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I've been mulling the last turn over... I am not going to deny that it has left me worried. GS rising strong vs. us can mean only one thing: war. There is no doubt about it. GS is not planning to pour everything into their research, launching a spaceship. Maybe after winning this war, but not BEFORE fighting this war.
Granted, the target might be ND... but, is that really an option? Are we not fooling ourselves here? GS very well knows our approach to the global politics and to the global balance of power. They very well know we would, immediately or very soon, come to ND's aid - if for nothing else, then to simply not let them win. They would only unite ND and Lego. The last thing they need.
OTOH, attacking us, they can very well hope for ND remaining neutral for quite some time... since ND's only hope is to let others (us, GoW, GS) beat the crap out of each other, hopefully surviving the war as one of the stronger teams without actually fighting in it.
So... let's take it for granted that it's going to be us and Vox to be attacked.
Now, what's the situation?
We've got our early warning screens in place. We will see GS coming - they will have to either sail by our ironclads or sink some of them. The only "surprise" attack may come from GoW - and only as a landing in The Northern Mountains around Castlea, where we could pound them for two turns before they'd reach the first city (Castlea). Good.
We've got a crapload of rifles. 52 of them, to be precise. 2 of them to be disbanded next turn, but 50 of them will still be there to be upgraded. We are slowly replacing them with newly built infantries... but it's more than obvious that at least some of them shall end up being upgraded to infantries at 20g/unit.
We've got a crapload of cavalries. Well, crapload. 51 of them. Their chances fighting infantry and tanks will be somewhat, uhm, compromised. Attack of 6 only vs. defense of 8 (tank) or 10 (infantry). You need to get a tank down to 2 pips to have 50+% chances to kill it with a vet cavalry. An infantry must basically be at its last hitpoint to present odds of 50+%. Cavalry needs a heavy arty support to be effective against tanks and infantry (and that's what GS is going to throw at us).
We've got some arty (14) and a decent number of cannons (22). Unfortunately, facing a stack of, say, 16 infantries and 16 tanks, it does not look all that impressive. We need more. We are doing about +2 new arty pieces every turn.
Our navy is only building up. First two destroyers in service. More coming every turn - but still far from being an impressive naval force. ATM, we cannot hope for stopping invaders before landing.
The invasion will come before we get tanks. This is not a given (it would be awesome if I was wrong), but very likely. Means we will have to rely on swarms of infantry to throw in the way of those tanks and loads of artillery to shell them, hoping to wear the invaders off and bog down.
The crucial point here is that it's most likely going to happen BEFORE we get to tanks. Which brings me to why I started this thread...
I believe we need to upgrade all or most our cannons & rifles.
We need 50*20+22*80=2760 gold to do that. If we set 1000g aside as something we do not want to touch (to keep the interest at 50gpt), we will be short of ~1850g this coming turn.
BTW - Vox have (just heard back from Rhothaerill) 8 more pikes to upgrade. They can upgrade 2 of them using their own funds. 2 more with the gold I sent them this turn (already considered in the above calculations). That's 4 more to go, at 120g/unit. ~500g.
So... here is what I suggest:
Let's cut out research down to 10% for 2 turns and then continue at 60% only, discovering Atomic Theory 2t behind the current schedule. Yes, means tanks 2t later (and hydros and modern era and... you get the idea). However, it allows us to have 67 infantries and 42 artilleries in mere 2 turns - before GS/GoW can reach our shores with tanks (GoW was lacking Mass Production this turn, so it would apply to them, too). All our cities currently set to build infantry/artillery would keep doing so, just that all units would be kept, none disbanded. We will need every gun, gentlemen.
Getting to tanks 2t turns earlier means we will, within 2t from the discovery (but that's at least 13t from now!!!) have like 5-10 more tanks. Compare that to 50 infantries and 20 arty pieces in just 2t.
Once again - the attack shall come before we get to tanks - we will have to slow down our research anyway (because of the luxury slider). Relying upon getting to tanks on a given turn is naive.
Plus, rising strong or at least average vs. GS might make them hesitate and delay their attack for a turn or two - which, however, levels the ground, since that's exactly the two turns we are going to "idle" with our research.
What do you think?
Granted, the target might be ND... but, is that really an option? Are we not fooling ourselves here? GS very well knows our approach to the global politics and to the global balance of power. They very well know we would, immediately or very soon, come to ND's aid - if for nothing else, then to simply not let them win. They would only unite ND and Lego. The last thing they need.
OTOH, attacking us, they can very well hope for ND remaining neutral for quite some time... since ND's only hope is to let others (us, GoW, GS) beat the crap out of each other, hopefully surviving the war as one of the stronger teams without actually fighting in it.
So... let's take it for granted that it's going to be us and Vox to be attacked.
Now, what's the situation?
We've got our early warning screens in place. We will see GS coming - they will have to either sail by our ironclads or sink some of them. The only "surprise" attack may come from GoW - and only as a landing in The Northern Mountains around Castlea, where we could pound them for two turns before they'd reach the first city (Castlea). Good.
We've got a crapload of rifles. 52 of them, to be precise. 2 of them to be disbanded next turn, but 50 of them will still be there to be upgraded. We are slowly replacing them with newly built infantries... but it's more than obvious that at least some of them shall end up being upgraded to infantries at 20g/unit.
We've got a crapload of cavalries. Well, crapload. 51 of them. Their chances fighting infantry and tanks will be somewhat, uhm, compromised. Attack of 6 only vs. defense of 8 (tank) or 10 (infantry). You need to get a tank down to 2 pips to have 50+% chances to kill it with a vet cavalry. An infantry must basically be at its last hitpoint to present odds of 50+%. Cavalry needs a heavy arty support to be effective against tanks and infantry (and that's what GS is going to throw at us).
We've got some arty (14) and a decent number of cannons (22). Unfortunately, facing a stack of, say, 16 infantries and 16 tanks, it does not look all that impressive. We need more. We are doing about +2 new arty pieces every turn.
Our navy is only building up. First two destroyers in service. More coming every turn - but still far from being an impressive naval force. ATM, we cannot hope for stopping invaders before landing.
The invasion will come before we get tanks. This is not a given (it would be awesome if I was wrong), but very likely. Means we will have to rely on swarms of infantry to throw in the way of those tanks and loads of artillery to shell them, hoping to wear the invaders off and bog down.
The crucial point here is that it's most likely going to happen BEFORE we get to tanks. Which brings me to why I started this thread...
I believe we need to upgrade all or most our cannons & rifles.
We need 50*20+22*80=2760 gold to do that. If we set 1000g aside as something we do not want to touch (to keep the interest at 50gpt), we will be short of ~1850g this coming turn.
BTW - Vox have (just heard back from Rhothaerill) 8 more pikes to upgrade. They can upgrade 2 of them using their own funds. 2 more with the gold I sent them this turn (already considered in the above calculations). That's 4 more to go, at 120g/unit. ~500g.
So... here is what I suggest:
Let's cut out research down to 10% for 2 turns and then continue at 60% only, discovering Atomic Theory 2t behind the current schedule. Yes, means tanks 2t later (and hydros and modern era and... you get the idea). However, it allows us to have 67 infantries and 42 artilleries in mere 2 turns - before GS/GoW can reach our shores with tanks (GoW was lacking Mass Production this turn, so it would apply to them, too). All our cities currently set to build infantry/artillery would keep doing so, just that all units would be kept, none disbanded. We will need every gun, gentlemen.
Getting to tanks 2t turns earlier means we will, within 2t from the discovery (but that's at least 13t from now!!!) have like 5-10 more tanks. Compare that to 50 infantries and 20 arty pieces in just 2t.
Once again - the attack shall come before we get to tanks - we will have to slow down our research anyway (because of the luxury slider). Relying upon getting to tanks on a given turn is naive.
Plus, rising strong or at least average vs. GS might make them hesitate and delay their attack for a turn or two - which, however, levels the ground, since that's exactly the two turns we are going to "idle" with our research.
What do you think?
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