RMOG: Renaissance Men of Genius

[WarriorKnight]

T263:

As anticipated, 3 cities fell. REM Delenda Est

As also anticipated, REM sent a force to capture KND next turn. However it was smaller then I anticipated, small enough that we might actually be able to hold KND this turn.



Only 5 Cav and 3 Knights??? That may be enough to capture almost any other city we have, but KND has 60% culture (thank you ND) and is on a hill. Plus its culture is blocking REM from easily moving towards our southern cities. Since we have an opportunity to slow the Khmer hordes I absolutely must take it.

With that in mind I've sent everything in PHS to KND, and even upgraded the warrior to a Rifle(!). That shuts down any chance we can get of getting Nationalism, but even if we did finish it we probably would have lost most of our cities by then otherwise.





We should be good for 1t I hope. The real question is what do we do with the fleet in the NE. I was originally planning to send it on a secret naval strike through scooter's new city into REM backlines, but maybe it could help reinforce KND? Guess it depends on how KND is holding up next turn. If it's looking like it'll fall next turn (probable) then let's hope scooter accommodates us (likely) and we aren't spotted (very unlikely).

[oledavy]

Welp. This is depressing. 

Mackoti renamed every unit?

We could just declare war on everyone as a giant middle finger to the board before dying.

[WarriorKnight]

Neither scooter or mackoti have declared on us (yet). I suspect they just want to pillage neutral land/cottages that REM captures before REM can benefit. While I can't confirm, I also highly suspect REM of doing the same thing to Alhazard's former lands (the scuffle in the IT thread was certainly because of that) and the mackoti rename was aimed towards REM, not us.

We could attack some mackoti islands if we wanted to. mackoti lacks Rifling and only has a single unit in each city. I would prefer we hit REM if we can though, at least mackoti only went after contested territory and left us alone. Plus we really don't need a dozen Phracts invading our rear, even if we do have Rifles.

[oledavy]

Just took a look in game. Things look really grim. Not having nationalism is killer. We just can't get as many rifles out as they have cavalry. Hopefully KND hold through this turn. After that, idk. I'm concerned about a thrust coming through Jungled Fish towards Plains Cow.  

At least we're not folding as easily as Alhazard, but its still a bit of a roflstomp. 

With winning out of the question at this point, I think our foremost duty is to the other players, to not roll over and conduct as active and spirited a defense as we can. I think we pass on attacking Mack, lock down as many of our cities as we can, and for the rest of the game (especially once we're in nationalism/theocracy) try to reclaim land from REM. They are the leader, and delivered the blow that finally has put us out of the running. I think it's only fair we dedicate our remaining efforts to ensuring their downfall. 

I will be curious to see what Mack and Scooter's armies do. I would be getting very irritated if I was REM. It does hurt to see all our beautiful cottages pillaged though. 

For what it's worth mate, I'm sorry for how this game has gone. Sorry for not having more time to focus on it back in August/September when it might have made a bigger difference. When you need a break from playing, let me know, I'm happy to slave out rifles and move units. I don't expect you to keep reporting on this mess, and I doubt I will for the turns I play.  

Amid all this doom and gloom, here's to hoping your secret naval strike produces results! 

[WarriorKnight]

Not your fault dave. You did predict this in the first post after all (aside from the fact that REM is delivering the coup de grace, not mackoti), it just hurts to see it unfold before your eyes. Still, I don't regret playing/sponsoring this game. I learnt a ton about Ren start, and I'm sure the rest of RB did too.

I'm happy to keep reporting for the time being. I accepted a while ago that we couldn't win, and things are actually very interesting to report on atm. That may change once we lose enough cities to stop producing enough Rifles, but for now it's all good.

[WarriorKnight]

T264:

Remember this?

The naval strike was sniffed out. Unfortunate but not unexpected. At least we can keep him honest in naval warfare for a bit thanks to our UU.

Turns out I never unloaded the 2 Knights I had loaded up on the EI. So when I logged in to play, I spotted quite the opportunity:



What do we have here? Needless to say:



(didn't catch a pic of the worker steal, but the 2 workers were captured and promptly deleted)



It was a brief reunion with Jungled Fish, but a good one nonetheless. I tried searching for something that I could 2 pop whip from scratch and a cat was the best I could do. Now he'll only have 1 pop in there upon recapture.


With the good stuff out the way, time for a reality check. JF will fall back into enemy hands next turn, along with KND and PHS (REM moved enough cavs into position to make naval reinforcements redundant, so the naval strike will go ahead). High chance REM lands a invasion at Global Warming next turn too, and I no longer have any secret moves in that theater. I might leave a token force of Rifles in PC because of it's significance to us, but the rest will stage in Peaks as the next best city to defend (which unfortunately means the rest of the empire will be undefended ).

Question for dave, should we empty the garrison in No Copper to reinforce Peaks? REM won't be able to reach NC for quite some time (we may even get a peace treaty with him once he's captured everything else) but we'll be down to 1 city. I guess the real question is do we want to:

• Focus on fortifying NC for survival or
  
• Leave NC weakly defended in favor of obstructing REM as much as possible?
  

Operation Naval Strike is proceeding as planned. The attack force wasn't spotted by cavs, and I haven't spotted any REM naval units in the northern lake yet, so far so good. There's still a decent chance that we've already been spotted by spies, or we could run into a REM naval unit exploring the northern lake so I'm not celebrating yet. Durmstrang is still defended by a single LBow, but he could have Frigates positioned to halt my advance (scooter accepted my map trade, so we can now see both REM mineral cities). Both scooter and mackoti should clearly know of my sneak attack now (scooter especially should have a front line seat, I wonder how he will respond considering I'm using his lands to attack? Will he cancel OB perhaps in an attempt to soften the blow with REM? I hope not). Only 2t until we know what happens in that theater.

Still, even if it doesn't work, I'm quite happy with the defense we've done so far, considering our resources.

[WarriorKnight]

Looking at civstats, I think scooter declared war on us and razed a city, likely PHS. I mean sure, razing cities is better then letting REM have them but come on! That move makes it harder for me to do anything, the backup goal of Naval Strike (recapture PHS/KND) is now redundant and the primary goal is less likely to be achievable with OB not an option this turn. Hopefully we can get peace/resign OB to get back on track as Naval Strike isn't time sensitive, but it doesn't help matters.

If we can't get peace/OB we'll be left with a nuke in the north with no good targets to use it on. Unless scooter also killed the EI with some Frigates, then I'll get on board dave's DOW everyone strategy.

BTW dave, you cool with spending the GE on Shwedagon Paya in NC? Assuming we don't declare war on the entire world, it seems the best combo of maximum hilarity and minimal global power shift that we can use it for, since there is nothing useful we can use it on otherwise. Unless we unlock HE somehow... that would be kinda useful.

[WarriorKnight]

T265 (Pt.1):

JF fell as expected. scooter captured PHS instead of razing it, giving me some solace that not all our cities will fall to the enemy (he also offered cease fire immediately as well as 25 gold and his map, so all is good).

KND though...



It survived? WTF?!? Awesome!



I had written off KND as lost once REM moved some 18 cavs and 6 Knights in last turn. I dunno if he just got unlucky or underestimated cultural defense (not going through the logs to find out), but chalk that up as a major victory for us. We even got a GG out of the deal.

Better yet, I can reinforce the city this turn with the units slated for Naval Strike if scooter signs OB. While it makes me sad not to go through with the attack, since we now have a chance of holding off the Khmer invaders if we secure KND I have to prioritize self-preservation here. It does require scooter resigning OB though, which is why this is split into 2 parts (what happens on the other half of the turn depends on if he agrees or not). We could theoretically send 1 EI to reinforce KND and 1 to hit REM, I'll think about it but probably won't go through with that.

REM does have Steel now so once he sends some cannons to the front lines we won't hold forever. But that gives us enough time to revolt into Nationhood and go crazy drafting in response. I've stopped whipping for the time being as drafting will be much more efficient once it arrives in 3t, and cities need to be size 6 to be draftable.

Global Warming however, will fall next turn:



Unfortunate but not unexpected. I killed his Frigate with my remaining EI (earning a 2nd GG!) and then moved him out of range of the rest of his fleet. Probably not much else he can do but who knows?

Also something I didn't know, EI can travel through rival territory like caravels can. The EI that I had put in scooter's territory weren't kicked out when he declared. Nifty.

[OT4E]

I had written off KND as lost once REM moved some 18 cavs and 6 Knights in last turn. I dunno if he just got unlucky or underestimated cultural defense (not going through the logs to find out), but chalk that up as a major victory for us. We even got a GG out of the deal.

For the sake of RND gods you must post all the statistics about the battles you have won this turn! Otherwise you can forget about having luck any longer.

[WarriorKnight]

I had written off KND as lost once REM moved some 18 cavs and 6 Knights in last turn. I dunno if he just got unlucky or underestimated cultural defense (not going through the logs to find out), but chalk that up as a major victory for us. We even got a GG out of the deal.

For the sake of RND gods you must post all the statistics about the battles you have won this turn! Otherwise you can forget about having luck any longer.

...



Short on time though so you'll have to go through the wall of text yourself for statistics. All battles (aside from the last one) are from REM's POV.

JF:
Cav attack Knight 90.1% - W
Cav attack Knight 90.1% - retreat
Cav attack Knight 99.9% - W

KND:
Cav attack Rifle 1.3% - retreat
Cav attack Rifle 1.2% - L
Cav attack Rifle 3.1% - L
Cav attack Rifle 4.3% - L
Cav attack Rifle 8.8% - L
Cav attack Rifle 8.8% - L
Cav attack Rifle 8.8% - L
Cav attack Rifle 8.9% - L
Cav attack Rifle 8.9% - L
Cav attack Rifle 9.7% - L
Cav attack Rifle 20.5% - W
flawless(Cav) attack Rifle 22.5% - L
Cav attack Rifle 22.5% - L
Cav attack Rifle 22.5% - L
Cav attack Rifle 34.1% - L
Knight attack Rifle 15.1% - L
Knight attack Rifle 5.7% - L
Knight attack Rifle 15.1% - L
Cav attack Rifle 60.1% - W
cav attack Pike 64.5% - W
cav attack Lbow 44.9% - L
knight attack Lbow 10.9% - W
cav attack Lbow 67.8% - W
cav attack rifle 68.9% - retreat

GW:
Frigate attack EI 78.3% - W

JF:
Rifle attack Cat 98.8% - W

My turn:
EI attack Frigate 60.8% - W


scooter accepted OB which is excellent. Operation Naval Strike is officially called off (for now) and I have enough units in KND to hold off REM.



A LBow is hardly my first choice for a Medic 3 unit, but I don't exactly have the room to improvise.

Also scooter is in a awkward position since KND didn't fall, now he has a useless city that is incredibly vulnerable to me. If I get a little breathing room on the REM front I'll uh, requisition PHS. Still a good thing for us he got involved, I would rather recapture it from scooter since he doesn't have Rifling.

Overall, I don't think the turn could have gone much better for us.   Here's hoping it continues.