Ah, I didn't realize that upgraded units lost XP past 10. Guess I wasted some on the second mace, then. I knew about the special promos, and took advantage of Morale (so that I could move twice and then upgrade to a Rifle). Ship consideration is a good one, I will think about it. Thank you!
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picklepikkl embarks on the Fool's Journey
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Jowy has a stack of Knights near the Promised Land. This concerns me. He's also researching towards Rifling.
On his turn, Sian's three remaining knights from the attack stack, rather than retreat, attacked into my weakened stack and all died, taking nobody with them (though my conscript rifle got banged up). His two southern stacks retreated into The Empress, leaving only a single knight to defend Wheel of Fortune. I retook it with a cavalry unit, which thankfully did not lose the 97% roll. My next goal is to retake The Empress. He has eighteen units in there -- they may be technologically inferior, but there's a lot of them, sire. To that end, I made one of my fresh Cavs a medic and grouped it inside The Magician with the wounded, while my rifles advance a tile so that The Empress is in range once I finish Engineering next turn. Whether I start the counterattack then depends on what Sian does. Not sure what I should research next; obvious choices are Economics, for Free Market and the Great Merchant first-to, and Chemistry, for the +1h on my workshops and open way to Steel. Another research path could be up Compass towards Astronomy, for Observatories, Scientific Method, and Physics. Hard to decide.
July 18th, 2016, 16:11
(This post was last modified: July 18th, 2016, 16:21 by picklepikkl.)
Christ on a cracker. This last turn cycle saw everyone but me taking 30+ hours to play. I guess I can claim a moral victory for B under the PYFT win condition, whatever else happens?
Moral victories are what I'm going to have to content myself with. Sian pulled the fractional-movement-attack trick on me again, roading the neutral tile SW of The Empress so that he could attack my victorious cavalry in Wheel of Fortune with a fresh knight. He then razed the city, because fuck my game mechanic blindness that's why. My army advanced on The Empress and killed an awful lot of his stuff without taking any casualties (woo!), but we're dangerously redlined on most of our units. Thankfully, there are a few high-health cavs and rifles to cover the stack. We also got another Great General out of the fighting, who is going into our Heroic Epic city as an instructor. 1turning Economics for the free Great Person as well; our Taj Golden Age ended, but next turn we start another one (though The Empress's capture killed the dream of directly chaining 3 GAs together, alas). greenline still hasn't made peace, for which I'm thankful. Hopefully there's some tussling going on up there, though greenline has the lowest Power of anyone, so it's unlikely. Remind me why Sian thought it was a good idea to attack me instead of him, again?
This time it only took three days to get a turn instead of four. So, uh, improvement.
Golden Age ended, another began. Despite being in a GA, our production and GNP stink. Goddamn Sian.  The turn's sacrifice to the god of war. He is far from Rifling and I'm going to push my advantage while I have it; The Empress will be mine again next turn, I hope. Jowy is a few turns out from Rifling himself; I'm keeping a weather eye out at that border for the sake of national security. Hope greenline is getting work done on his own border with Sian.
Holy hell, a turn just the next day? I know greenline is going away this weekend, but he historically has not been the sticking point.
News of this turn: The Empress reconquered (yay!) with none of its buildings intact (boo!). That's a real blow to my plans; probably not worth rebuilding it as a GP farm, given its total lack of essential infrastructure. We also refounded Wheel of Fortune (should never have lost it the second time, argh argh). Sian's cities I have in view are poorly-defended; maybe I can make something happen next turn, but more likely I need to not overextend while my Cavs heal up. Meanwhile, Jowy gets Rifling next turn and has been building Cannons. Must make sure to not let guard down again.
July 25th, 2016, 20:10
(This post was last modified: July 25th, 2016, 20:18 by picklepikkl.)
Heh; I'm actually kind of worried about whether the interest level in the second games of the set will still be there by the time B wraps up.
Another three-day turn cycle, but Sian had internet problems, which always sucks. My part of the war was very quiet. Sian reinforced his near border city; I might have been able to take it this turn, but at the cost of suiciding my cavs and exposing my stack to being revenge killed. Instead, I'm bunkering up in The Empress and waiting for my HP to be restored. EOT, Chemistry came in, so my workshops are now more badass. Must now decide whether I want to pursue Steel (for military parity with Jowy), Physics (for the Great Scientist), Steam Power (for the... hammers?), or Communism (for the Spy and State Property). EDIT: Oh, almost forgot to mention: Sian left a worker exposed, so I took a healthy cav and sniped it (deleted; no chance of holding if he wants it back). I could have used one of my near-dead ones, but then he would have gotten the revenge kill for free. This way, it'll cost him something to kill my Cav, and maybe it will force defenders out of position.
I was definitely caught off guard by the difference in unit healing between Normal and Quick. A lot of my units effectively participated in only one combat, and it made the choice of when to use promotions feel much more relevant. Without a Medic 3 unit, waiting 3-5 turns for full heals felt like an entire era was going by!
July 27th, 2016, 11:58
(This post was last modified: July 27th, 2016, 11:59 by picklepikkl.)
Yeah, it's taking a while for my wounded cavs to get ready!
Sian has concentrated his defense in his northern border city, Francis Assisi, but not in his southern one, whose name I forget but I think is either Thomas Hobbes or Thomas Paine. I moved eight fresh cavs out of The Empress to a position where they can attack next turn -- it currently only has a pike and a skirmisher on defense, so hopefully we can force him to penny-packet his forces. Guessing the greenline war is phony, but I'll take what I can get; the threat of invasion serves my purposes almost as well as invasion. Jowy is researching Liberalism. I assume he is going for Communism; I am going to try to beat him there. I think I can do it. I would then be able to fire off a 3-GP GA, with my saved Great Artist, a GP coming out of The Magician in a few turns, and the Spy from Communism, and revolt into State Property.
Sian landed a Cuir and a Knight next to the Hierophant. A Cav lost to the Cuir, but a Rifle and Musket pair cleaned up the others. Popping out a Trireme to take care of the Galley, if it sticks around; hopefully it won't tear up fishing nets.
Captured Thomas Hobbes and got a ton of gold -- it came with Granary, Forge, Lighthouse intact, which is pretty sweet. Won't rename it until it comes out of resistance, though. He continues to pile troops into Francis Assisi, but I'm going to stab the soft southern underbelly of his kingdom for as long as I reasonably can. The capture gold funded us to get Communism as a 2t research, which means we're guaranteed to beat Jowy. greenline is getting Democracy; Statue of Liberty is really good on this map, but hopefully I can take more land off Sian than he does. Sian is finishing up Replaceable Parts, but still has Rifling to go. |
