Vox's iron colony

[Shiber]

Originally posted by nbarclay
Shiber, if we don't land all four units at once, Vox gets a shot to hit while there are only two pikes on the mountain behind them. Still, we could try it and hope Vox doesn't figure out the need to withdraw until we get more troops in.

Yeah, that's true. I'd rather not land at all or land late than land with only 2 pikes.

Originally posted by Theseus
In general, I would prefer to wait a turn to accomplish as many objectives as possible concurrently.

Yes, I'm with that. We run the chance of letting Vox have one more turn to build or upgrade pikes should they get Feudalism against boxing 5 immortals and having 5 sure easy kills - I'd rather go with the latter.

[zeit]

Don't forget our Cats- timing Landing 2 pikes with a volley of Cats shots seriously increases our odds on the east.

If They still win after the Cats and the pikes (not unlikely). They are probably down 2 Immortals, with the rest wounded- this gives our Med. Inf. on their tails a more than decent chance at taking them out with minimal losses.

I think every turn in this effort counts- Vox is probably regrouping and preparing their defense for an inevitable attack- every turn we wait means extra defenders on each possible front.

On that note- we simply must create a diversion operation- like the allies had before D-day. The obvious candidate is D'Ville. I say we concentrate as much forces as we can A9- and even make a calculated risk of moving north of the border a turn or 2 before we land, so that Vox is tempted to concentrate it's defenses in the mountains around the town...

What do you say?

[Shiber]

I like it! But can we pull it off?
Two inchons and a feint on D'Ville seems awfully demanding to me... and if we allot only a few units to D'Ville, Vox would realize that something is wrong...

[zeit]

Even if it doesn't mean we put alot of units- Vox would realize it's best chance of defending is on the mountains, if we go with a move that seems offensive on A98 (taking out their spearmen), they'll have no choice but to thicken their stacks around, or try to attack us (even better- Immortals vs. Pikes on mountains). even if we divert 4 pikes and 2-3. Vox will have to change it's plans, or run the risk of us making a line of pike defended mountain tiles up to D'ville.

On the issue of not having sufficient troops- I don't think that's a big issue- any force north of A9 will either be attacked or left alone- I just don't see Vox trying to go around to get to A99 and make a renewed attempt at Arashi from there- and even if they do try- they're more than welcomed, it means less Immortals near Inchoff and Inchon.

[Shiber]

On one hand, I'd like to have units that advance through the mountains to D'Ville anyway, while Vox has to pull off their units to attack the Inchons. On the other hand, sending only a handful of units would make Vox suspicious ("where are the rest of their units?").

[Theseus]

If we send, say, 4 units through the mountains, we have enough fastmovers to approach on flatlands to appear convincing.

[nbarclay]

Zeit, using cats to weaken Vox at the same time we land behind them is a nice idea, but the timing is wrong. Getting the cats over to Sandstorm in time to land pikes before a 4-turn Inchoff is a theoretical impossibility with that river in the way. And Vox's troops would heal anyhow, since we won't even be close to cultural expansion at that time.

[nbarclay]

One option for a feint toward Dissidentville would be to swing our cats over to Arashi and take Arashi 9-8 before moving the cats on to Sandstorm. If we'd take Arashi 9-8 with a heavy force of pikes and MedInfs, that might provide a sufficiently credible threat to take Vox's attention away from our landings.

[Shiber]

I second that!
If Vox lost a position on one of the spinebreaker tiles, they'd panic and strengthen that position, thus moving troops away from the Inchons.

[Aeson]

The odds on Jungle unfortified are better than on grassland, and equally worse than they are on a hill. If we land D888, we may lose Pikes, but they are Pikes we would probably lose anyways when we land Inchon/Inchoff (unless Vox has more Immortals to attack with the first turn than we land Pikes). Given the same RNG rolls, we kill about the same number of Immortals when being attacked at D888 as at Inchon/Inchoff.

They might still have workers in the area. It takes them ~3 turns to rebuild that road most likely. I can't see them having 5 Workers waiting around to rebuild it in 2 turns (move onto the tile, road), but even if they do we can do Inchon/Inchoff regardless of how many Pikes survive (we'd have more to land in 2 turns than we could muster now). And Vox won't have been able to build/upgrade anymore Immortals in that timeframe.

Inchon/Inchoff both need an extra turn to build the city to cut off Iron. IMO D888 'kills' 4-6 Immortals (poprushed/upgraded) that we have to face if we wait those two extra turns to cut off the Iron. We risk 4-6 Pikes that to kill Vox has to lose a few more Immortals at better than Inchon, but worse than Inchoff odds. That makes Inchon/Inchoff both more likely to succeed even if we have fewer Pikes to land.

[nbarclay]

Aeson, immortals in Dissidentville (and there was at least one vet there last we saw) could hit troops at D888 the moment we land. By the time immortals from Dissidentville could hit our planned Inchon site, our pikes will be fortified, our MedInfs in a position to hit them first (unless our MedInfs have already been injured/killed in earlier fights), and, if we're willing to pay the no-shields-yet penalty, our walls built.

[Aeson]

Conversely, Units in Elipolis can't help stop us from cutting the road at D888 while they can hit the Inchon landing.

[nbarclay]

But if we go for the D888 attack and then Inchon, by the time we're done, both units from Dissidentville and units from Elipolis will get shots at an unfortified landing force. In contrast, if we focus exclusively on Inchon and Inchoff, forces in Dissidentville can't do anything against us until we're dug in.

[Theseus]

Nathan, what are the various unit counts (both ours and Vox')?

[notyoueither]

... and what will the forces be for Inchon/Inchoff and how much will be left at Arashi and SS to counter a bum rush over the mountains and down into the plains by Vox's remaining immortals?