Turn 100, 570BC

[notyoueither]

How about this?

EotS pike, 1
Hurricane horse, 1
Tempest pike, 1
Bolderberg pike, 3
Arashi pike or med inf rushed/short rushed depending on situation
Cyclone cat or WC 2 or 3
Tornado med inf 3
Sufa galley 6 or WC 4
Typhoon galley 3

We are a turn or 2 from being able to rush 3 cats or WCs in the Western hamlets.

[nbarclay]

Aeson, medieval infantry would have lousy odds attacking new attackers from the north if the new attackers stick to the mountains, but they would do great against what's likely to be left of the forces between Arashi and Tempest. Take out some of those units and we free up some of Tempest's pikes to come north to Arashi to deal with the new attackers. So rushing a medieval infantry instead of a pike in Arashi won't particularly hurt us defensively and would give us a lot more flexibility to consider offensive operations if Vox gives us the right opening.

[Aeson]

I like Cats and Pikes. They don't kill fast, but we'll lose less shields to Vox using them. They also are upgradeable all the way.

We've been lucky with the Cats so far. I wouldn't plan on getting too many shots at 2HP units in 2 turns between Tempest and Arashi. I could happen next turn, or we may just see our luck evening out and we start missing a lot. I'd rather see us play it patient and take 1HP kills. Pikes give us the time, Cats give us the means (if they are a bit streaky, nothing is lost when we 'lose').

[notyoueither]

After this turn we could probably get by with pike only in Tempest and Bolderberg. That averages 1 per turn if we use a bit of gold in a pinch.

That would have
EotS horse, 1
Hurricane horse, 1
Tempest pike, 2
Bolderberg pike, 3
Arashi med inf, 4 less rushing
Cyclone cat or WC 2 or 3
Tornado med inf 3
Sufa galley 6 or WC 4
Typhoon galley 3
after this turn. With 4 more WC/cats coming from rushing the hamlets every 4 or 5 turns

[Arrian]

How about a compromise between NYE's proposal and mine?

I proposed no pikes, he proposed 3, right?

So why not:

Hurricane: Pike
EotS: Horse
Tempest: Med Inf (short rush)
Arashi: Pike
Cyclone: WC
Tornado: WC
Sufa: WC
Typhoon: galley

And leave Monsoon & SS on Cats?

-Arrian

Edit: crosspost with NYE. Similar thoughts...

[nbarclay]

If we do a pike and a horseman in our big cities, we're probably better off doing the horse in EotS and the pike in Hurricane. A pike in Hurricane could help defend Sandstorm if Vox goes for it next turn, and could be in Arashi in two turns just as easily as one from EotS could.

[notyoueither]

Could work if we rush the pike in Arashi.

[Arrian]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, Nathan. The place we run the biggest risk of getting hurt by the RNG is around SS.

-Arrian

[nbarclay]

Arrian, the med. inf. short rush would be in Arashi, not in Tempest. Tempest is set up to finish a pike next turn without the need for a rush.

[Aeson]

How much cash do we have after selling off all the Barracks?

[Arrian]

Nathan, ok. I didn't realize that (I'm at "work," and therefore can't access the save right now).

-Arrian

[nbarclay]

Aeson, on average, Vox's immortals would all be down to two hit points by the time we would do a preemptive strike to free up pikes from Tempest. Normally, I'd certainly rather whittle them all the way down to one hit point before attacking, but if Vox can get a good enough pincer movement going, attacking them early in order to free up pikes might make sense. We'll have to see how things go. By the way, we also need to consider at what point it might make sense to focus our cats on Arashi 9 instead of on the big stack. We probably want to focus our whittling on Vox's most potent units.

[notyoueither]

Westen galley. Suggest 8 8 9 6.

Typhoon galley. Suggest 4 4 8 8. Go check for the island next turn if nothing shows interesting in the West.

Sufa galley. Well, landing on the road near the iron colony seems to be out, so send west to assist exploring/repelling Vox/GoW and getting ready for Inchon.

Eastern gallies. Suggest they finish where they started. Slows down Vox in moving south and keeps them guessing as to whether there are troops on them (thus pinning down a couple more immortals and spears).

[Aeson]

If we have more Pikes we don't need to attack 2HP units though. We can wait.

[nbarclay]

All barracks sold, leaving us at 36 gold, +139 gpt.