This is a Spoiler thread - Dreylin, PB28

[Dreylin]

t179 -

News of the turn along with the main target:


Scientist on schedule; 14t to my next GP, which I can guarantee not to be GE or GS.

The first target is Progress on the Island:


4x Cuirassiers at 80%+ odds and the island is mine. Decent infra here.

Breaking news from abroad:


I forgot to check if Borsche signed a proper Peace, but it would make sense. I think this is probably to the death.

On to Utopia. Bring the defenses down near 0%, then send in the Cats. 6 of them bring everything down to a decent level and then Cuirassiers and Knights clean up without losses:


Ugh. I really thought he had an Academy in here. Ah well, with no infra to speak of I double-checked whether I wanted to keep it, but I think it's good where it is so kept.

That opened up a second route to Joy with an uninjured Cuirassier (75% vs. promoted Maceman):


Ugh again, but kept.

Aha, here is his Jag stack; all grow up to Maces now:


Not in range of my stack, nor Utopia - with exception of the GG - so I don't need to leave a large garrison.

Also not in range of Harmony, but here's another fresh Maceman promote, so my amphibious assault can't get good odds. OTOH, he's still just got a Warrior in Euphoria and I really want to limit his drafting etc., so I did hit it this turn:


Hope Grimace doesn't mine too much!

Of course now's when things get complicated, since I need Whosit to die ASAP, but my Peace Treaty with Grimace expires turn after next. Of course it's going to take a little while for me to be able to take out Whosit's island cities, so maybe I don't need to rush him here. I'll probably just declare on him as soon as I can and then offer Peace again so we don't end up in a roll-on conflict. Maybe I'll send my Cats to take out Haven's defenses and draw Whosit's attack and let him clean up??


I moved up most of my 1-move stack to join the Sentry.

And here's the West:

[Dreylin]

t180 -

News for the turn at the location of wetbandit's conquests:


I actually switched off a couple of those Settler builds; I have 2 in transit and another 2 in production already, and I won't need the last of them until Haven falls.

Speaking of the Grimace side of the Whosit conflict; Brotherhood changed hands again and it looks like Whosit sent his CR stack in that direction instead of at me:


Paragon was still empty, so Chariot takes it down:


Meh, but no point replacing.

Harmony had sprouted a Musket, but Cuirassier #1 got lucky and won the 30% shot! :Hammer Cuirassier #2 cleaned up the Mace to take down the city:


Leaving Whosit with his two islands - which will be a pain to take since I haven't got the transport capacity in position yet and he'll be drafting them probably each of the next 4 turns (sigh) - and Haven. Oh, and it looks like he'll be taking Brotherhood/Beginnings back again next turn if he wants:


Yep, Grimace has lost another stack so I'm going to have to do the heavy lifting at Haven. Well I have a few turns while I build up to hit the Islands

I'm also going to need to be very careful of this Maceman stack since it's kitted out as a city killer, but I'm up to 3 Sentry Chariots in the area, so I have the visibility. I hummed and hahed about sending diplo to Grimace regarding Haven and / or renewing our guaranteed Peace (Treaty expires at EoT), but decided against. I think I'd rather see what he's planning to do - not that he can interfere too much with his stack gone again.

I'm really in 2 minds about whether to just roll straight into him after Whosit is dead; on one side, it'd probably be really easy to do since his army is gone and he can't draft (still whipping though). OTOH, it would have to be another war to the death so I'd be rolling him up right across to wetbandit's border which is something I've been trying to avoid. Plus I think a period of consolidation is in order (and I have already dialed down most if not all military builds). So I'll buy him into closing borders with wetbandit and then come back with Cossacks once my lands are a bit more secure from naval invasion.

I need to think carefully about tech path going forward; balancing immediate needs with investment in the future. I stuck with PP because it will give an immediate GNP jump and letting wetbandit & Borsche finish Astronomy first will give me good KTB on it. But they will be fielding Frigates as well as Galleons, so maybe I'd be better continuing to Rifling, improving my land-based defenses and ceding the seas to them for now....?

[Dreylin]

Tech comparison (going to zoom this a couple of turns into the future when I have PP & wet/Borsche have Astronomy):

Grimace:
UP: None
DOWN: Literature, Drama, Music, Nationalism, Military Tradition, Compass, Optics, Printing Press

Whosit:
UP: Theology
DOWN: Drama, Compass, Optics, Printing Press

Borsche:
UP: Education, Economics, Chemistry, Steel, Astronomy
DOWN: Drama

wetbandit:
UP: Theology, Education, Liberalism, Chemistry, Steel, Replaceable Parts, Rifling, Astronomy
DOWN: Drama

Yuri:
UP: None
DOWN: Lots

Fenn:
UP: Theology, Replaceable Parts
DOWN: Meditation, Drama, Music, Philosophy, Nationalism, Military Tradition, Optics, Gunpowder

Jowy:
UP: None
DOWN: Monotheism, Alphabet, Code of Laws, Music, Philosophy, Nationalism, Military Tradition, Compass, Optics, Gunpowder, Printing Press

Adrien/Mardoc:
UP: None
DOWN: Lots & Lots.


Wow, I knew the wetbandit/Borsche continent was a long way ahead of ours in tech, but I don't think I'd registered that the Jowy/Fenn continent was such a chunk behind! Maybe wetbandit doesn't need to attack me directly, just pile onto their continent and run them over.

[Dreylin]

Hmmm, CivStats says that Whosit didn't retake Brotherhood/Beginnings last turn, which means that Grimace got enough bodies into it and inflicted enough damage on his stack to make it unachievable. I wonder how many troops walked away?

Yuri went to town on his civ this turn with 3 drafts and 7whips - most of them multi-pop! Still didn't stop wetbandit from taking 2 more cities.

Maybe it's my inexperience with this stage of the game, but I really don't see a way back into contention at this point - bar wetbandit making a silly mistake. Of course for that to matter I still need to stay focused on making back some of the ground that separates us. That should start to happen as Whosit's cities are coming out of revolt and I'm getting cheap infrastructure up in them, but then Yuri's cities will balance that out. I don't know if he'll plough straight on into Borsche after Yuri, but if so then I have to follow into Grimace. Another option that opens with the conquest of Whosit is grabbing the other linking island that is currently shared between Jowy and Fenn.

Tech-wise, I'm going to see how things settle out, but I'm currently thinking of RP->Chem->Steam. This skips both Rifles/Cossacks and Astro in the short term, but my 3-person GA is due in 12-13t and that seems like a perfect time to be putting Levees in everywhere - after all, I'm ORG so my Factories will be cheap anyway.

[Dreylin]

t181 -

Light update; Whosit has marched on Grimace:


So it's ferrying units in preparation to take his islands, and advancing a stack on Haven.

Also settled one of the fillers between Hope Plagioclase and Utopia.

[Dreylin]

t182 -

Whosit continues to pressure Grimace, so I take Haven; Cats bring defenses to 0%, and then I send in one to soften up the defenders (2xMusket & Longbow). Cuirassier wins at ~70%, Knight wins ~same and Maceman cleans up at 85%:


Yet again, some really meh infra. But I keep it and then send this to Grimace:


There's an implicit threat in there, of course; especially coupled with this:


But the offer to help is also serious, since I need ~25xp more for my next GG, and I won't get that from taking Whosit's remaining Island cities.

[Dreylin]

t183 -

Grimace took the trade and has canceled OB. He said he could handle the stack, but I was welcome to hit it. By the time I was playing my turn it had gone. Whether Whosit threw it against Pacha Mama or just deleted it, I don't know. He did throw his troops at the start of my stack on his second Island - traded a Musket for a Knight and a Longbow. Might have been a good deal; I was sloppy with what I landed there though. 3Cuirs, Knight & 2Muskets are there now and that city should fall next turn. The other should be the turn after to give me a chance to land one more load of troops (probably). Both are drafted out and I'm blockading most tiles so they shouldn't regrow.

I may have given Haven to Grimace, but that doesn't mean he can have the neighbourhood:



Looks like wetbandit will finish Yuri off soon, although I have momentarily grabbed first spot for land area, I'm still behind on Food - not too much of a surprise though with all the Drafting I've been doing! And then we'll see....

[Dreylin]

t184 -

Quick update as it's been a long day. Hit Whosit's Northern island city, as I had plenty of troops on hand; lost a Cuirassier and took it:


Looked at the odds and troops available at his second, and decided to go for it. I needed to use a pair of Cuirassiers amphibiously - losing one - but had extra troops available to clean up if needed, and took the city with just that single loss:


Whosit is eliminated, and because most of the battles were in the 70-80% range, I did get just enough xp to trigger the next GG:


He has already been settled into Slate with the previous, and West Point is on the way there too.

Consolidation in order, and next turn once the WW has gone I'll winnow out some of my extraneous trash units to save money.

Sent some diplo to Borsche, since it's about when he indicated the Marble would be returned:


We'll see....

[Dreylin]

t185 -

Nothing back in diplo from Borsche IBT, but the Marble deal was cancelled.

A turn for tidying up; 3 cities out of revolt (blue) and 3 new ones planted (yellow):


A bunch more out of revolt in 2t, and the rest in 4t. Shot was from early in the turn; lots of units shuffling and a bunch of obsoleted units deleted (mostly Warriors, Archers & Axes) - along with a few more Wealth builds - lets me stay at 100% research.

Demos from EoT:


I've hit #1 in CY for a while at least!

GNP is a bit deceptive since I'm getting at least 3xKTB on RP, while wetbandit grabbed Drama last turn (heh, WW must be biting) and doesn't have anything queued. He's still in GA of course, but I expect that my Prod. numbers will pass his once he's out. My GA is 8t away and then I'll be out of Nationhood, but in the meantime I've got a whole new crop of cities eligible to Draft....

[Dreylin]

t186-190 -

Post-Christmas summary: building stuff and falling further behind wetbandit.

Some piccies I took over the last few turns:

t187 everything out of revolt; here are some builds:



Shwedagon Paya so that I can adopt Liberalism at the start of the GA.

Unfortunately:
EDIT: this screenshot overwritten by a PB29 one.
Visualise a picture showing SE of Borsche/Grimace territory of my Island with notification of Caravel dying to Privateer.

So I'm having to get to Chem/Astro before going any further. I'd have liked to get to Constitution for Rep at the start of the GA, but that's going to have to wait for during.

Demos from the current turn:


wetbandit is back in Rep and has added Environmentalism, and now that Yuri's cities are coming out of revolt, he's moving away from me again.

I have started eyeing up the Fenn/Jowy linking island that I now have access to West of Whositland....

Updates will be sparser for a while I feel, but I'm happy to post on anything in particular the Lurkeratti want to see / hear about...?