Wow!

[alva]

Small visual aid

[alva]

Oh, this is the opening screenshot, so we can stll move our units.

There are more units south of dissidentville

[alva]

One change you need to know regarding PTW
Warrior upgrades to swordsman upgrades to midevil infantry (4.2.1)
-
We are playing version 1.14 (second patch, there is already a 1.21 patch, but that's U.S. only)

PS: Did I say hello and good to see you? No?

Well, Hello and good to see you then

[Velociryx]

Hello and good to see you as well.

They've got some rather poor positioning of their units, IMO. They are NOT geared for an immediate attack anywhere. With the galley approaching in on the west coast, it appears that they're in a position to split the main attack force, sending some up toward Monsoon.

Can we build medieval infantry, at this point? If so, with Pikes playing D, and MS for heavy hitting (as good as their immortals), with WC's as support, they're toast! GAWD....we've got more cities, more production, and their troops are badly placed. If they give us much more time with bad maneuvering in the mountains, WHEN they finally step up to the plate, they're dog food. The ONLY viable attack approach they've got is to follow the mountains to Arashi. It's a pity we don't have a few more forces in the vicinity of Monsoon....cos if they do, they'll have to step into open ground....would be a great way for us to kill some tasty immortals, but surely they'll not be that silly.

Lemme ponder this screenie for a bit over dinner....

-=Vel=-

[Theseus]

Big help, alva!!

[Velociryx]

One more real quick before I head to dinner! How many forces (est.) are in the vicinity, moving towards our turf (in and around Dissident) that we can't see?

Odds are that they're throwing everything they have into this one attack, hoping to win big. It's the only hope they've really got. Meaning that once the forces are all visible, their ONLY point of immediate resupply/healing is Dissident, which will be lightly held, if it's guarded at all. Might be better to strike at Dissident on a flank of our own, rather than hit the iron colony first.....it's closer, and will make their closest city quite some distance from "the front" while we can deliver our forces quite easily thanks to that FINE road network I am seeing!

At the very least, we should devote some resources to scouting Dissident to find out what's there. If they'll let us walk in....

-=Vel=-

[Arrian]

Vel,

When you get the chance, definitely check out the "Thermopolye at A9" thread. We're in a pretty big debate there.

Welcome back!

-Arrian

[alva]

This is the pic from Ghengis (GoW) as part of an agreement between us.
* note*
We don't rely on these pics 100% as they could be fake !!!

Do they before or after Vox? If they play after us, that's where there units are right now.

Btw: Vox has reconected their Iron !!!!

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by alva

Do they before or after Vox? If they play after us, that's where there units are right now.

gowis before vox

Originally posted by alva
Btw: Vox has reconected their Iron !!!!

balls

second wave is being prepped. hope not in dville

[Aeson]

It's better that way... they lose numbers in units by not building solely Warriors to upgrade in Dissidentville (it's safer for them though, we can't take out their whole core with a landed 2 Med Infs and Pikes. )

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Velociryx
Some questions and stuff off the top of my head....maybe you guys can point me to the relevant threads containing this information so I can refine my search?

1) Who are we up against? Meaning, who's on the Vox team? NYE mentioned some MP veterans?

Eli and Jon Miller have been around for a long time. Civ 2, SMAC, etc. Dissident too, but he is away at the moment. I am under the impression that Konquest knows a thing or two. Whittlich is another who has been around.

2) They've got 4 cities to our 6, if I'm reading the info in this thread correctly, yes?

They have 4 size 3 or 4 cities and 3 other size 1. They are using the whip. They are in their GA, but are despots.

3) 15+/- Immortals we can see, yes? (does this include the 2 toasted in the ill-concieved flank attack that gave us the 'leet, or no?) And estimates I'm seeing here give them, worst case, a total of 25 (plus assumed production in their cities) (and does the worst case 25 include the two dead?)

I think we can see 16 right now. Estimates had them at maximum 25 at the start of this. They were disconnected from their iron, so most likely have another 3 or 5 since the start.

4) How many *available* units do we have (barring totally stripping cities) to play with now, what are they, and how many of our cities are currently working on units (and what units are they working on)

9 WC.
7 swords.
2 warriors about to be MedInf.
1 Cat.

Very light on garrisons. 3 Vet Pikemen, all at Arashi.

Most cities empty, as you can see on the linked map. There you can also see what we are building. 4 Pike coming next turn (if we rush 1).

5) Have we snagged any wonders/minor wonders?

We just completed the GrLH. Another team beat us to the Pyramids by 1 turn (or was it 2?). We discussed it at length, and decided we would benefit the most from the GrLH so we bailed to that.

6) What's the latest intel we have on all our rivals (vox especially, but everybody else too).

There's a lot of that, Ill have to leave it for others to fill you in.

Nancy's home with dinner, but I'll be back directly, and I'm looking forward to participating in the discussions!

Great to see you, Vel.

With a smaller civ leading the attack, it's a fair bet that they not only got a wave of financing sufficient to convert all those warriors to immortals, but quite probably, are recieving ongoing financial aid. Given that we're bigger, they have to know they can't out-produce us, long term, and so a single financial injection would not be sufficient (especially in light of an already failed flank effort) to win the day.

We should also assume that they're going for the jugular. This is not a pruning attack....it's a move to exterminate.....least that's my take so far....will continue my reading shortly!

That is entirely in accord with our thinking (well, most of us).

[Randolph]

Has anyone looked into the possibility of barrowing some cash from another civ?

[alva]

Something I don't understand though...
Does this mean
a, They a cutting their road somewhere in their core area
b,They don't have barracks to ugrade in Dissidentville

These units are 1 movement point away from Eliopolis (upgrade city?)

[alva]

a whole(r) picture

[Velociryx]

Hello all, and thanks for the warm welcome back! Sorry I've been away so long, but it looks like you guys didn't need any help to get to this point! We have a fine, strong Empire!

Let me say in advance that I'm still absorbing all the stuff I missed, so my analysis might be somewhat incomplete at this moment, BUT....I shall post my thoughts here thus far, in hopes of fostering further discussion on it. Since I *have* been away for a while, please view these as only one guy's opinions. I definitely don't wanna step on any toes, since it is you guys who have been running things through the whole game. I'm just here to provide my "take" on what I see, and offer up some opinions on what to do about it. I am quite certain that there will be some disagreement.

So....after dinner, contemplation, and looking at the latest screenies, here's what I think:

First thing....clearly, they're going for the kill. As I said earlier, there's no way this is a pruning attack, nor is it a casual war. This is a blood match in the making. We would be wise to treat it as such. No quarter will be given, and we should respond in kind. Let's not stop till we knock these f*ckers out of the game.

Second thing: We gave them a rude surprise by knocking out their "surprise" attack, but my guess is that was just to probe our defenses and see what we could do. I think it in no way hampers their overall effort.

Third thing: Monsoon is gone. I agree with NYE....let's make sure it don't grow, and deny them a base there. My prediction is that they'll land their galley forces to probe....if they find the village unoccupied, they will keep their main attack force together, and continue toward Arashi, but the disposition of their forces tells me that they don't rightly know what we've got in the neighborhood, and are keeping their options open in case the galley force needs to be reinforced from the main body. (it's a real pity we don't have a couple galleys of our own in that vicinity....sinking the d@mned thing would really surprise them, although it would not materially change things).

Fourth thing: Arashi is key, and my bet is that they will try for the city, no matter what we put there. I feel this way because they will NOT want to leave a city full of our units at their backs while they probe deeper into our territory. Too much risk for them, so they will attack.

Fifth: I view Arashi as key to the defense of our kingdom. It's in a good location (on a hill?), with walls, and we can't starve it out to deny them a base of operations. Nor can we afford to give them a base of operations near our lines.....Thus, holding Arashi is crucial. IF we can get our cats (1 so far and a couple more in the works?) to Arashi, they will have no choice but to attack, because they must keep their relatively low-defense immortals in the mountains or else risk losing their attack force without ever getting to use it. With cats in the city, if they try to go around via the mountains, we'll plink them mercilessly (three shots on the way by). No way will they accept this, which furthers my opinion that they will attack. Finally, they know they're on a tight timetable. They HAVE TO inflict heavy damage on us sooner, rather than later, because of our production advantages. If they take the extra turns needed to march the balance of their force south of Arashi before they begin to make use of it, that buys us a LOT of time to build more troops, which makes their daring attack all the less likely to succeed. For all of these reasons taken together, I feel that an attack on Arashi is immenent. They will not simply bypass it.

Sixth: More cats is better than less cats, but cats are unreliable at best, IMO. We should prolly make due with the ones we've got and focus on Pike, WC's and Medieval Warriors. I say this because IF the cats are exposed via massive Immortal attack somewhere, then they will be captured, and we've just given our opponent resources to use against us. Given the circumstances, that's the last thing we need, so I'd recommend converting cats to something else (Pikemen, preferably).

Seventh: As soon as we're able, we need to get some medieval swordsmen in the field. That's our answer to their big weapon, and with Pikemen in defense (vs. their Spearmen) we have the clear technological edge (same attack better defense).

Plenty more, but I'll stop for now and see what everybody thinks of that initial assessment.



-=Vel=-