[PB58] Tarkeel and Amicalola's rule through fear

[Tarkeel]

Turn 181-185 (1250 AD)
Almost everything has been going according to plan, so there hasn't been much to report over the last few turns. We managed to screw up and lose some hundred hammers on the queue upgrades (chalk that one up to newbies trying to be smart), and MrC sniped the Sistine Chapel the turn before us (netting us some 500 gold). We've also entered into a triple entente defensive pact with Superdeath and MrC, knowing full well that it will be voided when we declare war, but this is about signaling sides. ReplaceableParts added 50 hammers per turn.

Speaking of which, we've been massing cuirassiers in the west and keeping slow movers in the east. We're putting on a good show for AT's lone scout, letting it see maces head north (where they will board ships and return to the island) with some defensive musketmen coming in. Our chariots have almost complete coverage of his mainland cities, so we have a good idea what we're facing. The preliminary battle plan is:

• Thog: Hillside, walls, 40% culture: Defended by 2 praetorians, 2 maces, 1 longbow, 1 spear, 1 catapult, this is the main defensive fortress in the west. It doesn't project much power though, so our western defensive force will be siegeing the city while the horses just bypass it.
  
• Nale: Hillside, 40% culture: Defended by 2 praetorians, 1 mace and 3 catapults, with a stack of 3 praetorians and 2 maces just south of it.
  
• Vaarsuvius: Hillside, 60% culture: Defended by only an archer, this city is one of the main prizes of the campaign.
  
• MitD: Hillside, 40% culture. Defended only by a praetorian and an archer, this can be forked alongside Vaarsuvius in the opening salvo, or
  
• (New) Belkar: Hillside, walls, 40% culture. Defended by only a praetorian and an archer, this can be hit by galleys from Dagobah in the opening salvo. Dagobah has had two galleys inside it since it was founded to get AT used to the idea; They have now been loaded with maces, and a third galley is coming down to bring a total of 6 maces for this strike.
  
• Endor: Flat, walls, 40% culture: This is heavily defended and the linchpin of the eastern theatre. Our entire defensive stack stationed in Mon Calamari can land on the hill outside it on the first turn of war, hopefully locking those forces into place. There'll be some guerilla muskets to defend the stack.
  

The second tier cities of Redcloak, Elan and Durkon are all more or less undefended. AT's main forces are slowmovers in the former Ruff town, and a small stack of melee units outside Nale; nothing that will scare shock-promoted cuirassiers. So far we've only seen a single pike and two knights, and we still have ballistaphants to deal with knights. We currently have 18 cuirs, 13 of which are in the western staging area and the rest should arrive by the time of declaration. All of them can get two promotions, and some are at 9/10 for the third. AT hasn't been a complete dummy though; it looks like he'll be able to bulb Liberalism this turn, taking it from the grasp of Superdeath, and claim Steel (and cannons!) with it.

We're estimating attacking in 3 turns, and are planning to dump an entire turn of commerce into espionage when we declare.

[Tarkeel]

AT hasn't been a complete dummy though; it looks like he'll be able to bulb Liberalism this turn, taking it from the grasp of Superdeath, and claim Steel (and cannons!) with it.

AT did not bulb this turn, so I guess Superdeath will swap and complete Liberalism when he sees AT going for it.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 186 (1260 AD)
We're getting close to declaration of war and have tried to send some diplo messages to Superdeath and MrC. Superdeath responded with iron and 6 gold, presumably indicating an attack around T191. His defensive stacks have moved this turn and are nowhere to be seen, so that's encouraging.

Currently we have 18 cuirassiers on the western staging point and 6 around the eastern. Our current plans are:

T187: Move a small part of the western cuirassiers into Rahital; this will be the only part of the plan visible to AT.
T188: Declaration of war
East: Move the "defensive stack" from Mon Calamari onto the hill by Endor.
East: Galleys from Dagobah attack Belkar.
East: Cuirassiers move into Mon Calamari, where they won't be visible to AT and can hit Endor directly or respond to a counterattack.
West: Move the small stack from Rahital onto the forest east of the horses, where it forks Vaarsuvius and MitD.
West: Defensive stack moves to desert SE of Thog.
West: Main stack moves onto desert hill by Nale, w/musket support from Rahital. This is the riskiest part of the attack, as he does have some catapults in range.

In other news, Superdeath did not grab Liberalism last turn, so AT might be able to bulb it still. I don't think Superdeath knows that AT has a great scientist on hand!

[civac2]

The requirements to be able to bulb Lib are pretty specific. In most situations that bulb won't be open.

[Tarkeel]

You're right that he probably won't be able to bulb it. We're just passive bystanders cheering on the race to Liberalism :P

[Tarkeel]

Turn 187 (1270 AD)
AT scared us by doing a series of whips on T186, but the only new unit spotted this turn was a musket going east from his capital. Most likely the rest was related to infrastructure in the new island holdings. We have vision on two of his galleons; one doing shuttle duty in the northern part of the eastern ocean, and the other further south. These are going to be the most painful units in the war and we're ready to sacrifice a few caravels to sink the northern one. A smaller task force of 8 cuirassiers peeled away from the main force this turn, "hiding" in the border city of Rahital, while the remaining 12 will be the second wave. We're afraid that not playing a double turn will arouse suspicion, but I actually wasn't able to fit the time to play two turns this morning.

As this was the last turn of our golden age, we swapped into representation (which was researched this turn for that purpose), netting us a neat 123 beakers per turn. Rifling should come in T189, allowing us to upgrade selected cuirassiers to cavalry, before we spend a turn on espionage. The next tech goal is probably Democracy for the Statue of Liberty.

Edit: I'm not playing clock games here; as we played after AT last turn and we're declaring war, we need to play after him this turn. I actually have been busy most of the day, but I could have fit in an evening turn if AT had played earlier.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 188 (1280 AD) The Empire Strikes Back

AT has definitely smelled that something is coming, and went on a whipping spree and cancelled open borders.

Our two empires seems to find themselves on opposite sides once again. Prepare for war.

Raid on (New) Belkar:
CR1 Maceman vs Praetorian, 3.0%: loss
CR1 Maceman vs Praetorian (6.8), 9.5%: loss
CR1 Maceman vs Archer, 24.3%: win!
CR1 Maceman vs Praetorian (2.0), 98.7%: win!
We had some luck on that archer attack, but we also had a third galley to secure the win, which will now be available for other amphibious assaults. We move the first half of our force onto the hill, keeping the cavalry hidden untill they're needed. Endor will be a tough nut to crack, but it should fall.



In the west we send in some of the recalled scouts to map out the battlefield. There are some minor changes, the melee stack has moved east and two knights have come north. We split our forces into three stacks as planned; this might be risky but with the quality of defenders we're seeing and the reinforcements we have coming it feels worth it.



A look at our demographics out of the golden age is pretty shocking:


I think Superdeath is still in his GA, and despite being #4 in land we're top of the board in most everything else. Razing Belkar actually pushed us up a spot in crop yield.

[Amicalola]

This is it! It's not unreasonable to say that everything we've done since we decided to rush Taj has been in preparation for this moment.

I moved a few more units to the Endor stack while I was logged in, to make extra certain we're able to take it next turn. I was worried we were a little light, and also promoted a couple of units to make sure AT couldn't counter-attack. We discussed plans to capture Miko over the next few turns, and thus eliminate AT's entire presence in our inland sea. Elsewhere, we'll have to wait and see what the mass-whips brought.

[Tarkeel]

I moved a few more units to the Endor stack while I was logged in, to make extra certain we're able to take it next turn.

That was actually on purpose; I wanted AT to commit his forces in this area instead of the west, but I don't think it will make much difference. Worst scenario for us is actually that he evacuates Endor.

[Amicalola]

I moved a few more units to the Endor stack while I was logged in, to make extra certain we're able to take it next turn.

That was actually on purpose; I wanted AT to commit his forces in this area instead of the west, but I don't think it will make much difference. Worst scenario for us is actually that he evacuates Endor.

For sure. My hope is that 3 units won’t be the difference between evacuation and defense (AT seems pretty checked out, so who knows). But now if he attacks out he can’t wipe a lot of our stack, which I was more worried about. With 3 suicide cats he actually had good odds with a lot of units (again, he might not have realised, but better safe than sorry).