[SPOILERS] Churchill of Portugal: Gallipoli Part II

[Oxyphenbutazone]

So what are your goals for this game? Retake the north? Beat Serdoa in war? Just stay alive?

[Ceiliazul]

So what are your goals for this game? Retake the north? Beat Serdoa in war? Just stay alive?

Entertain the lurkers as an embedded journalist?

[spacetyrantxenu]

T195 - The long and short of it is that I knew Glad Fish could not hold out on its own against a significant attack. I could have reinforced it, but at the risk of not having enough units on my mainland to deter a big invasion from Serdoa. So Glad Fish will be a casualty of me defending against annihilation. It sucks but I had no control over the seas.

I'll be interested to see if the Zulu offer peace after they take Glad Fish this turn. I hope they don't, or I'm not sure if I'll accept it. I don't see any reason to, there's nothing else they can do to me. If they want to sail galleys up my coast toward Red Fish I'll just stuff the huge garrison presently in One Fish where it can defend Red Fish, or any other coastal city. I have enough catapults at my disposal to throw any amphibious they might attempt back into the ocean. So what if I'm at war with someone who can't hurt me? Maybe they'll waste time and effort continuing to build units.

Anyway I'm going to whip up a navy in short order. And unlike their caravels that can only threaten land, you better believe they'll be worried if I sail a stack of five carracks toward one of their cities. For starters I want to take back my western city that they flipped. I don't think I can burn it, but it would be a bonus if I could. And if their moai city isn't well defended that would be a pleasure to burn as well. But I'm getting ahead of myself. After T198 I may not have the option to go on the offensive.

Anyway, photos.

Last turn when they dropped off the invasion stack:




This is the power graph from last turn (T194). Note the Slowcheetah power spike. That's why I'm worried about incoming attacks from the east. Plako and Slowcheetah may think it's dogpile time. Damn them all, they have enough land.



OK, now from this turn, T195. Zulu offered me peace for Glad Fish. Uh, hell no. They've already spent two of their three catapults and attacked into the teeth of my defense, and they'll take the city. But I'm going to make them use that last catapult, make them kill my remaining units, and hope that some of those badly mauled maces die in the attempt. And no way I'm handing over the city with its buildings intact. Time to roll the dice and see if you get to keep the granary, lighthouse, and walls guys. No freebies.



The remnant after their attack:




Doomed, of course. But I hope they die of malaria when they stroll into town.

Really nothing doing in the north for now. My workers are running out of jungle to chop. Nothing else important for them to do so they're just clearing all possible battlefields. Only one jungle left to go now (east of Old Fish).




Demos. I'm obviously 7th place.



The reports get less and less interesting the fewer options I have. Unless I engage a troll plan and just lash out for maximum damage against someone and don't mind being conquered very quickly. Example: The way Serdoa is able to get away with not guarding so many of his cities sickens me. The geography of this map favors some teams a lot more than it does me. I'm exposed everywhere, he has a city that is garrisoned this turn by a great scientist. Another is empty. Another has just an archer. Why couldn't Scoopin get froggy up there and burn that shit down? Believe me, absorbing Glad Fish is not going to get them back into the ranks of the contenders. And they're going to need a hell of a lot more than five maces and some cats to do anything else to me. I'd like to know postgame what they thought they were doing. I'm pretty pissed about the mostly meaningless invasion and really tempted to fill carracks with the One Fish garrison and go wreck them. But I dislike Serdoa more and really don't want him to win the game, and if I go campaigning to the south I'll find knights against my cities again very quickly.

Maybe it would be best if Plako and Slowcheetah declared war on me now and went ahead and put this game to rest. I'm at the point where nothing is really interesting here. I guess just outlive Azza and take my seventh place finish.

[Sisu]

I'm sorry the game situation is so frustrating for you now. Better luck in PB11; see you on the battlefield there!

[spacetyrantxenu]

So what are your goals for this game? Retake the north? Beat Serdoa in war? Just stay alive?

I've been staying alive for a while now. I definitely bought myself an extra ten turns when I mauled Serdoa's wounded knight stack. I also probably guaranteed that he'll come back for me later. But right now he's probably busy consolidating Brick's land after absorbing it so quickly. I have been scouting him the last few turns and don't see an indication (yet) of a dangerous buildup near my border, but I wouldn't rule it out. He has six or seven knights available for duty, if he goes mobile with them he can probably hit me in an inconvenient place and cause me problems. But my forces aren't built for attack, just defense. I'd be a fool to run them out toward Terrapin and try to expand my territory. If I lose the Blue Fish stack I'll die pretty quickly.

Entertain the lurkers as an embedded journalist?

That's been my only useful job the last 100 turns now, so why not? As long as I can keep my EPs allocated correctly I'll be able to post graphs for you guys. That's about all the intel I have anymore.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I'm sorry the game situation is so frustrating for you now. Better luck in PB11; see you on the battlefield there!

That's quite an assumption! We're planning to make you guys love us so much that you'll vote us a UN victory.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Civstats showed that the Zulu have relieved me of Glad Fish. When I play tonight we'll see if it's accompanied by a peace offer. Two turns before my enforced peace deal with Serdoa ends I think I will take peace with the Zulu for now and then reevaluate post-T198. In the meantime expect to see a fleet of carracks whipped into my ports. They've poked the bear (albeit a small bear), and as the team with the lowest power in the game* that was a bad idea.

Ninja Edit: Sorry, I forgot that Azza "isn't quite dead yet."

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

So what are your goals for this game? Retake the north? Beat Serdoa in war? Just stay alive?

Entertain the lurkers as an embedded journalist?

Load a settler onto a carrack and sail for an open island in the middle of nowhere that isn't valuable to anyone. Name the city lurker's lounge and keep posting graphs. Then, if/when you are invaded for the final push, we'll have a way to keep tabs on everyone.

[Ceiliazul]

That's a pretty great idea. Settle a 1t island with no food if you want to make it last.

...or you could go out with a bang. Either way, lurkers rejoice!

[spacetyrantxenu]

If I go with the lurker's lounge idea (assuming I can get 100 hammers together for another settler and no one sinks it on the way to anywhere) I may try that. But whoever conquers most of my cities will probably want to kill me to reduce unhappiness. As long as I'm alive they'll get the "we yearn to rejoin our motherland!" unhappiness, right?

And, well honestly...Mad Fish (horse city) already has no food. So if they want to just agree to leave me that scrap I can post my password somewhere for lurkers to log in and hit end turn. I don't think I want to have to do it forever. But we're not at that point yet, we'll see what happens.