AT loves it when a plan comes together!! [Spoilers]

[AutomatedTeller]

true, but, unless he shows up with a lot more catapults, all he'll be doing is suiciding troops. his elephants die on pikes - he will probably kill a LB or two, but the maces and axes are dying on xbows, maces and LB's. you can't really kill a combined arms stack without 1) a lot of catapuls, 2) a lot of units or C) technological advantages, none of which he has.

My guess is that he does nothing (except ask for Rannoch for peace, of course)

it is, however, inevitable that a stack of 3 maces, elepants and 10 catapults will show up out of the fog, just because I said that.

[MindyMcCready]

true, but, unless he shows up with a lot more catapults, all he'll be doing is suiciding troops. his elephants die on pikes - he will probably kill a LB or two, but the maces and axes are dying on xbows, maces and LB's. you can't really kill a combined arms stack without 1) a lot of catapuls, 2) a lot of units or C) technological advantages, none of which he has.

My guess is that he does nothing (except ask for Rannoch for peace, of course)

Well we have no culture and no fortify to speak of. So I don't think that its going to be so one-sided. Jowy could easily be hiding more troops and cats (we know of at least 2 elephants that are missing). They could easily be SSWW of Rannoch right now. We could be collateralled and then hit with no river crossing attacks in 1T.

I get that you're not that concerned and you're probably right. But why take the chance when, in a few more turns, we could have 10 catapults and turn Eden Prime into a graveyard. Jowy hasn't shown any inclination to build enough HA so far to threaten us. (we should probably have a few more Pikes in our stack.

Can we cut that road and occupt that tile please?

[AutomatedTeller]

true, but, unless he shows up with a lot more catapults, all he'll be doing is suiciding troops. his elephants die on pikes - he will probably kill a LB or two, but the maces and axes are dying on xbows, maces and LB's. you can't really kill a combined arms stack without 1) a lot of catapuls, 2) a lot of units or C) technological advantages, none of which he has.

My guess is that he does nothing (except ask for Rannoch for peace, of course)

Well we have no culture and no fortify to speak of. So I don't think that its going to be so one-sided. Jowy could easily be hiding more troops and cats (we know of at least 2 elephants that are missing). They could easily be SSWW of Rannoch right now. We could be collateralled and then hit with no river crossing attacks in 1T.

I get that you're not that concerned and you're probably right. But why take the chance when, in a few more turns, we could have 10 catapults and turn Eden Prime into a graveyard. Jowy hasn't shown any inclination to build enough HA so far to threaten us. (we should probably have a few more Pikes in our stack.

Can we cut that road and occupt that tile please?

yes I agree that we should do that.

And yes - if Jowy has more troops (in particular, more catapults), it could get pretty ugly...

[MindyMcCready]

yes I agree that we should do that.

Thanks.

And yes - if Jowy has more troops (in particular, more catapults), it could get pretty ugly...

Jowy's power if flat. I'd bet that he's feeling good about his moves with TT and he's thinking that we've retreated. He might not be putting 100% into military right now. That means pedal to the metal for us baby!

[MindyMcCready]

it is, however, inevitable that a stack of 3 maces, elepants and 10 catapults will show up out of the fog, just because I said that.

Yeah, don't say things like that.

[MindyMcCready]

yeah - I was sort of assuming TT was going to either fill in around Azza's old land or go screw over 2metra.

The problem is, of course, the musketeers can beat anything except knights straight up, even LB's, and their mobility makes them serious threats to grab and hold - if they want. I think a CG I LB with a 20% defense makes odds less than 50/50, so becomes unlikely to be a target of opportunism.

The galley will have 2 LB and will threaten Noveria/fork Noveria and Citadel. If we get a shot at Noveria, we take it, of course. Dunno if there will be 2 galleys or just one, right yet - might make sense to send both.

Oh, I'm scared to death of TT if he makes a move on us. His ability to harm us is very high, especially if he strikes before we get culture up in our cities.

Its the likelihood of TT's attack that makes me feel safer. If we wanted this area badly he should never have given up Rannoch. And he'd be going right into the teeth of our deployed army. That's taking the bull by the horns which is the opposite of opportunistic.

I'd be much more worried about Cornflakes. His ability to harm us is about equal to TT given his currently existing stack. But much higher due to our lack of deployment in the area.

#1 Risk continues to be Cornflakes, but we seem to be getting along.
#2 Risk is TT, potentially powerful, but a builder at heart who's abandonned the region for some mysterious reason.
#3. Jowy can still hurt us.
#4. Commodore-lite. But let's not get too comfortable with this sleeping giant.

[MindyMcCready]

The galley will have 2 LB and will threaten Noveria/fork Noveria and Citadel. If we get a shot at Noveria, we take it, of course. Dunno if there will be 2 galleys or just one, right yet - might make sense to send both.

I'm just not sure that this is the best move. Our GG has been sitting there idle for 10+ turns.
We can still boat Jowy's capital out of the blue. Even 2LBs have a pretty good chance I think if he still has only 1 archer in there.

50% archer in city + 25% fortify + 60% culture + 50% naval disadvantage = 8.55 + FS.

Our 2 LB should be able to take that. Our GIII LB has a 50% chance of retreat. We have decent odds to raze Citadel.

We're getting too greedy over that Academy. Citadel could easily keep this war going another 10 turns. No academy is worth that. We need to hurt Jowy in order to win that production equation.

Once we've razed Citadel, we swing around and take and hold Noveria. That's our best bet for ending this war sooner before we're dragged into unhappiness and before TT really gets frisky or Commodore decides to take a bunch of cities.

[MindyMcCready]

Best bet.

Upgrade 1 Galley to 5-moves. Load up our 2 Knights + 2 LB in a follow up galley.

Even a disembarking Knight would have odds on that Archer; no FS advantage. Load up the knight(s) back up, hit Noveria and hold it with the follow up LBs.

This is the best way to win the war on Jowy and to take his land.

[AutomatedTeller]

I know how the lurkers would vote

I'll run some sims and see, but I'm thinking you are right. if Jowy loses his cap, I'm guessing Commodore will declare and take the ivory city.

A 5 move galley is a fairly powerful unit, i must say.

[AutomatedTeller]

And we'll have 2 more knights coming off the line in NYPD Blue and ATeam, so don't even have to weaken the front!