Cape Town Theatre Command

[sunrise089]

@Swiss - Our Cape Town army will be down only cats. While our cats couldn't respond in time, we will still have 3-4 cats left at Cape Town if we build cats once 2 knights are done. I'm not worried about the Imperio stack if we have 4 cats and an equal number of strength-8 units, plus if the Templar stack doesn't move in we'll be able to move our 2-movers who survive the battle up to Cape Town in time.

I also want to apologize for not being more enthusiastic about the team going for Engineering back when we did. With our oblong front the tech has been and continues to be totally invaluable.

[Sullla]

I also want to apologize for not being more enthusiastic about the team going for Engineering back when we did. With our oblong front the tech has been and continues to be totally invaluable.

I mostly pushed for Engineering along tech trading lines, but it definitely has been critical to our defense effort. Lucky coincidence.

Obviously I'd also like to see us move forward with this. One thing that I'll add is that we should try to use our spy to keep line of sight in the area around Jericho, and warn us of incoming reinforcements. My gut feeling is that the Templars will react to our attack by moving their units back home for defense. It's the natural human reaction, and only the true tactical genius will think to respond to such a move by going on the offensive, seeking the weakness opened up in the enemy lines. Based on what we have seen so far, Templars are not tactical geniuses.

Naturally we watch what Imperio and Templars are doing, but go ahead with this plan unless we see something threatening come up. Also, "Operation Joshua" is a kickass name!

[T-hawk]

"We are taking Jericho this turn. We plan on razing it. However, if you are willing to [insert concessions here], we will simply capture it and then return it to you as part of the peace deal. You have until we play our turn to respond."

I like the thought, but I'm not sure how practical it is. What would Templars have to offer for peace that's more valuable than just Jericho itself? Same situation as Cape Town - sure, giving it away would be on the table if it actually improves our winning situation, but enough recompense that would actually do that may not even exist.

More generally, I like the plan to attack and capture Jericho. I think we would be fine to keep it. No nearby site is so much stronger that it's worth building a settler and redeveloping from size 1.

[sunrise089]

More generally, I like the plan to attack and capture Jericho. I think we would be fine to keep it. No nearby site is so much stronger that it's worth building a settler and redeveloping from size 1.

Assuming the military situation allows keeping the city (it will depend on casualties and how much of the Templar army retreats towards Jericho), does the cultural battle favor keeping or razing it?

[mostly-harmless]

Regarding the cultural situation:
Jericho will be engulfed by Constantinople's 4th ring. As we don't have line of sight into it, we can only guess it is similar in it's cultural development like PD, so the 4th ring is some 10-30turns away. Plenty of time for Jericho to get to 2nd ring.
However, the tiles E, SE, S will be in firm Templars grip for a long time. We will also not be able to work the oasis 3f 2g and the hill (with the only possible mine) for ages. It's not idela, but then Jericho comes with walls.

mh

[sooooo]

TBH I am not overly sold on keeping Jericho. It's another city to defend, and it will have to be defended against both templars and imperio.

[MyOtherCar]

I like the plan, Sunrise, very much so. I also believe we should keep the city when we capture it. It's very likely they won't recover from their loss. They only have 5 cities now, right? So loosing just one (and their iron) will hurt them much more than it would us.
Finally I'd like to add I really admire your tactical planning.

[Zeviz]

The plan to go for Jericho sounds good. Whether to keep it depends on ho much infrastructure it has and where we could resettle it. I am tempted to raze, because each city has net cost of around 10 gpt for us.

[sunrise089]

Tactically, for what it's worth, my ideal situation would be a re-settling on a hill. In MP I'd probably re-settle and culture bomb, but these very well-developed cities might not even loose any tiles to a bomb.

[Kodii]

After this Joshua burned the remains of the city and cursed any man who would rebuild the city of Jericho at the cost of his firstborn son.

[darrelljs]

I'd be inclined to raze it, I don't see how we can defend it + Cape Town + Pink Dot.

Darrell

[sunrise089]

@Darrell - we'd have to build new roads, but essentially any units in Jericho can pretty much cover all three of our border cities. Once the city itself has a garrison inside I'd actually consider our front a little more secure.

The only scary thing will be the possibility of the enemy 1-moving Jericho via military engineers. Having spies around will be vital if we take the city. I know we have lots of stuff to build, but I would welcome our domestic advisers' assessment of where we can afford to build a few more spies.

[sunrise089]

I'd like to make one small modification to my plan. Since Templars probably won't advance on Cape Town when we move on Jericho I'd like to use the knight Airstrip 1 is producing in the attack and place a horse archer at Cape Town instead. Then if Templars do advance we can upgrade the HA for 140 gold. The team may veto this though if they think the risk of burning that much cash is too great.