[Spoiler] Kaiser has a plan

[roland of gilead]

running CH projects gets us much needed gold as well of course.

[roland of gilead]

I think we need a strike force we can use to repel his attackers.

we see what 4 cavalry can do. I think we need something similar but stronger.

[Kaiser]

Yeah I am already wondering about how such a strike force could look like. PS or better Cavalry/Curassiers to match them by speed. I need to analyze the terrain situation and come up with something, for most of the area the terrain is quite defensive for us, forcing him to cross rivers which slows down even his Cavalry.

The turn got around, I will have a look

If we get Gustave, lets look at interesting Wonders:
- Big Ben (nobody has the tech, Woden and Suboptimal do not have a good location (Suboptimal does not even have a CH) => we build it in GM, the strongest production city on the planet so I would not use a charge here
- Oxford (nobody has the tech, at least Woden has no decent location to build it I am aware of) => we build it in EM, which can have only ~65 so it takes ages but is likely relatively secure
- Potala Palace (Woden and Suboptimal should have the tech) => we build it in KG with a decent ~78 , I see a race here with mostly Woden but I know very few of Suboptimals terrain
- Alhambra (Woden and Suboptimal should have the tech) => could be build in Isaac at only ~55 is not extremly important but would be nice for denial purposes and offer a good staging point for attacks on Bruins

We probably hold off on him for finishing purposes and to scare the others away from racing us to a wonder long enough so we can guarantee it :D

[roland of gilead]

The only thing I would say about that is there is even now still a snowball effect.

If we use it to get 2 techs and huge gold and a policy card 6 or 7 turns sooner that will catapult us forwards.

if we do land him it's quite the turnaround from probably losing Casa to this. Better to be lucky than good perhaps.

[Kaiser]

Yes, that has been my credo all game long it seems :D



Good news first, Ichabod accepted the trade and we are back at fully content cities. This also is a hopeful sign that he will prolong our MA which is ending next turn.



Woden is repairing some more here, but not with the speed I expected.



As you can see he finished one GE project, likely the one in Osgiliath.
He will see next turn that we finished one as well (for 49 +21 natural points).
We need 2 more turns and he has the turn advantage, so our hope right now is that he has not been running his IZ project in Erebor or Gondor last turn (I think we still had visibility on Gondor and it was working on a Archelogical Museum)

Next turn we will get 120 GE points and the turn after we will get another 71 which would complete the GE if Woden does not snipe him.

Regarding the wonders, I agree we need to look at the snowball. How random are the techs picked? Is it the two cheapest techs?
How much snowball would we get from the diplomatic and military card?
Both would find great use:
- diplomatic would support our planned trade route economy by adding 2 2 to our international trade routes as well as speeding up alliance point generation
- Military would be necessary to build units while still keeping conscription and Military Police for our Bortus induced Amenity crunch

here is the save

[roland of gilead]

big ben is the economic card was the one i really meant.

Don't underplay your good play here most of it has been excellent.

[Kaiser]

Defense preparations:

As discussed, we need to consider how to best defend against a raiding army, as I do not think Suboptimal can threaten our Urban Defense cities outside of a full surround. He has two avenues of attack.

known Suboptimal Military:
- 4 Curassiers (2 at former Geneva)
- 4-5 Cavalry
- 3 FC (probably 5+)
- 2 MM (Probably 5+)
- 1 PS (Probably 3-5+)
- 1-2 Siege Towers
- estimated 300 - 600 MP in Navy

Adding all the max values together gets us to 1966 MP, so nearly his in game value. The big question is if we overestimate the Navy power with 600, I think 300 is a given considering the units I have seen so far.
So worst case he could have about 400 MP additional units, that would be 1 addtional of every unit type + 2 Bombards. We did not see any, but he has to bring bombards if he wants to conquer our cities.

NE Ocean passage:
He was staging an attack here and his units might still be there, however we have defenses in place on the most important corner defending our Campus and a good Railnetwork (AK station was finished this turn) to move our troops here quickly.
We have the following units here:
- FC (EM)
- Ironclad (AK)
- Curassier corps (protecting EM Campus 96 defense against shooting)
- Bombard corps (protecting GM Campus 77 defense against shooting, strong against boats)
Reserves:
- MM (KG)
- PS (Isaac)
- FC Corps (GM, flexible to go in both directions)

Our defenses are thin, especially as we lack a 2nd Curassier Crops to exchange on the EM Campus if he decides to shot on the existing Corps. He probably can wear it down over multiple turns, but he also likely needs to involve more units than his Armada Frigate.
A real challenge would be a multi-pronged landing at Isaac and AK, as we probably would have to abandin AK to defend the more important Isaac.



His troop setup at former Geneva looks more defensive though, as there are no units behind hus Curassiers here. He could try an all out attack on AK, but with the mass of units he has to have

South-East plains:
Here we have a long land border, luckily supported by several rivers. I have to head out now, but will do a detailed analysis later. You can see I already positioned some MM corps at Bortus and Charly Burke, as I feel this is our weakes spot.



This terrain is quite heavy and slow to move, we would be able to pick his army apart if he comes this way, especially as we want to buy all our units at Isaac for its soon to be finished MA



You can see I already positioned some MM corps at Bortus and Charly Burke, as I feel this is our weakes spot. I have a XBow moving over as well for future upgrade



John Lamarr could fall top a surprise attack, but with Viktor and an XBow to be upgrade, I feel I can punish him hard enough if he tries to go for it. Embrasure would be nice and we probably want to speed up the GM for it.

Expectation:
I think he should pull of a two pronged assault, either via the NE Ocean or via the SE Plains. The SE plains has the advantage that he can simultaneously press us with his Navy in the NE, meaning we have to keep our units there and split our defense efforts.

[roland of gilead]

the general would be better on the coffee so it covers both units?

you are at max niter maybe start a bombard for 1 turn?

[Kaiser]

The general covers both units and the FC coprs in GM so it can move more quickly. He could reset to EM him if I deploy him on the Coffee without a protecting unit.

I have some already, I can start one in TK next turn, though the original plan was to run a project to get more units out by buying them. This is a strategy which is likely more efficient than producing units at the moment

[roland of gilead]

The general covers both units and the FC coprs in GM so it can move more quickly. He could reset to EM him if I deploy him on the Coffee without a protecting unit.

I have some already, I can start one in TK next turn, though the original plan was to run a project to get more units out by buying them. This is a strategy which is likely more efficient than producing units at the moment

That's a really good shout. really good. 

I just mean to start one consume the niter then stop. 

maybe we are beyond the point where that overly matters.