Gavagai's spoiler thread

[Gavagai]

Ok, I have no energy to upload pictures now but Gaspar can only keep his units alive if he sends in just enough to burn Beryllium and leaves all other HAs in place.
(And yes, Beryllium is a holy city but about this I don't care. Shrine is very far from now, I may have Gaspar's shrine sooner.)

[Gavagai]

As any lurker can surely learn from Gaspar's thread, I got my ass handed to me: surrended a well-developed city for no gain. I have a lot to say about what has happend and why but, frankly, has no energy to write everything down now as I had a really busy day. But a larger report is forthcoming, may be tomorrow.
On the bright side, I'm think I'm now totally cleared from any suspicions that I was reading Gaspar's thread.

[Catwalk]

Shit happens, keep at it Definitely enjoying your reports so far.

[Old Harry]

Keep in mind how sweet your eventual revenge is going to be...

[Gavagai]

This is our current sitation:



I killed three exposed HAs. I have thirteen units defending and he has thirteen units in a position to attack; but he will need to use one of them to kill away my axe. If goes for it, there will be a string of battle, most of them with pretty close odds, but I doubt he will do it: he doesn't know what I have in the fog. I don't, actually have much: 2 HAs (including the one which will be completed in Lithium next turn), 2 cats and a spear.

EDIT: I could move my cats to my main stack and, actually, strongly considered it but left them behind as I was afraid that they could be flanked away.

[Gavagai]

So, I lost a city - just when I was about to declare that I'm safe. Why and how it happened?
Well, it happend because I completely misjudged what kind of attack I should expect. I expected Gaspar to assemble a slow megastack with lots of catapults and prepared defenses accordingly. I was making my own zone defense stack which could move to reinforce either Nitrogen or Beryllium at the expense of static spears in threatened cities. Of course, I was going to add spears after I'm satisfied with my main stack and was just about to start doing this when this shit happened.
Why I expected slow-movers? Two reasons.
1. Well, look at the picture. He razed my city which is, of course, an impressive achivement; but he can't move any further, he won't be able to raze any more cities unless I'm exceptionally bad and soon I'll have enough units to replant Beryllium. So, he really got almost nothing at huge hammer cost (remember, this HAs are expensive). And keep in mind that he got me completely unprepared; if I expected fast movers, I would have something like 5 spears in the city static and something like 8-9 HAs prepared to reinforce it in one turn. He just won't be able to do anything.
And this was to be expected: you can't hold territory against a siege-capable enemy without siege of your own and to cover your siege you need a slow-moving combined arms stack. So, I thought that going for slow movers would be more rational choice for my foe.
2. I DIDN"T SEE A STABLE IN HIS CAPITAL, HIS MAIN PRODUCTION CITY. Now it has it built but not before he revealed his stack. If it was an intentional trick to keep me confused then mission accomplished, very good job.

[Catwalk]

How many units did you each lose?

[Gavagai]

I lost two archers and a spear in the city. Also, this axe is pretty much dead. He lost 4 HAs overall.

[Gavagai]

Suddenly quiet turn which I used to revolt into Hr/Bureau. Gaspar is in full retreat. I offered him peace yet again. I mean, now when he slowed me down and proved himself, is there any reason left in this madness? Not that there were some in the first place, so I keep my hopes low. My power is still higher than his, btw and the gap is widening. Still, I would gladly give him Nitrogen for peace if only it would guarantee that he will leave me along for some 30-40 turns. I have a lot of investment opportunities much more profitable than this war. And what I don't understand - doesn't he? Can it be that he has no good land left? Somehow I strongly doubt it.
Also, I got his research. He is 2 turns from Construction.

[Gavagai]

One more thing. It was suggested earlier in this thread that Gaspar could do whatever he pleases as the game was won by Seven anyway.
Well, look at the scoreboard. It's T107 now and at that point it has some meaning. Mikehendy is 50 points ahead of Seven. At the very least we have two leaders, not one. And in a game with two leaders there is always a chance that they would get caught in a costly war between each other and that would give tier 2 civs a chance to join the race. In an alternative universe where me and Gaspar would develope in peace, we both would be these tier 2 civs and we would still have a very good chance to matter in the long run. Now, thanks to his actions, we have effectively cancelled each other out from this game. His economy is non-existent and I'm forever behind, sitting currently at 8 cities and producing almost nothing but units. And, most frustratingly, no end of this situation is in sight.
I will be really curious to read their thread after this all over because really, what the hell they were thinking. Inexplicable madness which ruined this game for both of us - and from the second most experienced team in this game.