The Battle for Berlin

[grant2004]

The last turnchat was stopped because our army encountered unexpected resistance in Berlin. The Germans have a city defense 3 Longbowman defending the city, surely this is the reason Rome failed to take it. Taking this city was the first and most important goal of this war, so we have to take it, or face defeat.

Looking at the save I think our best option is to use one of our catapults to weaken the longbowman before we attack. Our injured catapult has a promotion available which could be useful and it looks like we have two options. Either we can promote the injured catapult for extra collateral damage so that we can injure the spearmen as much as possible. However we have a lot of good units with high melee attack bonuses, it might be better to use a double city attack catapult, which we have in the stack at or near full health. This gives us a better chance of causing damage to the longbowman, however that chance is still very small, I believe the victory chance was 0.4%.

After that Falcon was correct in his summary of the turnchat we have a lot of units, and we can simply power through that longbowman with a series of attacks. What I'm worried about is the war elephant nearby, it could cause some serious damage if it is allowed to attack our weakened units, therefore we should make sure to keep a strong unit on the hill outside Berlin if at all possible.

So what do you guys see as our options for taking and holding this important city and the majestic pyramids?

 

[Provolution]

*Thank you, I will handle this problem, Grant 2004, a statement coming right from your new warlord, Provolution.

 

[dutchfire]

1. We have to attack this turn, otherwise the city will be reinforced by another longbowman and perhaps the War Elephant.
2. A lot of our units don't have movement points left and can therefor not attack. We have 1 catapult, 4 axemen, 3 wounded macemen, a healthy Keshik and a hurt Keshik left.
3. We need to leave some units to move into the city to prevent the Germans from taking the city (note that these units don't have to be good, they just need to stop them temporarily.)


I think it's best to do it like this:
Catapult #4 attacks city, hurts longbowman and deals collateral damage.
The healthy Keshik attacks the Longbowman, hopefully killing him (only possible if the Longbowman was dealt a lot of damage) or at least hurting him because of his first strike.
If the Longbowman is the strongest defender left, we should attack with the cover promoted axe, otherwise with the shock promoted axes. All units with movement points remaining should move into the city.
Keshik #3 should get a medic promotion immediately.

 

[Joe Harker]

*Thank you, I will handle this problem, Grant 2004, a statement coming right from your new warlord, Provolution.

To be fair your term hasn't started yet!

 

[Provolution]

It has started, in the thought. I am not too concerned about formalities, which I dispense with, in good Mongol democratic tradition.

 

[grant2004]

Hmm, good point dutchfire I didn't notice that there were so many units without movement points in our stack. I definately agree with the idea of giving the other keshik medic, a lot of our units are injured and we'll certainly need the healing bonus.

 

[Conroe]

1. We have to attack this turn, otherwise the city will be reinforced by another longbowman and perhaps the War Elephant.
2. A lot of our units don't have movement points left and can therefor not attack.

I would disagree with this assessment. There are enough forces on hand to take Berlin next turn. Although having said that, I'd probably use the healthy Keshik to whack that LB this turn before it gets to Berlin. They are much easier to bring down out in the open. And if we're worried about the elephant, why not just suicide an axe or two to cut him down to size.

But either way, the city is toast next turn.

I definately agree with the idea of giving the other keshik medic,

Absolutely NOT! There is already a mace with a medic promotion. Giving a second medic will not do any good. Give that Keshik his combat III.

And while we're at it, promote that Spearman to combat II in case the elephant attacks on the IBT.

Also there are also 2 Keshiks sitting in Munich. Lets move them up to the front lines.

 

[Falcon02]

Also, I feel like I must note I think the Longbowman we see to the North had just passed by Berlin coming from East of the city. So I don't think it will be heading to Berlin, however Bismark may decide to make him double back.

 

[Provolution]

I have several comments here.

1. We have to attack this turn, otherwise the city will be reinforced by another longbowman and perhaps the War Elephant.
2. A lot of our units don't have movement points left and can therefore not attack. We have 1 catapult, 4 axemen, 3 wounded macemen, a healthy Keshik and a hurt Keshik left.
3. We need to leave some units to move into the city to prevent the Germans from taking the city (note that these units don't have to be good, they just need to stop them temporarily.)


I think it's best to do it like this:
Catapult #4 attacks city, hurts longbowman and deals collateral damage.
The healthy Keshik attacks the Longbowman, hopefully killing him (only possible if the Longbowman was dealt a lot of damage) or at least hurting him because of his first strike.
If the Longbowman is the strongest defender left, we should attack with the cover promoted axe, otherwise with the shock promoted axes. All units with movement points remaining should move into the city.
Keshik #3 should get a medic promotion immediately.

As the new Keshik General elect, I would beg to disagree. Given the situational assessment, we should definitely not assault the city next turn. The losses will be horrendous, and we would spend at least a generation of weeping Mongol mothers breeding to get up to the same army size again, without the splendid accumulated experience from the French and Roman wars, an experience base we should cultivate and strengthen over time.
Now we are talking about our real fighting men, not the cowardly Mongol elite sending these poor men to their death in vain.

See my post on the subject matter.

 

[dutchfire]

Okay, I guess I'm overruled here

By the way, it might be good to send a couple of Keshiks out to pillage Germanies Iron when we've taken Berlin.