[SPOILERS] Will the Sun(rise) Ever Set on Washington, Mongolia?

[Whosit]

Tactics question: Is it ever wise to split a stack? This isn't pertinent to anything happening right now, but just something I've wondered about. As far as I can tell, the answer is usually "no," but I'm wondering if there are situations where you can increase the survivability of your units by splitting them up.

[Whosit]

Another note: Those two Korea stacks I saw (what's in Yamato and what Grimace was sending at me) are worth 75K total. I'm not sure if he's last place power or not (since I haven't met everyone and I need to remember I have OB with Zulu now and maybe I can meet the Vikings), but last place is sitting at 307K. A chunk of that is going to be population and tech and maybe some buildings, though of all the Korean cities I can see, I don't think I saw any Barracks. In any case, just as a random ballpark, I'd be willing to guess that what I saw is between 1/4 and 1/3 of his active forces. Some will be tied up in garrisons, of course, and more might be heading my way. Ah, I've also seen 6K worth of Galleys, so there's that. It's probably unlikely that he's going to try to throw all that at me, but if he doesn't accept peace this time, I hope he does so I can just wipe it out.

I've also begun ordering infantry units towards the front in case I need to begin the dozen-turn process of ruining his shit. If he wants to give me an excuse to burn or capture his island holdings, then fine. (Probably burn, because of costs.)

[Whosit]

Saw Grimace whipped a couple times, so somehow I doubt that he took the peace.

[Whosit]

No peace. Grimace advanced some troops to the pass northwest of Yamato. Not sure if he's going to advance on my captured city (I need to rename it something), or if he's just going to camp there in expectation that I'll attack. Either way is fine with me. In a few turns I'll have a canal north and I can start tearing into some of his other cities. I'm sure he'll whip defenses on his island holdings, but I find it doubtful that they can withstand the forces I could bring to bear. As long as I stuff some units into my captured city and keep some Keshiks on hand, I can surely handle anything he throws that way. I'm eager to resume my naval campaign, though, because the more ports of his that I eliminate, the stronger my naval dominance.

Soos has queued up 3 Triremes. I might squeeze one or two out of Stanford. I decided to put a Forge into McGucket. It's a 6-turn build, so I wavered a bit, but it will add enough production that the city can 2-turn build 50 hammer units, so I think it'll pay for itself after not too long (I've just been building Axes, Spears, and Swords out of it for the last several turns).

I took some pictures which I'll probably put up tomorrow.

[Whosit]

Grimace is now fielding War Elephants and Triremes (built in Yamato, sunk one of my Galleys). So I've lost initiative at the sea for the time being, but I've got several queued up in Soos, and I'm going to build/whip a few Triremes out of other cities over the next half dozen turns, so I expect to take naval superiority by the end of this. I'll probably lose a few fishing nets in the meantime, but I can deal with that. The WEs are going to be more problematic. I can make plenty of Formation Keshiks, but they still don't get odds, plus he'll have Spears mixed in with the stacks, so I'll take lots of casualties. Honestly, I might promote a few Flanking II Keshiks to try and whittle their stacks down, and I'll also try to add in a few more Spears to my main defensive lines.

I think I have to admit that, at this point, any plan to strike at CH is going to have to wait until the era of Knights. I think I'll be stuck in this war with Grimace for a while, so I'm going to have to give it my all, and I'll also need to try and make this profitable. Yamato is now an actual objective, as are any island cities that look ripe for the taking and keeping. I'll still raze if necessary because I'd rather reduce his number of port cities (and thus shipyards). As long as I can retake mastery of the waves, I'll have the mobility advantage. I believe.....

[Whosit]

A 1-pop whip from Grimace, and he plays his turns fast, but that doesn't change the fact that I've lost the initiative for the time being.

[Whosit]

Played half a turn. I've been having graphical crashes again, so I'm gonna try not to play for more than 5 minutes at a time. So, here's some of those pictures I had promised....

Turn 140:

I'm no longer 1st in Crop Yield. 4th now, but still close. I think my real GNP is significantly lagging behind the other leaders, but that's just a guess because I don't really have a good way of gauging where everyone else is, tech-wise, except I know everyone else has had CS and been in Bureau for some time. I think my Music detour was a big mistake, but I guess I can hang on to that Artist for a little while, either for a bomb some time in the future, or for Golden Age 2. I think I'm also doing OK in land area, so I don't think my position is hopeless. At the very least, I'm doing much better than in any previous game.

Turn 141:

Looks like Johns is planning to cash in on that Merchant if I had to guess.

Turn 142 (so far):

That stack on the hill has grown from 12 to 14 units since last turn. To be honest I am not sure if he's just defending the land route to Yamato or if he's preparing an attack. I could, conceivably, still take Yamato from sea, but I'd need like 8 Galleys and 16 units. So... not practical right now. So far Grimace has declined to chase my retreating Galleys or to rip up any of my nets yet. His Trireme got a promotion, sadly, but I just popped my first Trireme from Soos, and the SoZ gives it XP for a C1 promo right away, and C2 after it wins a fight. Triremes queued up in several other cities, and some will be whipped in the next few turns. I don't really have a count, but maybe I can get 4 Triremes in the water in the next 2 turns? Only Soos will produce any with XP, though.

I might actually convert to Hinduism when I hit Golden Age, but I might have to back up and get the tech for OR. Unless I still wanna waste time building that Swhedagon Paya or whatever.

[Whosit]

I'm kind of hitting that point where my workers are running out of useful things to do. So, uh.... not really sure what to do with them now. Build roads I don't really need? I'm still sore that I missed my window to capture a bunch of CH's Workers but whatever. Grimace is still amassing his troops and more Triremes are appearing, so I'm swapping even more cities to Triremes with the plan to whip them out asap. I'm definitely going to lose some important fishing nets soon, but I'll just have to rebuild them with some workboats.

Grimace now has a stack of 16 units, and it's probably going to keep growing. I'm bringing up more units to reinforce (need to remember to rename that city for real). Walls have been whipped, working on Theatre. Not that I have very many units in the city yet that can make use of those walls....

Perhaps we'll see if I have bitten off more than I can chew, as per usual. Images:

Turn 142 Demos vs T143


That city is on a hill, but what really matters is how many units are in there, and what kind.

Enemy forces....



Look at all the money people who aren't me have. I'm only earning 74 gpt at 0% science.

[flugauto]

What units do you have in Akagi?

[Whosit]

I think at the moment an Axe, a Sword, and 16 Keshiks, with another half dozen Keshiks 1 tile to the west. A stack of 4 swords and 2 axes are on the way, and trickling in some archers. Don't have any spears free spears atm though.