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

[MindyMcCready]

Doesn't sound like we have a choice anymore, but I still say that we vacate Carmen completely. He'll see the Ichabod city raze and maybe with the 1T power delay think that we lost some units there and think that he might be able to hold it. Cross our fingers that he's attacking for gain.

If he tries to hold it, move everything to attack Carmen as soon as we're able. If I understand this correctly:
-2 Axes (wounded) in Barbiere
-1 Archer SW of Barbiere
-1 Axe + 1 Spear SSEE of Barbiere
-3 Axes + 2 Archers 3N-3E of Carmen
-1 Archer in Carmen.

So that's 11 units. Minus the 1 spear that we'll need in Barbiere + whatever we can whip in Barbiere. He's seen our 6 units around Barbiere and Carmen but he won't know that the 3 axes + 2 archers could be incoming. Let's keep those hidden (where they are) if we can. If he moves NNEE of Carmen and discovers them, we'll we' be killing off the scouting unit anyway. Even if we lost a unit that would put us from 11:6 to 10:5 which is a more favorable ratio.

The archer in Carmen is debatable. If he kills off an axe that also takes us from 11:6 to 10:5. Still I'd recommend withdrawing him NNEE East across that river. Retep might make chase thinking that that indicates that our east is weak, and kill him across the river (28% survival) but allow us to follow up with an axe improving our ratio.

I think that Turandot should be putting hammers into an axe rather than a barracks, at least until we know Carmen's fate.

[MindyMcCready]

The retreating archer guarding the NNEE across the river will do 3 things:
1. protect that road
2. bait him into a favorable battle.
3. Hide our eastern units.

He probably won't take the bait after it sits there for 1 extra turn (not fleeing) but that'll still help with the road then.

[WilliamLP]

If he tries to hold it, move everything to attack Carmen as soon as we're able. If I understand this correctly:
-2 Axes (wounded) in Barbiere
-1 Archer SW of Barbiere
-1 Axe + 1 Spear SSEE of Barbiere
-3 Axes + 2 Archers 3N-3E of Carmen
-1 Archer in Carmen.

Slight correction:

-2 Axes (wounded) in Barbiere
-1 Archer SW of Barbiere
-1 Axe SSEE of Barbiere
-3 Axes + 2 Archers 3N-3E of Carmen
-1 Archer + 1 Spear in Carmen.

Also

- 1 Axe + 1 Spear 5W1S of Turandot.

Do you think the E army (3 axes + 3 archers + spear) should move to 1NE of Carmen or 2NE? I don't know if really matters but moving to the tile immediately NE would force retep to move all 6 axes I think, and not start moving a couple of them home.

[MindyMcCready]

Depends on how wounded our wounded axes are and if we're hoping that Retep's in it for profit.

If (light wound + war for profit) Then we're ready to attack Carmen next turn then 1NE. But I don't think that we'll be ready given the 1SW-Barbiere archer and 2 wounded axes.

IF (wounded + profit) then Carmen-spear to the F1 fork position and Carmen-archer to NNEE of Carmen. Hold archer there for 1T for bait + road maintenance purposes and see if we can get Retep to hope that we're weak in that position.

IF (light wound + spite) Well I guess the spear + archer should go east o WilliamTell and we hold what we've got. We could move the axes NNEE of Carmen, but they'd be just as good in WillamTell.

IF (wounded + spite). Same as light wound + spite I guess.


I'm hoping that Reteps in it for profit and guess that our 2 wounded axes + out-of-position archer means that we won't be able to take a run at him yet. Keep the eastern army hidden.

[MindyMcCready]

Basically we only need to fool him for the 1 turn when he decides to keep or to raze.

The fact that we're abandoning the city may tip the decision that we took losses and/or we're more out of position than we actually are. He might not know where Ichabod's city is and think we're farther away than we are.

[WilliamLP]

Honestly I have no idea if I'd rather retep keep or raze Carmen. There are benefits to both. I'm not going to kill myself overanalyzing this game - it's basically a learning experience at this point.




Moves:

- I left just 1 archer in view of Carmen, since we want to see how many axes he puts in there.
- The forking axe moved to Barbiere in case we want to start sending stuff west soon or immediately.
- The spear in Carmen is moving to defend the east.
- I wish we could pillage our own roads but we can't.
- Both axes in Barbiere were badly wounded (1.2 / 5 - ish) so I promoted them to speed healing along. Mindy gets shock as probably the most useful one in this situation.
- Sorry, I'm overruling you on the Barracks. I've seen how much a pain C1 axes are to plan around when you don't have them, and our new shock axe is really a nice thing to have. I still want to be in this to crush retep in the long game, whether he tries to keep Carmen or not. It's a benefit that will last for the entire game. I'm doubtful we can get much done in the west in the next 5-8 turns other than harass, unless Bacchus helps out by a miracle.

I'm totally listening to specific unit and stack move suggestions but we may have to agree to disagree on the grand metagame here.

Oh and the map trade is moot - Bacchus didn't want it.

[WilliamLP]

Retep razed Carmen, and moved 5 axes west. This is a relief! I was expecting six axes on Carmen's tile at least, with his advantage that we don't know which way he's going on our road network.

But where's the unit that actually razed the city?




He deleted it!! (His power is down 6k from earlier in the turn.)

Now that is a blunder. I'm sure he thought we had a counter-force that could get free experience, but we don't. And he could have seen that we don't by moving NW first.

Anyway I think we're totally fine though the cow is probably getting pillaged.

So I've made many small mistakes in this game... and overall Retep made a nice move. Though the signs were there (if nothing else we should have known the road on the hill E of his capital was leading to this) and we could have seen it coming. But this is a bit fortunate.

[MindyMcCready]

Wow, deleted the unit?!!? Doesn't he know that he razed our horse city? :LOL:

So what's the plan?

[WilliamLP]

I'm thinking the three axes near WT give chase, so if he moves to Barbiere or tries to pillage the cows he's going to lose that stack. Barbiere finishes the spear and whips an axe (probably)

If he runs away... well we have the highest power in the world by 19k. And retep's empire sucks, one of his three cities is one of the worst city plants I've ever seen by a human player. I'd just want to turtle up, get construction, settle the horse / fur city and Carmen's replacement.

If he's dumb enough to throw his stack away, sure we move in for the kill.

[MindyMcCready]

Cool, sounds good.

If we take out that stack we should follow up with at least a feint towards his capital. Make him whip it to the ground to replenish his axes and chariots before he gets HBR. Who knows, if he loses that stack he might want us to put him out of his misery. I wouldn't be surprised if he's thinking that given the layout of the land. Not keeping Carmen; not going after the weaker Bacchus; moving towards defensible Barbiere suggests that he might not actually want to be playing this game.

It's true about that horse city. It's not clear that razing it wouldn't be doing him a favour.

3 axes plus a spear or archer should give chase. Don't leave 3 axes unprotected.