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[SPOILERS] Back to Basic - Mardoc plays Augustus of China
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I changed my mind about that road. Denying TT the option to counterattack my stragglers means I can keep one big stack, which makes it unlikely he counterattacks at all. It's worth trading a HA for that peace of mind - and maybe I get more than just peace of mind, maybe it withdraws or kills its attacker or I can finish off its attacker. Only works as long as TT doesn't use combat workers - but, well, I don't see any workers here
 . I also went ahead and invested a turn into a revolution. I can use the happy as soon as I get a smidge more War Weariness, and least benefit from the revolt is still net +2 GNP (-1 toward civic maintenance, +3 beakers for my settled GG). More if I use that happy or start running scientists somewhere. Also, I'm no longer perfectly certain that my capital was better than TT's. Started faster, with the copper and the plains hill plant, but his looks stronger in the long run. Course, he hasn't had the opportunity for that, has he?  Counting tiles, equidistant between our caps was the Durkon/Gergovia border, so that's reasonable too. Anyway, next turn the first bombard of Bibracte starts, next turn the pace picks up, and in a few turns it should be ours. Barring a miracle of RNG luck or awesome play that I'm not considering possible, anyway, I don't see how TT can hold against the stack I'm assembling. But the next few turns will be fairly boring setup turns. If I'm lucky, I see several of those setup turns yet today . Sundays have been pretty good for turnaround so far, anyway.
EitB 25 - Perpentach
Occasional mapmaker
I think I've figured out how you'll recover after this war...
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out.
Um. So about that whole 'prevent counterattacks' idea.
It sorta worked? TT definitely counterattacked me. But it appears that I did the majority of the killing.  Counting up the kills...I lost a cat and a spear. He lost...2 cats, 4 spears, 2 axes, and 2 archers. End result: My stack is full of very wounded units. His is much smaller than it was    I'm not actually sure that I can take advantage of this immediately, though. Need to stare at it for a while, but I'm still not sure I actually have any units that can hit his city with anything resembling odds. Going to look carefully, though, because taking his capital would be awfully fun, and I don't really want to lose more units to his stack IBT. Although I can add a HA and 3 cats to my stack, along with promo-healing the spear and a couple others that might be enough to prevent further attrition. Oh, yeah, TT also declared on Ruff and killed the observing warrior who was stacked with me  . Have to assume that was a mistake - either that or he wants to die ASAP. Which...I might be able to arrange, if not this turn, soon.
EitB 25 - Perpentach
Occasional mapmaker
I couldn't make myself do it.
Probably by throwing enough bodies at it, I could have had Bibracte this turn. But I've got a Medic III right here, and it's not like TT can do much. He's got only 2 units left that might be able to kill, and if I'm lucky the spear and archer intercept them instead of HA. Best to heal up, use the catapults, and just wait a bit but do this carefully. Actually, odds are that I can finish Bibracte with the axemen at good odds, once they heal (or advance, as the case may be). Nothing left that could stop axes, if the axes were above 0.8/5 health... I did, however, pick off the reinforcing catapult and warrior. Even if TT decides to take out my HA for that, it's not a bad hammer exchange, and I'd prefer if he not hit my stack again next turn. I just need one more turn to get a new axe here and heal my current axes, and the stack will be impregnable. In the process I discovered that his rear is also unguarded . Also, it appears I was wrong about killing Ruff's warrior. Not sure at all what Twinkle had in mind, therefore. It did cause my trade with Ruff to be cancelled, but Rep means I don't suffer any unhappy as a result.  Man, these are beautiful cities. Likely only a couple more turns before they're mine!
EitB 25 - Perpentach
Occasional mapmaker
In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have killed the warrior. I could kill him anytime, behind city walls even. This just means one more HA exposed to spears who might otherwise have been protected by infantry on a hill. Killing the cat is still probably worthwhile, especially since I'm pretty sure the river crossing penalty still applies even when fighting no defense modifier units like HA. The only saving grace is that I'm pretty sure Twinkle can only kill those HA by evacuating Bibracte of any units that can stop my main stack. But I didn't even know that when I made the choice to kill the warrior.
All that said, TT definitely has no good choices anymore. He'll probably manage to have a unit produced in each of Bibracte and Vienne next turn, but he's got the choice of a temporary delay by producing spears or no delay by producing something else. The axes and cats I have streaming in should finish any spear-only defense, but if he doesn't build a lot of spears my HA will just be able to romp after they heal. Meanwhile, his two Combat/Formation spears will be murder on HA, but they can only attack the HA to the east - if they hit my stack they'll run into my spear or cats or maybe archer. And if they go east, then they lose fortification and walls, and probably take some HP damage as well, letting me have a good chance to clean them up next turn. Or they can stay put and die in a couple turns to my axes. ------ I think I'm now confident in returning my core to peaceful production, though. Even if he kills two more units this turn, 4 for 10 is an awesome exchange rate - fighting my units on a hill wasn't the best of choices  . Either he should have hit me earlier, or just made me come to him. Although I admit it's possible that I was also lucky. But that exchange rate means that his 'main stack' is now 5 units, and he's only got four fairly small cities left. I know where all of them are, too.So what peaceful production do I want? I need urgently probably 3 settlers and 6+ missionaries, just to grab the marked spots in my original peninsula and get culture in ex-Celtia. I would like half a dozen more workers, as well, despite the war giving my current supply a chance to catch up. As soon as I've got Old China filled, I will need to turn my attention to settling those areas Twinkle didn't - especially the south coast. Less urgently, but also important, I would like libraries everywhere to take full advantage of the Mids. Plus the basics like granaries, lighthouses, forges, in the new or newly conquered cities. And probably soon Courthouses. Priorities: I think the settler/missionary pairs come first, actually. New cities will be greater profit than just about anything else - maybe not in the short run, but not much longer. Second priority is missionaries for TT towns that need borders popped, but of course that needs to wait for conquest and revolts to end to be really helpful. Libraries can wait. Most cities should grow before they stagnate hiring scientists; the only probable exception is Roy, which already has a Library. Plus, well, there's value in other specialists too; I'll have engineer slots in many towns as just one example. As a wilder, longer term idea: I wonder if it may make sense to move my capital to Bibracte, and put an Academy there, along with eventual Bureaucracy? Although Bibracte is lacking in current commerce, it's got both a lot of food and a lot of flatland - and hence a lot of potential. Even the coasts will be pretty good for commerce. Plus it's a lot more centralized in my empire, doubly so if there's any room for eastward expansion past the current Celtic borders
EitB 25 - Perpentach
Occasional mapmaker   Looks like we'll be healing one more turn. Then...next turn we can probably take Bibracte, no sweat. CRII catapult ought to have pretty good odds on that shock axe, then axes vs the spears and finish off with HA. Could definitely have done it this turn if I accepted some lost units to knock down the top defenders, but I'm feeling cautious still, no point in rushing this and taking more casualties. At home, I'm going to let the in progress units finish, I think, but I'm queuing up settlers and missionaries behind them. Mostly I just need to let the edge cities finally grow, and grow without more whips if at all possible. Current whip anger counters: Haley: 18 turns Vaarsuvius: 19 Belkar: 16 Durkon: 13 Huh - actually that's not quite as bad as I thought. But I still want to let them run down, and grow onto coasts and cottages. Maybe I can still justify whipping out settlers, but not much else at the moment. I've discovered a secondary reason not to whip as much when a city's big: Roy can 3-turn a settler. It's tricky to find a way for it to actually leave enough hammers for a 2-pop whip - and those pop would be whipped off of growing cottages, at that. Just going to hand-build the settler, I guess.
EitB 25 - Perpentach
Occasional mapmaker
IBT, Twinkle threw away his last remaining catapult on the front.
 He also claims to have razed one of the Japanese cities: So, I think it's time to go ahead and push the front a bit further. Because, well, I can get good odds with a cat on his top defender, and my stack is mostly healed. Plus of course strategic considerations like 'get cities sooner and cheaper' and 'eliminate war weariness at home'.  First debate is whether to knock the walls down a little more or not - I end up deciding to use the two cats with XP for directly attacking the city, and the two without to bombard the walls to improve odds for all the other units. That leaves Twinkle's stack looking like this:  From there it's all cleanup. Although I get my first serious unluck, losing an axe at 99% odds, it's not really going to change anything. Nice city, comes with a lot of gold and a granary. Need to get some culture out here quick, though   I advance the HA to the hill overlooking the next target...it's probably worth sacrificing a HA to grab it next turn. Might delay for the cats and one-movers if Twinkle manages to reinforce it any.  In other news, Heinz Guderian is en route to Elan to set up a military academy. Elan's destined to spend its 15 hpt perpetually on units of one sort or another, getting it up to 5 XP seems worthwhile. Even if in the short term it's going to pump Hindu missionaries instead .And we've turned research on. Code of Laws seems appropriate for the next target, given the rapid expansion in both # of cities and distance of cities . It's due in 3 turns.
EitB 25 - Perpentach
Occasional mapmaker
Oh, and whatever I do about Vienne, I almost certainly need the cats and axes for Tolosa. That one's on a hill, with decent culture and Twinkle still has iron. I expect spears and Gallic Swords and a lot of pain, even with cats to start the party. I'll probably race the HA east after Vienne falls, on the off-chance that Tolosa is currently empty, but I bet I'll need cats and axes to handle it without ridiculous casualties. Although...hmm, even if I can't take it, I should also aim to fork it and the iron city. Rather kill units in the iron city, since it's flat and cultureless, plus taking away TT's iron would make finishing him easier, I think.
EitB 25 - Perpentach
Occasional mapmaker |
