TJS1 -- Going on the Pill-age

[choxorn]

Who's up next? I kinda lost track of the turn order a while ago.

 

[robbus]

From post #473 :

The current roster that I should have posted already...
1.tjs282 -- Just played

2.Nathiri -- Up next
3.Lanzelot -- On deck, unless he wants to count as having played this round already
4.Robbus
5.Elephantium
6.Choxorn


I requested that I play instead of Lanzelot because I haven't played for awhile. Maybe only 3 or 4 turns before I post a save.

I am more or less caught up (Although some of the micromanagement I don't get sometimes). I am not too proud to ask for help, nor to admit that I am out of my league.

I don't want to get ripped for not listening to the team.


Thought I would include a screensave of Viking republic with Nathiri as President.

 

[robbus]

thanks to president Nathiri for liking me!

Looking at the screenshot I noticed that most of Russia cities are inland. The strength of berzekers is amphibious assault. The dot-map suggests that Arab cities are mostly coastal, therefore better targets. Basra is visible in screenshot and it looks like Aztec and Arab cities are vulnerable as well.

I like taking out Novgorod to get nearby Iron. Do we need iron for 'zerks? ( Iwill check)
I am concerned that using land assault on Russia may result in significant losses to our Berzerkers. Ancient cavalry is of limited value against Pikes and even Spears.

At this point I favor 'zerkers against Abu amphibious assault and more defensive units/action against Russia. Aztec empire looks more susceptible to 'zerks too.

 

[Elephantium]

I'm not too worried about Russia's defense. It's true, the numbers aren't great for Horse vs. Spear, but the retreat chance makes up for it (just make sure you attack with 4-5 Horsemen, in case of losses!). Besides, Russia is weak. She won't put up much of a fight.

That being said, I agree that Arabia is the better target for the use of our Berserks. However, I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to keep them out of battle until ALL of these cities are size 12 (join those Workers!):

Trondheim
Copenhagen
Reykjavik
Bergen
Stavanger

And if possible,
Aarhus
Birka
Stockholm

But I realize that the last three might be trickier

We really want to leverage the Golden Age by having several large, productive cities to quickly build up a large Berserk + Galley force.

Edit: Derp, rereading the previous page, I see I'm just repeating things Lanz already said

 

[choxorn]

We don't need Iron for Berzerks, luckily. Otherwise we couldn't build any right now.

 

[Toxicman007]

"Berserkers strength is amphibious assault"
They don't get any special bonuses while attacking from the sea, so this isn't really their strength. Just the fact that they CAN attack from the sea is certainly A STRENGTH, but it is far from their only one. They are just as viable attacking from land, you just have to be careful and have some more defensive units as the zerk defense is 1.

 

[Elephantium]

I favor Arab assault because they are coastal. Assaulting Russia with horsemen is risky. I favor berserker amphibious assault.

Oh robbus! Please don't let me be misunderstood!

I actually agree that deploying the zerks on Arabia is good. I just don't want to use them before our core cities are ready for the GA! Better to lose a few Horses in Russia than to lose 20 citizens' worth of production in the fist five turns of the GA.

We can build more Horses. We can't set up a second GA.

 

[Nathiri]

"Berserkers strength is amphibious assault"
They don't get any special bonuses while attacking from the sea, so this isn't really their strength. Just the fact that they CAN attack from the sea is certainly A STRENGTH, but it is far from their only one. They are just as viable attacking from land, you just have to be careful and have some more defensive units as the zerk defense is 1.

Berserk defense is 2, which is just as good as spearman. But they are worth more shields, so better to not lose them on defense.

 

[Elephantium]

Berserk defense is 2, which is just as good as spearman. But they are worth more shields, so better to not lose them on defense.

Exactly. A couple of Spears atop a Zerk stack can save hundreds of shields worth of production in battle losses.

 

[Lanzelot]

The two main advantages of using Berzerks amphibiously are:

• Speed. On a ship-chain, we can basically hit any point on the map within 1 turn.
• Invulnerability. On the ship they are safe against counter-attacks. (Perhaps cover our stack with an empty elite Galley, if we are worried that the opponent has ships close by. And once we have the Lighthouse, just end each turn on a sea square, where we are safe.)

The question, where we should best attack, should be answered by where it is most worth-while.

• The Arabs have nothing of importance atm, so just defend that choke-point at Kufah. We can turn to them later.
• The Russians have nice productive land around our Forbidden Palace, two lux resources and iron. And they are on the way to Byzanz. So this should be the most important target!
• From Russia, we can move on quickly to Byzanz, which has many juicy powerful wonders we would like to have: Pyramids, Zeus and Hanging Gardens (if I remember correctly).
• While our "first wave" is busy conquering these first two targets, the core - fired up by a Golden Age - can quickly assembly a "second wave", which will take the Lighthouse (Netherlands)
• After dealing with the Netherlands, the second wave can move on to Aztecia to get the Oracle.
• During that time, a "third wave" should have been produced by the core, which can then take out Arabia.

So the order of battle that I would propose would be

1. Russia
2. Byzanz
3. Netherlands
4. Aztecs
5. Arabia

Most probably, 2 & 3 can already go on simultaneously (e.g. the Knights from the Russian campaign can already move on to the Netherlands and support the Berzerk attack there). Similarly it is possible, that the third wave is ready by the time the second wave reaches Aztecia, so phases 4 & 5 can also be conducted in parallel.

I assume that the above 5 campaigns already bring us close to domination limit, which means, if we play it well, the game should be over in the next 40-50 turns. We can later think about how to re-deploy the Byzantinean force after it's done with Byzanz, in order to gain some extra territory (e.g. from Carthage?!) and speed things up.

 

[choxorn]

Seems like it might be easier to get the Dutch before the Byzantines- they have a bunch of productive land for use and they have the lighthouse. Isn't there water between the Russians and Byzantines? If so, having the Lighthouse will make hitting the Byzies a lot easier.

 

[Elephantium]

TBH, I don't care about the Byzantine wonders. They're too far away to matter much.

Pyramids - wrong continent.
Zeus - nice units, but ... We'll have to make extra Galleys to move them into position.
Hanging Gardens - extra happy faces ... In hopelessly corrupt cities.

Meh.

 

[Lanzelot]

TBH, I don't care about the Byzantine wonders. They're too far away to matter much.

Pyramids - wrong continent.
Zeus - nice units, but ... We'll have to make extra Galleys to move them into position.
Hanging Gardens - extra happy faces ... In hopelessly corrupt cities.

Meh.

Nope, they are on our continent, so the Pyramids would be extremely powerful. And the Hanging Gardens work world-wide anyway, so happy extra faces... in our size 12 core cities!!

 

[Nathiri]

Did you just become moderator lanz?

 

[Elephantium]

Did you just become moderator lanz?

I, for one, welcome our new mounted spear-wielding overlords!

As for wonders, I thought the Byzantines were on a far continent! Where is the land bridge?

 

[Lanzelot]

Yep, I don't know what the hell came over me... Lot's of extra work for me...
(But on the other hand, the temptation of being able to abuse my new-gained powers, and the built-in property of "being right by default" in all our discussions and arguments was just too big to resist... )

Re Byzanz: not sure yet, where the land-bridge is, but iirc the last time I looked we were able to trade Workers with them, which means we are on the same continent.

Anyway: what are we waiting for? Nathiri or robbus: go for it...!

 

[robbus]

I will post something tonight probably 3 or 4 turns plus my preflight plans... Unexpectedly bysy this week!

 

[tjs282]

I will post something tonight probably 3 or 4 turns plus my preflight plans... Unexpectedly bysy this week!

In the interests of keeping peace and goodwill among men, women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri, might I suggest you do the bolded bit the other way round, and in 2 separate posts, with a reasonable pause between them...? Pretty please...?

 

[choxorn]

Yep, I don't know what the hell came over me... Lot's of extra work for me...
(But on the other hand, the temptation of being able to abuse my new-gained powers, and the built-in property of "being right by default" in all our discussions and arguments was just too big to resist... )

 

[robbus]

In the interests of keeping peace and goodwill among men, women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri, might I suggest you do the bolded bit the other way round, and in 2 separate posts, with a reasonable pause between them...? Pretty please...?

don't worry I am working on preflight now.... no turns!