[SPOILERS - PBEM17] Kyan Does Dallas. The Orange Sensation.

[oledavy]

[oledavy]

My Position In This Game

Things Going For Me

Biggest Military
Best Production
Dikes are Coming Up
Strong Alliance with Shoot

Things Going Against Me

Lagging Infrastructure
Lagging GNP
Botched Diplomacy

My attempts to backstab Darrell failed. NoSpace has no interest in going after Rego, and Shoot has no interest in going after Darrell. So basically, we're back to a 3v1 against Rego. I'm worried about Darrell running away with the game thanks to his tech lead, but at least this gives me the opportunity to hopefully leverage my military into some additional land. Rifling comes online for me next turn, meaning I will have all the key military techs online and can put some serious hurt on Rego. He moved a galleon to fork two of my northeastern cities last turn. He's either planning a pre-emptive strike or is trying to psych me out. Airship sweeps over his core revealed very little in the way of military near his west coast. Coordinating this war will be the tricky part, and what will probably happen is a rolling declaration of war a la PB2. My position diplomatically is decent. I enjoy solid relations with Shoot, and on the surface at least, am on good terms with Darrell and NoSpace. I am concerned that my attempt to go behind Darrell's will make me look less trustworthy to Shoot and NoSpace. Rego is where I've really screwed things up. I handled diplomacy with him poorly and thus, his warning meter has been dialed up to full long before any blow has been landed. On the other hand, I don't think any amount of preparation will be able to save him from a concerted 3v1 effort. Only time will tell.

[oledavy]

It all comes to a head tonight. One of my airships found a galleon east of Nowitzkiville in position to boat Hattin. If he isn't about to boat Hattin or make a threat to do so, I'll eat my hat. In response, I drafted a musketman. However, it might not be enough to hold the city if he has that galleon fully loaded - so I moved eight East Indiamen northeast to try and bluff my way through this. It got his attention and he inquired as to my intent, and asked if I wanted to renew the NAP. I told him I would get back to him tonight or tomorrow morning to iron it all out. I sent off a very terse email to Shoot and Darrell inquiring as to whether or not they are committed to this war. If they do not get back to me by the time I talk to Rego, I see no reason not to renew my NAP with him and go after someone else. I can't beat him by myself. I'm almost to the point of being self-sufficient for any armed venture. Next turn I start drafting rifles in addition to my 40 East Indiamen and 10 airships with more on the way, in addition to 16 assorted musketmen and riflemen.

Coming back to this game after something like a month's hiatus of not paying much attention - I wanted to address some of my major mistakes I've made for the lurkers following along:

Faux-Workshop Economy - Went into it too early, when I was still missing key techs. Cottages should be the priority for a financial civ. I believe the idea itself is sound but my timing was poor. It's starting to hurt now with my lagging GNP.

Building A Navy - You always want to build the army, not the navy, no question. I knew this at the time, and still did it anyway :P

Diplomacy - I've already ranted in length about my failed diplomatic efforts, and so won't repeat it here. I don't know in hindsight why I was so terrified of NoSpace earlier on. A lot of it carried over from what Kyan built them up as I guess, but it also worked well to my ends to be in a 3v1 and paint them as a common enemy.

Please feel free to point out any other major errors I've made.

On the plus side, one way or another, I get my war! After 40+ turns of building I get to kill stuff

I don't believe I can win this game at this point. Nevertheless, I'm going to try and smash a few heads - do my best to play the game well and who knows, maybe sneak in a miracle victory. If nothing else, I hope this all improves my PB6 play - if it ever gets properly rolling I much prefer playing on a team - that way when I suggest something weedy I have people around to call me out on it.

[oledavy]

me: Hey Rego - sorry for the numerous delays
Dan: hey
me: I just spoke to Darrell
Dan: ok
me: We (the Dutch) will not be signing a renewed NAP
Dan: i see
darrell seemed to indicate to me that he was not aware of any existing deals that would prevent it
me: when did you speak to him?
Dan: this morning
me: ah

So it begins. Shoot and Darrell have both confirmed to me that they will cancel their NAPs. Rego's move.

[oledavy]

Teching Plan

Construction
Engineering
Chemistry

The idea behind this is to get the road movement bonus and frigates to protect my East Indiamen online ASAP. After that, I have options or where I can head techwise:

HBR/Military Tradition - For Cavalry
Steel - For Cannons & Ironclads (with steam power)
Steam Power - For Dikes & Ironclads (with steel)
Military Science - For Grenadiers & Ships of the Line

Steam power would ordinarily be a no-brainer or the Dutch to get dikes online. However, in this case I'll be fighting a hot war and probably will not have time to throw many up.

I'm really not sure where to go yet, any input from lurkers would be more than welcome.

War Aims

1. Defend My Holdings
2. Seize Additional Territory From Rego
3. Eliminate Rego As A Contender

My basic plan at this point in time is fortify my vulnerable cities and set up Shoot and Darrell to carry out their attacks. I need to preserve as much of my fleet as I can. The only cities that are particularly vulnerable are my new cities of Hebron and Nazareth. If I had been more on top of my game over the past few weeks I would have already had defenders there While it obviously won't be a huge loss if they fall, I would rather keep them

I'm going to use my airships to try and clear the seas of his frigates. I honestly have no idea how effective they are against naval target, so if anyone can fill me in before I go run a test in WB, I would appreciate it.

Rego thinks I have a lot less East Indiamen and a lot more musketmen than is the case. However, the sudden power graph drops next turn when I loan my ships out will probably tip my hand. The movement of those Eight East Indiamen near Hattin was an impulse decision, but one that has proven very successful. My thanks to Twinkletoes for numerous times in MP bluffing me with empty galleys and showing me just how effective the tactic can be. Next turn I'll have a better idea of what I can attack. With Shoot and Darrell's NAP cancellations, Rego's forces will be spread thin to defend against all the assaults. However, since they will be delayed declarations of war, he may be able to defend against all three. I can't wait to see what happens!

aragon:

[oledavy]

A long overdue update of everyone's techs.

The real story here is of my relative decline in total beakers and Darrell's ascent. Rego is in front right now, but Darrell has about ~1400 gold saved up and is about to start teching like mad. I spoke to him earlier and he is headed for destroyers, so his tech path will be something like:

Chemistry -> Steel -> Steam Power -> Railroad -> Combustion

He says he should have a few online before the 10t cooldown period expires.

Rego made an interesting decision and researched Scientific Method, obsoleting all of his monasteries. That really had to hurt. I'm presuming Rego will go for Combustion or Physics next.

NoSpace is researching Literature, I'm surprised they delayed the National Epic this long with all the specialists they've been running. After that they will probably continue filling in economic techs and head to assembly line for factories.

Last time I spoke to Shoot he mentioned going for cavalry at Military Tradition. I'm really not sure what his tech path is though, after rifling he went for Economics and Corporation.

[oledavy]

Hang on to your hats ladies and gents, we're about to embark on a wild ride - my first PBEM war, hopefully I'll make a half decent showing.

I plan to kick things off next turn and declare war unless Rego beats me to it.

I'm studying to be a military historian, so with that in mind: time to invoke Sun Tzu!

[SIZE="3"]"Attack Weakness, Avoid Strength"[/SIZE]



Rego clearly expects me to attempt an attack T-Hawk or Ilios. His source of iron is located there, which is a huge priority due to it being necessary to build frigates. Accordingly, he has in the area:

3 musketmen
3 longbowmen
1 catapult
1 axeman
2 spearmen
2 quechuas
1 galleon
1 galley
5 frigates

Next turn I expect to see at least a couple rifles staffing both of those cities. There is no way my puny little army can do anything against that. What Rego doesn't know is that Shoot is going to be coming at those cities the back way in 5t or so with tons of rifles. If all goes well, he'll never see it coming. So, I'm keeping just enough defenders in Alexandria to deter an assault and scraping together all the soldiers I could with my Northern Fleet for an attack on Rego's west coast. Alexandria is currently the most vulnerable, staffed by a rifle and 2 maces. Rego can use those 5 frigates to instantly bomb down the city's 40% defenses. However, he can only move five units to attack the city (1 galley, one galleon). And unless he pre-loaded the galleon, the best he can throw at me next turn is 2 muskets, and 1 longbow. Still, I need to be careful to not leave myself open here. The only way this city is falling next turn is if he has a loaded galleon hidden in the fog.



Scrounging every spare unit together, including emptying Antioch of defenders, I positioned the Northern Fleet to fork the cities of Sciz, Bato and Tatan (to the southwest).

My Fleet:
8 East Indiamen (2 Combat I)
3 rifles
3 muskets
4 macemen

Bato Garrison:
1 Musket
1 Catapult
1 Spear

Sciz Garrison:
1 Quechua

Tatan Garrison
Nothing

Nearby Incan Navy:
1 Frigate
1 Caravel
1 Galleon
1 Galley

Tatan is toast. Rego is not in slavery and the city is beneath the threshold to draft from. There is no unit even near the city to even upgrade. In Sciz he will probably draft a rifle and upgrade the quechua, which would make it two units against ten. Fingers crossed that he does not have rifles or frigates near completion in either city. Bato is a possibility, but he will probably draft there next turn and upgrade the musket. Even if he doesn't, I just don't have enough soldiers to spread over three cities. The only thing he could do to seriously screw with my plan is block me with his ships. If he attacks, the 5 unloaded ships (2 combat I) will absorb the attacks, and the three loaded East Indiamen can go boat his cities. If he blocks, I have 5 ships to spare and lots of airships within reach, which - barring really bad luck - should be enough to clear the seas of his ships.

Speaking of his fleet:



He positioned that galleon to fork the cities of Damascus and Cairo. However, Damascus is staffed by a rifle and a musket and I whipped a rifle in Cairo in addition to the axemen. Unless he has modern armor in that galleon he will not be able to take either city, in which case I counter with spearmen :neenernee

I additionally marked in the screenshot where I plan to build a new city to redeem a wasted grassland tile as well as the fish from Tatan once (if?) I take it.

Which brings us back to Sun Tzu:

[SIZE="3"]"All Warfare is Deception"[/SIZE]



I really like how this deception played out. It has at least tempoararily forced Rego to abandon any attempt to boat Hattin. He does not want to risk that I have one of those East Indiamen loaded. However, the bluff is over now. I split them between the two tiles with the 2 galleys and trireme to prevent him from boating Hattin while simultaneously pressuring Nowitzkiville. They're also playing zone defense for Nazareth. Shoot is currently shipping my three rifles to the islands. Nazareth will be defended in 3 turns, Hebron in 4. I just need to keep him from boating either of them in the meantime. The HMS Bellerephon is closer to Hebron playing defense against any opportunistic moves from his galleon.



Darrell declined my East Indiamen, saying he will cash upgrade galleys to transports once he gets to Combustion. Nice of him, I wish he had told me earlier because these 14 East Indiamen were in position to be gifted to him and are far away from any fighting. It also meants I built far more than I actually needed. Lesson learned: never be the one to build the navy. On the plus side, these ships will be a nasty surprise for Rego in about 6 turns, and will definitely get some use. Speaking of the rest of my fleet:



I gifted the eight remaining ships to Shoot in addition to the two I've already fronted him (plus an airship). I should probably come up with more concrete terms for lending these guys Shoot has been really hard to catch and his heart is no longer in this game, despite the war. However, I'm glad he's at least going after someone with me.

Darrell has also expressed interest in a couple of airships which I'll work out with him when the time comes.



When and if I boat Rego's cities next turn, I'm at a bit of a loss of what to do next. One option is to use all my forces to boat Tatan and then chain raze Polka, Far Open, along with Commodore if I'm lucky. They're all too small to draft and have no defenders are nearby. I currently have 15 airships all in my eastern cities, here is the pre-war recon shot of the Incan core:



I'll be curious to see what it looks like afterwards.

My economic builds are all for war. All my cities on the mainland are pumping out riflemen while my far western island cities of Beruit, Damietta and Jaffa continue to produce airships. The notable exception here is Jerusalem, which is finishing up Oxford University to give my GNP a much needed shot in the arm. All these riflemen will be assembling for an as yet, undecided attack that will probably roughly coincide with the arrival of those 14 East Indiamen from the west. Attacking somewhere in his south looks the most promising at this point. So, basic plan of action in bullet points:

- Attack targets of oppurtunity on his west coast
- Fortify and hold down my own seaboard against any counterattacks.
- Use my superior numbers of ships and airships to clear the seas of his fleet.
- Launch larger attack spearheaded by rifles in the south in ~6 turns

At this point, Shoot should be involved and should be doing some damage. And a few turns later, Darrell will be making the decapitation strike at Pindicator. I'm hoping being attacked from so many sides will simply overwhelm Rego's ability to defend. I'm worried we might end up very much like the Coalition of the Willing in PB2 if Rego plays his cards right, given the uncordinated nature of this war.

Shoot and I both closed borders with Rego last turn, and Darrell should do the same on his turn. We all also traded maps around to get an updated picture of the world. I contacted Space and he assured me he and Novice would stay out of this war and would not trade Rego iron. Darrell suggested opening borders with them to grease the wheels of diplomacy, and Space said they would be interested in this. I went ahead and offered open borders with them.

Tech Report, Turn 124

Rego - Rifling
Darrell - Chemistry
Shoot - Engineering
NoSpace - Literature

NoSpace queued up steam power, due in two turns. I'm pretty sure this does mean they'll be heading for assembly line. They could potentially be really scary in about ~25 turns. Teching and building while the four of us tear each other apart too. Darrell is looking really intimidating too - he is uncomfortably close to destroyers. Maybe I can get them to fight each other....

This update is really dragging on, so I think I'll stop and address future civics changes and tech plans in another.

I'll end with a picture of my core, which I haven't shown in awhile:



My workers have been bored, and have been roading all the tiles. Railroads soon!

[oledavy]

Teching Plan

Hearing Darrell is getting close to destroyers impressed upon me the danger of ending up like the Parkin Violaters in PB4, so:

[SIZE="3"]Screw cavalry!!! I'm going combustion![/SIZE]

1. Engineering
2. Chemistry
3. Steel
4. Steam Power
5. Railroad
6. Combustion

However, this does delay techs I will need to unlock key late game civics (Democracy, Communism) Which brings us the next issue, late game civic change. I need three great people so I can pop a golden age and revolt into:

Universal Suffrage
Nationhood/Free Speech?
Emancipation
State Property
Free Religion

This is where I really miss the Civ5 style of popping golden ages. So yeah, I need to get three great people.

[oledavy]

A few maps to help those tagging along visualize what's about to happen:

[oledavy]

[SIZE="3"]Report From The Eastern Front[/SIZE]







I detailed the HMS Revenge with a rifle and musket aboard to kick things off by attacking Tatan. Recon revealed just a galley in the city. I'm surprised Rego put in it there, almost as if he wants it to be killed. After my muskets chased off the oar wielding Incans, they took the city - finding some decent infrastructure (a lighthouse, forge and courthouse). I additionally cut off a worker on the peninsula. Not a great city, but I need it to enable an amphibious strike on Polka next turn. In the meantime, Rego has no forces even close to the city, so he'll be unable to retake it for awhile, but it will eventually fall due to his numerous catapults. However, that's less troops for Shoot and Darrell to fight in the north if nothing else. When the city comes out of revolt, I'll start whipping it for all it's worth. The crucial tile to lock down in addition to Rego's iron is his oil, located 3 north and 2 east of Tatan. If I can hold it, it should make an excellent base for contesting that tile and denying Rego destroyers (if the war even drags on that long). Polka unfortunately grew to size 6 last turn, which means I probably will not get to raze it as he'll draft out of it before my rifles come ashore. I'm probably going to dump the survivors from the assault on Sciz here next turn, which brings us to:





This i where the airships come in handy. For any of you that have not used airships, they can do a max of 20% of damage to the target before they can no longer attack. It takes one attack to bring down all the current ships and land units save for rifles, which take two generally. The important thing with using them is to kill the weakened unit on the same turn, otherwise you're just granting your opponent free experience. I have enough airships to basically strike any unit he brings out along the front. As long as I stay under the cover of my air umbrella, I'm basically fighting all his units at 80% strength.

Recon revealed a catapult and rifle in addition to the previously spotted Quechua in Sciz. Rego moved his galleon and two frigates into galleon into the bay to force me to fight them first. Thanks to my airships, my East Indiamen were able to mop up his naval forces with the loss of only one ship. I then landed in Sciz, losing 2 maces and a rifle and razing the city. I'll probably move the fleet and surving soldiers to Tatan next turn to heal up and lock down the city, in addition to threatening further landings in his south and backline.



The final action of the turn took place south of Nowitzkiville. Rego left one of his frigates alone on the ocean. After hitting it with an airship, my Combat I East Indiamen had 52% odds on it. I'm not going to get much better odds than that and I need to kill his frigates wherever I can, so I took the battle....and lost. I mopped up with the HMS Hood and covered it with 3 other East Indiamen to counter his 3 frigates and galleon west of Nowitzkiville. Shoot got my two rifles to Hebron much faster than I expected and gifted them last turn, and I saw an oppurtunity to go on the offense. I loaded them on the HMS Bellerophon and moved them to the mini stack to fork Nowitzkiville and Suckit Lebron. It's doubtful I'll be able to boat it, but at least it gives me the option and forces him to draft. Next turn I plan to move them to his clam tile and pillage the fishing boats adding Ichabod to the fork while I'm at it.

I split my remaining fleet and galleys/triremes between the tiles east of Hattin. It will force him to expend his frigates to be able to boat the city and will allow me to mop them up on my turn if he does attack. I only have a rifle and a warrior in the city, however, it's doubtful he'll succeed without frigates to bomb down the city defenses.

The only other significant news in the war is that Rego moved his frigate/galleon stack into the Eastern Sea. My cities along the arm are now all well fortified against an assault. Likewise, the cities of Ilios, T-Hawk and Bato are well staffed and unlikely to fall. However, his southwestern and backline cities are not, and that's where I'm focusing my efforts

So, the score thus far, even though hammers are no longer a good indicator of success with drafting online:

Incan Losses:
3 frigates
1 galleon
1 galley
1 rifle
1 quechua
1 catapult
372 hammers total

Templar Losses:
2 East Indiamen
1 Rifleman
2 Macemen
271 hammers total

101 hammer and 2 city advantage us!

[SIZE="3"]Other News[/SIZE]

Construction finished and I queued up engineering, which will complete in one turn with the overflow. I'm on max gold for next turn.

NoSpace finished Steam Power and is going for railroad (headed for combustion?) Darrell teched steel. I got research visibility on Rego and he is one turn from finishing steel. Shoot researched nothing.



Darrell adopted emancipation a few turns ago, and I'm starting to see unhappiness from it



I whipped Oxford to completion for 3 pop in Jerusalem. Just why do these people want to be emancipated again?