[Spoilers] Dreylin tries to take over the World ... casually?

[Dreylin]

24hrs into the turn and fewer than half have played. This is very frustrating. I know we have one 3-way split with BGN-Gawzak-Ichabod, but I guess the BRick-Yuri-Nyles is a 3-way too? At least BRick has played his turn by now - any chance of the Lurkers pressing BGN to get his arse in gear (or just let the AI hit enter and whip)!?!?!?

Also, I do think that AT is playing clock games with someone even though he occasionally plays double-turns. Either that or he's checked out as well, which doesn't bode well for the game.

Ugh.

[Dreylin]

Aha, so AT's clock games are revealed to be an attack on Yuri. Also looks like Gawdzak is lining up to hit Brick's west - although oddly he seems to have put his stack in view but not declared ... perhaps he's trying to extort something?

I may be about to lose my window to grab more than a small chunk of BRick. I have a reasonable force on the way, but it's going to be ~3t before I have enough Knights in position to take Helicopter and then make a stab out of it. Meanwhile Ichabod still has his Cataphract stack sitting on the Adrien border in range of my new city and Mr. Cairo is shuffling his troops somewhat in old Adrienland, so I'm being quite paranoid up here as well.

Got the high-odds GSci from Weed, so will run non-Scientists there to try to get at least a 50% chance of a non-Sci for the next one. Mary Jane (Troll) will pop next though at something like 90% Prophet, 10% Engineer - due in ~6t including GA.

Grabbing Monotheism this turn at 100%, and then should be able to 1t Banking next with a bunch of Wealth builds. Final whips and then GA into Emancipation/OrgRel and tech to Nationalism.

[Dreylin]

t163 -

Momentous turn!


So AT is scattershotting it around, and Yuri is falling quickly. That's BRick's stack in view and Nyles' stack is just in the fog to the SW. Gawdzak's HA/Mace stack is hanging just outside BRick's western borders, but is awfully banged up somehow. Still skeleton defenses in BRick's core though, so I would expect to make some decent gains. Of course I also have to weigh against the 26 Cataphracts in 2t range of Boom.

So it's time to do this:


And jiggery some builds:


My back of the envelope numbers tell me that I need to make ~480b/t for 7t to get Philo & Nationalism in time to revolt into Mercantilism before the end of the GA; if I want to pick up Drama first, I need an extra 40b/t. Break-even now is ~460b/t at ~60%, so there's scope to get the extra tech if I can spare the Wealth builds (or pick up some pillage gold ). For this turn I'll save gold on Philo and reassess as turns move forward.

Before & after # in spoilers:

[Dreylin]

Still a tale of two titans; as expected, Gawdzak built Taj and seems to be maxing research to maybe(?) challenge Ichabod for Liberalism (showing 1t to Paper). He OTOH has saved an obscene quantity of gold, but has to clear CoL & Philo before he can take it, but I expect he'll head for it now.

The rest of the world is realigning; Ichabod has started to pull his Cataphracts away from Adrien's borders - I suspect he senses opportunity and vulnerability from AT. AT pushed at Molach and took two cities, Molach took one back and whipped a bunch, this turn AT whipped only once. Mr. Cairo has started ferrying troops back to his homeland and seems to be lining up (offensively / defensively?) against Gawdzak. Of course he still has a huge fleet of Galleys, so I'm keeping a careful eye.

Still on course for doing something stupid and attacking BRick - in 2t. I've also decided that if I'm going to do that I shouldn't be spending additional hammers on teching the not immediately useful Drama, and have started on Philo - due in 2t at break even. I have a little over 830g in the bank and expect to be able to get Nationalism in the final 3t.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Still a tale of two titans; as expected, Gawdzak built Taj and seems to be maxing research to maybe(?) challenge Ichabod for Liberalism (showing 1t to Paper). He OTOH has saved an obscene quantity of gold, but has to clear CoL & Philo before he can take it, but I expect he'll head for it now.

The rest of the world is realigning; Ichabod has started to pull his Cataphracts away from Adrien's borders - I suspect he senses opportunity and vulnerability from AT. AT pushed at Molach and took two cities, Molach took one back and whipped a bunch, this turn AT whipped only once. Mr. Cairo has started ferrying troops back to his homeland and seems to be lining up (offensively / defensively?) against Gawdzak. Of course he still has a huge fleet of Galleys, so I'm keeping a careful eye.

Still on course for doing something stupid and attacking BRick - in 2t. I've also decided that if I'm going to do that I shouldn't be spending additional hammers on teching the not immediately useful Drama, and have started on Philo - due in 2t at break even. I have a little over 830g in the bank and expect to be able to get Nationalism in the final 3t.

What civics are you running now/ga end? Do you see yourself as the no3 then ready to prosper if one of the big 2 falters?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dreylin]

Running HR/Bureau/Emancipation/Decentralisation/OrgRel. I expect to exit GA in Mercantilism, but probably without any other changes. Only possibility is trading Bureau for Vassalage or Nationhood, but I don't think either offer the same payback.

I'm the second into Emancipation after Ichabod, and will also be the second to Mercantilism after Gawdzak; the first into both - however Gawdzak supercharges his free Specs with Pyramids Rep.

Behind the big 2 are a loose bunch of 4: Molach, AT, Mr. Cairo & myself. AT & Molach are now at war, which will drag them both down a bit, but there's also the possibility that Ichabod will take advantage into AT and I should look for opportunities to do the same. Mr. Cairo has a large army, but is a step behind technologically and hasn't any easy route to get new land.

New Land is the challenge for all 4 of us; both Ichabod and Gawdzak have eaten someone else and are well on the way to turning the absorbed land profitable. They are at war currently, but I doubt anything serious will happen until Astronomy. The trailing pack may be only a half step behind technologically, but the land advantage will soon start to increase the distance.

So we're all looking to expand. For Mr. Cairo & I, Adrien is unprofitable to kill off due to sheer numbers, but whomever takes him is then highly vulnerable to the other's army - not to mention Ichabod. Then we could hit each other, but pre-Astro logistics are problematic. Mr. Cairo seems to be pivoting back towards Gawdzak and might be preparing to take out a chunk (I don't think Gawdzak has Knights, while Mr. C does).

AT has borders with Ichabod, which probably encouraged the early Janns, but now seems to be trying for Molach after a small sortie against Yuri. I think he probably should have pushed further against Yuri as a softer, if more complicated, target.

The Yuri/Brick/Nyles area is certainly the ripest opportunity; their rolling 3-way war has weakened all 3; Nyles is probably the soundest, but is still crucial tech behind. The difficulty is that they are on the other continent from AT, Molach & myself meaning logistics issues. Now with my tech spread, there's a good chance I'll be the first to Cuirassiers, but there's also a timing issue: Gawdzak has just taken BGN's last continental city and BRick is an inviting next target, so I can't afford to wait. Coupled with that, BRick's army is off in Yuri's land so I have an opportunity to go in and grab a chunk of his core before either army reaches. I'll post some logistics details next turn, but my ultimate expectation is that I send a bunch of hammers over here and don't really get much return on the investment! We'll see.

Anyway to go back to your question; I do think I'm in 3rd (although 3-4-5-6 is pretty close) but I don't think that sitting back and waiting for a stumble would be enough to bring back into contention; I need to take some risks to give myself a chance. Whether this is the right risk...?

[Dreylin]

t166 -

Events:


Known locations for Nyles & BRick's stacks are very useful. Both a comfortable distance away - esp. with their absence of Engineering. More GE points for Gawdzak, and he scores an Artist while my Prophet is born. Not sure he'll be a shrine at this rate, most likely a part of the glorious 3rd GA. And a welcome random spread of Christianity to one of my Island cities ... Monastery queued.

Gawdzak discovered Paper last turn, so I can now see his tech:


Monarchy missing, so no Knights is confirmed. I'll probably do a beaker comparison soon....

You also see that Gawdzak ran enough EPs on me that I lost research visibility; I expect that it is Education, so we'll see if his run through Edu can beat Ichabod's Col-Philo to Liberalism.

Also, here is what Gawdzak is staging on BRick's border:


Keeping a close eye on this since he has OB with BRick and might decide to hit me directly rather than Brick....

So here's the attack doodle (I hesitate to call it a plan):


As you can see, BRick's defenses consist of an Archer in each city (2 in Cap!) and a HA for zone defense. The attack relies on speed rather than numbers; the goal is to take Undertaker and Shakespeare in 3t before he can react with numbers, getting rid of all of the Culture in the area. A bonus goal would be to raze Misspelling, but I'm unsure that will be possible before his stack returns and I have secured the area.

To accomplish this I have staged 4 Galleys into Chronic this turn. So some of how this progresses will depend on how much of a watch BRick is keeping on his borders. On the Galleys are 2 Swords to break & take Helicopter, and 6 Knights which will be landed in the city to move along the Red arrow. (Both Swords are both 9xp, so one of them will be my HE unit)

Further up on Chronic island, I have a mixture of 1-move and 2-move units along with a Settler and some Workers which will be ferried across to Helicopter as the situation demands. I also have a Galley with 2 Swords staged out of his sight 99 from Chronic that can threaten his island holdings or move to support the attack on Undertaker. 3 additional Galleys are handling the ferry duty between the mainland and the top of Chronic island. Logistics are a bit haphazard, but flexible enough to adapt, I think.

[Dreylin]

t167 -

Foreign news:


That's a 1-turned UoS if I'm not mistaken, to soup up Gawdzak's Monk economy. And he's pushing the GPs out at well. Liberalism race is well underway, with Ichabod now showing 1t to Philo. Still haven't regained visibility on Gawdzak's research, but that GSci could be a big assist in landing Edu. Coinflip? I think at this point I'd prefer it went to Ichabod, since Gawdzak has a lot of other advantages at the moment it would be a balancer, I think.

In notreportingland, whatever is going on between Molach & AT has ground to a halt; although they remain at war, no cities have changed hands since the initial exchanges. So AT is one city up and is declining to whip out more troops (1 whip in last 4t), while Molach has whipped 16 times - though his army was smaller to start with.

Ichabod's Cataphracts are moving down the Eastern side of his empire and in a couple of turns should be in a position to hit either Molach or AT. Meanwhile Mr. Cairo is building a Knight stack on Gawdzak's border, but otherwise seems to be spreading his forces between the two fronts.

On to the business of the turn:


WAR!!!!!

He wins for 4xp, and will become the HE unit next turn. Later I rechristen him as "The Dude"...


A princely 18g and no infrastructure buildings in a size 1 city is my reward. Unfortunately I need the port, so I have to keep it. Land the Knight stack, then the second Sword steps off the boat, 2 Longbows move into the final Galley, and are landed as defenders. Not that there's much (anything?) to defend from at this point, but it doesn't pay to take chances.

Setup at EoT:


In all likelihood, the Knights will all move 9 of Shakespeare, leaving Undertaker to be captured by Galley the following turn. You can see the Galley 4N of the city, and I'll bring 1-2 more after reloading at Chronic. The pair of Longbows will move 1 from Helicopter next turn so that the following turn after capture of both cities, they can move into Shakespeare to defend.

I'll try to remember next turn to take a shot of the reinforcement force and the ferry chain.

There are a couple of Wealth/Research builds dotted in there to get Nat in 3t, so I'm glad I decided not to grab Drama first.

[Dreylin]

t168 -

Foreign news:


That gave me pause for a second, but I checked and we are allowing trades in Peace Treaties. Mr. Cairo has joined Gawdzak in blocking my Research vision, but he took Paper so I can see his tech anyway (turns out he does have Banking). Gawdzak still shows able to research Education, so Ichabod's 2t to Liberalism will at least guarantee him a coinflip.

So BRick evacuated Undertaker; let's see what else is going on:


Hmmmm. That's 6 units plus whatever he whipped in IBT, even though my Knights get ~90% odds on all of these units, there will be too many to take the Cap next turn. So do I change my plan?

Yes:


So rather than line up to drop a mixture of units in Helicopter, I've brought the next wave of Knights down along the coast. Next turn I can either drop them inside Undertaker - in which case they have greater range than from Helicopter - or I can drop some of them onto Basilisk to return the Galleys faster. It also leaves BRick needing to decide whether to return to try to hold that city, or continue to abandon it. The Longbow & Pike will hold the city once it's taken.

Unfortunately, the Peace with Yuris means that his stack will be closer than I'd planned for (teleportation ); I still need to take Shakespeare ASAP to get the culture gone and free up my movement. Good news is that he does not appear to be bringing any of his stack up from the West.

Some general interest shots for you:


I should get N-S wrap soon with the WB I have in Mr. C's islands N of Adrien; maybe he'll then be able to get W-E via Nyles & Gawdzak, or just Ichabod. I was wondering if there are Astro islands in the corners, but I'm hoping not; it would be a pretty big bonus for the "Outer civs", as it'd be impractical for any of the "Inner civs" (me, AT, Yuris & BRick) to hold them so far from our territory.

Opponents' (well the important ones) civics:

[Dreylin]

t169 -

And Gawdzak has made his move:


Here come BRick's Spears from the West, but hmmmmm, there are only 6 units in Shakespeare:


Odds on the first attack are 88%, so it's worth a go:


6/6 wins! (the HAs were >95% odds)


Comes with Granary & Lighthouse intact.

On to Undertaker; because it's on a hill, the CRII Sword gets just 25% odds, so I send in one of the Knights instead:


Another win. Galley lands the other Knight in the city, while the other two Galleys drop back in Helicopter (range is the same, but brings the Galleys back for ferry duty).

And now the RNG continues to favour me as I use the Knights from Helicopter take out his Spears without loss and the remaining Knights take out the HA/Archer on the hill to the SE. So we leave things like this:


(no Workers in that stack or in range, and no Engineering)

GG spawned in Maui Wowie, so he's got a ways to go to get down here - I think I'll need the Medic, especially if things escalate with Gawdzak. I offered him a Sheep-Sheep deal so we'll see how he responds to that and judge the next wave of arrivals accordingly:


I'm bringing a couple more Galleys down past the island to accelerate the landings; will replenish the Northern link with new builds once the tech goal has been achieved. I'm building extra Research & $$ to ensure I meet the target.