RB PBEM #1 - Mehmed (SPOILERS!)

[kalin]

As I said, I don't claim to know all the details, but I think you're referring to this update for 3.19:

I am shocked, simply shocked that you wouldn't know all the details

I was referring indeed to 3.19, and I am not even 100% sure, but I seem to remember reading this somewhere. Maybe some other lurker could clarify.

Kalin

[Dreylin]

t185 - checking the damage....

Gandhi wins the AP elections, shockingly!

OK, well my Eastern Stack is gone ... and really quite badly apparently. Looks like I killed a total of 5 Artillery and a SAM for the cost of my entire stack. (38units)

Oh, and he threw an additional 4 Artillery at the Western stack to ensure they're not healthy enough to do any damage.

Well I guess that's the end of that attack.


Time to regroup and rebuild, and no pussy-footing around it this time; all military all the time ... well maybe a Jail or two here and there.

So first things first, I use my GG to pillage the Railway under my stack and then start the retreat towards the New Damascus. G2 Infantry pillages the Rails NE of Medina, and ensure that no stack can waltz across the mountains.

New troops start to assemble in Bursa, which is still vulnerable to a 2-move attack. The good news is that the tile SSE of Vienna has switched cultural control, and thus I have a corridor between ND & Bursa North of Banana Lake for 1t movement between the two. (even though it's not RR'd)

Healthy Bombers with targets in range strip the remaining improvements from Vienna, while the rest heal. Actually, I think I'll be putting an Airport into Bursa to stage an additional 4planes into the Theatre.


Ruff was true to his word and Claude Monet is waiting in Edirne ... he, James Cook(GM) and Al-Kindi(GS) join to kick off a Golden Age Party.

Police State dialed up; I think I'll hold off Free Market probably until the end of the GA so I can take advantage of the multiplier on the GPP. Also, by then I should have spread Sid's to enough cities that the Corporation Payments discount of Free Market is significant. I'll also stay in Slavery & Theocracy for now and review my options again at the end of the GA.

Right, now that everyone's happy again I can go around and review the builds and tile assignments.

Istanbul & New Damascus will be the next two cities to pop a Great Person. Standard tile config would have ND pop a 20% Artist in 5t, but if I switch Istanbul about a bit I can get a 35% Artist in just 4t. So I do that to give my best attempt to replace Ruff's GA gift.

As discussed with Ruff, I move my Transports towards the North under my Destroyers and Battleships. I also promote my remaining Galleon to a Transport and the two Ironclads outside Sarmatian to Destroyer. Two of the Carriers join the party, while the other two head over to bomb some Improvements around Aachen.

Sid's is spread to Istanbul - which needs a Courthouse very soon - and it starts on an Exec. I'll spread it into Diyarbakir next and use that city to churn out execs, as it has a low production relative to the other cities.

With the upgrades & Corp spread, my cash box is empty. Rocketry would take 2t @ -400gpt if I went to 100%, and I can get 945g for a turn at 0%, so I think I may go binary for a little while.

Oh, Ruff sent me a note that he was heading for Democracy now ... aiming for the Statue. Hmmmmm.

[Dreylin]

And we have the expected message from mh:

Hi,
has the latest failed attempt to take Vienna changed your view on this conflict?
mh

mh,

Not so much, nope.

Dreylin I.

Of course it really has changed my view ... I've come to the conclusion that I really don't care much about the rest of the game now; bringing down mh and taking Vienna is now my ultimate goal for the game. Taking on Ruff can wait until I've vanquished my demons, but Vienna will be razed before I do anything else.

I realised last night that I really should have switched into Nationhood last turn for Drafting - particularly with Sid's starting to come online and provide extra food - since I'm going to need to replace the Infantry I lost in the last attack. Now I'll probably switch over at the end of the Golden Age and then do a round of Drafting at that point.

Other units I'll need for the attack:
A dozen+ Artillery
Half a dozen Anti-Tank (I plan to take the majority of the Tanks with the 1-move stack next time, and I should have some defenders)
Tanks, Tanks & more Tanks.

I may want a couple more Paratroopers so I can split my force between Medina & Najran to occupy more of his units. Maybe a couple more Bombers, but I think mostly I just need to shuffle them around - I particularly want them in Medina so I can strike at targets much further into mh's core.

Oh, and my research path is going to be: Rocketry - Satellites - Advanced Flight to get Gunships & Jet Fighters. Hopefully I can get Ruff to go: Plastics and then either Composites or Laser for the next round of unit upgrades. I send off a note to him saying as much.

[Dreylin]

t186 - consolidation & troops.

Tanks for Tanks.

And the log tells me that mh has stolen Fascism and adopted Police State, and managed slipped a single Fighter attack in to destroy a Windmill at Najran.

mh's recent EP exploits have given me full visibility on all his cities, so I know exactly what he's been building - I can even look into Vienna, Florence & Prague. Of course now he's got Fascism I have to watch for his own Paratrooper builds, but as we've already discovered, they aren't all they're cracked up to be....

Retreated troops are now back in Ottoman territory and the next force is being assembled ... already back up to 15Tanks, with another 10 due next turn. Anywhere that can't build a 1t Tank is working on a 1t Artillery instead. I spend some of my stash to upgrade the two rogue Catapults to Artillery, and make the decision that apart from the current Battleship build, my navy will be enhanced by upgrades of existing units rather than additional builds.

I dial research up to 70% (break-even) for Rocketry in 3t.

[Dreylin]

I just had a horrible feeling that I've left Bursa dangerously under-defended and potentially weak to a swift 2-move attack by mh.

I decided to stage my frontline troops in New Damascus - at the centre of my frontlines - since there is a gap in my RR network between Bursa & ND, and I was trying to work out the best approach for safely adding a Railway to that tile (see plan below) when I realised that Bursa is still 2-move distance from Vienna and that I'd probably left it very vulnerable.

I remembered leaving 2Infantry and 2Tanks (plus the Tank build) in the city and knew that mh had 2-3Tanks but also 6Cavalry in Vienna. I knew that on my side was the fact that mh has started to keep his Tanks with his Artillery in Prague, as well as the fact that Bursa is not naturally visible - he would need a Spy in the city.

Of course what I'd forgotten was that I also have 3Rifles in the city as well as one of the Cat-Artillery upgrades and a leftover Archer, which may not be able to beat a headache, but would at least be an extra warm body that would need to be defeated.

So I'm pretty confident now that Bursa is safe, but I have certainly been lax in my planning in that quarter. Actually, the lack of a public post by mh has convinced me that my fears were unfounded.

Anyway, the plan is to use my GG Horse Archer (with Mobility) to run into mh's territory, pillage the roads over the border, and then run back into the arms of a waiting stack. Done right it would mean that only 2-moves could strike back at the stack, and thus only the aforementioned Tanks & Cavs would be viable.

[Dreylin]

t187 - Yay, Bursa's still standing.

Wowsers, 4GGs died last turn! Nothing mh-related though.

Well mh has done some unit shuffling, and posted a few SAMs in the bombardment zone ... I wonder if he knows that each one can only intercept a single unit?

Ooooo, mh has some Fighters on Intercept duty! Looks like they're based out of Pisa - North of Augsburg. Bomber was intercepted targetting a Windmill and emerged on 50%, but having damaged the Fighter 40% in return. Sent a Fighter in as follow-up and it successfully shoots down one of his.

Between Vienna & Prague, I send in some Fighters to draw off the SAMs ... one is shot down, many fail to destroy the Mines, and one gets through. Now it's safe, I can send the Bombers in. Finally manage to strip off the new Mines around Vienna and the Aluminium mine at Prague. Also knock out a Village between Prague & Aachen.

Pretty boring turn all in all.

[Dreylin]

Oh bugger.

[Dreylin]

I think I've finally worked out why I find mh's taunting so frustrating; he may be the last player in the turn order, but he's the first to play during the day. So I wake up in the morning to see his posts and am then left to stew for half a day waiting for the turn to get to me so I can see what's happened. All I can do is speculate....

What I know:

1) I'm an idiot.

2) Why I've been getting so few Lurker posts in my thread recently - see #1

3) In order to kill Hernan Cortes he would have had to kill the 20-ish Tanks sitting on top of him, so there is now a significant stack of his units sitting on the flatland tile 2NW of Bursa.


What I suspect:

1) Bursa still stands, but is under threat. Even if mh used none of his Vienna-based 2-movers to attack the Tank stack, that would only leave him ~8 units to assault Bursa itself and I'm pretty certain there were more units than that stationed there at the end of last turn.

2) The Workers I had 1E of the Tank stack have been captured and deleted - probably by a Cavalry. So Tim & Daisy are dead.

3) Getting more tentative, but I wouldn't put it past mh making a move on Medina right now to split my defenses and protect his injured stack from counter-attack.


So obviously this is a loss, but it's also an opportunity - the first time I've seen a stack of mh's on open ground before! But even assuming I can go 1-1 with him on number of units lost I'm unlikely to get to even on hammers - he'll probably have used some 80h Anti-Tanks to kill 120h Tanks. Anyway, I guess I should just stop speculating and wait until I see the turn ... which probably won't be until tomorrow since I'm out this evening.


Oh, and I forgot to switch religions back to Confucianism last turn so most of my new Tanks have only 3xp rather than 5. (see #1)

[novice]

Hey, you're in a dominant position, you've played a strong strategy game, and let's just say your tactics in the Arabian war were perfect.

If you end up exchanging units in a 1:1 ratio then that's not bad considering you outproduce MH 4:1.

[Dreylin]

Hey, you're in a dominant position, you've played a strong strategy game, and let's just say your tactics in the Arabian war were perfect.

Heh, thanks!

If you end up exchanging units in a 1:1 ratio then that's not bad considering you outproduce MH 4:1.

Oh I agree that 1:1 trades are to my benefit, but trading a Tank for an Anti-Tank is a 3:2 trade so it's less advantageous.