Turn 158
These turns are getting complicated. So I started simple:
The two cuirassiers at the ruins of Tetsudo moved up and pillaged a village down to a cottage. I had moved a bunch of units to the capital where they could hit the cuirassiers no matter where they moved, and from here went with a Pikeman (67.1%) for a win, and followed that up with a Spear (12.5%) who came really close to the upset, sending the last Formation Cuirassier to 4hp. Then I cleaned up with my own Cuirassier.
From here I decided I couldn't let Old Harry have all of Cornflakes, even with TBS breathing down my neck. I couldn't commit my 20-some mounted units to open a front on Cornflakes, but I could move by sea. Limited as it may be:
My CR2 Jaguar won a 45% fight to take the city without losses. I decided to hold it. 8 turns of anarchy is a lot, but it is a size 10 city. My culture already grabs the surrounding tiles from the cities in my core projecting culture, but Old Harry can easily take the city if he chooses to. I moved my two-movers and my catapults south to Handsome Dan, so things look like so:
I don't expect to have many more gains here, to be honest. But what I do plan on doing is upgrading my galleys to galleons, loading them up and taking the island city of Christstollen.
The other reason I don't have many options on the land is the forces I have in the area are needed in case TBS continues to move his troops northward:
I think they are just positioning farther north because he has sentry knights inside Old Harry's core - but I'll be watching if they continue northward.
What this also does is makes it impossible for me to pump out any quick settlers to try and grab land on the peripheries. It would be impossible to defend adjacent to TBS' territory like this.
Finally, I also moved a small stack against Cornflakes' northern holdings.
He could reinforce by moving out of Apple Crisp, but I know that Old Harry has had units near that city and I'm hoping that I'll be able to take Whipped Cream with just these units. The Cuirassiers I had to mop up the landing at Tetsudo were also moved this way, so I'll have a few more units in this area soon. But this is rather important for me to take because Whipped Cream will open up being able to pressure TBS by the sea.
We swapped units again at Charger Blue.
Astronomy finishes end of next turn. We're pumping out the navy in anticipation. Not any galleys/galleons yet, but privateers first to gain control of the waves. I need to make TBS defend everywhere.
I strongly considered your exact combo and was looki nag forward to seeing how it played out. Congrats on a well played game!