Turn 132, 70 AD

[DeepO]

No, Shiber, by moving 23, they would have used all their MP... the neutral road is only good if you don't get there from within an enemy border.

As to the devious plan: that would probably be a bit too much, Aeson Plus... even if we would have roughly the same tiles, we would still be the lowest because of corruption: both RP and GoW would get close territories, while we are spread out over 2 continents and ex-Vox. Surely we could make it work, but it wouldn't be so great an advantage. And afterwards we keep the same problem: if we want to go for a domination, we need to fight 2 equally powerful nations

I agree Lego is going to profit from this, however, they're not fully build up yet. And, if we wouldn't help them in research, they can't do much by themselves. They're not going to reach the space ship soon. And I doubt they're going to stay peaceful much longer either...

DeepO

[Aeson]

I think it would be ok to send a message to GoW asking whether the peace treaty on the table was intentional or not. If it was, ask if they are willing to discuss possibilities for GS and GoW to both avoid a prolonged and bloody conflict?

We need more input before doing anything though.

[Aeson]

Lego is going to join in against us soon most likely. We can beat ND+GoW with RP's help I think, but we can't beat ND+GoW+Lego before RP is built back up. We can deal with Lego+ND I think, so if GoW is out of it when Lego joins in, we have a good shot at this. Especially considering that ND will be hurting badly before Lego can get too much support on Bob.

Much better for GoW to be the one's getting the 'peaceful' GA than Lego IMO.

[DeepO]

I agree to send a message to GoW to ask if the message was intentional, but nothing more then that. Just one line should do it. And most likely, they will want to chat, which we can't do without more of our members present, and voicing opinions

As to Lego: you're right... I wonder if they are going to wait until after banking or not. But.. the war isn't going too well for us&RP, perhaps we can exploit this towards Lego.

DeepO

[notyoueither]

Strange, I was contacted by MZ last night to ask if our offer of peace was legitimate, or a mistake.

Perhaps Nathan was clicking around to gather intel and...

Let's wait to hear from Nathan.

[DeepO]

is it 20 turns after our last acceptance of peace from GoW? Nathan isn't the person to make these kind of mistakes (though it can always happen, of course)

DeepO

[Shiber]

Suggestion: let's move our galley in the north to block PoI in order to prevent GoW's 1/3 galley from entering port next turn to heal.

[Shiber]

Suggested blocking move:
Move some knights (number to be determined) to Pamplona-96 and fortify. This leaves GoW with several options:
1. Attack Toledo: with a few less knights, Toledo is more vulnerable but still a very tough nut to crack. It has four cats, gets +60% to defense and all units inside are fortified, which means that even medinfs can put up a good fight (3.7 defense after modifications). If GoW goes for Toledo, they are going to suffer heavy losses, and they will lose mostly to cheap units (pikes and medinfs). Plus, Toledo has barracks, so survivors can heal.
2. Attack New Madrid: compared to Toledo, NM is scarcely defended. But it does give a whopping +100% defense bonus and all units are fortified, so this is where our troops can max themselves - a cheap pike with 6.75 defense will probably hold against two expensive riders before falling.
3. Attempt to move into Pamplona-96: well, what can I say? They will have to go through several knights on mountains. GoW's losses will be significantly greater than ours.
4. Take another route to Pamplona: GoW will be a bit late (at earliest, they will be able to attack Pamplona on 110 AD), but safe in the mean time. However, we'll be able to relax the defenses around Toledo and we'll have knights in a position to help RP (whereas if we don't go for Pamplona-96, our fast route to the Pamplona theater will be blocked by GoW's riders standing on the exact same tile).

Another option is to move knights to reinforce NM (they can reach NM and fortify with 1/3 MP). If GoW goes for NM and takes it, they'll have a barracks to heal units in, and our beachhead town will be defenseless.
However, I doubt that they are going to get themselves stuck in that area. ND is putting pressure on them - they must be restless to receive some aid from GoW, and they probably plan to converge on Pamplona, knowing that it is a tough nut to crack but that the fall of Pamplona will mean the end of RP.
We have to put ourselves in a position to aid RP. We absolutely can't let them lose Pamplona, even if it means risking some beachhead towns.

[nbarclay]

I forwarded the turn. I plan to start playing it in about two hours, give or take a few minutes.

[Theseus]

Wow.

This is getting good.

[Shiber]

Originally posted by nbarclay
I forwarded the turn. I plan to start playing it in about two hours, give or take a few minutes.

Always when I'm asleep

[zeit]

I agree on P69- The fast route must be blocked.
As for anticipated movements on their part-GoW aren't stupid, and have some good generals- I think its safe to expect they'll head for Pamplon. Capturing NM is nice- its a large town and also coastal, and threatens our beachead, but its too far from the core of RP, and by now plans have changed for the duo- they aim for a quick destruction of RP, so that we'll be faced without allies on the continent, and would rethink the whole thing (or at least have a very difficult fight if we decide to stay). Toldedo in that regard doesn't help GoW by one bit, so if it weren't for the Cats, I'd say we should leave T relatively undefended- as the theater certainly about to move towards the SW or maybe the SE- clearly away from Toledo.

The peace offer- it fits in just fine: ND wants to get rid of the RP menace, they both realize that a full scale war against us is the worst scenario save for Lego+Vox coming to help us as well (and we can leave that out of the picture), GoW has enough strength in the region to destroy RP, after ND severly crippled them, but we stand in their way- having peace talks, perhaps even preliminary agreement of some sort can be their winning ticket- RP will be dead in less than 5 turns without our help, and the rest will be history...

The only agreement we can reach is one in which GoW abandons ND, and returns home, thus forfeiting any chances of winning, and thrill of combat, as well handing us the game on a plate- do you believe they'll go for it?

[DeepO]

I think there is one more thing we should start to consider: GoW going straight for the South, towards Barcelona. If they can clean out the smaller RP cities, both of them can turn back, together with possible reinforcements and attack the North of RP.

DeepO

[notyoueither]

I have set up a room. Apolyton server.

/join #GS Repulse

[notyoueither]

We must come to terms with their forces in the field. We cannot afford another Vox war.

Even if we risk losing a city because it is not full up and impossible to take, we need them to attack us, or put themselves in attackable positions.

We should not be afreaid to sacrifice 3 untis to get 2. Destroying their army is the only way to victory.