[PB59 Amicalola] The Vespertine Hour(s)

[Amicalola]

T131 - Anxiety 101

The big battle is coming, probably next turn. So far, Pindicator's enormous army is marching to Cocoon, although he might decide to change directions. My own troops are lined up behind the hills, while Naufragar's horse archers pillage the southern countryside. 



I spent the better part of an hour thinking about troop positions. I want to be able to defend the east or west if they change tack, or to hit the stack next turn if they advance. The big thing I wanted to do was get Naufragar to move up on the city, and help Pindicator take it. To that end, I put 1 knight on the gold hill, so that he won't be able to check what's behind it. The central stack is mostly catapults that can travel in any direction, while the western stack is mounted units who may need to rush Eastwards, or defend Joga. Cocoon itself has just enough defenders that their 2-movers certainly can't take it, while trying to get them to advance. 

Now we wait. 

[Amicalola]

T132 Preview - The Stack

[El Grillo]

[Amicalola]

T132 - Battle of Cocoon

Well, I've been frantically whipping every city, trying to scramble together enough troops to hold at Cocoon. Here's what I ended up with:


It's a little bit unfortunate; by a quirk of whip timing, I had only one knight arrive this turn, while next turn eight more will arrive. Nonetheless, this is what we've got, and you've seen what we're up against. Let's see if it's enough. 

We really can't afford to lose any defenders, since we can't clear the stack entirely; we'll need to be able to face a counter-attack. First I sent in five catapults, at ~25% odds each. Only one survived, but they did the job of weakening the War Elephants enough to get my knights better odds. 

The Final Heroic War Elephant took down two catapults without getting hit, and then killed a knight at 70%. Bad start; I should have sent one more catapult, rather than be greedy.  

The next two knights did at least win their own 90% battles against War Elephants, and now we were fighting horse archers and spears. We killed  a bunch more units at 90% with our remaining knights, as well as Robert E. Lee, the (scary) morale swordsman. 

Next I sent some promoted horse archers, who cleaned up their fights against the remaining full-strength horse archers. After a brief intermission from Lazteuq logging in  , the remaining four catapults went in, now that they had over 50% odds for survival:


It was also at this point, forced to take a break from my adrenaline high, that I remembered I should be taking pictures.  

Perhaps it was karma for that earlier massacre, or the Heroic War Elephant. Perhaps I'm just lucky. But all four of the remaining catapults withdrew at 50-60% odds. As the cleanup began, I lost one more 93% fight, but it didn't matter. Belisarius cleaned up the final healthy axe, and the battle became a slaughter, with odds like this:


I sent in basically everything I had, excluding the longbowman on defense, and they all survived. We even killed some catapults with flanking!! 

Here's the battlefield following the combats. 


That is easily the biggest battle I've ever fought. We lost a total of 4 catapults, 1 knight, and 1 horse archer. We killed over 1/2 of their forces, and (hopefully) damaged the rest too badly to retaliate.

[El Grillo]

indeed. I held off on saying this earlier, but when you mentioned earlier that you felt bad whipping down cities to assemble this force, I wanted to say that your opponents would be made to feel a lot worse when they open the turn to this outcome.

[Amicalola]

indeed. I held off on saying this earlier, but when you mentioned earlier that you felt bad whipping down cities to assemble this force, I wanted to say that your opponents would be made to feel a lot worse when they open the turn to this outcome.

Well, that is definitely a satisfying payoff.

[Amicalola]

T133 

So last turn was a smashing success. But I've been putting off playing the turn, because I need to answer a very difficult question: "Can I still win from here?" If the answer is yes, I probably need to stop whipping, grow my cities, and content myself with eating Pindicator. If the answer is no, then I might as well keep whipping knights and try to smash Naufragar's stack with sheer weight of numbers. Mackoti already has Optics, Paper, and a digested neighbour; I'm really struggling to see a world where I can beat him before he first-strikes me with galleons. Naufragar seems perfectly content to march his stacks at me, rather than hit the complete runaway with no military on his border... I will remind you that I have done nothing except retaliate towards Naufragar, who whacked my circumnavigator literally 5 turns after I let his pass, and then invaded my territory through his neighbour.  

Which would suggest that I can't win either way from here. So it is very tempting to just keep whipping, and go all out on the 'ruin Naufragar' plan. I haven't 100% decided yet, but that's the direction I'm leaning.


Edit: I'm really surprised Mackoti is so desperate for a replacement. It seems like he's a complete runaway on our continent. Between him and TBS, winning this game doesn't seem to be much fun. Perhaps being out of contention is desirable.

[Amicalola]

T133 Continued

I'm making one last-ditch offer to work together against Mackoti ('huyna' this turn, for some reason ). I half want him to decline, but I should at least still try to stay alive long-term. 


I sent Naufragar this, followed by a white peace offer (I figure we've both done enough damage to each other that neither should have to pay reparations). 


On the battlefield, I'm taking one turn to heal up my units with my 2nd GG (Michiel de Ruyter), who I turned into a Great Medic. I would be pushing hard here, except Naufragar still has a large stack covering their retreat. I also have 5 combat workers, when I need 6 to attack safely. Maybe I can catch them in a couple of turns, if I surprise them with Engineering. 


Great Generals 3 (spawned on Moai island) and 4 (104 experience away) will be settled in Cocoon, for instant 3-promo horses. 


Treasure Planet and Shameless, who raided Naufragar long ago, won another 32% combat, against Pindicator's blocking trireme. Against all odds, it looks like they might both return home! Naufragar and Pindicator have triremes in hot pursuit, but these guys have still had a pretty amazing run so far. Keeping them alive might not be objectively important, but my God have they boosted my morale over the last 10 turns.  

[Amicalola]

T134 - Resignation

Pindicator razed A Stain with another navigation galley. I'm not sure how he keeps getting them, I'll have to ask him after the game. They're absolutely kicking my ass though. I was 1 turn away from getting a longbow into it, which I'd actually thought was silly anyway.  



Naufragar also didn't accept the peace offer, which means there's a ticking clock until Mackoti wipes us both out with Galleons and Janissaries. So let's find out just how much damage knights can do to The Village before then, I guess. I'm not sure what I did to incur so much of Naufragar's wrath this game, but it sure seems like there's something I'm missing.

[Amicalola]

T135

Pindicator sunk my galley at 30%, and now threatens all the northern cities, as well as forcing me to whip more ships. 'Something something lucky and good.' 



In all fairness, I guess this is the luck evening out after my own silly fights against Naufragar's triremes. Unfortunately it matters a lot more here, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles. 

I think I'll take a break from reporting this one. The invasion/battle kept me going because it was exciting, but now every move just feels... hollow. I'll try to come back in a few days/weeks when the sting is gone; I'm sure before too long I'll be able to laugh about this like my other games. But I need some time to reframe my thinking into "nothing to lose," so that endless whipping and fighting is fun instead of painful.