Next turn plans 60AD to 1240AD

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Tiberius
Edit: damnit, we don't have barracks in Legopolis

...while we have an airport there. That was why I eventually thought bombers would be a better choice.

We have several cities set to build infantry now. By the time GS hits our coast, we should be close to 90, which I hope will be able to pin them down on the invasion beaches - considering they are going to need 1+ tank to kill 1 infantry of ours and several marines to do the same thing.

[vondrack]

I am quite unsure about what it is GS is cooking... last turn (1220AD), we're able to see a stack of 5 transports next to the GS coast (NE-NE of Hurricane). After hitting the End Turn button, I was able to see a GS carrier escorted by a DD (and one galleon, I believe) moving through that spot, too - everything heading to the South.

Are we to believe GS is going to cross the ocean in its widest part, landing somewhere between Sandonorico and Tipperary? GS must know we can see these manoeuvres of theirs - I am quite sure we were meant to see them moving through there (GS have had plenty of time to move them through the Elipolis Canal, in the counter-clockwise direction... had they really wanted to hide the preparations from us, of course. I hesitated quite some, but eventually left Task Force North (now 6 battleships strong) in the North.

Otherwise... 9 new marines on the GS rooster and 11 galleons upgraded to transports. Nothing else. I would not be surprised to see our pickets sunk and GS moving this coming turn. Good thing we now have submarines able to cover most of the ocean. Another good news is we know where all GS submarines are (see the map in the Chronicle entry... I have doctored the picture a bit to show where we spotted them) - which means they do not know where our submarines are. BTW - I was wrong about the third GS submarine... after being spotted near Tipperary it must have sailed northwards along our Western Coast. Not sure why we missed it moving.

GoW have built (or otherwise acquired) 2 settlers, 8 marines, 7 arty pieces, 2 transports, and 1 bomber (lost two explorers - they must be using them to "rush" more shield-expensive builds). One thing I have realized only this turn... GoW have no submarines.

Electronics nailed as planned and sent to Vox, Motorized Transport research started - to be finished in 4t, while making lots of cash. Espionage still with us & Vox only. ND have gained on the powergraph on our expense again. No change in our military ratings vs. GS, GoW, nor ND.

Borrowing Tibi's table for the military/unit numbers:

GS
GoW
ND
Lego
Compared with us
strong
average
weak
-
Settlers
7
2 (+2)
?
2
Workers
24
29
?
15 (+1)
Explorers
4
5 (-2)
?
0
Medieval Infantry
2 (-1)
0
?
0
Horsemen/Knights
0
4(R)
?
8(H)
Cavalries
0
20
?
51
Riflemen
20
0
?
0
Marines
20 (+9)
14 (+8) 
?
0
Infantries
57
58
?
82 (+1)
Tanks
70
44
?
0
Artilleries
14
27 (+7)
?
61
Galleys
2
0
?
0
Galleons
1 (-11)
0
?
0
Transports
22 (+11)
18 (+2)
?
15
Carriers
2
3
?
0
Submarines
3
0
?
6 (+1)
Ironclads
0
0
?
16
Destroyers
24
18
?
7
Battleships
0
0
?
8 (+1)
Fighters
1
0
?
0
Bombers
0
9 (+1)
?
0

Security threats
NDT Schlepper (ND) E-E-E-E of Zargonia - can carry up to 8 units capable of amphibious attack on Zargonia; countered with 9 infantry defenders in Zargonia.

ND/Arabian city of Louisixveau E-E-E-NE of Crossing - possible launching point of a seaborne attack at Crossing. Crossing stuffed with 9 infantry and 8 horsemen.


Plans for 1230AD (Turn 239):

Unit Movement/Actions

1) new battleship finished in Kloreepville to be named 'H.B.S. Farmerville' and moved NW-NW-NW-W-SW-SW, heading to join Task Force North

2) LNT-CA to move E-SE-SE-SE and fortify in Kloreepville, joining Invoice Ferry Fleet

3) U-K1 to move W-W-NW-NW
and fortify next turn, watching Inchoff for outgoing transports

4) U-H3 to move W-W-NW and fortify, joining the picket network

5) U-Q1 to fortify shadowing the GS submarine

6) new destroyer finished in Zargonia to be named 'H.B.S. Hades' and moved E-N-N-N-NW-NW, heading for Jackson

7) new ('83rd') infantry finished in Sharpehaven to fortify S of Crossing

8) new ('84th', '85th') infantries finished in Tarzania and Ahhmyfoot to fortify in Crossing
we have got all vulnerable sports covered, more or less, so we can use the extra infantries to bolster the most vulnerable ones.

9) new ('1st') bomber to be rebased to Invoice


Worker Movement/Actions

10) 2 workers to mine a currently irrigated tile around Karina
making (almost) sure we nail the hydro plant there in 1t even if struck by pollution (the only problem would then be losing the iron hill)

11) 1 worker to irrigate the rred/mined grassland S of Kloreepville
the carrier needs 3*60=180S, so we can grow a bit faster here over those 3 turns

12) 1 worker to be joined to Horsefish
to help the city produce an infantry in 3t

13) 1 worker to be joined to Oasis
to help the city finish its hydro plant one turn earlier

Workers not assigned to more important duties (pollution cleaning) shall build fortresses:

S-SW, & S-S of Abilene - to prevent the landing force from double-checking Abilene and Tipperary


City Management

14) Legopolis to start another bomber

15) Farmerville to keep cranking out 1t workers

16) Zargonia to start submarine
I think one more submarine for spying missions in the sea between us and Bob would be great - GoW have none, so we should see while remaining unseen

17) Sharpehaven to start another infantry

18) Tarzania to start another infantry

19) Kloreepville labourer from the mountain to the coast; start carrier
Legopolis should be able to provide the full bomber crew just in time before the discovery of Motorized transport

20) Invoice to work fish and all land tiles save the mountain; start another worker
returning back to the 2t worker routine

21) Ahhmyfoot to start another infantry

22) Tiberium to start marine/artillery (arty only as a prebuild if we are unable to build marines - I believe we should be getting Amphibious Warfare this coming turn from Vox)

23) Quanto Mechanico labourer from a hill to a coast

24) Horsefish to work all available land tiles; start infantry (3t)

25) Castlea to work all coasts and all rred tiles
already at max pop

26) Nou Camp to start another worker


27) try planting a spy with ND/Arabia

[ZargonX]

That is odd... what is going on in this crazy world of ours? I suppose it is theoretically possible that GS has decided we are too tough a nut to crack, and perhaps have set their sites on Bob... but that just seems unlikely. Maybe they are counting on us to not be able to react fast enough to support ND or GoW, having dedicated ourselves to homeland defense. I dunno... time will tell, I guess...

[lmtoops]

We definitely could not help ND or GoW, directly. Not until we get tanks, and have a few turns to build an army.

I still think they are coming after us. By the time GS takes a good chunk of Bob and gets it productive, we would have won the game. I think they must take Legoland down, a bit.

[vondrack]

I tend to agree with Leo.

GS would not need such an overwhelming army to attack ND, as ND is weak even vs. us. They would not need 20 marines, because they'd be able to go through GoW (those two would have to be cooperating) or land in the yet unsettled areas in the Far East.

GoW would not need (that many) marines to attack ND - they would have a lot more artillery and combat settlers.

Nor GS, nor GoW are stupid - they know that fighting each other leaves Lego unchecked and unchallenged - we would win the game, I have no doubts about that.

We must be the target. The blow is meant to be lethal or serious enough to leave us bleeding and only slowly recovering. And who knows... it may be that bad... but we've done everything we could, I believe.

Let them come, says me!

[lmtoops]

I was thinking, that we should risk stealing Motorized Transportation from GS (or whoever). I think we can do it "immediately". It would give a 3t jump on tanks. Of course the risk is loosing the gold for nothing. As far as loosing the spy, I have no problems with that. GS army is just plain BIG, and that won't change.

I think it's worth the risk.

[Tiberius]

I'd rather steal Radio. It is more expensive, and we are only 3 turns from Mot. Transp. That would be worth 5 or 6 turns of research, and those radar towers deliver a nice bonus fot our troops.

Unfortunately it is very expensive to steal anything. We should halt our research to steal anything, I think.

[vondrack]

Originally posted by lmtoops
I was thinking, that we should risk stealing Motorized Transportation from GS (or whoever). I think we can do it "immediately". It would give a 3t jump on tanks. Of course the risk is loosing the gold for nothing. As far as loosing the spy, I have no problems with that. GS army is just plain BIG, and that won't change.

I think it's worth the risk.

Well, I don't think I would go for this.

We would lose almost 1500g, which means being left with just ~500g. Atop of that, -25gpt because of the lower interest. We might (and the odds would not be stellar - "immediately" has a pretty low chance of succeeding) get M.T. 3t earlier - but we do not yet have that many cities capable of building 2t or faster tanks (we've got 5 ATM, to be precise - with more coming online only next turn... but next turn, they can already start working on tanks). Many need 1-3 turns to finish their hydro plant, getting to 50+spt.

The two turns we could start building tanks earlier (the third one we can use to build them already, thanks to the F1 trick) would be enough to build about 5-6 tanks. And we would have roughly that many infantries less.

Dunno what others think, but I do not believe we are THAT desperate yet. In fact, I believe we're approaching the "point of break" - once our hydros complete and the tank production commences (and that's NEXT turn, folks!), our situation will dramatically improve.

GS will need at least 2t to land. The shortest route is from Inchoff to W or S of Invoice. Those are, however, pretty poor landing spots. Flat land, not possible to build an invasion port... plus, they would not be able to land in the first place, since we'd stuff like 20 infantries per exposed tile - and their 28 marines would run back to mama with their noses bleeding. Plus, they would expose their incoming armada to Task Force North, which I am not sure they will be eager to do... 7 BBs is 7 BBs...

So... it's much more likely that GS will have to spend 2t en route and land only on the third turn. But that's the turn we will be finishing our first tanks anyway.

[vondrack]

I've played the turn as planned, but haven't forwarded the save. Get the save (from the chronicle entry), play through the turn, and comment here whether there is anything else we might/should do.

I believe these turns are too crucial to have just one pair of eyes checking.

[lmtoops]

I suppose your right about stealing MT.

On the other hand, saving gold and stealing Radio, Tiberius suggested, is a good risk. We could at least save enough gold to do it "carefully".

[lmtoops]

I tried moving a few labourers to coastal tiles, to get the extra gold. I was able to get +359 gpt, and still have MT in 3 turns; not any big savings.

I also "flexed" our picket ships. I moved then 2t deeper and then 2t back to their original position. All I found out was that GS has a 4 destroyer stack outside of Hurricane.

I could not find anything, else to change.

[vondrack]

Originally posted by lmtoops
I tried moving a few labourers to coastal tiles, to get the extra gold. I was able to get +359 gpt, and still have MT in 3 turns; not any big savings.

I also "flexed" our picket ships. I moved then 2t deeper and then 2t back to their original position. All I found out was that GS has a 4 destroyer stack outside of Hurricane.

I could not find anything, else to change.

Leo, can you tell me which pickets exactly you moved? I have to play it that way in the official save.

I will check the labourer assignments again, but you have got to keep in mind that pollution can deny you any one tile within the city radius with no warning - after not planning properly several times in the past, I am now always aiming at generating shields enough to still complete the build even if losing the best tile (shield-wise). Few extra gold pieces is never worth delaying the build completion...

Be so kind and post the picket movements - we've gained information by moving them and will not be getting some other information next turn (because the pickets will not be fortified), so we have got to play it exactly like you did (btw, I think it was a good idea to check).

[lmtoops]

Well I can't tell you exactly what I did, but it's pretty simple. The ironclads have 5t movement. So I moved 2t towards the closest enemy shore, then 2t back, and fortify.

I didn't mess with the subs, since they have only 4t. I didn't think moving the sub 1t would give any additional info.

As far as the discovery of the GS 4 destroyers. I moved the ironclad E of Hurricane. I moved W-W-E-E and fortified.

[lmtoops]

Oh, I understand that technically I made a mistake by moving the pickets ships. I should have suggest the move, so it could be played in the official move. My mistake, but no real harm done.

I basically did the ironclad manuever with every possible ironclad. I went 2t towards the enemy and 2t back. I think in one case, with the ironclad Southfork, there was a GS destroyer in the way; so I moved NW-W-E-SE-fortified.

[vondrack]

Originally posted by lmtoops
Oh, I understand that technically I made a mistake by moving the pickets ships. I should have suggest the move, so it could be played in the official move. My mistake, but no real harm done.

I basically did the ironclad manuever with every possible ironclad. I went 2t towards the enemy and 2t back. I think in one case, with the ironclad Southfork, there was a GS destroyer in the way; so I moved NW-W-E-SE-fortified.

Cool, this will do. I will do the same in the official turn.

Actually, no mistake at all. It was my mistake to not realize that our ironclads had the movement of five, thus being able to flex out and back while still being fortified at the beginning of the next turn.

I will start doing that every turn.

More of such ideas, folks!