Bearing the flag proudly, Sabathiel of the Bannors [SPOILERS]

[Mr. Yellow]

Bah, bad timing for such an event.



I lost the farm and had to pay some gold to not lose more food due to bandits. This lost me my only health resource and made my food situation significantly worse. I had to snatch the farm tile from Vallus to keep up with the demands in Trinity.
Then again, maybe the timing wasn't as bad as i initially thought.



Nyktorion is approaching with an army within my expectations and i'll be facing archers, tigers, priests as well as the elven hero.
I think i'll have to retreat the garrison in Vallus, which will go down starving.
Both warriors there are also promoted with Guerilla due to some irrational fear of a lightning assault, a rather stupid mistake of me.

As for the situation of the western stack?



Pretty good actually. Thoth apparently didn't want to touch it, so i now have several warriors promoted to elite status, all combat promos. However, Martok and a cultist below can get to Trinity faster than the main stack, but he puts himself in a very vulnerable position if he decides to move them next to my city.

Another cat out in 3 turns, fort ready and should have over 10 warriors ready if the withdrawal goes well.

2 cats and adequate number of warriors should give me a good chance to inflict some serious damage to the elves.

[Ilios]

Cudos on not willing to go down without a fight.

An illustrious last stand!

[Mr. Yellow]

Looks like Thoth has decided to no longer chase me, Martok and the gang south have fortified on the hill south.



Still the cultist up north prevents me from doing any chopping, so no extra hammers from here.
Nothing else really happening there, c'ept the stack being moved closer.



What's more interresting now is the elves and how i'll arrange the coming fight.
One thing i've not thinked much about is the 2 move tigers and how they could be used to meatshield the main stack. I might have to clean it off if Nyktorion plays this right.

Anyway, the Vallus garrison are pretty dead no matter what i do, but it's better to get the tigers in position to be taken out now than to let them stay in the city and be wasted. The next turns are gonna be interresting.



No escape now, it's do and die. :wink2:

[Mr. Yellow]

Tigers took out the warriors as expected. He lost 2 of them doing so, but that means so little when they can be replaced for free.
The tigers were spread around evenly so attempting a strike wasn't worth it. All military were moved inside the city, currently numbering 8 warriors and 2 cats.

Nyktorion will no doubt waste tigers to wear me down from here, but the city is a hard one to crack. Over 30% cultural defence and a nicely placed river, meaning he has to go around to get across it or assault the goblin fort.
Include the 25% city defence all warriors has and i'm pretty close to 100% combat bonus, excluding individual promos. Actually i think Nyktorion would simply help me if he waste tigers now, as they hardly do much damage in these conditions and help me get XP.



I don't have much need of workers, so i take a gamble and see if Thoth lets me do some chopping or not. At least the elves won't get their hands on them.

Taking Vallus, Nyktorion renamed it Pink Dot. Find it rather insulting considering i had no idea (and still don't) where his capital is.

Anyway, 2 turns till the big stack arrives.

[Selrahc]

and a nicely placed river

Wow, yeah. That is one of the best placed defensive rivers I've seen.
Who would have thought you'd be happy for that Goblin fort?

[icewolf34]

I'm guessing Nyk will probably try to go all the way around to the north, right? Can anything be done about that?

[Mr. Yellow]

The workers are still alive, looks like Thoth is content on observing.



The tigers are in range though and i'd rather Nyk didn't take them, so 3 guerilla warriors were sent to guard them.
Sadly the goblin didn't suicude and is making it hard for me to do any work in the backlines, especially with the destroyed farm which is really hurting me now. The tigers are choking me out and i'm barely making enough food to keep the population up.



Nyk sent his archers towards me while the priests and Gilden were left behind to heal and summon. At least it seems that initially, he could have a mobility promotion coming up considering the blue aura there....

Oh who am i kidding. Of course he his hiding that he will mobility promote the garrison and send them all right next to my city!

There's 6 warriors in the city at the end of turn, far from enough to survive an assault. Getting the other 3 on the hill back would increase my chances of survival by a lot, but Nyk can easily block the path off with the tigers.
We'll see how it looks like next turn.


icewolf, the more time Nyk wastes the more time i get to produce warriors. Suiciding tigers isn't gonna do much if he doesn't strike his main stack from the river.
Also if he positions his main stack either on the hill north or on the goblin fort, i'll strike.

Right now i'm just making warriors till i have enough overflow to one shot a cat or a training yard. Soon as i'm done researching Warfare i'll turn off research and save gold for upgrades.

[Mr. Yellow]

Ok, good news is that there was no mobility promo looming in the horizon, the bad news...



How the heck do i get the work crew back home?!

I'm gonna need as many warriors alive as possible, yet those tigers would easily waste any guy i send and attacking across the river is not an option. I could use cats to help them though, but that would mean wasting the tools to counter attack the main stack.

Best option really is to retreat to the forest north.



But that would put them in the mercy of the tigers. Forests are not as good defensive terrain as in the main civ (same bonus as hills) and guerilla won't save them there. In addition the damn goblin suicided on the worker crew, putting my main defender down to 2.6 health and poisoned.

So i'm gonna need additional defenders to help it, but that means more units to be wasted...or does it?

I have 3 warriors who are one XP away from level up, so having the tigers attack them could help me.
That would leave 4 warriors in the city, but it's so damn hard to crack it's good enough.



So Nyk can either attack the work crew and possibly help me level up warriors or attack the city, which would be the better option, but that isn't gonna do much harm.

Looks like Nyks gonna attack the goblins and establish a foothold on that tile, if he does i'll strike. Getting the warriors guarding the workers to join in the attack won't be a problem. One quick road later and we're good.

[Mr. Yellow]

Half of me wants to be done with this. The other half is in the mood of some elf hunting.

Nyktorion didn't attempt to assault the goblin fort and instead moved next to the city. Apparently it seems he's not sure what to do here regarding my town. Ah well, i'll gladly use that time to make more warriors.

Nyk decided to waste 3 of the tigers on the work crew. 1 of the rookie warriors got killed, the other 2 survived and leveled up, promoted with cover.



Will be staying inside for now. Only worry is Gilden who is promoted with double shock and can decimate any unit of mine.
It may also seem like he's gonna move to the other side of the town, but that's gonna take a while which means more warriors.

Warfare got done this turn, but i'm holding off from revolting to conquest at the moment. Now i'm just saving gold in the case i get an oppurtunity to build a training yard.

[Mr. Yellow]

Yepp, i'm done.


Nyk had good fortune attacking me last turn, only losing 3 archers in addition to expendable tigers. Sad that one of his priests never bit it.
Now i'm reduced to one cat and 4 damaged warriors, 1 heavily wounded and the other 3 promoted with cover.

I'll die no matter what i do, so lets end this with an HONOURABLE CHARGE, which can also be interpreted as suicide.

In goes the cat!



Doing frankly, no real damage.

Promoted to cover or not, that Gilden is way to healthy for me to do any kind of damage, odds are rounded down to zero and the first warrior did no damage at all, the second one...



..got scared.
Huh, didn't notice Gilden held the mask of Timor, giving him fear.

Anyway, last 2 warriors went in, one died and the other shat bricks and froze.



I could be a douch now and deleted my workforce, but it's a rather low blow considering it's part of the loot.

Ah well, no more warriors left and Nyk can just walk in and eliminate me.

That concludes my first ever PBEM in civ ever. This was a rather fun experience that i'd love to do more off, hopefully in better conditions.

And thanks to those who lurked this thread, hope you enjoyed it.