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Round 24; the I Corps has to cope with a few Medium Tanks II again, while the III and V Corps managed to pocket the pesky First Core divisions at their front.

Up north, I have an interesting situation here. Both my and the Scientific State's left wing is pushing the other's right wing back. As usual I fear encirclement of my forward units and may not push further, especially since I don't have any means of capturing the city (Treely) there anyway. The terrain is too rugged for tanks and I just moved fresh artillery to the corps. A little further west of this screenshot I spotted another AI's borders squeezing through between Muslim State and Scientific State. Forgot the name ... too lazy to look up now. I will as soon as they sit on my back. I promise.

Two rounds of fall start after the interturn (or during the interturn, I'm like 6th in the running order, so it's so-so with the AIs ...), for which I hope to eliminate the pocket in the south, create a stable front up here in the north, and maybe extend the I Corps' lines a little. There's got to be a capitol somewhere down there...

Round 25; not an awful much happened. I killed the First Core pocket in the south, and the Anarchic Alliance is engaging the Scientific State.

Round 27; after an extremely peaceful round 26 I was hit by a First Core counteroffensive on the interturn. They breached between the III and V Corps in the south and I had to retreat and regroup. The V Corps will try to defend in woody terrain unsuited for the medium armour driven up by the FC, while the III Corps will attempt to flank and attack the enemy in the rear on the next turn. Apart from that there were mild fights around Central against the FC as well as in the Tarcross/Treely area in the II Corps' sector.

Round 28; the situation of the V Corps is becoming even more critical. On the other hand units of the I and III Corps are about to flank and pocket the giant tank units the First Core is throwing at the V Corps.

The FC also heavily defends the roads leading west and south from Central, blocking any advance.

Interesting: besides the IV Corps in the east, the III Corps now also made contact with the Animistic Barony. Since I span less than half of the map, the AB seems to be pretty huge. On the other hand - I control 17 VP at the moment, which is way more than a fair share (which would be 9 of 90) and don't feel too threatened. Right now, the 9 AIs share 73 VP, which makes roughly 8.1 VP per AI, and 12.2 VP with production bonus. Of course, that calculation is totally pointless...

Round 29; the V Corps was pushed again, but in their winter assaults the First Core lost six tanks to comparably mild casualties on my side. I also succeeded in temporarily cutting off supply to them.

The north sees the Scientific State breaking down, especially in the west, with kind support from the Anarchic Alliance. I wonder who will get the cities there ...

Round 30; this was an intense turn again. In the north, the Anarchic Alliance grabbed Palmas, the western city in the three way battle there, while I'm too cautious to attack Treely.

The south sees a few raging battles. First showcase is on the I Corps, which has spotted the First Core capitol Madding in the deep south. The 26th and 34th Infantry Divisions will be supported by the 61st Tank Division in an attempt to take it. Hopefully before summer comes, but maybe not...

Round 30 Part 2; the III and V Corps failed miserably in pocketing the FC spearheads aiming north and the III Corps divisions were badly battered, with one division being completely destroyed. Good thing is that the FC spearheads lost a lot of strength by attacking my favorable position held by the V Corps.

Round 30 Part 3; the III Corps also holds the far southwest, where I met with the Animistic Barony as well (I met them in three places now in fact). They seem to outnumber be greatly both here and in the east at the IV Corps' front.

The plan is to attack Treely next turn, which will be spring, so no attack penalty anymore.

Start of Round 31; the front at the town of Parliament. Damnit! Three AIs actually worked together to cut off a half corps of five infantry divisions down there. Advice now: rapid retreat!

Attack on Treely during Round 31 - failed! I didn't get my artillery in place. The problem is that I have no road from Tarcross to Treely and reinforcements currently roll a 20 hex detour over the VI Corps' sector.

I think this post should start a new page, so I start with an overview after Round 31.

Another threat turned up on the interturn. Muslim State units cut the western road and advance on Mirkaleen, my capitol. [X(]

Round 32; I made a big jump forward by capturing BOTH Treely and Madding this turn, which will give me 15,000 additional production points once the locations are fully repaired.

Other fronts look less promising. The III Corps retreated west from the First Core (which should go down sooner or later) and north from the Muslims and Animistic Barony. One infantry division was annihilated, but the others made it back in terrible shape. I will try to build a defensive line at Parliament, which is the southernmost town in that southwestern cluster of VP locations.

I split up the eastern part of the I Corps into the VII Corps, and the eastern part of the II Corps into the VIII Corps, since both were growing insanely huge.

The last week wasn't exactly gaming friendly again. I have this week off work, but have other things to do as well ... ah, I hate my life...

Round 33: I'm hitting a critical point here - I face increasing pressure from the southwest on the III Corps - from three AIs which refuse to attack each other. All other fronts were pretty much stalemate. In the north, the VI Corps was pushed a little by the Anarchic Alliance. I might lose the village up there. But the situation here is far more critical. The cluster of two cities and two towns (14,000 ProdPts) is highly threatened by the two Muslim AIs and the Animistic Barony. To have or not to have them is actually a difference of 35,000 ProdPts due to the 50% AI bonus. These would be 350 additional enemy rifles, screaming and smelling, running at me every round, so I can not lose this battle. The III Corps is geared up with artillery and tanks will follow soon, although the terrain is not favorable for them. I also consider to move my small air wing of levelbombers down here. The delivery of the killing blow to the First Core will have to wait. They're still pushing the V Corps around by the way ...

Round 34; there has been some success on some fronts, particularly in the south with the I Corps, which advanced well pushing southwest. The forward divisions spotted a town (Central Heaven) with strategically important crossroads behind the center of the front.

Other fronts see more intense battles. Particularly the Anarchic Alliance (grey counters in the picture) is scaring the crap out of me. They are moving up several Medium Tanks III, while I'm still stuck with Light Tanks I. Luckily, the II Corps in Tarcross had some AT guns left over to deliver to the VI Corps. The II Corps saw intense fights with the Scientific State, which launched an offensive at Tarcross that was repelled with high losses on both sides. The AA on the other hand blew on of the VI Corps' divisions apart and threatened to walk into the gap between Downhouse (VI Corps HQ) and Far Mansion ("49" rifle division of VI Corps), but instead took the northern mountain pass then.

Another attack saw the Muslim State thrash the Mirkaleen defenses with an armoured division, wrecking one of my infantry divisions and my costly artillery there. Luckily I had set up a tank division there just the turn before, which ripped the Muslim's head off their bodies in a counterattack, spilling blood and gore all over the plains there ...

The levelbombers were moved down south and did not strike this turn. The III Corps has worked out some fortifications around Parliament, which should be able to block any advance. I was lucky enough that Muslim Congress and Animistic Barony punched into each other's face rather than mine this turn anyway ...

I need to heavily reinforce the III and VI Corps to counter the AB and AA advances...

Round 35; I lost Far Mansion to the Anarchic Alliance on the interturn. Not only do they have Medium Tanks III, they also field Heavy Tanks II and an airforce.

Uh-oh.

Apart from that the turn was fairly quiet. I, III, and V Corps advanced on the First Core. Pretty high losses due to some counterattacks on the interturn. Damned sneaky FC ...!

Heh, "uh-oh" indeed. Or is it "ruh-roh", (scooby doo) or "DOH!" followed by a forehead slap, (Homer Simpson) ?

Don't know the first, don't like the second. But I wonder how the AI manages to race through the "tech tree" that fast, I mean, come on, it's round 35, and I set research to about 250% ...

<shrug> I suppose it's the "+" and the free transfer. I always had the same feeling, somehow it had an edge. It sometimes turns out&nbsp;that it faces fewer opponents and builds less stuff. Something of a paper tiger.
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Why not play a random game with humans ? Do you want to try that ?

Wouldn't work anyway given my three-turns-every-five-days playing style.