[PB79] Just one more Game

[xist10]

Railroad finished, combustion engine after that.
3 turns is a lot. I had hoped for 2 with overflow, but it wasn't that much.

Current research status: I'm leading with physics. Theoretically I'm Islam and the 3 culture techs back, but they don't count.




I have a picture like this from (almost) every turn.
Miro is in and is just about topping my collection rate. FIN beats ORG.
Surprisingly, Miro didn't switch to Rep, but did switch to Org Reli. I don't need to understand that, do I ?




Thanks to the first 3 airships I have a good overview of the Chinese forces.
The 54 ships are a problem. I don't have 40.
Land-wise I have more.




Demo is not okay.
is scarce and is of course unattractive.

After thinking about it a bit, I'm going to fire my . It might be a bit early, but it'll probably save me a round on the combustion engine and it's worth it.




The gap is getting smaller.
But I still have to close the gap with .
But I should hope for the KG here. By the way, Miro doesn't have a merchant at the moment either.




Carthage currently has 2 tasks.
Train the next (and last) . In 16 turns it will be time, I hope that this time the ~ 80% will be enough for a merchant.
Pentagon is relatively expensive, but should still be worth it.




Especially in Thapsus looks great, of course.
My first dry dock will go in here and then probably some destroyers.




Meanwhile, Gira is catching up in terms of research. coldrain is effectively out, but still doing well at the moment.
The time to pick up Gira cheaply is probably over.
If I could secure a longer NAP (~30R ?), it would probably be possible with destroyers, but without ?




Slowly the problems are coming. But I still have some leeway. There is 1 aqueduct in the empire. This was necessary for the gardens in Hadrentum.
Otherwise, almost all cities have invested a turn in ships of the line so that I can whip them POP2 when I research combustion engines. The cities that are still building ships of the line haven't done so in the last round.
And then straight back to POP2.

I've now decided to wait one more turn so that I can upgrade the ships directly if I have any doubts.

I currently have 2 rounds of research time and the 1652 should be enough (at the latest with some prosperity), but the direct possibility for ship upgrades is more important to me.
However, with ~300 per ship this is not efficient at all.
I might change that.

[xist10]

I did whipped a round of ships of the line, but I didn't used the second whip after that to finish my first destroyers fast.

I poked Miro a bit with a bunch of upgraded galeons, which are nearly as effective as destroyers against woodships, but I refrained from war.
I did land the pentagon this turn and I hope to get a great merchant next turn for the food corp.

[xist10]

I had a quick look before sleeping.




This is good.
I will found Cereals in 1 turn if I got enough overflow from Drama to research biology in 1. Otherwise I should need 2 turns.




And this is my big decision this turn.
I can hit this fleet with 21 destroyers this turn.
Add 3 airships and about 18 frigates (nearly useless). Maybe even 5 transports, if I did move them forwards last turn.

The price should be one or 2 island cities.
I do have to respect Miros land army, but I think, I need maybe to recruit one turn, but I should be able to hold.

[greenline]

Do you think you will have a bigger advantage attacking now instead of waiting?

[xist10]

Maybe. I have a first strike on one of his fleet.
Miro is (like me) collecting gold, so he could upgrade a bunch of ships.
So if I can reduce this upgrade potential without much problems ?

And this would allow me to press towards his Maoi island, which could be a reason to take a peace deal.

I don't want a longer conflict right now, but I know that this could escalate further.
And I do think right now, Miro has the long-term advantage. I think this could change with Alu and the food corp, but...

I think, this could be the second (and primary) mistake, but I do want to take the shoot at his fleet.

[xist10]

Royal Valley's airship has found no unpleasant surprises from Miro's legal double move.
My markers are a bit outdated, but what difference does it make.

So here we go.




My 2 airships - the 3rd was unfortunately 1 tile out of range - successfully bombard the 2 combat2 destroyers.




The 20% damage increases the chance of victory from 28% to 48%.
I actually have some luck, I win the 2 48% battles.




I have a 50% chance against the unpromoted destroyers.
Here comes the southern fleet of Siga through 4 forts created this turn.




I actually only lose one of the 4 50% battles.
The damaged destroyer is then sunk at 85%.




Somewhat surprisingly, the destroyers also have a great chance against the ironclads.




The wooden ships are almost certain 100% fights.

However, 7 ships of the line and 8 frigates remain, as my transport boats were out of range of this fleet. And I didn't want to use my frigates against the 15 ships. After the transport boats, I might have thought about it. 18 frigates against 2 ships of the line and 8 frigates? Feasible, especially since it would have been 50% against the frigates.

The 2 sunk frigates were scouts in the Netherlands.




In terms of foreign policy, I try to get coldrain (and Gira) to close the borders in exchange for gold.
The 29 are supposed to make up for the losses caused by the .




Coldrain in particular would be good, as there is now a railroad connection to my western territories.




And I will have to fight with this fleet in the south anyway.
For 6k I could upgrade my frigates and then offer some resistance.
I would probably do this if Miro himself spends some money to upgrade these ships.

[xist10]

Time to catch up here.

T229:
I got the first advantage from the war, Miro delayed his research by about 10 turns ?





-7k .




The entire remaining northern fleet has been upgraded.
Now I'm doubly annoyed that I positioned the transport boats incorrectly.
Otherwise, I would have sunk the whole fleet and land on Wingspan this turn.




Counterattacking will be a bit difficult now, my destroyers are a bit battered.
I would have 4 airships in range, more destroyers and the rest of the fleet, but I think I would end up losing more ?
And attacking a destroyer fleet with Airships isn't that good of an idea. They will be intercepted.




Gira accepted my bribe, coldrain didn't.
And also gave me a little scare.
The Chinese infantry are on the Indian stack, my firsth though was, Miro send a small army here.
I still have to watch out for such a bypass.

The airships give me at least 1 turn warning ?

I'm not sure if I offered peace last turn, so I did it again this turn - with a bit of text to excuse a potential double screen.
I don't want to spam Miro with peace offers.

[xist10]

T230 starts quite nice.




I found Cereals.
The free executive from the tech also spreads to Carthage.
Research goes to literature. Collect surplus and heroic epic/national epic.

The rest is not that nice.




Miro lands 4 units at Royal Valley.
The destroyer's number remains manageable for now.




The same goes for the destroyer group up here.
In 3 turns I might strike again, if nothing changes.




And then there's this one.
Luckily I'm using airships to monitor coldrain's territory.
This are about 35 units, half cannons, half infantry, plus 14 worker.

This puts Miro one turn away from Oea.

Okran's Gulf is on Oea -1-1-1 (3S, 3W), so it is exactly 10 tiles.
Miro still has to build 5 rails, including a desert rail, but with 16 workers this is doable.


And now, unfortunately, I don't have the pictures.

I unloaded my 12 units into the transporter and sent them up.
I chose these units, because I can imagine that Miro is watching my main army.
And if no unit from the main army is missing, maybe I could set a trap for this small flank attack.
I also whipped up and recruited some units (directly without investing any production) in the north of my empire.

I also upgraded some units so that I will have ~10 cannons and 20 infantry next turn. This could be enough to end this invasion in 2 turns.

I also move most of my airships to the north.

[xist10]

Turn 231 starts badly.
Miro burns down Camora, including 2 transports in the harbor and I think a few infantry unit in one of the two transports. If I had unloaded the inf, this would not have happened.
That was unnecessary and comes from the fact that I couldn't scout completely last turn.




Miro moved 38 units before Oea.




He also landed 19 units before Royal Valley.

Well, that's not ideal. I can't hold Royal Valley like this.




At Oea I have these 27 units, plus 6 airships and another 5 infs as a garrison in Oea.
I also have a few drafted units up my sleeve.




And I strike.
As expected, the 12 cannons all lose.
In between, I also attacked with the airships from time to time. The MG could cause problems, but if it defends against the airships and got damaged ? My Infs should be able to kill it.

After the 12 cannons I start with 50% chances. And lose straight up the first 7 battles.




After that I had better chances ( about 70%), but I still lose a few more fights.
This battle went badly. - and this is the second battle with Miro, where I got unlucky in a close fight.





Nevertheless, the army should be broken and can be destroyed in retreat next turn.
I only defeated 15 units (and lost 19), but the cannons are now losing to my infs.
I'm already preparing a bypass through the Netherlands if Miro cuts the railroad in retreat.




In the south I can't do anything against the army in front of Royal Valley, but Miro still has a fleet in front of Baria.
I build another fortress and attack the 13 destroyers with ~24 of my own destroyers.
Mine are also slightly better promoted, so I can compensate for the coastal defence bonus.




Airships weren't really successful this time, but in the end I sink 13 destroyers at the cost of 5 of my own.
I'll take that.
There were a few lucky battles here, but no battle should have been below 50%, most were closer to 70%.

And this is a bit of my luck problem in this game. When I'm unlucky, it's in close battles. The battles where I got lucky, my advantage was big enough to compensate even for a semi unlucky battle.

And I do want to harp again over the religion spread of mine. Especially compared to the PB81.

[xist10]

Turn 232 and I'm faced with decisions.




I've currently forgotten the log here, but Miro is moving settlers into position.
Okay...
The whole thing is actually being blocked by the culture from Onoba (and Baria).
If I remember the test cases from the CF PB93 correctly, I would also have to generate culture there.




First question: Should I sink the 4 transporters?
Probably no, as far as I know they are unloaded. Miro should have unloaded to Medialanum.
I won't get the destroyers back to my forts this turn, so I would needto rely on Gira having closed the borders to Miro - and Miro shying away from such a declaration of war.




In the west, Miro retreated and did not plunder the railroad - and Gira even voluntarily (?) built the missing railroad for me.
I don't think Gira needs to railroad this windmill otherwise.




This is after airships attacked the army.

Now I'm faced with a small problem.
Should I strike again now?
I have one cannon within range.
Alternatively, I could try to win a turn by occupying Okram's Gulf and blocking Miros reatreat.
Unfortunately, I don't have MG available to make a counterattack from Miro as difficult as possible.
I'm also not 100% sure what Miro can pull in as reinforcements. I have a spy there, but it can't cover all the tiles.

I end up striking in both cases, but unfortunately Combat Log has been forgotten.




I opted for the bypass here. Thanks to the spy, I'm relatively certain that Miro has nothing that can really be dangerous.
Unfortunately, I couldn't really simulate the battle because battles with damaged units are always so difficult to recreate.




But not so successful thanks to things like this.
2 50% battles with 1 to 10 hits. Not a s bad as the battle last turn, but still.




Or things like this.
Lost 3 fights in a row at 70%.
This round should also be a small loss for me. And the next close battle which went quite badly.

I still have a few infs, which didn't attacked, but they have worse chances or are city defenders which should defend Okram's Gulf against potential counter attackes. I do get the city defence in neutral territory, or ?

So I take advantage of the fact that Miro no longer has a unit that can kill mine and block the remaining escape routes.




And Miro makes a huge mistake here, which unfortunately I can't take advantage of.
The 20 ships are within range of a Commando unit.
I also have a few knights that have enough XP to be promoted to a Commando with a general.
Unfortunately, these knights are slightly out of position and the generals are at the other end of my empire - I'm thinking of starting Commando actions from coldrain's territory.
Miro has started marching through coldrain's territory.

By the way, if Mjmd reads here later, that was the mistake I noted in our conversation in the PB81.
But you probably won't remember it, when you can read this.




At least one transporter was also loaded. Otherwise the battle2 transporter would not have been the last to defend.
Although this was probably just the inf that burned down my city and could leave the transport this turn ?