[planning] ePWS - Strategy

[soiram]

Some urgent things to be decided by the war council:

A) Do we strike Dusk Isle (protected by Darkaracnid - Score: 308)?

+: One less isle for DL. Complete destruction possible.
-: Rather small isle, protected by Darkaracnid.

I don't mind hitting it and getting leveled by Darkaracnid, as I was going to quit anyways. On the other hand if my forces are needed elsewhere, we either leave it for now or assign it to another member who doesn't care about reprecussions.

B) Same goes for Eclipse Isle which is Ringy's target. Ringy, do you want to leave it be for now?

C) How will we hit?

There are two general concepts IIRC.

C.1) Hit her with a suicide force when she is online, she sends fleets to retaliate, we hit hard. This is a high risk approach IMHO, since she most likely use her friends and not her own fleet

C.2) Hit her when she sleeps. This seems to be the most widely accepted approach. We have to decide if:

C.2.1) We hit all (decided) targets simultaneously. If so, how many waves for each targets? (Parallel approach)

C.2.2) We concentrate our bigger forces to hit main isle and then move to next bigger isle etc. (Serial approach).

Any great tactician out there?

[Natmus]

The way I see it, the first thing we decide is the appraoch to her isles. Level 20 watch towers give good warning, so that is 6 hours warning right there. My opinion is that we hit her in (her) early morning, so the ships don't appear to her before she goes to bed and gan pull an all-nighter preparing.
Secondly, as I feel we need to preserve the fleets equipped with cats, there should be large suicidal fleets going in at the to biggest DL isles (her main ilse, and that other 1k isle), simply to take out the defenders and clear the way for the cats. If possible I would like another fleet against PF's main isle. Then timed waves of cats against these isles (as these are those farthest away from ocean 15, this will be the only time ocean 15 fleet attack that far away) to take down stone wall, storehouse, and resources. Once that is done, Frei and whoever else in that corner that is with us can do the rest themselves.
The Ocean 15 crowd then shift to nearer and smaller targets and eaily kill them off in multihunter manner.

[soiram]

natmus said:

The way I see it, the first thing we decide is the appraoch to her isles. Level 20 watch towers give good warning, so that is 6 hours warning right there. My opinion is that we hit her in (her) early morning, so the ships don't appear to her before she goes to bed and gan pull an all-nighter preparing.

Agreed and set in stone.

natmus said:

Secondly, as I feel we need to preserve the fleets equipped with cats, there should be large suicidal fleets going in at the to biggest DL isles (her main ilse, and that other 1k isle), simply to take out the defenders and clear the way for the cats.

Can these be colmfinito's fleets? Or is this unethical?

natmus said:

Then timed waves of cats against these isles (as these are those farthest away from ocean 15, this will be the only time ocean 15 fleet attack that far away) to take down stone wall, storehouse, and resources. Once that is done, Frei and whoever else in that corner that is with us can do the rest themselves.
The Ocean 15 crowd then shift to nearer and smaller targets and eaily kill them off in multihunter manner.

I agree.

natmus said:

If possible I would like another fleet against PF's main isle.

Yes, I think it will be possible. We have a lot of strong fleets in Ocean 15. I for example can aid you vs PF.

So, if no strong oppositions exist to this plan, it's a go.

[Natmus]

soiram said:

Can these be colmfinito's fleets? Or is this unethical?

That is what I was hoping for. I have only logged into colmfinito's account once, and then just for a quick peek, and puzzlement about the way he did things. I think that 3 fleets can be made, though, two to hit DL's two big isles and a third to soften up PF's main isle.

It doesn't really matter if they win or lose, as long as they take out big chunks of her defenses. Then the large catapult fleets can go about their business.

[Ringthane]

I am not to keen to retreat. Eclipse it is. Hm?

[soiram]

First attempt at drafting an attack workflow:

PHASE 0 Plan
Determination of flotillas, Necessary time/distance calculations


PHASE 1 Espionage
Espionage on at least the following isles:
1.1) PF's Haven (4:18:19) - Score 1311
1.2) DL's Dark Isle (1:35:17) - Score 1365
1.3) Shadow Isle (11:32:17) - Score 1000

These should be undertaken from either colmfinito's account or from Robillard's one (after of course removing him from [Morkin]).

Espionage would also be welcome for the remaining DL, PF targets.

PHASE 2 Demolition
2.1) FIRST WAVE: Attack on enemy's 3 biggest isles (ie 1.1, 1.2, 1.3) with 3 roughly equal suicide forces from colmfinito's account in order to wipe out as many defenders as possible

2.2) SECOND WAVE: Timed attacks to those 3 isles with 3 roughly equal flotillas comprised of stronger Morkins (ie lots of cats, archers, LWS). The exact compositions is yet TBD, but it seems Natmus and another Targ (me probably) hit 1.1, Frei and friends hit 1.2 and Ashimar with Targs hit 1.3

2.3) THIRD WAVE: Timed attacks with medium/smaller fleets to finish off what is left from second wave.

PHASE 3 De-colonisation

3.1) Medium fleets hit nearest colonies
3.2) Returning 2.2 fleets join the party
3.3) Smaller fleets finish the job
3.4) Optional colonisation of islands

PHASE 4 Diplomacy
4.1 Post our manifesto on our page
4.2 Try and persuade angry boyfriends that we had every right to attack
4.3 Build defenses, decide if we stick to the game or quit
4.4 Survivors plan PWS.

OPEN ISSUES:
- Phase dates
- Flotillas' compositions
- Manifesto text

[soiram]

It seems that we have a more or less agreed plan, based on previous post and on flotilla organisation thread (1st post). There are some minor issues still left to finalise, but we are close.

I would like to ask all commanders to organise their fleets, ie know for each member the ETA to target and inform them on WHEN and HOW to strike (ie how many fleets, how much time apart, which wave etc). This is crucial in order to be able to coordinate the attacks in the small window of time we aim at.

Also, make sure that you know if your members are able to launch the attacks planned at the specific time. if they are away or sleeping, please post here so that someone can take over this.

By Wednesday this should be closed, by Thursday we need to send off the spy ships.

[ashimar]

Okay, I can send out the spy ships thursday/friday.

In fact I'm gonna try one now and when it is detected I will say as Colm that it was a typo as I wanted to scout another island nearby. I'll figure out something. I'll take it one step at a time.

I could use some advice on how to apply/use the cats + warships though. Shall I combine everything in one attackforce to minimze losses and deal out maximum carnage or do I need to take out the cats and put them in minimally defended sequential waves ?
And if I target the main house of an island with a level 20 wall and I bring 80 cats (say...) will the spill damage of that simply wipe out all structures ? That would be very desirable of course. Does anyone know something ?

[Freiegeister]

ashimar said:

Okay, I can send out the spy ships thursday/friday.

In fact I'm gonna try one now and when it is detected I will say as Colm that it was a typo as I wanted to scout another island nearby. I'll figure out something. I'll take it one step at a time.

I could use some advice on how to apply/use the cats + warships though. Shall I combine everything in one attackforce to minimze losses and deal out maximum carnage or do I need to take out the cats and put them in minimally defended sequential waves ?
And if I target the main house of an island with a level 20 wall and I bring 80 cats (say...) will the spill damage of that simply wipe out all structures ? That would be very desirable of course. Does anyone know something ?

I think attacking the Wall first is the best option as it will cause losses for every fleet that attacks until it is gone. It is also probably better to split the cats and target each building.

Have a look back at the fleets Chaos used on me. First fleet was massive but with enough cats to just take down the wall. Successive fleets each had 23 cats. With 80 cats you could make 4 fleets with 20 LWs/20 Cats in each of the secondary ones and everything else in the main one.


Has anyone come across the formula for calculating losses?

[soiram]

This is interesting and we need to address it soon. AFAIR the damage DOES spill over other structures, but haven't been able to detect the algorithm.

[ashimar]

I have dared to send out one scoutship from Colm's account to Shadow isle. It will arrive this evening at 24:00 GMT+1 time. If it is detected my story as Colm is that I should have spied .18 instead of .17 (or was it .16 ?) ;D

I looked on the map, it's entirely plausible...