Time for a pre-emptive?

[Tattila the Hun]

Monty has been keeping this stack of troops just outside a city I took from MehmedII in a recent war. (He declared while bloody Friendly, I thought that was supposed to be impossible?)

Anyways, they just stand there, on Ottoman territory, occasionally they disappear, then return, and sometimes new units join the merry men. Been going on for who knows how long. He is not happy with me, surprise surprise, and I wonder, if he is infact just waiting for the odds to become overwhelming... (They are allready, I have plenty of cats, they suck on defence...) He has the strongest military, a bit above Mehmed, me in the third place. I've made some dry runs, my cats will make collateral mincemeat of his stack, and my grenadiers et all can finish of all but few trebs of his, just basically running out of troops... This will put his military strength way below mine.

Now I ask, is that the right thing to do? Never been a great advocate of pre-emptive strikes, as he doesn't seem to be doing anything... Also, it feels like taking advantage of the AI's stupidity...

Edit: Aye, I've upgraded some of my crossbowmen to grenadiers since that pic was taken... He is still there.

[CerberusIV]

Do unto others as you know they will do unto you if given a chance (and as it's Monty he will sooner or later).

On a more practical note it looks like you could do with razing a couple of his cities to get some cultural breathing space.

[rah]

I'd attack, his stack won't last long.

[Ming]

The best defense is a good offense. As you even admit, the cats a worthless unless you attack out with them.

That is what they are for

KILL MONTY!

[Krill]

Monty will win any battle if you attack with those stacks; if you upgrade everything though you should be able to break that stack of his

[Tattila the Hun]

Yup, in process of upgrading... It's mostly a question of morals. Sure, Monty is a psychopath bent on killing. Do I wish to stoop to his level?

Originally posted by CerberusIV
Do unto others as you know they will do unto you if given a chance (and as it's Monty he will sooner or later).

On a more practical note it looks like you could do with razing a couple of his cities to get some cultural breathing space.

Wrong green. Annoying thing, same with Toku and Cathy in the same game... It's just red.

[Brutus66]

Bah, morals are for philosophers. Besides, victors write the history anyway- you can say later that he started it.
Remember, your only obligations are delivering greatness to your people and a glorious warrior's death to your enemies.
Now, if you will excuse me, my praetorians grow restless...

[Virdrago]

Go for it. This looks like the perfect opportunity. Monty won't ever be happy with you (unless you become his vassal or are sacrificed in his temple), so don't bother waiting for him. He will attack. Unless you can force Mehmet to close the open borders (good luck) with Monty, you will fight. Make it on your own terms, not his.

Just the rantings of someone who has been hit by Monty one too many times, even when I've thought he'd know better.

[trev]

Definitely attack, but not all cats first, about 6 cats, then all grenadiers (with the collateral done by the cats, they will now win easily), then check odds, if below 75% use a cat or 2, otherwise maces etc, and keep going until all units are used, finish with cats if some left over, this way, you will end up with the greatest number of survivors all round, hopefully with health gained by promotions, some can wipe out rest of stack next turn.

[Tattila the Hun]

6 Cats will barely make a dent in his current stack...

But ruthlessnes it is.


Oh, anyone have any idea, why he is camping there? I don't ever remember seeing such behavior... And I don't think Blake has touched the warfare AI yet. (Come to think of it, souped up AI wouln't do such a thing...

[Saurus]

Originally posted by Tattila the Hun
6 Cats will barely make a dent in his current stack...

But ruthlessnes it is.


Oh, anyone have any idea, why he is camping there? I don't ever remember seeing such behavior... And I don't think Blake has touched the warfare AI yet. (Come to think of it, souped up AI wouln't do such a thing...

Well, I have experienced this kind of A.I- behaviour in the past and thus I can tell you that he IS going to attack you!!
And the longer you wait the worse it will get.
(remember the cheap A.I upgrades! ... well, as soon as new tech is available, monty will upgrade all of his troops!!) You won´t since you cannot afford upgrading all of your units.
My experience is that even if some other A.I would declare war on monty right now, his stack would still just stand there camping beside your city. Then attack YOU at some later point.

In my games so far, I have seen Izzy and Toku doing the same thing Monty seem to be doing now. Both times the A.I took advantage of cheap upgrading and then attacked.

[sparkyal]

I understand your moral delima. do you start a war just so the other guy doesn't have the advantage of starting one on his terms? What everyone has said is true, Monty will attack you, he is pure evil. So, you should attack him.

Have fun!

sparky

[rah]

It's like when you see the fleet with 30 units sitting just off your coast. You know they're going to declare war and land the next turn (regardless on how friendly monty currently is). So I would prefer to send my navy out to sink them first. damn the consequences. It's easier to sink transports with the escorts than dealing with them when they land. (if you have your fleet near by anyway)

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by rah
It's like when you see the fleet with 30 units sitting just off your coast.

Except that in Warlords 208 you see only the ships, so you have no idea what if anything is loaded on those transports.

There, I've said it! I have been waiting for an excuse ever since I discovered it. One of the larger changes, actually.

[Tattila the Hun]

There needs to be a "casus belli" in this game... If someone has a SOD just outside my borders, I should be able to declare war without reputation hit...

So, couple of upgrades and cats later, I declare war and utterly destroy the stack, plummeting Monty to a freefall. Shortly after I get my peace with him, he is attacked and vassalized by Bismark... Good or bad, remains to be seen.