Brick by Brick (Spoiler Alert!)

[TheHumanHydra]

... Okay, so that was a rather involved turn; I timed myself, and it took three hours and 12 minutes to play through, minus a few minutes for supper. I had to devise a new draft cycle since the previous one had run through, and start thinking about subsidiary attack points for subsequent waves of units, in addition to all the normal micro, etc. And I'm not even at war yet.

But now my magnificent army, the finest the world has ever seen, is assembled, and next turn it will begin moving out. The Great Rearmament in process - before:




... and after:




That's 50 divisions of infantry, five of riflemen, 15 regiments of field artillery, four old levies of macemen, eight batteries of catapults, and two of trebuchets - with a further 19 divisions of cavalry and one of infantry to join them en-route: 104 units all told (for reference, my main army contained 82 units at the first shock of battle in the last Great War).

You are aware of what civics Old Harry just converted to. He knows I'm coming - though perhaps not when, or where: he has 25 visible riflemen scattered throughout his empire on garrison (not MP) duty; if he believed an attack to be imminent, surely he would be concentrating them. As it stands, this may buy me movement time in his territory before he is able to counterattack. But what has happened before may yet happen again: the defender off his guard may overwhelm the attacker with units - and collateral - once more. Thankfully there are no more advanced units for him to upgrade to en masse this time. And whatever befall, we shall sell our lives dearly - as ever before.

Then fall in lads behind the drum
With colours blazing like the sun.
Along the road to come what may
Over the hills and far away.

O'er the hills and o'er the main
Through Flanders, Portugal and Spain.
King George commands and we obey
Over the hills and far away.

[TheHumanHydra]

That Commodore post undoubtedly just announced to the world who is going to win this game. What I wouldn't give to know ... well, 104 units, I guess.

[Commodore]

Azza, clearly.

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.

[TheHumanHydra]

Azza, clearly.

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.

Cry havoc!

[Fintourist]

Lurkers demand a strategic map with arrows and stuff!

Although 3 hour turn..

[TheHumanHydra]

Lurkers demand a strategic map with arrows and stuff!

Although 3 hour turn..

Actually, not sure I posted this before, but does anyone else see the resemblance?







I know I did at the time. Just a random curiousity.

[TheHumanHydra]

I'm glad to see Serdoa could get himself a sub so quickly. I really do admire him for sticking it out for so long, and totally understand his desire to step away. (Actually, I guess he could theoretically read our threads now - if so, GG, Serdoa!) My only fear is that Dhalphir might "rock the boat," since all our plans do actually incorporate the fact it was Serdoa, with the skill and disposition toward the rest of us that implies, helming that civ. What I do not want to see is Dhalphir, because he's new and wants to make a mark, say, throw his stack of trash at my weakly-held eastern cities - or at Azza, or at Old Harry: because that's not (according to my best guess) what Serdoa would have done, and we were all accounting for that. Nor do I want to see him crumple like poor [redacted] in [redacted] - you know what I'm talking about - because that's not an outcome Serdoa's level of skill would permit (even in defeat). Anyway, I'm not trying to pre-judge Dhalphir because he hasn't played a game (neither had I when I started, and I was a sub too!), and I'm truly grateful for him stepping up and glad for him getting this chance to dip his toes into the world of multiplayer - just expressing a fear that he might unintentionally disrupt the course of a game whose balances have been so carefully weighed by those involved. In other words, I'm a paranoid dictator! I hope I don't sound like a snob; please tell me if I do so I can mend my ways.

In other news, it occurred to me that Old Harry recently birthed a Great Spy - who can move through my borders without me knowing. If a lurker knows, could they clarify what this rule means (from the tech thread, first page):

j) GSpy: GSpies only for settling or starting a GA. No Infiltration.

Based on this, is moving through my territory legal, illegal, or unclear? I wish I had thought to ask this earlier - now I hesitate to do so publicly because that would imply I have something to hide ...

Finally, Old Harry just got the save ... even if he's able to play tonight, unfortunately it looks like I won't have the two-to-three hours necessary to play through the turn tonight. It'll have to wait till tomorrow; sorry, lurkers.

[NobleHelium]

Usually that rule means that one can move through his own territory but not outside his territory. But that isn't exactly 100% clear from that statement, because it says no infiltration but not no exploring.

[TheHumanHydra]

Yeah, that was my thought ... hmm, well hopefully since spies were banned the understanding is that you're not supposed to have a unit your opponent can't see running around in his land. Come two turns from now, it'll matter much less; I'm just afraid my otherwise-invisible approach-march might be observed before then.

[TheHumanHydra]

Turn 174: The Calm Before the Storm

Still no movement from Old Harry, just more cavalry and cannon coming out of his cities. Dhalphir played his first turn, renaming some of his cities after Serdoa's original Starcraft theme, but with a Protoss twist (incidentally, back when I was fighting Serdoa, I contemplated renaming my cities things like "My Life for Aiur!" but thought better of it). I should probably have sent Dhalphir a resource offer of some kind, just to give out positive diplo-vibes, but didn't think of it. Maybe next turn.

In the northwest, Azza's borders at de_nuke expanded annoyingly again, producing a revolt chance in Fort Dawnguard:







These cities are essentially there for the taking for Azza; I can't hope to defend them under such cultural conditions. I thought about bombing Fort Dawnguard with my newly-birthed Great Artist to rectify the situation, but RB doctrine is that you attack out of a culture-bomb, and I want to save him for ... other things. Anyway, assuming this cities don't get totally scrambled by Azzan culture, I hope to add them to the draft rotation (I've been building culture in them to bring them up to the requisite 10% native) and perhaps even launch a small amphibious attack out of them toward Old Harry's island cities. To that end, the ironclad whip in Fort Dawnguard this turn.

Some other random city notes:




In addition to adding to the draft rotation, Vilcabamba will produce two-turn Jewish missionaries to add a third religion for happiness in my core cities as war-weariness racks back up. (Side-note: I should have settled this city way earlier and made it a commerce monster.)




I finally restored the fishing nets to Aquanauts (those at Hydranauts and Cuzco coming up), pillaged during the Azzan war. Yeah ... well, I honestly didn't need from that point on when any additional population would have just been unhappy faces due to massive war-weariness. Not sure whether this is #poor_micro or #evil_dictator.

Overview:




Pumpin' out dem cannons. So basically the plan now is to never build anything economic ever again and just keep pushing out stacks made of drafted infantry and constructed cannon until the game ends. Hopefully I'll never have to research anything again either - if I birth a Great Engineer I might bulb Railroad, but other than that ...

So that's pretty much all for this turn. Since Fintourist asked for it, though, I plan to write a strategy overview in another post - complete with arrows if I can manage it. Not sure how long that will take. Until then ...




Let kings and tyrants come and go,
I'll stand adjudged by what I know.
A soldiers life I'll ne'er gainsay.
Over the hills and far away.

O'er the hills and o'er the main
Through Flanders, Portugal and Spain.
King George commands and we obey
Over the hills and far away.