[Spoiler] RB Pitboss #2 - Shaka of Rome

[Whosit]

Might be hard to see, but a picture before and after I chucked my Catapults at slaze:





I got some good hits in, relatively speaking, and damaged a couple of his Longbowmen respectably. 1 Catapult retreated, which is nice, since that's still an extra target that has to be killed. Sims I ran . . . well, I gave slaze a completely healthy force, plus catapults, and I think I had decent odds of holding out even then, so if he decides to attack (which is not guaranteed), I can probably do OK.

Unfortunately, in sims, the Crossbowman did not perform as well as I had hoped.

[Kylearan]

Hi,

Unfortunately, in sims, the Crossbowman did not perform as well as I had hoped.

Somehow they never do...

-Kylearan

[timmy827]

A lot of players value strength of units over numbers. I ran them on an axe vs. mace matchup (5 to 8 ) a while ago and the mace basically has even odds to win both fights. Even where you have the unit counters in your favor, it takes a BIG strength disparity to consistently win more than one fight.

Looking at the units, I'm assuming the Praets defended against the cats and thus your xbow took two rounds of collateral most of the time...after that I wouldn't expect it to win more than one fight even against axes.

[Whosit]

Looking at the units, I'm assuming the Praets defended against the cats and thus your xbow took two rounds of collateral most of the time...after that I wouldn't expect it to win more than one fight even against axes.

Yeah, basically. The Crossbowman took more collateral damage than I expected, but I still thought its bonus vs. Axemen would let it hold. Guess I need to study the combat mechanics a bit more. The turn rolled and I didn't lose any score, so my city must still be there. I expect that slaze either withdrew to heal again, or pressed on. The latter could be very bad, since it's still a big stack that could cause a lot of trouble.

Jowy was eliminated. That means, among other things, that the Killer Angels have a fleet large enough to at least transport troops around (Jowy's last city was on an island). He's already posted in the lurker thread, it seems. I've toyed with the idea of asking him to join me, but wasn't sure if that was "legal." Doesn't matter now, anyway.

Why would I want him to join me? Absolutely no reason, at all.

[Whosit]

Chat with Athlete:

me: Are you here? Were you trying to contact me?
Ottoman: ya
I said hello just as you signed off
me: Ah.
Ottoman: how goes things
me: About as well as can be expected.
Ottoman: is slaze pressing towards you? he's moved his units a couple turns back where I couldn't see them, and I couldn't check without risking my units
some have reappeared on my other border with him near corellia but not all
he's using the threat of india I think
me: I haven't had a chance to check yet.
Ottoman: ok well as of the last few turns he hasn't advanced on you though?
it's only korea doing the damage?
me: Yeah, Korea is the only one to do damage.
Ottoman: ok cool
me: Unfortunately, they seem to be following their usual pattern of "false negotiations," but I don't think it matters.
Ottoman: what are they saying? I thought they'd accept peace if you gave them a city back...
which I know isn't an option
but i thought they were atelast talking
me: Talking does not mean that they are discussing.
Ottoman: i suppose
how far away are x-bows?
me: Further than I'd like.
Which is to say
I have a couple, but I would have liked them about 10 turns ago.
Ottoman: lol...ok so you have machinery atleast then?
depending on how the next few turns go I might be able to help fudn you towards CS
me: That would be swell.
What are the factors?
Ottoman: mainly India
I'll need x-bows myself if I'm unable to secure anythign with them
and pikemen wouldn't hurt considering they'll be fielding a decent amount of knights soon
what I really need is to get to Gunpowder
yesterday
me: That's basically how things work.
Ottoman: ya....bring on the jann's
in gmae i asked for your silver for incense...
you'll have a 2nd silver hooked up soon I saw
so I hope that's cool
me: No.
That's a loss for me until I have the second available.
Ottoman: i guess for your forges?
me: Yes.
Ottoman: no biggie then...how soon before your second one?
I need to find anohter happy in 2 turns
me: A few turns. My caretakers did not follow my precise instructions.
So there are some domestic irregularities.
Ottoman: shame...if i were you i would have asked for a pause
it's too hard to manage a war without knowing what's going on
me: True, but that would not have made me well-liked.
Ottoman: lol...i wouldn't have cared...but speaker (and probably Sulla) are keen to keep everything moving
it is exciting though...sometimes I wish it went faster and some turns I hope never come
me: More or less.
But, we mere mortals must war one turn at a time.
Ottoman: very true
Spulla have silver now too ay
me: Ah.
I hadn't realized how much was out there.
I wouldn't have prioritized Centralia.
Oh well.
Ottoman: meh no biggie
me: No, it kind of is.
But not much that can be done about it now.
Sent at 11:58 AM on Thursday
Ottoman: well ya it was a while ago that you made that decision...i never understood your fixation on centralia...i always thought controlling the outer sea was going to be more important then the inner...
i've really got to start settling my island and finish incan island
me: I believed that there were only a handful of large outer islands.
And that Centralia contained more rare resources.
It wasn't until I saw everyone's maps that I realized my error.
Ottoman: and get to one of them that has silver
India has 14 cities...when did they go that?
me: When the conquered Greece.
And built a few more here and there.
Ottoman: ya...i haven't watched them closely
i'm at 13 thanks to jowy
but that could change quickly
me: Yeah. Let's hope for the best.
I need to go now.
Ottoman: ok so do I
me: I'll let you know if anything of interest happens.
Ottoman: definitely
and likewise
may the force be with us!
until next time
me: Indeed.

I'm almost proud of myself. I didn't even accuse him of anything. Not sure if I was suspicious, but I've been terse before, so probably nothing out of the ordinary. He won't ever get that Silver, though. Nope. I'm pretty sure that loan will never materialize, either--pretty open-ended chances for those "factors" to go against him. Real and imagined.

[Jowy]

Why would I want him to join me? Absolutely no reason, at all.

Gee, thanks mate I'm as spoiled as a sixteen year old girl with a no-limit credit card. Not that the other players would ever have let me join anyway. Or that I, in my great this-is-the-end -depression, would ever have agreed to that! Will post moar stoof when it's scanned for spoilers. And written. And thought about. And decided to be thought about. Tip: I'm still in the latter phase.

Good game!!

[Whosit]

Gee, thanks mate I'm as spoiled as a sixteen year old girl with a no-limit credit card.

I'm sure you took no offense, but nuthin' against you. It was simply the possibility that was intriguing. So when I say I have "no reason to ask you to join me," that means "it seems like a cool idea" rather than "I don't want him to join me."

But as we both acknowledge, moot point.

I'ma go check in on things to see what slaze did. Seems he e-mailed HRE and suggested that they turn on me, and noted that the Rebels plan to attack me, as well. I won't respond yet. Going to wait and see what Athlete's cover is.

[timmy827]

Yeah, basically. The Crossbowman took more collateral damage than I expected, but I still thought its bonus vs. Axemen would let it hold. Guess I need to study the combat mechanics a bit more.

The War Academy article at Civfanatics is quite useful. One thing that pops out is that a unit at partial strength loses value in multiple ways - less likely to win each die roll in combat, tilts the damage done by each side, and has fewer HP so fewer rounds before it loses. So a unit at 75% health is generally much more than 25% weaker than it's full-strength version, and a 5/5 axeman will beat a 5/10 knight most of the time.

[Whosit]

Thanks, timmy.

Anyway, slaze retreated his stack. Pursuit would be unwise. So all I've done is buy myself some time on that front. I need to get more Catapults quickly. Kuat will have to build some now, after the next Crossbowman. Bestine can whip a 3rd Crossbowman before Slaze comes back, I'm sure, so with 3 Crossbowmen and 6 Praetorians, plus a couple of Catapults (if I'm lucky), I can probably hold out . . . .

Unless slaze does something unexpected again.

[Whosit]

Oh, and long message from Athlete:

>Dear allies,
>
>I'm just wondering how you guys are all doing now that Jowy has been eliminated.
>
>Slaze (Inca) just sent us an email urging us to go and attack Rome and that Ottomans and Inca would combine to attack rome. >Are we all on the same page?
>
>DMOC

Allies,

Well that is disturbing news. I have ZERO intention of attacking Rome.
I chatted with Whosit earlier today and offered to help get him to CS,
I just first need to secure my western flank. Most of that is Slaze
trying to sew mistrust between us. However I believe it is time I let
you guys know about my recent chats with Slaze.

I know we all will but let me please ask anyways. For the mean time
please keep all this between us because no deals are finalized yet.

Slaze approached me for peace recently. I immediately responded saying
a deal can not be reached unless Whosit is included in it, but Slaze
was not interested in having peace with Rome. However he knew about my
expiring NAP with India (at minimum), and for all I knew was working
quite closely with them. I had to listen to what he had to say. His
original plan involved staying at war, but he would move units through
my territory to my western front. At an opportune time he would take a
(newly founded) city of mine, gift me the city and his army and I
would fight the Indian's. There were several other options but that
seemed the most likely. This type of deal would allow him to not worry
about his northern front and would allow him to focus on taking a
piece out of Rome, giving him a chance to get back into the game after
ruining his economy via the whip.

I'm sure you all saw my post in the tech thread that wasn't meant to
go there! Atleast the remnants of it. The contents of which basically
described the above. Well India has seen it and I believe forwarded to
Mali, Inca and Korea. The diplomatic situation on either of my fronts
is now quite crazy.

My current understanding is that Slaze and I are close to accepting
peace in game and he will be gifting me most of his northern army.
This should help in that he won't have a lot of left over units from
his northern army to immediately go and throw at Rome. This in turn
will allow me to secure my western flank with India. I will
immediately be able to help get Rome to CS, and the terms of the peace
with Slaze are pretty thin in that I don't believe I'll need to remain
at peace for too long. India is, I think, quite unhappy with Slaze and
if I can secure a longer deal with India, I will be able to jump back
in against the Inca and with their units to boot. If Rome does suffer
more (losing cities) and what not because of this, I'm happy to divy
up the Incan territory fairly, even if it ends up being myself who
does most of the conquering. We're allies and I haven't lost sight of
this, but I did need to find a way to hold India off. I'm also not
trying to be boastful when saying I might do most of the conquering,
but Rome will be in a 2 front war for a while. The Inca's will be
gassed when I re-join, and the northern border should be lightly
defended. I should also be close to having Jannissaries as well. Now
that I'm in Beaurocracy, I should be able to tech quite nicely.

My apologies for not sharing this information sooner, but time is
always scarce with me, and this has just happened recently. I needed
to find a way to make everything work. It does put Rome under more
pressure than I would like for the next dozen turns or so, but as I
said before, I should be able to immediately fund his way to CS.

Please if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions I'm
listening and will respond asap. Also keep in mind none of this is
finalized so everything can change in an instant and I could also be
looking at a 2-front war.

Athlete
The Rebel Alliance

Despite my tendency to respond to things instantly, I should probably read this a couple times and think about it before responding. Though my inclination is to give him the benefit of the doubt, I shouldn't trust him blindly. He's got a lotta nerve comin' back here, after what he pulled.

Maybe I'll use that in my response.