[SPOILERS] - social distancing with pindicator

[pindicator]

095, Part 2

I think I can hold him at the capital. The capital might burn, but I think I can make my stand there.

First thing I did was cancel open borders with Superdeath. No more free scouting. His scout went out into the jungle - but then my axe also came towards me and ended up on the forest right by his horcher stack. (If only that was a spear!) Thinking about it some more, I decided the best use for that axe was more vision and declared war on Superdeath, moving inside his territory to see what else might be following the main stack.




Not much else. At least some silver linings.

Also, wow at just how much he's whipped his capital down. There are going to be more units following - he had too many whips last turn for there not to be - but they aren't right behind the main stack.

I also sent him a peace offer. This is honestly something I should have done a few turns before attacking Gira. Note to self for future 2v1 situations: abuse that enforced peace mechanism.

In the east, Superdeath also has an axe that is threatening Lincoln. Thankfully I have a chop that I was able to finish, and I put it into a chariot to counter his axe.



So if you count the barbarians in the southeast, Gira in the southwest, Superdeath in the northwest, and now this in the northeast: we're in conflicts in all corners!

I think the barbarian situation is at least starting to look better. Because I saw a scout from Mjmd come through this turn:




Bigger shot because my work boat also found an Mjmd axe attacking a barb city. This would certainly fit with my world map theory. If he could clear out some barbs for a while that would be awesome.

I also sent Gira a peace treaty, because I don't have time for him right now. Don't think he accepts this one - he hasn't accepted any of the others when he had an empire - but might as well try it now.




I left behind the chariot that took Satsuma this turn to watch over things while I'm away. Oh, and the worker we captured - he's fogbusting the far south. The remaining 8 Numids are racing back north.

So the main problem of the turn- how to protect the core:




There's a bit of a puzzle about getting the most amount of hammers in the shortest time, but I think I settled on something. First off, we emptied Coos and sent its garrison back towards the capital. I then whipped the city to complete its archer, and it will have enough overflow to complete another next turn if for some reason Superdeath doesn't capture it. The capital and Clatsop both whipped their Numids - which were almost done anyway, the whips were for overflow. I'm moving workers to chop the spices and the forest by Clatsop too, and we should be able to 1-turn spears out of both cities for 2 or 3 turns. By then the horchers will be at the gate.

Every other city that was size 4 or larger put enough hammers into a unit so that I could 2-pop whip with maximum overflow on t96. The cities in the far east that weren't big enough put 5h into a spear and will whip those next turn.

If Superdeath moves straight for the capital he'll get there on t98. I'll have 6 or 7 defenders that turn - and in a city on a hill with 40% culture. No point in whipping walls for an extra 10%. But we'll also have a number of additional spears between Clatsop and Malheur, and 10 Numids around Yamhill. I'm a little concerned about the galley, but I don't know what I'd do about that apart from just make sure my coastal cities have a pair of archers in them. That's only Lincoln anyway - maybe Malheur if he tries to land on flatland.

That's it. I forgot to look at the power graph after the turn rolled, but I'll just have to see how things go from here. I feel pretty good that I can hold around the capital, but we might lose the capital if he just zergs it. But if that happens we should be able to clean up.


PRO: 9 (329)
FIN: 11 (262)

This war is gonna be hell on FIN. I'm probably going to whip off / lose a lot of my mature cottages.

[pindicator]

Saw Superdeath played so I took a peek before going to bed.

He took Coos, only losing 1 horse archer to kill my axe. So there are now 10 horse archers in Coos. At Lincoln he killed my worker and then deleted his axe and my worker.

He then whipped 2 cities.

[pindicator]

096

Here's Superdeath in Coos, stack fully promoted now




He killed my axe in his territory, as I said last post.  Thankfully I had a good defensive spot and it cost him a horcher.  Sadly my archer in Coos could not duplicate his success, and let the attacking horcher walk all over him in a flawless victory.  Guy was probably a bit demoralized, being told to hold the city by himself as I evacuated everyone else.  Can't really blame him.

Superdeath had moved his scout up again, but I snuffed that guy out with a Numid this turn.  I want him to see Numid and have no vision on the area - maybe if he sees that plus what I've left open to Gira he may think my stack has come back already and may be hesitant to advance.  I'm not quite sure what he does from here, actually, because I'm feeling more and more confident that he can't conquer me.  I might still lose my capital, but I won't be out of the game.

I used my GG this turn:



Attached it to the warrior and upgraded it to a spear.  I thought about putting 5xp on the new Numids I put out, to give them Formation, but that just gives them coinflip odds against his C2 horchers.  No, better to push advantages than mitigate weaknesses.  So the Numids went south to Yamhill to meet up with my other 2-movers.  No, those aren't all the defenders in Tillamook either - just the ones I used the GG on.  When he moves up I think I'll have 10 units in the city.

And I whipped everywhere that didn't whip last turn.  Spears, and a sword in Yamhill due to overflow reasons.  Sword will still be a decent defender, and might just be handy if I try to take back Coos.

I should have just moved to eliminate Gira last turn, but I thought maybe I could just let him be and save a turn.  Now I've lost time, as he moved one of his axes out of Kagoshima to retake Kyoto.  This time I am not going to mess around any more.




If he retakes Kyoto then I get a more favorable battle to capture it back.  If he moves back to Kagoshima then I have 90% odds to kill his axe there.  No new units came out when the turn rolled so Gira will be gone next turn, and then I'll just have 1 war to fight.


Meanwhile, I would argue we have a new front-runner for this game.




Yes folks, Mr. Cairo has picked up Currency first and if he plays his cards right with this Superdeath v Me war, I think he has a fantastic shot of coming out of this in the lead.  What would be playing his cards right here?  Just continue to develop economically.  I don't think he wants to pile on to a war vs me, not because he wouldn't gain anything from it - he would easily pick off my coastal cities if he wanted to - but because he would tilt the war in Superdeath's favor and then Superdeath would emerge as an eventual rival as he would get everything not on the coasts.

I'm not happy with his positioning here.  The whole aggressive sentries just outside my border thing?  I am not a runaway; I am not a threat to be a runaway any longer.  He has AT on his border to the east with easier avenues of conquest if he really wants to conquer someone.  I have a feeling he has an itch to use his UU though, and may throw his great position just because of it.  (Just like you did, pindi?)

Sidenote:  I'd really love to try Tokugawa of Zulu with this mod.  Yeah, Mao here is probably a great choice, but I'm a sucker for synergy.

Even if this war with Superdeath stalemates right here I think Cairo is in a great position, by virtue of not whipping his empire into the ground like Superdeath and I are currently doing.

Just look at my demos:




My commerce has roughly dropped by 25% since the war began.  My crop yield is last place (except Gira), and my MFG isn't that great either.  I'm going to take a long time to come out of this even if Superdeath leaves me be.  Sure, 20 turns from now I'll be good.  But I think Mr. Cairo could look even better if he continues to just peacefully grab land.  There's still a lot to grab.

Well, at least I stopped the Superdeath runaway that I was worried about at the start of this game.  Yay me.


PRO: 8 (337)
FIN: 8 (270)

[pindicator]

Gira logged in, logged out and didn't end turn in a turn with 1 decision.

I understand if he's upset. It's not a fun spot to be in - much like me vs Superdeath doesn't feel fun. Hopefully he comes back and finishes the turn.

[pindicator]

097

Farewell Gira




This war only lasted 5 turns, but it seemed to light the spark of a much larger conflict.

My new holdings in Giraland:




First important thing is this gives me some happiness - and with me needing to whip my cities constantly lately that is a huge benefit. Satsuma will come out of rebellion in 2 turns. And then somehow I've got to get a settler down to that fur. What I really need are for these cities to come out of revolt and start producing - we're losing a war back home!

Wish I had captured those workers now. I could really use them.

Superdeath moved up 9 horse archers and his galley. He had to keep one horse archer behind because I had a Numid that could have captured Coos with a little creative roading. So now we have potentially 11 hitters coming after my capital - and I'd bet that we see axes from the galley. I stuffed everything I could in the capital and ended up with 10 defenders, although one of them is a chariot and I dont' expect him to amount to much more than jumping in front of a bullet aimed at a wounded vet that won its first fight.




The bigger problem I wrestled with was what do I do if Superdeath moves on to another city next turn: if he moves either SE-SE to threaten Clatsop or SW-SW to go after Yamhill I could find myself in a tough position - especially the Yamhill one. For Clatsop I think I have enough stragglers coming up. Thank goodness for full-value whips: I was able to abuse overflow with the whips from last turn to get another round of spears out. I probably am going to have enough spears here and should start mixing a couple other units in. I think if he goes for Yamhill then I stuff all my Numids in the city and move all the spears up so that he can't threaten my core again. If he goes after Clatsop then I move everything to box him between Clatsop and the units from Yamhill & Tillamook. I'm really daring him to attack now because if he tries anything else I'm going to have too much for him to contend with. And I think I have enough to stop him.

Especially with the units that all came out at end of turn. Gotta remember that auto-promote.

After the turn ended, I saw Superdeath got Currency. Beat me by 2 turns. The important one will be Construction; that's next on both our lists.

I took power graph and demo shots after the turn rolled.






That GNP goes lower every turn.

[pindicator]

The war is a big distraction, but I'm still keeping the count. From last turn:

PRO: 8 (345)
FIN: 8 (278)

[pindicator]

098, Part 1

Mislabeled last turn as 98, but this is the one!




Okay, so he moved against Yamhill but he didn't go on the hill - I overlooked him going onto the road and keeping me from reinforcing with the 2 Numids in the capital. He's also moved up 5 new horchers, and unloaded 2 horchers against poor Lincoln. Sorry Lincoln, I outsmarted myself a bit there.

Lincoln seems like the easiest solution. Upgrade the warrior to a spear, whip the axe. The spear in Malheur will move to where my worker is finishing a road just by those 2 horchers and will be cleanup. I bet he just picks up the horchers again, so maybe I don't move the spear all the way up - maybe I just move it NE 1 tile and leave the worker to finish the road and stay as bait. Yeah, I'm going to regret losing workers but I'm going to regret losing cities more. Still, I'm surprised that this attack composition is not even a little diverse. I guess I just keep whipping spears.

Can I attack out? I've got 4 spears, 9 numids, and 1 sword in range. On average we're losing 1 spear, and that leaves him with 6 horchers in that stack - I probably kill 3 of those. No, I don't think I can quite attack out yet. (Why the sword? Overflow with the whip. But here I really wish I had just taken everything off the hammer tiles and whipped a spear instead.)

The capital is also not under any threat this turn, but that can change very quickly. In fact, I bet Superdeath chose this setup so he could shuffle everything to the hill south of the capital and not have to do any river crossings in his attacks, unlike last turn.

So what about if I move my spears in the area onto the hill south of Tillamook then?

My head hurts

[GeneralKilCavalry]

(Why the sword?  Overflow with the whip.  But here I really wish I had just taken everything off the hammer tiles and whipped a spear instead.)

I don't get a cookie because I asked myself that question about your stack last turn and didn't get why. Always great to read the thread of an experienced player.

[pindicator]

What if I attack with all 9 numids first?  Maybe a couple of them win, and then I clean up with spears and the sword.  That probably still leaves him with a few horchers left - but will that take the wind out of his attack?

I miss having a scooter or Commodore or Noble to bounce these ideas off of.  Hope you guys are enjoying the show 

[pindicator]

(Why the sword?  Overflow with the whip.  But here I really wish I had just taken everything off the hammer tiles and whipped a spear instead.)

I don't get a cookie because I asked myself that question about your stack last turn and didn't get why. Always great to read the thread of an experienced player.

Oh yeah, the key is to get something 31h away from being completed.  That's how all my podunk cities out east are contributing so many spears as well as why my core cities are churning them out every turn.  But at Yamhill I already had 21h in a spear and I couldn't start a new one fresh, so I had to swap to a different unit.  I chose a sword but I'm still not thrilled with the guy.