[SPOILERS] scooter's Industrial Revolution

[LucyFur]

[Dp101]

FINALLY. Do you think that the rest of the war will go just as well?

[antisocialmunky]

Drey right now:


Congrats Sullla, this was in the top 5 when googling "civ4 gandhi meme." Who knew it would be applicable like a decade after it was posted?

[scooter]

Turn 323

Alright, it's time for liftoff. Let's start with the north.



The spy ends up seriously saving us, as otherwise we would not have seen these 6 cavs behind the city. 3 of our Galleons only had enough movement to get adjacent to Dolphins, but the 4-mover is able to move into the city. So we saved the 4-mover and went to work.

Battle of Dolphins



Ironclad vs SOTL: 79% WIN (1.8h)
Ironclad vs SOTL: 79% WIN (10.0h)
3 Frigates bombard (16%)

One very close win and one not so close. So now we have to take out the two infantry which will be tough since they're on a hill, and the rifles should be a little easier.



c2 amphib infantry vs infantry: 27% lose
c2 amphib infantry vs infantry: 28% WIN


That second win felt so good. From there it was easier.

c2 amphib infantry vs rifle: 74% WIN
c2 amphib infantry vs rifle: 74% WIN
c2 amphib infantry vs rifle: 74% WIN

Excellent luck all-around.



c2 amphib infantry vs redlined inf: 97% WIN





Excellent haul of infrastructure too . The attack on Dolphins went about as well as it possibly could have. We're not done though - it's time to kill 3 of those Cavs.



9xp c2 infantry vs cav: 95.6% FLAWLESS WIN
9xp c2 infantry vs cav: 95.6% WIN
3xp c2 infantry vs cav: 95.6% WIN

We saved a couple promos here so we could heal instantly, although with the first Infantry it turned out not to be necessary.

We were left with a decision at this point. We could pile an extra couple units into Dolphins, or we could roll the dice and hit Hedgehogs. Hedgehogs had 3 defenders, but only one Infantry and it's on flatland. We had 3 Infantry available to hit the city.



c2 amphi infantry vs infantry: 50% lose (12h)
c2 amphib infantry vs rifle: 88% WIN
c2 amphib infantry vs rifle: 88% WIN

Unfortunately we were unable to win, but we were able to replace the dead Infantry with a fresh one from Textile Island, so there's that. So here's where that leaves us in the north.



The spy let us see that he doesn't have anymore Rifles behind the city. We're hoping here that Dreylin doesn't try to retake the city. It'll be fairly easy for him if he has another Cav stack off somewhere, but I kinda doubt that's the case. He does have 5 airships in range, so he could pelt our units and send it all in, in which case it would be tight. But he does have REM to worry about too, so I guess we'll see.

The sign over Hedge is outdated in this shot - it's got a very weak Infantry and an airship in it. If he completes an Infantry end-of-turn, he'll have the following to attack Dolphins with:

* Fresh unpromoted Infantry
* 3 cavs
* Hill rifle
* Wounded Hedge Infantry

I guess we'll see if he thinks it's worth it?

Another thing with this front in particular - I think Dreylin/OT4E really did miss the possibility that we could take Nav2 on our Galleons. I don't blame them either - that would be very, very easy to miss. But the Cav stack being here and the lack of an extra unit or two in Dolphins suggests to me that they thought they were safe. Against all odds with loads of airships covering the sky, we somehow managed to surprise them here. That alone was pretty satisfying.


Battle of Rats

Let's look at the southern front next.



Plan is to burn the city. It's just too difficult for us to defend right now until we get a few more ironclads and units in the area. So we bombarded Rats and sent them in.



c2 amphib infantry vs infantry: 31% loss
c2 amphib infantry vs infantry: 35% loss
c2 amphib infantry vs Rifle: <good odds that I forgot to record> WIN
c2 amphib infantry vs 12.4 infantry: 95%
c2 amphib infantry vs redlined infantry: 99% WIN

Our amazing luck settled back into normalcy as the turn went on.



So that's 2 Frigates behind the city. That makes 3 for Dreylin, and we've only got 4 to cover the stacks (an Ironclad is about a turn or so behind). The real question is how many airships does he have? There's nothing preventing us from staging like normal here, but we now have a serious risk of him sinking our whole navy after we attack core cities next turn. So it still remains to be seen what we can do with his core cities.



Goats (capital), Ducks (primary target), and the city hidden under the interface are all in play for next turn. We'll use our Privateer as a suicide scout to drift out into these waters and see what kind of reaction force Dreylin has before deciding whether or not to go ahead with the attack or hold back. We've got 8 healthy Amphibious Infantry ready to go, plus a 9th redlined that can promo-heal to a middling range. One more perk here is that all 3 of these cities (plus Geese) are on flatland, which will be much easier to crack than the two hilled cities we attacked this turn.

Fairly successful first turn, but I'm not nearly ready to declare victory yet. Remaining issues:

1) Will Dreylin try to attack Dolphins?
2) Will we be able to do anything in the south?
3) Can we protect our west coast from Dreylin doing anything funny over there?

This upcoming turn is much more significant. Our game may well be riding on it.

[scooter]

Couple more loose ends.



REM will probably take Silkmoths pretty soon. The city isn't quite as heavily defended as it looks - it's got quite a few airships in it.



T322 Power:
Dreylin: 204k
Us: 156k

T323 Power:
Dreylin: 198k
Us: 163k

Small stuff in the grand scheme of things, but still consequential. This is despite the fact that he whipped/drafted just about every city on the previous turn.



Burning questions?

[Tohron]

Err, I think you have a rather serious problem: units on a transport do NOT defend the city they're in. I ran a test match where I gifted a transport with machine guns in an AI city with open borders, then declared war and attacked - the Machine Guns did NOT defend. Guess you'll just have to hope the remaining Infantry can hold against 3 cavs, and that it doesn't get hit by Airships first

[Cyneheard]

Err, I think you have a rather serious problem: units on a transport do NOT defend the city they're in. I ran a test match where I gifted a transport with machine guns in an AI city with open borders, then declared war and attacked - the Machine Guns did NOT defend. Guess you'll just have to hope the remaining Infantry can hold against 3 cavs, and that it doesn't get hit by Airships first

Isn't it possible to unload units, even with 0MP remaining, from inside a city?

[scooter]

Err, I think you have a rather serious problem: units on a transport do NOT defend the city they're in. I ran a test match where I gifted a transport with machine guns in an AI city with open borders, then declared war and attacked - the Machine Guns did NOT defend. Guess you'll just have to hope the remaining Infantry can hold against 3 cavs, and that it doesn't get hit by Airships first

Wait, are those Infantry still treated as being on the boat? I moved the Galleon into the city and then attacked the Cavs off it. Are they seriously treated as still being on the boat?

If that's the case, then wow, we need to get in-game and unload those ASAP.

Yes, it is possible to unload with 0 movement points left.

Sullla - what are the chances you're able to login like... soon?

[Sullla]

I am not near a Civ-capable computer. Ask for a pause?

[Tohron]

Err, I think you have a rather serious problem: units on a transport do NOT defend the city they're in. I ran a test match where I gifted a transport with machine guns in an AI city with open borders, then declared war and attacked - the Machine Guns did NOT defend. Guess you'll just have to hope the remaining Infantry can hold against 3 cavs, and that it doesn't get hit by Airships first

Isn't it possible to unload units, even with 0MP remaining, from inside a city?

True, and it looks like they are still listed beneath the transport in the tooltip, even after using Unload All. Guess scooter should just triple-check that the units have been unloaded, since they're rather critical to defending the city.