[pb72 spoilers]: the esteemed gentleman's literature and book club

[greenline]

Big gap from my last post. Been dealing with a very not fun and stressful incident of home repair.

Where we stand currently: Machinery is in, IW is in, iron is being hooked, HBR due in 2. Workers are trying to set up windmills to grow on for the golden age. Two more techs to guilds: Feudalism and Guilds itself. The GP is due in Dune in 7 more turns. The GA and rep scientists should be plenty to get through those two techs.




Finished Moai in Creation. Now I can belatedly grow this city up instead of keeping it stagnant around size 6. This was the final use of my stone for a bit. Aetryn kept asking for it, so I gave it to him after Moai was done and then he finished Hanging Gardens. Not that I mind, since denying it to Bing is crucial.

I believe Aetryn used his Great Prophet to lightbulb Theology. May see an AP run come from him. Someone else discovered Confucianism - my guess is Bing. I haven't seen anyone build enough courthouses to show on the EP graph yet. He also probably is the one who discovered Aesthetics. Not sure of the value of a GLibrary run at this stage. But the Music artist will be valuable







Showing off the power off the protective markets. At this stage of the game, these are making just as much cash as the shrine, given the need to stick at 40% science.




Settled two new cities - the deer / copper site this turn. I moved it up in priority when I saw the deer in the corner. Sadly, it will have to wait a bit for the borders to expand.

[greenline]

current turn overview:







any questions?

[greenline]

also, fun fact: i am the first person in the game to research HBR. so Aetryn's raze on Xist was either carried out with chariots or axes. really bends the mind...

[Tarkeel]

Iron popped up in one of the few unworkable tiles? That's a bummer. At least it wasn't under one of Atlas' cottages.

[greenline]

if you think that iron's bad, then check this one out:




only food is a single tundra deer, no irrigation possible, nothing else worthwhile in the BFC.




This one, on the other hand, can at least have some food when Civil Service finally arrives. I may actually work this iron some day if the game goes on long enough.




The closer I get to Guilds, the more I am leaning on just attacking Xist. I arrowed the advance path the Phracts would take. I feel kind of bad about it since this is one of his first games here and Aetryn already set him back, but he has been pretty behind in tech and he hasn't built much defense here. Currently we have a Crab/Crab trade but I will cancel that when the GA starts.

[Tarkeel]

Is that city really worth settling?

Likewise for this one; but at the very least pull it one tile south.


This one, on the other hand, can at least have some food when Civil Service finally arrives. I may actually work this iron some day if the game goes on long enough.

The closer I get to Guilds, the more I am leaning on just attacking Xist. I arrowed the advance path the Phracts would take. I feel kind of bad about it since this is one of his first games here and Aetryn already set him back, but he has been pretty behind in tech and he hasn't built much defense here. Currently we have a Crab/Crab trade but I will cancel that when the GA starts.

Could you post more about what's behind the initial attack? It would be wise to use OB to map out his city locations ASAP.

[greenline]

The most tundra buried spots there probably aren't worth the cost of a settler. The economy at this point can support more cities, and the spots with enough food to work the forests can be productive - they just need lumbermills and can wealth build to make a decent profit, combined with the trade routes and shrine. But I'm not going to settle any more cities once I reach 15 for a while. The priority now is prepping for the attack.

As far as for what is going to be involved - I am not sure if I want to pre build any melee garrisons or HAs yet. Currently my plan was to pop the GA, use Rep to get through Feudalism and Guilds and finish the last bits of infrastructure, and then swap to Police State/Feud and start the whipping once the GA finished. Under that plan, all of the phracts attacking would be new units that don't exist currently. If that's a bad plan, I can adjust it.

Good call on using OB - I will move the scout I have forward.

[Tarkeel]

There are two things that worry me for the attack: The first is the terrain and timing:
T0, the stack will be hidden in Huck and then in to the hill; all good.
T1, the stack can (and will) take Arpinum. But where does it go from there? Being able to move more than two turns south depends on there being roads in the fog; roading the floodplain with combatworkers alone won't give us anything (even with Construction). Eastwards is even worse; we can only move on tile NE to threaten Mediolanum.
T2, if we've split off enough of the stack in the NE we can take Mediolanum, but where do we go after that? This is part of why we need to map out where the cities are, but also to have a guess at where reinforcements will come from.

If we want to sweep through we'll need to split our forces and threaten multiple fronts, but if you fail at the speed aspect his reinforcements will swat down the smaller stacks.

The other issue is, will Bing smell an opportunity and attack on the other end when our 'Phracts are a few turns into enemy territory? We might need to build some defenders for this area.

[greenline]

I was also a bit concerned thinking of how to advance past Arpinium. My hope was that: without a large cat stack, he won't be able to significantly threaten shock Phracts without taking more serious losses, and that Aetryn would join in on a separate front. The scout I have will be able to map most of the territory deeper in by the time we are ready to invade, so we can adjust plans.

As for Bing, I will definitely shuffle some garrison forces in his direction. We won't be going back to Hereditary Rule, so I have a bunch of happy archers that will be free to relocate, and I'll build some protective LBs in smaller cities. That plus maybe a few zone defence Phracts should hold him back unless he goes crazy on the whipping. We have a very good chokepoint to hold at Metamorphosis.

[Tarkeel]

If I'm allowed to channel my inner Commodore and postulate some warfare theory, in order to successfully attack you need to consider how to best defend against what you're attacking with. The Defenders Advantage has three main components:

1: Cultural Defence Modifiers
These is the most visible bonus defenders get, but you can't rely on it alone. While longbows behind walls and castles on a hilltop are tough to crack even for cuirassiers (and not even hammer-efficiently for cavalry), they will be worn down. What they do give you is time to react.

2: Battlefield Vision
Barring city vision from espionage, the defender will have a better immediate knowledge of where forces are than the attacker.

3: Movement
With a properly planned road network, defending units will usually move at least at the speed of the fastest attackers; add Engineering and they are faster. The defender will also have a shorter supply line than the attacker, which can make up for the initial force un-balance.

A competent defender will use strategically placed garrisons in fortified border cities to tie up your forces. Using his knowledge of where your units are, they can then re-route reinforcements to where they are most needed, or even threaten a counter-attack. The power of your knights (or their substitutes) is mainly bound up in the area they can threaten to attack, and if they are stuck in place either due to healing or besieging, you invite the option of an alpha-strike.

If the enemy's forces are unable to concentrate on hitting one place, you might get good results by splitting up and threatening more locations. This option usually disappears after the few turns as the size of the battlefield shrinks.

(I hope that made some sense and wasn't just pure rambling)