[SPOILER] Cornflakes brings the popcorn

[Cornflakes]

I made it to Gunpowder, after loosing three cities. Barring unfortunate RNG rolls all my cities are safe from immediate danger. I am going to aggressively whip out Janissary to reclaim my cities, and I am planning to try the Land -> Promote To Morale -> Attack to raze Retep's capital. As long as REM doesn't come after me I'm going to survive, and he seems to be occupied with destroying Bob at the moment. I have been receiving gifts of workers from first Jowy/HAK and now Bob so I find myself in the almost laughable position of having 16 workers and 4 cities.

[Cornflakes]

Ok, here's a description of the war from my perspective ...




My units inside Waltz were lost anyways, but if I destroyed that knight I would be able chop the forest and complete the Taj Mahal at end of turn. So I attacked out and was successful







Demographics at my peak.




Retep came at me from both fronts. Congratulation, and Waltz fell immediately. I was able to slow down Retep 2 turns at Newton, which bought me enough time to complete Gunpowder and draft a round of Janissary to stop Retep's advance. Then we took 10 days break.




End of the turn I played today I completed Construction for Catapults. I will probably go to Engineering next for road movement and Pikes. I am debating on whether to strike back at Congratulations or Newton first ... Congratulations is more weakly defended, but would be harder to keep due to proximity to Retep's core. Also, it has one extra turn or resistance for me to capture before Retep can whip. I'll have to see how things develop in the next couple turns. I'm going to whip out Catapults as quickly as possible. I'm going to bend my entire will towards the survival of my nation (I won't say empire, because I don't think it ever reached that status).




I have evil schemes of razing Retep's capital in retaliation. I can use my first GG to sprinkle XP, and attach it to a Janissary. Then I can use the land > promote to Morale > attack tactic to raze Retep's capital ... assuming he only has one unit inside. I'll drop another unit first so that I don't waste a GG unnecessarily. The Plains tile 1NE of Robin has already been pre-forted about halfway. I have been planning to attack up that way at some point anyway, so I put a few spare worker turns in there already in passing. But I have plenty of labor force to fort that tile when the time comes.

[Commodore]

My units inside Waltz were lost anyways, but if I destroyed that knight I would be able chop the forest and complete the Taj Mahal at end of turn. So I attacked out and was successful

That's moxie!

[Cornflakes]

Lack of Engineering for 3-move roads is worse that I anticipated ... it almost kills any of the defensive advantages when my opponent has knights. I have to put my catapults within range of flanking by knights. I can't cover them with Pikes, so the +25% bonus from the Janissary is enormously useful (but still only gives close to 50/50 odd vs C2 knight). I also can't hit from the fog with only 2-move roads I asked for a loan of cash from REM. Without the loan it'll take about 10-11 turns to get to Engineering. With the loan I think I can do it in 7.

I'm not dead, and I don't think that Retep alone can kill me now that I can draft Jans and build Catapults ... This means he'll have to expend considerable effort keeping the cities he took. If I can get back my Maoai city that will allow me to pass ships through to that other sea and fork a couple of his backlines cities as well.

[Qgqqqqq]

Yeah engineering is an advantage you underestimate until you have to defend against a opponent.

[Cornflakes]

I have time for a more complete update on the status of the war. Retep did a DoW/Peace deal with REM for 10 turns of locked peace so he can focus his energy on me. In other foreign news, demographics say that bob is almost dead. Food = 18 & MFG = 8




Retep abandoned Newton even though he had more defenders than me and had odds on all of my units ... I captured and moved in, immediately drafting a Jan that captured the worker that is chopping that Forest. Borders popped immediately to give me +40% defensive bonus. And my culture is 2 turns from bumping that up to 60%! I don't think he'll be able to re-capture whatever he does, because I'll be able to build up a catapult army while his (if he has one) rolls up from his core.




East front post-Newton-capture




Southern Front ... Retep moved his 4 or 5 knights out of Congratulations for some reason. I had 2 Jans on that BLUE circle, and if I had Engineering I would have been able to re-capture this turn. As it is, I may be able to capture next turn if he doesn't reinforce. If he does I have 2 more jans and my first 2 cats incoming the following turn. A side-effect of Retep abandoning Newton this turn was that I was able to redirect one cat (from Genesis) and all six of those Jans immediately to Congratulations.




On the western front, I was able to march my worker completely across the ease/west wrap. He was cut off at Waltz when Retep invaded, and has been marching East ever since. A minor moral success!

[Cornflakes]

I made a peace offer to Retep. Last turn I loaded up my GG-with-unprompted-Morale and moved into the little sea to the SW or Retep's Capital. This turn I a landed spear adjacent to his capital and found 2 units inside ... I then landed my sentry chariot in sight range of Retep's 2 cities west of his capital (within 1 tile of the sea), but he has 2 units in each I won't make any more progress now, and 10 turns will give me time to build Knights. I could also build up a significant 3-move galley Navy if I decide that is best. That could give me a shot at Retep's back lines when he moves his army into my lands. I can also build C2 Triremes on defense, or Caravels if I research appropriate tech.