[Spoiler] Kaiser has a plan

[roland of gilead]

extra movement in open terrain?

[Kaiser]

Yes

Edit for completeness sake:

So the in-game wiki says this



while woden send me a link to the online wiki which says this

[roland of gilead]

Well at least we are learning.

[Kaiser]

Sorry for the suspense, I did not get to take a minute to report until now and the next turn is already waiting. Firstly



Woden repositioned his Army here, the lack of bridges and the position of his ME means his tanks have to move via the crossings near Bologna though there is the possibility for him to slot Logistics and get his ME into position for a railway near our Niter.

I think he might want to heal up or threaten different areas with his tanks, there is a slight chance though that he is trying to bait my Arty Army which is my single most valuable asset in this defense as it has the promotions to negate its anti-land unit malus.
So I used my Arty Army defensively and instead moved my other Arty Army up to damage his FC Army, this one only has one anti-land promotion yet. It is inside the CF Encampment, which has a weak CS and might be a target for him to overrun with his tanks, so I tried to reduce the amount of possible attacks by bringing up the full Health AT Army.

The other 2 AT Armies of the N front are healing inside KG and EM, I am considering ti retire Ibn for the 5 healing per turn but I really value the intel he was able to provide, so I likely will keep him around.



The bad news is that these guys signed a new Alliance, they are now in a military alliance and we are at a 5 CS disadvantage, luckily my Spy is finally repositioned and I was able to negate the intel bonus at least for Woden.



Next turn our worse Arty Army could wheel around to Steve Newton Encampment and take a pot shot on Ichabods Arty Corps (if they still are corps). This is only possible when starting in reach of our GG, which I made sure off

[Kaiser]

This world congress thing is completely busted, I invested 30 diplomatic points last turn to get an emergency vote on Ichabods betrayel which would have brought a very nice -3 CS to him and some improved trade routes for us.



Ichabod has the most diplomatic victory points thoughs, so it would be a tough vote to win this one against him. 150 points are my max and it would bring 6 votes, Ichabod alone could bring 7 votes for 210 and he basically has Woden with 1 vote guaranteed.

So we need to beat 7, we already know that ties are randomized. In order to get to 8 I would need at least the base votes of Suboptimal and CMF. This is a close call, I can see CMF voting for us but I doubt Suboptimal will as I think he wants to backstab me and thus he does not want to be involved in a war against Ichabod.



This game sometimes is ridonkeylous (I know the word is different).
By closing the vote and checking the state of the game, I could actually see updated values for diplomatic favour and it turns out that Ichabod invested 210, while everbody else went with the free vote.

So I basically know now that there are 7 votes against the emergency and that me voting all my favour here would only work out if Suboptimal supported me.
I decided to take the 210 to 30 diplomatic favour trade here, take this Ichabackstab

At least this means I can likely dominate at least one of the 2 upcoming World Congress decisions

[Kaiser]

Luckily I did not invest anything here, as neither of the other players would have supported me. This looks like Suboptimal is joining the war against me soon and CMF might try to take a juicy bite as well.



Woden figured he can boost his by plundering EM Campus, I have brought my damaged AT Army for defense



But most importantly, I was able to concentrate both my Arty Armies here thanks to a fresh railroad W of KG. This allowed me to liberate Bologna and reposition about a 3rd of Woden's Army.
2 Tanks were thrown into my territory, I killed one of them.
His FC Army was send back near Gondor Encampment and is out of the fight for a couple turns.
I have no idea where his biplane went, but it seems to be far off as well, so hopefully it can only retaliate onto my AT Army which took the final blow onto Bologna.

This was a good turn, with a total loss of 1 Tank Army, 1 Arty Army (in Bologna), 1 ME, 1 Inquisitor, 1 Privateer.
This accumulates to ~210 MP and 3200   but we also have a very exposed AT Army (1200 ) and several very exposed FC Armies (@ 990 ). The real prize for him though is our Arty Army at 1290 and the important anti land promotions.



I do not intent to loose another unit inside an Encampment due to people fighting around the walls so retreated my AT Army into Steve Newton. We will soon need more resources to join the defense here if Ichabods starts shoving his units in.

Here is the save, as we currently cannot buy units, I proceeded to buy some Stupas and an Apostle to spread our belief to CMF

[roland of gilead]

hopefully his biplane was killed when it's strip was destroyed.

if not maybe back at his airport wherever that is.

did you spend that faith? can you?

[Kaiser]

I can spend normally, meaning no units but 3rd level religious buildings and religious units. I bought 2 Stupas, 1 Apostle and changed nearly everywhere away from working my HS.
KG does not have a lot of options left, as Woden pillaged its IZ buildings. The HS or CH are likely next, but I would prefer that over him killing my FC, which he will likely do.

[roland of gilead]

Just shows how hard it is to take cities even with all they have.

machine guns will be a small boost.

fighters have a ranged strenght of 100 but no idea how we get there.

[Kaiser]

If we can hold KG, it will soon build our first Airport, with a chop support. It is the only place with an open district slot, so it has to be here.