Chapter 2: One Turn Away From a Better You! (Sainte-Foy)
Turn 203: The Setep
Having seen no response from us in the last few turns save for some minor battles, Ruff doubled down on his takeover efforts. Despite the large stacks he had already thrown at us, Ruff still had rainy day units defending Epirus and The Fortress. Well, those units were engaged this turn with 21 units advancing from the Fortress to Sainte-Foy...
Not the best screenshot, but you can see what is left in The Fortress. The units are in the jungle roughly 3w of town.
...and 20 more from Epiris now surrounding Oswego, for a total of 45 units.
So which city was more important, Sainte Foy or Oswego? If we lose Sainte Foy, we lose a steady stream of units that get generated by the Heroic Epic. If we lose Oswego, there is no other city in that region with any kind of significant defense -- cities would fall quickly!
After taking everything into account, I chose Sainte-Foy. You may have already guessed this by the fact that I sent 10 units from here to meet their doom at Thaenae. And I did so after I dropped off or staged 5 Cats behind the city, to rendezvous with 10 Knight that were ready for action. Several more Knights awaited orders east of Salmon Falls, ready to engage the enemy at either location.
Knights? I thought they were going to swap lances for guns to bring the mighty Zulu stacks to their knees?
Yeah, that would have been great. Except, no cash. We were all set to allocate materials for 9 Cuirs next turn, but then it would take them one turn to learn how to use the equipment. But with two cities at risk, we needed every able bodied unit --- now!
Turn 204 - The Result
We'll get to Oswego next chapter. For now, let's turn our eyes on Sainte Foy to see if we would be able to counter this stack:
21 units and 4 of them Pikemen, 6 of them Cats. So our horse-heavy retort will face some early resistance to be sure. But since we led with 5 Cats, there we very few battles that were under 55% in our favor. And we lost two or three 80%-ers too.
Optimizing the promos turned out to be a hassle too sometimes, with a Maceman blocking a C2 Pinch Knight from a Musket for example. For those times, I called upon the city defenders to try and take those units out. And once the 4 Pikes and 2 Macemen were gone, things got much easier. Here's the status when the northern reserves were called in:
We also got a 2nd GG this turn for a total of 4 now. And Ruff's Cats were getting flanked like crazy! But I had yet to see Cats get killed by flanking, and there were 3 such instances in this battle. But we fought until the last Catapult was eliminated and it did take us until the last available unit to do so.
All was not lost on the upgrade front, however. Since there was still movement left on many of the victorious Knights, I was able to spend 400 to upgrade 8 of them in the city. And since I had them attack from within the city, they should heal more quickly. Our Medic 3 GG was closer to Oswego, so I bestowed a GG onto our last Chariot so we could have a doctor that will keep pace with our Cuirs. It's only a Medic I (with Sentry) though at 25/26 XP, so I will need to give it a crack at an 0.2/5 Cat at some point.
Chapter 3: One Turn Can Change Everything (Oswego)
Turn 203: The Plan
Hmmm, the plan. Just staying as alive as possible really. That's all.
Sounds easy enough, but by the looks of it things were going to be close. Ruff had 45 units outside of town and we were able to stand strong at 19 defenders after the usual draft in Duquesne and Oswego. They had 8 cats against us again, but our stack was larger. On the downside, we were on grassland and not a hill like Frontenac. This was going to be a nailbiter.
As you can see, Ruff had divided his forces into two stacks, presumably so he could advance on Duquesne easier when he was done here. All we could really do was weather the storm and hope that our meager counterstike team of 7 Cats and other various units pick off some injured units after the carnage.
Turn 204: The Result
After pulling my hair out after realizing the scope of Gavagai's survival efforts, I drifted over to this region. This is what I found:
Well, this pic is actually after I had taken out 2 units in the stack, the one reported in green compliments of our first Cuirassier (a GG free promo). I saw another 11 units mildly injured and retreated to the Marble hill. The stack of 5 was eventually removed, with all but one brave Pikeman attacking from within the city.
So all told, this is where we find ourselves going into 1450 AD:
- Ruff lost 34 units at Oswego and 21 units at Sainte-Foy this turn, total of 55 units.
- We only lost 7 (!) units out of 19 in Oswego (though badly injured) and lost maybe 4-5 non-siege units decimating Ruff's stack at Sainte-Foy.
- Ruff has 15 defenders at Frontenac and 9 defenders at The Hague.
- Ruff will have about 20 defenders in Epiris next turn after the injured stack takes cover.
- Ruff has only 5 units defending The Fortress now, with a Longbow on top.
- Ruff''s east is very mildly defending. I am talking one Longbow, and a couple of cities only have warriors.
At this point, I actually moved a few more units from the Niagara Falls region since Commodore is not threatening us at the moment. I am also less concerned about Gavagai's island adventure than I was earlier, though I will do my best to secure an extremely vulnerable Chesapeake if I can. We will deal with that problem in due time.
Because in one turn, I went from feeling somewhat resigned about the whole thing to actually believing we have a shot at completely annexing the Zulu portion of our continent. I mean, we've hardly even used Cuirs yet!
- When I logged into the game, there was an offer from HAK: Crab/Crab and Iron/Iron with no specifics, and World Map.
- I offered back Crab/Crab with World Map. I'll be curious of Commodore's reaction to this when it goes public.
- The race to Cavalry is on, with Commodore researching Aesthetics (!) and HAK getting Rifling in 4 turns.
Looking at the minimap I feel like we're going to end up playing kingmaker right ? HAK has no bad intentions apparently, Commodore isn't in a great position to attack, if the war vs Ruff goes well it will be HAK vs Commodore and little India in the middle.
Did someone build Sistine yet ?
How many religions are in Indian + Zulu territory ?
Yes I'm still thinking about a cheap shot at a culture victory.
(October 10th, 2015, 09:18)AdrienIer Wrote: Looking at the minimap I feel like we're going to end up playing kingmaker right ? HAK has no bad intentions apparently, Commodore isn't in a great position to attack, if the war vs Ruff goes well it will be HAK vs Commodore and little India in the middle.
Kingmaker, you dare say? I am going to let someone who knows me pretty well field that one...
I guess I should also apologize to all for my part in ending the game prematurely. Had I just agreed with everyone that this was a preordained 2-horse race, I could have just stayed in my corner while destiny was fulfilled. But where the hell is the fun in that? - Donovan Zoi, Apolyton ISDG (2009)
Yes, I did come in 3rd place in that one when the game was called, not unlike where we are now. But the plan here is to stay viable for as long as possible, and to me HAK is a much stronger threat to our mainalnd than Commodore if provoked.
HAK is soon going to have Cavalry and Riflemen, while controlling all of former Carthage. Commodore will have all that and Cannons to boot. So the goal is to stay out of their conflict directly for as long as possible while we take the mainland city by city. It's why I only countered with the Crab portion of HAK's offer and not the Iron. I'd like to stay neutral for as long as it takes Commodore to realize that attacking us before we get too strong would really be in his best interests. But he will need a strong navy to do us any significant damage beyond Niagara Falls.
More on that later. I would actually like to get back to the point including you more by posting ideas before I have to carry them out. But RL and the quicker turn paces have kept me from doing so for awhile.
(October 10th, 2015, 09:18)AdrienIer Wrote: How many religions are in Indian + Zulu territory ?
Yes I'm still thinking about a cheap shot at a culture victory.
We added Hinduism somewhere along the line, and will have Buddhism again when we get Thaenae back. So that would bring our total to 5. But we won't really be able to devote anything to it for at least 10 turns, and with Sistine spoken for Culture is likely out the window now.
Culture victory is out so it will definitely be kingmaker time. We didn't have much contact with both contenders do I don't really want to pick a favorite.
Upon entering this turn, I was unsurprisingly greeted by the following from Ruff:
After mulling it over, I sent back my reply:
Of course I closed out this offer, especially when we did not even have Frontenac and The Hague back yet! Besides, there were a few more reasons for me to be so bold.
Oswego on the Mend
Despite the fact that most of our defenders in Oswego were left at 1.0/9 to 3.2/9 after Ruff's retreat last turn, having two Medics nearby means that several Muskets will be 100% again next turn. I had our new Med I Chariot tend to our injured for a turn until our Med 3 Warrior could get there to provide better care. Our Chariot is now in Sainte-Foy getting our injured Cuirs battle ready.
The Age of Chivalry is Dead
By going 0% research for two turns, as well as optimizing specialists, we now had enough gold to sunset our Knights. But now we have 24 Cuirassiers, with only our last Jumbo left to upgrade for 140g.
As with any upgrade, the components will not work properly until we restart...the carnage!
But What About Gavagai?
If you look at the pic above, you'll see that I built a Galleon last turn and have staged it to move 3 Pikes to Chesapeake next turn. Pikes are not really that helpful against Ruff's or Commodtay's Musket-heavy forces, but can still pack a punch against any wayward Knight not protected by one of Gav's XBows.
Even still, Gavagai made no moves toward our island holdings this turn, nor have brought more troops to their old New World despite HAK's forces closing in on his capital.
Our victories against Ruff made it possible to temporarily dedicate some cities to addressing the Carthaginian threat as well, as Sainte-Foy put its all into two consecutive Galleons while another one is built in Yorktown to move a new Cuir and our 4th Great General from there. Even though Gav's migration may be over (maybe not), I still would like to hit those Galleys for the XP.
Also, this turn all three of retep's island cities have been welcomed to the empire as proper cities! With that in mind, I immediately buffed The Bishop by drafting a Musket there. I also started a Walls build since they still have a purpose against Gavagai's outdated units.
(October 11th, 2015, 13:57)AdrienIer Wrote: Culture victory is out so it will definitely be kingmaker time. We didn't have much contact with both contenders do I don't really want to pick a favorite.
Very well, I will get to work on that immediately.
Yes, we're starting from a huge disadvantage but I really don't think we should be counted out just yet. Therefore, it's not really about who we want to win the game, but how we can win it ourselves.
This is how I think we can do so:
Finish Off Ruff
There's no question we have reached a turning point in this battle. Here is how we complete the conquest, but without pics for now.
1. Stage 3-4 Cats and 3-4 Muskets just outside ot The Fortress (MoM city), which is being defended by 3 Longbows and 2 others.
2. This may or may not pull units from Frontenac, but they still would not get there in time. If they do leave, then conquest is easier at Frontenac.
3. Soften The Fortress with the Cats and then take it with whatever Cuirs it takes (1-4 may be suicide units). This frees up alot of movement for us once that pesky MoM culture is removed, making an advance on Ruff's core from the west possible.
4. Take out the stack at the Hague, opening up the north and giving us clear entry into Ruff's core from there.
5. This will hopefully compel Ruff to move units out of Epiris, making conquest of that city possible.
6. Interrupt our FWs from their card game to complete a canal to the eastern channel.
7. Have 6-8 Amphib Cuirs ready to pick the least defended channel cities of the moment.
Also, I think you may underestimate how big Little India will be. Just look at the purple and blue again.
All we have to do is mix Ruff's land with with red. Blood red.
While still a far cry from HAK's territory, it would put us at close to parity with Commodore in terms of land at least.
So we can have three attack points within 5-7 turns if we want, and Ruff should fall quickly. The only problem is that our success may at any time push Commodore into intervening, especially with Rifles and Cavalry coming.
Holding Back the Inca
I propose going Chemistry > Military Science as our next two techs, and maybe wedging Education in there if we can get it in 3 turns or less.
I chose Chemistry for a couple reasons:
1. Ruff just started on it this turn (not sure why as he really won't be able to use Frigates against us) and will have it in 7 turns.
2. It puts us in line for Steel (Cannons, Drydock etc).
3. It gets us to MS, which will provde counters to Frigates (Ship of the Line) and Rifles (Grenadier on attack).
But basically, getting Frigates and the SotLs before Commodore should go a long way to protecting our mainland.
Frontlines!
If we are lucky enough to get to the point of total conquest of the Zulu, we can move all units to the protect the cities most at risk, and set up a strong sentry mechanism in lighter ares whereever needed.
The Great Restoration
Once Ruff's cities have been welcomed to our empire, our research should go through the roof and make us competitive again. Since we will be third to most techs for awhile anyway, we will also get the best KTB benefits. By this time, we will hopefully have Education and can round-robin builds like Universities and Banks while still favoring military build up. Getting Oxford, and later, Wall Street will be a big boost to our bottom line as well.
We would also have control of the Pyramids at that point, which would mean we may get a chance to go into Universal Suffrage and buy some of these builds (Banks, Grocers, Markets first) so the benefits will compound quickly.
In Conclusion
I am not going to get into many more details since any of these can be thwarted by an unexpected move -- even an attack by HAK is still on the table. But I do intend to review each development and do my best to counter it in whatever way I can. And at the very least you can now see what feeds my delusion that we have even a snowball's chance in this one.
The reason I am leaning toward siding with HAK for the big finish is that I believe we will be in a position to out-tech him head-to-head should Commodore be weakened. Our cities will be larger and will likely be more developed for the final push if it comes down to it. Heck, even with all of the slaving and drafting I have been doing, we are still 2nd place in population even with HAK's sprawl!
Supporting Commodore would be propping up a nation with about an 8 tech lead on us, which is the very definition of kingmaking. So that's not happening. But with HAK reaching out to us, it will put us on the good side of the eventual 2-on-1 battle. Then we will have to hold our own against Commodore enough that HAK still finds us useful. Besides, with their history, I really don't see them teaming up to take us out.
![[Image: z2009.jpg]](http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/ii621/DonovanZoi/z2009.jpg)
![[Image: done.jpg]](http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/ii621/DonovanZoi/done.jpg)
by drafting a Musket there. I also started a Walls build since they still have a purpose against Gavagai's outdated units.
![[Image: kingU.jpg.png]](http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/ii621/DonovanZoi/kingU.jpg.png)
