Attack plan on Thoth:
I need to maintain control of that FPTown tile for this to work (the numbers are my current cultural share of the tiles). If I lose it I'd need 7 move Transports. I can get 10 of them with 2 GGs, but I only have one, so I'd have to get Fascism. I'll need ~8-10 Transports of units to burn those two cities.
I won't need as much for this one.
Here's OH-Land:
He's pulled most of his offensive military back to more centralised positions now that he has railroads. I haven't decided if I'm going to try and kill OH's -ex-cap as well.
As well as one asking for 1000 gold. Those cities are on the border with Thoth's territory in OH-land. So I'm assuming this means we attack Thoth in 11 turns, and he wants some case to help him get ready. Well, its fine with me, it'll end the game one way or another.
Also, this hapenned:
I lost that FP Town tile.
That, plus a timeline for the attack has resulted in a change in plans. I'm only going to attack one of the two cities on that lake on T1 of a war, Crazy Train. Then go for the other later. I'm also going to go for Bombers as fast as possible right now. I'm on almost entirely wealth builds right now, to make up for giving that cash to Al, then I'm going to go for Radio first, so I can get Christo Redentor (Eiffel isn't as important anymore, and I'll want to swap out of Police State for a short time while I;m not building units, and it just in general gives me lots more options), I have a GE ready to help it along. Then go straight for flight. Since it's looking as though there's going to be a more protracted war, with me and Al vs Thoth and Auro, Bombers can really make a huge difference. I'm already very far ahead in power, and I already have my factories set up, unlike Auro and Thoth, who have to try and balance continued military builds with building up factories. So I can afford to take off my military builds and go all out for techs. I think I can get both Radio and Flight in 7 turns, maybe 8.
Who knows what Thoth and Auro will get up to in that time. Thoth has 4 different Great People as of this turn, one of which is a GArtist. I don't know how many Golden Ages he's had so I'm not sure what he's going to do with them. I also really hope he doesn't just go all out on culture soon, or 11 turns + however long it takes to reach his capital, may not be enough time. Although, I'd imagine if he does go all out for culture, Auro will abandon him (I hope).
ugh... this stuff is happening all over the place and it's really pissing me off. Why the hell am I so culturally weak? Unless I can get that tile back this is going to cost me a LOT of hammers, right when I really didn't want to lose them.
Flight is in. Bombers and Fighters are incoming. I'm still going to build Tanks wherever I can do so in 1 turn. I'm not going to be teching for a while, spending my cash on upgrades instead.
Techs:
I have a feeling that Auro is also going for Flight, for Fighters that can intercept my bombers. That's ok, I'm mostly concerned with attacking Thoth, although it might well be annoying if he sends some over to defend Thoth.
Next Turn I attack. Here's the plan, I don't have the time to draw on the screenshots in MS Paint, so you'll have to use your imaginations...
Main Assault, Target: Crazy Train:
My attack force:
With 8 Bombers and 4 Fighters (and possibly some more in range) in support. I've got tanks that can take City Raider 3, so I don't foresee much trouble here. The same goes for the subsequent attack on Borstal.
Secondary Assault, Target: Burning Inside:
I might have to lose a couple Cavs to soften them up, I don't have as much bombard. but the tanks might be enough by themselves.
Potential Target: LoveMissile (OH's cap):
Current Garrison
Garrison in MyBalls () Not a lot of hitters.
Southern attack force:
I don't have as much air power as I'd like. So I think I'll just bombard down the defenses the first turn, then attack next turn. I'll also have a lot more Machine Guns by then to cover an attacking force. I'd hope that with enough aerial bombardment I'll be able to use only Cavs.
My Northern reaction force:
I'll burn ObeyTheCowGod on the first turn. But I'm going to be mostly passive on this front, since here I'm also defending against Auro. All my offensive energies will be focused on Thoth.
Militaries:
Auro:
Thoth:
Me:
I don't have Al due to incomplete aerial coverage as I was upgrading/shuffling units around. Most of my navy is facing off against Auros in our small shared sea, although he's moved it back, into a more defensive position.
What I built at eot:
I'm spamming MGs to stuff in my border cities, to force my enemies to actually commit to capturing/burning them if they want to, and later on to cover attacks deeper into enemy territory.
Demos, Victory Screen, Techs:
Graphs:
I don't know if Al will declare the war first, or me, but either way my main hope is that Auro doesn't commit, letting me and Al pincer Thoth. He's in a very good position right now imo. He's not far behind me in tech, and is starting to catch up in production. He's last in power (which is causing a problem as he has to try and keep up in power at the same time as build up his factories and coal plants. I was able to get those all at once, while in a fairly secure position militarily), but Thoth has a giant target painted on his back instead of Auro, since Thoth is nearing a cultural victory. Auro's best bet is to sit this war out for now, continue to develop his lands, especially his conquests from OH, then strike at Thoth after me and Al have done the hard work defeating him (if we can), claiming some of the prize with limited effort, putting him in a good position in the subsequent 3-way showdown. I would also hope that if myself and Al look to be unable to stop Thoth's culture victory, that Auro would jump in against him. But I don't know how committed he is to the game.
Also, of course all this has to kick off just before Xmas. I had originally had plans to play my turns on a laptop while I was away over the weekend, but now I think that I'd want to give them my fullest attention, so I'm going to have to wait until I'm back.
Bigger report to follow, but first of all, thank you Alhazard & Auro. You did just what I wanted you to do, namely for Alhazard to declare on Thoth (triggering his DefPact with Auro), then for Auro to make peace with Al that very same turn. Now Auro is in a position where he has to attack me, if he wants to get involved (and he's moved his units in such a way to suggest such a thing might be on his mind), but I've still got defender's advantage, and without a lot of air power, namely bombers, Machine Guns are really hard to break open. I actually hope he does attack me, I'll lose a city or two, but I'll be able to crush most of his army, letting me really concentrate on Thoth.
So, as I said, the war against Thoth has begun. Alhazard started it, then made peace with Auro. I was therefore able to declare war on Thoth without getting Auro involved, although he may well become involved anyway. Now, on to the war.
Here is Alhazards attack force:
That's 41 Infantry, 73 Rifles, 25 Muskets, 65 Cavalry, 20 Catapults, 40 Cannons, and 33 Machine Guns.... well, quantity has a quality of its own. And this is a LOT of quantity.
Most of Thoth's military is defensive, scores of Machine Guns. But he does have a couple of stacks that to oppose this invasion:
Mostly collateral and Cavs. Normally quite scary, but Machine Guns are hard to overcome with this kind of force (at least I think, I don't really have any experience in MP combat at this era).
My attack on Thoth was more immediately damaging however, burning three cities (1 major, 1 minor, and 1 somewhere in-between):
Here you can see the two larger cities I attacked from the sea this turn. The main assault was against Crazy Train, near the bottom of the screenshot. After bombarding the defenses down then using bombers to soften up the defenses, none of my attacks were below 80% odds. I still lost a couple Marines though, but probably below average for the odds. He did have better-than-average interception on my bombers though. Next turn I'll unload my injured units to heal in Chairman (with my medic to help) while bombing down the defenses and units in Borstal Breakout. Overall this turn I lost 2 Marines, 1 Infantry, and 4 Cavs, although most of those I deleted myself after they burned cities.
My other potential avenue of attack is down here:
(The units are those in LoveMissile. My force is some 60-odd units, mostly Cavs, Tanks, and Cannons/Hwachas). I've knocked the defenses down with Fighters and Bombers this turn, but it wasn't enough to attack this turn. Not only that, but as you can see, Auro moved a bunch of units into that city. Thoth also has a small force of Infantry, Cannons, and Cuirs nearby. I've stuffed those two border cities with Machine Guns, but Thoth and Auro could probably take/burn them if they wanted, although it wouldn't be worth it. I'll have to see what Auro does with his units there (and in general), but ideally I'd like to capture LoveMissile without many losses after extensive bombing, then stuff it with Machine Guns. What I do down here depends a lot on what Auro does.
Speaking of Auro, he's moved a lot of his forces up towards my border, not just as above:
He's moved his navy up into this city. It's larder than mine on this lake, but I do have air superiority, and with Battleships the attacker has the advantage. Auro also doesn't have enough Transports/Galleons to threaten King as long as I keep enough units in the city.
His main force is up here:
He can probably burn both my border cities there, but I can do a lot of damage on the counter-attack, with my force to the north there of mostly Cavs, Infantry, Cannons/Hwachas, and a decent number of Tanks. I also have plenty of Bombers/Fighters within range.
Overall though, while (almost) on par technologically with me, I still maintain a sizable power and production advantage over him:
) Not a lot of hitters.
