[SPOILERS] naufragar and Rusten get nickel-and-dimed

[naufragar]

So, 7 Samurai?   The Magnificant Seven?

Beaten to the punch! I knew I shouldn't have waited so long to make the reference!  Guess I'll have to go with my backup theme...

[Zed-F]

So, 7 Samurai?   The Magnificant Seven?

“If we only defend, we lose the war.”

[naufragar]

I'll admit, Zed, I haven't seen Kurosawa movie, just the Yul Brynner version. Shameful, I know.

We're visible.


His iron city's borders popped, so it was time anyway. The plan is to move south to his elephant, while workers follow behind and road the neutral elephant. The stack then moves to the hill mine to get some vision before plunging in.

Here are the demos.


The power differential isn't really that great when you subtract out the high soldier values of Machinery, Metal Casting, forges, and barracks, and remember that a samurai is worth as much as a hwacha+axe, but the latter destroys the former. Scary stuff.

Here's the power graph, but again with the caveat that some of this is illusory.

[Rusten]

Remember to pillage the ivory on your way down. If he has hwachas then he also as WEs. I'm not sure he's had the time to research IW, calendar and construction though. Think it's more likely he's working on it now. But this kind of thing is much harder to judge from the sidelines when you don't play the turns and get a feel for the game.

And don't be impatient. A stack wipe would end us.

[naufragar]

And don't be impatient. A stack wipe would end us.

I am terrified. This is about as all in as one can get.  Our actual difference in power is pretty much just three samurai.* And would you know it, we have three samurai lagging behind. When we move to the hill 1SE of the soon-to-be-pillaged elephant, we should get vision on SD's capital and a city we don't have from Mr. Cairo's maps. This will hopefully give us enough information. It might be we wait for stragglers on that hill. Our attack path puts us on flat land outside of Superdeath's capital for two turns. That's the really scary bit. Basically if we get to attack, I'm happy. If we get attacked, I'm not. Oh, and thanks for reminding me about war elephants. Something else to fret about.    


*I know that sounds insane, and I don't have my notes in front of me, but this morning I took our respective powers and subtracted things like barracks and forges for us and construction for him and came out with a roughly 30K power difference. I was trying to be conservative, but I still stand by this number. So much is going to depend on where his troops are spread out and what his ratio of hitters to cats is. By the by, catapults would be much less scary than hwacha, but oh well.

[naufragar]

Of course, right after I post that last, Superdeath logs in and whips a bunch. Two pop whips at that.

His elephant needs to die.

[naufragar]

Superdeath's power increased by 18k!  



Our troops have invaded his territory.


And we found what I think is good news. There's a hill adjacent to SD's cap, so we can bombard in defensive terrain. Infuriatingly, I didn't realize that the bombard perk requires city raider or collateral.   It's three turns to get through SD's cultural defenses. I've never been able to figure out how walls interact with cultural defenses and bombardment. The city would have 40% from culture, but instead gets 50%? And bombardment reduces both? So walls are only a +10% modifier? Did I get all that right?

I've colored in where I expect Superdeath has another city. I'm unsure of (and therefore am eager for advice on) whether to go for the hill 1SE so as to get vision on these cities or go 1SW so we can park on the hill by the capital. I'm strongly leaning towards this latter option.

The war machine's in full swing:


I wonder if there's any sense to getting crossbows out next. Bad at attacking cities. Good at beating what Superdeath has. I should mention that HOLY SMOKES IT'S GOOD WE HAVE THREE LUXURIES. We are whipping.  

I just want to see what he has. The suspense is killing me.  

[Elkad]

Walls are a flat 50%. And halve the bombardment rate (that may be changed in RtR, but I think just Castles got nerfed (which halved it again)).

City uses the better of walls/castles or it's own actual culture, but even if it's at 80% from culture, the walls still halve the bombardment.

[Rusten]

How much do we have lagging 1 turn behind? I don't want to log in out of turn and annoy SD. Depending on how much there is we may want to wait 1 turn before moving off defensive terrain.

I'd argue that 1S achieves the same thing as 1SW but is safer as any 1-mover whipped in iron city can't reach the stack.

[naufragar]

How much do we have lagging 1 turn behind? I don't want to log in out of turn and annoy SD. Depending on how much there is we may want to wait 1 turn before moving off defensive terrain.

I'd argue that 1S achieves the same thing as 1SW but is safer as any 1-mover whipped in iron city can't reach the stack.

The mouse over is our stack on SD's elephant. The elephant 1N of that has 1 samurai, 1 axe, and 2 workers. The tile 1N of that has 2 samurai.

I take your point about 1S. That is better. If there's a city 3E of his cap, it can hit the hill but not the flat tile. You're also right about waiting. We get 3 samurai and an axe on Superdeath's elephant next turn. (The two workers road.) It's probably wise to wait for them. Any other reinforcements are still multiple turns out.

Walls are a flat 50%. And halve the bombardment rate

Ugh. Thanks for the info. Halving the bombardment rate is nasty.