New Proposed Officer Position - General - Turn 98

[Sommerswerd]

As everyone knows, we are in the middle of a war with Merlot. Well the War just got a little more complicated, as Merlot has introduced Crossbows to the battlefield on Marthaton. Our forces are retreating and we will likely have to abandon our plan to capture the barb city Vandal in favor of protecting Nabaxica, our Canal/Fort city.

We need a member of the team to be in charge of coordinating and executing our miltary strategy if we are going to be successful against Merlot. This person would be able to think through the big-picture strategy of pressing the war, as well as the turn-by-turn tactics and micromanagement of executing the larger plan. So at this point, I propose we elect a General to fill this role.

From the AMAZON Constitution:

Officers
Once our team is formed, we will use polls to elect officers as needed... If we go to war, we can elect a General who will have control over how our civ conducts the war (builds, attacks, defense etc.)... anyone can volunteer to fill an office on our team. If mutiple people want to fill an office, we can have poll/election.

2metraninja has alreday volunteered to fill such a role for the team, and if anyone else is interested, then we need to have an election. If no one else volunteers then the only thing we need to agree on are the responsibilities of the office. Here is my blueprint for the office of General... feel free to suggest additions, subtractions, etc.

Officer - General

The AMAZON General is responsible for:
1. Coming up with a Military Strategy for elimminating our rivals
2. Making sure that there is a clear plan for all of our military and naval units each turn
3. Making sure that the team knows ahead of time when there are changes in the plan
4. Making sure the team knows about chopping and whipping that is being done to make military units and buildings
5. Recommending tech choices that will advance our war efforts
6. Recommending micromanagement choices that will advance our war efforts
7. Recommending build choices that will advance our war efforts
8. Making sure that the turn gets played by either reminding the turnplayer or serving as turnplayer
9. Logging in and at least moving our military units before the 20 hour deadline (and ending the turn) if it seems that the turnplayer will miss the turn/deadline

 

[damnrunner]

I think a main military coordinator is sensible. Turn taking is one part of this, but the main issue will be tactics/strategy. This will be especially important for things like determining what the best order to attack with units is.

 

[2metraninja]

My plan for the war in general is as follows:

Domestic efforts:

I will whip all the cities (except the capital) to a size 2-3-4 where with so much food to grow and with such a high happy cap, they will be most productive. Even the capitol is working now 2 unimproved tiles.
I will make few more workers, as now we have less than 1 worker per 1 city.
I will chop all the forests available to speed up tremendously our production - workers, navy and soldiers. Even for the camp forests it is not profitable to keep them - chopping them will give us immediate 30 hammers + removing one hammer from the tile, but giving us 1 food on the tile, which is better in my opinion.


For military aspect, in general I plan to do the following:

- make fleet to cut-off supplying lines for The circus. 2-3 caravels and a trireme will do the trick

- on land it will depending on what our enemy do

a/ if they return in the city I will move our axes to Nabaxica, upgrade them, combine them with all the siege and xbows coming from DI and will take The circus painlessly as it is possible

b/ if they capture the barb city or move to threaten Nabaxica, leaving The circus with only 2 archers defending as is now, I will move 3 or 4 units from Jennilund to reinforce Nabaxica and will use our fleet to try surprise attack on The circus with the 4 axes upgraded to maces against their 2 archers.

Also (forgot to mention it) I plan on switching to Theocracy as we will have double promoted units with 4 exp.points in cities with barracks because of our Charismatic trait. This way we will have CR2 catapults and maces and Cover promoted Immortals ( with this promotion we will have odds against their most advanced and fearsome weapon at the moment - the xbows. Also fast units are awesome )

Awaiting your comments, recommendations and objections (if any)

 

[Sommerswerd]

I like this plan.

 

[damnrunner]

Not a fan of chopping the camps. Keeping them gives our Northern cities decent production and huge food levels. If we chop we will have very weak baseline production. Right now a size 3 city (with 3 deer) will have surplus 6 food and could grow to pop 5 in I think 10 turns (more like 5 if we have a granary, and I think we do have them). Then we can do a 2 pop whip for a mace. If we keep the wood camps we will also produce (at a min) an additional 15-30 hammers during this time period. Our workers have several non-camp woods to chop 1st, if we still desperately need hammers later on, only then do we consider chopping the camps. Long term they are incredibly valuable.

Otherwise the plan sounds pretty good. You mention building a few more workers, you sure we need them? I think we can get by with the 4 on the home island that we have now.

 

[2metraninja]

If we keep the wood camps we will also produce (at a min) an additional 15-30 hammers during this time period.

In Civ, generally speaking the earlier the better. With chopping we will have those 30 hammers at once, and the catapults produced with them will already batter the defense of The circus in the time they would accumulate if we leave the forest in place. When we take the city it will get money and will start produce hammers itself and so on and so on. The effect of the snowball must not be underestimated.

But even from pure economic point of view, forest on camps are not good investment. They produce 1 hammer, and deny 1 food. Simplest example is with 2 such tiles. We lose 2 production but gain 2 food, which can feed an engineer specialist which produce 3 (or it was 4) hammers per turn Even if we ignore the GP points, that's 50% or 100% increased production. Further calculating production bonuses and the effect of the snowball shows even better results from the chopping.

 

[Sommerswerd]

from pure economic point of view, forest on camps are not good investment. They produce 1 hammer, and deny 1 food. Simplest example is with 2 such tiles. We lose 2 production but gain 2 food, which can feed an engineer specialist which produce 3 (or it was 4) hammers per turn

I did not know that cutting a tundra forest would give an additional food... Are you sure about this? If you are sure, then I agree that chopping the forest and running an endgineer with the extra food is better... But if we dont get an extra food from the chopped tundra tiles, then I think the only ones we should consider chopping are the ones with fur, and only After we have chopped the tiles that dont have camps on them already, like plains and hills etc.

Oh and engineers give 2 IIRC not 3 or 4... Better double check that. Either way, its still better to get the 30 up front and then run an engineer with the extra ... That is, IF and only IF chopped tundra camps will give extra

 

[Sommerswerd]

OK check this screenshot in the spoiler. You can clearly see the pre-chopped site for Ephesus with fur, producing 1 and 1. You can also see other fur tiles that are not chopped, producing 1, 1 and 1. So chopping the forest on the tundra tile DID NOT make the tile produce additional

Spoiler :

Based on that, I would only support cutting all the non-tundra tiles first, and then cutting the fur camps last. The Deer camps should not be cut. The reason is, that we will always work the Deer, so they are worth many more than 30 to us in the long run... especially with forges and other producing buildings, civics etc. The fur camps, on the other hand, will always be worked last, and especially if we are slaving, they will take a long long time to be worked, so we will not get alot of use out of that unless we chop it.

 

[damnrunner]

So we are agreed, chopping the deer is a bad idea. I would also argue against chopping the furs as well, but we can reassess once we cut the other woods. We have 11 woods as it is, this gives us plenty to get started on.

 

[2metraninja]

I have to check it again, you might be correct. If so, I will not chop the deers (You treehuggers!)

 

[damnrunner]

On switching to Theo. I would like a poll on this before we do. This should also include the turn we switch to Theo. The +2xp is nice but I really think we will win this with quantity and more advanced units, not by having marginally higher xp.

Tech plans. I think we should not tech feudalism and should encourage the ETTT to hold off on this key tech for the time being. This is my thinking. Once we blockade Merlot and use our spy to destroy the copper mine, they will only be able to build archers. As they will be on the defensive, getting longbows will be a huge priority for M&M. If we tech feudalism 1st, they will get a tech boost when researching this key technology – I would like to do everything possible to slow them down from getting LBs.

 

[damnrunner]

I have to check it again, you might be correct. If so, I will not chop the deers (You treehuggers!)

Or furs until the end, and even then I expect to argue strongly against it. With the forest camps the cities have good production potential. If we chop them the cities will only be good for whipping.

 

[2metraninja]

The +2xp is nice but I really think we will win this with quantity and more advanced units, not by having marginally higher xp.

Theocracy is not only marginally higher EXP. Those 2 points and the second promotion sometimes are the difference between victory and bitter defeat.

Spoiler :

Once we blockade Merlot and use our spy to destroy the copper mine, they will only be able to build archers.

This is gonna happen even now. They need Iron, as Crossbowman require Iron to be produced.

Even if they get longbows, once cut from resupply, and facing our mighty army, the Circus will fall. I will stick our victorious banner on the highest building once we break through the city gates

 

[damnrunner]

Thanks for screen shots. Though we should expect to mostly face xbows on hills. This landmass is designed for defense.

They need iron for xbows, but with copper can build maces - and they will have CS before we can knock them off. That is another reason to cut off their metals. At this point we have a pretty good idea of how fast they can tech, can we make and estimates on how long it will take them to research key military technologies. CS, construction, and feudalism, will be the most important. As I said before, once they get feudalism it will be much harder to kill their cities.

Is anyone else concerned about the switch to Theo or is really just me? If it is just me I will stop complaining. If we do switch, when is most optimum - do we need to finish any buildings 1st?

 

[Sommerswerd]

As you probably already knew, I am fine with switching to Theocracy. I was wanting to switch as soon as we got Christianity spread to all our cities.

The reason I didnt post a poll is because I didnt notice that you asked for a poll until after 2metra had already switched. We can poll switching back if you still really want to, our Constitution says that anyone can ask for any issue to be polled, so I wouldnt want you to feel cheated out of your poll...although switching back at this point seems like a big waste of resources.

Next time you want a poll, you should post in the "Upcoming Polls Thread" if you dont feel like posting the poll yourself, that way there is less chance that I will miss it.

 

[damnrunner]

Switching back at this point would be worse. Losing turns to anarchy sucks.

 

[wideyedwanderer]

I agree that this is an important position and I think 2metraninja would be a good choice.

 

[nabaxo]

I agree on the theocracy switch. With out CHA trait and barracks, we are golden.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I agree on the theocracy switch. With out CHA trait and barracks, we are golden.

That is a really really good point that I had not even considered. Civics like Theocracy that enhance XP are a natural for us because of the synergy with our CHA trait. Good call nabx

And since everyone seems to agree with 2metra being the General and the responsibilities of office I outlined, I guess we can go ahead and officially name:

2metraninja (AKA "The undefeated" dvaMETRANINJA) the 1st General of The AMAZON

Congrats 2metra... now go win us a War!... That is unless everybody pees their pants and quits

 

[2metraninja]

Hahahah... well said, Sommers. I like your sense of humor. And thanks for the by-name

Thanks to all of you, for the trust you have in me and the power you vested in me. I will try not to disappoint you or let you down. I will pray our patron goddess Artemis helps me guide our troops to victory.

I'm going to saddle my horse and wear my armor. There is war to be won.