questions for 242

[AutomatedTeller]

Unless they have a fighter flying control of the skies, we can hit it with 4 bombers and 4 marines, so we should be able to take it.

And, no worries.

I think the point about them just picking off mechs a few at a time is valid - our mechs have a defense of 37.6, but the ma army has an attack of 42.

That said - if it holds their attention and then FREE attacks and pulls them away - well, that's ok, too.

 

[donsig]

Let me ask you this question, what do we have to gain from that island?

I've got one word for you, just one word: rubber.

Aside form rubber, we can pin down those SABER forces on that island if we continue to send forces up to SCI. If we abandon SCI then SABER can post a token garrison or do some coastal blocking while the bulk of that force re-embarks on those transports to hassle our mainland again. By making a stand on SCI we also hide our intentions regarding the Cattaraugus island. We need to play some head games with both SABER and FREE regarding rubber.

I really think we need to start researching again.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

SCI

I'm hearing 2 in favor of reinforcing SCI, 1 against, and tomasjj gave no opinion. I'm of 2 minds - I can see Yilar's points, but I'm not sure what choice we have at this point - if we don't reinforce, they'll just take it out and we lose the forces we have there.

How many Mechs should we send up?

Cattaraugus

I've heard 1 in favor of delaying (which I am, too). tomasjj - I think we can take the city this turn or next (SABER moved a bomber out, btw), but if we delay a turn, we should be able to take over the entire island. Right now, we cannot dock, so we can take the city and land some defensive units, but I don't know that the airfield will come under our control and SABER will almost certainly reinforce.

What to build

I think our 1 turn MA factories should either build TOW or wealth.

 

[peter grimes]

Sorry I haven't voiced yet:

SCI:
Reinforce. The more units we force Saber to commit there, the better for us and for Free.

Cattaraugus:
Let's take the entire island - that means waiting a turn, right?

What to build:
no opinion.... but did we ever go ahead with Cruise Missiles? Those would be able to get around Saber's Mobile SAMs on SCI, right?

 

[Yilar]

I've got one word for you, just one word: rubber.

Aside form rubber, we can pin down those SABER forces on that island if we continue to send forces up to SCI. If we abandon SCI then SABER can post a token garrison or do some coastal blocking while the bulk of that force re-embarks on those transports to hassle our mainland again. By making a stand on SCI we also hide our intentions regarding the Cattaraugus island. We need to play some head games with both SABER and FREE regarding rubber.

I really think we need to start researching again.

Pin Saber down? I think the scenario is quite the opposite. Saber can pin us down in that city, if we get enough units there Saber will come to our mainland, and we will be short on units, we will trap ourselfs on the island, and we can't rehook the rubber anyway. Unless we keep a huge force of units there. Wouldn't it be easier just to take one of the other rubbers?

Here's an example:
Build a transport in The Pier (this turn), and a settler in The Squeeze (rushed next turn for 45g). And send it towards the unsettled rubber island near the gong continent. Then we can rush an airport and airlift in mechs, 4 sams and rush walls so the city is gonna be virtually impossible to take.

 

[Yilar]

SCI

I'm hearing 2 in favor of reinforcing SCI, 1 against, and tomasjj gave no opinion. I'm of 2 minds - I can see Yilar's points, but I'm not sure what choice we have at this point - if we don't reinforce, they'll just take it out and we lose the forces we have there.

How many Mechs should we send up?

Cattaraugus

I've heard 1 in favor of delaying (which I am, too). tomasjj - I think we can take the city this turn or next (SABER moved a bomber out, btw), but if we delay a turn, we should be able to take over the entire island. Right now, we cannot dock, so we can take the city and land some defensive units, but I don't know that the airfield will come under our control and SABER will almost certainly reinforce.

What to build

I think our 1 turn MA factories should either build TOW or wealth.

1. None! We accept the losses and move on... Send the 3 jets and 2 MA home, and build a radar tower on the hills with the worker (destroying the airfield, so Saber can't capture it).

2. Bomb the airfield and land 6 MA, they will most likely disband their cities and we can hop back onto the boat and go home. Even if we were to succeed in taking their city, the airfield would remain and they could bring a dusin modern armor next turn, even if we rushed a transport for full chain we quite possible wouldn't be able to get enough units up there compared to the amount that Saber would bring.

Remember that bomber target list is:
Air units
Naval units
Land units
Meaning that the bomber in the city would die before the mech took any dmg and if you throw in the random building/pop bombing that the bomber also can bomb we are not certain of killing all the units with just 4 bombers.

3. Build ToWs in 120spt cities, all the other cities won't be done till next turn, so lets discuss it then.

 

[donsig]

I agree with reinforcing SCI. Sorry, not sure how much we should send up there. I'm thinking we can win a war of attrition up there so I'd send as much as we can (assuming that would not weaken our mainland to the point of allowing SABER to take cities).

I also agree with waiting a turn so we can take the entire Cattaraugus island.

I'm intrigued by building wealth, especially if we can begin researching again. Not sure if we should start space flight or robotics.

EDIT: I like Yilar's idea of settler the rubber island near old GONGland. If we try that, continue to reinforce SCI and try to take and hold Cattaraugus's island then we have three shots at rubber - and we force SABER to try to deprive us of all three.

 

[General_W]

2. Bomb the airfield and land 6 MA, they will most likely disband their cities and we can hop back onto the boat and go home. Even if we were to succeed in taking their city, the airfield would remain and they could bring a dusin modern armor next turn, even if we rushed a transport for full chain we quite possible wouldn't be able to get enough units up there compared to the amount that Saber would bring.

If we attack Cattaraugus this turn, this seems like a decent plan.

But if we wait a turn, Saber won't be brining ANY units. We can take the whole island in one turn - certainly this is the better plan as it makes Saber divert precious resources if they want it back.
We don't need to leave more than a token defense behind.

Here's an example:
Build a transport in The Pier (this turn), and a settler in The Squeeze (rushed next turn for 45g). And send it towards the unsettled rubber island near the gong continent. Then we can rush an airport and airlift in mechs, 4 sams and rush walls so the city is gonna be virtually impossible to take.

And if Saber is intent on denying us Rubber, as they clearly are, then they'll just attack us there, and I assume we'll abandon that when a SOD lands also.

To me, abandoning SCI in favor of an 11-tile island even further away only makes sense if we A) we're ready to build Apollo and Exterior Casing and only need to hang on to the Rubber for 2 turns or so and B) we're ok with never building another Modern Armor.

Because after we finish Apollo and get our first SS part finished, FREE is going to be WAY less inclined to help us in any way.

Fact is - we're NOT ready to build Apollo yet. And Saber could take GONG's former 11-tile away even more easily than they can take Subcommittee Island (especially if we bail at the first sign of a SOD).

If we're worried about our ability to shift forces from SCI back to our mainland in a hurry (since there's no ships currently in range we have some time to prepare for this) then we should get another transport or two ready up North and keep them safe in port.

all that said - I can see the wisdom of not getting to tied up in SCI.
But if we choose to abandon ship, it seems like the better plan might be to wait for FREE to attack Saber - then go reclaim our island at that point.

I'd vote to either hold out (and build/rush a couple transports if we need them for shuffling) or else bail and wait for Saber to leave on their own.

I'm just not convinced that they're going to attack The Tower as is - they're obviously nervous about FREE and don't want to lose any real forces on a target of no serious value to them.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

There is no unsettled island near old GONG land. FREE settled it.

All the islands are settled - we have 1, FREE has 2 and SABER has 2.

 

[Niklas]

There is an unsettled *1*-tile island with rubber near GONG lands.

 

[Niklas]

I think we should tie up SABER at SCI. I don't agree with Yilar that we're the ones being tied up, we still have enough to handle our home continent.

I agree that we should wait one more turn for Cattaragus, to claim the entire island. There's no sense in claiming it for one turn only to have SABER airlift a bunch of units in and reclaim it. But if we can take all the towns in one turn through docking, it'll be we who airlift units in.

I also think that it would make sense to have a backup plan in place to settle that 1-tile island near GONG that Yilar suggests. I don't think we need to do it right away, but we should be ready to claim it for one turn when we're finally ready to build that Casing.

 

[donsig]

If we wait too long then the unsettled one tile island my not remain unsettled. I say we try for as much rubber as we can.

 

[Yilar]

Anything short of a nuclear attack or huge stack of artis or marines will make an invasion of that island impossible...

 

[Yilar]

As long as we don't start throwing away workers to build airfields I don't really care what we do with the Sci. We could throw another 8 units up there. The army is the only thing with good odds (since the city has 100% bonus), but we need to be smart and not send 25 units upthere using all our workers to create airfields.

 

[General_W]

oooooh. That's interesting actually. - that changes the way I'm thinking about this.

As long as we don't start throwing away workers to build airfields I don't really care what we do with the Sci. We could throw another 8 units up there. The army is the only thing with good odds (since the city has 100% bonus), but we need to be smart and not send 25 units upthere using all our workers to create airfields.

I agree with this.
I think it's unlikely Saber is going to make a serious effort to take out The Tower anyway.

Let's just send a few more mechs up there, and then focus our efforts on that 1 tile Rubber island and on Cattaraugus (next turn).

That ought to give Saber plenty to think about.

 

[tomasjj]

SCI

I'm hearing 2 in favor of reinforcing SCI, 1 against, and tomasjj gave no opinion. I'm of 2 minds - I can see Yilar's points, but I'm not sure what choice we have at this point - if we don't reinforce, they'll just take it out and we lose the forces we have there.

How many Mechs should we send up?

Cattaraugus

I've heard 1 in favor of delaying (which I am, too). tomasjj - I think we can take the city this turn or next (SABER moved a bomber out, btw), but if we delay a turn, we should be able to take over the entire island. Right now, we cannot dock, so we can take the city and land some defensive units, but I don't know that the airfield will come under our control and SABER will almost certainly reinforce.

What to build

I think our 1 turn MA factories should either build TOW or wealth.

1. Not sure about SCI. I reckon we should reinforce with a few mechs, especially as it seems SABER is happy just with denying us rubber. So a moderate reinforcement, even if I do not know what that would be in the context.

2. Cattaraugus - it depends on how likely it is that we will be able to take it and keep it, and the surprise factor. Do we think we will still surprise them next turn? If so, I say wait.

3. builds...Military. Land troops and perhaps start building up some navy again?

 

[AutomatedTeller]

wow. I hadn't noticed that at all.

Do you guys want me to rush make a settler and set up a transport to it? I can check to see if it's still open.

btw - I'd guess that SABER has 2 marine armies, which would require a stack of 6 or more mechs to keep people off.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

I should play the save.

I'll move, I dunno, 8 mechs up there - giving us 16 mechs and 7 MA. I'll move the worker back.

I'll make TOW infantry in our big cities that can't make MA.

I'll set up a 2 transport invasion of Cattauragus for next turn and see if I can bomb some SABER ships this turn.

 

[Niklas]

Sounds good to me. Good luck!

 

[General_W]

I agree - sounds good.

Can we also start preparing to take that 1 tile Rubber island?