[Spoiler] Fintourist loses his multiplayer virginity

[Fintourist]

@all: Wow, I guess my thread has never seen so much action Ok, I just want to clarify myself: I also think that Sareln's actions are completely understandable and I also buy Molach's argument that "revenge attack --> others join the dogpile --> everybody is left crippled" might be a reasonable move for Sareln from strategic perspective. I'm just simply bitching the fact that I had 20 ships on my coast trying to kill me! I have no hard feelings towards Sareln at all! Though I want to raze all his cities...

So sorry, just to clarify - is that Sareln's navy gone, or does he still have a relevant number of ships somewhere?

Sareln has still 9 Frigates and 2 Galleons inside Lemongrass and 1 Galleon was spared in the stack that I attacked last turn. I'm just relieved and talk about weakened navy, because defending against these units is so much easier than against 15 Frigates + 5 Galleons that Sareln had at the start of the T174. The ability to draft Rifles also helps significantly..

[TheHumanHydra]

Okay, thanks, and don't worry, we didn't think you were mad or anything.

[Qgqqqqq]

Sareln's focus on you makes sense for his future games too - "don't piss off a guy who holds a grudge like that!"

Yeah, cause this has worked so well for him in the past!

Reference to Sareln getting rushed every game.
Ok, maybe T150 doesn't count

[Fintourist]

Turns 176-178

Turns have been moving slowish, but my RL has been so busy that I haven't found time for reporting, nor for especially concentrated turn-play.

The biggest news is that I'm proceeding with my attack plans on Viqsi. Actually, if Viqsi pays enough attention (spots my Galleons in one of former cities of Hydra, which are visible thanks to an annoyingly positioned work boat, and counts 1+1), she will get a fair warning. She can't revolt back to Slavery (+ Nationhood) yet, so she has only limited means to react, but well.. Let's see. The original goal of this little invasion was to capture one of Viqsi's cities, raze couple of them and by overall pressuring force her out of the full economy mode. Let's see how close to reaching these targets I will in the end get..

I have now reached the point where having fun with this game is at least as big of a priority as winning this. If I had bet all my savings on this game I would probably turtle, concentrate on defenses and go to space.. But, that's boring.. I like the idea of attacking Viqsi and then trying to win a 3-front war more intriguing.

Azza's navy is improving all the time btw, there are already couple of Ship of the Lines sailing around accompanied by some frigates. I'm not feeling too threatened, yet... but after I finish Steel EOT179 the tech path will be Steam Power -> Railroad -> Combustion. I'll build meanwhile a drydock in my heroic epic city and start pumping 2-turn destroyers. That should solve potential problems in the Azza front, but of course I still need a while to get there..

Sareln's aggressions have basically stopped and he is keeping his Frigates in his naval base, Lemongrass. I have started catapults in couple of cities that will auto-upgrade into Cannons and keep drafting the max amount of rifles every turn. I'll want probably ~5+ cannons and ~15 rifles/janissaries so that I can take Lemongrass soonish. Every turn I'm expecting an attack from some kind of crazy direction though..

And of course, every report needs at least one random pic:



I'm getting close to reaching a full circle (every longitude)..

[Fintourist]

Turn 179

The turn where I finished Steel! But yeah, that's probably not too interesting.. The theater of action will be during the next turns this region:

Spot my stack..

The reasoning for my questionable choice of target is provided here:

Ok, let's be honest about it. Azza is my no. 1 competitor who I kind of should be attacking:



Azza has the double the amount of cities compared to Viqsi and many of them are still young, fairly defendless and I would love to raze several of them, before they reach a draftable size.

On the other hand Viqsi is currently the fastest techer of my opponents:



She is in a Golden Age and only 1 turn away from Replacable Parts (I get her research visibility always when I end turn). This means that she is about to become significantly more annoying opponent to attack quite soon.

In addition this:



Yeah, Viqsi has no army to talk about. Also take into account the fact that she has not teched Astronomy yet. I have to say that on this map, lacking Astronomy (and Chemistry) so long is quite Combination of no army and non-possibility to build navy just invites an attack. There is absolute nothing that she can currently offer that counters my Frigates..

Another reason for my attack is that Sareln is still forcing a chunk of my army to remain in defensive position. Azza has way more power, a reasonable sentry net and I would need a significantly larger force to attack him. It would not really make sense to go against him with this kind of opportunistic force that I'm using. Addittionally, the region where I would like to hit Azza is completely on the other side of the world compared to the region where I have/had my navy. Thanks to Sareln the attack on Azza would have been logistically clumsy and slow. And yeah, Azza has Ship of the Lines. I really can't perform an attack with a handful of Frigates, which I'm doing now against Viqsi.

Feel free to question my logic about performing another opportunistic crippling attack while I could just be snowballing ahead! On the other hand, I feel that I'm already in war/cold war against everybody... Or at least I should be.. And most importantly: Soon this game will truly be a 1vs3 war, which (as already stated) is way more interesting than just turtling..

So the gameplan is to give Viqsi a decent hit, remove Sareln's naval base (cannons in progress) and then wait a bit if Azza joins the action. If not: Raze/Capture some of his island holdings and win the game through a dominating navy. And basically this:



Caste/SP workshops are really the thing in this production poor map.

Btw, I noticed that Viqsi played her turn pretty quickly and I somehow believe that she did not spot my stack that would have been visible if she had checked the garrison of Seville Or maybe this is an ambush!

One.. more.. turn..

[Commodore]

Wait.

Wait wait wait.

So in a slow game with turn pace issues you're punishing the fast player?

[Fintourist]

Wait.

Wait wait wait.

So in a slow game with turn pace issues you're punishing the fast player?

Yeah...

What am I thinking here!!!

[Fintourist]

Btw, regarding turn pace. We had a good period a while ago, but now we are again back to constantly missing turns...

On the other hand, my RL is quite busy and turns are getting long, which means that sometimes I'm only relieved when I see I haven't got the save. My GF does not really appreciate when I come home at midnight and then spend an hour staring at my civ..

[Fintourist]

Turn 180



It took 180 turns for me to have declared war on every opponent in this game... Wise? I doubt!

Anyways, I want action, and I'm sure you lurkers agree: We have seen enough games where after killing at most one opponent the leader more or less turtles and waits everybody to concede.. Not here! It's world war time!

Okay.. You already knew that I'm a one-trick-pony, right? I totally am. I'm simply not bored yet of ruining my opponents game with the help of circumnavigation bonus.



Yes. This same scout (that our beloved mapmaker gave me on T0) was there when I attacked Sareln, and Hydra/BaII. Again it made sure before declaring that I'm heading towards lightly defended cities. Stoneship & Tay. 29 pop points. 2 Muskets, 1 Numid Cavalry and 1 Archer. That's easily doable even for my small attacking force of 9 rifles and 3 Janissaries..

And so I went..



And continued..



RNG was not really on my side and I lost 2 rifles and 1 Janissary, but that's still totally fine. Only a bit on the disappointing side of the expected result. I also burnt both of these cities since they are close to Viqsi's core, they would have had 10 & 9 turns of revolt and thus required a bunch of defensive units, which I don't want to commit here.. I have to say that I started regretting a bit the burning of Stoneship quite soon after clicking the raze button, but what's done is done..

Instead I try to make my gains elsewhere...



I unloaded my GG-rifle in "Tennis is a.." and promoted it into Combat 4 + mobile (next Commando). Then I used it to kill an unpromoted musket defending K'veer. This is already a second time where I wish I had not skipped 2-movers (too busy going for combustion..) and consequently the city still stands. I expect Viqsi to switch into Slavery+Nationhood next turn, but I should have enough attackers to take city next turn regardless..

In the south I unloaded the rifles out of my spare Galleon next to "Nidur Gemat":



I have still couple of healthy Rifles that can attack amphibiously, so if Viqsi does not put proper defense in place this city might also fall next turn. I will probably keep the city if I capture it, because I have naval dominance in the area and it would be nice if Viqsi would concentrate her revenge efforts here instead of some more valuable region.

Additionally, my happiness situation became more difficult as I lost ivory that I had been receiving from Viqsi. Actually, if she does not switch out of emancipation next turn (as one would expect) I will actually have unhappiness in 4 of my cities.. Nidur Gemat would provide me my own source of Ivory, which would of course help combating war weariness.

Can you also see how annoyingly my ships will fork Riven, Rime and Spire.. Yeah, Viqsi will be forced to build fast some emergency defenders, slowing her tech pace, etc.. She is now ~4 turns away form Rifling, which is perfect. She cannot afford to wait those 4 turns, but has to convert her pop points into muskets or something..

Additional notes:

• My front with Sareln is currently pretty quiet. Which is good. My first wave of cannons is just about to finish, but I still need to organize a handful of rifles so that I can take "Lemongrass"
  
• Azza is bringing more and more ships to our borders. I'm responding passively and at the moment we have roughly 1:1 ratio of ships staring at each other.
  
• I guess this would be a good time for Azza to start bothering me. I have a lot of ships commited to Sareln-defence and a good chunk supporting the attack on Viqsi. If he just waits and waits I will soon enough have Destroyers and Azza is not going to be able to match them for a long long time..
  
• I finally finished Oxford! Thanks to raze cash, I have again ~1300 gold in my pockets. I don't think that I can get Steam Power in 2 turns, but 3 turns should definitely be doable.
  
• Rival worst approval rate is now 48 %. Viqsi lost both Gold and Fur that I had traded to her and IIRC Sugar is now also outside her borders. She should not have much room for draft unhappiness unless she whips her large cities down first..
  

PS. It seems Sareln missed a turn for the 2nd time in row.. On the positive side, this means that he probably does not have then too exciting attack plans in place..

[Fintourist]

Hmm.. Either Viqsi is busy or maybe I broke her.. She has now missed her usual spot already two times and thus I'm still waiting for the new turn