t153 -
I came out of my 4-man GA in Rep/Nat/Slav/Merc/Theo (maybe should have been Caste) and have been Drafting up a sizeable army of 2xp Rifles for defense. That has allowed me to assign my 5xp Rifles to other adventures. Control of the air and seas has allowed me to keep up a general harassment of Pickle's coastal holdings, which initially led to the razing of the same two cities he'd replanted after the Carrack strike, but more recently has led into preparation for this:
Ragdoll may be the only remaining city of his that I could stage for a strike completely out of his sight (the Galleon NW of the sign has moved one tile this turn) and would buy me territory that I could claim for myself. In addition to the naval forces pictured, I have 12 Airships in range to strike.
If he'd been able to 1t a Machine Gun, it could have been more uncomfortable, but as is it was pretty inevitable:
280g gets me a turn closer to Combustion, but there's no way I can keep this city even if at size19 it would be the largest in my empire. 12(!?)turns of revolt with it on flatland would be indefensible, so it has to burn.
Here's the log:
3 Rifles is about what I expected; I could have hit some of the other units with Airships, but the odds were at least in the 80s and they had other uses - such as removing that Ironclad.
Wait a sec, Winklepickers? Guarded only by Knights & Chariots!? Well Perfect Vision™ lets me see that the Cavalry down by Cornish Rex is closest 2-mover, and that can't reach (there's another in his cap, also out of reach). The Rifle Defense Force is 2t behind in the forest; they couldn't move into range of the new city site last turn without being spotted and potentially triggering alarm. I did have one Galleon of Rifles that I could have dropped off here, but with no need to do so, they join the stack and can be used against Cornish Rex next turn.
The other reason to found this city now is so that I can fly in 4 Airships to be in range for that attack. It's worth noting that most of the force there currently is Cavalry, although he can UniSuff rush-buy an MG there IBT if he wants to / thinks of it. A bigger problem is that his main Cavalry force is currently stations (stuck) in his 1tile city enclave in Adrien's territory with only a single Galleon capable of moving them out because Adrien has sensibly maintained closed borders up to now. In general Pickle has been pretty passive this game, particularly against me. I wonder how much my defense of Sian's empire in the last game has influenced that.
Tentative plan:
1) Raze Ragdoll - check
2) Claim territory - check
3) Raze(?) Cornish Rex
4) Stymie counter-attack
5?) Extort 10t Peace
6?) Whip Universities
7?) Build Oil-based Navy
8?) Draft Infantry
9?) Wreck Adrien
I came out of my 4-man GA in Rep/Nat/Slav/Merc/Theo (maybe should have been Caste) and have been Drafting up a sizeable army of 2xp Rifles for defense. That has allowed me to assign my 5xp Rifles to other adventures. Control of the air and seas has allowed me to keep up a general harassment of Pickle's coastal holdings, which initially led to the razing of the same two cities he'd replanted after the Carrack strike, but more recently has led into preparation for this:
Ragdoll may be the only remaining city of his that I could stage for a strike completely out of his sight (the Galleon NW of the sign has moved one tile this turn) and would buy me territory that I could claim for myself. In addition to the naval forces pictured, I have 12 Airships in range to strike.
If he'd been able to 1t a Machine Gun, it could have been more uncomfortable, but as is it was pretty inevitable:
280g gets me a turn closer to Combustion, but there's no way I can keep this city even if at size19 it would be the largest in my empire. 12(!?)turns of revolt with it on flatland would be indefensible, so it has to burn.
Here's the log:
3 Rifles is about what I expected; I could have hit some of the other units with Airships, but the odds were at least in the 80s and they had other uses - such as removing that Ironclad.
Wait a sec, Winklepickers? Guarded only by Knights & Chariots!? Well Perfect Vision™ lets me see that the Cavalry down by Cornish Rex is closest 2-mover, and that can't reach (there's another in his cap, also out of reach). The Rifle Defense Force is 2t behind in the forest; they couldn't move into range of the new city site last turn without being spotted and potentially triggering alarm. I did have one Galleon of Rifles that I could have dropped off here, but with no need to do so, they join the stack and can be used against Cornish Rex next turn.
The other reason to found this city now is so that I can fly in 4 Airships to be in range for that attack. It's worth noting that most of the force there currently is Cavalry, although he can UniSuff rush-buy an MG there IBT if he wants to / thinks of it. A bigger problem is that his main Cavalry force is currently stations (stuck) in his 1tile city enclave in Adrien's territory with only a single Galleon capable of moving them out because Adrien has sensibly maintained closed borders up to now. In general Pickle has been pretty passive this game, particularly against me. I wonder how much my defense of Sian's empire in the last game has influenced that.
Tentative plan:
1) Raze Ragdoll - check
2) Claim territory - check
3) Raze(?) Cornish Rex
4) Stymie counter-attack
5?) Extort 10t Peace
6?) Whip Universities
7?) Build Oil-based Navy
8?) Draft Infantry
9?) Wreck Adrien