[SPOILERS] Dark Savant leads the noble Inca as half-noble Churchiill

[Dark Savant]

I won't have time to log in this morning, have to play after work.

I was counting on 's other neighbors to tie down enough of his forces so he couldn't make serious inroads in my territory.  I don't know how true that actually is -- if he captured and not razed that means he thinks he can hold onto what he's claimed.

My knights all have three promotions at least, so they have a reasonable chance of getting odds, but it's numbers I'm concerned about.

[Dark Savant]

t180:

Been both busy with real life and focusing on the game more than reporting now -- sorry for the lack of reporting, there's been a ton of action!

captured both border cities on the first turn of the war, and has tried to advance with stacks of 30-40 cuirassiers twice.  I beat the first back, losing many catapults and knights in the process.  The second one tried advancing on The Twins just last turn, and I again hit it with a bunch of catapults and knights.  The Twins are now garrisoned strongly enough that it should endure, since all the advancing cuirassiers are at least ~25% damaged.

More importantly,  wetbandit declared war on   just this turn!  I was expecting him to declare on me, because I saw his cuirassier stack near moving towards me.  It no longer is; I'm not sure where it went, but it's not attacking me soon.

Last turn, my 2nd golden age ended, and I got a Great Merchant out of Winterfell for a 3rd golden age, which I promptly fired.

I swapped to Slavery/Vassalage.  I had enough of a respite that I completed the Spiral Minaret -- that will pay off in musket-to-rifle upgrades at the very least.

I get Rifling next turn, at a significant surplus, which I reserve to right to burn on musket-to-rifle upgrades.  It'll take me a while to reach any of Military Tradition, Steel, or Military Science even with a Golden Age.

I'll hold this attack off after all, I think.

  WilliamLP and Yuri are still holding out in their last bastions of defiance.  They've kind of been forgotten, what with major wars breaking out elsewhere. 

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Way to hang in there. It can be tough being on the wrong end of an invasion. You can even continue the GoT role play. Make them pay the iron price. At least wetbandit is cooperating. Any idea what his war aims may be? What are your next moves? How can you rid your land of the invader and make him regret ever being born?

[Dark Savant]

Way to hang in there. It can be tough being on the wrong end of an invasion. You can even continue the GoT role play. Make them pay the iron price. At least wetbandit is cooperating. Any idea what his war aims may be? What are your next moves? How can you rid your land of the invader and make him regret ever being born?

I'm not certain wetbandit actually is being cooperative, and I don't actually know what he's up to -- but if he were going to invade me, he would have already done so.  He can see that I'll have Rifling next turn, and wouldn't have waited like this.

I'll probably get cavalry next.  I'll be able to get those before can have units capable of defending against them.  It'll take significantly longer to get cannons or grenadiers.

I don't see anything other than the simple explanation -- the best target is the one that doesn't have rifles and can't get them soon.

[Dark Savant]

t181-182:

tried to offer a straight-up peace treaty.  Not seeing the point (I'm about to get rifles, and cavalry are on the planning horizon), I turned that down.

Rifling came in on turn 181.  A pile of muskets got upgraded to rifles.  (It's relatively cheap in RtR, since this is the point where research costs start to dramatically escalate, making the opportunity cost of upgrading much lower.)

Okay, it turns out that wasn't a real declaration of war between and wetbandit, and at least the first wasn't a war-peace, because now they've declared war and made peace twice in two turns.   

Well, I have rifles in White Harbor now plus a couple turns' advance warning.  wetbandit looks like he's instead going to try to actually finish of WilliamLP and his 40+ units in his last city.

pulled his units out of Castle Black on turn 182 and retreated into his former border city, just before I could start besieging it with rifles and catapults.  I wish I could say I planned this, but I had left a forest right next to the city that was still under my cultural control, so there's no way could have reasonably counterattacked right out of the city into my besieging stack (he'd be trying to attack rifles in a forest, with muskets and cuirassiers), and any of my units could even go back to either Casterly Rock or The Twins on demand. 

So I just walked into Castle Black with about a dozen rifles and assorted other units.  It's actually in revolt for three turns.  I couldn't retake The Dreadfort (the other city on the border) on turn 182, and probably also not until Castle Black comes out of revolt, because can hit it even with 1-move units.  I have enough rifles already to deal with 30-40 cuirassiers, but not if I split up the stack.  (Twelve rifles is enough even this outnumbered, because most of the cuirassiers are still injured from my catapult attack, and by the time they heal, I'll have more rifles and catapults on hand.)

superdeath declared war on , and it's very much a hot war.  One city fell on turn 182, and three on turn 183 (the current turn, which I haven't had a chance to get to yet.)

I should have Nationalism in when I start to play turn 183.  Music should take 1 turn, Military Tradition should take 2, so I can start building knights imminently and produce-upgrade a bunch on turn 186.

[Dark Savant]

t183-185:

Rifling has stabilized the border.  I don't yet have enough rifles to advance, or safely retake The Dreadfort, but that shouldn't take too long to happen with superior military technology and while is also fighting a hot war with superdeath. 

A scouting chariot moves to check out the mess near /wetbandit/Yuri/superdeath.  On turn 184, it finds that 's advance city there is ungarrisonedf, so I raze it.



I then discover that Yuri had units in place to retake it imminently!  Sorry Yuri, I wouldn't have done that if I knew you were about to do that.

Yuri actually has space to breathe and rebuild a little bit.  All of wetbandit's forces -- about 50 cuirassiers -- are off besieging WilliamLP's final city.  It's an important one, since it has the Buddhist shrine.

Here's the current situation at the border.



Castle Black is finally secure again, since it's come out of revolt and has its 60% defense bonus back.  That happened because actually culture-bombed the city.  Waste of a Great Artist, I have enough culture that it didn't claim a single tile, I think.

That's three dozen cuirassiers.   probably knows I'm much more willing to sign a peace treaty if he withdraws all his forces from the cities he's taken.  However, aside from my probably going to target him anyway, that's both too many cuirassiers to consider as peaceful, but also not enough to be intimidating.

I don't think I can change targets to wetbandit; his cuirassier stack is larger, and he can get Rifling in a few turns.  JR4 might also be a possibility, but he has the highest power in the game and also already has rifles.  Both also have Astronomy, which would also be a serious problem in a real war.  JR4 is most likely to win -- I think my best chance to catch up is to take land from in time for that to matter. 

cannot get either rifles or Astronomy soon, and he's also already at war with superdeath.  superdeath fell back from his farthest captured city, but from what I can see, he can hold onto everything else.  , in fact, spent a lot of effort researching Constitution.  I have no idea what he thinks that was going to accomplish.  He still does not even have Printing Press or Astronomy.

I'm also not sure whether it's best to try to crack 's border city with superior military technology and all the units I can focus on him, or research Astronomy (which I can do in about 4 turns after Military Tradition, due next turn) and build ships to go on capturing expeditions, since I know most of 's port cities are lightly garrisoned.  Capturing, not razing, because will have a hard time killing even a handful of City Garrison III rifles. 

In fact, I'm going to put two of my first cavalry on a galley, and drop them off at 's nearby mainland city, which has just one musket.  That's not that far from the -superdeath action, which should help superdeath in his war.

JR4 and wetbandit just war-peaced.  I'm wondering if JR4 is going to join the party here.  I have scouts watching out for units of his approaching; we still have Open Borders.  (I did cancel the 25gpt-for-Stone deal.  I'm now buying Stone at a lower price from superdeath.)

superdeath has Chemistry now.  He must be on his way to Steel or Military Science; I can't see which, he's actually spending on espionage.  JR4 has Steam Engine due in 4 turns.  wetbandit is on Rifling.

I whipped a bunch of cities and I'll have horse units again next turn, this time cavalry.  (Yeah, all my knights died.)  Once I have a reasonable stack of cavalry and 35+ rifles, or alternatively galleons, I can go on the offensive here.

[Dark Savant]

Wow, I did the math and the typical City Garrison III rifle with a +60% cultural bonus can kill about FOUR cuirassiers before actually dying.  I thought sheer numbers might win the day for , but he doesn't actually have anywhere near enough for that now, even if I advance with half my rifles.

He can kill a dozen rifles if I advance just that many, though, which is about the number I can safely move out of Castle Black.

[Dark Savant]

t186-188:

Cavalry are being produced and are heading towards the border.

is taking 2 turns of anarchy to revolt to Nationalism/Slavery/Theocracy, which is a way of saying "I'm in survival mode".

I have about enough forces to crack 's border city now -- if he doesn't a reserve hiding just out of sight.  That's a little too dangerous for me to risk such a large assault force; it's not overwhelming enough for me to advance.  Instead, I researched Compass and Optics in 1 turn each, and as it happens, I can also get Astronomy in one turn! 

And just this turn I captured one of 's cities with a single-galley assault force .  Captured, not razed; I was able to get two City Garrison III rifles in there this turn.

Let's see how he deals with multiple galleons.

Yuri actually recaptured the replacement city for his capital.  He'll probably be back to 4 cities soon, as no one is interested in attacking him in the near future.

superdeath re-took a city he had captured from and had gotten recaptured.  He's now advancing with a modest stack of rifles, knights, and catapults -- it's tiny compared to the stack I have massed on 's border.  I have a chariot tagging along -- it's coming up against a stack of mostly cuirassiers.

wetbandit is focusing hard on capturing WilliamLP's last city.  He's got about 60 cuirassiers there now.

[Dark Savant]

t189-192:

I got Astronomy and built or upgraded to some galleons; so far, just two on each front.  I took a couple extra turns to do so just out of sight of .

He apparently wasn't expecting galleons to come out of the fog.



Each of those cities was garrisoned by one archer, plus a just-produced catapult in Masotsheni.

Next turn, I can load the two galleons with more units (yeah, I need more galleons) and fork Emangwini and Ondini.  

I can also now see 's catapult stack to the west of his border city.  I could plow through all of that, I think, but it'll be a bloody mess, and it's easier to just go around.

The force to the north did not take Khangela:



I could have captured it, but that is in range of 's large stacks, so I moved instead into forking distance of multiple cities.  Those galleons have Navigation II, incidentally.

I also am just about to get enough EP into to start to get city visibility.  superdeath is also advancing on 's next city in the south he had captured from Yuri; at this rate, and wetbandit will no longer have a border on the mainland (they'll still share one of the islands).

Oh, I also researched Chemistry in 2 turns.  That's the last technology that multiple other rivals have; I am now only down Constitution (to , who is still a ways from getting even Printing Press) and Steam Power (to JR4).  I'm saving gold now, but I can start research into Steel at 100% science next turn.  (JR4 is currently researching that.)

Golden Age #3 is finally over.  I used the last turn to revolt to Nationhood, and I'm now drafting 3 rifles every turn; I'm working plenty of coast tiles so this isn't much of a hit to my economy.  With the war with disrupting my Great Person plans, it'll take quite a long time to generate 4 Great People for GA #4 -- odds are, this game will be decisively decided before that happens.

JR4 just fired his own Golden Age, and is using it to play peaceful builder.  He's got the #1 power score to back it up (I'm now #2), and is still most likely to win.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

JR4 just fired his own Golden Age, and is using it to play peaceful builder.  He's got the #1 power score to back it up (I'm now #2), and is still most likely to win.

What can you do about above? What's the plan to win?