Having come from a family of "masonry contractors" I can rationalize that with "cats" as far away as 11 spaces where I finally did locate them on the other side of two rows of trees and without any other unit closer, if a crew of masons was available between attacks they could have put up a wall to protect themselves and succeeded in making some repairs. The wall wouldn't be necessary to prevent attack from troops because that was already accomplished by natural barriers. The idea of a protective wall is just to explain how they would proceed to make repairs.

The methods of a "wheelbarrow contractor" haven't changed much with exception of a "powered cement mixer" and occassional rental of a forklift but I can recall when all of it was done by manpower (i.e. manually mixing the cement, building scaffolding, and manually relaying material up ladders or using ropes where possible) masons are able to seem to miraculously cause buildings to appear overnight.

IMO not allowing repair is part of what is causing the huge imbalance of the "cat attack". There is a struggle to be first to be able to produce them and there is a "puzzle" to unravel as to when even to risk researching them. I am not against the action and suspense created by this "super weapon", but repair is not without risk either because ranged units can eliminate repair crews when they are inaccessible to melee troops;

but I am of the opinion that not allowing repair has created such an imbalance that a loss of interest in trying to continue to survive can occur when your opponent does manage to assemble an army of 30 "cats" that can pound away at your defences from over trees and mountains.
I am still pondering how it was accomplished so much sooner than I expected just in time to regain the advantage as a matter of fact;
but in any event I think allowing at least a limited repair would keep alive the "will to struggle to survive".

PS:
As a matter of fact the story of the "Patron Saint of Naples" is that he built a wall to stop the flow of the lava from Vesuvius and I can even believe that it was possible for a large crew of masons to accomplish that.
If it was a circumstance where the workers were vulnerable to attack by enemy troops close by, I could agree that repair could not be done but where that is not a problem I think at least a "reduced repair" should be allowed.

TR

Last Edited : Tuesday, 19 October 2004 - 10:12