[SPOILERS - PBEM17] Kyan Does Dallas. The Orange Sensation.

[oledavy]

[SIZE="3"]Report from The Northern Front[/SIZE]



Shoot captured the crucial city of Ilios on his turn, securing Rego's source of iron; denying him cannons, frigates and ironclads. It looks like he lost quite a few rifles in the assault though. Rego's next stronghold is the canal fort southwest of the city, which he's staffed with a pair of rifles. Shoot has no more siege accompanying his army in the west, so its unlikely he'll be able to penetrate much further into Rego's core for the time being. However, it looks like he is bringing a second army in from the East.



In hindsight, I really wish I had kept a few ships in the north so I would have the option of boating Bato. Rego has scaled down the garrison quite a bit. It's a nice city and won't kill me with mantainence costs. However, I simply have no ships in the area to do so. Shoot will probably load up a few rifles and threaten boating it himself.

[SIZE="3"]Report from the Eastern Front[/SIZE]



This was a relatively quiet turn on the Eastern Front. Of note in the picture is that bastard frigate of this that sank the HMS Hood.

The only military action that took place last turn involved my pillaging flotilla in the Far East. Rego attacked it with a frigate at 73.4% combat odds.....and lost The HMS Naiad emerged battered but with flying colors. Did I mention the RNG gods seem to love me during this war? (knock on wood) Rego's ironclad emerged from SevenSpirits in pursuit of my flotilla. Darrell wanted me to block it - I said my ships would simply die, and its only a two-mover anyway that can't interdict his attack on Pindicator, so he let the matter drop. That thing will quail before one of his destroyers - whereas it can sink all three East Indiamen if I hang around. Darrell is planning on kicking things off next turn.

Rego whipped away five population in SuckitLebron for a machine gun, which will temporarily prohibit any assault on the city. I simply need more rifles and especially cannons before I can make any attempt to take the city. So, I decided to make the best of the situation and adjusted my plan accordingly. Espionage revealed that Rego is researching combustion and is three turns away - so we need to threaten his oil as soon as possible. I embarked fourteen rifles between those aboard the HMS Surprise and the veterans of the attack on Nowitzkiville, renamed Leningrad. Next turn I can hit a combination, or all of his southern trio of cities. He only has a couple of rifles in each, and I have extensive naval and air support, so I should be able to raze at least Tataningrad and Polka. Near Polka, I need to put enough rifles ashore to then occupy the grassland hill tile north of the city. That tile overlooks his oil and I should be able to prevent him from improving it, especially since he no longer has cannons available to spearhead a counterattack.



Apparentally, Rego does not think Darrell will attack him still and asked for iron last turn.

[SIZE="3"]In Other News[/SIZE]

NoSpace researched Physics, curiously. I guess they're heading for some of the wonders I wanted? No other techs were researched last turn. Domestically, things were pretty quiet, I did several two pop whips this turn to keep happiness under control, and started researching steam power for dikes. I have a settler en route to found the backfill city east of Damascus. I wish Kyan had packed his cities in a little tighter - as a financial civ it makes sense to go for the maximum number of cities to work the 2/0/3 coastal tiles, especially for the Dutch with their dikes. Looking around, I could have crammed in at least a couple more, much in the style of how Rego has placed his.

The power graph:



I would pay good money have a webcam view of Rego's reaction to the next couple turns

[oledavy]

Shoot emailed me a screenshot from his turn of what he could see.

[oledavy]

I had a quick chat with Shoot tonight. I suggested he assault Bato, but he was quick to tell me the Bato garrison had been reinforced by a few rifles and a machine gun. It seems as thought the city will be remaining in Rego's hands awhile longer. Shoot did indeed have a small army aboard the fleet to the east, which he ultimately decided to land beside Mackoti to begin a siege of the city.

However, the big news is that Shoot spotted a frigate (visible in the previous screenshot) in Rego's lands. It seems as though Novice and Spacemen aren't just content to fund Rego, but also supply him with warships!!!

I can't say I would do much different were I in their shoes, waging a proxy war makes a lot of sense. It does irk me though, given my conversation with Spaceman in which he said they would not support the Incan war effort - I should really go dig that chat log up for the sake of posterity. Were this occurring in the real world, the Indian actions would technically be a declaration of war. I would love to hear Darrell's thoughts on this.

[oledavy]

[COLOR="Yellow"]See the U.N. thread...nice suggstion Dave :-). I am forking 3 cities to the south now, I only lost two rifles so...could get ugly (well, uglier).

Darrell[/COLOR]

[SIZE="3"]Report from the Eastern Front[/SIZE]



June 6th, 1430 AD, 0600 - Off the coast of the Incan city of Tataningrad

“Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.”

Captain Jack Aubrey said this to himself as he peered through his telescope sitting atop the prow of his beloved HMS Surprise. The sun had just appeared on the horizon above the Incan coastline, and it had indeed assumed a brilliant hue of red. In the distance, rising above the waves, was the little town of Tataningrad. Wispy trails of black smoke still rose from the city center. It was little more than a ruin in the aftermath of the previous two battles that had fought over this sleepy little Incan town, and today, they were here to fight over it again.

Behind him, four battalions of Templar Riflemen were in the process of assembling on the deck. Most of them hailed from the east coast, the old cities of Damascus and Sidon; some inspired by patriotic fervor, some drafted into this war. The crew of the HMS Surprise were preparing the ship's boats for landing on the hostile beach.

Coronel Stephen Maturin strode up behind him and glanced at the sky.

"Blood will be shed this day."

Aubrey nodded in agreement.

"Are your men ready?"

A sudden whiff of spray caught both men from the larboard side. They turned to see the HMS Repulse with the HMS Nelson trailing behind passing by, sailing towards the unsuspecting city of Tataningrad. Turning back to the prow, Jack handed Maturin the telescope and pointed at a long stretch of white beach west of the harbor.

"We’ll put your men ashore there, it looks like they've dug rifle pits farther up the beach, but it’s the best place to land. Once your men are ashore, you’ll have to fight your way up the beach and through the city."

He turned back to Maturin.

"What was in your sealed orders?"

Maturin was starting at the coastline. "I never wanted to see that city again...”

His eyes came back into focus and then grew grave.

"Burn Tataningrad to the ground, spare no one."

Aubrey heard a humming in the distance, turned, and scanned the sky.

“You’d better get going, the flyboys are on their way."

Maturin addressed the soldiers on the deck of the ship.

"Men! That is the city of Tataningrad, formerly known as Stalingrad. We are here today to finish a job. Last year, our soldiers were forced to abandon this city. At the battle of White Plains, the Incans threw everything they had at us. Their artillery tore us to pieces… very few of us made it out. We are here to settle that score! Your orders are to burn that damnable city and take no prisoners!."

The stillness of the morning was broken as the airships of the Incan air force began bombing the city in the distance – sending up long trails of black smoke from the beach.

“You boys have lived your entire lives fearing an invasion from those bastards to the east. Today, you get to return the favor. Now, to your boats! FOR THE PARKIN VIOLATERS!”







I hit Tataningrad with four airships, and detailed my pair of frigates to assist in the attack. I killed both rifles in the city in exchange for two of my own and razed the city to the ground. I have now atoned for my earlier mistake.









Next came the attack on Polka. It was staffed by a musket, rifle, and a great general rifle. After hitting it with six airships, my rifles went ashore. I got very lucky and won a rifle vs. rifle battle at ~30% odds. I killed all three of his units, including the GG, for one rifle of my own.

After this attack, I had six rifles and two airships on standby - probably not enough to take Far Open (on a hill, guarded by two rifles/a catapult/a quechua). However, it was more important to cut off Rego's source of oil as he was only three turns from combustion last time I had research visibility. So I landed all six, including my own great general, on the grassland hill to the northeast of the former city - overlooking Rego's oil tile. I wish I had saved a couple of promotions here so I could grab a few guerilla I rifles. However, combat I will work well for assaulting that tile if he choses to defend it.

Of note in these screenshots is this:



Rego refounded the city of Sciz with the settler he had putzing around his capital. We'll see if I can raze it again



The final action of the turn took place in the Far East. Rego left his frigate out in the ocean (a sure sign he's checking out of this game). I couldn't resist a chance to avenge the sinking of the HMS Hood. So, I sent in the HMS Colussus, which lost; but the HMS Euralyus mopped up, taking no damage in the process.

Gloating picture:



That sums up the military action for the last turn, so - the updated scoreboard:

Incan Losses (2,110 hammers)
1 galley
12 frigates
3 galleons
2 quechuas
3 catapults
2 cannons
10 riflemen
3 musketmen
3 workers

Templar Losses (1,295 hammers)
2 macemen
2 musketmen
8 rifleman
3 catapults
8 East Indiamen

[SIZE="3"]Elsewhere....[/SIZE]

I already outlined what Shoot did in my previous post. According to Darrell, he is set up to possible raze several more cities next turn. I'm thrilled he actually did declare war and feel somewhat guilty now for not trusting him earlier. Rego abandoned the canal fort to Shoot and is consolidating his forces in the west in the city of Bato.

NoSpace has denied they are gifting Rego frigates, saying the frigate in question was just there to observe the action. Both of them were really emphatic about this in their conversation with me. However, they have started gifting Rego clams and wheat.....

They teched electricity this last turn, and Darrell and I played cat and mouse with them today regarding the electricity/radio wonders, most notably the Critso Redentor. We dangled the idea to them that we were funding each other. Darrell is going to make a play for it. I really wish I could get a couple of them, especially the Cristo Redentor (I love spiritual). However, there's nothing for it, I just have too many other key techs I need to knock out first to keep my civilization competitive. Curiously, they chose to go for combustion after finishing electricity? Did Darrell convince them/intimidate them that they needed to be prepared for war? The other tech news for this turn was me finishing steam power at last - finding my coal west of Cairo - and Darrell finishing physics. Speaking of Darrell:



I diverged from my current naming theme and named my destroyer from Darrell the HMS Revelation, inspired by the end times that Rego is experiencing - and because it just sounds cool imho. It sailed east to assist with operations over there.



I'm founding this city next turn, which will take Tatan's old fish and work a few grassland tiles my drafting city of Damascus is not using.



My settler to replace Rego's city of Ichabod, along with a Buddhist Missionary and a rifle to guard it, are inbound and due to arrive in two turns. I'm hoping one CG2 rifle, combined with my pressure from the west of SuckitLebron, will be sufficient to deter him from trying to attack the newly founded city.

General strategy thoughts will be coming later, but for the time being, I'd say that was a pretty successful turn. This game is no longer winnable for Rego. His score slipped below mine this turn for the first time in a long time, and it's only going to go lower

[oledavy]

At this point in the war, a mere eight turns after it started, Rego is done - knock on wood While he still has a reasonably sizable army of rifles and the ability to build machine guns, he is running out of population, his navy has been eviscerated, his strategic resources are cut off (or about to be), and he's down seven cities, including his economic and production hub: Pindicator. At this point, he can no longer win this game and can only delay the inevitable unless something radical happens.

Unless my allies abandon me, this war will not end until Rego is eliminated. It doesn't make much sense to do otherwise. Rego has no motivation or reason to make peace at this point, Shoot has too much to gain to quit now, and Darrell is having fun.

My goal at this point is to come away from this war with the following cities in my possession:

SuckitLebron
Sciz
Far Open
Commodore
Plako

Furthermore, I intend to resettle Stalingrad, Polka and Ichabod - meaning ideally, I add a total of nine cities to my empire (including Nowitzkiville/Leningrad). If Darrell really wants Commodore, I'm flexible on that, but Plako and SuckitLebron are going to me mine. I'm counting on Shoot to support me on my claims in the post-war world, since I basically gave him open-ended use of nineteen East Indiamen to make this all possible.

Sciz, Far Open, and Commodore, should be fairly easy to capture. SuckitLebron is a much tougher nut to crack. However, I should have enough forces mobilized to besiege the city fairly soon, the key thing is to get enough cannons online.

The real issue here is Plako. The city's culture crushes the BFC's of the cities all around it, so in order for Stalingrad, Polka, Far Open and Sciz to be viable I need to control the heart of the continent. It also gives me a shorter front to defend in the event Shoot or Darrell ever becomes hostile. Strategic necessity aside, the city of Plako is now the largest city on the map with a slew of mature towns surrounding it.

The issue is taking it.

I will not have the advantage of naval support. Air support will be flaky at best with the lack of secure nearby cities - and he'll have at least 4 turns of me advancing towards it to whip/draft the city down. He could have four machine guns waiting for me by the time my armies finally reach the city gates. If he gets infantry, things get even worse. I need to talk to Shoot and see if he would be willing to assist in an overland campaign. No one can say I'm not a foolhardy risk-taker

Fortune favors the bold!

[oledavy]

I am quite unnerved by Rego's post in the UN thread. Unless he's bluffing, one of two things probably happened:

1) He killed my rifle stack with my GG.
2) He railroaded out of SuckitLebron and razed Leningrad/Nowitzkiville.

I have a sinking feeling its the latter, in which case he took four airships with him. Leningrad was lightly staffed, because I did not consider the possibility that he might railroad out of the city (he had no workers in SuckitLebron). However, with steam power online (workers improve +50%) he could have finished a worker last turn, moved, built a railroad, and used his rifles to attack. I don't recall if I had any warships in the harbor. I am not looking forward to getting the turn back.

[oledavy]

Number two confirmed with Rego.

Templar Losses

4 Airships
3 East Indiamen
2 Riflemen

I don't know what casualties he suffered yet. Apparently he couldn't burn the city.

I'm quite pissed at myself. This was a stupid mistake no matter how you look at it.

I should have seen this possibility. This loss could have easily been avoided if I stuck a few of my healing riflemen in the city. As is it, I've lost nearly a 1/4 of my air force in one go, not to mention losing more ships. Additionally, I've lost infrastructure in a city I want to integrate into my empire.

So yeah....not much to say here. I dun screwed up.

[oledavy]

It's now been ten turns since I kicked off this war, and despite some setbacks, things have been going well overall.

Turn 134 was relatively unexciting. There were no battles, nobody researched a tech, and my all my tactical movements amounted to me setting myself up for fiasco of last turn - which brings us to turn 135:

[SIZE="3"]Report from the Eastern Front[/SIZE]





How cute, he renamed the city "SuckitOledavy"

I already elaborated on this brilliant maneuver in a previous post, so I won't get back into it here. At the cost of one rifleman, he killed two riflemen of my own, in addition to four airships and three East Indiamen which I rather stupidly left in the harbor. Of note in the combat log is that he attacked with a machine gun? I was under the impression machine guns could only defend.



He staffed the city with three rifles, a machine gun and a spearman, in addition to one rifle outside the city. On my turn, I counterattacked with everything I had; first bringing in the HMS Revelation and three frigates to bomb the defenses of the city down, and then the five airships I had within range. One of the airships was intercepted and damaged by his machine guns, but the others got through. I had a slew of riflemen healing on the rice tile to the northwest, and attacked with them. The first three rifles died, but the remainder mopped up his forces.





Thankfully, all the pre-existing infrastructure survived this assault on the city.

So, the updated scoreboard of this war:

Incan Losses (2,583 hammers)
1 galley
12 frigates
3 galleons
2 quechuas
1 Spearman
3 catapults
2 cannons
1 machine gun
15 riflemen
3 musketmen
3 workers

Templar Losses (2,031 hammers)
2 macemen
2 musketmen
13 rifleman
3 catapults
11 East Indiamen
4 airships

Thanks to the battle of Nowitzkiville/Leningrad/Suck It OleDavy, Rego has dragged himself into near hammer parity with me.

All this fighting gave me a second great general, born in Jaffa.



I'm going to ship him off to Edessa, so I can churn out 6 xp destroyers right off the bat (Moai + Dike + Factory + Heroic Epic + Drydock = 1t destroyers).

Farther in the north, Rego built a fort atop his oil and moved in a machine gun and four riflemen.



My six riflemen are entrenched atop the hill. He has three catapults in rnge, however, I don't think it is enough to dislodge me. Conversely, I am not strong enough to assault his forces. I offloaded four workers to provide flexibility of movement and the ability build forts for airships when I make the push at Plako.

This situation has the potential to grow extremely dangerous quickly. Rego has combustion, and Incan destroyers could make things a lot more difficult - especially for Shoot. However, Rego only has a couple coastal cities left he can whip destroyers out of in any decent time frame, Zakalwe being the most notable (19 pop). Cutting his oil supply is now my foremost priority. His machine guns are what is making this war difficult.



[SIZE="3"]Report from the Northern Front[/SIZE]



This is the one notable event that took place on turn 134 - Shoot captured the coastal city of Sunrise089.

[SIZE="3"]Report from the Eastern Front[/SIZE]



As you may have seen in the first screenshot, on t135 Darrell razed the city of SevenSpirits. However, I don't expect he will be take down any more cities of Rego's. He has destroyers, but a very small army of riflemen I'd wager is depleted by this point.

[SIZE="3"]In Other News[/SIZE]



I will refound the city of Ichabod net turn. Staying with the World War II Eastern Front theme, I was thinking of calling it Archangel, since it's locked in tundra. It occurred to me Rego was probably preserving those forests so he could make the city his National Park city - he has no forests left anywhere else. It's a soild idea, I think I will do the same.

[oledavy]

Remember what I said earlier about my diplomatic machinations?

[COLOR="Yellow"]Okay, after talking with Dave he was asking if we could do anything with nospace on our own. After noodling it over, the answer is probably. First I'd need to get peace + NAP with rego, and I'd also need you guys to cancel NAPs with nospace even if you don't plan on attacking (just to give them something to think about). Finally, I'd like to extend the cooldown on our existing NAPs. 1v1 is harder than 3v1, but I guess I'll try!

Darrell
[/COLOR]

Darrell is concerned about NoSpace running away with the game - and feels right now is the opportune moment to strike. Novice and Spaceman have been ignoring crucial military techs for quite awhile now (rifling and nationalism). However, it won't be long before they can field a combination of destroyers and bombers, and Darrell wants to attack now. Additionally, he's competing with them for the Cristo Redentor and feels that a cancellation of NAPs could perhaps help him win the race.

Originally, Darrell just wanted a unilateral cancellation of NAPs - then suggested war. I'm in no position to open up another war at this point. There is still quite a ways to go before me and Shoot can finish off Rego, and it's going to take every unit I have. Furthermore, I'm going to need at least a turn at peace to clear out my war weariness. Besides, it's not really in my best interest to start another war just as my current one is starting to bear fruit.

However, Darrell is in excellent shape to do so. He has not really invested much in this war to date, and has the key military techs unlocked, so I suggested he go after NoSpace solo. As you can see in the above email, he's fine with the idea. I'm a little concerned about ability of me and Shoot to prosecute this war without him. However, I don't expect it will mean too many more soldiers coming our way. Darrell already accomplished my primary objective for him by razing PIndicator, and burning Seven Spirits is just icing on the cake. Furthermore, I won't have to fight him for the city of Commodore, and might even be able to snag the SevenSpirits and Pindicator locations.

I'm perfectly happy to end my NAP with NoSpace, as I share only two very small bordes with them. Furthermore, I will have destroyers online soon which should keep me pretty safe. Shoot shares a much larger border and does not want to cancel his NAP. I'm hoping we can convince him. While his cities are more vulnerable. I'm pretty sure NoSpace will be so concerned with trying to fend of Darrell that they will not be able to undertake any offensives against Shoot.

I'll just have to wait and see what happens with it all; I sent the following emails to Darrell and Shoot:

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Hey Darrell,

I just wanted to clarify, do you still intend to go after NoSpace?

If so, please let me know as soon as possible so I can cancel my NAP and open borders. I'm unsure at this point on how much I could contribute to a war. I still need to finish off Rego and then be at peace for at least a turn to clear the +4 WW that's appearing in my cities. However in that intervening time I can make scary faces at NoSpace and try to tie down their forces in the north.

In regards to Rego's oil, I should be able to cut it off on turn 139. Zakalwe just took an eight pop hit so I'd wager he whipped a destroyer there. I doubt he'll be able to get any more out before I cut it off, he simply doesn't have the population anymore. However, one destroyer can do a lot of damage to Shoot's wooden navy. If he hasn't already come to you looking for a destroyer or two I'm sure he will soon. My situation is not quite so perilous, but if you do have a spare destroyer I could loan out until I get my own warships online, I would appreciate it.

By the way, do you have any duplicate luxury resources I could trade for to help me deal with war weariness? Dyes in particular would be nice since I have creative theaters up in most of my cities.

Cheers!
Dave[/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Hey Shoot!

I just wanted to clarify, what were the terms you understood for me loaning you 19 East Indiamen? I just went back through my thread and realized I never really laid anything out in that regard.

Furthermore, do you have any duplicate luxury resources? I'm really starting to feel the pinch of war weariness. I have a duplicate of silk I'm not trading, if you don't have access to that resource.

I spread Buddhism to an 18th city last turn and hit you up for an additional 1gpt in game.

Finally, did Rego whip a destroyer in Zakalwe last turn? I should be able to cut off his oil on t139. He built a fort and staffed it with rifles and machine guns, however, I should have enough rifles and cannons in range to take it out on t138 and pillage the resource on t139.

Regards,
Dave

P.S. - What do you think about Darrell going after NoSpace? Personally, I'm quite content to let those two bash heads and drag each other down. [/COLOR]

[oledavy]

Meh. Message from Darrell to Shoot and me.

[COLOR="Yellow"]Dave,

Apparently rego has decided his one and only goal this game is to punish us for taking him out of the running. He'd rather be eliminated than make peace. I'm inclined to oblige him. For that reason I think now is a terrible time for me to go to war with nospace. Without Combustion, I need to supply you with naval support.

I have queued Destroyers in several cities. I plan on turning off tech for a few turns to rush them out. I will make sure we retain control of the seas, and can certainly rush a Destroyer for you next turn. Let me know if that is sufficient. Shoot, please indicate where you need me to place my ships. I've had to pull a few back for defensive purposes but I have four and two more coming online that should be more than enough to cover you. I also have some transports if you want to rush some Infantry or Cannon to the front.

Let's take this punk out.

Darrell

P.S. I am also having happy issues, but when I reviewed the trade screen I didn't see anything we could do :-(. This is another good reason to finish rego off, I don't believe he has the pop to survive another strong push.[/COLOR]

His help will makes things go smoother for these critical next few turns. However, it will mean I may have to compete for some of Rego's cities. I was really hoping I could get him and NoSpace to knock heads and give me a fighting chance to win this - seems it will not be the case this time around. I'll have to try again later.