[SPOILERS]2metraninja for PB17 (If any)

[WilliamLP]

Trust me, your feelings about the double moving here are not excessive, and you're not alone. I think he'd get more out of playing just a very few games and putting a lot of thought into them, rather than playing so many and just playing without thinking then giving up.

Thanks for the report.

[2metraninja]

Thanks for the feedback about Azza and for reading my pictureless report. I dont know why I have such problem with uploading pictures. At one point I was enjoying using Dropbox, as it is easy and quick and most of all, I have access form everywhere, but then it became full to its limit. Someone knows how do I remove things from my dropbox which dont affect linked dropboxes? (We have shared account with few other guys)

[spacetyrantxenu]

You can remove files that aren't located on your public folder, that won't break any links you've posted. Or start using an alternate service?

[2metraninja]

Yes, sure, it was more of a rhetoric question why I have such a problem and reluctance to upload pictures, when I know that a picture is worth a thousand words.

[2metraninja]

For those of you interested in classical wars, here I have some update how my second war with Sian is going:

3-4 turns after the peace with Slowcheetah is signed, my army is moving towards Sian:



I used 2 pairs of workers to build road on the tile 3 of the iron, then moved all I could in the forest in the Sian's city diagonal, 2 other workers included. I had put 1 Jewish missionery just to freak Sian out, stating: "I am here for the booty and I come here to stay. This is my territory and I am bringing even a freaking priest to convert your people to my religion". Must have worked to some degree as Sian had emptied the city so I took it:




Parked all my units in the newly conquered city and planned to move some units East to threaten possible undefended city there and some to South to take what I thought was the Christianity Holy City (because of it's relatively big culture).




How could I know Sian's culture will be so big from this city to cover the hill with the road so I wont be able to move to the darned uncut jungle my mobile stack is sitting at and was stopping me from the full speed blitzkrieg I was hoping to of course. And how could I know there will be no road on the jungle tile 6 of it? Of course "In war if there is something to go wrong, it will".




Next turn I took both Sian's cities of Alladin and Quack Pack.

There was a stack of about 6-7 Sian units staying in the hill 36 from Aladdin and I was wondering if I use my HAs to hit them, but I decided against as there were 2 axes on a hill and those had odds against my HAs. I was also hoping Sian will get more units together and will try to resist me there and I will just bring my catapults and kill most of his army in the battle. Well, Sian came at me attacking me in my new hill city. It must have been truth the old saying that "In foreign village, even the roof tiles are fighting you" because he won some battles he should not had.



Just now I saw the Great General I got is Belisarius. I always thought about this as good omen, as I know his story and also he was born not far away from my own birth place.

I pushed a bit forward to see if I can get his capitol unprepared, but alas:




I had to make a plan what to do with his stack when he comes west.




I decided to push with all mounted I have to be able to take Timon the next turn and then to cut the road 9 of it so Sian cant hit me with his catapults and fresh stack. If he is brave enough to come at me in 2 turns, I hope to be able to crush him.

Or if I get lucky and he stays at 66 from Timon, I might get him with HAs and kill his stack in the open - he does not have any spears in his main stack and I hope this to not change. Depending on luck, I might well crush his whole battle ready stack which is in his capitol right now and actually take Timon with slow movers supported with catapults.




I had left the single chariot on the Iron to possibly lure his spear out of the city to remove his 25% fortify bonus and to put even the slightest possible dent in his hitpoints to make it easier for my HAs to take the city if I so decide the next turn.

Well, that's it for now. I hope to be able to get Sian's capitol too (it's culture will touch Timon and will be danger, plus who does not want a nice capitol added to his empire?) With those cities and with the southern peninsula and east strips of land I will get full control of, I hope to make something like baby boom/economical miracle and actually get in the top half of the score before the game ends (fingers crossed conceding is not common fashion among the players in this game). Given my vicissitudes in the game so far - being declared war twice, losing settler and so many hammers in units just to defend, being unable to settle where I wanted on both west and east, being pinkdotted by Nakor on MY continent ( note to self I might need to bleed just few more noses before started to being seen as someone who is not worth the pain messing with), plus me building and sacrificing to get TGLH just to be informed (actually reminded, as I should had knew the (numerous) bans and house rules of the game) that it is not allowed to be built, so I just flushed 1 World Wonder worth hammers down the canal to top all of this. So yeah, if I finish in the top half, that would be actually nice.

[Bobchillingworth]

Nicely done man, making lemonade out of some of the most lemony neighbors you could have.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Thanks 2MN, that's the only report we've had of Sian's lands since February. Looks like the beatdown is well underway. Carry on!

[2metraninja]

Hopefully you will see it almost the whole from inside.

I really dislike being squeezed to play in the last 2-3 hours each time. Always fearing diplo-screen pauses, always having to rush, to remember to pause for other players after me, or having to play early in the morning before work to not slow the game and then being forced to play in a hurry - like the last turn I played, I made a mistake, which I realized just after I went out of home, but I had no time to come back and repair it. Because of this mistake (easy remedied by at least 2-3 ways) I had lost one city back to Sian. I know this even before looking at the game which is loading at the moment. And I also know I will reclaim this city, but it will take again time to get out of revolt, etc, etc....

[Old Harry]

How's it going? Got that capital yet ?

[2metraninja]

Not yet unfortunately. I dont had the needed quantity and quality of troops to take it with brute force as Sian have like 15 units inside it probably ( last time I had visibility on it, he had like 10 axes + catapults there and it was some 5-6 turns since then. I might have the force to take it right now, but I have some strategic considerations. I am not sure what Furungy is doing. What if he is parked his HAs just 2 tiles outside Sians capitol and waits for me to smash my army in to Sian's and take the capitol with heavy loses just to find myself ran over by Furungy? In such an apocalyptic scenario, I might well lose all of my current gains in this war or even worse. Sian is doomed anyway. 5 turns early or late finishing him does not worth the risk. But while I was healing, I did some plans to not only let my soldiers lay down and do nothing. I am now in the process of taking or back-filling Sian's 2 juicy cities which I had cut off from his main territory by taking this wall fortified last city. Next turn hopefully I will take the first and then proceed with the other while I am waiting for the reinforcements to come so I can think about his capitol. Poor guy lost a city to the barbs last turn Unfortunately it was auto - razed. I could had intervened to save his city, but I decided against. I did not knew if Sian will ever let that city grow over 1 (it was settled in the turn I declared the war) so I can have it. Sigh.