Turn 146, 300 AD

[Harovan]

Turn arrived. At the first glance, nothing special happened. I see a stack of catapults 6 of the Alamo, guarded by 5 riders. Apparently the catapults are recaptured. Our misguided stack of knights is alive and well.

We need to discuss our further plans thoroughly. There has been a lot of guesses and assumptions and proposals and fears here around, but nothing I would call a plan. Attack in the south, yes or no? Yellowknife, yes or no? Suing for peace? Going after Gunpowder? Buying it? What about Lego?

I sent the save to both of our generals. I could play the turn in about 2-3 hours, but I doubt that it will be discussed until then. Feel free to play the turn, but I don't think we should hurry.

[OPD]

What defence is showing in Merida?

[Harovan]

Merida has changed sides (ND now) and has a pikeman in it.

[Arrian]

I will load up the turn when I get home and have a look.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

THE SOUTH:

Damn, do I ever wish our 10 knight stack was up by The Alamo. But nevermind that...

An attack on Merida would suffer from the 25% defense bonus given by a river, and the units that win would be left exposed to counterattack during ND & GoW's turns. Seems like a good way to lose our knights to me.

I think we may have to move all available forces to Barcelona 4441. Everything we've got, fellas. Next turn, all knights move 88 to the mountain 36 of the Alamo. The 1-movers... well, I'm not sure yet. They either advance with the workers (from Barce4) and continue the road, or they fortify while the workers build a fortress.

*by the way, are all of those workers really workers?*

We have some units on Barcelona 8 (pike, med inf, cat). I'd move them to Barcelona4. Turn after, move to end of road to join the others.

Our two knights next to Essibar... well, Ess is showing a regular pikeman. That is likely all they have in it. We could probably destroy it with our 2 veteran knights, but will almost surely lose them either during the fight for Ess or in counterattack. So it may be best to fortify them on that mountain as lookouts.

Our galley needs to retreat one tile north or east.

THE NORTH:

I honestly don't know. I'm torn. Do we hit GoW? Do we hit ND? Do we scrap the northern attack and throw everything back south?

Theseus, you around?

-Arrian

[Arrian]

ADDITION to THE SOUTH:

Load 7 knights + 1 settler into the galleys off the Stormian coast by O.Gale. 2 of these galleys have movement left, 2 do not. Try to get pure knights in the ones with movement (to then move 4 tiles due west) and 3 knights + settler into the ones that are out of moves.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

As for city build orders, I say we take some of our major cities off of units and switch to civilian production. For instance (but this isn't a full list):

-Aqueduct in Dissville
-Uni in Hurricane
-Uni in EotS
-Uni in Tempest
-Market in Tornado

...

Oh, back to military things: switch O.Gale to a galley, I think, instead of a horseman.

-Arrian

[Theseus]

I got distracted by RL last evening...

Who will play the turn? I am not available till around 9pm EST tonight.

I should be able to post some comments mid-afternoon.

[OPD]

The 3 ND galleys need to be sunk in a few turns, RP have one galley off the coast of Barcelona and another which is probably too far north, east of the ND city of Mavdad iirc.

The fact that the galleys are still alive could be distressing for the enemy, they know GS has a large navy, so we must be doing something with it if we haven't killed their galleys yet.
We could even delay their sinking for a while to really scare the crap out of them.

[Arrian]

Main things I need you to think about, my fellow general:

1) Do you concur we should consolidate everything we can on Barcelona 4441, in preparation for a move on The Alamo? I think we've GOT to get that city back. Further, I feel that attacking Merida is a sure way to get a bunch of knights killed for minimal gain.

2) What do you think about the 2 knights by Essibar? Hit or fortify?

3) What about the north? We're in a position to load up a bunch of galleys with troops. The question is: where do we drop them off? Do we proceed with the Yellowknife landing? Do we go after ND instead?

-Arrian

p.s. I think RP is in serious danger of losing Pamp. Do we want to move any of our pikemen that we have stationed throughout RP territory closer to the city, in case it falls and we are in the position of trying to take it back (assuming GoW/ND don't raze it)?

[OPD]

Originally posted by Arrian


3) What about the north? We're in a position to load up a bunch of galleys with troops. The question is: where do we drop them off? Do we proceed with the Yellowknife landing? Do we go after ND instead?

I think due to the turn order a landing in GoW territory would be better as ND wouldn't be aware of it on their turn and so only GoW would be able to react.

[Harovan]

I could play the turn now, within the next hour, but I see the discussion still going on. I probably won't be able to play later, I'm tired as hell (my usual problem at evenings, misunderstandings like the misguided knight stack result from this) and should probably abstain from playing in this condition.

Especially our honorable military leaders should try to find a common language. If you ask me: Stop all attack plans on Bob. The only one who profits from this is Lego. Defend the RP remainders, meanwhile switch the homeland to "builder" again, build unis, turn up research again and let's think about what we do with Lego in ~30 turns.

[Arrian]

I'm exhausted too, by the way (World Series games going past midnight every night. Damn Fox and their 8:15 start times!!). I'm barely functioning today.

I don't think we should stop ALL attack plans on Bob, since I think we must regain control over former Spanish lands, particularly those south of Pamplona (Merida, Alamo). Given that, I think our northern forces should land not against GoW, but against ND, to draw off some Ansars and perhaps threaten that city they have north of Toledo (name escapes me, sorry).

Meanwhile, we muster for an attack on the Alamo 2 turns from now. And we pray that RP can hold Pamplona.

Therefore, here are the orders I would give:

North: load all galleys except the northern lookout with troops. Knights first, then pikes/med inf if there is more space. Move any excess mounted forces toward South Stormia for upgrade/transport to Spain. Cover the coast with footsloggers. Move the loaded galleys west towards Bob. Next turn will be the turn of decision - go for GoW, go for ND, or just beeline south to assist RP.

South: load the 4 galleys by O.G. with knights + 1 settler. Move the 2 with move points left toward Bob. Move our southern lookout galley one tile to the east (6), so it's out of range of ND's galleys.

Consolidate all troops that can make it there to Barcelona 4441 (the end of our road). This includes our 10 knights, many assorted footsoldiers, and 4 workers.

Move the units directly north of Barcelona to Barc4.

Fortify our 2 knights by Essibar.

Build orders changes:

-Aqueduct in Dissville
-Uni in Hurricane
-Uni in EotS
-Uni in Tempest
-Market in Tornado
-Galley in O.Gale (currently building horseman)

Cities south of the neck except for our FP city should generally switch over to civilian production.

-Arrian

[Theseus]

I'm on the same page as Arrian, with a few exceptions and further thoughts:

* I am not yet convinced we should not attack GoW. I firmly believe that substantially all of of ND and GoW's offensive forces are committed in the south. Landing 16 units at the mountain SE of YK provides an excellent stick to balance the carrot of our attempted bribe.

* Even if the northern forces do nothing more than incent GoW towards a deal with us, they can be reloaded and sent south for an attack across the eastern ND hills.

* ABSOLUTELY AGREE re consolidating southern forces at Barc4441.

* Agree re keeping the 2 Knights at Essigbar fortified and on sentry duty.

* Knights from our south should be transhipped to Bob as quickly as possible... don;t wait to amass Galleys.

* I disagree with Arrian's build orders for universities. For the moment, we should stay focused on things military.

Lastly: We should consider a true gang bang on ND... what if we were to orchestrate a worldwide alliance against them?

[Arrian]

Regarding city build orders - that needs team-wide debate, and for now we can leave those cities building units and change them next turn if need be. As things stand right now, I count Sir Ralph and I in favor of switching to civilian production, and Theseus against. Others, please chime in.

Regarding the north: the reason I said load the galleys and move them due west is so that next turn we have the option of moving them north to land on GoW, or south. It buys us time to decide. I think we should land against ND, while working on buying off GoW.

-Arrian