RB Pitboss #2 [SPOILERS] - Speaker and Sullla

[Speaker]

Two mails just came through:

Dear Killer Angels,

We will declare you war this turn. From a technical perspective, it
will be in the first half of the turn so we will use that in the
future if that's ok with you. I actually think we may have no choice
given you're already at war with Jowy and he has the first half. We
hope that this war would not damage our relationship forever and that
one day we will collaborate again.

Best,
Kalin for Team A/K of the Ottomans

alea iacta est

I guess this means he's declared war as well?

[Cyneheard]

Re: Speaker's request:

Sury of England would also be pleased to have your presence as a lurker.

[regoarrarr]

Two mails just came through:




I guess this means he's declared war as well?

Either that or he's just trying to copy Sullla's forum sig.


Note that I have no knowledge of whether or not he really has declared war.

[scooter]

I don't know if being thoroughly entertained and learning a lot counts as contributing, but team SsS would be happy to have you swing by.

[Dr. Nomadic]

Well, Dantski is playing as Julius Caesar.

And wowzers, a 3-on-1, who saw it coming?

[Speaker]

And wowzers, a 3-on-1, who saw it coming?

Umm, we did?

[Sullla]

As we've been expecting for the last ten or so turns, Dantski and Kathlete pile into the war with Jowy this turn. (No, it wasn't a surprise in the least!) So how bad is it? Umm.... pretty bad.



Jowy's units are lined up in a weird north-south line for some reason. These are the bottom two stacks; I needed a separate picture of the top stack, which is mostly Kathlete's units:



Dantski has also moved in from the south:



Let's do the tally of their total forces:

Jowy
10 phalanxes
4 chariots
1 spear

Kathlete
4 horse archers
2 chariots

Dantski
8 axes
3 chariots
3 spears
1 skirmisher

That's a total of 36 units and 188k of "Power" rating ranged against us. We're actually #1 in the game in Soldier count now (having passed Whosit this turn), so we're no slouches, but we don't have anywhere near that kind of military force. Not to mention, we're being attack from multiple directions at once!

Is this the end?!?!

Not so fast, my friends! While this is bad, very bad, I actually see some posibilities here. Let me go through and list some of our advantages:

* We have interior lines of reinforcement. In particular, we can shift units from the Chancellorsville front to the Gettysburg front very quickly. This has already been critical in shifting units from Hampton to Chancellorsville, and it will likely be so again.

* We know from our Soldier count Power tracking that our opponents have sent the house at us. Remember how I predicted that Jowy had 10 phalanxes last turn? He's sent ALL of them at us. Ditto for Dantski; this is their home run shot, and anywhere not under attack (like, say Fredericksburg) can be left completely unguarded to defend where we *ARE* being attacked.

* On that note, Dantski has cleaned out the defenses of Kumbi Saleh to attack us. His border cities should be almost completely empty! If we can persuade Nakor to attack now, it could definitely turn the tide in our favor.

* Here's the second-most important point: all of Dantski units are slow-movers. (Well the chariots aren't, but they'll definitely be sticking with their companions.) That gives us three full turns to stand up defenses in Gettysburg, plus we can potentially upgrade the warrior inside to an axe; our capital is (thank god) a 40% defenses city, on a hill. That means archers get 25% innate city defense bonus + 25% innate hill bonus + 25% hill bonus + 40% cultural bonus + fortification bonus + any promotions we can stack on them. If we can get about 8 physical bodies in there, the capital's not going to fall.

Shiloh's a lot more exposed, but we can shift defenders down from Fred to cover. We should get a border expansion there for 20% bonus before the attack arrives, and let's face it, 2 axes + spear + chariot + skirmisher isn't all that terrifying. There's a decent chance to hold.

* Now, the #1 thing going in our favor: Jowy has made a critical error this turn! He should have moved up his phalanx stack next to Chancellorsville. Instead, they remained camping on that forested hill, I guess to wait for support from Kathlete's horse archers. That gives us an extra turn to whip defenders, chop forests, shuffle units around, and so on. Not moving in to attack this turn may end up costing them dearly.

That said, I'm still pretty freaked out about *TEN* phalanxes plus ten supporting mounted units. We might be screwed there regardless... Kinda tough to stop a full 20+ units! But hey, we'll do our best, including whipping Chancellorsville into the ground if need be.

Speaker and I will hash it out sometime tonight.

[T-hawk]

That means archers get 25% innate city defense bonus

archers get 50% innate city defense. Longbows get 25%.

That said, do you have a plan to deal with choking and pillaging if they don't attack cities immediately?

[timmy827]

After seeing these great overlay shots of the forces arrayed against you (in addition to the many put together by our team in the demogame), I wish there were a mode that automatically gave a whole listing of everything on the screen, so you didn't have to painstakingly assemble it.

I'll echo T-hawk. It looks like your most important pillage targets (copper, horse, the more-developed cottages N and W of Gettysburg) are not too close to the invasion routes, but still clearing out those forces sans cats if they don't suicide on a city looks tough.

What is the current Construction ETA assuming you don't spend any cash on emergency upgrades?

[Jabah]

One of your chance is that they all are seriously lacking spears (or anything strong enough) to 'seriously' counter HA. Still their number will make it difficult to clear any big stack.