Turn 98, 610BC

[alva]

If we anticipate, the battle for the SS mountains to be a long one, would a fortress SS6 be a waste? (would give us ZOC too)

[alva]

How about trying to take over SS 6 9 ?
Granted it will be expensive, but

Only one tile to defend and Hurricane would be safe.

[Aeson]

I'm just weighing the worth of SS6 against the worth of H8, and there is no comparison. Our only chance to lose this war (given no major invasions by Bobians) is to lose Hurricane. The only way we lose Hurricane is by losing H8.

I don't think we can hold both SS6 and H8 against 5 Immortals if they wait and stack up, at least not while holding both Tempest and Arashi. We would probably be able to hold Hurricane even if we lost H8, but it does open the door for us to get screwed by the RNG. Even if they can't take Hurricane from H8, they probably have a good shot at our Iron from there, which would hurt us badly.

So the tradeoffs I see that we very well might have to make are Tempest or Arashi vs SS, or possible overall defeat vs SS, and/or our Iron vs SS. To me, SS is the weak link in our entire gameplan.

[Aeson]

EotS' culture covers SS 1, 2, 3, and 4 (in combination with Arashi). Disbanding SS doesn't really give Vox much of an advantage movement wise, towards EotS or Hurricane. We will have a WC that can pillage the road on SS, and then they have no movement advantage at all.

[Aeson]

We don't have the units to take SS69 this turn. 1 Vet Sword and 2 Regs are almost surely going to lose that fight. Maybe next turn with 2 more Vet Med Inf would be a good idea.

It's still not great odds, and we could possibly lose Hurricane because of it if we get 3-4 bad rolls. Again, it's a 'save SS' at the expense of Hurricane's safety type of move.

[DeepO]

You're right in that SS certainly is not worth losing Hurricane for, but Vox, nor anyone else knows of Hurricane yet. For the moment, we're relatively safe there, which leads me to say we should at least make it a bit more difficult for Vox to get SS6 next turn, instead of retreating all our units now. It will take another 3 turns before their 5 immortals can attack H8, let's use that time to keep them from going to SS6 too...

Besides, I fully acknowledge we don't want to put too much defense on SS6, if that means they will go for H8, but defending one tile, and leaving one (relatevely) undefended will also make them think there is something out there, worth protecting. They saw our iron, and will try to get it anyway, but if they know our best city is there, they certainly will be even more inclined to put more forces towards Hurricane.

For the moment, I would rather have plenty of defense on H8 (meaning 4 units, no matter which), but if possible keep at least a pike on SS6. And it looks like we can do that, if we move both the med inf, and the pike towards our mountains, we even have one fortified vet sword too much. (Maybe we should retreat him to upgrade though)

DeepO

[DeepO]

Nah, taking SS69 (cute name for an idyllic mountain, BTW. I can imagine a lot of romance there ) isn't worth it now, and probably too risky next turn too. We might try next turn with one unit, and see what the RNG deals us, as it looks like we have one unit to spare, but that is a big risk.

We could do something else to avoid further reinforcements: move our galley back, load a pike, and unload him on SS6988. But, I think sinking their galley gives at least as good a chance of keeping reinforcements from coming.

BTW, we might want to scout the desert North a bit more, it wouldn't surprise me if Vox is moving a stack of immortals, and a worker or 2 to road towards the mountain, so they won't need the galley to get to the mountains without exposing themselves on the flats.

DeepO

[Aeson]

The Vet sword may be needed at Arashi 6. It has the best odds of killing the Vet Immortal out of any of our units.

Since a unit can't move after being upgraded, we should either use him at Arashi 6, or wait until next turn to upgrade him. We don't have the cash to upgrade this turn anyways.

[nbarclay]

I think a lot depends on how the fighting goes in the
western theater this turn. If it goes well, we could focus both EotS's and Hurricane's production on the Hurricane theater in order to hold the line. If it doesn't, EotS will have to focus more on its own defense, in which case pulling back from Sandstorm would make a lot more sense. But I hate the idea of giving up a city without a fight if we have a viable alternative.

[DeepO]

Okay, again, can we get part of the turn done now, or not? We are going to need to assess the situation as we hit things, and possibly lose units, we need a lot of time if we want to do it unit by unit. I would start on this now (I don't know if it's 7 pm EST yet, but I thought it would be close), to keep us from hitting the 24h boundary soon.

DeepO

[nbarclay]

It's a little under half an hour until 7:00 pm Eastern Time. I need to try to get a little more done at work before I head home.

[alva]

Will we be using a chatroom?
(the Poly server isn't back online I think)

[DeepO]

Fine by me... no need to lose your job on this one

In the mean time, let's start putting together a plan.

1) get rid of GoW horses
2) clear Monsoon threat
3) A6
4) final shuffling

Does this look right to most? (except Arrian and FP)
I would prefer to get a unit by unit report, if possible, but have some kind of plan going in case everythign works out as wished for (e.g. 2) involves up to 5 WCs)

DeepO

[DeepO]

Yeah, chat would be nice. There are a couple of other chat rooms to use, any IRC thing works for me, and would probably be easier to get into then in the 'poly room anyway. So if anyone has a preference: say so...

DeepO

[DeepO]

Oh, BTW, I'm going to try to stay awake for as long as possible, but here it's getting 1 am, and I still miss about 10 hours sleep this week (took a nap this afternoon, though, in anticipation )

DeepO