Zara, The Newly Minted System Lord(TBS)

[Commodore]

Mechanics question: I'm before dtay in turn order, I offered him the peace treaty and he accepted. Do I get first strike due to turn order?

Yep!

[The Black Sword]

Thanks Commodore.

Another one bites the dust:



Sacked another HA for the pike then it was odds 75% and over. I also got lucky in the the naval battle where I got a withdraw on the one weak Trireme vs Trireme battle. I think I'm going to upgrade 2 triremes to frigates next turn. 100g vs 60h since Triremes are pretty useless now, and these come with 1 free promo and can immediately bombard the defenses of Sydney and then Freemantle. I need to finish him off ASAP because I'm looking at 2-4 war weariness in my cities. So, they should all be good for a draft afterwards .

Another city set to fall next turn:


Only 1 mace here, so it seems a good target for muskets instead of Knights. I still have a lot of Knights in range to clean up.




Got my 2 GS EOT, another next turn. So, next turn I bulb Chemistry and Nirrti stops 1 turning Knights, starts 1 turning Frigates:


This city stayed small and just pumped out units on the mines in the early game, I was often tempted to give it a LH and let it grow onto the coast but now it gets it's chance to really shine.

[mackoti]

How many turn from peace are left?

[The Black Sword]

2 more turns, which might make taking Freemantle complicated if dtay tries to get involved. On the other hand though, the best he can build is HAs, maces and cho-ko-nus, he doesn't have engineering and his power is pretty low.

[The Black Sword]

Managed to match up my attackers to Azza's defenders nicely in these last 2 cities:


Gran, Mint, courthouse intact.



Azza hadn't upgraded his GG. Still pretty lucky though, Muskets only had 60, 67% odds and the second Axe win was something like 35%(first had CR3). Granary and Courthouse.

I declared war on dtay and pillaged his only source of incense:


5 Chos, 2 spears and 1 axe in Harvest. His best 2 movers are HAs, and I haven't seen any and he doesn't have engineering, so Timur should be safe. I was tempted to immediately stage all my Knights to attack Harvest but I decided to finish Azza off first:



Need to get rid of that war weariness. I'm still going to harass dtay as much as possible though. I killed his chariot who had been pillaging ex-Azza lands, I think he deleted his other 2 scouts over there.



I spyed these borders last turn and immediately turned around and picked up some muskets. I was thinking of drafting a 3rd musket but Hathor is right up against the happy cap and then GG spawned there, so I thought it might be useful. There's a Galleon on the clams tile and I'm completing a Frigate in Hathor. Even if he does block my path, I can give the Friagte an extra move to kill the galleon. Wonder what sort of garrison is there. I have my own settler headed up here btw.



2 more Frigates whipped next turn, that should give me naval control and then I send units in on Galleys and Galleons. Dtay has researched Feudalism -> Guilds and I'm not sure his goal. If he does take Banking then I can pick up Economics first in case he's thinking of stealing the Merchant. He really needs to get a move on toward Chemistry.

I have an interesting balancing act now, as I try to take advantage of my military supremacy, as well as whip in infrastructure and grow the ex-Azza land.

My Great Wall play backfired on me btw, I rolled the low odds spy in Heruur. So, no PP bulb for me, instead I'll use the spy for the GA and use the Economics GM for a Trade Mission, that will likely delay Rifling by a turn or two though.

[The Black Sword]

I think I just gave dtay the economics GM. I had to choose between Economics or PP. I have enough overflow to 1t them both consecutively and dtay didn't have Banking(he just researched Gunpowder instead) so I thought I was safe to go PP first and Econ next turn. I noticed at the start of the turn that dtay got a manual GM though ... didn't put together that he could bulb Banking and research Economics until just after I sent off the save.

Thinking positively: skipping economics would actually result in an earlier Rifling and put dtay even further from the Military techs he desperately needs. There's also a small chance he wouldn't be able to 1 turn Economics himself.

Anyway, more important matters, Azza's sendoff:


Dead musket: 70%ctk
HA: 30% withdraw/win
Winning musket: 80%ctk

Everything else was pretty straightforward. It's about time I lost one of those 70% rolls tbh. More irritating is Hawthorn's revolt on the last turn it was possible.

Azza, you were quite annoying, I hope that's a compliment .

Time to go to war with someone else though:





After thinking about it, I decided there are better uses for a GG than to kill 1 Galleon. So, I dropped him off, and loaded another musket. Plan was to hide under the Frigate, drop the muskets on the oasis but I saw the worker and got excited. Obviously I didn't know about the second Galleon before that, still, drafted musket for worker isn't a bad trade.

I set up a couple of other stuff for next turn:


That galleon will be loaded with 3 muskets.



2 more loaded galleons in range of this centre island next turn as well, 1 whipped, 1 an upgraded galley.



Not sure if I attack next turn or wait for the rest of my Knights, but I have the option. Another plan is to put the Knights on the east stage tile, then move to the Knights tile in his territory, threatening the signed city and bypassing his defenses.


Demos upon ending turn.

I was also flooded with happiness as my war weariness disappeared. Need to farm and grow. Unfortunately I'm drafting and whipping instead. 5 University 4-pop whips set up for next turn. That could be 10 units ...

[Commodore]

What's the plan? Dhalphir and Baii far back enough for this to be mano-y-mano?

[The Black Sword]

Pretty much.

Ideally, you spend a bit of time recovering from a war, setting up the new territory but ... I just have to call dtay on his military bluff. Take away techs and pop and my real power is probably twice as big as his. And he's gone for this Communism beeline without even teching construction. I admit I was considering something similar myself, but IMO the way to match that play is use the same tech to get some military advantage and use it. He's still some distance off a unit that even properly counters my knights.

Additionally, he's still in Caste/Pacifism/Bureau after his GA ended. I expect him to start another one quite soon tbh, but even then I'd like to force him to whip during the GA.

I think I could probably win a peaceful builder game, due to my extra land/cities, I still have a number of good spots I could now settle. Dtay's astro-island grab is the only thing that could swing it for him IMO. But everything screams war to me. So, the goal is mostly to hurt dtay, the only land I would probably try hold is that Astro island.

[The Black Sword]

The vultures gather:


I'm assuming dtay won't grow these latest two cities to size 2 and let me capture them. Since there's still a galleon in port, I was happy to attack the north city amphibiously. Though it was unlikely to escape my Frigates anyway. First blood:



1 lost musket. Beijing and Shanghai probably fall next turn:


That's a single mace defender in Beijing, I have a shock Knight, in addition to the 2 muskets SE of it, that should get odds. Then 5 muskets for 3 defenders in Shanghai. I'm happy with dtay's dop map here so I'll probably just resettle those 2 cities, the northern one gets a whale, which is a happy resource that I'm missing.

Continuing my the campaign around his other islands:


Here's the only place where I'm not really pressing with Galleons and land units. It's the only place where dtay has strong garrisons, so I preferred to hit him elsewhere. Once I hit rifles though, I'll probably load up a couple of Galleons and see if he can survive the fork here. Dtay just threw his 3 person golden age, researched construction and didn't change civics. I'm afraid I'm going to see Eng -> Chem -> Mil Science in 3t. Grenadiers don't worry me too much, it's just a matter of who's attacking, Rifles or Grens, but Ships of the Line could be a problem. That could allow him to wrest back naval supremacy. I could have got there 3-4 turns ago instead of this long path to Rifling, maybe that was a mistake. To be fair, if I'd rolled my GS I'd be in Rifling right now instead of struggling to make it in 3t. I didn't really think I'd have the production/will to whip much Grenadiers. I guess we'll just see how much naval production dtay has left at that stage, and 3 move SoTL vs my 5 move Frigates should allow me to contain them for a while.

Some other threats for next turn:



Mace and a chariot garrisoning. Galleon blocked my attack path this turn, hope he stays there for next turn.

On the land front, dtay's main border city, Harvest popped borders so I can't attack from the fog with my Knights. Instead I set up the other attack plan for next turn, going deep into his territory and avoiding his garrison.

Extra 75bpt EOT with cities coming out of revolt and a lot of growth, that makes me think Rifling in 3 might be possible.

[The Black Sword]

Thank you Dhalphir! I'm not pressed for happy at all right now, Notre Dame is sitting 1 turn from completion in Apophis and all that failgold will easily ensure I hit Rifling on time. Come EOT:



With a bit of scouting, this looks like it will be a very fun turn. First:



No change in defense. Galleon dies to the Frigate and then we try raze the city:


Lose and only 1 hit.

GG C2 Morale Knight at 52% odds next, need to win this to raze the city -> Lose.

Final musket clears that annoying mace at 88%.

Well, maybe not so fun after all. 3 muskets can attack the city again next turn though.

We have a similar situation over at Haven:



Only in this instance, I have a 4th musket on a galleon in range in case things go wrong.

C1 musket vs LB, 7% odds -> lose but LB is at half health.
C1 musket vs LB 82% -> win!
C1 musket vs chariot 96% -> lose and GG for dtay.
Final musket clears up.

I kept the city, should be easy to hold while I control the seas and it's a good look-out to stop dtay ships sneaking into my back lines.

On the island, Beijing kindly grew to size 3 for me to take:


But Shanghai whipped another defender:


Still, 8 muskets around it for next turn.

On the mainland, I had a look at Albion's defences with my sentry and decided to send the Knights in:


It's unfortunate that he just got Engineering though.

Demos:


Another 50bpt upon ending turn. Looking at my setup, I should be in quite a good position to win this with my current land. Just grow my cities for ~10 turns, throw my next 2 golden ages and I'll be flying. So, continuing to attack dtay after I take Shanghai might not be the best plan. It encourages him to Kremlin-whip his civ into me and the other 2 to dogpile on. I'll think about offering peace after that, though since I've just gotten draftable Rifles, I'll feel safe either way. And while I continue to have 50% more power than him, I want to leverage that.

Looking at dtay's tech options, I think a Combustion beeline might be his best chance. Realistically, I should be safe at the current tech level. He's got some ok econ options, but nothing strong enough to compete with someone who has twice your land. So, that leaves future military tech. The options there are Assembly Line and infantry or Combustion and Destroyers. Assembly Line is a bad choice for lots of reasons IMO, don't race the Org civ there, that's what I want to do. Infantry are too slow to change the tide, even if he does get there a bit earlier than me. They also don't nearly outclass the previous era's units in the same way destroyers do. So, that leaves Combustion. Not that I've really decided what I should do about that.