[SPOILERS] This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land. But Mostly Mine.

[NobleHelium]

Correct from Bob. Also, I think Caledorn can kick him to AI without logging in, but I'm not sure.

[Ceiliazul]

Bob is correct. I think its reasonable to ask cornflakes or parkin to do the deed, no reason caledorn has to do it.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Thanks Bob, Noble, and Ceil. I am pretty sure that Dhal never scouted anything in this direction, so this is a moot point. I won't say anything for fear of meta-worry on Cal's part. He knows an invasion is coming eventually but may not know it is soon so I'll just stay mum.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

T140

Casus belli:

Caledorn's mining operation must be stopped. Any pretext will do.


Perfect.

Public commentary:

The instigator.



The message.


They bought it.



Make them feel good about what they're clamoring for.


Yessss. My work here is done.

Plan of action:

Manifest Destiny: The park will spread from sea to shining sea.



The ends always justify the means.

Implementation:

It's hard to remember sometimes, did they start it or did we? When enough blood has been spilled, no one remembers and no one cares. Winning (and making them pay) is all that matters.

On to the turn. First, new contacts.





Dazed has apparently done some expansion via conquest. WLP I am less certain, although anything is possible in this game. I'm guessing that he, like me, is just late to the war. If he doesn't start cracking skulls soon, he's going to fade in relevance.



I choose relevance. I was in a bit of a hurry (my wife was waiting on me) and I didn't feel good about a few decisions after I had played. I am short on hitters at the front right now, though that is being corrected turn by turn. Part of the shortage is I mispositioned my mobile stack thinking I would take a shot at the capital, but all I would manage is getting my quick movers killed even if I did take the city, so I eschewed that move for a broader attack at Cal's front cities. At Emerald, I decided to bombard with two cats and then use the other two as collateral, then attack with what I could on the first turn and hope to use them again on the second turn. With any luck, Cal wouldn't be able to promo-heal the units that would beat the cats. The mace had 80-something% odds with a promo held in reserve so I won, then promoted CR-II to be ready for next turn. The knight died at ~88%. Oh well. Next turn will be the decisive turn here.



Better to get the LBs before they get full fortification bonuses. Add two knights, two HAs, and a chariot that can hit Cal here next turn to what is in the highlighted stack.

Cities:

Still building mostly units.













This should probably be a catapult. Once I've rolled up the front cities, speed, so mounted attack, will be more important. In five turns, that is likely to be the case. But I'll always need more cats. One thing I'm trying to determine is whether trebs are actually a viable alternative. Low base strength and only good for city attack, but I don't see an immediate need for collateral damage on invading stacks. Most if not all of my upcoming fights will be vs city defenders. The last thing in favor of building trebs is the likelihood of me being able to immediately add CR-II to each one due to my current civics and prevalence of barracks. This in theory means that I'd be able to keep a larger percentage of my collateral stack busters intact for future use, which is in line with my lower quantity/higher quality game strategy to this point. Whether that thinking is right or wrong for unit composition I have no idea. I know more cities would be better at this point than less cities with tons of forges. Double down on less-is-more-is-better or just play it straight and build swarms of disposable catapults that I just have to continually (slowly over a long distance) roll from the rear toward forward combat areas?

Demos:

[von Adlercreutz]

Demo screenie is wrong. GL with the war effort!

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Demo screenie is wrong. GL with the war effort!

Fixed. Thanks!

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

T141

The war:

Two turns of fighting looks like this--





As ever, read bottom to top.



I got to keep the workers I captured last turn. Nice!





A big strikeout on any buildings surviving.



A picture of my tactical brilliance. I forgot to move my galley before declaring war on T140 and it is miraculously stuck in a helpless position. I wish the game mechanics would prevent a unit being placed upon war declaration in a position it would otherwise not be able to reach. I'll delete this bastard and have to build another galley to reach Caledorn's island. At least I didn't put any units on the galley.



Next turn, two cats, a mace, and three knights will hit Opal. Then Jade. The capital after. I should have more catapults able to waddle up and collateral a bit by then. I don't want to waste my knights. I'm pretty sure I've taken out the majority of Cal's current forces. He'll whip in some more longbows but I hope to clear him out before this can get costly.

Cities:

Since I'm not in a race for Liberalism, I've taken myself out, I am not in a huge hurry for a GS to bulb Education. The merchant gives me options, either to upgrade HAs to knights or to continue at 100% research, just as soon as I find a good destination to cash in the merchant. To be honest, there aren't really a lot of good options nearby. Probably a Nakor city is the closest/safest payout. Not ideal, but I don't want to wander this guy for 20 turns and give someone a golden opportunity to kill him.







At long last. It's time for some killing machines.

























A new city bringing in tons of critical resources....

Demos, etc:

Dat MFG! It's my only source of comfort, just like it's always been.



Nakor is trending in a good direction but I can't do more than raze coastal cities in the near term. That would spike his growth, but it wouldn't help me either. I don't want to divert resources. I'm starting to get the steamroller going to my west and any diversion needs to look at either the collapsing Mardoc or the just waiting to die Dhal sectors. Speaking of Dhal, I've lost graphs on him and can't be bothered to do anything about it. He's just a bad investment. All EP are on OH/Fin right now, trying for graphs there.

[NobleHelium]

A picture of my tactical brilliance. I forgot to move my galley before declaring war on T140 and it is miraculously stuck in a helpless position. I wish the game mechanics would prevent a unit being placed upon war declaration in a position it would otherwise not be able to reach. I'll delete this bastard and have to build another galley to reach Caledorn's island. At least I didn't put any units on the galley.

I have to say... I wouldn't have thought about this scenario.

[Ceiliazul]

Yeah, that's pretty hard to plan if you wanted to!

On the upside, lots of green in that battle log.