Das Boot (directed by Wolfgang Petersen and Singaboy)

[Singaboy]

Turn 118:

Archduke's military power is almost equal to mine (mine 800+, his 750). But, as I had the advantage of a GG, he has a GA in tow and will rip me easily apart. In fact, he has 2 GA and an armada. Not sure how to counter that at all.

Well, I play my own mini game and try to take Toronto. Below is the situation upon declaring war. Toronto has two archers in the Ocean, both blocking my caravels. That is unfortunate, as I wanted to attack Toronto with one caravel.
Notice oledavy's lone settler. If I can take Toronto, I could hop over to attack him there.




I attack Toronto with the knight and it takes the city walls down in one swift attack!. That is crucial as not to get under to much crossfire. I move horsemen in place to maximize flanking bonuses. One horseman attacks the sword and take away more than 50% of its health. Then both caravels sink each archer. The nice thing is, the southern caravel earns itself a promotion, the all important +7 strength versus navy.

The situation at the end of the turn:

Next turn I am able to attack the city with the knight, a crossbow, a caravel and a horseman. It depends now what units the sword and crossbow attack. It might take 2 turns to take the city completely.

Finally, a picture of my northern front 2 turns before Archduke will rip me apart. I am a little surprised that he has a trader right in my path. I have 5 caravels there and a frigate. I am not sure whether he will aim at Zitronenhain or head over to my new holdings. Hence, I need to keep my navy a little divided, which is less than ideal. Next turn, guilds will come online and with it, a boost in production. I will try and show the difference in my Hansa production before and after. Currently, frigates will be added on T123 (one) and T125 (two). Not too sure whether this is too little and too late.

[Singaboy]

Turn 119:

People most likely felt I was putting up some drama show when posting what I posted. You will soon be the witness of a major meltdown of my empire! mark my words. This is Archduke's armada, 5 frigates, 3 caravels and 2 Great Admirals. He is having strength values that are +15 of mine and you all know what that means. He will rip my navy apart and then pick my cities one by one. It is just a matter of time.

I meant what I said when I told Woden that he is a fool to align himself with them. Once Archduke has eaten me, he will go after Woden. I actually hope Archduke will win this game as I think his play is a lot more honest than oledavy's whine and conquer style. If oledavy gets the Arsenal, he owns a piece of building that should be banned outright in RB MP games. It's at the level of getting double horse archers etc for Tomrys.




The situation at Toronto, it apparently suicided its sword there and shot at my horseman. Perfect. oledavy starts to get concerned and send over his two caravels. 



Well, the city doesn't stand a chance as I attack with crossbowman, the knight, a caravel and finally the horseman. In between I used another horseman to attack the crossbow merely to get enough exp for a promotion. My southern caravel then blocks the Straits and promotes +7 strength. oledavy can attack me there this turn but not defeat me.



I select Theology as I would want to go for monarchy to enable the card for production bonus for knights and cavalry later on. And of course, I change one policy, that ios to change Professional Army for Craftsmen:

The result is a doubling of my Hansa production with best results for Kiel, Salz am Meer, Aachen and Weinberg. Aachen now makes 40 hammers towards district buildings thanks to Buenos Aires too. It starts an aqueduct before building a barracks and armory so I can reach niter and musketmen next (of course this is all theoretical talk as I won't be able to hold Archduke off)

I wonder what will be left of my navy next turn. The result of Craftsmen is that all three frigates shed a turn on their completion. Weinberg will finish another crossbow with an overflow of 25 hammers.

[Singaboy]

Turn 120:

I feel I owe it to the lurkers here, but this is a good example how to lose interest in a game within 10 turns. It started with oledavy's rubbish about me being so superior and Woden being completely ignorant of the looming danger for himself.

I realized too late what a nightmare Great Admirals are combined with frigates. It's all my own mistake to indulge in a land war against Japper. I should have hit Archduke instead, which is easily said in hindsight. Well, the game is over for me in a competitive sense. There is simply mo way to stem this tide with three running against me, the supposed leader of the game.

Think, I exaggerated? No way! Zitronenhain will be gone next turn and Archduke's navy hasn't even been scratched at all. My two caravels simply evaporated. He will move on to Kiel and once that city falls, all the nice district adjecancies are gone. The rest is a matter of time. I had thought that city walls would pose some resistance but naval power is completely out of whack in this game.
Not only can the navy roam around freely without the ridiculous movement penalties we have to deal with in civ 6. Frigates are like cavalry with a battering ram in tow. Have they actually tested this before? I am too green here and get punished badly and deservedly. In fact, a naval game is completely imbalanced as you can really defend against it.
In PBEM2, I could use the city walls and cam defense to have some zonal defense, but here, city walls are meaningless.



Now, who started all this nonsense about my power? oledavy. Hence, I am going to try and be a PITA for him, no matter what. His military power is still very low, so why not raze a few of his cities for fun?

Let's see how far I get with that.

[MJW (ya that one)]

I think people don't care about navy because SP is easy enough anyway and most MP isn't played on handcrafted maps. This forces all games to be Pangea because otherwise you get isolation--with that and broken starts this game spits out sometimes it would give out too many free wins. Navy is much weaker on Pangea because you cannot capture cities with it because no-one settles on the cost (this is very true with the harbor district available and weak water tiles).

[Singaboy]

I am sure there are many lurkers who think I am exaggerating and not putting up a good fight. You try yourself against two GA which give an added +10 in strength and can just shred any city defense apart + navy that isn't superior in huge numbers

[Singaboy]

@MJW,

you are right. Looking at PBEM2 and this one, there is something about Great Generals and Great Admirals that make them way OP. I could take Japper's land based on the fact that I had a GG powered horse army. Without it, it would have been really tough. In PBEM2, Archduke eliminated Frankfurt easily with his GG power. Alhambram could obliterate Woden with his GG powered cavalry. Archduke can rule the seas now at will with two GA.

Take other Great People. E.g. I got this useless Great Engineer, that gave me a free Eureka for Printing Press (+ additional district which again is pretty useless). Utterly imbalanced.

Maybe, it's time to bury this game all together since the SP experience is totally out for me too.

[Singaboy]

No screenshots as it's pretty demotivating when you know there is only one way to go in the game which is either an also ran or out completely. Nothing to do with sour grapes.

But, as said before, me core Island will be history in around 3-5 turns. Archduke is most likely sailing around the Island until he finds Zuckerstadt which will be equally overpowered. A city with a defense of 50 is simply no match against an armada that will have plenty of strength 70 frigates. (remember he can shoot at Zuckerstadt from the northern shore too with his distance 2 frigate shots).

He can one shot kill my crossbows at will and since the Island is narrow, there is really no place that is safe for any of my units. There is a tiny stretch between Aachen and Weinberg. I guess after taking Zuckerstadt and Salz am Meer, he will find that Aachen and Weinberg can't be assaulted by sea easily. I have parked each a crossbow in Aachen and Weinberg and am building knights now (in two turns I will get the production bonus for knights). I can teleport my GG any time to Aachen to either defend or mount an offensive against Kiel or Salz am Meer. As long as Archduke has no land forces there, this is still an option.

I have sent my navy along the southern coast of Norway to support my defense there against oledavy. There is no points to field a few caravels and a lone frigate against Archduke as he has superior movement (stacks with two GA to 7) and superior force and can simply kill any fleet of my size.

At Toronto, I read the situation correctly, that oledavy is amassing units there and retreated my horsemen and crossbow back to Norway. I will have to fight a land war there. Toronto and former Jotunheim are most vulnerable as they are coastal. I might use my sneaker navy of 3 caravels and 1 frigate to attack opportunistically.

[Singaboy]

Lurkers:
So, Singaboy, tell us, how is it going? You have been unusually quiet lately.

Singaboy:
It's beautiful, just awesome. The great nation of Germany has been putting up a tremendous fight. England is shivering down its spine. I mean, look at them. They could only take 50% of our core cities, all within 1 turn of an attack. They call that a victory. Losers. Should watch me play golf on my holiday resort at Weinberg. Spectacular. And it got so many pretty girls there, too.

Lurkers:
Aren't you concerned that science, culture and production output have suffered a lot recently?

Singaboy:
I don't know what you guys are talking about. Fake news, I tell you. All fake. Do not believe the fake news. Fake news fabricated by Japan. The truth is the opposite. Masses of people cheering on my leadership. We're the greatest nation on earth.

[MJW (ya that one)]

Lurkers:
So, Singaboy, tell us, how is it going? You have been unusually quiet lately.

Singaboy:
It's beautiful, just awesome. The great nation of Germany has been putting up a tremendous fight. England is shivering down its spine. I mean, look at them. They could only take 50% of our core cities, all within 1 turn of an attack. They call that a victory. Losers. Should watch me play golf on my holiday resort at Weinberg. Spectacular. And it got so many pretty girls there, too.

Lurkers:
Aren't you concerned that science, culture and production output have suffered a lot recently?

Singaboy:
I don't know what you guys are talking about. Fake news, I tell you. All fake. Do not believe the fake news. Fake news fabricated by Japan. The truth is the opposite. Masses of people cheering on my leadership. We're the greatest nation on earth.

[Singaboy]

Let's make Germany great again and got those U-Boots to terrorize the earth.

With this unexpected shift, I have three turns left to get anything useful out of Norway (military, builders etc). In my core with a mere two cities currently, I will produce settlers and build the cities that I had planned to build a long time ago. There is no time to waste now.

I have a fleet of 3 caravels and 2 frigates in the FoW which have been sailing west secretly. I had planned to attack an outlier city of oledavy (if there is one without walls etc). However, due to the DP that oledavy and Woden have with Archduke, that is off the table.

I could attack one of the city states though as they are not part of the treaty. It does seem that Jerusalem is of high stakes for both of them. If I can secure a DP with Archduke, it would be a very opportunistic strike that would put both oledavy and Woden into a difficult position to take Jerusalem back from me.