[spoilers] Pax Commodorica: Pharaoh of Rome

[GermanJoey]

Great action! How many cities is dtay down to now, total? And how many have other players taken from him?

[Commodore]

Violence! War! Logistics! My power isn't really rising much, although neither is it really falling anymore. The knight corps is all on the Dtay side of the map, now...actually, all two dozen are within a turn from being able to attack more Mali cities. This was a sad "break" turn, but my supermedic is healing my entire offensive force to full. Catapult and praetorian supports are also in the zone; I'll whip a round of some dozen more praetorians before obsoleting them at Civil Service. The galleys are best thought of as extra road boosts.


This was the right time to get praetorians in the front. Dtay finally found himself some iron; pikes ahoy! Fortunately, Marth is the right place to fight 'em. C1 pike without much defense bonus, flatland, no castle? I can overrun this. It's what lies next that makes me wonder. The culture map is murky; I have serious hopes that Gaspar picks up Captain Falcon quickly, going to have to head directly to raze it if not. I'm very curious what lies to the east; this is truly Dtay's core here so overlapping culture is a given. I'd curse the lack of scouting at this point but I do know we're in his capital district now.


Diddy, however, is a lovely target geographically; the sentry McAwesome knight scanned a bit further and you can see from the culture border in the far right there aren't any other cities nearby, so a hilltop city with sheep/fish on the borderland is only a battle away. That hill will make the battle a pain, but an eight knight strike force ought to manage well. Be comforted by no more easy galley reconquestas, too.


Next turn should be a showdown; the catapults/praetorians/axe seen here hopefully will get Dtay thinking I'll waddle up for another slow turn. The actual plan is to give Marth the bum's rush and let the cats and friends strike beyond the city as needed. Plus, well, gotta protect the road. If Marth dies cheaply and nothing scary looms behind it, I'll send a punch down at Diddy Kong the same turn; otherwise it'll be delayed a moment. Working on the awful road system now, folks.


Domestics...Legio is size 17 now! Woot! One more and it's at game-long max. This is the Joao of capitals; amazing out of the gate, less impressive at the endgame.

Or maybe I just miss Ottawa.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I think you miss Ottawa. I'm trying hard to find cottaged tiles that aren't on a river....and am failing. I guess the complaint is that there are only ten cottage tiles? Maybe that was a bit low. But yeah, super fast starter capital that let you guys all spread across the map like crazy. And I got to see a bunch of cottaged plains tiles, so that's somewhat novel, too.

[GermanJoey]

Is that a rivered grassland hill MINE I see..?

[spacetyrantxenu]

See? Opportunity squandered!

[Commodore]

Dtay sued for peace from Gaspar with a gift of Captain Falcon...which meant its garrison joined the other nastiness in Marth. Upon first blush, this looks pretty gnarly...

...but honestly, it wasn't. I got 32% odds on the pikes, and lost two knights to them as to be expected. After the pikes were down, the flatland city's longbows were 70% fights. I lost one more knight, then it was just random trash. The axes died to my shock chariot and the supermedic. West Point unlocked, and morale now on the medic!

Killing the scraps was easy after that. Welcome to the Legion, Marth!

The newly dubbed "nineteen" is a bit crushed by capital culture, but it comes with a forge and the great wall, so I'll take it.


The real kicker is what lies beyond. The great capital of Mali, Master Hand, lies before me...with the garrison of a single longbow. I want it, I want it badly. It's been whipped hard, but its still one of these capitals. Nice. I am certain it will be reinforced next turn. Will it be reinforced enough to stop six highly promoted knights? We can hope.


Gaspar took a lot time, as mentioned, but seems to have made gains with a very minimal investment; Ike was taken in battle, then as mentioned Captain Falcon was a peace treaty gift. Pair of pretty nice little cities, at that. Well, good job then.

Great action! How many cities is dtay down to now, total? And how many have other players taken from him?

Dtay is down to a tiny rump state of eight cities. Gaspar, clearly, just picked up two cities on the cheap. Thoth's holding two I believe, while I won eight with my heavier knights. A mere seven tiles separate my cities from Thoth. Which I could chose to regard as nervous-making, or just with satisfying. I'm going to mix both.


The Legion: Turn 141

Now even in size with TBS' Mongolia and Thoth's Zulu.

[retep]

I must said I'm surprised for Dtay defence. He seems to defending more the zulu front for some reason.
Now that you are close to his capital and the other war front aren't you afraid of some kind of counter-attack?
Also what happen with attacking diddy? Does dtay has any other wonders, myabe in his capital?

[Commodore]

I must said I'm surprised for Dtay defence. He seems to defending more the zulu front for some reason.
Now that you are close to his capital and the other war front aren't you afraid of some kind of counter-attack?
Also what happen with attacking diddy? Does dtay has any other wonders, myabe in his capital?

I'll answer the last first; Dtay's heavy reinforcement meant I had to strike at Marth first. It was an excellent chance to hurt a lot of good defenders in relatively poor defenses...I would have lost 3-4 more knights if that stack had been in Master Hand, for example. Then, I saw the open capital, blood rushes to head, attack! Diddy, while nice, is also comfortably what I'd call "on the vine" and not a time-critical conquest.

Dtay's wonderful wonders are the Great Lighthouse and the Pyramids; both are east of his capital somewhere. Marth is in some other city's third-ring culture beyond the capital; given timing and proximity I suspect that city is the GLH home. The Pyramids are somewhere on Thoth's front. Thoth captured them at some point in his initial push before Dtay retook them.

It should be fairly obvious from the above why Dtay's been prioritizing his Thoth front:
-His lifeblood is in those two wonders.
-The wonders allow him better cultural control.
-Thoth is coming at him with horse archers...Dtay can actually make a decent dent in those.
-Thoth attacked him first, which Dtay's type must fight back hardest against. More on this later.

That being said, if I can take his capital next turn I'm seriously considering burning it. It is being defended by a longbow and a great general. This along with my scout's eyes on the eastern front tells me Dtay has been having a lot of success in that battlefield; he's got veteran horse archers, longbows, and pikes with an unknown number of cats (cats get used up hard, and cities under direct threat don't tend to whip themselves more cats). That core force of vets can bring some nasty hurt, and I'm now officially in Dtay's core culture where I can't clear culture by conquest. So...this is going to hurt in a bit, but if I do survive his counterblow, I think I'll be in good shape.

[Commodore]

I must said I'm surprised for Dtay defence.

[Pretty much spot on reply.]

Damn I'm good.

Also, ouchies, Thoth. So Magellan made possibly his last move ever to scout out a bit further. Yeah...Dtay still has some teeth...that's another great general, this time without the Great Wall's help, taken out of Thoth's hide. He's playing zone defense and covering his capital, Pyramids, and Great Lighthouse. Only five remaining cats but a supermedic means they will be at full health and a lot of mixed longbows/horse archers can sure bring pain to a stack kissed by that many cats.


Dtay covering Master Hand comes as no surprise to anyone. I opted to burn my sentry for the good cause of peering into Dtay's postulated GLH city. Bingo. Donkey Kong here looks like it saw a battle; I'm sure Thoth is bringing sea pressure against it. Looks like Dtay is rolling in some pretty nice horcher swarmage. Guys, this is a good defender here.


I'm going to definitely respect that power; first things first is going to be withdrawing from Master Hand's range with my knights, burning the road as I withdraw. If Dtay wants to push hard he can take back the increasingly ominously named Undevisigma, but without the cats he will suffer a bad rate of exchange. I have precisely zero problems abandoning the city next turn if he can hammer it under; I'm overextended here and Donkey Kong is at 60% culture, so no relief is swiftly forthcoming.


That being said, I'm not going to let up on the full court press here. Diddy Kong is going under unless Dtay is hiding a lot of horse archers in the south where they are useless otherwise. My reasons for not fully relenting are twofold; first of all as I mentioned before cities under threat make pikes and longbows, not catapults. Secondus, I want Thoth to keep up pressure on his end...so he's gotta feel I'm only a few minutes from smashing down the gates on those wonder cities. Keep it up, man!

[Dp101]

Doen't this attack go against the rule of "Land war is never profitable against a competent opponent"?