[SPOILERS] Donovan Zoi and AdrienIer: Slümhund Millionaires!

[AdrienIer]

Yay frontenac ! His power must be diving with each of his defeats, do you think he still has a stack somewhere ?

[AdrienIer]

Ah you ninja'ed me. Do you think Commodore can/will/should enter the war and take some of Ruff's territory ?

[Donovan Zoi]

It's only the unit gifting that has me even slightly worried. You can see that there is a Fort just south of that fogged area, and I know that RB players are typically savvy enough to know which tiles they can hide in when someone has sight on them. But I can also see the southern channel he shares with HAK and there is only one Galleon present. So I really just want to see the area for myself so I can include any additional Zulu units in my strategy.

Regarding Ruff's power, I did decide it would be best to take out as many stacks as possible so I don't have to play chicken with them when Ruff tries to keep me from his core cities. So yeah, after Epiris it should be pretty smooth sailing even if Ruff decides to draft or whip again (it's been a few turns).

[Donovan Zoi]

Ah you ninja'ed me. Do you think Commodore can/will/should enter the war and take some of Ruff's territory ?

That's a good question, and I was wondering about that myself. It would certainly expedite things if he did.

Right now I think he is stayng out of it since Ruff and us are just weakening each other. However, if cities start to fall rapidly into our column, then I can see several reasons why Commodore would want to keep certain cities (especially on the island, so close to his core) away from us. He has actually already taken/razed one of HAK's cities on that same island.

Also with that surprise Gavagai peace deal, it has me reconsidering who I would rather side with for the endgame. I am at the point where I realy don't want to put HAK in a position to win this game after all the imperialistic crap he has put us through. So if we are fortunate enough to eliminate Ruff, there is a chance we may be able to negotiate a 3 vs. 1 against HAK in order to:

1. go down to Defcon 1 in any borders with Commodore, who can hit us from several places.
2. have Gavagai continue to be a fly in HAK's ointment and keep his troops distracted.
3. get away with keeping all the land we gain from the Zulu since HAK can only get to us through Kerkouane (he has neither Astro or Chemistry right now).

Of course if all goes to plan that means we'd be racing the tech leader to the finish line and with a 7-tech deficit, the KTB benefit alone won't be enough to catch up. But it does give us a chance to remain competitive for the final push.

[AdrienIer]

Do you have graphs on HAK ? Is it realistic to plan on waging a war against him ? Ruff's cities won't be very productive for a while, and Retep's former cities aren't at full speed either.

[Donovan Zoi]

Do you have graphs on HAK ? Is it realistic to plan on waging a war against him ? Ruff's cities won't be very productive for a while, and Retep's former cities aren't at full speed either.

I'll provide a Powergraph next turn. Commodtay and HAK are pretty spikey, with us in the middle and Ruff/Gavagai on the way out. So your concerns are valid.

It's too early to tell, but I do want to find a way to express to my intentions to Commodore even though we may not be ready yet. Annexing Ruff's cities will provide all kinds of different targets to hit HAK by sea, and he won't be able to defend them all adequately. So we'd have to play the kind of chess we have been playing in this war, but by sea. And yes, we do have the disadvantage if we are able to land troops so razing might be the best option.

But then there's the Gavagai situation, which can be escalated nicely if I ask myself the following question...


Hey, just followin' the rules.

[AdrienIer]

It would be payback but it's not like Gavagai is our friend...

[BRickAstley]

[Molach]

&

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 209 - 1490 AD

The Hague and Vicinity

This turn began with the liberation of The Hague. I had considered delaying the attack one more turn since we were going bare bones again -- 10 Cuirs, 1 Mace and 6 Cats vs 9 defenders. So anything more than two losses would have us waiting until next turn for capture.

As it turned out, we only lost 4 of the 6 Catapults (2 retreated) and then won 9 straight >90% battles to retake the city. So we lost 200 hammers to Ruff's 690 (8 Muskets and a Cat).




We were now in a great position to take Ulundi, Jerusalem and West Bank in pretty quick succession. Only one question remained --- how many units are sitting on this foggy tile?




I can't wait to find out, because we have 5 FWs staged to complete the New Amsterdam Canal in 4 turns once the coast is clear. I also have a Settler waiting in Rotterdam to build a city atop the ruins of Damascus before Commodore gets to it.




The completion of the canal will be timed nicely with our discovery of Chemistry in 2 turns. I have already sent one Caravel toward Duquesne for upgrade and will build many more Frigates here in the north.




Epiris

Plans are well underway to attack Epiris in 2 turns. As mentioned earlier, the idea here is to stack the Marble hill north of Epiris with far more units than can be attacked on that turn. So while it looks like I an reinforcing Oswego against Ruff's 11 Cats in that city, I am actually using Oswego as a rally point to coordinate 35-40 units while maybe bringing 6-8 Cuirs from Hague to meet at Marble at the same time.



Duquesne and Oswego in single digits for the first time in ages. If we succeed here, these cities will likely be waived from future rushes so they can grow back.

By using this plan, one of 3 things will happen:

1. Ruff will exhaust his defending stack trying to bring us some pain. We counter and take Epiris.
2. Ruff will vacate the city to defend one of his wonder cities. We take Epiris.
3. Ruff will brace himself for our attack. We get banged up and still take Epiris.

I am expecting Ruff to choose #3 due to our success with that strategy when defending Oswego. However, Ruff's stack is far less powerful than our Oswego defenders, so we will have a lot more than 10 units limping away from this one. Choosing #2 would defeinitely change our plans to advance from the northwest.

Taming Retep Island

Here is a quick glance at our recently acquired city of One More Day (new name pending), which just completed a Theatre this turn. This is where RtR Mercantilism really shines, especially in the gunpowder era. The free Artists generate 8 culture while the Theatre provides 3, getting this city up to 40% defense in 10 turns.

I plan on repeating this process will all new conquest cities that come out of revolt.




Demographics

Pretty much 3's across the board.




City Builds

And here's the F1 screen. I may be able to start sneaking in Bank and Observatory builds again soon....