[Spoilers] Suboptimal - Welcome to the Tlachtli of Blunders!

[suboptimal]

Damn that upgrade. Wow..

I was afraid of a crossbow bolt sink, one turn slower but not coming anywhere near rho´s forces would have worked.

Hmm, can you upload the save, I would love to look over your armies.

Seeing field cannons on his side, I fear that this once again devolves into a military stalemate for the attacker, so no attacking might be smarter.

Attacking Japper is probably of no use. Back to the drawing table. Damn you Geneva. Why did Rho have to have the BEST CS in the game alone in the tundra as Greece. I guess there is no chance in overtaking him in envoys over there.

I can get you the T145 save once I get home and play my turn around 5pm EDT (probably have the save ready closer to 6pm).  I'm definitely holding off on Xenocrates until I get vision on what's there from the spy.   Geneva, right now, is the key to this whole game.  With it rho21 keeps his science rate on par or ahead of mine and has foriegn trade routes for extra science, culture and gold.  I can maintain rough parity based upon sheer size and additional builder-powered Campus construction but would remain unable to break him.  Geneva is also powering a significant portion of Japper's science rate. 

The current envoy situation is Geneva is 12 for rho21, 6 for Japper and I have 6 as well, but they are useless.  Also keep in mind that Greece gets an envoy every time they build an Acropolis, which rho21 is actively building.  His culture rate is just under 80 as a result of those districts. 

Attacking Japper was a thought because he's been rapidly catching up in science and culture, though his gold is anemic (49 at +3 per turn right now).  I don't know that I could hold off two opponents at tech/culture parity. 

The only thing I can think of here would be to get a literal swarm of frigates and caravels ready, hoard cash, race for Darwin to plow through the tree up to Steel to unlock Battleships and try to go to town on the northern coast of Greece.  Use some to attack Geneva and the rest to attack anything Greek that showed up on land.  It's a desperation play but it's all I got until more rational heads prevail.

[suboptimal]

Turn 145

The spectacular failure at Geneva was a major blow to my mental state regarding this game.  However, this was not a game losing failure, it only prevented me from pulling ahead.  Kind of like an end-of-half Hail Mary pass that gets intercepted in the end zone – yeah, it sucks <insert rude metaphor here>, but how much damage did it really do to my situation?  It’s not like I’ve got Macedonia forces stampeding through my territory in a complete rout, I’m yelling at myself in traffic and Sulla is leaving me tactical dissertations in the lurker thread (yet).   If anything, rho21s vigorous defense of Geneva confirmed my suspicions about the situation so I can’t necessarily abandon the idea, either.  The other outcome of this is that I can’t recall ever seeing an AI rebuild damaged walls.  That could help with any future assaults if that turns out to be the case.

So, let’s carry on and see what happens in a few turns when the spy settles in at Xenocrates.  

In the north the frigate and straggling caravel are dead.  The siege engine and remaining caravel can make good on their escape.  Down at the Cant/Near front I fortify everyone in position, except for the Great General (who moves to the Encampment) and the builder (who moves out to the jungle).  The builder reveals:




More importantly, note the bonus to the musketman – Defender of the Faith.  Yeah, no military offensive here or in the near future.  Not without some sort of massive tech lead.  I suppose I could be an ass and take out the Encampment with my bombards for the sheer fun of it, but that won’t do much (he could just rebuild).  Welcome to the Occupation is at -3 war weariness and because rho21 only lost one unit he’s not going to be suffering much of anything.  Looks like the objective is now going to be maintain a stalemate unless/until I can come up with some way to raze Geneva or we grow tired of the situation.  Alternatively, mow down Japper to his capital and then sit on top of it and hold tight.

Oh yeah, that field cannon also has a +8 support bonus, so there’s a crap tonne of units behind it.  We’ll see those in a few turns once the spy settles in.

In other news a barbarian camp has spawned four tiles NE of Oddfellows, right on the coast.  My archer shoots the scout, redlining it. 

Archduke, here’s the save.

[suboptimal]

Turn 146

Right.  Another turn spent building.  The focus now will be to secure the west coast from a seaborne incursion while maintaining the front line in the east.  The weak point right now is the northern end of that line where it’s only knights.  

I have a notification that a field cannon was destroyed by a field cannon.  His field cannon is in the Encampment.  What happened?  A misclick put my field cannon into the jungle on the river last turn instead of behind it.  Must have happened when the unit got auto-selected and I tried to scroll the map while it was still selected.    How do I know this?  My EoT 145 save, when the unit is selected, shows a path going up to the coast in the direction of where my caravel was.  And yes, the Greek field cannon one-shotted it while it was in difficult terrain.

Builder at Near clears the jungle. That finishes the Campus project and gets me four turns closer to Darwin (16 turns now).  I start a new project for lack of a better thing to do with 9.4.   I upgrade the remaining crossbow at Near to a field cannon.  With the field cannon in the Encampment I can’t use the bombards to take down the district’s walls in one turn.  The bombards would get eaten alive as well.  That field cannon is something like 80+ on attack.  

Archer and city attack kill the spearman who’s left his camp.  Archer will have to go over there to clear it.  How starts another Campus project, due in 6 turns.  

As I see it there are currently two paths to take, both involve getting to Steel ASAP:

1) Get to Steel for the boosted city defenses and if rho21 has shown no sign of offensive action, offer a draw.
2) Build a bunch of frigates (5-6), get to Steel for boosted city defenses, upgrade to Battleships, try to take out Perseus and then try to take out Geneva.  Upon failure, offer a draw.  

Taking out Perseus is a must in order to get to Geneva.  I looked back at my EoT saves – rho21 took DotF on his Turn 142 and then killed a frigate with the +10 boost.  Eliminating Perseus removes DotF territory from the coastline, allowing me a bit more of a chance to get through.

[Cornflakes]

Offer a draw so soon? There’s still much of the late game yet to be reached! Why not try for a victory condition? (Says a lurker who’s not playing the turns)

[Cornflakes]

Thanks for your excellent reporting by the way, I’ve really enjoyed following this game!

[suboptimal]

Offer a draw so soon? There’s still much of the late game yet to be reached! Why not try for a victory condition? (Says a lurker who’s not playing the turns)

I think that's just a factor of my mindset post-Geneva.  I'll recover and figure out something.  Maybe we'll see some nukes.     oooh...new objective, perhaps?

Thanks for your excellent reporting by the way, I’ve really enjoyed following this game!

Thanks!  It seems to have been quiet both in this PBEM and some of the others in terms of lurkers.  I think CMF's and Singaboy's posts earlier today were the first there in a week or so.  Hopefully at some point we can provide some excitement.

[TheArchduke]

The lurkers are always around. I check the save (thanks) in 2 hours. You are in a excellent position to win this. Still.

[Singaboy]

Thanks for reporting. Nice game to follow for a lurker, really. keep it up

[TheArchduke]

First of all, no panic. You are still at an advantage, though granted, rho has done an excellent job of keeping pace with you.

But. Even with Geneva! he has 116 science to your 128. Your culture and gold rates are on par. His military is NOWHERE near able to take you on your terrain.

So first of, do not panic.

Secondly. I do not see a possible way to win this militarilly for quite some time. But neither does he. Your luxury military bonus prevents that.

First off, you need to secure Darwin. That guy means 2000! science for you. 2 projects are running which is good.

Second off, you need to switch to full infrastructure mode, maybe build some ships and chop them out for protection purposes but that is it.


Begin the Begin? Campus.
Horse to Water? Encampment east of it on the river to protect your southern flank.
Find the River? Campus or Industrial Zone.
Underneath the Bunker? Needs builder love for mines, encampment and walls.
Frequency Kenneth? Industrial Zone.

And so on.

A lot of cities are working unimproved tiles.

Harborcoat is especially maddening. Although forced by the terrain.

There are still city sites to cover, may it be NE of Oddfellow on the coast. There is also a barbcamp there.

East of Begin the Begin 2 cities await founding.

High Speed train is wasting its time with a cannon, build an aqueduct and mines.

You need to slip back into your builder mind set.

I am on the fence: 30%

At the same time I would move your armies except 6 Knights and 4 crossbows down to Begin the Begin and flank Japper. He is no match for your luxuries and you could bring Rho to panic. I doubt Japper will switch sides.

70%

Just dig in and build away.

You got more land by far and Rho is just hanging on thanks to Geneva.


My suggestion:

Settle 4 more cities. Dig in and go full builder. You got plenty of space to settle and stuff to chop still.
The Terracotta Army is an excellent idea more of ways of denial then actual use.

Try to get 3-4 more ships out before it is completed.

This is still your game to win and loose. And I do not want to hear any more defatist talk of a draw or the party will be shot on sight!

[suboptimal]

Thanks for reporting. Nice game to follow for a lurker, really. keep it up

Thanks....I'll claw my way back and drop a 4000 word post on you all at some point.  . 

I am starting to see the beginnings of what you guys in PBEM 7 saw with regards to chops and production costs and it's going to be interesting to deal with.  Already I've got a couple low-production cities that are in the useless gap - Near Wild Heaven, for example, is doing Campus projects because it's all the city's production can really handle.  OTOH, each time I get a tech or civic at this point I practically add a turn to the completion time.