Mr. Cairo Thread (spoilers)

[Mr. Cairo]

I played the turn a little while ago, but had to do an errand.

Here's how it went:
More or less according to plan (see last post), losing the second battle hurt, that was a C2+Sh Charger.

I'm annoyed I only killed 2 Hunters, but I think that's because my Catapults did too good a job hurting them on the attack.

Here were the odds in sequence. The one I lost is in bold.

82,83,75,87,93,74,74

Here are screenshots of the odds if you were wondering.

After that last 74% battle, this was the best odds I was getting with my C2 Centaur:


And here's the situation now:

I can promote all but one of my Chargers. I also have more Chargers I can bring in, or even attack if I get lucky. I have two healthy Catapults that can attack next turn and hurt the top defenders. I'll also be able to promote three Catapults, as it was their second retreat (and each one provides 1 xp, so now they have 2 and can grab a promotion). Once it's down to nothing but hurt unpromoted Warriors I'm hopeful I can start killing with my regular Centaurs.

Also, I moved my Centaur out of Ant to cover those two Chargers in case Auro gets frisky with the Hunter, and to possibly tempt Dave into attacking Ant with his Hunters.

I'm pretty sure that units that "win" when the enemy retreats don't get much xp, is that correct? I'm wondering how much I need to worry about those surviving Hunters promoting. The one that killed a Catapult might (if it survived the battle, I wasn't tracking that), but I don't think the others will. I tested in my sim, just attacking with my Catapults and doing nothing else, and only one of the Hunters there promoted (presumably the one that killed a Catapult) and those would only need 2xp to get a promotion.

Final comment. I think by the end here I'll end up breaking even in terms of monetary cost of this entire attack. The capture and pillage gold are more than enough to pay the unit costs, but I think with the upgrade costs factored in, it's not looking as rosy. Still worth it geopolitically imo.

[Thoth]

I'm pretty sure that units that "win" when the enemy retreats don't get much xp, is that correct?

The unit that retreats gets 1 xp the defender gets 0.

[Mr. Cairo]

I'm pretty sure that units that "win" when the enemy retreats don't get much xp, is that correct?

The unit that retreats gets 1 xp the defender gets 0.

Thanks, that's helpful.


Round two. Lost one Catapult again, luckily not one of the healthy ones (but it was one of the ones I had just promoted). Then killed three Hunters with Chargers I promoted up to C3+Sh, at 85, 87, and 87% odds.

I then decided to gamble a bit with my regular Centaurs. The first one only had 65% odds and lost, which almost made me stop there, but the next one had 71% and I figured the odds would only improve from there, so I kept going and killed 5 Warriors and a Hunter at around 70 to 80% odds each time.
Then, for some reason, after the first unpromoted Centaur (the others all had C2 or C1) won its battle at 78% odds against a Hunter, the next one had only 61% against a Warrior, so I decided to stop there, leave a couple healthy Centaurs to defend in case he attacks out in a last attempt. I have three more Chargers and a regular Centaur approaching, so I hope I can finish it next turn. I ended up Sprinting one of the new Chargers onto the stack, just for another healthy unit there. I also scouted a little with one of the Centaurs, and revealed a Barb Warrior approaching.

Here's the situation at end of turn:

After I hit end turn the WW got worse, I now have 2 angry citizens in each city, so I'm very much hoping to end this next turn.

[Mr. Cairo]

The final battle:

I got luckier than I should have, especially with the Catapults. I really shouldn't have attacked with the last two once I saw that his units were mostly too injured to get hurt by the collateral.

As for the rest of the battles, the lowest odds I had were ~76%, from what I recall. Most were closer to 90% or more.

I'll discuss the state of the empire next turn, for now, looking back on the war itself, I still maintain it was a good idea. Economically I think I'll break even, and geopolitically I have much improved. I have a big empty space between me and Auro, and not much of a border with Coldrain. DaveV was my most natural enemy imo, and getting the first blow in still makes sense to me. The main cost was opportunity, in terms of techs and buildings, but there are only so many buildings I can build, and if I hadn't attacked I still would have needed a large army to deter DaveV and Coldrain, but would have nothing to show for it.

I'm sure some will disagree, and I'd be happy to discuss it more 

[Thoth]

What's the plan going forward?

[Mr. Cairo]

Well, I fired off my GA. My tech plan is WoftheEM - Philosophy - Military Strategy (for Military State) - Smelting. Then probably fill in a few earlier techs before making my way to Mages. In retrospect I shouldn't have taken Arcane when the option arose. Long-term it will serve well, but we need to get to the long-term first, which means dealing with Auro. Raiders would have been better, or something economical.

But yes, the plan is to try and take Auro down. I'm hoping I can pull off a surprise attack from a direction he's not expecting, using the Chargers with Iron Weapons. But who knows. I should also try and meet xist and Bing asap. If we can coordinate something, that would be best.

To signal my good intentions to coldrain, I offered OB with a free set of Fine Clothes.

[Mr. Cairo]

Does gifting Copper to someone without the tech still give their units Bronze Weapons?

[Qgqqqqq]

Yes. (They have to move out of the city and back in the turn they recieve it.)

[Mr. Cairo]

Yes. (They have to move out of the city and back in the turn they recieve it.)

That's what I thought. Once I get Iron I'll see about sending my Copper to coldrain

[Mr. Cairo]

This is what I am referring to in the diplo thread:

Most unfriendly. I ended up upgrading the 3 Warriors in Naggarond to Swords, and built another one instead of the Galley I had planned.

I need to save after this for a while, to push for either Iron Working, to actually use the Iron I have now (I'm still rusty on the mod, I forgot about needing IW for the weapons). Or to go for Sorcery, probably via Elementalism. In the meantime I'm going to try and build my power back up.

xist met me on his turn and he offered World Map and OB, which I accepted. I'm going to build a sim of the approach to Auroland to see the best way I can launch a surprise attack.