Thermopylae at A9

[Aeson]

That might be a sign that their cash has run out. They would be building/pop rushing Immortals regular like instead of Warriors for upgrade. Otherwise it doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless they are afraid we will land troops up N soon (GLighthouse effect?).

[nbarclay]

Aeson's right, now that I look again. The workers could do their jobs in two turns and have the roads ready in time, so we wouldn't have to cancel work on the mine after all.

[nbarclay]

For Vox to have reconnected their iron as a result of the Great Lighthouse, they would have had to have two workers sitting on the break in the road ready to connect it on a moment's notice. But if they had that, there is no rational reason why the Lighthouse would create a need for extra haste, not that humans can always be counted on to make rational decisions.

Nathan

[nbarclay]

Aeson, check your math on C in your "odds" post. I'm counting 180%.

[Aeson]

I'd just like to say I think pulling back to Arashi is the safest move. Holding Arashi 9 is the bold move with some major drawbacks. It's what I'd do in a personal game (like Sun Tzu's) but not what I'd vote for here.

[nbarclay]

The thought occurs to me that if our cat can take a piece out of a Voxian unit next turn (and if they notice), that might give Vox some additional incentive to strike at Arashi instead of bypassing it. Of course I'm not sure what the odds are that a cat would actually hit a unit on a mountain; my guess is less than 50-50.

[nbarclay]

Arrian asked about the possibility of a fort on Arashi 9 in the turn thread. That would take three turns, starting with three workers this turn and increasing to five for the next two.

[asleepathewheel]

I will register my vote as:

withdraw to Arashi.

[nbarclay]

The thought occurs to me that we haven't talked much about what to do with Hurricane. I'd like to put a regular sword on Hurricane 8 this turn and move our workers there, and add a pike next turn. Also, move a regular sword and a vet sword onto Sandstorm 6 to fortify next turn.

And I want a pike, not a horse, in EotS. For the immediate future, we'll probably be defending and fighting on mountains, and horsemen aren't all that great at either of those.

Nathan

[notyoueither]

Good by me.

[notyoueither]

The Vet sword 6 of Arashi, what is the plan for him?

[nbarclay]

If we try to hold Arashi 9, he definitely goes there. If we make our stand in Arashi, we probably want him in Arashi just to be on the safe side, but we could consider using him to reinforce Sandstorm 6 and give us some extra punch if Vox tries to go around it.

[notyoueither]

At this point, what is being rushed/upgraded this turn?

[Velociryx]

Posted this in the other thread, but it has relevence here, so I did some copying and pasting:

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=-

[nbarclay]

We have one cat, which we rushed the last four shields of this turn. Current thinking is that we'll disband a worker and short-rush a pike in Arashi and upgrade a regular warrior to medieval infantry, which will pretty much use up this turn's gold.