[SPOILERS] Rusten enters uncharted waters

[Rusten]

A lot of cool small things to talk about in terms of war tactics and strategy, but I need to focus on actually playing my turn. I'll try to find the time to post about it later tonight.

[Rusten]

Quick debrief just going over the main things.

Dark Savant has very little left. Looks like he's pulling back to Porto-Novo to make his final stand in that city/area, because his northern empire is now lost.




Expected DS to leave Antananarivo empty (or 1 defender) this turn so I made sure to have a galley in range to drop infantry into it. That also won back the plains tile in its BFC which was quickly re-roaded to provide extra movement for my units.




Forgot to take a picture but DS pulled all his knights into Porto-Novo to heal along with his remaining catapults. This leaves Dar es Salaam almost empty and without reinforcements next turn (other than his 2-pop whip). Instead of sending all my knights north I'm taking the opportunity to march on and capture the city. Other than the longbow it only has an injured knight and a catapult right now.




Porto-Novo culture will cover the road between west and east, but I'll be able to send units back and forth using the lake and two forts. Catfish has reached 100 culture, which means that I will own the hill tile next turn after taking his nearby cities. At that point I can quickly ferry units across the channel to defend Dar es Salaam and also quickly attack DS' remaining southern cities. This is all working out very well.

Lagos has just 2 catapults in garrison so even if he's whipped something in the fog to reinforce it I have enough units to capture it next turn.




I've also started preparing some drop-offs with galleys to the north to not have to wade through his cultural defense. We've most likely reached the point where he's broken and I will capture cities every turn. The musket+urukku hill "bait" worked out perfectly, this is much better than him still having 80+ cats and 30+knights with other stuff just hiding in cities. My losses were mostly outdated and cheap units).  

Forgot to address the war weariness, but it's almost non-existant. I think 4 unhappy in my size 19 city, but nothing of the sort in the 10-14 size ones.

[darrelljs]

Any signs an opportunist will steal the fruits of your labor?

Darrell

[Rusten]

Commodore looks to stay quiet which I will respect. If he doesn't swoop in and grab the cities then I will respect the border going forward. Would be a sign of peaceful intentions.
AT has grabbed some island cities I wanted. 

In other news DS abandoned Dar es Salaam and spite-whipped it for 4 population. I really hate that shit.

edit: Oh, and I'm an idiot! I do get to use the road between Dar es Salaam and the west. Porto-Novo doesn't stretch that final tile until 5000 culture -- I miscounted earlier. The forts are not necessary.

[Rusten]

Actually it looks like Commodore will take the two northernmost cities this next turn with mounted units. Not worth the negative diplomacy points if you ask me.

[Rusten]

The day of reckoning now appears on the graphs. It wasn't *quite* as bad for DS as this shows as I gained some power on the turn to compensate, but still, that's not what you want to see as the initiator with defender's advantage. Not that he had any good options being 2 eras behind in techs, but the way it panned out definitely sped up my conquest.




Captured 3 cities this turn and I'm in position to capture the remaining 4 to the north this next turn.




I'm able to use hill terrain all the way to Porto-Novo now so my cannons+infantry will march on to the coal tile immediately next turn I think, or maybe I delay it a single turn to be sure. Before it reaches Porto-Novo it will be reinforced by galleys to add healed knights and drafted infantry. I'm still completing the forts to let my ships pass. The road connection alone is not enough.

I can drop back to emancipation next turn, but I think I'll draft a few more infantry first just to bolster my defenses.

[Rusten]

Correction, I'm in position to capture 5 cities next turn if all goes well.

Also forgot to mention that I'm completing Wall Street and Oxford's University this end of turn. The former will have the biggest impact thanks to the Jewish shrine.

[Rusten]

AT has landed units on the main continent! 




Surely he can't be that naive? I know he's new to pitboss, but if he thinks I'm going to let him keep Dark Savant's capital then he's smoking some serious shit.

[superdeath]

May or may not know that this is the mainland?

[Raskolnikov]

May or may not know that this is the mainland?

The star never lies