[SPOILERS] Cornflakes and Q Eat 'Em for Breakfast!

[Cornflakes]

My condolences to AT ... I just razed his capital. Can't say I'm sorry because that's all part of the game, but still it's a HUGE blow.

Pictures will have to wait until tomorrow because I'm checking in mobile ATM, but here it is in brief. AT apparently upgraded a couple of archers to LB, but NOT in his capital for some reason. He whipped/drafted 6-7 times but i cant actually pinpoint most. I lost city investigate so I can't track his build queues anymore.

My Connando knight survived the MASH capture at 7.7/10. AT's capital was on flatland defended by a single Archer, and also had 2 GScientists who were killed when the city burned!! Commando knight won at 77% odds so it's not like I razed it on a lucky dice roll. I cannot understand why AT didn't draft a musket there or move one of the knights from his stack in. I mean, any 2nd unit in the city would have prevented the raze because I only had one attacker.

[Qgqqqqq]

Wow this is awesome!
Well done - I don't think we're 5th anymore

[Cornflakes]

Interesting twists and intriguing tactics ... But I've been staying with my extended family on a lake for the week and didn't want to take the time away to report. I fly home tomorrow and can maybe catch up on reporting while in the air (type in notepad and post when I get home).

We did all the hard work to break Azza, and then Bigger stole Azzaland from us. Now we take a couple cities from AT. AT draws every single unit out of his western/northern cities to defend against us and Bigger AGAIN sweeps in with his 2-move musketeers to clean up the easy pickings

[Qgqqqqq]

Bummer
Still we're still making gains out of it right
Deliberately cheesy or just risky play?

[Cornflakes]

Deliberately cheesy or just risky play?

Not sure what you mean here. It's very good play by Bigger. He's getting excellent use from his Musketeers. Civstats indicates that he's drafting heavily and already taking 3 of AT's cities.

And yes, we have our gains ... But Bigger waited until AT's army had committed to face us before declaring so we're doing the bulk of the fighting from here on while he can snipe some easy pickings.

[Qgqqqqq]

I meant by AT...its also unfortunate that they basically don't border metra or Commodore (the metra border is very small IIRC) and so no one can really take advantage of it.

[Cornflakes]

Yeah, 2metra's border with Bigger is much like ours ... just one city on each side, with 2-3 tiles cultural cushion. Plus Bigger has Musketeers so he can gather defenses really quickly. I think he'll have to be slugged out after musketeers are obsolete.

His MFG is now in the 360's range. Ours is about 250 now since I'm emphasizing growth a bit.

I decided not to revolt into Vassalage. The +2 happy and +25% EP modifier outweigh the +2XP IMO since all our core cities are at the happy cap or will soon be.

More to come.

[Cornflakes]

Hmmm ... I checked things in game, and don't quite like what I see. Details are terribly lacking due to lack of time, but maybe AT is covering this better?

AT and I have big stacks facing off. Mine is more heavily weighted towards Grenadiers/muskets while AT's have 10 cannon to my 4. I failed to pillage the road on the hill 2SW of MASH while I had the opportunity in the previous 2 turns, and now I may pay for this mistake Plus I split my stack to try to take the city across the lake to MASH's North. If only I had more cannon I'd be alright, but splitting the stack diverted another 4 cannon up thataway. If I had those additional 4 cannon down in the south I'd be able to kill a good portion of AT's stack.

Haven't quite decided what I'm going to do. I'll move the sentry HA and see if AT has any workers in the area. Option that have occurred to me ...

– Pillage the roads SW and W of MASH (slows down AT's stack 1 turn if AT doesn't have 2 workers in range, to be seen with sentry HA)
– Keep army fortified in MASH. AT doesn't have enough units to take in 1-turn. By sitting in place I get to use some 10-15% fortify bonuses plus the survirors will be healed by SuperMedic. I can also move out some 5-10 units including the Medic as a Reserve force to avoid getting collateral and counter attack at full health.
– Move my army to the hill S of MASH, planning to retake MASH when AT throws his stack inside. Problem is he could move his whole army into MASH and then attack out with his Catapults and everything else. SIM indicates my stack will still be decimated, but won't have the advantage of healing from sitting in place. He'll also instantly regain the 60% cultural defenses there so this option is a no-go
– Abandon MASH and ... I will not. Therefore it looks like, for better or for worse, I'll be fortifying my army in MASH unless something occurs to change my mind after I move the Sentry Chariot.

I'm hoping to not see any workers with the Sentry and be able to buy another turn. After peace was signed with 2metra I diverted 6 Grenadiers and 2 Cannon to the south (this was the strike force at 2metra's city that had to abandon due to the arrival of AT's knight stack, which wasn't reported due to my vacationing). These units will have enough movement to just barely enter MASH if I'm able to slow AT down just 1 more turn.







Here are a couple pictures of the stacks lined up. Sentry HA will first move to Copper and then probably suicide 1SW of Rice to get a complete view of the area and check for workers. I'm really hoping that AT forgot to place them (or that they're in range and not defended so that the sentry HA can capture). It's not a good position though when you're sitting with fingers crossed that your opponent made a mistake Lesson learned for next time.

[Cornflakes]

I just wish 3 of my grenadiers were cannon so that I could throw more collateral at AT's stack

Some pictures of Bigger's attack on AT's north. He's already razed 4 of AT's cities at little or no cost to himself. The western city will be costly since Bigger's siege can't travel as quick. I doubt AT will get enough forces together to save either though, because I expect that Bigger will have stacks of Catapults arriving in 2-3 turns to soften things up. You all probably have better knowledge gained from other threads though so enough of this.













The Bigger attack is actually very helpful to me. Bigger is taking out the bulk of AT's remaining production capacity, and tying down a not instignificant stack in the west. As soon as I trade stacks with AT in the east it'll be just a walk in the park to finish the cleanup ... now how do I go about killing that big stack

[Cornflakes]

I don't have any pictures of the unit distribution in my norther push, and this picture is from last turn but I outnumber AT's units here. AT attacked out and lost 1 cannon, 1 knight, and 3 muskets without killing anything. I have 2 cannon and the main stack sitting on the hill this turn. I'll promote something to Medic_1 and heal for a turn while bombarding the defenses with the 2 cannon in the main stack, while 2 more cannon and about 5 Grens/muskets join up for the real attack on the following turn.

I still defend my decision to split the stack. The error was in under-emphasizing cannon production. If maybe 3-4 of my grenadiers were cannon instead I'd be smashing AT's stack this turn. Instead I'll probably lose those 3-4 grenadiers on defense before being able to counter attack and finish off AT's stack.