And I'm back. Thank you everyone for the kind words. America was nice. The scorpions were not.
Campaign Turn 12The Map:
Cawdor: The Hand of Redemption - Underhand
Escher: Gothika - Joffrey
Delaque: Black Coats - Gannicus
Van Saar: The Second Stringers - Jonah
Orlock: The Mortlock Cartel - The Orlock Player
Goliath: House Bloodaxe - OctavianAs the map stands at turn 12, I'm pretty happy with my position. I have decent territories, my gang is getting tougher every turn, I have a useful ally in Gannicus, cordial relations with Jonah, and my enemies are in disarray - the Orlocks are about to be wiped out, the Escher should follow soon thereafter, and the Goliaths are currently distracted. I judge the campaign to be at it's mid point and the way things are going, I should be well placed by the time the end game starts in a few turns time.
The way I see things happening is that the Orlock Player will get squashed this turn, Gannicus and I will crush Joffrey over the next two or three turns, and then Jonah, Gannicus and I will all take Octavian down piece by piece. Even though Octavian has an impressive empire and a large Gang, he won't be able to withstand fighting against 3opponents each turn. Even without ganging up, Octavian will be suffering 3 or 4 games worth of casualties each turn and will only have a single turn's worth of income with which to replace them. Even with the extra experience his gang will get from playing so many games, he simply won't be able to make up the losses he will suffer. Fresh Goliath Juves with Access to Combat and Muscle skills are no replacement for dead gangers with 200 exp and extra Agility skills and multiple wounds. His fall will happen faster than most would expect.
It should be straight forward. All that has to happen is for Gannicus, Jonah and I to stick together, and it will be easy. The only potential problem is that stupid Spore Cave that the Orlock Player is clinging onto.
This is the problem - Jonah despises the Orlock Player and wants to rub him out of the campaign. The quickest way to do that is to attack the Spore Cave and crush the Orlock Player once and for all.
The difficulty (for me) is that if Jonah takes the Spore Cave, then Gannicus has a much narrower line of attack through to the Goliath territories - one that would probably end up cramping my own line of approach against the Goliaths in a few turns time.
So - Gannicus has to take the Spore Cave. Which is fine by him, because he wants to take the Spore Cave, which is a valuable territory. Unfortunately attacking the Spore Cave this turn will give Joffrey an extra turn of breathing space, during which Shamora could increase her Leadership back up to 8, and if that happens then Joffrey is right back in business. Wiping Joffrey off the map is therefore a much higher priority than taking that Spore Cave, at least as far as I'm concerned.
Getting Gannicus to understand the importance of destroying Joffrey is hard enough on its own (he has an amazing ability to forget how Joffrey was kicking his arse only a few turns ago), but every turn that the Orlock Player stays in the game is an extra turn that Jonah gets more and more pissed off at having to see his face and put up with getting called a fat be-atch by the little prick.
There is also the added pressure that Octavian will probably target the Spore Cave this turn, and if he does that, then he will probably take it, and then I'll have to somehow have to provide some sort of an explanation to Jonah that allowing Octavian his next opponent to take a Spore Cave right out from under our noses is somehow the best outcome for him. I get paid to make the bad look good, but that will be a very hard sell.
My predictions for turn 12 were as follows:
1. I would take out Joffrey's Old Ruins to the East;
2. Gannicus would take out Joffrey's Friendly Doc;
3. Joffrey would attack Gannicus's Holestead. He can't sit out another turn - if he loses a territory to both me and Gannicus, then he's only got an Old Ruins left, and he'd need a miracle to come back from that;
4. Joffrey could even be wiped off the map. My Gang has his measure, and if he attacked the Delaque, then Gannicus would get two cracks at him and could
potentially take both territories, bundling Joffrey out of the campaign. Unlikely of course - Joffrey wouldn't have been sitting idle during his recent problems - he will have a plan;
5. Jonah would target one of Octavian's Eastern territories, probably the Mine Workings;
6. The Orlock Player would attack Joffrey's Gambling Den. With dwindling numbers and no Heavy Stubber, he simply can't rely on his castling tactics. His only chance is to pick special scenario's like Shoot Out or Raid which cut down on the numbers advantage that the Goliaths have. He could also attack Jonah, but I think he's had enough of that for a while, and the Goliath Gambling Den is a much more tempting target than the Van Saar Workshop or Settlement. Either way he is still very unlikely to win. Ever since he broke his Alliance with Joffrey and turned to attack the Van Saar, his gang has become weaker and weaker each turn while the Van Saar and Goliaths have both grown from strength to strength.
7. Octavian would target the Orlock Spore Cave and wipe the Orlocks off the map;
I was wrong.
