Turn 360 AD

[Cort Haus]

Moves - The North

Goals - Orderly retreat to defend N. Stormia



5 galleys with 10 foot units move into Wittlich

Worker at Voice-3 moves 2,3 and irrigates

Mass shuffling of units - with west coast guard moving east, and returnees from Bob fanning out to cover the west coast. West coast fully covered as far as Beta, just six tiles uncovered on east coast.

6 Knights from YK jump back into 3 remaining galleys and head back into Wittlich. These six units will complete the North Stormian sea wall next turn - except for Beta 23.

Remaining 10 units at YK-33 move 2 to mountain at YK-332 - and see.... TEN LEGO KNIGHTS! - at YK-211.

This is excellent news. Ten less knights that could otherwise be coming from the east.

[Cort Haus]

South Stormia

Having seen 10 Lego Knights near on Bob near YK - this reduces the likelihood of a massive seaborne invasion in the east. GoW and ND are more concerned about getting Lego to preserve their own cores than getting ours at the moment. Vox, however might be available to attack us. They have loads of Immortals - do they have enough ships too deliver them? They must have had some from their 'Voxodos', but they don't seem to have grown on the powergraph - as they would if they build a load more ships.

For this reason I don't think we are about to recieve a massive invasion fleet this turn, so a mass-panic evacuation, retreat & teleport home may not be a good idea if it means abandoning Bob for nothing. We need a force on Stormia to deal with any speculative minor raids - if these are likely. It would be good to get our Bobian units in a position to enable them to teleport back pdq if necessary.

So - I'm just going to spread the existing units around for now - it's either that or just sit here staring at it...

[Harovan]

If the situation of the 7 knights is really hopeless (and it sounds as if it is), disband them. No need to give their attackers a chance to promote.

[Cort Haus]

I've a rescue plan :

We now have six knights near Barca able to reach the our main knight stack at Pamp-22, and four more behind them. There are 12 knights at Pamp-22 - if seven of these joined the seven (3/4) on the woods at Pamp-1, the enemy would face 14 knights - unfortified on woodland. What would he need to take that?

We can then send maybe five of the six near barca to reinforce our mountain position - perhaps even sending more from the mountain to reinforce the rescue mission. We'd have about 25 Knights near Pamp / Alamo, 10 on a mnt, the rest unfortified on woodland.

Feasible?

[Cort Haus]

Moves in South Stormia

Pike at Tempest-7 moves 666 to Sandstorm

3 WC's from WoC move 77, 23333, 36

Knight from Tempest moves to EotS-36

3 WC's from Sandstorm-77 moves 966, 366, 99998

Horse from OG moves to Cyclone-8

2 Knights from OG move to Sandstorm-3 and Sanstorm-4

2 Warriors in OG move 666

2 Workers and Settler from Whirlwind-9 board galleys, which move 4444

Worker at Monsoon moves to Whirlwind

3 workers mine mountain at Santa Ana-4

Worker near cyclone heads south - can help finish chop next turn.

Settler from Cyclone moves to Bolderburg - perhaps add to this city next turn to grow a commerce town.

Eastern Galley lookout moves to Hurricane - 966 and fortifies.

[Cort Haus]

Economy

MM'd Cyclone and Bolderburg to give Cyclone only the two food it needs to grow to 5. Gave the cow to Bolderberg this turn. Next turn Cyclone gets the cow back and is +5 Food, size 5 - this can be a worker pump - but may need MM with Tornado.

Two chops down south were about to go nowhere, so changed Sufa to Aqueduct (is has harbour so can grow), and gave it a forest being chopped. I don't know whether this works - I read it somewhere.

Gave Bolderburg the forest that's being chopped (building a granary).

We lost a turn on Invention last go because I mistakenly hoped we might get it in the deal. We can get it back this turn though - and it's Invention in 2 turns @-33 gpt.

We have some gold - about 120, but I already started moving stormian units east.

We still have time to decide what to build in Spain - though we might need to gift them back to teleport units if we have to.

Sorry, everyone, but I'm high and dry here and doing what I can.

[Cort Haus]

So, everything's done except military moves on South Bob.

I'm sorry if people see this move as 'Capitulation' - perhaps I was supposed to attack Alamo and Pamplona, and send all remaining units on Stormia to Bob, but .... [sigh]

[Theseus]

Cort, I am here. What are the outstanding questions?

[Theseus]

Instead of trying to save the Knights at the forest... can we use them as bait? Move them to Pamp7? Does that force ND to use up all 3 moves to hit them?

[Cort Haus]

I don't think GoW want to risk a dozen units against us, when it's Pamplona they want - and possibly before we get gunpowder - which could be in 7-8 turns.

I'll fall on my sword if we lose 15 knights die to this operation - but I'm pretending our wounded guys on the mountain are stranded US marines - and we know what they to for their comrades.

[Cort Haus]

OK - I haven't done anything. I'm restarting the turn

[Theseus]

Huh?

[Cort Haus]

I just accidently moved the a Pikeman instead of a Knight - so I quit.

We can make all the moves again as I did them except for the business with the Knights. I saved them till last, but slipped with the mouse before I moved them, so it's start-again time.

[Cort Haus]

Outstanding questions - are we trying to defend our east coast or not.

After moving the footsoldiers and six knights back to defend Stormia's east coast (as was the broad initial reaction - though not everyone) the remainder at YK moved to the mountain and saw 10 Lego Knights - it's all documented above. This suggests that their forces are on Bob - that they're not bluffing,and hopefully they're not on their way from the east too.

There's nothing critical about the builds that can't be changed if there are too many growth builds on.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Theseus
Instead of trying to save the Knights at the forest... can we use them as bait? Move them to Pamp7? Does that force ND to use up all 3 moves to hit them?

Yes, but we'd have nothing to hit them with. Maybe RP could - they have a couple of knights - but they probably need to be defending.

ND cannot reach the forest, unless they have a large Ansar stack around Zerigossa / Loewenmut. If we have enough Knights there, it should deter attack - they would have heavy casualties.