[PB75 Mjmd] Call to Power

[Mjmd]

PB70 Heave Away Johnies



SLOW city. Although by this games standards its stellar. My ONLY? city that wasn't drafted. Just nice slow commerce city.


T213 part 2

So during Ijubs Ginger war I had sent him a warning about Gingers stack. He paid it back WITH INTEREST.



So 29 knights down here SOMEWHERE. I mean I was already going to withdraw my stack, but it does mean they are  south and NOT north.

Which means.......



Lost 2 cannons, 8 cats, and 5 rifles, which is about 2-3 more than odds say I should have (grumble 90% last fight and should have killed at least 1 more cannon). Lost more units and more hammers BUT it means the city will hold 1 more turn. Upgraded a mace to a machine gun (forgot can't use promos after upgrade, but ah well). Honestly even if the cats stop doing collateral he may have enough to still make me lose a lot of units here just by throwing them at me, but he doesn't have enough hitters anymore. He may also decide to retreat and not throw away a ton of collateral he could use in the future.

I did something potentially stupid and I did take Memphis this turn. 44gpt.



I managed to scrape together some reinforcements for main stack. I also did reinforce Giza with units that should have been going NW. They can't arrive in time, so figure if SD goes for Giza instead of main stack will make that bloodier.

Along with the message Ijub moved part of his stack that still could (I believe) east. Took the opportunity to send 6 rifles and some collateral west. Workers will focus on a rail route to meet up with them, but will still take a second. If nothing else means if everything goes wrong I'll have a backstop.

I'm feeling confident enough to turn down tech slider in case I need more upgrade gold although I still have 5 cities building wealth out east.

[Mjmd]

I did something potentially stupid and I did take Memphis this turn. 44gpt.

T214

YEP. Stupid. I'm assuming you all knew why this was stupid?

IF SD was in range he could raze it. However, if I had sentry chariot and moved it to a hill near Memphis I would have been able to see said stack. Now I didn't have one, but he didn't know that. I figured SD wouldn't have moved his stack THAT close. Shouldn't have assumed. Sigh. I wanted to move the two cannons there to my main stack though. I was pretty desperate for immediate reinforcements and I only needed 1 turn to secure the city. Waiting would have meant leaving the city until I took the capital as I knew SDs stack would have moved up once I retreated mine.

SD got good odds going across a river up a hill too and only lost 1 unit per my defending units. Attack against my main stack was more mixed. Across the river the cannons started taking over as top defender. I didn't dive deep into the combat log but it feels like I should have killed more here. But even after Scooter took a swing (and then stopped taking a swing when he lost 4 in a row) the main stack is still there minus a few units even if I've lost the main prize. Ah well nothing for it but to continue and try to still just get a few more cities and some breathing room.

Up north SD moved more units in and bombarded defenses. I think I am going to try in any of my future games to ban Rome until we increase the prod for praets again. This is just RIDICULOUS that they are still relevant this late in the game. But while I can't attack I don't think he can either (upgraded an incoming spear into a 2nd machine gun). I also think he bombarded with the cannons instead of letting them heal (he has 17 cats that could have done the job). Since he didn't retreat, I just have to eventually get enough units there to wipe the stack. If he retreats he has to step on flat ground although he may still have 1 more turn (ie the turn he played after). I just have other areas I need units atm. With SDs stack used south and not near Giza I did rereout those reinforcements back north.

BTW I want to note how easy this would have been if I had just won that great person roll 10 turns back. A GA worth of police state production and being in police state now would have made it a cake walk. I wonder if in hind site I should have just waited. But to be fair SD had declared and I felt somewhat obligated to live up my promise of joining in. Its not like he hasn't been asking me for the whole game and I finally said yes. It was also becoming somewhat obvious I was building any army.

[Mjmd]

T215

SD sent 1 cat and 2 knights to their death vs an injured rifle and rifle guarding it in the interturn but either was out of troops or felt he should save.

North.



Standoff continues. SD continues to funnel troops into a deathtrap. He would need a ton more grens to seriously threaten this city. While the praets are annoying in terms of me attacking out, even fully collateralled my rifles should beat them (as they are building up fortify bonus).  I just need to keep waiting. My eastern forces are fully due 3 turns from now, but I could just keep waiting. Main problem is he is building fortify bonuses. IF those 2 cannon had 1 more movement I might have attacked out this turn, but probably better just to wait. I can just wait until I have infantry for that matter.

Took Babylos this turn with no losses. Used freed up movement to send some knights forward and snipped a pair of workers from both. Kept 1 of them and pillaged roads they built.

South last group of reinforcements will hook up next turn and then I plan on moving forward turn after. Even with the super medic probably still have some slightly injured, but need to get moving although I don't think SD is fully whipping for this war (food graph is going up not down).

Once again I'm waiting to see what great person I get. The fail odds are actually about the same because now a merchant is pretty bad. I would have to send all the way up to nauf or ijub and neither has a large city close.

Even IF I fail the GA roll again, I THINK I have the mining inc race in the bag. Ya that is why I've been building wealth a bit. I should have 2 turns IF I get a GA. Ginger can't 1 turn railroad and I suspect will take him 3 as I think his GA ends soon? I may mass build research next turn IF I don't get the GA just to make sure. Now mind I don't know if Ginger or Nauf got the engineer as I didn't have maps then. I never saw in Gingers territory when I had partial vision, but better to be safe than sorry.

[Mjmd]

T216


Some knight skirmishing. I figure any knights I can kill now are ones that can't hit my stack. I discovered what looks to be a mainly collateral stack from SD. I think I'm safe to move back in next turn. A lot of that is I can see reinforcements from the south on an every turn basis, meaning at least some of his southern city production is going north and NOT east.

Also seen me losing the 70% GP roll. SIGH. The GP odds giveth and the GP odds taketh away. Managed to get JPJ down to 6 turns for next GP, and then I'll have to win that 69%. Ginger is NOT going for railroad so I cancelled all wealth builds for the moment.

[Mjmd]

T217

I may have let this get to me.



Its possible I also wasn't thinking things through. Pretty tired today. SD wasn't going to attack this turn. He was going to wait until his 6 praets he upgraded to grens got in there. I could have waited for my own reinforcements and hit next turn instead. Ah well, what is done is done.



Also, lost 7 cannons and 6 cats (2 of which were avoidable and I will miss next turn). Used two ggs over last turn and this turn to get all the cannon to 2nd lvl of collateral as well as get most of the rifles to 2nd lvl of promos. So again, it was kind of an even trade, but made sure the 11 collateral III cannons couldn't hit first. I'll probably try to press the attack next turn, but will see.

South my other stacked moved next to Scooters capital. I just don't believe there are enough relevant hitters and hopefully not too many more cannons joined.

[Mjmd]

T218

SD shot his shot in the south and it went so poorly Scooter didn't try to follow it up. I may actually keep the capital now and keep pushing in Scooter land at least. If SD had held back I probably would have razed and replaced. Anyways, healing for 1 turn before attacking.



In the north it was time to roll some dice.



Now some of my cannon last turn did 3-4 units of collateral even with more cannons in there, so I was hoping for more than 2. But was feeling buoyed by the news from the south and decided to press ahead. Managed to clear out a lot of the grenadiers. I DID NOT do the attack vs praet shown. Not worth it; I'll note the praets were getting better odds than the remaining grens vs my pinch rifles so a lot of these attacks were made at 46-52% odds with combat I or II rifles and then some injured combat II rifles. Remaining injured units can heal. Have 2 more cannon and 5 full health rifles incoming next turn. Them along with he remaining healing here should be able to really start rolling this attack up.

All the action has dropped me to #3 in power, but my cow for cow has time on it with Ijub plus Gingers power is also rising and I don't expect Ijub to attack me with Ginger at his back even without any kind of deal.

Founded mining inc; 7 hammers / turn atm. Don't expect to spread much yet. 5 turn wall street in JPJ and then maybe? Also, even though the world is pretty much in merc, should still probably do free market if I get GA.

[Mjmd]

T219

2nd turn in a day. 1st diplo from SD; he dropped the 100g demand.



Then this:



Give me what I want or war forever is it? / maybe destroy my stack and war forever? Dude do you remember who started this war?

Anyways clean up time. I got above average lucky here as a lot of those fights were in the 80s or low 90% due to using injured units. Some of the earlier fights were even or only in 60% range, but once I got past top 3-4 units got better pretty fast.



In the south I'm either safe or the cannon moving away is part of an elaborate trap that also involved throwing a bunch of units away previously. Ya I bet on the former. Although I didn't send in my cats still. May next turn IF I decide to go in instead of heal.

[Mjmd]

T220

Ijub sent copper for copper war with ginger and a loan request.



Returned the copper for copper, but with 10g on my side for 10 turns ish. Its a fair interest rate for my game position, but I have need of my gold assuming GA.

In the north started to attack retreating cats. Thought better of it and sent a sentry chariot to a hill and discovered SD set up a moderate trap. Decided to not continue. My stack is pretty beat up. I could do it, but I would take almost max collateral on the way back and almost certainly couldn't punish his counter hit so not worth as I don't plan on invading him. I will note I sent 3 of my machine guns south, which if I had kept them north I coiuld have covered, very stupid.



Sent him a straight up peace deal and then a 100g one (you know to give him something he demanded).

In the south I killed all but 1 of Scooters defenders (on purpose just in case there is another SD stack down south). I couldn't have moved in with much more than 1 machine gun, 1 spear, and my cats as almost every other unit attacked and killed something this turn, with just 1 rifle losing. If SD somehow does have another stack down there this would be the turn as that stack is also very beat up. I also messed up workers so they aren't in position to railroad to it if I do take next turn, but I blame rushing the turn due to movie night date with wife.

Gingers GNP is equal or ahead of mine (I show as more but because of culture I'm pretty sure he is now slightly in the lead), so just have to hope I don't lose a 3rd GP roll.

[Mjmd]

T221 Took capital and advanced with mainly my knights. IF I had had my workers in right position I could have taken an undefended Heliopolis that had 5 workers in it with a moral gg knight this turn. SIGH; punished for bad play.

SD took peace and declared on Scooter. SD you realize the deal for Alexandria was only IF you fought Scooter with me instead of stabbing me right? If I have to take it the hard way in 9 turns I will.

[Mjmd]

T222

And GP born WAS FREAKING PROPHET   3rd one in a row. SIGH. My next city will have above 30% chance to fail as well. I've been working merchants figuring anything beyond a 4th GA should lean eng or merchant. Luckily after my 2nd prophet I redid it for scientists JUST IN CASE and here we are. Any of my last 3 great people not being prophets probably leads me to win this game. Now its going to be harder. I did get lucky early in the game so I guess I deserve the bad luck.

SD razed Alexandria. Should have taken power graph before I eliminated Scooter  . Imagine a steep decline.



Gingers power numbers are increasing and I don't see any factories yet.

Anyways, expanded number of river cities and Dragons is going to be a fantastic production city. Opened up some other filler spots. I at least will have competitive city numbers and I guess only good thing about delayed GA is that cities will have grown a bit by then.

Also, Scooter in recognition of longtime Egyptian India alliance (or just because) left me 5 workers which will come in handy as I'm a little short atm.