[PB78] Dreylin boldly goes

[Dreylin]

T181 - Bad idea

[Dreylin]

T181 - Bad idea

T182 - Yep

[Dreylin]

T183 -

Short version (as I'm sure Magic has reported), my Knight stack was wiped and my other stack took a dent. I retook Pasargadae and evacuated a bunch of stuff ontothe Galleys and retreated the rest. Interestingly, Magic did not retake Pasardagae, and now Superdeath is sailing a small fleet in from the West. He still hasn't advanced on Marathon though, and I don't know what he's waiting for.

Diplo this turn consisted of Superdeath proposing war with Donovan in 25t - I dunno mate - and Magic offering 220g for Peace. With my land force broken, I'm going to take another run at Little Lamplight ... carefully. I also offer Peace for the city; I doubt he'll take it this time either, but we'll see.

Most of my cities are on infrastructure builds (Banks in established, and basic infra in the new) but I have Gunpowder in hand so a few Muskets are rolling out now. I think I have to aim straight for Rifling (slowly) rather than chasing any more exciting options.

[coldrain]

I have a bit of catching up to do here. Still reading only your thread 

I understood that SD has cuirs and a NAP with you? Do other players have comparable military threat?

What's the tech plan after gunpowder?

[Dreylin]

Right, let’s see what I can remember…

Donovan is about on par tech-wise with me; I have Banking and 98% of Paper over him, but he has a chunk of the top half of the tree and has had Gunpowder for longer.

Superdeath got Gunpowder at the end of the Gav war, then went through Philosophy to get to Nationalism. He made it ahead of Magic, but lost the Taj to GA Marathon. Then he grabbed MilTrad for cuirs has been mostly static since then - showing Banking.

Magic went through Theology and Divine Right to get to Nationalism, then continued to avoid military techs and instead grabbed Constitution and then Paper before the war (he also has most of the top of the tree and Compass). I thought he already had Gunpowder, so I grabbed it myself to enable Pinch, but it’s only recently he’s been showing it.

FWIW, Gavagai is about to finish Optics to defend his 1 city island empire.

Assuming we (*Superdeath) break through and cripple Magic, then I need to decide which horse to back for the next war; do I continue to ally with Superdeath and turn on Donovan - trying to get more out of a war for the first time to catch back up - or do I rally with Donovan against the leader and try to knock Superdeath down a peg.

My gut feeling is that I have more chance from the first of those options, as I don’t have a huge amount of faith in Donovan & I to take on the tech leader. Which probably means I need to respond to Superdeath sooner rather than later.

[Dreylin]

T184 -

Mostly reshuffling units around. Donovan has a small force of 3 Knights and some Cats trailing in to Magic's NW ... no idea what he expects to accomplish with them.

Magic retook Pasargadae and offloaded a couple of units out of Little Lamplight. Riker is adding Triremes to the theatre since I need to control it. After Paper completes, I'm going to continue to save gold on Compass with a view to picking up Optics. In addition to Caravels, that also enables the Whales at La Forge (Diamond City).

I've settled O'Brien in the space North of Worf - will grab a pic next turn. I've been looking for the right time to run a burst of Slavery to get some infra whipped into the new cities; I think that will be in around 3turns from now, by which point a few more cities will be in whip range, and a few less will be needing the Caste Specialists rather than having their own available. It'll also help me finish the round of Banks in the larger core cities with ~2-pop whips to juice the economy.

I also decided to commit to the role of sidekick and sent Superdeath a proposal for war with Donovan on T210 - explicit using gold amount rather than x turns. I think that I can make some swift gains in former Gavagai territory, as well as nabbing the island offshore Sulu. That gives me 26t to get to Rifling and start to build an army ... which seems a long way off at current rates. I think mass Wealth building / specialists will have to be the answer.

[Dreylin]

T185 -

Superdeath sent back Iron-Iron, so I guess we're ready to go on t210.

Or maybe not:


I sent Donovan back Crab-Crab since I have a NAP with SD and even if I didn't I don't have a stack worth shit to try to turn on him.

Landed the first units outside Little Lamplight this turn; we'll see if it goes any better this time.

[Dreylin]

T187 - some real pictures

Superdeath took Mycale this turn, but he's yet to break Marathon



I've got 8 more units on boats, but that's about all I plan to transfer across (maybe another pair of Muskets that have just arrived). 2-3 more turns of bombardment before it's worth sending them in, so he'll probably have a Musket there before I do.

I sent a couple of the ships down the West side incase Superdeath decides against capturing Pasargadae and I can grab it instead. Chances are slim, but it doesn't affect the ferrying to have the option.

I've also switched into Slavery this turn to get some of the new cities up and running faster.



It'll just be a 5t stint as I need to get the Caste specialists back. I did consider Bureaucracy over Vassalage as well, but I'm still producing units and I don't think there's currently enough value. Will reconsider for the next switch, by which time my involvement in the war should be over.

[Dreylin]

T188 - incomprehensible diplo



Riker & Yar indicates Little Lamplight, but not sure what he's trying to say here. It was followed with a World Map trade, which I accepted. He did take Pasargadae so maybe that has something to do with it? Also, from what I can see it looks like Superdeath's attack on Marathon whiffed; his stack is very banged up, but Magic still seems to have a huge stack of Pikes.

Shuffled a few more units across to the island, but that's about it. Defenses down to 48%, so 1 more round of bombarding at least. And afterwards I have to haul the entire stack back across the water. <sigh>

[Dreylin]

T190 -

Dreylin Quixote has finally tiled his windmill:



Cost me 5 Catapults, then the Trebs got excellent withdrawal odds and it was a case of where I wanted the XP to go on cleanup. GG spawned and heading to McCoy.

Superdeath is still bogged down outside Marathon, and is bringing his stacks up from the East past Pasargadae. Magic attacked out at the remains of Superdeath's original stack ... my HA on the scene got a kill on defense and has noped out of the area to recover. I'm not sure SD can break Marathon; I'll shift my army over this way and see if he needs a hand.

Infra builds most everywhere at the moment, along with spreading Hinduism for AP Hammers and future University of Sankore. I turned on research this turn to chase Printing Press - due in ~4turns.