A Simple Puzzle

[Peaster]

You are playing at Diety level, single-player, for early conquest against 6 other (AI) civ's. It is about 300ad, you have a spotless rep, and you are rushing to conquer your toughest enemy - the French.

You have captured Marseilles, and have just started across the grassland towards Rheims. But a French elephant takes out two of your crusaders at the gates to the city. The beast is healthy and just two squares away. Your only defender is a wounded (50%) vet crusader with one movement point. Marseilles is size 2, and has emerged from "unrest", but it has no shields yet. What do you do?

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Why not rush a Horseman? If the Elephant is 2 squares away, it can't defeat the Crusader you have left and capture the city the same turn.

I suppose the best answer I can come up with is: Rush a Horseman, move the Crusader between the Elephant and Marseilles. That way, the inevitable loss of the Crusader won't cost you a population point in Marseilles.

[Peaster]

That makes sense, but there is another solution I like better, mainly because rush-building from 0 shields is so expensive. The other solution seems counter-intuitive to me, but it worked perfectly in the game.

Maybe I should mention that you have 4-5 other units in France, and have captured 2 other cities, with 5 more still to capture or bribe. You hope for an early victory if you can afford enough rushes/bribes. But Marseilles is far from the others, and mostly independent of all that.

[SlowThinker]

OK, you are going for a conquest, so you needn't Marseille. Let the AI to destroy it. With crusader go out from the city, let French Elephant capture the empty city to size 1 then finish both Marseilles and Elephant by the crusader.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Hm. Kind of hard for me to think of another solution without seeing a map of the sitch. Here are some guesses:

1) I suppose, depending on where your units are, you could move another unit adjacent to the Elephant and hem it in using ZOC. Depending on the unit and the terrain, it might not be an automatic loss, unlike the Crusader in the solution I proposed above.

or

2) If you have 4-5 other units and they can capture a city, the French will normally sue for peace. That's one other option. If the city you capture supports the Elephant, so much the better.

or

3) Move the defending units away from Marseilles, let the French recapture it, and bribe it later?

[Peaster]

The prize goes to SlowThinker!

Marseilles was not needed for conquest, so razing it was no problem. And the wounded crusader was still potentially useful.

This solution might not work in MP. A really smart elephant would not capture Marseilles on the first turn, but only move up next to it. I did not have a good plan in that case, but was pretty sure the AI would want the city ASAP.

@STYOM - There were no other friendly units close enough for 1) to work. I didn't think of 2), but my other units weren't in position for that, and I didn't want to slow down for peace.

Thanks for taking the quiz!

[SlowThinker]

BTW you forgot to mention Crusader (and no other unit) is not homed in Marseille, and that all improvements vere sold already.

In MP there may be a really smart Elephant, but this Elephant has only visibility 1, so he wouldn't expect a crusader is waiting behind Marseille.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Peaster
The prize goes to SlowThinker!

Marseilles was not needed for conquest, so razing it was no problem. And the wounded crusader was still potentially useful.

Ah. Shows that I didn't have my mind into the question - my answer involved trying to prevent the city from being destroyed, which is about as incorrect as it gets.

I tend to avoid destroying cities where I can - each city is a potential source of units, of course. But depending on the situation, that consideration might be secondary. (Like this situation).

[Peaster]

Oops.. forgot the homing issue.

I also like to preserve cities, and can't remember intentionally sacrificing one like this. That's why this situation seemed interesting. Just when I thought conquering had become routine, Civ2 surprises me again.