[SPOILERS] yuris125 praying to RNGesus

[yuris125]

And now Thoth jumps on Pindicator's throat, judging by PBSpy. Guess he wants the western islands for himself

[yuris125]

Sacrificing a 0XP knight to get the info, but I had to see what's on the hill N of Pit Bull before deciding whether to advance




But it does look like evacuation is in full swing. If Pindicator has a lot catapults on boats, which he can move into Pit Bull and seriously damage my stack, well played to him

Took this turn to switch to Representation, was losing a good 80 beakers per turn to staying in HR, so I think taking the anarchy was worth it

Assuming I can get the city, the next step will be figuring out how to cross the strait.... Pindicator's fleet is way better than mine, judging by the swiftness of his evacuation

Thoth sent a fish for fish for 20 turns, which I agreed to. Realistically, the question of how to stop Commodore remains, as you can see he's about to finish Corporation and is almost at Assembly Line

[yuris125]

There's some merit in offering Pindicator peace for Pit Bull. Doubt he will accept - depends on whether he wants breathing room to better defend against Thoth - but might as well try. Gives me the option of sailing the army over to the horse city without danger of being attacked at sea - although I expect I would have to keep a significant part of the army on the mainland, considering I'm the next logical target for Commodore

[yuris125]

Pindicator does have a solid fleet




He did not accept the offer of peace treaty for Pit Bull, which I sent on the "no reason not to try" logic. But I'm pretty sure he wants to at least take Sarmatian from me, especially as he's now the one without any horses. Now, Sarmatian is currently not working any tiles, as I drafted 3 rifles to defend it, that anger hasn't worn off yet, HR happiness is gone, and it's not getting any happiness resources (Pindicator is blockading it, but without Astro it has no trade connection anyway). So I won't cry too much if it falls. But I will at the very least upgrade 2 maces defending it to rifles, to hopefully inflict some losses on Pindicator should he decide to try to take it. It's been a funny old war so far - there has been no actual fighting, other than me killing a single defender when capturing cities - and I do need to actually inflict some losses on Pindicator if we are to continue fighting

Speaking of inflicting losses, I could've taken Pit Bull this turn - I could hit the city with 8 guerilla 2 rifles and follow up with knights. But the numbers were not looking good - as you can see, a lot of the defending stack is filled with anti-knight unit, and even just attacking with the rifles led to a negative exchange, rifles were only getting 18% odds on longbows. So I continue a slow and steady approach

I'm surprised Pindicator didn't kill the knight I exposed to get eyes on the hill behind the city last turn, but I guess he didn't want to risk losing a unit even at low odds. Or he could've missed the opportunity, who knows

[yuris125]

Pindicator elected to defend Pit Bull (same stack as last turn). The top longbow defender was impenetrable, still a 50/50 odds against a rifle after removing cultural defences, and killed 2 cats and a treb without a scratch. I had to take a coinflip with a rifle, which I lost. The other longbow (who took some collateral damage) did die at 63%, and after that it was all 90%+ odds

Pindicator also advanced on Sarmatian, as I expected




I really should've upgraded the maces earlier, since I knew this was coming, and upgrade ruins fortification bonus. But anyway, I ran the numbers, and losing the city was unavoidable. So instead I took the chance to attack out, with rifles getting better than 80% odds on muskets. All 3 got their kills, which also generated a great general for me - luckily not in Sarmatian, that would've been awkward. So next turn I will have a medic 3 for the units who took damage in this turn's attack

That, however, was the easy part. Now I need to decide how much I still want to commit to this war, and whether I want to defend against Commodore if he attacks, or just accept that I will roll over and die if he does. The latter may be the better option, not like I can effectively defend against an infantry/cavalary/cannons stack - I would be a generation behind with every unit category

Thinking if I should offer Pindicator peace for Sarmatian. Again, I don't know if he will take it, not a lot of reason for him to do so, but it might be worth a try. If he does take it, it would save the 5 rifles in the city, and let me continue building up a privateer stack, while watching what Commodore does. If he doesn't attack in 10 turns, I will assume it's not coming, and feel free to hit Pindicator's remaining islands

On the other hand, it could just give Commodore the time to upgrade his rifles to infantry (or build new ones) and then just sit back and wait for me to send units away. And of course, if I want any chance of a comeback in this game, I should try to make gains as quickly as possible. So perhaps a forced 10t peace is not that good of an idea after all

[yuris125]

You know, I don't think Commodore is planning to attack me




Weirdly enough, this doesn't make my life that much easier. Building more knights accomplishes very little - to be honest, I didn't get that much value out of knights in this war, pretty much all fighting was done by rifles. I think their main value was in threatening to flank Pindicator's siege units if they ever got a chance. At this point though, I could research MilTrad and unlock cavs, but it still doesn't get me anywhere when all the fighting is overseas

In the meanting, Pindicator is sailing a stack of 30 privateers from his other island, where he battled with Thoth (still battling I guess, although this stack suggests he's given up on that land). My privateer count is into double digits, but a stack like this is not going to be fightable




I am building some galleys, which will be 3-move now that I finished Education - but the chances of crossing that straight are still vanishingly low

I'm still thinking about the best way to approach this, but it feels like the most realistic way is to research Steam Power and Steel for ironclads. Unfortunately that is at least a dozen turns away. Don't think I can afford to wait this long - so I do have to come up with a smart idea to continue this war

Small comfort is that Pindicator didn't take Sarmatian last turn, instead electing to bombard defences, which let me promote the rifles who attacked out last turn, and kill off one more musket. Of course, the city is still going to fall - just a matter of time, and how many losses Pindicator suffers while capturing it

[yuris125]

Pindicator finally took Sarmatian, losing some siege units and one more musket. He offered peace for Pisa, my other island city. I saw no reason to accept, Pisa just finished a rifle, and I have no issues with him sailing over a portion of his force to take it. His biggest threat is the 30-privateer stack, which I'm happy to kite around while building up my own stack. Also if he takes this stack away from Pit Bull / Great Dane area, it gives me an opening for the crossing

I'm going to build a fort 2S1W of Pit Bull, so that I can get to the other side of the peninsula with the fleet

Commodore is about to finish Assembly Line though. This really is a matter of when Krill and Thoth are ready to throw in the towel

Just to be clear, I'm happy to concede to Commodore whenever, at this point I don't see a way for me to stop him, or even be relevant in a war against him

[yuris125]

Krill and Thoth declared war on Commodore

I looked if I could join in, but there's nothing whatsoever I have to kill machine guns, which Commodore has in border cities

We'll see if they can do anything. Hope I'm wrong, but I think Krill's power rating is still below mine, and their combined power may be barely higher than Commodore's. Feels like a desperation attack before concession

[yuris125]

Got a diplo from Thoth suggesting I join the war against Commodore

At first I laughed at the proposal - as I said, I can't do much against machine guns Commodore uses on defence. But I think Commodore moved a lot of his forces to the west of his empire, the Krill / Thoth front. Some of the cities he acquired from Pindicator are relatively lightly defended (for this stage of the game at least)




My war with Pindicator doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. But maybe I can still contribute to stopping the runaway

So I went ahead and offered Pindicator peace for Pisa (my other island city). Assuming he accepts (no reason he won't, he offered this deal himself a few turns ago, and situation didn't really change since then), and my scouts don't see anything too scary in Commodore's land, I will declare next turn

It will probably go poorly for me, especially in the south where I have no strong units (but can probably do some upgrading / drafting). But maybe it will accomplish something. If the Krill/Thoth coalition can't do anything against Commodore, the game is over anyway - and with the current tech state, Commodore can take over my cities at the time of his choosing. Might as well go out with guns blazing

[yuris125]

PBSpy suggests that Pindicator accepted peace

Checked the thread to see when my fish for fish exchange with Commodore was - it was T161 (actually think I clicked accept in that one, so could've checked in game)

Guns blazing it is

Probably will have to eat another anarchy to switch to slavery, going on this adventure without quick hammers will be even more of a suicide than it is otherwise