War Tactics and Combat Sims

[NobleHelium]

So yeah, I was not expecting so few units. Most of the units are pretty far back and I'm not sure if they'll be in position to slam into the stack if they hold up and wait for reinforcements. OUTMANEUVERED BY THE DOUBLE BLUFF...

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Unless say they're declaring on T175. Which wouldn't be a huge problem.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Can't we notify the admin that we're going to declare war on these guys on T17X and want the first half of the timer? Are there any war weariness implications of being declared on versus doing the declaring yourself?

[NobleHelium]

War weariness depends solely on what ground you're fighting on and who is initiating the combats (and the outcome of those combats). As far as I know, the rules say that if you want the first half then you should play before your opponent on the previous turn.

[Zargon]

Well yeah, we clearly can't wander into their territory looking for first blood - we'd get murdered on a counterattack. But just set some stuff up in range of The Gauntlet and invite them to make a mistake. Given how well they've executed their buildup, I'd be shocked if they bite, but that's no reason not to give them the chance, since it costs us nothing, and indeed is probably the correct play regardless, since it might delay them a turn waiting for the rest of their stack.

We don't have to play our whole turn first to secure first slot if we want it next turn. Just do some stuff, preferably visible stuff. For example, you could log in, draft 3 pre-ordained cities, and move something out of The Gauntlet. Probably have to move the sentry back this turn in case they get in first next turn, but as long as we do some stuff first next turn, we'll have a good case for making them wait until we finish.

Of course, that means playing everybody's favorite game, turn timer camping.

---

They played first this turn, so we can't legally declare on first half for turn 170.

[fluffyflyingpig]

Alternative option to timer camping: have someone logged in at all times so the mod prevents anyone from declaring war on us!

[pindicator]

I don't think which half of the timer we get is that big an issue. If we get the first half we'll have promotions, if we get the second half then we'll know better which cities to whip.

Also, worst case scenario is they're staging that force as a defensive precaution now that the NAP is up, and the full attack comes on 175 with CFC. That's what we should plan for.

[MWIN]

We can always move to first by having Poly double move us for 1 turn. Given the number of tiles they need to walk, I think we can find a turn where they can double move us...

I don't think which half of the timer we get is that big an issue. If we get the first half we'll have promotions, if we get the second half then we'll know better which cities to whip.

Also, worst case scenario is they're staging that force as a defensive precaution now that the NAP is up, and the full attack comes on 175 with CFC. That's what we should plan for.

[scooter]

Alright, here's a couple super messy tactical stitches. First, the Apolyton side of the fence:



We've already seen what they have in range, here's what we have immediately nearby. Next is units in the CivPlayers region. This will take two pictures to cover.





Any other units you see that aren't covered you can assume are single unstacked units.

Noble has suggestions for where we should place our units, but I'll let him cover that so that I don't misrepresent him.

[NobleHelium]

So CivPlayers now has Gunpowder. They didn't steal it from us because they didn't have enough EP, so I assume they stole it from someone else like Apolyton. There were four HAs southwest of Costalot before and now they are gone, so I assume they moved south five tiles and then were upgraded to cuirassiers. It's safe to assume that the knights were also upgraded. Apolyton now has ~272g and CivPlayers like 40g. We know CivPlayers whipped nine knights and have at least eight or so HAs from before, so I would not be surprised to see 15-20 cuirassiers outside BB next turn, or possibly further south.

So I'm thinking we place a large number of muskets 1S of Ditchdigger which is close enough to reinforce BB. We keep four workers around to repair any sabotaged roads as the signs indicate. Normally I would want to place catapults in the stack too, but it is two tiles away from the border so it could be attacked out of the fog by the cuirassiers. Plus if the cuirassiers attack BB from the south we won't be able to reach them anyway. Muskets in 60% culture defense are 14.4 strength which is the same as a C2 cuirassier. However if they promote to Pinch it'll be 12.15 vs 13.2 in their favor. Still, BB is a very valuable city and they may not actually attack once they see the odds. We have quite a few muskets in range of the staging tile probably like 15 or so, and will finish a knight in BB and can draft it next turn. HF will also finish a musket which can be dumped into BB next turn via newly built roads.

There's also a possibility that CivPlayers may choose to attack our musket stack with cuirassiers. Not sure if that makes any sense, but their odds would obviously be better in the open than in the city. So we may want to keep units in position for retaliation, not sure if this is a likely enough possibility to account for.

What to do with the knights and other units not in range of the 1S Ditchdigger staging tile? One, as above, leave some units in range for a possible retaliation if they attack our musket stack. Two, move them in position to slam into the Apolyton rifle stack ASAP before it gets larger. This feeds into the other question of what defense to have in the south around GM and ST. I was not expecting them to get cuirassiers so early, so there are a number of units in the south that were supposed to stream north to attack Apolyton around ~t173. Those units can now be held in the south to defend against cuirassiers there. I expect we'll have 10-12 muskets and 5 catapults in the area next turn, which isn't enough to hold off a big cuirassier stack, but they will need a couple more turns before they can threaten the two core cities down there. And we can be more offensive there if we have enough catapults and muskets since we'll have better maneuverability with the increased defensive depth compared to BB.