Sid Vicious and The Magnificent 7+1

[Sirian]

1405AD: I spent ten minutes staring at the screen, pondering what it would take to charge in through the front door like I did on my way to Tabriz. The answer: too much. That ain't happening. Sorry. No hope, no rope. Fugedaboudit.

OK, so on to Plan B. There must be another way.

Aha! Nippur's borders have not yet expanded. Hmm... OK, here we go. I charge a cav in to scout. Yep, mechs on defense, of course. Our artillery rolls in to position. "Fire!"

Wow, only two mechs on defense? And one isn't even fortified, so it must have been rushed by them and just produced.

We only needed five artillery to redline them. I sent in an elite cav (we're REALLY thin here, guys) but it dies. I send in our two newly produced tanks.

We take Nippur.

I sacrifice two artillery to take out the oil immediately.

Why do I say sacrifice? Ha. Not joking. I've got four vet mechs to spare for the entire operation. That's one, plus a conscript escort, to drive over and park on the oil, so they don't reconnect it, two to fortify in the town, and one (ha! ONE! One) to cover the stack of five artillery.

There's nothing left to cover the exposed tank or the two artillery. Oh well. "Take one for the team, guys. Your sacrifices will be remembered."


And just like that, Joanie's black gold has been shut down again.


- Sirian

 

[Sirian]

When my round began, we had no RoP with Osman. I have no idea why.

I remedied that lack immediately.

White Arrow: the path our mech pair took on the inherited turn to shut off Spigot No. 1

Pink Dot: the route our forces took crashing to Tabriz to disable Spigot No. 2

Blue Arrow: the path our ragtag motley crew took to reach Spigot No. 3

Yay. We're all set now, right? Right? Um... no.

 

[Sirian]

1405AD, BT: French bombers rip us a new one at Pink Dot.

In roll their forces. We knock off half a dozen or so at first, but then the Evil Dice(TM) brand "bad luck streak" hits us, and three mechs in a row go down bang-bang-bang to unholy losing streaks. Now it's getting thin, with units down to 2hp fighting off tanks and mechs and dropping to 1hp.

And then our SAM is defending. Oh, there it goes. 4... 3... 2... 1... 1... 1... 1... 1... Holy cow. It lived.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

With two redlined units left (they ripped our Flak to shreds and killed two 1hp elite mechs) the AI mysteriously decides it doesn't want to attack there any more, and sends several unhurt mechs off on some wild goose chase trying that same move of flanking around Sirian's Gap.

I stare in the screen in disbelief. They had us beat. They had it won. And then... they took drugs or something and fried their brains. Too much French Wine and Escargot.


IT WAS THE MAGIC OF THE PINK DOT.

We are saved. Saved, I tell you.

The hand of Sid Himself reached down and protected us.

And so we live to fight on...

 

[Sirian]

1410AD: Our lone surviving mech at Pink Dot heals two damage. You can see the mess I'll have to clean up. All those French units must be killed.

In the northern part of the shot, you can see see that our two sacrificial artillery were captured, but Nippur's two mechs managed to hold against several attackers. The exposed tank up there died, but the lone mech protecting the five artillery fended off one attacker and lived.

Our mech pair fortifies on the oil, and I am now certain that Joanie's supply has been cut off. Diplo screen reports this as true, and her tank count is at a mere TEN (10!) indicating how many have died (18?) since the last turn.

I clean up the invaders at Pink Dot, which uses most of our strength. One elite tank lost 0-5 vs a redlined mech (geeze) but otherwise we did OK.

In fact, we pop a leader, and I use him to rush an army. We now have two empty armies (no units to fill them! Not kidding) and I scrounge up three vet mechs to stuff in there. With a 12hp mech army now guarding Pink Dot, the AI won't even bother to attack there again, except with bombers (and I move a new SAM and some flak in there).


1410AD, BT: Osman makes peace with Joanie. The fool.

I've got unhurt elite mechs in all cities that the AI can reach with tanks and mechs on the same turn. (Everywhere else we have NO defense but that's another story). Joanie declines to attack anywhere, preferring to drive her entire newly produced or healed forces deep into our territory, rushing after undefended targets. Oh boy. Could... get... ugly...


1415AD: Osman is restored to the proper path.

X-man has terminated his MPP with Joanie. He will also talk to us. I give him a ring and we discuss the possibilities.

After being cut off from Joanie, he's in need of horses. Heh. Well, selling him some will recoup a portion of the cost of buying his allegiance.

Joanie is now bereft of oil, bereft of allies.

Now all I have to do (heh, "all" I have to do) is defend against her SoDs with two sticks and half a stone.

With any luck, by the time my round ends, Doc will inherit a force consisting of two wounded tanks and a man on crutches.

I still have two turns left? Good grief, man. Somebody put me out of my misery.


- Sirian

 

[corruptionsucks]

Awesome! Spell-binding, exciting, mesmerizing, this read!

If you can continue to bait Joan into attacking death traps (like the mts. east of Sirian's Gap), maybe you can lead them where you want them to go. Unfortunately, everywhere is a weak link with your decimated forces. Pointy sticks only go so far. *sigh* <remember the days of Civ I, when a spearman would take out a tank?>

I'm curious as to where France considers a priority to attack first. If France was human controlled, then the oil would be paramount, but with Sid AI, you never know. Hopefully your allies will finally come to your rescue and draw some of France's forces away from you.

*crosses fingers for Sirian and entire team*

 

[Sirian]

The AI attacks where the tactical odds are the best. IE, where the best defender in the stack has the weakest total (HP * Defense). Yeah, I know. This is, uh, shall we say "a tad subpar" in terms of effective strategy? Too late to do anything about it in Civ3, but I griped at Soren about it a couple of years ago so expect something a little stronger for Civ4.

Meanwhile... the AI isn't choosing its targets. -I- am.

Speaking of which, my successor should consider carefully before moving any elite mechs. They are not just defense, but deterrent. Put one down, that city's safe -- unless bombardment wounds the unit (ships, bombers, arty) in which case all bets are off and the Gates of Hell may open and pour forth into that area. Thus... some hot spots and key sites have more than one elite mech, and still sometimes it gets dicey. Indus in particular was rough for a long time because several ships were pestering it every turn. Now that Persia is at war with France, that has stopped, but I wouldn't risk moving anything out of there unless it's an emergency. In fact, when you can, maybe return the third elite, just to be safe.

Luckily, most of our cities are far enough back behind cultural protection that the AI -CANNOT- reach them on one turn. Once they're in the open on our land, we've got close to 40 artillery now, and that's enough to give what-for to the offenders.


1415AD: I moved an elite mech to Kolhapur. The AIs turn around and go home. Well, OK, I did a bit more than that. I wiped out all the other intruders, then picked off a few HPs from the SoDs near Kolhapur with the last bits of artillery, and I piled all spare mechs into the town just in case an adventurous bomber should hit the city. Elite mech at 5/5, no attack. Elite mech dropped to 4/5, here they come.

Well, the city didn't get bombed, so the AI went home.


1415AD, BT: Wow, almost a quiet turn. Joanie still managed to conduct some mischief, though, picking on the weakest link among our towns defended by only vet mechs. A junk city fell and another almost went down. A REGULAR mech (formerly a conscript) got double-promoted to elite defending. Close call.

Joanie is clearly running out of tanks. The mechs are slowing a bit, too.

1420AD: I had to spend most of our artillery attacking mech invaders. As a result, the only progress on this turn was to get a bit ahead of the curve on mopping up Joanie's fresh troops.

1420AD, BT: Yeowch. Big honkin SoD of trouble at Sirian's Gap. Joanie's last few tanks move onto a mountain with a mech escort. Several marines and TOW move onto another mountain. It's just ugly over there right now.

1425AD: Sirian fights the invaders at the Gap? No. Heck on that nonsense. To punish the Mademoiselle, I use about 70% of our arty to redline the four defenders in Tabriz.

Big Ole Bonfire(TM) brand fireworks show.

Oh, and our first ship in eons was completed. I used it to sink a transport escorted by frigates. Haha! Glug-glug-glug. Joanie's going to need a glass bottomed boat to inspect that vessel.

I must have missed the memo where changing to War Mobilization automatically changes city projects away from peacetime items. (Can you tell I haven't played much C3C? Ha!) So my "Heroic Epic" build from the turn where I made peace with Persia, then re-mobilized, seems to have disappeared on me, and to prevent wasting the shields, I switched it to a battleship. One destroyer and one battleship technically qualifies for a plural noun. On Doc's first turn, we will have ships. That's a fleet. We've got a fleet. Look out, now. Indians on the high seas.

The only thing I can do about the trouble at the Gap is to move an elite mech into place and some other defenders to be SURE the city can't fall, and my successor gets to clean up the mess.

At least I managed to meet a few goals:
* Disable Joanie's oil. ALL of it. For keeps.
* Enlist X-man on our side.
* Burn down a few cities, capture one.
* Recapture some of our lost cities and our captured artillery SoD.
* Wipe out French tanks and bombers.
* Thin French mechs.
* Locate the new Pink Dot.
* Learn how to hold together a Sid-level empire with bailing wire and scotch tape.

 

[Sirian]

Afterword: Well, I made it through the rain.

We're still in the game. TOW are no slouch, though. These ain't the days of yore when shutting off the spigot was the end of the line. There is an unholy amount of work left to be done. I just hope the game doesn't come back around to me AGAIN.

Joanie's forces:

Plus she has about 50 TOW and Sid level production. Osman is starting to give her some payback, though, so that's something.

Did I mention that X-man finished Manhatten Project? That was early in my round. No sign of nukulars, though.

Our forces:

That's not many tanks, you say? Ha. It's actually worse than that. Six of those are in a couple of armies and the rest are in the shed getting reworked. Doc's going to have to improvise. Sorry, that's the best I could manage. Most of our cavs are dead, too, and I spent most of my round building more and more mechs, since those (on defense) were giving us the best return, and the more 5/5 units we could produce, the more precisely I could control the AI's target choices.

Anyway, it's been a riot. Old soldiers never die, they just fade away...


- Sirian

 

[Aggie]

Anyway, it's been a riot. Old soldiers never die, they just fade away...

- Sirian

Says the master. Who is again greatly responsible for another classic to be! I have to go back a long time to find a SG as compelling as this one. Not only due to masterful play, but also because of an excellent write up. That's how SG's should be. Let's hope others learn from this

 

[eldar]

lurker's comment: I'm sure I've seen entire SGs where the writeup was shorter than that last turnset! Now, what can the Doc do...?

 

[Bede]

Noting else left to say.

 

[Whomp]

lurker's comment: We're not worthy Sir Pinkness! I can't wait for the Doc T chapter!

 

[Tomoyo]

lurker's comment: Surely a classic for the ages! I look forward to each and every turnset in this game!

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Now, what can the Doc do...?

Replace the shoe strings with bandaid .
Great work, Sirian.

I got it.

 

[Atimati]

After a long time of lurking I have to post my first:

GREAT GAME

Thank you ALL for it

 

[plarq]

After a long time of lurking I have to post my first:

GREAT GAME

Thank you ALL for it

The Game is on progress,not finished.Lurker,you sound a little strange by sayin' your first comment.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Sirian - well done.

Atimati - Welcome to CFC!

 

[microbe]

Such a great write-up! It must have taken more time than playing the 10 turns!

 

[Sirian]

Such a great write-up! It must have taken more time than playing the 10 turns!

I wouldn't bet on that.

I'm a writer. I can produce a prodigious passel of pontification in a pretty short period.

Negotiating a minefield, on the other hand, is best done with delicacy, thorough analysis, and careful planning. It took me almost a week to play my round. I did quite a bit of sitting at my desk staring at the screen wondering WTH am I supposed to do with this mess.


- Sirian

 

[Sir Bugsy]

It took me almost a week to play my round. I did quite a bit of sitting at my desk staring at the screen wondering WTH am I supposed to do with this mess.

Well that's a good thing to know. I thought I was the only one who was really slow.

 

[grahamiam]

take your time doc. due to other sg commitments, i won't be able to touch this till the end of the week.