[SPOILERS - PBEM29] spacetyrantxenu - Mao of Babylon

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

So....where are all the troops we're going to be using with our cannons???

Gifted to Slowcheetah.

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Build Knights and Cannon. Cannons will reduce strength up to 80%, so if you bring enough into the fight you can wipe out pretty much anything Sian has with your knights or muskets. Even if you have random maces laying around (do you?), enough bombardment will let them punch through.

How many do you realistically think you can have built in the first 5 turns you have steel?

[spacetyrantxenu]

GA ends --> #cities = #cannons via

[AutomatedTeller]

It looks like slowcheetah has lost 2 more cities, one right on our borders.

1 more turn to steel - I set everything to trebs, which will upgrade to cannons.

I think we should start whipping them next turn, actually.

slowcheetah seems to have not attacked - his stack is back in his territory. I'm not sure why.

I built a musket in michelle bachman and will build another this turn.

I'm thinking after steel, it's either compass/optics/astro or it's mil science. I'm thinking mil science - grenadiers and cannons are good and will keep us safe till rifles.

other option is mil trad for curaissers.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I think grenadiers next, for safety. It sucks being behind on naval tech, exposing our periphery. But it's worse to be behind on army tech and exposing our core to attack. Will we get a PRO bonus on grenadiers? (Drill 1?)

Did slowcheetah attack Hannibal at least? He had to have enough troops to work with. If not I want a refund!

[AutomatedTeller]

I didn't see the stack at first, so assumed he had attacked and failed, or had moved.

Then I realized that it was sitting underneath the chariot.

I don't know why he didn't attack.

It brings up a question - when we get cannons, do we

A) Use them all ourselves in the south
B) Send them all to slowcheetah for the north
C) Split them

We'll be able (if we want) to get a bunch in 2 turns by whipping them after this turn - I won't whip in the major cities, but in some of the other ones, I will.

Grens do get the protective bonus - basically, cities with grens are safe until Sian gets cannons, cavalry or infantry (or just a huge stack of cannons, I guess)

They should get both Drill I and CG I - plus at least 1, maybe 2 promos.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I think you'll have to make the decision on where we can best use them based on the map knowledge of Sian's forces. It sounds like slowcheetah is falling apart rapidly so I have concern for the safety of Rudy and McCain in our south and having some cannons there on defensive duty may be prudent in that case. However, I feel like we have to do some damage to Sian or he'll just keep running over slowcheetah. Has slowcheetah posted any report for us about what is happening in the fight for Hannibal? I wonder if cannons can even reach that front in time to accomplish anything in support of our soldiers up there (is that army still alive?). I guess I have too many questions right now, plus I'm worried that I gifted away so much of our power that I've left us unable to either properly defend our own cities or make any sort of attack on our own to counter Sian. I think we lack the hitters to take advantage of the opening our cannons will provide.

Just theorizing here -- you have better info than I do, just do the best you can. Can you post a power graph? And is it T125 yet? I'd love to see a war declaration by Dazed, maybe a bit more pressure will save Slowcheetah for a bit longer.

[AutomatedTeller]

he hasn't... but his stack is back in his lands, walking away from hannibal towards his own cities.

I had to switch a bunch of builds from cannons to muskets. Sian has 2 frigates and 2 galleons in the ocean around us, which means he could, in 1 turn, reduce a city defense to < 20 and attack with 6 grenadiers. A CGIII musket will push off an amphibious grenadier attack, but you do need depth to deal with them.

One painful whip was John McCain, but I really didn't feel the city was safe. I'm alittle worried about Tim Pawlenty, so I may end up whipping a musket up there if the galleons head that way.

I also went for a 3rd defensive musket in michelle bachman

I did whip out a couple of cannons, which I'll send south.

Ron Paul is a little vulnerable, but I microed it to get another musket, as opposed to whipping. 6 grens might take it, but the frigates can't bombard it this turn, so that helps.

I THINK we are safe from attack this turn - at least, I dunno that he'll attempt it. 6 grenadiers that could attack ties down a lot of units. Burning one of our cities is a big win for him, but I don't think he has a good shot at doing that. We'll see, of course.


it's turn 122, so 3 more turns.

Demos, etc:

Power


Demos:


Tech:

Sian doesn't have steel yet.

We get mil science next turn, then I want to go to astronomy. We have to get some naval units better than galleys to at least make sian worry some.

I did pillage a silver, though with him stil lhaving hannibal, clearly that's not a huge issue.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Agreed about Astronomy, I don't think we can count on Dazed to defend the seas. This coalition looks like every man for himself. Has slowcheetah corresponded with you regarding his war plans? I hope he isn't going to send those units all the way back on the defensive. If we all just defend, defend, defend and never attack, it just means Sian wins later instead of now. We have to push him somewhere (the collective "we").

Oh, I don't know what we have defending Rick Santorum, probably not much. That's a critical city with its MFG base. Losing Rick or Ron Paul would be devastating to us. Whip us into the ground if you have to!

[AutomatedTeller]

Rick Santorum is very poorly defended right now, but it can't be attacked yet and is quite a way from the front - I think it has time.

I am pretty sure we won't lose anything

This in from slowcheetah:

Greetings,

Welcome to the game AT, I apologise for not saying that sooner I've been a bit busy recently and slightly demoralised with the game.

Anyway, figured I'd give you an update on the military situation

Firstly, as I'm sure you are aware Sian took another two cities a couple of turns ago; oddly enough this was actually good for me short term both being large maintenance drains and not producing much worthwhile as of yet.

I have another apology to make to AT, Dick Cheny and Bob Dole are both in danger from a galleon containing three grenadiers that razed my city Wonsan. I should have notified you earlier but I didn't notice the danger until this turn. Sian may not be contemplating that, he's maneuvouring a frigate to destroy my triremes blocking his galleons path, so hopefully he'll try to escape next turn rather than attacking you.

My various attacks on Joao and Hannibal respectively went wrong, Sian flanked away a load of my catapults at Joao and I didn't have enough to take the city so I retreated. He also bunged a load of grenadiers in at hannibal (now up to 9) which meant I didn't have enough units to take there either so again I retreated.

I recently birthed a Great Artist (at annoying low odds), my current plan is to use him in TMC to hit Joao II on turn 130 (when I've replaced my catapults). This should allow me to one turn the city. If anyone else has any suggestions for the artists I'd be willing to trade it though.

Astronomy will be a while for me (approx 12 turns), after that I was going to go to Scientific method and Physics for Airships unless anyone else has any other suggestions. Sian can research replaceable parts and Scienific method, I don't know which one he is going for.

Congratulations on the scoreboard lead Dazed. To think I was briefly tech leader before I lost a load of cities :P.

slowcheetah

I think those northern cities are ok, but I'm not sure. We will see what happens.

[AutomatedTeller]

Got the save again.

We have a serious problem, which may or may not work out ok.

That galleon up north at slowcheetah didn't tell us about is now forking mitt romney and dick cheney. I whipped a musket in dick cheney from scratch (ouch) and can build one in mitt romney. Unfortunately, no other units can get to either of those. Mitt Romney will have a musket or grenadier, a cannon and a bowman, so it should be safe. Dick Cheney may have a musket/grenadier (Don't remember how auto upgrading works), a cannon and an xbow - if the unit is built, both those should be safe.

Bob Dole is safe.

The other problem is the southern seas, where 2 galleons are forking 6 cities - Michelle Bachman, Tim Pawlenty, Ron paul, Rick Santorum, Fred Thompson and Gary Johnson.

Michelle Bachman should be safe with 3 muskets and other trash. Gary Johnson and Fred Thompson each have 7 units in them, so THEY should be safe. I whipped a musket into Tim Pawlenty and he has 3 other crappy units in him, so he should be ok. Ron Paul has 3 muskets and a bowman, so he should be safe.

Rick Santorum is in massive trouble. There is just a lonbow (upgraded bowman) in it - apparently, I starved the city last turn and it reallocated, so the musket I thought I had built in it didn't happen. There are no other units that can get there. The musket/gren will complete this turn and I have more units that can get in it next turn - but 1 longbow and one unpromoted gren can't beat 6 grenadiers. Though, it does have a 60% culture bonus, so maybe - a grenadier would defend at over 20 (with CG I and drill baked in with the amphib bonus)

My guess is that he'll take Tim Pawlenty or Rick Santorum next turn.

I have moved 2 cannons south. Everything else is staying put.

I think I may move some units out of fred thompson so he attacks there. We can lose that city - we can't get rick santorum burned.

Sorry about that.

The saving grace is that he doesn;t have visibilty into Rick Santorum, so he may not realize how vulnerable it is. We can hope, at least.

I debated going to mercantilism for the extra specialists, but we aren't in rep and it would hurt our allies, as well, so I left things as is.