War Academy: SMC's Plans, 925 BC: The French Front

[Inverse Icarus]

Citizens of Apolytonia, our war with America is over, with all of our objectives being met. We have captured Washington (Del Monte), and New York (Gaia), and were given 2 other citys in the peace deal.

We were unable to acquire Chichago, and Insence Valley, but no matter. It shall be ours in good time.

There are several threads about "what to do now", and if you read through them you'll see I (and several others, namely Sir Ralph) are in favor of a war with France.

the DIA now see their chance to come out and openly demand many cultural improvements. Ninot himself called this "a nice period now to build on what we have, and expand peacefully."

I agree, it is definately the time to expand. We should pop out some settlers and fill in the gaps in our newly "acquired" terrain.

I also agree, temples will be quite useful for general happiness / more workers / culture.

But we canot let this overshadow our current suitation, which although a lot better, is still rather bleak.

We are now roughly the same size as most of the AIs, but not nearly as organized. Our infastructure is lacking. Again, I'll agree that this is another area we should spend some time on.

BUT YOU MUST STAY FOCUSED

France is our closest neighbor (ignoring America completely). They are one of the larger civs. They have some decent land. Iron. Horses. Wines. Loads of great stuff, sitting in front of us.

Our vallant army of Archers that are now attending a festival in Gaia will not do for long. As valliant as they are, the bow is becomming outdated, and we are becomming outmanned. We now have the ability to build Horsemen, and in a little while we will have the ability to build Swordsmen, both great weapons for waging war.

We cannot lose sight of our expansion. I see almost no way of completely "peacefull" expansion.

Many would say "build cities towards the ivory coast", but in my opinion, thats a loooooong way away. I'm not the Imperial Expansion minister, but thats a crapload of turns away, turns where Greece, America, etc could grab it.

What I propose is that we secure the Eastern Portion of France for ourselves. We capture a few key cities and sue for a few other ones.

This will probably also yield some techs / money / what have you. Always good.

Finally, such an undertaking would grant us access to the Southern sub-continent if we should so choose to colonize there.

this map is current, pre-war france.

[Inverse Icarus]

And this is what I would hope to secure after the proposed war.

Marsilles (north of Paris) is also a probable city to take, but this is a "minimalist" objective list.

NOTE:

the following cities would ot be autorazed:
Orleans
Marsilles
Paris

therefore, i would suggest taking Orleans first, then Paris, and then consider Marsilles. Then we would sue for peace, demanding Chartres, and whatever else we can get.

[Inverse Icarus]

Useful Links (updated whenever we make new ones)
Which Weapon To Use on France?
The Viability of War Chariots

[Inverse Icarus]

(it's 2:40 AM Local time, so i'm going to bed for the night. i'll pick this up tomorrow. sorry but i'm tired )

[expansion room]

you may now post / discuss.

[Harovan]

I wholeheartly agree. But hit early. Don't hang around till we have swordsmen ready.

Hit fast.
Hit hard.
Hit early.

Time matters!

[notyoueither]

I agree with Sir Ralph. The French are too close for our own good.

We have one opportunity now to catch these civs in REX mode. We must seize it.

[WhiteBandit]

Hmmm

Many know that I'm not much of a war monger, but I think we *should* launch a limited campaign to prune France. However, this campaign should be executed in a rather unique fashion. We need to launch a two (or three ) pronged attack simultaneously. This is quick and insures we secure the objectives. We would need at least two army stacks from what I can estimate. (Granted, I am no warrior, I would leave that to our SMC to properly prepare).

If we do this, it would be a massive undertaking, something not seen in our young empire's history.

Domestic Plans
However, I do think we should consolidate what we currently have gained during this war. I believe all newly aquired cities should build a temple *immediately*. This will take quite a few turns, but we need to make sure we establish culture in these cities to reduce the chance of a culture flip. With the jungle cities (Gaia, Philadelphia, Atlanta), this will take quite awhile. However, once that is complete, we need to build defenders in those cities. Our core cities (Apolyton, Termina, Tassagrad, BananaHQ) should be our primary producers of the armies. I haven't done the math yet, but if we focus them on producing military units, we should be able to field another impressive army quite quickly (plus we have veteran units left over from our victorious American War to add as well). Also, our workers should build a transit network to connect our empire completely. Especially getting the iron at Ubergorsk (though it is not a neccessary priority for the war).

Consequences
Can our reputation afford to take another hit. People will remember that we savagely attacked America. If we do the same to France, surely civilizations will think twice about dealing with us in the future?

These are my thoughts, but my bottom line is to go for it (after we are properly prepared of course).

[Harovan]

Going to war is considered normal, as long as is declared in time and not a cowardly sneak attack or RoP abuse. We won't suffer any diplomatic or trade penalties from this, even if we start 10 wars. The worst what can happen is, the AI's can be annoyed and some furious. Who cares?

[Harovan]

Re: Hmmm

Originally posted by WhiteBandit
Domestic Plans
However, I do think we should consolidate what we currently have gained during this war. I believe all newly aquired cities should build a temple *immediately*. This will take quite a few turns, but we need to make sure we establish culture in these cities to reduce the chance of a culture flip. With the jungle cities (Gaia, Philadelphia, Atlanta), this will take quite awhile. However, once that is complete, we need to build defenders in those cities. Our core cities (Apolyton, Termina, Tassagrad, BananaHQ) should be our primary producers of the armies. I haven't done the math yet, but if we focus them on producing military units, we should be able to field another impressive army quite quickly (plus we have veteran units left over from our victorious American War to add as well). Also, our workers should build a transit network to connect our empire completely. Especially getting the iron at Ubergorsk (though it is not a neccessary priority for the war).

- Building up and preparing for war can go in one time. While the newly acquired cities will build (and later poprush) temples, our core cities produce units and settlers.

- Defenders for the new cities are already built. We have thought about this long ago. Del Monte and Gaia have already defenders, The one to Philadelphia is on the way and the one for Atlanta will soon be built.

- For connecting the iron in Ubergorsk, I would prefer to build an intermediate city (even though it may be far from optimal placed), to make sure all tiles of the connecting roads go through our territory. Or else, if Munich expands, they can cut off our iron access in case of war. This would be deadly. The city should be placed close to Munich, with the second purpose to culturally squeeze Munich. I will post a thread about this at evening.

[Epistax]

France is the obvious choice (however nothing should stop us for taking our America as soon as reputation allows). The french wine now seems more accessible than incense valley. It's always good to control more mountains. I'm not sure why, although I heard of some green glowing thing there.

[Donal Graeme]

Re: Hmmm

Originally posted by WhiteBandit
Many know that I'm not much of a war monger, but I think we *should* launch a limited campaign to prune France. However, this campaign should be executed in a rather unique fashion. We need to launch a two (or three ) pronged attack simultaneously. This is quick and insures we secure the objectives. We would need at least two army stacks from what I can estimate. (Granted, I am no warrior, I would leave that to our SMC to properly prepare).

I think that WhiteBandit may have a point here. It would take some time to knock out Paris by driving straight for it, and then hook to Orleans. Perhaps what we should do is start with one very large stack, near Paris, and move south toward Paris with most of it. However, one spearman and 2-3 archers will go south, and then east to orleans to attack it right after we get the primary stack next to Paris. This ensures that the secondary stack can act as backup if needed.

edit: My bad, go for Orleans first, and then attack Paris, it is more logical. I forgot about the cultural block from Rheims and Paris.

[Vlad Antlerkov]

I agree with this plan. We could use the resources they have. Plus, Chartres is awfully close to our capitol-- if we don't seize it, they may use it later. (Assuming they're smart enough to do that.)

After we... "reduce"... the Frenchies, I propose that we go after the Greeks. Then again, who else is near us? (I've been out for a while, and haven't seen the maps of our eastern frontiers-- if we have any recent maps.)

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by Vlad Antlerkov
I agree with this plan. We could use the resources they have. Plus, Chartres is awfully close to our capitol-- if we don't seize it, they may use it later. (Assuming they're smart enough to do that.)

After we... "reduce"... the Frenchies, I propose that we go after the Greeks. Then again, who else is near us? (I've been out for a while, and haven't seen the maps of our eastern frontiers-- if we have any recent maps.)

i'm very against attacking the greeks, especially if you want me to use archers on those damn hoplites

[Inverse Icarus]

grrr... i forgot you can't add attachments to "expansion room" posts without attaching a placeholder image, so I'll continue here.

Major Objectives

• The Capture of Orleans
• The Capture of Paris
• The Aquisition of Rheims
• The Aquisition of Chartres
• Unimpeeded Access to Abananaba Minor (the sub-continent)

MinorObjectives

• A Swarm of Elite Units
• A Great Leader (Forbidden Palace)
• The Aquisition of Marsellies
• Any Gold, Maps, or other Cities we Can Get.

General Strategy Overview

• We must take Paris ans Orleasn VERY quickly
• 2 Stacks is a must for this assault

Specific Strategies
Paris

• Paris is tucked behind several "satelite" cities.
• There is no way to simply walk troops next to it by conventional means.
• I propose a fleet of galleys be used to drop in the Stack that is going to attack Paris (see attachment)
• After landing behind Orleans' borders, it will take 2 moves to set up for the assault (approach borders or Paris) and another 2 to approach the city itself
• The entire journey will be on mountains, giving our spearmen a 100% defense bonus. Any French unit attacking us would be fighting a 4 defense.
• The approach from the southern mountain chains also bypasses any river near france.

Orleans

• Orleans can be approached by traditional means
• We can use the jungle as cover until we are directly next to the city.
• This will not differ too mcuh from what we did with America

The entire assault should take place on the same turn, as each border places us 2 squares from the city itself.

After that we would wait it out and sue for peace, demanding Rheims, Chartres, and perhaps Marsellies. And of course any cash / techs we can get.

Attachment Ledgend
Red is the path of the Galley Fleet (the landing zone is 3 or 4 turns from Termina, depending on if we want to violate French borders for a turn)
Blue is the path of the Paris Stack
Green is the path of the Orleans Stack

[Inverse Icarus]

It would also be possible to use one stack to take out Orleans, and then move on to Paris, but where's the fun in that?

My strategy could cripple the French in one turn, and it would get us some galleys to use AFTER the operation is over with.