RBP7 [SPOILERS] - The Chronicles of Nyania

[nabaxo]

What are the odds of us just attacking that spear with a chariot?

[Lord Parkin]

What are the odds of us just attacking that spear with a chariot?

Across the river right now it's about 30%. From the other side of the river (which has to be next turn), about 60%.

[nabaxo]

Let's consider the placement of the city. Do we really want a city on top of a resource (the marble)?

[Lord Parkin]

The marble doesn't matter. It's a pretty good location, it's just a matter of whether we can hold it. If we lose the 60% battle, his Spear gets promoted and then potentially retakes the city... and we're back to square one. On the other hand, if we raze it, we have to build a Settler later... but there's also no risk and TT is as good as dead.

[nabaxo]

Don't we have a settler in production in Nyan-city?

[Lord Parkin]

Yep. Gold spot is better for it though. Can build another to replace this city.

Main issue is that only one Chariot is available to attack the Spear. If it loses, we pretty much lose the city when defending against promoted Spear + Warrior. (And I just realised that I could have moved one Chariot differently to allow it to also hit the Spear, so I'm kicking myself a bit. Oh well.)

[nabaxo]

Basically just played it like a PBEM, expecting build to complete and by the time I remembered it doesn't the move was done, leaving an unguarded capital at precisely the wrong time.

Raze it. The dude just said too much.

We have a settler en route and a prime spot with defenders in place ready for him.

[Lord Parkin]

I guess that's what we have to do. A real shame, as if I'd moved one Chariot differently we might have had good odds of keeping it. I just never expected this situation to arise.

Oh well, I suppose it would have cost us extra maintenance for a 5th distant city this early... even though it'd be a benefit in the long run.

[Lord Parkin]

You know, even if the game had worked as TT expected and his (presumed) Archer had been produced, he still would have likely doomed his capital with that move. Not quite as obviously, but still, 2-3 Chariots vs a single Archer will tend to succeed. Moving the Spearman out was an awful move either way.

[Lord Parkin]

There is another option - albeit a painful one. We could sit two Chariots in the city and wait for him to attack, since he'll be unable to take it in one turn like that. With the promotion he'll be at ~88% odds, so will kill likely one Chariot but will probably take significant damage. We can then reinforce with 2-3 more Chariots on the following turn, and kill the Spear by sheer weight of numbers. Of course, this strategy would basically use another ~2 of our Chariots (~60 hammers) as a meat shield to get access to a city location (~100 hammers) sooner. Probably not ideal given how valuable our military units are right now.