[SPOILERS] Woden and ljubljana like boats

[ljubljana]

Why does the game think Hieratic has 70 base ranged attack strength...?



Anyways, what do you think? I can take this shot against the frigate fleet and average 56.8 damage (it has 53 health), which is roughly a 27/40 ~= 2/3 chance to kill. Or I can finish off the Cossack. The frigate is the more valuable target by far since it constitutes a future battleship, but a guaranteed kill is a guaranteed kill... If I leave the Cossack alive, it will get one pillage on the mine it is standing on but I think that will be all. I could also sacrifice the Cuneiform frigate to attempt to get both kills but that seems a little unwise...

[Woden]

Anyways, what do you think? I can take this shot against the frigate fleet and average 56.8 damage (it has 53 health), which is roughly a 27/40 ~= 2/3 chance to kill. Or I can finish off the Cossack. The frigate is the more valuable target by far since it constitutes a future battleship, but a guaranteed kill is a guaranteed kill... If I leave the Cossack alive, it will get one pillage on the mine it is standing on but I think that will be all. I could also sacrifice the Cuneiform frigate to attempt to get both kills but that seems a little unwise...

That is a tough one. On one hand, killing the frigate is good but on the other, the Cossack will pillage and give him more gold. Can the pike and shot reach the Cossack or at least limit its movement? I usually go for the guarantee kill because you never know if it has a promotion. The injured frigate is out for a bit or you maybe able to kill it next turn if he keeps it around to attack the city. Either kill helps us.

[ljubljana]

I can surround the Cossack, but I can't reach it with a P/S this turn as the mine it is on has no road

I should be able to keep it from pillaging anything other than the mine it is on...unless roland kills my P/S with frigate fire to free the Cossack up to continue its rampage. But that would be a good outcome too as it would waste his time.

I don't know if it has a promotion...this thing has absorbed quite a bit of incoming fire, so you'd think so, but then why did it not promote last turn? Is it not possible for a Cossack to promote and pillage in the same turn or something?

[ljubljana]

I think I'm going to go for the Cossack unless you think otherwise. I am just going to feel SO stupid if I roll a 1/3 chance and fail to kill anything this turn after leaving the Cossack redlined last turn . Plus that frees up my P/S to focus on walling off other pillagers and camping Hieratic's mines for a possible pillage on the turn after next turn

[ljubljana]

Do you know what effect is allowing me to see all of Russia's governors in the above screenie? I moved Victor to Cuneiform, and am wondering if I should move Amani to Abugida as well for a bit of misdirection in case he can see which cities have governors established but not which ones they are. But if he can see all my governors then there's no point and I would lose 2cpt.

[Woden]

Do you know what effect is allowing me to see all of Russia's governors in the above screenie? I moved Victor to Cuneiform, and am wondering if I should move Amani to Abugida as well for a bit of misdirection in case he can see which cities have governors established but not which ones they are. But if he can see all my governors then there's no point and I would lose 2cpt.

The spy running listening posts. If you are getting the +3 for added diplo visibility, then doubtful he has vision on your governors. If you don't, good chance he can see who is where.

[ljubljana]

Huh, that's a fun undocumented feature...

Well, I don't think I am getting the bonus, so I will leave Amani where she is. I will move Magnus out of Abugida and then back in, though, just in case they can't see who is where and are susceptible to attempts to sow confusion.

[ljubljana]

Turn 179 - Phoenicia

Australia first again, because I like clinging to the false sense of security that at least some aspect of this game is still under control



Roland, why won't you play with us anymore? My guess is that the answer is less "because he lost 7 ships and accomplished nothing" and more "because he lost 7 ships and accomplished nothing, and also because he is <10 turns from Nationalism". But I still think we should give him a few turns before pursuing, since our movement advantage is not yet locked in and my fleet is stretched dangerously thin, especially its caravel division.

I found Russia's frigate, in the newly-defogged city of Dimitri Donskoi, which, good thing they are DoA+WE Russia, or that land would be beyond useless... It is indeed in range of my frigates, but I think I managed to block it with my caravel fleet and your ironclads to prevent any sneaky plays. In case of any other unexpected catastrophes, and because roland gave me the breathing room to do so, I moved the rest of the fleet down to help out as needed. Maybe leaving just 4 ships at the choke will be the inducement roland needs to come play with us again...

And, yes, I took my potshots at MBDTF, taking off about 2/3 of the walls. The health should be gone next turn, and I might recommend taking it sooner rather than later because...



Our spies have spotted Cossacks inbound and likely to hit your zerks in 2-3 turns, depending on the intervening terrain. This leaves us with a pretty nasty choice - do we take the city with lumbermill intact and give Russia another pillage, or do we try to get there first and risk a total wipeout of your zerks? Not sure what the right call is, and will probably leave that decision up to you...



Oh boy, here we go again. I killed the Cossack corps I was agonizing about earlier, and another Cossack that you weakened with a field cannon at Abugida. Then, I tried to deploy my P/S in as defensive a line as possible...with one exception, a full-health P/S that is trying to protect your trader. I debated for a long time about whether this was a good idea, as Russia can kill it if they want to with a double Cossack attack + frigate strike. But if they do that, I will get a good shot at the frigate with my own frigate + defensive fire in Abugida. If this P/S dies horribly without accomplishing anything, that will be my signal to deploy more conservatively against these things with the survivors...

I am also going to have to be a bit more careful about taking all the tiles away from cities that are about to fall, as all those extra tiles Russia got from Abjad are going to help them enormously with that +5 CS they get from being next to Russian territory. I actually could have sworn that I correctly gave them all to other cities last turn, but apparently not (?), and that mistake is going to cost me...

It looks like Russia may be going for a straight-up conquest of my homeland, loyalty pressure be damned. With Victor in place, they will only lose 8 loyalty/turn in my cities after the GA, which is a 7-turn revolt time...the race between the speed of their conquest and that ticking clock will probably be a close one. On the one hand, that approach is probably better for us than a raze-fest as it is more high-variance, and if they have calculated this out incorrectly, a few flips could really set them back. But if they guessed right and can completely assimilate my homeland, we (or rather you) will be in perhaps insurmountable amounts of trouble.

Also, I really think you should retreat your clads west of Cuneiform. They will do nothing to slow Russia down, and are actually in range of their GA ironclads on Russia's next turn if they get scouted. If you are going to have any hope of beating them in a naval engagement, you will have to hoard every ship you have between now and then and not lose them to Russia's stack piecemeal where they can't take enemy ships with them.

[Woden]

Turn 179-Vikings start

Looks like Russia is pushing hard now...
   

And I think he finally realized that he should be grouping his Cossacks instead of lone pillages for you to kill. 

Over by Australia...
   

Roland finished a caravel in the city but you will be able to swap positions and still hit the city twice. No ships visible in the pass. I just finished an ironclad and might sail it up to see if he is just out of sight. I could also use him as bait if you think you can kill a bunch of ships if he tries to kill the ironclad. 

I will be able to take the city with an almost full strength berserker next turn if you take out all theh walls. 

Over by my southern shore...
   

Tell me that's not a trap. A single caravel comes into vision. I bet if I sail out to kill it, I will get swarmed next turn. I bet he has a few ships either by Hod or Heimdall ready to attack. Might pull these ships back a bit and lure him into pillaging Freya's harbor or I can park the fleet on the harbor and the single into city or better yet, sail them towards his southern cities to help the pillaging unit I have down there and draw more ships south.  IDK, but what I can tell you is that I am not going to attack that caravel.

[ljubljana]

Agreed on not attacking that caravel, it's a trap for sure. I think Russia is making a bit of a mistake by splitting his ships against me like that, it means the Hieratic group is without a GA and I should get a kill there this turn. And they gave me a free shot at Cuneiform too...?

How much does your single IC do against that frigate fleet at Cuneiform? Could be a good trade (one IC for a fleet frigate) if you can knock it into kill range of the city center + the frigate inside. Other that that, I think your fleet IC up there should probably retreat...