GK2.1 - Tactical Exercise 1

[GJ]

@GJ - what paint program are you using? Those are some great screen caps!

Why thank you

I edited that screenshot in Corel Photo-Paint 8, which is more or less equivalent to Photoshop (except that it was more affordable at the time). Everything in there was done with just its text and line tools.

The font for the "SKIRMISH?" is a handwritten font - I believe it's called "Another" - available from http://www.dafont.com/en/ . Everything else is standard-issue Arial.

When empire management loses its luster, it's always fun to paint pictures.

 

[scoutsout]

I could prolly minimize my losses at the expense of speed.

People who actually do this type of stuff for a living would call this an example of "force preservation", which is a useful concept when it comes to warfighting. The concept of force preservation is a close cousin to economy of force, which involves using no more than you have to to take an objective...

Force Preservation: Using skirmishing tactics to hit-and-run with MWs versus Immortals, but retreating to the barracks to live to fight another day...

Economy of Force: Using no more MWs than needed to deal with the threat; hitting all but the last immortal, so that no immortal can threaten Niagra Falls...

Hopefully we'll find an excuse for some early industrial era slugging in GK2... so that we can use the concept of "force preservation" with "combined arms" to show you guys some additional power of fast units...

 

[Gogf]

Why thank you

I edited that screenshot in Corel Photo-Paint 8, which is more or less equivalent to Photoshop (except that it was more affordable at the time). Everything in there was done with just its text and line tools.

The font for the "SKIRMISH?" is a handwritten font - I believe it's called "Another" - available from http://www.dafont.com/en/ . Everything else is standard-issue Arial.

When empire management loses its luster, it's always fun to paint pictures.

All I could find about "another" was "Another Typewriter." As you can tell, I liked the font too .

EDIT: Found it! Go here, and scroll down until you see it.

 

[Grimjack]

Hope it is ok for outsiders to but in.

I believe it may be possible to take Arbela one turn earlier, but if you tried that, you might discover your forces melting away under heavy losses.

4000BC Kill off the exposed Imms, leaving the one lonely one outside borders.

3950BC Kill off the ones that appeared, once again leaving one lonely one, also heal the wounded MWs. Get astonished as a radar tower appears outside Arbela.

3900 Kill all Imms, raze city, plant a city of my own. Manage to grab a leader due to diligent use of elites, and plant leader and most of the remaining MWs in the forest outside ARbela

3850, Since capturing Arbela quickly is the deal, I strike across the river, and hit siome bad luck when the army croaks. I do not lose any more MWs though, and Arbela falls.

Had it been a regular game, I might not have struck across the river, and I

 

[scoutsout]

Get astonished as a radar tower appears outside Arbela.

You're kidding about that part, right?

 

[Gogf]

When you open something from vanilla in PTW or C3C, you can build outposts, radar towers, and airfields from the begining, because no tech is specified in the Civ3 editor.

 

[Gogf]

Okay, I finally decided to actually play it through. Okay, so I was beaten by one turn... I could have been more agressive, but I never got an army, and had 18 MWs left at the end (never built one). I'll bet I have more left than Grim, and if I don't, it's because of the army he had .

 

[TimBentley]

I shall delurk and relate my three experiences with this exercise. First, I purposely fortified all of my mounted warriors in Niagra Falls. The immortals took some losses (many from injured immortals attacking), but not surprisingly, Persia took the city without too much trouble. Then I chose the option I consider best. I waited a few turns and attacked the immortals directly outside my city and sent my mounted warrior back to Niagra. Then I sent a ton of MWs to Persepolis and sacked it. Then I sent a bunch of MWs to Arbela. I sent them across the river before attacking to eliminate the spearmen's river bonus (they are tough enough already ). I was victorious without too many losses and it didn't take very long. Ironically, this was the only playthrough where my people didn't offer to expand my palace. The third time, I decided to do a bunch of stupid things. I sent my MWs to attack as much as possible and sacked Persepolis on the first turn. Then the immortals killed many in the counterattack. Then I sent units peacemeal to the hill outside Arbela and attacked across the river. The attacks were not very successful. I finally decided to finish them off and used more intelligent tactics to take Arbela. Perhaps the contrasts between the successful and failed playings could show you that what everyone else has already said is true. So, attack immortals and don't leave units undefended in open ground.

 

[scoutsout]

So, attack immortals and don't leave units undefended in open ground.

Welcome Tim! I'm glad you had some fun playing with this. You have learned the way to beat the dreaded immortal - don't let them close with you. Hit them, and retreat... to paraphrase Sun Tzu: Inflict damage.. so that they may not draw near...

I know that wasn't your first post, but if somebody hasn't said it to you already, welcome to CFC!

 

[Grimjack]

Oops, I cheated. I played in Conquest.

I will have to replay in Vanilla. I will have to see what happens.

I thank the sponsors for building the challenge. It was great fun to play.

 

[Mistfit]

Bug ole to Scout and Graham on the timing of this excercise. I don't know if you've started to play GOTM32 but these same "tactics" (not "strategies") will come in very handy with the Aztec's. Because their UU (the Jaguar Warrior) has 2 movement points like the Mounted Warrior but has a weaker attack. This makes it even more important for "skirmishing" and "force preservation".

 

[Mistfit]

Have the "teachers" played through this? I'd be interested in seeing how Bugs, scout, and GK would play differently and where they play the same. Also was this excercise ment to just take Arabela or to wipe the Persians off the planet. Because I tried the latter.

 

[Bigfoot]

I gave this a shot last night, but I only played through the first turn due to PC problems. After contacting Xerxes and trading techs I declared war honorably and launched the MWs. Really it was no contest: all 8 immmortals in the first two tiles were wiped out, and Persepolis sacked, with the loss of 3 MWs. The wounded MWs simply retreated to Niagara Falls for R&R. My next moves would involve bringing the rest of the MWs to the front to meet the (expected) counter-attack from whatever Immortals were still around. The terrain in front of Niagara Falls would make a good 'killing zone', especially with it being roaded open terrain, and outside of Persia's cultural borders. An additional insurance policy = the iron located in the SW, which (once hooked up) allows for warrior=> sword upgrades for the final conquest of all Persian lands. But most likely the MWs could cut the heart out of the Persian army in the fields outside of Niagara Falls, and then take the remaining Persian cities at their leisure.

I used to play the Persians quite a bit, specifically for the Immortal (ergo my avatar). Obviously they are quite good for early conquests, but they are vulnerable to fast movers when in open terrain -- something this exercise demonstrates quite graphically. The remedy is to team them up with cats and defensive units, and to look for invasion routes with good defensive terrain (forests, hills, etc.).

Thanks for the exercise, and good luck with the SG!

 

[SwedishChef]

So I'm reading through the 90+ pages of the Training Day Game run by Genghis Khan and others. I got to around page 70 where they mentioned this exercise. (It's taken a few weeks to read through all this, play the student turns through, examine the feedback, etc.)

I decided to try this. Thought it would be quick. That was some hours ago. I only played it once, and without reading the spoilers. I did reload one turn, but only because I kept skipping some regular warriors I wanted to upgrade in a stack of Mounted Warriors. Otheriwse I just played it through.

I took the basic mission as "Capture Arbela by 3500," but I didn't emphasize speed. I didn't even think of it. I wanted to emphasize efficiency, and maximizing the damage to Persia. I didn't manage my domestic affairs as I would have in a real game, but I wanted to hopefully take MORE than Arbela. I also wanted to apply everything I've been learning in the training day game. So I strategized a lot up front. I don't think this is going to all fit in one post.

First Contact Persia
They have Iron Working, which could be useful, and Masonry, which probably won’t be. We have Map Making, Horseback Riding, and Ceremonial Burial, none of which matter much to them in the short term. Since we’re about to go to war, we want to drain their treasury, and it would be nice to see if we have Iron.

Trade Map Making, Horseback Riding, Ceremonial Burial and our World Map for Iron Working and 200 Gold. (I couldn't trade my 3 techs for their 2 techs - I think I saw someone else trade 2 for 2? How?) Checked on their world map, but that’d cost us about 100 Gold, so I guess I’ll do my own exploring. I see they have 8 total cities – more than me.

MM to get rid of the entertainer in Oil Springs
MM Oil Springs to produce a warrior in 2 turns
MM other cities to de-emphasize growth and focus on producing warriors that we can upgrade to Swords - now that we know where our iron is. We have:
Allegheny producing a warrior in 1 turn (every 1 turn)
Tonwanda and Oil Springs every 2 turns
Cattaragus and Grand River every 5 turns
Salamanca and Niagara every 10 turns

5 and 10 turns are probably too long, but a few extra warriors become swordsmen from the more productive cities could help.

I have no galleys and building one would take about 8 turns.
Normally I’d use the scout to confirm/deny that our western island coast is really a coast, but my workers will be doing that soon, so send them to Niagara

Won’t be needing MP, so send all military units to Niagara

Niagara Falls has a barracks, so we can upgrade our warriors to Swords there once we hook up our Iron. I see we have a settler, but I think I can hook up the iron with a colony before the settler could get there. Our entire empire is connected by roads.

Before War, establish an embassy:
Persia’s capital is Arbela, not far from Persepolis, which we can already see
They have Iron connected up (makes sense – they have Immortals which require it) I do wonder where that iron is. Almost worth buying their map to find it, but without galley’s I have little hope of reaching it in under 10 turns unless I'm wiping out their empire anyway. They’re building Immortals every 3 turns in Persepolis and have 7 citizens, 1 wine lux, 1 entertainer they’re likely to whip out once war starts (they’re despotic). They have a granary, temple, and palace, and are growing slowly (36 turns). They’re running about 50% science and 50% tax. There are 3 immortals and 3 spearmen in the city – all regular (makes sense, they have no barracks).

Since there are veteran immortals on our borders, we can presume another city has a barracks and decent production capacity (this turned out to not be true). Almost all of their city squares are roaded (except 1 forrest and 1 hill) but there is apparently NO CONNECTION by road to other cities? This can’t be. I later discovered it's good programming by the Civ3 creators to reduce the info I get from the embassy, since I haven’t explored around that area yet. Nice touch I'd never noticed before. Two tiles of the southern Arbela radius are being worked by another city, implying another city perhaps S S or 2S, 1SW of Arbela. The main map also appears to show no road connections out of the Arbela radius. Arbela has a wheat, cow, and wine on a river? Nice place!

Arbela is built on a plain, but there’s a river on their NW and SW borders, making an attack from the obvious hill a poor idea. Going to have to circle around to the east. Look at me, haven’t even started a war and I’m taking the capital!

Intelligence – it’s important. I presume some of the things I’ve noticed are sneaky features, intended by the designers.

Contact Xerxes intending to tell him to get the heck out, hoping he’ll start the war and take the rep hit. Unfortunately, telling him to get out is not an option in the dialog! Guess I’ll not attack this turn. Letting him start the war could be bad for the spears in Niagara, but I can’t tell him to leave this turn! Plus, Xerxes is currently polite.

Set Science at 10% researching Mysticism. Set Lux at 10% to keep stupid Oil Springs from rioting.

Fortify the Spear and 3 mounted warriors in Niagara (for worst case 4 Immortal attacks). Skip the rest.

IBT
Lots of Immortals move into the Persian Empire. Now there are three by Niagara and 2 by Persepolis. Few barriers between me and Persepolis, but the city itself may be better defended now. No way to know for sure.

3950 BC
Failed to Notice last turn that Tonawanda culture would expand.

Workers continue to move toward the iron, one is on the proper square to start roading this turn. The SE-most worker (currently in Allegheny) can’t get to the iron in time to help, so send him to Niagara. All cities have enough improved squares to work at the moment.

New Warrior to Niagara, as all future new warriors will go to Niagara.

Since I can’t rush units with gold, perhaps I should change my mind and buy his world map. Or at least his territory map. We buy his territory map for 41 gold. Now we can see the iron fairly deep into the empire, and that he IS totally connected by roads. Nice touch – the Civ3 makers being careful not to reveal too much info via embassies and on the map.

All of his other cities are size 1 and 2 meaning he’s not going be turning out a large number of reinforcements.

Persepolis’ culture has not expanded, so as a size 1 city, it will auto-raze when I take it. This gives me a job for my new settler. I wish I was in Monarchy so I could rush walls/barracks there. Maybe my worker can join the city and be whipped into barracks. Since I cannot hook up Iron this turn, I will wait at least one more turn to declare war. (The option to ask Xerxes to leave IS now available in the diplomacy dialog.) Xerxes is still polite.

Skip all military units in Niagara.

IBT – all Immortals leave my territory! So much for having Xerxes start the war.
There are now 4 SW of Persepolis

3900 BC
Allegheny produces a warrior, make another!
Oil Springs produces Warrior, make another!
Move new warriors to Niagara
2 Workers road to iron…
Remaining worker standing on finished road moves onto Iron discovering that our apparent coast is, in fact, coast

If the Immortals leave the tile SW of Persepolis, I’ll be able to move my scout in, but that’s probably not worth much since I have maps now. Unless I want to sacrifice him in the hopes of pillaging a square.

Hey! I’m losing money! At 10% Science and 10% Lux, 80% TAX!?!? Lame, but OK.

Let’s give it one more turn to see if all the Immortals will get completely out of my way. Plus then I’ll be able to upgrade warriors to swords to have some defenders.

Skip all Military units in Niagara
Move new warrior to Niagara

IBT. Immortals move around but don’t leave the choke point
Persia starts the Pyramids. In Arbela – they’re only feasible production center for Immortals.

I'm concerned this message is too long. I'm going to break it into parts. Next part in a second.

 

[SwedishChef]

Continuing my previous post

3850 BC
I must have undone some Micro Managing in Tonawanda since I got a warrior this turn and not last turn. I fix it.

Activate worker, build iron colony
Upgrade 2 veteran warriors in Niagara
Order workers to Niagara
I only have cash for 6 more warrior upgrades. I'm losing money. However, I'll start making some again as units die. I have several veteran warriors en route to Niagara, and a few more to be produced next turn, so don’t upgrade the remaining regular warriors there.

It’s time for war, I guess. Declare it and hit the Immortals outside of Persepolis with Mounted Warriors

Civ entered a golden age. Kind of a bummer given our tiny empire (and we’re despotic!) but I assume that’s all part of the exercise

First Mounted Warrior kills a veteran Imm taking 1 damage
MW does one damage, redlines and retreats
MW defeats Immortal, takes 2 damage
MW dies attacking 3/4 Immortal, who redlines and strangely doesn’t promote as he should have
Elite MW takes out 1/4 Immortal, taking 1 damage, but no Great Leader (sad…)
Spearman moves onto Elite MW next to Persepolis
All other mounted warriors join them (they will have movement left, if needed, for retreats if attacked – is this even necessary?) Of course it’s probably better to press the attack on Persepolis
Skip Scout and Settler in Niagara, along with the regular warriors and worker

If I press the attack, I don’t think my MW can retreat. Well, I do have more than 16 of them, so try it with one to double-check. Plus he may win! And it’s better to attack than defend with MW even if they can’t retreat.

MW defeats fortified spearman in Persepolis, but redlines.
MW could retreat! He retreats after causing 1 damage to fortified spear in city (bad camera angle)

I've now learned something important - and as I later learned, the point of Scoutsout's exercise - skirmishing. I was under the mistaken impression that for a unit to retreat it required remaining movement points. Serious misconception, showing I wasn't taking these sorts of units seriously in the past.

Press the attack so the Immortals counter-attack is minimized!
MW dies redlining an Immortal
MW takes 2 damage defeating injured spear in city, promotes
MW destroys persepolis after defeating injured Immortal, taking 1 damage
I get 5 gold
This reveals more immortals that were on the other side of persepolis, but they’re unreachable this turn.

It was probably too early to pass the settler and worker
Retreat all MW able to move back to 1 square SE of Niagara – injured that can return to Niagara

IBT
Mounted Warriors wisely retreat as assaulted by Immortals, but 2 die anyway. As does my spearman!

3800 BC
There are now 9 Immortals in view, 1 on the former site of Persepolis, 7 to his SE, 1 to their SE

Move the remaining injured MW to Niagara for R&R
Upgrade 2 veteran warriors in Niagara
Attack the 7 Immortals with a series of MW
1 retreat
1 dead Immortal
1 dead MW (redlined IM)
1 dead Immortal
1 dead Immortal
1 dead MW (redlined IM)
1 dead Immortal (he was already injured)
1 dead Immortal (he was already injured)
1 dead Immortal (he was already injured)
Attack remaining 1 HP immortal with the 4/5 MW in Niagara
Revealing 4 more Immortals to the NE of the 9 I was facing
Move Veteran swordsman onto forrest, “protecting” Elite MW

Continue the attack...
Attack the Immortal on the former site of Persepolis with MW, kill him and take 2 dam
Attack regular immortal to the east of the one I just fought – retreat redlined, he takes 1

Bring out the fortified MW from Niagara, hit him again, kill him taking no damage, revealing 2 more Immortals to the NE of his former position

Retreat the injured as far toward Niagara as I can, which for many of them is all the way
Exception – just skip two 3/4 MW where they stand
Move veteran Swordsman onto the stack on the plains choke point for protection, fortify him
Move 4 regular warriors to our easternmost stack (with the injured elite MW) to act as “shock absorbers”
Skip remaining non-combat units in Niagara, along with remaining regular warriors
Move remaining MW with movement (and full health) from Niagara to the plains choke
Skip the damaged units in Niagara
4 MW on the choke have movement left. Two have 2, indicating they haven’t attacked yet. Fortify the other 2 where they stand
Move the other two … hmmm.

I should have used the settler to build “New Persepolis this turn on the plains choke point – that would have pushed back the Persian culture and allowed me to use the road. Now if I move those two warriors onto the forest, they won’t be able to attack. Sigh. Oh well. Move them to the forest anyway, preparing for next turn

IBT
I view omiting the city thing as a Grievous error

Our stand-alone MW was hit by an Archer from Pasargarde, but defeated him and promoted, only to be cut down by the elite immortal
A series of Immortals attacked the forest square, leading to three retreated MW and a few dead warriors (and a dead swordsman). The shock-absorbers didn’t work as planned because the elite MW was 4/5 not 1/5 and I moved those other two full-health veteran MW onto the forest which drew fire as "better defenders" than the regular warriors.

3750 BC
There are 8 visible immortals: 1 Elite (uninjured), 1 Veteran (injured), and 6 regulars (all but 1 injured)

I stop and think. There are two basic options:

Option 1: ATTACK!!
Move Settler SE, E – just to the SW of the site of the former Persepolis and found Nupe
I’d rather have it on old Persepolis, but that would require another turn, because I didn’t move the settler forward a bit last turn in preparation. I need to hit the remaining immortals with the 5 remaining healthy MW while they’re injured, hopefully leaving Persia with 3 Immortals. At least 3 VISIBLE immortals.

Option 2: RETREAT!!
Fall back to Niagara this turn. The immortals won’t be able to reach me next turn because of the culture borders. This will give me time to heal the 5 injured MW currently ready to be healed in Niagara, as well as upgrade some more warriors to swords.

I opt for Retreat, thorougly absorbing Scout's lesson as I later learned.

1 shock absorber warrior fortifies on the forest
The other retreats to the plains choke point
All other units on the plains choke point retreat to Niagara, except swordsman who stops 1 tile short to defend, just in case…
The healthy MW SE of Niagara stays put (I don’t think the Immortals can reach this far)
The 2/4 MW also just rests where he stands SE of Niagara
All newly produced warriors move toward Niagara (cities are producing Spears and swords now, but these are too slow and far away to affect the conflict)
In Niagara:
Veteran warrior (with movement left from moving there from with the empire)upgrades
Settler moves 1 SE (preparing now to found that city I mentioned)
Scout moves 1 SE
Worker moves 1 SE
3 Regular warriors move to join their buddy on the plains choke and fortify (I only have gold to promote almost 4 more, and 4 veteran warriors arrive in Niagara next turn)
2 Swordsmen move 1 SE
2 Workers (who reached Niagara this turn from within the empire) move 1 SE
All other units in Niagara rest

IBT
We raise the self-esteem of the Immortals, who kill off my 5 warriors. However, the warriors acquit themselves well, defeating two of the 2/3 immortals. 1 unit is promoted (posthumously, as it turns out).

3700 BC
There are 6 immortals in view.
2 on the Plains choke Point (now PCP) 2/3 and 3/3
1 to the NE of PCP 3/3
3 to the E of PCP 5/5, 3/4, 2/3

I now have 11 healthy mounted warriors to hit them with. I think the remaining immortals are in for a bad day…

MW from Niagara attacks PCP, killing Immortal, he's now at 2/4
Elite MW (5/5) from Niagara kills unfortified 2/3 immortal on PCP taking no damage (no leader, dang it. I know it’s only 1/16 chance, but it would be nice…)
Vet MW from N kills Imm to NE of PCP, taking 1 dam (my guys rarely promote either)

Time for that new city we’ve been planning.
Settler moves E NE to old Persepolis site and founds NUPE (for New Persepolis)
Two workers immediately join the city

Veteran MW from Niagara dies at the hands of the accursed elite immortal, leaving him at 3/5
His comrade in arms, inspired by this gallantry, defeats the veteran 3/4 Immortal taking 1 dam
Another MW follows up by slaying the elite immortal, taking 2 damage
MW from N executes a flawless victory against the remaining 2/3 immortal

We’d really like to take the Persian capital to succeed in this test, but we spent a few turns before going to war - and attacking from the east side of the river will require 3 moves to get there! Gotta get cracking…

3 Swords currently SE of Niagara move E E E to 2 squares NW of Arbela

F7 would seem to indicate Arbela has stopped building that wonder…

Sword in Niagara moves to NUPE

Injured Niagara units rest
Worker moves to nupe
3/4 MW SE of Niagara rests
2/4 MW SE of Niagara rests
3/4 MW in nupe fortifies
2 injured MW SW of nupe move to nupe
Upgrade 3 Veteran warriors in Niagara
Upgrade 1 Regular warrior in Niagara (no more vets and other warriors are >1 turn away) (Now out of money, btw)
Scout moves E E E to join swords
3 healthy MW currently outside of cities move to join swords
3 healthy MW from Niagara move to join swords

We’ll call this “Scout’s Army” in honor of the scout there and the guy leading the challenge to us.

IBT
Persia moves a warrior from Pasargarde toward NUPE in a threatening fashion. Oh no!

3650 BC
Unforunately, it will take Scout’s army 2 turns to get into position to attack Arbela from the other side of the river. They move to the forest this turn, next turn targeting the wide open plain NE of Arbela. We may get hit this turn. So let’s bring up the rear guard now…

Swordsman from NUPE moves SE E to forest, right behind Scout’s Army
5 Veteran MW and 1 Elite MW move from Niagara to join him
3 vet swords from Niagara go to NUPE
1 regular sword from Niagara goes to NUPE
skip warrior in Niagara
Healthy MW SE of Niagara joins Scout’s rear guard
Injured MW rests where he stands

3/4 MW in NUPE kills annoying warrior to NE, taking no damage. Returns to city
Skip worker, injured MW in NUPE

IBT
Unfortunately, Xerxes still has some Immortals
1 comes up from the south
1 attacks from Arbela, killing a sword in scout’s army
3 or so attack from Pasargarde. They do less well – two of them die and promote us, one kills a sword

3600 BC
Vet MW from Scout’s army kills 2/3 Imm to the N, now 2/4
Healthy MW from NUPE moves E then crushes Imm 3/3 to his S

Scout’s Army moves SE across the river, in position to hit Arbela
Scout’s rear guard is mostly MW and can move 2 – they join scout’s army, except for the sword
That Sword and the MW to his SW (which just executed the flawless victory) both move to the hill W of Arbela. They’d be attacking across the river, but better that than fail to take Arbela because some crummy archer has 1 HP left…

The 2/4 MW SE of Pasargadae moves NE – the AI likes to kill weak units, so he’s probably toast, but he can move onto the iron next turn if Persia doesn’t get him. Could have sent one more MW this way for this job, too, but I really intend for Arbela to fall

3/4 MW SE of Niagara rests
2 Vet Swords from NUPE move E E to provide Pas with more targets (intending to preserve scout's army if possible)
1 Vet Sword from NUPE moves E SE
all 3 of these guys could move next to Arbela next turn, but I really hope that isn’t needed.

It turns out 5 MW in Scout’s army still have moves. I save here. I'm worried about Immortal attacks. I could attack now – and I’m hoping Arbela isn’t full of Immortals and archers, but I decide to wait until next turn when the whole army can attack at once. So I fortify them.

Now that I think about it. This is an error. What I should have done was stayed in that forest N of Arbela on the other side of the river. That would have provided me with better defense in case of immortal attacks and my 2-move MW could cross the river and THEN attack Arbela in the same turn! Grrr. I can’t believe I overlooked this.

Skip worker in NUPE
Skip 3/4 MW in NUPE
Fortify regular sword in NUPE

IBT
No attacks – perhaps indicating a paucity of Immortals?

3550 BC
Scout’s Army hits Arbela – the whole point of this exercise
Vet MW retreats from 2/3 Spear
MW defeats regular spear, goes 3/4
MW defeats regular spear, goes 2/4
Vet MW defeats regular spear, goes ¼
Vet MW dies at the hands of unfortified Immortal
A fortified 2/3 spear is now the best defender – there’s still that injured immortal, but other defenders? Seems unlikely they’d have anything with a defense of 1 in there.
Vet MW defeats 2/3 spear and goes 2/4
Now there’s a fortified immortal. Did he fortify after I last attacked him or is this another immortal who attacked 2 turns ago, went to 1 and healed 1 last turn?
Hit him with – you guessed it, a vet MW, who kills him and goes 2/4
An unfortified 1/3 immortal remains – time to break out
ELITE mounted warrior kills 1/3 Immortal
TAKES ARBELA, WHILE CREATING A GREAT LEADER (Shenandoah)
I rename the unit, in honor of he who posed the challenge Scoutsout Mounted Warrior

I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t play it myself. You cannot imagine my disappointment at seeing someone else post essentially the same result.

I levy 4 tax collectors on Arbela

For bonus points I hit Pasargarde with two swordsmen, who execute flawless victories, destroy the city and capture 2 workers. Guess the spears were depressed. Then I take the remaining 4 units across the river to Tarsus, destroying it as well. (Mistakenly first went for Antioch and had to reload (out of movement due to river crossing), but figure I’m in bonus territory.) This eliminates Persia’s iron, incidentally.

I could get 2 of their remaining 4 total cities for Peace.

Objective completed in 3550

By playing 3500 I was able to destroy Susa and take Antioch, but there was a tough guy in Gordium. I could get:
World Map
Bactra
Masonry
Mysticism
82 Gold

for a peace treaty, though, leaving Xerxes with one city. I wanted to wipe them out, but just couldn't quite make it - particularly with the one city way up in the jungle.

Thanks for the fun challenge. I'd be interested in any feedback on my strategy or tactics, of course.

 

[Kute]

Hi there.
I just finished lurking through 71 pages of the Mother o' All Thread and wished to give a try to the exercice . But it appears the savefile is no longer hosted. Could anyone upload it again?
Thanks, great job in Socratic teaching .

 

[grahamiam]

Hi there.
I just finished lurking through 71 pages of the Mother o' All Thread and wished to give a try to the exercice . But it appears the savefile is no longer hosted. Could anyone upload it again?
Thanks, great job in Socratic teaching .

scout or i will upload it sometime tonight. i will PM him to see if he has it. not sure what happened to the link but i noticed last night that "upload6" and lower is not available anymore so maybe that's the problem. sit tight for now

 

[scoutsout]

...just a quick note to confirm to Kute that I got Grahamiam's PM, and I'll look for that save. I'm sure I've got it... somewhere.

 

[Detlef Richter]

I see, you have noticed the missing link. I give this a try if it works again.

 

[Kute]

Many thanks guy, i'm looking forward it. (page 78 now, to stay in learning/open mind mode for so long is already a training perse )