Where to will Singaboy steer the Teutonic power?

[Singaboy]

T134:
For Dreylin as a dedlurker, since you can't check Archduke's posts. It is just too much what I am up against. Mind you, he has those dreaded Generals that allow him to pillage and move with his knights. The knights are clearly the main threat to take the city as the crossbows can only shoot but not hit with a battering ram support.

I try my best to remove 1/2 knights to soften the impact on the city next turn. If he brings more units, I am doomed anyway. I use two crossbows, the city defense and the musket to soften the knight. The final crossbow does the job to eliminate. It leaves me open to counters by the crossbows. I avoid to attack any unit without the chance to kill it in case it will earn a promotion with it. Next turn he can roll in the battering ram and hit the city with the knight. I had to sacrifice the city strength from 72 to 60 but I feel its worth the elimination of one knight. I move the swordsman up to the city so I can potentially move into the city and promote the sword to a musket. I need 230 gold and should have about enough. I asked oledavy for 1 gold due to that. Less units should mean more gpt anyway.

In the north, I finally killed one of Archdukes stray horsemen, that pillaged the Hansa at Seoul. It will take some time to move down to Aachen and needs to heal anyway. Ulm will go for a musket (3 turns) after the walls are done.

I hope I can at least last to defend Ulm until oledavy declares on Archduke. oledavy will net the third General and hopefully really give Archduke a run for the money. I will fight alongside him as long as I can.

For the fun of it, I preserved a horseman in the south for some pillaging action. The thing is that his city bombardment gave my horseman the exp to be promoted and that means the horseman will survive the next shot, pillage the iron and move away. I would say, this means I won the war, no?

[Dreylin]

He also needs a melee unit to take the city, right? So targeting the Knights for elimination is certainly the right tactic. Maybe he can take it next turn, but that would probably require most of his Crossbow shots and so you should have the units to kill the Knight and retake. I guess he'll pull the Knight back this turn and try to take out some of your units.

[Singaboy]

T135:
Aachen lives another day (or maybe two)

Well, I am not sure what Archduke wants there. Just like oledavy at Seoul, he seems to be dancing around the city taking some of my units but making no real progress attacking. He has such superior forces, I am not sure what keeps him from zooming in. After opening the save, I wonder whether he actually thinks Ulm is an easier target.

Good thing, I completed the walls just in time for that (thanks oledavy for scaring me enough in a previous war, so I had started those walls and stopped just 2 turns shy of it). There couldn't have been a better time for it. Archduke's knight is out for the pillage? What is the objective of that? Not as if I am far behind in the game already. If he wants to take the cities, why pillage districts? Normal stuff can be repaired easily, but districts? Not to mention that pillaging them doesn't do much good anyway. Most likely he doesn't even know that.



Well, I do what I can do and pull the heavily wounded crossbow into Ulm and bombard the knight from Ulm. It takes some damage which is pretty encouraging. He no longer enjoys flanking bonuses. Anyway, I don't want to get more of my units defeated and try and play a defensive game. I keep the crossbow in Aachen for now in order to hit a volley at one of the crossbows, the city does the same. Archduke can now decide what to do. Give up on city attacks and go for pillaging (my traders for example). His knight is pretty much in danger right now and at the moment, the only other units there to conquer a city is a swordsman. I move the my knight up the hill across the water. He can still shoot at it and most likely eliminate it, but he would move his troops into the city defense zone of Aachen and Ulm.
His choice. In three turns, with 2 more muskets, I will feel a lot better. Need to make sure I survive til then with both cities.




In other news, Archduke tried to take out my iron pillager but failed and it does its job for a mini victory. Gives 25 science, not that it helps a lot. Archduke has maneuvered himself in a position, where it will take him ages to get back to his own land to defend for a possible counter from oledavy who just snagged the third GG.

[Dreylin]

Looking OK, but I have to agree that I don't fully understand TheArchduke's tactics here; taking out your units is clearly the main goal before lining up the attack, but what is that Knight up near Ulm supposed to accomplish?

I hope you've calculated the the defensive numbers correctly though, since I think he can hit Aachen with all his visible units next turn...

[Singaboy]

I hope you've calculated the the defensive numbers correctly though, since I think he can hit Aachen with all his visible units next turn...

Now, I start to get worried...He has two units that can attack the city walls, the sword and the knight. However, the knight is at 50% health. Unless he can take down the walls with both units, his crossbows don't really do much against city walls. However, if he wants to occupy the city, he needs the knight or sword. So, by right, he can only use either the knight or the sword to attack the walls, I doubt that's enough to take down the walls.

We shall see

[Dreylin]

Ah, good point. I think he's got his unit mix wrong then ... also Both of them are out of range of both Generals...

[Singaboy]

Well, the sword/battering ram should be under the influence of the left GG and hence, be able to attack next turn. He might use him to hit the walls first and then use his crossbows to attack too. His knight could move in last for a final attack, but as it isn't within the GGs influence at the start of the turn, will not benefit from them in terms of movement and strength.

The city should survive this and I can move the musket into the city next turn to take care of the swordsman with a combined musket and horseman (now at the encampment) attacks. I would still have the crossbow (swapped with musket) to shoot at the knight and the current healthy knight to take care of the 50% health knight, leaving Archduke potentially with no unit to take the city.

If this will be the scenario, it would leave his crossbows exposed for the following turns. Unless he brings in one or two additional knights, he might have to wait.

Of course, the second scenario would be, Archduke trying to take out more of my units with his crossbows while retreating the knight to heal.

I am hoping to survive with both cities until the new muskets are ready. It would be turn 138 by then and his window of opportunity closing down. I expect oledavy (unless his sending of 1 gold and accepting my 1 gold request is not a sign of an agreement not to attack each other)n to declare war on Archduke on turn 148 (they signed peace and possibly friendship on T117). Archduke has now 13 turns left to take Aachen and possibly Ulm before preparing for war with oledavy. He has to zoom in on my cities fast unless his goal is mere destruction of Singaboy (as if I am not the last on all accounts already).

His bipolar behaviour has gotten him nowhere in this game except making sure, I am in no position to win. I am not quite certain what I did that he is so hell bent on this goal? Me founding Frankfurt? Him getting scared of German's potential might? If he had his eyes set on me, he should have pressed on after razing Frankfurt the first time. Since he didn't and saw his goals achieved by founding his own iron city at Kilimanjaro, why then go after me yet again? Why let me recover and zoom in again?
All that would have been understandable if I had ever been in the lead of threatening to move ahead in the game, but no, I was always scraping at the bottom of the barrel after the first rounds of war on two fronts.

Archduke's behaviour reminds me really of 'Yuris against teh'. taking a single incident of a city placed in a perceived 'this is my spot' to wage a useless never ending war while someone else wins the game.

Maybe, there is something I can't see. I have no idea.

[Singaboy]

Addition to my thoughts:

In this second war, did Archduke expect to take over my land completely or hope to achieve that together with oledavy? That might be a possibility. Maybe oledavy is waiting for Archduke to take out Aachen and move to Ulm, before he moves in towards Seoul.

I am stating this as I find it incomprehensible that Archduke takes my cities hoping I would cede them? There is no chance in hell I would ever do that. His taking my cities would not do him much good until I am out of the game. And remember, all this warring he does will drives his war weariness up through the roof. A new war with oledavy will cost him dearly and he might have revolts all over the place.

My pop 10 city Mainz has -4 war weariness by now and -2 amenities. This is no joke and revolts might happen one fine day.

[Singaboy]

T136:
No images, forgot to save one. Instead of starting to attack the city, Archduke continues to kill my units. That might feel good to him, I would too. But, if you look at the bigger picture, I think, he would be better off attacking the city finally. He took two more units, including my upgraded musket (that hurts actually as I wanted to use it for city strength).
On the counter, I take out two of his six (!!!) crossbows he has in the meantime. Unfortunately, his knight got upgraded and joins the action as well as 2 swordsmen and 1 horseman. Taking those two crossbows, I expose another knight and crossbow for counters. That is part of my plan to delay his taking of Aachen. The longer he takes to finally attack, the less time he has to move his units toward Ulm or reinforce once oledavy attacks (I am now pretty sure oledavy is not sneak attacking me, hope I am not wrong).

I really fear to open T137 to find Aachen gone, but what do I see?
Yes again, Archduke decides to take out two of my units instead of attacking the city. He might have fired some shots, but the impact is negligible. What is he waiting for? There will never be the right moment, but one got to seize the moment and he had plenty of chances to simply attack and take the city defense out.

Well, thanks for the chance that I spot. Checking unit after unit, I realize that one of his crossbows covering a General is not only at strength 40, but within reach of my sacrificial horse. I fire two shots at it.



Oh, I am so so sorry. Sure, my horseman will get killed, but one more crossbow is gone. And, the Great General has been teleported back to god knows where (I am not sure whether it is his closest city or the capital, I assume it's Troy). For the next round of attacks, he lost some important support for all but the western crossbow. If Aachen survives, it will have another musket done ready to strike and increase city defense.

My whole point of the war is to delay Archduke from taking Aachen, even if he ultimately takes it, until he gets cornered by oledavy. There are now 10 turns left til T147, the turn I assume oledavy can declare war on Archduke. What is his goal in this pointless exchange of units and patience here at Aachen. To prove that he is better than me? Good, I admit I will be #5, so you will be #4, happy?

I chop out a crossbow at Seoul which moves toward Ulm. Ulm will also have a musket done next turn. Seoul goes for another crossbow done in 7, Mainz is on a musket ready in 7.

By the way, initially I had though of attacking the westernmost crossbow, but there is some sort of bug here. The unit stands on mere grassland but gets +10 strength. This is a serious bug if that is true. Not the first bug that bugs me

This is quite awful as +10 is significant really

[Singaboy]

To add to my bewilderment of Archduke's goal here in this war:

The current score. Looks like Archduke can't even beat me by much currently. Being bipolar doesn't have so many benefits after all.