Gandhi of France II - Assuming Direct Control

[Catwalk]

I agree that their banter is uncalled for, you and Commodore have played the diplo game well.

[oledavy]

[SIZE="7"]Turns 121 - 125[/SIZE]

Been a quiet set of turns - I've been teching and building away quietly in my little corner of the world.

I recently finished paper with a couple turns of gold I had saved up, then used my GS to bulb most of Education.



I'm now on my long-awaited research of gunpowder. Abroad, much has been happening:



Commodore birthed a GG fighting Mist, and Gaspar or Yuri birthed a GG fighting their war. Things have not been going well for Yuri. If I'm couting right, he's lost five cities since this war began: Samsun, New Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Kayseri. I find it slightly curious that Gaspar are enjoying so much success against Yuri - especially in light of Mistabod's epic failure with an OP UU. My guess is they're fielding a mix of Knights, CKNs, Maces, and Muskets. However, Yuri has Feudalism for LBs, and has had Construction for Catapults for quite some time. They should not be doing this well, especially when a lot of their power is bound to be tied up defending the Chinese-HRE border. Yuri's is probably just so checked out that he is not defending well, and is basically handing NoGas an easy victory. And make no mistake, this is the end of any meaningful resistance from Yuri. He has been relegated to a small coastal enclave, and his cities can be forked and reduced at will by the Chinese military juggernaut.

Combined with their recent completion of the Jewish Shrine, NoGas are looking very strong. Meanwhile, Commodore built the Hagia Sophia, always a nice wonder, if you don't have anything else to build that is. The 'enemy spotted' warnings are for the trireme pair that Mist and Ichabod have sent down my southeastern seaboard.



So far, they haven't had anything to pillage, I only have two sources of seafood. However, they are starting to near Rakhanna's clams, which will force me to do something about them relatively soon.

However, all these sideshows are secondary to the bomb I had dropped on me this turn. This:



I'm been increasingly wary towards Commodore of late. With Rifle drafting online and a stalemate with Mistabod around Bravery, I wouldn't fault Commodore for looking for other options. Furthermore, one of his workers has been roading my territory along our border. While it could be a friendly gesture, it put me on my guard. Then, this turn, he moved his main army to the location shown. Commodore had been poking at the Byzantine borders northwest of Bravery with this stack. However, on t124, he withdrew it in the face of a superior Byzantine force. But instead of moving it northeast towards Kusari, or north towards the HRE - Chinese border, he moved it northwest towards his core. Now, it might just be me misreading tea leaves, but it seemed to me that he might be moving his stack back into his territory to launch an attack on Tuchanka or Thessia.

I had a worker not doing anything, so I sent him into HRE territory north of Tuchanka to see what he could find. What he found was very disturbing.



Three fortified Knights, one of them with Morale? While they're not positioned anywhere to enter my territory on the following turn, that GG Knight could reach Thessia or Tuchanka turn 1 of an HRE invasion.

Hardly conclusive evidence, but enough to put me on my guard. With Mistabod fortifying their cities and showing no signs of mobilizing or going back on the offensive, I saw little harm in taking a precautionary step.



I moved my main force northeast between Thessia and Tuchanka. From there, it can defend all the approaches to Thessia and Tuchanka, and can potentially move to threaten Zoe on the first turn of any hostilities. I moved my pikes staged west of Palaven to cover the city into Tuchanka to lock it down. The consequence of this is that I leave Irune very vulnerable. However, things are not pointing to the Byzantines going on the offensive anytime soon. Though if they do have a spy in there, I am well, and truly screwed.



At any rate, I decided to take the risk anyway. Very foolish with the benefit of a few hours of hindsight.

If Commodore does declare war, I offer him Palaven for peace. 10 turns would be all I would need to research gunpowder and whip out some musketeers to make prosecuting a war against me much more difficult, and getting a nice Palaven, with all it's infrastructure and the Great Wall intact would be a boon for him - though I'm not sure the one city would be enough to sate Commodore. We'll cross that bridge once I reach it, but I'm not going to be shy about cutting Palaven loose if need be, the city is pretty indefensible operating at the tech disadvantage I am.



I'm getting away with a pretty small garrison there right now against Mistabod because they're focused on defending Bravery, and Commodore has about a dozen units hanging around the city. Those units may be coming after me soon though, we'll see.

As another precautionary step, I wrapped up the last of the crucial infrastructure builds and began ramping up military production again.



I feel like I'm jumping at shadows here. But with my situation as precarious as it is - wedged between two much more powerful nations, I figure it is better to be prepared for any eventuality.

On that note, three of the other four civs, (including Yuri???) can now research astronomy.



While Yuri is no concern, Commodore and Mistabod attacking across the waves with galleons - forking my backline cities - is a very distinct possibility. I'm going to have to start garrisoning all my cities before long.

France, prepared for war, but hoping for peace.



End Turn.

[oledavy]

[SIZE="7"]Turn 126[/SIZE]

I forgot to mention it in my last turn report, but I deleted that worker after I scouted into Commodore's territory and spotted his Knights - so he would be unaware that I am growing wary and proceed according to whatever plan he has in mind. At this point, I'm running out of tiles to improve; and with nine other workers, it wasn't a great loss. Saved me 1gpt in unit upkeep costs.

At any rate Commodore did not attack, and his stack moved northeast towards Kusari. Still, I'm a little unsettled by those fortified knights. I kept my main army where it is. However, I did detail off some pikes and the crossbow to to staff Irune. Mistabod moved an additional 2 Phracts within range of the city. When the turn flips, they'll have the option of attacking it with 4 Phracts against 2 Pikes and a newly completely mace. Cutting it a lot closer than I'd like. Still, short of the RNG just bailing on me, the city should hold - despite the high promotions on the phracts in question.

It seems Mistabod settled a city somewhere south of Kusari, the grassland hill northeast of Bravery is the most likely spot. A new city appeared for them in the diplo screen this turn, "Positioning." That and Commodore's comment in the diplo thread suggests he founded it on his border with him, and that can only be at Kusari. It may also be Mistabod's massive spike on Espionage Spending. it looks like they ran the slider for a couple turns. A little of it went to me, but most went to Commodore. I guess they're planning on using spies against Commodore sometime soon? Or Mistabod simply don't want Commodore to have research visibility. At any rate, it doesn't look like the Byzantines are gearing up for war. They're in OR, and while there are rifles being built here and there, the majority of their MFG is still going into infrastructure. It looks like they're just going to try and ride the current bout of hostilities out. They started research on astronomy this turn, so that may be their endgame. Attack someone (probably me) with rifles off of galleons.

Meanwhile, in France, I used my GS to start my first GA, and revolted into Theocracy. I shuffled a lot of tiles around for max commerce, and queued up a lot more maces, catapults, and a trireme in Rakhanna to counter Mistabod's. At my current research rate, I should have Gunpowder in 4 turns. A golden age well spent imho.

End Turn.

[oledavy]

Hmmmmm.....who do I hate more. Mist, or Commodore.

[SadGit]

Hatred is not a zero sum game. There will allways be enough to go round without rationing.

[oledavy]

I'm hugely miffed about the way I lost Thessia. t129 was the ONE TURN, there were not two units in the city - which would have made Commodore's cheap raze impossible. Furthermore, the unit slated to move in there next turn in addition to the archer was a pike. The whole affair makes me very much want to

What's worse is that I knew this was coming. I saw that morale knight half a dozen turns ago and guessed what might be up.

At any rate, Commodore offered peace for Palaven. Logically, I should accept. It would shorten my front, and give me ten turns to mobilize musketeers. However, his attacking force is small enough to fend off. So for now, I think I'll settle for expending some of my catapults and bloodying Commodore.

Since Commodore and Mist have made peace, I now need to prepared for a renewed assault on Irune. I feel sure it will not be half-assed this time.

[oledavy]

Still mad at myself for the Thessia affair.

Last time I made a mistake like that was in PBEM17, when I got my HE city of Cairo razed by Novice and Spaceman because I did not see that they could get forces in range to attack it; leaving it staffed by just an axe on the eave of the battle.

Rego retaking Nowitzkiville earlier that same game thanks to a newly constructed railroad - killing 4 East Indiamen and Airships in the city - also ranks up there.

At any rate, I'm rolling musketeers off the line everywhere, preparing for France's Armageddon. This turn, I staged my armies to assault the HRE forces if they move adjacent to Palaven or Tuchanka. If Commodore does move in, he'll get a nasty surprise.

I offered him peace for a lump sum of gold. I doubt he'll accept it, but I thought it only fair to offer him a way out before he throws his game away.

[regoarrarr]

Rego retaking Nowitzkiville earlier that same game thanks to a newly constructed railroad - killing 4 East Indiamen and Airships in the city - also ranks up there.

Yeah that was a good one. But look on the bright side - at least you didn't have your guaranteed win sniped by commando Mech Infs. I gotta give you only about 0.2 on the regoarrarr scale last turn

[oledavy]

Yeah that was a good one. But look on the bright side - at least you didn't have your guaranteed win sniped by commando Mech Infs. I gotta give you only about 0.2 on the regoarrarr scale last turn

I appreciate the sentiment. I'm not sure the loss of Thessia really registers on the Regoarrarr Scale though - since it was expected sooner or later.

I mean, with Mistabod's plant of Positioning and Commodore's attack on it, I thought I would get a slightly longer reprieve (enough time for me to shuffle my defenders around and get away with only a single unit in Thessia for a turn ), but I didn't think he had actually given up on the idea.

At any rate, C'est la vie, I'll know better next time.

It's worth noting just how many sour relationships there are in this game.

I have ample reasons to hate both The HRE and Byzantium - HRE for their backstab, Byzantiun for their early belligerence and later Phract attack. I'm equally irked at China for their constant refusals of my asking for their unused health resources, their determination not to trade maps, and for NoGas's vassal state needling in the banter thread. Were I situated next to them, I would definitely be attacking them - calling them on their crappy diplo and WFYABTA. The only one Commodore has not been at war with, pink-dotted, or backstabed at this point is Yuri, and he's down to one city. Mist and Ichabod have attacked everyone in this game except NoGas, and the relationship between those two is possibly the only one still intact.

Maybe it will make more sense to me in the post-game, but I still cannot quite understand the sheer emnity between the HRE and China.

[Fintourist]

This is simply a great and entertaining thread! Many thanks for all the updates and good luck with the comeback!