Because a resounding field victory will explicitly garner more glory and respect from all of our neighbours, as outlined in the update and in the discussion afterwards. Apologies if this was somehow unclear on my part.
It is unlikely we will seriously try to starve out a city with a port in any case. As said before, this is not an existential issue for either of us. Once besieged, as in either plan, they will probably come to terms.
Furthermore, even ten percent losses of an city-state's hoplites is a major blow, because of how hard to replace citizens are. When you kill an enemy polis' citizen-hoplites, you are also killing their farmers, their craftsmen, their leaders, their
future. Taras will probably not seek a quarrel with us for at least five to ten years if they are defeated decisively in a field battle. (Cetashwayo's post on how battles work between Greek city-states is really
worth a read here, it's very informative.) With something like Serpent's Vice, they could be causing trouble again in perhaps five, and also have more options to just prolong the war and try to enlist outside aid.
Now, of course Serpent's Vice has a lot of cool advantages too. They are, in fact,
both good plans, which
both have striking advantages, and some disadvantages. Our expert and experienced generals actually know what they're doing.
