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Turn 73 - Phoenicia
Another turn, just like all the others.
Walls complete in Linear A for the Engineering eureka - I start a bireme there, since it'll complete quickly enough to help out in the coming battle for Akkad. I'm going to finish IW rather than start on HBR right away, as I'm still undecided on upgrading one of these warriors to a sword and want to keep that option open. They won't be able to influence the combat at all until close to t80, but maybe that's still quick enough to be impactful.
Our boats close in at Akkad. I have to come up with some way to connive this quadrireme into getting a kill, which will probably have to come against (ugh) the 45-strength TAD has SE of the city center. I guess the best way to achieve that is for you to leave the tile 1E of that boat open when you attack so I can first weaken the ship with a bireme there and then finish it off with the quad?
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So, I declare war on my turn? I looks like you will be able to reach at least 1 boat this turn. I will focus any boats on the approach to Akkad.
March 10th, 2021, 18:27
(This post was last modified: March 10th, 2021, 18:30 by Woden.)
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This could go good or incredibly bad. I am seeing 39 versus 45 for his ships (w promotion) but I think we go for it. He did bring a bunch to play...
Will hold the save until I hear from you.
March 10th, 2021, 22:37
(This post was last modified: March 10th, 2021, 22:41 by ljubljana.)
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Sorry for not seeing this for a bit, I was on a long drive. Is that 45 without Twilight Valor? I guess our odds will get a little better once we can match their support bonuses, but after a turn or two TAD will finish a civic and slot TV in and hit 50 combat strength. That might be a losing proposition for us even with 10 ships against their 5, although I guess the rest of the ships will be down in the mid-40s without the promotion. I could go either way on this...
What do you think our odds are here? It looks like TAD is crash-building military, and Japan's starting to put troops out as well... Then again, I'm not sure how else we're going to win this game if not though leveraging our UUs to control the seas and monopolize the city-states, with Japan's beaker rate now over 50(!) and probably well-positioned to keep growing.
March 10th, 2021, 22:42
(This post was last modified: March 10th, 2021, 22:46 by Woden.)
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It is against a galley with the +7 combat bonus promotion and my units are un-promoted. Figure 3 attacks will get the 1st promotion. Your Biremes will probably need 2 attacks since they have 1 for attacking Geneva. I think we go for it. With the pinch point south of Akkad, it will limit his attacks while I can hit from the ocean. I am also going to forgo the next round of builders and switch all my cities to ships to continue the pressure.
Edit: Back in the game and he is also getting at least +4 support bonus. On his unpromoted ships, I am actually getting slightly better odds (39 vs 38), even with a +4 support bonus.
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Okay, let's do it. I think that warrior he's bringing should be my tiebreaker as far as whether I upgrade a warrior to a sword or not. That'll be a setback at Linear B, since it's not like Linear A can come off biremes anytime soon to build the trader, but I guess that's okay.
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Turn 73
After how many PBEMs I played with TheArchduke, I finally go to war against him...
I hit one of his promoted galleys twice and an un-promoted galley once....
I think we should do pretty good against him at Akkad. I switch Thor and Loki over to boats. I have a builder almost to Thor to improve the bananas and iron and am having the builder at Oden head to Loki to lumbermill a grassland forest and maybe chop out a boat. Odin will finish the government plaza (due in 3) and then pump out a few boats.
March 11th, 2021, 07:50
(This post was last modified: March 11th, 2021, 07:52 by ljubljana.)
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Turn 74 - Phoenicia
I get in just two attacks, since my biremes still have a little more distance to travel before they can cut off TAD from the west. My attack against the central galley might have been a mistake, too, if I knocked it into promotion range - it can just retreat and then TAD can get two attacks in with healthy ships, likely killing the bireme. Still, though, we obviously have to be willing to accept some level of losses here to make this happen. I also go ahead and upgrade one warrior into a sword - this actually is apparently the first iron unit in the world, for a nice +2 era score. Amani also established for +2 more ES, and, dang it, I forgot to move her - I'll send her to Mohenjo-Daro next turn. If you think it's possible, I'd love for the easternmost galley to be left on very low health rather than killed outright on your turn, so I can get the kill with my quadrireme.
Do you have Military Tradition discovered yet? It looks like my ships are not getting support bonuses from yours, which could also be an artifact of us being in an alliance.
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I wouldn't sail your ships around and get sandwiched between his current fleet at Akkad and his reinforcements. You will get slaughtered. Keep your ships south of Akkad so you can swap injured boats out.
March 11th, 2021, 23:36
(This post was last modified: March 11th, 2021, 23:37 by ljubljana.)
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Turn 75 - Phoenicia
I got some really unlucky die rolls this round - both of my attacks in the north were favored to kill TAD ships, but came up just short, both likely leading to a promotion next turn. Blah, so it goes. At least I now have one bireme eligible to promote myself, but the easternmost one is pretty likely to get killed next turn. In the south, we have found TAD's reinforcements, or they have found us  . Not sure if attacking like I did was the right idea...that wounded ship will probably just retreat and heal, but at least I took it out of the fight for a few turns, since it probably can't promote-heal with just two battles fought. Linear A and Hieratic both finish their biremes, and I send both towards the front ASAP while starting more, naturally.
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