[SPOILERS] PB7: Winning The Hard Way - Mao Plays Craps

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Huh, that's a strange one. I guess our scouts can detect missing forests from afar, but can't see tile improvements like mines that throw bursts of fire into the air until they get nearby. Got it! Thanks

They just check F11.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

If that was all I ended up fighting we would have been able to take the city. Alas, the Battle of Black Lotus is the first in probably a long series of defeats for the downtrodden Native American people. Between the time I posted the screen shot above and when I attacked, they added a CG1 archer, 2 axes, and a second spear. Blah, we came to make war, not to build them a road. ATTACK!!!

Battle log:



We're out of attackers, the city holds, and as I had the city knocked down to the last defender Mackoti or Seven logged in and crammed another chariot into the city. It is already damaged, I don't know from what. Attacking a barbarian most likely. Anyway, the battlefield looks like this:



I don't doubt they'll scramble up some units to whack some of our damaged units. Doh! I assume they'll use the GG I gave them to make a super medic, or something else to cause us a headache. In the future I'd probably do better to run a sim to see the best way to attack, but who has that kind of time???

I don't know but you got 2 unexpected wins (both at 27%), didn't lose any high-odds battles and reduced his current defenses to 2 wounded units while you still have 10 there (and some even look quite healthy).

All in all, as Rowain said, not a bad result. If only you had a medic of your own. How close are you to your own GG? It is annoying not to have control of the city, but this isn't over yet by any means. Even if you never take a city, you can do him much harm with this stack. Don't despair quite yet.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I expect they'll reinforce on this turn and probably next turn, too, before I get to play again (depending on when the turn rolls I guess). I mean, I could have taken the city last night because I was still online when the turn rolled but I didn't rush into the game, I let them log in first. I don't know if they moved units or not but I don't care about the game so much that I have to double move every war turn. Or log in like four times after my opponent makes a move.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I know there's no value to posting what happened in the public thread but people are curious, why not. Letting them know our stack got shredded a bit is immaterial because anyone tracking average soldier count and rival best will see a sharp drop in both categories next turn. We may as well not reward only those players doing the forbidden arts of C&D. Also, I'm man enough to admit a failure (and humble enough to point it out! )

[Commodore]

Ah, as posted in the diplo thread, you didn't fail, actually, that was a massive success. Aided by a bit of luck, but that's fine, it's not like turning back would have been good. We need to capitalize on this quickly, capturing BL (workers roading to it, toss in archers behind walls), and then capturing or razing the stone city (make those walls expensive for Mack7). I'll write more later, bit busy today.

Oh, on plus side, we're having a girl, and she's healthy. So today, busy as it is, is a good day.

[Krill]

Congrats Commodore

[scooter]

Oh, on plus side, we're having a girl, and she's healthy. So today, busy as it is, is a good day.

Congrats!!

[Commodore]

Thanks guys...just to be clear, it was the ultrasound today, not the birth. July for that.

Anyway, have a bit of time:

Okay, well, I figured as I'm RB's formost expert (along with Gaspar) on fighting a long and slogging aniceint-era war with the Pyramid holders, I might as well write the quick guide.

First, and I'll put this in large, comforting letters:
[SIZE="7"]DON'T PANIC[/SIZE]

We're fighting a couple of canny, cautious tacticians with excellent micro and good war traits. Spi with the 'mids means they can swap from Police State, with the +25% unit production bonus, to Representation for a good happy cap (needed after whipping) and better research. Imp means they're going to get Great Generals twice as often as we are, moreso if the fighting mostly occurs in their lands. Finally, Imp + the successful rush means they have a lot of cities to build from, which is why we need to capture the hammer-heavy BL and capture or raze a few others soon to even that disparity. Oh, and they have shorter lines of reinforcement.

But against that, we do have some definite compensatory advantages. Much-derided, Protective is still a useful war trait, particularly here. A CG3 archer behind el cheapo walls is going to be hell to dislodge. So if we can spare the moment to build a barracks in one of our totem pole cities (Cahokia might be best), we need to be pumping nothing but archers there to ensure whatever we take, we keep. Promoting them to shock/drill 2 makes for decent little cheap damagers too, in a large-scale city assault.

We also are proud owners of dog soldiers, who get decent odds on axes...once shock is in play, that's harder, but unless they settle the GG they won't have infinite supplies of those. Taking out those two was huge.

We basically need a lot of archers and dog soldiers, leavened with stack-defending spears for out primary strike forces. Chariots are great sweepers and pillagers, but for axes dog soldiers, who can take CR promotions, are definitely our city-crackers of choice. Archers are going to be annoying, but cover archers of our own won't go amiss.

The most pressing need we have right now is securing and expanding our supply pipeline. The wheat city should be founded relatively soon...perhaps have Seneca grow on an archer to size 4, then sink three turns into a settler and two-pop whip it (borrowing capital copper 1t). The wheat city will make a granary and eternally whip chariotry or (with totem pole) archers. Everything else is going to be on military duty for the forseeable future...if we're going to make Construction, it'll be through pillaging.

[Commodore]

Adding one last thing: I do still expect us to lose. Neither Seven nor Mack has lost a game that didn't contain the other one. This is some gnarly oposition, and Plako's interest aside, even us winning the massive longshot of killing them will probably only help Sunrise, LP, The 3, or Pindicator.

[kjn]

Adding one last thing: I do still expect us to lose. Neither Seven nor Mack has lost a game that didn't contain the other one. This is some gnarly oposition, and Plako's interest aside, even us winning the massive longshot of killing them will probably only help Sunrise, LP, The 3, or Pindicator.

But imagine the bragging rights!