RB Pitboss #3 [SPOILERS]- Suryavarman II of England

[Cyneheard]

France has at least 44k power, they almost have to be rival worst. We can count 24k in tech + pop, and they likely have a barracks or two. There's a good chance of there being a spear, I'm afraid, at Lyons, but we'll see about that.

I asked Krill for Alphabet, we should get it soon, either this turn or the next.

[Cyneheard]

T75:

The Turn of War.

So, after waiting for Portugal to finish its turn (they had rough luck: Lost 5 chariots, and had to delete a 6th, killing a spear + axe defending Lyons), it begins.

France was definitely the 44k worst power. Lyons had grown to size 2, as predicted. Here's what I saw:



Wait a second...ONE DAMAGED WARRIOR??? TO PROTECT YOUR ONLY SOURCE OF METAL??? Uh, .

Lyons burnt to the Black Prince; only gained 12 gold, which was a little low.

Our workers do not need to be covered, they'll get out of there next turn. Since France has no 2-movers, this was 100% safe. They'll go SW-SW-SW, and be back in our territory for Operation Great Wall. Our military, after ending turn:



And the demogs, after our conquest. We can track them now, through the rival worst. Unfortunately, BR has an unhappy face, but we can't stack any more whip anger there. Switched off of the sheep, get some hammers & not have too many angry citizens.

[Cyneheard]

Next turn, we have 2 options:

1) Head directly for Orleans. We can be on the sheep tile on T76, and then either hit Orleans directly (if it's underdefended), try to loop around the river and avoid that bonus, or head for Paris.

Note: If Orleans has a spear, then while they could drop a chariot @ the sheep, their spear would then be out in the open, and killable. If they've finished a spear (almost certain, given power data), then we're going to have to fight it at some point.

2) Head for the fork spot, and threaten both cities simultaneously; this would be T77 that we'd threaten both cities, to attack them on T78.

[Cyneheard]

The e-mail sent to France, as written last night:

War!

To Anglo-France,

The Kingdom of England formally declares war on the nation of Anglo-France. We claim the first half of the turn; our military forces moved in our first log-in on T74, minutes into the turn. Let the Thousand Years' War begin, on this day of 1000BC, turn 75.

When our teams first met, you were in CAN. Some time between T66 and T68 (a lot of real-life time has elapsed, hard to remember exactly when things changed), other teams were let in, and therefore France was bumped out. It was at this point that we began planning this assault. If it was possible to fight without the deception, we would have done so. However, our quick-strike on Lyons needed as much surprise as possible.

There will be no negotiation, only war.

Signed,
Cyneheard, Haphazard1, Antisocialmunky
Lords of Avalon
Suryavarman II of England

I then sent this follow-up after we ended turn:

Subject: Lyons is Dead; It is your turn

Unless we e-mail or post otherwise, our ending turn is the sign that we are finished with our half.

[Speaker]

Well done guys. Hard to believe that teams are still defending cities with warriors on Turn 75.

[Cyneheard]

Thanks, Speaker. I think it's fair to say that we caught France with their pants down.

Technically, our cities are mostly garrisoned by warriors (3 warriors, 1 archer @ BR, and 1 chariot @ Gibraltar), as well. However, we have archers in production at 2 cities, and an HA about to finish at a 3rd.

I'm 90% certain that the warrior was damaged this very turn by a barb warrior, hence the unused promotion on it. Neither of our chariots are promoted, but there's nearly 0 risk of a spear being outside Orleans who would then hit our stack. I don't think France can even SEE our stack.

[antisocialmunky]

Thanks Speaker.

I'm for the Sheep, we can get onto the hill 2N of Paris or attack Orleans.

[Cyneheard]

So, let's lay out T76's tac plan.

Known:
France has Iron Working. Recently received from Rome. They are also the lowest team in power, which is convenient in more ways than one.

With 52k in power, they have 30k in techs.
4k in pop.
So 18k in units.
3 warriors are known:
1 @ Krill's borders
1 in our woods
1 somewhere else that Krill has seen.
That leaves 4 warriors and 1 spear to defend Paris, Orleans, and Rheims.

T76:
Since we're using French-provided maps to lay out the future, bear with me; it's not 100% up to date.
In the 2nd half of T76, Krill will have visibility on Paris.
The Black Dot is The Black Prince, at 4XP, who single-handedly razed the city of Lyons! Long live Prince Edward! Long live King Sury!
The Red Dot is our 4 remaining chariots.
We will move 1 of our unpromoted chariots to the Yellow Dot, and the rest onto the White Dot, the sheep. This gets us visibility into Orleans.

On T77, we either hit Orleans if it's underdefended. If not, then everyone moves onto Blue Dot, to threaten both Orleans and Paris. While an Orleans spear could kill a chariot, that spear would then be stuck on flatland.

[antisocialmunky]

That looks like the best plan. If the spear attacks, then we can jsut run around it, kill Orleans, and then beat it to Paris(if it chases us).

[Cyneheard]

Good point, ASM: Any units that aren't in a city can be avoided.

Byzantium came on, briefly:

Probably shouldn't have told them that we knew where France's iron was. Still, we've scouted by that area, so it's something France might have remembered anyway. I really DO want to talk to them, though...try to get them into our group.

Also, I think we should drop the Inca a line, we've never spoken to them, but we've had contact for quite a while.

Spectres: Clearing my north for me, eh? how kind of you!
me: well, Lyons is a little north for you
Spectres: pshhh now maybe. over here we don't lack for ambition, kind of all we have. :P
me: Ambition has its uses. we saw that your friends Rome gave France a gift, as well
Spectres: haha how about that!
me: do you know where France's iron is? because I do. it isn't reachable for them unless they've got another settler
Spectres: mmm. Strange to attack a former ally, tho
me: we never wanted them in and were never asked to let them in
Spectres: I guess your friends keep you out of the loop? seems to be a common theme
me: this is a big game, this happens
Spectres: oh crap gotta go. I'm sure we'll talk later bye!
me: ttyl