SGOTM 04 - Team VQ

GreyFox · Jun 24, 2007

The war continues on! :hammer:

Samsun falls:

And I decided to sink the irritating Mehmed's battleship+destroyer, at the cost of 3 destroyers, but we prevailed.

We liberated Philadelphia, and finally Atlanta is connected back to the vast Viking Empire.

We have worker idling, I started transporting them to our newly acquired continent.

We really shouldn't be fortifying our CR amphibious infantries guarding cities. Use other units for garrison duty instead, these arse-kicking units should be at the front lines!

After Philadelphia, I waited a while. Because the next city (Edrine) has tons of artilleries and SAM infantries (well, "tons" is a relative term. As far as Ottoman is concerned, I think the units stationed in Edrine constitute half of his total army).

Meanwhile, I missed the sneaky Indian's little incursion near our capital:

It is of-course promptly dealt with as soon as I noticed it.

Computers is finally in:

I spent quite a fortune upgrading the tanks to MA and off we go. As expected, Ottoman unload a whole truckload of artillery shells on our landed forces. But, as I say, i expected that. I have one more trick up my sleeves. I purposely upgraded some tanks which has not receive any promotions to MAs. Although after the arty attack, they were significantly damages, a series of promotion to CRIII or barrage has them back to full health again :cooool:

So, there you go, our northern stack is ready to attack the city of Zapotec next turn.

While the southern stack is still resting in Edrine. The CR amphibious infantries I can locate are slowly moving to the front lines. Make good use of them. I am also starting to re-accumulate our coffers I previously spent on the MAs; this is in anticipation of upgrading these CR infantries to Mech Inf.

The remaining forces of Mehmed are pretty thin ...

... so I don't expect to see Ottoman again the next time I play.

One piece of good news before I leave you with the save:

Finally!

Spoiler :

Scowler · Jun 25, 2007

Nice progress :hammer:

I took a look at the save; here are some thoughts:

Brennus still needs to build:
- Engine
- Docking Bay
- Life Support
- Stasis Chamber

As far as I can see he still needs to research:
- Fusion
- Ecology
- Refrigeration
- Genetics

He already has Robotics so he is most likely already building the Engine and/or Space Elevator. I didn't bother counting tiles to check whether he is allowed to produce the latter; let's assume he is, in which case we need to focus on his southern cities in our initial attack.

Next:

GreyFox said:
The remaining forces of Mehmed are pretty thin ...

... so I don't expect to see Ottoman again the next time I play.

I think that is optimistic because of this:

However, it's possible that this might be to our advantage.

I suggested in my previous report that we should not allow ourselves to get too distracted by Mehmed; that opinion still stands. I'm all too aware of the sands of time running out for us. I checked the diplomatic options:

Normally I would not want the burden of a vassal, but I wonder if in this case he might be of some use. Once we declare war on Brennus, Mehmed will be forced to do the same and the remaining Ottoman territory will provide a buffer zone between us and Izzy/Brennus, allowing us rapid movement but slowing down advancing enemy land forces and acting as a possible lightning rod for attacks. The downside of course is that in his weakened state Mehmed is more vulnerable: he and Izzy currently have approx. the same power rating, but if Brennus sends troops down he can take over those cities with ease and be on our doorstep. On the other hand, any troops he sends south will then not be guarding his cities - and we really need him to dilute his defences if possible! ...

Secondly, Konya would provide us with a temporary advance base of our own - we could conceivably airlift some units in for a surprise attack on (probably?) Bagacum.

Ideally this would be coordinated with a major naval strike on his west coast to split his defenders.

I think it might be more worthwhile spending some time setting this up rather than using those turns wiping out the Ottomans when there is no pressing reason. But I suspect I've probably overlooked something obvious in all this... *waits to be shot down in flames* :please:

bobrath · Jun 25, 2007

Actually... unless the negative for taking on a vassal causes Izzy/Brennus to declare right away, I think you have a good plan working itself up there.

I do wonder if we would want to take on Konya though... if he's our vassal, can we airlift into that city?

GreyFox · Jun 25, 2007

I couldn't think of a good reason why we shouldn't go along with your plan ... pretty good thinking, scowler! :goodjob:

Scowler · Jun 29, 2007

Okay, good.

If I have time I'll try to play this today, but it depends how tired I am. Work has been a bit busy the last couple of days. However, since GreyFox is currently on auto-skip and nobody else is around to play I'm guessing this won't be too critical?

bobrath · Jun 29, 2007

Nah, you're the man!

I'll see about picking it up after you play this weekend. Looks like I may get a reprieve from RL in the coming days and be able to contribute play time once again.

bobrath · Jul 2, 2007

So umm....Scowler are you going to play or should I pick it up and run?

GreyFox · Jul 2, 2007

I say go ahead, bobrath, whenever you can play.

--

bobrath · Jul 3, 2007

I'll be playing in about 8 hours then and will post after that.

(GOT IT)

bobrath · Jul 6, 2007

Dirty (ie not many fun pictures) writeup:

I took the offered capitulation with Mehmed - he wouldn't give up any other tech or city besides Konya... in hind sight, leave it to him since we got swallowed by spainish culture right away. SIGH

Made two quick trades with Izzy for her extra gpt and a happy resource. She is now pleased with us.

Ghandi did land a small party on our second continent (N of Hippo) it was a single WE and two SAMs. They were dealt with, but only after our wheat got pillaged. Ah well. I have the majority of our workers doing railroading on the second continent to improve movement of units to the future front.

Brennus built the 3GD in 1883, but no other wonders.

I did make one other trade with Mehmed, giving up computers in exchange for Communism and Divine Right (best I could do). Did this just so that we can build Scotland Yard (course that's still 13 turns out... :grumble: ).

Next player should feel free to declare soon. I have three main groups ready to go:
On the west side of the second continent (sc from now on), there is a large naval group. I'd suggest sailing it due NW upon declaration to take out the Aluminum below Durnovia.
On the east side of sc a second large naval group is within striking range of Mauryan where the entire transport fleet of Brennus is at anchor. Taking it out in the first turn of the war will go a long way to protecting our backsides. (Izzy has no fleet to speak of)
The final army is ready in Konya and can either strike deep into Brennus OR make a major headache for his vassal Izzy. This force is weak on gunships, so plan accordingly.

I have marked all aluminum and uranium within B/I's borders. I assume a primary goal will be to remove those mines asap with either bombardment by air OR ground occupation. This should help slow down/stop any further spaceship production.

After Robotics completed, I set research to Biology - mainly with the intent of picking up Refrigeration after that for the bonus to sea movement.

Assuming the war with Brennus starts going well, I'd like to see us start giving up some of our northern continent to Ghandi... He has Apollo, but seriously needs room to produce and grow. Wait until we've broken Brennus tho, as our best producers are up north!

CfC Autolog

Spoiler :

HoF Autolog

Spoiler :

The Save

Scowler · Jul 9, 2007

Sounds like the preparations have been going well. I should have a bit of free time this afternoon so I'll take a look at the save then and add some more comments if necessary. If nothing seems to warrant further discussion I'll probably play some turns tonight or during tomorrow, as time dictates.

bobrath · Jul 9, 2007

Phew!

I was beginning to think I had played so poorly that no one was even able to comment or speak!

In hindsight, I might have been better off completing the capture of one more of Mehmed's cities and then taken his capitulation. I'm guessing he'd have been even more giving AND the cultural borders would have been more tolerable. Ah well.

We are indeed set up for an invasion soon. I doubt the spying will be effective anytime soon - aside from perhaps to keep tabs on Ghandi. In which case... we might want to consider changing Scotland yard from being built on the first continent to being built on the second.

Random other thought - if we start giving up land to Ghandi, we need to keep an eye on the relative land percentages with any vassal's we pick up - wouldn't want to suddenly lose one or two. I do think that if we do not wipe out Izzy/Brennus that we need to seriously consider vassalizing them so that we can attempt to control their war like urges.

GreyFox · Jul 11, 2007

SO, any progress, Scowler?

Scowler · Jul 11, 2007

GreyFox said:
SO, any progress, Scowler?

Well, that depends on how you define "progress" :mischief:

I've only played 5 turns so far as things got a little . . . er . . . "eventful" :eek:

Once Biology came in I selected Refrigeration for the extra naval movement point, but turned off science anyway: it was more important to upgrade our troops (e.g. bombers to stealths, longbows to mechs, etc.)

I finally pushed the button on turn 3. I was hoping the the borders at Konya might expand a bit and offer a quicker path to one of the southern Celtic cities but it didn't happen - and in any case it made no difference to what happened next. I couldn't wait any longer as any futher delay would have only allowed Brennus to build up his army still further and it was obvious that his defences were already formidable.

So I declared on Brennus and Izzy, and Mehmed dutifully followed suit. My plan was to attack Toledo and Mauryan simultaneously, crushing the defenses with the sea units and then softening up the defenders with air support from Konya.

Well, that was the plan.

The first part went smoothly enough: both cities down to 0% defense without any effort. Unfortunately we then had some bad luck with the air strikes. It quickly became obvious that we would suffer an unacceptable attrition rate if we concentrated on Mauryan (actually the more important city due to the large fleet still in harbour), so I directed the remainder at Toledo.

I razed it. I don't think we had any option; there was no way we could have defended successfully against a counter-attack and having Brennus retake the city would have been the worst possible outcome.

As for Mauryan, once it became obvious that we wouldn't be able to take the city in an amphibious assault I landed the troops for a more traditional approach. Bad move. I should have kept them at sea and looked for an alternative city with fewer defenses. Unfortunately I couldn't see any within range, and I didn't want to stray too far away so I could keep an eye on the fleet. Besides I was hoping that Brennus's attention would be taken up in the south (Konya) and west (Toledo) leaving him unable to mount a significant strike (we had 14 units, dammit!).

So I fortified our units at Konya, hit turn and prayed ...

... and boy, did I see an epic battle :eek:

In retrospect, I think we seriously underestimated the number of units Brennus was able to field; on the other hand, if we had continued the build-up for another 10 turns I don't think we would have achieved any better results.

The troops outside Mauryan were routed and slunk back on board the waiting fleet with tails between their legs.

I anticipated Konya being something of a lightning rod, but things went beyond my wildest dreams. The enemy assault seemed to go on forever, but I think Brennus and Izzy lost more units than we did. So I promoted the wounded units as far as possible, trying to anticipate the best promotions for the next battle and healed/fortified. I was actually feeling reasonable confident and used the bombers and fighters on the remaining units nearby to discourage further offensive action - but the next battle went far worse for us, and sadly . . .

So we've now lost a good chunk of our army and all our bombers :sad:

And if that wasn't enough:

So much for my grand plan. Maybe it would have been better to conquer Mehmed completely and leave Konya alone after all... :sad:

The only positive news: I sent the western fleet further round the Celtic continent and was able to find another weakly defended city:

Again, razing was really the only option. I can only hope that the loss of these two cities has inconvenienced the Celtic space programme a little. I'm not sure what else we can do for the time being.

Current save

Scowler · Jul 11, 2007

Spoiler log part 1 :

Scowler · Jul 11, 2007

Spoiler log part 2 :

Scowler · Jul 11, 2007

Spoiler log part 3 :

Scowler · Jul 11, 2007

Spoiler log part 4! :

phew!

bobrath · Jul 11, 2007

Ouch!

But I am happy to hear that we've made the start we had too. I liked the idea of the forward airbase for our bombers in Konya, too bad I didn't put enough defenders there (as opposed to the heavy offense in place). Scowler, did you manage to destroy the aluminum and uranium mines? Its a temporary thing at best since Brennus will obviously mass workers on them, but any delay can only help us help Ghandi.

I think that our plans going forward should involve razing *any* coastal city of Brennus (and then Izzy). This will make sure out fleet remains dominant (which is good to protect the homeland), but also has to cause some havoc in Brennus' space plans.

EDIT:
Also, it might not be an opportune time - but is there a civic switch that will help us out?

GreyFox · Jul 11, 2007

Geez ... I hoped I never asked :sad:

--

SGOTM 04 - Team VQ

Make it so ...

Mr. Understatement

Emperor

Make it so ...

Mr. Understatement

Emperor

Emperor

Make it so ...

Emperor

Emperor

Mr. Understatement

Emperor

Make it so ...

Mr. Understatement

Mr. Understatement

Mr. Understatement

Mr. Understatement

Mr. Understatement

Emperor

Make it so ...

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