to be in trouble. But if we don't aid mackoti now then there will be trouble later.

Teching Education was surely a mistake. I am heading for Nationalism now. Making nothing but catapults and the occasional knight; if we aren't invaded for 6 more turns we can revolt to nationalism and make a more obstinate defense. After Nationalism then we are going Gunpowder, then probably go for Cuirs. It will be a miracle if we last that long.

Demos, just for show and tell:

[pindicator]

I'm guessing I've caused a stir in the lurker thread (since nobody had posted there in a week before and now several people have chimed in since my last post). I hope my gifting doesn't come across as a cheesy move; I don't intend for it to be. Yes, I realize that mackoti could in fact double-turn those knights since he goes after me in the turn order. But I did not gift them to him for that reason. They were gifted because when I thought about trying to coordinate an attack with mackoti against NoSpace's troops I realized this was impossible without siege of my own: my turn comes between mackoti's and novice's, so I had to gift the knights for them to have a chance of being used after mackoti's siege.

Not that 13 knights matter much: unless mackoti has a bunch more forces that I did not see, I don't know how they help him save Rhodes.

The gifting also freed up enough in military expenses to finish philosophy at the end of the turn, and hopefully speed my way to Nationalism. But we are going to need to rebuild those troops quickly back home.

I guess I'm very adverse to doing anything that goes against the spirit of these games, especially after everything i pulled in pbem26, but i don't want to just lie down and accept an inevitable end. And it appears to be pretty inevitable. Besides, it isn't like the increased traffic is going to clue in novice to the fact that something of note just happened...

[pindicator]

Another turn, another sign of the end times:



You know, mackoti should really let that town burn. I moved my catapults into his land. If he lets the town burn then maybe there's a chance we destroy that army with our combined catapults. If he uses it all next turn then I don't think he makes enough of a dent.

I founded a new city, south by where Sian once roamed. Thought I had a picture, but it's named Twins. Right now I feel more Danny DeVito than Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[pindicator]

Next turn's in, and I'm going to try to sneak in 6 universities so the capital can start on Oxford. Right now I'm at a t141 start time for Oxford, but I think I trim that down a turn or two. The cities I'm looking at building the universities in are:

• Raw Deal
  
• HappyAnniv
  
• T3
  
• Red Heat
  
• V2
  
• The Running Man

[pindicator]

Well, it looks like this going to end in a draw. I kind of wanted to play it out to its bitter end, but it's hard to say no to a draw when you're in last place. Anyway, it appears mackoti did have a lot more troops, perhaps on galleons: NoSpace's stack is gone and mackoti has 23 grenadiers & 26 knights where that army once stood. Novice has retreated his units back to Puck and left his forward city empty. My former stack of catapults is underneath that grenadier, SW 1 tile of the big stack. Looks like I really underestimated mackoti's troop count, as he brought a ton of grenadiers in via a fort, so enjoy the free units knights & catapults mack



If we do continue to play on, I have a peace deal from NoSpace to consider. This is where things get tricky. I think that if nospace gets peace with mackoti & i then will mackoti just turn around and head towards me? I guess I'm a big fan of the status quo right now, so I probably will decline nospace's peace deal. At least, I don't want to be the first person to start taking peace deals. Then again, if novice has proposed peace to both of us and mackoti does accept then will novice accept a 2nd peace invitation or will he take his troops via galleon and smash me up while he has 10 turns of enforced peace with mackoti?

[novice]

Finished your thread. Great read!

I'm very impressed with your ability to keep up the fight and your spirits in the face of adversity. We should all be so good.

If I were to point out one thing that hurt your chances I'd guess it would be your incomplete scouting / understanding of the map layout. By the time you turned your eyes towards the seas all the good islands had been claimed.