[SPOILERS] Big Oil! F. Dreylin Roosevelt of the Vikings

[Dreylin]

t172 -

War!!!

dtay loses most of his coast:





I did hum & ha about the last, but it's on the far side of dtay with no way to reinforce in a timely manner. You can see below that I failed to take Gryffindor; that one Longbow held out against 3 Berserkers. However you can also see how poorly connected it is to the rest of dtay's empire.

I kept the two Island cities:





Although we'll see if Gavagai plays nice with the one adjacent to him.

Landing for the attack on his main island city:



And positioning against Damocles:



And nw we wait to see what comes back.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Nice.

It looks like you're missing one capture in your report. Here's what I came up with: 

Code:

9/25/18 7:04 pm    Dreylin    Logged out
9/25/18 7:03 pm    Dreylin    Finished turn
9/25/18 7:00 pm    Dreylin    Score decreased to 610
9/25/18 6:58 pm    Dreylin    Score decreased to 613
9/25/18 6:47 pm    Dreylin    Score decreased to 615 [Claiomh Solias raze]
9/25/18 6:46 pm    Dreylin    Score increased to 627
9/25/18 6:46 pm    dtay    Score decreased to 745
9/25/18 6:41 pm    Dreylin    Score increased to 615 [Orcrist keep]
9/25/18 6:41 pm    dtay    Score decreased to 760
9/25/18 6:39 pm    Dreylin    Score decreased to 610 [??? not pictured: -14pts raze, almost has to be Sakabato]
9/25/18 6:39 pm    Dreylin    Score increased to 623
9/25/18 6:39 pm    dtay    Score decreased to 765
9/25/18 6:37 pm    Dreylin    Score decreased to 610 [Masamune raze]
9/25/18 6:37 pm    Dreylin    Score increased to 621
9/25/18 6:37 pm    dtay    Score decreased to 779
9/25/18 6:33 pm    Dreylin    Score increased to 610 [Zulfiqar keep]
9/25/18 6:33 pm    dtay    Score decreased to 791
9/25/18 6:20 pm    Dreylin    Logged in

So this leaves Gryffindor (unfortunate loss but isolated and reinforcing with more attackers), Noble (undefended size 2 city on hill near Zulfiqar), and Damocles (under main attack) as the only mainland ports left? And what about the island city south of Zulfiqar? What are your prospects there? Threat of counterattack?

It's nice to have something exciting to follow before this game dies.

[Dreylin]

Yeah my screenshot of Sakabato falling didn't take; I landed a Sword and left it there on the off chance I can move it to expose more terrain or reload it. I didn't delete the two who took the Western cities for the same reason. dtay's road network is pretty awful in places - e.g. the nearby island where the lack of road on the Horses means he can't hit back at Orcrist (unless there happens to be something on that Galley).

I can hit Gryffindor with 2 Berserkers next turn - in hindsight the Galleon SW of Totsuka should have been 1W to keep that option open - and then more the following. Unfortunately the failure to take it immediately makes it less likely that I can afford to keep the city. I don't seem to have an image of the second city on the West island, but if I recall correctly it's at most a single Axe defending. I think that next turn I can only hit it with the Crossbow that contributed to the Zulfinar attack, but I have a set of Berserkers that can hit it the following turn, so may just use the Crossbow at Noble if practical. As with the East, dtay seems to have virtually no fleet, so the main challenge I face here is FAKE NEWS!

I sent Gavagai an Iron-Iron last turn, but got no response. I wouldn't be surprised if he takes these cities from me (he has Galleons also), but as long as he doesn't hit my ships I don't think I'd have an issue with that - on balance it might be preferable given their remote location.

How dtay responds will be interesting; what you may have seen from the screenshots is that I have EP visibility on his cities, which has been invaluable while planning this, and this turn I sacrificed a pair of Chariots to gain visibility on two of his land border cities between Damocles and Martin. The full visibility won't kick in until next turn, but the peek revealed that his largest force in range is the one inside Martin, so anything else is several turns away. (I also sacrificed a third Chariot to delete a pair of his Workers on the border). Whether he realises this and runs EPs against me to shut it down will affect how confidently things move forward.

He's not in Slavery, but he is in a Golden Age right now - there was an argument for waiting until he exited before launching the attack, but I was concerned about the additional research turns. However if I've got my timing right his previous revolt was 4t ago so he can't actually switch until next turn. He's also be on full research mode, so I doubt he has (m)any military builds in progress to reinforce places like Gryffindor or the islands, which extend my opportunity window there.

One unfortunate thing is that I was convinced I had seen him research Optics ages ago and so staged accordingly outside the larger visibility bubble, but it turns out that he doesn't even have Compass! Being able to stage a tile closer would have given me some added flexibility in some of these areas, but without my own Alphabet I was reliant on when he reached it to find out - and I didn't want to tip of my possession of Astronomy - especially when he had been rolling turns and playing both sides.

So dtay and I will have a bit of a barney for a while ... and then TBS will ride in from my South with Cuirassiers and sweep up. (assuming neither of them check out before then).

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

...so the main challenge I face here is FAKE NEWS!

Isn't it always? 

(assuming neither of them check out before then)

Assuming.that..the...universe....doesn't.....suffer......endless.......expansion........and.........heat..........death...........or..........collapse.........in........on.......itself......before.....the....next...turn..rolls. 

The Big Freeze

The Big Crunch

[Dreylin]

t173 - 

Land front:


Main stack is in Dainsleif, but only 4 Catapults. Key challenge here is the 7 Knights in Damocles and the set standing in front of Dainsleif, all of which can hit my stack. Need to think about this.

Nothing much has changed on the Eastern island or at Gryffindor:


Nor in the West:


But let's have a look at Callandor:


Well that's surely not an ideal place for him to have appeared!

Sadly I can't take the city this turn with only the injured Crossbow in range, so instead I used it to raze Noble:


The Berserkers to the North will be in range next turn along with the injured Sword, and we'll see if that's enough...


Turning to the East, the Gryffindor Longbow has healed somewhat and we're left with this to take the city:


Success!


But given the Knights roaming around, it can't be held long-term so I have to raze.

Putting off deciding about the land attack, so let's have a look at his techs:


He's got Gunpowder, so I expect to see Muskets soon, but in order to be able to research Democracy he must have Constitution - and behind that Nationalism. So he's not far from MilTrad & Cuirassiers. Last turn he saved gold (>600) while researching a small tech.

OK, I've put this off long enough. 2 things in my mind in the East: 1) I don't have enough Catapults at Totsuka to enable an attack soon without taking significant losses, 2) dtay's Knights probably have 2 promos pending, while most of mine have just one, that means even without Cats it may well be worth his while to throw his Knights at my stack through the city. Even a 50% win rate would probably be enough to Flank off my Catapults and of course I couldn't counter attack.

I looked to see how much I could load to send to support the Totsuka attack and then retreated the rest. I think this is the right decision as he has the longer border with a poorer Road network and I can somewhat control the engagement.

I also decided to invest my raze gold:


All these HAs have 2 promos due, and I hid an equal number of Knights from the attack force behind the city so if he's not paying too much attention he might not realise. I also stacked my fresh Knights behind PEMEX to the South to give me options to hit down there.

Of course the question is whether he'll push forward to hit Aramco from the hill. That Axe is a pain, since I can't clear it off efficiently, so I've just left it there. I can only see 1 Worker in range, so I don't think he can hit the city with the Knights around the hill and even if he could I have the new Knights in there.

So now we wait...

[Hollybombay]

Do you think you can take him out? Or will this just stalemate till the end of time?

[Dreylin]

On my own, probably not. He's more advanced technologically than I am, and even after razing his coastal holdings, he still has more cities than me. I need a decisive battle in my favour, and dtay is generally too good of a player to give it to me ... provided he's not completely checked out of the game. However, if Gavagai sees the opportunity to expand his FAKE NEWS, that would give me the space to make real progress.

[Dreylin]

My subconscious apparently spent last night thinking about this; this morning my brain informed me of 2 things: 1) it doesn't think we really have enough land units to counter dtay's stack. 2) I really ought to know whether the Guerrilla II promotion allows his Gallics to hit Aramco over the hill from where they are.

So there you go. 

[Dreylin]

t174 - (A year of miss clicks)

So, no counterattack, but Drafting:




The Cats have moved up to be able to take the hill next turn or support East, but that just moves them further from the lightly-defended South.

The Islands have both Drafted:




The Great Artist has gone - perhaps to extend the Golden Age?

Or maybe Bulbed Literature:


He's showing Chem at 0%(?), but I expect he popped Lit before and will do the same with Music next turn.

And here's the cost of razing Noble:


The Crossbow would have 97% odds. 

But unless he's building a unit, I don't think he can Draft another in so I might still be able to take it.

In the South I take Of Mice and Men at the cost of 2 Knights:


Unfortunately it can't be reinforced, so it can't be kept, but I do get my first Great General. 

And here are my misclicks:


2 unintended attacks on Sting redlined both defenders, and then the last Knight moved south so it couldn't take out the Musket. 

On the brighter side, the Crossbow was unpromoted when it took the Hill, so it could take Guerrilla 2 and pose an obstacle to dtay regaining it! I added a couple of War Elephants to deter the Knights - enough to be an issue, but not few enough to make Cats a bad trade.

General becomes a Medic:


And I lay some plans incase he leaves the Cats where they are.

Oh, and it's just a few turns before I can kick off a Golden Age of my own:

[Dreylin]

t175 -

Good news to open the turn, TBS confirms he's got enough on his plate elsewhere:


Solitary loss between turns:


No move forward from dtay, and he's spread out a bit more across the front:




I take some time to think about that, but meanwhile:


I led with the Crossbow at worse odds to guarantee keeping the CRIII Berserker. I sailed away with it and left the island empty for Gavagai if he wants it.

The plan for the other island is to make sure it doesn't grow enough for another Draft:


I decided to get rid of Sting:


I guess we can trade Knights for a while if that's what he wants...