I just checked the save again and Suboptimal is down to 675 gold, he probably upgraded all his Knights and Xbows (so at least 4 Curassier and 2-3 FC) as both are behind the same tech. I guess he was pulling his army back for the upgrades and is now marching either via the NE ocean or bypassing us in the South.
Our most vulnerable cities are Isaac/Charly Burke and John Lamarr, I think we should get units there asap before saving up for bombards against Venice. He also got Terracotta army last turn, so all his units will come with a promotion to heal.
We should think about the right unit mix to defend, he does not have a Industrial era General (Ichabod has one Rennaissance/Indutrial and Woden and me get the next two) Supoptimal probably brings:
- Muskets (55 +5 MA +5 GG) only unit which can avoid walls with Siege Towers
- Field Cannons (50/60 +5 MA -5 UN)
- Curassiers (64 +5 MA)
- Cavalry (not sure if he has the tech, he has one curser down S)
- Bombards???
Even Isaac can hold on its own behind Ancient walls as long as he does not get his Siege towers to work on bombards the walls down, so the muskets and bombards are key targets. His Curassiers are his strongest units, so we likely want 1-2 Pike & Shot to be flexibly positioned.
We do not want to loose Isaac, John Lamarr is less painful so:
Isaac/Charly Burke
- 2 Pike & Shot (1 already there)
- 2 Muskets (1 already there, we can reroute 1 from the Venice stack)
- 3 - 4 FC to be deployed behind the rivers (2 probably near Isaac to pound onto any landing force, 2 flexible at Charly Burke river defense positions (1 already at Isaac, we can reroute 1 from the Venice attack to Charly Burke)
- 3 Curassier (1 in Isaac, 1 in Charly Burke, I W of Isaac to sacrifice kill muskets/bombards) (we have one Courser there which might work for a sacrifice kill as well)
- I probably send our anti-land Bombard back to EM to form a corps and pose a threat to any raiding force on the GM Campus
- 1 bombard corps to reduce walls of the Bruins encampment and get some more safety for Charly Burke
current need: 2 FC, 1 PS, 2 Curassier (form 2 Bombard corps out of exiting Bombards)
John Lamarr / Bortus:
- 2 PS (1 already there)
- 2-3 FC (1 Xbow already there, we can bring a 2nd but they need to be upgraded soon)
- 2 Musket (1 there, I need to check if we can reroute any)
- 2 Curassier (for defense strength in Bortus and John Lamarr)
Current need: 1 PS, 1 FC + upgrades, 2 Curassier, 1 Musket (I need to check if I can reroute anything here)
We are a bit flexible as I hope to be able to defend with massed forces against this, so we do not need all of this if he decides to split forces.
So short term I think the Curassier en route to Venice turns to Isaac and we send one PS up as well as buy a 2nd at Isaac. With another FC at Isaac and some unit shuffling we should be able to have a decent defense force. which can be increase further in ~5 turns.
Our units get +3 (Spy, I hope he has none deployed at us, but maybe he has then this egalizes), +3 when attacking from hills. I am still annoyed that the MA with Ichabod was this easy to circumvent.
4 turns until our city strenght increases due to the Ironclad (70 -10 = 60 Isaac has 3 districts at +2 each and walls at +3 so we should go up to 69, the curassier should bring it up to 73 I think)
~13 turns until Steel is in and he has no chance of conquering any city without bombards, actually Artillery
its a 100% uplift, even GM with its 100 production will need 7 turns to build a FC, 5 with the 50% card. We can consider it but it is a really bad investment and can only be a last resort (which needs to planned long term).
I would prefer getting everything by Faith and shuffling our units properly. I think we will put Venice on the back burner and move our units for defense instead, most of them are already near GM/Charly Burke, so close to reinforce both borders.
As I said, I am more worried about Isaac than John Lamarr, so we will probably have more forces up there than down.
I also counted production at Woden again, before Amenities Woden should have:
- Osgiliath ~80 production
- Gondor ~75 production
- Erebor ~70 production
- 4th near helms deep ~35 production
- Rivendell and Moria are probably around 30 - 40 production
- rest around 20 production
He has a leg up here, as we have
- GM 100 production
- KH 60 production
- EM 45 production
- AK 38 production
- Isaac 45 production
- Bortus 35 production
- Cassius 33 production
- the rest around 20 production
But we still can build a factory and power plant in many places. Especially EM, GM Power plant, Charly Burke and Talla Keyali are interesting as we can consider using Governor promotions on Magnus to make GM benefit from factories multiple times.
Bortus factory will support 3 more cities and a factory in Steve Newton will cover all of our South (however we need to place and build the IZ first)
we are currently blocked on one spy, that sits in Suboptimals territory and should spot major movements from Suboptimal to the S. (please note that his Knights have already been past the spy's place, so he could bring Curassiers to the S but we already have 2 PS there.
I believe he will come from the sea and his best attack vectors are Isaac and a fake onto AK.
My wife and me discussed some more today during our walk and we need less units than above due to the faith flexibility. We can get the units were needed, we just should beef Isaac up a bit more with a field cannon and the Curassier running over.
The turn came and he is moving 2 Curassiers up on Isaac, maybe the rest of his army is moving more to the W to fight for a foothold at GM or AK?
I bought one FC at Isaac and will see where he moves before investing the rest, units are re-routed.
Woden wants to race us for the Casa, he placed it in Gondor but is finishing his renaissance walls first.
We have a 200 production headstart, and I optimized KG to be at 73.8 Gondor can maximume get to 81, so we should be able to get unless he still has charges from his GE remaining which I hope he spent on the Forbidden City.
(December 31st, 2020, 12:28)Kaiser Wrote: Woden wants to race us for the Casa, he placed it in Gondor but is finishing his renaissance walls first.
We have a 200 production headstart, and I optimized KG to be at 73.8 Gondor can maximume get to 81, so we should be able to get unless he still has charges from his GE remaining which I hope he spent on the Forbidden City.
he may run the policy card.
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
Yep that is a possibility, I have visibility on his capitals build queue so we will be able to compare progress. We can try chopping it out at the end with a forest but I would like to avoid it.
![[Image: vDBHHRd.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/vDBHHRd.jpg)
Gondor can maximume get to 81, so we should be able to get unless he still has charges from his GE remaining which I hope he spent on the Forbidden City.