[Spoilers] luddite tries to remember how this game works

[chumchu]

You should build a monument for Nelson. A column maybe?

[luddite]

You should build a monument for Nelson. A column maybe?

heh, it's a good idea. Uh, I don't really want to build a monument in the capital but I'll dedicate my monument in Rodman to him.

So I checked the combat log. This is why I thought my stack was safe: his first attacking musketeer had 0.2% odds!


And yet it was lucky enough to get 3 hits and badly wound the musketeer. the Nelson artillery won with 90% odds but also took great damage, blegh. It actually survived with just *1* HP:



Well, anyway, enough complaining about RNG. I counterattacked with swords. Lost 1, but killed his musketeer and chariot with the others. And wouldn't you know it- another GG appears! You gotta love Imperialistic:



I don't really know what to do with this one. Any thoughts, chumchu? I'd like to use it on the northern stack but getting it up there is tricky. I might just settle him in the capital or Rodman.

This might be greedy but I want to kill both of those retreating musketeers. I'm using my axe to block their retreat. I should be able to get both of them, unless he has reinforcements:


Otherwise... whipped two galleys to stop his. Moved up the northern stack, might fight next turn. Scooter is now swapping me his gold for a silver and 2gpt, helping my happiness. Demographics continue to be terrible. The war goes on!

[chumchu]

Ouch. He attacked at 0.2% lol. That is brave/foolhardy. He could just as well have bounced off without a scratch. But you were lucky earlier right?

About the gg. If you can get it forward in safety I would use it offensively for combat or CR on the stack. It is better to increase the odds of breaking Cairo now than to have a settled GG for the long term.

[luddite]

Yeah getting the gg up north would be ideal. But I'd feel very nervous sending it without escorts, and I don't have any .

Also, ugh, I just realized he's probably going to load the musketeers into his boats and escape that way. That's a big problem.

[luddite]

Ugh, so those boats were not empty after all, but fully loaded with musketeers. I lost mins meg and I may lose more. This sucks, if I hadn't lost that one AT at 80% I'd be safe.

[luddite]

So, yeah. not a good turn for me. I lost a city, plus its 3 defenders and a galley that I'd just whipped. And now there's extra musketeers that I have to deal with. Here's the events:



He had about 70% odds in all those battles, so this was about average luck. I just wish I'd left that spear in there, I don't know why I moved it out.

But, it's not all bad. First, he didn't move his injured musketeers onto the boats, he's retreating them on land. So I should still be able to intercept them:



(kind of hilarious that one axe can potentially kill 2 musketeers, but c'est la vie.)
Next: I wounded his landed musketeer with an axe, and finished it off my spear. I wanted to keep my sword strong as its my best defender. Somewhat lucky here.



He still doesn't have much to defend in the north. At least, not enough to stop my full stack. I think I don't have enough to split and keep both cities, but I should be able to raze Lyons and keep Paris. Question for lurkers: Do workers absorb collateral from catapults?



Lots of difficult decisions in the south for defense. He has a lot of options, and I have to defend against all of them. He might land next turn, threatening Tsar and Big Bertha. Or he might stay in the boats, threatening an amphibious attack next turn. Or the next, on Dardanelles. Or just keep moving around, threatening and destroying fishing boats. 

By my count he has 2 musketeers left in the boats, both injured (but healing as they move). I can defend Tsar next turn with a sword, a wounded spear, and a warrior, maybe upgraded to an axe. I've also got an artillery just whipped in Dardanelles, which I can use my GG on for another mobility super-artillery. So I went for another galley instead... hopefully got all the bases covered here. But this is really, really difficult to keep track of all the possible moves he can make.

[luddite]

Also, wtf!? scooter founded 3 new cities this turn, that's nuts. But I guess he needs to do something to catch up to oxy.

now he has more than 4x my cities and probably better cities, too.

[T-hawk]

Question for lurkers: Do workers absorb collateral from catapults?

No. In fact that's the first thing in Charriu's "mysteries of the DLL" thread, the mechanics of collateral damage, and he shows where it skips noncombat units as possible targets.

This war is still fascinating to follow along.

[luddite]

Cairo is really going nuts with the catapults. he now has *eight* around paris, vs just 6 musketeers. I don't really understand that strategy. My artillery are immune to collateral, and even at max collateral damage the AT still have good odds against musketeers. Plus the catapults can't defend or move quickly.

Admittedly, the catapults are good for attacking cities. Is he planning on just sending them south? I'm hesitating now whether to burn Lyons, or split my stack and keep it. I think I have just barely enough units to split my stack and still win, but it's a big gamble.

[chumchu]

Cats are usually good on the defensive as well. Maybe he goes on habit.

Maybe he wants small builds if he cant triple whip musketeers.

He could send them south but that is very slow and vulnerable when his core is dying.