Turn 96, 650 BC

[Theseus]

Weren't we supposed to get 200 gold from someone?

[Aeson]

From ND... not sure when that kicks in? He said he accepted the deal, but it wasn't ratified yet. If we do get that it changes a lot.

[asleepathewheel]

balls no cash from ND? Great time to screw up the turn ND.

[nbarclay]

ND accepted our offer but did not offer anything back. Either they goofed or they tried to pull a fast one hoping we'd goof. In any case, we don't have the extra gold we had hoped to get from them this turn. Diplomats?

[Arrian]

I don't think we should abandon A9, Aeson. I don't like what that does to us. They could park a few spearmen & immortals up there and make it VERY painful for us to knock them off - while seriously hampering our W/E mobility.

THEY SHALL NOT PASS!

-Arrian

[Theseus]

Uh, that's not a screw-up by ND.

/me Theseus' paranoia goes into high gear...

Let's hold off on giving up A9 for the moment. While I like the idea of hiding troops in Arashi, it would mean giving up too good of a defensive post.

[Aeson]

If we had that 4th Pike I'd agree with you Arrian, but we run about a 10% risk of losing the battle severely (losing most to all of our troops, with them only losing 3-4) with what we can put there this turn. In Arashi we have much better odds, will have more defense, will get a free shot with a Catapult, and Vox also has to 'retreat' their injured units after the fight to heal.

[Aeson]

Arashi gives the same defensive bonus as a mountain by the way (hill, wall). Only difference is that all our troops will be fortified.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Aeson
Arashi gives the same defensive bonus as a mountain by the way (hill, wall). Only difference is that all our troops will be fortified.

and theres always the off chance that Vox won't realize its on a hill. yeah right, I know, but it does happen.

[Theseus]

BTW, how is it possible that we got the turn midway through production?

[Aeson]

Arashi finished it's city walls. That gives us the popup so we can enter the city view and switch production in all towns later in the queue than Arashi by using the arrow keys. I think that means Monsoon, Sandstorm, OB, WW, and Sufu(?).

If we switch the preferences now, they will be saved with what we use... if no one changes it back themselves it will get back to us in a position where we can short rush just about everything. I can't see how anyone can stand to play this game without the prompt for units on. Is it legal for us to switch any of the game preferences?

[nbarclay]

The big question is whether, if we make our stand in Arashi, Vox will attack Arashi or go around it. If Vox fortifies about three units on A9 and sends the rest around to our east, we'll have a hard time because the only way we can attack them directly is across a river. We'd probably need to swing our WCs around to the east side of the river south of Arashi once they occupy A9, giving up our ability to attack with them the following turn if Vox heads west instead of east. Otherwise, we'd lose the ability to attack, heal, and attack again before Vox can hit EotS or Hurricane.

On the other hand, Vox has highly favorable odds attacking A9 because they'll outnumber us by a significant margin and be able to do a lot of their fighting against wounded units. If Vox does attack Arashi, the combination of an extra pike, two extra regular medieval infantry, and having most of our units fortified would be an enormous advantage. So the big question is, which do we expect Vox to do?

[nbarclay]

Are we decided on option (1) for our gold, rushing a cat and upgrading two regular warriors to medieval infantry?

[Theseus]

Originally posted by Aeson
Arashi finished it's city walls. That gives us the popup so we can enter the city view and switch production in all towns later in the queue than Arashi by using the arrow keys. I think that means Monsoon, Sandstorm, OB, WW, and Sufu(?).

If we switch the preferences now, they will be saved with what we use... if no one changes it back themselves it will get back to us in a position where we can short rush just about everything. I can't see how anyone can stand to play this game without the prompt for units on. Is it legal for us to switch any of the game preferences?

Oh, I think I understand now...

So production started, and Arashi was the first town to trigger a pop-up?

If we changed the preferences for units, we would get a pop-up from EotS at the beginning of each turn?

I say do it. It's huge.

If we are going to get grief for being the best, we might as take advantage of our vastly superior skills!!!

(I'm being facetious , but I do think we should change the preference)

[Aeson]

Yes, we give up a lot of movement potential by giving up Arashi 9. If they are going to drop down into the flood plains, it means they are going to EotS and/or Hurricane. Either target should give us enough time to leapfrog their stack by using our roads (even with our slow movers, we get to both first).

If we send our 3 workers in Arashi's area to Arashi 2, we get the road up there in 3 turns. That would be in time that we could even beat Vox to Sandstorm 6 (Sandstorm is lost in this scenario) with our Pikes/Swords/Med Inf... while getting 2 turns of shots on their stack with WC's (3 with some). All without leaving Arashi until their stack moves away from it.