Turn 94, 690 BC

[nbarclay]

Even if Vox would pillage both tiles of the jungle road, a gang of three workers could have it rebuilt in six turns (including the turns to move onto the tiles). So having Vox pillage the roads would not be a huge disaster.

I don't like the idea of splitting up our galleys. It's too easy to lose ninety shields' worth of invading force to thirty shields' worth of counterattack when galleys, especially regular galleys, operate as singletons. And if we pair our galleys on the western coast, we'd have the option of unloading our troops and going after a Voxian galley two on one if Vox tries to slip in additional forces by sea once we get there.

[Aeson]

EotS needs 2 workers from Cyclone (temporarily) to get to 30 shields per turn in 2 turns. Hurricane needs Sandstorm's Worker (and the one finishing up the road 8 of Tornado) to get Hurricane up to 30 shields per turn in 5 turns.

If Vox's stack does turn out to be just what GoW shows in the screenshots, I'd rather have Hurricane build the Collosus. It negates the disadvantage of not having the extra Mountain mined for 3 turns because the Collosus builds in 7 turns either way, and gives us more time to build up food to run at a deficit (30 shields per turn in GA, 20 shields per turn when not). The alternative would be to build a Marketplace or Library there, as each would be relatively efficient builds at the 28/29 (I forget which) shields per turn we can have at that time.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by nbarclay
Even if Vox would pillage both tiles of the jungle road, a gang of three workers could have it rebuilt in six turns (including the turns to move onto the tiles). So having Vox pillage the roads would not be a huge disaster.

Its not a huge disaster, but anything to speed up the end of Vox I'm in favor of. Also you aren't taking into account the turns to get the workers into position. Do we connect the road from our core to d'ville, then up through the jungle? Thats going to take more than six turns. It would take 4 turns or so just to move a worker to that first jungle tile from Arashi, assuming D'ville is under control. Granted we would probably move the workers in one square behind the invasion force to protect them, but still 6 turns is 6 more turns of war, esp when it would take two pikes to hold the road. Drop the two pikes on the jungle road that they need for iron, then swing them to the southwest. Even if they send units after the pikes, it would mean fewer units to destroy in d'ville.

[Aeson]

Probably right about the Galleys. Maybe 3 Pikes up to the Iron crossroads in 2 galleys? They would be in dangerous waters for only 2 turns, being able to unload the Pikes the 2nd.

[asleepathewheel]

I see that Vox has sent their turn to lego. I'm about to wet myself in anticpation of what the save holds. Is it a SoD? or is it 5 immortals? I hope they don't disappoint.

[nbarclay]

Theseus, whether we can hold Monsoon is a matter of numbers. If all Vox has is what we've seen so far, a combination of the kill zone and pikes should be enough for us to hold it. If Vox can assemble the kind of force we've been afraid they might, we can't. By the way, if Vox starts massing forces across from Monsoon, walls there could be a good investment if we intend to fight for the city.

Regarding cash rushing catapults, I regard upgrading our two warriors and seven swords to medieval infantry and our three spears to pikes as higher priorities for our gold. Once we finish that, we can consider whether cash rushing cats in low-production cities is a good use of our gold.

Cyclone's best contribution to the war effort would be a cat every two turns if we want to use it for military production (since cats wouldn't care about it's not having a barracks). But I think the benefits of improving tiles around Tempest, building an aqueduct, and pumping up Tempest to a size where it can produce units faster would be greater.

[Theseus]

Sorry, I have not made myself clear re Cats... I would like to see one each from Monsoon and Sandstorm, at least, and possibly one from each of the other non-Barracks towns. They can than go back to whatever other builds are appropriate.

Every citizen needs to know he / she contributed to the war effort!!

[nbarclay]

I think our citizens are smart enough to recognize that there are other ways to contribute to a war effort besides building military units.

[Aeson]

Can Monsoon finish their Cat normally before Vox's stack hits them? One Cat 9 of Arashi with 3 Pikemen will almost surely force them down onto the flats, and possibly give us a 2 hp advantage stack to stack.

The Temple in Monsoon can then be started again. It's most important once Monsoon reaches size 3. At size 2 Monsoon has enough Grasslands to use right now.

Sandstorm's Worker on the other hand is worth 10 shields of military unit (20 shield units vs 30 shield units) for 2 turns in Hurricane (the mine takes 2 extra turns without it 4.5 vs 3). That gives us a potential 20 extra shields of units, plus the Worker.

[nbarclay]

We probably want Hurricane to build WCs and/or medieval infantry until either it gets in a position to produce one-turn pikes (or galleys) or we're sure the war is in hand. By the way, we may want a harbor in Hurricane so its thirty-shield production can turn to vet galleys when it reaches that production level. Edit: Also, a harbor would give us the option of bringing Hurricane down to 20 shields and getting more shields from Sandstorm if there are times when 20-shield or 40-shield units make more sense.

[Aeson]

Our Literacy rate is 3%... I wouldn't bet on it Nathan!

Pardon the OT, I always thought that the representative governments' efficiency in game should be linked heavily to the Literacy rate of the civ.

Catapults are going to be needed mostly to keep losses low once we invade N of the bottleneck if GoW's screenshots can be trusted, and will be built too late for the first wave in most cases if GoW is sending us misinformation.

[nbarclay]

The biggest problem with using catapults in an offensive will be getting them to the front. They're wheeled, so they can't trek through the mountans from Arashi to Dissidentville along the most direct route, and they're slow, so they can't use speed to make up for having to travel a longer distance to get to the front. When we can spare them, we may want a four-worker work crew with suitable defenders to finish our road north (using a leapfrog pattern to advance the road one tile per turn).

[Aeson]

I see that Vox has sent their turn to lego. I'm about to wet myself in anticpation of what the save holds. Is it a SoD? or is it 5 immortals? I hope they don't disappoint.

Hmmmm...

No Vox victory pictures yet... Have our WC's have all survived? Did the stack scare Mo off... Did Mo cause one of our units to retreat... Or did lightning strike and the 4.3% odds give us the victory?

/me can't wait either.

[Theseus]

Originally posted by Aeson
EotS needs 2 workers from Cyclone (temporarily) to get to 30 shields per turn in 2 turns. Hurricane needs Sandstorm's Worker (and the one finishing up the road 8 of Tornado) to get Hurricane up to 30 shields per turn in 5 turns.

Then I'd say leave Cyclone on Workers, but let's get one Cat out of Sandstorm.

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Theseus


Then I'd say leave Cyclone on Workers, but let's get one Cat out of Sandstorm.

Theseus, the the only tiles Sandstorm can use for extra production are currently unimproved mountains and deserts. (One of the mountains does at least have a river by it.) Further, it gets to keep its first two shields, but if it tries to get more, one is lost to waste. So until we get some more improved tiles for it to work, trying to use it as a production city is extraordinarily wasteful.

If you have a genuine, concrete strategic need for it to produce a cat, we can live with that waste. But if all that's involved is a whimsical, "I want every city to contribute troops to the war effort," I think the idea is ridiculous.