[SPOILERS] Banzailizard and Woden go hunting!

[Banzailizard]

England Turn 61

Alright, first thing I did was move the ship to block so that is done. Barb galley down at Dresediel Lex burned the RND, that will take 2 turns to repair.  If I get really lucky it will head north soon and run into the Longboat for me. Otherwise I am racing to plug the second hole, and trying to slow Thrawn down with area of control. I am debating settling that new city with Thrawn so close, but could be a useful place to heal up and stage 2v 1 choke point combat (1 in the city, 1 in the gap).  In 3 turns I will have 3 more gallies which will help. I am going full galley production everywhere I can.

Current tech path is shipbuilding -> masonry -> buttresses (which requires currency and mathematics on the way).  

Next turn Alt Selene will get the copper, and Dresedil Lex will work the 1/3 forested hill tile. That should keep each of them productive for a while.

   

[Woden]

Where your settler is located would be a good spot as long as you can get some galleys there to protect the gap. You can protect teh city with 2 galleys or restrict attacks on the city with just 1 galley. Even with the 2 galleys protecting the gap, he will only have 2 attack vectors and you can get +6 flanking bonus on one of the galleys with a galley in the city.

The only other location that I see is your city 6 location where it could help with the pinch point but that seems like a bit long of a walk and we can plug the gap with 3 galleys pretty well.

I think the current plan should be for me to build a bunch of galleys to plug both holes and relieve your galley so you can shift your focus to the east. My capital can 2 turn galleys and City VI will be able to once the campus is chopped and the mines are placed. I will chop the wheat to get the city to size 4 and then rip out galleys once Limes boosted walls are up. My City II will be able to alternate between 2 and 3 turn galleys. It should be able to 2 turn galleys once the sheep are pastured but that will be a bit and I will need protection from pillaging. The plan there will be to get a bunch of archers (and crossbows) out once I get enough ships for protection.

I think this is do-able but if Thrawn is smart (and he is), he will probably be heading towards Berserkers now and have them shortly (within 10-20 turns) and those things are deadly. I might have to side track to Machinery for crossbows before Cartography. I think a bunch of crossbows could handle them but we will have to see.

[Woden]

Turn 62-Gaul
Relatively calm turn. Thrawn pillaged one of the mines at City III, delaying the slinger by a turn, but he brought his other longboat down to my north shore. He is also converging on City II but I have it blocked for the time being and am relatively safe...
   

I didn't attack the trapped longboat yet. I want to make sure I have enough boats to hold him there because he will get a promotion before my boats do and if I am not able to swap them out for fresh boats, he could break free. Better to play it safe than to rush it, he is not going anywhere. 

Irrigation and Military Tradition complete. I start Wheel and Defensive Tactics (which I think I have calling Diplomatic Service before). It says 5 turns but a couple of galleys and the slinger should bring it down to 3. If I can keep City III relatively protected, I might be able to keep the city for a bit. This will depend on how aggressive Thrawn becomes. It looks like he would prefer to go after our core, which is good relative to City III. Next turn, I will go back to the IZ with 3 turns left and then hit walls when running Limes. One good thing with my IZs is they act more like an Encampment than a regular district and he shouldn't be able to pillage them since they have health. Probably should test to make sure. 

Next turn, I get a new galley out of my capital and I am going to bring it over to your choke point. Not sure how long your ship can stand there alone. I will continue bringing ships over there until it is safe. I figure if you send your next galley out of your capital and swap it with the current one, you should be able to hold.

Edit: On your west coast, the barb galley is helping us by trapping Thrawn's longboat. I would attack it. He will have to counter attack you and get killed by the barb or attack the barb and you can kill it next turn.

[Banzailizard]

England Turn 62

I actually had already attacked the galley by the time you posted.  I expect he will attack me and try to let the barb galley finish me off.  I can always duck into Regis though if I need to, and let Tagura field that one.  RND and therefore a galley, is done in Alt Selene next turn.  2 turns until gallies at Alt Coulumb and Dresediel Lex are done.  I think I will repair the RND at Desediel Lex next, I need the money.

Speaking of, Krill is raking in the cash.  I suspect it is coming from raiding one of the other teams. His culture and science are quite strong too.  I think we still have a shot at this, but I better find a way to make sure I am not dead weight quickly.

   

Oh and I would say my galley in the choke point can last about 2 more turns. I am trying to bring in a second galley to either slow him down or take revenge.

[Woden]

Turn 63-Gaul
Bonus turn today...yah! But that is about all the good news. Thrawn trashed your galley and it will die on his turn if keep there....
   

Not sure what to do here. Do you retreat to save the unit but allow his boats to spill in the gap or do you stand your ground to delay at least 1 ship. I brought a few ships over to give him a decision. If he kills your boat and brings the other 2 into the gap, I can kill the one that attacks or he can kill it with a health one and I can at least get some damage on it. If you retreat to the tile next to my southern boat, only his injured longboat can attack and I might get a kill that way. IDK, this is a tough one. I am shifting my promoted boats back to our core but it will take a bit. 

Slinger finished at City III and it resumes its IZ, due in 3 turns. I will chop out a campus at City VI next turn, along with a builder. The city will start a ship and probably take 3 turns. Defensive Tactics will complete in 2 turns and then it is walls everywhere. 

Tense turns are coming.

[Woden]

Retreating might be best. You will get a new galley out of the capital the following turn and you can bring your new galley (at City 3) up to help create a log jam and attack his longboats in the gap. What do you think?

[Banzailizard]

I will try for a retreat. I have a galley out in Alt Selene, that can move north. TBH on my side there is not much he can pillage other than the turtles and the RND. If we keep those safe, I will be fine. In the meantime we can try to use numbers to overwhelm him, while cycling units to safety for healing up. I'll go take the turn now.

[Banzailizard]

England Turn 63



Ok I fell back to my capital with the galley and moved the second one up.  New galley out soon. Maybe if we play this right we can pull his units into the gap and make it a trap.  We will outnumber him locally after all.  Keep chipping away, give him nothing to use to heal up, and eventually kill his units.  I think the turtles are toast in the meantime though.  



Bad news on the west coast.  He did kill the barb and it was enough to grant him a unit promotion, so that ship is healed.  Next turn I should be able to outnumber him 2 or 3 to one though, might be able to keep him locked down and eventually kill it.  I left the galley on the north of my island to slow down any ships trying to help fight on the west side.


I have set a repair for the RND next turn in Dresediel Lex, which will take 2 turns.  Need to keep getting gold and GA points, I think it is worth slowing down a galley a little. Tempted to switch Regis to a builder.  Plan in that case is to harvest the stone into the RND rather than letting it build normally.  Would also give me a unit to repair some of whatever gets pillaged.

Krill lost a lot of military strength so hopefully that is good news, though it could mean he assaulted and captured a city.  CMF is recovering military strength a little bit too.  

   

[Woden]

Turn 64-Gaul
It doesn't look good here. Start turn off with Archery finishing. I start research on Engineering. I decided it might be best to get Machinery done first before heading to Cartograph so my cities can do some damage to his boats. He sailed all his visible ships down and had another one to block my boats from following and re-block the passage. I retreat and set up a block to my southlands...
   

He will most likely kill my injured galley next to my capital next turn but my other boat should be able to retreat to block the gap in the south and protect City VI. I chopped a builder and campus at City VI but forgot to make sure the newest population worked the plains hill instead of the grassland hill, so I am 1 cog short of completing the campus. I also chopped the wheat with the new builder to get the city to size 4 and be able to 2 turn galleys, then sent Magnus to City IV.

I will finish Defensive Tactics next turn and start walls everywhere with Limes running. I need to get an archer out next so my cities can attack at 25. Maybe City VI does an archer before the walls so it is out around the time my other walls are complete. I could upgrade the slinger at City III, that is protecting my iron, but I would rather upgrade a man-at-arms in a few turns when we have enough gold combined (I need 210). I could also chop on at City IV, which might be an option. Will have to think about it. 

I think my immediate plan will be to get walls up everywhere and then a few archers out. I am also thinking about going to Feudalism next for the medieval land units card. I will chop a bunch of builders out at City IV once Magnus is established and can get 5 more farms down. A bunch of crossbows will push his ships back and I think I can navigate most of the -17 CS penalty with my +2 bonus for each adjacent land unit. At 180 cogs, they are pretty expensive to build though and don't know if we have enough time. 

Finally, he has not pushed on City III yet. I need 2 more turns to complete the IZ and then 4 or 5 turns for walls. If I can get there, I should be good. If not, I have a slinger that will pillage the iron and IZ when the city falls. At least I can get some gold and science then.

Edit: Next turn (T65), I going to ask you to send me all your money. That will give me more than 210 on T66 and I can upgrade a man-at-arms. Then, maybe we can save City III.

[Banzailizard]

England Turn 64

   

A second long ship found its way into the south sea.  I did some damage, though I suppose it can eventually heal up with a raid.  I can rotate out the ship in Regis with the one on the ocean next turn and keep rotating to deal damage.  On the east side I moved my archer out. Even chip damage is damage. Other than that, not too much to report.  Shipbuilding done soon, then masonry.  6 Turns to defensive tactics so I can run Limes to build walls. Galleies will keep coming out in the next few turns, then might switch to Quadrimes to get some ranged support.