Preparing for a possible invasion.

[donsig]

I see the letters a being ok to send.

I'm not sure about the galleys. Blocking the landing zones will discourage BABE more than galleys I think. Plus horses can move 6 tiles via roads on interior lines where as galleys move only 3. What does the rest of the Council have to say about more galleys?

 

[Aigburth]

Letters look fine to me.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Well, I both like and dislike the galleys.

A) Each galley sunk is 2 units down, plus the loss of the galley, so it's more economical to sink galleys - 30 shields vs. 80-90 shields. Even if it takes 2 galleys to sink 1, 60 shields to 90 is well worth it.
B) Being willing to attack galleys will likely cause consternation on BABE's part and they will likely keep stacks together.

On the other hand:

1) Galley vs. galley isnt' good odds - you almost definitely need 2 galleys to take out 1, and if you have 2 or 3 in a stack, you almost certainly need 4 or 6 to destroy them - injuring them doesn't help all that much.
2) Horse on MW is much better odds - should definitely damage the MW, in the least.

Letters are good.

 

[General_W]

Ok – well, 3 people is a little less than I’d hoped, and now that I realize BABE has the save, there’s really not as big of a hurry.
We just need to get these out before Saber and FREE get the save.

I’ll give the night for anyone else to comment, and then send them in the morning.

NOTE: If the save gets played before I wake up here on the west coast USA – our turnplayer should please feel free to go ahead and send off the letters with the save… especially the one to Saber along with the save.

@AT - good analysis.
Generally, I wouldn't be a fan of the Galleys for the reasons you mentioned... but given our desire to deflect BABE to the west, and our expectation that they'll split their forces...maybe that tips the scales in favor of building some boats?

 

[Paul#42]

Both letters sound fine to me.

 

[tomasjj]

The galley dilemma is intriguing.
More troops on the bottom of the ocean means less risk for our cities and infrastructure in any case.
If we have a stack of 4 galleys or more hanging about when BABE approaches, that will force them to A) keep their ships stacked or B) land their troops asap, and not necessarily in an optimal and focused way. I do think they will keep them stacked though.

But, on the other hand, they are not stacked now, as they approach one by one. That means they have to wait up to stack them. Maybe a show of naval units now before they have stacked every galley properly would act as a deterrent and at least delay them?

 

[tomasjj]

One more thought - if we launch some naval counterattack at them, they might suspect us doing so due to a lack of land forces. I am not sure what the probable response to that is...although Wotan is a highly skilled and agressive warmonger.

 

[Paul#42]

We can't put together a noteworthy force of vet galleys in a reasonable amount of time. Remember they only travel at 3 tiles per turn. We have just one harbor close by to build vet units. Attacking with reg galleys would only create lots of elite galleys on BABE's side.

Imo we have to wait for Magnetism before we can initiate some serious warfare on the oceans.

 

[tomasjj]

We can't put together a noteworthy force of vet galleys in a reasonable amount of time. Remember they only travel at 3 tiles per turn. We have just one harbor close by to build vet units. Attacking with reg galleys would only create lots of elite galleys on BABE's side.

Imo we have to wait for Magnetism before we can initiate some serious warfare on the oceans.

Maybe so.
I am not expecting agreement on this, I was just chucking in my 2 cents since galleys were discussed earlier.

 

[Paul#42]

I am not expecting agreement on this, I was just chucking in my 2 cents since galleys were discussed earlier.

I'm not expecting agreement on this either, it is also just my opinion, not the 11th commandment

(maybe my choice of emoticons made it sound a little harsh - my apologies )

 

[tomasjj]

I'm not expecting agreement on this either, it is also just my opinion, not the 11th commandment

(maybe my choice of emoticons made it sound a little harsh - my apologies )

Haha.. you caused no offense, Paul.
Not this time anyway

 

[Niklas]

The more I think about it, the more I'm actually warming to the thought of building a few galleys. If that could force the BABE stack to stick together, all the better. We have one, and could use two more. Each galley attacking would have 50% chance to take out the galley it attacks, and 30 shields vs 90 shields is good even if only every other galley wins.

That said, I think it's too late now. The BABE galleys are too close to us, and we don't want to force them to declare earlier than necessary.

How goes the roading operations? I think that's really the key issue in our homeland defense.

 

[donsig]

I think that if BABE intends to try to land on our shores they will reunite the stack. It seems they have two forward scout ships, perhaps one for looking east and the other west. They do all have to wait on the edge of the ocean before crossing it and that in itself will help reuniite the stack.

Edit: Just noticed Chamnix's location under his avatar: Behind the wall. A reference to this game?

 

[Paul#42]

If they unite their forces before landing, gaps might be closed in time.

We might even fool them by opening gaps that can only be reached by one galley - but we'd better have some reserves in case they land two pikes...

I don't think they rely on sticking their stack together. That would be too easy to block.

Well, turnplayers' responsibilty is growing. Imagine one of our guys is bribed by Wotan

 

[peter grimes]

Edit: Just noticed Chamnix's location under his avatar: Behind the wall. A reference to this game?

Actually, that was his location even when the first mtdg started

 

[zyxy]

Turn 126 is in, and it looks like the attack is for us.

I sense consensus against galleys, and for horses. Also we will not ship more units to the northern island. In that case, it is not very useful to train units there, unless we do it now (we need 4 more warriors).

I guess we'll want to upgrade the 2 mainland pikes and the vet warrior. How much gold do we want to use for rushing horses?

Probably our research speed will soon start to drop with so many troops and a depleting treasury. We can try to grow some towns to city size to compensate, but it won't help much.

I heard one vote in favor of musket in TC, and none against.

The road net is ok, except for the NW & N (which is undefendable) and some spots in the SW.

The northern island is undefendable unless we block it.

The BABE galley near the Nursery is not one of those we could see last turn, so there must be at least one more somewhere.
We could leave a landing spot open SE of The Nursery. BABE would be able to land 2 boatloads there (unless there are more in the fog), but not more. We would be able to have quite a few units, hopefully enough, in striking range.
We can bust the fog with Wangbok to spot more galleys.

 

[General_W]

We could leave a landing spot open SE of The Nursery. BABE would be able to land 2 boatloads there (unless there are more in the fog), but not more. We would be able to have quite a few units, hopefully enough, in striking range.

Sounds like a good plan to me... or as good as it's likely to get anyway.

Sending letters off now...

 

[General_W]

These messages have been sent to FREE and to Saber gmail
Title: BABE Invasion

Spoiler :

Dear FREE Allies,

We have dire news! Our scouts have just sighted a massive armada of BABE warships off our Western Coast. We’re attaching a screenshot of the approaching flotilla.

We believe that this can only mean that BABE intends to invade us. (our treaty expires with them on turn 129… but we’re not at all sure they’ll wait that long to attack. Rest assured, they’ll take a lashing in The RoundTable if they invade before their treaty is expired).

We therefore need to activate the “Defense Against All” portion of our treaty, and ask you to send us 50 gold per turn, so that we can begin to rush defenders.
We don’t think we have enough units to totally block our coast, but we hope to be able to funnel BABE to where we want them, then destroy them with our Ancient Cavalry when they land.

Hopefully this shadow will soon pass from our shores.

To the Alliance of Blue Science!
General_W, speaking with the voice of The Council

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Dear Saber Friends,

As you are probably aware, our scouts have just sighted the BABE warships off our Western Coast. We’re attaching a screenshot of the approaching flotilla, though we know you can probably still see their wakes.

We believe that this can only mean that BABE intends to invade us. (our treaty expires with them on turn 129… but we’re not at all sure they’ll wait that long to attack. Rest assured, they’ll take a lashing in The RoundTable if they invade before their treaty is expired).

We therefore need to put the shoe on the other foot, and activate our “Defense Against BABE” treaty, and ask you to send us 20 gold per turn, so that we can begin to rush defenders.
We don’t think we have enough units to totally block our coast, but we hope to be able to funnel BABE to where we want them, then destroy them with our Ancient Cavalry when they land.

Hopefully this shadow will soon pass from our shores. Of course, if we manage to dodge the bullet, we’ll return 50% of the gold you send us, as you have done for us.

Your friends in need,
General_W, speaking with the voice of The Council

Spoiler :

 

[Niklas]

I guess we'll want to upgrade the 2 mainland pikes and the vet warrior. How much gold do we want to use for rushing horses?

As much as possible.

Probably our research speed will soon start to drop with so many troops and a depleting treasury. We can try to grow some towns to city size to compensate, but it won't help much.

We'll also be getting 70 gpt from our allies which will compensate this a lot.

The road net is ok, except for the NW & N (which is undefendable) and some spots in the SW.

I meant in particular the musings I gave in my rather long post before. I want roads on the gems, on the tile 2E of The Nursery, and 1NE of The New Yard, in order of priority. Checking the save I see some workers are ganged up in The Institute, and three more are on a mountain tile SE of The Bayou. What's the thought behind that?

 

[tomasjj]

Just a crazy idea, I don't really know if it is possible or desirable either... workers cannot block a landing right? But we can swarm the enemy with workers to make them use up their attack or to hamper their movement (funneling etc)? I mean, like an emergency option.