[pb40 spoiler] Götterdämmerung: Destruction Is The Masses' Entertainment

[OT4E]

I think hitting super will be a mistake. Neither of Charriu and MSci are reliable parthners. Charriu will allways desire Schilda like Gorlum desired the Ring. MSci is annoyed with us and will be happy to hit us from behind.

I think you need to pick one of them. Both options have some disadvantages but both are doable. However they require different preparations so you have to decide soon.

[Elkad]

T152
Things are afoot. How to take advantage of them?

Charriu declares on RFS
This is what he pushed in (plus a shock chariot on the hill)
Note that many of them are CG promoted, indication they are units I saw a few turns ago at Forza.



RFS defenders. Too many for Charriu to kill in a single turn, but nothing to counterattack, so he can likely take his time absent outside interference.



What he left in Forza. A few named units are not accounted for, so he still has some sort of reserve, but his power graph is flat the last couple turns.



Attack force my sentry horse just spotted in shallow's land. I need to watch this.



Attack force in Super's land, plus a great merchant, and there is a longbow marked, which is moving towards Hulk.



I'd like to hit Forza while his force is away.

I'd also like to stab his force in the back (7 praets and a catapult behind NotRome - and I have OB with RFS to use his roads), assuming I can catch it wounded, but I'm concerned about shallow hitting NotRome, or worse Antium, if I do. Charrui's chariot on the hill is a problem right now (combined with the lake) for visibility. Only way around it's view is to move my stack right up to shallow's border, which will look terrible.
I expect his stack to move to the sheep tile next, but not sure.

I want to trust Super. I'm itchy about it though.

[Elkad]

T152 part 2.
Repeat of prior image.



My NW stack shifts a couple tiles south. They can still beat Magic to Nobis if needed.

My SW stack moves to the 152 spot (7praet, 1 catapult). Also cancelled and reoffered crab/crab to shallow to show my intentions.
NotRome hits 100 culture on T154, before Charriu can possibly take RFS's capital, so when it goes I'm assured to have 3 tiles of defense depth.

Main stack at Schlida remains out of view as well. (of everyone but super anyway).
Pony stack remains central, it can catch up with any of my stacks at need.

Builds. Some courthouses have to wait.


Rungholt spear is for Portu.
Portu will whip it's spear into a 2nd one probably.
Yes, I know praets are almost as good as spears vs ponies. This is thin defense, I want the edge and the small savings on shields. Plus it looks less aggressive. And they can become pikes at need in a few turns.

[Elkad]

Note to self.
Forgot to check Charriu's gold reserve. Don't want him rushing archers in Forza to xbows.

[OT4E]

I doubt this force can actually take RFS cap. Even if he does spoiling his plans is so easy.

Next chance to take Forza imho is to rush Engineering and hit it from the darkness. Howerver Charriu might have spies there.

Otherwise hitting attacking chokonus with praets can become the worst possible thing we can do.

I would consider attacking Lighthouse. This is the most important city we can dream of.

I doubt we can rely on shallow_thought. Expect any worst scenario from him.

[Elkad]

T159
WAR!
Engineering is in (squeaked out by building research or wealth in EVERY city for a turn).
My courthouse-enhanced EPs have all been on Charriu for a couple turns to block him from seeing my research timer (he knew I was on Eng, but I shaved a couple turns off it)
Even more of my army was behind Schilda than my last planned attack, and this time he couldn't see it coming.







Charriu's defenders.



I sent all 6 catapults.  First one got his top defender to half, an excellent result.



The other 5 did less well, but they got the work done.  None of them retreated successfully, so I have no siege at all right now.
First sword (C1/Cover1) went in at 67%.  And won.



And then my next 9 swords, at ever increasing odds, won every single battle.  Only the last battle was over 90% - at 99% unpromoted.  So he razed the city for 155gold, took his promotion after to heal.  Pushed a sentry horse on top of that sword, got a couple more tiles of visibility, but nothing useful.  Only counterattack force visible is a single chokunu.

Over in RFS territory.
Charriu took a turn to heal I think.




RFS defenders  Oops, this is Charriu's Liquid Flame troops.




I spent over an hour paused staring at the map after that.  Do I punch into his core with 40 units driving for his capital?  Do I sweep east and fight superdeath for those cities?  Do I go for Liquid Flame?
What will superdeath do?
What will shallow_thought do?  He has a big army on RFS's western border.  It's pinned up against the sea, but it's still only 2 turns from my cities for his horses, 3 for his siege.

Finally I took the safer option.  The 2/3rds of my army that didn't attack ran west.  It's on the desert iron at Malepartus.
I'm stuck in caste for a couple more turns, so I felt I had to do it.
My mounted flex force I actually misclicked to above the lake past that.  Oh well.

From here I have more flexibility.
Option one, drive at Liquid Flame, taking the eastern path around the lake.
Option two, move into the corner of RFS territory.  If Charriu's army retreats 99 to get back on his roads, I'm in position to catch it on flat ground.  I'd still be smashing swords into crossbows, but it's the best odds I'll have until I can build more siege.  They are hurt and mostly CG promoted.  If they stop to heal, I beat them to Liquid Flame.
Option three, run to defend NotRome from shallow

Build queues.  Note that my western cities are all building a castle.  Cash upgraded one spear to a pike at NotRome.

[OT4E]

Cool! Congrats with Forza! Courva would be happy

I also think it is not time to go all in. Play it safe and seek for opportunities. Liquid flame is good city but not at cost of security of what is already achieved.

[Elkad]

T160 - I went for option one, pushing on Liquid Flame last turn. Shallow offered me an iron/iron, that was enough reassurance I went for it.

I could have beat his retreating army to LF, and if I burned it, RFS's culture would have popped out another tile and let me escape.

T161
But RFS gave him a peace treaty, teleporting Charriu's units to Liquid (well, adjacent, and he moved in), so that is out. My army falls back to my territory.

[Elkad]

In case anyone see this before I sim it..

What are the starvation rules interaction with GP production?
Do I get the points before or after the city starves down a size?

NVM, checked it myself. You get the points, then you starve.

[Elkad]

OK, how does super taking a Charriu city cost me tiles? Only way I can think of to lose 3pts.
Artist bomb doesn't make any sense.