Gandhi of France II - Assuming Direct Control

[regoarrarr]

With my own chances of victory basically shot, I have set myself the goal of making things as blisteringly painful for my would-be conquerors as possible; and doing my best to make sure they don't win.

Hmmm that sounds familiar. Just watch out for the AP cheese victory

[oledavy]

Hmmm that sounds familiar. Just watch out for the AP cheese victory

Was thinking the same thing actually. Hmmmmm, I feel like I've played this game before....

At any rate, Mistabod went ahead and assaulted Palaven and Irune. I expected a couple turns of siege outside Palaven, but they piled in, and apparently 5 catapults inflicted enough collateral to carry the day. Not totally unexpected, but still a depressing loss, and a definite defeat for me. I ended up losing almost twice as many units as them after the collateral rolled in.

Irune held, but just barely. They got some amazing luck with the RNG, winning 5 ~20% battles. Still, it wasn't enough to raze the city. Thanks to some promotions, a new pike completing EOT, and a pike I rushed in from the Citadel making judicious use of the Morale promotion courtesy of my first GG; I think the city will hold.

I don't know when I'll get around to a full write-up of the last couple turns. However, I just wanted to keep my ded-lurkers (do I have any left?) informed of events as they transpire. The upcoming challenge is going to be attempting to hold Tuchanka against a horde of ~20 Phracts and HAs. I have 3-4 turns to prepare.

[oledavy]

Oh, since I just lost Palaven, I feel this is appropriate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-13ky0v4CeA

[oledavy]

[SIZE="7"]Turn 106[/SIZE]





If Yuri does not take that easy city raze (that contains the GW too) of the guys who put him out of the game - I don't know what I'll say. True, he may be afraid of Phracts. On the other hand, it's not like Byzantine units are going to get less scary.

Anyway, if I counted right, here are the forces we have exchanged to date:


[SIZE="5"]Reaper Losses[/SIZE]

12 Phracts
1 Horse Archer
6 Catapults
1 Longbow
5 Axes

[SIZE="5"]Council Losses[/SIZE]

11 Pikemen
4 Spearmen
2 Maces
2 Axes
4 Catapults
1 Chariot

City of Palaven
City of Tuchanka

This turn, I did perhaps the most painful thing I have ever done on Realms Beyond, and abandoned with city of Tuchanka.



That's a gorgeous city with a shrine, and I'm just leaving it to the hordes. If I had concentrated my defenders there rather than Palaven, I may have been able to hold it. However, at the time, I thought Palaven would hold for significantly longer. I was wrong, and am now having to abandon the city to have any hope of preserving the capital.

Right now, I'm withdrawing to a defensive line anchored by Irune in the South and The Citadel in the north. Thessia and Ilos are both outside the defensive perimeter - and little can be done to save them when the Reapers come. I'm hoping in the case of Thessia, that it will be too far out of the way for them to get at.

At any rate, my only remaining iron sits squarely on the road between the two cities, just within Irune's culture. I'm positioning my army such that it can reach the Citadel, the iron, and catapult the tiles south of Irune from where it currently sits. I'm also stationing workers in the main stack to remine/reroad the iron in a pinch, should it be pillaged.

Had I attempted to hold Tuchanka, I would not have enough forces to play this sort of zone defense, and my empire would fall. As things stand, I have a shot at national survival.

Irune continues to hold strong:



Last turn, I struck out and killed four Cataphracts. On their turn, Mistabod struck back, losing a LB, HA and two phracts to kill three pikes - but the city held. They're now starting to assemble Trebuchets to bring the defenses of the city down.



Against them, I don't have all that much:



Their mounted force in the north is very large. However, what I'm hoping, is that after Tuchanka falls, they continue pushing southeast to try to get behind Irune in order to cut it off and force me to defend the capital - bringing the siege to a close. However, I'm anticipating this move, and preparing a response force of catapults and pikes. They'll be at the end of a very long supply line and won't have stopped to heal for quite some time. If they move onto my iron to pillage it, I'll catapult the stack and mop it up with pikes. That would bring their first offensive to a sudden and decisive close and even allow me the possibility of recapturing Tuchanka. We shall see.

I have a love-hate relationship with the auto-promote feature. On the one hand, it's saved my bacon on several occasions, including last turn, promoting pikes to Combat I and II and healing them. However, it also promoted two of my catapults to CR1 and my GG Pike to Leadership instead of Combat III - so it's not all rosy.

Commodore is getting ancy with the Byzantine horde to the south, and he upgraded a spear to Landsneckt this last turn. By giving way in the north and holding firm in the south, I'm allowing Mistabod to give themselves a long border with Commodore. Hopefully that proves enticing and worrisome enough to him to declare war. If I had let go in the south and held in the north, Commodore may have jumped in to snap up some of my cities before Mistabod captured them all.

I've stopped tracking techs, there no longer seems to be any point. My game is done, all I can do is make things as bloody painful for Mistabod as possible. However, I expect we'll see Rifles soon from Commodore, his tech rate is through the roof. NoGas aren't looking too shabby either.

Also, quite a few of Mistabod's Phracts are coming out with Shock, too many to be accounted for by battlefield promotions. So I must have missed a couple stables when I did my cursory scan of their land - because they are most definitely still in OR, despite having the SP and access to Theocracy

[Catwalk]

Love your fighting spirit, keep it up and keep reporting the struggle

[Shoot the Moon]

[thestick]

If I'm reading correctly, that's 5 Cataphracts vs. 5 Pikes at Irune?

[oledavy]

If I'm reading correctly, that's 5 Cataphracts vs. 5 Pikes at Irune?

6 actually, one completed EOT. 3 of them are wounded into the yellow though.

[oledavy]

Stage 1:



Stage 2?:

[oledavy]

Just spoke to Yuri, he did not raze strength.

You know, for a second I forgot who I was talking to. Yuri is a nice guy who makes nice plans - of course he wouldn't burn the city of the guys who ruined his shot to win the game.

I can just say that if it had been me, I would have burned that city in a heartbeat, no questions asked.