[Spoilers] Haram hopefully reports

[Commodore]

I'm so on-board with this thread.

Shh. You're going to make him bristle.

[Mardoc]

That's all I've got. If there are any other boar puns I could have used instead of outright booing, I sure couldn't think of any.

You're not much of a ham, then. Good thing you've got another way to bring home the bacon.

[Commodore]

That's all I've got. If there are any other boar puns I could have used instead of outright booing, I sure couldn't think of any.

You're not much of a ham, then. Good thing you've got another way to bring home the bacon.

Let's not go whole hog here.

[scooter]

Congrats, you guys have turned this thread into utter hogwash. Hopefully this results in Mackoti or TBS squealing in their thread about the activity in here.

[Bobchillingworth]

Pshh, like that'll happen, in a pig's eye.

[scooter]

Quieter turn this time. I'm a lot more intersted in the TBS/Mack sniping. Mackoti declared war on TBS and captured a city from him. Yesterday, TBS apparently re-took the city. I'm not even entirely sure which city it is since I don't have visibility on it. I had a Caravel over there recently, but I moved it away right before the fireworks happened, so I don't really have sight on that conflict right now unfortunately. Anyway, on to my turn.



Dreylin used his catapults, and then he decided he didn't like his odds and didn't attack. That was the good news. The bad news was the very first attack - he killed my Frigate next to Kettle at low odds. My well-promoted Caravel there took some units down with it, but he was able to secure the water tile next to Kettle which means no bombarding Kettle. I knew he could probably take that tile if he wanted because I couldn't get my Frigates there in time, but I was really hoping it could take a unit or two down with it. Fortunately, I've got siege. More on that soon.

Up in the north I decided to take a string of riskier attacks to snipe some of his top defenders from Coffee. My luck was about slightly below average - I probably lost 1 more unit than expected. Whether it was worth it or not, no idea (probably not), but I did say I was YOLO'ing this, and to be perfectly honest I just wanted some blood on this turn. I can reinforce way more than he can anyway. Forgot to save the combat log somewhere, so I don't have that this time.

The worst part was I took a 90% shot on one of his well-promoted Frigates with my new Ship of the Line and lost. THAT one burned me up a little. I didn't necessarily need to take that shot yet so I shoulder some of the blame, but anything above 85% always feels like a gut-punch to lose. I'm trying to get more SOTL to the frontline as quick as I can - giving them Nav1 in some cases just to get them there sooner (counting on their innate bonus against Frigates to do the job). Anyway, the rest of the turn was just setting up for my main assaults next turn.



Here's my group in the north. I used one of my Commandos to scout ahead a little bit, and as far as I can tell he doesn't have anything really incoming to help here unless it's on that gold tile 3E of the city. And I'm pretty sure he's already emptied that city out. Anyway, I think I can take this city next turn, but we'll see what Dreylin can pull together. He whipped a whopping 10 times this turn (more than every war turn prior to this put together), so I'm not quite sure what's going to come out. He's defended this pretty well so far I think.



Not going to be able to bombard by sea, so I may not necessarily attack next turn, it just depends on how much he can reinforce. He does have a galley in that city 3SW of Kettle, so he's definitely going to add 2 more by galley and another via whip. That said, I really don't think he's got much left at all. The units he added here look like the units he had in his far east garrison on the Tsargon border, so he's really emptied everything out shy of the units that will complete EoT. His coastal city of Mixer that you can barely see under the scoreboard has just an archer and a warrior in it, for example. Anyway, one thing that's fun is my two Commando Knight here theoretically can hit 5 different cities next turn. Dreylin's been pretty good at not leaving openings, but I'll take what I can get. Here's my military right now.



On T161 (the turn I started staging for the invasion) my Rifles were at 28. So each turn I'm still adding more than I'm losing, which is part of why I've been pretty aggressive and bordering on reckless. I just don't want to give him time to convert his pop into Frigates.

One funny thing about all this is Jowy.



I've been watching and he's been ferrying in a Rifle pretty much every other turn. I can take a hint.



Evidence of what I mean about adding units quicker than I'm losing them. I do expect I'll take a dip when this turn and next turn shows up, but he probably will too.

Oh, and war weariness started. Getting rid of that very unfun mechanic is one of my favorite things about RtR. By the end of this war it'll probably be pretty steep.

[scooter]

Time for some big battles this turn. I logged in to see this.



Dreylin killed a bunch of my boats in the south (the Galleon was empty at least), and then tried to do the same in the north with generally less success. I had odds on all of those northern battles, so I didn't exactly get super lucky. Anyway, this means I'll need to advance mostly by land in the south while continuing the water blitz in the north. I think Dreylin probably made the right decision to grab himself Astro and commit all his gold to it. I'm still going to win this war, but slowing down the naval blitz buys him time, and time buys him units. Him holding the south channel especially was the way to go, because it allows him to shuttle units between his south island and his mainland.



His dead Frigates in the north being gone allowed me to bombard this city, which was helpful because the siege is all lagging a turn behind. Then it was time.

c1 rifle vs cg musket: 75% WIN
c1 mace vs fresh lbow: 59% WIN
7.4h cr1 mace vs 6.3h musket: 61% WIN
rifle vs praet 81%: WIN
rifle vs axe 99%: WIN
rifle vs redlined musket: 99% WIN
rifle vs spear 99%: WIN
c2 8.1h knight vs chariot: 99%: WIN
g3 rifle vs warrior 99%: WIN

I did have odds on every battle, but it still felt nice to win the pair of early battles that were close to coin flips.



Not bad. The bigger battle is down south.



He does have reinforcements coming (and these units could hit Kettle next turn if I capture it), but this is small enough that I'm not concerned. Dreylin used his GG to give a ton of units in Kettle CG2, which made this tougher sledding.

1 accuracy cat bombard
1 normal cat bombard
suicide trebs: 3
suicide cats: 1
c2 rifle vs cg2 musket: 56% WIN
c2 rifle vs cg2 musket: 83% WIN (gg spawn)
c2 rifle vs cg2 musket: 83% WIN
c2 knight vs mace: 41% LOSS
c2 knight vs musket: 43% LOSS (.1h left)
c2 rifle vs mace: 91% LOSS
5xp c1 rifle vs mace: 91% WIN
5xp rifle vs elephant: 99% WIN
c2 knight vs redlined elephant: 81% LOSS
c2 knight vs knight: 83% WIN
5xp knight vs redlined elephant: 99% WIN
5xp knight vs redlined mace: 99% WIN
5xp knight vs redlined mace: 99% WIN
2xp rifle vs .1h musket: 99% WIN

Of course I capture GLH a couple turns after I've obsoleted it. Notre Dame isn't super helpful, but it will at least hold off some of the war weariness. Anyway, very solid infrastructure haul here, and even better is capturing 14 pop intact. Going to take forever for it to come out of revolt, but it'll be worth it.

Capturing Kettle brought me to 23 cities, which finally draws me even with Mackoti. TBS is still at 33, so both of us have a little ways to go to catch up. Speaking of Mackoti and TBS, they peace'd out and immediately started moving units away. I'm not quite sure where Mackoti's units are going, but TBS's Frigates are clearly headed east towards Dreylin. Slightly concerned that one or both of them will try to vulture some land. Also undecided how annoyed that would or wouldn't make me if they do.

It'll be a couple turns before I take another city unless some things fall into place perfectly. More pictures from this turn later.

[scooter]

Had a minute to write up a few other things. Here's the northern army.



I believe Dishwasher (east of Coffee Maker) is pretty much empty, but I didn't want to risk my sentry Knight to find out. Depending on what Dreylin does, I could possibly land my units next to Dishwasher as soon as next turn, falling then on T169. He could delay that by a turn, though. We'll just have to see. Here's the south.



I thought pretty seriously about Commando'ing Mixer, but I'd like to keep the city, and I wouldn't be able to get any Rifles in to protect the Knights.

The long march on Toaster is going to have to be a combined group from here and the northern army. He doesn't have much in reserve, but by the time I get there the group will be pretty tough, not to mention the river that will help Toaster considerably. I haven't quite decided yet exactly I'll proceed, but it does depend a little on what's in Dishwasher in the north.





Global warming struck in an obnoxious spot.



This poor city squeaked its way back up to sz6, so I drafted it again. That should be the last time this city is drafted.



I'm not 100% sure purpose the fort is accomplishing here. Maybe he's going to fort his way into Alpine. Anyway, I'm like 70% sure he loaded up some units on those Galleons there.

So that's where things stand. Next couple turns probably won't be quite as exciting.

[scooter]

I advanced. I've got a good shot at taking 2 cities next turn, but it really just depends on how much Dreylin prioritizes holding them. Let's go north-to-south.



Dreylin chose not to get in the way of my Galleons, so I dropped these units next to Dishwasher after checking it with my spy. I'm probably going to try to spare the Trebs for Toaster. He cannot actually reinforce this city, but he could set himself up for a recapture. We'll see what he does. Those Galleons are unprotected (my Frigates were all redlined and are therefore healing), so he can kill one with his Frigate if he wants. The rest of those are Caravels, so he may elect not to attack, because in theory I could counter-attack with Galleons depending on how much damage his Frigate takes in its win. I can afford to lose Galleons - I've got those coming out my ears. More on that later.



Here's my central group advancing on Toaster. This will get reinforcement from 3 different places - the north and south groups, and a third one that I'll show you in a minute. I'm pretty happy to spread my stacks out here because he doesn't have enough cats to get odds with his Muskets, so his only real choice is to hide in his cities. He is building cats, though, so he may intend to counter-attack in a few turns. Anyway, point being I'd be happy for him to attack out with CG Muskets. He won't.



Tentatively planning to take this city. He can reinforce, but it would be a waste to do so - burning his fortify bonuses. My only uncertainty is the culture. I believe the plains hill with the solo rifle and the pigs would not get Toaster culture (Toaster is at 4 rings as you can see above), but I'm not certain. Anyone want to answer that so I don't have to WB test?

It's also possible the city across the bay would culturally hold that tile. So the point is that if I can't get a couple Rifles into it after capturing with Knights, I may wait a turn. Not certain yet.


I mentioned extra reinforcements. Let's talk about that since there isn't any fighting going on.

Talk Logistics To Me



Between this turn and next turn, I have a set of 3 rifles that will have moved a whopping 18 tiles in two turns (11 tiles this turn, 7 next turn). That's not a record by any means, but it's still fun to do and requires a lot of planning. They started on the highlighted tile in this screenshot. The red stars represent tiles on which they were swapped to a different Galleon.



They changed boats on the first red star, and then they were carried to the fort. They then loaded onto one of the spare 5-movers, which carried them just 1 tile north where they swapped onto a 4-mover that was returning from a previous northern drop-off. The purpose of this is so that I can bring the 5-mover back south and use it again next turn to cover more ground. So the ended the turn on the green highlighted tile on a 4-move Galleon, moving 11 tiles.



Then next turn after I take Dishwasher, the culture will hopefully recede barring the culture bug. If it does as planned, the Galleons will move into the city where 11 units will get off of them (3 from very far away) and join the units already in transit on the T169 tile. Every one of those 11 units changed boats at least once this turn in order to get all 11 units to this tile. Just thought it would be fun to highlight this on an otherwise quiet (and bloodless) turn.

Now... I'm not 100% certain that the workshopped tile 3NW of Toaster will be culture-less. It's same question as earlier. If I can't take that route, I'll simply move the units E-E-SE from Coffee Maker, and then on T170 they could join the other stack on the tile 2S of Dishwasher. Works either way. Whichever units from the Dishwasher attack turn out to be unnecessary will also be free to join up with these two stacks.

First bloodless turn of the war. That should change next turn.

[El Grillo]

I feel like I never build enough boats to do these kinds of convoying maneuvers, I'm sure it makes a huge difference by cutting down on the reinforcement travel time.