[SPOILERS] Out of retirement and into the fires of war. yuris125, Pitboss 68

[yuris125]

Here we are then




Is this enough? I think so. My biggest reservation about attacking Thoth was catapults, and unless I made a mistake in setting up the calculator, this stack is big enough to avoid being decimated by collateral

Is this an overkill? Maybe, but I don't want to come up short, and we did have to wait for crossbows, before then calculations showed our stack being demolished by praets

Am I exposing myself to Commodore? Yes, I have no units in reserve. But if Commodore sees the game state similarly to me, we likely will have to work together to stop Miguelito from running away. In this sense, me taking out Thoth would be beneficial for Commodore as well; similarly to us, Miguelito benefitted from having one of his neighbours substantially weakened, and me replacing Thoth as his western neighbour will force him to pay more attention to his western border. Of course, me taking out Thoth also makes me stronger, and Commodore will have to decide if taking some of my territory will help him more than the possibility of us double teaming Miguelito some time in the future. So yes, I'm gambling on him deciding against attacking me. But I think I do have to take this risk, and the time when his stack is no longer in range of Boros Burn, and he's out of slavery, is probably the most opportune moment to take this risk

[Magic Science]

But I think I do have to take this risk, and the time when his stack is no longer in range of Boros Burn, and he's out of slavery, is probably the most opportune moment to take this risk

Interesting. What did he adopt instead?

Will you keep or raze Thoth's other city?

Can you hover over his capital stack in your next report, please?

[yuris125]

Commodore switched to serfdom for the golden age; Miguelito is currently in caste system, presumably also just for the golden age (but his could be long, as he's bound to get a lot of great people with the golden age / pacifism / parthenon bonus)

Hard Luck is almost certainly getting razed, it has no food, and while there were reasons for Thoth to settle it (use his horse pasture and have another production queue), I don't see how it wouldn't be a drag on the economy for me

Here's Thoth's stack from a few turns ago (had a screenshot I used for setting up the calculator). Next turn I will of course post an up to date stack

[yuris125]

Thoth's defenders




8 praes, 7 catapults, 3 war elephants, and a random assortment. Hard Luck has another prae + catapult + axe

Commodore seems to have accepted the truce, as he's building a fort with 3 unprotected workers (probably his entire worker force) within reach of horse archer from Boros Burn




Funny how this pre-attack turn is the quickest I played in a very long time - all decisions were made in the turns prior, this turn I just move the stack onto the wheat in Thoth's land, swear at the unit supply cost (+17gpt to the expenses!), and press end turn

[yuris125]

That's definitely more losses than the calculator suggested. Honestly don't know if we should go next turn anyway, or retreat and heal (we do have that medic 2 chariot with the stack). Now that the catapults are gone, second engagement will be easier, and Thoth won't be able to rebuild as fast as we. Problem is, if we go, we have to go now, without bombarding city defences, before Thoth's units get a chance to heal, and would be attacking into 60% defences and onto a hill

Honestly, 8 crossbows and a war elephant for 7 catapults and 2 praets isn't even a terrible trade - the calculator just suggested a trade overwhelmingly in our favour

[yuris125]

Ah, the calculator was showing a much better trade for us because I had weaker units attacking after praetorians. That's the problem with using a calculator and not actually simulating combat in game - a human knows when to stop attacking, calculator just keeps throwing units away if they're included in the stack

[yuris125]

I suspect retreating is the play, but will look at the odds and run the numbers when the turn gets to me tomorrow

Yay triple post!

[Tarkeel]

Ah, the calculator was showing a much better trade for us because I had weaker units attacking after praetorians. That's the problem with using a calculator and not actually simulating combat in game - a human knows when to stop attacking, calculator just keeps throwing units away if they're included in the stack

Also, the calculator won't try to different units/promotions to find the best odds every round. Don't think it mattered much here with such a homogenous force, but with mixed troops it can really make a difference. I always treat vodka as the baseline and not the truth.

[yuris125]

Yeah, as ever, it's not about the numbers, it's about how we interpret them

Anyway, I threw. I saw that many of my units were still near full health, and Thoth's defending stack was severely wounded, and thought I could take advantage, if I just do enough damage to the three full health praets, including the great general. So I promoted 4 catapults to barrage + accuracy to get rid of city defenders, and sent the 6 remaining ones in

They did not do enough. At the end of the day, we weren't getting better than 50% odds on anything. Without crossbows, this force really is nothing special

So we heal (perhaps even without retreating, the medic 2 unit makes healing fast even in Thoth's territory), we build more crossbows, we come back

[yuris125]

Why do I make a sensible decision in the evening, only to yolo for no good reason in the morning

Very disappointed