Gandhi of France II - Assuming Direct Control

[mackoti]

This sounds like alot of fun.

[oledavy]

This sounds like alot of fun.

It was a great way to wrap up a long day.

Apologies for not reporting the struggle in more detail, but I simply haven't had the time of late to do so. It also looks like Commodore is looking to concede, so it all seems a little pointless now anyway. Still, I'm having a hell of a good time trading blows with Mist, and I'm going to enjoy it as long as I can.

[oledavy]

All for one and one for all.

[oledavy]

It's time to answer the age old question: how do you beat someone who has rifles and cannons when you have muskets?

Simple, you throw bodies at them until they die.







18 dead musketeers to kill 5 stinking Byzantine units, but by screw it all, I burned that city to the ground.

I would be dying from SoZ induced war weariness were it not for PS.

I offered Mist and Ichabod another chance at white peace. If they accept, I will turn all my efforts to assaulting China. If not, well, I've no shortage of population to be fed into the never-ending meat grinder.

[oledavy]

Burned Bravery, again.

Running out of Musketeers though.

War Weariness is now 5 in the capital, would be 10 if not for Police State.

I checked the stats, over the last 45 turns of warring, I've lost 100+ units.

[oledavy]

Just wanted to take a moment to 'speak in my own defense' per say. Nicolae hit me up on chat the other night commenting "nice rage war." While simple revenge upon the guys who destroyed the small chance I had at victory is certainly one of the factors here, it is not the primary one. Simply put, in the aftermath of the Cataphract invasion and the liberation of Tuchanka and Palaven, continuing the war against Mistabod was the best course of action available to me. At that point, I faced three choices:

1. Make peace/sit back and tech
2. Attack Commodore
3. Continue war against Mistabod

I ruled out the first reasonably quickly. The simple fact was, and remains, that with my abysmal economy, my tech deficit is never going to get less pronounced. I could either fight now, with Musketeers versus Rifles; or wait and fight later, with Rifles vs. Mechanized infantry. So, once I made the decision that my best chance of surviving meant I needed to continue fighting, I had to decide who to fight. Though Mist is refusing my calls for peace now; so we can both turn our attention to the runaway, there was a time when he was willing to play ball, shortly before the burning of Bravery. In that event, I would have had the option of attacking Commodore, the guy who backstabbed me. I decided against this for metagame reasons. There needs to be a counterweight to China, and Commodore is the strongest of the remaining three of us; and in by far the best position to do so. Warring with him would only strengthen China. That is the primary reason I chose to forgive him so quickly and resume the status quo.

So, why am I calling for peace with Mistabod now, versus accepting it when they offered?

Well, first off, I thought I would have more success invading Byzantium, and may be able to absorb the whole of it into Council Space. Two extremely costly sieges of Jumping trying to break open the front have shown that this is very unlikely to happen. However, I did accomplish my secondary objective of making the game unwinnable for Mistabod. However, this has had the unfortunate side effect of making Mist want to do nothing but cause me misery. Understandable, and one I was prepared for in continuing the war. What I did not expect was the very rapid fall of the Ottoman Empire, and how this has changed the global balance of power. It is now definitely China's game to lose, and the Holy Roman Empire, reduced in power and prestige by the short war between the two, is no longer an effective counterweight.

In light of this, shortly after the fall of Bravery, I became willing to turn my efforts to bringing the Chinese Empire down to redress the international balance of power, maintain my .01% chance at victory, and make NoGas have to work for their victory. Unfortunately, that seems to have been the breaking point for Mist, and without him onboard, I can do nothing but fight on.

I'm not even sure a concerted attack could bring them down at this point, but as things stand, the HRE is doomed to eventually fall. A united effort to stop China could at least promise a chance at stopping their victory.

At any rate, this game is in it's twilight unless something extremely dramatic occurs. I'm going to continue pressing Mist for peace, which I don't expect him to take. If he ever does, then a last alliance of men and elves may march against the forces of Morder. If not, then the Mist/Dave grudge match will continue as the world crumbles around us. There is no shortage of men in France willing to continue dying.

[oledavy]

[SIZE="5"]Turn 150[/SIZE]

I'm afraid to say this is the beginning of the end for the Citadel Council.

Ironic considering the bellicose nature of my last post, but it has become increasingly clear to me that I now no longer possess the ability to go on the offensive, and soon will not even be able to defend the homeland. At this point, Mistabod have the numerical advantage, and while I still have a plan to take down Work Rate on the backburner, I doubt I will ever have sufficient force to spare for it. Between defending my coastal cities from being boated, and keeping enough musketeers between Palaven and Irune to counter the swelling stacks of Byzantine rifles and cannon, I simply don't have enough troops to attempt an offensive. War weariness is so bad that I can't draft anymore without putting my cities into serious unhappiness, and I don't dare revolt out of NH and lose the +2 happy from barracks. Furthermore, even if I could spare the forces, the growing ranks of Byzantine cannon would make it suicidal.

So, for now, I can hold them off with masses of musketeers and catapults, with cannon hopefully joining them not to long from now. However, the kicker is that Mistabod are now researching Railroad, once they get there, it will really be the end. The only way I can defeat rifle/cannon stacks is by hitting them before they can unlimber the artillery. With machine guns covering their stacks, there is absolutely nothing I can do to prevent them from walking right up to my cities, reducing the defenses, and rolling over my obsolete defenders.





It's been a great run, but sometime between 15-20 turns from now, it will come to an end and they'll crack my defenses - unless something dramatic happens in the meantime. One can hope. In the meantime, we'll just keep buggering on.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

War weariness is so bad that I can't draft anymore without putting my cities into serious unhappiness

there is absolutely nothing I can do to prevent them from walking right up to my cities, reducing the defenses, and rolling over my obsolete defenders.

hmm...

[oledavy]

[SIZE="5"]Turn 151[/SIZE]

[oledavy]

hmm...

I will be drafting my cities into the dirt before the final blow from Mistabod falls, yes, but not before I really have to.