SGOTM 13 - One Short Straw

I queued-up a Galleon to come out of St. Petersburg, which should help with shuttling new units that come from Cathy's ex-core Cities.

Paris is already spamming 1-pop-whipped Galleons, so we should have enough on that front.


Once we drop off some troops at Ragnar's Ivory City, the Galleons that were used can go back and pick up any new troops that are created from Willem's ex-core, as the troops that go after the Ivory City should probably just march inland in the hunt for Ragnar's 4th City.
 
Also, you are right: the 2 Trebs and the Pike at the southern end of Isabella's area can just go directly towards Ragnar.

Heck, we could even send the 2 Maces and the Treb that way, too. Then, Horse Archers that are whipped out of Madrid and Barcelona can actually be used to finish off Murcia.
 
Vicky is dead. I took a look at the path for units to walk across the land and decided that it would be faster for the units to board the Galleon directly and sail through Hastings. The troops may or may not make it to Joao in time to make a difference.



We destroyed Willem. In the interest of scouting to the SE, I sent 1 Mace onto a Hills square... Ragnar's City is definitely to the SE of there.



In fact, our southern Galleon will be able to assault the City... it looks like the City is just 2-squares-away from the Coast, which shouldn't be too hard to reach.



Our Galleon that was at Lisbon (Joao's capital) has sailed around the eastern edge of his continent. There is an off-continent Barb City that we don't care about and there is evidence of one of Joao's Cities being down here as a non-Costal City.
 
I decided that the worst AI that we could run out of troops against was Joao.

So, for better or worse, I finally committed our stack of 6 troops from Cathy to going towards Joao.



Our troops from England are also soon going to land on the scene:



Here are our troops in the SW.

Also, the troops that were going to destroy Murcia boarded the Galleon and went west, to cover Joao's SW flank, should they be needed.

The other Galleon there, that had a Pike and 2 Trebs, went east to Ragnar, so that we can hit Ragnar's south-west City with 6 land-based troops.



Isabella's western City gave me around 90% odds against her City Garrison I unit, so I took the chance and Amphibiously attacked. The next unit had more like 70% odds but he won the battle (as you can see his health is in the red).

I'm not sure that it really mattered, since all that I ended up doing was dropping-off two unsupported Trebs at Salamanca, but that's what we did.

As you can see, Isabella did indeed settle the City to the north. I'm not concerned since it is so close to Cathy's ex-core, which is an area that still has several good whips remaining.



Cities that can't produce another 2-pop-whipped unit are building Chariots to be 1-pop-whipped. Please don't get mad if we end the game with only 1 or 2 population points in most of our Cities. ;)
 
Well, we found Joao's southern City and it is only defended by an Archer. It can die soon enough, so I have re-routed the Murcia Galleon back towards Ragnar. That Galleon will still be able to help with Ragnar's SW City.



We are slowly but surely taking down the units in Joao's capital. Sorry, the wrong units of ours were selected because I wanted to get a screenshot with the green text at the top and the game had already auto-switched to the next unit. I got the hover text for Lisbon correct, though.

Note that we have 3 Trebs and 2 Maces by Lisbon. I decided to send the Galleon depicted here back towards our core, to be able to pick up more units to send at Ragnar, since we have Joao's Cities well covered now.


For example, you can see us landing at Joao's NE City, while our troops are 1 turn away from landing at his eastern in-land City.



As for Ragnar, the two Galleons that I had said would go to his SW City will instead go to Uppsala. We can attack and land there next turn. If the defences are weak, then the Galleon to the NE of there can help in assaulting Nidaros, otherwise the Galleon to the NE of there can help in assaulting Uppsala.


Here's that Galleon to the NE that I was talking about, which has discovered Ragnar's fleet. I have moved our two western Triremes closer to Ragnar, to help deal with any counter-attack that Ragnar might attempt.



So, what about that SW City of Ragnar's? Well, we have Galleons coming along his western Coast that will hit it.



What about his capital? Well, we'll drop some troops off to the NE of his capital and land-march them for a couple of turns.


So, in reality, Ivory City is going to be the LAST City of Ragnar's that we will aim to attack, since it is the closest to our northern mainland.


I.e. the two Galleons that are just to the north of Hiathabu will actually drop off their payload on the Grassland square to the E + E + E of Haithabu and then march on Nidaros (Ragnar's capital). These Galleons can then go and pick up the new troops (many of which are Chariots) that Willem's ex-core is trying desperately to squeeze out.
 
I uploaded the game and will pause playing here. I still have the game open and this upload is the second in a row where I've just left the game open... hopefully, doing so is not an issue with the way that the uploaded games are parsed.


Anyway, just because I still have the game open does not mean that someone else can't pick it up from here. There's not much left to do except pushing units across the map, whipping, forming temporary mini-Galleon chains, and then following these things up by kicking butt and taking names.

Still, if someone else would rather finish it off, that's fine by me. If no one wants to play, then I can probably pick it up again Monday evening, but I'd be just as happy if someone else decided to finish 'er off. I expect to see some nice screenshots, though! ;)


Here's a view of the units guarding Nidaros, Ragnar's capital.


It seemed rather silly to drop off the Pike and Trebs next to Nidaros, since an Axe could kick the butt of the Pike then the Horse Archers could kick the butts of the Trebs.



So, instead, these three units joined the group of 6 units that were going to land-march to Nidaros. It was faster to do so than sailing them around the north-eastern peninsula and also allows those Galleons in the NW to pick up additional troops from Willem's area.



I seem to have missed the screenshot, but there weren't that many defenders in Ragnar's SE City, so I felt that 6 troops landing there would be sufficient to do the job.


We still have troops sailing towards his SW City, with 6 troops being able to land next turn either on the Copper or SW + SW of the City--either spot would work just as well as the other, and a third Galleon will arrive a bit later that could be used for just about any of Ragnar's Cities if we use some Galleon chaining (hint, hint, if someone picks up the save--prepare a Galleon chain, you konw, just in case we want to send those boats to the SE City or to Nidaros, instead of to the SW City).

Isabella's Trireme will probably Pillage Madrid's Clam, but I don't really think it matters, so I decided not to attack her Trireme with a fully-loaded Galleon, just in case. I don't see how the chance of keeping 1 Clam beats the possibility of losing a Galleon and 3 ground troops.



Here's a view of Salamanca: that blasted Catapult wounded our Macemen, so there is no way that the Macemen will be attacking for a couple of turns, but at least there is a Medic in the stack. In the meantime, nothing stops us from attacking with a Treb + a Horse Archer next turn, slowly picking away at the City's Archers.

Note that the Horse Archer arrived where it did in one turn from Barcelona, so another Horse Archer whipped out of Barcelona could also go to the same spot, although I'd prefer to see the next Horse Archer whipped out of Barcelona joining the next Horse Archer whipped out of Madrid--going to Murcia in the south. I'd wait to attack Murcia until we have 3 Horse Archers there, just to avoid losing and then giving the Archer a chance to heal. I say "the Archer" although there could be more units there by now, but we know that there is at least one Archer in the City and that city is small in size so it won't be whipping a ton of units.

Salamanca can always get reinforcements from the north to attack it, so yeah, probably the next 2 Horse Archers should go south to Murcia.



There's a view of Isabella's northern City. I sent the Galleon that is just NE + N of the City to get some troops, so that we will be able to assault Zaragoza.



Things are going well at Lisbon as we slowly pick away at the defenders there.



We land some troops at Coimbra.



There they are again.

"We are touring the Portuguese countryside. :D"



94% chance? Why not?! We won (and we razed the City).



Here's why I say that there might only be an Archer down there at Murcia... because the Catapult that went into Murcia left the City and chased the Worker that we captured. After that, the Horse Archer made quick work of the Catapult. Healing the Horse Archer will also give time for the next 2 Horse Archers to arrive. We could probably even bring along a Chariot whipped from Toledo, just to all-but-guarantee our success.
 
Word to the wise if someone else picks up the game: watch out for Ragnar's stack of boats that is sailing towards our core Cities (but could also go after Willem's ex-core Cities). It would be a shame to have him capture Gold City, Marble City, or Rotterdam and survive for a bit longer just because of that fact. My plan was to simply block him with 2 Triremes on 2 different squares side-by-side, hoping that he wouldn't dare to attack our Combat II Triremes. At worst, he will attack and we'll at least get favourable odds.
 
The cities from Cathy's core should hit Spain -- we need to use a boat to hit her last city since it's a little far from Salamanca (stupid forest). Joao is as good as dead so it's just a matter of killing Ragnar. I would set up a galleon chain in the south to ship troops around Ragnar's island counter-clockwise to the ivory city (once they're done with their job down there).

We have enough cash for 6 turns without strike so let's try to wrap the game up before we go on strike :lol:
 
It looks like things are well in hand. Nice work Dhoom! :goodjob:

If no one else can pick up the game today, I'm fine with Dhoomstriker taking it home tonight.
 
The cities from Cathy's core should hit Spain -- we need to use a boat to hit her last city since it's a little far from Salamanca (stupid forest).
Yeah, there is a definite need to drop off troops at Spain's northernmost City of Zaragoza. The good part is that the City is tiny so it can't whip units, but it is on a Hills square, so let's hope that she doesn't squeeze out Feudalism.


Joao is as good as dead
It looks that way. The worst thing that could happen is that he takes back a City of his, so I'll try to keep troops ready to counter such a possibility.


so it's just a matter of killing Ragnar.
I'm hopeful that the 9 troops that will march on his capital should do the trick. Probably the trickiest thing that he could do is unload three Galleys' worth of troops somewhere, such as to defend his capital. That potential mobility can make him a bit tough to predict.


I would set up a galleon chain in the south to ship troops around Ragnar's island counter-clockwise to the ivory city (once they're done with their job down there).
Yeah, that's a good idea. Doing so would cover most of his other Cities.

I'm extremely tempted to KEEP his in-land City, just to prevent possible Settler-expansion vectors for Settlers leaving from the areas of his other Cities.


We have enough cash for 6 turns without strike so let's try to wrap the game up before we go on strike :lol:
5 turns is about the earliest that we could win if everything goes nicely, so with a reasonable amount of luck 6 turns should be doable.


Our worst case plan (if we end up needing additional turns to win) would be to start building Wealth everywhere and possibly reducing the Cultural Slider into multiple levels of Unhappiness.


I'll wait for a couple of more hours for anyone who wants to volunteer to finish off the game, but if no one speaks up, then I'll play around that time.
 
We can move the galleon NE of Nidaros to block access to his capital. Hopefully that will make his boats sail northward, making them easy prey for our triremes/galleons.

I'm fine with you finishing up the game.
 
We can move the galleon NE of Nidaros to block access to his capital. Hopefully that will make his boats sail northward, making them easy prey for our triremes/galleons.
Sounds like a good idea. Perhaps I should have upgraded the Triremes to Caravels, but I think that it's too late to do so now.


What I could do is "play chicken" with his boats and "block them" from coming towards our Cities when he gets near to our Triremes, then "unblock them" when his stack moves away so that it comes back towards our Cities... making them sail back and forth every two turns until the game ends.

I'll definitely raze his capital and SE City, though, to prevent his fleet from striking at either one of them.
 
I'll wait for a couple of more hours for anyone who wants to volunteer to finish off the game, but if no one speaks up, then I'll play around that time.

Go for it Doom. Winning looks so simple now we don't really need to discuss it anymore.
 
Go for it Doom. Winning looks so simple now we don't really need to discuss it anymore.

Agreed. Play on.

EDIT: The culture slider can be dropped 10% (i.e. to 20%) this turn with no adverse affects. That may give us the 6 turns we need... :)
 
Mitchum said:
The culture slider can be dropped 10% (i.e. to 20%) this turn with no adverse affects.
Good call. Okay, I have done so.


The Galleon near Ragnar's capital has already moved this turn, so I can't put it into position to block his capital just yet, but should be able to do so on the following turn.

If Ragnar's fleet has been moving north, we should just be able block it in time with both Triremes... then it will be up to Ragnar to decide whether to suicide his stack on us or not. That said, I did lose track of his stack last turn, but if it went north, then I know within a square or two where it should be and our Triremes will be able to block his stack.


As for Zaragoza... I have a Treb, Mace, and Horse Archer in a nearby Galleon. I was thinking about using them on Ragnar, but we have other boats to supply Ragnar and if I don't use these troops on Isabella then our attack on her might end up being a little bit too light.


The counter-clockwise Galleon chain around Ragnar's land won't extend too far, particularly if we are going to use the Galleon at Nidaros to simply block access to his boats, but then again, if his fleet doesn't unload 9 troops anywhere, then we won't really need the Galleon-chained units anyway, so better to just try and block him from landing.


I will be double-checking for whipping opportunities and possibilities to move other units and then will end the turn shortly.


I can probably 1-Galleon-chain the units coming from Vicky to Joao's area, although they won't really be needed. I don't see how they can arrive at either of the other two AIs in time, so it's probably a meaningless thing to do, but better to have overwhelming forces than "close to just enough but with some unlucky dice rolls."
 
The counter-clockwise chain is to ship troops towards ivory. The stack near Nidaros should be enough to take out Nidaros. We can dump a few horse archers/chariots if we're short "conquering" units.
 
shyuhe said:
The counter-clockwise chain is to ship troops towards ivory.
Do you mean clockwise, then?

Clockwise would mean starting from the south-west and going up to the west then up to the north-west then the north, then the north east.

Counter-clockwise would be starting from the south-west and then going to the south and then the south-east and then the east.
 
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