PBEM #1 - Saladin [Spoilers]

[athlete4life10]

So I may have signed my own death warrant but that's ok by me. I made my mistakes this game but I have had a blast playing and believe I have learnt a lot. The war to come (it's possible we'll reach peace, but unlikely) will just be another lesson to learn. I've come a long way from the player who thought I was going to win a cultural victory in an MP game!

Dreylin is atleast 2 turns from attacking me with any kind of stack so when he gets in position I'll try and post some screenies!

[athlete4life10]

Sent a message off to MH and Soooo as well:

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to update you. Dreylin is atleast 2 turns from attacking Damascus, dependant if he wants to bombard it or not. Any demand for peace means a no trade clause with Soooo. I should have done it already but I forgot so next turn I'm switching to 0% research and will use it to upgrade everything. It's unlikely I'll finish rifling anyways.

It's quite likely this war will just continue until I'm gone so I plan on slaving/drafting away everything and to make it as hard as possible for Dreylin. If either of you can get a good stack to hit him it might be an opportune time before he becomes huge.

Just wanted to say it's been a great pleasure playing so far and hopefully I'll hold out for a good long while still!

Athlete

[Sullla]

I hope this off-topic message isn't out of place here, but we're still waiting for you to kick off the civ/leader snake pick for the second Pitboss game, athlete. You do have a good idea of who to pick by now, right?

[athlete4life10]

A picture for the lurkers. I suppose it's possible I might hold out this turn. It's probably not likely as the amount of units is just too much. I'm going to send an email and see if I can get peace beforehand. It will only be a shortterm one, but that's ok with me. I have no interest in playing as a broken defeated civ. The peace time should give me enough time to finish rifling.

[sunrise089]

Question: Why would Dreylin agree to peace now? Hasn't he already suffered lots of causalities and taken no cities? Also, are you going to attack out with your muskets?

[athlete4life10]

Email asking for peace:

Hey Andy,

Care to smoke a peacepipe with me :-)?

After giving it some thought and some lost forever arabian souls, perhaps it might be best to settle this with a pen then a gun. At the moment I still occupy both Damascus and Kufah, but if you would like, I'll hand them over peacefully next turn, economics and banking (unless you're getting banking from Ruff, I think he has it now). I would give all this in return for a 10 turn peace treaty. I will cancel all dealings with Soooo for the duration of the treaty and will open borders with you and ruff, and provide trading opportunities for you both. I've also got a gold resource you could have.

Any thoughts?

Taylor

[athlete4life10]

Question: Why would Dreylin agree to peace now? Hasn't he already suffered lots of causalities and taken no cities? Also, are you going to attack out with your muskets?

I just want the 10 turns to finish rifling and gift it to Soooo, I can't compete much longer, though I suspect Dreylin can't as well...I wish I had read this earlier...maybe I shouldn't be! The 10 turns would be enough that I could grow back a bit and draft some rifles then hit him with my remnants too.

I guess maybe I should have hit him with the muskets as well? I wanted something healthy left to hold onto the city but maybe I would have been better off attacking with them. I've already ended and sent it off so I'm not gonna replay it but it's good to digest this. My first real war ever I feel I've done pretty good so far. Even if it did ruin my economy.

[sunrise089]

I think you have defended very well. My thoughts on attacking out simply revolve around how powerful his collateral units are. It looks to me like you could attack out and almost certainly win 3 battles, but I didn't look all that carefully.

Best of luck!

[Jabah]

If you thing Damascus is lost (more like next turn, except if they are all healing, he has nothing that can beat 3 defensive musket in his injured stack), I could make sense to evacuate your cuirassiers to save them and heal them soemwhere else to fight at much better odds when Dreylin will have to leave the moutain.

I think you also really need a healer to speed their recovery

edit - attacking this turn could be quite dangerous, considering there is an uninjured C1 janissary and several not that injured more promoted ones, the 3 muskets will have less than 50% odds, and will not do enough to allow the injured cuirrasiers to hope to flank (and kill) the cannons [which would have been the only real out of this situation]

[sunrise089]

If you thing Damascus is lost (more like next turn, except if they are all healing, he has nothing that can beat 3 defensive musket in his injured stack), I could make sense to evacuate your cuirassiers to save them and heal them soemwhere else to fight at much better odds when Dreylin will have to leave the moutain.

I think you also really need a healer to speed their recovery

edit - attacking this turn could be quite dangerous, considering there is an uninjured C1 janissary and several not that injured more promoted ones, the 3 muskets will have less than 50% odds, and will not do enough to allow the injured cuirrasiers to hope to flank (and kill) the cannons [which would have been the only real out of this situation]

You're right. I only gave the screenshot a quick glance and didn't see any healthy defenders.

The you're certainly right about the Cuirassiers - they should only be in the city if they will 1) have the best odds defending or 2) sacrifice themselves and buy time for better units to arrive. Otherwise you're better keeping them on a tile Dreylin can't apply collateral to.