[SPOILERS] Small Wunders and Izzy of Inca: The fat lady sings

[MindyMcCready]

Nail-biting couple of days that I missed. :LOL:

Battle in the east:

Suicide archer VS Shock Phalanx (1.8%): LOSS and 0 hits!

We had an 89% chance of getting at least 1 hit, so this sucks.

Axe vs Shock Phalanx (21.3%): LOSS and 2 hits.

We had a 64% chance to do better than this, (and a 62% chance to actually win with these two units).

Axe vs Phalanx (32.2%): LOSS 3 hits.
Axe vs Phalanx (70.0%: LOSS!
Archer vs Phalanx (74%): Win
Archer vs Phalanx (99.9%): Win

So this was a disastrously bad set of rolls in total. We lost 3 axes + 1 archer to clean up 2 Phalanx, so nearly 2 to 1.

I'd recommend the guerilla promotion for those archers so that we can protect both the city + gold and maybe to go over and claim that desert hill south of William Tell.

Still, I don't think I made a wrong move. This may have been our only chance to hit those units (which would forever annoy us) in the open. Ichabod is going to be pretty far away to send more units up to us, and Cheetah is massing up and will see a decline in his power.

With a 2+ vs 1 we can't really complain about our odds going in - gotta take those odds against an aggressor.

If we see any action on the Cheetah front, then I'd say that it may be worth it even on a results basis.

The west:

Wow, Retep was certainly pushing hard. I figured on 3 chariots but seeing 3 more axes on top of that! Things were looking pretty dicey at this point.

[MindyMcCready]

The first attack is pretty critical in the sims:

C1 Axe vs C1 Axe (50%): WIN!
Shock axe vs Axe across river (68%): WIN!
Shock axe vs Axe across river (68%): WIN!
Shock axe vs Axe across river (68%): WIN!
Shock axe vs Axe across river (68%): WIN!!!

We're 27 out of 60 experience to another general!

We have an axe and 2 spears to defend Traviata.

Way to shut Retep down!

Am I right in realizing that Retep has not killed a single unit of ours other than that initial Quecha? Let's cross our fingers that we can get our GG back home.

Now we can build a settler finally! And I'll take a full inventory next turn but I think we have about 5 2-promo axes available now!

Wow. We're safe on the Western front for now and by the time Retep gets any reasonable army together we'll have cats by then. With our gold #1, gold #2, silver #1 we'll relatively rocket to construction; seal off our little corner of this continent and we'll have a non-zero chance to get back into this game. C'mon,... winnings over-rated right? This little throw down with Retep and Ichabod is pretty fun stuff. Dying later might be less fun though. :LOL:

[MindyMcCready]

We'll have to think about what we want to do about Ichabod. He's made 2 very aggressive moves towards us that shouldn't go unpunished if at all possible.

SlowCheetah, like Retep, is in a very good position to concentrate his military. Ichabod, like us, will find it harder to concentrate his military. The presence of just a few units on his border, while Cheetah matches/exceeds his power could put alot of pressure on him.

We have a few options in terms of military objectives:
1. Simply try to put pressure on him, force him to whip phalanx before he gets cats or Horse archers. Tie up his troops in the hope that we can help Cheetah make some progress. A balance-of-power move.

2. Land that desert hill. I really think that this location is invaluable strategically. Holding that city will make anything that he plants SW of it pretty exposed and may force him into a bunch of 2nd best choices. It may be pretty hard to hold once Ichabod gets cats and it'll almost certainly mean that we have to move very quickly to HBR.

PS: HBR is a very high priority after construction anyway as it pretty much invalidates his UU. Given that he's not going to have a single spear in his entire empire, HBR might be a chance for us to hurt him. Soldier Points wise, he won't be able to tell whether its an axe or a HA.

Ask yourself, what would you do in an always-war game? :LOL:

[MindyMcCready]

If we have a G1 archer we could move from WilliamTell SE--E--SE--SW (desert hill). With 3T of fortify it'll have odds on anything that Ichabod can send our way. That'll give us eyes in the area and either force Ichabod to deal with our archer (or 2 if we can spare them) and/or force him onto a less defensive city location.

It was really fun watching Retep squirm with our PFH plant. Wouldn't mind seeing Ichabod squirm a bit after his aggressive plant and opportunistic stab at WilliamTell.

[WilliamLP]

I'd recommend the guerilla promotion for those archers so that we can protect both the city + gold and maybe to go over and claim that desert hill south of William Tell.

Hmm that's a good call. I think the one at 99% was already CG1 and the other one I'm not sure if I promoted yet. It doesn't usually occur to me to give archers the guerilla line, and I can imagine the extra movement with G2 can enable some tricky tactics. (It seems like: the more unexpected a move is, the more powerful it is. See tactics like: unloading an unpromoted GG unit from a boat, then promoting morale and it can move.)

If we see any action on the Cheetah front, then I'd say that it may be worth it even on a results basis.

Yeah, and it's also worth something to signal on the power graph that we're actually doing real fighting. The way this game going, I wouldn't be that surprised if Cheetah declared war on Ichabod as a decoy and we see an army show up at the horse site to our east!

Wow, Retep was certainly pushing hard. I figured on 3 chariots but seeing 3 more axes on top of that! Things were looking pretty dicey at this point.

Yeah, I wish I'd known to check GG points to know how close we were, and could actually plan to use intra-turn GG tactics, instead of having that fall into my lap by fluke. And the luck was fantastic, though the expected result (killing 5 axes for 2-3) was fine.

It doesn't seem like Retep was building a settler!

Am I right in realizing that Retep has not killed a single unit of ours other than that initial Quecha? Let's cross our fingers that we can get our GG back home.

There was one other axe that I moved to the forest plains hill by his capital, and he traded an axe off to kill it. Still, the losses are very lopsided in our favor. Including an axe that committed suicide in fear.

2. Land that desert hill. I really think that this location is invaluable strategically. Holding that city will make anything that he plants SW of it pretty exposed and may force him into a bunch of 2nd best choices. It may be pretty hard to hold once Ichabod gets cats and it'll almost certainly mean that we have to move very quickly to HBR.

You mean the hill 3S2E of WT I presume? Now that is an aggressive plant! And it's aggressive toward both Ichabod and Cheetah in terms of geography. My first reaction is that it's too much of an extension to consider right now, and even too expensive in terms of distance maintenance until we have a more solid economy (everything hooked up, new Carmen site with developing cottages). I'd want a closer wines site before this I think.

I see the next 4 cities being (in some order): Carmen site, Horse / furs, Seafood (that we, like, started on ), and Wines / fp, in some order.

I think we now really can do some serious damage to Retep, just in terms of messing with his resources and road connections.

C'mon,... winnings over-rated right? This little throw down with Retep and Ichabod is pretty fun stuff.

I can't deny this game is growing on me more, heh. I'm not sure what it will be like when there are world powers with astro / infantry and we have knights and longbows but that's a few months away.

If we have a G1 archer we could move from WilliamTell SE--E--SE--SW (desert hill). With 3T of fortify it'll have odds on anything that Ichabod can send our way. That'll give us eyes in the area and either force Ichabod to deal with our archer (or 2 if we can spare them) and/or force him onto a less defensive city location.

Yeah, I've made a mistake before in this game of not having enough map awareness. Maybe it's even worth considering building a scout or two? (Now that most areas are defogged of barbs...)

But, fortunately I don't think Ichabod can consider another aggressive plant right now, especially in two turns when he sees the GG birth and power graph!

[WilliamLP]

Also if you haven't seen it check out my widget for graphing thread views per day!

We actually passed Pindicooter on those couple of days we were having freaked out dialogues. It's pretty clear what the lurkers are after.

(I'm aiming for this to the be the only thread that uses "Big Data" to optimize views.)

[MindyMcCready]

Also if you haven't seen it check out my widget for graphing thread views per day!

We actually passed Pindicooter on those couple of days we were having freaked out dialogues. It's pretty clear what the lurkers are after.

(I'm aiming for this to the be the only thread that uses "Big Data" to optimize views.)

For what really matters.

Has Rego seen this? :LOL:

[WilliamLP]

So, Ichabod always plays last, and usually close to the end of the turn. I can interpret that as he wants a regular 24 hour schedule playing at the same time every day because of real life.

Retep needed a pause this turn, and hasn't logged in yet. Ichabod and Suttree are yet to play.

I wonder if Suttree has a turn-split with Retep? From another game, it seems like he's usually very prompt to play. So I wonder if he's linked with us somehow, maybe to a land bridge to Retep's west fog, or something like that.

[MindyMcCready]

It doesn't seem like Retep was building a settler!

:LOL: Yeah, doesn't seem like it anymore. What Retep does next will tell us a bit about his mindset. If he continues on with his attack or harrassment, then he pretty clearly just wants to be put out of his misery. If that's the case, we'll have make sure that we don't let Bacchus have easy wins while we play too defensively.

You mean the hill 3S2E of WT I presume? Now that is an aggressive plant! And it's aggressive toward both Ichabod and Cheetah in terms of geography. My first reaction is that it's too much of an extension to consider right now, and even too expensive in terms of distance maintenance until we have a more solid economy (everything hooked up, new Carmen site with developing cottages). I'd want a closer wines site before this I think.

I see the next 4 cities being (in some order): Carmen site, Horse / furs, Seafood (that we, like, started on ), and Wines / fp, in some order.

The point wasn't to get a settler down there ASAP or anything. It was to slow Ichabod down or disrupt him. For example, if we put a GII Archer + GI Archer on that hill, then Ichabod has to either bring 4 phalanxes to clear them out first or settle elsewhere - a large resource requirement when he could be rexing with minimal army.

Given Cheetah's buildup, Ichabod probably couldn't spare those resources immediately. We've then cost him a very good city site at low cost in the worse case and, in the best case, we could land that location down the road.

Other points:
- The visibilty alone is valuable
- We should be able to pull those archers out unless Ichabod gets really fancy with workers
- Adds a lot of security to both WilliamTell and Carmen.

Maybe it's even worth considering building a scout or two? (Now that most areas are defogged of barbs...)

Scouts are useful for sending a "peaceful, but watchful" message to your neighbours. I think that this message would be a little wasted on our current set of neighbours, and our messenger would be dead. We could use a scout for visibilty in Cheetah's direction, but that's probably the one area that we'd still encounter barbs.

But, fortunately I don't think Ichabod can consider another aggressive plant right now, especially in two turns when he sees the GG birth and power graph!

He could afford it. All he needs to do is plant that city and fortify it with 2 Phalanxes and we wouldn't be able to do much about it until Retep is dead and/or we have cats. We could commit our entire army to the area, but that's a long way and a lot of turns and we'd probably have our gold-silver pillaged by Retep if we were to do so.

That's why I feel that disruption is our best/lowest cost option at this point.

[MindyMcCready]

I can imagine the extra movement with G2 can enable some tricky tactics.

One tactic that would be effective would be to sit on that hill 2S-3W of WilliamTell and move onto the desert hill (to take a peak) and then move back again. As long as you're not moving while he's logged in, he wouldn't even know that we have eyes in the area. We could react very quickly to get an attack force together if we see him moving toward that location.

Such a small thing, but it would be a pretty big tactical advantage.