I think Harry will post the video and do the report of the fight later today, but here is the most of the chat if someone wants to already know how the attack turned out:
This chat-snip misses the early part, where we discuss some minor domestic stuff and attacking order.
We first bombarded remaining suttree defenses with 2 Accuracy cats, suicided 7 cats and then started attacking. First we got couple of wins with our cuirs (saved one C2 later for jumping point reasons), and then took several fights with knights. Before the chat below begins we have probably scored 6-8 knight wins and 2 losses, can't remember exactly.
Early chat will of course be visible in the video too..
old harry: C2 Knight 70% LOSE dhalphir: T_T civ4fintourist: damn it..
» now let's focus! old harry: Okay, maybe we need to use C3 scratched knights... civ4fintourist: that will do the trick.. dhalphir: or take a promo that will be useful later just for the purposes of healing their minor scratches?
» although i suppose c3 is always useful! civ4fintourist: yeah, c3 is always fairly solid old harry: Scratched C3 Knight 72% WIN dhalphir: so far well within the bounds of expected results civ4fintourist: you could make a case for pinch or formation too, but it really mostly helps when defending and we don't want to defend with mounted units.. old harry: C2 Knight 70% WIN civ4fintourist: awesome!
» now we are talking!
» keep focusing! old harry: C2 Knight 70% WIN
» Whats a Cui Bono?
» Ah, we've got to 87HP longbow civ4fintourist: "to whose benefit"? old harry: C2 Cuir 88% WIN civ4fintourist: (that's what cui bono means) old harry: Our benefit! civ4fintourist: very good! old harry: how does a C3 knight do against 87HP LB? civ4fintourist: sec
» 76 % old harry: Up from 72% civ4fintourist: jumping point is at 84
» save it? old harry: So probably save it... civ4fintourist: then it gets 86 % old harry: C1 Knight now gets 67%
» So might as well use it... civ4fintourist: C2 knights have a similar jump point so it does not really matter that much
» C1 knights get it at 80hp old harry: C1 Knight 67% WIN dhalphir: wooooo! civ4fintourist: nevermind the odds, we just win every battle anyways.. old harry: Scratched C1 Knight 67% LOSE
» Sorry civ4fintourist: now focus! dhalphir: FINTOURIST
» jinxed it civ4fintourist: probably..
» damn it dhalphir: thats still only what
» 3 losses out of a dozen civ4fintourist: yeah, it's solid so far old harry: C1 Knight 68% WIN civ4fintourist: good
» what hps do top longbows have? old harry: We're onto spears now... civ4fintourist: aah..
» musket odds? dhalphir: muskets probably still face remaining longbows, no? old harry: 78% with cover, 49% without civ4fintourist: yep surely old harry: I'll give a few cover? civ4fintourist: they still target LBs? old harry: Yep civ4fintourist: yeah, let's do it
» that's a solid increase for "wasted" promo old harry: C1 Cover Musket 78% vs LB WIN civ4fintourist: I like it dhalphir: meh, if you can take this city (and presumably the ones behind it) with minimal losses, suboptimal promotions are just fine because it means you can defend them civ4fintourist: it's a really good question whether we get those remaining cities old harry: C2 Cover Musket 82% vs LB WIN
» Mack isn't contesting them I think dhalphir: well surely suttree has most of his stack in madrid old harry: Knows that would piss us off dhalphir: and i dont see any mack units nearby civ4fintourist: suttree only defends our front so mack will probably take empty cities old harry: Only one unit in each ot the others civ4fintourist: he has boats in the south dhalphir: if you guys get longterm peace with mack after all this, what will your plan be? old harry: Okay, Muskets only get 46% now... civ4fintourist: this is a story of our PB13, mack get free cities while we kill 25 Lbows for one city..
» ok, knight odds?
» or do we want to save those spears for axes? old harry: 53% is the best dhalphir: yeah its not a coincidence that both top contenders right now got pretty much free land. civ4fintourist: mace? old harry: But yeah, I think we have to sacrifice some muskets... civ4fintourist: how many are talking about?
» are we* dhalphir: for example i doubt pindiscooter are playing much better than you guys, yet you guys were conflicting with ichabod et al, whereas they walked into undefended size 10 cities civ4fintourist: how many LBs with decent health left? old harry: 45% for mace, but it can take City raider civ4fintourist: city raider should turn the odds old harry: Four or five I think
» C2 CR Mace 76% WIN civ4fintourist: yeah, what nakor did is something that should not happen even in "casual" games dhalphir: his empire was acutlaly roughly comparable to mine in the end old harry: C1 Musket 61% LOSE dhalphir: we each had about 10-12 cities, average size about 8-10
» and yet it took plako what, three weeks to fully conquer me civ4fintourist: yeah, that's true, and without knowing any details about your defending, good job old harry: C1 Musket 49% LOSE dhalphir: probably the details arent very spoilerish, i got Feudalism on the same turn that Plako declared and just whipped a longbow everywhere i could whenever i had hammers in the box civ4fintourist: btw, do not give us any spoilers (we are pretty well aware of the global situation though) old harry: C1 Musket 49% WIN civ4fintourist: yeah, that's not spoilerish (we have followed plako's graphs and saw that you put resistance dhalphir: if i had had feudalism a few turns sooner i would have been able to whip the same longbows but consolidate them into border cities before the war old harry: C1 Musket 64% LOSE dhalphir: and the war would probably still be gofing civ4fintourist: damn muskets! old harry: Damnit dhalphir: going* old harry: C1 Musket 64% WIN civ4fintourist: yeah, whether a war is succesful or not can easily come down to small things
» that's better! old harry: C1 Musket 67% WIN civ4fintourist: cool, top LBOW hps?
» we have one cuir left that we can use? old harry: 6 but no promos or fortify civ4fintourist: or are we sparing it for toledo?
» ok dhalphir: i hope you dont kill molach old harry: Its injured civ4fintourist: molach will survive
» (or die a heroic death!) old harry: C1 Musket 82% LOSE! dhalphir: bull
» *** civ4fintourist: @harry (ok for cuirs)
» well, now let's get a good streak of wins!) old harry: C1 Musket 72% WIN civ4fintourist: good! old harry: I think that's all the decent longbows gone civ4fintourist: btw, there is a chance that mack could boat also madrid, right? old harry: Yep civ4fintourist: let's take it into consideration when there are <10 units
» and if we don't have enough hitters to take the city old harry: Okay, Longbow gets 64% now civ4fintourist: sure old harry: C2 LB 64% vs LB WIN civ4fintourist: how does this compare to your sim?
» I would estimate that we are slightly better than average result old harry: GG Mace 94% vs LB WIN civ4fintourist: good! old harry: We're doing better... civ4fintourist: nice.. old harry: Almost into the spears... civ4fintourist: it seems we have enough hitters old harry: C1 LB vs LB 86% WIN
» And we got a great General! civ4fintourist: important wins!
» which city?
» aah, LB
» (Light Brigade) old harry: Settle him in Jamestown? civ4fintourist: aaand Ceil wins!
» let's think about that until we produce a unit there
» (it does not benefit West Point) old harry: Axes vs Cats now - C2 Axe 73% WIN civ4fintourist: 6-move galleon to raze Ichabod's capital?
» (not suggesting it, just making a case for sparing the GG until we build units in J) old harry: C3 Axe 77% WIN
» C1 Axe vs Archer 85% WIN civ4fintourist: beatiful old harry: Molach vs spear 99% WIN civ4fintourist: ha! Molach is simply strongest old harry: Brick vs Spear 99% WIN
» THH vs spear 99% WIN
» Axe vs spear 99% WIN
» Brick III vs spear 99% WIN
» Dhalpihr vs spear 97% WIN
» And we're out of axes
» So Melee knights... civ4fintourist: how many defenders left? old harry: get 87% civ4fintourist: yeah, let's use those old harry: 14 defenders, we have 10 hitters civ4fintourist: damn
» hmm
» can you show the area east of suttree
» mack is not in war with suttree, right old harry: Nope civ4fintourist: but he could have galleons still in hitting range outside his borders old harry: If we take Madrid we can put knights on the hill by Toledo
» that turn and take it the next
» The same for Maximin
» I guess the question is - how much will the units in Madrid recover? civ4fintourist: yep
» how many lbows are there? old harry: We can add two Cuirs to attack next turn too
» three but they won't do anything.
» can't promote civ4fintourist: rest only spears? old harry: yep civ4fintourist: I would say that we stop
» we use axes next turn again to mop up spears old harry: Yeah, I think so.
» Sorry Dhal! civ4fintourist: and muskets+maces, so that we have the maximum amount of 2-movers to threaten maximin+toledo
» and this reduces the possibility of mack sniping madrid
» with 14 bodies left old harry: And I should be at work by now... civ4fintourist: yeah..
» finish the turn later or are you ready otherwise? old harry: Okay, I'll try to finish off the worker stuff in my lunch break...
» I'd better run now.. civ4fintourist: cool
» thanks, it was fun
» talk you later old harry: I'll figure out how to post the video tonight - cna you post the chat? civ4fintourist: I can do it, I don't have the early part because I changed into popup, but I have the most old harry: Cool, cya
You're a C1 Charge Axe (Charge was a dumb promo to give you, since it meant you attacked an archer instead of the cat - sorry!)
The turn isn't over yet, but we're not taking Madrid this turn, so we'll get it on t187, then we'll take Toledo and Maximin on t188. So long as our tardiness doesn't come back to bite us (ie Mack sweeps in on his galleons... I'd do it if I were him, but then we'd be locked in battle for the rest of the game, and I thinkhope he's keen not to fight us for a little while.)
We should have split off three or four knights to threaten Maximin last turn, shock knights would have got odds and he'd have had to leave more units in the city. But at the time I didn't want to leave our stack undermanned for soaking up cat collateral... 20/20 hindsight for the win.
Just had a quick look to check on city and worker micro - we have another bank completing this turn with two universities completing next turn, so I'd like to set research to 100% for a turn just to min/max the commerce, but that would complete Optics, and I don't think we want to give Ichabod that warning do we? Running 50% this turn almost completes the tech and leaves us with 1200 gold, then we could run another turn of 0% next turn and 100% for the four or five turns it'll take to get to Astro...
In other news our enforced peace with Mackoti (and less worryingly Dtay) expires in seven turns. Do we:
- Attack Ichabod and allow Mack to think about charging into us?
- Delay Attacking Ichabod until we've war-peaced Mack (or at least know that he's not going to take peace)?
TBH it may not be much of a delay, since we'll need a couple of turns after we get Astro anyway. What do you think?
The other big question for the turn - what to do with our fourth great general? No rush with this as Jamestown is spending the next three turns on West Point. I think our options are:
- Settle in Jamestown for 9XP even before civics, barracks and stables contribute (18XP Cuirassiers? 13XP Frigates and Galleons (which can take Nav II)? - okay we may not run Vassalage and Theocracy together, but just imagine if we did )
- Attach to a galley for free Galleon upgrade and Morale, Nav I and II = 7 moves
- Save him to attach to multiple high-XP Cuirs once commando becomes available, just in case Mackoti is dumb enough to leave his back-line cities under-defended
- Save him for something else
Have I missed any?
Hopefully I'll get time to finish the turn this evening...
- sorry!)
13XP Frigates and Galleons (which can take Nav II)? 
)
