[SPOILERS] scooter, pindicator, and Huayna Capac try some fast Zulu cuisine

[scooter]

Got to pop in for a minute.



9 Galleons. We certainly have more than that in the area, but it does force us to think about how to approach the Caravels in the ocean. This likely means ignoring the northern stack for this turn at least.

[pindicator]

Hmmm... Will need to look at the exact positioning and number of our ships but we may be able to sink both of his mini stacks and then have ships in position to sink the main force next turn.

[scooter]

Yeah I think so too. I'm just on the fence on how many of our Galleons I want to use on his caravels, and/or if we want to use a few Caravels on 50/50 shots first. I really would like to get a few C1 promos on Galleons (Galleon killing a Caravel is a free C1 basically), but I don't want the Galleons to be too wounded to wipe out that main stack next turn. Either way, we definitely want all 4 Caravels dead so he's moving blindly into the fog next turn.

We also could consider lining some Galleons up on the east coast of Five Guys so if he wants to assault it amphibiously, he has to risk his land units in an attack on our Galleons (which would get the coastal bonus).

I"m not so sure about sinking the northern stack this turn. But then, I don't think we need to. That Galleon is almost assuredly empty, and those Caravels can't pillage or anything. The only real drawback is the visibility they give, but I think we can work around that enough to let them live one turn. I just figure we need the bulk of our ships to sink 4 Caravels this turn and still have enough juice to sink 9 Galleons next turn, especially since a few of them will likely have C1 + coastal bonus.

[NobleHelium]

Containing that galleon stack is top priority. We need to retain enough forces that we can be confident of sinking the stack (with them getting coastal bonus) should they come into range.

[scooter]

By my count, here are the units that we can move to a position that will hit his 9 galleon stack (assuming he advances next turn). This assumes we completely ignore his north stack.

-15 Galleons
-9 Caravels

Now, keep in mind this assumes we leave his 3 caravels on ocean alone, which we probably don't want to do because he'll likely stack them with his Galleons next turn if we let them live. We need to kill all 3 of them IMO. My thinking is this:

1) Use our C1 Caravel which is a roughly 58% shot.
2) Use 1-2 Galleons which can attack and retreat onto our stack, and wil get C1 if they win
3) Use Caravels for any cleanup

I don't want to use the Galleon that we just used to drop off a chariot. It has 1 movement left. I'd rather move it 1N onto coast, so if he wants to attack it, he gets lousy odds and risks losing 3 land units in the process. He probably will leave it alone... it would be a foolish risk for him to take. Then I think I want to stack a few Galleons on each of the tiles he could land on to amphibiously assault Five Guys so that if he wants to take that, it will be more costly than necessary. Not positive on this last part yet, we'll see. I also don't want him holding back either.

That's my tentative first thoughts. Haven't done anything further.

[scooter]

So we played a turn. I made one of those nifty collage things, so hopefully this is vaguely easy to follow. First, we whacked his 3 Caravels with 2 Galleons and a C1 Caravel of our own:



3 comfortable wins at 78/68/78 odds. Here's how things looked after that:



The "nw range" and "sw range" are how far his stack could go if they advanced in those directions. Here's how things looked after all our moves:



Ok. So basically the goal is to set a trap. He'll see most of our units, but he should not see the 8 Galleons behind Five Guys until it's too late to retreat. Hypothetically he could see them with the northernmost Galleon if he knows where to look, but we couldn't do anything about that without compromising our southern defense. His only option that doesn't end badly for him (barring luck) is probably to move 4N (as designated by that sign). In that case, Starbucks may be lost, but he'll lose his navy in the process. What we didn't really want was him to walk up, see 20 boats, and turn and flee, so that's the rationale behind hiding 8 Galleons behind Five Guys. We also are ahead of him in EPs after 3 turns at 50%, so he can't see any of them that way. Should be interesting to see what happens.

On a more humorous note, this happened.

Pindicator
EP question
how much does it cost to steal feudalism?
scooter
no idea how to check that easily
Pindicator
since we're investing
scooter
i uh dont use EP much lol
Pindicator
we should have a spy in a city
scooter
oh i'm thinking leave the EP slider on for this just one more turn
well i mayyyyyy have already moved it
Pindicator
i was thinking we keep it on and just steal some techs
scooter
oops

Pindicator
how about the whale city
scooter
its on the hil right now because i'm dumb
Pindicator
i can't think why you would possibly move that one
scooter
hahahah
well see
Pindicator
seriously
ok, next turn we'll figure that out
scooter
i figured the spy has 0 visibility and adding the hill would bump it up to 1
Noble
lol
Pindicator
and you forgot that you moved it to that hill 2 turns ago
Noble
SPIES IN THE HILLS
scooter
yeah i think i've had that idea a few times
lol
Pindicator
don't worry, we'll have it kill some units and get the sentry promo
scooter
don't joke, i might take that seriously or something
Pindicator

Yeah.



Yeah. Hopefully this helps.



FUN TURN.

[scooter]

Seriously I don't think I've stolen a tech in my life. STOP JUDGING ME.

[pindicator]

Seriously I don't think I've stolen a tech in my life. STOP JUDGING ME.

To be fair, it doesn't seem to be cost-effective to steal yet. Maybe after the war is over we can make Rheims Hindu and then it will be, but until then we're best just teching Feudalism ourselves.


Edit: And for anybody wondering what happens if he takes his northern Galleon + Caravel mini-stack and heads north with it, we have 2 Galleons and 2 Caravel just off screen, plus another 2 galleons finishing up north this turn.

[NobleHelium]

Well it's not really true that he won't be able to see all of our galleons and still be able to retreat. It's not like he has to move all the galleons at once.

[pindicator]

Well it's not really true that he won't be able to see all of our galleons and still be able to retreat. It's not like he has to move all the galleons at once.

Risks! We have to take risks!
Best play by both sides means we lose. So we need to put him in position to screw up