[SPOILERS] Cornflakes and Q Eat 'Em for Breakfast!

[spacetyrantxenu]

Your thread is like watching a Michael Bay movie. It's all, "applaaaaah" and then "aaaahhhhPLAAAAHhhhh" and then more "aaaaaAAAAAApuhplAAAAAHHHHHhhhhhh........*rumblerumbleBOOOOMmmmm*"

[Cornflakes]

General plan for the next 10 turn.

1) Eat 2metra's west. You know, the part to our north that should have been ours all along but I failed to block 2metra off until he's established his claim. I can probably take and keep 5 more cities in as many turns with minimal losses.

2) Offer peace to 2metra for "I declare war on Bigger" and throw in anything I can to sweeten the deal without giving away cities. I'll have gobs of machine guns and infantry crawling all over up there so I should be able to back up my claim to the territory.

3) get OB from 2metra for a nice price. Probably offer 30gpt + "I declare war on Bigger" so that 2metra accepts. Time is critical and I don't care about the economy, so I'll just pay a premium rather than risk denial of the initial offer and haggle.

4) Accumulate as many troops as I can into one MEGA STACK and go invade Bigger from the ice, aiming at his capitol and wonder-whore city. March through his core 1 tile at a time, eating everything in my path ... or die in the attempt. Either way this would be the last march of the game. I'll either establish my claim as dominant power, or get wiped out and concede the game to Bigger. Why? Because Bigger will have Tanks in 20 turn, and then my army will be irrelevant. I've been drafting and upgrading like crazy, and my stack now is up to 50 Infantry, 20 Cannon, 30 Machine Guns, SuperMedic, 15 Cavalry (this leaves 30 infantry and 10 cannon on zone defense in the west along my main Bigger border). I'll have about 10 more turns of unit builds that can reach the front lines and join the MEGA STACK in time. I'll prioritize builds as Cannon and Machine Guns drafting another 20 Infantry. I estimate final numbers around 70 Infantry, 50 Cannon, 30 Machine Guns, and any other junk I can scrounge together.

The goal will be to raze everything of Bigger's core, marching until either Bigger is wiped off the map or my stack is killed. I'll be practically immune (I hope) with 30 machine guns that won't take Collateral, and 80 units total that soak collateral. I won't keep anything, just pillage and burn and scorch the earth.

Picture Dump:




Bigger being annoying and pillaging don't stir up trouble Mr. All-I-need-to-win-is-to-be-left-alone-and-tech-to-victory.




Bigger's army on our east. I think he has a bunch of Rifles down near AT's former lands and has his greedy eyes turned towards lifting that off me. I have to take some risk though, and I'll probably let AT's lands get captured so that I can put everything into that one MEGA stack.




My current forces.




Bigger running away with the game. This is why it's either put everything in a giant stack and die now ... or wait 2 months and die later or concede. I'd rather go down fighting now in a hail machine gun and infantry bullets.




Projected spoils from the 2metra war. I get everything West of Hoth, occupying Hoth with all my machine guns and pillaging the hill to Hoth's north to prevent his army from railroading through. That makes a nice military choke point




The "War to End all Wars" ... The Million-Mile March.

[Qgqqqqq]

I understand both the philosophy in attacking 2metra and the one in hitting Bigger ASAP to knock him down, but...aren't they contradictory? If we really need to hit Bigger ASAP then any cities/land taken off metra is irrelevant, as there's no way it'll pay back in time and if he is beaten, then we'll easily be the next big power. I guess I just don't see why we don't immediately try for peace and invade?

[Cornflakes]

Good question. And I haven't even considered that. I can give 4 quick reasons now, but I'll think about it.

1) Because 2metra is still a contender otherwise. If we knock out 2metra then it's just us and Bigger (Commodore doesn't care).
2) These cities of 2metra appear incredibly easy to capture.
3) in 5 turns I'll have another 20 Cannon added to my stack. Right now I'm running light at about 20. This is nowhere near enough to storm the walls at 3 cities vs. tech-equal troops.
4) If 2metra completely implodes and Commodore pushes his attack home from the south we could end up with a nice track of land added which might make peace with Bigger livable.

... plus the above about not having a chance if we don't attack Bigger now was partly just doom-and-gloom. I think there's still a chance of catching up again. We just have to eat both Commodore and 2metra. That's basically our alternative. In fact, our "March through" army might do better service attacking Commodore.

[Cornflakes]

In non-important news: BJ came out of resistance, so we now have our own source of Horses! ... 1500 years ago they would have been useful

2metra is not in Nationhood so he can't draft Infantry. He whipped a crazy 26 pop this turn ... but both the cities that I have EP investigation on show whipped Factories!?




Capture Ning with the loss of just 2 Cavalry. That is my total losses so far to capture 3 cities. Got two withdraws at about 40% and 30% I promoted all those Cavalry to C1/Pinch back in the AT war ... Flanking would be a much better promo though.




I made a mistake in troop placement here. These units should have been positioned 1W, since they'll still be inside 2metra's culture even after I capture that city. If it's defended lightly enough to take with Cavalry I'll still have to walk these troops out 1-tile rather than having them on my rail network immediately I didn't notice this until after I'd moved them though




As long as I hold both of these hills, 2metra can't really advance. He could come around the north, but I don't think he has rails up there yet, so it'll be a couple turn. I'm going to send my cavalry up that direction after capturing that city and pillage whatever roads/rails are in place.




YELLOW units marched in from Google. These are to keep 2metra from retreating those forces back into his backlines city this turn to protect against my Cavalry.

BLUE units will land next to Tiflis, to be joined by the units marching in from Google, plus a couple more by land from Google next turn. I may actually send all the ship troops with GREEN next turn. Maybe.

GREEN troops will land next turn and march to Chehalis. 2metra could theoretically get units there along rails from the east if he has enough workers in range to RR though the ice.

[Cornflakes]

I offered the above to 2metra. Those are all the cities to my North that I plan on capturing in the next 5 turns.

Once i have these cities (either captured or in a peace deal) and re-establish peace with 2metra I'm going to formally concede the game to Bigger and take the 2nd place finish. I have no desire to carry out a month-long slog into the heart of Bigger's land for the 20% chance of giving him a black eye. I don't think I could deal more than a black eye though, because he'll be able to Kremlin whip defense and draft for 10 more turns. Plus while I'm away Commodore would have a free shot at my core, just as I have a free shot at 2metra's north now while his troops were south. The more I think about it the less fun it sounds.

My production exceeds 2metra's, so once we have 10 turns of enforced peace to build up and pop the borders (building culture in those cities) there's no way 2metra will be able to recapture. I'll be pumping Machine Guns and Cannon, drafting Infantry.

[Qgqqqqq]

If you can take out sufficient land from 2metra (and possibly Commodore) would you be able to equal Biggers position?
That seems like a lot of land even compared to his might, that long term you might win.

[Cornflakes]

Warfare right now has reached the point where the time investment exceeds the fun. Even against the technologically inferior remnant of Krill I advanced with 80 units!!! and still lost 20% of my stack.

I would rather end now (in 10 turns) while I'm still having fun ... After I take the land to our North from 2metra and fortify it then me, Commodore, and 2metra will be stalemated. Each of us will have enough forces on our respective rails to defy invasion into our culturally-dominant cores. The only reason that we can hold the north from 2metra is that 2-hill choke, and the ice around the far north lake that 2metra hasn't yet railroaded (plus the fact that these cities were absolutely deserted, which allowed the quick first-strike).

Bigger's EP production is too much to compete against for stealing techs and his research power is at least 30% greater than ours while out of a GA. If diplo was on and we could arrange tech trades ahead of time we might be able to keep up, but as is Bigger will be too far ahead by the time I'm theoretically able to swallow Commodore and 2metra. ... I'm not even sure that is even possible barring some great mistake.

[Cornflakes]

I am still enjoying this final push against 2metra, and he deserves a legitimate attempt at recapturing his cities ... once he signs peace he has no legitimate claim because I'll be able to pop borders, establish border fortresses on hills, and stuff those fortresses with Machine Guns and Infantry.

[NobleHelium]

So, we're not sure whether that trade offer is legal and I'm personally leaning towards no. Peace treaty deals are always one-sided, you can't have both sides giving up something to the other. So you would not be able to make such an offer in single-player and by extension I would say that it's not allowed in this game either.