[Spoilers] Coldlight: The Commodtay Saga

[Commodore]

Looks like TBS just went ahead and moved after I played anyway. I mean, sure, ostensibly we're both invading Pindicator but let's be honest, we're rivals here; I intend to drop the hammer HARD if Captain Tagalong ventures much south of Cruz. Assuming the weird alternate-earth version of the world have American defenders, of course...Pin didn't just whip everything, he also seems to have deleted *all* his units.

I guess that's fairish? Thing is, this offensive was very much predicated on him being locked into battle with 2mn down south; getting the food-having peninsula was a bit motivation for this choice of targets.

I don't intend to stop punching out knights, by the way. And a wave of catapults is ready to be picked up to defend Brazil from the Zulu Menace. Next after Engineering is Gunpowder, if I can't win over half this continent then there ain't much point in playing.

[Commodore]

And in the actual game:

Christie's Combat 1 warrior beat my 4.2/10 shock knight.

[Commodore]

Christie's Combat 1 warrior beat my 4.2/10 shock knight.

Fortunately, Brick whipped a spear, not an archer or axe, so the galley loaded with swordsmen secured the island. The worst odds of the blitz yet came before the walls of Drumpf, with shock knights targeting spearmen.

Not to worry, though. The knights won, and then the mop-up with the archers was easy. First capital capture (not burning) of the game, I believe?

Infrastructure was not bad, but this sucker is going to be a nightmare to regrow. Poor Pindicator...this was a capital move that really didn't serve him well.

Forces are still growing, and I've ordered up another round of carracks too; ten is nice but we're going to be defending from Optics-knowing TBS and OH too. The first great general will probably be a boring medic III, or a fast trick knight maybe. The only other option is dumping him on six carracks to make a fleet of even faster Nav1/Circumnav Portuguese doomboats.

Saying that out load, duh, of course it's got to be the doomboats.

I'm delighted to say, the blitz is going swimmingly; Clinton should fall next turn. I'm even more delighted, though, to see that it's a very tactically interesting setup with TBS. Engineering is online, so taking Clinton should mean that the big knight stack can wheel north and butcher TBS' little mace/treb stack. I'm not sure if it's worth burning the trade routes, though...maybe he can content himself with just Cruz and Chaffee? If not...well, the carrack chains are bringing six new units in a turn.

Any questions? It's nice to finally have some interest in this continent.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Damn, there was a chance here and you've blown it. Thread unsubscribed. Support now given to TBS and/or 2MN. Maybe one of them will do what you failed to do and will raze Drumpf and Clinton.

Meanwhile,

Otherwise, good show, popcorn,etc! :Nod:

[Commodore]

Damn, there was a chance here and you've blown it. Thread unsubscribed. Support now given to TBS and/or 2MN. Maybe one of them will do what you failed to do and will raze Drumpf and Clinton.

Meanwhile,

Well, there's no chance of that, because both were promptly renamed. Ex-Clinton means I'm now 150% Creative, with the Henge adding monuments all over the place.

"Democracy is the people getting the government they deserve, good and hard."

I scouted further south, and suddenly went all low-energy. Bush is loaded with Pindic Brick's best and brightest. Well, most of the best...I murdered a couple elephants at the cost of two knights in getting this view. Consolidation and siege are needed to break Bush, ideally I'll use some of the swords trailing the main push.

Ah, RBmod swordsmen. So broken in what they are meant to do, so very specialized and slow though.

South and west there is the Island of Misfit Candidates, looks like at least three decent-sized cities there. Santorum was a bit of a tough nut to crack; I won this fight but the 80% next one was a loss. Still took it though...

...and was immediately able to push forward with another knight, who promptly ran into Brick's GG crossbow. Tough general spawn location there, bud.

He died, and de la Hoya or something is now seen. Moving along nicely in this blitz.

The Brick battle is fun and all, but the really interesting part is how to handle TBS. For now, he seems largely content to cut roads with impi and move the bulk of his troops out of range. He's being careful, but I don't get the sense he's given up on taking more of America. He's built himself a great empire; I'd really hate to see him drag us both down the toilet with a zero sum war. But he might reasonably judge that everything is hopeless anyway.

Catapults, online. Next wave is incoming and we're salting in shock crossbows to counter the heavy mace/impi fraction of the Zulu mixture.

[Commodore]

WAR

[Commodore]

Ugh. Good Confucius y'all, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

In my munificent mercy, I graciously allow TBS to hold on to Carson last turn, as his mace/trebuchet stack seemed to be headed back. Well, it turned around once again and this time has knights along for the ride. Plus the damned impi are cutting roads less defensively, more aggressively. I wavered a bit on allowing him another couple turns, but there isn't much point in letting those blood mobility-nightmares free reign any longer. It cost a knight, but I cleared away the annoyances. I offered peace but I'm not highly optimistic that he'll accept it.

It's a rock and a hard place for both of us, I guess. I don't have much going for me if I can't take almost all of former Pindicania, but then again neither does he. It's sad.

More capturing still ongoing; I took another island city and can push him with swords to take the other two (!) cities down here. Brick's sent a penny-packet force of galleys and triremes over here though, enough to mess me up good if I keep losing 90% combats. These cities ain't exactly bad, but I'm not exactly thrilled with the astonishing high-quality either.

Frankly, this land was probably a wash even without Tagalong McGee fighting me for it.

I need more than knights and crossbows; if I can whip castles and get some CG2 muskets fortified I'll be feeling muuuuch safer. So I put the pedal to the metal and ran wealth to eke out Gunpowder here at end of turn. Even Wall is getting in on it!

Example city shown because come on, this crap is ridiculous.

[DaveV]

So I put the petal pedal to the metal and ran wealth to eek eke out Gunpowder here at end of turn.

Two eggcorns in one sentence?

[Commodore]

So I put the petal pedal to the metal and ran wealth to eek eke out Gunpowder here at end of turn.

Two eggcorns in one sentence?

Crushed flowers don't make you go "Eek!"?

[pindicator]

I had figured on my land's decidedly unattractive features to be my best form of defense.