Pong 3: Turns 183 - 187 of Russia

This session was action-packed. We didn't get a whole lot of turns in, as the battle for St. Petersburg raged on.

Expecting the city to fall to the Viking fleet, I had positioned faith-bought troops all around St. Petersburg, including two Bombards.

I was a bit disappointed by the damage that was done by them, having hoped they would do more. I bombarded with two Field Cannons as well, but it barely scratched the defenses.

The three-range bombard from Nate's Battleships allowed him to soften up my troops as the city fell, and I didn't have the power to take it back on the first turn. Still, I was hopeful that my capital would be mine again shortly.



This is as far as I can get St. Petersburg on the first turn of the siege. I worry about what his Battleships will do to me next round.



I went to faith-buy a Bombard to reinforce the troops that Nate would be bombarding, but realized I was down to 1 Niter, from 3 the previous turn.

One of them was in St. Petersburg, and the other was from being Suzerain of Brussels. It turns out Cyrus had stolen them from me the turn before, and with enough envoys to prevent me from flipping them back.

I only have one Encampment district, in Tula, which means that my ability to build or rush niter-based units has been severely diminished.




Apparently all units have a minimum strength when embarked, including scouts?

I had sent this guy over just to watch if any of his ships began to come around the northern tip of the continent, but he managed to hold his own against a Privateer.

This seems pretty odd to me. I mused about spamming scouts to slow down his navy, but that seemed pretty cheap to me.



Nate attacks both of my Bombards with Battleships, and does a number on them. The top one was killed by the City Center itself.

He focuses the rest of his bombardment on my melee units, in an attempt to keep me from being able to retake the city. It's a solid strategy.



A German observes the battle for posterity.

My severely injured Bombard is still fairly effective thanks to the National Identity policy card, which reduces the combat penalties from being injured. I manage to get the walls mostly down as a result.

Nate bemoans the inability to see other nations policy cards, which I agree is silly. There are a lot of things I think the game hides that I believe they should make transparent.

I also take some shots at a Battleship from the shore with a Field Cannon. It does decent damage, but doing so pretty much means I'm surrendering the unit to the volley of return fire.



Nate did a good job of mopping up my melee units (Musketmen), and I am still unable to take back my city.

Having just finished Military Science, I move my Horseman and upgrade it to a Cossack. I also faith rush some in all my nearby cities.



I moved this spy here in what seemed like eons ago, with the idea of trying to slow down the Nubian space race. I'm unsure if it's worth it at this point, but I continue on anyway, establishing contacts.



I didn't capture all the bombardments, but he again did a decent job mopping up my units. There is very little land that is safe from his 3-range Battleships.




The embarked scout survives an onslaught from an Ironclad this time!

This definitely feels silly to me. An annoying person could quickly clog up such a tight sea lane with scouts to slow down a fleet.



That fucking German scout. That's literally the worst place for it to be standing.

Oh well.



I missed taking screenshots of the battle (I should really consider video for important battles like this), but without walls I was able to take St. Petersburg with two Cossacks. Thanks to their ability to move after attacking and their overall quickness, I was even able to pull them back outside the range of his ships and promote them on the same turn!

After retaking the city, a grim realization sets in. Since I don't have Steel, I do not gain the benefits of Urban Defenses, which provide free, fully-upgraded walls in all your cities, including ones that are recently captured.

Nate's fleet is certainly large enough to shell the city into oblivion, but with damaged walls it will be even more of a cakewalk for him.

After recovering my second source of Niter in St. Petersburg, I immediately faith-rush three more Bombards.



The Vikings have made off with the art we had left in St. Petersburg, leaving only one piece of music.




Yep. A single Battleship bombardment is enough to take the city into the red. This is obviously a losing battle for me.



Nate tries his luck with a melee attack without a second bombardment, and St. Petersburg survives with a single hitpoint!

He's now blocked his other Caravels from the one-tile inlet, and miraculously St. Petersburg stays in Russian hands for another turn.



It barely heals, though, and is all but doomed to fall again.

I begin positioning my troops for another siege of my former capital, but due to the Niter shortage of 1785 I do not have any Bombards in place to siege the city.



This is something I regret.

I had built an armada of Frigates in Moscow and used it to run off a Privateer and scout in my inner sea. I then foolishly moved it north to destroy the Ironclad that was harassing my scout and threatening my navy-producing cities.

I did kill it, but Nate's super-fast battleships quickly zoomed up there and bombarded the shit out of the armada.

Again, I had hoped that their defenses would fare better than that. I hope I've learned that lesson this time.

This was a losing trade, and a critical error on my part. Protecting or hiding that armada until I was able to upgrade them to Battleships would have been far smarter.



This time Nate leaves nothing to chance, and bombards the city twice.

The Vikings retake St. Petersburg.

Terrifyingly, Nate gets a fully healed wall when he takes it this time. The previous conquering had it with a half-health war, and I'm unsure why this time was different.

Trading the city like this is even more of a losing battle than I had thought. Because he has Steel and I don't, he's getting the defensive benefits of the walls (and the city bombardment) and I'm not.




Go fuck yourself, Freddie.



Yeah. Those full strength walls are killer.

My three bombards are not in place to siege the city, and can't attack after moving. None of my other units have a chance of even scratching the walls.

I admit in the chat that I don't believe I can take back St. Petersburg at this point. Certainly not in the next few turns.

The only hope of doing so is if he pushes his navy into the inner sea in an attempt to take Voronzeh, my only other coastal city. If enough of his Battleships leave St. Petersburg, I may be able to move the Bombards into position and get a turn or two of siege in.

His ships are so fast that I'm not sure how true that is. They'd likely be able to zoom back and crush my siege fairly quickly.

I'm four turns from getting Steel, and with it Urban Defenses, Battleships, and Artillery.

I'm hoping to have some navy remaining to upgrade immediately when the tech finishes, but 4 turns is a lot in a war like this.

End of Session: Turn 187

Victory



Military.

The loss of the Russian armada has dealt a serious blow to our Military Strength.



Culture.

I'm still ahead, but Nate has done a good job closing the gap. St. Petersburg changing hands helps, but he also must have done some serious investment at home.



I'm unsure if I can still win culturally. St. Petersburg seems lost, but even if I am able to somehow retake the city a good deal of damage has been done to my cultural output.

The rest of my empire is still fairly powerful with tourism. St. Petersburg houses three wonders, but Smolensk and Kazan each have 2-4. I did an alright job spreading things out.

Seaside Resorts are on the horizon, and the Cristo Redentor doubles their effectiveness. There's still some fight in me yet.

The loss of my capital is a kick in the gut, but there's still a glimmer of hope.



Nubia hasn't made much progress in the space race this session, but then again it's only been 4 turns.



Science.

I've been diving for Steel, mostly for Urban Defenses and Battleships. Artillery might also help take back St. Petersburg.

Longer-term, I'm still feeling a bit rudderless. Infantry seem important, as land troops are sure to be following Nate's ships, but Radio is what I really want.

I had considered diving for Telecommunications instead of Steel, for the Nuclear Subs, but remembered I'd need Nuclear Fission as well.

I have a good deal of boosts from stealing techs from Nate and Nubia, but I'm still lagging behind in terms of scientific production.



Civics.

I got Communism, but haven't switched yet. I forgot in the heat of battle, but truth be told I'm fine staying in Theocracy for a while longer because of the faith-rushing of units.

I don't know how to weigh / balance that against a government with more policy card slots and an across-the-board production increase, but for now I need men on the front lines.



Great People.

I got an Artist during the session.

That Great Scientist would be really awesome to nab, but I don't think I'm really in the running.

I could consider saving faith for it, but I think Nate's far enough along that he'll be buying it soon.