Pink Dot Theatre Command

[sooooo]

OK, so here's the tactical situation in the south:



Other units not on the screenie are: 1 archer in Something Fishy and 1 Archer, 1 Medic III chariot and a 1/6 health HA (Charismatic) in Pink Dot.

Note that the mounted stack are healing this turn and should benefit from being adjacent to a medic III, for a +25% healing.

[sunrise089]

Right Sooooo - every unit except the HA in Pink Dot should heal completely during the interturn.

[Sullla]

You know, the Camilla mis-click actually benefits us in one way, as there are now no spears in the Templar stack.

I say we hit the Templars with our two cats (probably losing both, but there's a 44% chance that one of them retreats and survives), then bring the house with our reserve stack. All our units will be healed thanks to the Great General medic, we should have huge odds in every fight and clean up with virtually no losses. The knights will kill the maces and crossbows, then our horse archers slaughter the rest, flanking all the catapults in the process. It should be a total massacre. Make sure to leave one HA to kill their spear and get revenge for Camilla.

Anyone want to sim the battle out in the Worldbuilder to get the optimum attack order? I can spend a little time on that tonight, if desired.

[sooooo]

So, the options are: (a) Hit T153 (next turn) with the units we can see.
(b) Hit T154, with an extra cat and drafted mace (assuming we land Taj)
(c) Hit T155, with an extra 2 cats, 2 knights and 2 drafted maces (assuming Taj).

The problem with (c) is that the templar stack can reach the jungle by T155. We also have to consider the possibility that Templars will just move onto the grass marble tile next turn, which makes (b) significantly more attractive.

Also we face the possibility of Templars just retreating their stack back into the jungle next turn, making (a) more attractive.

[sooooo]

Alright, a sandbox save is attached.

Basically, on my sim, if I promoted the cats to combat 1 and attacked then they both die, but the first knight has 89% odds on a crossbow. She won. Every battle thereafter is >95% odds and the whole stack is wiped out.

[Dreylin]

Well that sounds pretty convincing to me!

[sunrise089]

Alright, a sandbox save is attached.

Basically, on my sim, if I promoted the cats to combat 1 and attacked then they both die, but the first knight has 89% odds on a crossbow. She won. Every battle thereafter is >95% odds and the whole stack is wiped out.

Don't we have three cats in the stack and one more due in one from SF?

[regoarrarr]

Agree - let's nail them next turn

[sunrise089]

Don't we have three cats in the stack and one more due in one from SF?

To answer my own question - that was before Templars parked their stack on our mine. I've hired an engineer for one turn to get a third cat out, which should make the attack a slam dunk.

[Sullla]

Do we even need to sacrifice three cats? It seems like two will do the trick well enough. 89% and then 95+% odds would be good enough for me. I know one cat is minor in the larger scheme, but why waste a unit if we don't need to?

[sunrise089]

I guess I'd just rather loose a cat to reduce uncertainty over loosing a knight or horse archer...but it probably isn't vital to have a third cat. Feel free to change SF back if you would rather have a cottage worked for one turn.

[timmy827]

I tried sooooo's setup and got the same result (all wins after the 2 cats), guess the random seed is preserved and not sure how to change it. However, cat's can't get combat I, so I swapped them to barrage and tried again. Didn't really change much, did lose one horse archer late in the fight at 95+ odds, but them's the shakes. Sounds like we can strike next turn. I could go either way on using a 3rd catapult.

[sooooo]

Oh right, I didn't realise that cats can't get combat promotions. I tried to set them up with 3 experience but it wouldn't let me promote them.

I forgot that the third cat was due next turn - good call on hiring the engineer. But we only have 2 cats around currently sunrise.

With 2 vs 3 cats, let's use 2 and then see what odds the first knight has. If it's still >85% then we should save the third cat.

[mostly-harmless]

I am hugely in favor of a 3rd cat. Let's not lose a HA at 95% if we can make sure he gets 99% odds.

I am looking forward to the "Something Fishy Massacre".

After that it's heal the troops, put together a couple of cats and we are on our way to Jerusalem.

mh

[sooooo]

I'd rather lose a HA than a catapult. HA's will soon be obsolete but cats will always be useful.