[PB81] naufragar is a rock. He is an iiiiiiiiiisland.

[Commodore]

That really is a lovely island.

[naufragar]

We'll see how long it remains my island:


TBS just bulbed Astro and is building Galleons all over. He's also going to be done with Chemistry in a turn and will have a frigate in the water.

This is...not good. I don't really have anything I can do. I've sent a message to Mjmd suggesting we attack together. Really, I (or he) should've suggested this a while ago. If we just threw our stacks at him, somebody gets badly hurt, but TBS's victory isn't assured. As it is, if he can take my island, I don't know if I can get it back and he'll be able to either eat me or absolutely feast on the underdeveloped nations to the east.

[naufragar]

I went ahead and declared on Giraflorens. Didn't take an after pic, so only have the before:


I put 2 maces next to Cadaques, which is defended by a solo axe. Next turn, I can land 2 more maces next to Sant Feliu.

Gira and Dreylin made peace  so I can't do the damage I was hoping. My dream was to ravage Gira's coast while Dreylin and Gira were staring at each other in the north. As it is, I'll have to face Gira's whole army, and I can't actually defeat an entire nation with 4 maces. That said, we're hoping for capture gold and Great General points. Our tech path will get us Theocracy after Guilds and single great general is enough to get 2 promo boats.

But all this is moot. TBS is showing 6 turns from Steel. Probably a little slower than that as his golden age ends in 3 turns, but I can't withstand Frigates/Galleons/Muskets anyway, let alone adding on Drydocks and Cannons. I've asked Mjmd to stop trading with TBS, since TBS is in Mercantalism and is just using the Open Borders to scout Mjmd. Hopefully with closed borders TBS feels a little pressure. I can't defend against him, so I have to hope he just doesn't feel like attacking. If I were him, I'd just take away my island.

I can't really do anything but in a short while I'm sure I'll get bored and throw all my units across the TBS border and see what happens.  In the meantime, let's be pirates.

[naufragar]

You wanted newb invasions off of carracks. Well, here you go:


Took two cities (had to burn one) and killed a couple of archers, couple of axes, and a catapult at the cost of one mace. Gira looks to be in trouble. We'll see how well I can dig in here, because...




TBS, buddy, that is a very unfriendly spot to harbor your galleons!

The Giraflorens raid has already netted me enough gold to shave a turn off my tech path (which is to Guilds, yes, but really to Gunpowder for Privateers). I would like to set up a base on Gira's land in case things go badly back home, but with TBS' navy, there's not really any point.

Next turn TBS unlocks Steel and a bunch of his Trebs queue-upgrade. Things are looking grim.

[naufragar]

Here comes the end:


Forgive the awful pic. I didn't take one until I retreated my Carracks. Basically, TBS is moving up two galleons with frigate escort to take my island. It will be sufficient. 

I don't really have any counter play. He's just too well fortified on land, and he completely outclasses me on the sea. I've signaled to Mjmd that I want to immediately declare war on TBS, but that's hopeless.


(TBS can see this due to peak vision.) His golden age ended, but he'll get another one in 5 turns. (City vision is powerful.) In the meantime, he'll be churning out cannons. He doesn't have too many right now, but he can cash-upgrade his catapults and I get obliterated if I step into his lands. It's hard to decide whether I meekly endure the loss of my island or I go full tilt into an attack. If Mjmd pooled all of his hitter right now, we might be able to do some damage to TBS just by sheer volume, but in a couple turns cannons will make that moot.

Mjmd, for his part, is doing his normal, excellent thing. He just puts his head down and tries to build. If he can outbuild, he wins. If he can't, he loses.


This GNP looks like a recovery, but Mjmd's tech is astonishingly bad. I think he was going to try to contest TBS for Liberalism or at least prevent him from Liberalizing Railroad or whatever. But as it stands, Mjmd is ahead of me on artsy stuff (Philosophy, Education) but lacks Engineering, Astro, Guilds. (And TBS has a monopoly on Gunpowder, Chemistry, Steel.) And the power ratios from the previous screenshot show what Mjmd has had to sacrifice in building up his GNP.

For posterity, here is the Brotherhood of the Coast's stats at its high water mark:


What bums me out is that my plan basically worked flawlessly. I kept up with the pack despite no economic traits. I got to Carracks and opened up new lands to colonize or conquer. I was even a stone's throw from Portugal's Feitorias! Wouldn't that have been fun? But I just happened to neighbor TBS of America.  (I think I mentioned this, but after this game when we nerf America (preferably by reverting it to its old form with the awesome Musketman), we should also nerf Emancipation. +2 hammers per specialist is broken.)

Oh well. I don't think we sit back while TBS eats us at his leisure. I think we make one final, vainglorious charge. Got to do enough damage so that Xist can beat him once he unites the other continent.

[Commodore]

Krillmod's +2 gold per specialist is much more reasonable.

[naufragar]

Thanks to whoever extended the turn, but why did you extend the turn? TBS didn't ask for an extension, and in my tech thread post I explicitly said I didn't need one. Now, having moved my army in view of TBS, I can't attack him this turn because it'll be a double move, and now (presumably) he'll get to attack me in the second half because of the extension that he didn't ask for. That's incredibly rough.

I'm going to play the turn now because the outcome of the war isn't in doubt, but the unrequested extension really shafted me. Again, our admins are great at responding quickly, and I'm grateful. Just wish we didn't auto extend.

[naufragar]

Retracting some of my annoyance. Since I played after TBS, he never saw my stack move up so he didn’t know I wanted to declare war on him this turn. No clock games. He just wanted to attack in the second half.

(As I type this, pbspy tells me he’s taking my island cities. )

[naufragar]

Losing and throwing look very similar. Case in point: Mjmd and I have been trying to coordinate. I got this from him:


Ok. Attack into TBS near the pig and stone resources on turn 158.


And so we do:


It's crazy to attack into TBS's cannons, but there's nothing else to be done. Soon he'll be at Cuirassiers. Soon he'll have enough boats to snipe all my coastal cities. Soon he'll be big enough to just walk through my land. This way, after losing my stack, hopefully he's damaged enough that Mjmd can make headway on the following turn. (At least, this is what I assume Mjmd is about to do. I would feel very silly if I jumped into the meatgrinder solo. )


And for a glimpse at why TBS is about to steamroll the continent:


Note that he's not working a single hammer tile but putting out 20hammers per turn.

[klops]

good luck!