OPERATION 1- Blood for Saltpeter

[vikingruler]

Part of the reason we talked about going to war with Rome, is because of the Saltpeter. We know of two cities that have Saltpeter in their city radius. Neapolis and Antium. Antium is shrouded in black but no doubt has access to Saltpeter. In the following map I marked important points and detailed what units I estimate we need for attacking Antium and Rome. I will also post another map getting Berlin in it for an attack on the costal Rome.



All red dots and Antium (forgot to dot it) are cities we may take/raze. The blue dot is a city we probably won't take but may raze. The yellow dot shows a stack of Germans, with a spear, archer, archer in it. These could pose some sort of problem. Please critique my plan and tell me what you think.

 

[vikingruler]

This map shows the attack on Ravenna and Hispalis. Berlin will be the Base of Operations for the assault. The knight near Berlin will be one of the units part of that attack plan. Since those two cities may not be our targets I didn't detail how many units we would need. Once again please critique my plan and give suggestions.

 

[Furiey]

We will probably face Muskets in Rome, therefore we will need Trebuchets to help take the city.

We can check whether we will face Muskets in Ravenna and Hispalis by having a Knight peep over the border.

Hispalis and Ravenna will be behind our lines, they need to be razed, but we also need more culture in Berlin and Besancon so we claim the land to prevent settling or we will have to block settlers as they approach.

Lugdunum will fall easily and can be mopped up with a small force.

Our main route needs to be Antium and on to Rome - can our force take Antium on the way to Rome so that we don't have to split it and anything unused carries on to Rome? By looking at the shape of the cultural boundary it looks like Antium is in the SW of the 2 tiles in the fog.

After Rome is taken, then we can move on to Veii, and possibly the Silks town just off the picture North of Rome and Neapolis. We will need culture rushed in Rome to claim the land ASAP. We will need to reserve gold to do this.

edit: you'll also have to make provision so that forces can be used to deal with any Japanese landings, just in case....

 

[vikingruler]

@Furiey, as for Japenesse landings, we have few knights, I believe 3 or 4 near Priapos to defend aganist French landings, which happended once in my TC. Therefore a few of them can stay behind or rather knights about to be built to defend aganist Japans invasion. Also, what city are we taking I feel Antium is best because it is closer to our land than Rome and has saltpeter.

 

[DaveShack]

I agree with the need for Trebuchets. What would you think about sending the knights past the target city to catch defenders in motion outside cities while the slower units and siege weapons move forward? Then we can soften up city defenses first, hit with knights which can retreat if losing, and mop up with foot units.

How many trebuchets would be needed? Styx will have 2 queued up for the upcoming turn set.

Also on the FA front, I'd like our current deal to expire before we declare war, because we might damage our ability to trade resources if we attack with a deal in place. This might be true even though no gold is included in the current deal. What can we do preparation wise in the next 14 turns before the current trade expires?

Oh, forgot to mention -- the German units are on the way to Persia. Germany and France have a MA vs Persia.

Edit: Also forgot to mention, we should pillage everything we don't capture, to make it harder on new settlements.

 

[Furiey]

Rome is still better than Antium. With culture it will gain us Saltpetre, Incense and even Silks, and it will gain a larger overall territory. It will also give us Leonado's workshop.

We also need to keep the territory we have taken from the French from being resettled. We must not let cities be built up against the border again or we will be back where we started. Some troops need to stay in the West to block the land from Settlers. The Workers can also help.

 

[vikingruler]

We definitley need to keep troops in the former Paris area. I forgot to mention that in my instructions I will though for next TC. I just want to be clear on your stance with taking over Rome, Furiey. In order for Rome to get saltpeter I'm pretty sure we must raze Antium, correct? Also, Rome is quite far away from our land, it might be too corrupt. However, Besancon is quite a bit closer to Antium, and with a courthouse, a few MPs, and an eventual police station, it will be productive already has Saltpeter, and easier to reinforce. Also, Rome has a lot of citizens, 10. Antium will most likely have less as it in desert. Therefore, the threat of culture flipping is less likely. Rome is in the middle of the Roman land and thus pressured by a lot of culture.

 

[Furiey]

Rome will not be pressured by any culture once we have razed the cities around it and we need to raze the cities anyway to remove Rome as a significant force. We want a city in the middle of Roman land so that we can claim it all for ourselves. If we don't claim enough with our culture we will be wasting too many resources keeping it free of settlers, Rome slap bang in the middle is ideal strategically, Antium will only extend our borders a little beyond Rome and when Bescanon and Rome expand we would claim that territory anyway. Rome will have slightly more distance corruption from our current capitol, yes, but we do not have enough cities for it to be a problem and we haven't even built the Forbidden Palace yet! Put the Forbidden Palace over that side of our empire and we have a powerhouse in the making with Rome. Antium will still be plodding along with floodplains and desert. Rome has a population of 10, which can be starved down to 1 in 9 turns, Antium has floodplains and desert, if using the floodplains only it may have grown quickly, but floodplains and desert is a pretty poor excuse for a city look how long it took the Romans to build culture, we need better than that.

But Rome is just my choice. TimBentley as Expatriate Governor gets to lead the discussion on which city to keep. My views are just as a citizen, and as a citizen I feel the additional challenge to take Rome will be well worth the investment.

edit: not too late to add comments to the instructions about preventing settling - it will be too late next time if the cities are already built.

 

[xyourxmomxcorex]

I find six to seven trebucets bring a city to its knees. To break through the romans, we are going to need a lot more than just knights. Stacks of one or two pikemen, 5-8 longbowman/med. infantry can take a well defended city. Also, if we have crusaders, they would be very useful in the stack. I would take a delay in the offesnsive to do so...but i dont think this attack will succeed right now. I cant find very good info on the current state, but from what ive seen...

 

[xyourxmomxcorex]

Another thing: we should land troops by sea, if we have anthing in the way of a navy, on veii, then use it to jump off to attack rome.

 

[Alphawolf]

This veers slightly off topic: I believe Hispalis should be added to our empire; its city radius would fit in nicely with Berlin and it would secure the coast.

-the Wolf

 

[ravensfire]

This veers slightly off topic: I believe Hispalis should be added to our empire; its city radius would fit in nicely with Berlin and it would secure the coast.

-the Wolf

Being a new player, you wouldn't have known this. We're playing a variant in the DG - a 5 Built City (5BC) variant. We can build 5 cities, and then capture only one city built by each foreign civilization.

We've captured our German city (Berlin) and French city (Besancon). We're trying to determine which Roman city to take right now.

-- Ravensfire

 

[xyourxmomxcorex]

Rome is still better than Antium. With culture it will gain us Saltpetre, Incense and even Silks, and it will gain a larger overall territory. It will also give us Leonado's workshop.

We also need to keep the territory we have taken from the French from being resettled. We must not let cities be built up against the border again or we will be back where we started. Some troops need to stay in the West to block the land from Settlers. The Workers can also help.

Someone Projected Rome's future culture, sliks would be in Roman territory

 

[Furiey]

Someone Projected Rome's future culture, sliks would be in Roman territory

Yes, I did, but I posted the pics in the other htread as people were obviously voting without reading this one first.