Turn 152
So this is the big fight. I have a few crossbows in Barnet who I'll upgrade to rifles at the end of the turn. I'm keeping stacks in place until the units are needed because I have a great general due and some pinch promotions could be handy. As it is right now most of my grenadiers can only get combat one, although since they will mostly be fighting cavalry that isn't going to be an issue.
I'll promote all 25 cats to barrage and send them in first.
The first four battles go terribly - I get two hits in out of 14 - is that just RNG trolling or do cavalry have something to stop themselves getting hit by catapults?
Towards the end a few cats get a couple of hits in, but every cav got more hits. I don't see anything about first strikes in the civilopaediea so does strength influence how likely you are to hit?
I attack with six maces next (odds are around 2%) - I want to give the grenadiers more of a chance to hit the rifles. But again I don't get many hits in. Then I send in five axes and a mace I'd forgotten about with similar results.
Next up I have knights and horse archers, not sure if combat or flanking promos are more helpful (probably combat as I don't expect to be using these units again and the catapults [post-turn edit: Wrong, flanking would have been more useful to hit catapults]) and should I start with HAs or knights (probably HAs as the knights are more likely to survive). It only takes one HA to get rifles defending, so on to grenadiers (who unfortunately are still attacking cavs). The first gets 20%, and the seventh is the first to win (at 44%).
A Great General is born in ipswich and attached to a spear, giving xp to six grenadiers and three knights letting them get combat II and pinch.
Eventually I end up with 11 rifles, 13 grenadiers, 13 pikes and a few other units sitting in Barnet Everything has been promoted to pinch or guerrilla I. I don't think I've done a good job of this - I should have attacked with the mounted units before the maces and axes. In the end I killed 16 cav and two rifles. So I expect Hydra to take Barnet next turn with his 34 remaining rifles.
We both took a hit on power, but I took a lot more:
Anyway I'm building a bunch of units and revolted to slavery and police state. If Hydra takes Barnet I'm inclined to conceed, but I just don't think it's a knockout blow - I don't want to string things out longer than necessary for Azza and Serdoa, but even without Barnet I'll have a bigger population than Hydra (although I've whipped heavily this turn). I just won't have a research base any more. Guess I'll know when I get the turn back.
After I ended turn I went back and re-played the battle going cats->horse archers->maces->grenadiers->axes->grenadiers->horse archers->knights and ended up killing 15 cav and 5 rifles and having a few more grenadiers survive. So I don't think it would have made a great difference, but I wish it was easier to set up a big battle like that in worldbuilder - it's the promotions that I can't be bothered getting right that made a big difference here.
So this is the big fight. I have a few crossbows in Barnet who I'll upgrade to rifles at the end of the turn. I'm keeping stacks in place until the units are needed because I have a great general due and some pinch promotions could be handy. As it is right now most of my grenadiers can only get combat one, although since they will mostly be fighting cavalry that isn't going to be an issue.
I'll promote all 25 cats to barrage and send them in first.
The first four battles go terribly - I get two hits in out of 14 - is that just RNG trolling or do cavalry have something to stop themselves getting hit by catapults?
Towards the end a few cats get a couple of hits in, but every cav got more hits. I don't see anything about first strikes in the civilopaediea so does strength influence how likely you are to hit?
I attack with six maces next (odds are around 2%) - I want to give the grenadiers more of a chance to hit the rifles. But again I don't get many hits in. Then I send in five axes and a mace I'd forgotten about with similar results.
Next up I have knights and horse archers, not sure if combat or flanking promos are more helpful (probably combat as I don't expect to be using these units again and the catapults [post-turn edit: Wrong, flanking would have been more useful to hit catapults]) and should I start with HAs or knights (probably HAs as the knights are more likely to survive). It only takes one HA to get rifles defending, so on to grenadiers (who unfortunately are still attacking cavs). The first gets 20%, and the seventh is the first to win (at 44%).
A Great General is born in ipswich and attached to a spear, giving xp to six grenadiers and three knights letting them get combat II and pinch.
Eventually I end up with 11 rifles, 13 grenadiers, 13 pikes and a few other units sitting in Barnet Everything has been promoted to pinch or guerrilla I. I don't think I've done a good job of this - I should have attacked with the mounted units before the maces and axes. In the end I killed 16 cav and two rifles. So I expect Hydra to take Barnet next turn with his 34 remaining rifles.
We both took a hit on power, but I took a lot more:
Anyway I'm building a bunch of units and revolted to slavery and police state. If Hydra takes Barnet I'm inclined to conceed, but I just don't think it's a knockout blow - I don't want to string things out longer than necessary for Azza and Serdoa, but even without Barnet I'll have a bigger population than Hydra (although I've whipped heavily this turn). I just won't have a research base any more. Guess I'll know when I get the turn back.
After I ended turn I went back and re-played the battle going cats->horse archers->maces->grenadiers->axes->grenadiers->horse archers->knights and ended up killing 15 cav and 5 rifles and having a few more grenadiers survive. So I don't think it would have made a great difference, but I wish it was easier to set up a big battle like that in worldbuilder - it's the promotions that I can't be bothered getting right that made a big difference here.
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
In progress: Rimworld