Brick by Brick (Spoiler Alert!)

[TheHumanHydra]

I'm having a throw-the-controller moment. Despite playing with exceeding care, last turn I made a mistake with my workers that prevented them from combat-roading this turn, delaying the entry of my secondary forces into Old Harry's territory a turn and exposing them to attack by cavalry they would not otherwise have suffered. I can't even get my own plans right. I have no desire to play this turn now as a result.

As it stands, I will be attacking all across his north turn 178 with 18 to 20 infantry, 7 or 8 cannon, and 1 or 2 cavalry (I can't even remember). Seeing as he has like one pikeman in each of Kettering and Halifax currently, I hope it at least looks impressive. Sadly, he has enough time to jam enough units into each of his northern cities that they can't fall. Nor can I generate enough force fast enough to take his island-city of Grimsby, or bypass it and hit Darlington or Crewe before he can reinforce them or put ironclads out. In short, I can't stretch him thin enough to break him anywhere.

Pinch cavalry get odds on unpromoted infantry, and his ten thousand cannon can take care of the rest. I'm shaping up to have a massive and embarrassing defeat of my forces on all fronts by turn 179 or 180. I'm thinking of proposing a draw now to save my pride, since he probably does feel some degree of panic at the moment. Or if I feel game tomorrow I'll go ahead with it and write a big I SAID IT WOULDN'T WORK in my thread so he knows I'm not an idiot at the end, but just felt compelled to go through with it to play out the string. If I do suffer such a defeat I will concede; and I'm not pulling my forces back to save them just to play this game another six soul-sucking months. Maybe I'll hand it over to some lurker if Old Harry really wants to keep playing, after my army is trashed.

I'm coming out of this game having learned a lot and having had some good experiences - I am glad I played, I guess - but also somewhat embittered by the fact no matter what I did, I still couldn't win. I killed one of the best players on the site with knights, I blew past everyone in tech, I was first to Liberalism, I chained three Golden Ages together using the Taj Mahal, I ran over my next-best competitor when he made a mistake, leaving only the guy that got trashed at the start of the game, and him I out-teched militarily. I poured my soul into this game. I spent my entire day playing and reporting on it consistently for a long time when I wasn't working and didn't care about school. I played it long past the point of unhealthiness when it got frustrating, and I was having a personal crisis. It contributed to me quitting my job in May, or June or whatever it was (during the first war with Old Harry). Worse, I trained for this. I spent my undergraduate degree studying serious military history. I've spent my life reading this stuff - I was reading Churchill before I can even remember. I should know how to win a war. I'm biting my tongue.

Long story short, I don't know how to win a game of Civ, and I'm finding it frustrating to find out - the time commitment and utter uncertainty of the long road, the impossible difficulty of the short road of war. Every little revival in my spirits is just crushed by some new challenge. I'm not the Human Hydra, Old Harry is - or this game's mechanics are: every time you deal with one obstacle, another two rise in their place. And I'm worn through with it. I will either post my draw message tomorrow, or play it through if I have the gumption, but to no later than turn 180, when all my forces should have been destroyed. The truth of the matter is I can't win this game, the long way or the short way, unless Old Harry screws up spectacularly. Maybe he will; maybe I'll take all of Kettering, Lancaster, and Halifax turns 179 and 180. But I doubt it. He's too competent for that, and if he runs but one sim of our main stacks, he'll know he doesn't need to worry about his south and can shift troops as needed. And at that point, he doesn't need to worry about the war at all. I mean, he doesn't (shouldn't) even know about my troops in his north, and has as as I said one pikeman in each of a couple cities up there - but the nature of Civ IV movement and production is such that he's already prepared to deal with them. You just can't win.

Well there we are. There's my rant for the day, hopefully my last one ever. I will not play this game past a few more turns, if that, barring some divine miracle of military good fortune. For the sake of my mental health, I will not play another game on this site or any other. If I attempt to, have some moderator ban me from the forums or something. Good gosh, I almost think a real war would be easier than this crap (no, it's not). Anyway, I'm done. Reporting will be scattered from this point. You can probably figure out what's happening from Old Harry's thread. I might post a couple thoughts; maybe no pictures.

Sorry for being such a poor sport, but this game is one of the most stressful things I've done in my life and I think it's time I was through with it. I can't win; might as well give up before I give myself dementia later in life. Cheers,

THH

[TheHumanHydra]

Sorry for that post, I've held back on rants before (though maybe you couldn't tell ...), but I felt the need to "air my grievances" before leaving the game. Please don't think I'm a bad person.

[Fintourist]

No worries Hydra! Despite my relative newbiness I truly understand how frustrating and burdensome a civ game can become. Try to think about civ as just a game again (a competitive mindset easily makes it almost like a work task). You can already be happy with your performance. You have done a bunch of great moves accompanied with some mistakes, and most definitely provided a good show for the lurkers. So there is no pressure anymore! Feel free to play this out exactly in a way that seems most fun to you. I'm sure your opponents are fine with any approach you select.

[TheHumanHydra]

Thank-you, Fintourist, that was a very thoughtful and sensitive response. As I posted in the tech thread, I'm going to try and push through a couple more turns, because the war deserves a conclusion, then I will be moving on. I'm going to try and take your advice over the next couple turns and feel "no pressure anymore". I basically consider the game to be over now, at least for me; I just have to execute a few pre-planned war moves and see if they accidentally result in success. Assuming the other players don't want to play on, I'm basically going to leave the decision about who "won" or if it was a draw in their hands, save to note as I have in this thread I think Old Harry's eventual victory is inevitable. Anyway, in advance, thank-you, lurkers and readers, for following my thread, for your interest in the game, for your posts, and as I said to the other players, for putting up with me all the way through, from my newbishness in the beginning to my depression at the end. In case I become less active on the forums after this point, I wish you all the best and that much fun will be had in Civ and other games. With that, signing off,

THH

Oh, and since I never finished the song -

Over the Hills

If I should fall to rise no more,
As many comrades did before,
Ask the fifes and drums to play
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.

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.




... A cold fury rose in him, so that all speech failed him for a while. A fey mood took him. ... Then without taking counsel or waiting for the approach of the men of the City, he spurred headlong back to the front of the great host, and blew a horn, and cried aloud for the onset. Over the field rang his clear voice calling: 'Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world's ending!'

And with that the host began to move. But the Rohirrim sang no more. Death they cried with one voice loud and terrible, and gathering speed like a great tide their battle swept about their fallen king and passed, roaring away southwards.

[TheHumanHydra]

Guys, if you don't read the tech thread, Old Harry has a very interesting proposal there we'd love your opinion on. Also, a couple notes: Old Harry seems to imply I'm "so very close" - to winning? He hasn't been running the same sims I have ... Second, I said "any cav" - a little white lie/misdirection to keep him in the dark that I know about his cavalry stack, in case it happens to matter. I'm so evil.

[thestick]

...should that depression be checked out?

[TheHumanHydra]

Not sure if that was serious, but it has been, and I'm not. Thank you for your concern, though.

[TheHumanHydra]

Remember when I said I'd bypass Forest Green unless it proved exceedingly cheap to take? Well, Old Harry evacuated it except for two rifles and a freshly-built cavalry. So, because I wanted to get something out of this war, I attacked it.

5 cannon bombard defences 60% - 0%
Cannon vs. CGI rifleman 37.9% LOSS, no hits
Flanking II cavalry vs. CGII rifleman 12.2% (~59% withdrawal) WIN, 1.2 str left, earned promo
Infantry vs. cavalry 93.9% WIN, 0.8 str left, earned promo
CI, Pinch cavalry vs. rifleman 52.2 % (~14% withdrawal) WIN, 12.0 str left

First attack was unlucky, no hits for the cannon at 1/3 odds. The next two came down to the last hit, despite the high odds on the infantry attack. I was impressed with the flanking cavalry for actually winning (notably, this is the same cavalry whose withdrawal-attack permitted Lancaster to be taken at the end of the last war without siege). The last attacker had to be a cavalry so it could get back into the stack, so I was glad it won at 2/3 odds (as opposed to 90+%) to survive.




I razed it, naturally. Then I had the rest of my army wait in place (). Why? 'Cause it's going to get annihilated no matter when I advance, and I want to pin/draw in his troops as long as possible so my attack in the north, the only attack that can succeed, has a greater chance to succeed. If I advanced onto the flat ground this turn and fought the great battle this round, his army would be free to turn north and save his northern cities next turn. Speaking of which ...




Unless I'm stupid, he can't see that army of 15 infantry, 5 cannon, which was supposed to enter his territory this turn but can't till next turn due to my mistake. I also have two infantry on a galley in the west and two and two cannon (which he can see, his galley has Sentry) in the east. You can see the signs for the three attack points. His garrisons are very weak, but can easily be reinforced. To make that a little more difficult, though, this ironclad/galley pair has been pinning reinforcements in his western waters:




The garrison of Grimsby doubled on his turn, when it was threatened, absorbing one of his drafts for the turn. Now I threaten Darlington (which I can't see), hopefully sucking in a few more units (though he may have enough ships to block me). I also have a couple more random infantry that can enter his south next turn to pressure Darlington and Matlock, though I'll probably hold them back for the larger forces training there (also intended to defend against any deep cavalry strike he may decide to launch and/or what remains of his army once mine's destroyed).

I also have six ironclads building in my eastern waters to forestall an Azzan naval attack (which I actually think more likely given his comment in the tech thread, "My own little goals are irrelevant ... unless luck was seriously on my side"). Given his current tech-rate, they should be able to slide into position just in time to block all approaches to my five eastern coastal cities. After that, back to land-military; the distraction is unfortunate.







In other domestic news, a crap-ton of my cities grew this turn, which is good, because a crap-ton are getting whipped and/or drafted next turn. A lot of little micro to do with all that, which of course I never report on, but it goes on every turn. This seems to have propelled my crop-yield into first place for this turn; I'm not sure when the last time that was, or if I've ever breached 400. Other demos crappy as usual, though you've seen how I'm able to reconfigure my civ to change that. Mfg. is the one recalcitrant one; can't match Old Harry's Police State + State Property without the long road to the same or factories/coal plants (low mfg. means they'll take forever). Army-size retains a healthy gap, but it doesn't show on the ground, where I'm yet again outnumbered (127 units, plus trash, that could've hit my stack had I advanced it this turn, to my 105).

And now I've managed to go write yet another comprehensive report (though I didn't change the picture format; I don't think I'm going to bother now). Announcement of abdication -> less pressure -> easier to play and report. It's when playing to win that it gets to you (rather me, at least). I still really do want it to end, though; and I think it's time anyway once this battle's fought.

If all goes according to plan, next turn should be a fun one, as I advance on all fronts, pour dozens of fresh troops into Old Harry's territory, whip a ton more, and generally do my utmost to freak him out. Then it's all downhill from there ...

THH

[Commodore]

Cool. So you're tossing a hundred+ units into an abattoir as a diversion. Planned or not, that's novel!

[TheHumanHydra]

Shh, don't tell the troops - it won't raise their morale! Lol, definitely not what I intended, but you gotta make do I guess. Heh, at least that means I did something original this game, that's something!

(Just in case - stick, no quoting till the battle's done! Gotta keep that one absolutely a surprise ... )