Where to will Singaboy steer the Teutonic power?

[Singaboy]

T147:

No war declaration of oledavy. In my case, it was 30+1 turns for the friendship to end. Might be the same case here. If there is no war declaration next turn, I will have to start to worry about my backyard. I will be no match with oledavy's military strength starting to spike.

I will need to find a way to get to cavalry faster than light. Hmm, not with my current output though. No movement by Archduke to attack me. Either his troops are moving west or he is setting up an ambush. I move my knight with superior movement forward and spot a 'lurking' sword. If only I had a second knight for recon north of the city. I assume he is keeping some units between Dorium and Troy. Dorium would be a great city to keep as well, but my main goal is Frankfurt, which the alien oppressors call Troy. My people can't wait to get liberated. I can almost hear them crying for help.



I need to proceed with care here. Below is my positioning at the end of the turn. All five units can move into an attacking position next turn, but will need to wait for T149 to do the actual strike except for the knight. If Archduke has melee units that attack, they will be stuck at the forests or hill. I have three crossbows + encampment fire ready to pounce on them. If he wants to use crossbows to shoot, he should not be able to do this from behind the forested hills, hence he would need to expose them too. I hope I did not overlook something here. Quite possible that I made a move. But, unlike oledavy and Archduke, I prefer an all or nothing approach in attacking a city as a half baked attack usually ends up worse. Sure, I will likely lose muskets, but there are two more coming up next turn. I hope this is enough to liberate Frankfurt.



As I rather not shred my army, knowing the much bigger foes will come after me eventually, I still give Archduke a chance to free one of his fronts and offer him peace again in exchange for returning Frankfurt.

A hunch tells me though, he wants to remain the 'Yuris' of PBEM2. I thought, I might be the first to exit this game, but after all, the honor could go again to Archduke. The game seems to approach a climax of the three super powers and I would have loved to play a part in it, but two wars started/provoked by Archduke have robbed me of those chances. He gained hardly anything with them, even less so with his oscillating wars. He should have either tried to cooperate with oledavy or myself.

I hope he will learn a lesson for the next PBEM.

[Singaboy]

T148:
well well well....this is a real killer for Archduke as oledavy not only declared war on him, no he took his capital in one go.

Then against my gut feeling, Archduke agreed to my terms and handed back Frankfurt without a fight. This is actually quite good in the situation I can see.with oledavy storming Archduke, taking Dorium might have been a hollow victory. I rather preserve my units here and lower war weariness Archduke's score dropped well below mine. This must hurt. I do hope now that he has his units in Dorium to fight oledavy with his two Generals. I need oledavy to be slowed down or he will come after me right away.
The peace treaty immediately increases my science and culture (of course adding Frankfurt helps too), but is still about half of what the three leaders have.



Now what to produce in my cities. I can't neglect military for long. However, I need some urgent buildings too. Do I actually try and pursue two bombards for the Eureka. Currently, it would take 15 + 11 turns to get cavalry. That's mighty long.

For now the cities go for the following:
Frankfurt: Starts a Hansa as ancient city walls seem of no concern for oledavy's army,  (he took Archdukes capital in one turn). With a trader starting in 2 turns there, the production should drop
Aachen: first a builder to repair the stone and do some improvements around Aachen and Frankfurt. After that, it could be a settler to settle along the coast SE.
Ulm: Will go for a workshop after the trader is done, then back to military.
Mainz: still has quite a while to go for the entertainment district. Build will be sped up by a trader.
Bremen: Campus has dropped to 6 turns with city growth, will go for a library after that
Koblenz: just finished the CH, will go for a trader then a market
Seoul: nothing much to be done in this city, will go for military

I offer oledavy friendship as 30 turns would really give me time to get to cavalry and feel a hunch safer. However, I fear he won't take that deal. I need a lucky break here. Either Alhambram or Woden need to start a war with him to take the pressure off me.

[Dreylin]

Seems like a positive development. Might be different if either of the next pair of cities had been yours originally.

Any inclination to snipe Hattusa in the meantime?

[Singaboy]

T149:
The game continues to stay interesting indeed. I get a lucky break because oledavy actually agrees to the friendship I proposed, giving me 30 turns before doomsday, if no international war has broken out by then. I can also spot a lot of Archduke's units staying just behind Dorium, presumably trying to defend the city. I am hoping he is going to put up a formidable fight. He has 2 invincible Generals here and can inflict some damage on the attackers.



The rest of his former empire doesn't look good at all. Buenos Aires has fallen into oledavy's hands too. Zaycnthus in the south is most likely under siege by Alhambram. I wonder what is happening in between where Alhambram and oledavy meet. It is an area where Woden is close too, a potential bomb to blow up.




I received recorded history a turn earlier than expected as my culture output is slowly increasing (Mainz' negative amenities have shrunken from -2 to -1). There aren't many good civics for me to change into, but I drop Bastion for now and replace with a policy that only benefits Aachen, as it gets a temporary boost in 2 housing. I want to produce a settler there after the worker and don't want it to drop in population.

Let's have a look at the civics tree I am currently following. Next in line is civil service (which gives the possibility for an MP in case amenities drop). I am aiming to get guilds for the Hansa adjacency bonus. I can still build another market in Koblenz after its trader. Won't be an issue at all.



Ulm and Seoul have finished their traders, Ulm is on a quick monument (1 turn) before the workshop. Any boost in science and culture is welcome now. Seoul is going for a worker as it really has hardly anything useful to do. Repairing districts for very limited effects isn't really enticing.

My units are trying to sneak past oledavy's trader in order to potentially attack Hattusa, though this would be considered a backstab and surely be asking for retaliation. I am not a big fan of that. However,there is another barb camp that has spawned north of Preslav and a musket is approach the city. I need to make sure it doesn't cause trouble in Bremen, where the campus is 5 turns from completion.

[Dreylin]

DoF from oledavy is nice! I'd say go all-out for Hattusa since you are naturally his next target as the weakest of his neighbours.

Not sure what the build times would be, but if you are short on Science and have few things to build then pushing out the two Bombards would act as a Hammer-Beaker conversion even if they have no other use.

Have you got the pop in Seoul to plant an Encampment there? The bonuses from Preslav and extra Walls could be useful to defend that front when the time comes. You'll also have access to Medieval Walls once Siege Tactics completes to up defense rating.

[Dreylin]

DoF from oledavy is nice! I'd say go all-out for Hattusa since you are naturally his next target as the weakest of his neighbours.

Although I'm not familiar enough to know how Suzerain status (I assume he is?) and DoF interact...

[Singaboy]

I have started to try and sneak units past his trader in a way, he can't really tell I am moving north.

As for bombards, not the most useful units, maybe not the worst, but pretty expensive to make (no production modifier here). However, maybe worth the investment to save quite a few turns of research. I could get Ulm and Aachen to each produce one bombard and when hitting the 50% threshold of siege tactics, switch to ballistics (for field cannons), which would take around 10 turns, if I get the Eureka (build 2 forts). Then when the bombards are done, move on to military science, which takes around 10 turns currently (I have the Eureka done).
This should be doable within the 30 turns I have until I can expect oledavy to come down on me. It gives me the chance too, to upgrade crossbows to field cannons and horsemen to cavalry. Currently I have no horseman, would need to build a few, but that shouldn't be an issue.

Currently, Aachen and Ulm each take 8 turns for a bombard. Aachen could also build the military engineer (around 5 turns) for the forts. Would need to think of a strategic location for the forts.

If I get Seoul to build an encampment, it would take 12 turns. However, the big question is, where is the best location to drop it. If I take Hattusa, oledavy could attack from a lot of points.

[Dreylin]

Well it looks like Hattusa has a pretty good view of Weehawken, so the attack would either come from the North or the West. Maximum defense of Seoul would be to place it on the forest or hill next to the next to the NW Milk. But strategically that could make a bypass attack on Hattusa more likely - and you do have a fairly long border to protect.

Perhaps the best place would be on the forest NE of the city (or even better on the tile NE of that, not that you could afford it). That would act as an static defense/obstacle to a bypass attack on Hattusa, and encourage his troops towards Seoul which is easier to support/reinforce with a mobile defense from the core in the South.

[Singaboy]

On one hand I would like to lock the encampment now and then chop some of it with the builder ready in 7 turns. But locking it on a forest seems such a waste. The location NE forest seems good. Maybe I chop the forest and then start to build the encampment on top of it. In the meantime working on medieval walls.

By the way, one important issue now comes to mind, since oledavy has signed friendship with me. Who is going to ally with whom in the next war once Archduke is out of the equation. And with that comes a big question for me.

In 5 turns, I will get civil service and with it the ability to form an alliance. Now, an alliance with Woden wouldn't make any sense. It doesn't really get any of my closer foes (Alhambram and oledavy) off the hook. To me, it boils down to, either oledavy or Alhambram. This is a tricky question.

I know, oledavy could swallow me whole, if he is left alone. His military power boosted by a Great General is impressive. If I ally him, what could I gain? I could basically be the smaller brother in the backyard, left alone since I pose no threat, but pretty safe. Besides being left alone, I could not really make a lot of inroads. Maybe advance towards Alhambram's new cities in the southwest at best.

If I ally Alhambram and oledavy gets really hit hard by him, there is a potential to conquer quite a bit of land. Of course, the risk to lose my cities, is much higher too.

This is a tough question, I need to answer, as I could imagine that an alliance request will pop up soon after I gain the ability to do so. I am sure, Woden, Alhambram and oledavy all are thinking about ways to win the game from here on. It will boil down to a 2 vs 1 with me being sort of an after thought. That is my only chance to stay alive. Too small to be significant in their eyes. Too painful to conquer without losses at the same time.

[Singaboy]

T150:

Poor Archduke is down to 2 cities, but his military strength still around 350. Mine is now above 500 and will further grow for sure within 30 turns.

Aachen and Ulm are building each a bombard at a staggering 8/9 turns. I do hope that some tile improvements can shorten that. Frankfurt's Hansa drops immediately to 16 turns after sending a trader to Aachen. Bremen's and Mainz' districts are done within a few turns too. Koblenz is still 2 turns away from the last trader, then it's going for a market for the Eureka.

My income is improving with all those traders and almost 40gpt. This is necessary for all the upgrades I would have to make in order to stay alive. A treasury of 1000 gold would be quite nice to be able to upgrade as many horsemen and crossbows as possible.

The Great Engineer is now 4 turns away and the additional amenities/housing for Ulm and Mainz will be welcome.

Ass for the units, I move them northeast as there are also 2 barbarian muskets nearing Preslav and the city state doesn't seem to do anything about it. Not good.