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

[darrelljs]

Mulling over the situation this afternoon, I came up with a plan of sorts:

1. Convince Shoot to undertake this venture, he goes after NoSpace and I go after Darrell.
2. After rebuilding a bit and getting more destroyers in the water (~10 turns from now), threaten NoSpace and cancel the NAP with them.
3. Secure a large bribe from NoSpace to not attack them and attack Darrell instead.
4. Cancel the NAP with Darrell, and kick off the war. I attack Darrell, and Shoot attacks NoSpace. Drag them both down simultaneously and try to prevent them from launching their spaceships.

I knew we were right to sign that MDP .

Bit of an ethical issue here, reminiscent of Rego's situation at the conclusion PB4. Give up winning and support an ally who's been faithful to you, or go all out for the slim chance at victory. The only way I can conceivably see winning would have me backstabbing Darrell. Which is the more ethical choice?

We didn't have any game long mutual support deals, so attacking me would not have been a backstab at all.

Darrell

[darrelljs]

In the meantime, Darrell, you should check this out

I already had a game long agreement with nospace though, so I would have been forced to decline . Yes, I know a broke a deal with them before but that was a one time mistake I don't mean to repeat .

Darrell

[darrelljs]

Kyan,

You got the Dutch off to a great start...well done .

Dave,

This thread was amazing, you did a fantastic job with it . I think you played exceptionally well in many aspects, you just had some game strategy hiccups. Given this was your first one of these, that's pretty understandable. Hopefully we'll get a chance to go at it again sometime in the near future!

Darrell

[oledavy]

A quick overview of what would have happened next.

[SIZE="5"]Turn 182[/SIZE]

[SIZE="3"]Turn 10 of World War III[/SIZE]
[SIZE="3"]Cities: 14 (-3)[/SIZE]







My military got hammered on t182. The Covenant sledgehammer finally hit Constantinople. First came the bombers and stealth bombers. My fighters did surprisingly well, shooting down six aircraft and intercepting five others - at the loss of only one of their complement. However, stacking damage up on my interceptors meant that their chances at intercepting the incoming waves of stealth bombers got lower (tied to unit strength), and eventually a massive wave of Egyptian Stealth bombers got through. On the bright side, my surviving aircraft stacked up XP. One of my fighters had 17xp and was able to promote instantly to evasion on my turn

Then the Egyptian troops came ashore. The modern armor tore through my defenders like a hot knife through butter. With an amphibious strength of 20 and CR promotions, nothing I had could stop them. As he got into his marines and mech infantry though, the Egyptians began taking casualties. What I didn't know was that there were Indian transports carrying in range of the city, and they helped to mop up the remaining defenders and bring me down to just a handful remaining.

At the end of the day, fortress Constantinople was still standing, but barely. My army was gone. In the north, Darrell took out the tank I used to snipe his workers last turn.

In Old Peru, I made a major mistake and miscounted the number of transports south of Archangel, and didn't allow for the possibility of airlifting defenders into the city. The net result was that they had marines on standby that I didn't account for, and the thought I put into defending 1995WorldSeries went to waste. If I had just unloaded one transport, the city would have held. But instead, it fell to the Indians with a dozen units including my commando tanks dying aboard the transports. Leningrad fell as well. In the north NoSpace promoted units to Nav II and razed Pindicator II (again ) Word of advice Pindicator, don't name cities after yourself - they get burned

So, turn 182 saw me lose roughly 50 ground units, have another half dozen cut off and left on the vine to die (the paratroopers and infantry by Archangel), lose my commando units and last remaining major offense army, and half of my bombers when Pindicator II and 1995WorldSeries fell. Here was my remaining military strength at the beginning of the turn:



Gutted, but still capable of some offensive action



The failure of the Covenant to sink the transport near the ruins of Pitcairn Island meant I could go raze the city of China, staffed by a modern armor and longbow. It involved me using a cover promotion on a red-lined marine to take out the longbow, but hey, it worked.

NoSpace blocked my attempt to boat Russia, so my forces were withdrawn to Kursk, along with my remaining navy to keep NoSpace from destroying it. With the fall of Pindicator, I would have spread out my land-bound forces in the coastal cities of old Peru, while concentrating the available defenders in Kursk. My remaining navy would have been forced to remain in port, but with fighters flying intercept for air cover, and the fact that the city is on a hill, I probably would have been able to hold out for a couple turns before the Indians massed enough attackers to take the city.

Meanwhile, over in the Green Zone, I evacuated all my defenders from Constantinople to Jerusalem, and struck out with my navy. Using all my available air support, I was able to sink a missile cruiser and three destroyers to make a hole in the Covenant blockade. Then, I was able to go take out four of Darrell's stealth bombers with the loaded transport If I had had two more infantry aboard, I would have been able to increase that number to twelve stealth bombers destroyed on the ground. That would have been rich

I got a Great General, in Damascus, probably would have used him for a slew of CG promotions and holed up in Jerusalem.

My remaining warships evacuated up the coast. I expect Darrell would have killed most of them in their forts, as the modern armor with bomber support would allow him to roll over any defenders I put in them. Here is the Green Zone after I made all those moves:



Reading Darrell's thread, they were planning on taking Constantinople and striking inland with mech infantry and modern armor to capture Jerusalem. With all my hitters gone, and my bombing wing scattered, wounded or dead, I would be unable to fight off a landed stack. Without collateral hitters, nothing I had would be able to take out modern armor.

All things said, I probably had about ten turns left in this game, t182 broke the back of my remaining military and sealed my fate. The timeline would have gone something like this:

t183: Constantinople falls
t184: Kursk falls
t185: Jerusalem falls
t186: The rest of the Green Zone, and the coastal cities of Old Peru fall
t190-t195: Moscow falls (again)

Moscow probably would have held for a little while, as the Covenant supply lines would be severely overextended to operate in Old Peru. However, the end result was never in doubt.

[darrelljs]

The failure of the Covenant to sink the transport near the ruins of Pitcairn Island meant I could go raze the city of China

That was someone's responsibility!

Meanwhile, over in the Green Zone, I evacuated all my defenders from Constantinople to Jerusalem, and struck out with my navy. Using all my available air support, I was able to sink a missile cruiser and three destroyers to make a hole in the Covenant blockade. Then, I was able to go take out four of Darrell's stealth bombers with the loaded transport If I had had two more infantry aboard, I would have been able to increase that number to twelve stealth bombers destroyed on the ground. That would have been rich

Urp . I must have miscounted I didn't think you had any naval support that could reach. You only had four ships in the city still, right?

Darrell

[darrelljs]

Reading Darrell's thread, they were planning on taking Constantinople and striking inland with mech infantry and modern armor to capture Jerusalem. With all my hitters gone, and my bombing wing scattered, wounded or dead, I would be unable to fight off a landed stack. Without collateral hitters, nothing I had would be able to take out modern armor.

My estimate was 3-4 turns to remove the infestation from your starting continent, depending on what you defended with in the south (I had a GG Commando MA that was going to be available for the far cities).

Darrell

[oledavy]

Urp . I must have miscounted I didn't think you had any naval support that could reach. You only had four ships in the city still, right?

Darrell

Yeah, a healthly Combat III destroyer and unpromoted transport, along with a wounded Combat III battleship and transport. However, I forted three destroyers into range from the north, which made the sortie possible.

http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showp...tcount=468

They were on that desert north of The Phoenix.

[darrelljs]

Here is the Green Zone after I made all those moves:

Oh, and all those Destroyers in the forts were going to die...I had forked every fort you had along the north. Could they not retreat to the inland fort?

Darrell

[oledavy]

My estimate was 3-4 turns to remove the infestation from your starting continent, depending on what you defended with in the south (I had a GG Commando MA that was going to be available for the far cities).

Darrell

Sounds about right, I was paranoid about a commando unit since I was trying to using them myself Nonetheless, I was leaving Damascus very weakly guarded, so you probably would have been able to take it.

[oledavy]

Oh, and all those Destroyers in the forts were going to die...I had forked every fort you had along the north. Could they not retreat to the inland fort?

Darrell

Pretty much. You were probably going to kill three destroyers and the battleships in forts, they just didn't have the movement points to get out of range. However, leaving them in the open would mean they just die to your monster fleet. My logic here was that at least in dying, they would force you to detail off at least a couple transports. Totally worth it to kill some bombers though