The Great Big Maverick Attack Plan

[Bowsling]

Spoiler :

The Peninsular Invasion Step-by-Step:

1- 1st Pulsar Plateau crossbows sail up the channel and pillage the ivory camp(s) by Jumbo city. This division crossing into Maverick territory should be the beginning of the war. 2nd Imperial Fleet sinks the Maverick Triremes beside Spot B, and prepare for the landing. Main Imperial Army crosses from north of Continuum to the forest beside Spot B. 1st Imperial Fleet should be just north of the bend, and it continues sailing towards Copper City.

2- 1st Pulsar Plateau crossbows return down the channel and land at Spot B. Main Imperial Army Captures Spot B, and immediately marches north towards Copper City.
1st Imperial Fleet continues sailing down the peninsula. With the southern peninsular coast secured, the 2nd Imperial Fleet begins sailing around the peninsula.

3- 1st Imperial Fleet reaches Copper City, where it stops. Depending on the situation, one caravel may detach and sail to the mouth of the Maverick channel so as to cut off trade. 2nd Imperial Fleet continues sailing. Main Imperial Army continues to march north. (Note that it will have already captured Copper City at this point if there is a road running between Point B and Copper City). 1st Pulsar Plateau crossbows march north.

4- Main Imperial Army captures Copper City and heals; waits for reinforcements. 1st Pulsar Plateau crossbows amalgamate with Main Imperial Army. Resonance Peninsular Garrison begins marching towards Jumbo City. 1st Imperial Fleet foils any attempted Maverick landings coming from the home island. 2nd Imperial Fleet continues to sail down the peninsula. When it has reached Copper City it will depending on the circumstances a) Cut off Maverick Channel b) Amalgamate with 1st Imperial Fleet.

5- Reinforced Main Imperial Army marches east to execute a two-pronged attack on Jumbo City. Resonance Peninsular Garrison continues marching west to act as the other prong on the two-pronged attack. Both fleets continue their work.

6- Jumbo City Captured. 2nd Imperial Fleets sails to Copper City to amalgamate with the 1st Imperial Navy. Main Imperial Army divides into Axiom Peninsular Garrison and Maverick Island Invasion Force. Resonance Peninsular Garrison returns to it's base.


The Divisions

Spoiler Main Imperial Army :

Consists of whatever leftover military we can send.

Meat and potatoes of the invasion, it captures each city on the peninsula.

Spoiler 1st Pulsar Plateau Crossbows :

Consists of 2 woodsman I or II crossbowmen.

Pillages ivory outside of Jumbo City at beginning of war, then amalgamates with the Main Imperial Army at Copper City

Spoiler Resonance Peninsular Garrison :

Consists of 1 catapult, 3 Macemen, 2 Crossbowmen, 1 Longbowman

Defends Resonance Peninsula against any possible Maverick counterattacks, then joins attack on Jumbo City, then return to it's base.

Spoiler 1st Imperial Fleet :

Consists of 3 Caravels

Begins sailing around continent before the war, should be just past the bend when war is declared. Defends peninsula from any Maverick counter attackers, and a detachment will cut off channel if necessary.

Spoiler 2nd Imperial Fleet :

Consists of 2 caravels

Sinks the two Maverick triremes defending the Point B clams at the beginning of the war, then sails around peninsula. Depending on the situation, it will be either deployed to cut off the channel, or it will amalgamate with the 1st Imperial Fleet to defend the peninsula.

Any suggestions/objections?

 

[Earthling]

Very interesting way you've drawn this up, quite fun and good work.

But I have some strategic/tactical concerns - I don't think this exact attack plan is how things are going to work out.

First: Mavericks have two cities on the coast/channel, I think we're pretty sure of that. They have the one just kinda north of Quatron and another north of ereh Ro. So before we could push inland to Jumbo city or Copper city we'd have to take both of those.

Secondly: I'm not sure we'll have all these invasion forces prepared when war is declared. I think our allies/Sirius might press for a war earlier than that. In that case we'd mostly have only the navy (caravels/galleons) which should hold up fine, and we can maybe take Mavericks' cities on our coast because we'll still have Macemen/better units. But we'd be at war for Mavericks for a while then - it couldn't all be a coordinated/surprise DoW. The good news is that it's not like Mavericks could produce that many threatening units very quickly - even whipping War Elephants takes a lot of pop and they have fledgling cities on the peninsula. And again their navy counts for a good part of troop count and we'll have it neutralized/destroyed.

Third: We have to hold something in reserve for a CDZ backstab. The Peninsular force probably isn't ever going to march through the jungles - any longbows/crossbows there I'd keep garrisoned around Pulsar, Resonacne, and Cygmus. I doubt the Mavericks would make it around to attack Pulsar anyway - and if they do we'll still be there, but committing those troops to a long march on the land through jungles up to Jumbo City seems like a bit much.

Still, thanks for laying everything out - at the least there's a lot to discuss. We especially need to know what CDZ and Sirius may be contributing. If our ETTT actually holds up to just having everybody DoW, then we should have enough to sink any Maverick navy/prevent Mavs from ever attacking, and then we just have to get our forces to their cities methodically. If CDZ is a wild card that's a problem - and if Sirius isn't ready to open another front or does something unusual, like just directly invade Mavs home island (when they get astro, probably, and str 6 ships), it could change the gameplan.

 

[Bowsling]

There are six tiles between the proposed base and Jumbo City. I figured having a reserve force there would be good so that we don't have to wait long before taking Jumbo City, as it will be the last on that they take.
I don't think there is a city north of Quatron; I'm pretty sure that they have built four cities on their homeland, or one on the Sirius-Maverick Peninsula.
I believe our allies would be happy waiting if we showed them our plans. What I'm thinking is that we can grow our cities and build improvements in them for now, then use ol' Miles for the Golden Age and go unit-crazy.

 

[cav scout]

FYI guys, it's Cygnus not Cygmus I got the name from the first post for the daily Q.

 

[Earthling]

Sorry about the name there then. I think some diplomacy regarding Cygnus has also had names wrong, throwing folks off

But I'm pretty certain the Mavs have two cities to worry about, maybe I wasn't being specific enough. This city here we don't know the name of:

Spoiler :

And then they have a city north-north-west of ereh Ro (overlapping with clams by "New Cosmos", we think) It's by those cows, right where the gametimer (21:53) appears in the screenshot. So if we sailed up the channel, we'd find that before we get to Jumbo city.

If not we should map that out better but I think that's the case. I don't think they have ANY cities on the Sirius side of things, despite what Sirius said earlier...the maps don't show that, and we know we've traded for updated Sirius maps

For the record I expect it to be rather easy to capture both of these cities, we will have technologically superior and stronger forces, just that we have to take that into account.

I am of course very happy if we do want to communicate plans and work with Sirius at least - and our other allies too, but both ourselves and Sirius getting prepared over 10-15 turns is probably important to a very smooth war effort.

 

[Bowsling]

The one that we don't know the name of I called Point B on the plans. One of their cities is named that, and I think it's that one.

Come to think of it, with no Maverick cities on the Sirius peninsula, they can provide mainly naval support, taking pressure off our own navy.

 

[Earthling]

I bumped our intel thread with some new stuff. Nothing actually too exciting this time, just some more screens that could help.

 

[galdarian]

My only thought is that the stack will require a Pikeman (or perhaps 2). Otherwise it looks like a solid plan.

I take it we plan on capturing everything, i.e. no razing?

 

[cav scout]

Here is my take:

I don't think we should strike at the Mavs on the peninsula.

*Their center of gravity is their home island. These cities will be the best developed and will have all the wonders. Taking the home island rips their heart out and gives us the best rewards- plentiful resources, wonders, great cities with good infrastructure.

*If we attack the peninsula first Sirius will swoop in and take the Mav home island for themselves. But if we take the home island first we then get all the cities on the peninsula closest to us too.

*A surprise attack on the home island will meet much less resistance than if we slug it out with them on the peninsula first. If we wait to attack the island then they will have already been on a war footing for a long time.

SO:

I'm thinking we will need at least 5 galleons to send a 6 cat/5 mace/2 pike/2 xbow stack in the first wave. This stack will capture their capital. We need a 2nd wave of equal strength to follow up and complete the conquest. The remainder of these two waves can then be transported over to mop up the peninsula.

 

[CharlemagneXLII]

I looked it up and I thought Cygnus was referring to anti-spam software, though I suppose it fits in with the black hole theme.

Good idea for the thread, and a pretty decent strategy, the strenthgs of which I'll get to later.

First, even if Sirius does help us out navally, we can't rely on them, since we'll need our own navy further down the road.

Second, we are nowhere near being able to invade their home island with the force you recommend, cavscout. By the time we have that, we'll probably be facing crossbows and elephants. If we engage them on the peninsula while we build a cat stack, we can still take them by surprise.

Third, about CDZ: We've basically gotten the best assurances we could have hoped for that they will not betray us, i.e. a legitimate sounding excuse for the money, and a DOW on Merlot. The best we can do is protect ourselves against a possible stab, as Earthling mentioned with crossbows in Pulsar, and maybe an advance warning boat in Asymptote if possible.

I think our first priority should be to cut off the Maverick home island from the peninsula, preventing any iron units from reaching the peninsula, and any mounted units on the island. This will probably take another caravel for the time being, and we could look at throwing a spy in it when it leaves. Our second priority, as Bowsling has incorporated into his strategy, is to cut off their ivory. They are doubtless racing for construction and HBR, and jumbos would be their best unit.

Do they have an unaccounted for settler? Maybe they're going for the middle. My guess would be that's where their army is. I agree marching up by land with a major force in perhaps untenable (unless we road it..), Resonance should be able to spare a few for travel by sea, unless CDZ has a large military presence. Before we land our major force, we could try sending out scouting units to determine the size and location of their army- if we can surprise them in an open battle, that's a lot of experience.

We should upgrade our trireme and DoW when they are in position to sink those Mav triremes. We can send out some sort of reconciliation note to the ETTT, and we should discuss our plans with Sirius when we've decided on them.

Note: I believe that we should move sooner rather than later (as in a few turns) for diplo reasons, to pillage earlier, and to blockade them now to prevent resources exchanging.

 

[RegentMan]

If we engage them on the peninsula while we build a cat stack, we can still take them by surprise.

Methinks they're expecting us to go for the peninsula first though. It's much closer, thus easier to access. An assault on their home island before much peninsula action would be the way to suprise them. Look at our home island's defenses; granted we're in a more secure position, but I think they will have the bulk of their army on the mainland in anticipation of our first strike.

 

[Bowsling]

If we keep the fact that we have astronomy a secret, then we probably can.
Nonetheless, if they get wind that the ETTT has researched astronomy, then their home island will be far better defended.
Also, by attacking the island first, they will be able to use horses and elephants to defend themselves.
Another problem is that in the event of a failure to take or raze each and every island city, they will be left in a strong position.

 

[MrBanana]

Looks good.

 

[CharlemagneXLII]

Actually, I think it would be best to engage them lightly on the peninsula (pillage some ivory), and then hit them on their home island. If we fight them on the peninsula enough, we can get their force to move to the mainland if we don't harass them navally. Then we can get astro, upgrade 5 galleys like cavscout said and go for the capital. We'll have to slip a spy in there beforehand.

Before that, we'll have to send a medium-ish stack to the peninsula that will threaten them. It has to be convincing enough to get them to defend it well, and if they don't then we can take the peninsula.

Navally, ixnay my blockade plan, though we can sink a few triremes if we get the chance.

 

[cav scout]

If we keep the fact that we have astronomy a secret, then we probably can.
Nonetheless, if they get wind that the ETTT has researched astronomy, then their home island will be far better defended.
Also, by attacking the island first, they will be able to use horses and elephants to defend themselves.
Another problem is that in the event of a failure to take or raze each and every island city, they will be left in a strong position.

The idea would be to have 5 galleys and the stack of troops ready. Then once we get Astro we upgrade the galleys and move quickly.

 

[Earthling]

I just don't see that happening - it can't happen for close to 15 turns by all realistic guesses to get that many troops and upgrades. I suspect our allies will rather want us declaring sooner rather than that late.

However, we could just wage a phony war - just the caravels and border defense - and wait for one huge push they might not expect. I do think it is a strong possibility they would not be expecting Astro and a home island invasion like that, we could swing our galleons out by the Ocean and they wouldn't see it coming.

I'm also ok if we just started on the peninsula though. I don't think Sirius will manage to capture everything before we do anyway, so if we had to DoW (diplomatic pressure) and would rather just go with early units the petal isn't a bad place to start; we're going to want the cities anyway.

 

[CharlemagneXLII]

In the interest of moving things along, I've come up with a detailed opening plan. It calls for 8 macemen, 5 catapults, 1 crossbow and 2 spears/pikes, as well as 4 to 5 galleys/galleons, 3 archer/longbow garrisons and maybe another caravel. The goal is to conquer the Maverick capital, as well as the beachead of Poison City. The reason for this is that by taking Poison city, we will distract their forces from their home island, and will also secure horses.

0) Build four warriors in Quatron and one galley in Continuum.

1) Sink Maverick triremes between the petal and our island with our 2 caravels, hopefully one will survive.

2) Upgrade 4 inexperienced warriors from Quatron to macemen, and load onto 2 galleys (one built in Continuum). These will land on the forest E of Poison city and attack the following turn. They will remain there to fend off counter attacks and give the illusion that our main force will in fact land on the peninsula.

3) At the same time, a caravel should scout the Mav island, with a spy on board if possible.

4) Switch to theology, build the following: 2 warriors (upgrade), 2 maces, 5 catapults, 1 archer (upgrade to xbow), 2 spears, 2 galleys.
low priority: 3 archers (upgrade to longbows), 1 caravel*, 1 galleon.
Land units to be built in Resonance and Quatron, naval and low-pritority in Continuum (unless it builds a barracks), and land units in Singularity after it finishes barracks.

*If we lose any to triremes

5)Load 4 maces, 5 cats, 1 xbow and 2 spears/pikes into 5 galleons. Sail for Maverick capital.

6) Load 3 longbows into galleon#5. Drop one off at Poison City, sail for Maverick capital.

7)Land at Maverick capital, capture it, heal and await reinforcements, which are beyond the scope of this plan.

I'm not sure how close we are to completing phase 0, but we could probably be ready soon. do we have 2 galleys already?

The plan does not include defenses for the CDZ peninsula built by Resonance.

Another way to look at the plan:
1) build warriors and stuff
2) ?
3) Profit!

EDIT: we should probably communicate any plans we agree on to Sirius soon, as well as the ETTT as a whole. We should also wait until the Mav quitting issue is resolved.

 

[Earthling]

This needs a bump, both because we need overall discussion and the situation has changed.

Mavericks declared war, likely due to the fresh blood of the military generals of MERLOT, whom they have formally allied with...

Now, our Quatronian naval captains are confident there is not too much of a threat, and we will soon be making incursions into their lands...but that's what we're here to discuss.

Enough of that, I'd say my assessment is the following:
-We've been prepping for war anyway and it's not like we're caught off guard. We still need some more ships and Astro would be nice so we could upgrade to galleons, but even then we manage fine without for now.

-Let's upgrade some maces now, a stack of 4-6 probably could take an undefended Maverick city, we'll be scouting and defending our ships with caravels anyway. But the simple answer is that they can't hold that whole peninsula, we have the money to upgrade troops and were just a few turns from really putting an invasion together, but we can get to it now.

-Make sure we have archers at the least (though if we can afford it, I do like xbow upgrading) over on the CDZ petal. Still Resonance, Pulsar should be fine, and again our navy should hold up to Mav's navy. Another Caravel in Continuum particularly would seal the deal.


A question I'm not sure on: Do we golden age, or revolt to Theocracy soon, or still wait a little longer? Ideally 10ish turns of growth would make for a really solid golden age, population will regrow from the whip and all, but I'm open to it being sooner. (wouldn't go too much later than that though either, might as well do it while we can/earlier gains = greater benefit)

 

[CharlemagneXLII]

Yes on everything, especially the caravel in Continuum. Let's try to finish the barracks in Continuum before the GA.

EDIT: GA now, it's been long enough.

 

[Earthling]

I don't really agree on the golden age yet, I think we'd benefit more in a few more turns still (cav_scout gave some good reasons on the turn discussion).

I mean it's not like a golden age is a bad thing either way, but I don't see the short term gains being worth that much. A lot of our cities are still recovering from whipping and all so we could have at least a half dozen more population, very soon each for 2-3 hammers or multiple commerce apiece in a golden age just a little later. (Though theocracy coming online will be big)