The Spartan Academy

[notyoueither]

Generals Theseus and Arrian should lead discussions of a military nature here. The first post after this one should be for current orders, plans, and objectives. The players will look there for guidance, as well as in the turn threads.

If the generals cannot participate in the turn threads, the first posts of this thread being up to date will be all that there is to guide the player(s).

LINKS FOR GAUL PLANNING

hypotethical plan to invade Lego (first ideas)

Discussions for planning the invasion of Legoland

Discussions of our defences once marines are available

These links are primarily in case the relevant dicussion threads drop off the first page or two for some reason.

[Arrian]

**LEFT BLANK FOR ORDERS OF A RELATIVELY IMMEDIATE NATURE**

[Arrian]

Right. I've been thinking long term. Here is what I see:

We're barely holding our own on Bob.
RP has been badly hurt.
GoW has Leos.
Gunpowder isn't far off.

I know people want to invade GoW and do some damage. So do I. But I got to wondering: is that realistic? Can it be done? I'm not sure it can.

Then I thought "ok, assume for a moment that it ISN'T feasible, what the hell CAN we do?"

If we throw everything we have into repelling ND & GoW from the south of Spain, and then set up a perimeter defense line along the mountains west of Pamp while also covering Toledo, I think we could rebuild Spain while "under fire" so to speak.

And I do mean rebuild. I'm thinking about a huge effort here. We do the settling and most of the terrain improvement, while our army holds off the Arab & Chinese hordes. They take over cities and build them up. Key to this would be picking a FP site (since Pamp is by no means central in this vision of RP) and getting that going ASAP. That way, RP will have a decent empire with minimal corruption when they manage to fire their GA... and maybe we can turn that GA into the turning of the tide down the road.

Or am I nuts?

-Arrian

[notyoueither]

That warrants serious consideration.

The thing I am wondering about is, where are all those horsemen/riders that GoW is building? Are they waiting for the landing they suspect is coming?

[Theseus]

Arrian:

You are not nuts, but it is not yet the time to assume a stalemate, and withdraw to simply re-building Spain (I don't mean simply as in simple, you are correct, it will be a huge effort... I mean 'just').

nye:

That's what I would do... until the joint ND / GoW 1-2-1-2 punch is entirely ready, I'd keep my second wave of Riders somewhere near Toledo, ready to:
1) Retreat north to counter an attack by GS
2) Move forward to the south as reinforcements in the event of a major battle or should Pamplona become a viable target
3) Attack Toledo

In fact, though I'd have to look at a map again, I'll bet I could predict where they'll be... 9 moves from whatever northern tile would be our greatest threat position and yet leave us vulnerable, and far enough west to remain hidden from GS kamikaze-Knight forward observers.

[Cort Haus]

NYE described our war aims in the south as follows :

"Our forces in Southern Spain are there to destroy the captured cities, and to retake Salamanca (renamed Alamo) in the long run. This action is intended to hold GoW's attention there while we prepare the channel crossing." - nye

Are we holding GoW's attention in the south while we hit it in the north, or do we want to hold its attention in the north while hitting it in the south? We not going to retake spain *and* damage the GoW core are we?

With the talk of stalemate in the South, it doesn't look like we're about to retake anything does it, unless we divert some enemy strength?

I made a comment in the Turn thread about pushing pike stacks forward in the south.

On a similar theme, we could drop pike stacks from galleys onto hills/mnts near somewhere like Yellowknife next turn to raise the enemy heartbeat. Fortify the turn after and follow with more pikes and knights, and they're staring at a beach-head. Now how far south will those GoW stacks dare to patrol?

Would this give us the chance to strike at the GoW holdings in Spain? Or, are our ambitions in the south limited to holding on to what we've got?

MavDad is a possible site for a landing to distract ND, and it would be great to get a march on that chain of mountains heading straight at their core! However, it might not be ideal to encourage a enemy build up near Toledo.

In brief - if GoW are expecting an assault, let them draw inward and wait for it while we make gains. The alternative is to force them to commit their existing forces to the deep south, then land the invasion force in or near their core.

[Cort Haus]

Thinking of what Arrian said, and if our overall aim is the prevention of a 2-civ Bob, plus the desire of our own production base there, rebuilding however much of Spain as is possible/appropriate looks good long term.

Our essential problem is that Stormia ultimately can't compete with Legoland for eventual power - military or space. By vasseling Spain (the price for their survival) and making it economically viable, we remove the need for our own palace on Bob. They research for us, and would fight Lego with us if it came to that. Meanwhile, dual-core Stormia enjoys a stronger economy too.

If all this is true, then the question remains 'how big a Spain'?

I'm not sure what expectation levels are for damaging enemy assets - beyond recapturing and holding territory. I guess a few smoking ruins where key GoW cities once stood is a beautiful thought for our alliance...

[Cort Haus]

doh ... wrong about the PEF (PikeExpedFor) - it would take two turns, and I assumed they wouldn't get charged to death.

[asleepathewheel]

For a possible ruse, if we aren't actually planning on attacking GoW soon, we could mass the galleys and float them over to some northern point. That might draw forces back to the cities and delay an earlier 2nd wave south. Or perhaps we could time said diversion with a push of our real forces in the south. the trick would be to get GoW to see the galleys, ie them end in sea adjacent to ocean and in cultural radius, otherwise it would be obvious we want them to see us.

[Shiber]

IMHO RP needs to move workers to that mountain north of Alamo and road it. Catapults will be necessary for a successful attack on Alamo - plus, they'll add reliability to our feint.

[Arrian]

I don't think there is going to be an attack on the Alamo, at least not for a while.

We've lost too much of our attack strength on Bob (8 knights down).

-Arrian

[Theseus]

It seems to me that our military strategy for Bob is becoming fairly clear.

It is time to take the fight to the enemy.

THE SOUTH

With RP's movements on Alamo, I think we would be mistaken to focus on Merida or or Essigbar. I suggest moving 10 Knights to Merida 63. If possible, I would like for either GS to capture Alamo, or for RP to gift it to us for one turn, so that we have mobility.

That said, what to do with slowmovers? Let's at least keep a threat going in the south, moving 3 Pikes and 5 MedInf to Merida 66, and the 2 adventuring Knights to Essigbar 9.

All other theatre forces should remain distributed on the hills.

In terms of reinforcements, we have a bit of a problem in terms of a galley constraint. We currently have only 5 southern Galleys to both transport 18-20 units in the relatively near term AND fend off 4 currently visible enemy Galleys.

I'd like to 1) bring the southernmost back north towards Barc, 2) keep transporting Knights as fast as we can, and 3) detail Monsoon, Whirlwind, and OG to Galleys as soon as they are done with cheap fastmover builds.

We should be ready to destroy the ND Galleys in the vicinity of Barc 2221.

THE NORTH

Redistribute the MedInf to take coastal duty.

Upgrade such that we have 16 Knights available in 290 AD.

I suggest that in 300AD we can have 8 Galleys ready for loading at Beta 4. On that turn, load 16 Knights.

In 310 AD, set sail and land at Yellowknife 332. 3-tile placement, it seems, is a horrible thing when faced by human-controlled Knights.

THE REST

Post the near term, I am tempted to suggest attacking ND across the east-central mountains and hills.

[Theseus]

Oh man, I am an idiot... I meant move 10 Knights to ALAMO 63.

Sorry.

[Theseus]

As SR points out in the turn thread, the attack on Merida is equally valid, and does support RP's attack on Alamo.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Theseus
Post the near term, I am tempted to suggest attacking ND across the east-central mountains and hills.

Last time I saw a save this looked pretty tempting to me too.

You say 'post the near term', so what would you envisage being done before then - damaging Gow, reclaiming parts of the south?