It's Chevalier's Thread and He Can Do What He Wants To

[Old Harry]

 

Best post I've read in a while...

[VoiceInTheWilderness]

Gripping. A - heh - tour de force.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

146

T-12 and the Dutch make their move, declaring war on the English. The island city near Herrera (the former Mohenjo-Daro) falls immediately, and Emperor's capital is stripped of walls. 

I also unlock Mass Production, enabling my game-winning move of building the Venetian Arsenal which is mostly a stepping stone on the path to Steam Power since I doubt I have time to build shipyards, nice as they'd be. 




Interestingly, this is about 40 turns after I unlocked Mass Production in PBEM7, and I have a much better science base in this game - it just goes to show how much R&F slows down the base rate of research. Sullla, of course, was hitting me with battleships on this same turn. I think I could give him a better competition with the stuff I've learned in the past year, though. 

 Now I'm pretty sure Rowain has given up - the cornered galley didn't even attack, just stood there to be murdered by me:




So I do. The crossbow also must die. It gets one-shot as well, and now the only real American units left that I know of are a crossbow in New Orleans and a Knight outside La Venta, plus a few scattered warriors making up Rowain's 280 remaining military points:




I split my squadron in half - a handful will go to blast down the final two American coastal cities, the rest will sail east and prepare to confront the Dutch. Boston is easily blasted down and waits only for a galley to arrive and capture it:




At the same time as we besiege that minor city, I run a quad into the more major target of New Orleans and get a look at the defenses. Just a crossbow visible:




Capture of these two cities will reduce Rowain to just three cities, all inland, and 1 a totally pathetic tundra plant up near Zanzibar. His science rate has collapsed to half of mine, though it still leads Japper and Emperor!, and his culture also has bottomed - though it's better than Emperor's. America is effectively out of the game, since he'll need to build a settler, settle a new coastal city, and then slooowly start to crank out ships from it before I can send a squadron to raze the damned thing. 

I activate my new Apostle and evangelize Crusade, giving me a nice boost in Dutch waters:




If I have the faith, I'd like to spread Crusade to ALL of Archduke's cities. That battles with purchasing Madrasas, but I can pause that for the moment, I think. I have 10 turns to get a missionary over and convert some more cities. I score 4 era points, so I need to try and hold off on any more - I'd like to dip into a Dark Age in the Renaissance and then shoot out to a Heroic Industrial Age. Available is the Letters of Marque card, which doubles Naval Raider production (which I THINK stacks with Press Gangs), +2 Naval Raider movement, and double pillaging bonus, at the cost of half-yield trade routes. Effectively 4 trade routes instead of 8, but I get either 3x or 4x build speed on Privateers, which are just as shooty as Frigates? That's the edge I need to finally bury the Archduke in units! 

Emperor's capital is ready to fall:




I need Emperor to not die and keep his cities under occupation. Hopefully the campaign over the next 10 turns will suck Dutch ships to the west, and let me strike for the Dutch core with my own fleet if Archduke falls asleep at the wheel or something. I'm torn between playing it safe and trying to reconquer the coast facing me, including Perez and Hattusa, OR lunging into his heartland to the south at the cost of exposing my own core. We'll need to see where the fleet is - if absent, go for the core. If we need to fight a battle, do that first near his cities. Sink the fleet and the game is over. 

There are Sevens all around England. Vilnius must be near here:




Archduke also founded a city with the settler I saw earlier, and he has ANOTHER settler heading for the southern island. That's fine by me - those cities won't come online in time to pay back their production cost, so my investment into gold and military units will give me an edge, I hope. 

Scores:

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Here's a thought:

Will Archduke's conquest of Teclis provoke an emergency? If so, can I join it with an alliance in place?  That would catch him TOTALLY off guard (and me, too, but my fleet is better positioned) and give us even more combat strength against him. Interesting!

[VoiceInTheWilderness]

The mechanics are frustratingly vague - a military emergency is caused by city conquest by "a civilization that is leading in some victory type", and "a civilization's ability to participate in an Emergency is determined by their diplomatic relationship to other civilizations". Fin.

The second one is bad, I believe.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

That's disappointing - Archduke does indeed trigger an emergency and I can't respond, which means free gold for him. Really, the whole emergency system needs a lot of work for multiplayer. This is the second time he'll land a bunch of free upgrade gold from an emergency, just for conquering a neighbor. It's a random burst of free stuff (I know it's not quite random, but the circumstances are very difficult to control and provoke deliberately). Bah. I think I have time to attack before the emergency completes, and if it's still ongoing then maybe I can join late? We'll see. 




It's also time to come to a final decision about Baltimore. I've been using Cornflakes' PBEM11 trick of ending turn early so I don't have to decide before now.  Rowain seems to have given up, as his forces flee in all directions from mine, including the Xbow in New Orleans. So I could conceivably keep Baltimore, train up some Mamluks, and then march on Washington. Baltimore is going to revolt next turn to a free city, so I could also re-capture it and have a nice little city. Ultimately, though, I decide to burn it down. Why? Well, I don't want to devote even the pair of frigates it'd take to keep things under control here, safe from American counterattacks or revolutions. I need every ship available for the Dutch war, and so that means long-term payoffs like Baltimore or Washington/Charleston are out of the question. If I beat the Archduke at sea, then I can train an army and come back for Rowain at my leisure - with BB support this time. 

So Baltimore is put to the torch:




In the face of an American knight tentatively advancing on the city, too. That has to be a punch to the gut, but Rowain's already phoning it in here so I don't feel too bad. 

Meanwhile, northern squadron prepares for its attack on New Orleans, to commence next turn:




We'll bomb the walls down in one turn, then take two turns or so to blast the city into rubble. A few spare units keep farming Boston for XP and to keep the city HP down:




Galley ETA is two turns from now. We'll cap, then upgrade, then take New Orleans. 

On the southern front, as I begin to transfer towards Dutch waters I stumble on the last American ship, I think:




Bummer for him as I one-shot the ship absent-mindedly as a frigate sails by. Archduke is frantically settling and conquering cities, and his science is starting to catch up to mine again. I do have two more madrasas to place, as well as a campus coming online, so I'm not worried about this. Ships, ships are what count now. 

[suboptimal]

I think in order for the emergency to be active someone needs to join it on the side against Archduke. If no one joins it I don't think he gets the rewards automatically.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Okay, time for an update. 

The turn pace is very slow these days - Emperor and Rowain are both pretty demotivated, and Archduke was absent for much of the middle of the week. So not much has happened to give me material for an exciting report.

First off, shit:




I forgot Divine Right was a medieval civic, and so I accidentally picked up an extra era point when I finished Merchant Republic. This, in turn, means I have exactly enough points to avoid a Dark Age. So no Letters of Marque triple or quadruple boosted Privateers.   That's a bit of a blow. 

I slot this government. Gold, ships, and a Great Admiral:




Right now, I have a few plans in place to give me an edge over the Archduke, and I hope all of them combined will be enough.

1)I burned my Great Scientist and got the boost for Steam Power, halving the time to Ironclads. I will arrive there 1 turn after our alliance ends. This might mean that I play defensively until I can upgrade 6 or 7 caravels, then go after the Archduke. I had higher science than him for a long time, I have the Great Scientist boost, so I estimate I'll have a window of 5-10 turns to exploit a tech edge. 

2)Crusade, of course, has been selected, and all of the near Dutch coast is converted, meaning fighting near Archduke's valuable naval production cities favors me. Maybe this means I should go on the offensive and take the fight to him? I wish I could get to Ironclads 2 turns sooner! 

3)I fully aim to win the race to the Great Admiral. I should have included a picture, but I lacked that foresight. Wait, did I? -checks archives- I did. Anyway, Japper is roughly 9 turns away from the next GA, I am now 8 turns away with this new government, and I have faith in reserve to grab him if I get nervous. I'll monitor the situation. Archduke has been known to run projects to steal GP. 

On the front, Rowain still has yet to launch a single attack in self-defense, and Boston is taken:




We'll hold it for 2 or 3 turns to rest and refit, then burn it to the ground. I captured Boston the same day the Kansas City Chiefs faced Boston's New England Patriots in the AFC title game, but sadly this was not a good omen as the Chiefs lost in overtime. Ah, well. 

The siege of New Orleans continues, and waits only for a suitable melee ship to arrive and deliver the finishing blow. I have a fresh galley en route, as my present capture galley will be too battered after Boston to survive attacking even a 0 health city.




Archduke is founding cities and recalling his navy at a furious rate. In the last week, in fact, he has founded or captured 6! new cities.




This is good news, actually - those cities won't contribute to the Dutch economy for a while, which means those cogs which COULD have gone to ships are instead invested in this real estate. If I beat the Dutch navy, those cities are a non-factor and can be taken or burned as I will. Everything depends on the confrontation with the Dutch fleet.

I discover Vilnius at last. How the hell did Archduke capture this city and not Japper or Emperor? Stuff like this is why Archduke is so competitive in this game. Man, I wish Rowain and I had had our starts swapped - I could have gone right after Japper 30 turns ago. Of course, then Archduke could have gone after ROWAIN and Emperor...maybe this was for the best. Still, is it too much to ask for my main opponent to face a little more competition from his other neighbors?

Can't be too hard on Emperor, though - he's putting up a devil of a fight at Teclis, his capital. He held out for 3 turns after Archduke's attack began, and bloodied the Dutch nose enough that my domination score is higher for the first time all game! :o Assuming those weren't all his HCs and Knights that were destroyed, that gives me superior naval numbers! Now I just need to concentrate them and use them effectively...Still nervous about that. 

Scores. I belatedly swapped Hosmer over to Frigate production; Davis can finish the campus first.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn Lots

I haven't been keeping track. 




The main thing is to prepare for the confrontation with the Archduke. This is the Archduke's home sea, with many of his largest and newly-founded cities both scattered around it. Winning control of this sea wins the game. 

To the northeast is the narrow passage to my waters. Right now, I'm holding the one-tile chokepoint and stacking my units behind it to discourage the Archduke from sailing through. However, I don't intend to attack here. Instead, my main intention is to draw the Dutch fleet here, where it can be bottled up long enough for me to upgrade to ironclads and launch raids against the Crusader cities. 

Basically, Archduke and I have two channels to go at each other, north and south. A fleet slipping past either channel in the north could raid Davis (on my end) or Archduke's home cities (his end), or in the south could seize Archduke's home cities or Cain, Moustakas, and Hosmer. I don't want that to happen. So, ideally, Archduke will move his fleet down here to confront me, thinking the restricted waters will favor his smaller numbers but better ships. Instead, what will happen is that I will withdraw and upgrade, then hold the pass with most of my fleet while I can raid and burn the cities facing me. Then I can concentrate for a decisive blow against the Dutch fleet. 

If instead he shifts to flank me in the north, I can upgrade and hten meet him around Perez, which is a Crusader city, or Davis. I'll have the advantage of numbers, a GA, and superior tech. That's the goal. 

But I need to attack quickly. Archduke has more cities (now) and is rapidly equalizing in tech nad culture. I have a momentary window to push and go for the win, now or never.

The campaign in America is all but over and the fleet is sailing home. All that remains is to occupy New Orleans:




In the end, the only damage American forces managed, beyond a tiny bit of counterattack damage, was one crossbow shot on a quadrireme. 4 cities taken and burned, four ships sunk, and a handful of miscellaneous units murdered. Why did Rowain never build a strong navy on an island map? Search me! 

Great Admiral race is tight. I need to worry about a faith or project snipe:




So here's the dilemma: Do I spend my precious faith to guarantee Sir Francis Drake? The next fellow is Industrial, so a lot more points. Losing Drake would be a major blow. On the other hand, if I take the gamble, that's another Madrasa for more faith and science. Well, hell, probably the Admiral. One more madrasa won't make the difference between victory and defeat, but one GA will.

[Alhazard]

Global lurking so I will answer in lurker thread