[SPOILER] Krill rambles on

[boak]

ugh i'm too tired to think coherently right now. i feel bad about it but i'll prob leave the rest of this turn until tomorrow since there's 24 hours left on the clock.

latest thing i've started worrying about: what if other players wardec me also after seeing gav make so much ground

i can't believe i let joey trick me into taking over this sinking ship!!!

[Commodore]

Dudeman, you have umpteen billion cities and defensive depth out the wazzoo. Whipping out all chucklenaughts, all the time, will enable you to hold the vast majority of the huge empire.

[boak]

yeah i know, i'm just being dramatic for an excuse to yell at joey

[boak]

I popped the golden age, left 1 horcher at each spot near trev to raze roads next turn if i can. engineering in 3 turns. will do a bit more whipping then swap into caste system and run a bunch of scientists and bulb my way to astro

[boak]

quick update, gav has left half his stack in old Trev and sent the other half to capture what looks to be the last remaining cities of tsargon. he hasn't accepted peace yet but i'm not too perturbed. I sent him a peace offering with 1g and will continue to do so each turn, incrementing the gold amount by 1g until he goes insane trying to figure out what my deal is, and accepts peace. i used a similar tactic in the last badgame pitboss.

[boak]

also, havent switched to caste yet, partly because i needed to wait for civic switch cooldown and also because i need 1 extra turn to get monarchy so i can switch into HR and Caste at the same time.

my CKNs are arriving at the warfront quicker now with engineering, a number of courthouses have finished or are finishing soon. i'm very tempted to invade Hit Any Key since he's been leaving a lot of juicy targets within striking range. last turn i think i could have captured about 6 workers and possibly a city in one fell swoop with minimal casualties. I decided against it because i'm really unsure about where he sits with military techs and until i get squeeze peace out of gav i might be making more enemies than i can handle at the present time.

[boak]

HAK has declared war on me. i was contemplating going to war with him soon anyway but hes beaten me to the punch. theres 2 stacks threatening 2 of my southern cities:




there was a 3rd stack of like 4 elehpants and some horchers that he used to attack Porthill (just south of Chesterton) but since i had my army hidden away right near there i've killed it already. I'm reasonably confident I can repel this invasion but not without losing these cities momentarily. there's also a couple of complications.

first, i'm in caste system and can't switch out for another 3 turns. that means no emergency whipped walls or units.

the second, is this stack of adrien's i've just got vision off:



it could be nothing, but it could also be something. I'm not sure how well people can communicate with AI diplo but this could possibly mean HAK and Adrien are in cahoots with each other. i've put a pike into Alsager Bank (my border city with Adrien, 1SE of the worker behind the scoreboard in that screenshot) and upgraded the archer and spear that was already present into a longbow and pike. i have another pike finishing this turn and a CKN on the way. i'm hoping this is just paranoia but this seems an awful lot of units to have in one place for no reason.

thankfully the rivers near Penn and Pelsall buy me at least one more turn before HAK can practically attack, but i definitely don't have enough units to keep these cities. my stack, as mentioned, is still near Chesterton. i'm currently trying to decide if i want to move it to re-capture Penn and Pelsall or just run straight into HAK's territory and counter-attack. he has some pretty lightly defended cities on our border and i'm assuming most of his units are currently in his two stacks outside my cities, but i'm also wary of Gavagai. His stack will still definitely be in the area and with Tsargon out of the game he'll have nothing better to do than join HAK (and maybe Adrien).

[boak]

actually Penn is 100% captured next turn no matter what, that whole stack is basically two-movers. Pelsall will likely be captured the turn after but i should be able to take them both back (unless he razes them) eventually. i've decided to move my stack around to defend. the sooner i wipe his two stacks the sooner i can sue for peace and get ready for The Second Coming of Gavagai

[boak]

ok here's the damage:



Penn has been captured as expected. HAK did burn like 3 or 4 horchers on my pikes/spears for nothing though??

The above screenshot also reveals my suspicions about Adrien were correct. It also brought to my attention the fact that I had open borders with him and hes probably been scouting out these cities each turn and knew there wasn't much here. so thats pretty fucked. i wish i had of realised this sooner.

Here's a shot of all the stacks:




I also used my scouting chariot to have a peep toward Gavagai to see if he's going to be joining in on this gangbang:



looks like it!

im basically done for. there's no way in hell i can stop all three of these stacks. i can switch in to slavery in 2 more turns but i'll have already lost 4+ cities by then. my only real chance is for someone else to wardec gav and/or adrien but i have no idea how likely that is. i also have no idea how to ask for help in AI diplo, is it even possible?

HAK, Adrien and Gavagai all border each other, so it only leaves Barteq next to Gavagai and i *think* dtay next to Adrien.

im pretty bummed out about this. i was kinda excited to take over in such a big game, especially once Gavagai stopped advancing and i was able to take stock and consolodate on Krill's opening. I was feeling pretty confident I'd be able to declare war on HAK soon but now it looks like all i'm going to be able to do is whip myself to hell and make it as hard as possible for them to annex me completely.

RIP

[boak]

lost 3 cities this turn, 2 to HAK and 1 to Adrien. I've tried asking Ichabod and Barteq for assistance, here's hoping they can do something quickly.

Can't hit any of HAK's stacks yet, need to wait for my 1-movers to arrive, they're still at least 2 turns away from attacking, though i should be able to take one of my cities back from HAK next turn with a handful of recently constructed pikes that I have nearby.