[SPOILERS]Novice, Spacemanmf and Athlete4life10 are HUYANA CAPAC OF CHINA

[spacemanmf]

SevenSpirits was a great help during this. With novice choosing this of all nights to go gallivanting on a work social, it was good to have someone to voice my plans to, and also to get excellent advice from.

SS excitedly told me to go after the cats first, which I did so with knights. 7 went in, and did a fair bit of damage, but it was the 5 cuirassiers slaughtering the weakened cats that really did the damage. These are the horsies that attacked...



...and here's what's left of the cat stack.



I make that 27 cats destroyed for no losses. I was getting 99% odds with the knights initially, and it just went upwards from there.

Next it was time for the rifles to go after the knights, also getting 99% odds.



The knights were destroyed pretty easily, leaving the HAs. In went the rest of the rifles, all the cavs, all but one of the remaining cuirs, and the last of the muskets. All won except for one musket (96% odds). I guess that's fair enough...

It left this.



So, 12 HAs left, plus 3 chariots and a musket on the hill. Oh and I sent in the last cuirassier to take out the remaining three catapults, promoting it to C2 afterwards. Go ahead and try to take it out if you want...

Total losses in the Battle of Britannia:

Us: 20 cats, 1 treb, 2 muskets
Peg: 8 muskets, 13 longbows, 2 spears, vulture, chariot, warrior, 30 cats, 25 HAs, 6 knights

Crucially, our army, siege aside, remained almost completely intact. Here is Britannia:



He could choose to send his HAs in on the stack 1NE of Britannia, which is:



But they will benefit from the medic 3 chariot, and attacking them would basically leave him with nothing.

This was a satisfying turn... but it's not over...

[spacemanmf]

In the south, I took out Peg's galley with a caravel. Not sure why he left it there - perhaps he forgot. It was one of those turns. He had the save for the best part of a day so I doubt he was rushed.

In the north, I had another city to take. I promoted our C1 cav to pinch, but annoyingly it made the longbow the top defender. I went in anyway (since, as SS pointed out, it was never going to attack the musket now). And it lost.



Damn. I promoted our other cav to C2 and it only got 30% odds to win (20% to withdraw) on the heavily promoted musket. But it won!

Next up, C1 rifle with 60% odd or so. Lost...

But the damage was done - he had two weakened longbows and we still had a musket, mace and spear. The former two won and the city was ours.



Amusingly, a barb axe was sat 1SW of the city. Two workers roaded to the newly named Re-Raise All-in and I plonked a rifle in there for defence (which was previously sat on the forest 1SW of Re-raise.

During the battle above, we got a second Great General, born in Speed Limit.

Lovely.

In other news, TT had razed another ad hoc city. Cheers TT!



For those who like to see event logs showing the combats, here is what it looks like (spoilered due to its size):

[SevenSpirits]

Here's the reason for knights vs catapults:

Flank attack does one "hit" of damage. Unpromoted knight vs catapult = 28hp hits, which means four kill the unit. In order to get 34+hp hits you have to use cavalry or promote cuirassiers with the vs siege promo, which is not worth it IMO. So knights. They get 99.1% odds anyway, so the better units can be saved for more risky attacks.

99.1% is without promotions, when it's straight-up strength 10 vs 5. That is incidentally the best strength ratio you can get without gaining only 1xp instead of 2xp from the battle. (xp from winning as attacker = 4 * def/att strength ratio.) So using knights + not promoting them = more xp. And you probably only save 1-2 attacks if you go for the 34+hp hits instead.

[regoarrarr]

I estimate ad-hoc's dismay at opening the save at approximately 0.85 Regoarrarrs

[Bobchillingworth]

Holy shit.

[spacemanmf]

So what's left? Well, I had the mundane task of some city builds and tile arrangements.





After all that excitement, I was a bit of a loss as to what to build in Wheel and Broadway. There didn't seem to be any obvious choices. They are drafting rifles. Cats are soon to be out of date. It didn't feel like we needed any more boats just yet (we have 3 caravels, a trireme and 2 galleys now). So I selected courthouses - they will save 5 gpt each plus give us some bonus EPs.

I positioned one galley to take units back to the mainland, since we seem to have control of the north. The other ferried a settler to be settled on the NE coast.

The "combat" workers near Speed Limit just generally hung back out of range, roading or farming. Could perhaps send a couple of them to the north (should really have done it already, but there are some tiles to be farmed east of Britannia).

I drafted SL, Sailboats, Broadway and DG2.

Here are the demographics before ending the turn.



Net of 4 drafted rifles, we had lost 88k in soldier points. We still have 27 rifles, 21 muskets, 10 cavs, 14 cuirs, 8 knights and 7 cats. I chose a cat in SL since it was a 1-turn build and I'd like some flexibility in where we attack next.

Chemistry was researched EOT, with Liberalism a 1-turn tech, although that's with an unsupportable 100% research rate - should still be ok, though. We can then grab Steel as the free tech (unless Ruff changes his mind), before turning attention to trying to grab the Great Merchant from Economics (probably 2-3 turns).

After that, maybe Steam Power for Levees, faster workers and to see where coal is. It also unlocks Railroad, which would be nice for transporting units to the frontlines as much as anything else, although it would give Ruff easy access to machine guns (that said, he can probably research what he wants if desperate).

Astronomy will give us Observatories, but obsolete Stonehenge and the Colossus. Sci Method will obsolete the Parthenon and our hammer/beaker-boosting monastries. Constitution-Democracy will give us Jails (hmm), Rep (hmm), US (would be v. nice), SoL and Emancipation (no thanks).

Oh and just realised we won't get the effect of the medic since Pegasus has yet to play this turn. Too used to playing SP.

[SevenSpirits]

Start the turn with two artists, end with two generals. I'm deeming this a Double Hitler.

[spacemanmf]

Here's the reason for knights vs catapults:

[SNIP]

99.1% is without promotions, when it's straight-up strength 10 vs 5. That is incidentally the best strength ratio you can get without gaining only 1xp instead of 2xp from the battle. (xp from winning as attacker = 4 * def/att strength ratio.) So using knights + not promoting them = more xp. And you probably only save 1-2 attacks if you go for the 34+hp hits instead.

Ooh yeah, they all got 2XP, nice.

I estimate ad-hoc's dismay at opening the save at approximately 0.85 Regoarrarrs

Ad hoc won't bat an eyelid. He is down to two or so cities anyway... =)

Holy shit.

I *know*.

Start the turn with two artists, end with two generals. I'm deeming this the Double Hitler.

[regoarrarr]

Ooh yeah, they all got 2XP, nice.
Ad hoc won't bat an eyelid. He is down to two or so cities anyway... =)

Errr I mean Pegasus

[Profane]

Wow, epic turn indeed. How much WW did you get from that turn alone?