Woden's and Chevalier Mal Fet's [Insert Clever Name Here] Team Thread

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

My mood is brightened by the fact that a Sea Dog armada CAN, in fact, capture a Battleship. :D

Sadly the Fleet status is destroyed by capture. And also Singaboy has 5 more battleships behind it ready to sink it. Still, mission accomplished! :D Let's keep doing that.

I'll do a proper report and overview later.

[Kofiman]

I'd love an overview on the War Weariness situation as well.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Oh! I see a silk forest in that last screenshot! I can chop out 6 sea dogs (or some frigates, but sea dogs are so much more fun!).

Hm, I wonder if Electricity could let me catch up technologically? I focus on Sea Dogs instead of frigates, then upgrade to subs? If a miracle occurs, we could even contemplate liberating Nan Madol and reviving our culture back to the heights it once knew.

Just gotta hold out 10 more turns and then Germany/Russia can declare war - although with the game "officially" over they might very well attack us instead.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Nothing really interesting to report. Singaboy had more battleships than what I could see, as he steams forward and wipes out the last remnants of my fleet - I'm surprised he chewed through the Privateer armada in one turn, I thought between his not discovering it potentially and the sturdiness of it I'd have my privateers, at least, for one more turn. 

Let's see...in the south, my navy is starting to trickle into Roman waters. I'm scouting cautiously with privateers and pouncing on isolated units, although an unlucky damage roll makes it impossible for me to capture a Roman privateer and I'm forced to sink it instead. 




At home, I swap over to economy builds - the military builds did their job (if Team Empire's morale had held out even a turn or two longer than it did, they'd have won - I have no way to build any more military on the sea now), and there's no call for desperation any more since we're just messing around. So, the campuses and markets and granaries and all the other necessary infrastructure to make my empire not idiotic are back on the menu. We'll lose Valetta, Lepanto, Actium, Midway, and potentially Jutland, basically neutering me, but my core is safe. 

Game plan now is to get the economy in order, wreck stuff with fleet #2 (just as big as fleet #1 - if I'd had a canal we'd have won the battle easily. ), and maybe build up some army guys to recapture my lost cities after Singaboy sails away. I don't care if he razes Lepanto and Midway, those cities are no longer useful.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I hope everyone had a happy mother's day! I'm still kickin'! Got a few tricks up my sleeve to discomfit Singaboy still.

Turn 154

Okay, let's talk grand strategy for a moment. The battle of Genova Cape and the struggle for the Mediterranean have been decisively settled in Rome's favor. A variety of factors led to this result - superior Roman play (building the Terracotta Army, a vastly superior research base arriving at Steel very early, with lots of gold for upgrades to spare) combined with luck breaking pretty much all one direction (the Sea Dog bug that no one felt was worth mentioning, the lack of an English canal preventing me concentrating my navy as the Romans did, turn order granting Rome a first strike instead of England, my having to travel right at the critical turns), but we've got to make the best of it. 

I can delay a bit, but in the long term, my cities on that coast will fall to battleship and ironclad combined assaults. The land cannot defend against the sea. Actium will sting, but the rest of the cities are shitty chop plants that I've squeezed everything useful out of. Singaboy can raze or capture them as he likes. So, why delay? 

Well, I have a new strategy for the war. My goal is to hang on until Russian/German intervention, and do as much damage as I can in the interim. I think I can do that. 

Right nwo there's an opening: Most of Rome's navy - maybe almost all of it, from my scouting - is in the Mediterranean, laying waste to my cities (Lepanto is a blasted ruin and ready to fall on turn 155). It currently has no means of return until Rome gets a settler ot the former Genovan site, and it needs to take some time to finish off my cities. So, I'm going to repeat our earlier strategy:




This is a small initial striking force, but I have about 4 more frigates and Ironclad within 5 turn's sail of Siena. Every settler is getting more and more expensive for Rome - they've probably got a replacement on the way for Genova, but I doubt they have two. I want to quietly build up out of Singaboy's sight, probably combining into a trio of fleets for more firepower, then I strike out of the fog at Siena and raze it, too. Then all of Rome's battleship fleets are STILL locked into the wrong sea - just as Germany/Russia enter the war and as my fully armed and operational second fleet (which as its own terracotta army at the fjord!) enters the sea. If I can take Siena, then THIS TIME for sure I should be able to control this sea, which is Rome's economic heartland. I can then try nad gut the place. It'll be tough going, with Steel defenses against Frigate fleets, but I'm going to take my best shot at it. 

Like I said, I'm constitutionally incapable of defending. I have to hit back somehow, try and take the initiative. If everything goes beautifully, we could even fantasize about bringing Rome/China low enough for Russia/Germany to beat them and win the whole game. That would invalidate my Hitler rant from earlier, since it would turn out to ahve been a brilliant play by the Archduke, but what the hell. 

Here's an overview of my core, long over-due, I know:




Amenity and housing problems everywhere, and war weariness has everyone unhappy. But nor ebels yet! Economic builds - getting in those delayed campuses, and I finally spent Trafalgar's spare distict slot on an entertainment district to alleviate the amenities around the core area. I'll be down to 9 cities soon, but hopefully I can hit some Roman cities to make up for that loss. I also want to slip in a settler - at an opportune moment we'll settle Chop City and chop out a quadrio of frigates and try to retake the ocean! WE'll couple it with a land strike at any of our surviving cities - Actium has to be tempting to keep, right?

Here's the early wave of the Siena strike force:




6 frigates, 2 sea dogs, 2 ironclads. Probably want to combine the frigates into fleets for more punch, but the sea dogs I like separate - gives me more scouting, and I have twice the chance to capture things? Maybe? Not sure on the math. 

Anyway, we'll combine everyone and strike at the city, unless a better target presents itself. 

International news:

The Archduke is assaulting lisbon himself, and his own fleet can contend (maybe) with a battered Roman navy in 6 turns:




If I can take out one more battleship fleet before succumbing on the Mediterranean, I'll be over the moon - let the Archduke bleed the rest. Eventually we'll overwhelm Rome, Singaboy's civs aren't good enough to survive a 2 v 1, I don't think. 

Emperor's Cossacks are ready to go:




Emperor will get first strike, and cossacks are the best unit possible for cracking a fortified city like that. Archduke has some frigates to help out with fire support, as well, though the battleship means China's defense here will be stubborn. 

Since Woden's busy, here's his front:




Good enough until tanks. Then we'll probably melt here, as well. The goal is to buy time, remember. We can trade space for time here, and maybe retake this area later if the war on the China/Rome home front goes splendidly.

[T-hawk]

(the Sea Dog bug that no one felt was worth mentioning)

There wasn't any way to alert you that Sullla could see the units without also obviously saying that he did, which felt like going beyond the bounds of lurker noninterference.  Cleaning up the mess after the fact was all we could do, just like everything else in this game.  Same problem as back in Civ 4 Pitboss 6, there wasn't any way to tell Sullla that the other team could win a cultural victory without also saying that they would.

but we've got to make the best of it.

That's the right attitude, that we could certainly use quite a bit more of around here.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Singaboy had battleships and ironclads guarding his southern sea - bummer.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Yeah, way more force than I was hoping on. And naturally *I* never see any of this stuff with my scouting, but Singaboy always finds my invisible scouts and wipes them out. Either I'm shitty at scouting, or I have shitty luck. :/ Ah, well.

Regroup in the south:




I thought it went without saying, but just in case, Lepanto ahs fallen:




I wonder if I'll be able to retake it? I have to outproduce Rome eventually, right? ...right?

Some land engagements have opened, but I can't comment on Woden's strategy:




Finally, a picture of fleet 2 as it struggles over to Roman waters:




These ships would have won the battle for me in the other ocean, and with it perhaps even the war. Seriously, guys, I wanted a canal. ):<

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

(the Sea Dog bug that no one felt was worth mentioning)

There wasn't any way to alert you that Sullla could see the units without also obviously saying that he did, which felt like going beyond the bounds of lurker noninterference.  Cleaning up the mess after the fact was all we could do, just like everything else in this game.  Same problem as back in Civ 4 Pitboss 6, there wasn't any way to tell Sullla that the other team could win a cultural victory without also saying that they would.

but we've got to make the best of it.

That's the right attitude, that we could certainly use quite a bit more of around here.

I dunno, you guys couldn't say, "Hey, Chevalier, just FYI, there's a bug in the Sea Dogs that can sometimes make them visible"?  Personally, that wouldn't have clued me in that Sullla spotted them already - and even if it did, all it would have meant was that I was more cautious with my sea dogs, playing the naval battle the way it should have been played out - it wouldn't have given me any edge over him that I can see. Oh, well, what's done is done. You guys got cheated off a potentially cool battle but the game ended the same way it would have regardless, so I can't be too mad. ;

and I think it's easier to be in "make the best of it" mode when you come at the game as a learning experience, like I have. I knew I'd screw up, I knew I would be very unlikely to keep up with the old salts around here, so I knew I'd get into a situation like this sooner or later! I just wish Singaboy and Sullla were a little less competent so I could do more damage before the end!