PBEM #4's World War (History Post, On Hold - Sullla is publishing an overview of PBEM4 on his website)
During the game, this post was used to maintain an account of all my alliances, DOFs, etc. In the post game, I want am turning it into a brief history of the global conflict that came to define the conclusion of this game. I think this conflict is really noteworthy in how back and forth it ended up being, and in how widespread it eventually became - consuming every independent polity on the board. I will attempt to be as non-partisan and objective as I can in this review, but this post will necessarily be colored by my own experiences of the game. I welcome critiques from other participants and observers, and additional tidbits of information, insights.
Without further ado.
The Pre-World War Era, 86-124
There is an argument to be made that the World War era really began on Turn 86. This was the turn the OIAS Rocinante discovered the German invasion force and the Dave's OIA declared war on Singaboy's Germany. This war dec kicked off Germany's conquest of Norway, an event of earth shattering proportions that transformed the game from six games of solitaire into one global struggle. Indeed, when examining the game as a whole, this is the moment when the game radically changed. Up to this point, there had been fighting, but it had been lightning razings and raiding, with no concerted effort to destroy an opposing civilization. Singaboy's invasion of Germany changed all that.
I am not rigorously examining this period in this history for two salient reasons:
1. It's too much to cover well.
2. While it informs the period that follows, its fundamentally different. The wars fought before the World War era were relatively more limited affairs, and each one was significantly more lopsided than the World War.
With this in mind, I'm going to sum up the history of the game between turns 86 and 124 in a paragraph.
Singaboy declared war on Norway, taking advantage of his Great General and Japper007's focus on expansion to rapidly expand through conquest. His attack was wildly successful, taking all seven Norwegian cities and the city-state of Toronto at the cost of only three units. The Norwegians were aided economically by the OIA and Dave sent a small expeditionary force in addition to naval elements, but these were wholly insufficient to stop Norway's fall. Dave and Singaboy would continue to skirmish in western Norway and eastern Saturn until around t125. 28 turns later, on t114, Singaboy completed his conquest of Norway. However, his sudden ascendancy prompted Woden, Dave and Archduke to align together into an alliance versus Germany. During this period, Archduke had been quietly accumulating Great Admirals, building Quadriemes, and snapping up his city-state neighbors. Once he hit Square Rigging, and his NAP with Singaboy ran out, he attacked Germany. The results were brutal, not only did Archduke destroy the German navy, but he captured all four of Germany's coastal cities. Facing annihilation and irrelevance, Singaboy offered Archduke a grand bargain: All of Norway for the return of all of Germany.
It is here that we pick up our story.
The World War Era, t125-t175
Prelude to War - The Alliance Breaks Down
The deal caused considerable consternation in Ganymede. After many turns of planning and being able to do much more than skirmish with Singaboy, Dave was on the cusp of completing the Venetian Arsenal, a wonder that he hoped would keep him competitive in the end game. Ships had been pre-built in every city, and a grand campaign had been planned to take western Norway and conquer Spain. Additionally, there was another concern. The next Great Scientist, who Dave was set to get, was Charles Darwin. Darwin activated for 500 science per adjacent natural wonder, and with a 3 tile wonder outside the former Viking city of Jotunheim/Teeplantage, the small Norwegian hamlet had suddenly acquired great strategic importance.
The city, quite a bit earlier after its conquest by the Germans.
![[Image: G6UOSe7.png]](https://i.imgur.com/G6UOSe7.png)
Dave prevailed upon Archduke to share the spoils of the German campaign, prompting the following diplomatic exchange:
The nascent anti-Germany coalition died a fiery death, with the ties between England and the OIA severed. At this point, Archduke had come to see Dave as a major threat to win, due to his completion of the Venetian Arsenal. As such, he was not inclined to offer free cities. He additionally made plans to steal Darwin from Dave. For Dave's part, the hegemonic threat of Singaboy had been replaced in a flash by a power with a much stronger navy. If he was to continue in this game, he believed he believed he had to forge a new international balance of power.
Prelude to War - Backstabbing
The break down in relations between the OIA and England led Dave and Woden to seek a closer relationship with each other. Following the initial overtures in the diplo thread was a DoF, and alliance, and then increased trading. A bone of contention between the two powers up to this point had been the status of Jerusalem, a religious city-state between Brazil and the island of Neptune, whose suzerain was Dave. Dave initiated talks of a sale, ceding his strategic interest in the city for a lump sum of cash. However, the price he offered was too high for Woden, and so the deal remained stillborn. Still, this newfound partnership provided a potential counterbalance to the threat of Archduke, and as the game started back up after a long delay and peace came between the Germans and England, Dave believed this coalition would be the new foundation for the international balance of power going forward.
Then Turn 132 came.
Dave perceived this as a total betrayal, and one that fundamentally screwed his position in the game. Without Woden as a counter-balance, it now fell entirely to him to prevent Archduke from sewing up the game. From Woden's perspective, with DoFs now signed with both major world powers, he was assured a chance to reach Minas Geraeses, Brazils extremely strong UU unimpeded.
It was at this point that Singaboy realized he had taken a raw deal with theArchduke. While trading away Norway did get him his core back, it did nothing to prevent Archduke from coming back in 10 turns and conquering Germany again. There was not the time to build up a navy of his own, and Archduke's navy was still largely intact.
From the lurker thread:
With nobody else to turn to, Singaboy and Dave would begin pursuing closer relations in the near future. The former arch nemeses were made allies by necessity.
For the moment though, Dave was still seething against Woden, and plotted his revenge. With the Brazilian force of arms out of the picture, Dave decided he needed every advantage he could get to fight Archduke. If that included screwing over Woden, so be it. For his part, Woden tried to placate Dave by sharing locations of Archduke's units, and accepting Dave's price for Jerusalem. Dave pleaded with Woden for an advance on the payment to upgrade his caravels into ironclads, all the while setting up his ships around the contested city-state.
![[Image: QH2xCa-dX6iPvcB-3BxPPUPj5sS5dS9VwlWS73UI...jKWqFbSH8c]](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/QH2xCa-dX6iPvcB-3BxPPUPj5sS5dS9VwlWS73UIXJhJlg7-3uYPr1yJlzODde4aOJB9xZ0I8UPcVVrPOqswbCPecPEDjgiP2oNu3tL_8ZPxdqbIt0QmEO35xgq-BxjKWqFbSH8c)
From this point on, it would indeed be Axis and Allies, with Japan and Germany fighting Brazil and England. This counter-backstab ended all cooperation between Dave and Woden, and Woden began supplying information on Dave's fleet movements to Archduke.
Dave's DoF with Archduke was set to run out on t148, and Singaboy's peace treaty with him would run out 4 turns before that. The globe hurtled towards war, but the first compenent conflict of the World War had actually already been raging for some time.
Prelude to War - Spain
CFCJesterfool and Dave's relationship didn't get off to a very good start this game. When Dave saw an opportunity to raze a newly founded Spanish city, well....
![[Image: MjEUzglObsDO8pq0PYgVFsu4bMiitfAOJTbyekr7...cHtwgfjIcY]](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/MjEUzglObsDO8pq0PYgVFsu4bMiitfAOJTbyekr7rHPSH_mlth8rU3haU5monYnse50zLxwf_TrtgpmMWKBdWaERRrY7tzgSwn_gZ5SvRwq6h_16JHwFEE4yzdCy0VcHtwgfjIcY)
In subsequent turns, CFCJesterfool would refound the city and plot revenge upon the OIA. His plan was to assemble a task force of ground units to take Jerusalem and then move onto OIA holdings in The Belt.
Unfortunately, CFCJesterfool was behind on naval tech, a death sentence on this map. There was also another civ with a vested interest in Jerusalem.
The Caravel takes out the horseman and the Quadrireme attacks the catapult. The remaining horseman and catapult can make landfall next turn so they may be safe from my Caravels but the Quadrireme will get a free shot at the Catapult before it can fire back and should at least redline it.
The Spanish expeditionary force was completely eliminated by the combined firepower of the OIA and Brazilian navies. Meanwhile, Dave, though denied his conquests in Norway, had a massive fleet with nothing to do while waiting for his DoF with Archduke to run out. It was time to make good on the long-planned OIA plan to expand into the neighboring lands, taking city-states and Spanish holdings.
It was at this point that a decision needed to be made. Taking more Spanish cities would involve sending fleet elements south of the continent, far out of range to help protect Germany. However, leaving Spain alive would give tons of WW every turn, and mean the newly renamed cities of Triton and Nereid would be unproductive for quite some time.
It was time for a decision to be made. Would the OIA fleet sail to protect Germany? Or would Dave simply continue his conquest of Spain? Would Archduke and Singaboy work out a deal in the interim?
During the game, this post was used to maintain an account of all my alliances, DOFs, etc. In the post game, I want am turning it into a brief history of the global conflict that came to define the conclusion of this game. I think this conflict is really noteworthy in how back and forth it ended up being, and in how widespread it eventually became - consuming every independent polity on the board. I will attempt to be as non-partisan and objective as I can in this review, but this post will necessarily be colored by my own experiences of the game. I welcome critiques from other participants and observers, and additional tidbits of information, insights.
Without further ado.
The Pre-World War Era, 86-124
There is an argument to be made that the World War era really began on Turn 86. This was the turn the OIAS Rocinante discovered the German invasion force and the Dave's OIA declared war on Singaboy's Germany. This war dec kicked off Germany's conquest of Norway, an event of earth shattering proportions that transformed the game from six games of solitaire into one global struggle. Indeed, when examining the game as a whole, this is the moment when the game radically changed. Up to this point, there had been fighting, but it had been lightning razings and raiding, with no concerted effort to destroy an opposing civilization. Singaboy's invasion of Germany changed all that.
I am not rigorously examining this period in this history for two salient reasons:
1. It's too much to cover well.
2. While it informs the period that follows, its fundamentally different. The wars fought before the World War era were relatively more limited affairs, and each one was significantly more lopsided than the World War.
With this in mind, I'm going to sum up the history of the game between turns 86 and 124 in a paragraph.
Singaboy declared war on Norway, taking advantage of his Great General and Japper007's focus on expansion to rapidly expand through conquest. His attack was wildly successful, taking all seven Norwegian cities and the city-state of Toronto at the cost of only three units. The Norwegians were aided economically by the OIA and Dave sent a small expeditionary force in addition to naval elements, but these were wholly insufficient to stop Norway's fall. Dave and Singaboy would continue to skirmish in western Norway and eastern Saturn until around t125. 28 turns later, on t114, Singaboy completed his conquest of Norway. However, his sudden ascendancy prompted Woden, Dave and Archduke to align together into an alliance versus Germany. During this period, Archduke had been quietly accumulating Great Admirals, building Quadriemes, and snapping up his city-state neighbors. Once he hit Square Rigging, and his NAP with Singaboy ran out, he attacked Germany. The results were brutal, not only did Archduke destroy the German navy, but he captured all four of Germany's coastal cities. Facing annihilation and irrelevance, Singaboy offered Archduke a grand bargain: All of Norway for the return of all of Germany.
It is here that we pick up our story.
The World War Era, t125-t175
Prelude to War - The Alliance Breaks Down
The deal caused considerable consternation in Ganymede. After many turns of planning and being able to do much more than skirmish with Singaboy, Dave was on the cusp of completing the Venetian Arsenal, a wonder that he hoped would keep him competitive in the end game. Ships had been pre-built in every city, and a grand campaign had been planned to take western Norway and conquer Spain. Additionally, there was another concern. The next Great Scientist, who Dave was set to get, was Charles Darwin. Darwin activated for 500 science per adjacent natural wonder, and with a 3 tile wonder outside the former Viking city of Jotunheim/Teeplantage, the small Norwegian hamlet had suddenly acquired great strategic importance.
The city, quite a bit earlier after its conquest by the Germans.
Dave prevailed upon Archduke to share the spoils of the German campaign, prompting the following diplomatic exchange:
(October 4th, 2017, 23:00)oledavy Wrote: @Archduke
At this point, after fighting Singaboy for the last 40 turns, I have a vested interest in some of the Norwegian cities, I would like to have something to show for the war. Indeed, over the last few turns I have finally established provisional naval superiority in the region and am currently moving forces to take Toronto and Teeplantage. However, there is no way I can take them before you make peace with Singaboy and he cedes them to you. I am not happy at the prospect of having these cities change hands out from under me like this.
I will not deny you your conquests. But Teeplantage is a sticking point for me, especially considering it strategic location on the coastline. Indeed, half of my rationale for war with Singaboy was to deny a hostile power potential ports on my local sea. I will cede any claim or interest in Toronto, the bay area to the east of Saturn is yours to claim. I'm willing to negotiate on precise terms, but I would like Teeplantage. It's only a size 4 city, and it would mean a lot to me.
@Singaboy. If you are ceding Norway and making peace with the British, we no longer have any quibble. I am willing to make white peace pending resolution of the status of Teeplantage.
(October 5th, 2017, 06:18)TheArchduke Wrote: @ Singaboy thanks for keeping the norwegian possessions intact, I have stopped advancing or bombarding.
@ Oledavy The GS and the Natural Wonder combined with the Venetian Arsenal is a bit too much, apologies.
(October 5th, 2017, 08:30)oledavy Wrote:(October 5th, 2017, 06:18)TheArchduke Wrote: @ Oledavy The GS and the Natural Wonder combined with the Venetian Arsenal is a bit too much, apologies.
Says the player who just doubled his city count?
At any rate, I won't annoy you with meaningless platitudes or fake shock, we both know what we have to do from here on out.
For what its worth, I've sincerely enjoyed our partnership while it's lasted. Best of luck making your push to win, if anyone has earned it over the course of PBEM1, PBEM2, and PBEM4 for their improvement as a player, it's you.
(October 5th, 2017, 09:38)oledavy Wrote: @Woden, I would like to extend the offer of a defensive pact between our two civs until t158 inclusive. We don't have any competing interests at present, and I see no reason not to shore each other up.
If you are interested, I would also like to sign a DoF with you and sign an alliance. I believe we both have Civil Service.
The nascent anti-Germany coalition died a fiery death, with the ties between England and the OIA severed. At this point, Archduke had come to see Dave as a major threat to win, due to his completion of the Venetian Arsenal. As such, he was not inclined to offer free cities. He additionally made plans to steal Darwin from Dave. For Dave's part, the hegemonic threat of Singaboy had been replaced in a flash by a power with a much stronger navy. If he was to continue in this game, he believed he believed he had to forge a new international balance of power.
Prelude to War - Backstabbing
The break down in relations between the OIA and England led Dave and Woden to seek a closer relationship with each other. Following the initial overtures in the diplo thread was a DoF, and alliance, and then increased trading. A bone of contention between the two powers up to this point had been the status of Jerusalem, a religious city-state between Brazil and the island of Neptune, whose suzerain was Dave. Dave initiated talks of a sale, ceding his strategic interest in the city for a lump sum of cash. However, the price he offered was too high for Woden, and so the deal remained stillborn. Still, this newfound partnership provided a potential counterbalance to the threat of Archduke, and as the game started back up after a long delay and peace came between the Germans and England, Dave believed this coalition would be the new foundation for the international balance of power going forward.
Then Turn 132 came.
Quote:Woden Turns 132
If you look at the above screenshot, you can see someone has come offering a deal. I was expecting some resource deal or maybe Germany asking for friendship to secure his rebuilding effort but...
Nope, England wants an alliance. I can help and feel a little deja vu here. Last time I rejected a friendship from a major power in order to be on the wrong side of a war, my civilization quickly vanished. I have to give it to TheArchduke, props here for putting me in this situation. I don't know if he thought about this angle but it puts me in a pickle. On one hand, I could reject his offer and become his next target. If I accept, it is going to piss oledavy off to no end and I am pretty sure he will say this is the reason he loses if he loses. What to do, what to do? England is going to start pulling ahead and needs to be stopped or slowed down at least. I am fairly close to his core and would make a nice target. I don't think Japan would be much help if England did attack. For reasons more strategic then past performance. He will have a big front with England in the east and I could see him using the oppotunity to attack the Viking cities, not come defend me. Japan would probably gain the most from a war between TheArchduke and me.
After about 10 minutes of think about it, I decide to accept his offer. Better to survive a little longer and piss oledavy off then sign my own death warrant. I don't feel good about this decision (screwing oledavy) but I am not playing to help him win. I am playing to see if I can win. There are a few good things to come from this. I now know most of the map and the time my alliances end, I should have or be close to Nationalism. I think I can use this time to expand a little. I will need to if I am going to keep up. I will have to reassess my current strategy. The best option now might be to kick out 3 or 4 settlers before working on ant Wonders. I will need to think about that. Well, at least there should be some good posts to read in the near future. I wonder how long it will take oledavy to notice that I have an alliance with TheArchduke. I expect a nasty post in the diplo thread soon.
Quote:Singaboy
@oledavy, not sure how you see the Global situation, but the alliance I see isn't one that would make you happy...
You might want to think over your strategic partners
Quote:oledavy
Woden allied with Archduke.
![[Image: 3FRz3C5X_waVbqwu7G9AFU4oD9cEn2AUCqPjXRVi...YbNTiJGJ-p]](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/3FRz3C5X_waVbqwu7G9AFU4oD9cEn2AUCqPjXRViXfd5Cp5ZjnRDYySwI2KGELnNg2Z4XEse5qPI469uDKT8DQoSLUPiBjkM5VCSLSu_YKvjoSwRXNjhh8fomhxMMfYbNTiJGJ-p)
![[Image: lt3M7ZKlNwZuJFI_cizsMHc2aMmEbhwpD1Xzakmu...a2JzIHysIl]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/lt3M7ZKlNwZuJFI_cizsMHc2aMmEbhwpD1XzakmuPe8sBQ1ElEe-g0QNYkwNR0n14tdo77gmvy9DQh5Y47257msjDU-zHr3DGTIcz8efbQu8a90iwkRbD2EokCnQ49a2JzIHysIl)
![[Image: ygveuMoJUfglg_tp8J7GeoOLOA16d4b30HC5pyRL...vWo9F0Q4x8]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ygveuMoJUfglg_tp8J7GeoOLOA16d4b30HC5pyRLGjMQhEEsQStlkAxpDWkhgycp_uVCG0KvSjxUjJM1aj181-NPYjfQW20taOKHvnIL13ZZnwMtWQLOKRWojHXdkVvWo9F0Q4x8){kind=small}
Dave perceived this as a total betrayal, and one that fundamentally screwed his position in the game. Without Woden as a counter-balance, it now fell entirely to him to prevent Archduke from sewing up the game. From Woden's perspective, with DoFs now signed with both major world powers, he was assured a chance to reach Minas Geraeses, Brazils extremely strong UU unimpeded.
It was at this point that Singaboy realized he had taken a raw deal with theArchduke. While trading away Norway did get him his core back, it did nothing to prevent Archduke from coming back in 10 turns and conquering Germany again. There was not the time to build up a navy of his own, and Archduke's navy was still largely intact.
From the lurker thread:
Quote:Japper007
I love how evil Archduke played these negotiations, he has effectively gotten an entire core's worth of cities in trade for cities that he's just going to recapture when the peace deal runs out anyways! (just look at the last post in his thread, he's seen this as well) I don't think Singaboy is going to be able to rebuild enough to be able to stop Archduke from just bringing the same ships back over again, I think he would have actually been better of without this "peace" entirely
With nobody else to turn to, Singaboy and Dave would begin pursuing closer relations in the near future. The former arch nemeses were made allies by necessity.
For the moment though, Dave was still seething against Woden, and plotted his revenge. With the Brazilian force of arms out of the picture, Dave decided he needed every advantage he could get to fight Archduke. If that included screwing over Woden, so be it. For his part, Woden tried to placate Dave by sharing locations of Archduke's units, and accepting Dave's price for Jerusalem. Dave pleaded with Woden for an advance on the payment to upgrade his caravels into ironclads, all the while setting up his ships around the contested city-state.
Quote:oledavy
Turn 136
The knife has been plunged.
![[Image: c_L3tScs0GKYgrCzDqVVC-nQi-Ty3nk1yuu8Jd3N...1xtXy5rADQ]](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/c_L3tScs0GKYgrCzDqVVC-nQi-Ty3nk1yuu8Jd3NlkpwZgqMTlVWvRrUVbGAOUptnoJsWsElRft468xQSU_wUWGGfi2I16cFqAh6vAqccYt8ZVpl5B6RheZ3yZ2TWl1xtXy5rADQ)
Quote:Woden
No reason for your ships to be over that way, oledavy. If you are doing what I think you are doing, then it might be time to play Axis and Allies!
From this point on, it would indeed be Axis and Allies, with Japan and Germany fighting Brazil and England. This counter-backstab ended all cooperation between Dave and Woden, and Woden began supplying information on Dave's fleet movements to Archduke.
Dave's DoF with Archduke was set to run out on t148, and Singaboy's peace treaty with him would run out 4 turns before that. The globe hurtled towards war, but the first compenent conflict of the World War had actually already been raging for some time.
Prelude to War - Spain
CFCJesterfool and Dave's relationship didn't get off to a very good start this game. When Dave saw an opportunity to raze a newly founded Spanish city, well....
In subsequent turns, CFCJesterfool would refound the city and plot revenge upon the OIA. His plan was to assemble a task force of ground units to take Jerusalem and then move onto OIA holdings in The Belt.
Unfortunately, CFCJesterfool was behind on naval tech, a death sentence on this map. There was also another civ with a vested interest in Jerusalem.
Quote:Woden
Turn 116
One of my Caravel could reach Spain's injured horseman and I have a Quadrireme sitting next to Jerusalem, so...
The Caravel takes out the horseman and the Quadrireme attacks the catapult. The remaining horseman and catapult can make landfall next turn so they may be safe from my Caravels but the Quadrireme will get a free shot at the Catapult before it can fire back and should at least redline it.
The Spanish expeditionary force was completely eliminated by the combined firepower of the OIA and Brazilian navies. Meanwhile, Dave, though denied his conquests in Norway, had a massive fleet with nothing to do while waiting for his DoF with Archduke to run out. It was time to make good on the long-planned OIA plan to expand into the neighboring lands, taking city-states and Spanish holdings.
Quote:oledavy
Turn 130
First things first:
![[Image: 1K8daTyGvfoNfBsDWZ_AepXLKymKS50nESAxZlvY...u03dbnX8tw]](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/1K8daTyGvfoNfBsDWZ_AepXLKymKS50nESAxZlvYoyCElIiOWLniyMBjDM8h2Z94cq7WRKnrqQPl9exZZjKgWq5FHuSVD_dpU5-2JhK_JlRTdm6SvvV5kh8Nazfpz2u03dbnX8tw)
Quote:
This turn I kicked things off around La Venta, and declared war on the city-state.
![[Image: f9maaBh9IBl50Qan-pEzOmw33fOijfKUCbW1VXUM...IBpDJ52Ly6]](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/f9maaBh9IBl50Qan-pEzOmw33fOijfKUCbW1VXUMTVaCD4gNxvToRtO2hm0xNxpFGoWA4CTvRU0vaK3_Pnd-z8o4X_8wygTtBjPcdScfmmo-dZgAJTP8UKmlR6mmklIBpDJ52Ly6)
Quote:oledavy
Further east, I concluded the siege of De Soto, and sank CFCJesterfool's caravel.
![[Image: GKzjAchUNwWtThEEfYIzI8nzKbRoxAIVd6UFfVZk...vfVF2mLeTn]](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/GKzjAchUNwWtThEEfYIzI8nzKbRoxAIVd6UFfVZkAWy_gr8WkpfbNnnFupJUvYZlmiaJgDO9pLOWYmxPOdHo9-OrYQ1LtQgMc6pPkZxjIVn3I6yqOI1bFCyzKcO-HmvfVF2mLeTn)
Quote:oledavy
Turn 137
In the south, I added Hong Kong to the imperial fold.
![[Image: knWgRritAotpRwuy2tp8dgf9FAAPkutH7FB1kx6Q...a6X-ekLnvn]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/knWgRritAotpRwuy2tp8dgf9FAAPkutH7FB1kx6QvfWRlItUcNSEq-k-I4NaLEm3DuUuTbQ-TPjRkOEUGzL4CbDIH0ST-reQ2glCn4SePFjpXNAmPCuCHb9tRywXdGa6X-ekLnvn)
Quote:oledavy
Took Cordoba and renamed it Nereid.
![[Image: WBCPxNJJCJryvVvcgiMIEOtfquLcIMhAXsDIUYS6...CGEW7WJbGZ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/WBCPxNJJCJryvVvcgiMIEOtfquLcIMhAXsDIUYS6Kl6a-GiOpfp5FK4njtmNBluJCMbe1zF1cp-8q6u_JxhJlv_JwODMwD_TLrtCPyFx4xLKx_NywnoFOcqWOlZFjgCGEW7WJbGZ)
It was at this point that a decision needed to be made. Taking more Spanish cities would involve sending fleet elements south of the continent, far out of range to help protect Germany. However, leaving Spain alive would give tons of WW every turn, and mean the newly renamed cities of Triton and Nereid would be unproductive for quite some time.
It was time for a decision to be made. Would the OIA fleet sail to protect Germany? Or would Dave simply continue his conquest of Spain? Would Archduke and Singaboy work out a deal in the interim?
Welcome aboard, glad to have you!