[SPOILERS - PBEM17] Kyan Does Dallas. The Orange Sensation.

[oledavy]

Well, I don't know how snappy it is, but Operation: Shoot the Moon seems appropriate on a number of levels. No matter what you call it, good luck! It's good to see someone go out on a bang.

Operation: Going Commando?

Both made me chuckle.

I think I'll go with Dave's suggestion because I like the pun. Unless someone out there still has a better name to contribute, Operation: Going Commando it is!

On a side note, @Tatan - I'm not sure how much of my thread you've read, but apologies for renaming your namesake city. That little sucker gave me so much grief as a result of my tactical bungling during the war.

I must have unnerved Darrell quite a bit, as he's been sitting on the save for almost a day waiting for Shoot to respond to an email; presumably regarding my NAP cancellation.

Speaking of Shoot:

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Hey Shoot,

I already have espionage visibility on all of NoSpace's cities, so am aware of the four scientists. Darrell is sitting on a trio of great people at the moment as well. Nonetheless, thanks for the heads up

If you don't want to actively participate in a crusade against Darrell and NoSpace, would you be willing to give me any sort of economic or military aid? (Units would be really nice) I know it's a longshot, but I would be a fool for not exhausting and checking every option available to me at this point.

Dave

P.S. - I know this wasn't implicit in my previous email, but whenever Darrell/NoSpace come knocking on your door, please do not appraise them of what I'm planning. Especially the idea to use commando tanks and the fact that I cancelled both NAPs. [/COLOR]

[COLOR="SeaGreen"]Dave,

I will of course not tell them of your confidential plans.

In regards to helping you, I may be willing to give you some units, although I still may yet change my mind and decide to go after one or both of them myself, so I may hang on to them until that is finalized.

Shoot[/COLOR]

I feel a little more hopeful now :thumsup:

I just need to review how to approach this diplomatically. I'll be curious as to if either NoSpace or Darrell cancel any of our in game deals next turn.

[oledavy]

Darrell: dave let me know when you ahve a sec
me: Hey
[COLOR="Yellow"]Darrell: Hey
so it looks like its just you and not shoot?[/COLOR]
me: yep
Darrell: Hmm...so you really want to fight me and novice on your own?
me: who said anything about both of you?
[COLOR="Yellow"]Darrell: Well, you did engage both cooldowns at once so that seemed like what you were shooting for. We have discussed things and now have an agreeement to switch to 100% military (full space race pause) until you are at peace with a NAP to cover the end of the game. I thought you should know that before we move ahead.
Well
I was going to type some crap up to try and talk you out of it so we can continue our space race, but that's kidno f lame. So I'll just leave it at what I said and let you be [/COLOR]
me: fair enough
just didn't like having my options limited by an NAP
[COLOR="Yellow"]Darrell: Okay, I understand .
The game is more interesting this way anyway [/COLOR]

So, on the plus side I paused the Space Race, on the negative side.....I paused the Space Race. In hindsight, I should have waited long to trigger my NAP cooldown. I wanted the next ~10 turns to keep building infrastructure before going all out into military. As things stand, it looks like I'll have to go on the defense. From the sound of that chat, they're going to be coming for me.

I really did not expect my NAP cancellation to be enough to make them bury the hatchet, but meh, c'est la vie.

If they do come, I'll be ready for them. They might as well buckle down for a long conflict. This war ends in one of two ways - my complete victory or total obliteration.



I went ahead and sent a copy of the chat to Shoot on the off chance it might inspire him to action.

@Rego - You'll probably get to see me receive my just desserts for organizing that dogpile on you

[regoarrarr]

@Rego - You'll probably get to see me receive my just desserts for organizing that dogpile on you

Yes I'm already looking forward to it :neenernee

[oledavy]

Yes I'm already looking forward to it :neenernee

Hope I can put on a show :rolleyes:

Right now, priority one is to get Shoot to care enough about this game that he is willing to cancel NAPs and go to war also. To that end, I feel like the United Kingdom trying to get America to join World War II. And like America, if left to himself I expect he will arrive to the war late. He'll get there after I've lost half my cities and be like: "Wot's up mate, I heard there's a war on!"

[regoarrarr]

Hope I can put on a show :rolleyes:

Right now, priority one is to get Shoot to care enough about this game that he is willing to cancel NAPs and go to war also. To that end, I feel like the United Kingdom trying to get America to join World War II. And like America, if left to himself I expect he will arrive to the war late. He'll get there after I've lost half my cities and be like: "Wot's up mate, I heard there's a war on!"

So following that analogy, it just sounds like you need to get darrell or nospace to bomb one of his cities

[pindicator]

So following that analogy, it just sounds like you need to get darrell or nospace to bomb one of his cities

How would you even do such a thing?

[oledavy]

How would you even do such a thing?

It's Top Secret

Are you sure you want to know?[SPOILER]

[/SPOILER]

I haven't finished playing the save yet - having a busy day and am sick to boot. But's here a screen that speaks volumes:



This erases any doubt that they'll coming after me. The only question is, can I stop it? I won't be able to build battleships for at least five more turns, and am outnumbered two to one.

The big advantage here is that between espionage and airships, I have visibility on everything. I will be able to see any strike force coming far in advance. The only issue here is that the Sirian Doctrine isn't based around being subtle.

It's like spotting asteroid that's about to hit Earth. Sure you know what's coming, but there's nothing you can do about it.

Unless you have a Bruce Willis

[oledavy]

Alrighty, turn played and sent.

First off, the latest diplomacy:

Email from Shoot:

Interesting. You'll be interested to know they came to me asking for a NAP extension (to a 30t cooldown) for the both of them, which I have declined.

Translation
Me: You should join my war pretty please
Shoot: hmmmmmm, don't feel like it.

I'm not quite sure what Shoot is angling for here. I see one of several possibilities.

1. He genuinely is tired of this game at this point and just wants to keep mailing the save in.
2. He wants NoSpace and Darrell to get embroiled in killing me, then he attacks when they're distracted.
3. He wants make his own run at winning the Space Race, since they've both put their attempt on hold.

I must say, if Shoot managed to pull off #3, it would be rather epic. Winning after languishing in last place for the entire game would be quite a feat

Email I sent to Shoot, pretty self-explanatory:

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Hey Shoot,

Could I trade you for a Great Person?

I desperately need a third one to combine with my other two to kick off a golden age and revolt into police state/caste system/theocracy. However, I will not be able to produce the requisite one myself for ~25 more turns. You can pretty much name for your price for one and I will pay it. After I research industrialism and upgrade all my rifles, I will be running 100% gold for the rest of the game, so I could pay you a lump sum of gold at that point,10-15 turns from present.

Let me know if you're interested.

Dave[/COLOR]

If I could pop off a golden age right now and revolt into war civics, I would feel a lot better about my odds. Let's hope Shoot has a GP laying around I can pawn off him. If he is trying for Space, gold would certainly help him.

Lastly:

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Hey guys!

I don't suppose you'd mind removing that pair of destroyers from my waters, would you?

Dave[/COLOR]

I cancelled hit singles for pigs with them, simply because I have no city that is at the happy cap and I'm betting they're near or at their health cap.



The revolted into organized religion last turn, so I'm betting they're building drydocks/barracks/airports everywhere before starting their mobilization.

Doing the same, only without organized religion.




This is one of my bigger mistakes: I have never been in organized religion this game. At first because I had no religion, and then because I was in theocracy for the war with Rego. That's a lot of hammers I missed out on

The plan is to whip drydocks to completion everywhere and then begin spamming destroyers and battleships like there is no tomorrow (because there isn't). I drafted six pop away, and whipped another seven. I regrew eleven at EOT - so population now stands at 279. Electricity finished at the end of the turn, and Industrialism completes in three (1 to run gold, 2 to run research). No techs fell this turn, but I forgot to mention last turn that everyone got a technology. Darrell and NoSpace teched fission, and Shoot nabbed plastics.

Defending on land against Sirian Doctrine Fleets is a bad joke. The only way I can win this is to beat them at sea. For land-based defense, I'm relying on drafted infantrymen (3 every turn). Fleets also open up the possibility of launching counterattacks, which is the only way I'll prevail.

I only have two small fronts to defend against NoSpace. The distance means they will have to use carriers for air cover and their forces will take marginally longer to get at me. If I can keep a fleet on station to oppose them on the northern and southern fronts, I can keep them at bay. Darrell poses a significantly larger threat. He has two long fronts with me in the east and west. In the east, he faces my recent conquests from Rego, which are all lightly defended and far away from my core. In the east, his continent wraps around the northwest of my continent. He can position his fleets in several of the cities up there, and launch attacks on mine. Additionally, they're close enough to provide effective air cover. The only way I can win is to hold him here and boat some of his offending cities.

So, that's the plan of sorts. After getting industrialism I'll be saving gold to upgrade everything. If there is a later, I'll come back to get flight and military science. But for right now, Operation Going Commando is on hold, Operation Stayin' Alive is now in effect.

At least I have god on my side!





End Turn.

[pindicator]

It's Top Secret

Are you sure you want to know?[SPOILER]

[/SPOILER]

You're right, I was not at all ready for that.

Unless you have a Bruce Willis

I think you have a candidate on what to rename the first unit that wins at bad odds

[oledavy]

[SIZE="3"]Turn 165[/SIZE]

[SIZE="3"]Seven Turns Until NAP Expiration[/SIZE]

I'm still negotiating with Shoot to get a great person. He has an engineer on hand, but the Damascus great person will have ~55% odds of being an engineer. He has a great person - probably a great scientist - coming out from a mixed pool soon. He's checking the ETA next time he gets the save, I'll probably be negotiating for him.

The build up continues as more dry-docks go up across the empire.




Check out how many hammers I'm getting out of Edessa and Constantinople:





Edessa is soon going to run into the problem of losing hammer overflow. Only two more turns until I have industrialism and I can start 1-turning battleships out of here.

Here's my military as it stands at present:



NoSpace did move their destroyers out, but also moved an airship into Kursk I kindly asked them to remove it.

They have an airship in Cash Cow that I expect it doing recon flights over my core, and another one in my north based out of an Egyptian city.

As for the foreign militaries, last turn the following was produced:

Darrell
1 Attack Submarine
1 Transport

NoSpace
1 Battleship

Both of them are building workshops across their core. It warms the dark part of my heart to see Darrell paving over mature towns.

Last turn, Darrell researched flight and NoSpace nabbed fiber optics. Additionally, the four great scientists NoSpace was sitting on disappeared last turn.

The Production Graph:



NoSpace and Darrell's production is starting to spike as they gear up for war.

Power:



That budding spike on Shoot's power graph is a bit encouraging

End Turn.