Dave's Not Throwing Away His Shot

[oledavy]

Scouts do count as garrisons for the policy.

That's super good to know. That should save me quite a few cogs. Also, @suboptimal, thanks for the heads up on checking beliefs in the city screen. 

Turn 136

This game is either going to end in the next 10 turns, or it will spin out into a pair of epic late game showdowns (me vs. Archduke, Alhambram vs. Woden). I really hope it's the latter, but a religious win is looking more and more likely. 



Alhambram has an apostle or a missionary in Singaboy's lands. He only needs to convert 3 of his cities to make Weedy Movement the dominant religion down there, and Singaboy has 3 other cities that should all fall in one missionary/apostle charge. 

He also has another missionary on the way: 




Not good. Also, turns out I was wrong. The apostle to the north must have the +2 spreads belief or something similar, as he's still trucking. The apostle near Schuyler had Translator, because he converted a size 7 city in one go. 



I'm continuing to gamely surround Lafayette and Hamilton at this point, but I'm only prolonging the inevitable. I think I will be fully converted on t139, with him using the last charge right before the DoF ends 


For any curious, here are the beliefs being foisted upon me: 



Nothing useful....and no wonder he is getting so much gold. 

Alright, Woden is moving a builder to chop his lumbermilled forest in Main Street, he realizes how late the hour is. He's either aiming for an apostle to kill Alhambram's missionaries, or he's going to start an inquisition. I think the latter is most likely. It's looking like he's going to get the apostle out on t139, start the inquisition and get a couple inquisitors out on t140/t141, and clear Jungle Cruise and his Pyramids city of Alhambram's religion on t142/t143. 

Meanwhile, I think Alhambram will win via religion somewhere in the t142-t146 range if nothing changes - it's going to be close. 

The saving grace here for the non Alhambram players is that Alhambram has to get a lot of RNG breaks in his favor to make this work. For example, if the apostle/missionary near Aachen gets a +1 spread instead of a +2 spread next turn, he'll need to spend another turn and another charge near the city. It's also likely he doesn't know where all the cities are he needs to convert. He needs a little bit of luck to make this happen. 

Still, we're going to be up against the wall here. If I had to place a bet, I think it's more likely than not that the religious victory doesn't happen, but man it's going to be close. 

I blame myself and Woden for this. I blame myself for signing that DoF with Alhambram, even though I knew this would likely happen. Research after the fact showed that the revolt in Hong Hong only had a 5% chance of happening per turn had I just ate one more turn of -5 amenities, but I thought it was much higher and panicked. It is also decently likely Alhambram still would have traded me the silver even if I hadn't signed the DoF. If I hadn't signed the DoF, there would be no chance of a religious win. 

I'm a little irritated at Woden for not building a holy site in Main Street earlier. It's been clear for nearly 60 turns now that Alhambram was going for a religious win, and he was the one in the best position to do anything about it due to his proximity and him actually possessing a religion. If he had cleared Weedy Movement from his cities earlier instead of using faith to jack a GE from Singaboy, we wouldn't be in this situation either. 

I don't really blame Archduke or Singaboy, they have bigger things on their plate right now, and since neither has a good chance to win, no real motivation to stop Alhambram from seeking to close this thing out. 

At any rate, I'm just going to be really depressed if Alhambram wins, not because I will have lost, but because the game will have been killed on the eve of my long awaited attack on Archduke, and a possible epic series of industrial and modern wars to determine the winner of the game. I was hoping to see nukes this game, but if he wins soon, it won't happen. 

There's also the uncomfortable possibility that this game is going to teeter on the brink for quite some time, due to the amount of faith Alhambram is making compared to Woden. 

Anyway, we'll see if we get through the next 8 turns or so. It will be interesting either way. 

In non-impending game ending news...



My last science boost for awhile, but a big one. Take that Woden!

[oledavy]

Turn 137

Woden may have made a game losing move last turn. 




He must not realize that a city can't share tiles in its first ring. The only thing he can chop in his borders is that lumbermill tile. Now, he's wasted a turn. I normally wouldn't be so dramatic, but this is likely going to come down to the wire where 1t could make a big difference. 



In more encouraging news, the not Alhambram players caught a lucky break when his apostle/missionary only converted 1 more pop in Aachen. The earliest possible date he can have Signaboy completely converted is t141, with t142 a lot more likely. That's not a lot of time for Woden to get his act together. I really hope he's grasping the urgency and doesn't slow build that temple, or else we've almost certainly lost. 

Also note, Archduke fired one crossbow bolt at Aachen this last turn. Seems like he's finally ready to begin his siege. If his units are still down there, there is little chance they can return in time to stop my onslaught on t145. 



I continue to wall of Archduke with units. What you can't see is his missionary heading for Elizabeth in the south. Combined with his apostle converting Valley Forge in the north, that will put him at 5/11 cities - only one to go. And he's got a Translator Apostle in the middle of my empire. Right now, I'm trying to anticipate his moves and zone defend Lafayette, Hamilton, Georgetown, and New York. However, it's a lot and I don't have enough units on hand. I'm even delaying improving things in the south with my last builder to have another unit to block him with. If I can just delay him a little longer....just long enough for his apostle to still be alive when I can declare war. 

On the way to work this morning, my mind was turning over solutions, anything to give Woden another couple turns. My first though was buying a settler out of Hong Kong and settling the backfill location on the western coast. However, that would only bring me up to 12 cities, not enough. 

Then I hit upon a solution so simple I'm amazed I didn't come up with it sooner. Scouts cost 100 gold each for me in Merchant Republic, I have more gold than I need to upgrade all my crossbows, and I will need 5 scouts in the near future to staff my cities for Retainer Garrisons. The one bummer is they can't move the turn they are built. So next turn, I move to the next phase of trying to stave off Alhambram a little longer - buying scouts to fill tiles. 

I honestly don't know if he's going to find a gap in my defenses or not - although I think it's more likely than not that he will. It's easier for him to find an error than for me to anticipate his every possible move. 

We're going to approach a point soon where I need to decide whether to send my units deeper into my territory (New York) to defend my cities from Weedy Movement, or get them on the border with Archduke so I can come out swinging on t145. At the moment, the former gets priority or there won't be a game left to play. I think I can finagle things so I will still have enough muskets and field cannons on the border to kick things off properly on t145, but I wish I could just mass things plenty of turns in advnace and have tons of time to plot out the opening moves of the war. 

In non game-ending news: 



I settled Angelica, my 10th city, and threw down a harbor. One more city to go! I really need to get domestic trade routes running to these cities as soon as possible - although it will make my currently amazing GPT very sad when I do. My economy is only going to look this incredible for about a dozen more turns, before it turns to creaking under the weight of a massive military. 

And finally. 

@Mardoc



I remembered this when I got back home today and went back into the save to capture it. Here's the map with the continent filter on!

I'll be breathing a whole lot easier on Monday or Tuesday when this is all over and the threat of a religious win is gone/reduced or we've just plum lost.

[oledavy]

Turn 138

Well, I tried my best...



Turns out one of those units doesn't block apostles. If I had to guess, I'd say the GG. What's more, he finished coverting Archduke this turn. I'll be added to the heap next turn. 

I'm a mixture of despondent and relieved right now. Despondent that the game might be ending soon. Relieved because there is now nothing more I can do. I don't have to count tiles around Alhambram's stupid apostles anymore. It's all on Woden. 

Turns out, I was wrong about the tile allocation!



Not sure what's going on there, but it speed up Woden's timeline by a turn, so I'll take it. The issue of course, is that Alhambram's faith production is a lot higher than Woden's. Even if he doesn't cap it on this push, he can continue cheaply spamming missionaries and or apostles towards Woden until he gets it - at least as long as the DoF is running. Note the new apostle near It's a Small World. 

This game is probably going to teeter on the edge for quite some time, and I'm going to need to get used to it. Next turn, I'm just going to force myself to plan the first few turns of war with Archduke, and hopefully the game doesn't end in the interim. 

Good luck Woden! It all comes down to you and your faith production now. 

In the south: 



Singaboy is in trouble. It seems the long siege is finally grinding towards a conclusion. Archduke has taken casualties for sure, but not near as many as Singaboy. 



Yikes. It's likely he was very slow and deliberate, redeploying units south of Aachen and slowly grinding Singaboy's military out. I don't know why the health of the city center dropped to 52 though. No units definitely. But it still has two intact districts, walls and a palace? It should be 54, right? He definitely swapped out of Bastions. 

Anyway, I hope he's able to hold out a little longer, but things look grim from afar. I would rather not have Greek forces crawling up that flank towards Hamilton, but on the plus side, there is little chance any of those units can return home before I assault if they're just now beginning the assault on the city. 

Anyway, this turn I settled my 11th and likely last self-founded city this game: 



Strategic view can just barely get my entire empire into the shot: 



Total attack force, including the first and second waves, will be 8 field cannons, 11 muskets, and 1 knight. Should be enough this time around 

But until this religious situation is resolved, I'm going to continue to hold my breath every time I open the save.

[Mardoc]

Thanks! So the continent definition isn't really where I'd have put it, but it's close-ish.

[oledavy]

A couple of turns have passed since I last reported, which I will be writing up shortly. In the interim though, I really needed to get out a plan for the initial turns of my war with Archduke, so I can be moving all my units in the right direction. So, here it is:

Operation Lysander

Invasion Date: t147/t148 (I'm not sure which turn I will be eligible to attack Archduke on. I suspect the latter but in case its the former, I will be positioning early). As an aside, I had thought I would get to invade him on t145/t146, so this 1-3 turn delay is aggravating, but doesn't alter my plans too much. 

Since this is a sledgehammer attack, I'm not too bothered if he discovers my force early. He has traders running to Schuyler, so he will likely see the beginning of my mobilization for the invasion. Even if he doesn't though, you'll see in my staging pictures that he will very clearly see me positioning for war 1-2 turns in advance, but if he doesn't know when the attack is coming at this point, I will be shocked. 

Force Composition: 
8 Field Cannons
4 Muskets
1 Knight
1 Great General
1 Battering Ram

Follow Up Forces: 
8+ Muskets

Overall Objective: Complete elimination of Archduke from the game and integration of his territories into Hamiltonia in the quickest manner possible

Initial Objective: The city of Mykenes. 

So, I'm going to diverge from the past wars, and instead of fighting in the heavily fortified delta region, we're going to make a direct push at the Greek capital. My road to it and my GG will expedite this process greatly. There are a couple reasons for cutting through the jungles to strike at Mykenes first. 

1. The city is at present, less fortified. This may change by the time I assault, but I still have more angles of assault on it than Myrmidon. 
2. He has no force in the Myrmidon region that forces me to engage him there or leave Lafayette open, unlike last time. 
3. Taking Mykenes right off the bat will not only take out his greatest city and production center, but split his empire into 4 sections that cannot easily reinforce each other and can be reduced at my leisure. 

Being able to fight on multiple fronts also will allow me to more effectively deploy my numerical advantage, and more quickly prosecute the war. While I will be pillaging tile improvements as much as time allows, I want to avoid pillaging districts if possible and take them intact. This is a strong case for attacking Myrmidon from the south: I can bypass the encampment entirely, and then have it in pristine shape when I take the city (therefore allowing me to get a TR going out of it ASAP). I'm hopeful Archduke won't complete walls in Mykenes in the interim, and I can do likewise to his encampment there, but it's significantly more likely he will complete walls and I will have to reduce the encampment. Anyway, my long-term game position is best strengthened by taking Archduke's territory quickly and his cities as intact as possible.

I'm anticipating moderate resistance. His primary force is still in the south fighting Singaboy, and it's unlikely more than a fraction of it can make it home in time. I'm expecting to encounter scattered knights and crossbows (2-8), freshly built from his cities. However, without GG support, they can't fight me in a pitched battle, and while I will undoubtedly incur some losses to attrition, I seriously doubt he'll be able to stop my invasion in it's tracks. 

Why am I so confident? Field Cannons with GG support. 

Against his Base Strength 38 cities, they'll do 30-40 damage each turn (50% less with walls). Against knights, they do somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 damage. They one shot his crossbows. These numbers obviously get a bit worse when shooting units on defensive terrain or with GG support, but even in a perfect scenario for Archduke, I still enjoy overwhelming fire superiority. Field Cannons are also 55 melee strength with GG support. The best he can hope for against that is a double promoted crossbow with double GG bonuses doing about 35 damage. And I'll have 8 of these units, I doubt he has more than a couple beefy crossbows. 

Of course, it helps that him and Singaboy have been utterly thrashing each other down there. More on that in my turn report. 

Anyway, here are the initial placements for t147/t148.  



Blue triangles are field cannons, black squares are knights or muskets. The pink circle is the battering ram (moving to Mykenes in case he builds walls), the red circle is my GG. 

Here are my initial movements: 



My primary thrust is heading for Mykenes, getting 2 muskets and 3 field cannons into position to assault the city center. 

In the north, 2 field cannons, 1 musket, and 1 knight will be deploying to start slowly reducing Myrmidon while avoiding his encampment. The field cannon in the encampment will have the +10 strength in districts promotion, so I will be slamming Myrmidon every turn at 58 vs. 42 effective strength. 

In the east, I'm deploying a reserve of 3 field cannons and 1 musket to defend the left flank of my army, be in position to reduce the encampment if necessary, and counter any returning forces from the German front. The terrain is very favorable to me here, as I can sit in the jungles and hills and fire upon him as he has to maneuver his forces on the plain below. 

So yeah, still a few turns to go, but that's the basic plan. Hopefully I'm able to take Mykenes relatively quickly, then split up my army to reduce the rest of his civilization (If Alhambram doesn't manage to win in the interim. If all goes as planned, I should have Archduke finished off in the ~t170 range, and can then turn my attention to Singaboy and complete my conquest of the eastern half of this continent. That's a long ways to go from here though, and a lot can happen between now and then. For now, I'm just hopeful I have not overlooked anything, and my carpet of doom will be enough to take Mykenes.

[oledavy]

Turns 139-141

Turn 139 came late last night, and t140, early this morning, so I wasn't awake enough after either to write a report in the moment. So, here are those two with t141!

In sum: Not much going on, still mobilizing. The action these turns is happening abroad, as I'm sure the lurker community is aware. 



Woden chopped out a campus in Seven Dwarves using the Limes bonus for a 7 science campus, combined with completing the university in Space Mountain. That puts him firmly in the lead in science. He's currently making about 87 per turn to my 70. After my mobilization, I will be cramming out a round of infrastructure everywhere that includes some campuses/libraries/univerisites and should catch me back up some, but it's likely he's going to maintain this edge for quite some time. 

What's more Alhambram is now completing campuses and working on his science number. He actually surpassed me for the first time this game this last turn. Woden continues to loom largest though. 

Of course, it's worth mentioning how immaterial this might all be. 



As expected, there is an excellent chance Alhambram wins this turn (t141). He's set to finish converting Singaboy, unless he gets a bad RNG roll from that missionary. Over in Woden land, Woden will have managed to clear out Weedy Movement from all but 5 cities by the end of this turn. However, Alhambram has 3 missionaries all in position to convert this turn. Now, each city they'll try to convert is unlikely to actually fall, but he only has to get lucky once. The game is resting on a razor edge, and I can't bear to watch.

If we make it through the next two turns alive, Woden likely has the situation under control. But...there will always be a risk. Alhambram gets a 30% discount on apostles, and all he needs to do is land one apostle with Proselytizer to end this game. However, it's a huge risk to take, when he could just sit on the faith to buy cossacks soon. I honestly don't know what I'd do if I was Alhambram and this current round fails. Do I spend all my faith in one last ditch attempt to get a proselytizer apostle (Woden is also likely running low on faith), or do I just cut my losses and begin saving faith to buy military units? Despite Woden's economic strength, since Alhambram has a UU he can purchase every 4.5 turns with his current faith production, I actually think he'll fare pretty well in a war. 

Fascinating questions. I would probably hedge, but Alhambram may be less risk averse. 

One thing is certain, my geopolitical position is amazing, provided we don't lose. Woden and Alhambram are now in a 1v1 to the death over there. Woden cannot turn a blind eye to Alhambram for a second or he loses. Woden is Alhambram's only obstacle to victory. I expect once this current DoF ends, they will be at war for the rest of the game. Woden's tech and city advantage versus faith bought cossacks. I honestly don't know who will come out on top, and expect it will be something of a stalemate. 

Meanwhile, if all goes as planned, I can conquer both of my opponents in the east and absorb 14 cities while they are sidetracked and unable to intervene....

We shall see what happens, but the dominoes have been falling just like I wanted them to so far.



As of the present turn, Archduke still has not taken Aachen, and is clearly taking losses. Singaboy has rebounded, finished a new round of units, and appears to be slowly pushing him off the city. This war has gone exactly the way I wanted, and if things continue apace, Archduke will not have the strength to resist me.



Woden is building Colossus, on an unrelated note. 

You can also see in this screen one of the missionaries threatening to end the game. 

I don't know who of the western players to fear more btw. I can say this religious war with Alhambram is hurting Woden's economy at least a little bit. His faith production has almost doubled, meaning he's running a faith production card instead of something else. He's having to spend faith on inquisitors and missionaries instead of great people. He's having to build holy sites, shrines, and temples instead of other things. Finally, he's switched to a Theocracy to be able to more effectively fight Alhambram. This means he's no longer getting +2 housing from medieval walls if nothing else, and had to sink culture into researching a civic I will never touch. 

I've actually been just giddy watching the two of them devolve into a knife fight to stay in the game, but it will only work to my advantage if Alhambram doesn't outright win. Here's hoping Woden prevails.....

Anyway, still holding my breath. Closer to home, I sank two more envoys into Carthage, shoring up my position there, getting a couple more hammers in Schuyler, and a couple more GPT. 

Archduke came to me with a bit of an absurd deal:



Even if I wasn't going to go to war with him, why would I pay him a lump sum when he can just declare and keep the gold in a few turns?  

On a similar note, I resigned my steal of a deal with Alhambram (4 GPT for silver). I think I'm going to basically try to stay out of any conflicts in the west for awhile, avoid picking sides, and just concern myself with things in the east. They seem both about evenly matched, both have a better chance of winning than me, so I'll just let them go at it for the time being. 

I still need to figure out someone to declare a causus belli war on though - maybe Singaboy. 

This last turn, I catapulted the world into the industrial age by finishing my 16 turn research of Ballistics: 



Here we go.  

Now I can also catch up on total techs researched relative to Woden, and backfill some cheap ones. He's probably going to maintain a 2-3 tech lead over me for quite some time, but I think I can hold steady versus watch him accelerate out of reach. 

Still, I can't wait for this mobilization to be over and to start grabbing things off my infrastructure shopping list. 

Oh, and I get Fugger next turn!

Anyway, things are looking good. Let's hope Alhambram doesn't win this turn and they stay that way!

[oledavy]

Turn 142

Big turn for me. I finished off Humanism and Banking this turn, and then at long last, was able to do this: 



In case you're wondering, I immediately used his ability and sank the additional envoys into both Carthage and Hattusa. I have a 4 envoy lead on the runner up in both cities now, and my 14 envoys are making me 14 GPT thanks to Trade Confederation. I also now have more gold than I know what to do with. 

Fugger was my third great person, giving me the Inspiration for the Enlightenment. Additionally, as GM, he gave me the Inspiration for Mercantlism, which I am headed towards next. Now if I could just figure out how to get 7 unique districts out before I need to research Civil Engineering. 

I swapped out Caravansaries for Professional Army:



Abroad, Alhambram got a bad RNG roll, and failed to convert Ulm last turn. Still, he definitely will this turn, bringing Singaboy into the fold. Fingers crossed, but I think Woden has things under control. There are still missionaries running around his lands, including yet another new one near Nan Madol, but it looks like Woden might have the situation under control - barring a sudden swarm of apostles anyway. 

This is the big news though: 



My trader is close enough to Aachen to see what's going on now. He might still have forces in the fog, but I doubt it. I believe Archduke has pulled back. The tell is the battering ram moving south. Singaboy wouldn't be moving it down here if he didn't think he might be able to retake Frankfurt 2. 

Alright, so I need to be prepared to do battle with the remnants of Archduke's forces that attacked Aachen. I'm figuring they consist of 4-5 crossbows, probably a couple highly promoted, and a knight or two. 

I need to be very careful not to be overzealous in my attack since there will now be quite a few more units who can oppose me. 

On the plus side, it looks like Singaboy is set on retaking his city, meaning Archduke will be fighting a two front war. 



One thing I hate about having a big military in these things is not knowing where to move it on idle turns like this, too late to hide them deeper in my territory, but too soon to move them up. 

It's unfortunate that Archduke's trader is going to move into my territory just a little bit in advance of my main attack. If I try to avoid being seen by the trader, it will delay my attack, but as a result, he'll know where I'm coming from. 

I can keep my crossbows hidden a tad longer though. I think next turn they move up, then on t144 they upgrade, which is also the turn Archduke will see them with the trader. Over the next two turns they'll get in position, and we can kick this thing off. 

I'm moving on of my muskets southward to try and get eyes on Archduke's returning forces, if that is indeed the case. I anticipate them arriving just about the time I begin the assault - movement buffed as they are. I need to be prepared to fight them first - to block them from deploying to reinforce Mykenes - which might involve moving onto the plain.

[oledavy]

Turn 143

I just want to fast forward to starting this invasion already, the wait is killing me. 

In the interim: 



I can't think of any reason not to accept, but I also couldn't think of a good reason to accept. I may want to make my Causus Belli War Dec on Alhambram and offer him peace 10 turns later still. 

At any rate, I refused. 

I'm editing my plan to be more conservative by the turn, as Archduke seems to be well aware of the threat and is moving heaven and earth to get his civ ready for me. 



He completed an armory in Mykenes last turn. On the plus side, that's one less unit to deal with. On the flip side, it likely means he's about to upgrade a musket. He has a sword available to make that happen. He will need to be in professional army to do the upgrade, as there is no way he'll have 260 gold before t148 (discounting a loan). Who knows, Woden knows what I'm up to surely, so he may front Archduke a loan to slow me down. 

At any rate, I can count on facing strength 45 cities instead of strength 38. This means that instead of 30-40 damage, my field cannons will do closer to 25-35. He has definitely withdrawn from around Aachen. 



I'm guessing that horse is just a sacrifice to check out Singaboy's advancing forces. 

This turn, I have eyes on a sword, wounded knight, crossbow, and the horseman. That's about ~155 military strength accounted for out of the ~400 he has. That means there are probably about 4-6 crossbows and a knight/horseman/other supporting units slowly working their way back from Aachen. My musket north of Dorium is watching for them. 

I'm rerouting units from the Delta Region to put more troops on both sides of my assault on Mykenes, chiefly on the plain south of the jungle belt. The primary target remains Mykenes, but I need to be ready to do battle with his army if he offers it up. 

He may make a push for the next GG, but I feel that's unlikely. Cramming out more units would be better. I'm also curious if he keeps his 2 GG's, or goes ahead and makes a crossbow corps - a unit that could actually do a ton of damage even to my field cannons. 

Abroad, Woden and Alhambram are running up the science score. Woden is now nearly making 20 more than me   Alhambram is now leading by about 8! I need to get some more campuses out as soon as possible if I want to keep pace. 

One of the few good things about my DoF with Archduke lasting longer than I expected is that it is giving me more time to get more of my muskets to the front. More of and more of my second wave is going to be there in time to take part in the initial invasion. I've decided on one more idle turn, upgrade on t145, then I'll begin positioning for the attack. 

Archduke will get eyes on the mass of my army this turn thanks to his trader. Bad luck/Good planning on his part, but he already knew I was coming, so I'm not too bothered. I wish I could have kept the direction of my attack secret a bit longer, but it seems I will not be able to manage that here.

[oledavy]

Turn 144

I feel a creeping sense of dread that this won't work, but I'm a naturally paranoid person, so there probably isn't much to it. 

Archduke did finish gunpowder this turn, and has started medieval walls in Buenos Aires. Unfortunately for him, I'm largely bypassing the city for my opening round. I continue tinkering with where I want units to come in, what I want my opening phalanx to look like. My eyes remain locked on the capital of Mykenes. Scouting has yet to uncover his army. It's worth noting he finished barracks in Myrmidon this last turn, which can only mean he's anticipating holding me off, and is pushing hard to get that next GG for the cavalry unit it provides. That confidence is unsettling. 

I'll feel a lot more comfortable when I find what survived the attack on Aachen and can get a more accurate read on his strength. At the moment, it's equal parts demo readings and conjecture. 

I started upgrading this turn, turning three crossbows into field cannons. 



Scorched Earth Inspiration down. I'm currently working on figuring out which city to get a harbor out of. I'm hopeful I can take Ithake and use it's IZ towards my 7 unique specialty districts total. 

Also in this shot, you can see Archduke's trader in Schuyler. If he had the slightest doubt of my intention, it's gone now. I'm abandoning pretense and openly moving my muskets through his territory to get to their staging positions. It also has the advantage of allowing me to see his unit movements. 

I'll upgrade the other 5 field cannons next turn, and complete 2 muskets, for a total opening attack force of 8 field cannons, 6 muskets, 1 knight, 1 GG, and 1 battering ram. 

Abroad, Woden is taking a more leisurely but more efficient path to finishing ballistics. 



Blargh. That path was impractical for me, due to the number of techs I'd have to research and the cost of the military engineer. Still, it's going to save him a tidy sum of beakers, which is not something I want to be seeing from him right now. 

3-4 turns to go.

[oledavy]

Turn 145



Wow. 

I would be lying if I said this came as a complete surprise, but I really didn't expect him to actually do it. Especially because his DoF is coming up with Woden soon. 

I'm guessing he sees which ways the winds are blowing, and wants to jump on the "Pillage Greece" hype train before it leaves the station. He'll probably take Helice and stop there. 

If he keeps going, we're going to have problems. I'm not even sure I'm okay with him having Helice, but I will address that situation when and if it arises. I'll just say there's nothing the Russians can field that I'm scared of at this point. 

My remaining anxiety over this invasion has all but evaporated, and while I can't afford to get cocky, the combination of the three of us invading the Greeks from 3 directions at once makes it very unlikely he can stop me from taking his cities. 

I do feel a little bad for Archduke, but only a little.... He started this by pillaging my trader and invading me earlier this game, has invaded Singaboy twice, pursued 2 GGs, etc. He has truly lived by the sword this game, but I think this will be the end for him. We shall see. 

Almost in position, one more turn until the first turn I need to be ready to go to war: 



Bit of a traffic jam southwest of Schuyler. Trying to get fanned out and deployed. Note my new GPT with all but 1 crossbow upgraded   Looks like I'm going to really need that gold reserve by the time I finish four more muskets and upgrade another field cannon. 

Despite the fact that I will likely be fighting him sooner rather than later, I'm really proud of Singaboy at this moment. 



Not only did he defend his capital from a double GG'd army, not only is he moving to retake Frankfurt 2, but he's managed to get to Exploration! You go man 

Still no eyes on Archduke's army, and I face the issue that I will likely be the one to tackle the majority of Archduke's remaining forces, since I'm going after his capital and the other two are attacking outlier cities. Still, I'm feeling more and more confident. The fact that his army has not appeared around his capital yet makes it more and more likely I may be able to blitz the city. 

We shall see. Only a little longer to go.