Dreylin Blues 2000 is on (another) mission from Cod

[Dreylin]

No, that's bullshit and should not be allowed.

OTOH we can't exactly rule without revealing you do have EP vision.

Hmm, that's a good. point. I had just assumed they realised I have EP vision because the appearance of this note coincided with them moving their main stack out of the city and "elsewhere", but they might be fishing to get a reaction as you suggest. I guess this has to sit for later or post-game.

[Dreylin]

T161 - OMG, there's an EP slider!?

Yep, looks like Ginger finally pressed those buttons and cut my visibility. OTOH, this suggests I should still have it:


So

Anyway, I think they're coming in next turn or the one after as there's a Worker on the border "chopping a forest" near Trout.

Edit: sent diplo to Ljubljana checking that they are still planning to join a war on t165 ... I doubt very much that they will. Oh, and greenline is inching his stack of Cats one tile closer to our border each turn.

On the bright side, maybe I'll be dead enough before I go on holiday in two and a half weeks' time that I can employ Scooter's euthanisation services and not have to worry about logging in from campsites via phone hotspot...

[Dreylin]

T162 - The Downfall (pt1)

I'm coming for everything:


The "names" have arrived:


Same on both tiles:


greenline's stack is inching forward 1 tile per turn:


I tried:


I really don't see that there's anything I can do against that stack. I suppose I could offer something approaching the original deal, but that just puts everything off by 2weeks and then he comes back. Ljubljana has nothing I can see anywhere near their border and didn't respond to my diplo so no help is coming.

I'll run a quick test, but I doubt I have enough to put a significant dent in that main stack, so I may as well keep my own.  My instinct is to keep the Cats & Knights separated and pile everything else into Trout and upgrade what I can. I suppose I could throw my Knights against his mini-stacks outside Anchovy, but that also seems a bit futile.

Is it bad form to keep the bulk of my knights & cats available to hit greenline's stack when he eventually moves in?

[Dreylin]

T162 - continued

A few basic sims later and yeah, that stack is far too big to do anything about. But I can get a decent enough trade on his mini-stacks at Anchovy to be worth considering. OTOH, I can also get 5 Muskets & chaff in the city which should hold him for a turn.

But I also spot that Ginger has been careless with his Workers:


I can see 5 in the theatre; 2 here under this single Jann, and 3 more immediately to the NE unguarded. I even have odds on the Jann so I go for it. Loss with just a single hit in, but the second Knight wins flawlessly. So that's 2 Workers gone.

To get his other 3 costs me 2 of my own to put a road NE of the Chariot, which then captures and deletes the 3 Workers and itself.

I leave the uninjured Knight on the field and shuffle the rest of my forces:


If he pushes his Cuirassiers to take Trout next turn, the loss of his Workers means he cannot then reinforce it with his 1-movers. The Knights outside Perch are positioned to keep him honest at Sampsounta, but also in position to hit Anchovy or the stacks there which are small enough that I can get a favourable hammer trade. I also have a few Cats over here if he decides to combine them. The rest of my Knights and the bulk of my Cats are buried in Cod's culture out of range and ready to hit if an opening is left. I also have a few cheeky units on the Galleys to keep his coast honest, though he's only a few turns from Optics and Caravels so they probably won't do much.

I also canceled my ongoing trades with Ljubljana and asked him if he wanted them back:


I'm easy if not, I'm whipping my pop away faster than I'm losing Luxuries. 

[Dreylin]

Hey Dreylin I misclicked on your thread, I briefly saw the first photo but clicked out before I read any text or recognized any units. I did roughly see fog of war though/where you have vision
(although that's calculable from my end too). Sorry

[Dreylin]

Maybe he should just have written this in a unit name since he knows what I can see.

[Dreylin]

T163 - no help is coming.

Ljubljana sent an indication that they might join in on T170 ... yeah that's not going to be of any help. 

Meanwhile, I just don't understand the pillaging:


That's the second mature town they've razed; they can't be planning to burn Trout can they?

Also worth noting that despite taking this shot and reading it, I somehow missed that greenline has declared until later in the turn. 

Anyway, I can't stop the main stack, but I can get a decent trade from the 2 mini-stacks at Anglerfish:


4 Cats & 7 Knights exchanged for 4 Cuirassiers and 6 Janissaries is a pretty good exchange I think. It does pull a chunk of my force away out of position, but each of the surviving Knights has 8xp for a 3rd promo and a Great General is nothing to be sneezed at.

It's about now when I'm trying to work out what to do with the GG that I finally notice greenline's attack:


I'm not convinced this is great play from greenline; I'm pretty sure they finished Guilds last turn, but instead of waiting a couple of turns to upgrade some of the Horse Archers, he's pushed in. Admittedly I don't have many Cats in the area, but I can get most of my Knights in range, and I can trade favourably against this stack unlike Ginger's.

I hum and ha about what to do with the GG; I nearly go for pushing for additional promos into Trout's defenders, but eventually decide to get 6 of my Knights to their 3rd promo:


Sheepshead & Anchovy have dry-whipped Cats, so I'll have a couple in the area to prime greenline's stack. The highlighted Knights can hit if he moves NE adjacent to Anchovy, while the others in Plaice can hit if he moves SE to fork the 2 southern cities (which I think is a bad idea, but I think he attacked along the wrong vector anyway).

Important to note that since I sniped off Ginger's Workers last turn, he can't road under the big stack, and therefore can't use the captured Trout culture to get at the Muskets coming in to reinforce Cod. (At least I'm pretty sure!). He did bring 3 Workers forward into Sampsounta, so that won't last.

Any questions as I contemplate my demise?

[Dreylin]

T164 - payback

Well I misjudged how the culture would shake out:


Trout fell as expected and the borders let him hit my Muskets. Not sure why he stopped at 2. I was tempted to hit back and trade off some Knights for Cuirs, but I can't get any attackers away afterwards so I'd just lose them into his superior numbers. I'm equally tempted to sneak around to hit the Pike & 2 Jans behind Trout since they are covering a pair of Workers but decide against.

I think those Workers came off the Galley that had moved up to the spot where the Trireme is highlighted. In retrospect, I probably should have brought my Galleys back and hit them amphibiously rather than pushing the Galleys forward.

Anyway, I hold off any attacks in the North and shuffle some units back and forth.

In the South, greenline indeed moved his stack SE onto the hill. He also neglected to upgrade any of his units, so I hit it with everything I could get in range:


I'm not sure the Cats were worth sending, but I'm extremely happy with the results from the Knights since most of the odds were at somewhere in the 70's. The GG I did the same again, the 3 remaining Knight, 2 Muskets and a Chariot took the XP and the free upgrade. He headed north to hook up with the middle stack. After this picture I also pushed 2 Workers onto the hill West of Anchovy (covered by a Bowman and Spear) so that if he retreats and cuts the road on the current hill I can road that hill and catch the retreat.

Guerilla warfare is the name of the game now, nipping and catching what I can while dancing around the big stack.

[Dreylin]

T165 - Wallowing in misery with Superdeath

For the second night in a row SD & I were logged in together and commiserating with each other - non-specifically! - on the current state of our games. It was only about halfway through the turn that I noticed nauf had declared on him ... guess it got lost in the sea of green & red:



greenline decided to spend his Cats, which



I cleaned up his Cats and found one of my own to batter his Pike so I could knock off a few more HAs. That's probably the end of the fighting in the South ... at least until Ginger makes it down here:



I can't take on any of these stacks at the moment. I shift things around and reinforce Cod as best I can but I don't think it's likely to hold - and once the culture is gone he can reinforce it from Trout. I've shifted as much as I can to the NW and whipped a Castle into Perch. If he gives me a turn I might be able to do some damage to that stack, so we'll see.

[Dreylin]

T166 - Weep for Cod.

Reports will get shorter as less and less can be done each turn:


The largest city in the world reduced to ash, population scattered to the 4 winds.  

Thanos has had his way:


Perfectly balanced as all things should be.

They do improve somewhat as I lose a couple of units while retaking Perch:


The Explorer loss was frustrating, but I think useful to remove his eyes. Perch will of course fall again, but at this point it's about maximising the damage I can do - delaying him using the city for another turn is worth it, as is the likely further building loss.

So is sniping exposed Workers, as I did from the highlighted tile. Unfortunately I didn't have anything in range to grab the other 2.