[SPOILERS] naufragar is in for a penny

[naufragar]

A new turn has rolled!  

But also, Mack roaded to my knight stack and killed it.   What makes my terrible move worse: I realized reading through the combat log, I left all my knights unpromoted. Life is pain. So there go eight free dead knights. On that same turn, Mack took another Rusten city. I don't have vision, but I believe he's cut Rusten's empire in two. This is looking like something approaching finality for my civ.



I'm sending my main stack [highlighted above] down to help Rusten as best I can, or failing that, to try to burn the cities once Mack takes them. I've set tech to compass, because I want to get Astro before I die.   More seriously, I don't think I'll get Steel in time to matter, so why not? Although, now that I think of it, maybe I should try. Everywhere is building catapults and knights. I've seen some musketeers.  

If people want me to justify splitting up my military to help Rusten in the SE, remember that soon those Rusten cities will be Mack cities and I'll need armies on both fronts anyway. The whole point of this war was to try to prevent Mack from encircling us from the West all the way to the East. That looks to have failed, so we now have to keep military on both sides, after having enjoyed a demilitarized border with Rusten for a while. Further, because we have to split up our military, which is already only about half the size of Mack's (losing those knights didn't help), we'll be prey to an overwhelming force on either side. Rinse and repeat, he can keep chipping cities away from us over the long term until we're dead.

Looking back on it, BGN probably had the right idea of playing the vulture, although I'm not so sure I would've been able to hold my ill-gotten gains.

Oh, and Cairo sent an open borders request. I turned it down. No need for it; I have all my trade routes, and all he would see is that I've had to pull units away from my border with him. No need for him to get vulturous thoughts, either.

Edit: I don't handle pressure well, huh? I should be teching gunpowder, because I have to assume Mack is losing knights and replacing them with musketeers, and anti-gunpowder is impossible w/o gunpowder, while anti-cav is cheap. Should at least get that, before switching to naval techs. Falling apart over here.

[naufragar]

I didn't blame the previous mistake on newbishness, so can I use that excuse now?



I saw this at work during my compulsive civstats checking, and I was scratching my head. I would've noticed if he roaded to Harmony Valley.

Then I remembered the situation when I ended turn.


I think there are 2 workers under that musketeer. I guess he roaded the iron, roaded the grassland, and had enough two movers to hit the city. Annoyingly, I had moved better defenders out of the city to the forest, so I could chop it so it couldn't be used as defensive terrain. My stack is in Rusten's city, so that has to come racing back. Need the cats. Back to back blunders on consecutive turns. Looking grim.

I realize the reports have been spartan, but there really isn't much to report. I'm building knights and cats and then apparently sending them to die for free. I could use infrastructure. We're pushing our healthy cap, for example, but everything is secondary to soldiers now. I am (or was, when I played my turn) 5th in power, and I'm about to get absolutely murdered. Obviously, now that I'm losing cities and bleeding soldiers I regret not taking the enforced peace with Mackoti, but I need to reevaluate when my head cools. I'm sure it's my knee jerk reaction to think this was a mistake because I'm suffering losses, but I'm not sure that making peace with Mack would've been any better. I certainly should've played my war turns more competently, but I need to think about the decision to go to war when blood's cooled. Quite possibly after I'm dead.

If we wanted to make things worse, Adrien is about the get machinery, and I have a sneaky suspicion he is staging galleys in a fogged tile and might make a play for the island. Last damn thing I need.

Stupid blunders. Thinking some more, I never had the power to send troops to help Rusten. Should've burned the city I did and then requested peace. Boy do I want the turn to roll. Need to see the carnage.

[Mardoc]

I don't think I can say anything relevant, other than good luck. I certainly appreciate the reporting even of the painful turns...I never was able to really manage that.

[naufragar]

Thanks for the well wishes! I've made a few mistakes: tactical blunders and pie-in-the-sky expeditions to help neighbors, but most importantly, I profoundly misjudged how strong Mack was and how much power he had above what was necessary for Rusten. I think all three are able to be fixed with experience. I'm sure I won't be so blasé about the power graph in the future.

I will say I saw the writing on the wall a few turns ago.    Mack updated his thread, which is a rarity, and then a bunch of people commented in it, and then suddenly my thread was getting a ton of views.    I'll find out after the game if that was coincidence, but paranoia needs no evidence!  

I'll try and keep reporting best I can. Being beaten by Mackoti isn't demoralizing. That'd be like getting upset at the phases of the moon. It's annoying to make mistakes and to go to war with the intent of weakening the number 1, only to feed him. I will say that worst comes to worst, I have a two tile Moai island, and a worker already on the way to prep turning the non-city tile into a fort. To return to Alpha Centauri, you can have it when you pry it from my cold dead fingers, Mack.  

[naufragar]

Make the pain stop.



Real turn report to come after I end turn. Need Rusten to play first.

[Thoth]

[naufragar]

Hah! Look how embarrassing this is:


Mack's working an unimproved forest, even though he has a worker right in that shot! Ridiculous!

Anyway, here's a different pic.



We, um, are in trouble. Luckily, there are no catapults in range yet, but there are four visible. My stack in Rusten land is racing back, but even with it, I'm in trouble. We've whipped everything everywhere. A lot of dry pikes got whipped, which stings a bit. (Harmony Valley isn't actually building a market.   ) Civ stats tells me Mack was logged in for an hour, so at least I'm giving him something to think about. (Or half of something, with Rusten being the other half.) I only had one catapult around, so I sent it into Mack's nearest knight stack, and then moved my own 3 knights + war elephant into Harmony Valley. He has the numbers to take it, but if he does, it should be bloody. (Hopefully.....) If he bypasses it, well, we'll deal with that as it arises. (It would be unpleasant.)

I spent the gold surplus you see upgrading two spears. One spear wasn't in Harmony Valley, but I'm already expecting to lose the city, so eh. I have a few catapults sitting just out of where Mack's knights might end up if he doesn't attack Harmony Valley, but unfortunately, I don't have the hitters to mop up. I thought I took a screenshot of Mack's great general on the march, but I guess I didn't. He's 1NE of Assassin's Redoubt. Morale shenanigans won't matter, but for my honor, I should probably keep track.

I've offered to sell my dyes to TBS at a pretty steep rate. Hopefully, he sees this as a way to fund my upgrades and slow down the guy he's tailing. I didn't check everyone, but I see TBS has gold, which confirms my theory that the Astro islands have unique luxuries. Not that that's currently relevant.  

I guess Mack got scared off of these Rusten cities?


Like to think I had something to do with that, but Mack's probably just going to eat Rusten one half at a time. You can see Rusten building me a road in the lower left corner of that picture. I used that road to get out and avoid Mackoti's army. I hope Rusten didn't expect me to send more troops up it to support him. Needs must.

The question at this point is how much do I lose, and with my catapult stack out of position, and Mackoti chock full of two-movers, this war is an existential threat. (But I still have the island.  ) Right now, we just hope Mack gets astronomically bad luck.

Edit to add: 8 double promo'd knights would be nice right now.

[naufragar]

I continue to learn by making mistakes.    Here's le grande armee.


Yeah. I'm dead. In my newbishness, I didn't know if I should attack out or wait to die. Mack has, I think, 5 catapults in range of Harmony Valley, which means he could practically knock it over with warriors. So, I sent two catapults into his knight stack and attacked with a couple knights of my own. The idea was to do some collateral damage to his cats. One of the two knights survived (at ~64% odds, the other died in a coinflip), but the collateral damage only hit one catapult and brought it down to 4.5/5, so I don't think that was worth it. I'd be interested to hear in a post mortem what's the best thing to do. I could've held onto the catapults, but I don't know when I'd have a better chance to hit, and I figured I'd damage the knights before they attacked a city. Attacking with my own knights was probably a mistake. I was...optimistic about how much collateral damage they'd deal. (I also used my gold to upgrade two more axes to macemen in Harmony Valley. This too might have been a mistake. Maybe I should have given the city up for dead? 5 cats will shred maces just as well as axes.)

Found what might've been a bug?


You can see I'm about to attack a knight, which is one of the reasons I made this attack. Instead, a pike in that stack defended (and killed the knight with a 50% shot). Annoying, but eh.

Here's the power graph:


I was 6th in power when I started this turn. (After losing those 4 units, I'm now eighth.) 6th out of a field of 21, and I'm still gonna get rocked. Woof. (And yes, yes. It's in no small part because I have a stack of maces and cats way out of position. Mea culpa.)

[naufragar]

We made it to turn 150! We're still dead.

I am starting to understand people's lackluster reporting when their civ is dying. It doesn't feel great to catalog the failures. If I hadn't thrown away those 7 (8?) knights, and if I hadn't sent away my main army (primarily its 6 cats, but also its macemen and war elephants), we'd have had a fighting chance this turn. But if doesn't feed the baby.

I really admire Mack's ability to be a gigantic thorn.


Guerilla 2 musketeers are the devil. I had to attack out and kill them, because they well could've cut the road and I wouldn't be able to attack Mack's army as it comes down. So attack out I did. Traded in 3 catapults, and both my knights won their battles. A good trade hammer for hammer, but Mack has a lot more units than I have catapults, so it stings. In case you were wondering, Plex Anthill now holds the army I sent to help Rusten. They just arrived. Had they arrived one turn earlier, well Mack probably wouldn't have moved down in the first place. If. If. If.

Turn 150 demos:


You know? Not terrible for a dead man in a field of 20.

Mack is taking his time besieging Rusten, but soon enough Rusten's cities to my Northeast will fall and I'll be attacked on two fronts. I've already lost trade route connection with him. I think I'm done with unit upgrades, so I can try to get gunpowder. (Factoring in city loss, I'm still probably like 8-10 turns out, so I may never reach it.) I have city visibility on a few of Mack's cities, and as he should he is churning out musketeers. Since I don't have a pikeman equivalent to fight them with, I desperately need musketmen of my own.

I know with Mack, Rusten, and me all going silent, lurkers are missing out on this action, but honestly, there hasn't been much. Mack's just too strong for me to fight him in the field. And gosh, he seems to have a lot of cats.

[Mardoc]

I am starting to understand people's lackluster reporting when their civ is dying. It doesn't feel great to catalog the failures. If I hadn't thrown away those 7 (8?) knights, and if I hadn't sent away my main army (primarily its 6 cats, but also its macemen and war elephants), we'd have had a fighting chance this turn. But if doesn't feed the baby.

...

I know with Mack, Rusten, and me all going silent, lurkers are missing out on this action, but honestly, there hasn't been much. Mack's just too strong for me to fight him in the field. And gosh, he seems to have a lot of cats.

Thank you for the scraps you throw us! Hopefully next game you start with a different neighbor...

And yes, the worst thing about Musketeers is the lack of a counter-unit.