[spoilers]Commodore is Darius II of the HRE, now with less excuse.

[Ceiliazul]

I've been giving some thought to the matter, and I think this is actually a case where standard tactical doctrine might not be valid.

Crack open an ice cold bud light, Mr. "let it flap in the wind" guy. I love it... and it just might work, too.

I really admire Davy as a player (and reporter, of course), and I'm not surprised he's a bitter host. He's doomed in the longterm though, and better at your hand than the Byzantines.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Aaack, that looks like a carpet of doom! But it may be a good choice, we'll see. I guess if Dave wants to kill off the front row of your attackers he can try it but he won't have any cats left to kill off the second row.

[Bigger]

I think its a pretty clever strategy to defend against an army of weaker units and hordes of cats. It will take davy just as many cats (more or less) to kill a stack of 1 rifleman as it would a stack of a dozen riflemen.

[Merovech]

I also think it is a good tatical decision at this point.

[Commodore]

Well, verdict is in: Carpet of doom kinda sorta works, but not enough really. I could beat back Dave enough to grind slowly over Palaven and maybe even Tuchanka before getting gassed, but that's not going to be enough. Damnit, Dave.



So I took his proffered peace, offered trades for the status quo, and also offered to help with his long long border issue.



Gaspar is the problem. Dave, in his understandable irritation, offered a trade for spare luxuries with Gaspar (damnit, Novice and plako, I will have a loooong rant about the luxury balance too when I'm done). Sadly, that's help that Gaspar entering his 18-turn golden age does not need.



A small war weariness total means Gaspar is suffering a little from the Ottomen Remnant. Spamming longbows, however, does not a defense make. I'm sure it's only the Byzantine threat in the south that is keeping Yuri alive right now.



Whew, you thought that Dave's Golden MFG was high? Try New Imperial China. With drafting and drafting alone can I match the troop output here. Alas, that means that Bureau-boosting for my Kremlin push is delayed. I need to see what to do here.



So, Xenu...I agree.



Gaspar needs to be attacked. Damnably, the collateral issue still exists, he who punches first gets boned. I need a little more time to try and think of an attack on China that doesn't just end with them rolling my whole empire. This is a start though...Steel finishes next turn, and look what's going to upgrade?



I'm not hyper-protected at the moment, actually. I think I can rebuff a sudden impulsive front-wide drive, but I need this stack to move 2N and merge with those spare cats to feel really good. Oy I hate my geography.



One wedge needs to be a little more culturally secure, Kusari will 2-pop whip in the theater next turn, and overflow into a mace. A mace, you ask? Well, if Rego is to be believed, they upgrade into machine guns if Railroad is researched at EoT. The inevitable counterstrike will need to be stopped by cannon-immune stack defense.



One trouble with all this is that Gaspar, who is researching with that awesome GNP at break-even, can beat or match me to all tech goals with us out of Bureau. I need about double the beakers from the city, man, and the Kremlin needs to be cranked out fast. Not sure if I can afford that...but burning my last GA on war-mode? Hrm.



Might be able to wait on a golden age if we're clever, though. There is one other way to redress that beaker differential...our Great Spy. I think the ~3k beakers he's worth may be enough to match Gaspar on the Ass Line line. That means Oasis needs a non-GM second Great Person, and also invalidates the Mining Inc plan if a GE is birthed. I shall meditate on the matter some more.



What more can I do?

[Ceiliazul]

Well, verdict is in: Carpet of doom kinda sorta works, but not enough really.

Did he attack? What were the casualties like?

[regoarrarr]

A mace, you ask? Well, if Rego is to be believed, they upgrade into machine guns if Railroad is researched at EoT.

Yup - this worked for me in (I think) PBEM17

[Commodore]

Did he attack? What were the casualties like?

I lost five rifles to his eight maces, with several cats dead too. If it had been just pikes/cats/maces, I'd be fine, but his musketeers were swarming into the city too fast.

[Commodore]

Why am I so terrible at this game? I'll miss ex-Thessia by one turn, alas.




We're a heck of a lot more secure now, with cannon finally rolling off the line. This shot also shows that next turn we're looking at +1 move to all ships too, so that will be nice. Right now Combustion is the tech goal, although it might be worth it to take a two-turn diversion to Biology.




Demos are deeply sad. Chinese cannon are about to roll off the lines, so no motions there. I might be able to Sirian things eventually, but sadly I think the Chinese lead is insurmountable unless Mist can join in an attack.




Gaspar has no need to attack us right now, which is a bit of a pity. I'm about to churn out dozens of cannon to stop basically anything this side of transports, bombers, or tanks. Alas, it's not going to do me much good.




Positives! Um, with Biology I can place three decent fillers with the minimum +6 food needed to make them great Kremlin labor camps. Anyone able to see where each one goes?




I've done a piss-poor job at generalship, and an excellent job before that in empire management. Let's see how abusive we can get in the micro-world. All the while, being ready to stike the second Mist shows signs of wanting to dogpile China.

[Krill]

Technically one is a resettled city.