[Spoiler] RB Pitboss #2 - Shaka of Rome

[timmy827]

Except that it's wrong. The article presents the attacker's situational modifiers as subtracting linearly from the defender's modifiers. This is not true. The simplest counterexample is a City Raider 3 trebuchet with +175% city attack. Any unit defending against that with less than +75% modifiers would see its strength set to zero or negative, which does not happen in-game.

I intend to fully understand this soon (just in time for Civ 5! ) and do a writeup, but won't get to it for a week or two.

Right. Amended clarification: Let P be the sum of the net modifiers applied to the defender (fractional, so full fortify = +.25, city garrison 1 = +.2, shock on attacking unit = -.25, etc.)

If P > 0, defender's base strength multiplied by (1+P).
If P < 0, defender's base strength divided by (1-P).

IE the CR3 treb and no other modifiers, P = -1.75, defenders strength is divided by 2.75, so it's substantially decreased but not 0.

[Jabah]

How far are you from your 1st GG (and any idea about how you are going to use him) ?

[Whosit]

How far are you from your 1st GG (and any idea about how you are going to use him) ?

Hey, a relevant question! :neenernee

I'm only a few points away, but it doesn't look like I will be seeing combat in the immediate future, so I may still be many turns away. I plan to settle him in Kuat (Heroic Epic City) for 2 Promo units. I don't think that I'll get a significant benefit from attaching him to anything, and without Vassalage/Theocracy, I need the general XP boost.

No movement from slaze or plako (save for pillaging my fishes). Slaze continues to whip his cities like mad, and I kind of think that he's going much further than is wise, but maybe he knows what he's doing. Many of his cities are size 3 now. They can probably grow back fairly quickly, but it still seems like one would be better off using the whip to generate a first-response army, and train the rest normally.

Still, if he whips his cities into useless nubs, all the better for me.

Also, I imagine that he and plako must be communicating and coordinating, otherwise they are fools.

[Whosit]

A couple things I forgot:

First, Nakor and DMOC got a "friendly" message from the Killer Angels basically telling them that if they actually fight plako, then KA will have to "respond appropriately." They're holding the promise of a NAP over Holy Rome's head, but I'm pretty sure that it's just a phantom carrot. I think that the K.A. still want to see me taken down, and I'm not sure if it's just a matter of practicality, or if they still see me as some kind of a threat. Which I don't think I am, because . . .

Korea and Holy Rome have Alphabet now, and it's kind of distressing. I'm down about 6 techs from both, and I imagine that it's similar across the board. I'm making just over 100 beakers per turn, which probably isn't so hot in 880 AD. I am deathly afraid that I will fall so far behind in tech that I'll just be a backwards nobody who's going to get overrun by Cavalry while I still have Praetorians.

I knew that these wars would be more difficult than anticipated, but there is a real risk that it's going to get drawn out. I still need to settle and expand and build infrastructure, so my primary goal right now is to build up Catapults while I wait for Crossbowmen. I'm more or less happy to keep things at a stalemate for a little while. Though I really want to capture Seoul somehow.

I need a better construction port on the outer sea, but there's really not a good spot (aside from Seoul) that I can grab easily. I MAY be able to sneak something onto one of the outer islands, so we'll see about that. I don't have troops to spare at the moment, though.

Dathomir will produce Settlers for both Centralia, the mainland, and anywhere else. If nothing else, it will pay for itself in that fashion. There's a few spots on the mainland I might still try settling if slaze appears to be distracted.

I'm going to see if I can identify a good spot on one of the outer islands to grab. I'll need at LEAST 3-4 Praetorians/Crossbowmen to guard it, and probably a couple of Catapults, too, plus Triremes to defend the water (Triremes I CAN'T produce due to lack of production ports). Yeah. I need to figure out what I'm going to do.

And I still don't have the luxury to get courthouses everywhere. I might just bite the bullet and whip them in everywhere in a few turns.

[Whosit]

Got Metal Casting. Machinery in 8 turns at current rates, but I can't sustain it.

I think that I am going to proceed with my plan to get my infrastructure online. I just cannot afford not to. It's risky, but Kuat will have to shoulder the burden of training my military for the time being.

I still need a little time to crunch the numbers (though there is still 4 hours on the clock for me), but I think that I'll revolt to Organized Religion and build Forges everywhere (or nearly everywhere), then whip those into courthouses/forums, whatever I need. Kuat, Dathomir, and now Bespin need Confucianism. Not sure which will get it first, but I'm going to try to get the Missionaries out. 1 is already in production.

Nar Shaddaa got hit with War Weariness, but I'm putting a Forge in queue, and with Gold and Silver, it's worth +2 happiness on top of the hammer bonus. Athlete has gone to war with slaze, so hopefully he will be a little bit distracted, and plako is waiting for something. Hopefully I'll be prepared by the time he is ready, but I don't know. I can always whip out more troops if I have to, I think.

But for now, Forges first, because that'll add bonuses to the infrastructure (and everything) that I produce next. I hate to lose the turn on Organized Religion (Athlete switched to both OR and HR, but I lack Monarchy ), but I think that it will pay off in the long-run since I still have a lot of infrastructure to build in a hurry. The price tag is steep, but I'll have to deal with it.

I'll see if I can bum some cash off of my allies.

[Whosit]

OK, after some calculations, OR is just too expensive. It will only save a turn per building in most cities; less if you factor in the turn spent in revolt. It would cost me an extra 6 gpt which I cannot afford to pay.

Imperial Center, Carida, Nar Shaddaa, and Ryloth are working on Forges now. Nar Shaddaa and Ryloth will have to whip them, unfortunately. Might whip in Imperial Center. Courthouses are schedule next, even in Imperial Center (it will save me 1.5 gold, but I need every penny that I can get).

These cities will probably spend the next 10 turns on infrastructure. Imperial Center and Carida may interrupt that to build units depending on what plako does.

At Athlete's urging, I am moving my stack towards Cuzco. I am a bit nervous about it. I'll post a picture in a bit. Cuzco is in a pretty well-protected river valley. I can take a more protected route towards it, ending on flatland, or a more exposed route, ending on a hill and across a river.

The latter is a little less ideal for attacking, but it should be harder for him to hit my stack. The former saves a turn for when I actually attack.

Either way, I'll have to see what he ends up doing this turn. He can see that Bespin has a skeleton defense force, so he may attack. I kind of hope that he does, since I might get a shot at attacking his own stack. We'll have to see. . . .

[Whosit]

Ok, the pictures I took:

When I lost the Praetorian:



The soon-to-be-dead Warrior:



Turn 155 demographics (happened to take a screen shot):



And possible attack routes:



I favor blue if I can survive the turn on the Rice. If I get the hill, the question is whether there is a road to the east of it.

[Whosit]

I've played part of my turn, but I have not moved my main stack yet.

As a quick note (partly to myself) I am going to have Ryloth put a turn of hammers into a Trireme, just so I can whip it out without penalty if I need to. Plako has withdrawn a couple more troops, so I think he built another Galley. He is probably going to try and ship all or most of his forces by sea . . . .

I have belatedly realized that I should re-open the Imperial C&D Department, if just for the civilizations with which I am at war. My ability to gather intelligence on the Koreans is severely limited because I cannot see most of their cities, but it might be somewhat helpful for the Incans. We'll see.

The attack on Cuzco: I have decided to take the Blue Route. Here is why: So far, slaze has not appeared eager to meet me in the field. I realize he may be trying to lure me in, but I think that this is a risk that I must take. He has two options for attacking my stack: Across the river, or from the hill. The latter is clearly the superior option, but his troops will still be left exposed.

I think that there is a fair chance that slaze will not attack until I am adjacent to his city. I am hoping to end on the hill, but I can cross the river if he puts defenders there.

My odds on the flatland are not ideal, but I have 3 Combat II/Shock Praetorians that may discourage him from attacking. I am betting on him not having catapults, though. If I am mistaken, things are going to become very, very messy for me.

I wish that I had had the foresight to build a couple of Chariots for my stacks, so I could pillage the rice farm. Oh well.

If things go my way and I make it to the hill, I think that I will be OK, relatively. My main goal is to tie up slaze's troops so that he can't send them after Athlete. Honestly, I doubt that he would have left Cuzco undefended even if I didn't send my stack in, but whatever.

What do I do if I lose this stack? I believe that if he attacks me, and unless he has several catapults waiting for me, he will lose many troops himself. I can either try to reinforce Bespin, or sue for peace. Athlete will be VERY unhappy with that, but if I kill a lot of slaze's troops, I kind of did my job. The fact of the matter is that I simply cannot pursue a two-front war without an army.

Slaze has expressed a desire to fight until the death, but even he must surely be willing to take "white peace" with no concessions.

I've been thinking of sending a message to the Killer Angels, but I don't know what to say. Nakor has been speaking with them a bit, and it might seem suspicious if I message them out of the blue, no matter what I say.

I am also hoping that my enemies will accept a Cease Fire during my absence, but I find that to be very unlikely.

Well, I won't be able to finish my turn until later today, but here's hoping for the best . . . . I am in a very precarious position. Even with hindsight, I'm not sure what I should have done. If anything, I should probably not have committed troops to the war with the Killer Angels way back when. Those 8 Praetorians would have let me completely crush Korea, and I'd probably be better off for it now.

I probably wouldn't be so close to my current allies, but I'm sure that I could have leveraged my improved military/economic position into gathering allies. Live and learn. I think that (one of) my major weakness(es) is my tendency to make quick, somewhat irrational decisions rather than what might be best for my civilization in absolute terms. Of course, helping a friend is sometimes an inconvenience for oneself, but that does not mean that giving the help is a poor decision. Eh, I'm rambling now, but my point is that there are always many, many factors in any situation, and even with hindsight, it can be hard to so say what the "best" decision might have been.

[Whosit]

So, it appears that slaze attacked Athlete's stack, since there was some fighting this turn. Or perhaps Athlete attacked. I'll have to ask. Either way, both spawned Great Generals.

Unfortunately for me, slaze's spawned in Cuzco.

Way to go, RNG.

Slaze still hasn't ended his turn, so I don't know if he'll attack my troops. He was logged in when I got on, but I didn't see him do anything, so he may have been waiting for me to leave.

The goodish news: Most of his towns (that I can see), save for Cuzco, are either size 3 or 4. It'll be harder for him to keep whipping out troops. At least, back-to-back.

[Whosit]

I totally feel like I'm spamming, but I guess that there's not much else that I can do in my thread, now is there?

I popped in a bit to see what slaze is up to, and I think that he's done something fairly wise, and something kind of dumb.

First, he's placed two Guerilla II Longbowmen on the hill southwest of Cuzco. With an effective strength of 12, I am not going to take that hill unless I feel like sacrificing my whole army (which I don't). I'll have to risk sending it directly adjacent to the city. The only good news is that now slaze has two Longbowmen badly promoted for defending Cuzco itself or for offensive purposes.

Slaze also whipped away half of Cuzco's population (from 6 to 3). As I suspected, and what I believe that the newly restored Incan branch of the Imperial C&D Department confirms, is that slaze whipped out a Longbowman/Catapult with nothing previously invested in it. Espionage screen showed 60 hammers invested where 0 had been before.

Personally, I would have waited a turn for some hammers to be invested. It's not like I could have taken the town before that. Oh well.

However, given the risk that he might have whipped a Catapult (the smartest thing to choose), I may not want to advance directly against the town just yet. I'll have to get in touch with Athlete (better send an e-mail) to find out just what slaze did, try to get a feel for his tactics.

Right now . . . I think I may move southeast, east, and try to get to the Copper hill (see previous picture). I can move through jungle cover this way, but I will leave Bespin exposed. Of course, if slaze moves enough troops out to threaten Bespin, he will leave Cuzco all the more exposed, and I do not think that he will do that. A bit of a Gambit, but I can hurry another Praetorian to reinforce Bespin in a couple of turns.

Anyway, the problem with my current plan is that it's slow, and slaze might just reinforce both hills (of course, that leaves less in the city), but I think it's better than plopping my stack next to the city. Again, I find myself wishing that I had brought some Chariots for scouting purposes.