[SPOILERS] I'm really good at video games!

[Bobchillingworth]

Ho-hum. Advanced my stack on Commodore's city. He killed my Chariot with an Axe, which I then took out with another Chariot. Happy to trade units like that if it means knocking out defenders who would otherwise absorb collateral hits. Also killed a WC he had roaming around my NE frontier.


AT and someone else (AL?) accepted strat-for-strat trades, but who knows if they'll actually contribute anything. I also gifted a free clam to AT, since he has literally zero troops in his closest mainland city to me. TBH I'm a little confused about the map design here. It's like I'm specifically not supposed to fight anyone except Commodore... it's all largely worthless ice between me and everyone else. AT also seems to have a worse start than me- I've scouted all his land, and it looks like he was burdened by jungle early on, which I've never had to deal with, and I had Furs at my capital while he's stuck with Wines. I can't complain about my land at all from what I've seen, but I feel like there are some curious inequities.

[Bobchillingworth]

Whew, heavy turn. Commodore had more units in his city than I anticipated:





I guess he has Engineering? But no Pikes? No idea... I did feel kind of dumb that I let him get away with only leaving a single Axe in his other bordering city.


I was thinking of siming, but that was too much work. I did figure that 8 Catapults could probably damage his stack enough to make attacking viable. First I sent in my seven 3 or 0 exp Catapults; the ones which could take a promotion all went for barrage. All of them died, which was unfortunate, but they did a lot of damage. My 5 exp Catapult promoted up to city raider II, and survived at about 60% odds against the top LB defender.


Then the units went in. I got lucky with the first combat or two (about 20% odds), and that was likely critical. For the most part the battle was a one-sided slaughter once the LB was dead:








I did lose my sentry chariot at 95% odds at the end there, but I can't complain with the overall results:





Unfortunately the fact that I lost all but one of my catapults combined with my stack being rather heavily damaged means that I can't take his next city before he'll have time to reinforce with more 2-promo LB. I spawned a GG who I'll make into a super-medic, heal up, try to rustle up some more Catapults, and then reassess. I also see that Al is moving around some HA near Mango in a suspicious manner. I hope he isn't getting any ideas- I have like ten elite Spearmen on that front now, and I have zero interest in having to kill his units right now. Either pile in on Commodore, whose army I just wiped out, or continue playing in your sandbox.


Seriously though, there guys should hurry up and move on Commodore. I'm doing all of the heavy labor for them! Ugh, whatever.


On the plus side, I've finally getting Courthouses up everywhere, so my cities no longer cost deadly amounts of maintenance.

[Bobchillingworth]

Commodore used his two reinforcement LB to pick off my Chariot and an Axe. Which was fine, since it meant that his other border city was still guarded only by an Axe:






Thanks for the cash! I'll put it to good use researching metal casting, which I especially need since I'm up now to two war weariness faces.


I've fallen to third on the scoreboard, probably will stay there for a long while; my lead was based on pop, and I've finally started whipping it away, while others aren't suffering my happiness issues.

[Bobchillingworth]

Also, looking at that screencap, I guess Commodore was using that fort to shuttle troops via Galley into his frontline city, and that's how he was able to move them several spaces without Engineering? I guess? No idea what the point of it was otherwise.

[Bobchillingworth]

Heh, Commodore keeps taking and winning Galley-on-Galley battles. Very annoying. I'm going to have whip in a wave of Triremes ASAP.

[Bobchillingworth]

Made peace with Commodore after more mostly pointless unit exchanges, but I'm pretty doomed now- he gets Guilds in 2 turns, whereas I won't have a counter better than LB by the time our peace treaty expires. Well, I'll try to work overtime on preparing my defense anyway; I certainly brought all this on myself. Can't blame any of the other guys for not jumping in either, there's still even unsettled land and both Al and DTG probably already have large enough empires to win Space or Culture anyway.


Maintenance has really killed me on this map. I've got to get it through my skull how horrendous it gets on Toroidal. That said, I'm not sure how DTG has managed to deal with it so easily- he's been the city-count leader for a while, and he isn't even IMP or ORG.

[GermanJoey]

DTG is Zara, right? That's Cre/Org. Non-org guys... my experience is that sometimes you just to 3 or 4 pop whip those courthouses (and forges too) when you can, or else they never end up getting built.

Also, no Johns! Make him wade through 3 Spears or 2 Longbows for every Knight! Or, raze your copper and force him to kill 6 warriors per horsedude! He'll never get through!

[Bobchillingworth]

Shoot, is he? Shows how much attention I've been playing



And no Johns indeed! I shall endeavor to be as obnoxious an opponent as... well, as I've probably been for the last 30 turns or so. I'm fairly certain I've single-handedly sunk Commodore's prospects. Even if he breaks through my defenses with Knights (and he has a much lower production, population and city base, so it's not something he can do casually) Al and probably DTG are likely to end up with most of the spoils if they smell blood.


I do still think that AT has every right to call Johns, though. Like seriously, his land is just terrible.

[Bobchillingworth]

Hmm, looks like DTG might be eating AT. AT has advanced military tech, but his power has been low for a long time and he doesn't have much of a pop base to whip defenders. I think this will probably put the game in the bag for Mali.


Al continues to trickle in catapults and HA in the south. What are you doing, dude? I'm super obviously not going to attack you, and you have to know that I've got all of my power concentrated in that area. Ugh, whatever.


I need to get more hitters ASAP though. I have lots of catapults but Axes aren't going to cut it any more (and I'm running low on them anyway).

[Bobchillingworth]

AT is soon to be eliminated. DTG is taking a couple cities from him a turn, Commodore is poaching his coast, and AT didn't have many cities to lose in the first place.


I think a concession to DTG may be coming soon. He'll end up with far more cities and land than anyone else, and from the looks of things nobody is going to contest him. Commodore is too small to catch up, Al missed his chance to gain equivalent land by piling in on Commodore 15 turns ago. I think Al's a bit further behind in tech too. My situation is similar to Al, except with worse tech and infrastructure.


I'm ready to concede now actually. I know that my chances of winning are < .01%. Maybe the others still want to make a game of it, that's fine. The turns have never been a burden to play. I would like to join a new FFH game at some point, so if a majority of players are willing to throw in the towel please let me know.