[SPOILERS] Rusten enters uncharted waters

[Rusten]

You will start to see war action real soon, but DS made 75 catapults (and barely anything else) so I thought it wiser to wait for infantry. The more interesting part is that railroad is 1 tech away so I could even tech that and upgrade a few pikes to machine guns, that would make things even easier. Tech should complete by the time my infantry get there. I think that's the way to go honestly, it will ensure I don't suffer any losses and can quickly move on to the next victim after. His army will be completely nullified. Infantry, cannons and MGs against catapults and knights. I wasn't planning on teching railroad before attacking, but he's certainly made it tempting with his unit choices.

It would follow the same principle as the earlier 2metra+Borsche war. I have no qualms about delaying an attack a few turns if I gain turns later. I may capture Mali lands a couple of turns later, but I'll capture whoever's next sooner if I don't suffer any losses. Start late and finish early -- words I tend to live by.  

In other news I am able to 1-turn democracy with just a couple of research builds so I delayed my civic change until next turn. Was able to start on factories in (almost) every city that is getting one and still 1-turn the tech.

[Rusten]

[...] move on to the next victim after.

To elaborate a bit I'm not entirely sure who that is yet. It could be AT or it could be time for OH finally.

Conflict with OH is unavoidable at some point in the game. Either I attack him first and decide the time or I wait for him to stop me from winning space. The question is whether it's favourable for me to have a go early and initiate or wait for him to attack later. Having the better tech rate* I feel the longer it goes the better for me, but there's also a case for making a move when I have factories and infantry and he doesn't. Something to think about in the near future.

Having all of my prized possessions on just the one continent does favour sitting back and using the defender's advantage, but I really don't know. This is uncharted waters.

*I imagine so at least. He's running caste+workshops while I have matured cottages.

[Raskolnikov]

As long as you have tech visiblity and monitor his fleet you should be fine waiting to grow the advantage. Though I like to pick my fights, better tactics can be made with proper planning.

That being said, I haven't looked closely how many turns ahead you are in terms of military techs. How far is he from his own infantries? How does production compare (assuming equal modifiers for now)?

edit: I see you have a 25% (roughly) prod advantage while in golden age.

[superdeath]

So long as you finish off Dark savant.. ill be rooting for ya

[Rusten]

So long as you finish off Dark savant.. ill be rooting for ya

@Ras 1250 vs 1050 hammers right now, but his are likely to increase a bit as cities come out of revolt. Not enough for a substantial advantage.
He has neither rifling, steam power nor assembly line, but that won't take him long.

I think the best way forward is 5 turns of drafting now to eliminate Mali (DS) and then 5 turns of emancipation again. Spiritual is great for this. And I think it's also time to transition from windmills to railroaded mines. Now that cities are working all land tiles the surplus food is less useful and the extra yield from railroad comes into play. This also opens up a civic like slavery for late game whips, or a temporary caste workshops switch. Kremlin is still on my mind. We'll see if OH targets it.

[Rusten]

It's time.




I have the high ground.   
The knights (and trebs, some of which I think will be upgraded to cannons) stay behind for one turn to avoid potential collateral damage.

[Rusten]

Worth noting that his north is almost completely defenseless, so if he does nothing then I can slip my knights through after moving to the other hill next turn.




If he sacrifices every catapult and tries to wipe my stack or severely hurt it then my ~25-30 healthy knights are in range to kill off any Mali survivors while the rest of the stack heals with a GG medic. By my estimate he's in a pickle. Your move, DS.

Also, if Commodore chooses to grab those undefended border cities after I've made all the effort then we are mortal enemies for the rest of the game. Hopefully his diplo is not that bad. Either contribute or stay out.

[Rusten]

Went about as expected. DS slammed everything into me but still couldn't completely wipe the stack. Suffered some losses obviously, but they were mainly expendable units. I think I prefer this outcome over him ignoring me and holing up in his cities. I won't have to be as careful from here on now.

Think the kill count was ~2.5 to 1 in my favour after I played. Maybe 3 to 1 but the event log is way too long to go over in detail. He's lost somewhere between 40-50 catapults. I mopped up every 1-mover that attacked into me and he lost some fights on his turn as well. 




His workers are a little out of position so I temporarily pillaged the northern roads to secure my stacks and limit his options. He has 22 catapults in range, but his problem now is that he has nothing left to follow them up. His survivor knights won't have healed either. I have 4 new infantry and some cannons to reinforce the knight tile with. For this next turn defensive terrain is not required.

My survivors from this turns battle will move to friendly territory (silk) to speed up healing. I'm especially interested in healing up the 13xp infantry hero -- I might have to name him. I lost all my muskets but they were pretty useless at this point and served their purpose. More importantly I still have all my knights for quick city capturing once the battles are over.

[DaveV]

How's your war weariness?

[Rusten]

I'll see how many unhappy faces are generated next turn but it really shouldn't matter, because I have a minimum 10+ happy face cushion in every city.

Other news for this turn: Made the Tao holy shrine. Getting a fair bit out of it (33 base gold) because TBW inexplicably decided to spread Taoism to his cities instead of Judaism. The latter would've given him AP hammers.