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

[regoarrarr]

You've done a great job preparing and updating your thread. So much so.... that I can't decide if I want to root for you in this upcoming war, or if I still want you to get a massive beatdown

[oledavy]

[SIZE="7"]WORLD WAR III[/SIZE]

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



Just a few hours after arriving in the metropolis of Jericho, Private First Class Joseph Allen was fighting for survival in the crumbling streets of the city. The air assault began just after dark, and the Egyptian War Bird had been remorselessly hammering the city for 12 hours now. The destroyers in the harbor were doing their best to throw up an anti-aircraft barrage, but most of the bombers were getting through. For the Dutch soldiers defending the city, there was nowhere to hide. Allen huddled with his company in the basement of one of the historic buildings in the downtown area, wincing every time he heard the screech of a descending HE bomb and fearing that every second might be his last. It was a sleepless night for the Dutch Army.

As the sun peeked over the Eastern horizon and the whine of the bomber engines grew more distant, Allen allowed himself to breath a sigh of relief. Just then, the radio on the company's sergeant barked:

"Landing force sighted to the northeast! Move to defend the beach!"

The weary Dutch moved to defend the North Beach. Another barrage began, this one from the Egyptian Warships supporting the invasion fleet. A shell took out the ancient brick store down the street, and Joseph could only think of one thing: getting to the beach safely.

However, on the beach itself the Dutch forces we're suffering heavy casualties. Egyptian Marines supported by APCs and with plentiful fire support from the warships offshore were tearing through the Dutch defenses. The overnight bombing and pre-landing bombardment had left the Dutch units decimated, the defensive positions shattered, and the survivors weary.

Allen moved behind a sandbag wall halfway up the beach, un-shouldered his rifle, and began firing for all he was worth. How long he knelt there firing, Allen did not know. All he did know was that the Egyptian attack was stalling, and they just might have a chance at this after all. An APC downrange exploded as it was hit by a bazooka, and Allen and his company gave a weary cheer. Allen stopped mid-cheer though, as he heard a strange whining sound. He looked up just in time to see the jet fighter launch the missile that would take his life

Summary

Darrell decided to attack Jericho with everything he had. While my fleet anchored in the harbor survived, my army was completely destroyed. He attacked with fourteen bombers and two fighters. My destroyers did surprisingly well and intercepted five of the bombers. However, those that did penetrate inflicted terrific damage. After using his warships to lower the defenses, Darrell attacked with 19 units loaded above the 5 transports. It seems he really emphasized the air force and had to scrape on ground units, because his force composition was:

11 marines
2 mechanized infantry
5 infantry
1 rifleman

I had 16 infantry and 5 cannons defending the city, and he killed 12 infantry and 3 cannons. The 6 survivors are so depleted in health they're useless for defending next turn. In return I was only able to kill four units of his: 3 marines & a mechanized infantry. That's nearly a four to one kill ratio He pulled his fleet and wounded units on the transports back to South Korea.

In hindsight, I made two rather egregious mistakes here. The first was the decision to defend Jericho. The city is in range of bombers based out of four of his cities, a potential of 16 bombers. Compare that to Constantinople. which is only in range of bombers based out of Kenya. Anything I defended Jericho with was going to die. All I accomplished was to delay him for a turn and lose the majority of my main defensive army in the process. The other mistake was not queuing up a bunker in Jericho last turn. I wouldn't have made a huge difference, but was certainly would have been better than finishing the coal plant It probably would have meant a couple additional losses for him and survivors for me.

Such is War.

[oledavy]

[SIZE="3"]The Razing of Rhodes
[/SIZE]


For as long as Colonel Simon Riley cared to remember, he'd called Rhodes home. When he'd graduated from the Dutch military academy, he specifically asked that he be stationed with the unit defending the city. Did he regret that decision, not in the least, not even as he lay dying on the outskirts of the city near one of the famed silk plantations.

The Indian assault had come early in the morning. The Dutch forces fought bravely, but were no match for the superior numbers of the Indians. Riley had had no option but to order a retreat from the city, and it was on that retreat that a shrapnel from a nearby shell had severed his spinal column, leaving him unable to go farther. He now sat at the side of the road, waiting for whatever came first, Death or the Indians. The horizon glowed red as the Indians burned down his beloved city, and tear slid down his cheek as he thought about what was being lost. He heard voices down the road, sighed peacefully, and clutched the revolver close to his chest. It appears the Indians would be first.

Summary

NoSpace performed all three of their assaults close in tandem. However, early in the 1st battle of the Jaffa Sea, they dispatched a transport to attack the city of Rhodes with a pair of marines. Their first marine died against my infantry, but the second one was able to mop up and raze the city to the ground. He went ahead and deleted it however, to prevent me from killing it to rack up some experience. I spent so many turns making that city productive.....stealing a food resource to grow it. Meh.

I don't think I had a ship completing in the city last turn, I hope.

[oledavy]

[SIZE="3"]The Battle of Jaffa Sea/The Battle of Aleppo[/SIZE]



Captain John Foley perched high atop the mast of the [i]HMS Euralyus watching the battle raging in the bay. The Dutch fleet was getting hammered. The Indians had spearheaded their assault with battleships and bombers, broken the Dutch formation, and now were mopping up the fleet one ship at a time. Even the Dutch transports were being pushed into action to try and stop the Indian tide. However, the HMS Euralyus and her fellow East Indiamen were sitting this action out in the harbor, as they would simply be shreaded by the modern Indian navy. Word had come that Aleppo had fallen and a recent radio blast updated that the Indians had landed major forces southeast of the city. Foley turned back and gazed upon the lights from Jaffa. The General Staff had given Jaffa a priority 1 defense status. However, it appeared that the efforts of the Dutch navy would not be enough to prevent its fall.[/i]

Summary

NoSpace opted to focus on trying to destroy my fleet anchored in the bay. They spearheaded the assault with four bombers, only one of which was intercepted by the destroyers. He started off with his eight battleships for collateral. I managed to sink five of them, but lost three of the battleship vs. battleship battles. The battle turned into a rout as his destroyers and then transports attacked my damaged fleet. He got a ninth battleship into action for more collateral by promoting the one in cash cow to Nav II. All in all, his mop-up forces sank eight battleships, two destroyers and nine transports at the loss of three destroyers and a transport. At the end of the day, he was able to retreat most of his fleet into Aleppo. He had ten destroyers, three battleships, and six transports in the city when I opened the save, with an additional battleship moving up to reinforce. The Nav II battleship and three transports, including a Nav II & Nav I, were left outside Jaffa because they were out of movement points.

Novice was careful to empty his transport before attacking with them. The assaults on Aleppo and Rhodes and the landing outside Jaffa went down during the course of the battle. The assault on Aleppo was unsupported by the navy, but they still were able to achieve a 1:1 kill ratio. They lost three marines to kill my three defenders. Finally, they landed nine marines & thirteen infantry southeast of Jaffa. They used one airship to presumably perform recon and rebased the other three into Aleppo after the city fell.

The Battle of Jaffa Sea was a pretty crushing defeat, but I did not see a way around it short of letting my SoZ city fall on the first turn of war. The collateral inflicted by battleships gives the attacker an overwhelming advantage at sea in this era. However, I feel like NoSpace may have made a tactical blunder on this last turn, despite their string of victories. More about that in the next post.

[oledavy]

Dutch Losses

11 Battleships (132,000)
2 Destroyers (16,000)
10 Transports (60,000)
15 Infantry (241,000)
1 Machine Gun (10,000)
3 Cannon (24,000)

City of Rhodes
City of Aleppo

Total: 483,000 Soldiers Dead (Not Including Power From Buildings/Pop in Rhodes/Aleppo)

Allied Losses

5 Battleships (60,000)
3 Destroyers (24,000)
1 Transport (6,000)
8 Marines (142,000)
1 Mech Infantry (30,000)

Total: 262,000 Soldiers Dead

That's approximately 14% of my power gone in one turn. Losses of 500,000+ Troops every turn are not sustainable. My power has been rising approximately 500,000 each turn, but that's during a golden age. As I continue to lose cities, my production will only get worse too. 2:1 losses against an enemies whose combined production potential is greater than mine is also not a winning proposition. All this being said, I was being completely serious in the UN thread when I said the turn did not go as badly as it could have.

NoSpace could have easily razed an Sidon, Beruit and/or Damietta and still had enough forces in position to take Jaffa on t173. I don't know if this was a failure of recon on their part or just Novice being overly cautious. Additionally, when control of the sea is still very much in doubt, they landed the majority of their armed forces on an island where they can be easily isolated by my larger navy.

Darrell is set to just roll through my northern cities, and there is absolutely nothing I can do to stop him. He's producing guided missiles too now which is only going to make things worse. He's going to tear through anything I stack up against him like a hot knife through butter. The Battle of Jericho was just the pre-game show.

Still - and I know this sounds haughty coming from the person who is getting his ass whopped - but Darrell is not performing to his full potential. He has five transports.....five. He could be threatening every city I have between Constantinople and Alexandria and he's only threatening one. He has enough bomber support such that his rifles can take out my infantrym and he's not capitalizing on it. Surely he knows from his recon that Tyre, Antioch, Alexandria and Acre only have one defender each. Why he does not position a single transport in Spain or Egypt to capitalize on this is beyond me.

So yeah, turn went about 90% as bad as it could have. Now to figure out my moves.

[oledavy]

[SIZE="3"]Turn 173[/SIZE]

One consequence of NoSpace's actions last turn is that they exhausted any attacking potential for this turn. I counted up all the visible units and the total was 35. Considering they had 10 transports before losing one in the Battle of Jaffa Sea and lost five marines last turn, Since all these units are unloaded, they can't attack anywhere next turn besides Jaffa, which gives me some naval flexibility.

For starters, here's the situation in Aleppo:



Here's a close up of his military strength in the city:



His navy only has 7 ships in the green out of 19, although, some will definitely promote for next turn. Nonetheless, this means I can mop up the ships he left out to dry and can again plant my fleet in the bay. This will prevent him from using his ships to bomb down the defenses of Jaffa and retreat, forcing him to choose between using his bombers for collateral or lowering the city defenses, and will allow my defenders in Jaffa to kill a couple more units. He'll have four battleships and possibly a missile cruiser in range of this naval stack. However, two are in yellow, and most of his destroyers are too; the battle would not be very favorable for him. It wuld likely result in 1:1 losses unless he details off his bombers which would mean even more casualties for his ground forces. The potential battleship comes from Cash Cow. One last recon flight from Aleppo revealed it.

So, 2nd Battle of Jaffa Sea

Combat II Battleship vs. Nav II Battleship (34.6) - 75.9% LOSS
Combat II Battleship (26.0) vs. Nav I Transport (14.2) - 95.4 WIN
Combat I Destroyer vs. Nav II Transport (9.6) - >99.9% FLAWLESS WIN
Combat I Destroyer vs. Transport (9.4) - >99.9% WIN
Combat I Destroyer vs. Nav II Battleship (9.2) - 99.9% FLAWLESS WIN

All this fighting generated my 4th great general, Francisco Pizarro, in Constantinople (thank you Great Wall!).

All three of those destroyers will promote to Combat II next turn, provided they survive. The loss of the combat II battleship was disappointing, but other than that things went pretty well. I divvied up my ships in the south. It'll probably end up costing me more to have sunk those four Indian Ships. We'll soon see just how badly he wants my navy dead. Depending on how he expends his navy next turn, he has the potential to sink several of my ships.

Next order of business, defending Jaffa and evacuating the wounded.



I kinda thought NoSpace might land troops on the island to bypass my navy, but didn't actually expect them to do it. The joke is on me now I piled the three available infantry into the city, drafted a fourth, set the city to 1t a tank, and am running merchants to starve it out a spite. The city is on a hill and has 60% cultural defenses, so the units I have will be able to put up a decent fight. There's just not all that much you can do when they outnumber you five to one. What I am curious about is whether or not NoSpace keeps the city after they take it. This will probably be the last time we see it under the Dutch banner.

I rebased the three airships to Constantinople, and evacuated eight of the nine workers aboard the HMS Bellerephon and HMS Euralyus. The ninth had to be deleted unfortunately to save me the eight cargo spots aboard the HMS Invincible and HMS Come At Me Bro

What's going aboard those extra transports you may ask?



I upgrade the three East Indiamen for 330 gold, took the two marines from Constantinople, a newly produced marine from Hattin, and scraped together five infantry to get eight units that can attack Kenya next turn. I sacrificed two airships out of Jericho to get a pair of recon flights out. He retreated his fleet to South Korea, and only Jericho is vulnerable to attack next turn. Kenya is a major thorn in my side due to it's location (note the sign). If I can take it out, he has no city that's in bomber range of Constantinople, which would be huge for me. Now, there's a 99% chance Darrell will spot this, it's outside his visibility range but an airship recon flight would solve that problem pretty quickly. However, at the very least, I force him to put an honest garrison in the city (more than a warrior). If I actually can take the city, I will flip out with joy next turn.

The two battleships are the two survivors of the First Battle of Jaffa Sea, retreated to heal. The destroyers are from my northern fleet, which is moving south, and hopefully will give me a decisive naval advantage over NoSpace (at the cost of letting Darrell run wild in the north). The six battleships are docked in Constantinople. If Darrell defends adequately, I will move to assault NoSpace in the south. Aleppo is really annoying since it allows him to attack out and retreat under cover of the city. If I manage to retake it at any point, I'm drafting/whipping it down to 1 pop so it's an auto-raze if they try and retake it.

However, the unavoidable fact is I'm losing Jericho and Jaffa next turn. Jaffa was a Priority 1 City and Jericho is one of my oldest and biggest cities. It's going to be a rough turn. Last shot of Jericho:



Unfortunately, I can't get the city to starve and still 1t a tank before it falls. Additionally, I drafted the city, so it will have two defenders when Darrell arrives next turn. His loaded troops are all wounded, but with all his bombers, there is nothing I can do to hold the city.

Meanwhile, in the East, I used my pair off battleships to pillage and sit on seafood at Overexposure and Pictcairn Island.Preparations continue apace in old Peru for my backdoor operations against NoSpace & Darrell.

[oledavy]

Random Turn Notes

Jerusalem began work on Wall Street, it's suffering really badly from a health and happiness crunch.

How does the "We Will Not Fight With Our Brothers And Sisters of the Faith" Algorithm work? I'm getting +1 unhappy from it in Jerusalem, despite Darrell being Hindu and NoSpace being Confucian.

I'm a little unsure what to do with my fourth great general. One idea is to use him to slap Combat III on a number of battleships at once. I could also create a eight move transport. A waste of a GG for NoSpace with their base seven-move ships, but it would be really nice for me. I moved him east for the time being.

Forgot to mention that I found Darrell's attack sub awhile back. It's currently idling in one of his cities along the western front. He attached a GG to it to make it have eleven moves. A bit of a waste of a GG if you ask me, I don't quite see the advantage of an eleven-move submarine with so many destroyers around. Scouting or to snipe lone units perhaps?

I'm revolting back into slavery next turn as my golden age comes to a close. CS is extremely powerful yes. But being able to rush units and whip cities down before they're captured is too powerful at this point.

NoSpace EP nuked me, and I now only have visibility on one city. I guess they got tired of having to work around my visibility range. I ran 100% gold, and next turn will start researching flight, due EOT t176. I have six units left to upgrade, but none are pressing, so I'm delaying them until later.

My outlying cities with limited production (Hebron, Nazareth, Samaria, Corner City) are producing airships. I'm going to need a lot to maintain visibility at the rate I'm going to be losing them. It also works better logistically to have them produce units that can move instantly to the front.

Current Builds:




This may just be my gamer side coming out, but fighting this war I feel like the UNSC facing off against the Covenant. I need a John-117 badly.....in addition to that Bruce Willis from earlier.

End Turn.

[oledavy]

And...I forgot to draft a third infantryman

More time playing turn, less time creative writing.

[NobleHelium]

Cities only autoraze if they've never grown. You cannot starve a city down so that it autorazes.

[Tatan]

This may just be my gamer side coming out, but fighting this war I feel like the UNSC facing off against the Covenant. I need a John-117 badly.....in addition to that Bruce Willis from earlier.

Having been playing through Halo: CE's campaign again recently, I think your comparison seems to be eerily accurate...

That said, remember that despite the MC the UNSC still lost basically every colony except for Earth before the Covenant collapsed into civil war (Darrell vs NoSpace?!!). So, er, good luck.