Turn 143
I had a quite bit of trepidation opening the save this evening. Would rho21 come up with something to thwart my attack on Geneva? Have I overlooked something critical that’s going to derail this whole plan? In some ways, yes:
He sank one of thefrigates with crossbow fire. That takes Perseus off the table. Geneva also has a swordsman in the city, which has raised its defense to 57. This will take two turns to deal with now, maybe even three. The loss of the frigate was A big blow as that means that Geneva's walls will survive the turn. However, the show must go on and I must carry through the attack if I'm to reign in rho21's science. The swordsman showing up in Geneva is admittedly unexpected, though even if it didn't show up the loss of the Frigate makes this a two turn attack.
(June 6th, 2018, 09:59)Chevalier Mal Fet Wrote: Really curious to see how the siege tower works with frigates. That was a clever move.
Well, I did some testing using caravels, frigates and Firetuner in an SP map prior to getting the naval plan going in order to check this out. It works. In spades. With a cherry on top.
My frigates are attacking the city center at a CS of 68. Against a city defense of 57 the expected base damage is 47 (rounded from 46.6). Against walls this would be 23.5 because all ranged attacks do 50% damage vs walls (this is in addition to the -17 strength for land-based ranged units).
Here’s the city combat info box for a frigate without the siege tower adjacent to Geneva:
![[Image: HoHcLmu.jpg]](https://cdn.pbrd.co/images/HoHcLmu.jpg)
Note that the blue line for the wall damage is about 1/2 erased, which is roughly 23 points of damage. Also note that the green line representing city defense is untouched or only marginally so (some damage bleeds through to the city garrison when walls are damaged) Now we move the siege engine adjacent and:
![[Image: HoHcQnm.jpg]](https://cdn.pbrd.co/images/HoHcQnm.jpg)
The obvious change is that the display has changed from “Major Wall Damage” to “Minor City Damage”. The blue line is unchanged from the first scenario – about 1 /2 erased. However, the green line is also showing damage, about 50% of the line, which corresponds to the 47 damage to the city center. I don’t show it here but the effect is the same with caravels – they will damage the city center at full strength and do their usual 15% damage to the walls.
The siege tower, at a cost of 100
, is effectively a +50% damage modifier to ranged naval units (and a +100% damage modifier to land-based siege units like bombards and catapults) attacking any walled city before Steel is researched. With naval engagements the impediment is the fact that the siege tower is slower (3 MP vs. 5 for frigates & caravels). For land-based units the impediment is that the damage and CS modifiers prevent land units from completely eliminating the walls on the first turn of attacks while using a siege tower, putting them at risk from city bombardment. The solution in this instance is to bring both a siege tower and a battering ram as their effects stack. Yes, you read that correctly. With both support units a melee land unit is doing full damage to the walls
and full damage to the city center on the same attack.
The only reason Perseus would take more than one turn to take down in this manner is its city defense (52) and it having only one tile of coastal frontage. The average damage rolls would “only” inflict a total of 168 damage on the city for a three-ship attack. Despite this I do intend on taking out Perseus once Geneva is done and then sailing immediately for the Greek coast (the long way
). With Terracotta Army completing while they are en route they’ll both get the Rolling Barrage promotion (+10 CS vs. district defenses) in time for the assault on the Greek west coast.
With units in position I start the attack. Frigate first, 51 to the garrison, 24 to the walls. First caravel does 4 to the walls and 36 to the garrison. Second caravel does another 4 points to the walls (they’re now at 20) and 34 to the garrison. The end result:
Not desirable, especially since the city will get to heal 20 damage in the interturn. This will be very close, particularly if a caravel is sunk by the city (or rho21) next turn. For next turn the expected damage rolls are 59 for the Frigate and 32 and 33 for the caravels before any damage from a city attack or rho21 showing up are applie. So long as a ship isn’t sunk I should be able to take the city. So close. I will probably lose the rest of the navy to the Greek caravel unless I earn a promotion or two in the process. His caravel also can’t get to my fleet until the turn after next, as 5 movement will put it one hex short of the frigate, unless he’s somehow come up with 6 MP for the caravel. This gets remarkably easier if Geneva's swordsman moves out of the city.
With 1000
on hand it’s time for upgrades. Two catapults (getting the Siege Tactics eureka), three swordsmen (getting the Replaceable Parts eureka) and two crossbows (getting the Scorched Earth inspiration). I still have 178
in the bank but my income is down to 39.1 from 53.3.
Elsewhere the dead-lined barbarian swordsman has shown up in camp. My horseman amphibiously attacks, killing it and gaining me 50
back into my treasury. With the naval situation at Geneva I bite the bullet at Find, hold my nose, pay the 150
for the coastal tile, place the Harbor and chop the forest. The chop is for 165, 4 go into the musketman, 161 into the Harbor, one turn of production leftover. I also start working on Scientific Theory. Horsemen are started at Maps and Begin. Kenneth will start one next turn – I’m trying to get a few of them out before I research Military Science for cavalry.
Humanism will complete next turn – I’ll pull Feudal Contract and Professional Army and put in Natural Philosophy and Press Gangs so that Find can get started on the naval rebuild. I just need to keep an eye on my income but Mercantilism will help with that when I get there.
The trepidation continues....
move again and left FOUR crossbows incomplete in the queue. Holy crap I’m an idiot...that’s over 600
) of battleships to wipe out everything that comes near the coast (not gonna happen).
