[Mjmd #56 no players] One ring to find them

[Miguelito]

I have not really given roading a thought but a highway towards Lemon sure would be helpful
I think you also should promote some (2?) praets in the advance stack to C2 to guard against HAs.

[Mjmd]

I'm going to sleep on it. I kind of just want to advance on Lemon next turn. I can then keep sweeping east (I can actually sweep north of city NE of silk making it faster). Vanguard stack can go to city NE of silk while also pinning forces in his capital. I don't know if I would want to leave even 1 unit behind let alone 2 to pillage. I'm not that fused if he spends resources to raze or retake Lindonberry (if he even has said resources to spare). I would then move all 4 chariots east and attack Raspberry T102 most likely. His eastern cities are newer so shouldn't be that defended / able to produce. To note he did lose 4 workers which will hurt chop potential (2 captured and 2 deleted)

I just don't think taking the capital is doable. He has 3 cities in immediate range that can move garrisons / new built units produced could still get there if they pop out. Also he would prob move some # from Lemon.

Good point about promoting a C2 unit for vanguard stack, but still unsure. To note the Vanguard stack actually has only 3 units that have / can get promotions. I have 1 praet set to shock and have 2 open promotions.

[Miguelito]

My idea was to make him concentrate his forces in the cap to avoid losing it, then split his north and south by razing the silk city and pillaging roads. If he moves the Lemon garrison to the cap that's a plus for that plan actually.
Stone and road should definitely be pillaged; otherwise he can always strike Lingonberry with HAs from the fog. Although make him spend a bit more on duns. If we unite with the reserve stack we don't lose any turn of movement and leave no single units exposed.
Do we even take Lemon with the second stack and with what is there already?

As always, you have given this more thought, so I trust your judgement, and the decision is yours anyways of course. Just tossing out ideas.

[Mjmd]

I believe Lemon would fall to reserve stack. With units on hill would be 5 praets (I believe all with available promos / having), 2 axes, and 4 spears. Also, 2 chariots assuming I deploy that way. I would be able to hit T102. Van's axe that is reinforcing will probably turn around. The Vanguard being able to strike T102 at capital is going to cause him to panic a bit hopefully. I think taking Lemon and hopefully city NE of silk then putting pressure on the rest of his empire would be a good use of time. I'm just super nervous about committing tons of forces slogging through capital culture, not be able to take it and stalling out. Lemon is one of the major prizes I can get without taking the capital.

To note this will result in a very large stack of junk in his capital and I would probably need to research construction for cats, but I think I would have to do that either way. Hopefully conquest gold keeps me afloat; another reason I think to move fast.

I do want to keep Vanguard stack together UNLESS I do decide to go for capital. I'm not sure how many HAs he actually has, but unless they have shock available I'm not too worried and I really don't think Lingonberry is strategically worthwhile anymore. Even if he retook T102 I think I now have enough culture on all major disputed tiles and all his culture buildings are gone.

[Mjmd]

Slept on it; I'm going with my gut. The upside of going for capital isn't that much higher than just going to take a couple of cities.  I'll still have 9 units there forcing at least 5 defending units, which should leave silk city exposed (keep or raze still to be decided). Means researching construction first. But I challenged myself to crash economy this game, soooo !!!!! I do really want to thank Mig for putting up with me.

Re-did tiles at Neapolis to 1 turn a praet next turn as well with a chop (city will also grow in 1 instead of 2). I definitely regret worker distribution. I wish I had more reinforcements coming from northern cities, but those are my most whipped. I could have been chopping some # though if I had thought a bit more about instead of chopping praets in no where near front lines SW.

[Miguelito]

Logged in for a look and got greeted by Amica's response:


Sure we would like to kill all those people, but can't we just split vanrober first? Send just fish for fish back, and war with vanrober again to make clear that that's our focus?

I somehow thought that van had another city N of Lemon. Anyways, Lemon would be great, unlocking a bunch of land for us. He moved the axe there (or got a new one), but I'm tentatively optimistic.
Raspberry has a new archer and it could be tight, but I believe it's still correct to attack now. The 3 units by the cap are not visible anymore, and if he moved them there they could be behind the walls next turn. Better to take the city now if we can, and mabye trade it 2 more times.

Put a sign for an alternative northern filler (I'd rather get the shared sheep to grow, and leave the whales in the third ring). Maybe we could also settle Ruff's island with the silver? With the galley moving north already...

[superdeath]

[Mjmd]

All the regret at not trying to go for capital. Although to note he hasn't moved his HA in Raspberry and he did a ton of whips recently (why couldn't he have whipped this much in PB52!!!, so it was probably still the right call. It is possible he just wouldn't have redeployed Lemon garrison. All the unknowns; will be interesting to see what he has in there next turn. Also, a wall would change odds pretty significantly, again I don't have a ton of upgrades available and base praet odds are 26%, and the HA would end up defending vs axes, sooo ya probably was correct. I'm 99.99% sure that the 2 axes and 1 archer moved into the capital (which was the whole point of taking lindonberry as the city is worthless other than keeping that garrison busy and stretching his defenses). I had good reason to attack the turn I did, but my main regret is not just waiting 1 more turn so he wouldn't have had as much time to react and I could have sent the full force at capital all in 1 wave; that I think may have worked. Anyways attacking and hopefully taking 2 cities next turn (again pretty sure those units moved into capital and that axe has shock down south meaning the force I had wouldn't have been enough unless I used all the chariots and I wanted 2 in the north for Lemon).


I'm actually pretty confident Ruff is on that island or he would be dead. That galley picked up praet from Med that would have taken forever to get to the front and will now perfectly timed pick up its 2nd praet from Arp. Not sure if it will be enough to free Ruff from this game or if I'll keep sailing and see what Van has up there, but seemed like a good use of time.

I'll think about that filler spot in 50 turns or so  I think filling cows is a higher priority and I don't plan on settling that for a while. To note I'm not sure where that settler of Vans went. I'm not sure of how his cities are arrayed WAY over there.....

BTW do you agree with construction next to finish off Van? Seems wise. I can also then continue using the war economy! Cities should be just about ready for another rd of whiipping by then. Also, should get more KTBs for currency that way.

Golden age in 33 turns has some work to do......

[Mjmd]

I played late at night and it super shows.....

Took Raspberry pretty easily. Sadly used some luck I could have used. Lost 3 praets and an axe. Killed 4 archers and the axe. He retreated the HAs.

At Lemon I kept thinking I would get odds and maybe it was the order? Definitely confused.

So my shock praet could get 58% odds on initial archer - loss
Now here is where maybe I'm just a noob, but literally none of my shock praets could get above 35% after that. Why was the archer put first if I actually had worse odds after that? This was with a shock praet as well. I mean I 100% should have run it through the combat calculator first...... Also, should have realized something was wrong after that and not thrown the praets away / kept doing it..... I also then thought maybe since I was doing descent damage I could push through with spears. I tried throwing an axe to weaken the top archer (I was also hoping that this archer would stop being top defender instead of an axe AT SOME POINT, but it wasn't enough to make the axes the top defenders for my chariots. Nope and on top of it he won a 70% fight vs 2nd chariot with archer that had already killed a unit. He ended up with 1 full health axe, 3 weakened axes (2 near death), and 1 archer. I lost 4 praets and an axe. I also could have thrown my GG into that stack to get extra promos because it spawned in Ravenna; very much may have been the difference. Unsure what to do with it now.

Aftermath for Mig. Full health praet is obviously new; would get 62% vs his axe, which was kind of what I was hoping would be the case earlier...... (I was just hoping for 50%). I only won 1 low odds battle here, which is average, but would have swapped a couple from Raspberry if I could have. Really do wish I had checked where GG was born; that was just a late night mistake.



So couple options. All turn numbers are starting next turn. The combat axes will obviously get shock.

-March Vanguard stack up which would take 4 turns. I could unload praet on boat and have 6 reinforcing praets total, but he can reinforce a ton and without that stack holding the HA down they can come up. Can just normal whip chariots.
-Unload boat for total of 6 reinforcing praets total. DRY WHIP Chariots in farther cities. Wait for those and reinforcements and attack in 3 turns. Vanguard stack could keep the HA's pinned and pillage roads in between
-say screw it and march 4 reinforcing praets from north to his capital, boat would keep going up. march remainder of southern army up, keep vanguard stack where it is at and pillage road (I would actually split to pillage probably to get road going to capital from E. Remainder of southern stack (4 praets, 1axe, 1 spear rest to wounded) would also go up. Praet and spears in Lindon could join as well. 4 turns. To note for this plan I would also probably dry whip some # of chariots (not the one in antium though). I forgot to notate, but I think capital just added an axe from last turn.

[Mjmd]

I forgot to mention for any plan not going at the capital I could abandon lingonberry next turn; city is pretty worthless.

Mig if you could give thoughts on GG as well it would be appreciated.