T3 CoAF - Operational planning: mopping up

[zyxy]

First, we need to mop up the Dutch, taking Auchtermuchty, Sebadoh, and Middelburg. After that, we'll continue with India.

Status report 230AD

Generally speaking we have the game under control.

• Our troops have razed Amsterdam, and taken Eindhoven and Breda. Very soon, they will be ready to liberate Auchtermuchty, Sebadoh and Middelburg. Our losses were minimal. There are some remnants of the once fearsome Dutch army near Strider's Haven.
• Indian forces are moving through our land, probably to their Maya front . Several Indian workers are improving our land.
• Two of Theodora's Dromons are spotted near Bentley, with unknown cargo. They have sailed all around the south coast to get there.
• France has declared war on us -- and on several other nations. Joan must have one of her fits. Except for one nasty warrior we haven't seen any French, and their lands are far away.

Plan

I intend to divide our army into three groups:

• Group West: takes Auchtermuchty, after that Delhi, Bangalore and Karachi. This group should also guard the West Coast from Byzantian (sp?) landings.
• Group North: takes Middelburg, after that Hyderabad and Jaipur. Should also guard against any French attacks, that are expected from the North East.
• Group East: takes Sebadoh, after that Kolhapur and Bengal. This group will also send 1or 2 horse into China for scouting out the land, after signing an RoP.

All forces will be a combination of swords, horses and spears, probably with Army Group North relatively heavy on swords (we need them for hilly Middelburg) and Army Group East relatively heavy on horses (for speed; moreover we have only a few swords in that area).

Operations in the North and East may be slow due to lack of roads. I will ask for some road construction crews.

A view of the current situation:

 

[mastertyguy]

It looks good. I agree.

 

[Bertie]

Our goal has been to take all Dutch cities except for those of Delft and/or Leiden. This continues to be our goal. I don’t think we need raze any of the existing Dutch cities, though I’d certainly be open to considering it. The Dutch will give us Feudalism but not another tech in a peace treaty now; they’d also give us Monotheism and The Republic (or Monarchy). I hope by the time we’re ready to make peace we’ll be able to get both Feudalism and another tech.

The general battle plan looks good. The cities of Bengal & Jaipur critical cities because they control Gem Mountain, a natural chokepoint to the rest of the world; but Group East will take care of these cities in what appears to be a timely manner, so that part of the plan looks good.

Because we are at war with France, the External Consulate would like to take the French cities of Marseilles and Avignon. Finishing the wars with the Dutch & the Indians should come first; but it would be good if we could get to those cities either late in this next turnchat (perhaps unlikely) or early in the next one.

 

[zyxy]

I agree about not razing Dutch cities. Auchtermuchty was ours, Middelburg has no culture, Sebadoh was down to 0.1% flip risk when it flipped, and should get lower as we starve it or build workers from it.

Bertie: do we eliminate India? Your post suggests yes, but please clarify. IIRC we voted to "eliminate or leave with 1 city". EDIT: nvmind, I see you started a thread on this.

If we decide to eliminate India, then keeping their cities seems ok from the military point of view. Whether domestic likes their location is another story, I haven't looked at that.

I'll adapt the plans for dealing with the French cities. I might let Army Group East handle the small desert town of Jaipur, so that Army Group North can handle Marseilles and Avignon. I intend to let Group East have fast units, and North mostly swords. That would fit nicely. I'll look at timing tonight.

 

[greekguy]

This plan sounds real good. The one suggestion i have is to not have group west attack Karachi. We could just send 1 or 2 swords to the area and capture/raze the city. Doing this will let us capture Karachi as the same time of the western Indian cities.

 

[Nobody]

i agree this was one of the wars i advocated. (kinda like the war in the godather book where the don waged a war to kill the small gangs.)

 

[zyxy]

Draft operational plan:

Goals: the three Dutch cities (Auchter, Sebadoh, Middelburg), and elimination of India. Expected resistance: little, consisting of spears and archers, mostly regulars.

We will attack in three groups: Army Groups North, East and West.

I would prefer to dispatch the Dutch before a DoW on India, because it is a little bit safer. Also Mr Newton can be used the moment the Dutch gives us Feudalism, and we might get some MGL's in the Indian war. The Dutch war will most likely end on turn 5 (290AD). In any case, we will not be ready for India much before that, there are long marches involved.

War on India should be declared when we have forces ready to enter the territory of Bangalore and we can safely dispatch of any Indian military units in our lands. We should also have some healed horses in the Regentham/Strider area to dispatch anything coming out of Kolhapur. This probably means we can declare in 290AD or within 1-2 turns from that. Army groups East and North may still need some healing at this point, but that's ok, their Indian targets are less critical.

[Map to follow later]

Details:

• Army Group North: Middelburg - Hyderabad, possibly also Jaipur - Marseilles - Avignon. Consists of 6 swords, 2 horse, 1-2 spear initially. Forces come from Rivendell (4 swords), Regentham (1 horse) and Eindhoven (2 swords, 1 horse). Should be followed to India and beyond by a road crew capable of doing 1 road section per 2 or 3 turns. Can attack Middelburg on turn 5 (290AD), counting present turn as 0.
• Army Group East: Sebadoh - Kolhapur - Jaipur (likely) - Bengal. Consists of 6 or 7 horse. Forces come from Donsignia (2 horse), Camelot (1+1 under production), Roosting Tree (1 horse) and Bentley (1 or 2 horse). Followed by (but not travelling together with) some spears for defending Gem Mountain area and pacifying cities where needed. Needs a road crew capable of building 1 section every 2 or 3 turns.
  Except for the Bentley horse(s), all can stay put for 1 turn, assemble 1 tile N of Camelot on turn 1, attack Sebadoh on turn 2 (260AD). There is a possible delay of 2-3 turns if Byzantium drops off a lot of units near Bentley Iron.
• Army Group West: Auchtermuchty - Bangalore - Delhi - Karachi. Consists of 6 swords, 4 horse, 2 cats, some spears. Forces come from Eindhoven (4 swords, 2 cats), Nijmegen (2 sword, 2 horse), Chaos (1 horse) and Ela Springs (1 horse). First take Auchtermuchty with 2 swords, 4 horse from Nijmegen, Chaos and Ela Springs. Can attack on turn 3 (270AD). Note that horses can and should attack from our land (better mobility if there is a crisis). March Eindhoven forces to Bangalore. Horses should dispatch any Indian archers in our lands at the onset of Indian war, we can also use swords from Bentley and BlackHole for this. Any leftover units (warriors maybe) can capture the Indian workers. The 2 swords at Auchter can help attack Bangalore. After that, march on Delhi and Karachi. Once our west coast os secure, we can send most of these units as reinforcements to Army Groups East and North.
  Needs road crew to connect Nijmegen on both sides. Bangalore is connected.
• Byzantium galley: Byzantium has horses but no Iron, so the dromons may have spears, warriors, archers or horses. I suggest we place Bentleys sword on the Iron source and wait to see what happens. In case of need the attack on Sebadoh can be delayed a bit to dispatch Byzantinians if they land the next interturn. We could invite them to do so by moving all forces out of Bentley onto the neighboring hills.
• Apart from Camelot, the cities of Donsignia, Roosting Tree, Bentley and New London are training horses, and will finish before we eliminate the Dutch. First to be used to deal with threats from Byzantium, and stray units. Horses can be sent to the front for reinforcement later.