Thermopylae at A9

[asleepathewheel]

edit:

[nbarclay]

Somehow or other, I've been missing the option of Vox's going from Arashi 9 to Arashi 3. That does give them an all-mountains route down if they take Arashi 9, so we probably do need to hold Arashi 9 at all costs.

[Arrian]

Yeah, I was just lookin' at that.

I missed it too, though. *smacks self*

Ok, debate over, HOLD A9!

-Arrian

[notyoueither]

No!

Writing...

[Arrian]

Edit: ah, now I get it.

ignore this post.

-Arrian

[nbarclay]

If we want to hold, we probably want to disband a worker to start a pike in Arashi (using a short rush and hoping Vox doesn't manage to spoil it). That plus a warrior upgrade would give us two pikes and a medieval infantry as fresh troops. Then we can short rush a pike a turn in Arashi and get a pike every other turn from Tempest.

The big problem with not holding A9 is that if Vox follows the Spinebreakers down in what is certainly the most logical path to EotS, they'll land on A2 able to attack both Arashi and Tempest. There is no way we could possibly be prepared to hold both cities, especially with Vox's follow-on forces also poised to attack Arashi, so our only even possible chance would be piling defenders in one of them and hoping Vox focuses its attack on the wrong one.

By the way, if we try to hold A9, we may want to be careful in how many WCs we show. If Vox would decide to go around our stack instead of trying to fight through pikes, that would be fantastic.

[notyoueither]

They know where EotS is. They know the mountains are there, just not the extent. What would you do?

I would either a: seek decisive battle ASAP. That would be Arashi. We are much better off defending in there in another turn than at Arashi 9.

b: Go down the mountains as far as they take me and jump off to go after EotS.

If a is their plan, we are best off in Arashi.

If b is their plan, they will leave both Arashi and Tempest alone if they have Pikes in them. Walls around Tempest would help too.

What should our plan be?

Well, Civ3 battles go to the side who has the forces available to finish off wounded stacks during later rounds of combat. We need to preserve our forces for as long as possible, build up enough so that at the moment they expose themselves, we have the forces to destroy as many of them as possible leaving the rest badly wounded and unable to heal.

With 14 Immortals as little as 4 turns from EotS, our army is not expendable, especially if they take a city and can heal close to us.

To be honest, I would be willing to abandon Tempest to keep it from them on their Southern march, if that is what they do. We can replace it and have it back to where it is with 6 turns of production at Cyclone. We don't loose much if we abandon it. We loose a lot if we give up our army and Arashi.

[Arrian]

My main concern now is, if we don't try to hold A9, they will, logically, go for A1, as you said.

We're screwed if that happens.

-Arrian

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by nbarclay
If we want to hold, we probably want to disband a worker to start a pike in Arashi (using a short rush and hoping Vox doesn't manage to spoil it). That plus a warrior upgrade would give us two pikes and a medieval infantry as fresh troops. Then we can short rush a pike a turn in Arashi and get a pike every other turn from Tempest.

Yes. Maximum force at the earliest possible date.

Where would the labourer go if they jump onto one of the mined bonus tiles?

[Aeson]

I think we have to have 3 WC's there to be safe (not lose everything in the worst case). I agree that the rest shouldn't be out there in any case.

They know for sure that they can't get to EotS on the Mountains (close but not quite). They also can't see every tile along the way, so they may have to cross more dangerous terrain.

I think they have to hit Arashi given what they know. They certainly could stumble into a slightly better chance to take one city (or even have stolen our map)... but they have to kill at least 2 more units than they would otherwise (we get 2 units out of Arashi in that time.. Pikes if we short rush).

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Arrian
My main concern now is, if we don't try to hold A9, they will, logically, go for A1, as you said.

We're screwed if that happens.

-Arrian

I think we should be prepared to abandon Tempest if they march South around Arashi.

It hurts a lot less than giving them a city in our core.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by notyoueither


I think we should be prepared to abandon Tempest if they march South around Arashi.

It hurts a lot less than giving them a city in our core.

I was thinking that earlier, something to force them off the mountains.

One thing:

Its going to kill me if they know we abandoned it and Beta goes on his propaganda campaign. but oh well, thats ok, better than them getting the city.

[Theseus]

Arrian and Nathan, please go back and read my original post in this thread... I was sorta messy how I described all of my actions, but I think I addressed almost every town's Worker joins, short-rushes, and production.

nye, thanks for stating that out loud, as I hadn't... it's not just the face off, it is what happens after... who can take out damaged units? I think I covered that too, although perhaps not enough.

Aeson, without killing yourself with test runs, given your gut-level prediction of an A9 face off, and a possible pull-back into Arashi, and assuming we have... hmmm...

The units already in Arashi:
1 reg MedInf
2 vet WCs
1 Warrior

Next turn:
Warrior upgrades to reg MedInf
Two new Pikes, one fortified and one not
One Horseman

The following turn:
Two more new Pikes
One more Horsemen
Two new WCs
One additional MedInf

... then how will we be doing?

I'll say it again: Vox basically CANNOT take A9, and then we got'em.

[Arrian]

I say no way, we fight. Tempest isn't "core" perse, but it sure as hell isn't something I'm willing to abandon. I'd rather fight it out at A9.

I don't care what Beta says, so long as we win. That isn't entering into my thoughts.

Think about what abandoning a reasonably big city would do to us, not just in production, but also in revenues.

-Arrian

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel


I was thinking that earlier, something to force them off the mountains.

One thing:

Its going to kill me if they know we abandoned it and Beta goes on his propaganda campaign. but oh well, thats ok, better than them getting the city.

It would destroy them to march past our army and into a desolation while we build a second army to annihilate them with.

They would be putting themselves into the middle of the hurricane, and the minute they pop out onto the plains, they die.