The Council

[CommandoBob]

Just sent to The Council, after requesting an extension to Turn 240.

Dear Wise People of The Council,

Turn 240
We have requested an extension to this turn. I had planned to play it this evening, but Christmas Choir practise at church took a lot longer than I expected.

We had planned to communicate with you regardless of when the turn was played. This is just a bonus from the extension.

Saber
The infomation on Saber's military was welcome, though a bit unpleasant. At least we know what we are facing. In most cases they have more military units than we do. In three areas they make us uneasy: Artillery, Armies and Transports.

During our Gong war we lost some Artillery and that did hurt our efforts. Saber has more than double our number. Artillery, as we all know, can make even Maces and Pikes deadly when attacking redlined Mech Infantry.

Six Armies. Wow. It would be nice to believe that all their tanks are in Armies, but that doesn't make sense. Maybe two Tank Armies and the rest MAs. Nasty.

Saber has a boatload of Transports. We had spotted 9 of them, but not the others. Some are probably moving units between Babe and Saber, but they could also be poised to invade Gong, too.

Saber has a lot of Destroyers, too. They move fast and far and detect submarines, but they don't invade. We are concerned but the Transports scare us more.

Our War
Our original plan was to keep that city in place for one turn so that Saber could see it. However, we negelected to send any troops with the settler, hoping to bluff our way through this. We fully expect Saber to investigate the city; after all, they don't really trust Free. So if it does exist until our next turn, Saber will see that it is undefended. And that is bad; it could spoil our own invasion.

We think it would be best if you were to capture the city on your turn. This will give you some propaganda to use against us. hmm: Hmm, if we said we sent 5 Tanks and you said the city was defenseless, then who is telling the truth? Interesting.)

We are still tossing around ideas on what to do with the naval units. We might just move them 6 tiles N and claim that they were moved to help with the next wave of reinforcements.

Sincerely yours,

Art Parry
aka CommandoBob
Let FREEdom ring,
Let the white dove sing...

 

[Empiremaker]

Their reply, while we are holding 240.

Dear FREE allies, We do have some good news for you! After we sent our last letter, when we actually played the save, we managed to sink Saber a transport with a sub - and checking the military stats afterward revealed that we sank a Army full of Modern Armors! That's a painful loss for them! Also - from the battle log we received from Saber, it's evident that they have at least 1 Army full of Marines. We suspect it may be two Armies of Marines... but we won't be able to confirm that till we get the save again. We also think (from the battle log we received) that Saber may have landed troops on our Subcommittee Island. We'll see how bad the situation is when we get the save. We just want to warn you - we may be in danger of losing our rubber supply (and therefore ability to build more Modern Armor and Marines ourselves). So it'll be best if we can conclude our phony war with you in just a turn or so - so that you can give us the tools we need to carry on the fight against the Orange aggressors. Go ahead and settle your city this turn to start our phony war. We'll kill it when we get the save, and then whine and moan in the UN about being back-stabbed - but then brag about how our glorious soldiers won a smashing victory... that sort of thing. This should help reinforce whatever you want to tell Saber about how many forces you had in the city. Then depending on what happens on our 11-tile Subcommittee Island, we can end our fake war and get back down to business of saving the world from the orange nightmare. Sound good? Thanks again for all your help. The praises of our Blue Brothers are sung continually in the halls of The Council. Your allies, General_W, speaking with the voice of The Council

 

[CommandoBob]

I wondered when that war was going to get going. Sounds like it has, but I'll double check it when I play the turn.

 

[CommandoBob]

Just sent to The Council, after our Turn 240, shortly after we sent the game to Babe.

Dear Wise People of The Council,

War
The war has finally begun. The thread, Team FREE: Saber vs. The Council, is our story to the UN. It doesn't hide the fact that we think a war with The Council would be easier than a war with Saber.

As you will soon see when you open the save, we have planted a city, Free The Council, 2N of The Ways. It is empty, but we have told Saber that it has 5 Tanks, which could also be Modern Armor, just misnamed.

The naval units we moved 6N and we saw nothing Orange on the way.

Saber
Congratulations on sinking a Transport of Saber Armor! Six units that can do you damage now resting in Davy Jones' Locker. Great.

An Army of Marines? That is something new, but it does make for one massive assualt force. Ouch. No one ever said Saber was stupid, and that looks like a stroke of genius. (Of course, if you defend your cities with Spears, that Marine Army doesn't have a chance of survival! )

On Turn 239 we saw a bunch of Saber Destoryers. This turn we did not see nearly as many. We also lost track of the Saber Invasion Force we mentioned last time, and that has given us a scare. If Saber is trying a fient, those transports could do a lot of damage in Gong. More likely is that they moved someplace we couldn't (or didn't) search; they zigged when we zagged.

This invasion force has been busy not invading for several turns. We still think that Saber is waiting for our war to start before they invade. Saber doesn't trust Free and wants to see Free get invovled before they make their move.


Sincerely yours,

Art Parry
aka CommandoBob

Let FREEdom ring,
Let the white dove sing...

 

[Empiremaker]

Time for some decisions:

Dear FREE allies,

Things seem to be going well with the propaganda in the UN.
Great work on that story Hilarious stuff.

It's interesting that Saber didn't respond to our story about killing
your city. They're probably upset about it... have you heard anything
from them?

Anyway - they've landed a fairly impressive stack on our Subcommittee
(11 tile) island. It contains 2 Modern Armor Armies, 4 Mobile SAMs, 4
Mechs, and 16 single Modern Armors.

The upshot is that we've totally lost our supply of Rubber. If Saber
doesn't retreat from our island, we'll be without Rubber for a while,
since we currently don't have the forces try to take down their stack
up there.

Without Rubber, as you're aware, we can't build more Modern Armor or
Marines. Any chance you could supply us with some?

Obviously that would mean going back to peace in-game. What kind of a
time frame are you thinking for going back to peace?

Now would be a great time to invade Saber, as they've got so much
military power tied up on our island. We've lost sight of the
transports south of our island... not sure where they went

That's all we've got for now!
Let us know as soon as possible about your thoughts on Peace and Rubber.
Thanks!

Your brothers in Blue,
General_W, speaking with the voice of The Council

-Not giving them rubber for whatever reason may allow SABER to weaken them enough to vote for us.
- CB: What's the timeline for invasion of SABER? Two turns?

 

[CommandoBob]

Saber on Subcommittee Island

Anyway - they've landed a fairly impressive stack on our Subcommittee (11 tile) island. It contains 2 Modern Armor Armies, 4 Mobile SAMs, 4 Mechs, and 16 single Modern Armors.

On our Turn 241 Saber has 8 Transports just off the coast of Subcommittee Island.

Spoiler :

2 Modern Armies would fill 4 or 5 spaces/holds in a Transport. Lets figure 5 spaces each(4 MAs and the Army unit itself) or 10 holds. Add in the other 24 units (4 Mobile SAMs, 4 Mechs and 16 MA Tanks) and we get 38 holds out of a total of 48 (6 holds per Transport; 8 Transports).

That is most of their invasion force.

We do not see it our screenshots.

On Turn 240, the Saber Invasion Fleet was 6S-1SW of The Silo (Turn 240:Unit Moves and Notes post; screenshot a few posts down). Could it have moved and unloaded troops that destroyed two cities on Subcommittee Island and lost 10 troops in doing so?

Do we need the Battle Log to confirm this?

 

[CommandoBob]

Current Setup
This turn (Turn 242) we will have 10 Transports in Unshackled, up on the NW tip of FREE. They can be loaded (60 units, to include one settler, one worker, 4 Mobile SAMS, 3 MechInfantry and a lot of Modern Armor) and sail towards Saber. On Turn 243 they can unload, endure a Saber counterattack on Turn 244 and then attack the nearby cities.

If Saber's Invasion Force is fully committed to Subcommittee Island, we have a window of opportunity to make things unpleaseant for Saber.

Transports
In addition to new Transport in Unshackled, we also have one completing in Weltonspolt, on the SW coast. Lydia Sutherland, our first Transport, is in Coastal Geeks. It will take two turns (Turn 242 and 243) for these units to reach Unshackled.

Ellis Island and Debt-Free, which are near to Unshackled, are building Transports and we could rush them next turn (242) and they could sail to Unshackled the next turn (243). Figure 400 gold for each Transport. That would give us 4 Transports we could fill with reinforcements on Turn 244 and would unload on Turn 245.

We might have 24 units at that time. We would still have some Modern Armor and Marines that did not join the first invasion force, plus what we build in the meantime.

This would give us 14 Transports involved in the Saber invasion. We could ship chain, but I don't see us sending across more than 5 or 6 units a turn.

 

[remake20]

Sure, but don't you think that is a little much for a small island.

 

[CommandoBob]

I think we need to discuss these things of The Council.

One: We need a screenshot of Subcommittee Island, showing the landed Saber forces. We could send them a modified image of this screenshot to show what we can/cannot see. We would black out the corner boxes, but it would still be seen as a good-faith effort to help. We would send the image as an attachment, not a link.

Free-Ride at end

Spoiler :

We need to know how far away the Saber Transports are from the Saber units on Subcommittee Island. That distance helps determine how soon those units on Subcommittee Island could be sent back to Saber to help repel our invasion.

Two: Their spy report of Saber's military.

Three: How soon they would be able to land units on Saber's mainland. Five turns, ten turns, whatever. We just need a guideline or guesstimate.

Four: We would need to tell The Council that we could not make peace until we land on Saber. Any sooner would tip our hand.

Five: We haven't heard from Saber since the abortive invasion attempt. We haven't sent Saber anything either.

 

[CommandoBob]

We've got the save, but we need to look at it before we ask anything of The Council. Subcomittee Island might be fully Saber now.

 

[CommandoBob]

Just sent to The Council while we have Turn 242.

Dear Wise People of The Council,

We are sorry to report that Subcommittee Island is now firmly Saber.

Subcommittee Island, Turn 242 (FREE)

Spoiler :

Subcommittee Island, Turn 242 (FREE) Annotated

Spoiler :

We see no signs of any friendly units ashore. When this screenshots we taken, we had not moved any units. We just opened the saved and took a peek.

Last turn (241) we spotted the Saber Invasion Force 2W-1NW of The Tower. These should have been visible to your forces on the hill 1E of The Tower. Saber had other forces, 2 vBattleships and 2 vDestroyers, 1E-3SE of The Tower. The turns (and RL) moved a bit fast for us to communicate all that with you. As you saw on your turn, we had some forces in the area.

Saber's Military
What does your spy say about Saber's military? As we look at the Orange Outrage left on Subcommittee Island, we see only 8 MAs. We also see only 4 Transports; 8 were present last turn.

We are also very interested in any knowledge that you might have of Saber's Transports.

Saber Invasion Fleets
We thought we had spotted the Southern Invasion Fleet on Turn 241, but now I see that instead we spotted the Northern Invasion Fleet off of Subcommittee Island. Both had 8 Transports, so I did not see my mistake. We did not see it last turn, mostly because I goofed. Sorry.

We need to find the Southern Invasion Fleet soon. It could strike at eiither you or us.

Rubber and Peace
We have no problem is trading you Rubber once we make peace. The question then becomes, when do we make peace?

Right now, for both of us, the major concern is to destroy Saber's military machine. With much of it at sea (17 Transports worth, at last count, before you sunk that Transport with 6 MAs) and some of it in Babe, if we can find that force and isolate it, it will go a long way towards the time that we can make peace for good.

Turn 242
We plan to ask for an extension to Turn 242. We know we given you a lot to think about, but the most immediate need for us is your best guess on Saber's military might. Any help from you on that would be greatly appreciated.

We will try to locate the rest of the Northern Invasion Fleet and find the Southern Invasion Fleet on this turn.

Sincerely yours,

Art Parry
aka CommandoBob

Let FREEdom ring,
Let the white dove sing...

 

[Empiremaker]

Regarding rubber: if we don't gift them any, they would be an easy target for the last bit for domination. Or if we can come up with a good excuse, SABER will easily destroy them.

 

[CommandoBob]

Sneaky, sneaky!

 

[Elephantium]

How about this:

We offer them Rubber and enough gold to upgrade, say, 20 tanks to MA. We need to delay for a couple of turns to make sure SABER is taking the bait.

Then, we send them the Rubber and the gold without accept. "Oh, no!" we proclaim. "What a tragedy!"

...and by that time, it should be too late for them.

 

[Empiremaker]

Good idea, Elephantium.

 

[CommandoBob]

Just recieved from The Council, during our extension of Turn 242:

Dear FREE allies,

Thanks for the screenshots of Subcommittee Island. We got a battle log from Saber - so we were aware of our loss

Here's what we could gather from that battle log:

They hit us with 4 armies - 2 MA, one with 20 HP, one with 16 (now 17), and 2 marine armies.

We think they have another army on their homeland (at least, we assume it's there).

Their Southern Invasion fleet disappeared completely, but we're pretty sure that it has no armies with it. We assume it has 4 mobile sams and, probably, 4 marines. We think they meant to feint with the Southern Force.
​

From our spy, here's the most up-to-date info we have on Saber's military:

17 transports
79 MA
78 Mechs
20 bombers
13 jets
12 cruisers
32 destroyers
5 armies
8 mobile sams
12 marines
​

We're working on plans to continue the fight. And, of course, we agree with your assessment that now is an ideal time to try to isolate and destroy Saber's military. The only part of their fleet we can see is right around Subcommittee Island (to the North of it). If you could get forces in position, you might get a shot at sinking a lot of it!

Saber's positioning of their fleet leads us to believe they are content with just denying us Subcomittee Island for now – and are waiting for you to attack us and take the brunt of our counter-strike.

If you delay too long in attacking the former BABE lands, Saber may smell a rat and reposition their forces.

That's our read on the situation anyway. Take it for what it's worth!

Let us know if we can provide any more information or help. I wish we knew more!

Your brothers in Blue,
General_W, speaking with the voice of The Council

P.S. If we could get some updated information on your military plans, we'd appreciate it. Would really help us plan our own counter-strike and such if we knew when and where you were planning to go after Saber. Rest assured, we'll keep any info you give us in absolute confidence and take it to the grave.

 

[CommandoBob]

Just sent to The Council, after our Turn 242.

Dear Wise People of The Council,

We have just completed Turn 242 and have two items of bad news to relate.

First, I think we killed one of your submarines south of your mainland. Free-Registration, a vCrusier, was sailing E to spot Saber's Southern Invasion Force and started firing at something and then continued on. We took no damage. According to the Foreign Advisor, we were only at war with you, even after this incident. We are so sorry.

Second, we were not able to spot Saber's Southern Invasion Force. It may have slipped by us, heading to Gong. Or, it may have backtracked and moved west, into the waters that separate Orange from Royal Blue. We suspect the latter, but have nothing to back that up.

Sincerely yours,

Art Parry
aka CommandoBob

Let FREEdom ring,
Let the white dove sing...

 

[CommandoBob]

Just sent to The Council, after our Turn 243 and before their Turn 244.

Dear Wise People of The Council,

Congratulations on securing a source of Rubber by taking it from Saber! And grabbing three Orange cities in the process. We hope this did not not cost you too many units.

Except for scattered solo ships, the only mass of ships we found was only a group of 1 vBattleship, 1 eCruiser and 1 vCruiser, heading due North from Old Subcommittee Island. No Transports at all. No telling where the Saber Invasion Forces are at.

We expect war with Saber soon, one way or another. On that turn, we will offer you peace and Spices.

Sincerely yours,

Art Parry
aka CommandoBob

Let FREEdom ring,
Let the white dove sing...

 

[CommandoBob]

Just sent to The Counicl, after our Turn 245.

Dear Wise People of The Council,

Sorry for the delay in communicating with you. Holidays and Real Life have played havoc with Team Free. We hope your team has fared much better.

We've just a few things to discuss; none in great detail at this moment.

Bad News
I think we killed another of your Submarines.

Free-Food-And-Beer, a vCruiser, was traveling SW off your southeast coast. At 5 SE of The Bayou it ran into something and took 1HP of damage and then continued SW.

Howdy, Neighor!
Welcome to the Gong Lands. TV reception is lousy, but the pizza is great!

Saber War
We were primed, ready to invade, until one of our team pointed out we wouldn't be able to get ashore until we had a new tech. So now we are learning that.

We have spotted a lot of Orange boats in groups around Saber, most of them on our side that continent. If Saber is worried about Free, they may have forgotten about The Council.

Sincerely yours,

Art Parry
aka CommandoBob

Let FREEdom ring,
Let the white dove sing...

 

[Empiremaker]

Dear Brothers in Blue, Thanks for the update. We appreciate you keeping us in the loop We're looking forward to being even closer neighbors. - fear not, we won't be putting any offensive units in our newest city. We're just here for the FREE pizza What tech do you need to invade Saber? Advanced flight? If so - we'd be happy to sell you this tech at a ridiculous discount. Say, 1,000 gold? (5,400 beakers monopoly cost). Let us know if you're interested, and we'll send it off to you! Best, General_W, speaking with the voice of The Council

Do we tell them we are researching Stealth? Can we tell from Civassist whether they or SABER has researched it?