[Spoilers] AW with highly promoted LB!! (Liz of North America)

[AutomatedTeller]

moved stack in closer. 1 more turn of moving, then attack.

[AutomatedTeller]

so, next turn, I attack. I am honestly unsure what he has - the reason beign that I'm on the road and I couldn't get BtS installed on this computer. So, I'm playing it on my work computer, which does have it installed... but I have to remote desktop to it and there's lag. (is there a way to turn off the refresh? It's annoying)

And I really can't tell what he has. I am planning promoting all the units, bombard his city to 0 (will take 2 or 3), attack with the cats and then with the HA.

I'll lose some cats and probably an HA or 2, but I don't; see any way he can survive.

I got an engineer the other day, so I rushed Notre Dame... mainly cause I could. Other option was the AP, but I didnt' really want to build more buildings.

I'm producing maces now, too.

And I'm going to research Alpha, just to see where everyone is. I want to know if Zero has cho-ko-nu or not.

[AutomatedTeller]

So, I killed Serdoa. I lost a couple of cats and a couple of HA (I think) - the lag is pretty bad, so I'm not sure. I know I pillaged the gold and the road I was on (I did not plan on doing either) and i sent an HA off to lala land... fortunately, I had enough units to finish off the deed anyway.

So, it's down to 3. TT is getting machinery next turn. Checking:

Everyone has Civil Service, cause everyone is in bureau. Which means that everyone has maces (well, TT gets machinery next turn)

No one has either HBR or Archery, though, so no archers, xbows, lbows, or HA. I don't get that. Zero should be beelining machinery with his UU. No one has engineering, so I have mobility - but my pikes are not that useful as stack defenders. More xbows needed, i think.

[AutomatedTeller]

So, played this a few days ago, but here is the attack on Serdoa:



Serdoa:

7 Keshiks, 1 with a GG
2 axes
2 spears
1 archer
24% defense, on a hill.

My stack on the hill:

12 HA, with 7-11 xp
2 pikes
1 x-bow
1 medic chariot
8 cats (some with 5 xp, some with 3)

Smaller stack, 2 away:
2 spears
1 LB (10 xp)


Plan:

bring down the defenses with 2 cats (1 with accuracy), attack with 6, kill.

What happened:

(spoiled cause it's long)

yes, I took it down to 8% with 2 cats, pillaged (note that 2 catapults pillaged, thus taking out the road) attack, brought it down to 0%, and attacked more.

Then I attacked. One of my HA ended up moving off towards TT.

I took out the last spear with the 10 xp LB (highly promoted Longbows)

It worked out pretty well, even though I pillaged and sent an HA away (that was because of lag)

The battle odds:



That's 17 attacks - 3 losses, 2 withdraws, 12 wins. A weighted average gives 12 wins in those attacks, so the results were reasonable. If I had used the other 2 cats to get more collateral (instead of plundering), I might not have lost the HA... but I would have lost 1 of the cats, I'm sure, so the losses would like be the same.

[AutomatedTeller]

1000 AD:

I'm healing and need some cash, so, time to plunder serdoa's cottages:



I also managed to beat off 2 holkans - got lucky on the attack on the HA there...

[AutomatedTeller]

I guess TT is next, not Zero.

My forces are set up to kill TT, and he has maces, so it's good to kill him now



Picked up some more cash from Serdoa's lands:



My opponents civics choices:



Everyone is in slavery and bureau. TT has HR, Zero has OR. TT hasn't switched into a religion, despite having 2 of them. That's not a criticism, btw - just an observance. It seems to be working out ok for him.

My opponents tech:



Both are missing engineering, btw. TT is probably a bigger threat now - he's able to tech guilds and has HBR, so my decision to attack him is probably the correct one.

I'm going to optics for the whales, btw - unpillageable happy, commerce and hammers Then courts and maybe castles, to up my espionage. I built 2 grocers and will put the two cities back on units - cats/trebs and x-bows.

[AutomatedTeller]

I decided to make TT my next target, mainly because my forces were set up for him and he seemed stronger.

I moved in 2 stacks, one next to his new city of RockandRoll, the other near his capitol of Sex. Also, I moved in a G2 archer to scout out Sex and the environs.

RockandRoll:



As you can see, RockandRoll is a new city, with AA defenders, plus cats and a mace on it's way. I don't have a lot of seige support in this stack, but I don't think i really need it - the treb will damage the defenders and then I'll stomp (assuming he does nothing)

btw - Zero has engineering. My guess is that he upgrades some of those spears to pikes.

I will probably move my production base from knight heavy to mace/cat heavy. The trebs are nice city raiders, as well.

There are 2 ways he can defend:

1) Attack out with catapults and either hope to kill my units or that my units are too weak to attack.
2) Abandon the city and pull back.

I think he should do the 2nd and wait to use those cats in a place where he can then shred a stack - I don't think he can hurt my stack there all that much, though I could easily be wrong. His mace is too far away to attack (TT doesn't have engineering yet) Drugs is a much stronger defensive position than RockandRoll.


Sex



I don't have visibility into Sex, so I don't know what his forces look like there. he's moving a force down to drugs/rockandroll and I'm guessing it's a significant part of his garrison of Sex. This force (the one that took our Serdoa) is the main reason I think he'll pull out of RockandRoll. This force (10 HA, 2 pikes, 2 spears, 2 x-bows, an LB and 6 cats) is one that can take his capitol. he can't ignore it and it's a much, much better target for catapults.

Zero (reconnaisance-in-depth)

I also decided to take a look at Zero. I think this may have been a mistake, but we'll see. He might decided to ignore a small stack like this, since it can't really hurt him.



I think he should hit it with cats and then kill the stack if he can, but he may choose to not. The LB is a tough customer - 6 *1.85 on that hill, though with some collateral - the cats will hit the CII knight (5 on 17 or something).

[AutomatedTeller]

What TT did was retreat his units to Sex and attack with catapults out of Rock And Roll, but not follow up.

I lost my treb doing collateral, but then razed Rock and Roll without a casualty. I got lucky - 2 HA attacked retreated at 50/50



I didn't get a writeup of the odds - I'll do that next turn. I did get a GG, which is heading towards my stack now.

Zero didn't attack my stack, which I'm retreating as we speak. I'll put the LB back up there if he lets me.

He has pikes, maces and x-bows, but not HBR or Feudalism, so no HA, LB or Knights anytime soon.

I'm going CoL (build a few courts)->Gunpowder->MilTradition. I don't think I'll get there, but...

I'm advancing slowly on Drugs - going to create a Medic Explorer - or, maybe, I should make a medic II LB. Hmm.

[AutomatedTeller]

Zero did kill my stack - he lost 3 cats, but killed 2 knights, a mace and a LB, so that's a big win for him. It was a mistake to move those units in and leave them in.

I got my stack next to Sex. TT hit it with cats, but lost an xbow attacking an HA, so didn't press the attack. I reduced Sex from 60% to 16% (he has walls, clearly) with 6 cats - I'll drop it to 0 next turn and attack. he's 4 turns from engineering, but I don't think he's going to get there - he'll lose his cap and I'll pillage some cottages.

As long as Zero doesn't come at me, I'll be ok. I think Zero could put a hurting on me if he attacked, but he's not, so...

[AutomatedTeller]

I'll post pictures tonight, but I killed Sex (that is, TT's capitol named Sex). I'm bombarding Drugs now and will attack it in a couple of turns. he gets some breathing room, as I heal and move slowly towards his city. His catapults will cause some issues. I'm also plundering cottages as I go.

2 turns to gunpowder. Muskets won't make a huge difference, but they are still excellent stack defenders against maces. Curaissers will make a difference, though.