The War: 1250AD

[vondrack]

I believe that with the war starting, it would not be very convenient to keep the "in-turn" discussion to the Next turn thread... there is likely a lot of debate to go on, lot of pictures, and it would soon become confusing, if left to a single thread (meant for planning of the next turn anyway).

Therefore, as an experiment, I am starting this thread - dedicated to the first turn of war.

More info including the first map to be posted shortly.

[vondrack]

Western Theater

This is how the map of the Western Ocean looks after opening the save and going through the diplo and build phases:



Click to open a full scale version (a 0.55 MB JPEG).

[vondrack]

Build Phase

Here is what I did during the diplo/build phases (discovered that it was possible to shortrush even during that time - good thing the F1 trick is completely legal! )

1) GS/Egypt offers peace as 'unaccepted'; cleared the table and exited

-) pollution N of Legopolis, bomber build failed
2) Farmerville finished worker, F1 into the city

[F1 trick phase]
3) Sandonorico changed production to infantry, shortrushed for 160g, and switched to submarine
4) Sharpehaven changed production to submarine
5) Tipperary changed production to destroyer
[/F1 trick phase]

6) Panama finished hydro plant, started bomber
7) Red Bricks finished barracks, started bomber
8) Forkmouth finished hydro plant, started bomber
9) Karina finished infantry, started bomber
10) Zargonia finished submarine, started bomber
11) Sandonorico finished submarine, started another one
12) Logville finished barracks, started bomber
13) Sharpehaven finished submarine, started bomber
14) Tarzania finished infantry, started bomber
15) Ahhmyfoot finished infantry, started bomber
16) Crossing finished factory, started submarine
17) Tiberium finished artillery, started bomber
18) Tipperary finished destroyer, started submarine
19) Nou Camp finished worker, started another one

[vondrack]

Re: Western Theater

Originally posted by vondrack
This is how the map of the Western Ocean looks after opening the save and going through the diplo and build phases

First a couple of observations:

1) the invasion is apparently NOT taking the Inchoff-Invoice route
though we would have (and I believe we should have) to check by moving Blade SW-SW to see whether they are not, for some strange reason, hiding E-E-E-E-E-SE of Inchoff

2) there is a distraction force NE of U-H3
three transports, escorted by 1 destroyer; it must be the group we spotted S-SE-SE-SE-SE of Sufa last turn. Most probably, they do not know we know about them. But it's obvious it's just a distraction meant to force us to split defenders, lacking them where the real blow is to come. I can see ways of severely damaging, or even destroying it at sea, making it's impact on our defense plans bearable.

3) ND BB Haudruff moved to NE of Crossing, together with NDT Schlepper (not seen on the map posted)
Darekill told me about this yesterday. What ND is going to do very much depends on what we do. Theoretically, their ships threaten Zargonia, Crossing, and Logville at the same time.

I know I am contradicting my earlier posts on preemptive strikes, but I suggest a meek peacenik approach in this case. We send ND a very polite note. We don't even expressly ask them to leave, just repeat our desire for peace between our nations - officially tell them how dire our situation is and that we are more or less at their mercy. We offer a moderate pull-back of our pickets (they are no good to us anymore anyway - Louisxiveau is all ND needs to sneak attack us). Yes, let's eat our hat, it's not going to kill us.

If they remain neutral - and I believe they will, since my message seemed to get through to Darekill eventually yesterday - we spare ourselves the nightmare of a 3-front war. If we sink the ships, we gain little, since ND will still be able to retaliate through Louisxiveau - even with no escort ships available. We do not and will not, in the reasonably near future, have forces enough to destroy that city. So, let's take the risk and hope ND is just showing off, playing their part in the scenario written by GS & GoW.

I am going to prepare the note ASAP and post it in our ND diplo thread for a review.

4) no mechanized infantry on the GS rooster
considering they are most likely not taking the Inchoff-Invoice route (that would be the only route allowing transport chaining), this effectively means we are not going to face MIs in 1270AD. Maybe later on, but not in 1270AD.

On a related note... GS only built 4 new marines, 1 transport, and 1 fighter since the last turn. GoW added 10 new marines, 1 transport, 1 destroyer, and 1 fighter. I suspect GoW may be using mobilization to build that much so fast... (remember the fake war we noticed few turns ago? and MZ's note in the public forum? it's a wild idea, but one we should consider)

5) we need to pull the distant submarines back
looking at the map, it's painfully obvious that U-H2, U-K1, and U-H1 are simply wasting time where they are ATM. What we need is a solid submarine picket belt at a certain distance from our coast. Having subs scattered all around is wasteful, as the information gathered is difficult to use (what good is to know there is a number of ships leaving Hurricane/Tornado, when we do not know the route they take?).

I am going to prepare a list of "obvious" moves we should take before developing our plans any further.

[vondrack]

Alright, here we go... considering the situation, I suggest we do a couple of "obvious" or "no-brainer" moves that may reveal important information to us.

1) move Blade SW-SW
or
2) move U-K1 SE-SE-SE-SE
if the tile SW-SW-SW-W-W-W-W (the current "finger" of the FoW) is clear, we will know for sure that the landing is not to happen around Invoice - and we will be able to move Task Force North to a more central position. I'd personally favour moving the submarine, because we need to pull her back anyway. But the ironclad would be just as good, since it can return to his position and refortify with no problem.

3) move the new submarine finished in S'haven ('U-S1') NW-NW-NW-NW
stop if (as soon as) the GS submarine spotted

4) move the new submarine finished in Sandonorico ('U-Sa1') W-SW-SW-SW
looking for the 1/4 GS submarine (moving this way covers most of where that sucker can be)

5) move the new destroyer finished in Tipperary W-W-W-NW-NW-NW, engaging the 2/4 GS destroyer
as mentioned in the turn plan amendments, there must be a 2/4 GS DD on that tile, since the only DD of theirs was exactly 5 tiles from H.B.S. Argonaut

6) move U-H2 eastwards (E-E-E-E, to be precise), watching for GS ships

7) move U-H1 (in the far South) NE-NE-NE-NE
pulling back, trying to establish a new picket perimeter; unlikely to spot anything, but we will need it closer to the coast anyway

Well, that's it - at least for the Western Theater. Any ideas? I am trying to keep it as simple as possible, so that we do not close doors we might need left open...

I am now going to have a look at the mobilization option.

[vondrack]

Here is the picture of the proposed moves:



Looking at the picture, it's apparent that taking U-H2 the shortest route eastwards is suboptimal... we'd learn only little new, since U-Q2 already is where U-H2 would end up... so either a bit more northern route or a bit more southern route should be better. Or maybe move 1-2 tiles eastwards and then, if there is nothing in sight, turn to the North or to the South...

[Tiberius]

I'd move U-H2 east and then North, because that's the area where we are mostly blind. Or, we could move U-H2 east and U-Q2 north.
Besides, our shores around Sharpeheaven and Forkmouth are almost as close to GS as Invoice.

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Tiberius
I'd move U-H2 east and then North, because that's the area where we are mostly blind. Or, we could move U-H2 east and U-Q2 north.

Moving U-H2 first to the East and then to the North would be preferrable then, since U-Q2 is going to engage either that 1/4 sub or 2/4 DD of GS - they are both to the East of where U-Q2 is ATM. The DD must be where H.B.S. Athena was last turn, the sub is somewhere inside the yellow area...

Originally posted by Tiberius
Besides, our shores around Sharpeheaven and Forkmouth are almost as close to GS as Invoice.

True. Just that in 3t, GS can reach our shores via almost any route. Inchoff-Invoice was the only 2t route. They can be pretty much anywhere at this moment... though, considering the distraction force in the South, it's likely that the real armada will be farther away from there... which would be somewhere between Sharpehaven and Q.M.

[Tiberius]

2) there is a distraction force NE of U-H3
three transports, escorted by 1 destroyer; it must be the group we spotted S-SE-SE-SE-SE of Sufa last turn.

I don't know. This is strange. Would you send a distraction force escorted by only one destroyer?
This could be a real force as well, meant to appear harmless (who would guard 18 marines with one destroyer only?)

[vondrack]

What I meant to say was: the most three transports can hold is 24 units. It is NOT the real invasion force. It's most probably a real force, not just empty transports, but it's not the core we are expecting. We have to assume it's 24 marines and stuff Abilene, Tipperary, and maybe even Q.M. with loads of infantry we could otherwise use elsewhere - and that's exactly what this force is for.

We can rebase our bombers to Tipperary, we can build 2 new DDs until next turn in Abilene and Tipperary. We will have a sub in the area (U-H3) and if we manage to sink the GS DD SW of Tipperary, we could have another DD there. That should hopefully be enough to damage this distraction force enough to ignore it for most part.

[Tiberius]

Oh yes, I agree that it is not the main force. However, we don't want to let in 3 transport which could contain 16 marines, 3 settlers and some tanks or something similar, to attack one of our southern cities and then crawl through our teritorry to Karina.

Though I admit that we should deal with it using air and naval forces, if possible.

[vondrack]

Guys, what do you think about the first few "easy" moves I suggested above? I'd like to play them within about 3-4 hours, so that we have a wee bit more info to work with.

[Tiberius]

I agree with them.

[ZargonX]

[vondrack]

Eastern Theater

This is how the map of the Eastern Ocean looks after opening the save and going through the diplo and build phases:



Click to open a full scale version (a 0.53 MB JPEG).