[SPOILERS] Churchill of Portugal: Gallipoli Part II

[spacetyrantxenu]

I ended the turn and got a quest pop up:



Well that's not likely to happen for a while. I assume this quest goes to everyone? Or is it per player randomly assigned?

While I was there I took a start of turn shot of F9. So close on soldier count! (Let's see that get wiped soon).



Your move, Brick!

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I understand the quest situation as it is only offered to you, not all players. But, it may be offered to another player independently of it being available to you, so then you're in a race with that other player to complete it first, or obsolete it via Renaissance tech. This is the same as other events, like your revolts, that don't hit all players evenly. You might want to root around and find out what the success options are for this one, if you ever stop building units and start building, uh, buildings again.

[Ceiliazul]

I've never seen more than one player get a specific quest. Only the offered player can get the reward, but anyone can cause you to fail (by building the required libraries before you do)

The nice thing about this quest is that you want libraries anyway. The bummer is that others are more likely to build them first. But 9 is a lot, you should have a good chance!

[spacetyrantxenu]

Thanks for the info guys.

Turn played, sorry for holding it overnight everyone!

T90 - Nothing too interesting this turn, the movements were all pretty much determined as long as nothing unexpected happened, which it didn't. Lots of photos now because this should be the high water mark before the clash.



Oops, I meant to hover the mouse over the stack for composition, but it's an even mix of swords, spears, and axes (4, 3, and 3 I think, throw in some archers and a settler and you have it. I'll get their picture next turn if I remember. Brick hasn't moved down the road as far as I can see, but I wonder if he has a unit parked on the forested hill where I want to build the city. If so that may cost me an extra unit or two.

City builds:



Those guys should be home area defense since there's nothing but warriors down there now. But if it gets dicey it will be every man to the front. The galley is for mobility, in case I have to get across the bay for some reason. Plus I'd like to have vision up there that can't be killed, so that's another reason. I say can't be killed because I don't see a reason why anyone else would have a galley over here for now. I'll probably encounter a barb galley now that I say that.

Current troop composition:



Brick, you'll be seeing these guys soon. (I really hope he doesn't find a way to get a wall build around that city before I get there. That would suck).

So how much is the #1 military force in the world (on paper) costing me?



Ouch, that's part of why my GNP is down to #9! Along with about 10 turns of not growing....



But hey we're still #1 in something. Let's get some mileage out of it, eh?



STOP! time!

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Good luck. Nothing to add.

[Ceiliazul]

Lurkers gather in the shadows, waiting for the blow to be struck. Money changes hands as bets are laid. One fool drunkenly proclaims the end of the world, but the other lurkers stuff his handkerchief in his mouth and shove him in the direction of home.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I thought the handkerchief stuffing normally happened when one drunken fool couldn't pay off his bets to another? So what kind of wagers are out there? No spoilers, though.

[spacetyrantxenu]

T91 - Another turn, another peace offer. No sweetener, no thanks. We are committed!

I moved an axe forward to have a look, conveniently enough Brick doesn't have anything standing on the tile I want to attack from.



I guess now is a good time to ask, I assume the tile labeled as Army T92 will be a position where my troops will NOT be attacking across a river, but can someone confirm? This is worth simming, I guess I could do it unless someone can for certain tell me. It doesn't look like it but I'd hate to be wrong when I can just as easily attack from the forest 1S of the city. All I'd lose is an extra 25% defense bonus, which probably doesn't matter that much since I doubt Brick will attack out of the city. Without catapults what would be the point attacking a stack of combined arms? He would have a bad match up every time.

Anyway, I moved the axe back to the T91 tile and moved everything else forward onto it, using only half the movement available to these units. There's no point in spending the turn on the roaded bare hill in clear view of Brick's city. In case he was somehow not sure I was coming, no reason to tip him off to the exact turn I'd be arriving.

Here's the army, hopefully it's enough for the job:



In the western sea my work boat found Serdoa's borders, closer than I'd like. He's up to six cities, Nakor has six, Brick has six....I have four. Not good.



Around the empire, not much going on. I really need borders to pop around Blue Fish so I can farm the jungle to the east and grow this city. But I also don't want to whip the monument yet. I'm saving the population in case I need more units, or until the city is 1 turn from regrowth, whichever is first. It's working improved tiles so I can lay off the whip hand for now.



I stopped running research because I'm obviously not going to make it to Monarchy before I run out of cash with this army out in the field. It's expensive.



At 100% science I'm running -24 gold this turn, probably -25 next turn when another archer and the settler leave my borders. Besides, it isn't like I can use HR yet anyway, not until this fight is over and some of these guys make it home. Yeah, I'll be building some cheap archers soon and packing these whip angry cities with them, but I need to know how the fight turns out before I stop building useful offensive units. The axes under development now will be heading toward the front unless the war ends first. I plan to keep trickling units forward until it's apparent that I don't need any more. (That would be when the fighting ends). Maybe Brick will abandon his city when my stack arrives, if it's hopeless, and I can use all of these guys for HR duty. Wishful thinking FTW!

Terrible demographics -- don't even look at that GNP number.



Was there really a time when I was leading in food and GNP?

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

No crying until repulsed by the defenders. Crying makes your fighters weak. You want a murderous fight, not a tickle fight. No room for crying. Fight!!!!!

[spacetyrantxenu]

T92 - I hate watching commercials during football games so I paused the AFC championship game (all hail DVR!).

Brick has been busy:




I'm trying to figure out why he's defending the tile 1E of the city. I wonder if that's where he thinks I want to place my city? If that's the case it's a tactical mistake, I hope he leaves those units there. They're only in the way if they're inside his city. If he leaves them on that spot I'll leave them alone until I'm healed up and have otherwise secured my new city. Sure, they'll accrue fortify bonus. But I'm probably already going to have enough trouble clearing his city. I ran a sim and got horrible results, but then I realized I was getting the same results every time (no random seed on reload, apparently) and didn't feel like setting it up again. The long and short of it, though, was that if he had about six units in the city it got dicey taking it. I over promoted his defenders and gave the city walls when I simmed it, though, because I wasn't exactly sure what he'd pack into it. I was aiming for worst case scenario -- and worst case is that I'm short units to attack with. All of this is a long way of saying that if he puts those three units into the city it makes my job a lot more difficult here and I hope he doesn't realize it.

Elsewhere...who cares, right?




I moved workers and didn't whip anything new. There is one more axe moving forward but he won't make it in time to do anything other than cover my tattered stack on the retreat if this goes sideways. Have I mentioned before that I really wish I had a source of horses? If I could have sent up a few late chariots in one final round of whips I would feel a lot better here. But I'm already really at the pain point for whip unhappiness, if I whip too much more right now I'm really throwing this game away. By the time I recovered my opponents will have zoomed by me -- oh shit, that already happened didn't it?

Time to burn off some of this:



Oh the humanity....