[PB66] Tarkeel and civac explore the untamed wilds

[civac2]

I perceive the situation somewhat different from Tarkeel. We had concocted the clever plan of taking an SD city through the fort chain and then ferrying over our huge left-over knight stack to take his cities. Of course the plan depended on SD not getting Rifling in time. Despite being too late we went through with the attack anyway, partly out of desperation to get something going, partly because we were too wedded to the plan (it was just so clever). Mjmd and especially Gav grabbing part of the pie on the cheap was expected but due to SD getting rifles (and us underestimating his numbers) we are unable to fulfill our part and take SD's north.

So the situation has developed into a bit of a clown fiesta. I wonder how long SD can hold out in his northern core cities. He has around 30 catapults, some cavalry (+cuirassiers/knights) and some rifles.

[Tarkeel]

Civac is (as usual) correct; the main issue is of course that we executed the plan a few turns too late. It is very frustrating to see such a good defense being applied only to the vectors we can reach, while leaving the vultures to feast. On the plus side, we've barely had any losses, just two rifles and an unloaded galleon. This clown fiesta also increases the chance that someone other than P&P will win, just not our own chances.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 209 (1490 AD)
We finally found the opening we were maneuvering for:


The hill two east of Nidaros is in range of his mounted units but only 9 catapults. We can land 12 rifles and 45 knights, which should weather what he can throw at us, and G2 rifles can threaten Nidaros from there. First we have to clear some of his navy:
C1 Caravel vs Galley "Viking Warlords", 90.0%: loss
Caravel vs Galley "Viking Warlords" (1.5), 97.1%: win

[Tarkeel]

Turn 210 (1500 AD)
Our maneuvering did open up an opportunity, but not the one we'd expect. Mjmd played after us last turn, capturing Aarhus and Lindholm in the south. This turn he played before us, moving his fleet into Superdeath's bay to capture Haithabu, Nidaros and Tønsberg. Judging by Superdeath's force disposition he evacuated Nidaros, and Mjmd took advantage of double-moving us to take the city.


Our forces are 29 rifles loaded loaded on the main fleet at Roskilde, 12 rifles and 45 knights outside Nidaros, 14 rifles in Sigtuna, and 10 rifles and 2 knights loaded on the speed galleons.

It appears that Mjmd thinks he did us a favor by taking Nidaros, as he made the (illegal) offer of Nidaros to us for Corn. My first instinct was to declare on Mjmd to take back what was rightfully ours, and demand Haithabu in peace as recompense for the city he burned earlier. Civac talked me out of that, as it's a bit harsh. Taking the city would have the benefit of luring his army out into the field for battle. We think he's unlikely to attack Nidaros while Mjmd holds it, or the knight/rifle stack if it's standing on the hill E of Nidaros where only his mounted units can reach it across a river. If Superdeath should happen to move his forces so that the catapults can threaten the Nidaros stack, we can flee back into Sigtuna which will come under our control next turn neutralizing catapult first-strike there. We end up with 36 rifles and 47 rifles outside Nidaros and declaring war to extort the city.

As for Superdeaths five caravels, four suicided bravely into our frigate at stupid odds, and the last seems to have been deleted.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 211 (1505 AD)
For once something went as expected. SD declined to hit a city held by Mjmd, and didn't trade disfavourably against us. Instead he turtled up in his two remaining cities, with Gavagai's stack advancing on Lødøse. Since Superdeath's army doesn't want to play, we're taking our toys back on the boats, and are ready to land 56 rifles on him next turn.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 212 (1510 AD)
Gavagai's stack disappeared, and he sent the following diplo (in order): fish/clam for Roskilde, copper for Roskilde, nothing for our iron/copper, and finally fish for fish. My best attempt at interpreting this is that fish clam represents the city formerly known as Lødøse, and is an offer for us to take the city without interference. It also means facing down SD's stack alone. It could also mean the opposite, that he wants Lødøse and will give us Uppsala. This is of great interest, as Uppsala was actually evacuated:


(Also pictured is what used to be Superdeaths empire)
Nidaros is safe from attack, and Uppsala can be counter-hit by 6 cavalry, 13 cuirs, 13 knights, 13 rifles and 13 cats, which is manageable. We swing one galleon with low-xp rifles to capture the city, which comes with 113g, harbor and two obsolete wonders. We stuff the city with the knights and defensive rifles, and load up the rest to strike amphibiously as needed.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 213 (1515 AD)
Superdeaths remaining army is of such a size that we're offering peace, and might be returning later with infantry when some of it has disappeared to strikes. Going to be some uneventful turns again now.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 214 (1520 AD)
Superdeath didn't accept our peace offer, instead demanding Roskilde back. Fortunately he had a white peace offer behind, as staying at war with Superdeath now would effectively hand the game over to P&P, whom just put MagicScience out of his self-imposed island exile. Which is annoying in so many ways, not the least that we were targeting that island and had only just started moving forces that way. This is very bad news for several reasons, not the least that they can threaten our core from there. It's also like the 5th island city they've taken from under our nose, and we're still stuck on the one island we got from Superdeath (Roskilde).

The only island that was naturally ours on the entire map is the one that Magic went into exile on just before we settled it, which is pretty worthless expect for internal trade routes. Our first island was the one we captured from GKC, which then P&P stole by planting next to it and culture flipping it. That one is on us, we shouldn't have let that happen. As we were finishing of Alhazard, they swooped in and took that island as well, and lastly took the other Superdeath just as we were about to land forces at it.

With peace secured from Superdeath, it's time for renaming and an after action report.
Roskilde becomes Iceclad Ocean
Sigtuna becomes Eastern Wastes
Nidraos becomes Kael'Drakkal
Uppsala becomes Thurgadin

Was it correct to declare war? Given that our cities were starting to top out again and we were lagging behind in cities and territory, this was our only avenue of expansion and method of staying relevant.
Was it justified to declare war? Absolutely not. This was a pure example of might makes right.
Was it the right time to declare war? Also no. We should have gone in some five turns earlier, but we got distracted by Mjmd's offer of fighting P&P, which didn't happen. The moment Superdeath got rifling in time we knew we couldn't use the knights to run rampant as planned.
What was the result? In the end we lost one rifle and one galleon to take four cities, which seems like a low cost. However, as the other superpowers got most out of the war and we have no more room to expand, we're effectively out of the running. At least the gap between P&P and the others narrowed, and I think Gav has a good chance at challenging for the win here. With P&P fielding metal ships and having easy naval access to our entire core, our main effort now will be to stay alive.

Lastly, here are some empire shots:

[Tarkeel]

Turn 216 (1530 AD)
We had a few rifles being prebuilt in anticipation of finishing AssemblyLine last turn, and the last of the queue-upgraded infantry finishes next turn. We oped to fire our third golden age to push factories everywhere then, but are delaying it a turn to pick up Democracy first. Thus there's been a lot of discussion about which civics to swap into, both during and after. We've more or less decided that we want to try out the "new" trio of Mercantilism+Representation+Emancipation, and most likely running FreeSpeach and Theocracy. For the golden age itself we're likely looking at running OrgRel and slavery again to whip out infrastructure (especially in captured cities), with Bureaucracy and UniversalSuffrage to crank out a certain lady. The other option was running Serfdom+FreeMarket+UniversalSuffrage, which would be pretty close in total power.

Gavagai offered a defensive pact, and after thinking it through we re-offer.

[Magic Science]

It's cool to see a Defensive Pact in a Pitboss. .

Can we please see the Power graph?