Turn 106, 450 BC

[notyoueither]

It is time to sink the Vox scow, now that we have sufficient forces to assure it's demise. We have 3, right?

[nbarclay]

Three within striking range. Any more votes for/against what may be the world's first naval battle?

[Theseus]

Take out the galley.... RAMMING SPEED!!!!!!!

Still against A98... it's also not a particularly good road path to D-ville.

More thoughts in a few minutes.

[Theseus]

The most important road I can think of, if we can get it done quickly enough, is at A6, for the Return of the Cats.

That said, we have to anticipate a fairly significant response from Vox the next move... in the east? in the west?

[nbarclay]

Aye eye, admiral. Ramming speed it is. First galley preparing to ram.

[nbarclay]

The Voxian galley won, taking only one point of damage. Preparing a second attack.

[nbarclay]

Our second galley won, taking one point of damage.

We're in trouble. Vox now has Feudalism and a vet pikeman in Dissidentville. There's also a vet. warrior at Dissidentville 8.

[notyoueither]

The bastids!

How did they get feudalism? Damn! Everyone has feudalism!

[nbarclay]

I just checked the trade situation, and everyone has Feudalism now. So much for our hopes of a trade with Lego.

[Theseus]

No problem re the pikes.

We've got production power out the yin yang; so we break things... slowly... carefully.

How 'bout we revisit the war plan?

Inchon, Inchoff, and the SS trap are all still on. But where I'd been anticipating a *slow* move up the Spinebreakers in order to deal with the Monsoon Threat, we instead pump out some more MedInf for Monsoon defense, and some WCs / Horse to more aggressively move north through the cental plains.

The delay? Two turns?

Our overwhelming force just needs to be more overwhelming (at a number of units versus unit strength level).

Yeah, I know, it sucks to be investing so much in our military, and we're all chomping at the bit to be building... but let's have done with Vox for once and all.

[nbarclay]

Inchon is now delayed by at least a turn, at least assuming we don't want to telegraph it. I'm tempted to rush galleys in both O.G. and Monsoon, with an eye toward adding a couple extra MedInfs to the Inchon attack. A one-turn delay in Inchoff would let us add a fourth galley and either a pike and a MedInf or, if we're inclined to replace a pike on SS6 with a MedInf (finished in Tornado this turn), two pikes. (I really don't want Vox already speeding troops toward Inchoff when we land on Inchon.)

One catch on the eastern front is that Vox may very well try to sealift their troops out of the trap we have them boxed in.

[nbarclay]

If Inchon succeeds, my inclination is to ignore Dissidentville (albeit not the troops in the area), sealift forces around the city, and go straight for Vox's core. With how seriously we were shafted on Feudalism, does anyone want to bet Vox won't be able to get a new iron supply just as fast as they can build a harbor?

[Theseus]

Arrgghh, this is a b*tch.

How about we:

1. Keep Inchon, Inchoff, and the SS Trap on schedule.
2. Maintain enough troops in and around Arashi and Monsoon to deal with any threat there.
3. Delay the ground attack on D-ville?

I think we are all agreed, iron-denial and the massive disruption we intend are the priorities.

[nbarclay]

I think I just came up with a plan to make an on-schedule Inchon work without telegraphing it and without making it suicide. If we rush a galley in Monsoon, that will give us four galleys for the initial landing, which could handle six pikes, a settler, and a MedInf. Our wounded galley could tag a bit behind with two more MedInfs, and would (if Vox has units ready to be attacked) unload in the city so our MedInfs could still attack at the same time as if they were part of the initial landing. As long as Vox doesn't have (and can't get) another galley into the action, and as long as they don't move a unit onto D1 (from which they could see our main attack force), it's probably a viable strategy.

[Arrian]

I ****ing KNEW IT! I knew they were gonna get feudalism before we could muster an invasion.

DAMNIT.

In my opinion, this makes the Inchon/Inchoff operations even more important.

Dissidentville just isn't that important once we cut them off at the neck. We can leave it until we can bring overwhelming force (and perhaps our catapults) to bear.

-Arrian