Vox's iron colony

[nbarclay]

Right now Vox seems to have only one immortal defending its iron colony area. If we would bring back our two galleys, load them with a settler and pikes, and land them on the grassland, we could absorb Vox's iron colony before they can do anything about it. (A third galley from Hurricane and a total of five pikes in the invasion force would do even better.) Vox would have to take the city before they could rebuild their colony, and with a free barracks and rush-built walls, that would not be easy even on flatlands.

And if we do the Inchon landing while Vox is still trying to cope with that, Vox will suddenly find itself facing two major incursions instead of one - and having to deal with threats on a total of three fronts: Inchon, the colony, and Dissidentville. Even if Vox can mount a successful conterattack against one of our incursions, the other will make sure they're crippled.

This strategy would preclude our starting the Colossus in the next few turns. But it would put us in a much stronger position to start a prebuild for Leo's in a reasonable amount of time, and shoud reduce the total cost of the war considerably.

[Arrian]

So now we're talking about an amphibious pincer move (sorta)?

How many galleys do we have right now? 2 in the East, 2 in the West, or did we build a 3rd Eastern galley too? I forget.

I like the idea. Both landings at once might really overload them. They could probably nail the forces we land on flatland, but if we succeed in getting troops up on that hill (questionable... if I were them and I saw GS galleys, I'd probably cover that hill so GS couldn't land there), they're screwed.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

I was just looking at the map ("Maps of the known world, 730bc" thread, down on page 2, which I think I'm gonna bump, because it's useful for general strategy discussion) and it occurred to me that if they deny us the hill I want to use for Inchon, there really isn't anything stopping us from proceeding northward to land on the hill that is a couple of tiles NW of Eliopolis, or even going further and landing next to Wittlich, on the doorstep of The Voice. We should be able to keep out galleys out of sight in the sea tiles until we are ready to offload them.



-Arrian

[nbarclay]

Currently four galleys in the west (including a new one built last turn that's a couple turns behind the others but only one turn behind our settler) and two in the east.

Edit: Doublechecking, I'm almost sure the fourth western galley could participate in Inchon without delaying it. Both landings could take place in as little as four turns, embarking units on the third turn and landing them on the fourth.

[Arrian]

Ah. So 6 total.

Do you think it's best to use all 4 Western galleys in the Inchon operation, or should we use the northernmost one as a scout to keep our info up to date on the coastline, and use the rest (3) for the landing forces (which would give us 5 units & a settler)?

Both Eastern galleys would have to withdraw and load, and that means we won't see what's going on up there for a bit, plus with only 2 of them, the Eastern landing has a pretty good chance of getting defeated (doesn't matter to me, really, if that takes the heat off of Inchon and thus ensures its success).

-Arrian

[nbarclay]

Note that I edited my post above.

I definitely want all four western galleys involved in Inchon. Even seven units accompanying a settler would face a risk of successful Voxian counterattack by the time we could reinforce them.

[Aeson]

Have we gotten a view of Dissidentville 88 or 888 yet? If they have 888 open, we should land a few Pikes there ASAP. I think we can spare 4 Pikes from Arashi/Tempest now, as by the time they could be threatened again we will have built enough to replace them.

If we can catch Vox with their Iron unconnected and pillage that road (D888), it turns the war completely in our favor. We can land in 3 turns if it's open.

2 galleys move to Monsoon 4 where Vox can't see them. The units we are going to load move to Monsoon 2, to stay out of sight and within loading range. The northernmost galley moves 9888 to 'threaten' a landing in Vox's core. It will be on Elipolis' border and get a view of Dissidentville 88, 888, and Grog mountain on the way.

The next turn we load the units into our 2 galleys, and move the galleys north. Vox won't see where they started unless they move a unit onto the flats by Monsoon (unlikely) and won't see where they end up unless they have a unit on Dissidentville 87 which we would see with the first Galley unless they move it there that very turn after we pass.

Then we land 4 Pikes on Dissidentville 888 if it is undefended the next turn. If they can't land, we wait for the next Galley that brings Inchon's Settler. If we do land, we can pillage the road, and then load the surviving units back on the ships for Inchon.

[Arrian]

Nathan,

Fair enough. Would you go with all pikemen + settler? Or maybe 1 attack unit (med inf) to beat up on incoming immortals? I like the idea of having 1 vet med inf along for the ride.

I assume we would load the galleys from Monsoon. We'll have to be careful that their forces in the mountains (if any) can't see our galleys when we do that.

EDIT: Crosspost with Aeson (now reading)

-Arrian

[Aeson]

To be clear on the Inchon fallback plan...

The Northernmost galley heads back south on turn 3 regardless. Only one of the 2 galleys with units moves to see D888, and the other stays where it is if the tile is blocked. If it is blocked, the northernmost galley moves to pick upthe 2 units in the unmoved galley, which then moves back to Monsoon 4 to pick up more units. The southern galley and Settler would have just made it past Whirlwind.

[Aeson]

- blah

[Shiber]

I'm not gonna comment on this plan yet, I'm too tired to read straight.

On another topic:
Vox has an immortal fortified on the iron mountain near D'Ville. Do you think that they're going to try to grab that iron?
There are two ways to achieve that goal. One is by roading the tile and building a temple in D'Ville, the other is by establishing another colony. In both cases we can take the iron back culturally (we can build culture faster than they can because we can cash-rush buildings)... so what is Vox thinking? Could be a Voxian mistake here, could be something I haven't thought about.

[Aeson]

They probably just don't want to give us a free mountain to move troops onto.

[notyoueither]

But it's also a nearly instant iron colony for a time until we can take it.

If we do the Eastern thing, we may want to time it so that Monsoon's borders expand on the turn we land, or the turn after so that Vox is left with no reprieve.

[zeit]

The eastern mission will not be successful IMHO- we are talking about taking a colony- which then could be rebuilt in one turn- and an untimely death for 3 or 5 pikes, which i hardly believe would survive for more than 2 turn after landing- too soon to enjoy the benefits of walls, not to mention the lost settler and the symbolic Voxian victory.

I suggest that we use our suicide commandoes to hit as much as Iron Jungle road tiles as possible- at exacly the same time we land at Inchon, and make a push around D'ville- this gives us a decent chance at destroying 2 road tiles, which could take Vox a while to recover.

Here's a pic of what i had in mind:

[Shiber]

Posted this in the wrong forum, moving:
This might seem obvious to some, but I'll say it anyway: if and before we land in that grass tile, we absolutely have to make sure that there are no immortals 4 and 47 of the iron colony (this may be just a trap).

And yes, I agree with Zeit.