Gavagai climbs the chaos ladder

[Gavagai]

Didn't get to report the previous turn, so will be reporting two turns now. They were eventful and bloody.

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Western front. That was what the garrison of Gao looked like at the start of T246 (well, after I airbombed it). Sixteen units, mostly trash. However, Mig had eight transports and a galley ready to unload in Kumbi Saleh, potentially 34 units. It smelled like a trap, he even moved away an airship from the city on the previous turn. Still, I decided to spring the trap. Mig got Industrialism, so I figured this was my last chance to achieve any progress on this front until nukes. And I thought he underestimated my army. I had 24 units on transports and vodka predicted I'd lose 3-4 of them. It would give me 20 units I would be able to move inside the city immediately, mostly lightly wounded because the combat would be easy after a few tough top defenders. Also, I have one empty transport in Mirror World which I could use to move 4 elite defenders inside the city. So, Mig would have to kill 24 good units standing on a hill with 34 of his own - and he could not have tanks yet. I thought it was hardly doable.

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Well, this did not go as planned. Instead of four projected units, I lost eight, all of them tanks, including four CR3 ones. It gave me 20 defenders instead of 24 (on the picture) which is much dicier against 34 attackers, especially if Mig had the right combination of hitters and siege. Just for you to understand how bad the rng was - vodka predicted that I had 100 percent chance to win this battle and yet I was one lost combat away from not taking the city. So I was fully prepared that I would lose the city back to Mig.

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Enter next turn, 247. Mig did something very mysterious. He unloaded half of his transports, four out of eight in Kumbi Saleh. He attacked with 16 units, including some cannons, twelve died, and four scored kills (I cleared one of them before taking this picture; I also killed the other three eventually). That was the point where he would be getting very good odds against everything I had left in the city but he... just stopped. The most natural explanation was that his other transports were empty; but in that case - why bother attacking at all, he just has thrown his units away. Also, given his aggregate power numbers, I find it hard to believe it was all he had. In any case, Gao held and preserved most of its garrison, even though it got battered.
I was not sure what to do next. Part of me wanted to just cut my losses and give Gao back to Mig. The thing is, the city is not holdable long-term if Kumbi Saleh stands. Mig can can unload units there and attack Gao from land. Mig has the capability to essentially mass-produce triple-promoted units so I need to expect lots of CR3 tanks. They will slaughter anything I put inside Gao, hill or not. Given the losses I suffered, I don't quite see a future where I am able to raze Kumbi Saleh before Mig has a critical mass of tanks. Also, there is this:

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I spotted approaching Pindicator's transports on the previous turn. This turn I lost track of them, but they are likely in the fog somewhere to the west. Outside observers probably don't know it but Pindicator plays a crucial role in holding Western front together for the Evil Coalition. Without his fleet killing my fifteen destroyers and turning back the tide in the Battle of Chatgpt, Mig would have collapsed back then. Now Pindicator keeps 24 ships here and this is the only thing preventing me from moving in with my fleet and forking Mig's cities. And now Pindicator brings land reinforcements. These transports should be able to unload in Kumbi Saleh this turn which means we need to add 12 more units to whatever Mig has. So, Pindicator saved Mig in the sea and now will very possibly save him on land.
So, one idea was to give up Gao and save my wounded units. But it pained me to give up Gao without a fight, so eventually I settled on the following compromise:

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I evacuated almost everything from Gao back to Mirror World. These units were too wounded to effectively defend but they are also rather valuable: almost all of them have three promos, half of them are tanks. As a replacement, I moved in the garrison force you see on screen. I think it should be enough to defend from Mig or Pindicator taken separately; if they both attack - well, at least I should get some very good trades with that and all these units are ultimately expendable. For Machine Guns in particular this is probably the last chance to be anything but cannon fodder. And if somehow my garrison holds - next turn I'll have enough transports to move up to twenty units inside the city, more than the current garrison of Mirror World.
Mig already played at the moment of this writing and I know I did not lose any cities. Pindicator is still up, however. So that's where we stand now. On to the next frontline.

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South-Western front, a new one. On T246 I moved forward a small raiding party having only one task: pillage and burn. 

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That's what I saw next turn. Three Airships from three different powers, minimal defenses - a juicy target.

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Further scouting revealed something even more interesting. Three transports escorted by a total of eight destroyers. I remember these transports: a few turns ago I spotted them moving away from Western front. I bet Mig really wishes now to have back there. Or maybe not: he clearly did not turn them away.

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I cleared out his ships, losing, I think, one Destroyer or maybe not even that: I had a Battleship and much better promos. The question was what to do with Supernova. I planned to just raze it but I had bad rolls on attack and one transport had not been enough. I was forced to move up another transport, a valued seven-mover which I could not cover as my ships were spent on clearing out Mig's flotilla.

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I ended up keeping the city and hiding the transport inside which I am not sure was the right call. The picture above illustrates how much of an idiot I ended up being here. One of my tank is not in a position to attack Asteroid next turn because I saw Mig's Airship chilling in a fort and for some reason thought it was very important to take it out. Also, my fleet is positioned just one tile away from being able to bombard Asteroid's defenses. I just had a brain fart and put them eight tiles away from the city, forgetting I would still need to have a movement point left to be able to bombard. With this retarded unit positioning, I mostly likely just gifted Mig an extra turn to save Asteroid. If I fail to take the city, I think I would not have any other option left then to just pack my things and leave.

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Eastern front. On T246 I captured ex-Bangalore from Commodore and discovered he is sending a mighty rescue party there. I was so focused on preparing to meet it that I fucked up:

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I moved my main fleet to the north, leaving a glaring hole in my defenses. If Commodore had moved to where the sign "Comm moves T247" is, he would have been able to threaten Pulau Ubin and my Battleships would not be able to catch him. Moreover, he could move to "248" sign and fork a whole bunch of cities on different landmasses. Not just my fleet but my transports and land units were out of position: I would not have been able to move in sufficient garrisons. I noticed it only after I committed most of my units and though I took some measures to prepare, I would have needed some really good rolls to avoid losing a city or two.
This incident was a warning sign for me: I am getting overeager. My Southern fleet could have plugged this hole but I sent most of it to raid Mig's underbelly. This contributed, by the way, to my decision not to commit too much to defending Gao next turn.
Anyway, enter T247 and did Commodore take advantage of my mistake?

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Oh. My. God. Oh my fucking god. Also, "oops, I did it again". I feel like I really should be putting more faith in Commodore in these situations. Instead of taking a golden opportunity to outflank me and do some real damage for once, he marched yet another naval stack straight to its death. What happened to this fleet was some hardcore BDSM porn. I softened its best defenders with airplanes, then slammed something like fifteen Battleships into it, and then Destroyers picked out the survivors. Everything died with me losing two ships.
There is also a land component to this force:

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I thinned it out a bit, killing all the tanks, most importantly, but was not able to kill it outright. My garrison mostly consists of low xp infantry and the odds were poor. This is the situation at the end of my turn:

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Commodore has some transports and galleons incoming and can drop up 13 more land units there if he is willing to throw them away (why not at that point). So I brought in reinforcements.

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Demos after two turns. Due to intense fighting my power increased only slightly. Rival best power is now Pindicator after all the horrendous losses Mig and Commodore suffered.

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Pindicator's mfg flatlined. I think it means he built all the factories and power plants he wanted and will now build units. You see, he industrialized first and then went to war, like a normal person, while Mig and Comm built an army instead of industrialization, like idiots. Now Pindicator has more power than his allies but also an advanced industrial base. On top of it, he had a global food lead (even over me) even before he founded Sushi and now his lead will become wider and wider. In contrast to me he can use his food corp to actually grow cities while I am heavily capped by war weariness and unhealthiness (no Supermarkets and they are not forthcoming anytime soon). In many cases I just use Cereal Mills branch as a health-building substitute.
I think the nature of this war is shifting. It is more and more becoming "me versus Pindicator and his goons" than "me versus Evil Coalition". Pindicator, I think, has about fifty percent chance to win if Mig and Comm just stay at war with me indefinitely, provided no progress on battlefronts was made. No chance of winning for Mig and Comm though, so the question is why Mig and Comm would want to do this. I get they dislike my face but is this reason good enough? So I decided to send out some diplo:

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My offer to Mig is pretty much "Hey, if you want to be a vassal so much, why don't you want to be mine? I can protect you, much better than Pindicator can". Mig squandered his only chance to win the game by entering this war but at the very least he can conquer his home continent and get a strong second place. Maybe this sort of thing interests him and this is what I can offer.

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The offer to Commodore is slightly different: "Go take Sushi headquarters, you fool, this is your only chance at this point". 
I think they should accept. At this point, they must either concede or try something new to improve their position or concede and in both cases there is no point in fighting this war. My expectations are low, though. When it comes to this game, reason and honor abandoned these two long ago.
And if they refuse...

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[Gavagai]

A question: can anyone see my images? I mean, those who used to be able to see them. Because for me they all broke all of a sudden and I have no idea what happened.

[Krill]

I can see them

[xist10]

Okay, I'm surprised. I can't see the pictures. I saw the embedded pictures last months, but now ?
Firefox and Safari for me in Germany.

And a question: Could you add an empty line between text and picture ?

[Mjmd]

I can see the pictures.

[DaveV]

The pictures still show up for me in Chrome Incognito mode. USA location.

[El Grillo]

The pictures all show up for me.

[Thoth]

I can see your pictures.

Running Firefox under windows 10 in Canada.

[klops]

thanks, all fine for me, too.


"Due to intense fighting my power increased only slightly"

Heh, can't be too bad, then

[Gavagai]

So, I can see my own pictures in a different browser or in incognito window - it looks like I am now having the same problem Q complained about. In any case, I think it is a good stopping point for regular reporting because, frankly, I don't have any motivation to keep doing it and what happens of frontlines is of little relevance (and interest). It seems that Com and Mig intend to stay in this war no matter how much damage I inflict on them and if this is the case, Pindicator wins. He already have more food and more GNP than I do and the gap will only become wider as he spreads Sushi around. With Supermarkets and low war participation he has much less issues with health and happiness than I do and can grow cities much taller. The only area in which I am still dominant is mfg and if I were in peace I would be able to leverage it to fix my problems and win the space race. But currently my mfg is irrelevant because all of it goes to this stupid war which Mig and Com prosecute for Pindi. It is unclear what is the benefit here for Mig and Com who bled their civs white just to give Pindicator a chance but I already learned not to ask such questions.
TLDR: if Com and Mig - at least one of them - ever make peace with me, I win. If they don't - Pindicator wins.
I'll unlock nukes in three turns and my last hope that it will trigger concession somehow. A very weak hope as it will not change anything in the game situation fundamentally. It is already the case that Comm and Mig cannot win, so destroying a few of their high value cities would not make their situation any worse in that sense. If concession does not happen, I will strongly consider conceding to Pindicator myself. In any case, the game will have to end by the end of August as academic year will start and I will not have time or energy for the tactical nightmare of nuclear warfare. One result I'll never accept is draw. The way the game transpired is that Mig and Com have a choice: give this game to Pindicator or allow me to win naturally. They need to make this choice and own it, not avoid it.
An absurd game. The bizarre thing it would be much easier for me to play if Commodore displayed a shred of strategic competence and maintained parity with me instead of self-destructing. Or if Mig beelined knights instead of building stupid religious wonders and conquered his continent thirty turns earlier.