[SPOILERS] scooter's Industrial Revolution

[scooter]

Quick note. Sullla - I think you've either miscounted tiles in two cases OR you have some scheme I'm missing. Here are two of your suggested staging tiles:



It would take 7 moves (NE-NE-NE-NW-W-NW-NW) to hit Dolphins from this tile.



Similarly, it would take 5 moves to get from this tile to the tile that could hit this city out of the fog (S-S-SE-E-SE), and this is the tile for the 4-movers.

If you could verify that those are counting errors and not something obvious that I'm missing, that would help me feel better.

While we're at it - it occurs to me that it's quite possible this island city is heavily defended (being a very vulnerable city) while the underbelly is very lightly defended. It's also on a hill. Have you given any thought to the possibility of simply sailing past it and cleaning it up later with another wave? Of course it depends on what's actually in the city, but given that it's on a hill... Well I think we want as many healthy units as possible for the Ducks mission (not to mention the outside chance to burn his capital if he's sloppy).

Any thoughts? My feeling is if he's got 3+ units and/or more than 1 Infantry, we ignore it and keep sailing. I wasn't worried when I thought we'd be facing Rifles, but with Infantry likely, we may be better off isolating this city and hitting other higher priority targets. The obvious downside: it's likely a big (and very valuable) airship station for him. We may need those Airships dead if we want to protect our ships from bombardment.

[scooter]

Turn 321

So I spotted a couple issues with our plan. The good news is that we should be fine. Here's two screenshots pre-turn:



So we only have 3 Galleons up here (1E of Haber, E-NE of Haber, S-S of Jenny) at this stage. Up to this point, I assumed we'd build a 4th this turn in Contact Process and we'd be good to go, but you're thinking another Frigate. Which means you're expecting one of these two Galleons to head north:



This would technically be fine because both the Induction Coil Galleon and the highlighted Galleon can make it north to stage in time. However, sending one of these two eastern 10xp Galleons north has a different side effect.



We would only be left with two 10xp Galleons down here as a result of, say, promoting and sending Induction's Galleon north. The 2xp Galleon S-S of Pasteurization (top-left of screenshot) is fine. It can stage on the west coast as discussed.

However, that leaves the 0xp Galleon in Kaplan itself. The problem is this Galleon cannot get to an ideal staging tile next turn. It can't make it to a west side staging. It could sit in the city, but that makes loading it up without affecting other boats slightly challenging.

So in the end I elected to swap Contact Process to a Galleon and keep 5 Galleons down here in the south. This front is just so important that I think we'll be glad to have a 5th Galleon down here anyway. Up north, the loss of the extra Frigate shouldn't be felt too much. Dreylin's only got two boats visible, and we know a significant chunk of navy is way over by Donovan. I think we'll be fine. Anyway, here's the logistics for next turn. Spelling them out so Sullla can sanity check them.



In the north, here are the Galleons going from west to east:

1) 1E of Haber: 6 mover that's full of 3 Infantries right now.

2) E-NE of Haber: 4 mover. 1 Infantry in it. It'll grab the new one from Haber and one from Penicillin. The two Rifles camping 1N of Haber will move into Penicillin to replace the exiting Infantry. Then it'll move NE-NE to the "4movers" sign.

3) Contact Process: fresh 6 mover. Next turn will load the fresh Infantry from Telegraph (1/3), then move NE-SE and receive two Infantry transfers from the Galleon on that tile. Then it'll move N-NE to the "gal3" sign.

4) 2E of Contact: Currently full of 3 Infantry from Spinning Jenny. After handing 2 over to the other Galleon, it'll go move up either next to or into Spinning Jenny, where it can pick up 2 more. Power Loom can contribute a unit if need be. Jenny will continue adding units, so defenders will be easily replaced.




Taking this side two at a time.

1) 10xp SE-S of Pasteur. Currently 0/3, next turn will add all 3 Infantry from Pasteurization, then move to "gal2."

2) 2xp 4-mover SE-S of Pasteur. Currently 2/3, next turn will add 1 Infantry from Battery, then move to west coast to stage.



3) 10xp Fort: Currently full. Stage on "gal3/4" next turn.

4) 10xp Fort: Currently 1/3 with Induction Infantry (which was replaced EoT with a fresh Infantry build). There's 1 Infantry in Steam Engine (+1 EoT), so load both of those up next turn and stage on "gal3/4."

0xp Galleon in Kaplan: this can pull back and pick up a second wave from the mainland (Steam, Telegraph, Pasteur). If some units die taking the island city, we could possibly chain 3 replacements in using this Galleon.

-------------

Phew. Hopefully that all makes sense. Couple other notes:

* I did continue countdown with REM.

* I did revolt to Representation.



Finally, some great news after turn roll. Still 0 Infantry in either of these two front cities. I do expect a whip in both of them to complete Infantries this turn, but it's still relieving to see he's only got one turn-roll left to build them. Hopefully with REM attacking, upgrade $$ will be spent elsewhere.

[Sullla]

I think your logistics are better than mine. Good calls everywhere scooter.

Textile Island: yes, looks like that one galleon needs to be in the city for staging. Oops, my mistake.

Southern front: the frigates can't bombard from the staging tile I suggested, but they can cover the galleon defensively. It might be better to move them up another tile; I don't know. I would still like to raze the southern island city if at all possible since it is a very strategic spot. We can decide what to do when we have vision on the defenses down there. (The suggested privateer was a great call and will help a lot.)

[scooter]

Well, Dreylin logged in last night, spent an hour in game, and then asked for another day. I guess I'll take that as a good sign? Seems like he's really feeling the pressure. I'd be more worried if he was confident?

I've given some more thought about the Frigate placement issue down by the south island. Here's my current two ideas. Re-using an old screenshot so ignore the sign mode flare in this. Also, the "s" SW of Battery is wrong - ignore that too.



1) We set one Frigate up to be one tile SW-S-S of Battery with the rest of them (+ Galleon) staying in the normal spot SW-S of Battery. That'll let us bombard with 1 Frigate. It'll make a small difference, but a single Frigate won't look too alarming. We can have the Frigate facing north too so it looks like we just darted out to get visibility and returned.

2) We use the fresh Frigate in Battery and give it navigation in advance. Then on this turn (T322) we move it 5 tiles (SW-S-S-SE-E) which will let us see into the island city. We then will have an extra day or two to think about how we treat that city rather than waiting until T323 to see into the city. I don't see a way for our Privateer to see into it this turn, so this is our only option for that. Upside: we can figure out exactly what type of garrison we'll encounter. Downside: we open that Frigate up to airship bombardment + attack if Dreylin decides to pre-emptively attack us.

I'm leaning towards #2, but I'm definitely not 100% sold on anything. Any feelings on this?

[Elkad]

I've never once considered the facing of an enemy unit as an indication of anything other than the whim of the random number gods, and I've not seen evidence in any prior game thread that anyone else feels differently.

Matter of fact, this thread is the first time I've ever seen it mentioned.

[Athmos]

I've seen quite a few considerations about unit facing in various report threads, usually when war is impending. I don't think everyone pays attention to it, but some player definitely do.

[scooter]

I've never once considered the facing of an enemy unit as an indication of anything other than the whim of the random number gods, and I've not seen evidence in any prior game thread that anyone else feels differently.

Matter of fact, this thread is the first time I've ever seen it mentioned.

First off - I'm pretty sure it won't make a difference. Dreylin is assuredly watching closely and almost certainly won't be "tricked" or anything. The Frigate thing I just mentioned is probably the least useful version of it.

That said, it's partially worth considering specifically because it doesn't get discussed a ton. It's a thing that could potentially subtly influence what opponent move you consider to be most likely. Next turn we could hit any one of about a half-dozen cities he has OR we could make another staging move that would open up several more cities. He'll have to think through every possibility, so any way we can subtly stick our thumb on the scales of what he weighs to be our likely targets seems worthwhile. Defending against naval attacks like this is a total nightmare.

[Sullla]

Scooter, I would suggest against the #2 option for one reason: if we promote the frigate to Navigation I, it's still going to have the glow that indicates it can take another promotion, and that's going to let Dreylin know that it has the option to take Navigation II. One of our biggest advantages here is that we haven't promoted any of our ships yet; I agree that Dreylin is probably overwhelmed with Civ details right now. (It's really quite impressive how Dreylin is doing this well while playing in two Pitbosses at once, and REM is playing in three games at once, including the gigantic one going on in PB27.) I suspect that Dreylin has totally forgotten about the fact that the Drydocks + Vassalage + Theocracy + Pentagon allows for 10 XP ships out of the gate. I don't think we should give that away until we promote all of our ships at once and suddenly hammer him with 6 move galleons/frigates everywhere.

So I suggest we go with the #1 plan, including the facing north part. It probably won't make a difference but it can't hurt. We'll simply have to make decisions as we go on the Turn 323 attack. We should be able to hop on Gchat and discuss while we play the turn to bounce ideas back and forth. What we wouldn't give for one or two airships right now!

[scooter]

Scooter, I would suggest against the #2 option for one reason: if we promote the frigate to Navigation I, it's still going to have the glow that indicates it can take another promotion, and that's going to let Dreylin know that it has the option to take Navigation II.

Oh yeah, this is a good point. I have a hunch either he or OT4E have considered the possibility, but let's not confirm it for them. And if they haven't considered it, they're really in trouble.

[Dp101]

Sorry, posted in the wrong thread. very sorry.