Brick by Brick (Spoiler Alert!)

[BRickAstley]

About time for some music?
http://youtu.be/5n7qfRNzS3s?t=3m24s

This is a perfect choice: evokes definite feelings of war, with a cloud of march to certain doom hanging over it all.

[TheHumanHydra]

Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!

My pbem46.




BRick's right: this is a march to certain doom, for both my army and my civ. Old Harry : me :: I : Azza in everything but power. Meanwhile, Old Harry already has more units than me visible in-theatre (92 to 82), this before drafting or whipping, which he can begin next turn. Curiously, he didn't knock off Nationalism this turn to draft his new rifles, instead starting on Steel and upgrading some units. He probably figures he doesn't need it, and he's probably right!

I know what my mistakes were: I should have kept the first two cities I took from Azza and defended the two cities Old Harry took from me (I was moving to, but too late). With four more cities, this would be a drastically different situation: Old Harry and I would be about even now, me with a tech edge and cavalry, and him with three more cities. So what's the plan? Well, I'm now moving to settle those four more cities (you saw the first last turn), though it will stretch my defenders thin. If I can develop those cities in safety and my forces have some success in the field, I will have recouped my losses and perhaps regained my standing. If the former but not the latter, which looks more likely, our roles will have definitely been reversed, but I'll be in good enough shape to carry on (Old Harry was!). If neither, equally likely, conditions will persist as they are and will in fact have deteriorated, and then it will be the long (or short) road to collapse and conquest. I am attempting to steel myself for this, so I don't suffer further emotional collapses, while avoiding having defeatist thinking lead to defeat. As you have seen, I am taking every measure to regain my standing, if the Great Attack is but a desperate throw.




Oh, and listen to thestick's music; it's great. And Ritt der Walküren - maybe if I win the great battle.

P.S. Almost forgot - I can start my three-man (so fourth) Golden Age next turn, though I might save it for when I can work more tiles. Thank-you RNG (about 25% odds against)!

[TheHumanHydra]

115 units visible/that can hit my stack to 82 therein. I hope for battle on his turn; not 'cause I'll necessarily win, but because I'm as eager as you to see the bloodbath. Knowing you're beaten does take a load off and lets you enjoy the show a lot more ...




I held off on the Golden Age till I've founded those other three cities. Oh, by the way, I finally realized I found a way to deal with war weariness: whip/draft your cities down to nothing - it's proportional to population (either that or it's finally starting to wear off!). /irony




As always, feel free to ask for any additional information or images. And enjoy the show!

[TheHumanHydra]

Time for Old Harry to break out the old combat simbobulator. Unfortunately, this is probably the end for my short-lived invasion. Old Harry will either determine he can destroy my stack, in which case he will, or that he can't yet (I think this is the case, but I haven't tested - the sim I did before the war is greatly out-of-date). In that case, though, he should realize he can hole up in Barnet and be able to resist my stack to the end of days - getting stronger every passing turn. I will only be able to take cities by risky gambits. At least I'm forcing him to produce military and spend on upgrades instead of tech, and buying time to get these new cities up and running. And ... that's about all the bright side there is. I should get Steel in a couple turns, maybe even before Old Harry depending on how many units he wants to upgrade. Might do me some good when he comes calling and it's time for my last stand ... Ach, who knows? Maybe desperation will take him and he'll throw everything against my stack and lose. A guy can dream, can't he?

[This is not a turn-report; Old Harry is rightly taking a day to think through the turn.]

[TheHumanHydra]

unless I just have no units left to move

Didn't quite get to that point

Do your worst...

Well, that either means he destroyed most of my units, it's just a self-effacing sad face, and he's taunting me to do my worst with my now-impotent army, or he failed to destroy most of units, the sad face is sincere, and he's defying me to do my worst in a grim situation. We'll see when I get the chance to open the save (of course, you know already)! It does mean ... actually, I was going to say it does mean he attacked me, probably with everything, but I guess it could mean he realized he couldn't attack and holed up in his city - "do your worst." That's what I'd like least, I think. Well, I've got all afternoon to play the save; I'll probably be running combat sims, if I have anything left to sim for, that is.

[TheHumanHydra]

Some mood music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oRbStmxvm4

Well, I got both what I wanted most and wanted least: Old Harry attacked my stack and did massive damage to himself, and he mashed tons of units into Barnet so I couldn't take it. So I retreated:




I destroyed 26 catapults, 15 grenadiers, 8 horse archers, 7 macemen, 5 axemen, and 4 knights, for a total of 2804 hammers, and lost 16 cavalry, 2 riflemen, and 1 musketman for a total of 1479 hammers. The cavalry did their job, keeping his masses of grenadiers off my riflemen, but at the cost of two-thirds their number. I'm glad I promoted as many of them as I could to Pinch last turn; they needed it (many had useless promotions from past wars). The riflemen that could promote (those drafted, the majority, can't) I left unpromoted last turn so I could heal them this turn; I'm glad I did that too. Now my battered stack must defend on the hill; I think they should be safe; the real question is next turn, when they have to move back onto flat ground and many of Old Harry's units should be healed. The main result of this battle, besides an attritional advantage for me, is the destruction of all Old Harry's catapults, blunting his offensive capabilities severely and kind of forcing his build choices for the next several turns. But my stack is already all collateral'd up, and this time it won't have the benefit of cavalry to counter his grenadiers - they're almost all redlined. For reference, this is what I can see of his forces, almost all in the main theatre:




And as a comparison, all my forces everywhere:




I didn't draft anywhere this turn; my cities are pretty much tapped out, save some of the inner ones, which are working too many good tiles to draft. Maybe I should've anyway. I do have drafts planned for next turn, when I hopefully found two more cities, which will need defenders. Speaking of which ...




Founded this little guy after debating extensively this turn and last where to put him. Opted for a coastal spot, since Colossus/Financial coastal tiles are doing wonders for me and they'll get me coin faster than those nascent cottages will (I'll probably bulldoze those), and the spot that could share the most tiles with some of my more happiness-beleaguered cities, which can therefore afford to give them up. A quick chop got its terrace up the first turn. Sadly I wasted most of the forests around here earlier with long-distance chops. Oh well.

At end of turn, cs_italy came out of revolt, so I now have 12 functioning cities to Old Harry's soon-to-be 17. Next turn, I hope to settle two more:




It'll take the rice, obviously, for its only food tile, can share the gold, and should get me back my wines for +1 happiness everywhere. Obviously vulnerable to boating by Azza, so it'll get two rifles.




The other one will either go to the bottom location marked there (founding next turn), or maybe go on a boat I'm building to the incense location here (another +1 happiness everywhere!), in which case it'll have to wait a couple turns:




You can see from those screenshots two other locations I'm planning on settling, bringing me to 16 cities (yeah, I really should have kept that first one from Azza). I could put another on the top pig island, but don't want to. Well, maybe down the road. There are two other spots I can jam cities into on my periphary (not shown), but they'd both be in danger from Old Harry and one to boating from Serdoa. I think I'll hold off on those till I can either redistribute my forces or just have more defenders. So yeah, major expansion plans for the short- to mid-term. Gotta place my self on good footing to compete with Old Harry for the long haul, 'cause that's what this game's looking to be. Unless he annihilates my stack and comes calling. It really is vulnerable, or will be once it's on open ground. For now, though, I'm going to celebrate the accomplishment:




Yeah, that's what we want to see, isn't it? Obviously the graph hasn't updated to show my losses yet.

On the tech front:




Old Harry's Golden Age ended, and he's been running 0% and buying upgrades. He diverted to Nationalism from Steel without finishing it. I should have Steel by the end of next turn; I'm setting up Pirates to be able to produce cannon every two turns thereafter (Aquanauts, my Heroic Epic city, as I've mentioned before produces two-turn cavalry). I guess I could then save gold and upgrade my catapults, but I'm thinking of making a run at Assembly Line again. Those techs are almost prohibitively expensive, but I do have to get up there some day if only to defend myself, hopefully to break the deadlock - and I still have that Golden Age up my sleeve. I guess save gold for a while while founding these cities, then either upgrade all the catapults at once or pop the GA and gun it for Assembly Line as the situation warrants?

Old Harry also finally swapped to Police State/Slavery/Organized Religion (and whipped heavily), causing him further economic damage and derailing his fancy Great Person plans temporarily. I contemplated switching civics this turn (Representation and Free Speech are both appealing), but decided to wait - obviously I have to do it in Golden Age, and I need more happiness (from draft anger wearing off) first. Speaking of Great People, I should be getting another Scientist out of Wild West in a few turns. Be nice if it were an Engineer instead; I might try and pop one of those out of the capital while in Golden Age (it has the most Engineer points built up). Hydranauts is the only city of mine that could handle drafting every turn, but it doesn't have the hammers to build the Globe Theatre any time soon; I'd like to rush it with an Engineer. Alternatively, I might be able to run that city I founded this turn up to high-hammers with all the mines in the area, then draft it down to a low size where it can regrow every turn once it's built the Theatre the slow way. We'll see.

Anyway, here's all my cities again for reference (I think these provide a good turn-by-turn overview without having to go through every city, plus, I want to keep them for my own reference at the end of the game):




Oh, and here's a little surprise I cooked up for Old Harry using some of my drafted units who couldn't reach the main front in time:




They probably won't succeed in taking Lancaster without catapults, but they might cause him to whip more and rush units up, perhaps relieving pressure on the main front. I hope this doesn't come back to bite me if he destroys my main stack and pushes hard for Aquanauts or Hydranauts, where these units could have been defending. As I like to say, we'll see. And, what the heck, it's fun to make Old Harry sweat.

This was a very fertile turn as far as plans and ideas go, and even the front turned out better than I feared (though worse than I hoped). Let's hope it doesn't all come crashing down in a turn or two when he hits my stack again!

At that sound the bent shape of the king sprang suddenly erect. Tall and proud he seemed again; and rising in his stirrups he cried in a loud voice, more clear than any there had ever heard a mortal man achieve before:

Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden!
Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

With that he seized a great horn from Guthlaf his banner-bearer, and he blew such a blast upon it that it burst asunder. And straightaway all the horns in the host were lifted up in music, and the blowing of the horns of Rohan in that hour was like a storm upon the plain and a thunder in the mountains.

Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away. Behind him his banner blew in the wind, white horse upon a field of green, but he outpaced it. After him thundered the knights of his house, but he was ever before them. Eomer rode there, the white horsetail on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first eored roared like a breaker foaming to the shore, but Theoden could not be overtaken. Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins, and he was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Orome the Great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young. His golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun, and the grass flamed into green about the white feet of steed. For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City.

Thank you for reading.

[TheHumanHydra]

Might want to look at that post again if you've already read it.

[BRickAstley]

So, I'm not quite sure, are you completely retreating with the mega-stack or going back in to attack?

[BaII]

I think he is waiting for a turn to heal up his stack before making the actual assault on the city.

[TheHumanHydra]

Sorry I wasn't clear. I'm leaving Old Harry's territory. It is impossible for my army to attack successfully in these circumstances. He has 12 full-strength riflemen in Barnet, most of them promoted to City Garrison I or II, plus 13 partial-strength grenadiers, which should be fully-healed in a turn or two due to promotions and the city and Medic III bonuses, plus 13 pikemen and assorted trash. I have 34 damaged riflemen on hand, plus 14 siege units and a handful of muskets and maces (the cavalry are so damaged as to be a non-factor). There's no way I'm attacking successfully into that; no, I must retreat before I'm overwhelmed (I may be anyway). I plan to move 1SW next turn, to the flat ground I mentioned I might get killed on (but note he'll have to have workers on-hand to combat-road if he wants to hit me there), then back into my territory if not. I plan to use this army to defend my territory and provide security for my plan to settle lots of cities and try and tech up to infantry, with the option as I mentioned of upgrading to cannon and going in again now. Anyone know the catapult-to-cannon upgrade cost?

Thank you for asking to clarify. Please, let me know of anything else I make unclear. And sorry to those who were hoping to see the grand assault on the city. He just has too many units ...