First off, when I said "southern cities" I meant southern along our front. With all the talks of amphibious landings, I realized I had miscommunicated there.
Initial IT - Stone archer outside of Ako attacks the city (with army inside) and the army goes down to 5/13 HP. Ten more units move outside of Ako, and I have no reinforcements.
1) Oct 1512
Sell barracks and disband Ako. It was surrounded by 10 units and only a wounded army for defense. Mistakenly move our worker instead of deleting him: we can't get him to safety. Kill 3 stone & 1 Ashi. Don't know where to put settlers. [4-0]
IT - We lose the worker. The stack that was heading for Ako is now heading to Kurosawa.
2) Jan 1513
Science to 70%, Currency in next turn.
Kill 5 Ashi, 2 crossbow.
Pull the armies back from Kobe and block off the hills, trying to create a killing zone by Kurayoshi. [11-0]
IT - Orange lands an Ashi
Currency comes in. Horseback Riding is next.
3) April 1513
Good news: we are up Currency in the Ryuzoji.
Oranging landing is crushed: one Ashi dead. Follow that up with 1 more Ashi and 2 more Crossbows. Move two armies to Kobe.
Then we attack another Ashi and get another leader. Looks like the best he can do is rush a magistrate somewhere. [16-0]
IT-
Myoshi lands an Ashi
4) July 1513
Start a marketplace in Hiroshima. Then I decide to swap any city over 6 uncorrupted commerce (we only have three) to markets as well.
Myoshi ashi redlines and then kills our Bushi. A spear mops up and promotes. Our two armies outside Kobe attack and kill 3 ashi & 1 crossbow. Kill an ashi and 2 crossbow in the open.
My Civ4 habits are preceeding me: I thought I needed to mine an iron to hook it up. [24-1]
IT-
Forgot that I left a Bushi exposed and I lose it in the north.
In the middle another crossbow attacks but we win that battle. [25-2]
A Matsunaga stack moves to Kurayoshi.
5) Oct 1513
In the open, kill 1 ashi & 7 crossbows. Still 4 units outside of Kurayoshi but we have a spear and a bushi for defense.
At Kobe, our armies kill 4 more Ashi.
Use our leader to rush the magistrate in Yonago. [37-2]
IT - Kill a crossbow on defense [38-2]
6) Jan 1514
Kill 2 more Ashi at Kobe, and another in the open. [41-2]
IT - There are a scary amount of Bushi moving around behind Kobe
7) Apr 1514
Kill an Ashi in the open.
Kill 2 more Ashi in Kobe and then see the Damayo!
Purple is dead!
And then I realize that I made a big mistake. All those red bushi can move freely up to our borders in 2 or 3 turns instead of 5 or 6. (That's why I called it a bad move to kill purple.)
Kill the last 3 crossbows and ashi by Kurayoshi and build a town more situated for defense than a prime city spot.
I believe killing the civ has dropped war weariness. [49-2]
IT - Bushi Bonanza!
Thankfully only 4 bushis went north, the rest are doubling around back south.
8) Jul 1514
I give up the mountiain by Mine, but I need to in order to pillage the road to prevent reinforcements to the BUshis by Yamai.
Kill all 4 northern Bushis, no losses!
Kill 3 ashis, crossbow, a bushi in the open. [58-2]
IT - our spear kills a crossbow [59-2]
A Saito (red) stack of 4 Ashi, 3 Bushi, & 5 Crossbow move towards Kurayoshi.
Matsunaga was 7 crossbows and 1 Ashi nearby Hikari, heading towards Kurayoshi as well.
9) Oct 1514
I need to rest and look at this with fresh eyes tomorrow.
The situation:
In the north -
A) Myoshi (3 ashi, 1 xbow)
B) Saito (3 bushi)
In the south -
C) Saito (4 ashi, 3 bushi, 5 xbow)
D) 2nd Saito (1 ashi, 2 bushi)
E) Matsunaga (3 xbow)
F) 2nd Matsunaga (1 ashi, 4 xbow)
G) 3rd Matsunaga (3 ashi, 1 xbow)
In between, in the back, could go either way:
H) Oda (4 ashi, 1 xbow)
and the lone Myoshi xbow that doesn't get a letter.
That's 39 units in view right now, 27 of which are in the southern theatre.
Northern army (13/13) moves SE, cuts the road, and then heads west onto the road network.
Middle armies (11/13 & 4/13) are the tough choice. Attack now and take out the Bushis? Decide to attack with the 11/13 and he drops to 7/13, 2 Bushis dead. Second army fortifies to heal.
Bomb the western-most Matsunaga stack. Kill 2 xbows, leaving the last red-lined.
Southern army attacks out of Hikari, killing an ashi and an xbow from the Matsunaga middle stack. So we're giving up the highground in an effort to kill units now.
[65-2]
IT- more units move into the area than I killed last turn, but thankfully the Saito super-stack splits, half towards Hikari and half towards Kurayoshi. There are only 7 units at Kurayoshi to deal with now. Stacks of 5,4 & 3 directly outside Hikari. I'm ignoring the rest for all purposes until i can deal with those. The northern units appear to be taking the middle mountain range to come into our territory.
10) Jan 1515
Cats bombard both Saito stacks (bushi = bad)
I stick with my naming convention:
He's waiting in Mine for orders: rush another big building?
Kill 2 ashi and an xbow of the Kurayoshi stack, but lose a Bushi who decided to fall on his own sword.
Out of Hikari kill 2 Saito ashi and 2 Matsunaga xbows.
The last two armies are left fortified. I would either leave them fortified to heal, or move them to the west mountain top to prevent the Miyoshi troops from taking that ridge. You could also split them. A lot of troops are left fortified for defensive flexibility, but I've left it in a position where we won't lose anything. The only thing I'm worried about is a shift in enemy troops back north; our troops are now tied down in the south.
Horsebackriding is due next turn.
Final kill tally: [72-3]
In the end, did I over-react by abandoning Ako? I built Hiraku with the same intent: to have a southern town we could defend. I like Hiraku's placement because all the "outer" tiles are all grassland and easier to kill the enemy from. It'd be nice to move up with more cities, but that will have to wait a little bit first.
Here's a current image, as well as the latest AI movements:
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how did that happen.
nice kill ratio, what a turnset...yes, you did scare us thinking the AI landed 20 odd units behind our lines.
