[PB25-SPOILERS] The Lunacy of the Reign of HAK Continues

[MindyMcCready]

Ah, HAK. We are the world's highest power and you've signed peace with MC. You really need to stop signing peace out of reflex.

The results of that peace deal is that MC can now spend 10T in absolute GA builder mode. Then he'll turn all the tech and development into Cuirassiers and then just walk right through the target of his choosing.

We could have instead taken equal or better battles of LK vs Knights while encouraging Retep or Tasunke to join in forcing MC to spend his GA production on zero return military. We needed peace with Gavagai because we were pretty screwed,...Gavagai didn't know how much so given the peace deal. But we weren't in the same level of danger from MC. Please don't take a reflex peace, especially with MC. Given MC offered peace without razing a city,...well we had another chance to whip an LK in the castled city of Belligerent. 2 LK + CB with 100%,...well it's not certain that MC could take that city.

I'm not sure what else we can do with our #1 power. We could go and take the island from Tasunke before he lands Astronomy. We've got the firepower. We could probably make it happen if we have that naval passage ready (?).

We'll have to think of whatever we can do to leverage this power advantage.

[MindyMcCready]

Putting a city here also puts it at risk to a naval attack from either Tasunke

I guess I'm not worried about a naval attack from Tasunke. He's just not big enough for it to be a good idea to take a shot at us. I could be wrong there of course but he's got a lot to lose (island) by provoking us.

Of course, if my musing about Battle Island start looking more promising,...then that's certainly a reason not to plant there. :LOL:

That spot does certainly give me a nervous twitch. It's on flatland and pushes up against the Gavagai border. He's already churning out CrossBows and will likely continue to do those and Catapults, etc so that he can attack us again in the near future.

Well Gavagai could attack us. But try picturing yourself with 14 cities trying to attack an opponent with 26 who's drafting. Gavagai could survive us by using defense as an advantage but he won't likely feel that he has great odds on the offense.

He could use HA to hit us (into LKs),...but those CBs are going to have to survive our first strike cats, 3-move advantage. I can't see Gavagai wanting or initating war with us. That's where I conclude that we can try for maximum output.

And when we are ready to attack Gavagai again (if we ever get the opportunity to) then we raze Wendy's and resettle a city on the hill 1S of those Pigs. And with all that area clear in the south, the next replacement city would be 2S1W of Wendy's (now that Whataburger is gone). So again, a city with hills defense.

If/When we ever get another shot at Gavagai we have to be aiming for victory not defensive. The advantage of that very aggressive location aside from pigs output is that we can threaten 3 cities (five Guys, Wendys, Dunkin) all that the same time. This will stretch his defenses and may give us the opportunity we need to make progress.

Did Retep end up attacking Gavagai? If that does ever come to pass then Gavagai is down to 3 cities in the north for naval production. We should be able to easily outstrip that. There's also a choke 1NE of Dunkin Donuts that we can use to our advantage.

And all Gavagai would need to do is move his entire stack onto the hill 2N1E of Five Guys to be able to fork both cities.

Well he could catch us off guard. But if we've got a stack in the area,...with first strike cats he'd likely be dead.

[MindyMcCready]

OMG,...you've got the forts done already.

Where's our navy stationed?

[HitAnyKey]

OMG,...you've got the forts done already.

Where's our navy stationed?

The bulk of it (at least 4 galleys) has been continually going back and forth between Popeyes and Sonic. So they are in that immediate vicinity. I have another galley down next to Confused, and another galley that was a bit west of that (was going to use it to threaten Gavagai's southern coast cities) which is now returning to the east. Next turn I was planning to send one galley up through the forts to at least have a galley in those waters. Plus to get the stranded Archer off of battle island.
Also making a Fort 1SE of Hungry. Was considering sending a worker or two over to chop those forests that are in my culture still, before Commodore's culture takes them allowing him to chop them.

[MindyMcCready]

Fort 1SE of Hungry.

Nice. Maybe we can pay MC back for that city raze.

Was considering sending a worker or two over to chop those forests that are in my culture still, before Commodore's culture takes them allowing him to chop them.

Also a good idea especially now with the 10T.

The bulk of it (at least 4 galleys) has been continually going back and forth between Popeyes and Sonic.

:LOL: We might have to reverse that flow. Can you post a pic of Battle Island next time you login? These musing are probably very unwise (Tasunke is 7T from Astronomy) but we should at least consider it.

[HitAnyKey]

Regarding the city, you make a handful of good points there. And at this point, I suppose pushing hard is really the only option. If Gavagai is able to build up and push hard back and take/raze that city (or push through to McDs) then our aggressive plant will simply have cost us the game when we end up having that bloody battle. But at least it will be from playing hard and not just playing it safe.

So if I'm able to get the settler to plant that city next turn, I can then send military up there to reinforce it. That tile is 5 away from where the settler is right now. So using those roads, I believe he can settle the city next turn. Any thoughts on initial builds? Should I whip out Walls as the first thing to deter him trying to hit it? Or whip out a Monument (or such to get that first ring culture ASAP)?
McDs finished it's Walls this turn, and I'm going to whip out a Castle as soon as it's capable of doing so (even if it's a 2pop whip) both for the defense and to start getting culture for that first expansion.

[MindyMcCready]

Regarding the city, you make a handful of good points there. And at this point, I suppose pushing hard is really the only option. If Gavagai is able to build up and push hard back and take/raze that city (or push through to McDs) then our aggressive plant will simply have cost us the game when we end up having that bloody battle. But at least it will be from playing hard and not just playing it safe.

So if I'm able to get the settler to plant that city next turn, I can then send military up there to reinforce it. That tile is 5 away from where the settler is right now. So using those roads, I believe he can settle the city next turn. Any thoughts on initial builds? Should I whip out Walls as the first thing to deter him trying to hit it? Or whip out a Monument (or such to get that first ring culture ASAP)?
McDs finished it's Walls this turn, and I'm going to whip out a Castle as soon as it's capable of doing so (even if it's a 2pop whip) both for the defense and to start getting culture for that first expansion.

Monument or barracks first - we need to keep cultural control of those pigs more than anything.

I really disagree with all the castle and wall builds. We should build those in a reactionary manner. Only when threatened,...then whip it out. Productivity first. If we're thinking about moving out of slavery,...well that might be different.

In 10T with pigs that city should be able to make a good reactionary walls whip if necessary. And again, our best defense is a stack of cats. If he hits us with HA,...well LKs don't need walls to defend against HAs.

However, before we truly decide, let's take a look at Battle Island. We'll probably rule that out as a possibility meaning 1E of pigs is a go.

[MindyMcCready]

Next turn I was planning to send one galley up through the forts to at least have a galley in those waters.

We need to make sure that this is our state secret. No map trades with Tasunke or anyone else (map trade with Gavagai was necessary of course). Don't tip him off with that galley.

[HitAnyKey]

I'll take a look at Battle Island after dinner, but I really REALLY don't like the idea of taking ANY of those forces out of Borscheland. Everything there, I feel should remain. Any new stuff we build, that could go towards any other thoughts. I do know the island is only somewhat lightly defended right now, but Tasunke has a MINIMUM of 7-8 Caravels. And at least 2 of them right near my coast. So I don't see any possible way to get troops onto that island.
I'll still post a screenshot of it when I log in later, though.

[HitAnyKey]

Just for the sake of showing it, here is Battle Island:

I highlighted the stack Comm has in CoA since my note over the city couldn't list them all.

Not much on it, but again...he's got lots of Caravels and I have no way to defend against them. He currently has one in the water right next to Happy, and another next to my Trireme that is docked next to Hungry.

On the war of Tasunke vs Elkad, someone (I'm guessing Elkad) took HEAVY losses. The difference from the Rival Worst in my first demos from earlier this turn to right now is pretty big.


It's a decrease of 64000 soldier points. Though some of that would be from the whipping.
They both got another Great General this turn as well.