Holding Arashi 9

[zeit]

Posting from Philadelphia:

It seems like our situation is somewhat like the one Israel faced on October 1973. We have underestimated Vox, and they have taken us by suprise, like in Yom-Kippur war, our outer outposts have been taken out, but our enemy has made a few mistakes, allowing us to get some reinforcement towards the front, with more of them getting ready to go back at home. Now obviously, we need to do two things:
1) Get as many forces as possible to the fronts- Vox have dictated where the main fighting will ensue, and we'll have to wait for the turn to arrive to find out- so we'll know where the forces will have to go and where we concentrate our defence

2) Buy ourselves some time with the forces we already have, before Vox overruns our positions. We must also make an effort to inflict as much losess to the enemy, even at the risk of taking a few risks. We'll have to see what Vox pulls of this turn first, but we can't just sit around gather forces, we must use every opportunity we have to strike- even if its just symbolic- showing them we are capable of active defense is very important, and will reduce their morale, which is now probably sky-high, coming down with Immortals and backed by oversees power(s).

[Aeson]

Aeson, we don't have to kill the immortals around Hurricane to win, just stop them long enough for reinforcements to arrive. I think having our swordsmen fortified is more useful than upgrading to medieval infantry in that regard.

Your plan sounds good. Can we get a Pike from Tornado up to Hurricane by the time they reach Hurricane 8? That would give us 2 in the city, so even if they get extra lucky going through Hurricane 8, they'd have to face at least 2 more good defenders.

If we can rush a Cat in Sandstorm this turn, it will really help too. We could hit them coming in, move it into Hurricane, and hit them again. Also we'll want 1 WC's on Sandstorm 6 so that even if they get lucky they can't take our Workers. Another WC to sit on the Iron would be nice too, but can probably wait 2-3 turns (meaning we can wait until after we know what's going on at Arashi 8) unless the Galley doesn't drop off the Immortal with the others this turn.

[nbarclay]

I'm seriously tempted to dare Vox to try to take Sandstorm 6. There's maybe somewhere around one chance in eight that they could do it (we'll be fortified but they'll have one more vet), in which case we'd be seriously hurt. But Vox's forces would be injured and still out of reach of Hurricane and our iron. And we'd only have two critical tiles to defend instead of three: if Vox takes Sandstorm 6, we only have to defend Sandstorm and Hurricane 8 against whatever hit points Vox has left, while if Vox takes Hurricane 8, we have to defend Hurricane, our iron, and Sandstorm 6. (And if Vox takes Sandstorm 6, they'll only have one unit actually on that tile, so the immediate threat to Sandstorm will be relatively small.)

In regard to reinforcements, my plan at the end of last turn was to build a medieval infantry in Tornado that can either help with city defense or counterattack against Vox's breakthrough. From the fur at EotS 6, he could attack either Hurricane 8 or Sandstorm 6, or could help garrison either city. A pikeman completed at the same time could help garrison either city and be more effective in doing so, but would take away our option of counterattacking Vox's breakthrough.

If the situation around Arashi weren't so critical, I'd definitely want to park a WC on our iron to make absolutely sure Vox can't land on it. If Vox has a second galley just out of sight a tile away from the one we know about, its logical landing point would be two mountains south of where Vox's current immortals are, and it could divert to land on our iron. But I'm not sure whether it's worth pulling a WC away from an opportunity to counterattack around Arashi just in case Vox has that exact positioning or not. The part of me that thinks, "What could lose us the game? Let's guard against that at all costs!" says to park a WC on the iron.

[nbarclay]

Zeit, right now we only want to attack if we get better odds attacking than defending. The important thing is making Vox pay as much as possible for the ground they take, not making gestures that cost us in relative military strength. We can't afford to spend troops just in the hope that the psychological effect will work to our advantage instead of our disadvantage. (Keep in mind that an overconfident Vox might make mistakes that a more cautious one wouldn't.)

[vulture]

Now that the road on Sandstorm 6 is finished (according to the screenshot) we can move our units in and around Hurricane onto the mountains 2 of the Vox stack (789 from Hurricane, 489 for the swordsman on the iron. Wouldn't we do better massing forces there rather than trying to defend Sandstorm 6 and Hurricane 8? Or have people just overlooked the road that wasn't previously there?

[vulture]

BTW I entirely agree with parking some kind of unit on the Hurrican iron, even if only a worker (the workers on Sandstorm 6 can get there). The cost of losing the iron is too large (and if we are going to defend the mountain 88 of Hurricane, we won't be able to move those defenders back to Hurricane in one turn, so it will be exposed to a landing force).

"Surprise is what happens to the enemy when he doesn't take precautions. We will always have security."