[0] 1865 AD - Well, it looks like we've got some crazy fighting going on with Alex. Sparta is ours next turn, unless something totally bizzare happens. OTOH, we need guys at Pharsalos now. Alex has a big stack between Pharsalos and Sparta which could go either way. We'll find out RSN, I guess. We could really use rifles.
IBT - Alex shows up with a frigate off our NW coast. Then he obliterates our cat stack that went too far.
[1] 1870 AD - After some preliminary skirmishing outside Delphi, we bomb Sparta down to 0% defense. I hold off the actual attack, because Alex's city defense promoted rifles are really huge.
IBT - Alex pulls out 4-5 cats at Sparta and collaterals the hell out of our cav stack. His big stack splits up between Sparta and Pharsalos. We no longer have the force necessary to take down Sparta. He also shows up outside Argos.
[2] 1875 AD - Begin constructing some frigates to counter Alex's navy. Counterattack slightly at Argos and Pharsalos, and upgrade Argos' defenders so we aren't destroyed. Sparta's attack force hangs tough. If we can live through the next round, we should triumph. If not...dunno.
IBT - Heavy fighting outside all three cities, which we generally win a lot. Pharsalos needs some help pretty quick, though. Argos' attackers are all utterly defeated, some with the help of Inca, who swoops in at the last.
[3] 1880 AD - Sparta is bombarded back down to 0. More troops are moved up, because this is going to take at least two turns to deal with.
Drill II Catapult moves in, is killed, but causes some damage. A mere Barrage I Catapult does the same, and we're for the cav fighting.
Combat I/Shock/Pinch Cavalry vs Rifle of Doom I - Death for us. In fact, his weak units in Sparta have 16 vs 20 odds or worse. We totally can't fight that at all. We'll see what the Grens can do, and if they can't, we're leaving.
There's some heavy fighting vs 6-7 Greek Rifles and Grens at Pharsalos, wherein it comes down to taking down Catapults with Horse Archers and Phants, which are then moved back into the city and upgraded to cav. We're almost out of the woods there, but not quite.
IBT - Alex probes Pharsalos with a Rifle, and wins.
[4] 1885 AD - Replacable Parts comes in, I start us on Rifling.
We officially have no chance in hell of taking Sparta with anything less than a giant stack of cav at this point, which we don't have. I will, however, leave our stack put, as it's doing ok for itself, and is keeping a lot of Alex's troops busy. We need seige weapons REALLY BAD there, though, as well as Grenadiers, neither of which we have in great supply. I take measures to correct some of this.
Everyone in our whole civ is REALLY ANGRY, as well, which I really can't fix.
IBT - Alex's stack has bugged out from Pharsalos.
[5] 1890 AD - Complete some troops, and switch over to more cannons. Alex left a pult out in the open at Sparta, so I kill it. We WILL be collateraled by a bunch of Catapults, but that's more or less ok. I think.
IBT - Sure enough, two pults enter, no pults leave.
[6] 1895 AD - I send a cavalry scouting force into Alex's eastern territories, and more less just hang out waiting for reinforcements.
IBT - Inca comes up offering Fish for Horses. I renegotiate, and get ivory instead. Alex pults us again, but with a Medic I and a Medic II unit on site, it's not really an issue.
[7] 1900 AD - Move up more troops.
IBT - Toku comes asking for Steel. I decline. He's not really thrilled with that, but...
[8] 1902 AD - We complete two frigates, and I swap both starving cities over to temples. Unfortunately, trying to attack Alex's frigate results in a loss for us.
For whatever fool reason, Alex moves out a chunk of his guys from Sparta, some to Pharsalos, and some to straight out in the open next to our huge stack. Not being a fool, I pick them off with cav. Or we try. I lose on cav on 16 vs 11 odds due to straight bad RNG luck. Subsequent attacks work out just fine.
At Pharsalos, the cav I left behind is sufficient to obliterate Alex's troops, and half ours don't even get hurt.
In the east, we find out where Knossos is. It's seriously underdefended, and if we had, you know, seige weapons, we could probably take it without issue. However.
IBT - Our scouting force is attacked by some Rifles Alex brings up, and handily defeats all of them. A galley I didn't even know we had, or I would have upgraded it, which was randomly sleeping on the north coast, gets destroyed by a caravel.
[9] 1904 AD - Rifling comes in, and Steam Power is the order of the day.
At Sparta, I judge that the time is pretty much never going to be better.
Catapult goes in, dies as I suspected, but opens things up for our Grens to take charge.
Combat II/Pinch Gren vs Combat I/City Def II Rifle - We win!
Combat I/Cover/Pinch Gren vs Combat I/City Def II Rifle - We win!
Combat II/Pinch Cav vs Combat I Rifle - We win!
Combat I/Pinch Cav vs Combat I/Cover/Medic I Gren - We win, and Sparta is ours, along with 224 gold and two workers!
Cleanup of various stray units is relatively straightforward.
Knossos has a whopping 2 pults and a gren in it, and I move up some more cav and such to take advantage of the fact.
[10] 1906 AD - We get another frigate, and we start another temple. We are now losing a whopping 40 gpt at 70% science, so I drop us to a much more humane 60%.
More troops are moved up towards Knossos.
Our second frigate takes on Alex's frigate, and wins!
Our southern troops heal. Next stop is Athens or Thermopylae, both of which are miles of culture border away.
Since DaveShack only took 8, I'll go ahead and take 12 to even things out.
IBT - Alex tries to assault our Knossos cav with a Gren, and totally fails.
Inca comes asking for Rifling in exchange for Constitution and 70 gold, which is all he has. He also has Steam Power, SciMeth, and Econ. I end up declining, just because I want to hang on to Rifling. Straight after, Nappy comes asking for Steel in exchange for SciMeth and 120 gold. I want SciMeth, but he'll do that same deal for Constitution, so I take it.
[11] 1908 AD - Our first cannon comes online at Tenochtitlan, and I move it south. Alex having moved some guys up to Sparta, I take them down, picking up a 17 xp cav in the process.
Knossos strike force is in place.
IBT - I love how Alex keeps throwing guys at our Knossos attack force, and losing. In a move of supreme
, he attacks with both his Rifle and Gren defenders, leaving, in the face of our 8 cav/1 musket stack...2 catapults.
[12] 1910 AD - You had better believe I'm all over that. In short order, Knossos, 199 gold, and a worker are ours.
Remember that caravel? Well, I sank it.
The 100 turn message is upon us.
We NEED to get out of this war. In fact, it is CRITICAL to our economy to get out ASAP. Alex will talk now, and I suggest the next player take advantage of that, wring some concessions out of him, and get us ready for the final push.
Too, if our policy towards Inca is going to be friendship, and he totally worships us right now, we should trade Rifling for whatever we can possibly get from him, with some focus on Econ so we can then switch to Free Market.
We're doing reasonably well militarily - lots of cav, more or less enough rifle troops, but almost no seige to speak of. I suggest letting at least the current crop of cannons complete.
Do we have West Point? We're eligible for it. We have access to Ironworks somwhere as well.
We should have built some infra even during the war, but I guess it's too late for that now.
RBCiv SGs!
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