[Spoilers] Chevalier Gives You Something to Cry Aboot

[Kaiser]

@thrawn
I was one tech away from nukes when I left the game, it did not help that my science was mostly in the Captial and SW regions

@CMF
that is a tough nerf and another sign of bad programming

[williams482]

Turn 261:

Suboptimal attacked our units five times, but didn't manage to kill anything. Woden has placed Compo on a platter for us, which must have been intentional:



After some quick pillaging, yes we do indeed accept gifts:



Capturing the harbor scores us an envoy with Armagh, so that's cool. I move Liang in, who improves the culture flip timeline from two turns all the way to three turns. We (or Woden) are going to have to move quickly to capture Foggy Dewhurst and/or Auntie Wainwright. I push two tanks towards Auntie Wainwright, but the one which can attack doesn't get good enough odds to be worth it just yet. I push artillery as far forward as possible without exposing them to direct city fire, which I expect would be fatal. One of these artillery would have had enough movement left to shoot at Foggy Dewhurst once, but I don't think that merits the earlier exposure. Unfortunately both the balloon and the AA gun are seriously lagging behind on this front, with the AA gun likely to be front lines relevant in two turns, the balloon a few turns after that.

Woden also nuked Truly Of The Yard, and Cassius on the Brazilian font. John Lamarr takes some fresh but lesser defense damage:



If Woden doesn't take the top off Auntie Wainwright for us next turn, we'll be able to hit it with one artillery army, one battleship corps, one privateer corps, an ironclad, and a tank army. Possibly two (one embarked) if the embarkmentation rules onto a hostile harbor work the way they appear to. The land units will all be boosted by a general. If instead we are granted another layup, We'll redeploy towards Foggy Dewhurst.

I splash some money around on another round of upgrades, handing out the newest military equipment to our second musket corps, out field cannon corps, and (after brief consideration) our wandering warrior, who will merge with one of the musket corps once he's fully healed.

Stars finishes it's replacement campus, and starts a replacement library due in 4. Red Wings finishes a tank, and with Compo's freshly captured lighthouse granting us a new trade route slot, starts a trader.

Ideology in next turn, Totalitarianism should be about half a dozen turns behind.

Scores:

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

It might be wise to pivot everything for a major assault on Foggy anyway - if Woden doesn't take AW then his navy can't reach Sub's capital. With TotY nuked, Compo gone, and AW gone next turn, sub is down to only his capital, and I don't think he could defeat Canada alone at this point provided we keep up a steady flow of reinforcements to the front.

Similarly, Ichabod's capital looks like it's next on the nuke list (maybe he has a nest of AA outside and that's why it hasn't already been destroyed). In the east he has the nuked Egyptian city, John Lamarr under assault, and conquered Venice, in the west he has just the five cities. Which of these two goobers hasn't conceded yet? Maybe they want to let Woden actually get the satisfaction of a victory screen, but to me that feels like refusing to tip your king over in a lost chess match. I'd rather a game end via concession once it's obvious who the winner is.

Anyway, in order to catch up to, say, Ichabod, we now just need to research 6 more civics, 10 more technologies, capture 4 more wonders (we captured two at some point - which two? In which cities?), and recruit 19 great people, and score 100 more points of era score from somewhere. How Canada has survived this long is a miracle.

[marcopolothefraud]

Poor Suboptimal would have to juggle 3 games at the same time then. I wonder if he'll *really* find the time to play every day until PBEM18 finishes.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

The Great Bath and the Colossus, I spotted 'em now.

[williams482]

Turn 262:

Ideology completes:



Suboptimal killed the artillery and cavalry armies, exposing a tank in the process. My cavalry in Marina died of radiation poisoning, because apparently units in a radiation field don't heal at all? Usually the healing button is disabled in cases like that... . Marina is now losing loyalty, but slow enough that I don't care. Woden has shelled Kathy Staff nearly down to the foundations, and appears to be attempting to block us from taking Auntie Wainwright:



Did Woden just not realize we had the troops on hand to take Compo last turn? This is very confusing.

First things first, take out that tank. The tank inside Compo attacks for 44, taking 26, and the cavalry army finishes the job, taking 28. Auntie Wainwright is still a priority, as it can be taken much faster than Foggy Dewhurst, it opens up Truly Of The Yard to a walk-in capture, it locks Woden out of any attack on Foggy Dewhurst (leaving us 16 turns to blast down the city before he can nuke us for our impudence), and it will substantially reduce the cultural pressure which is currently on track to flip Compo in 2 turns. Can we do it? First off, both tanks use the city's harbor to cross to the land on the other side of the city (which, Civ VI designers, we definitely shouldn't be able to do with a hostile harbor), allowing us to line up both tank attacks and the cavalry attack on the same turn if so inclined. The cavalry pillages the lumber mill and moves onto the Mausoleum tile, joined by the general. Our closest artillery army moves up and shoots, as do our privateer fleet and battleship fleet. Our healthy tank delivers the first blow, and the slightly injured tank finishes things off:



Compo's flip timeline doesn't change in any visually obvious way, but doing some basic division it should now be 4 turns, not 2. Unfortunately Auntie Wainwright is very solidly two turns from a flip, and even moving Reyna over doesn't change that timeline. Fortunately, with Truly Of The Yard a walk-in capture next turn, that should further alleviate some pressure. If Suboptimal's bombers are currently in Truly Of The Yard's aerodrome, he may or may not feel compelled to spend a turn rebasing them, which would be great. I have no idea if they would be destroyed or merely teleported elsewhere if they were in the aerodrom when the city was captured. I hope he does redeploy those bombers, both my artillery will be under an AA gun next turn.

There's still a SAM unit on Auntie Wainwright's theater square. I intentionally don't kill it, I want Woden to have a tougher time nuking these cities, and I don't particularly want to expose the cav army which would be tasked with taking it out.

Internationally, as you may have noticed from the minimap, Woden has captured (and kept!) both Cassius and Rio De Janeiro:



He's also made further progress against John Lamarr, although he seems to be progressing slowly there. Only one or two bombers in the area, perhaps? Regardless, this game is even more comically over than it was last turn, and in 16 turns there's a real chance that both England and Brazil will be eliminated. That's almost certainly the most likely way for Canada to claim second, so let's go.

Civics research begins on Totalitarianism, which will be boosted at Blues in two turns. I make some policy swaps, adding Logistics, Five Year Plan, and Gunboat Diplomacy:



I want Gunboat Diplomacy to allow access to Geneva's territory. For whatever reason we can move freely through Yerevan, but Geneva (who we have three envoys in) is blocking us out, and we want to be able to move there to maneuver around Robert Fife. With his chances newly lessened, our spy in Vitória accepts an assignment:



I don't expect that city to still be standing in 6 turns, never mind 8, but why not try.

Scores:

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Wait, why don't we want Woden nuking cities? Nuking Foggy would make capturing it a million times easier; and he can't nuke our guys for 16 more turns one way or the other.

[williams482]

Uhh...

Well, you see...

What I mean is, uhh...

...

I got nothing.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

"Wait, wait a minute. Where is the SAM, the missile guy?"

"Right now?"

"Right now."

"It's, ah, outside the city. We didn't kill it."

"Why?"

"We, ah, we didn't want to...let Woden nuke any more English cities. We don't know why." 

"You don't know?"

"No, sir."

"...if Woden nukes English cities they can't build any units to stop the Canadian army, and we can just waltz in wherever we want." 

"Oh...so what should we do with the SAM?"

"For fuck's sake, let Woden nuke Foggy Dewhurst."

"Yessir...okay..."

[williams482]

Turn 263:

Unfortunately, Suboptimal was able to kill my exposed artillery army with a fighter, and killed a cav near Robert Fife with a field cannon while redlining another one right outside Compo. That artillery is a significant loss. He also has some unit (probably a sub or a Sea Dog) pillaging Red Wings, tag teaming with another Blizzard that just popped up:



Auntie Wainwright is below 25 loyalty and producing nothing. I realize that I made yet another error last turn in starting it on a monument instead of a B&C project, which I swap to now. I hope the effect still works when no production is actually being put into it.

Woden's fleet is nowhere to be seen, but Kathy Staff is now totally defenseless, and we mean to capitalize:



So first, which unit takes Truly Of The Yard? I have a healthy cav and two tanks with minor injuries on hand, the more injured of which has a promotion ready. Because whichever unit takes the city will subsequently suffer 50 damage from radiation, that unit needs to be above 50 HP after taking the city, and the only unit that meets the qualification is our healthier tank. Sacrificing the cav to accelerate the tank's return to the Dewhurst front would be defensible, but keeping it also allows for some valuable pillaging. The cav pilfers a cow pasture for 181 faith, which will prove very useful. I push the ironclad into Derwentwater Lake, revealing Suboptimal's two bombers in the Truly Aerodrome. We'll see what happens to them. Tank number 1 rolls into Truly Of The Yard, boosting Synthetic Materials, Class Struggle, and Totalitarianism in the process:



Tank number 2 rolls into Kathy Staff, briefly the home of an injured bomber:



That's three bombers spotted this turn. England has one airfield, clearly visible and empty. Robert Fife's one aircraft slot appears empty, Foggy Dewhurst was already occupied by a fighter, and Peter Sallis is not in my vision but only has one slot. I think those bombers are dead! If so, that's going to make sieging Foggy Dewhurst much easier. Also, super dumb that they apparently die on city capture but not if their airfield gets pillaged. They should obviously die in both cases, but if you're not going to do that, at least be consistent.

Did I say siege? Because yeah, barring some Phoenician nukes, that's what this is going to be:



Why was that faith important? It allows for the purchase of one artillery corps in Bruins. That should get to the front a little before our currently crippled artillery army heals up, granting us two artillery armies and one corp, with a balloon and anti-air cover, to blast away at the city defenses. Exactly how we drew it up before!

If I had more healthy tank armies in play, I think I might make a run at the Foggy Dewhurst Theater Square and Government Plaza. Pillaging those would greatly accelerate our path to Totalitarianism, and the +5 combat strength boost from Fascism. Unfortunately trading units to do it is a bad deal with our army as thin as it is, and Suboptimal can definitely kill a tank army if we leave it on either of those tiles. So that's a no-go.

Worse, loyalty is still a serious problem, as I rather expected it would be. Foggy Dewhurst is home to thirteen great works, between the palace, maxed out theater square, National History Museum, and Great Library. Direct citizen pressure is nearly neutral or even positive in all cities except Truly Of The Yard, but -13 from great works and another -6.7 from grievances has each of these latest three teetering on the brink. Unfortunately I still don't think I can afford to move Pingala, he's worth 19.5 clefs per turn and would probably slow down Fascism if he moved. Truly Of The Yard may actually be impossible to hold for long enough to take Foggy Dewhurst, as the radioactive fallout makes a long term garrison impractical. On the plus side, though, it's a crippled city, the bombers are dead, and if we can delay a flip as long as possible then we'll have an easy time taking it back after Foggy is ours.

Ultimately, I think the best play here is to use the Reformed Church policy swap to put in as many loyalty boosters as possible, and push Victor into a spot where he can boost all the new captures. That will put Compo temporarily in the red, but it can survive until the new cards come into play. Liang abandons Compo for Truly Of The Yard, Victor leaves Wild for Compo, and all four recent capturs have between five and nine turns until they go back to england. We can live with this.

I've been trying some frivolous nonsense around Robert Fife, which I suppose has some marginal benefit in that it's keeping that Tank army occupied. I can't take the city with the units I have over here regardless of the garrison, but the units I've deployed here aren't actually very useful to begin with, and the fallout around Marina made it prohibitively difficult to deploy them on the other front anyway. Having more builders and military engineers in the area to clean that shit up would have been very nice, but what can I say. We're poor.



All our non-Robert-Fife troops have pulled back as far as possible. We have a battleship and an ironclad in the lake third ring to Foggy Dewhurst, and a tank under cover from an AA gun at the same distance from Foggy right outside Compo. These should be the only units meaningfully exposed.

In international news. Ichabod recaptures Rio De Jañeiro, but Woden takes John Lamarr. Ichabod does have some troops around Venice and could have a shot to take it back.

Scores: