Sengoku Chevalier: Hiun no Kishi

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Yeah, he didn't go for it, but re-offered the same peace deal essentially. I took it and regained my (mostly desert) city, but the important thing is peace and a bulwark against Rome, who's being eaten by China. I now need to pivot to trying to work to contain Krill, however, the only option there is that Archduke's faith economy is strong enough to overwhelm the enormous Chinese advantages. 

My concession to Krill stands - if Archduke doesn't think he can slow him, then the game is over.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Good news and bad news. 

Good news is we're at peace with our city back and campuses completing, so we've passed Whosit in science and now are after Archduke.


Factories are less than ten turns away, as soon as I finish my two workshops. 

bad news is Krill and I's military alliance expired the same turn I made peace with Whosit, and he didn't accept the renewed DoF. And he has ironclad fleets sniffing around my entire coast. 



so there's that. 

I left the offer lingering since I didn't get a 'rejected' notification, just a non-renewal. It's possible the units are just filling in his map of the world, and he, um, missed the offer on his end? Yeah. That's probably what happened. sure.

[williams482]

Is it worth crash building walls on the coast Krill has the easiest access to? If nothing else, getting the graphics on the map might discourage opportunistic attacks.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Krill's at battleships and has ironclad fleets, which will go through the cities like knives through butter. Realistically, there's not a jot we can do to stop him or even appreciably slow him. I was basically counting on the two big western powers remaining too occupied with each other to send fleets this way, but Krill's ending of our alliance and refusal to renew just has all my alarm bells ringing. Plus things like this fella, who's been camped outside my central harbors for a few turns:




So, yeah, if he attacks, we're dead. Amusingly, note also the Apostles to the north, who've already converted Korutu. Archduke is attempting to stamp out my Crabs religion with his own. He generates 5x as much faith (~300 fpt) as the rest of the map combined, and he has friendships with most of the world, so if he was REALLY clever he could mount a last-ditch attempt to convert the world, which might be what he's up to at the moment. I'll allow it and see how it plays out. The game ends when Archduke concedes to Krill or he sneaks the religious win out.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

It's so over:



Unless anyone has any bright ideas, we are totally and absolutely screwed. 

My only plan at this point is to try and hurry up Archduke converting me, then I'll do my best to convert myself and Whosit to his religion. Perhaps Archduke can convert Krill and greenline during the truce? 

That move is pure spite, of course, an effort to prepare for future games: I shall do everything in my power to ensure anyone other than you wins! 

but in all seriousness gg wp Krill, really showcased the power of Yongle here. Sorry I didn't do the same for Tokugawa, everyone! He really is a great leader!

[williams482]

It's weird how incredibly unsubtle Krill is being here. It would be trivial to keep that ironclad out of your vision until he's ready to attack, but he's decided to tell you in advance that he's coming for you. Why? Perhaps he figures it doesn't matter, but as your spiteful plan to help Archduke win shows, Krill could get burned for it.

There's no way for Krill to get ships onto your west coast except by going all the way around the world, right? So he's going to have to either land an army or deploy a second naval force to hit that coast, which will at least take time to come together. He'll have to [I]really[\I] biff it to give you enough time to catch up, but he could leave enough time to further that religious victory.

It's also possible Krill is just souring on the Declaration of Friendship in general, with no specific plans to attack you but not wanting to have his hands tied for 30 turns. Potentially motivated by Archduke exploiting their DoF to convert him. Has Krill signed other alliances/DoFs recently?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I don't think Whosit will last long. If you look at my screenshots - I didn't notice this while playing the turn - Whosit lost a city on the far side of his empire last turn. The very edge of the map shows purple Roman hexes flipping to yellow Chinese. So Krill's army is carving through Whosit's central domains while the Roman army, to my knowledge, has navally invaded Korea. Meanwhile, his fleet will devastate my core, especially the coastal trade that's propelling my research atm (we passed Rome! Hooray! Third place!).

So, Krill doesn't need to land an army. His expedition in Rome will hit from the other side soon enough. But yeah, it might be slow enough that I can spread Archduke's good word to as many cities as I can. I need a majority +1 of my cities, of Krill's cities, and greenline/Whosit's cities. The last two I can't do anything about, but if I spread it to my own cities I can make myself a bit of a poison pill for Krill.

[Erasmas]

Actively spreading TAD's religion would make you a very sour loser. Just because Krill does not want to extend the DOF, what is so enormously wrong with that? To me that would send an entirely different message for future games: don't trade with me because if you don't do exactly what I want, I will ruin your game. Don't let your depression about the game lead you to being so unreasonable. You cannot win them all.

As far as Krills ship goes, it means one of two things: he does not know the line of sight rules or he is not preparing an invasion at all, just keeping an eye upon you should you crumble and he could take some of the plunder.

It may well be the second because Krill will have to declare on TAD pretty soon, as that is the only way to stop his missionaries. Would he really want a two front war, one of them overseas? I think not.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Disagree. Functionally, I have pretty much no agency left in the game - there are no units or buildings I can create to resist a battleship fleet, which we know Krill has (his cities are at Steel defenses). Nor is there a clever arrangement I can make iwth my Samurai to resist, like I could against a technologically superior land invasion. So, the only agency left is an attempt to play kingmaker.

Note that I've already conceded to Krill, so it's not like I'm prolonging the game. Just the only possibility of his not winning at this point is if I lean into Archduke's religious attempt. And that seems more fun than clicking end turn until Archduke works out he's doomed! So that's what we're doing.

[Erasmas]

Fair enough. I have zero experience playing MP so I guess you know what you are doing.
Very surprising you keep finding ways to find fun in this game after all the cartloads of sh*t you got thrown over you .