RB PBEM #1 - Mehmed (SPOILERS!)

[Dreylin]

t170 - finally found enough time to do justice to playing the turn & reporting.

First things first; 200g handed over to Ruff; and new builds set to Culture. Now to assess the damage:

No counter-attacks on my retreating stack which is a bit of a surprise (he didn't even run any aerial attacks), but there were a couple of raids on my Northern force. And it looks like he's pulled in more troops than I'd anticipated; 5Infantry & 3MGs now guard the city. I guess he Drafted and pulled in all nearby units.

With 8 defending units, my 8 attackers don't stand a chance without significant Aerial support ... and since all I have is 3 Fighters, I guess I won't be attacking this turn. 2 Fighters remove remaining defenses, and third attacks the highest MG. Troops stay in their forest and brace for further Airship strikes. Fortunately, the city is out of range of his main forces at Vienna so only new Draftees can join the defense and a counter-attack is out of the question.

Aerial assaults are more successful this time with only a few being intercepted for damage, and I start the bombardment of Augsburg in the West.

I decide to leave the main stack in place for healing; just inside the borders at New Damascus. Any attack on the stack would either have to be carried out across a river, or would leave the attacker stranded on flat land. I add and promote a couple of units to help guard.

Builds for the turn include a Market in Edirne, a couple of additional Fighters to outfit the new Carrier, and then a bunch of Infantry to start building up ane stack.

Kepp research back at 0% on Bio, but I think Ruff is due Electricity next turn so I may notneed to finance him for a couple of turns afterwards.

Ooooo, after ending turn I cancel back into he game to find that I've "Popped another one" a fourth(!?) Coal just North of Istanbul ... guess that Ruff'll be requesting that next turn!

[Dreylin]

Been exchanging a couple of e-mails with Ruff on the subject of research and the merits of SAM Infantry:

Dreylin,

I have 2 more turns on Electricity. How are you going with Biology? And who is going where next? Obvious techs are Radio for bombers and Industrialism for Tanks.

BTW - Sooooo currently has no oil and I can keep him having to build wells for quite a while.

Hey Ruff,

I probably won't have time to play the turn today; about to set out to travel back from the UK ... which is currently in the grip of snowy weather so fingers crossed!

I haven't been able to spend much time on Bio yet, what with feeding gold to you and running upgrades for my slightly-disasterous attack on mh. (Frontal assault was turned back, but he pulled all his Northern forces down to help, so I managed to burn his remaining coastal city and am now moving on his Tundra Oil city).

Anyway, Bio is probably about 1/3 complete and would take 2-3t depending on how much I can afford to put into teching. mh has just started Indusrialism (currently in 74t) so we probably need to go for that next, but I don't think you should underestimate the importance of Rocketry for SAM Infantry. My recent assault was well-blunted by strafing from mh's Airships, let alone how bad it would have been if he had Fighters. MGs do have a chance of interception, but it can't compare with a SAM with 2x Intercept promotions.

Anyway, if you went Ind next, and I'll finish off Bio then we can work out the next step...?

Dreylin.

Dreylin,

I think that diverting to rocketry just to pick up sam infantry is negative thinking. Sure, greater chance of knocking done those planes, but not by much. I think the solution is MORE UNITS in multiple locations. That is what I am trying to do with Sooooo. Can you bring in some air cover in forward positions to stop the bombardment?

I am going to head towards radio after electricity. You on industrialism would be good - but knocking off Biology would certainly help some of my cities.

Ruff

Ruff,

Why Radio; I'd though Industrialism was more important for us next to counter their run for Tanks?

I don't really see that "more units" is a very good solution to prevent an enemy from shredding you with air cover as your stack advances. Say that soooo has 12 Airships/Fighters in range of his frontlines; your stack has 3t(?) in his culture before you reach his city walls and can attack, so that's potentially 36 units he can damage as you march up. These will be the 36 best defensive units, so when you reach the tile outside his walls, all he has to do is send in a half-dozen Artillery and your stack is toast.

Yes, masses and masses more units will let you ignore the injured ones, however during the time it takes for you to build all those units, won't sooooo also be doing the same thing? and building better units?

Or you can concentrate on straffing his defensive units with your forward air cover; only they're sitting in a city with a GG Medic, so as long as they haven't moved that turn they'll be healthy by the time it comes to attack you anyway.

Currently the only units we have that can intercept an incoming aerial bombardment are the MGs. Yes, you can build a huge pile of them and increase the odds of each attack being intercepted, but an MG only has a 20% Interception chance, can't kill the attacking unit (unless it's already injured), and is not really much good once you reach the city walls and need to attack. SAM Infantry have a native 40% Interception chance, but key is also that they can promote Interception 1 & 2 to increase that chance up to 70%. Oh, and they are also able to attack, so are not nearly as useless as the MGs when the time does come to assault the walls.

I'll admit that I understaffed my recent assault on mh and that contributed to it's lack of success, however if he had not been able to weaken my top units - and keep them weak turn after turn - then the results would have been much less certain.

Maybe it is negative thinking to research Rocketry for an immediate "Defensive" unit, however right now we have no effective counter for their Air Force while we're advancing, and they are about to upgrade to Fighters. Besides, we are going to be throwing nukes at them at some point, right...?

Anyway, I have some re-grouping to do before I can mount another full offensive (rather than nibbling around the edges), what's your situation?

Dreylin.

Maybe it's just the fact that he hasn't attacked into the teeth of an air force yet, but Ruff doesn't seem to be taking the threat very seriously. I also have the benefit of having been playing a Single Player game recently with a massive war in tha same era; the difference between an MG injuring 1 in 5 Airships, and a SAM shooting down every other one was quite a revelation to me....

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

What's wrong with using Fighters running the Intercept mission to provide air cover?

[novice]

Maybe Ruff has his eyes on the Radio wonders?

@ZPV: Regarding your nick: Yes I did.

[Dreylin]

What's wrong with using Fighters running the Intercept mission to provide air cover?

Probably what's wrong is my understanding of the Intercept mission itself. I have been operating on the assumption that it only applies to base square of the Fighter or a small radius around it, but having read the Civlopedia after your comment and it says that Intercept works for the entire mission range of the Fighter. If that's the case then I've seriously misplayed the last few turns.

Ahem.

Maybe Ruff has his eyes on the Radio wonders?

Yeah, that was the posibility I was thinking about, although it's also good for me since he's unlikely to have any interest in Cristo, already being SPI. Anyway, this is what he had to say:

I hate nukes and will never use them in a pbem game.

My bomber desire is so that I can bomb Sooooo back to the stone age and then send in my troops.

Ruff

At which point I started to wonder whether our cooperation was starting to draw towards a close and there'd be a bit more self-interest in DeTOG's decisionmaking from now on.
Fair enough on the Nukes; personally I'll keep my options open on using them.

Sounds like you're pretty set on Radio; I like Bombers as much as the next guy, but I just don't see them as the next most vital piece of the puzzle. Since you're heading off on a pet project, I don't see a problem with my going Rocketry next. Guess Industrialism can wait.

Dreylin.

Depending on what TOG does. I'll finish Electricity and then start saving money. It will also leave our options open.

Ruff

Guess I need to reach out again if I've completely misconstrued the Intercept mission....

[Dreylin]

Hey Ruff,

It's quite possible that I've been operating under the assumption that the Fighter's "Intercept" mission is a lot less useful than it really is. For some reason I thought it only applied to aircraft entering a very limited radius around the stationed Fighter's location, but after a suggestion from a lurker I re-read the Civlopedia entry and that says it applies for the full flight radius of the Fighter. If that's the case then I've been seriously mis-playing air cover and my recent attack on mh.

Um, yeah, so not good and I've also mis-valued Rocketry for the same reason. Maybe I'll research Industrialism next after all....

In the interests of not overlapping our efforts, what are your intentions regarding the Radio Wonders? I'm guessing that Cristo is not on your list (and would be useful on mine to get me into Free Market... 9-) ), but how about Eiffel and Rock'nRoll, and Broadway too for that matter - though at least the latter two are peripheral to our current aims.

Dreylin.

[Dreylin]

Dreylin,

Interesting stuff about the fighters and intercept. I always thought they could intercept out to their range ... but that you have to have them on the 'intercept' mission. I might set up a hot seat game to test that.

Radio wonders

Cristo is interesting for denial but it doesn't really do much for me ... except totally remove the 'wait 5 turns' item.
Eiffel tower - free broadcast tower anyone? Not worth it to me and I'll just build one if this game descends into a Cultural victory race
RnR - happy to accept song as trade
Broadway - ditto

oh - but they are also +50% culture in city - more cultural victory stuff.

In short - not interested in building them ... will be putting hammers into units.

Ruff,

I suspect that the Intercept issue will turn out to be me completely misunderstanding ... or just being an idiot. Anyway, if you do test it would be great to know for certain and would definitely affect my approach.

I'll probably target Cristo for the added flexibility, but as you say the others are not central to our aims. It's worth noting that the Broadcast Towers also give the second happiness from the "Hit" resources, so could be useful if we secure them later and need extra Happy.

Dreylin.

[Dreylin]

t171 - "The Intercept Option"

Ruff pops up and doesn't request gold! 2t for Elec apparently; oh but he does remember to ask for my newly-popped Coal.

3Fighter
3Infantry
Carrier
Bank
Artillery
Airport
Conf. Temple
Granary

complete; all builds set to Culture for now.

Just 4 Airship attacks on my Northern forces to report between turns. All 8 of my units are now injured, but no attack has been forthcoming. Ah, there's a force of 3Infantry, 2Artillery & 5Cavalry sitting in Aachen; I guess they'll be making the attack next turn. There's no point starting to withdraw the troops - they're in a forest for 50% defense now and any other nearby tile would give them just 25%. I do bring my Carrier in close and set the Fighters to Intercept and we'll see how that helps defend from mh's Airships.

Aha, all those Explorer builds from mh are to take up tiles around Augsburg and prevent my Paras from jumping across the mountains. Fortunately I have just built a Fort NNE of Najran to give them a bit more range next turn.

Right; builds set to Infantry, Artillery and Fighters again. If Ruff is going to finish Elec next turn, then I should have it in 2t; if I run another turn of 0% and then a turn of 100% it looks like I'll be just short on finishing Bio in 2t. Looks like ~55% will do it, so 60% this turn is roughly break-even (at +25gpt) and then will probably tweak back to 50% next turn.

[Dreylin]

Got a short note from mh this morning:

Hi,
if you want to attempt a peaceful cultural victory or so, I am happy to declare your western borders save.
I have no illusions about who is going to win this game, but I might draw some more fun out of helping sooooo against Ruff or you against Ruff.

Just a thought.
We can of course continue to slug it out. It has been fun trying to defend against you.
No irony intended.

Regards
mh

I waited to check that my Northern force had been wiped out as anticipated (more on that in the main turn post) before replying:

Hey mh,

Thanks for the offer, but judging from my performance so far I need more practice! If you're still enjoying defending, then I think I'm willing to give it another go.... 9-)

Dreylin.

[Dreylin]

t172 - a slow turn, I expect.

Some builds complete (few infrastructure, Infantry & Fighters) and I dial up the event log. Urgh, it was a complete massacre: 3 Artillery withdrew and then a combination of Infantry & Cavalry took down the rest. They did kill one attacking Cavalry; the only attacker with >50% odds.

Oddly, there were no Aerial attacks carried out before the Artillery struck.

Ah well, in that case I guess I'll just start bombing off some of his improvements while I build up a new attack force. Take out a Farm at Aachen, a Pasture at Brandenburg, an odd Lumbermill, Medina's Gold Mine, and start to knock back his Towns at Medina.

If his Workers can afford to stand around as Paratrooper guards, then I guess they need something to do:



Promote a couple more Airships to Fighter leaving me with just over 500g in the bank. Knock Bio research down to 50% to still finish in 1t at +147g; will follow with Industrialism next turn once Ruff hands over Electricity (which I remember to ask for).