Sengoku Chevalier: Hiun no Kishi

[williams482]

If those pins were globally visible, other players could also use them to (roughly) work out where whosit is, as happened accidentally with that encampment pin in PBEM7

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 39


Gamble pays off and no galley shows to pillage our new turtles, and our own galley is up next turn. I move onto the horses in anticipation of pasturing them next turn. Unless the barb galley re-emerges on the interturn and covers the turtles, I should be good to go. And if that second scenario happens, we hold off on the pasture for a few more turns. We lose a bit of food and production, yeah, but that's what barbs are for.

Meanwhile:


Capital spices. Figures.

Anyway, I can keep bodyblocking here, or I can retrace our steps and defog more of the area south of Hong Kong, get a better feel for the neighborhood. We've probably irritated Whosit enough, but slowing down his third city until I can get MY third settler out (after the warrior, because obviously) would be a great way to claw back some ground. What he SHOULD do is keep a second unit here to watch my warrior, because I can try to anticipate him around the lake - taking a guess if he goes north (seems to be the safer route through his capital lands) or south. South is blocked by mountains so I'll guess north. If he keeps the slinger watching, he can use the slinger to quickly occupy the path. If he removes the slinger, well, then he may bump into me again in the north. Or he might already have a unit securing the pass there. Who can say!

Anyway, I'll look a bit less plump and vulnerable next turn when the galley finishes. Really regret losing that warrior, but nothing I could ahve done once the horse archer spawned - I retreated immediately but it still ran me down and shot me.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 2 of the day. Warrior spots the slinger/settler heading north over the lake, so I'll swing north to try to intercept again. 

Galley, of course, shows up ON the fishing boats. Will pillage next turn, then I repair on the turn after that and occupy it with my newly finished galley. So a few more turns until I get the pasture. Bah.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 3: Galleys out at both cities, fishing boats pillaged (again).

Whosit comes offering his spare honey for my spare turtles. After some thought, I accept. He surely needs the luxury more than I do, but extra amenities wouldn't go amiss here, either. Mutually beneficial.

Still gonna try to block him moving east, though. Go west, young man, go west.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 4 (43)

Unbelievable:


The turn AFTER I move my galley to scout the barb camp, a barb QUAD spawns BEHIND my galley, preventing me from escaping. My only desperate chance is to try to break through with both galleys to Tekisanzu. 

This is fucking bullshit barbs, man. Spawning quads this fucking early? I'm sorry, I'm starting to get seriously irritated with our barb luck this game. I've never had worse.

EDIT: Oh, and I can't build a pasture because the horse archer turned up on my borders and will just pillage it. Peachy.

[williams482]

Barbs can get (very) bad in IV, but VI has to take the cake for ridiculously unbalanced and completely illogical scenarios like this. Are we supposed to believe that someone has shipbuilding already? Or did this camp just get the ability to spawn quads because someone decided pure galley spam wouldn't be exciting enough?

They should have at least shipped VI with some controls over how bad barbs get beyond the (inadequate) limiters they stapled to difficulty level. Spawning two camps off your capital, both with superior units to what anyone else in the world can build? This is absolutely brutal. Ranting and raving fully justified.

For mitigation here, you're presumably going to need either another galley or a couple of archers to deal with that quad. The galley is probably the better bet, but if another quad pops out of that camp, It's probably going to get rekt too.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 44

A rare lucky break - our galley survives the barbarian ambush by the slimmest of margins:


The quad and barb galley did their best, the barb even suiciding himself, but I scrape through with single digit HP. I flee towards Tekisanzu, covered by my other galley, which will withdraw to the reef next turn to also begin healing. 

I also pasture the horses at last, for the Horseback Riding inspiration (unlocks horsemen), the Craftsmanship inspiration (will enable me to slot Ilkum and military training, as well as enabling a God-King policy swap), and for +1 culture and production at Tekisanzu. I'll want perhaps two more builders at home to pasture my other two horses and create a farming triangle near Tekisanzu. 


City #2 is looking halfway respectable, at least. Finish the second holy site and at least a second warrior, then probably need a pair of settlers, then some builders, and then look at expanding our districts (plus squeezing in horsemen for Hong Kong - might be a priority over Settlers, since I'm pissing Rome the fuck off today*)


*Re: pissing Whosit off - I guessed right. Whosit, when you read this in a few months, remember you don't have to passively hope I don't do the irritating thing! Send units to secure key passes, or try to doubleguess me:

 

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 45


Whosit takes my body blocking in good cheer and with the friendly spirit it was intended.



Right. Well, that's defensive tactics sorted, then. 

He rotated in a warrior and attacked my own, but my fortifications on hilly terrain make it an even fight. Still, I opt to begin withdrawing, since he's got more warriors than me. He won't be able to pursue without mounted or ranged units, not really, so no worries. 

Meanwhile, worries - the FUCKING quad redlines my other galley, and I've only got one city center to stash them in, so we'll probably lose a SECOND unit to barbs, as well as a THIRD pillage as the horse archer rides out of the fog onto our horses. Fuck this game, seriously. These spawns are ridiculous. I still don't understand how the horse archer spawned - I killed the scout before it got back to camp. And quads before anyone has SHipbuilding - because I know damn well I have the only two galleys in the game right now - is also nonsense. And stack it all on top of our terrible spawn area, well, I'm grumbly. I know other players are going through similar shit (Whosit is probably tearing his hair out over my settler blocking), but I only have my perspective, right? And this is, by far, the worst luck with barbs I've ever had.

[ljubljana]

damn ((( that barb luck is positively Canadian luckily this time the civ is /very/ non-blank, maybe enough to carry you to victory anyways if you can live long enough?

great job on the defensive tactics inspiration! was that the grand design behind body-blocking the settler in the first place? that one is always so difficult to guarantee getting, and this seems like a better way to reliably do so than any i've come up with in past games

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

It was a bit of a heads-I-win-tails-you-lose plan - I figured
a)Whosit doesn't declare war and I keep trying to ping-pong between the two mountain passes until he wises up and uses more units to secure his path
b)he declares war to shove me aside and I net defensive tactics.

The war isn't too concerning, because in the first place, he's not going to conquer me with warriors slogging over the hilly jungles between here and Rome, he needs probably roads, legions, and a great general to have a prayer, and in the second place, pillages don't matter becuase the barbs do that anyway.

Anyway, nothing new to report. I lost my second galley, because of course I did. Two entire units lost to barbs in the opening! No improvements for thirty turns because I had no improveable tiles outside the third ring! It's probably the worst opening we could imagine, short of losing a settler or something, so if we can claw our way back from the bottom this will be a game to remember.

For now, though, the beatings will continue until morale improves.