RB Pitboss #1 [SPOILERS] Willem of Persia

[shadyforce]

I have oodles of units in the area, but on the jungle hill I have a Guerilla 1 Longbow, C1 Mace, C1+C2 Jumbo and C1 Pike along with my worker. There is also a chance at moving on Fairfield via a spy road sabotage.

Email from Rego:

Hey Brian,

I know that you said that you were going to respond to my email later on, but I am jumping the gun! I spent a bit of time thinking about your earlier proposal (basically you, me, Daniel, Kodii and either Sunrise / Broker), and wanted to give you some of my thoughts on it. I have been warming up to it a bit.

So, a few thoughts, which hopefully will be somewhat coherent.

* As I mentioned in my earlier email, I can't stab Elkad in the back like this. I was thinking that to be fair, I would need to formally resign from the G5, and give a 10t (or some length) NAP to the other folks. (I am assuming that our new group would all covertly sign NAPs among other things). And honestly, I don't know how much military assistance I will be able to provide vs. Elkad. I know that sounds kind of weaselly, and I really don't mean it to be. I will provide what I can, but if we shake things up as we talked about, and Krill / Yaz is on the "out" side, in addition to my minor Imhotep problem that I'll likely continue to have, I am going to have a MAJOR Krill problem and will likely need to focus the majority of my units in that direction.

* For the reasons you mentioned in your email, I choose Sunrise over Broker. It may be worth discussing even bringing both of them on board - I see pros and cons to doing that. On the one hand, it turns us into 6v5 instead of 5v6, and eliminates some of our matchup problems (especially for Kodii), and robs the other guys of probably their strongest techer (besides Elkad). On the other hand, it does allow another potential strong civ into the "winners" group. Anyways, I have already had some preliminary (vague general) discussions with Sunrise and I think he will be on board. I don't know if you have talked to Daniel or Kodii at all, but it may be time to open some talks with them.

* Not least because my espionage reports me that Kodii is likely to finish Liberalism this turn. I don't know what he is planning on taking with it (though I assume that you do), but obviously if we're going to change the alliance structure, we want to make sure that those techs do not end up in the wrong hands

* One thought I had was that I am kind of switching from one 5v6 alliance to another. Now, this switch does give us 1) surprise, 2) civs with generally bigger armies and 3) better techers, but it was just a thought that I had. That's why I mentioned potentially bringing Broker on board as well, though I do understand the disadvantages in doing that.

Well, those are some of my initial thoughts. It does seem that time is of the essence here so hopefully I'll hear from you soon

dan.
regoarrarr
India

Now this is a proposal worth considering. Forwarded it onto Daniel and Kodii to see their reactions. I've asked Rego to clarify what he will/won't do in that 10 turn cooling down period with regards to assiting Elkad should I attack him.

Perhaps the game will get a much needed shake up. But care must be taken to make sure we are not weakening our position for nothing.

[shadyforce]

Ok well it looks like this alliance shift is going to go ahead. It will be me, Rego, Sunrise, Dsp, Kodii and we'll probably also ask Broker. We haven't announced anything to our old allies or shared any techs yet but it looks like this is for real. Go to Rego's thread for the correspondance.

First order of business is a large movement of units down towards Elkad. I have a spy heading around behind Sicca to check Elkad's reinforcements inland and I've asked Daniel to check what he has on the road along the coast. And unless Elkad has a monster stack hiding behind the city, my first wave will advance next turn.

There is no point mucking around letting people figure out what's going on, giving Elkad time to draft an army. Speed cost me in the attack against Rego but it won't this time. I have 7 cats, 6 Jumbos, 2 Maces, 2 Pikes and 2 Horse Archers for the first wave. I have another 15-20 units straggling along behind, that won't get there in time for the initial assault but are useful reinforcements. I've also diverted a few units off to The Hospital on Imhotep's borders in case something breaks out over here.

Pictures and plans next turn.

[shadyforce]

[SIZE="3"]T142: The march to Sicca![/SIZE]



There's not much to it other than move SW next turn, absorb the hit if he has units that can do so and take the city next turn. At present, I see no reason why I should not keep Sicca. He has city walls so barraging the city may use up most of my cats and I may need to spend a turn doing that. But I'll decide when the time comes depending on what he has in the city.

[shadyforce]

--------- Dsplaisted to NUTA ---------

The UTA and the NUTA are in a stalemate. This game needs some chaos to be injected into it.

Therefore, I am resigning from the NUTA.

Good luck everyone!

Daniel

--------- Myself to NUTA ---------

Wow, ok hold on a sec. If we all just fall apart right now, the UTA are going to storm clear of us. I know it's been frustrating but is this really necessary?


--------- Munro to NUTA minus Dsplaisted ---------

(Note - I have taken dsplaisted off the distribution)

Sounds like UTA might be breaking up as well. I don't think dsplaisted is simply joining UTA. Looks like Dan (regorrar) might have been busy putting together a new alliance (let's call them NATA - "Not Another Tech Alliance!" ) with which to rule the world.. and they have the initiative so I think we need to stick together and react quickly to find out who our friends are. If we co-ordinate well we should minimize the chance of their catching any of us in the headlights...

Anyone have any UTA friends they can reach out to to see what the deal is? I can try Elkad and Broker. Anyone want to talk to sunrise and the Lins?

Munro

--------- Yaz to NUTA minus Dsplaisted ---------

OK fellas I figure I should fill you in one what I know though can't
be sure none of you are part of the new rego super alliance.

Since before I joined Krill and Rego were trying to organize a super
alliance made up of UTA and NUTA members. These talks continued with
Rego after I joined though I pretty much just finished spitting in his
eye by settling his border aggressively during settling negotiations
to try to finally be in a position to help poor shady against him. I
was never really going to accept though because it was fairly clear
what the plan would be. Made a super alliance, take out some of the
smaller NUTA players and then turn the new team on me since he'd see
our big territory as his largest threat.

Originally the alliance was supposed to be something like.
Me/Krill
regoarrarr
Sunrise
Broker
Elkad
*Ruff/Munro
*dsp

* denotes a maybe

The first targets for it were to be mhk and Imo. So MHK I'd be on the
lookout if you haven't been recruited as they could be gunning for you
soon if they don't come en-masse against me.

If this is true then they have obviously gotten top researchers and
that will quickly screw us over if we don't act fast. I'm open to
suggestions, especially since I'm probably going to be leaving soon.
But I'm thinking our only real option is to hit them hard and hit them
fast. Target our efforts and take out one of their major players
(personally I think rego) and crush this alliance before it can even
get started. To do that then everybody not in it would need to team
up and get in the game and work together.

I know rego has split from UTA btw as I've spoken to Lins. Lins
hasn't been recruited to the new team.

-Yaz

It seems like we NUTA are in a bit of a Battlestar Galactica situation. We have to stick together and defend against the Cylon threat. But some of us could be Cylons. I might even be a Cylon myself and not know about it...

[Cyneheard]

Save us, Commander Tigh, save us!

*popcorn*

[shadyforce]

[SIZE="3"]T143 - At The Gates Of Sicca[/SIZE]



I'm glad I brought along the Combat Engineers because it speeds up the deployment of the reinforcements coming from behind and also means units in my stack that do not attack could charge for the next city or units that appear near where the Spy is.

That GG Knight is quite a dangerous unit. Something like 80% retreat, extra experience combined with cheaper promotions, and 3 movement across hills and forests! Worth a GG? I doubt it. But it's cool nonetheless.

Presumably Elkad isn't going to park those Knights in the city (I should be so lucky) so they are a bit of a wild-card.

I'm not sure where Elkad got that 4th Longbow from. Maybe it was on a tile south of the city or maybe it slow built it? Also, does anyone know why the city defence jumped from 50% to 100%? What benefit do city walls provide? I'm just glad I brought plenty of Cats.

I think I need to bring a Combat Settler to found a city on those roaded forests which will seriously hurt Elkad's ability to counter.

[Swiss Pauli]

From the change in graphics from the two pics, it looks like Elkad completed a Castle which would tally with the 50% defence increase. Bombing defences down will take more or less forever...

[shadyforce]

Due to our good relations though I'll let you know ahead that if Elk does sign up with us I will be warning him about your attack plans. Can't have you wiping out one of my new allies :P

Oops, too late.

Can you believe it takes 25 accuracy cat turns to reduce the city defence to 0%? Craziness. Since bombard does so little to the city defence, there doesn't seem much point in sitting around bombarding for a few turns before attacking so I guess I'll just attack right away and accept whatever losses come my way.

I ran some sims and it seems that I need 4 cats (two Barrage II and two Barrage I) to reduce the units to just over half health. So if I use the other 3 Cats (promoted to Accuracy) to reduce the overall defence of the city to 88% first, then I get a string of 60-80% battles. So losing 4 cats and 1-3 str 8 units, the city should be mine.

[shadyforce]

Hey guys,

I talked for awhile with Broker today. I gave him the basic scoop of what is going on. I tried not to give him everything, in case he turns out not to be interested, but it was hard because he had a lot of questions and they were pretty fair questions. So I ended up giving him more than I'd have liked.

He is going to think things over and get with us in the next day or two. I think he will end up on our side. A few things

1 - he was most concerned about leaving out the Lins. I gave him some good reasons why that was necessary

2 - he only shares a water border with Munro, so an attack might be more challenging than we first expected.

I remain very against giving anyone (Yaz, Munro, etc) any more techs. I think at least for Yaz, the ruse is kind of up. We need to stick together now, so we can ensure that we are the ones going to the end. I know that this initial period is the one where it's risky and everyone kind of feels worried about being betrayed. That's why it's so important for us to stick together. Depending on what Yaz is doing, it may not be possible for me to do anything against him, militarily, but at least I'll make him spend hammers into military rather than into expansion. I'd just rather those hammers go into Longbows and Elephants, rather than Muskets. And again, if we can stick together, it won't be long before we have a military edge that makes it possible to do some serious damage.

dan.
regoarrarr
India

* = Not Another Tech Alliance, coined by Munro.

Mark: Hey, did you get my message?
me: just reading it now, was away all day
Mark:
I've been in front of my computer all day trying to figure out what's going on
And watching desertbus
me: I've been considering my position, whether it is feasable for me to continue in the NUTA with Daniel turning against me
and also, since my one job in the NUTA is pretty much to be at war with Rego, and that I may be forced into peace because of AP vote anyway, hat makes it more awkward
Mark: Could always war dsp :P
Anyways I'm working on a bit of new alliance since things are splitting.
me: I had secretely been hoping that Daniel's resignation was indeed a move towards a FFA situation, and I was strongly considering following suit since I've heard that UTA is indeed splitting up as well
to me, FFA is what the game should have been, I've been tiring of this alliance structure
Mark: Fair enough.
me: TBH, I think my best play is to make peace with Rego, at least for now (no long NAPS - I don't do them), and to continue my war with Elkad - alongside Daniel
I realise that this is not ideal for you, but I guess it's fair to let you know you probably won't be able to count on me to flank Rego for you in the near future
Mark: OK. Well in the interest of letting you know where things are going, Elk may end up in our group because we could use another techer. It sounds like mhk may be with rego.
me: I could war with Daniel, but my border with Rego is uite long and I'd need a lot of defence there... if it is true that Daniel and Rego have formed a full alliance
Mark: I've heard it from a couple angles and pretty sure it's not coincidence that they both left at same time.
He's trying to keep the list secret though but I pretty much know who he's been going to and know I've gotten one of the people he wanted.
Due to our good relations though I'll let you know ahead that if Elk does sign up with us I will be warning him about your attack plans. Can't have you wiping out one of my new allies :P
And if things shift the way I'm hoping they do in the next couple days rego could be in a lot weaker position then he was hoping for.
me: fair enough
(re warning Elkad)
as I said, if you can't count on me then you gotta do what you gotta do, and I just think I need to keep my options open
Mark: Yup. Well let me know if you want to discuss anything, even if it's just a one off deal with your crazy rebel nation
me: of course, I got on well with Krill and I get on well with you, lets keep chatting and see how things unfold

Very interesting. What's going on? Has Yaz gotten to Broker? Has Broker fooled Rego? And whis Yaz telling me this - is he not now reasonably certain that I'm on Rego + Daniel's team?

[shadyforce]

[SIZE="3"]T144 - The capture of Sicca[/SIZE]

First of all, the Knights were nowhere to be seen though the graphic of roaded tiles suggested that nearby roads had been pillaged. Also, the Numid had escaped and left the 4 Longbows along with the Explorer. Also, I hadn't realised that the Longbows had other promotions. The 2 unpromoted ones got CG1 which was a little annoying.

As planned, I bombarded the defences down to 88%:


Then, I sent in the 4 collateral damage cats. They did their job as expected, though the total damage to the top defender (The CG2 Longbow) was below expectations, he was only down to 4.7/6 after 4 attacks.


So my first Jumbo was going to be a suicide mission and I chose the 5 XP Combat 2 Jumbo who duly died. After that I had one 70% defeat and cleaned up the rest - so the odds went as expected. I was sure to keep my 8XP Jumbo until a reasonably safe fight to get him up to 10XP which worked (he's actually on 11 now).


Next my combat engineers roaded the tile my stack was on so I could head west and see what Elkad had in the fog. Here is the missing Numid:


And here isn't the missing Numid:


I moved some units into and near the city and onto the forest tile where Jumboy is and I promoted Death the Immortal into a Medic for my injured stack.

I also moved my Spy and found where the Knights went. They have indeed pillaged some roads.


This is a rather clever move as it will slow down my advance towards Elkad's core and buy him time to draft some Muskets.

Yes, Elkad has just traded for Gunpowder from Broker. Which means further gains pre Cannon/Rifles may be tough. And also means that Broker may not be on our side at all, which makes this game a heck of a lot tougher for us, and more interesting for everybody.