AT loves it when a plan comes together!! [Spoilers]

[AutomatedTeller]

And pics:



There's also a LB coming over from Quincy (I"ll replenish from V) and, of course, we will have some knights building in the next few turns)



Most everything is on mil builds - that's partly to let them grow, partly to get more military. needs boots on the ground.



Poor Rannoch. btw - i'm running culture in ALF and ER to get border pops - for defense in ALF, but also to help with border pops, and ER has 2 specials in it's 2nd ring.



need some courts to get graphs on people. I think this is the latest in a game that I have built no courthouses. We'd be a monster if we had some...

[MindyMcCready]

Looking good. I think that we'll be able to hold it. However, as always, I need to throw up some flags.

1. Jowy is dangerous now, and he's got more troops out there. He somehow scared off TT around Ferros. So in one turn we can expect to see another lump of troops show up. We're definately not out of the woods yet. We need to be careful not to underestimate him.

I think that there's going to be a big and bloody battle very soon now that TT's not warring against him. Whoever makes the wrong move will end up taking heavy losses, so we'll have to be very careful to make sure that that's not us. I'd be in a panic right now if Jowy hadn't wasted this 3 catapults but, thankfully, they're gone. And I'm pleased to see 5 cat in the area. Right now this could go either way: Jowy's got the ability to walk right up to our cities; we've got the cats to hurt him. Still, he can rectify his disadvantage more quickly than we can for ours.

2. I saw that you didn't take the forest 1W of Horizon. I understand that move with those powerful LBs having an even larger bonus in the city but its still risky. Once he occupies that tile with some fortified maces/pike/LB and elephants, its going to be hard to dislodge him. He gets cats in there and Horizon becomes a death trap for us. He's got few cats right now, so we're ok for a little while.

3. Those extra troops from Ferros are going to show up on Jowy's part of this turn. Assuming that LB's still on the hill we should have visibility on them. That incoming 5XP pike, I'd really like to see with W2 promotion. Those forests between Eden Prime and Ferros means that we can cut off reinforcements or at least substantially slow them down.

Overall, my objective would not be so much to isolate Eden prime, but rather isolate and raze Ferros. If we can keep the roads cut, its 4T from Eden prime to Ferros for Jowy and 4T from rannoch to Ferros for us (not using W2s). So he can't defend that city if we move first.

4. Overall, in some ways Jowy has the upper hand in this war right now. Because, until recently, he was committing more to this war than we were. It's much better now that we're on a more solid military footing, but even so we're not landsliding him.
Citadel (10) + Thessia (10) + Eden prime (12) + Ferros (8) +Noveria (3) + Virmie (6?) = 49
ATeam (17! wow!) + MASH (12) + NYDP BLUE (12) + NCIS (6) + LALaw (4) + Magnum (4) + V (6) + ALF (1) = 62

So we'll either need to continue on with this production advantage for a sustained period, or reduce Jowy's production potential. We really need to be cognisant of this equation.

So the best way to improve this equation is to raze Citadel. Jowy's seen our galleys so we don't have the element of surprise anymore. And I do agree with moving the BJ troops up to help hold our newest conquests.

So lets send in those empty, slow moving galleys. Let them flounder around for a couple of turns. I agree that will tie up a number of units in that area which really gives us the help we'll need in the short term. Then, let's pull out of sight, attach the GG to a single galley, load 2 CR maces and hit him out of the blue with our 5-move capability when he redeploys troops back to Eden Prime.

We've been a little greedy with trying to keep Citadel and we've flip-flopped between 1 galley, 3 gallyes, 2 galleys and 5 galleys. In that time, that city has contributed a lot to troops to the defnese of Eden Prime. Its probably fair to say that, if we had just made the move with 1 galley early on, we'd probably own Eden Prime right now ( but TT would own Rannoch and Ferros, so its worked out well). I'd really like to see the next two troops out of NYPD to be 2 5XP maces sent down to BJ for this purpose.

If we do this, and Citadel razes, then Noveria is a strong prize to capture with those clams, deer and horse tiles to be quickly worked.

What do you think?

[MindyMcCready]

PS: The troop movement around Citadel is legacy. Just want to highlight the troops movements around rannoch and Ferros.

[MindyMcCready]

Can we get CHIPS on a settler build? We really need to be looking to the future despite the Jowy war. That city site SSSWWW of LALaw will really help our military manoeuvres, the city North of V is very strategic, clams-silk is decent and that last choke point on Cornflakes/Commodore will be very important and is being taken over by culture.

[MindyMcCready]

Also, your best way to get to build the stuff that you want to build is by switching to Nationalism and drafting units. I'd be much less inclined to harass you

Drafting me units would also allow you to send a couple of Knights over to pick up that barb city. Which is another prize.

Jowy's troops have few promotions, so drafted maces should be pretty effective still.

Also, I strongly recommend against trading Guilds to TT. All he really needs is Knights + Muskateers to be a royal PITA. Education is really not worth that trade right now. He's almost certainly headed for us UU. I don't know. Maces are almost as effective for most military maneouvres and definately better at attacking cities. And muskets don't get our 3XP, like LB, so our LB are probably better defenders per hammer. But muskets can take out elephants,...

Ok, scratch that. If TT has gunpowder we should trade Guilds for Gunpowder. Nationalism + muskets give a home town defender enough of an advantage against Knights and Muskateers. I retract my advice.

A few other double checks:
1. We do have a trieme or scout over by Commodore? The risk is minute right now, but I just want to make sure that there is a unit permanently positioned there.
2. We'll need a scout N or V or maybe another city north of V.
3. We'll need eyes/a scout in the jungle around TT once we are not so threatened by Jowy.

This games pretty fun so far.

Oh yes, and I promise, if we ever play together in a no tech trading game,...that you can be a builder.

And one more thing, can I get a city count of our opponents? Its seems like we're doing well enough, but I'm curious how much 2metra, TT and especially Commodore have expanded.

[AutomatedTeller]

I am planning on hitting noveria if he lets us. Presumably, he will - he doesn't have enough units to hold Citadel AND Noveria against possibly 4 maces. Trying to figure out if we should raze it or keep it.

CHiPS on a settler - we are still seeing barb activity down there - one problem we run into is a lack of units to barb bust, and I keep moving LB to Jowy...

Also, we are getting mil from other cities as well - I whipped in the Lighthouse in BJ and the bear, so it's starting a LB, too. NCIS and Magnum are making LB and I whipped in the granary in QUincy, so it can start whipping in archery units, too. Shut off research once we hit guiilds to upgrade units. The problem with switching to nationhood is that you really, really want barracks everywhere (we do not have them) and you really want Globe (we are not close). Also, we only have 4 cities that can draft, so it's not great for us.

I think LA law will build 1 LB, then go back to cats.

With taking Rennoch, I think we've completely committed to killing Jowy (which is ok) - we could defend a 1 city choke like ALF and build infra, but two cities that are forkable like that when he has interior lines? Besides - I want Citadel, with it's academy.

Is paying Jowy for peace worth it to do 10 turns of infra builds?

[MindyMcCready]

Actually 4 drafted maces + 2-5XP maces from NYPD on 3 galleys,.... might have a chance against Citadel,...

Awwww, not that again.

But seriously, if we get Nationalism before someone gifts it to Jowy we could in 1-2 Turns put together a force to strike at Citadel and/or take Noveria.

Any tech advantage that we have will be very fleeting. Cornflakes might not be quick to send Jowy Nationalism because it no longer appears that Jowy's going to collapse. Jowy's got a decent army, TT's been foreced out of the war and it aggravates us. He'll gift it for sure if Jowy's struggling, but not if he's surviving.

Can we do this next turn? 3 galleys, whipped from whereever. Burn the GG on them. 4 drafted maces + 1 more from NYPD + one from wherever we can spare.

If you place the 4-move galleys on the edge of Jowy's territory (but able to hit either city), I'd say that there's a good chance that Jowy doesn't even notice that they're 4-movers. If they appear deep inside his territory, then he'll know that somethings up.

KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! I love it when a plan to KILL comes together.

[AutomatedTeller]

if Cornflakes gives Jowy Nationalism, I'm going to give Jowy whatever he wants for peace and just go attack cornflakes. Probably bribe everyone into the war with Guilds. There's literally nothing Jowy has that's worth Nationalism. He's not our friend if he does that and so screw him.

I don't have any idea if he's going to do that, mind you.

[MindyMcCready]

I am planning on hitting noveria if he lets us. Presumably, he will - he doesn't have enough units to hold Citadel AND Noveria against possibly 4 maces. Trying to figure out if we should raze it or keep it.

CHiPS on a settler - we are still seeing barb activity down there - one problem we run into is a lack of units to barb bust, and I keep moving LB to Jowy...

Ok, good enough. I'll calm down now.

We'd have to see how the battle goes, but if we have 2 LBs left we should definately keep Noveria. It's on a hill so we'll come out on the good side of a hammer exchange. And it further stresses him out. And later, if we can get GII or G1 LBs up there we can substantially reduce his production potential. But I guess that we could do that with, or without that city, just easier to heal if we need to retret somewhere.

If we can retain naval superiority in the area, a galley can shuffle troops to either side to have a GII LB rips those mines up on either side of Citadel.

[MindyMcCready]

I am planning on hitting noveria if he lets us. Presumably, he will - he doesn't have enough units to hold Citadel AND Noveria against possibly 4 maces. Trying to figure out if we should raze it or keep it.

CHiPS on a settler - we are still seeing barb activity down there - one problem we run into is a lack of units to barb bust, and I keep moving LB to Jowy...

Also, we are getting mil from other cities as well - I whipped in the Lighthouse in BJ and the bear, so it's starting a LB, too. NCIS and Magnum are making LB and I whipped in the granary in QUincy, so it can start whipping in archery units, too. Shut off research once we hit guiilds to upgrade units. The problem with switching to nationhood is that you really, really want barracks everywhere (we do not have them) and you really want Globe (we are not close). Also, we only have 4 cities that can draft, so it's not great for us.

I think LA law will build 1 LB, then go back to cats.

With taking Rennoch, I think we've completely committed to killing Jowy (which is ok) - we could defend a 1 city choke like ALF and build infra, but two cities that are forkable like that when he has interior lines? Besides - I want Citadel, with it's academy.

Is paying Jowy for peace worth it to do 10 turns of infra builds?

Citadel with its academy. Well alright. If we plan to eliminate Jowy, then our #1 objective is to outproduce him, take cities and wreak his industrial production.

10T of peace is definately not the way to do that. In 10 turns he'll have all of his troops in constant military mode. Why would he build infrastructure when it'll just end up in our hands? Well he might, but he shouldn't. We'll spend those 10T on infrastructure and then be further behind on the critical mass scale.

Didn't realize that you had the taste for blood. I think that we need to fill up one of those galleys with at least a LB to hit those mines. We'll take at least an even hammer exchange while reducing his industrail production. Maintain naval superiority in the area and we can try to nab the workers that try to rebuild the mine.

I think that we should reconsider diverting those troops from BJ and instead filling up those galleys. And plan for reinforcements to carry the day up north. Let me take a look and think about it.