[SPOILERS] Suboptimal Goes Waltzing Matilda

[suboptimal]

Turn 75

Let’s see what Archduke has left for me this turn…



What in the holy hell is going on with the right side of my screen?!?!?!?!?!  On the plus side, Archduke didn’t take another city.   So, about those notifications, bottom up…

- Trading posts completed in Cassowary and Grenada
- Alhambram has declared war on me
- I’ve met Armagh and they want me to recruit a Great Merchant
- Grenada declared war on Armagh and Alhambram, Armagh has declared war on me.
- Alhambram has declared war on me
- A citrus plantation was pillaged by Archduke
- Irukandji lacks housing (and amenities)
- Irukandji can make a ranged attack.

Almost feels like this.

If there was ever a time that I needed someone to declare war on me, it’s now.  Mind you, it has thrown off some of the build flow as all three of my cities completed their builds during the interturn, so I’ve got the archers out of the way (so Machinery doesn’t screw up any builds) but I’ve lost the builder overflow at Cassowary for the Encampment.  Ten turns at +100% production while under attack….this could get interesting and may let me dig out of this hole.  

Here’s the immediate plan.  This may change as I work out the numbers but the initial builds (horsemen everywhere) would remain the same.

Techs & Civics

Switch to Machinery and Recorded History.  That will let me get a lumber mill down at Cassowary before the second chop comes in.  Construction and Games & Recreation will finish the turn after that and then I’ll start Defensive Tactics (which will take 9 turns).

When G&R comes in I’ll put Caravansaries back in for Ilkum and Maneuver for Agoge.  I need to get out builders at some point for farms.  I need to get four of them down in order to get the inspiration for Feudalism.  That civic solves two issues for me – it gets me the Feudal Contract policy and helps with the food issue at Cassowary (I plan on a farm triangle with the western wheat at Blue-Ringed Octopus).

Cassowary

Cassowary will put two turns into a horseman, I’ll place the Encampment and chop out the first horseman on Turn 77, with overflow going into the Encampment into Turn 78.  I’ll then chop out a second horseman on Turn 78 with the overflow likewise going into the Encampment. Depending on whether or not the chops get the double production bonus that could be huge.  I also need to get the swordsman out to the west to avoid losing the trader.

Blue-Ringed Octopus

I swap the spices back to Irukandji for the time being.  I work the unimproved hill across the river to maintain production levels and start a horseman.

Irukandji

With the tile swap and working the 5 rice for 1 turn the city will grow, at which point I’ll go back to working the unimproved hill and the pillaged plantation.  That will give me 6 more.  I start a Horseman.  With the bonuses Irukandji’s production is a massive 29.3 per turn for units.  That will go higher with Maneuver slotted after the first horseman completes.  Of course, with all the Macedonians in the area the horsemen may be sitting ducks.  I’ll have to consider whether building a crossbow in 6 turns is a better use of than two three turn horsemen. (Frankly, I just don’t know...so goes my ability with military decision making).   I could have also gotten another archer out next turn but as soon as it leaves the city it’s probably a sitting duck, moreso than a horseman.

Lurkers: I know that Japan’s bonus to district production affects chop yields and IIRC Nubia’s archer bonus likewise affects chop yields. Does anyone know if Australia’s bonus also affects chops? In the one game I was able to test this (by liberating a city-state) I didn’t see the chop yields get multiplied but would like independent confirmation if this is actually the case.

Edit: If Australia's chops are given the +100% bonus that's disgusting....chopping into a horseman with Maneuver slotted would give 152.5 .

[Japper007]

I think you do get the bonus yes, AFAIK all the production bonuses stack and you get all the overflow everytime, even when you are overflowing into something not affected by the policy cards. It's why Australia is popular with the fastest science victory community on CFC. It clearly shouldn't work that way, but might as well abuse the helll out of it while it's there right?

[suboptimal]

Turn 76

Machinery completes, entering the Medeival Era.  Start Construction, which finishes next turn.  For policies Agoge will be out and Maneuver in.  The question is the economic slot – Caravansaries (for the +2 ) or Urban Planning (which would be +2 ).  I’m thinking the latter.  I suppose I could switch out of Oligarcy and get both but now is not the time for that.  Grenada wants the inspiration for Feudalism.  Valetta wants the inspiration for Military Tradition.  Those are both in the pipeline, the more useful one (Valetta) sooner rather than later.  

A look at the current situation, then some strategizing.  



No rams yet.  That’s good.  Horseman at Irukandji is redlined and promotable.  I’ll call that a draw.  He’s brought the whole frickin’ army...well, 230 out of 356 anyways.   OK….strategy first then tactics.

The Plan

Irukandji is going to crank out horseman and will be able to do so once every two turns with Maneuver slotted.  Gotta love overflow.  What helps here is that Irukandji has only a single that is the result of a tile improvement.  Everything else is native production, so my manufacturing capability here cannot be pillaged away.  It just grew in population this turn so I rearrange the citizens.  Production is now at 35.1 per turn.  Maneuver will bring that up to around 44 per turn.

Up at Blue-Ringed Octopus I considered switching to a builder.  However, I’m going to stick with the horseman as by the time the builder completes I might not need it (I fully expect to see a battering ram every time I open the save).  I’ll do a builder once the first horseman is complete.

Cassowary, well, that’s where things get interesting.  On tap are walls, four horseman and an Encampment.  If forest chops get the +100% I’ve got 305 just waiting for the chainsaws.  In this case I do two horses, walls, two horses and the Encampment.  If I don’t get the +100%, that’s 183 which is still plenty.  In this case I do the horses first and the walls come on the third turn after the last horse.  

My plan for the four horses will be to go along the southern tundra. There are two barbarian swordsmen and Archduke has a lone hetairoi watching the back door to Mouse Spider. I'll use one of the horsemen out of Irukandji to get rid of Archduke's hetairoi (ro chase it away) and follow up with the four horses from Cassowary. The idea is to try to force a pivot of his forces and/or try to take back Mouse Spider.  A completely whackadoo plan would be to storm north and attempt to liberate Austrex.

To put this plan in action I put one builder on the tundra forest.  The one charge builder crosses the river and puts down a lumber mill.  That gets me the Mass Production eureka and two more , which is doubled to 4.  With the food in the bank Cassowary can start working that tile instead of the 2 grassland for growth and now has 28 per turn (!) and still grow next turn.  The other builder will chop → move → chop → mine.   I’d move and lumber mill but the mine gets me the eureka for Apprenticeship.   With the extra population and Maneuver the city will be at an effective rate of 42.5 per turn.

Out in the west my warrior continues to reverse course to skirt the coastline through Alhambram’s territory.  I’m going to try to avoid crossing over improvements in the hope that Alhambram declared for the purpose of helping me out and not just to get rid of my warrior.  Either way there’s an added benefit to this “war” – when I can get peace with Alhambram it will clear out some of the war weariness I’ve suffered (at least, if the CivFanatics thread on the topic is to be believed).

Back at the center ring.  I’ve got three ranged attacks and a badly wounded horseman.  Neither of the promotions will do anything to save its ass but it will heal 50 HP damage.  That’s more damage it can do (even if it’s only 10-15 damage) to Archduke.  I take Caparison on the off chance it survives the engagement.

With the ranged attacks my options are a little limited.  The hypaspist right next to the Campus has the tortoise promotion and is CS 58 against ranged attacks.  The hypaspist across the river from the horseman has the same situation.  The hypaspist next to the horseman is at CS 53 as it doesn’t have Tortoise but it gets +6 for fortification and +3 from ideal terrain.  The hetairoi with Boudica is “only” at 39.  I’d do 40 points of damage to it from two ranged attacks and there’s a chance it’d get a promotion (if it doesn’t have one waiting in the wings).  but I can’t get to it with my ranged attacks because of the hill.  Hetairoi it is, then.

- Archer W of Irukandji hits the only available target (the tortoised hypaspist) for 9 points of damage.  Hey, that’s above average so I’ll take it! 
- Archer and city shoot hetairoi, doing a total of 44 points of damage (25 from the archer, 19 from the city).

Things are also going to get much tougher, sooner rather than later, as Archduke is in the lead for the next Great General (89 to Emperor K’s 64).  The good news is that it won’t stack with Boudica, at least immediately.  All his units are Classical and Ghengis Khan is Medieval/Renaissance.  Thought I had a screenshot but didn’t take one.

Hit end turn, hear the city-state cash register.   Sounds like Emperor K has met Grenada.

[suboptimal]

Turn 77

Construction and Games & Recreation finished.  Swap out Ilkum for Urban Planning and Agoge for Maneuver.  Tech choice I’ll think about in a bit.

Sit Rep at Irukandji:



Lost the horseman and the spearman.  Campus will get pillaged next turn.  He’s had a hetairoi sneaking around the south side of Irukandji, likely looking for Cassowary.  

I’d love to be able to do something with the military situation but I’m flummoxed as to what to do at this point (other than the obvious, which was to avoid this situation in the first place).  Once I get the four horses out at Cassowary maybe I can change my fortunes a little bit.  Unfortunately that might be too late.  As per my usual turn sequence I’ll deal with things elsewhere first, then come back to here.  

Over in Persia my warrior finds its path blocked by coastline and an immortal.  Even if the immortal wasn’t there the center of Ali Baba is, so that route is done.  Time to turn around (again).  At least I should be able to cut through Persian territory.

At Cassowary the barbarian camp to the west has been cleared by Valetta.  The swordsman returns to the city and the trader is in the clear.  Cassowary is now size 4, so time to rearrange the citzens.  Base production is now 36. Time to chop.  The horseman shows 49/80.  A chop will either give me 91.5 (no +100%) or 152.5 (+100%).  



Let’s see….if I got +100%:

49 + 152.5 – 80 = 121.5.  Production of 36 gives 156.5/165 after this turn, 192.5 after Turn 78 and complete on Turn 79.  Two turns.
49 + 91.5 – 80 = 60.5,  Production of 36 gives 96.5 after this turn, 132.5 after Turn 78, 168.5 after Turn 79 and completes on Turn 80.  Three turns.

So, Japan gets +100% overflow on chops for discounted districts, Nubia gets the overflow on archers but Australia doesn’t get the overflow on its ability?   I understand the balance aspect but that’s not consistent.   It does match up with what I saw in me test game, so I'm not that surprised by it.

Place the Encampment, switch to horseman.  The new horseman moves and fortifies at the iron mine.  No sense in getting that needlessly pillaged by a wandering hetairoi.  

Back at Irukandji there’s an outside chance that I can actually do something meaningful about my situation.  The hypaspist east of the city center is under 70 hit points, but it’s hard to tell how far under 70.  I’ve learned something new about the city ranged attack (or at least, should have known) when it only does 13 points of damage – it attacks at the strength of the strongest ranged unit.  Bollocks.  Here I was thinking I had a slim chance to kill the hypaspist with three ranged attacks and then take out Boudica with the horseman.  I do get the hypaspist under 20 with the ranged attacks and kill it with the horseman, who takes 34 points of damage in the process.  But wait….

<sarcasm>

I killed something.



</sarcasm>

Having gotten that out of my system I have two options for production at Irukandji: another horseman, which completes in two turns, or a crossbow, which, with overflow from the first horseman, would complete in….5 turns.  I stick with the horseman approach, as I can use them, however inefficient or ineffective it may be, to try to wear down the troops in the area.  

At Blue-Ringed Octopus I start working the forest tile two east of the city center.  I’m now losing 1 per turn but gain an extra 2 .  It doesn’t change the time to complete the current horseman but it’d make the second one done in 4 instead of 5 because I’ll actually get some overflow.  The city will shrink in 13 turns, so I need to keep an eye on that if it stays Australian for that long.

I also decide that the horseman at Blue-Ringed Octopus is going to check for a battering ram coming down the western side of the mountain.  It can reach the plains tile SW of the coffee and not get shot at by the archer.  If nothing is there I can return to the city next turn, even if a hetairoi winds up in my face.  Unforunately I find what I’m expecting:



Worse, the ram can move to the hill and get escorted by a unit next turn.  The hetairoi can get there but the archer would also be sufficient to cover it as I can’t kill either unit in one shot.   There will be nothing I can really do to prevent that from getting to Irukandji – it’ll be escorted right to the city gates.  The death watch has started and there’s nothing I can do about it.  The ram could be in position in three turns and Irukandji will most likely be Macedonian when I open the save for Turn 81.  Archduke can probably position his troops and take the city on Turn 80, though, as it can reach the Campus in three turns.  Had I realized I could “safely” check this approach one turn earlier I’d have been able to kill it (unless he’s got a unit back in the fog just for that possibility).

The last decision is the next tech to research.  I can go for Apprenticeship, which would net me 3 extra production between Cassowary and Blue-Ringed Octopus.  Mining after the second chop gets me the eureka and cuts the research time there to 8 turns.  The alternatives are Military Engineering (11 turns) or Castles (21 turns).   I opt for Apprenticeship.  Civics-wise I start Defensive Tactics – due in 9 turns.

Three turns until the crossbow upgrade.  That might go into Blue-Ringed Octopus instead of Irukandji, given the current developments.  I may also need to start planning for a crossbow or two at Cassowary instead of the four horsemen in order to mount some sort of defense.  That also means the Encampment will likely not get built as I could complete an Encampment or a crossbow by Turn 87 if I build out all four horsemen and walls.  I'll have to think about this some more.

[suboptimal]

Turn 78

The turn starts off a bit eventfully.  In addition to unit attacked/death notifications Archduke has declared war on Alhambram.  Geneva has also revealed itself to me – it’s centered along the north edge of the map.  I might have found it had my scout not been killed by the barbarian hordes.  Oddly, the “you have met” notification centers the map on my warrior by the Persian borders, which Alhambram has started to attack.  Wonder if there's a sea unit out there or if something else is going on....

Horsemen builds continue at Irukandji and Blue-Ringed Octopus.  Two turns until I can upgrade an archer.  Cassowary will finish a horseman this turn and chop out walls next turn, with overflow going into a crossbow.  Once Irukandji falls Cassowary will become the capital – it will then get another +6 , doubled to +12, for three turns.  This is sufficient to get out a crossbow (or two) before Archduke comes for that city, especially if he goes for Blue-Ringed Octopus first.  The just-completed horseman moves to the tile east of the city and fortifies.  The builder moves west to the woods, will chop that next turn to complete the walls and get a jump on the crossbow.  The swordsman fortifies in place but will move out once the crossbow is built.  

The archer and horseman at Irukandji were killed off, but I’ve still got the Campus (for now).  The battering ram is now escorted by a hetairoi and Archduke was following it with a double-promoted crossbow.  Two turns until it can/will be positioned next to Irukandji.  Here’s the current situation, which I’ve annotated with combat strengths of the Macedonian units – the strengths are listed as melee/ranged.



Both Hypaspists have the tortoise promotion.  The melee combat values were “measured” using the horseman up by the battering ram, so these would change by +5 if there was a horse on Irukandji’s side of the river (yeah, that'd make the hetairoi NE of Irukandji a 61 melee strength vs. a 38 horseman).  Oh, that hetairoi SW of Irukandji? It's just SW of the farmed rice tile, fortified on a tundra hill with a combat strength of 41/48.

After this screenshot was taken I used my two ranged attacks to take out the archer on the wheat tile.  With the now-injured horseman at Blue-Ringed Octopus I attack the crossbow, doing 19 points of damage while taking 47.  I don’t know that retreating was a good option so might as well try to get some damage in where I can.

[suboptimal]

I have historically had a blind spot when it comes to strategy games, stretching all the way back to fighting the Germans in Axis & Allies, leading Daimyos into battle in Shogun or just moving roman numerals around an exaggerated world map and continuing through to PBEM 3 and 6, wherein I probably frustrate the hell of out some of the Lurkerati and/or snap some necks from all of the head shaking. Looking ahead a few turns or foreseeing potential doom?  Not generally a problem.  Forward planning to avoid potential doom or not realizing that what I think is a Good Idea ™ is actually My Doom Personified (pat pending)?  Yup, this guy right here.  A large part of it is lack of experience – while I did play those games in high school (and things like Battletech during and after college) the games were infrequent, so I never did build up the mindset required to get good (or even mediocre).  The same applies here, for better or for worse.  Ituralde’s “admonition” to me at the start of in PBEM 3 to make it a learning experience holds true.  Next time I participate in one of these things I shall try to show improvement in this regard.

My commute home from work is about a half hour on back roads.  Most of my drive is spent on a single, relatively straight road at a leisurely pace of 35mph or so through typical Northeast suburbia – a few traffic lights, the occasional pedestrian, nothing difficult.  It lets my mind wander freely.  Sometimes I think about what I’ll be making for dinner, sometimes it’ll be the errands I have to run.  Frequently, though, it just wanders until some spark lights up, a couple of connections are made and a light bulb goes off.  To the driver that I followed for most of the way down that road tonight, my sudden angry look and the mouthed words of ‘YOU FUCKING IDIOT” were not directed at you, even though I felt your poor-weather driving was a prime example of sub-par timidity.  You see, my mind wandered to the game, its current situation and what I could potentially do about it when a few little sparks came together and lit a raging inferno.  It is also good, at least for my reporting here, that the initial hours after I got home were spent running a couple of errands with my wife, sitting down for dinner and seeing how our respective days went (I've left out the above bit from dinner conversation ).  Had that not occurred, this post would be very different.  Raging self-loathing in large, bolded fonts with lots of swear words and screen sized versions of would have been splattered about the place.  In the rough words of Bruce Banner or Dr. Jekyll from Looney Tunes, “you wouldn’t like me when I’m mad”.

I now direct the reader to my post here, wherein I responded to Sulla regarding his inquiry as to my plans with Archduke.  I’m willing to bet that my response generated some of that head shaking and discussion, with the lurkers possibly going so far as to say “he’s doomed, I call it now what's the over/under for his turn of demise”.  (For consistency I'll place my bet at Turn....95). For you see, in that post I pretty much laid out what happened – I teched up, even said I’d do a defensive war and that I was taking on a builder/tech gambit and that a Great General recruitment by Archduke would make that tougher.  That’s all well and good, but the “YOU FUCKING IDIOT” was me realizing that the post should have read more like this:

- Techs: Masonry and Horseback Riding as soon as possible.
- Civics: Mysticism and Military Tradition as soon as possible for the envoys.
- Suzerain Grenada as soon as possible
- Spam horsemen and surround my cities with Alcázars and horsemen.
- Let Archduke smash himself upon my gates.

My first spark during my commute was that I had pigeon-holed the Alcázar improvement as a cheap way to generate culture and ignored the fact that they are forts on steroids.  My second was that I still have time to get them built at Cassowary as a last stand.  My third was that my blind spot was at it again and that’s when I may have scared the driver in front of me.

Had I done that I would have horsemen fortified in positions, on flat ground, with a CS of 46 (+6 for fortification, +4 from the Alcázar), plus additional bonuses from supporting units and any terrain modifiers.  More than enough to deal with hypaspists, hetairoi and a Great General, or at least a shit-tonne better than my current position.  Instead of playing out my impending exit in the 80’s or 90’s (again) I’d be feeling a bit more...confident?...at ease?...accepting?...of the fact that if I still met my doom at least I provided a challenge.  It is this realization that frustrates me, as I had what I think of as a very strong start.  It also torpedoes any reasonable shot that Alhambram or Emperor K have of winning, I think, as Archduke will be plenty snowballed by the time he's done with me.

So, what now?  In looking at Cassowary, I’ve got two horseman, a swordsman and a builder with two charges.  Walls complete this turn.  I have one issue in that anything approaching the city from due east will block the city’s ranged attacks because of the hill.  Time to get defensive:

- The builder will need to spend one turn moving to Cassowary proper. It will then spend the next three turns putting down two Alcázars, one NE and one SE of the city center.
- The horsemen will occupy both fortifications.  The swordsman will remain on the hilltop between them.
- Cassowary will work to complete a crossbow while I still have high production.  The crossbow will swap places with one of the horsemen, providing some ranged cover and sitting in an Alcázar with a 44 combat strength vs. melee (+10 from the Alcázar and +4 from supporting units).  That should complete on Turn 84.
- I will try to get a builder out in order to chop the woods into a second crossbow (after putting any overflow into said crossbow).  If time permits me to do so I’ll likewise get the crossbow into an Alcázar.
- Make my last stand and try to go down fighting respectably.

At Blue-Ringed Octopus I don’t know that I can get a builder out in time to do that.  Likewise, the placement restrictions on Alcázar and the fact I’ve got archers there do not give me many options for setting up a “good” front.   That will hold out as long as I can but I expect it to fall shortly after Irukandji.

Turn 79

With my storytelling out of the wall, time to get down to the turn at hand.  Sit rep:



He’s pulled back a hetairoi into the fog up in the north.  He’s also put the ram behind the hill.  No matter – the attack on Irukandji starts next turn.  Out west, Alhambram has reduced my warrior to 3 health.  I retreat east into the forest.  

Buider to Cassowary.  Horseman on hilltop moves SE to the open grassland.  Swordsman moves to the hill.  Walls in Cassowary are at 77/80.  Crossbow completes on Turn 84 with 33 overflow. Will it be soon enough?  Maybe.  If Defensive Tactics can complete before Archduke gets there that’d be even better.

Horseman at Blue-Ringed Octopus completes next turn.  What to build there next? 

Back at Irukandji I’ve got another horseman.  I’ll have to move it out of the city before anything can attack (except the city bombardment).  The good news is that the hypaspist SE of the city is not covered by Boudica, so it’s “only” at a 49 combat strength against the horseman.  Unfortunately it’s at 56 vs. ranged attacks.  I’ll be able to do about 40 points of damage to it.  Better than zero and at least only one unit will be able to attack the horseman next turn.  Archer does 13, city does 11, horseman does 23.

Oh, by the way, the hetairoi on the hill NE of the city center is at 66 against the horseman and 62 against ranged attacks.  

Overflow at Irukandji has worked its magic.  Assuming I still have a city next turn it will be able to produce another horseman for the start of the turn.  That might help….a little.

[suboptimal]

Turn 80

Archduke has taken Irukandji. I still have that horseman on the stone, though. A pillage of the quarry gets me 25 culture which is about 6 turns worth of lost culture from Irukandji. The pillage cuts Defensive Tactics from 11 turns to 7 turns so I take the pillage.

Up at Blue Ringed Octopus I’ve completed the horseman. It swaps places with the archer to the SE of the city and fortifies. The archer upgrades to a crossbow and I start another horseman, due in 4 turns.

Over at Cassowary, it has become the new capital, as expected. Base production is 40 per turn. Builder builds an Alcázar on the tile SE of the city center. NE will get one in two turns. Start a crossbow, with the overflow from walls that is due in three turns. With the crossbow selected all of the bonuses kick in and total production is at 52. I debate working the Alcázar but decide that the 6 extra production is better as it’ll give me more overflow for the next unit out.

[Sullla]

I'm sorry to see this game unfolding the way that it did, and rest assured that the lurker community greatly appreciates the detailed reports that you put together, both for this game and previously in PBEM3. Self introspection is tough to do and rarely pleasant. However, as long as you keep at it and continue practicing, you'll definitely improve along the way. Look at how much better TheArchduke has gotten at Civ6 as a result of taking part in so many PBEM games over the last year.

There's a lot of discussion in the lurker thread about things you might have been able to improve upon, which I don't want to spoil while this game is still active. I will say that there's also a general feeling that you did an excellent job economically earlier in this game by taking advantage of the Australian district bonus. It might be frustrating right now, but rest assured that you're definitely improving at this game. Unfortunately, the only way to get better at warfare against other humans is to keep practicing against other humans, and that often means learning from a school of hard knocks. Good luck holding on!

[suboptimal]

I'm sorry to see this game unfolding the way that it did, and rest assured that the lurker community greatly appreciates the detailed reports that you put together, both for this game and previously in PBEM3. Self introspection is tough to do and rarely pleasant. However, as long as you keep at it and continue practicing, you'll definitely improve along the way. Look at how much better TheArchduke has gotten at Civ6 as a result of taking part in so many PBEM games over the last year.

There's a lot of discussion in the lurker thread about things you might have been able to improve upon, which I don't want to spoil while this game is still active. I will say that there's also a general feeling that you did an excellent job economically earlier in this game by taking advantage of the Australian district bonus. It might be frustrating right now, but rest assured that you're definitely improving at this game. Unfortunately, the only way to get better at warfare against other humans is to keep practicing against other humans, and that often means learning from a school of hard knocks.   Good luck holding on!

 Thanks for the encouragement.  I felt a bit....lost....while playing in PBEM 3 and it definitely showed (go Newbie-lack-of-power! ).  In some ways, having a better handle things this time around makes the current situation a bit more frustrating, but as you say, it's pretty much the school of hard knocks to figure these things out.  I'll definitely be looking out for another PBEM to join, though an upcoming vacation at the start of March may put that on the back burner.  More time to watch and learn from the other PBEMs, though.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

One thing that I especially appreciate about you, suboptimal, is that you have twice now continued detailed reporting with lots of commentary even when you're on the losing end of a conflict. It's big contrast with players who just stop updating their threads and leave us lurkers in the dark, or with only one side to follow. Kudos for that, and keep fighting the good fight. :D