[Spoilers] luddite tries to remember how this game works

[luddite]

Oxy captured and kept another city, so he's up to 20. Scooter is now down to 13, tied with me! Crazy to think that not long ago he had 4 times as many cities as me.

But, he's not entirely out yet. I found this little force of his hidden in a lake. Nice move to keep it protected.

[luddite]

OK, I finally got a look at the real fighting stacks:



Looks like two equal stacks of 9 frigates, 3 galleons, 1 caravel for Oxy. Vs 1 stack of 9 frigates from Scooter. And quite a few units in Shiv, something like 5 musketmen, 4 longbows, 2 frigates, 2 knights, and a galleon. So Scooter isn't completely out yet, just badly outnumbered in frigates.

I'm thinking now maybe my best move would be to get some galleys on the westcoast and attack Oxy from the rear? He might not be prepared for that. It will take a while to get over there though. I just finished an extra AT and arty this turn. Also planted a new city:



So many size 1 cities... I finished 2 granaries though, so they can grow faster now.

[luddite]

So yeah, I'm getting ready for attacking oxy from my west coast/his east coast. it will take... I think about 12 turns to build some galleys and get over there? Hopefully Scooter can hold out that long. Right now I have 5 arty, 8 AT. So I could build 3 galleys, and ship them in 2 loads. (obviously that's risky but I don't see a better option). I'm going to stop building settlers for now, and just focus on growth and military.

What should I do with my GG, I wonder? I could give all my arty an extra drill/barrage bonus. Or give all my AT an extra combat 1 promo. Or promote my galleys with navigation/morale. tough decision.

I'm also working on making a library in my southwest food city so I can finally get a great scientist, and use it for a golden age probably. then hopefully another soon after to bulb astronomy.

at least, that's the plan. I'm well aware that Oxy could attack at any moment and completely smash me.

[chumchu]

If you are going to attack I would suggest doing it in one wave as without surprise you will have a hard time getting across the water. 3 more galleys are not that expensive. Or you could limit the scope to a raid to keep up scooters morale. Long term you absolutely need galleons to do anything offensive.

I would also scout ahead along the west coast so that your expensive units are not immediately destroyed in their ships. Are you loading them in Marseille?

[luddite]

I'll try to get more galleys. The problem is that I just don't have a lot of good coastal cities nearby that can make galleys. Or... *any*, really. Just my 3 southwest cities, kinda far away. This is a complete hail-mary, just dumping my entire army at once and hoping to do as much damage as possible before it gets stopped.

Here's the area I'm targeting: I should probably scout it first...

[luddite]

Seems scooter was able to take 2 cities from Oxy. Probably with that 8 speed GG galleon i saw.

Impressive, but im not sure it really changes much. Oxy is still way ahead. Still, it buys some time.

[luddite]

Looks like Oxy made a landing.



I count.... 18 knights, 2 elephants, 2 pikes, 4 muskets, 1 crossbow, 1 chariot.
Certainly not a *small* force, but not a mega doomstack either. I don't exactly know what Scooter has, but I think he can at least slow this down.

[Qgqqqqq]

Probably doesn't matter in a three player game, but you can always post in your thread if you want to concede, and lurkers will announce when there's consensus.

[luddite]

Thanks, I'll bear that in mind. I figure they all knew the overall situation pretty well though.

[luddite]

I guess I was a little hasty in offering that end the game. Looks like Scooter did some major damage the last turn. Probably cleaning up Oxy land invasion?



Pretty sure there used to be a lot more knights here... still, the frigates are untouched.



Scooter also asked me for a loan. I accepted. My economy is so bad that this basically doubles my income lol.



But all my cities are growing fast now, so I should have currency before too much longer. and then calendar, and then my economic woes will be over. It's still a long, long way to astronomy though, and even longer to chemistry. I wonder how caravels fare against frigates...?

My main plan is still a sneak attack with galleys.