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

[Gaspar]

It really sucks to not have a dedlurker or two, believe me I know. But this sort of question is beyond the realm of a global lurker.

In general, all we can comment on are mechanics questions and post-facto "Congrats/I'm sorry." In that vein...

I fully understand your frustration and you have my deepest sympathies.

[T-hawk]

Which city would you put Wall Street in? Jerusalem or Acre? I'm currently torn between the two.

Jerusalem has Oxford (thus the 300 bpt) and has more cottages. However, I recall its generally not a good idea to place both in the same city. I don't have a holy city or a corporate headquarters city to place Wall Street.

Jerusalem. The reason is the Dike gives enough hammers to actually build Wall Street in reasonable time. 600 hammers with no doubler is expensive.

The reason not to double Wall Street and Oxford is specialists. The Oxford city obviously gets more yield from scientists and Wall Street from merchants, but you can't do both if the wonders are in the same city. If your cities won't be big enough for specialists, it doesn't matter.

Shoot: what if I were to throw t-hawk into my deal?

Hey!

I haven't really followed threads in this game lately, so I'm fairly unspoiled to comment on the diplo situation, but also don't have much information from your end. My instinct would be to nail down the deal before your bluff is exposed, don't risk blowing it up on something minor like gold or a great person.

[oledavy]

Time to play hardball and call in the old debts:

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Hey Shoot!

Okay, after having time to consider your proposal, ask for advice in my thread, and re-examine the map, here is my proposal:

- I receive Plako
- You receive the pillage gold from conquering the city.
- You receive Mardoc.
- We sign an NAP until the end of the game.
- I do not compete beyond the second ring of the city and forego building a theater in the city.

In regards to the attack on Plako:

- We both move our stacks towards the city.
- On my turn I bomb down the defenses.
- I loan you enough airships for a couple turns for every city you have within range of Plako to minimize your casualties.
- You take the city, then gift it to me at the conclusion of your turn – leaving enough units inside that it does not simply fall to an Incan counter-attack

Before you just say: “fuck that,” allow me to elaborate.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but we both have sufficient forces inbound that we can take the city individually soon enough. However, it will amount to a coinflip as to who gets there first and conquers the city. In the meantime, this pro-longs the war and gives Rego the opportunity to whip/draft more defenders. Idk about you, but I’m anxious to shed this war weariness and grow my cities again.

At this point, I can take Mardoc in the next couple turns and sit tight until my next army arrives to race you for the capital. If I hold Mardoc it basically screws either one of us re-founding ActionDrip. If you want to race for Plako, by all means, let’s do it. However, this seems to be the smartest way out of it. We have the chance to bring this war to a decisive end right now if we cooperate.

Lastly, to bring up my loan of East Indiamen - you acknowledged that it was an extremely favorable deal, and I believe this is indeed the case. I made this war and your resultant territorial expansion possible.

Furthermore, in the past I have:

- Gifted you iron for ~60 turns.
- Chosen to spread your religion.
- Jumped to trade you airships when you requested some.
- Given you the capability to settle an island that otherwise would have gone to NoSpace or myself.

I feel like I am not demanding too much by asking for a favorable deal here.

If you have a counter-proposal I’m more than happy to hear it.

Regards,
Dave[/COLOR]

I'm running a couple calculated bluffs here. I actuality, his armies can probably beat mine to the city. Additionally, I'm not completely sure I can take Mardoc, it'll depend on how healthy my rifles are when I boot up the next save. If Shoot refuses the deal, I'm not sure what I will do. However, I consider it more likely that he will send a counter-proposal if he doesn't agree to my terms.

Yay Brinksmanship!

So, fingers crossed that this pans out.

@Gaspar - Appreciate the sympathy

@T-Hawk - thank you for your input on where to place Wall Street. Couldn't remember why it was generaly a good idea to put them in seperate cities Neither Acre nor Jerusalem will be running many specialists, just cottages. I'm not sure it's relavent anymore since I sent off the email, but what information were you lacking on the diplo situation? In the end I opted to up the ante, because I'm pretty confident Shoot won't call my bluff and or withdraw from negotiations, not quite yet. If he comes back unwilling to concede Plako however, I will probably back down rather than run the risk of him discovering that I don't exactly have another major army inbound at the moment.

[T-hawk]

I'm not sure it's relavent anymore since I sent off the email, but what information were you lacking on the diplo situation?

I haven't followed who's got what armies where - maybe you've said so but I haven't really followed this game in detail. Just happened to see this particular post.

[oledavy]

@T-Hawk - Well, thanks for finding that post to comment on Appreciate the input!

Hey kids, do you know what time it is?

[SIZE="3"]Multi-Part Update Time!!![/SIZE]

It's now been twenty turns since I kicked off the current hostilities. While I'm waiting for Shoot to respond to my email, I thought this would would be a good time to detail everything that is going on.

So without further ado:

[SIZE="4"]250 Years Later...[/SIZE]

This was a really painful turn for my military, and Rego gave me a beating on all fronts. However, the RNG broke in my favor more than it should have, so it could have gone significantly worse. So, let's start unpacking this lastest tale of woe.

[SIZE="3"]The Battle of Suckit Channel[/SIZE]



At the conclusion of last turn, I rather stupidly left five frigates and a destroyer in the channel southwest of Commodore. I don't really know what I was thinking in hindsight, I knew Rego had five destroyers within range to hit them. I believe I was thinking that combat terminates a naval unit's movement, and that if he attacked me, his ships would be out in the open for Darrell to mop up next turn. Because of this, I believed he wouldn't assault and I would have the option of bombing down the defenses of Profane next turn if I so desired. Well he attacked, sank my destroyer and three frigates, and retreated into Commodore to heal.

Visual reference to anyone who's confused:



Combat Log

Incan Destroyer vs. HMS Revelation 27.2% WIN
Incan Destroyer vs. HMS Revelation 99.9% LOSS
Incan Destroyer vs. HMS Nelson 100.0% LOSS
Incan Destroyer vs. HMS Prince of Wales 97.8% LOSS
Incan Destroyer vs. HMS Renown 99.8% LOSS

The words catastrophe, fiasco and FUBAR come to mind when describing this battle. There was no compelling reason for my fleet to be exposed like that and I could have easily moved it out of the way. The result is a 314 to 134 hammer exchange. 180 hammers to Regoarrarr

I give myself four out of five Sulla patented weed smileys for that play:

His destroyers are now all in various damaged states in the port. The one bright spot to this is that he killed three frigates that I'm running out of uses for, and were costing me gold for maintenance and supply

As for the surviving frigates, the HMS Indomitable and the HMS Glorious, there was nowhere safe for them to move in the interim, so I moved them as far southwest as they could go.



I am not too concerned about Rego moving into my waters. I'm starting to pump destroyers out of Edessa, so I will be able to take care of them pretty quickly if he does choose to make a move.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

[oledavy]

Okay, time for some slightly more encouraging news:

[SIZE="3"]The Battle of Lake Mardoc[/SIZE]

"On the outskirts of the great Incan city of Mardoc, lies a sleepy little town beside a great freshwater lake - Late Mardoc. Life was peaceful here, the raging world war had not yet touched this tranquil little township. This all changed the day the advancing Templar army liberated the village. The townspeople initially rejoiced and welcomed them with open arms. However, they soon came to regret ever laying eyes upon an orange uniform. Late that night, weary Incan soldiers arrived by rail from the capital city of Plako to and began assembling to retake the sleepy little hamlet. Supported by Incan airships raining death from the heavens, they attacked at dawn, taking the Templar soldiers by surprise..."



This is where the event log gets a little harder to follow. If I read it correctly, Rego attacked my stack with three airships, then pressed the attack with seven rifles, losing them all.

Combat Log

Incan Rifleman vs. Templar Rifleman 32.2% WIN
Incan Rifleman vs. Templar Rifleman 32.2% WIN
Incan Rifleman vs. Templar Rifleman 32.3% WIN
Incan Rifleman vs. Templar Cannon 53.9% WIN
Incan Rifleman vs. Templar Cannon 32.3% WIN
Incan Rifleman vs. Templar Cannon 31.4% WIN
Incan Rifleman vs. Templar Cannon 24.7% WIN

The RNG gave me a coinflip battle here, saving my cannon

Here's the situation after the battle:



The promotions should bring those cannons back up to near full health. I'm not quite sure what Rego was trying to accomplish here: knock down my top rifles then kill my cannons? And why did he stop the assault when he still had rifles left? Why not just go all out when he could have probably started taking down my cannons?

Rego, after the game, I would like to know what you were thinking here. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see how this attack did you much good - wasting seven rifles you can't really afford to lose at this point.

Here's my stack compared to the Mardoc garrision:





I don't need to run a worldbuilder test to know I can take that city if I want to, and probably get a couple of cannons to withdraw as well. The real question is whether I could hold it, probably not. At least I can make good on what I told Shoot I can accomplish, if need be. Rego's rifles are all in various states of damage in his capital, so if I do advance on Plako, I should be able to make it onto the hill unmolested. The next turn all bets are off, I'll be on flat ground and he'll be able to tear through my covering rifles. However, I just need to get four accuracy cannons through to bring down the defenses of the city.

"....as the sun set in the west, it cast a pale glow on the glossy waters of Lake Mardoc. It had been a day of brutal house-to-house fighting against the zealous Incans. However, the superior discipline and firepower provided by the Templar cannons had carried the day and left the Second Army in possession of the town, or rather, the little that was left of it. The fighting had left nearly half the buildings in the village on fire or beyond repair. As the Templar army prepared to move out in the waning hours of the day, the townspeople wished war had never come to their corner of the globe."

Stay tuned for Part 3!

[oledavy]

The more things change, the more things stay the same.



Rego moved two machine guns to his oil tile to defend it, and we're now back to the same old standoff. I'm actually going to leave them there for the time being - just to tie down his units. Whenever I make my move against Commodore or Profane I can load them into a passing East Indiamen. Until then, they'll just sit there twidling their thumbs and staring at the Incan soldiers.

Stay tuned for Part 4!

[oledavy]

[SIZE="3"]The Battle of Plako[/SIZE]

The Battlefield



This turn, Rego pretty much finished mopping up my poor 1st Army south of his capital, killing nine of my ten surviving rifles.



Combat Log
Incan Rifle vs. Templar Rifle 57.8% LOSS
Incan Rifle vs. Templar Rifle 54.2% WIN
Incan Rifle vs. Templar Rifle 58.3% LOSS
Incan Rifle vs. Templar Rifle 56.8% WIN
Incan Rifle vs. Templar Rifle 89.6% LOSS
Incan Rifle vs. Templar Rifle 90.4% LOSS
Incan Rifle vs. Templar Rifle 78.4% LOSS
Incan Rifle vs. Templar Rifle 91.4% LOSS
Incan Rifle vs. Templar Rifle 82.2% LOSS
Incan Rifle vs. Templar Rifle 83.8% LOSS
Incan Subutai vs. Templar Rifle 88.8% LOSS

The RNG broke in my favor a couple times, making it more costly than it should have been for Rego and preserving one of my rifles I'm still a little mystified why he didn't go all out with his rifles against my stack near Mardoc instead, my guys were not going to get much stronger in the meantime. He's down to twelve wounded rifles and a machine gun in Plako. Fortunately, he's basically past his ability to draft additional rifles on the mainland, and can only draft one next turn - Mardoc and Profane are both below drafting size.

The battlefield:



One 4xp CG1 Rifle left at 2.7 Health left. I felt my surviving riflemen deserved a name befitting a unit that outlasted 29 others. I went ahead and moved him southwest to join my four pinch rifles - all stranded in the middle of Incan territory, away from any naval support.



Next turn they'll move to safety on that hill northeast of my other riflemen. For the time being there's nothing much I can do with these units. I might consider cordinating their movement with the northern stack to advance on Plako, but I feel pretty sure they'll be torn apart before they even get there, seven rifles simply isn't enough. However, I will eventually use these rifles for the attack on Profane or Commodore. Until then, they'll trek towards the safety of the hills and the coastline.

Two Related Thoughts

- One reason I'm looking forward to the fall of Plako is that it will allow me to use Rego's rail lines to quickly shuffle soldiers (like the infantry in Bato) to his east coast for the assaults on Profane or Commodore.

- Airships are a lot more effective for Rego now that I'm operating in his terriroty. Since my units can't heal as fast and I have no machine guns on the ground to intercept his airships, all my units basically have to fight him at 80 HP. Seems the shoe is now on the other foot

Back to the carnage:

In the end, Rego killed a 29 unit stack in exchange for only thirteen units of his own. I think that entire performance on my part deserves a full five weed smileys:

Stay tuned for Part 5!

[fluffyflyingpig]

So what exactly did you get out of the east indiamen loans/sales/whatever you call it? The terms of that deal were kinda vague to me.

[oledavy]

So what exactly did you get out of the east indiamen loans/sales/whatever you call it? The terms of that deal were kinda vague to me.

They were rather vague to me too....a rather dumb diplomatic move on my part, to say the least. Later we agreed to a loan for the duration of the conflict with the stipulations that the ships in question could not be used against me and I would receive 53 gold compensation for each one lost.

Basically, I spent 1,007 so my ally could run off and take stuff

I'm trying to rectify it in an ex post facto fashion by calling in favors with Shoot to receive Plako for all my trouble (see earlier diplo post). Still awaiting his response, but last I checked he was not budging on the issue.