Turn 101, 550 BC

[Arrian]

Clearly we will want some more mounted troops. But I had been basically arguing for 1-2 cities working on med inf, with the rest building WCs and Horsemen (the two 30-shielders). I think we'll need a bit more than that to replenish our losses now.

-Arrian

[ManicStarSeed]

I agree

[Arrian]

Ok, I'm going to bed. Good job Nathan, the RNG just wasn't with us tonight.

-Arrian

[nbarclay]

I'd like to park five pikes on Arashi 9 and five in Arashi. That leaves Tempest without any units in it, but if Vox sees it defended only by WCs and makes the mistake of thinking it will stay weakly defended, that will probably work in our favor rather than against us. (But they can't see it from where they are.) We'll also have a regular medieval infantry from Tempest and one that's already in Arashi to round out Arashi's first line of defense.

Vox would have to bring in a lot next turn to punch through Arashi 9 without horriffic losses, and with decent cat luck, we might even be able to transfer another pike or two to Arashi 9 if we need to.

[nbarclay]

Proposed build plan changes:

1) Put EotS on pikes for a turn or two so Tempest's next build can be a medieval infantry.

2) Keep building pikes in Hurricane with the goal of having four pikes and two horsemen (and/or WCs) on Hurricane 8 and four pikes on Sandstorm 6. As swordsmen and medieval infantry are replaced, we supplement our medieval infantry force on the Arashi front. The pikes keep Vox's immortals from advancing through the mountains, and horsemen and WCs from Hurricane 8 and Arash can deal with them if they're stupid enough to come down off the mountains.

3) Switch Bolderberg to short rush a medieval infantry next turn instead of building a war chariot. (So much for my hopes of being able to stop short rushing soon.)

[Aeson]

2 Med Inf for A9 isn't bad at all.

It basically means Vox's stack is dead.

[notyoueither]

Sort of obvious, but we need to cover the pinch on SS.

From where they are, no slow movers from the west can help.

[nbarclay]

NYE's fear is that Vox may bring in a few more immortals on the road to threaten Arashi 9 next turn. With a big enough force and a bit of luck, it's not inconceivable that they could take Arashi 9 back, but yeah, I like the odds of taking out the seven-immortal stack. And if luck is on our side, Vox will throw good troops after bad trying to rescue them.

[notyoueither]

Well, they could either...

pile in troops adjacent to Arashi on the plains and fortify the stack we are looking at as diner, then storm Arashi next turn (or Arashi 9) or...

move diner along with the 5 from the east against SS. From where they are, none of the cats nor the MedInf from Arashi could help SS.

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Sort of obvious, but we need to cover the pinch on SS.

From where they are, no slow movers from the west can help.

If Vox brings western immortals in as an extra diversion, our slow-movers have targets. If not, we have four eastern vet medieval infantry (I went ahead and upgraded a sword), two eastern regular swords, 8 WCs, and a horse unit to whittle away at the Voxians, and we can plant pikes in Hurricane to deal with any survivors. (If we concentrate on making absolutely sure the eastern branch of the fork dies, the entire Hurricane area pike force will be free to defend Sandstorm. )

[nbarclay]

As long as we control Arashi 9, no new Voxians from the north can threaten Arashi without moving onto flatlands.

[nbarclay]

I moved our new Typhoon galley (finished last turn) 4-4-4-4. It doesn't look like there's an island there after all.

[nbarclay]

I moved a northeastern galley 8-4-6-2 (ending where it started), and Vox has three regular immortals parked on the road and three spearmen on the mountains. (They no longer have an immortal sitting on the iron itself.) I moved the other northeastern galley 2-2-8-8, and Vox still has a spear on lookout duty on the mountain by itself between the two eastern ranges. I'm thinking in terms of moving the northwestern galley 8-8 and deciding where to go from there based on what I see.

[Theseus]

Ave Immortals, te morituri salutant!!

Again, 6 units on each of the mountains in the east, please, preferably 3x each of 3 defense and 2 defense.

In the west, I only worry about Vox having (imported) horses...

I suggest not attacking the Vox galley in the east... much scarier for us to be moving our two galleys further north, with nothing Vox can do about the threat.

[nbarclay]

Any objections to using all our western pikes to plant five on Arashi 9 and five in Arashi, and to moving our remaining Tempest regular medieval infantry into Arashi? That would leave an elite WC showing as Tempest's top defender if Vox moves its stack back south.