[SPOILERS] Pindicator emerges from the wilderness to play pb74

[pindicator]

184

Tarkeel moved his units slightly back, and sent us a fish-for-fish response, and so I think we're good there.




It certainly has the appearance of defense against an attack from Plemo, with the knights in the back to support the two stacks. However, we had to be sure before going after Metal.

So the galleons with our DZ invasion for continued north. We are likely going to send most of our new units north now to replenish that force, and also because down the line we're either going to push towards DZ's capital, Plemo's islands, and possibly consider an invasion of Tarkeel after (some 20-40 turns from now really).

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though:




I really was mistaken earlier: i had thought I could reach the tile E-NE of Nampo and fork both cities - but that was if we had taken and held Wonsan. With John Muir 1 tile to the south and metal's culture taking over that spot there was no way to fork both cities on the first turn of the invasion. Instead the knights all moved NW to the jungle. From here they can't be hit unless Metal has a pair of workers hiding somewhere - and then we can get first strike on all the hitters in Nampo.

Unfortunately there are too many units total - it will take us 2 turns of attacks even if we win every single battle. So that is more than enough time for Miguelito to turn his knights on the very lightly defended Pusan. Oh well, we will just need to see what happens there.




We do have a settler coming into the area next turn though, hoping to settle the ruins of Seoul. It lands by the Elephant north of Nampo next turn

Also, I am comforted by the lack of units from Miguelito in the area:




I think he's warming to the fact that we are looking to not make enemies and just both get some easy cities. Yes, he could have taken it all, but he has lots of easy cities still to conquer.

With all that we switched a lot of our cities in the north back to infrastructure builds.




And the core, if you're curious:

[pindicator]

185

So is Civac a liar, liar with pants constantly on fire?




I stopped the advance of the DZ task force. We aren't retreating yet - but we're just sitting a turn. They're 2 turns out from being able to unload into Perpetua, if needed.




I also refrained from mass whipping of units - though I did 1-pop whip a couple forges to completion up north.

Meanwhile, metal made a very unexpected move.




Not wanting to be hit by our knights, he ran for Pusan. That actually is a big relief, because if we need to bring our knights home now we're going to be able to.

(Also, I don't want Miguelito to take Pusan, but it would be hilarious if he hit Pusan now and metal never had the chance to use him big stack of units. Especially after all the wandering they did.)

I used one of the formation knights and won a 81% battle to take Nampo, then deployed a bit like so:




All 7 galleons we had in the are moved by Rouen. If needed we can load up 21 knights and make a beeline for Amicaland with those galleons, crossing here:




So if Civac moves that stack up next turn we shuttle 21 knights straight into GT and can get them to the outskirts of Cretto as Tarkeel's army is at the gates of Glacier Peak. 187 is also the turn that the DZ strike force would unload their units into Perpetua. So I'm confident we can have 10 cats and 40-some hitters here. Largely would want more catapults, so I will work on making those.

[pindicator]

We're chatting about the turn a bit, and none of us really think Civac/Tarkeel are going to attack right after repeating fish for fish. But we also can't figure out why they would move their troops like this. In the end, we decided to move the DZ task force boats up and not wait to see what they would do. It just doesn't quite feel right that they would be moving like this if they really are trying to attack us: why sit back a turn last turn?

[pindicator]

Lurkers, a double move question for you:

For t185 we played most of our turn.
Then Donovan Zoi played his turn.
After discussing the civac/tarkeel movement with my ded lurkers we decided there was no reason to hold the DZ invasion off and then moved those boats forward. They're now in position to strike his island cities if we do go forward with that next turn (i.e. if civac/tarkeel don't do anything).

However, does this mean we need to wait a turn to attack? Hitru was asking about us attacking next turn and while we didn't see any units of his in the area and don't believe he has any way of spying our boats, at the same time we did technically move those galleons after he played. So would appreciate some lurker input on whether we can attack DZ next turn or if we would need to wait a turn and keep things in line.

Edit: We do intend to take the first half of the turn to keep our split in line with Miguelito's. If DZ happens to play before us then all this is moot.

[Krill]

The lurker advice is to not play split turns.

[Krill]

I know what I want to say. Well, I already said some of it, but you should probably post as many screenshots of the theatre as you can.

[pindicator]

The lurker advice is to not play split turns.

Yeah, I agree with this.

I think I'll either wait to play after DZ or just delay a turn if there's any question.

[pindicator]

187

Short update, there's just no time lately it seems.




We declared on DZ this turn and took the lightly defended La Oroya.  Landed 6 knights, a pike, and 2 cats by The Eiger. Have another 11 knights headed north in boats, but we're probably going to have to zerg these cities down sadly.

Sent Mig a message that was intended to tell him that we just want the island. Oh sure, I would have loved to take DZ's capital and gotten a foothold up there but it isn't going to happen:




Have all our knights split now: there's the 18 we have headed towards this island, another 11 left behind on the eastern continent for defense, and then another 13 or 14 on the mainland now. The idea is to keep the mainland knights always a turn away from being able to load up on boats and set sail for the east. Perhaps I'll have to revisit this idea in the future - will need to think about where galleons and units to keep a flexible defense.

Set research to Steel. Hopefully due in 5. One Wealth build so far but more will likely be needed.

[pindicator]

191

I keep saving pictures and then run out of time after playing. Sorry for the lack of updates, I'm writing this in the middle of a work meeting so it will be brief...




We zerged down the last 2 cities on DZ's island with our knights, with heavy losses. Cost 3 knights to take The Eiger and then another 5 to get through the 2 muskets on a hill behind castle walls at Salts. We only have 11 knights left over from this northern group. Muskets and longbows are on their way to garrison here and free them up, but for now the healthy 6 are back on boats.

Naturally they are going to invade Plemo's island next turn. There's a privateer showing up now, but it won't be able to attack our boats due to the shape of the island.

Meanwhile, war is all around us. DZ and GKC should be eliminated by Miguelito this turn:




And Plemo was invaded by Comm and Tarkeel/Civac last turn:




Comm took the cities on Plemo's island to the south. Plemo has sent us demands to attack Comm and Civac both, but sadly he is not on the right side of this. Our only path to a win is hoping Gav and Comm fight, and that means we want Comm expanding west / Gav expanding east. Plemo, sadly, you are in the way.

Though we do want him to throw in against Civac - and possibly give us an opening to attack Tarkeel/Civac with cannons, muskets, and Knights.

But we should be able to control the narrow sea here. Steel finishes eot: drydocks about to go in everywhere. Ironworks being built in Finisterra.

And we are about to settle our 40th city, landing the settler this last turn:




To the north we spied a Commodore galleon & work boat, so we are actually winning a settling race for once!

[pindicator]

192

A little time to do some reporting...

Intentionally burying the lead, but we settled our 40th city this turn!




When we were in the middle of a slog with Amicalola, I'm not sure we ever thought we would get to 40 cities.

Workboat is still some time out, and a second work boat is right behind.

Okay, what you really want to see:




The turn opened with Plemo asking us for Gold and I accepted. Then there was a big debate about whether we go through with our plan to attack the crab island or not. Reasons for and against were given: maybe Plemo gives up and doesn't smash against Tarkeel's stack if we attack; maybe Tarkeel lets his guard down more if we do. In the end, I decided we were all over-thinking things: Plemo settled this city right ahead of us and I still want this spot so we are taking it.

So we unloaded 6 knights, capturing a pair of much needed workers. There's a bit of a scramble to cover for the privateer and galleon we have sight on. The galleon can hit Scootsville so we shuttled a pair of units into the city with the galleys. Our galleons that unloaded were covered by a privateer, and we have our first frigate NW of Scootsville. More coming north, but there isn't a rush for them because we are building Drydocks first. Also, Ironworks in Finisterra - due in 15.

Decided that Mig is going to focus on Magic Science next, so we are taking a risk and loading up all the knights from the east:




Drama is the next tech because we need the cheap theater in Perpetua, to allow us to hire more specialists faster. National Epic finishes end of 193, Theater finishes 194, and then our next Great Person comes out end of t205. Golden Age starts t206.

This means we need to research Education, Economics, and Code of Laws by t206. And we want to get through Nationalism by t213 so we can swap into drafting afterwards.

One-on-one we'd have our hands full with Plemo, but he is completely being teamed up on here. Commodore is going take all his coastal cities, and Tarkeel appears to be heading up the north coast.




We probably stay at war with Plemo though this is all we're taking at this time. We're going to move everything towards Scootsville & Perpetua in the move to attack Tarkeel. Bonus: I felt I could move all my units up to Perpetua in view of Tarkeel's watchful spies under the pretense of us going to load up to attack Plemo's islands.

And yes, I'm sure Plemo is in part "punishing" me for not siding with him. He doesn't seem like a player who is used to being in this kind of situation and I'm sure there was a little pleasure derived from his realization that he had to wait for me to end turn. Could practically hear the disdain in his tech thread post.

Anyway, this is the price for us "helping" him fight Tarkeel/Civac in 5 or 6 turns.