Gandhi of France: The Non-Violent Warrior

[Commodore]

You're being hit with the weird mix of knights and rifles, and defending with muskets and machine guns. Civ is weird sometimes.

More the to point, team 2 is attacking with one of these.

[MJW (ya that one)]

http://nooooooooooooooo.com/

[oledavy]

I took screenshots of everything, in pure numbers, Team #4 can hit Orleans next turn with:

12 Rifles
14 Musketeers
6 Pikes
9 Knights
1 Keshik
7 Trebuchets
4 Catapults

52 Units Total

Units that are in range of the city consist of:

28 Musketeers
2 Knights
1 Machine Gun

Plus the 2-4 cannons I can hit his stack with (two may be in range, depending on what I can do with my workers).

35 Units Total

The issue is not whether I can hold or not. I can upgrade my units and hold them off. The problem is that all those musketeers, knights and cannons are slated for the west. If I upgrade and whether the storm, they'll be fatally delayed and damaged such that they cannot participate in the attack. If this strike had come a few turns later, I could laugh it off. I have a dozen rifles and machine guns en route north to staff the city, and in two turns, would have had the rail network done for instant reinforcement.

It's also depressing that this came the turn I revolted out of slavery, otherwise I could have an additional machine gun in place.

I'm considering abandoning the city and holding at Leipzig. With any luck, they won't push farther south, and are just trying to secure the border. With all the rifles and machine guns I have headed north, I can hold Leipzig. This will also spare us painfully having to spend money on rifle upgrades.

If I have time, I'm going to run a a WB save and see what Thoth + Nabaxo can do on the attack.

Needless to say, this is a tough call. Shoot, WK, what do you guys think?

[oledavy]

More the to point, team 2 is attacking with one of these.

You can say that again

And btw, when I say Sulla and Sunrise's power levels are flat....



:mad:

While I was at it, I grabbed screens of GNP and MFG:





Holding our own, but things are just getting started.

[oledavy]

Blasted Team #4....

At any rate, unless Shoot or WK strongly objects, I'm evacuating the city. I could stop Team #4, there is not question about that. They don't have enough siege. However, this would come at the expense of 30+ units slated for Armageddon. I'm not willing to do that. Lewwyn goes down, no matter what. On the plus side, Orleans isn't that much of a city. On the negative side, they can now threaten the much more important city of Leipzig. I will, however, leave one machine gun in the city, just to be a pain in the ass.

So, tune in next turn as I run like a little sissy girl, do tricky things with artists and border pops, and engage Sulla's Fleet in the Eastern Sea*

[SIZE="1"]*Please note, this is not an impulsive decision because I'm ticked off about losing Orleans, the situation is favorable such that I have an opportunity to kill some of his ships at about a one to one ratio, which is good enough for me.[/SIZE]

[WarriorKnight]

At any rate, unless Shoot or WK strongly objects, I'm evacuating the city. I could stop Team #4, there is not question about that. They don't have enough siege. However, this would come at the expense of 30+ units slated for Armageddon. I'm not willing to do that. Lewwyn goes down, no matter what. On the plus side, Orleans isn't that much of a city. On the negative side, they can now threaten the much more important city of Leipzig. I will, however, leave one machine gun in the city, just to be a pain in the ass.

I'd agree with this. Shame you don't have a Rifle that could help hold off the Knights (or lessen some of their siege) but it's no biggie. Orleans is no major loss, and you can hold Leipzig if they decide to continue further South.

[oledavy]

I just gotta say, I absolutely loathe the RNG in this game, with a deep burning passion. I attacked Sulla's navy and lost twice as much as all the tests I ran indicated that I would.

At any rate, I'll get an update in tmw. Orleans will probably have fallen by then so I'll get to document that sad news as well

[oledavy]

[SIZE="4"]Turn 181[/SIZE]

Alrighty, when we last checked on Sandstorm Bay, I was blockading Sulla's coastal cities and dodging around his ironclads. He had split his stacks, and last turn, moved them in range of my blockading tiles. With Combustion about to come online, I saw an opportunity to use some of my ships for something good before they become completely worthless, While this would mean unblocking 5 tiles, it did mean I could reap several other benefits.

1. A couple of my ships could crack 10xp for Combat III, to upgrade into destroyers.
2. I could rack up some GG points (I'm pretty close to one).
3. I could deny Sulla some ships to upgrade.

So I had eleven frigates in range of his stack, with an ironclad in positon to cover the ships after the battle. I ran a WB test, and it confirmed my hunch. I ran the test a few times, and every one ended with me killing the Sullan flotilla at the loss of 3-5 ships of my own, with 4 being the most common result by far.

Here were the lineups before the battle:

Me
6 Combat II Frigates
4 Combat I Frigates
1 Sentry Frigate

Sulla
2 Combat I Ironclads
1 Combat I Frigate
1 Frigate

The concept was simple, I expend 2-3 of my Combat I frigates to knock down the ironclads, then I engage with Combat II frigates in four 60%-80% battles to finish off the stack. By attacking, I could engage on my terms and avoid having my Combat II frigates killed by ironclads on the defense.

Unforunately, the RNG is a fickle mistress:



Things got off to an awful start with Sulla's ironclad flawlessly killing my combat I frigate, and the bad luck went on from there. It took me 4 frigates to get his ironclads into the 'killable' range, instead of the 2-3 I had anticipated. He then went on to win a coinflip battle in which my frigate only inflicted one hit, and a ~70% engagement.

All in all, this was a depressing battle, with me losing nearly twice as much as I anticipated. While hardly a game-changing defeat, it was just another frustrating element to a frustrating turn. Sulla seems to have tremendous good luck in these naval battles, as this is the third time I've engaged his fleet and the RNG rolled against me in some fashion. On the plus side, I got two combat III frigates out of it They'll be heading back home to upgrade.

The immediete side effect is that I won't be able to mantain my blockade of his coastal cities, which is a real shame. I was getting a lot of pleasure out of watching Absolute Zero starve down. Without it's coastal tiles, the city can only reach 8fpt, and yes, you can bet I intend to starve it down to 4 pop at some point before this game is over. Every coastal city I own is getting a drydocks; I do not intend to lose this naval fight with Sulla. At any rate, I'm going to do everything I can to keep the pressure up on the meantime. I'm planning on sending my ships northeast out of range of his ironclads and blockade whatever city is up there.

Switching gears, here's the last shot of Orleans:



If I was in slavery, I could have whipped that machine gun to completion

I went ahead and configured it for max gold before it's destruction, and staffed it with a Drill I Machine Gun to force Thoth to expend a couple units taking the city down. There was no Joan of Arc to save the city this time..

Combat III Knight vs. Drill I Machine Gun - 4.5% (reduces it to 9.6) WIN
Combat IV Knight vs. Drill I Machine Gun - 64.3% WIN
Combat II Shock Keshik vs Drill I Machine Gun - 84.9% LOSS

RNG actually broke in my favor here

At any rate, the situation following the battle:



I moved my musketeers and knights into Leipzig. In order to stage for Armageddon, they do not have to move out until t184. I intend to keep them here until then. I did decide to detail off an additional two cannons to help though. I have enough machine guns and rifles that they won't make a significant difference, and they might in the battle for Beijing. Next turn I will complete my north-south railway line and be able to get a dozen rifles and machine guns into the city.

Oh, I mentioned I was going to have fun with artists.



Leipzig had not popped third ring borders yet, so I used Caste System to pop them instantly and take control of the tiles immedietly south of Orleans. You can see in the screen I have 49% on the tiles. I should have the majority by the time Orleans comes out of revolt, and that should slow down their progress south. Just the same, I'm going to build a theatre in Leipzig to keep the pressure up. Settling the city of Gallipoli has been postponed indefinitely, and I'm movng the settler to build the city of Potiers instead.

For 181, I'm going to wait until Shoot plays and researches combustion, and hook up my oil in time for me to churn a destroyer out of Trafalgar and instantly upgrade my Combat III Frigates. Next turn should be a lot more fun. Our Team Military continues to ramp up at an incredible pace, here are the latest counts:





Here's hoping for brighter days.

End Turn.

[NobleHelium]

Merchants make 3 gold. If you are building wealth, one hammer is the same as one gold. Plus, you have a forge in Orleans but no gold multipliers. Working the railroaded plains mine would have given you 5 x 1.25 = 6.25 gold, and the other plains mine 5 gold. The horse would have given you 3.75 gold + 1 beaker.

[oledavy]

Merchants make 3 gold. If you are building wealth, one hammer is the same as one gold. Plus, you have a forge in Orleans but no gold multipliers. Working the railroaded plains mine would have given you 5 x 1.25 = 6.25 gold, and the other plains mine 5 gold. The horse would have given you 3.75 gold + 1 beaker.

Derp