[spoilers] pindicator goes off the deep end

[Ceiliazul]

Power (right now, this is my favorite one!)

Power Overwhelming!

[pindicator]

Turn 102

We have a bit of a wonder problem:



Like I said earlier, I wonder if me attacking Yuri has just handed Rego the game.

Then again, Yuri just whipped longbows in all his border cities. Too little too late; the troops are lined up:

The north


The south


I decided to revolt into buddhism. There's never a good time for anarchy, but with the strike forces in place I figure its a good time. Plus, it appears Rego bulbed Theology with his Great Prophet as well (and used the double pre-req to research Paper, i think). So while the rest of my core pumps out troops the capital is going to start on the AP. We'll try to rotate in temples over the next 7 or 8 turns so the hammer bonus will be in place right away.

[Ceiliazul]

That was an absolutely amazing mobilization! 10 galleys full, staged on time, complete with naval defense and (for the North front) complementing support troops.

Your power graph is scary, but your logistics here are even more impressive. I'll be studying this series for my next island map.

[pindicator]

Logistics were a nightmare. How I figured it out was:

• Determine my staging tiles
  
• How far away are my producing tiles from these staging tiles? I measured this in turns it takes to move troops. Having 3-move galleys helped here a LOT
  
• What turn do I want to attack on?
  
• With #2 in mind, what turn is the last that each city can produce troops in order to get to the staging tile in time
  
• Each producing city gets the micro treatment to squeeze as much out as I can - this was the most time-consuming, and also why i whipped so much
  
• As a rule, the towns farther from the front produced ships, the towns closer produced land units. I grouped galleys & triremes as "boats" because they're the same hammer cost and I can figure how many of each I need later.
  
• After figuring micro, do I have enough galleys for the troops? If not, go back and revise micro. Make sure you have some extra for triremes for stack defense. Even now I wish I had some more triremes, especially now that Yuris has Metal Casting.
  
• Then, the best part: figure out how each galley picks up troops and gets to the staging tile in time. This was the one that had me looking each turn, going through every galley in the fleet to make sure it was going to the right tile, and that every troop was assigned to a galley so nobody was left behind.
  

Like I said, a nightmare.

The next test will be keeping up logistics for reinforcements. I'm not going to give the same kind of devotion to detail for reinforcements - I can't imagine doing this every couple turns. I'm scattering troops and galleys around and just hoping for the best, lol.

Speaking of which, i just played the first turn of the war. Very, very, very good turn. Vilcabamba was better defended than I anticipated, but I got lucky winning three different 30% battles against longbows. At the end of the turn, I'm now #2 in score.

Full report later. Hopefully after another turn today.

[oledavy]

Speaking of which, i just played the first turn of the war. Very, very, very good turn. Vilcabamba was better defended than I anticipated, but I got lucky winning three different 30% battles against longbows. At the end of the turn, I'm now #2 in score.

Full report later.

Looking forward to reading it

The micro that went into that mobilization must have been incredible. Very impressed that you pulled it off, it's been amazing to watch.

[pindicator]

Turns 103

Well, Rego is starting to go super saiyan on us:



Nothing I can do now but attack. I declare, and then move a trireme from FHA south to scout Vilcabamba.



I didn't expect 2 longbows, but I have more than enough units to win here. I lost two zerkers on the first two attacks at low percentage; the second didn't damage it too much, only down to 5.0/6. Then I got lucky and won a 30% battle, and the rest was mopup.



Yuri's score dropped 67 points. 10 population and 2 land tiles is 51 points. Does that mean... Did I just take his Moai city??? Happy happy joy joy!

We turned south, next, to Ica. One longbow and one axe were its defense. Here's where the luck continued: our first berserker won another 30% battle against the longbow at 30% odds. Then I realized I needed to attack Vilca next, so I would know how many galleys needed to go to the middle. Lucky again; another 30% win against a longbow. I bragged to Rego about my luck and then lost a 75% against the axe in Ica, so I may have jinxed that last one.



I decided not to keep Ica. If I do not take Ollantaytambo the town will not be able to grow. But maybe this was a mistake; maybe I should be taking everything I can. Still, even if I burn Ollan then this city will not be a fast grower. Yuris dropped 36 points here for 5 pop and 2 tiles.

Vilcas had a longbow, an axe, and a quechua. I won the axe at good odds and cleaned up the quechua.



35 points dropped here: 7 population and 1 land tile.

So in the end, I killed 4 longbows, 2 axes, and 2 quechas, and lost 3 berserkers. 198 hammers killed vs 138 lost. A good start!

Here is the battlefield after the turn's hostilities:



Next turn we can hit Ollantaytambo with 8 zerks, down by the ruins of Ica. There are 5 zerks, a spear, and a chariot ready to hit Corihuayrachina in the north. I will move against Corihuayrachina, and if I don't think I can take it with zerks, we'll continue further in and force more whips. There are also 4 berserkers near Vilcas that can't get to either town, but once we see what's around Ollantaytambo we'll make up our mind on those towns.

I also have a galley in Yuris' west. Wish I had a zerker on it, but it will harass and pillage, try to tie up what it can.



And the combat log.



Good news: pillage gold let us get Compass at end of turn. If we can get both towns next turn we will be able to do another turn at 100%.


Yuris sent me an email upon the end of his next turn:

Hey Pindicator,

I have to say, you made a point very convincingly. Congratulations on
the successful first turn of war

I understand it may sound ridiculous, but I wonder if you would
consider a peace deal at this point. I am willing to concede defeat,
and surrender more cities. I admit it will probably be fewer than you
could capture military, but you will get them intact, and without
increasing war weariness. Basically, I am ready to consider even the
most outrageous demands you can make

Please let me know if a peace agreement is possible, and if so, on
which conditions

All the best
Trainee captain yuris125

Well, I admit I don't know what to do with this right away. I still have 20 berserkers and after spending all that energy on micro I kind of what to use those toys in the battlefield. If I take peace, then I have 20 berserkers that do exactly... what? Take up maintenance? I've (foolishly?) locked myself in to an alliance with Rego, so the only way is to go through Yuris.

There's another issue of Heroic Epic: i want to build it. Right now i have a 7xp zerker, so I'm still a few battles away.

So... I will probably ask for something outlandish, like Corihuayrachina and all the cities on his starting island.

And dang it, I shouldn't have razed Ica.

[NobleHelium]

You can check tile yields to determine whether it was his Moai city.

[pindicator]

You can check tile yields to determine whether it was his Moai city.

Hey, I should have thought of that. So I loaded the save from the start of last turn and sure enough, the tiles around Vilcabamba were getting 2f1h1c. Wow, I must have really smashed his mfg potential in that first turn.

[pindicator]

I sent Yuri this reply:

Hi Yuri,

Thank you for the compliments. This being my first war in a PBEM, I wanted to make sure I was doing things right, and your email about the war means a lot. I may have over-whipped a bit preparing for this, so as you can imagine I do need to make some good gains in order for this war to pay off. Another thing I was hoping to achieve this war was unlocking the Heroic Epic, but that's more of a nice-to-have.

Well, my goal is to be able to compete with Rego in at least population by the end of the war. So since you gave the invitation to ask for the outrageous, if you agree to

• gift me all cities on your starting island
  
• gift me the cities of Corihuayrachina & Macchu Picchu
  
• let me capture Cuzco (since you can't gift a capital)
  

then we can begin talking peace and working out further details. I'm willing to listen to other stipulations or counter-offers you'd have in return, but honestly, if I don't have a higher population and crop yield than Rego by the end of the war, it's hard to justify ending it.

Regardless of how we continue, thank you for being such a great sport, even in the face of difficult times.

Happy Civ-ing,
Pindicator

[oledavy]

"The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities... It is best to win without fighting."
- Sun Tzu

err...actually paraphrased somewhat, but you get the point