26-06-2003 14:54									#1
	The home guard Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Although we can cover a large fraction of our coastline with troops at the moment to prevent landing, we won't have the troops to spare for this in the event of sending an expeditionary force to Bob. So I've been looking quickly at a possible backup plan. I've come up with a scheme that uses 5 garrison points.

Garrison A : Whirlwind 9
This sits in the incense resource on the coast to prevent a landing on it, and troops there can reach Whirlwind, Monsoon, Olibanum Gate, Tempest and Arashi. (5 towns).

Garrison B : Cyclone
A garrison in Cyclone itself. Troops here defend Cyclone, Bolderberg, Typhoon, Tornado and EotS (5 towns, 3 shared with other garrisons. EDIT: 2 of them are shared with Garrison F, which probably won't provide any useful support, so regard only 1 town as shared).

Garrison C : Hurricane 9
Sitting on the iron mountain by Hurricane. These troops are for Hurricane, Sandstorm and EotS (3 towns, 1 shared)

Garrison D : Blizzard 884
In the middle of unsettled territory at the moment, and definitely needing some roads to be built. Troops here are for Inchoff, Blizzard and D'ville. No doubt there will be a few more cities with range before too long. (3 towns)

Garrison E : Inchon
Or could be in Elipolis, depending on how we arrange the cities. Currently only serves Inchon and Elipolis. Important as the gateway between north and south, and as a crossing point for galleys, so probably needing a heavier garrison than the number of towns would indicate. (2 towns).

Garrison F : Sufa
Simply because Sufa is too far away from Garrison B (4 tiles IIRC). Can be a small garrison since it is only defending one town, and the garrison at B can attack any units landing next to Sufa. Can in principle also reinforce Typhoon and Tornado (1 town).

This organisation means that every town is within 3 tiles of a garrison, and so we can get troops into any city that has enemy troops land next to it. Also covers one iron and one incense resource (and our furs and horses are inland) so we can't be cut off from out resources. Every town except Inchon and Elipolis can be reached from at least one more garrison point in two turns (or fast movers from two garrison points in one turn). I don't think that this depends on having engineering to cross rivers without penalty, but I may be wrong. It is possible that a few more roads might need to be built to give troops the quickest paths (definitely in the case of Garrison E - but as more towns get settled in the area I expect the organisation to change to cover the new towns efficiently). It might be possible to come up with a more efficient scheme than this, so please feel free to try.

Each garrison should have pikes roughly in proportion to the number of cities being defended, plus catapults, MI and knights (of course). The knights could be arranged slightly differently, since two groups - one at EotS and one East of D'ville (for example) - are enough to get knights to any point on south Stormia (including Elipolis) within a turn.

I'd suggest the identifying garrison points and building a military road network based on them should be a fairly high priority if we are considering sending a force to Bob in the not too distant future.

Last edited by vulture on 26-06-2003 at 17:52

	26-06-2003 15:41									#2
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Assembling the Guardians of The Storm- a glorious day indeed!

The question is- how much forces do we need, and what about our beach patrols?

	26-06-2003 16:19									#3
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

for your work Vulture.

I don't think there's any need to have a plan to counter invasions on the eastern and southern coasts within one turn, since we can see the galleys coming and we'll have a several turns' worth of warning time. The only areas that are really vulnerable to some sort of surprise attack are the north of Stormia (once we populate it) and the crossing to RP (which would require anyone using it but us to send suicide galleys). We can eliminate the risk of a surprise invasion through the sea lanes by keeping a few galleys on watch duty.
I'd say we are pretty safe on most fronts until sea tiles become traversable to all.

	26-06-2003 16:38									#4
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

But astronomy isn't that far away now. Lego are researching Edu already, and then it's only one tech to sea travel for all. We want to have a defense system ready for the arrival of astronomy, rather than giving e.g. RP a window of opportunity to reach our southern towns before we can properly defend them.

	26-06-2003 17:59									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

Yes, you do have a point Vulture. Alright, I think I'm convinced.
Btw, is anybody thinking of setting up lookout towers on some strategic points? It's less costly than dedicating galleys to staying at sea and looking out for signs of invasion, and it'll be convenient when most of our galleys will be busy transporting troops to RP's territory.

	26-06-2003 22:42									#7
	Put an end to popups!

Great work... I didn't go over all cities point by point, but for me it looks fine (might need a bit more optimization, but that's something for the Spartan academy). But, one question: could I ask for some permanent blocks too? They might be obvious, but are just as well part of the plan.

So far, I was thinking on:
- the 3 iron mountains
- the Isthmus (once Elipolis gets moved)
- possibly one incense on a hill, to void anyone disrupting it
- possibly SS6 (or is it 9? the mountain anyway)
- possibly the other mountain next to Hurricane, as it is becoming our major wonder city, and could use a bit more protection

DeepO

	27-06-2003 14:36									#8
	Support Apolyton

I'm sure it could benefit from more optimisation - Sufa in particular annoys me, but I didn't have that much time. Hopefully there is some organisation that avoids leaving Sufa isolated. Agree with leaving units on vital mountains. We don't necessarily need to protect all resources, just one of each for us to use, and as many as we are trading. The rest are spare, and we can afford to have them disconnected for a while if there is a vital need for units elsewhere. Agree that parking units on all the mountains by Hurricane (or any mountains where a knight could land and then attack next turn) would be wise, as long as we have the units to spare. In that particular case, the garrison (as currently proposed) only serves Hurricane and Sandstorm, so the garrison could be spread equally over all the mountains and still be able to get the whole lot into whichever city needs protecting, in one turn, in an emergency. Although Hurricane is probably safe until navigation or magnetism, since I doubt Lego can find a sea route to land there and surprise us, and everyone else will have to sail around the northern or southern capes to land there for now, and we'll have plenty of warning.