[SPOILER] Pacal II of China -Vets- Whosit

[Whosit]

In an unsurprising turn of events, Cyneheards takes the initiative once again, killing the sentry units I had south of Olympus. He's got Knights and stuff. Guilds finished at the end of the turn, and I'm chasing Engineering next, but I can see that Kylearan will have it several turns before me. And I don't even have Civil Service! I'm pretty boned here.

I did get a Great General. Guess I'll save him for a medic unit or something. But I've already started to redeploy units south (though keeping a small deterrent force near Valhalla in case Kylearan attacks, too). Cyneheard has me completely outmaneuvered, too, and I have a nasty wide front, and Rapture is surrounded by hills and forests I didn't get a chance to chop, so any attack force is going to have cover. Lovely.

I was wondering why the unit that finished off my sentries wasn't on the hill. Finally realized that Cyneheard must have just deleted it to prevent me from getting a kill off of it. It's a bit hard not to feel depressed since I doubt I can put up an adequate fight. How the hell did I get put in the Veterans game? I lost my first big MP game badly, and never did that well in the few pickup RB MP games I played. Oh well.

I suppose I'll have to go back over my play. Moving my capital didn't help, since I lost out on an extra food resource. I'm sure I didn't expand fast enough, though I feel my concerns about defense were justified. Dunno.

Well, though it goes against my general nature and playstyle, I think that I am just going to whip Knights out of my cities until I can't whip no more, then go in, swords blazing. Might sacrifice Rapture in that, since Cyneheard has his armies camped south of it (in his territory), but I'm pretty sure that any attempt on my part to attack his forces directly (either behind rivers or in forests or both) will result in my army getting slaughtered when I end turn next to his forces and he slams his catapults into my stack and that's that. No, I may as well leave a token defense, and send all I got south, burning as much as I can.

Only question: Will he attack before I'm ready? If he doesn't, will I have a chance against his defenses? He's sure to have plenty of Knights, Pikemen to kill my Knights, Catapults, Macemen, etc. I'm now convinced that turtling up and hoping to catch up technologically just isn't gonna happen. Blaze of glory, man. Blaze of glory...



[SIZE="2"](I don't actually know much about the comic, but the name seems appropriate.)[/SIZE]

[Rowain]

As long as one lives one can hope
Look for the positive: You are still alive. IIRC you were already dead in PB2 at that time so progress is made :neenernee

[Whosit]

Wow, I coulda sworn I replied to you, Rowain. Well, you're right. So it's time to do something about that! Might as well shoot myself in the foot, hand, and head! Or something like that.

On a side note, I regret that I've been missing the "Whosit touch" for quite a while, maybe even the whole game. I blame the lack of actual diplomacy. Well, I could also do with some pictures, been awhile. I'll get to that after milestone. For the time being, Guilds is in, started Knights. Gonna put at least a turn of production in before I start whipping, though. Dropped to 0% research. May upgrade some HAs, may just save up for a push to Engineering. Ky is just a couple turns away. Imagine Cyneheard is close or there already.

Oh, and half of his army disappeared. I believe he is going to link up and strike soon. I've got most of my army heading south to meet him. Trying to keep on eye on his movements as best I can, but he firmly has the initiative for the moment. And Knights. He has knights.

Slow turns and business in real life has kind of left me distracted. Still don't really have a coherent plan. Still bottom in score, so maybe no one will notice it dropping as I whip? Gotta double check if there are any forests left to chop (that I can safely reach). And figure out a plan to do some actual damage. Yeah, and get pictures. Just figured I was overdue for some incoherent rambling.

[Whosit]

OK, I probably shouldn't double post right away, but this is my thread and I can cry if I want to! I mean, double-post if I want to!

Anyway, I just happened to be thinking a bit about why my interest in this game has faded so much, business and slow turns aside. Well, the fact that I'm losing does have something to do with it. I know that in my final days in PB2, I was a bit lackluster, but I think I was still relatively active in my thread. I shouldn't probably double-check to verify this claim, but I'll leave the fact-checking to lurkers. :neenernee

I think, though, that it's the fact that this is just a glorified MP game, being Always War and all. I don't think that this is the kind of game I wanted to play, but I don't think I realized that before. If this were a "normal" PBEM, chances are I'd have an ally or someone (assuming I hadn't alienated everyone else) that I could support and cooperate with. I think that I'm the kind of person who could at least draw satisfaction from helping someone else win, whereas now, I think that it's very clear that I am going to die. It is only a matter of time, is all. Now, I want to attempt to make my death spectacular, of course, but it's still a death. Crawling into my shell, waiting for the enemy to come to me isn't that appealing. Sooner or later, I'll drop fatally behind in tech, and then all my turtling won't matter one bit.

I'm pretty sure that this little excerpt from Live Journal (or whatever the kids use these days) isn't really a necessary addition to my thread, but, well, I've barely updated, might as well write something.

As I've stated many times before, my MP experience is limited. I did get a few MP games in about a year back. Tended to lose, but since those lasted a couple hours tops, it didn't really matter that much. This, obviously, is dragging out. I suppose the real question is whether or having an ally to help really would change my disposition or not. In PB2, I was less in the "helping an ally win" position than "being stood in front of the hail of bullets while said ally ran for cover," or something like that. Rather, I don't think my death really accomplished anything (other than giving Plako/Broker a really good story to tell).

Sooooo... what does this all mean? I 'unno. I'm pretty sure that in an hour, or a day or two, I'll think that this was something stupid to post in a public forum, but you're all like brothers and sisters (we do have sisters, right?) in the great family of Civ, so what the heck. (OK, maybe I should just say that we're "Civblings." Ouch, that was bad. )

Anyway, I've still learned a lot here, and hope I get the chance to put those lessons to use in another game! Combat Engineers... I must never forget. Actually, what I'll be most interested to see is how badly I fell behind in the expansion race. I was so paranoid about having adequate defense, I think that I just expanded too slowly (also a flaw from PB2). I really should have been able to make it all the way south to those mountains. Instead, Cyneheard beat me to it. Then again, maybe it was just too far away. However, I know I'm the smallest civ in land area, so I must have done something wrong.

[Ilios]

Thank you for your thoughts Whosit.

It has actually been quite clear from the beginning you aren't having fun playing in this game.

I know what you're talking about dude, I was feeling the same way in the end with our PB3 game.

The moment a game starts to feel like a chore and you stop having fun, well, I'd say game over!

Kudo's for keeping the game moving (because I have a feeling that's the only remaining reason you're still playing), but maybe it's time to find a replacement?

You'd be able to play in a new PBEM, hell you could even start one yourself, plenty of takers I guess, lots of games winding down at the moment. You could even limit the veteran players and whatnot...

Anyway, I'm rambling...

[Rowain]

I think you are right that the lack of Diplo in this game makes it a bit boring. Additional you didn't see much war-action so I guess it feels like playing civ alone on an island.
But as said before the game is not over yet so good luck .

[Whosit]

Thanks, Ilios. Don't think I'll search for a replacement, though. Don't want to foist this position on someone else, and besides, it would be breaking the RB spirit to call it quits, right? So long as I am still physically capable of playing, I will.

Built my first Knight. Kylearan has a pair within view. Hope he's not planning to make a push now, 'cuz I don't have a lot to stop him. Whipped a couple of Knights, but it really wasn't until this very turn that I realized how weak I am. I just don't have enough cities in numbers and size to really whip out an army that can challenge someone with a better production base. Took some pictures, but considering that I have only had a couple hours of sleep in the last... time... I'm going to hold off on posting 'em at the moment.

Cyneheard's forces left my visibility. I think he's preparing to strike, but I have no idea where. I can get Engineering in 4 turns, and when I do, I think I'll attack, or at least, make my best attempt. I need the 3-move to hit his sentry position without giving myself away. Hope I've collected enough catapults and such to do some harm. If I go, I'll go all-in. Hrm.

[Bobchillingworth]

Could you post an overview shot of your territory? You keep complaining about a lack of cities, and I'm curious whether there's room for filler & how you placed. Or just how many you even have =)


Also, I think you're being a little hard on yourself. You've lasted this long in a game with some very skilled players without having lost any cities or suffered any crushing military defeats, so I'd say you're at least doing something right

[Whosit]

That's actually exactly the pictures I grabbed.







I have 8 cities, one of which is filler, and another filler planned north of the capital to grab the deer. Need to pop in a Settler build soon. And get a Longbowman for Scenic, newest city (filler to grab cow). So, 7 decent cities, most of which are small. I tried to use my land as best/efficiently as possible, but I doubt I divided it up the best way possible. Maybe later, if I have time, I'll grab a pic of my current army size.

[Whosit]

This isn't directly related to the game, but I want it on record, anyway: I goofed. Surprise! Read this:

Ah, right, that makes sense.

I'll set up an account: Whosit.03 @ gmail etc.

Edit: Someone took .02??

Due to PBEM Tracker shorting out, we've switched back to e-mail for passing saves. Now, I ended up posting that saves should be sent to my older account, .01. I had forgotten that I made .03 for this game. Innocent enough, right? Well, as it turns out, I'm pretty sure that I had come across this post around then while looking for Sunrise's e-mail. That's not all. See my complaint there? Well, I'm pretty sure that it was me who made the .02 account, seeing as how that's what my PBEM Tracker account is tied to. Could be wrong, though, since none of my passwords get into the account, though not sure how to explain the Tracker, then. Seems I just forgot? Really considering that I hadn't signed up for PBEM Tracker until this game, I think.

Anyway, I'm just posting it here instead of the e-mail thread simply to avoid confusing matters more. I just find it kind of amusing. Now, I'm naturally a bit... absent minded, but considering my current circumstances, my added distraction is understandable. I'm also bringing it up now 'cuz I just logged into the .03 account (just to make sure I could) and saw that Cyneheard had sent me one of the saves when the Tracker trouble started, so I probably caused a bit of wasted time when I said that I was using the .01 account.

I still want to know what the hell the password is to the .02 account. What's up with that. And now for something completely different!



...but not really.