[PB74 Spoilers] Donovan Zoi Celebrates 20 Years of Living Dangerously

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 87 - 700 BC

Peace With Korea!

metal offered back my peace treaty, after declining and checking out the save last turn.  This is great since metal's been playing first and I've been playing last -- the other two teams will think we are still at war, which buys me another turn of no countermeasures.

First thing I did was send a Chariot to check on Deluge.




Ugh, a Spearman.  I figured as much.

I did some battle sims and even at 10-5 (I'm factoring in 2 War Chariots I saw earlier), we still get slaughtered.  And I didn't even account for the city's unit fortification or the 20% from culture.

So the Colossus dream is dashed for now.  And it's a shame because Egypt has such a chewy center.  But I suppose that's the whole reason Miguelito captured this city from Magic Science so many years ago.

That only leaves one option for my troops because, let's face it, I need to have some kind of payoff for running my beloved Incan civ into the ground.


LOL, Okay.  But Do You Really Think This Will Work?

With metal and I at peace after 8 turns, this only leaves one option: Magic's Mali.  However, there's one big problem -- Magic has finally been scouting my lands and is now at Lake Nyos.  I mean, come on -- this is right along the route I need to take!

So here's the fun part:




I had almost all mounted units on the Spearman hill, with the rest coming from the capital region.   To keep up appearances, I utilized movement points to venture out and then double back so all units were facing Egypt.  Nothing to see here! 

The Workers under the NW mini-stack will surely give things away however, as they are now primed to connect a NE road that will have 4 HA's and 9 Chariots on the tile just north of the wine.  The two reserve HAs can join in from the north and on T89, all units will be on either of the two forests outside of Segui.  There is only a Skirmisher there now, but I'm sure that will change before we strike on T90.

I'll try to get better pics and details for my plan next turn.


Set Adrift On Watery Bliss

On a lighter note, GKC denied my OB offer.  And with my boats kicked out of Korea, we've ended up with no way back home.  I'd consider offering OB to metal, but I think it's best to hold off on that for now.




I have 2 Axes and 1 Scout in tow.  So this will be a fun side adventure to see how much more land I can unveil before I hit GKC's borders.  I've always wanted to send off a Galley of two semi-powerful units into the deep blue to see what kind of trouble I can stir up.  It looks like I'll now get my chance.

Shout out to PM Dawn for those that remember, or were even on the planet during their big 90's hit.

[klops]

good luck for both of your adventures


Always fun to burn down a random city of some random unknown civ somewhere in the wild, lol

[Donovan Zoi]

good luck for both of your adventures


Always fun to burn down a random city of some random unknown civ somewhere in the wild, lol

Thanks and we'll see!  In the meantime, worry-free scouting.  I thought about boating outside of a French city to force open borders with GKC, but don't want to sour him teaming up with metal against me via OB. 

I'll have the turn report later, and maybe 2 if I get to play early enough later on.

[Donovan Zoi]

Turns 88 thru 90

War With Mali!

Time to catch up on my current war with Magic Science, initiated on T89.

T88 started with a Clam/Clam offer with Miguelito, which I declined and sent back in kind.  I forgot to check if he made it public on the FA screen, but I hope he got the hint.  

Either way, it was all systems go toward Mali, and with no whips in response to my south-facing equine stacks.  Did my ploy really work?  Regardless, we headed north and by T89 had moved 6 HAs and 9 Chariots to set up camp outside of Segou.





Magic had whipped 3 times in T89, but only a Spearman was showing.  I expected to see at least 4 units here next turn, and have a contingency plan to take the northern forest cities if Segou meets or exceeds that amount of defenders on T90.

Which was indeed the case, so I've given us a choice between Segou and the Fur city of Kayes.  We also have an Axe dead-heading it through the forest to bring a bit of versatility to the attack, though a bit a late to the party.




I'm deciding on pressing forward through north for a few reasons:

1. I really need the conquest gold to complete Monarchy
2. Segou did end up with 4 units: Skirm, Skirm, Spear and Chariot.  Too much potential loss to start here.  Odds are better for me if he attacks out, but he'd leave the city vulnerable then.
3, Choosing the north keeps me further away from the approaching whipped units (Magic had at least 4 of those on T90).
4. Once I take Kayes. I'll be able to move remaining units 2E for a crack at the next northern city on T92.

I'm also following up with another wave of units while also building a roadnet to Mali's front door.   After creating better paths from K2 and Lake Nyos, I'll farm the Wheat.





As for the next wave of units, it started with Horchers, but is now an Axe > HA overflow parlay --- to give the Axes a head start and hopefully have the HAs available the next turn.  These units won't hit Mali until my peace countdown with metal starts (7 turns of peace left), so I'll have to start thinking about protecting my south soon.

I'll have a post later that will deal with Miguelito and metal.  Though I am apparently allowed to do whatever I want up here for now, there are definite signs I won't maintain this level of comfort for long.

[Qgqqqqq]

Will you capture or raze in the north?

[Donovan Zoi]

Will you capture or raze in the north?

Yessir, I will be keeping these cities if possible, as they seem to have decent placement.  They also work with the coastal plan I've been implementing and hope to optimize with Hereditary Rule soon.  I'll just need to make sure I'm able to defend them, which is why reinforcements are on the way.  

I'm cautiously optimistic, but also need to start showing some gains from these wars I'm starting.

[Mjmd]

If you aren't going to report you OWE US STORIES!!!!!!

[Donovan Zoi]

It seems that Magic Science has viewed PBSpy and noticed a certain development.  I am not sure if he is posting to complain or just to report on my declaration of war on him.  Neither one of us has been very strong in reporting, so there is really nothing to go by.

We have been in an alliance since Miguelito first declared war on him.  I decided to join him in this quest to keep Miguelito/Ginger from running the table on this continent.  The war had been beneficial in keeping Egypt in check, but there came a time where it looked like we may begin to turn the tables on the aggressor for good.

This is also the second time during this alliance that I have been forced to declare peace with Egypt because Magic preferred to hang back and protect his holdings rather than get close enough to help me in eliminating an Egyptian stronghold.

--the first time was in trying to retake the marble city of Kari about 15 turns ago since I had the culture to make a play on the city.  But Magic chose to hang 4 tiles back and I got shelled the next turn.  Miguelito offered peace and I took it because I had vulnerable cities just NW of the conflict.

When peace expired, I re- entered the war and we pushed back -- reclaiming the city of Kari and Sikasso and eventually casting Minger from the region.  With GKC rejoining the war (he had joined the last time but tapped out before I did), we were put in a great position to do severe damage to the Egyptian core if we pushed forward.

--so once again, I stuck my neck out, having done the intel that Egypt was protecting Ragnarok from GKC's French.  The latter had just suffered major losses and I had promoted several sentry units to confirm we had a good shot of taking Atlantis.  However, once again Magic hung back in a defensive stance while I suffered minor losses, when he should have joined my stack in an assault on Atlantis (Mig's 3-wonder city).

If I had wanted to just hang back and protect our two crappy empires, I would not have spent the last 20 turns whipping my civ into oblivion.  The idea was to effectively weaken the dominant civ on our continent.  And I gave Mali two times to join me in major contests and he left me hanging twice.

Add to this that metal is now creeping through Egyptian territory with a 45 unit stack and I would not be able to sustain a combined onslaught on my own.  The threat from metal still looms since I used my units this turn to remove most of Magic's troops in the hope of getting something for my efforts.

I may be able to post more pics later based on questions from the lurkers, and I'm certainly not proud of what I've done here.  I also have Pindicator scouting my shores and I've confirmed he has Astronomy already.  So I may still receive judgment in-game when al is said and done.  I do feel the worst for GKC because it seems that Minger is primed to run the table on France with me out of the picture.

So it's a race to remove the weaker players from the continent.  Things will definitely look different in the next 10 turns.  Once again, I expect questions and perhaps some consternation from this move but want to make sure I defend my position on this.

[Mjmd]

Its not current, but what do you think went wrong way earlier in the game back when you were still reporting?

[Donovan Zoi]

For lurkers if needed. While healing a stack of Jumbos, I managed to misclick them out of the city they are defending. It won't affect my war with Magic as the city is safe, but a big stack of metal is out there somewhere. I'm surprised he didn't land at my doorstep this turn.

Anyway, let me know. I'm going to assume I'll need to delay the game for about 10 hours