[Spoilers] Old Harry's Game

[NobleHelium]

I see...

[Old Harry]

Turn 120

So my clever plans just resulted in killing two cats and two Keshiks. I'm doomed...


I can get something like 8 cats, 3 maces, 5 crossbows, 4 pikes, 3 spears, 6 axes and 5 horse archers into Barnet by the time he gets there. More if he pauses to heal up, less if I build walls and a castle in barnet.

Does anyone want to save me the hassle of simming whether that is a good idea or not? I have a 60% cultural defense, but I think walls and castle decrease the bombard speed a bit dont they? Actually I'll waste a bunch of overflow by building walls, so should probably just keep going with units. I'm saving gold for unit upgrades too, so there may be more maces.


One of the things I think I've learnt recently is how good cats are - I hadn't realised about the absorbtion of colatoral - if I could get 20 or so in here I think Azza would struggle to take it.

I should perhaps have been building catapults constantly since the Serdoa war finished instead of the settlers and infra, but I think that would have left me without the slim chance that Azza and Hydra attack each other and I sneek up on the rail. So I stand by it.

[Old Harry]

Turn 121

I think Azza's advance has been delayed a turn by the culture to the east of Forest Green. He's got a small raiding party heading towards Ipswich which I might use horse archers on next turn. I've put extra spears in Ipswich because of the Keshiks healing up in de_tuscan.


I'm fortifying everything that gets a fortify bonus in Barnet at the moment, and I'm putting cats and horse archers on the hill 2n of Barnet, where Azza can't see them. I presume he'll advance along the blue arrow. I also presume there is no point trying to cat his stack for collateral since he still has far more cats than anything else. Actually I've got one cat with barrage II, so I might as well use it. I think I'll end up moving the rest into Barnet at the last minute to try and soak up collateral.

In the vicinity I have
9 Catapults
5 Horse Archers
4 Maces
2 crossbows
3 pikes
6 axes
2 spears
and a medic III scout.

There are still more units to arrive - before he hits I think I'll have another
4 cats
5 Horse Archers
2 mace
2 crossbow
3 axes
3 spears

I think two or three of the axes will become maces.

Miraculously Azza didn't pillage my silver. Meaning Grimsby and Barnet don't suffer 2 unhappy! From now on if he does I can cancel the silver I gifted to Serdoa.


On the other coast Azza has built a trireme, so Grimsby retaliates with a trireme of its own. This is my ocean Azza - back off!


I can't see me scoring the same hit I did defending against Serdoa at the moment. If anyone has any bright ideas let me know... And if anyone wants to lay odds go ahead.

[Old Harry]

Turn 122

Here comes the stack. I could take Forest Green back this turn - I have a mace and three axes who will all get odds. But I think keeping Barnet is the top priority


I'm holding all the non-fortifyable units out of sight. I'm not really sure why, but it seems like a good idea. With all those cats Azza only has 22 killing units, I'll have about 40 defending units. I might still hold back the horse archers in the hope he'll use the spears to attack Barnet and they can then sweep in and mop up the catapults. I'm feeling confident either due to stupidity or because things look pretty good.


(Bigger - I've turned on sign mode with alt-s so you can see where the cursor is)

[Bigger]

oh, yeah, I knew how to do that. Wasn't sure what you meant. I thought it was pretty easy to tell which stacks you were talking about.. but I'll do that for my turn this evening .

[Old Harry]

Turn 123

Eventful turn. How have those two got time to be building wonders? Azza kindly gave me a Keshik to kill. Which my first spear failed to kill.


So I finished him off with a Horse Archer.


Then I noticed that I had two unhappy in Barnet and Grimsby - no Azza hasn't pillaged my silver yet, Somehow Ollantaytambo took my gems... I've asked him for gems in return for 3gpt, but I would pay a lot more. I might have to attack Ollantaytambo (it only has one archer, and I have a fort part built where that farm is...)


Over here I think Azza will spend a turn bombarding before he attacks, but I'm putting everything except 12 horse archers in Barnet (well okay there are some spears in Ipswich, but you know what I mean.)


I have 13 cats available. Should I be hitting his stack with them or absorbing colatoral? I suicided my barrage II cat just in case he does attack this turn and got 4 colatoral hits. I hope I can hold off making the judgement for the others until next turn.

[Bigger]

have you considered attacking out? first with cats, then maces, then maybe other units too?

[Old Harry]

That's the question for next turn. I simmed it last turn and didn't get enough hits with the catapults, maces and other units to allow the horse archers to flank away any cats. No time to sim tonight though, so I had to send it on without checking how a fight would go.

Next turn I'll run the sim again to help me decide.

By the way, I've got a single player save set up with me defending and an AI attacking - is there something easy to change in the save or in a worldbuilder save to give me control of Azza's force and check how an attack goes for him?

[NobleHelium]

You can save the game as a worldbuilder save and then load it up as a scenario and select the other civ to play. However your current civ will be able to move before you can do anything.

[Old Harry]

Thanks Noble!