Would you put all your eggs in the same basket

[NickyH]

…And risk losing them all?

I've put myself in an funny situation. I'm going to conquer the world on demigod for the first time, and I'm at war with the Zulu on the other continent. I'm allied with Maya on that continent, and I just took my first town from the Zulu. The town I conquered borders with Mayan territory. Now I have four cavalry armies fortified there. I have no other available troops that I could garrison in the town for the moment.

Now it's the first turn after I took the Zulu town, so it's possible that it flips. I've chosen to garrison all my four armies in the town, rather than retreating with three of them to the safe Mayan grounds. If I'd leave just one of them, I won't risk losing all four armies. I'm pretty sure that the Zulu wouldn't be able to take the city by force even if I left just one of my armies there. But now I'm taking the risk of losing all four armies for two reasons: If I leave them there, they'll be fully healed on the next turn, and that wouldn't happen if I move them. (No rails there.) And second: I'm pretty sure I'll quell all the resistance and prevent the city from flipping if I leave them there.

In this situation I almost regret that I'm playing on a Mac, since I can't run tools like CivAssist or MapStat (Did I get those names right?) to tell me the risk of flipping…

So the question is: Would you play it like I'm gonna do, and put all your eggs in the same basket, or would you play it safe?

There are three important things I haven't mentioned yet:
1) My cultural score is almost equal to the Zulu, and
2) If the town should flip, it doesn't mean I'll lose the game; it'll just take a little longer to do it.
3) I'm ahead in technology, and I'm already transporting my two first tank armies to the other continent.

Hard choice, isn't it?

 

[TheOverseer714]

Are there rails there? If so, move 3 armies out and fortify them, they will heal 1 point per unit per turn(if no movement points are used), with no risk of losing them. I'm in an Emperor game and have had 1 captured city flip 3 times, and my culture is 4x theirs. So the answer is no, never put your eggs all in one basket. Even if Mark Twain says its okay if you watch the basket really well.

 

[vmxa]

If you can block access with the 4 armies do that. Then if it flip rush in and retake it. If not get units to the place quickly. If the next town can be taken or razed allowing you to get some room do that.

Your culture is not as relevant as the tiles near the town and whose culture controls them. Remember Shaka has his capitol a lot closer to the town than you do.

 

[NickyH]

Are there rails there?

Nope, no rails. And I had moved all 4 armies in to quell as many resisters as possible during the first turn, when the city can't flip. With rails the choice wouldn't be difficult. Now I wanted my armies to heal so that I could use them one turn earlier than if I had moved them.

I took the chance, and this time it worked out well.

Usually I do it the way vmxa proposes: I put troops outside to be able to retake the city. That makes sense because your enemy usually only gets one or two regular/conscript defenders that are easily defeated if it flips.

Right now I have 54% of the territory, and I'll have my first demigod victory by domination tomorrow.