[spoilers] - pindicator is excited for the next Realms Beyond league mechanics

[pindicator]

155

While we're waiting for the next turn, here's how I left the last:




Also - settled another city. A wave of settlers from Gemling is about to finish.

[pindicator]

So last turn didn't go nearly as well as I hoped. Mouse was also whipping caravels and my naval advance of galleys and caravel took a hit. They're all retreating now and my other caravels moving up. Also: Privateers were started this turn. The goal is to get 4-6 privateers in the theater and that should give me naval supremacy back.

I made a pretty big mistake by not razing RinTaro, and now he's recaptured it. At first I was thinking "yay, this diverts another ballistaphant from Daichi. But Daichi was stuffed with 7 anti-cav units: pikes and ballistas alike. I could have tried to just push through: my 16 camel archers against his 7. But my margin is razor thin. If it takes 7 good hits and 7 clean-up units, then a couple battles going badly and I stall and likely lose a ton. Instead I have collateral moving up. Within 4-5 turns I'll have 6-8 collateral and other units and then we'll make a real push. Then again, this may have been a tactical blunder by giving Mouse the break that he needs to consolidate and whip more units.

[pindicator]

158

Gearing up for the next push at Mouse.  Collateral loaded onto boats and headed towards the front.  More units being made because this probably won't be enough to end things.




Meanwhile the other players are starting to fall off.  Both naufrager (the holy roman version) and 2metraninja have been eliminated since I last updated.  2metra fell when I was playing this previous turn.  Elkad lost this city as well.  His cities are stuffed to the brim with longbows where I've seen them, and there are many isthmuses and bottlenecks.  However- he does not seem to have any ships of consequence that I can see, which has to make reinforcement difficult.

My naval situation should hopefully be improving as Privateers will start coming off the line.  The capital finishes my first at end of this turn.  Mouseferatu has not made any advances with his navy, but is content to just hold the waters between Daichi and Ushijima.  Hopefully he stays put over the next few turns while i move things up.

Moving things up goes as such:




I have 6 galleys left: 4-movers by the capital and 3-movers are closer to the front, and 6 collateral units to shuttle, so we're going to put them forward faster by chaining the units.  I do have more than 6 collateral units, though.  If I can, I'm going to try and use the caravels for the few crossbows that are already in the area.  I'd rather not give Mouseferatu any warning that I'm going to push until I actually do it.  In any case, this avenue is really straight forward.  I'll need to push up with any caravels and the privateer from the capital at the same time to try and keep Mouseferatu's caravels from being able to score any hits or shuttle units.

This side will attack with 21 camel archers, 4 catapults, and 4 crossbows.




In the east things get a little more difficult to shuttle. I'm going to have to either move up slower here or attack with crossbows off of the boat. But there's going to have to be a shuffle of units from what I pick up in 2 turns and what I drop off next turn. In this theater we'll have 7 camel archers, 4 crossbows, and 1 longbow.

We've settled a few newer cities, filling in spots with food resources that I have not yet been able to grab:  Legion and Blight were in recent turns, and this turn I settled Metamorph.  The next league, Delirium, will grab a southern island in 2 turns.




I want a few more settlers still, but they need to come from the south because everything north of the core is putting out units.  And I really wanted to put out 3 missionaries everywhere but I settled for 2 - because of the same reason.  Really the only exception right now for northern cities is to put in harbors for cities that I want to push out navy from. But oh there are some cities that really do need a forge and a courthouse!

With 2metra dying off I also have to find a new source for Silver - at least until I can capture Mouseferatu's. I've asked Elkad for his in exchange for my extra Dye and my Wine. I've also asked for Sugar from Adler in exchange for some of my extra Gems. Without these, the capital is going to hit happiness issues or need more MPs.

[pindicator]

161

Tomorrow we see where the chips fall




Really pissed at that catapult misclick. I swore I was selecting one on a galley right beside the drop-off. If I'm just a little short it would be awful for this to be decided by a mistaken click.

Unloaded the crossbows on the island attack early because there is a caravel and privateer in range of those boats. This might mean we delay that attack a turn and let the extra collateral catch up.

Mouse revolted into Theocracy this turn; I have to think that means he's now on the last turn of his golden age.

[pindicator]

I swear, nobody has talent for losing 90% battles like I do.

Not that it would have helped, I severely underestimated Mouse's production and ability to throw together an army fast. Kudos to him on a great defense.

Turn's not over, but i need to take a moment and clear my head before continuing. I'm pretty sure any advance I had hoped for is dead, and now I need to figure out how to hold what I've gotten so far.

[pindicator]

162

Mouse counterattacked on his half of the turn:




I lost 12 camel archers and the island city that I had captured on the opening turn of this war was recaptured by his forces. Remember how that island only stood by him winning a 30% battle? Or how another 30% battle at Ushijima was what saved that city from falling? Two low odds losses that turned the course of this war. I suppose I shouldn't forget him planting that city just in the nick of time, otherwise I could have Ushijima directly.

Add onto that my decision to wait for the siege engines - now that feels like a mistake in hindsight.

I decided to throw my collateral at his units and then attack. I could at least take out his great general war elephant, which was the top defender.

And yet I continued to lose battles in my favor: 75% vs the great general? Lost. A couple of 90% battles against wounded pikes? Lost those too. I lost 3 more camel archers and suddenly there were only 7 left. Those 7 went back on the boats and retreated, shuttled back into the city of Yamaguichi. 14 camel archers, 7 crossbows, 3 catapults, and 2 longbows lost. And one lucky catapult left that I misclicked on last turn. Thank goodness for silver linings.

At Ushijima it was hardly any better: 3 crossbows attacked against his lone crossbow defender, and the first 2 failed to land a single hit. In the end I was looking at 5 still very healthy pikes against my 7 camel archers.

I retreated.

I need more than that though: a new wave of camel archers won't save me here. Not with Ballistaphants able to bypass defenders. I am bringing up War Elephants of my own but they're still several turns back. Now I have to try and out produce him and hit him with numbers and with combined forces. I need to be able to out-produce him. But I refuse to go into slavery again.




No more luxuries like waiting for a golden age to get into Representation. We are firing off the golden age now, and finishing up Alphabet at 100%. I swapped every specialist to a scientist, ran a few cities on max commerce forsaking hammers.

I need to finish Nationalism at the end of t163, but I need about 250 hammers worth of Build Research next turn in order to get there. (I'm only 80 beakers short of finishing Alphabet, and that tehc is at +80% bonus right now so it's definitely worth grabbing. Once we have that we start drafting, rolling up from the farthest back to the closest - with probably a few emergency drafts on Mouseferatu's continent.




1500 beakers at 100%. Neat little economy I have going, too bad I'm spending all my hammers on war right now. If anybody spies the GNP before the turn rolls they'll see me up over 2,300.

But I have to have Nationalism in 2 turns because that lets me revolt twice during the golden age. Because I may yet need to go back into Slavery at the end.

I'm hoping to collect the units from the attack at Ushijima and use them to try and hold on the mainland. The fight now isn't to advance: it's to hold what we have already taken! I seriously underestimated the speed at which Mouseferatu could regain strength, and now I have to hope that the longbows I'm building can hold. We need more galleys and more privateers. Drafted macemen will be able to hold with built longbows and crossbows. I'm just not sure where I hold yet. I may have to pull back from Yamaguichi and let him retake it. Thankfully the captured cities have forges and I'm able to get new longbows out of them at a pretty good rate.

And after Nationalism, we go for Gunpowder and muskets

[pindicator]

163

My hero?




Gavagai has declared against Mouseferatu. Not waiting more than a few moments after the destruction of naufrager nee beardbeard, Gav is presumably going to snipe away the island cities that Mouse settled. I wonder if Gav and I will come to blows later? It seems likely: a shame, since I was hoping to turn my attention south after Mouse was done. But that's getting way ahead of myself.

I was able to 1-turn Nationalism this turn with some Research Builds. I was even able to let the capital sneak in some much-needed infrastructure.




(Oh, who am I kidding? This was really to show the Moai-in-a-golden age again!)

And since we're showing off top cities, here's the shrine city at 100% science:




I thought I got a screenshot, but I settled ConqsOfTheAtlas this turn - a filler spot on the border with OH, mostly settled so I could chop forests without wasting hammers and to work a wine in the east. I have another settler heading west, but I think Gavagai is going to beat me to the spot between us that I had been planning on settling for the last 50 turns. Before I found Gemling island. Instead it will probably go to the location south of Perandus, also in the far west.

No more settlers for the near future, but there still is one more decent spot within my safe control, as well as 6 more filler locations. People are starting to squeeze in settlers into tight spots, however. OH is testing our friendship by throwing a settler way outside of what is rightfully "his" zone of control, to my south. But he knows as well as I that between us it is a bit of a cold war while we are both tying up so many of our forces in hot wars to the other ends of things.




Mouseferatu sent a privateer up to pillage a work boat. I have 3 privateers approaching so if he's smart he can run away. If he tries to pillage another work boat he might get clipped. He may just end up running away with having to contend with Gavagai to the west now.

Mouse has played this very solidly, but that also means he has been very reluctant to strike out and set me off balance. As such I've been able to dictate the terms of the fights, even when I haven't necessarily had the advantage in strength.

Demos, because this is a golden age after all:




Next turn we revolt into Theocracy, Nationalism, and possibly Caste System - I'll have to count workshops vs windmills first.

[pindicator]

I'm having a thought.... what if I just Build Wealth everywhere and still try to get Constitution by the end of this golden age? I think I could do it. Drafting maces wouldn't be that much of a loss over drafting muskets, and the GNP boost from getting into representation would be immense.

[pindicator]

164

Even better: I don't have to Build Wealth. I get Constitution in 4 at break-even!




Before the turn started I saw GeneralKilCavalry whip a bunch of cities and got a little scared. Was he going to try and hit Gemling Island? I didn't think that likely- even with my distant war I still could probably hold my own, and his tech level is pretty atrocious. (In the middle of figuring out exactly what the tech situation is right now, and just how crazy a lead Old Harry/Hitru has right now.)

With this in my tech thread, I think this is GKC telling me that it's all right, that he's not going after me. He must be going after AT then. Still, we have longbows being shuttled south, and I'll keep a couple privateers down in the area. Not on GKC's border, but a couple turns away in case things start to look bad.




Mouseferatu did indeed get greedy with his privateer, and i had my navy in range to punish him. The first privateer won at 65% - Mouse had even ended turn on an ocean tile, giving up the 10% defense of coast. I had 4 caravels and another privateer in range to hit him if he had gone over. Instead I decided to move those units to cover the wounded privateer that won. We're probably looking at the beginning of my western fleet with this stack.




My northern fleet is in a bit of a problem pulling off my own personal Dunkirk. Originally I wanted to move these units back to the main front, but Mouse's fleet is able to sink a lot of ships if I stay within range, especially now that he has more privateers in the area. So I moved the flotilla east instead, and they'll try to get back home via Nemesis. Actually, this might be the start of all of those drafted maces coming north. I think the next spot I want to try and hit is that Moai city of Ushijima. He's added more pikes and a longbow now. I am going to try to hit it with maces, trebs, and crossbows- hopefully this will counter what he has as defenders. I plan on holding the camel archers in reserve here as well. I'm hoping to catch him off guard with this unit change since he can't build new ones as fast as I can draft maces.




Revolted this turn to Theocracy & Nationalism. Both of those techs save me quite a bit of gold. I think it dropped about 60g from 240ish in civic expenses down to 178. I probably will end up swinging back into Organized Religion at the end of the golden age, just because I do have a lot of infrastructure to build once this war is over.




And now that we're in Nationalism it's time to start the draft! I'm taking a page from Sullla's playbook here, and starting a rolling draft with the farthest back cities. There were 2 cities on Gemling Island that were up to size 7 - both of them gave me conscripts, as well as Abyss and Bestiary pictured here. We'll roll the draft north as we move the units up. But we also have a few mature core cities that do not have any growth and are pretty well maxed out. I may skip drafting those - it will come on a case-by-case basis if I think the hammer amount of the unit is worth the lost production of whatever mine they come off of.

In addition, I've decided to convert a lot of my mines into windmills to help encourage growth. It would have been nice to have done so before the golden age, but we'll have another golden age. Sometime. I have no idea when.




I'm also doing a smaller draft roll-up on Mouseferatu's mainland. The captured cities have all been running artist specialists and some of them are already above the 10% threshold for drafting. What I hope to do with these maces is pair them with the crossbows I just brought over and the surviving camel archers to capture Akashi. I really can't bring camel archers along with any stack due to the Ballistaphants - although I do have some elephants on the mainland myself that I may just bring up to provide cover for the camel archers in any stack. What I need to build now are city busters: trebuchets, catapults, crossbows. Then for the coastal cities I need more galleys for the hoard of conscripts coming from the south and more privateers to protect them.

But right now I just need to try and hold on to Yoshiguichi. Those units are going to heal in a few turns, so I need to make my defenses as ready as possible




You know what sucks? Not only can you not pillage towns, but you can not pillage the roads that are on the same tiles as towns. That makes war a lot more difficult.

[pindicator]

I should get a settler on that island to set up a beachhead against Ushijima.