Immortal Beloved - Operational Planning

[Jon Miller]

reinforce our main strike?

Jon Miller

[Beta]

Wake up everybody - there is a war going on!!!!

Man, has GS ever slowed this game to a crawl.

Anyways, latest intel from one of my sources reveals the following:

GS still does not have the world scene figured out.

They do not suspect GoW.

They are very, very confident about this war.

They have no idea of our warrior/immortal pump.

And they are planning a strike on our iron.

The source indicated that GS may be trying to BS them - but thought it was sincere.

The strike on our iron supply would be really sweet. A stack of immortals counterattacking their force - and them drawing troops away from the defence for this. We need to consider defending the other mountain sw of iron mountain - and having a stack of immortals on the road - ready to go on the attack in defence of either iron mountain or Dissidentville.

[HarryH]

Are there any other Warriors on their way to Dissidentville for upgrade? I don't want Dissidentville to be left without an Immortal or two unless we can clearly see there are no chariots in the area. Those three chariots that took out Mo could make a move towards Dissidentville. If D is safe then I would move one to iron mountain. The galley can pick up him and Harry to reinforce the troops on the east coast.

The other five move down to prepare to conquer Monsoon. We might be able to do it with four but I do not want to try it with less. We can not afford to fail and have weaken troops ripe for the picking. The Immortals move down to the second mountain in from the coast overlooking Monsoon. On the same turn that the main force takes out city site 1 these troops move into the grasslands adjacent to the coast and Monsoon. They will be ready to strike Monsoon on the following turn. With their position on the coast they will be the maximum distance from any GS forces and by taking out site 1 on the same turn it should limit the number of forces that GS could send. When Monsoon is conquered any wounded units will be a full tile inside the border which will limit their exposure to GS units until they can move into the city.

Edit: Unfortunately, GS may be creating workers in Monsoon as quickly as it has the pop to do so. We may not be able to get Monsoon at size 2 so it may autoraze.

[HarryH]

I figured GS would make a strike at our iron. They know it is in the open and because we used a colony (and also from the World Map we sold them) they know it is our only iron. Good. It means GS will be diverting forces but it also means we need to have some protection in the area like we planned. They may change their minds once they see all of our Immortals appear in the mountains.

Chariots can not make a direct strike on iron mountain unless they come in on the road. Foot units can directly strike the mountain. GS has these options for attacking iron mountain:

1. Move chariots on the road around Dissidentville. This would be the easiest to defend against, as those chariots would have to spend at least one turn within striking distance of Immortals stationed inside Dissidentville. If we have lookouts on mountains on both sides of the desert we could see how many chariots are on the way and prepare. Worst case it they send a massive stack of chariots that is more than any Immortals in Dissidentville could handle so a few get through.
2. They land chariots or foot units in the grasslands south of Elipolis. If they did this they could catch us without units close enough to take them out before they can cause trouble. They know we have a galley on the east coast so sending units that way would be risky unless they sent additional galleys to provide escort. The west coast route would appear safer. Although they have to pass Dissidentville on the west they know that GoW (is supposed to have) a galley on the lookout in that area so it should be free of Vox galleys.
3. They move foot units up the desert, confront us on the eastern mountains, or by galley and drop them off on the mountains next to our iron. This could be another reason they took out Mo. They didn't want us to see any units they may be sending up those mountains. A galley landing next to our iron would be the worst situation, as we would not have any time to move units into position. It would be nice to have roads on the other mountains near iron mountain to give our units mobility so they can strike stacks in the lower terrain where the defensive benefit is lower before they can get on the mountains. We would still be safe from chariots as long as there is no road in an adjacent tile that is accessible to chariots. We don't have the workers to spare at the moment. Maybe we could send one over there after they finish the road S of Dissidentville.

I like the position Harry has on the mountain south of the iron. He gives us more of a view of the east coast and the eastern desert. If we move Harry off that mountain we should get another unit over there for lookout duty.

The best way to defend against all these is to keep a few Immortals in the Dissidentville area and maybe one on iron mountain.

[Konquest02]

This map shows the ways GS can attack our iron. Either by galleying on the east coast, either by using swordmen passing near Dissidentville. They might want to use chariots, but in that case, it does not matter as they won't be able to attack the colony.

If they use chariots, they will focus on cutting the road once they see that our supply is located on a mountain.

The two most important squares are the ones identified with blue X. We should put our units there. The one on the coast just requires a single unit (warrior or spear?) to prevent them from dropping their chariots there. This will buy us another turn as their galley will need to go farther down the coast.

The other square should have a couple of immortals at any price. Putting them there will cover 3 tiles and they will be safe from any WC attacks. if any WC want to go by, they will have to stop on one of those 3 tiles, thus being fairly easily attacked. They will even protect D'ville. WC striking on the city will have to stop on the first protected tile, thus being destroyed before any attack...

What do you think?

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Konquest02/GSironattack.jpg

--Kon--

[HarryH]

GS is claiming to have finished the Great Lighthouse. They can now use the sea and part of the ocean to have their galleys evade our sight. I am a little surprised at this. I expected them to make a run for Sun Tzu since they are so close on Feudalism. I think this war has changed their plans and they want to use the GL to invade us with galleys. The other possibility is that they did not want to waste shields (they were going for the Pyramids that Lego finished) and want to convert Hurricane into producing units rather than taking even more time to complete Sun Tzu. GS building galleys is mixed news. It will take resources away from them building land units but it also means we need to hold units back to counter an invasion.

[Konquest02]

I'm gonna be away for a little while because I have exams in the following weeks. I will try to look as often as I can, but be assured that I'll scream if I see that something is wrong...

So far I'm still quiet

--Kon--

[HarryH]

Kon, regarding your pic of GS attack routes to our iron supply:

GS can also bring swordsmen through the grasslands, into the forest, and up the mountain S of the iron. Instead of putting immortals on the X by the iron I would rather have them on the iron mountain itself. If GS wants to land units on that one tile of grass that is fine with me. An Immortal or two on iron mountain would be able to take them out. They would be better off landing them onto the mountain for protection so an Immortal on the grass would not help. By being on the iron they could also help against units coming up the road from behind. Another option you did not show is GS landing chariots in the grass N of the jungle. There they could pillage the road network or use the road network to attack the iron.

[Beta]

Regarding the great lighthouse - I suspect they wanted to get the city switched over to war production. So - in someways we forced them into abandoning a better wonder. They were probably using a palace as a bank for shields.

Regarding defending the iron - I think the defense should involve a spearman on each mountain - plus a team of immortals on the road and able to hit any landing.

We will need a reserve up north as well, just in case.

I am actually please about this - as galley builds should draw shields away from pikemen, chariots, and med. infantry. Also - with our road network - it should be fairly straightforward to defend against an attack.

But it does complicate matters.