Turn 245: 1275 AD

[alva]

Impressive yet again :B:

[Cort Haus]

We're going to need a navy just to get our troops home - unless Lego agree to a quick peace, and I don't see them doing us any early favours in that regard.

Their escape pod may be heading for ND - perhaps they've offered ND their UN vote in exchange for survival. It would tend to pitch GS and GoW against them, though.

Maybe it's in our interests for GoW to have Computers sooner rather than later. ND already have it, and if they see GoW doesn't have it yet, they might be tempted to make hay while the sun shines. If they gutted GoW now, the game is as good as theirs.

[DeepO]

I'm not so pessimistic on a ND-Lego alliance. After all, they needed to decide this in 1 turn time. This is not enough for ND to have a decent invasion force, let alone an invasion plan. Lego might try to get them into a war, but what troops are on those boats?

- 3 settlers
- 31 inf
- 6 tanks (damaged except 1)
- 10 artillery

That's even less than what RP was going to bring.

If there was a plan all along that ND would sneak up on us or on GoW, Lego can only help, of course. But I doubt it.

DeepO

[DeepO]

BTW, don't forget that Lego is actually team Zargon right now. I have the feeling this is simply a bit of emotional vendetta.

DeepO

[DeepO]

movement continued
I used the explorer to scout the rest of the coast (no mp lost). We can't spot the transports. so the Abilene group (including the 3 DDs, as they didn't sunk when taking the city) is most likely on Abilene 11111.

Given the destroyed GoW blocker, I'm inclined to believe there are 2 groups of transports (maybe even 3), and that the other group is on either side of the isthmus, in less than 3 tiles from Panama Vox. Maybe 4.

I suggest we take an explorer, and move him onto the coal near Panama Vox, and then 78622. That should end him in neutral territory, while covering most of the coast.

In case we spot Lego on our side, good. Otherwise we ask GoW to block the inner sea asap.

For the Southern group we can do the following:
we need to destroy those 2 ships closeby. We can forget about the Lego CV, as they don't have bombers anymore. The 2 damaged ships are there as decoys, and are positioned so that we can't reach it with the ships on hub 2. But we've got no choice, IMHO. So, we use the 2 fighters to bomb the 2/5 BB, and use the 2/4 DDs to attack it. We could use another 1/4 DD to bombard if possible.

The full health DD on Hub 2 moves 22222. This should bring it into range of the group if they decide to sail for our coast directly. Other hub protectors stay where they are. We won't have subscouts, but not much to be done about that now. Further, we can use the fighter on the damaged CV in NI to bomb the group, maybe get a hp off the DDs.

Last measure: we shortrush to knight in Tornado, and build a DD there next turn (whould work out near perfectly). With an extra mine, and the dyes we should get with a new dye city(need WLTKD), we can do the same in Typhoon. That should give us 2 fresh DDs, and 1 pursueing one... enough for at least 3 transports, even 4.

If the 3/4 CV is also in pursuit, we can rebase the bomber we'll build in Tempest there next turn, which can also help in the attack.

We then still have 1 DD left: the one we built in Blizzard last turn. It can't protect our chain (a pity, as otherwise we could chain our chain-DDs), but either it goes after the sub who sank the Nina, or if we spot the Northern Lego group on our side it can move in that direction (maybe going for the IR that was there at the start of the war, although it may be at the other end of the world right now). Or, it can move directly South and help in fending off the Southern group.

Actually, in case the Northern group is on our side, and not in the internal sea, we could leave them for a moment. We are fully protected there: Lego doesn't have marines, and we've got plenty of workers guarding our coast. The only problem is RP... they are practically undefended. And Vox might try something silly as well.

DeepO

[DeepO]

What do we have left regarding decisions?
1. placement of Dye city
2. slave actions
3. blockade of Panama stretch
4. GoW diplomacy
5. espionage

1. placement of Dye city.

I think the following covers most possible positions.
We need to take a couple of things into account:
- we want immediate access to dyes, and permanent access to dyes. A city on a source is better then one next to a source. a,c,e preferred.
- we want at least 2 sources, preferably 3. (one source going to RP, 3 to be traded with ND for their 3rd lux) This rules out g, as we could lose a second source with cultural extension of Port Sacrifice
- a harbor or not is a decision we might want to take... a harbor would give us a jumping board to GoW and ND, but would also create a threat which we might want to avoid.
- If at all possible, we want to avoid bumping into GoW. a and c are poorer choices, as we force GoW to be culturally agressive, or they could lose their sources.
- last consideration is culture flipping. But I guess we'll have enough garrisons there to keep that from happening.

I see this city as something to negotiate with the coming turns, and maybe come to a conclusion of gifting it to RP or Vox. This can also affect where we want to put it, but without any doubt do we want to have a lux this turn, so next turn our cities get into WLTKD.

DeepO

[DeepO]

2. Slave actions.

we could set a few apart to move back to Stormia, but there are some worker actions needed on Legoland.
- We need to get a road to Abilene if we want to keep it
- we need a RR into NI
- we might need a radar tower, or at least a fortress near our blockade of Panama.
- we might want to move 2 slaves on top of the rubber resource, so we can connect it next turn if we want to.

DeepO

[DeepO]

3. Panama blockade

BTW: the red line indicates the explorer path I'd like to take to spot for a possible Northern group.

I'd like us to do the following:
- move a group of defenders (MI, inf) to position b.
- move one unit (e.g. an explorer) to position c.
(this to avoid GoW blocking us, we don't need that!)
- than, 2 choices: either we build a fortress at b and a radar tower at c,
or we build a radar tower at b without a fortress.

Eventually, I see a city on position b, which would take the coal source with one cultural expansion. As it creates a massive strategical advantage, we might want to try to keep it (although it doesn't do us much good offensively, as GoW can block the other side of the inner sea with ease. But defensively it can count)

DeepO

[DeepO]

4. GoW diplomacy I'm not sure on. We need to talk, and we need to start negotiating on dividing the land. In order to do this, we need to think on what we want as well. There has been a lot said about this the past 2 weeks, but not nearly enough.

in no particular priority, I'll give some things we want on Legoland
- land
- resources (especially rubber)
- dyes
- RP?
- security (e.g. Panama)

We need to talk fast, as we're taking actions here like e.g. blockading Panama, or founding a new dye city, which might offend GoW.

DeepO

[DeepO]

5. Espionage
I'd like to do 2 things immediately. Try to plant spies with Vox and ND.
Vox costs us 102 g
ND costs us 129 g.

GoW we'd better wait before we try again.

Out of completeness, a spy in RP costs us 74 g... I doubt we need one for the moment, though.

DeepO

[Theseus]

:applause:

[DeepO]

6. Stormia!
some plans for decorating our home for the christmas period (a bit late, but hey)
- plant some christmas tress on Eli 7 and 8
- change Monsoon to civil defense
- change Ww to civil defense (after MI perhaps)
- we might need to disband Velocity. It gives us 5 coastal tiles we otherwise couldn't use, but takes away from Elipolis.
- we might also look into disbanding WW.
- Hurricane might be set to DD instead of airport. will complement our Southern strike force nicely.

we have 1 airport, and will build 3 more next turn. We have another 3 planned in 2 turns, and 1 in 3 turns. I suggest to lower the amount of airports to 5 overall, instead of 8. We might need one in Elipolis for defensive reasons, though: fighters heal quicker.

DeepO

[DeepO]

I'll leave this to sink in for the moment. 2 things aren't mentioned explicitely in the latest round up, but they have been discussed before and are rather straight forwards.

7. land attacks
- first of all, try our luck at some leader generation. You never know we get lucky. I suggest we use a 4/4 tank on the first 4/4 tank, using 3/4 tanks on the rest. Leave the 1/4 as last. We need to leave the 2/4 tank as second last unit, in case we get 2 elite promotions. If so, we want to shell it first to 1/4.
- second, shell the last stack of Lego units, and launch an all-out attack on them with our tanks. 1/4 inf and 2/4 tanks can be attacked by MI as well, the rest we use tanks, 3/4 if necessary (I doubt it). Primary goal would be to keep GoW from using their elites, they've got plenty of them, and would have a decent chance of generating a leader.

DeepO

[DeepO]

Oh, add to 6. Stormia:
- upgrade what we can to MI.

- 25 infs * 40 g = 1000 g
- 20 rifles * 60 g = 1200 g
so for 2200 g, we get an extra 45 MI, totalling 81.
We've got 3194 g to spend right about now (but will need a bit for the knights shortrushes and the spy droppings)

DeepO

[DeepO]

we can't upgrade all our infs this turn, BTW. Some are stuck on Legoland, and can't be chained back.

DeepO