(April 11th, 2020, 13:00)JR4 Wrote: Fighters will give us some nice tactical options like cutting off a rail network or bombarding city defenses.
Fighters can't actually cut rail networks in this mod (I'm not sure about the base game) - if I'm remembering my tests correctly, even Bombers can't. Both can blow up tile improvements, but not RRs or roads. Fighters are better attackers than airships though (though with more-limited range) and can be put on Intercept missions, in which case they eat any Airships that might try to airstrike our units (within their intercept range) for breakfast. (They won't shoot down airships that are merely running recon missions though.) And they can indeed slowly bombard city defenses as I recall.
(April 11th, 2020, 13:10)JR4 Wrote: I miscounted the XP from Thaliard`s units - that`s 16 XP, not 17.
I suppose that does mean it can build 19xp Cavs if we have a special use for them, but of course Cavs are pretty badly out of date now.
Quote:If Mr. Cairo`s culture push somehow fails I believe that Superdeath is the slight favourite to win. But we`d definitely get a chance of getting back to contention and we could perhaps be able to form (a shaky) alliance with Wetbandit. But, well, more than ever time works for Mr. Cairo. Let`s put him at 20 turns away from winning (just a guesstimate).
I'm betting it's closer to 15 turns than 20 at this point, but I could be wrong - or superdeath could make it irrelevant!
Okay, so our Fighters actually can`t destroy roads or railroads. That`s unexpected - and pretty bad news as I was hoping for some nice tactical options in the late game. We`ll move up a few Fighters to the NW to dissuade any Airship attack on our two exposed cities there. I`ll have to check out how long range Fighters have and if they can, say, bombard the defenses of Donovan`s capital.
I really hope that we can get a few lucky rolls here and get some commandos. With a few more Great Generals we might consider making extremely higly promoted Cavs. If Mr. Cairo is only 15 turns away from winning we might not be in time for that but what can you do? Superdeath still needs to commit first before I`d consider moving our huge Tank-based army in. Also, I`m hoping for a low-investment war with Donovan where we can tie down his troops from having naval superiority. Without enough ships I don`t think that Donovan is in a position to threaten us (except taking down two relatively unimportant cities).
Okay, our troops are in position. Let`s see what Donovan makes of that. If he just defends passively we can just sit back and threaten to attack. If he builds enough ships we might be forced to retreat. Anyway, we can almost certainly get a raze or two next turn. Btw, I`m still not 100 % sure that we`ll actually attack.
Superdeath canceled our free happiness deal. Shrug, it`s not a big deal as we probably have enough happiness anyway (and if we go to war we`re in Police State).
The power graph shows that Superdeath took some losses and Wetbandit surpassed his power. I wonder if Wetbandit will send his 75 Tanks towards Mr. Cairo. My read on Wetbandit is that he`ll wait for someone else to attack first..
Donovan moved in a bunch of units into his capital (he`s got 40 + defenders now) and also defended his other core coastal cities adequately. So I`m afraid that the attack on Donovan is off.
But I`m getting ahead of myself. Superdeath came up with yet another offer of a military alliance AND Wetbandit offered Iron for Iron. It turns out that Wetbandit declared war on Mr. Cairo last turn (but didn`t move in).
I thought about what to do - and then thought a bit more and in the end....
The war horns sounded again. We are now also at war with Mr. Cairo! Let`s try to join the alliance against Mr. Cairo (at minimum costs for us). Both deals were sent back to make sure that we`re in principle happy about trying to prolong the game.
We have 6 Fighters and 4 more will finish end of turn. Annoyingly, our only city that is in range of VanillaIsis is Cleon so it had to get a bigger garrison this turn. One of our Fighters failed to bombard a Copper mine in the bfc of VI.
In other words, that`s a complete U-turn from what I thought this turn would bring but let`s see if there is still time to make an epic comeback. With a 3 against 1 forming we should have some chance of ruining Mr. Cairo`s winning attempt. Whether that`s enough to win is a totally different story.
(April 13th, 2020, 05:30)JR4 Wrote: Okay, so our Fighters actually can`t destroy roads or railroads. That`s unexpected - and pretty bad news as I was hoping for some nice tactical options in the late game.
Yeah; I thought I had mentioned this before, and did find the post, but of course it was months ago:
(January 16th, 2020, 04:27)RefSteel Wrote: Fighters can bombard city defenses (slowly) and destroy tile improvements (to the extent that's legal). They can't destroy roads or railroads though (I don't remember if Bombers can either) so they won't directly impact enemy land logistics.
If I remember my tests correctly, bombers can't cut railroads (nor regular roads) either. I'm still not sure what our house rules are about bombing tile improvements given the massive impact turn order can have, especially when bombing strategics. Does anybody know?
(April 15th, 2020, 12:24)JR4 Wrote: The war horns sounded again. We are now also at war with Mr. Cairo! Let`s try to join the alliance against Mr. Cairo
Sounds like things are building to a climax! Should be thrilling turns coming up!
Quote:Annoyingly, our only city that is in range of VanillaIsis is Cleon so it had to get a bigger garrison this turn.
I think if it builds an airport it can at least house twice as many fighters as it can now; not sure if that's worth it or not, or how soon we can build one.
Quote:In other words, that`s a complete U-turn from what I thought this turn would bring but let`s see if there is still time to make an epic comeback. With a 3 against 1 forming we should have some chance of ruining Mr. Cairo`s winning attempt. Whether that`s enough to win is a totally different story.
Ah, I totally forgot about that post. Having Fighters still gives us aerial superiority and we could consider a pillaging party to slow down Mr. Cairo`s culture attempt.
The latest turn of events were a pretty big blow to Mr. Cairo and perhaps he`ll make a mistake in the near future. That`s an awful lot of units threatening his cities and defending a 1 vs 3 is never going to be easy, even with his high power rating. The aggressors do need to come up with an actual plan of destroying at least one of the three culture cities, though, and we`ve already seen just how hard it is to make a coordinated effort to break down Mr. Cairo.
We should think carefully about building an Airport or two but right now our cities are extremely busy building units (and Cleon doesn`t really have the necessary hammers to get an Airport in a reasonable time frame). With enough Fighters we could at least destroy the cultural defenses of YeeHawdists that has been a thorn in our side all game long. I`m sick and tired of other players settling up on us.
Really interested in seeing how this develops. Just the need to create more defenses might even slow Mr. Cairo's culture down, though he might try to just push through instead and gamble that no one will be able to threaten his key cities in time. If we're still hoping to scrape out a win, I definitely recommend thinking about what we want to get out of the war - if it succeeds - and how to get there: What more than just keeping the game going, I mean.
Heh, it looks like Superdeath very much approves of our war declaration on Mr. Cairo. Free stuff is nice.
But the main news of the turn is this: Wetbandit moved a massive army into Mr. Cairo`s territory. That`s about 250 units. Wow, Mr. Cairo is perhaps in some trouble now. AmmoSexuals is defended by a handful of units and is most likely toast later this turn. If that city falls, Wetbandit`s army will just be four tiles away from Yallqaeda (and seven from the other culture cities). Superdeath moved his Transports a bit away from Mr. Cairo. Those units are 8 tiles away from VanillaIsis. He probably wants to stay out of range of Mr. Cairo`s modern warships. I thought about moving in our own army (we can probably move in 200 units if needed but decided to hold off for now). If Mr. Cairo decides to have a go at Wetbandit`s army I`d be really interested in taking a gamble. Maybe we should do it anyway as we need something to happen in order to retain any hope of winning. Time is still running out.
This must be frustrating for Mr. Cairo that has been in the lead for a long time (ever since Cornflakes got pegged back, I think).
Our Fighters destroyed the Copper mine near VanillaIsis and a Town near YeeHawdists. Another one got intercepted by an Anti Tank. We`re massing Fighters near the border with Mr. Cairo now.
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If Mr. Cairo doesn`t win a culture victory I think the chances of him actually being outright eliminated is very high. We certainly should pay attention to what Wetbandit does with his huge army and not allow him to take nearly all of the spoils for himself. It`s kind of funny that if this all-out war goes well, we`re set for an extremely interesting endgame with three superpowers with absolutely ridiculous amounts of units around. Did I mention that we`re losing gold at 20 % science? Insane.
