Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik [Archive]

Brucha

Nov 13, 2007, 01:12 AM

Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik - The People and the State

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/SovietFlag.gif

After my first real win at Civ3 recently, I have decided on another game but this time at Monarch. This will be the first time at this level, and I’ve also chosen some fun limits to the new game.

I will play Russia with the goal of becoming Communist as soon as possible - once in the Industrial Age, I must research Nationalism and them Communism before any other tech in that age. Once Communism is learned, I must switch immediately over to Communism as a new government. I decided ahead of time to forgo using Republic and go for Monarch instead (Russia never really was a republic anyways).

The second limit, or rule, is one I will call life-time ally. One other civ in the game will be my game-long ally no matter what happens. Once Nationalism is learned, I must maintain an on-going MPP with that civ for the rest of the game. As China is the only other civ that favors Communism as a government, I have chosen China to be this ally.

So, here’s the game set-up:

Map: Kal-El’s 140 x 140 resource earth map with all 31 civs in play, all with historical beginning locations.
Victory Conditions: Domination, Cultural and Conquest enabled, but I am only going for a Histographic victory, that being to have the highest score at the end of the game.
Difficulty Level: Monarch
Settings: Re-spawn AI players, AI is set at More Aggressive, Barbarians are Restless.

Thus the title, The People and the State. This will probably end up being a long game, and I am anticipating war early on in the game. With 12 civs starting in Eurpope alone (with at least 6 more just to the south f my start position), the Ancient Times will be bloody.

Chapter Guide

Founding of the Rus (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6144843&postcount=2)
Middle Ages - War with the English and Dutch (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6144925&postcount=4)
Expansion to the East and the Russo-Finnish War (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6147460&postcount=14)
Expansion to the East - Part Two (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6155281&postcount=18)
Expansion to the East - Part Three (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6158554&postcount=26)
Expansion to the East - Part Four (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6161455&postcount=38)
Expansion to the East - Part Five (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6164382&postcount=45)
Peace - For Now (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6167900&postcount=48)
Alliances and Pacts (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6174851&postcount=53)
Октябрьская революция - The October Revolution (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6182365&postcount=60)
War with Scandinavia (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6183749&postcount=65)
Uneasy Peace (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6200106&postcount=70)
The Push South (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6211489&postcount=80)
The Persian War (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6217697&postcount=87)
The Destruction of Babylon (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6219291&postcount=91)
War Spreads (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6243986&postcount=94)
War with Sumeria (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6247945&postcount=97)
German-Russo Alliance (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6267504&postcount=103)
Russo-French War (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6275969&postcount=108)
Battle for London (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6287197&postcount=115)
Sunrise of the French and the Destruction of Delhi (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6294823&postcount=118)
World at War (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6327473&postcount=129)
Fall of America (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6331499&postcount=132)
Prelude to War (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6352197&postcount=151)
Oперация буран - Operation Blizzard (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6356251&postcount=154)
Oперация буран - Operation Blizzard - Phase Two (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6369448&postcount=167)
Oперация буран - Operation Blizzard - Final Phase (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6409956&postcount=176)

Brucha

Nov 13, 2007, 01:16 AM

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/vasnetsov-warrior.jpg

In 4000 BC, here is my capitol at the start:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/startposition4000bc.jpg

So, a lot of cattle, wheat and game abounds, with a river right near by. However, there seems to be a lot of marshland also.

With 11 civs starting out to the west of me in Europe, this is going to be a tight race for space and city settlement. I am expecting a flood of settlers from the west as soon as the lands in Europe are used up - which should not take long.

So, my early objective is to settler rush as many settlers as I can. However, being an Expansionist civ, I want to also take advantage of expansionist civ’s better gifts from goody huts. Though I start with a scout, I decide to start off my builds with another one to explore and hit as many goody huts as possible.

My starting scout takes off right away for the goody hut northwest of Moscow…and give me Pottery. This is what I hope to have happen. I want to fill up my Ancient Times tech tree with as many free techs from goody huts as I can. From there, I send my scout heads southeast from there while my newly-built scout heads east.

Within several turns, my scouts discover two more goody huts, one giving me Ceremonial Burial and the other gives me a free city in 3650 BC- St. Petersburg! You’ve got to love the Expansionist trait!

Using my capitol for settler building, I quickly send out several settlers right away, founding the cities of Smolensk, Rostov, Novgorod and Yakaterinburg. Meanwhile, my scout have discovered several more goody huts, giving me Masonry, Warrior Code and Mysticism. That should give me a good lead on the tech tree over the AI.

My plan for the Ancient Times is to go right after Alphabet, Writing, then Philosophy. However, I am not going for Republic but rather Monarchy as a government until I can get Communism. I am also only targeting a select group of Wonders. I think that I can easily get the Mausoleum of Mausollos and the Great Library before any one else. The Mausoleum will give me some good Culture points, while the Great Library will give me two free techs. I want to stay as far ahead of the AI in techs that I can.

By the time I settle my first four cities (plus my free one), the AI begins sending waves of settlers across my western-most territory. I can force most to turn around by using the WITHDRAW OR DECLARE WAR; others I block with a combination of warriors and workers. However, some get through, though most settle their cities on the eastern side of the mountain chain, the Urals.

In 1650 BC, I finish Philosophy, of course being the first to do so, and receive Code of Laws for it:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/philosphy1650bc.jpg

I had made a mistake right here, as I am always so used to using the Philosophy slingshot to get Republic early that I researched Code of Laws when I meant to research Literature and Polytheism. Oh well. The next turn, I received Literature for free.

Now, as soon as I finished Philosophy, I was given a Scientific Great Leader, so I used the leader to rush building of the Great Library, which was finished in 1650 BC also. Everything is going according to my plans as I end the Ancient Times and enter the Middle Ages in 150 BC.

Amazingly, the first age passes without the war I had anticipated happening. All the Europe civs seems to be prepared to accept their fate as having very few cities and no room to expand - except through me.

Quintillus

Nov 13, 2007, 01:47 AM

Wow. That's amazing luck with the goody huts.

Great start. I love playing the Soviets in Civ3, not to mention listening to/memorizing the Soviet anthem (http://www.hymn.ru/). Next year I'm planning to learn Russian so I can know what the words I'm singing actually mean :lol:!

I'd thought of the Communist variant as being a possible Story thread myself. Communism is a good government anyways, and it's all the better to play it with Russia. I couldn't think of any real good variant for it, though, beyond starting with Communism, which isn't that realistic.

Were you going for conquest, I'd ask if you were planning to backstab China eventually, reflecting the Sino-Soviet split. But it looks like you're planning to be a faithful ally.

Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik translates directly as Union of Soviet Socialist Repulics. I'm no Russian expert, but does this really equate to The People and The State?

btw, you have the same picture twice in the second post. Might want to change that.

I'll certainly be following this, Soviet type stuff always interests me, even in CivIII.

Brucha

Nov 13, 2007, 02:31 AM

With the start of the Middle Ages, I get Feudalism for free, and start building the Art of War right away in Moscow. I anticipation of this, I had been building the Hanging Gardens, which was to finish in 170 BC, but I was beaten out with 1 turn left to completion. So, I naturally switched it over to the Art of War, allowing me to finish it in 150 BC in a single turn. Now, all my cities one the continent will have free barracks. I also get Monotheism for free from the Great Library ( at least that’s why I got it for free)

Here’s my territory at 150 BC:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/map150bc.jpg

I have settled 12 cities in all, not a bad start considering the problems with room. The mountain range on the eastern edge of the map is the Urals. The Germans managed to settle Hamburg to the north of me in Scandinavia, while the French settled Orleans just east of Smolensk on my side of the Urals. On the other side of the Urals, the civs of Europe have settled a number of cities in a random arrangement, which are basically fragmented at best. Other than that, I’ve got a nice compact core in which to build (and conquer) from. However, I am still short of the requisite number of cities in order to build my Forbidden Palace.

I had thought about expanding to the east some more, but I would have had to go a good distance further east to do so, and so I opted to stop expanding peacefully at this point. I certainly outnumber all my neighbors, in fact all the civs of Europe for that matter.

Here’s my standings as of 150 BC at the start of the Middle Ages:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standings150bc.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standings150bcparttwo.jpg

My stats look good though it s too early in the game to really treat them with more than a passing glance.

My big problem is this, however:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/trade150bc.jpg

I have plenty of iron and horses, but I only have one luxury. I was able to trade Monarchy to Babylon for some spices, but that is the only luxury I can get right now in trade. I think that most luxuries I need I am going to have to either trade for them or go to war and take them by force. Thankfully, Europe has plenty of luxuries for me…

As I entered the Middle Ages, I kept expecting to be attacked from Europe as the other civs tried to expand further east. I expected the Celts or the Germans to do this. No, it was the sneaky English that decide to be the first to try to expand by war in 70 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/sneakyenglish70ad.jpg

Amazingly, the English decide to declare war and invade right next to Vladivostok with a single swordsman and warrior - both regulars. Within the city, I have a veteran archer, a veteran pikeman, and a regular pikeman. I decide not to wait, and I attack the invading units, killing both of them with no losses for me. Good, now I have a war with a non-contact civ and that should give me some war happiness.

I have built up my military quite a bit, garrisoning my border cities with at least 3 units each, in anticipation of an attack, so I am not the least bit worried. However, at this point, I am not ready to go to all-out war with Europe just yet. I want time to build up my cities.

At first, my money situation was pretty bad - Monarch is not really suited for commercial reasons, but finally my money starts to finally get better by this point. Even with 2-3 units per city, I am having some unhappy citizen problems with the lack of money (as well as having only two lux‘s), and I was forced to build temples in most of my cities. At least that should boost my culture score and prevent any culture flips.

After the 70 AD invasion, I don’t see the English for a awhile. But the Dutch decide to declare war on me after I order them to remove their forces or declare war (they were trying to send two warriors across my territory from their capitol to the west to another city to the east of the Urals).

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/dutchwar150ad.jpg

However, I don’t see any invading Dutch units for some time after the declaration of war. So, now I am at war with two civs that are a considerable distance from me, and so I should get even more war happiness from this. I am loving it.

As I was researching Chivalry, I started building a palace in Novgorod in anticipation of building the Knights Templar (if for no other reason to keep it out of any of my neighbors’ hands). On turn before Novgorod was to finish its palace, I finished researching Chivalry, giving me the Knights Templar in one turn in 170 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/completeknightstemplar170ad.jpg

Here’s my standings as of 190 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standings190adparttwo.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standings190ad.jpg

It looks like I am still going strong in most categories, but I have a long way to go from here.

In 260 AD, England once again invades my territory by sea, with a total of…you guessed it, two units. For some reason, I decide to repel the invaders with three veteran pikemen pulled out of Yaroslavl and Vladivostok. I end up losing one pikeman but kill both warriors - not a good trade off IMO.

The next turn, the Dutch finally invade me from across the Urals:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/netherlandsinvade.jpg

Should be no problem, right? Apparently not for me. I attack the invaders with a crusader, an archer and 2 pikemen for support. My crusader kills the warrior, while the Dutch archer kills my archer, who has to be finished off by one of my pikemen.

On a better note, my trade is getting slowly better:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/trade280bc.jpg

For a gpt amount, I have traded off some iron to Persia, traded Furs for Wine to Spain. Lastly, I got Silks from China, my ally. It’s not the best but that’s 3 lux’s so far by trade.

Back to the war with England, they try another invasion , this time next to Khabarovsk:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/englishinvasion370ad.jpg

Well, at least this invasion is a little stronger…I should have waited, but I attack first, starting with my garrisoned crusader, who kills the English spearman, I lose a veteran pikeman to the swordsman, and kill the warrior with another pikeman. That leaves the spearman left. I have to say that I need to stop attacking these invaders when they are in such a position which are forced to attack my cities in order to even move. In both English invasions, I have lost two of my own units to inferior enemy units.

Brucha

Nov 13, 2007, 02:36 AM

Brucha

Nov 13, 2007, 03:46 AM

Afte posting the game up to my latest save, I went back to the game just to look at the strategic situation around my territory. Here's some screen shots of my borders:

My border with Scandinavia:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/mapofscandinavia380ad.jpg

My border to the south:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/mapofmysouthernborder380ad.jpg

My eastern border with the Urals:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/mapofmyeasternborder380ad.jpg

And lastly, my border with Europe:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/mapofeasterneurope380ad.jpg

After looking around, this is the conclusion I came to:

There really are not any lux's nearby to take by force except for furs in Scandinavia.

To the east across the Urals, there is no threat. The Cities are too fragmented to be a problem for now.

My choice for war and advancement seems to be either into Germany or Scandinavia.

Germany offers me no extra resources, but I can pick up 2 more horses and two city locations for excellent building. plus, I outnumber Germany right now, and they only have the Archer as their best unit.

Scandinavia has two more iron and furs, as well as lots of fish and whales. Attacking them would remove any threat on that front. However, the Vikings military is the same size as mine, and they have the swordsman.

Taking Berlin and Leipzig would be rather easy, whereas invading Scandinavia would be more difficult, as they have 4 cities and better troops than the Germans.

This is going to be a long game and I am worried that, being at war already with England and the Dutch, if I attack either Germany or Scandinavia it will bring in other neighboring civs against me. I really don't want war with all my neighbors right now in the game. Germany then would be the best best right now IMO because I could take both cities quickly, as I have Knights now.

What do you think?

Brucha

Nov 13, 2007, 05:14 AM

Sorry to post again but I had a thought. Whomever I decide to go to war with, would it not be better to have them declare war on me first? For instance, if I decided to go after Germany, planting a single unit in their territory, turn after turn, until they declare war would be the best way to go. Then I don't have to suffer the Rep hit for declaring war, thus preventing other civs from joining in the war.

ChaosArbiter

Nov 13, 2007, 01:55 PM

It probably would be better to go after Germany - the central and eastern territory in Europe has a lot of saltpetre and coal, IIRC. A question about your enemies: if you started them in the historical starting places, where are the Byzantines? Didn't the Turks invade from farther east anyway (by the Caspian Sea, I believe)?

Great story! Just don't treat the Cossacks the way the Soviets really did.

Brucha

Nov 13, 2007, 02:36 PM

It probably would be better to go after Germany - the central and eastern territory in Europe has a lot of saltpetre and coal, IIRC.

Yea, that's the conclusion that I came to also. The two German cities would be really easy to take I think.

A question about your enemies: if you started them in the historical starting places, where are the Byzantines? Didn't the Turks invade from farther east anyway (by the Caspian Sea, I believe)?

I guess Kal-El decided to leave the Byzantines out when he decided to make the map. The Ottomans' starting location is where Istanbul is located, just north of Greece.

Lexicus

Nov 13, 2007, 05:10 PM

Some ideas:

Expand eastward and a little south to reflect the actual territory of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics.
Rename Yakutsk Leningrad.
Build a city on the Volga, and name that Stalingrad.
When you switch to Communism, do a lot of pop-rushing to represent Stalin's purges.
In the late Industrial Age, start a war with Germany. Let them have the first move. Make sure they have Panzers. :mischief:

Be pissed at the West when you've finished gobbling up Germany.

Quintillus

Nov 13, 2007, 05:54 PM

^:lol:, great suggestions for making it more like the USSR. That would make for an interesting story, to actually encompass all the Soviet territory before moving in anywhere else.

Whenever I play Risk possible, I play as the Red Army, and try to control all the Soviet territory at once. I finally accomplished it this summer, though because there's no Soviet bonus like the continent bonuses, it didn't really help me in terms of winning.

You ought to at least expand east to the degree of capturing The Hague.

Well, at least this invasion is a little stronger…I should have waited, but I attack first, starting with my garrisoned crusader, who kills the English spearman, I lose a veteran pikeman to the swordsman, and kill the warrior with another pikeman.

Why are you attacking with Pikemen? I can see attacking a redlined Archer or Warrior with one, but why Swordsmen and full-health Warriors? Especially when they'd be forced to attack otherwise, you're much better off leaving your Pikes on defense.

The Omega

Nov 13, 2007, 07:05 PM

Brucha

Nov 13, 2007, 07:10 PM

Why are you attacking with Pikemen? I can see attacking a redlined Archer or Warrior with one, but why Swordsmen and full-health Warriors? Especially when they'd be forced to attack otherwise, you're much better off leaving your Pikes on defense.

I have to admit that it was stupid to do so, but I had enjoyed a couple of beers by that point and was feeling a bit cocky :rolleyes: I actually only had pikemen and nothign else to defend (or attack with for that matter) the city with. Still, a stupid thing to do, I admit. New rule in place then: NO DRINKING WHILE CONDUCTING COMBAT IN CIV3! :lol:

Some ideas:

Expand eastward and a little south to reflect the actual territory of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics.
Rename Yakutsk Leningrad.
Build a city on the Volga, and name that Stalingrad.
When you switch to Communism, do a lot of pop-rushing to represent Stalin's purges.
In the late Industrial Age, start a war with Germany. Let them have the first move. Make sure they have Panzers. :mischief:

Be pissed at the West when you've finished gobbling up Germany.

As far what Lexicus wrote above, I have to agree with Quintillus on trying to make my territory more like the actualy USSR before moving elsewhere. It seemed that the game agreed with all three of us, as you will see in my next post.

Brucha

Nov 13, 2007, 08:15 PM

After reading Lexicus' comment above about changing city names, I decided to jump back into the game long enough to do so and simply check out my city situation as far a micro-management. I figured that Smolensk was positioned approximately where Stalingrad should be, so Smolensk became Stalingrad. I also renamed Yakutsk to Leningrad. The renaming of Yakutsk proves to be prophetic...

I was having Novgorod building a Palace so I could could switch it over to Leonardo's Workshop when I researched Invention. Novgorod had 3 turns left on the Palace, but Invention had but one turn left as of 380 AD. I decided to finish the turn before saving to make sure I wouldn't forget to switch Novgorod over to building the Workshop. At this point, I was still undecided on whether to attack Scandinavia or Germany.

At the end of the turn (390 AD), I got this surprising message:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/cool380ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/nivevehin390ad.jpg

Not a particularly great city (only a barracks and 2 pop?), it was a bloodless free city!

With all my focus looking at Germany or Scandinavia for my upcoming attack, I didn't even notice that my boundary had crept right up to the city of Niveveh itself! :crazyeye: After reading Lexucus' comment about trying to "Expand eastward and a little south to reflect the actual territory of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics" instead of attacking Germany or Scandinavia, my decision for my next move was made for me. time to expand to the east!

I was in the process of building a force of Knights for my invasion of Germany, but I switched plans. My 'good' neighbor the Dutch, had a city right on my border, the Hague that was just begging to be taken:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/investigatethehague410ad.jpg

being completely isolated in its location, and garrisoned by only 2 spearmen, it would be an easy victory.

However, Scandinavia chose this moment to get intimate with Russia:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/warwithvikings400ad.jpg

It doesn't look like much, but there is a stack just to the north of them and more across the channel in their territory who are obviously marching for my border.

Being quite sober this time for combat, I march 2 veteran pikemen from Leningrad to the hill just NW of the city to bait the Vikings into attacking that turn - they do so, and I end up losing 1 pikeman but kill 2 veteran swordsmen. Not too good.

However, in the next turn, 420 AD, the Vikings withdraw from my territory without any further attacks that turn. :confused:

At this point, China my "so-called" game-long ally decides to up the ante for her Silks:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/renegotiationforsilks420ad.jpg

With no chances of getting lux's anywhere else right now in the game, I am forced to pay up. Quintillus had commented earlier that:

Were you going for conquest, I'd ask if you were planning to backstab China eventually, reflecting the Sino-Soviet split. But it looks like you're planning to be a faithful ally.

That be the case later in the game if China keeps extorting me like this...

Back to the Winter War...the Vikings next move is to try to simply march past leningrad and head south, and so I am forced to attack from the city to eliminate two swordsmen with a veteran Knight, who survives.

This opts me to change tactics. I decide to form a defensive line along the border to prevent any further excursions into my territory:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/northernline.jpg

The stack on the hill has a veteran crusader, veteran pike, and a regular pike, while the stack in the open has a veteran crusader, a veteran knight and a veteran pike. I don't like defending in the open like that, but the Vikings will just continue to march south past Leningrad, forcing me to attack instead of defending.

The plan works as the next turn the Vikings try to attack my defensive line. One of my vet pikes kills two swordsmen and one of my crusaders kills 2 swordsmen also. the Vikings withdraw completely from the border and for the next couple of turns there are no further attacks.

Now, at this point (480 AD), my forces were readyto capture the Hague. As I didn't want to worry about attacks in the north, I asked and got a peace treaty with Scandinavia. Their time will come soon enough once my expansion to the east and south is completed...

In 490 AD, I initiate my attack on the Hague with 4 veteran knights, a crusader and a veteran longbowman. One knight and the longbowman make mincemeat of the defending Dutch pair of spearmen and the Hague is mine:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/capturethehague490ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/thehague490ad.jpg

The Hague is definitely not built in a place welcoming alot of growth...

So, as of 490 AD, my expansion is off and running. I have culturally flipped one city from the Baylonians and captured the Hague with little difficulty.The other cities to the east look like easy pickings also, as they are far from their cpaitols, and thus very hard to reinforce. All I will have to do is defend my western border with Europe and pick off the cities one by one in the east...

Brucha

Nov 14, 2007, 12:40 AM

Ok, time for some strategic planning and advice. The map below is my eastern border across the Urals where I am going to expand to actual Soviet Russia size and territory:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/map490ad.jpg

The three circled cities will be my first targets for conquest. The French city is Orleans, while the southern-most Celtic city is Alesia and the other is Lugdunum.

I have just captured the Hague from the Dutch, which is the city in the mountains at the center of the map. My plan is a three-pronged attack at the three target cities simultaneously. I don't anticipate each city to have more than 4 defenders each (and nothing better than spearmen as none of the cities have iron), and I am building a group of invaders for each city, bascially a combination of crusaders, longbowmen and knights in each group. I am hoping that these units will be in position by 600 AD or earlier. With luck, I will be able to capture each city in the first attack...or at least that's my plan. Those cities on the map are quite isolated and so cannot rely on any help from their homelands.

This brings me to my second consideration. Once I attack to the east, France and especially the Celts (who are closer to me than France) will probably invade me from the west. Therefore, I will have to maintain a strong garrison along my mutual European border to repel attackers.

With success of this conquest, I plan on then shifting these attacking forces to move against the remaining cities on the map: the German city, the two Spanish cities and the remaining Celtic city. Hopefully, the second phase can be completed by the mid 700's AD.

With the capture of the hague, I can now build my Forbidden Palace. however, I am waiting to build it until I capture the Celtic city, Lugdunum, as this would be a perfect place to do so.

One question for you all though. I am continuing my war with England for war happiness. But what about when I go to war with the Celts and France? Would it be in my benefit to get peace right after taking the french city, but stay at war with the Celts (as I will be attacking another Celt city soon afterwards)? I really don't want to be at war with most of Europe right now...

My Current Standings and Trade Situation

My trade situation really sucks. I have three extra horses that no one will trade me anything for - beyond 20 or 30 gold in a lump sum. I am exporting iron to Persia for 5 gpt, and I am trading furs for wines with Spain. Lastly, I am getting silks from China in exchange for giving them Engineering. The only civ I have contact with that has any lux's to trade is Egypt and right now we don't seem to have a trade route...

My overall standings are good so far:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standings490ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standings490adparttwo.jpg

My ally China has matched me in area and it looks like India is my cultural rival for now. Some time in the future I might have to go to war with India just to remove her as a cultural rival...

So, at this point, any advice for the moment, or about my strategic idea of the expansion?

Or does everyone just want to kick back and share a bottle of good Kroleweska vodka? (Sorry, I couldn't help that. I'm from Poland myself and Krole is my absolute favorite vodka) ;)

ChaosArbiter

Nov 14, 2007, 01:02 AM

Brucha

Nov 14, 2007, 01:16 AM

Well, I can't drink, so that's out ;)
I would go to war with France and the Celts, and stay at war with both of them; once you've taken Entremont, the Celts should be out of cities (at least, I hope), so you'll be able to garrison it against the French storm. Afterwards, I'd make peace with them, and then declare against Germany.

Right now, I am still at war with England and the Dutch, so I am geting war happiness due to that - and I have no plans on ending the war with either of them any time soon. I am unsure if staying at war with France is necessary once I capture Orleans. Or course, I will have to remain at war with the Celts because I plan on going after their other city in the area soon. If I don't get some peace treaties by the time of my second round of attacks, I will be at war with:

England, the Dutch, France, Spain, the Celts, and Germany.

That could mean alot of activity along my European border while I'm expanding further east. I plan on expanding all the way to the Pacific Ocean, which is alot of territory to conquer and so perhaps being at war with only a couple of European civs at a time might be beneficial.

Brucha

Nov 15, 2007, 11:35 PM

As of my last game post, I had conquered the Hague from my friends the Dutch. In addition, events in the game convinced me that expanding east was my best strategy.

From 490 AD, I began to build up a large invasion force, with the objective of beginning my real push to the east. My initial targets are Orleans (owned by the French) and Lugdunum and Alesia (owed by the Celts).

While I was preparing my invasion forces, I finished building Leonardo's Workshop in Novgorod:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/finishworkshop590ad.jpg

I decided not to target most Wonders in the game. I did want the Workshop because it truly reduces the cost for unit upgrades, however...

Back to my invasion of the east...I began with a seperate force to capture each city, having moved them to each city border, and then declared war on both France and the Celts in 590 AD...

Against Orleans, I sent 1 crusader, 3 knights, and 3 longbowmen (all vets). Although I ended up losing 1 longbowman, I killed 4 French spearmen and an elite warrior, and captured the city in one turn (as well as 7 French workers in the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/captureorleans600ad.jpg

In 600 AD, my second invading force reached Lugdunum (3 knights, 2 longbowmen, 1 medieval infantry and 1 pikeman). At the cost of losing my medieval infantry, I killed all four defending Celtic spearmen and captured the city (and 4 Celtic workers) in the same turn as attacking:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/capturelugdunum600ad.jpg

Lastly, my third invasion force reached Alesia in 620 AD, numbering 1 crusader, 3 knights and 2 longbowmen. Though I lose 1 longbowman, I kill 3 defending spearmen and 1 archer of the Celts, capturing the city and 4 Celtic workers after one turn of attacking:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/capturealesia620ad.jpg

While I was marching and attacking east, the French and Celts sent some units from the west across my western border, though it really amounted to no more than 3 gallic warriors in one stack, then there was no more enemy units to be seen after they were destroyed.

As soon as I captured Alesia, I asked and got a peace treaty with France. Though I do not share a common border with the French, my next attacks to the east will target a Celtic, German and Spanish city. I am still at war with England, so that would be 4 civs on my western border that I would be at war with. I am not ready yet for a major war with all of Europe, so I am willing to play peaceful with the French for now (especially as there are no other French cities to the east.

So, as of 660 AD, here's the situation in the east:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/map.jpg

Just to the south of the map is Alesia. The dark blue circled city is Konigsburg owned by Germany. The green-circled city is owned by the Celts and the last two circled cities are Spanish. These three cities are to be my next targets for conquest. With my small losses in the first attack (as well as needing to garrison my newly-captured cites and having to move my forces to their new targets), it won't be until 700 AD until I can continue my advance.

On another note, my trade is looking a little better:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/trade660ad.jpg

As of 660 AD, I am trading Spain furs and Currency for wines, iron to Persia for 5 gpt, trading Egypt horses and the republic for gems, and silks from China for theology.The future Soviets seem not to have alot of home-grown lux's. On the other hand, I have a total of 4 horses and 3 saltpeter. Unfortunately, I am going to have to break my trade agreement with Spain in a couple of turn when I attack. That means I am going to lose my source of wines, but hopefully I can get them from someone else.

Brucha

Nov 16, 2007, 02:26 AM

I am not even half the way right now to expanding all the way to the Pacific to correctly obtain the actual Soviet territory. I hope that I can occupy all this territory by the 1000's. Right now, to do so, I have only 300 years to push all the way to the Pacific Ocean by 1000 AD.

Any suggestions?

ChaosArbiter

Nov 16, 2007, 02:40 AM

Brucha

Nov 16, 2007, 03:03 AM

You have your own saltpetre! Cossacks, Cossacks, Cossacks!!

Sorry. Well, I wouldn't go for *Soviet* territory by the 1000's, I'd only be worried about Russian territory - I can't tell, but it looks like you're almost there. I would suggest consolidating your gains for now; I know drawn-out wars are generally bad, but attacking the Spanish and Germans might be enough to lose you more than you gain, unless you can gauge their power vis a vis yours accurately.

I'm too tired to give any better advice, but I hope you can weather the storm you're about to unleash - the Germans in particular give me trouble when I play against them. Viel Gluck!

The cities that I plan on attacking are very isolated from their home lands They have absolutely no support other than what they have right now. What I see is that the best time to sweep east is right now before the Industrial Age. I am fighting spearmen with knights. As long as I protect my European front, I should be fine. The European civs have at most 2-3 cities each in their core, and the rest are colony cities. I have no access to ruuber except by trade so if I cannot take this land now, I will be forced to do so with inferior units later on.

I am not the least bit worried about Germany or the rest of Europe at this point. They simply cannot overpower me seeing that each civ only has a couple of core cities each. Unless all of Europe allies against me.

Yet, any advice of my possible ill-fated strategy would help. Otherwise the march for the east will continue.

Brucha

Nov 16, 2007, 01:28 PM

On another note, since my brief war with Scandinavia, I have been trying to get a number of units promoted to elite and then get one promoted to an army - but with absolutely no luck. So far, I have had two units promoted to elite only to get killed in combat. I would really like to be able to build the military small wonders like the Pentagon, but without armies, this will never happen. With the Art of War wonder, all my units built are vet's to start, no matter where I build them. yet I am having a hard time with promotions to elite status. Perhaps, as my war becomes more extensive, my chances for promotion will increase...

ChaosArbiter

Nov 16, 2007, 02:35 PM

Well, I have the same problem with A) getting elite units (until I get Blitz units, anyway), and B) keeping them alive. I get units :spear vs tank: all the time, and ONLY when I've got an elite unit fighting a vet - I win the elite vs elite fights.

As for the other thing, what I'd meant was to attack into Europe first, then go east, since you'd be attacking the stronger portion of your enemies' troops.

Lexicus

Nov 16, 2007, 09:41 PM

Brucha

Nov 16, 2007, 11:16 PM

Marching east will be strategically a good idea as long as you defend your European border strongly. Very strongly. The cities there are always a patchwork of almost every Eurasian Civ color when I play the World Map, so attacking thataway should be easier than smashing Europe. Keep at it, this is shaping up to be pretty cool.

PS: :p Glad you took the advice!

Indeed, marching east first has turned out to be very good advice, thank you!. Especially about how it will shape and form Russia to its real-world counter-part. The lands east of Russia has turned out to be a patchwork of various cities, and most are completely alone and cut-off from any help. However, Europe has proven to be a paper tiger at this point in the game. They are of little threat to me. In the east, I am coming into contact with the Mongols and China finally, but I'll let my next post (dealing with the actual game), explain it all...

Brucha

Nov 17, 2007, 12:16 AM

As I had predicted, it would not be until the 700's until I could continue my march eastwards for the Motherland. I needed to secure my newly-conquered cities, move up garrision forces for them, and get my invading forces to their new attack positions. I first asked and got a peace treaty with the French before I attacked, though I did not do the same with the Celts, as I would be attacking them again shortly.

I kicked my newest round of conquests off by attacking the German city of Konigsberg in 720 AD. Attacking with 4 knights, 2 longbowmen and a crusader, I was able to kill the garrisoning force (2 spearmen and an archer) whie losing only 1 longbowman. In one turn, the city fell:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/capturekonigsberg720ad.jpg

The Germans responded with the capture of Konigsberg by sending a single spearman across my European border...and that was it. As there are no other German cities to the east, I asked, and got, a peace treaty with them, ending hostilities.

In 760 AD, I declared war on Spain and attacked Seville with 5 knights and 3 longbowmen. I killed 3 defending spearmen (taking no losses for the effort), and captured the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/captureseville760ad.jpg

My last invasion force was made up of the attackers from Seville, reinforced with others from the Motherland. As they marched north from Seville towards the Celtic city of Camulodunum, the AI decided to send units out of the city to attack my advancing units. The Spanish sent out a force of 4 archers who, though they managed to kill 2 of my advancing longbowmen, were destroyed. This left only a pair of spearmen to defend the city, which easily fell in one turn in 810 AD to a force of 2 elite longbowmen and 6 knights - with no losses on my part:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/capturecamulodunum810ad.jpg

At this point, I needed some time for consolidation of the six cities that I had managed to capture in the last 200 or so years. Capturing the cities of Seville and Konigsberg left a great deal of open space between my cities, so I sent out two settlers to found two cities (Bryansk and Tver) between the Urals and my new conquests.

As of 840 AD, this is the state of the Russian Empire (its truly not yet the USSR) on the eastern front:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/easternfront.jpg

The two cities circled in red are the ones I founded with Russian settlers. Other than a Spanish city (to the extreme north) and a Celtic city (to the northeast), I have conquered most of Europe's cities in the east. I am now coming into contact with the Chinese and Mongol territories for the most part.

On my border with Europe, its pretty much Sitzkrieg:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/europefront.jpg

The Germans and Celts tried little more than weak attacks against me - all of which were easily defeated. My border with Europe is guarded right now by a total of 8 musketmen, 4 crusaders, 3 knights and 1 longbowman.

In 830 AD, I got this surprising pop-up:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/flip830ad.jpg

Now, I thought about this before I decided what to do. I ultimately decided to rebuff the rebels only to keep Germany somewhat strong. I don't want any one AI in Europe to get too powerful.

I now have to change my plans somewhat. As of 840 AD, I have 5% of the world area (with 21 cities) and 12% of world population. My rival, China, has 5% of world area (with 17 cities) and 7% of world population.

I think that I will leave China alone for now and continue pushing east north of China's cities, targeting the Ottoman, Celtic, Spanish and Babylonian cities on my eastern border.

I have no idea what is happening in the Americas right now. As soon as I can build galleons, I plan on sending some across the Atlantic to make contact and see what the situation is over there.

oneperson

Nov 17, 2007, 10:45 AM

Nice story! It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

Oh, and by the way, could you possibly give me the link to where you downloaded that map? Thanks!

Lexicus

Nov 17, 2007, 03:15 PM

The start locations on this map are historically accurate, right?

Those cities are just weight right now, but wait till you switch to Communism. :lol:

ChaosArbiter

Nov 17, 2007, 04:13 PM

Pretty much; the only one that, so far, is known to be off is that the Ottomans are in the Byzantines' spot. Historically, the Turkish tribe that became the Ottoman empire started off farther to the east and invaded westward (they came from the same area as the Seljuk Turks that pretty much started the Crusades era).

Brucha

Nov 17, 2007, 04:19 PM

Oh, and by the way, could you possibly give me the link to where you downloaded that map? Thanks!

The link is here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=45191&d=1071154045

It's Kal-El's 140 x 140 resource Earth map.

The start locations on this map are historically accurate, right?

Those cities are just weight right now, but wait till you switch to Communism. :lol:

Most are historically accurate, though there is some liberal placement with some of the civs. For instance, the Ottomans start at Constantinople instead of the Byzantines (who I do not think are in the game) and the Celts begin between Germany and France north of Italy and the Romans.

Of all the Earth maps that I have seen, I really like this one, as the resource placement is very realistic. However, it does make Europe quite crowded with 31 civs in the game.

At the moment, it looks like I will have nearly 30+ cities by the time I reach the Pacific Ocean. I have no idea what the Americas even look like right now, but I suspect that one of the civs over there has probably (or will eventually) become a dominant civ, controlling much of the continents. I am invisioning an eventual struggle between myself, China and the prominent civ in the Americas - probably America itself if results of most games in the past have played out when America is in the game as an AI.

On another note, I hate using paint to post and edit pics because I don't have Photoshop. The pics look fine as long as I don't enlarge them - if I do so, they begin to get real fuzzy. I have been trying to reduce the size of alot of the pics, and cropping out just the part that I want to display.

Mirc

Nov 17, 2007, 04:32 PM

Great story! :D Following with interest.

Could you post a world map please? :) I'm dying to see all those cities on the map...

Brucha

Nov 17, 2007, 04:56 PM

Could you post a world map please? :) I'm dying to see all those cities on the map...

Oops, I didn't notice until you asked that I haven't posted a world map yet. So, here's a world map at my last save:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/worldmap1.jpg

Its hard to show individual civ borders because they are quite spread out. I opted to simply note the continents (ie, Europe, Middle East, etc.) instead. My eastern-most border is north of India right now, and I am more than half the way to the Pacific Ocean. However, there is alot of what you would consider to be Siberia that I need to conquer.

ChaosArbiter

Nov 17, 2007, 05:04 PM

the Celts begin between Germany and France north of Italy and the Romans.

Well, the Celts were all over Europe historically - France, Spain, Germany, all over the British Isles (since the English are more a Germanic than Celtic group). They bothered the Greeks and Byzantines from time to time, and they did sack Rome, so their location is more or less accurate.

D'Artagnan59

Nov 17, 2007, 10:00 PM

Dude! You should've kept Leipzig and attacked Entremont from there!

Lexicus

Nov 17, 2007, 10:50 PM

Poor Celts...they have one core city? :(

Brucha

Nov 17, 2007, 11:35 PM

Dude! You should've kept Leipzig and attacked Entremont from there!

I want to keep Europe as strong as I can so that no one civ can grab absolute power. I also want to fight a war with Germany later once I become Communist. ;)

Poor Celts...they have one core city? :(

Most of the Europe civs have no more than a couple of core cities. Some like England, Spain and Scandinavia have three or four core cities. Its rather too easy to hold off Europe at the moment. I'm fighting spearmen and horsemen with knights and musketmen. And i should get cossacks soon. I am thinking of giving Nationalism away to all of Europe once I get it to level the playing field and make it more of a challenge.

I played a couple of more turns tonight, continuing my push eastwards. I'll post the results in my next post. I want to keep my comments posts seperate from my action reports, though I don't know if that is considered to be double posting...

Quintillus

Nov 18, 2007, 12:10 AM

I don't think it is, I've done it many times and I've seen other writers do it, and no one's ever complained. It looks much better with them seperate, as well.

You need to discover more land so we can see your empire in relation to all of Asia! Sovietism is good, but it doesn't look as impressive with so little land discovered!

I'd suggest trying not reducing image sizes, at least all the time, because the test on the images is not clear after the size reduction. It's still legible, but it's pretty fuzzy. On the other hand, it does download quicker this way.

Brucha

Nov 18, 2007, 12:23 AM

As of 850 AD, I am still at war with the English and Celts. My next unfortunate targets will be the Ottomans and the Spanish.

I decided that, because I must take the Otoman city of Bursa in the east, I might as well take the Ottoman city of Edrine along the Black Sea. I declare war against the Ottomans in 860 AD and start advancing on both cities.

The first to fall is Edrine in 870 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/captureedrine870ad.jpg

My attacking force of 2 knights, 1 crusader and 2 musketmen easily destroy the defending Turkish pair of spearmen and the city falls that turn.

Naturally, the Turks don't seem to like what I am doing. They march a force of 2 horsemen and an archer from Istanbul towards Novgorod. I can easily dispatch them with no losses.

In the next turn, my other attacking force reaches Bura. This fight turns out to be my most contested one yet. Attacking with 1 crusader, 2 knights, and 2 longbowmen, the defending 3 turkish spearmen manage to kill one of my longbowmen and redlines one knight before the city falls that turn:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/capturebursa880ad.jpg

Apparently, the Turks have no fight in them because in 890 AD, they ask me for peace - naturally Igive it to them to end the hostilities, since I already took my objectives.

My latest round of conquests ends with the capture of Toledo from Spain:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/capturetoledo910ad.jpg

With a small force of 5 knights, the small garrison of 2 spearmen quickly fall and the city is mine with no losses.

This is all too easy so far. There is nothing that Europe can do to stop my relentless marche eastwards. The Europe civs have nothign better than spearmen - apparently none of them have iron besides England and Scandinavia. Scandinavia, right now the most powerful Europe civ, has not made any attempt to expand into my territory.

Since the end of my war with Scandinavia in 420 AD, I have garrisoned my mutual border with them:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/northfront.jpg

In each of the three barricaded forts are 3 units, a mix of crusaders, knights and musketmen. The Vikings do have swordsmen, but, like I said, they have made no attemt at attacking me again.

My standings as of right now is this:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/standing910ad.jpg

Despite my constant warfare, my approval rating is quite high. However, someone )probably in the Americas) have overtaken me in first place for land area. I am right now building a galleon to send across the ocean to get a better picture of whats going on over there.

As far as Quintillus' last post, I agree about trying to map out all of my continent. I am going to build a number of scouts and some ships to use simply for this purpose.

On a side note, I thought that I disabled Diplomatic victory - apparently not. This throws a wrench in my plans. I am going to have to make sure that I can build the UN before any other civ. If I can't, I must put all my resources towards capturing whatever city builds it before I do...

Quintillus

Nov 18, 2007, 12:59 AM

Brucha

Nov 18, 2007, 01:31 AM

Europe is pitiful. But consider the world situation before gifting them Nationalism...what if they give it to everyone else? It's one thing to be generous on Warlord, quite another on Monarch. Europe is rather destined for weakness on real-world maps with real-world placement.

It has been all too easy so far. But with you falling to #2 in GNP and land, it might not always be.

Keep up the ownage while it's easy. I don't think China and Mongolia will be such pushovers.

I guess you are right about Nationalism. I have fallen with the GNP and land to 2nd place and so it probably is best to go for the easy conquests now whie they are there. I also agree that Mongol and especially China will prove to be tough competition later on. I do think that I will have to forgo my initial rule of staying allied with China through the entire game. Besides, that will follow the true nature of the USSR as far as a fall-out with China.

Brucha

Nov 18, 2007, 03:10 AM

One major problem that I am having is money right now. I am running with my lux slider at 20% and my science slider at 60%. My gpt rate is only around 5 after expenses, and I still have pikemen to upgrade to musketmen in my core cities, as well as not being able to establish embassies with some civs. My newly conquered cities need some time to grow to be able to contribute commercially to my empire. I must note that I have been very frugal in city improvements, and have not built anything above temples and libraries. I am building my Forbidden Palace in the east, but it will be 40 turns until it is completed. until then, some of my eastern cities are running a commercial deficit...

Monarchy is not a commercial government for sure. And I don't think that Communism will be any better. I feel that I am falling into the same problem that the USSR suffered, as I am supporting a large military, which is strangling my economy. perhaps, I need to look at my troops guarding my border with Europe and Scandinavia and lessen the numbers somewhat.

Brucha

Nov 18, 2007, 03:51 AM

I took a look at my military garrisons on my borders with my last save as of 910 AD. Here is my border with Europe:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/europefront910ad.jpg

On the actual border I have 11 units - most of them are near Novgorod as this seems to be the normal path for enemy units to attack me.

In the north I have this:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/northfront.jpg

I have 9 units garrisoning 3 forts along my border with the Vikings.

Maybe I am garrisoning my borders too much? My unit upkeep right now is 76 allowed units and I have 97 total units, paying 21 gpt for the extras. I desperately need to make more money, but I also need my military. The danger from Europe and the Vikings is nothing, but if I reduce my military on those fronts, then the risk might increase.

Quintillus

Nov 18, 2007, 04:16 AM

Brucha

Nov 18, 2007, 11:16 PM

I'd leave some Crusaders on the western front, but the Musketmen seem unnecessary. Other than the one on the Iron, I'd send them to Siberia - to reinforce cities there. In the North, I like the barricades, and would leave them guarded, but two units per barricade should be enough. The rest can capture more cities and gain you higher unit support.

Communism should help. It gives 6 unit support per city, and now no city is granting you more than 4 unit support. It'll also make your eastern cities more commercial - which may actually hurt at first (with your main cities becoming less commercial) but should help over the long term. The transition to Communism, just as Marx wrote, will be most painful at first.

Good advice, Quintillus. After reading your post, I had to agree that I had far too many troops protecting my borders, especially on the European border. I did what you suggested, which freed up alot of troops for my continued push to the east. I also built a couple of caravels and explorers to expand my map.

To do this, I jumped back into the game for a bit, only to do this. However, as with how this game has taken a life of its own, things began to occur which forced me to play a bit further than I had anticipated...

Brucha

Nov 19, 2007, 01:03 AM

Following Quintillus' advice posted above, I began to pull units from my defensive line with Europe and Scandinavia and marched them east to meet up with my troops fresh from their recent conquests.

At this point in my push eastwards, I had begun to come into contact with China and the Mongols. Not wishing a war with either of them yet, I decided to direct my push to the east further north to avoid conflict with either civ.

As I was conducting my troop shifting to the east, the English decided to try another invasion in the north, specifically againstt the city of Khabarovsk. Dropping two swordsmen off from a galley in 950 AD, the English attacked the city the following turn. I had the city garrisoned with a single veteran musketman who managed to kill the first attacking swordsman but fell to the second. The English actually managed to capture the city! Thankfully, I had a passing crusader who was able to reach the city that same turn and recaptured the city from the sneaky English:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/retakekhabarovsk960ad.jpg

I was not expecting that at all...

Out to the east, I had sent several caravels and explorers to map out the darkness beyond my borders. What I discovered was that I had nearly reached the limit of my expansion without having to go to war with the Mongols or Chinese. Sensing a window of time possibly closing, I decided to attack.

Up until now, my wave of expansions have been slow and methodical, tageting no more than 3 cities at a time, and then allowing a brief rest before continuing. This has given me virtually no reprisals for my attacks. However, after seeing the situation in the east, I decided a more grand conquest of the few remaining cities not owned by the Chinese or Mongols, all in one large push. Only time will tell if this strategy will come back to haunt me...

My objective in this last great push consists of 5 cities owned by five civs - and I end up at war with all of them plus the English at once.

My first success came in 960 AD, when I attack the Dutch city of Utrect with 5 knights, 1 longbowman and a crusader. I kill the two defending spearmen at the cost of losing a knight:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/captureutrect960ad.jpg

The advance is relentless. The Babylonian city of Ellipi falls next in 970 AD. 5 knights kill the defending 3 spearmen with no losses and the city is mine;

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/captureellipi970ad.jpg

Not a problem, yet. Richborough is my next target, falling in 1000 AD to 4 knights - the 2 defending Celtic spearmen don't have a chance:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/capturerichborough1000ad.jpg

I haven't fought the Romans yet in this game, but Veli is my next target. 6 knights easily kill a pair of spearmen and capture the city in 1010 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/captureveli1010ad.jpg

So far so good, one objective left, the Turkish city of Iznik. This last city does not fall as easily as the others. The three defending spearmen fight off my first attack in 1010 AD - I lose 1 knight and the other two are both redlined. The next turn, with more units moving up, the city finally falls:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/captureiznik1020ad.jpg

Unfortunately, this will be the end of my easy conquests in the east, beyond a city or two along my most eastern front. Below is a cropped screen shot of the eastern front:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/easternfront1020ad.jpg

China and Mongol are firmly in my path to further expansion to the east, and I now have quite a lengthy border with them. There is alot of open space between the cities in the tundra to the north which I am going to fill with settlers that are right now marching from my core to establish some new cities.

There is one city, owned by the Dutch that I can still take on my east front, and there is a Dutch and Korean city on the other side, located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, my relentless march to the sea is effectively over. I came so close...I could almost smell the salty ocean air of the Pacific...

One problem has arisen though. Alot of civs' attitudes with me are furious, even ones that I not attacked. It seems that they are finally sick and tired of my war-mongering. I think that I am going to go peaceful for a while and just let my cities grow for a while. I also want to renew my standings with the other civs, as I am worried that this might lead to a major alliance brought against me.

One last item. I managed to get a better world map since my last post:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/world1020ad.jpg

The Mongols and Chinese have definitely grown in Asia, and seem to be the largest civ so far in the area. I don't know what Africa looks like yet, but I will soon. I forgot to take a screenshot of standings, but I am still iin 2nd place for land area - and the Iroquois are now in first!

Quintillus

Nov 19, 2007, 04:00 PM

Don't fill in the tundra too densely...it's almost impossible to get a profitable city there, unless you've got tons of game or fish. Which I'm not seeing from the screenshot.

Very nice expansion. You might not have reached the Pacific, but your empire does look rather Soviet. Everyone else looks very small. Unless everyone allies against you, it doesn't look like you have a whole lot to be worried about, at least not based on the map as you currently know it.

D'Artagnan59

Nov 19, 2007, 04:22 PM

Or just make them into scientist cities, then plant forests.

Brucha

Nov 20, 2007, 03:17 AM

As of my last action report, I decided that my expansion had effectively ended. I decided to concentrate on building up my cities, especially those on my eastern frontier.

I sent 3 settlers eastwards to found cities in the spaces of my newly conquered cities. Though they settled cities in tundra, at least I can convert them to scientist cities.

I started the game again only with the purpose of getting through the next 100 or so years of build orders, as I had no plans for warfare. At the end of my last conquests, my approval rating dropped down to 62% and alot of civs had Furious attitudes with me - at this point in the game, I don't want all-out war, so I decided to go peaceful for a while and regain my rep with the other civs.

In 1110 AD, Novogrod completed Copernicus' Observatory:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/finishobservatory1110ad.jpg

I only built this hoping for a Golden Age, which I got:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/goldenage1110ad.jpg

Better late than never I say...

Like I said above, all I wanted was time to build my new cities up and repair my reputation in the game. I was not looking for more conflict. Then I got this notice in 1180 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/war1180ad.jpg

I knew there was a reason I built forts along my border with Scandinavia. On that turn, the vikings attack my defensive line - my defending line easily destroys 3 horsemen, 1 swordsman and a bowman with no losses.

The next turn, the Vikings move up a larger stack to punch through my defensive line:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/2ndattack1200ad.jpg

In each of those forts, I only have a pair of musketmen each, but they have performed good so far. Strangely, with such a large stack, the Vikings decide to only attack with a bowman and swordsman, who are easily destroyed with no losses on my part.

Amazingly, the Viking troops actually pull back from the border and do not attack me there any further. No, what they do is drop a pair of swordsmen near Orenburg. I attacked them with a Cossack (yes I finally have Cossacks!) and a crusader, who ened up giving me my first leader:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/1stmilitaryleader1230ad.jpg

I imediately sent the leader to Orenburg to create my first army, which I then sent to my eastern front.

At this point, I stopped playing - wanted a chance to pull back and look at the situation with a fresh view. I managed to do alot of exploration and have a new world map:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/map1230ad.jpg

I have managed to explore all of my own continent, but I won't even bother to show the seperate civs because they are so fragmented right now.

As of 1230 AD, here's the current standings:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/standing1230ad.jpg

My approval rating has definitely increased but I am still behind in land area.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/standing1230adparttwo.jpg

I am now in competition with the Irouois for world area and England is my new rival for single city cultural victory.

My trade is getting better though:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/trade1230ad.jpg

I now have two of my own lux's and alot of horses and saltpeter. The war with the Vikings is still going on as of this post, but I don't think I have anything to worry about.

Brucha

Nov 20, 2007, 06:08 PM

As far as city names, what do people think I should do with the Ai cities that I captured in my expansion? Should I leave them to their original names or change them to Russian city names?

Lexicus

Nov 20, 2007, 09:14 PM

Change them, as long as you don't forget what and where they are. Great progress so far--who're the purple guys between you and the Pacific Coast?

Brucha

Nov 20, 2007, 10:20 PM

The light purple are the Chinese and the dark purple is the Koreans. Its really hard to show the seperate civs on the world map right now because there are so many and their cities are so spread out.

Brucha

Nov 21, 2007, 07:14 PM

Ah, the holidays. My girlfriend left for her parents out of state yesterday, leaving me alone in blissful silence for a couple of days - including being able to play my Civ3 campaign without getting into trouble with her...

With the apartment to myself, I was able to crank out some turns last night, but have not yet had the chance to update the action. However, I did make a change today. I shamelessly stole the idea of having a chapter link to each action report from Quintillus and others. It seems to make sense if a campaign begins to grow in action reports. This can be found as a spoiler in my first post of this thread marked, appropriately enough, Chapter Guide at the bottom of the post.

I am very close to finishing my research for Communism! :goodjob: I am going to try to post an action report tonight if I can, but it contains around 15 pics, so I might not get around to it. With the action of my latest play, this game has certainly changed from my original idea of life-long allies with China. Now, it has truly become a contest of the growth and survival of the USSR...

Brucha

Nov 22, 2007, 02:42 AM

Like I mentioned previously, as of 1230 AD, my expansion to the east had ended. Expansion further to the east is effectively halted by the presence of Mongol and Chinese cities blocking my advance to the sea. I am not wishing to enter into a war with either civ right now, so I guess that my march to the sea is done. At least for now.

My approval rating since the start of my expansion has taken a nose-dive. Though the brief peace had increased it somewhat (it got as high as 89% in my chapter, Peace For Now), it had dropped down to 62% during this time of play, and the constant war had upset a lot of my neighbors. Civs that I never even declared war on are now Furious with the Russians. All I wanted was some time to build up newly conquered/founded cities…the Russians are noted for their peaceful natures, right?

Peace, though, is not in the cardsfor me…

I started off 1230 AD by closely examining all the other civs in the game, especially their attitudes with me and conducting some serious micro-management of my cities. I have typically played with Republic or Democracy, and so I have become accustomed to the fat commerce those two governments give. This game is the first game that I have used Monarchy for such a long time. I have managed, at best, to keep my Science slider at 60% and my Lux slider at 20-30%, but I have never had more than 300 gold in my bank. I have not been able to use any Specialist citizens other than Entertainers, as I have needed every citizen to keep generating commerce for empire as a whole.

I also have core cities that are at 12 population and not growing without hospitals. The cities that I conquered/settled to the east in tundra are growing very slowly, and I expect that these will never amount to much. With rivers nearby, I might be able to grow some of the cities' population to 5 or 6 but I am not holding my breath.

I have had a good deal of excess horses and saltpeter for quite some time, but no civs would trade with me at all for them. It seems that the other civs are fairly broke economically for the most part. However, one civ wanted to trade with me:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/trade1230ad-1.jpg

Now, this decision to trade saltpeter with Germany might sound strange, considering that their two core cities border me to the west, (as well as being quite aggressive normally) but I was not having any luck in trading up to this point for gpt of any amount, so I jumped at the chance to collect 10 gpt. I also thought it was time to start to make some friends of my neighbors around me in case a wider war should break out against me.

My attempts at peace with my neighbors did not last as long as I hoped. I was still at war with England, and had no desire to end it since I was getting a lot of war happiness being at war with them. But I was not planning on any further military action for some time when I saw this in 1255 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/invasion1255ad.jpg

The Vikings landed two units on my northern coast, and then declared war when I demanded them to leave my territory. The nerve of them! I was not worried, though. I attacked the invaders with units from Khabarovsk, first my elite crusader, Kharkov (who just recently gave me my first military leader), and then with a veteran crusader, killing both invading units with no losses.

The Vikings were not done yet, as the next turn they invaded again:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/invasion1260ad.jpg

I’m not sure of the logic of the AI trying to conduct an invasion with 2 units at a time, but…anyway, I simply attacked the invaders with troops from Orenburg, a veteran crusader and a veteran Cossack I had just built there. And again, no losses in defeating the invaders. It’s almost too easy…

I guess that the Vikings didn’t have a stomach (or good strategic plans) for war, because that same turn after their second defeat, they sued for peace. I gave it to them just to keep them from dropping units on my coast. Amazingly, the Vikings are leaving my defensive line on our mutual border alone for now…

At the end of the turn, I got a pop-up that surprised me when the Byzantines contacted me. I thought they were not in the game, but apparently they are:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/byzantines1260ad.jpg

The white box on the world map shows the location of their capital, located near the southern tip of South America…I am very confused. I am not sure if that is a glitch in the map that Kal-El created or what. The civ placement was built into the scenario rules, so your guess is as good as mine of why the Byzantines started off in South America…

At this point, 1270 AD, the game started to take a turn that I was not expecting when I got this message:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/alliance1270ad.jpg

The Ottomans and Chinese formed an alliance together and went to war with the Zulus. It doesn’t matter that it was against the Zulus, who are located in the southern reaches of Africa, its that they are allied together - as possibly this could extend to me as well in the future. This is something that I am going to watch intensely in the future.

However, that same turn I received three good bits of news. First, I entered the Industrial Age:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/newage1270ad.jpg

And then I received Nationalism as my free Scientific advance for entering a new age:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/learnnationalismin1turn1270ad.jpg

Good, that allows me to bee-line right for Communism right away!

The last bit of good news came the following turn:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/forbiddenpalace1275ad.jpg

I had selected Bursa as the location to build my Forbidden Palace, as it was one of my most-eastern cities. However, I started out with a build time of like 80 turns - when I began to build it, it had a population of 2, but I figured that with a granary, it would grow fast. That it did, but the building of the palace still went slowly, and for some reason I had become stubborn about finishing it in Bursa. Oh well, its finally done at least.

I was having trouble following the war between the Zulus, Ottomans and Chinese by 1280 AD, but I decided to try to help out, without actual military involvement. I was becoming concerned about the Ottoman/Chinese alliance, so I decided to give the Zulus some help, and get some cash in return. I also wanted to start cementing some good relations with other civs for a possible war with the Ottomans and Chinese:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/trade1280ad.jpg

I figured that I had plenty of horses and this might help the Zulus out, as well as giving me some gpt for 20 turns. I followed by sending a gift of horses also to the Koreans:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/gift1280ad.jpg

As I see it, the Koreans could be the ally I might need against China and the Ottomans. The Koreans also have a good little core along the coast from their starting point. Here is a pic of their core:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/korea1300ad.jpg

Not the greatest but the Koreans have two other cities to the north.

Both acts bumped the Koreans/Zulu attitudes to Polite with me. I am now on good terms with the Germans, Zululand, and Koreans. Not the best potential for an alliance, but it’s the best that I can get for now. I then got this request at the end of the turn:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/offer1280ad.jpg

Well, it seems that the Ottomans and Chinese really want to get rid of the Zulus…I naturally declined the request.

The end of 1280 AD came with this message:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/GAends1280ad.jpg

The end of my Golden Age sent my economy into a nose dive right away. I went immediately from a healthy 48 gpt to -27 gpt. I lost my granary in the city of Lugdunum, and I was forced to reduce my Science slider from 70% to 60%, making my research of Communism to drop from 8 turns to 10.

I continued to trudge along in my attempts to gain favor with other civs against the Mongols and Chinese. I targeted the Japanese by giving them a gift:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/gift1285ad.jpg

It seemed to be a good item to gift to them. I was in the Industrial Age, and I was giving them an Ancient times tech. At least it changed their attitude for me to Polite. My plan is to cultivate these friendships with these civs as best that I can, sort of my version of the Warsaw Pact. I am looking to form this alliance of sorts then including the Zulus, Germany, and Korea. I would also like to bring the Celts into this plan, but their attitude with me is still Furious, so I think it would cost me too many gifts to increase their attitude towards me. Maybe I should start to cultivate some good relations with the weakest civ in the Americas, my game version of Communist Cuba. Then I could start gifting them techs to match my rivals in the Americas…

Then the Iroquois, my top rival in the game right now, decided to get feisty with me in 1290 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/threats1290ad.jpg

I haven’t been at war the Iroquois so far in the game, and yet they are Furious with me. I didn’t give in to their demands, so they declared war! I do remember reading somewhere that rival civs, as far as standings are concerned, can get quite feisty, so this must be the reason for such hostility. Again, I am not worried about this. At this stage in the game, a major sea-borne invasion by another civ is out of the question - plus the AI is notorious about conducting such invasions. At least I will get still more war happiness from this.

I stopped here and saved the game in 1300 AD, with 6 more turns until completing Communism. Here’s my standing as of then:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/standing1300ad.jpg

According to these standing, I am not doing bad at all. My approval rating has increased, and both my GNP and Land Area ratings are 2nd place, though still behind the Iroquois. I am surprised at my Literacy rating though - 10th place out of 31. Not bad considering that I haven’t built anything beyond Libraries.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/standing1300adparttwo.jpg

India is squarely my Cultural rival - though I am not going for such a victory. I am considering a punishment attack against India some time in the future to cripple their Culture should it become as problem. I am quite surprised at being in the lead with Culture though. I only have four Wonders and, like I said, have nothing beyond Libraries. I guess just the sheer size of my empire is contributing to this lead.

One note I want to add here. So far, my wars with the Vikings have been defensive on my part. I am seriously considering that, next time they attack me, I conduct a major invasion of their lands to the north. There are no resources or luxs that I could gain from this that I already have, but it could increase my land area substantially.

Last, I wanted to try to post a world map showing more detail of the other civs. I ignored most of the isolated areas and focused on the biggest concentration of AI cities to give a better picture of the game at this point:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/worldmap1300ad-1.jpg

The world is still quite segemented

Starkow

Nov 22, 2007, 09:26 AM

Who's on the Ivory Coast?

ChaosArbiter

Nov 22, 2007, 04:15 PM

The Ottomans and Chinese, my strongest rivals militarily closest to me formed an alliance together and went to war with the Zulus. It doesn’t matter that it was against the Zulus, who are located in the southern reaches of Africa, its that they are allied together - as possibly this could extend to me as well in the future. This is something that I am going to watch intensely in the future.

I was having trouble following the war between the Zulus, Mongols and Chinese by 1280 AD, but I decided to try to help out, without actual military involvement. I was becoming concerned about the Mongol/Chinese alliance, so I decided to give the Zulus some help, and get some cash in return. I also wanted to start cementing some good relations with other civs for a possible war with the Mongols and Chinese:
Well, it seems that the Mongols and Chinese really want to get rid of the Zulus…I naturally declined the request.

^^^ Are the Mongols at war with the Zulus too? You mention the Chinese/Ottoman alliance, then refer to the Chinese and Mongols . . . :confused:

Also, if you're a Monarchy going for Communism, why bother with War Happiness? Does it make your people that much happier?

Brucha

Nov 22, 2007, 05:02 PM

Who's on the Ivory Coast?

Oh, I forgot to mark those cities - they are owned by the Arabians.

Are the Mongols at war with the Zulus too? You mention the Chinese/Ottoman alliance, then refer to the Chinese and Mongols . . . :confused:

Also, if you're a Monarchy going for Communism, why bother with War Happiness? Does it make your people that much happier?

Oops, I didn't even notice that mistake, thanks for pointing it out. :rolleyes: No, its the Ottomans and Chinese at war with Zululand.

Actually, even with Monarchy, you still get war happiness. I found this out earlier in the game when the English contacted me asking for peace. I accidentally hit 'I accept' and the very next minute four cities began to riot when I lost the war happiness. However, I am not sure about Communism though for war happiness.

Quintillus

Nov 23, 2007, 01:24 AM

I would have actually sided with the Ottomans and Chinese...the Zulu appear to be more powerful than both combined from the World Map. Though China is your strongest nearby rival.

I'm voting for invading Scandinavia next time they declare war. It's been at least three times already. I don't think they'll learn not to land two troops per turn if you don't take at least one city from them.

Who's the purple civ in Brazil? It looks quite like Iroquois Purple to me.

ChaosArbiter

Nov 23, 2007, 02:52 AM

I second Quintillus's suggestion to attack the Vikings; they only get Iron, IIRC, so they shouldn't be able to hold off Cossacks for long (plus with blitz, you ought to get a lot of leaders, or at least Elite units).

Brucha

Nov 23, 2007, 01:42 PM

Who's the purple civ in Brazil? It looks quite like Iroquois Purple to me.

Unfortunately, there are two civs in the Americas that are purple. The ones in Brazil are the Incas. The Iroquois are in eastern United States.

I second Quintillus's suggestion to attack the Vikings; they only get Iron, IIRC, so they shouldn't be able to hold off Cossacks for long (plus with blitz, you ought to get a lot of leaders, or at least Elite units).

I agree with going to war with the Vikings, though I am not sure when they will attack again. Maybe I can engineer a method to get them to attack. Or just simply declare war myself, though that would give me a hit on my rep, and I don't think that would be wise.

Brucha

Nov 24, 2007, 02:59 PM

http://members.telering.at/biology/rusin.jpg

I am sure most will understand the naming of this particular chapter, but that will come later in this post...

As of 1300 AD, Russia has grown quite quiet, with little action to report. My eastern cities are growing, although slowly, yet even those in the tundra have managed to grow above 3 pop. As I had entered the Industrial Age, I have been trying to upgrade my musketmen to riflemen, but I have been hampered by the lack of money. At most, I have been able to upgrade 3-4 units per turn, even with Leonardo's Workshop (and even with that its costing me 30 gold per unit to upgrade).

I have built a couple of privateers to patrol the waters of Europe, but only one has managed to defeat an enemy vessel. I am also in the middle of mapping the Americas along the coast as well as the islands south of India. I forgot to take a world map screen shot, so that will have to come later.

My neighbors finally decide to accept the Russian dominance in the region, when I started to get these offers that turn:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/offer1300ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/offer21300ad.jpg

So, the Babylonians and Hittites want to ally? Nope, I say, I am not prepared to enter into any sort of MPP...

Nonetheless, my refusal does not stop the Spanish to offer the same thing the following turn:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/offer1320ad.jpg

Boy, not only are they still sore about me taking their cities, but they have the nerve to ask for gpt in addition to a MPP! Hah! No thanks, Spain, we will get to you soon enough.

In 1325 AD, I get the message I have waiting so long for:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/revolution1325ad.jpg

So, my people yearn for a change in government, 'eh? So, be it...

The AI's attempts to ally with me continues later that turn:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/offer1325ad-1.jpg

What is up with these tiny European civs asking me for MPP's AND a gpt amount? I don't even bother to try to offer anything back, I simply ignore the French.

As I slip into Anarchy, I suddenly see this the following turn after starting my revolution:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/riots1330ad.jpg

In all, 13 cities begin to riot - all my core cities in fact. It turns out to be truly a Russian Revolution! I was anticpating this, so I reduced my Science slider down to 40%, raised my Lux slider to 50%, and even switched alot of my citizens over to Entertainers, and this still happened. Oh well, the next turn I was able to restore order in all the rioting cities. I am just hoping that the revolution doesn't go on too long...

While my empire is effectively shut down in Anarchy, the war with the Zulus begins to greatly expand. First in 1335 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/alliance1335ad.jpg

Then in 1350 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/alliance1350ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/alliance1350adparttwo.jpg

As of 1350 AD, this is the alliance against the Zulus:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/bigalliance1350ad.jpg

I guess the AI really does not care for Zululand. The Celts even try to bring me in with this "offer":

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/offer1350ad.jpg

Though they are still really pissed off, they want an alliance...just like the Spanish. Again, I refused the offer. I am amazed that most of the civs allied against the Zulus are in the Middle East of Asia...It is really hard to follow the war, so I am unsure what is going on.

The end comes in 1350 AD, when my revolution finally ends:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/communism1350ad.jpg

YAAHOO! I am Communist! (the following is mainly for Quintillus):

[sɐˈjus nʲɪ.ruˈʂɨ.mɨj rʲɪsˈpub.lʲɪk svɐˈbod.nɨx|
splɐˈtʲi.lə nɐˈvʲe.kʲɪ vʲɪˈlʲi.kə.jɪ ˈrusʲ
də‿ˈzdra.stvu.jɪt ˈsoz.də.nɨj ˈvo.lʲɪj nɐˈro.dəf|
ɪˈdʲi.nɨj | mɐˈgu.ʨɪj | sɐˈvʲɛʦ.kʲɪj sɐˈjus]

[ˈslafʲ.sʲə ɐˈtʲe.ʨɪs.tvə ˈna.ʂɨ svɐˈbod.nə.jɪ
ˈdruʐ.bɨ nɐˈro.dəf nɐˈdʲoʐ.nɨj ɐˈplot
ˈpar.tʲɪ.jə ˈlʲe.nʲɪ.nə sʲi.lə nɐˈrod.nə.jə
nɐs k‿tər.ʐɨstˈvu kə.muˈnʲiz.mə vʲɪˈdʲot‖]

[skvəzʲ‿ˈgro.zɨ sɪˈja.lɐ nam ˈson.ʦɪ svɐˈbo.dɨ|
i‿ˈlʲe.nʲɪn vʲɪˈlʲi.kʲɪj nɐm‿ˈputʲ ə.zɐˈrʲil|
nɐ‿ˈpra.və.jɪ ˈdʲɛ.lə on ˈpod.nʲɪl naˈro.dɨ|
nɐ‿ˈtrud i‿nɐ‿ˈpod.vʲɪ.gʲɪ ˈnas vdəx.nɐ.vʲɪl]

[f‿pɐˈbʲe.dʲɪ bʲɪˈsmʲɛrt.nɨx ɪˈdʲej kə.muˈnʲiz.mə
mɨ‿ˈvʲi.dʲɪm grʲɪˈdu.ɕːiə ˈna.ʂɨj stra.nɨ
i ˈkras.nə.mu ˈzna.mʲɪ.nʲɪ ˈslav.nəj ɐˈʨiz.nɨ
mɨ ˈbu.dʲɪm fsʲɪgˈda bɪ.zːɐˈvʲɛt.nə vʲɪrˈnɨ]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unbreakable Union of freeborn Republics,
Great Russia has welded forever to stand.
Created in struggle by will of the people,
United and mighty, our Soviet land!

Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
To Communism's triumph lead us on!

Through tempests the sunrays of freedom have cheered us,
Along the new path where great Lenin did lead.
To a righteous cause he raised up the peoples,
Inspired them to labour and valourous deed.

In the victory of Communism's deathless ideal,
We see the future of our dear land.
And to her fluttering scarlet banner,
Selflessly true we always shall stand!

ChaosArbiter

Nov 24, 2007, 03:15 PM

Two things: First, you have France's offer up twice, and don't have Spain's. Second, maybe the riots are because Anarchy doesn't give War Happiness benefits? Just a thought.

Brucha

Nov 24, 2007, 03:48 PM

God, my editing skills really suck. Thanks for pointing that out, ChaosArbiter. I think you are right about Anarchy and War Happiness - I never thought about that.

Anyway, I have decided to invade Scandinavia, and just declare war on them. I figure that now is the best time to do so, with the big war with Zululand and all. I hope that I can take her cities within a couple of turns in Scandinavia, but this will leave the Vikings with 3-4 cities in the seas to the north on tiny 1-2 tile islands.

Lexicus

Nov 24, 2007, 10:14 PM

Long live Comrade Brucha! Bring peace to the peace-loving peasants and workers of the Soviet Union!

But make sure you purge dissenters first. :satan:

Brucha

Nov 24, 2007, 10:20 PM

Comrades, I have good news! Following our successful revolution, the poor peasants of Scandinavia have requested our help in throwing off the yoke of the aristocracy. As so, war has come to the Vikings!

However, it will take me some time to post the past three turns, as there was alot of action! Stay tuned, because the Revolution jsut begun to expand!

Brucha

Nov 25, 2007, 01:28 AM

Comrades, My report to the Politburo is ready and prepared for your perusal. With the successful Revolution, the state of my national income has changed drastically for the better. In Monarchy, I was paying for 40 units per turn above my total unit cap in unit maintenance. However, with Communism, my total unit cap has risen to 192 units total. This means that I have no current unit maintenance costs, and I can build (and get free support for) nearly 40 more units. This has actually made a huge difference in my income’s net gain for the better. With my Science slider at 60% and Lux slider at 30%, I am still generating a net gain of 50+ gpt.

One problem though is Corruption; it has gotten worse. I have yet to build Courthouses in some of my core cities, because Corruption up until now was minimal. Now, Corruption levels in these cities have grown to as high as 50%, forcing me to begin building Courthouses to combat it. Once I can build these Courthouses, my gpt should increase even more!

The call of the oppressed workers of Scandinavia (and the fact that the Vikings have attacked me several times now for no cause), has made me follow Quintillus’ advice in a previous post. On 1360 AD, I declared war on the Vikings. I guess that I am still concerned about my rep, so I made sure that I was not in their territory when I declared war. Though I had gathered my invasion force along my northern border, it takes me 2 turns to reach my first target and begin attacking.

1370 AD turns out to be a very busy turn. Setting sail from Vadivostok aboard a caravel, 3 veteran Cossacks land next to Birka in the north seas. The attack goes without a hitch, and the 2 defending spearmen fall to the attacking Cossacks:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/capturebirka1370ad.jpg

The same turn, my invading forces reach their first target, the city of Bergen. My main invading force consisted of 5 Cossacks, a regular Cossack army, 4 cannons and a number of crusaders, medieval infantry and riflemen. At first, I was expecting a lot of resistance from the Vikings, as the last time they attacked me, I saw a good number of spearmen and swordsmen. However, the resistance turned out to be very slight.

I opened my attack on Bergen by bombarding the defenders with my 4 cannons, reducing both defending veteran spearmen to 2 hp. I then attacked with a veteran Cossack, who ended up getting himself expired at the hands of one of the wounded spearman. Not wanting any other losses, I attacked next with my regular Cossack army. The army easily destroys both defenders (making one of its Cossacks elite) and the city falls:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/capturebergen1370ad.jpg

As the city fell a lot faster than I anticipated, I decided for a bold attack strategy. The screen shot above shows my attack route in red following the fall of Bergen. I brought the riflemen along with the invasion to garrison captured cities, freeing my Cossacks to continue their attacks. I march my riflemen, medieval infantry and crusaders north to Reykjavik. I send my Cossacks and my Cossack army to attack the capitol, Trondheim, and the city of Copenhagen (located on the tile darkened to the south).

As my assault on Scandinavia rolls on, the Iroquois surprise me at the end of the turn:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/iroquoisinvade1370ad.jpg

The turn before, one of my privateers caught and sank an Iroquois galley, but the other two got past and then landed the troops on my coast. Not worried, I first destroyed the pikeman with my elite Kharkov crusader from Khabarovsk. I followed up with a vet crusader and then a vet rifleman (both from Orenburg) to destroy the pair of mounted warriors. As a side note, my privateer caught another galley that turn headed for my northern coast and sank it.

The turn ends with some really good news:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/goodnews1370ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/goodnews1370adparttwo.jpg

Apparently, my victory with my Cossack army has given me the chance to build these two military wonders! Oh, yea! I waste no time and immediately start building them in Moscow and Novgorod. I figure I might as well build both of them (even though the Academy allows me to build up to 5 armies alone).

As my armies marched to their new targets in Scandinavia, the Iroquois decided they needed help in their war with me in:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/war1375ad.jpg

In 1380 AD, my troops reach Reykjvik and begin their attacks. My bombarding cannons reduce both defending spearmen to 2 hp each, and the follow-up attack by a vet crusader and vet medieval infantry captures the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/capturereykjvik1380ad.jpg

My last attacks come in 1385 AD, when I reach the last two continental Viking cities. Trondheim is the first to fall. I open my attack on the capitol with a Cossack, destroying a defending vet pikeman. The Cossacks’ second attack ends with my Cossack being redlined by the defending spearman. My second Cossack manages to kill the pair of remaining spearmen and the capitol falls:
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/trondheimfalls1385ad.jpg

My last attack, on Copenhagen, falls to my lone Cossack army who defeats all three defending spearmen! In only 4 turns, all of the Viking cities fall my troops!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/copenhagenfalls1385ad.jpg

Now, I have to admit that I forgot one important detail in my invasion of Scandinavia - that being the ability of Cossacks to conduct multiple attacks in a single turn. I didn’t remember this until I was attacking Trondheim and Copenhagen! I could have finished my invasion at least a turn earlier if I would have remembered. At least I’m honest and didn’t revert back to an earlier save point and did it over again.

With the fall of Copenhagen, I decided to finally make peace with England. I have been at war with them for centuries. I now border them across the sea, so now is time for peace. Besides, I am now at war with the Mayans and Iroquois, and I can get war happiness from them!

The turn ends with my privateers in the northern sea sinking two more Iroquois galleys off the coast of Scandinavia headed for my northern coast. At this point, I have yet to build a navy beyond a caravel or two and several privateers. Normally, I like to build up a healthy fleet of frigates, but this time I am going to wait for destroyers and cruisers. Besides, my privateers seem to be doing a fair job at protecting my coastlines so far.

To end this post, Comrades, here’s a world map as of 1385 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/worldmap1385ad.jpg

Some parts of the world are still fairly fragmented, but the various civs are slowly forming their territories. Hope that helps to give a better world view of the action.

At this point, I do not want to stop my attacks and expansion. With the capture of the Viking cities, my unit cap has risen to 228 total, and I only have 160 units - plenty of free room to grow militarily. I was anticipating a struggle with Europe, and it now seems that my struggle will be with Asia, the Middle East and Africa - at least on my continent. I think I should sweep into Europe with everything I have, all the way to Spain, while the coalition of China, etc., is busy with their war with Zululand. By doing so, I could capture 10 more cities for little or no effort.

Lexicus

Nov 25, 2007, 03:55 PM

Nice job smashing those Vikings. Now you should wipe out--err, bring socialism to--the Hittites, methinks. You can use that as a route into Mediterranean Europe.

Brucha

Nov 25, 2007, 04:02 PM

ChaosArbiter

Nov 26, 2007, 01:26 AM

I would advise asserting Mother Russia's ancient claim to the Dardanelles, and wiping out the Turkish capital. Following that, you can either consolidate Europe or move south and claim the Suez Canal and the Holy Land, which in turn would grant you unimpeded access to Africa. Three continents you're able to attack!

Lexicus

Nov 26, 2007, 03:17 PM

So you think I should attack the Hittites first? They do have two cities directly south of me, between Russia and Persia. One thing though, they are in the big alliance right now against Zululand and I am not sure how the alliance would react.

Yeah, I do. The alliance probably won't declare war on you, and if they do, you have plenty of strength to fight a defensive war. Capturing Turkey will open up expansion into the Middle East and Persia, Africa, and Europe. I think that's certainly a good idea, plus building a canal city down there (if there isn't one already) will open up that coastal city you have on the Black Sea. Also it will give you more control over Asia-Europe trade.

Brucha

Nov 29, 2007, 05:38 PM

Well, with the holidays over, I was forced to jump back into work, and found myself overloaded with stuff that had piled up over the turkey day retreat. This unfortunately cut into my gaming time immensely. I haven't had the chance to play since. However, I was able to crank out a couple of turns last nightand can finally get an update posted.

Despite everyone's advice to continue my attacks and campaign of expansion, I decided for a completely different approach for now. My cities in the north-east (in the tundra areas and coast line) are actually growing, with the help from harbors and plenty of rivers. It think they should be able to grow to at least 5 pop if not more in some.

My military as of 1410 AD numbers only 165 units, though my free support cap is 228 units. Plenty of room to grow there. So, I decided to sit back for a while, grow my cities in peace and max out my military. My border now is quite large and some of my neighbors really hate me, so I think that I need to concentrate on building for awhile. Besides, its still very early in the game...

One thing that affected this decision was my war with the Iroquois. The Iroquois turned out to have a substantial naval force, and the coast of Scandinavia turned into a naval war zone for a number of turns. In one turn alone, a total of 6 Iroquois frigates bombarded Trondheim. The problem I was having is that I have very few coastal cities in my core that can produce ships at a fast rate, and so I couldn't keep up with the losses in the naval war. In one turn alone I lost 3 frigates. It was killing me to keep pumping out frigates only to have them destroyed the next turn by the swarm of Iroquois frigates off my coast.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Beginning in 1385, and then in 1395, the war with Zululand began to wind down, as the Hittites and the Celts signed peace treaties with the Zulus. it's been difficult to follow the war, but it appears to be a stalemate so far. I think that the Zulus lost no cities, but the other civs don't want to trade maps (or they do and demand something rediculous for it).

I also made peace with the Vikings in 1410 AD, just to be nice:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/peace1410ad.jpg

1410 AD closes out with the completion of the Heroic Epic in Novgorod:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/finishepic1410ad.jpg

A couple turns later, some of the other civs begin suffering from illusions of granduer when I get this offer from the Dutch:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/offer1420ad.jpg

63 gptAND they are furious with me? Apparently the AI has a sense of humor...I don't have to tell you what my response was (at least I hope I don't).

But wait, it gets better the next turn:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/offer1425ad.jpg

66 gpt? Apparently, the Ai thinks that Russia is the land of gold...

I don't even want to dignify that offer with a response. Oh, well, I finally finish the Military Academy in 1430 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/finishacademy1430ad.jpg

The following turn, I recieve another absurd offer, this time from Portugal:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/offer1440ad.jpg

What is up with these offers for MPP's and demands for such large amounts of gpt?

Like I mentioned above, the long distance war with the Iroquois began to heat up during this time. It turned into a naval war off the Scandinavian coast, where wave after wave of Iroquois frigates repeatedly attacked my coastline. I began to realize one major weakness I had, that being the inablility to support a large naval force. Of all my coastal cities, I only have 3 that can build frigates at a good speed, and the naval war with the Iroquois showed me that. Between 1410 AD and 1440 AD, I lost 5 privateers and 6 frigates to the Iroquois. By 1440 AD, my last frigate had been destroyed, and the earlist one would be build was in 2 turns, with two more to be completed within 4 turns. Though I didn't want to, I was forced to get peace with the Iroquois:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/peace1445ad.jpg

At least I recieved this bit of good news in 1455 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/flip1455ad.jpg

That really helped me. I now don't have to garrison anything in that area now, and set about to dismantle my line of forts.

At this point, I started to look at my position all around. My border is quite extensive, with alot of neighbors who don't like me very much. One thing that I am concerned about is the lack of access to rubber, and my ability to build modern units like infantry and tanks. I had viewed the map in Civ editor before playing this game and all the rubber in the world is located in places like South America, India, Africa and the Pacific islands. I am going to have to plan on a major military campaign once I get Replaceable Parts to secure Rubber. The nearest place that I remember that Rubber was is in India, but alot of the jungle has been cut down, so I don't think it will appear there now.

Right now I am researching Industrialization, and haven't even begun on Electricity, so it will be a while before I can get Replacement Parts and find out where Rubber is. So my plan is to max out my military and build some serious invasion forces for a wave of resource wars to come. I figure I will either have to invade India or Africa to secure Rubber.

To attack India, I have to go through (either by ROP or invasion) Babylon and Persia. Africa is even more difficult for me to get to. By land I would have to go through the Hittites, Ottomans, Sumeria, Arabia, and Egypt. I could reach Africa by sea far easier than the land route, but it is very far from my homelands and would require a serious navy to conduct a sea-borne invasion. And a strong navy is what I don't have right now...

lucashp

Nov 29, 2007, 06:29 PM

Civilizations always ask Mutual Protection packs like that. They expect me to SAVE theyre civilization, and PAY THEM for it? I usaully always deny it, and Demand a few gold in return for a bad joke.

ChaosArbiter

Nov 29, 2007, 06:39 PM

The nearest place that I remember that Rubber was is in India, but alot of the jungle has been cut down, so I don't think it will appear there now.
The fact that the Jungles have been removed shouldn't matter at all. That they're gone would only matter if a Rubber source had to respawn somewhere; since it's already there, just not visible/usable, it doesn't matter.

Brucha

Nov 29, 2007, 06:50 PM

That's right, I got mixed up thinking of re-spawning resources. Good, then I guess I can plan on an attack into India once I research Replacement Parts. India is so much closer and easier to get to than Africa or the Pacific. i just wish I didn't have to go through 2 other civs to get to India. I could always make ROP's with Babylon and Persia...

Lexicus

Nov 29, 2007, 08:56 PM

Brucha

Nov 29, 2007, 11:28 PM

I'm tellin' you, you should take out the Hittites. Aren't they a two-city empire? Taking Turkey will strengthen your position down there a lot.

Also, could you put up a world map? :)

Ask and you shall receive...actually, I am going to have to have to attack the Hittites in order to secure Rubber later on. Here's a world map as of 1455 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/map1455ad.jpg

The war with the Iroquois halted my attempts at mapping the North American coast - they kept sinking every ship I sent there, so my knowledge of North America is still sketchy.

To get Rubber from India, I will have to go either through the Hittites then the Persians, or Babylon and then the lone Greek city north of India. I do believe that securing the Hittite cities around the Black Sea would be best course of action now. I have built up two large invasion forces in the area just for this purpose...

Zululand apparently did rather well in the war. They even managed to get into Australia. However, China is also quite large, though their empire is fragmented.

The Byzantines were at war with the Incas (I never even knew) and even lost a city to them along the east coast of South America.

Too bad about the Iroquois defeat. Taking those Viking cities should aid your naval abilities, at least.

Yea that really sucked. I got my hat handed to me on that one. It turned out to be my first defeat in the game so far - at least the Iroquois didn't conduct a land invasion. There was little I could have done to stop it from the sea. It will be a while until Scandinavia can build ships at any decent speed though. Once these cities grow, then I can start building a bigger navy and then I'll give the Iroquois a run for their money. I am considering attacking the lone Iroquois city in Greenland should we go to war again - then I could use it as a jumping off point to invade North America itself :goodjob: I did try during the war with the Iroquois, but each time my galleons and their escorting frigates would get sunk. I sent two seperate invasions (each with 2 galleons, 6 cossacks and a frigate), but it took 4 turns to sail there and suffered multiple attacks each turn and never even made it, having being sunk each time down to the last ship.

Amazingly, all 30 civs are still in the game. No one has been destroyed! And Europe has seen absolutely no warfare, except attacks at me.

ChaosArbiter

Nov 30, 2007, 09:35 AM

When you go for India, I would suggest the Hittite-Persia route and not the Babylon-Greece route. That way you don't have to worry about China doing nasty things to your attack if people decide to donate to them ... Plus you'll have more coastal territory, and access to the Oil of the Middle East when it shows up (at least, if I remember the map rightly - if you don't, then just attack the Babylonians then).

Brucha

Nov 30, 2007, 07:16 PM

I do think that going through the Hittites and Persia is the best option for several reasons:

1. The Hittites are on the coast, giving me the coast as a rear instead of a new territory (like going through Babylon) with possible enemies all around.
2. Its easier to protect my trade lines if I can get Rubber in India for the same reason as above.
3. I have a large invasion force parked right outside of Hittite territory right now, just waiting to attack. I believe that I could take both cities in less than 3 turns.

The only thing I am worried about in attacking is what seems to always happen to me in games like this one. If I make it in a game to the Industrial Age without any civs attacking me, I usually end up with a huge alliance against me when I spark a expansion through war. I have alot of bordering civs that could attack me when I go to war - its the old story of a multiple front war that will drain an empire quickly, especially if you are on the offence.

I haven't had the chance for further playing, but I think that my immediate next move will be to invade the Hittites and begin paving the way for an invasion of India.

ChaosArbiter

Nov 30, 2007, 07:22 PM

Make sure to take care of that third Hittite city north of India.

Lexicus

Dec 01, 2007, 11:43 PM

Hittite-Persia route is better because you won't be easily flanked by offensives out of Europe or Africa.

Brucha

Dec 02, 2007, 11:32 PM

Though I had made up my mind to go ahead and begin my advance south towards India with the desire to secure Rubber as soon as I discovered Replaceable Parts, it ended up taking me awhile to prepare.

My biggest concern would be that neighboring civs would declare war on me once I began my push south, especially in the east. I wanted a strong garrsion in the east to defend against any Chinese or Mongol attack in that area. Therefore, I wanted to build up my military more than it was - considering that I could build another 40 or so units with no upkeep to pay each turn. I also needed some time to rebuild my shattered naval forces which had been completely destroyed by the war with Iroquois earlier. I had only 2 frigates in the water at the end of the war with the Iroquois...not so good.

I made peace with everyone and set about increasing the size of my military. My overall plan was simple - invade the Hittites just south along the Black Sea:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/invasionplans1490ad.jpg

The two target cities was to be Tarsus and the capitol of Hattusas. Not wanting any surprises, I investigated both cities in 1490 AD and discovered that Tarsus was garrisoned by 3 pikemen, while Hattusas had a garrison of 5 pikemen and 2 knights. Against what appeared to be a light garrison I had gathered 4 cannons (and accompanying crusaders and riflemen as a escort), 15 cossacks and 2 cossack armies, Popov and Zhukov. Plenty of troops for the job ahead. I also had plenty of cossacks and riflemen being built back home to replace losses and to garrison my newly-captured cities.

Just to be safe, I made an ROP with Babylon - this I did for two reasons. First, I could use the ROP to go through their territory to get to Perisa should I need to do so and, second, boost my rep with them in case they plan on declaring war during my invasion.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/rop1490ad.jpg

From there, the plan was to then invade Persia to use it as a staging area for my invasion of India. By taking both the Hittites and Persia I could secure a land route for rubber back to my core, as well as being able to ship it by harbors from the Persian cities on the coast. I was not going to halt after the fall of the Hittites, and go straight after Persia before anyone else could stop me. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way...

While I was getting ready for the invasion, I find this bit of news out:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/pact1490ad.jpg

Oops, so India and my old enemy the Iroquois are now allied? I definitely better strengthen my navy! I was still restricted to building frigates in only 2 coastal cities (as Scandinavia was still being built up), so it was going to take me a while for my navy to grow from being nearly wiped out.

In 1495 AD, I got this surprising message:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/sgl1495ad.jpg

I am not entirely sure why I got a SGL - Moscow was building an army (thanks to the Military Academy)...maybe someone else has a clue to why, though I am thankful for it very much. I really didn't have anything to use the SGL for, so I camped him in Moscow. I am thinking of keeping him until I discover Fussion and then rush the United Nations, just to prevent anyone else from building it and ending the game early on me.

That same turn, my trade with France for Wines ends - and this is the best that I could get from them:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/toughtrade1495ad.jpg

If I didn't need luxs as badly as I do, I would have declined. However, i only have 2 luxs of my own, so I guess I've got to suck it up and pay 'da man (erm, well, or woman in the case of the French).

In 1500 AD, I did a quick check of my overall standings:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standing1500ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standing1500adpart2.jpg

Everything is still looking good, though I am still trailing the Iroquois for land area. However, London is now my single-city cultural rival! And they are not that far behind me either. The Iroquois are right on my tail in most areas it seems and are actually larger than me right now. This is going to change though with my up-coming invasion...

As my general military build-up continued, I get these two messages in 1525 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/pact1525ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/embargo1525ad.jpg

The Netherlands have been Furious with me since I captured their last city centuries ago, and nothing I have done has changed their attitude with me. I am not surprised that England deals an embargo against me, but I don't want war with them right now. I am unsure about the size of their navy, and they (as the Dutch as well) are right across the North Sea from me. Just to be safe, I send some extra troops into Scandinavia in case of an attack from either of them. It seems that India is worried about being attacked...hmmm.

A turn later, India gives me even more reason to attack them:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/embargo1530ad.jpg

Its almost as if the AI knows that I am going to attack India!

By 1525 AD, all is ready for commencement of hosilities against the Hittites and I declare war. Following my overall plan, I march my horde of cossacks forward, planning to attack both Hittite cities at the same time, as my riflemen and crusaders escort my cannons forward. The problem is that the mountains slow down my advance enough that I can't attack Tarsus the next turn.

In 1530 AD, I begin my attacks on Tarsus by killing a defending pike with an elite cossack, who is then killed in his blitz attack by another defending pike. A second cossack, a veteran, is killed by a pike, followed up by another cossack being redlined by the same in his first attack on the city. This attack is not going to well for me. I know that the garrsion was only 3 pike, so I press the attack with another vet cossack. he manages to kill the last two remaining pike and captures the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/tarsus1530ad.jpg

I still had 3 cossacks and Popov, one of my armies, that had not attacked, so I march them towards the Hittite capitol. It's at this point that I noticed a big mistake that I had made. Notice the worker circled in yellow on the screenshot above. He is sitting on a tile of plains with forest. In that tile is also my stack of cannons and escorting foot troops. Unfortunately, the cannons are trapped there and cqnnot enter any of the surrounding mountain tiles as there was no road on the plain tile! The cannons are effectively stuck there until I can build a road in the tile. Oh well.

Despite this mistake, I continue my advance on Hattusas, the Hittite capitol, though I really wished I had my cannons...in 1535 AD, I begin my assault on the capitol - it goes even worse than the attack on Tarsus. An elite cossack is immediately redlined by a defending pike. My second attack with a vet cossack manages to kill the pike it was attacking, but is then killed by another pike in its blitz attack. The next vet cossack is reduced to 2hp but is able to kill the pike it attacked, as is promoted to elite. My next attack, again with a vet cossack ends with the cossack being killed by a pike. God does this ever end?!? Still another vet pike kills a pike but is reduced to 2 hp. Finally, a vet pike kills the last remaining pike in the city (becoming elite in the process) and the city falls:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/hattusascaptured1535ad.jpg

Well, that didn't go as smoothly as I hoped - I lost alot more than I thought I would, though I had planned on my cannons being in on the attacks...

The following turn, before I can do anything else, several things happen. First a bit of good news:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/ironworks1540ad.jpg

Amazingly, right now, my cities in the east can outbuild cities in the west (those being the oldest cities that I have), so the Ironworks will really help out. And these cities in the east have half the population of those in the west...go figure.

Of course, my plans for my continued invasion is then dealt a curve ball the same turn:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/turksdeclarewar1540ad.jpg

The reason for this was the Ottoman spearman circled in yellow. I ordered the Turks to remove it from my land, and naturally they declare war on me! At this point I had a decision to make - either simply defend against the Turks so I could continue my attack into Persia or temporarily halt my plans and take Istanbul. I opted to capture the Turkish capitol.

I march my troops fresh from the fall of Hattusas to attack Istanbul. In 1545 AD, I begin my attack on Istanbul. The first to attack is a vet cossack who kills a musketman (and is made elite for it) but then is redlined in his blitz attack by another musketman. Another vet cossack kills a musketman in his first attack but then redlined in his second. Next comes an elite cossack who kills a spearman but ends up being redlined for it. A vet cossack kills a 2hp musketman but is himself redlined. With no one else but my 2 armies, I decide to press the attack. Army Zhukov manages to kill 3 spearmen - army Popov kills 2 archers and a musketman but ends up reduced to 3 hp! With no other troops that can attack this turn, I end my attacks for now. I do have more cossacks but they will not be able to attack until the following turn.

Here's the comical thing: the next turn, with the attack of my first unit, a vet cossack, the last remaining defender, an archer, is killed and the city falls:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/istanbul1545ad.jpg

With the fall of Istanbul, I have to halt my advance. In taking these 3 cities, I have either lost or had seriously wounded nearly all my attacking forces 9including one of my armies) and I still can't move up my cannons!

Nonetheless, I'm happy how the attacks went. I now have 3 new cities, have captured 2 capitols, and removed any threat of the Turks for now.

ChaosArbiter

Dec 03, 2007, 02:59 AM

Brucha

Dec 03, 2007, 03:04 AM

Yay for capturing Istanbul! I'd have done the same thing, though probably not as well. I've also noticed that, unless you're fighting in your own territory, Cossacks seem to be far more fragile than Cavalry. It's very irritating ... Pikes and Spears are just as effective against them as Riflemen are. :mad:!

First, thanks. Ya I agree. Its nice that they can blitz, but they seem so fragile when attacking.

I'd advise against attacking India until you can get a coalition of your own, though ... And here's to hoping you don't get jumped by a Turkish coalition!

I still have to attack Persia before I go after India - the big problem is that nobody will ally with me in the region. I think I am forced to go at it alone.

Daniel Khan

Dec 03, 2007, 10:18 AM

Maybe I'm misreading your battle reports, but why do you save the armies for last? I usually use them first, to destroy the best defenders with the unit with the least chance of a loss.

Brucha

Dec 03, 2007, 11:12 AM

No, you read correctly - I did attack last with my armies. I had done this because I didn't expect such heavy resistance from the Hittites. I thought that my cossacks could do the job and maybe even get a Gl or two in trhe process. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

Daniel Khan

Dec 03, 2007, 11:39 PM

Ah, leader fishing. Makes sense now.

Brucha

Dec 04, 2007, 12:49 AM

Ah, leader fishing. Makes sense now.

I had alot of elite cossacks before the invasion (even though I had the Military Academy allowing me to build armies), but I thought I could get some Gl's in the attack. In doing so, my success almost failed in conquering the Hittites. I have finished my assault on the Persians (but I still have to post the results) and the lessons of the attack on the Hittites was not lost to me. Instead of worrying about leader fishing, I went for simple victory and city conquest. Hate to leave everyone hanging as to the results of the attack on the Persians, but I just finished the attack and have to go to sleep now. Tomorrow I will post the results, promise. It turned out to be very exciting!

Brucha

Dec 04, 2007, 04:12 PM

My war and invasion against the Hittites did not go the way that I had planned, and I certainly didn't expect the Turks to intervene and declare war on me - especially over what amounted to a border dispute. Having re-directed my troops north to conquer Istanbul put a hold on my advance on Persia for quite some time.

The hold up was simply that my invasion force had been properly shredded. both of armies badly wounded and most of my cossacks had been wounded and needed rest time. Add in that my cannons were still trapped in that grass tile north of Tarsus, and it was definitely going to be a couple of turns before I could move against Persia.

While I waited for reinforcements from Mother Russia, I conducted some espionage on Persia to see what I would be facing. I first took a look at Pasargadae, which would be my first target in my invasion of Persia:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/pasargadae1575ad.jpg

According to the garrison, it was obvious that I would be facing alot more resistance from the Persians than I faced against the Hittites or Turks. I also investigated the Persian capitol, Persepolis, but I somehow lost the screenshot :goodjob: Bascially, the garrsion numbered twice that of Pasargadae and included trebuchets and knights!

I was uncertain as to my ability to capture these two cities against such odds, considering how poorly my attack on the Hittites went - and almost failed. Here's a map of the situation:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/map1580ad.jpg

The army just south of Tarsus is my stack of invading forces:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/invasionforce1580ad.jpg

I had previously made an ROP with Babylon just in case I needed to travel through their territory. Along with my stack of cannons and accompanying riflemen (who were camped out in Tarsus), I figured that I could take the Persians. In 1580 AD, I formerly declared war:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/war1580ad.jpg

I also did something that I haven't done yet in the game - I brought in an ally for the war against Persia:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/ally1580ad.jpg

My plan (or hopes rather) was that, by bringing in Sumeria into the war, this might draw off some of Persia's troops and make it easier to take my objectives. My only worry was that Sumeria would capture Persepolis before I did. So speed was of the essence for my plan to work.

As my invasion force of cossacks approached Pasargadae in 1585 AD, I noticed that the Persians marched 3 pikemen from the city garrison north into the mountains, and moved up some more pikemen from the south:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/attackonpasargadae1585ad.jpg

That meant the garrison was much less than before. Not wanting to give these units a chance to re-enter the city, I immediately attacked even before my cannons had moved up. Army Popov began the attack and managed to kill a single rifleman - its next attack against a second rifleman reduced it to only 1 hp and didn't even kill the rifleman! Good job Popov :goodjob:

Determined to take the city, I attacked next with Army Zhukov - he did much better, killing 3 riflemen and then the remaining defending pikeman...and the city falls:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/pasargadaefalls1585ad.jpg

At this point, I sent some of my cossack in the stack to deal with the Persian pikemen in the open - I managed to kill them all with only 3 cossacks and not a single loss on my end. The rest of my cossacks (plus my cannons), race south towards Persepolis. They find this when they get there:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/persepolis1585ad.jpg

One lone Sumerian pikeman is camped out on the hill west of the capitol, but a good-sized stack of Immortals and pike are marching for the city. My cannons would not reach the city for two turns, so I decided to destroy the Persian stack to prevent it from reinforcing the Persepolis garrison. Of course, it turns into a costly gamble.

The first two attacking cossacks kill a pike each but are red-lined for their efforts. I attack with an elite cossack kills the next pike but is reduced to 2 hp. My next two attacks garner 2 Immortal kills but cost me a vet cossack and elite cossack being red-lined. Another cossack kills an Immortal but is reduced to 2 hp. My final attack with an elite cossack kill the last remaining Immortal with no damage to itself.

The Persians retaliate by attacking me from out of Persepolis with a pair Immortals, killing 2 of cossacks. These Persian Immortals are becoming a big pain in my side!

The turn ends with my cossack stack camped outside the Persian capitol waiting for the cannons to move up. I am given another embargo also:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/embargo1585ad.jpg

During my next two turns, I spot some Persian troops appear first from the west near the Sumerian city of Ur and then from the south from Arebela. Apparently, the Persians sent a stack of 2 knights and 3 Immortals to attack Ur, but have turned around to return to the capitol. As I am still waiting for my cannons to move up, I again attack these Persian troops to prevent them ffrom reinforcing the capitol's garrison. This time my cossacks preform well and I kill all the Persian troops in the open without any red-lining or deaths.

Unfortunately, China and Korea take this time to form embargos against me:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/embargo1595ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/embargo1595adpart2.jpg

So much for my good relations with the Koreans!

In 1600 AD, my cannons are in position and my assault on Persepolis begins. My bombardment by my cannons does little of no damage to the defenders - I think only 2 hp losses total. My trusty army Zhukov again performs well, killing 3 riflemen and 1 pike. Army Popov, naturally, sucks in its attack, managing to kill a pair of pike before being reduced to 2 hp this time.

Its now up to my cossacks. The first cossack is killed by a pike and a conscript rifleman red-lines another cossack. An elite cossack kills another conscript rifleman but is himself killed by a knight. Yet another cossack kills the knight but is red-lined for his efforts. A concript rifleman kills my next cossack, who is himelf killed by an elite cossack - who is red-lined in the attack. We are going to have a general staff meeting after this...

My next cossack kills an Immortal and then a pike, followed by an elite cossack killing a knight and then is red-lined by an Immortal. The same Immortal kills the next cossack, leaving my last elite cossack to attack, killing the Immortal and capturing the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/capturepersepolis1600ad.jpg

Persepolis, it seems have both the great Wall and the Sistine Chapel, and they are now mine!

At this point I took a break. Looking at the map, I find that my newly conquered lands are now isolated from the rest of Russia:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/map1600ad.jpg

Babylon is now squarely got me cut off from the north, and both India's and Babylon's cultural borders are dangerous close to Persepolis and Pasargadae. I do still have an ROP with Babylon but things can quickly change...

As I ma unsure where to proceed, considering that I would have to go through India's territory to get to the Persian city of Arbela to the south (and I think doing so would provoke the Indians into declaring war on me), I halted my attacks and made peace with Persia:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/peace1600ad.jpg

A quick check of my standings:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standing1600ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standing1600adpart2.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standing1600adpart3.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/capturepersepolis1600ad.jpg

Overall, not bad at all! I started the attack with an Aprpoval Rating of 75% and now its 98%! I was also able to top the Iroquois and take the total land and population lead. I also have managed to secure 5 lux's for my own, including enough to trade to other civs.

I now have to re-think my plan. I don't like my newly conquered territory being isolated like it is. Before I invade India, I might have to take out Babylon or else the entire point of attacking India is pointless if I can't ship Rubber back home. I am currently researching Espionage and then can start on Replacement Parts - this will then tell me where some Rubber is. I also am going to have to use this time (while I have an ROP with Babylon) to reinforce my troops in the south.

ChaosArbiter

Dec 04, 2007, 05:01 PM

Brucha

Dec 04, 2007, 05:05 PM

Just a thought - did you break your MA with Sumeria by declaring peace with Persia? That could lead to some trouble. Also, I like how you gave us trade agreements but not military strength :D. Maybe you're still going through with your purges?

Yes, I did break my MA with Sumeria - I figured that I probably am going to turn north to take out Babylon. I am going to take a rep hit for doing so, but I won't have to worry about Persia should I attack Babylon.

What do u mean by military strengths? I am being dense right now.

ChaosArbiter

Dec 04, 2007, 10:33 PM

You showed the Trade Advisor screen and not the Military Advisor Screen (though, of course you do not yet have Spies and access to your strongest enemy's army list, so all it would be showing would be your strength).

Brucha

Dec 05, 2007, 02:54 AM

After I posted my latest action report, I found myself in my office and somewhat bored, I booted my laptop to re-read my post (shameless, isn't it? - I hardly ever work it seems). I was curious of what to do with what happened after my attack on Persia. I have never fully understood how cultural boundaries are decided in Civ3 after a city is captured and so I was not surprised to find both Parasgadae and Persepolis cut off and isolated.

I took a look at both Ashur and Babylon as of 1605 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/ashur1605ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/babylon1605ad.jpg

Hmm, a mix of only spearmen and bowmen?!? At that moment I suddenly realized that these two cities were the only ones owned by the Babylonians! I had plenty of troops close by that I could take both cities and wipe Babylonia out in the process.

Here's a map of of the region:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/map1600ad.jpg

Its clear that unless I either expand my cultural border or invade Babylon, my newly conquered cities in the south are completely isolated and vulnerable. I also cannot ship Rubber back home unless something is done. I decided right then and there to take out Babylon.

I saved the game at that point until I got back home, determined to wipe the Babylonians from the face of the earth in a lightning attack before anyone could intervene...

I also discover that Moscow had built its 3rd army, allowing me to build the Pentagon (giving my armies a unit cap of 4 units instead of 3), so I naturally start its construction right there in Moscow.

After getting home, I rebooted, only to find this:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/pact1615ad.jpg

My old allies, the Koreans are now allied with my next target, India. Oh well, I am more worried about China than the Koreans. I just don't have any friends in this game...

In 1615 AD, I formally declare war on Babylon. I just love his response about being a friend and being rich - with only 2 cities!

I first start my attack on Ashur - for this I used newly built troops from my core, spearheaded by my newly created army, Yeremenko, a 3 cossack vet army. The first cossack kills a bowman, the next one kills 2 spearmen. Army Yeremenko kills 2 spears, and finally my last cossack kills the last defending bowman and the city falls:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/ashurfalls1615ad.jpg

Cool. One city down and one to go.

The attack on the city of Babylon goes just as smoothly. Army Popov kills 2 defending spearmen, followed by Army Zhukov killing two more spearmen. The final attack from a cossack kills the last defending bowman and the city falls:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/babylonfalls1615ad.jpg

With the fall of the city of Babylon, the Babylonians are destroyed:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/babylondestroyed1615ad.jpg

Not too bad - the Babylonians fell and were destroyed in a single turn! I played one more turn to see how this changed my trade routes:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/map1620ad.jpg

Taking out Babylon opened routes back to my empire, though my southern-most city, Persepolis is still isolated. However, I am building stuff to increase my cultural boundaries to connect Persepolis and Parasgadae.

That same turn I complete Battlefield Medicine:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/battlefieldmedicine1620ad.jpg

And I also start researching Replacement Parts:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/parts1620ad.jpg

It will take me a turn or two to get my forces re-positioned to attack India - I also want to finish researching Replacement Parts to find out where Rubber is. My original plans for this game has changed greatly, and I am unsure what to do after India falls. My original plan was to ally with China the while game and win by a Histographic Victory - I may still be able to do just that...

Lexicus

Dec 05, 2007, 07:13 PM

Get Scientific Method then rush ToE with your leader. Nice Middle East campaigns...told you it'd be easier!

The Loser

Dec 11, 2007, 12:08 PM

Wow, this is a nice game.
I've just read it and so far you are doing well!
I'll follow this one from now on!

Brucha

Dec 12, 2007, 01:04 AM

As with most of this game, my strategic plans always seem to fall apart or I go off in a different direction that I anticipated. My long-awaited plans to attack India to secure Rubber does not come about - at least not right now.

I was also trying to better my relations with China, but it seemed damned near impossible. China, it seems, is more than willing to join in on embargo treaties against me with just about anyone. By 1700 AD, I have 10 civs with trade embargoes against me, including China.

Action resumed once again in 1625 AD after my destruction of the Babylonians. I was in the process of re-grouping my forces fresh from the (very) brief war with Babylon to attack India. Naturally, things start happening that put my invasion of India on hold.

I was having serious problems with other civs crossing my territory, especially the Arabians and Romans who had gone to war in 1620 AD. Both sides kept sending troops across my border near Istanbul and fighting right outside the city. I finally got sick of the incursions around the Black Sea and ordered both to withdraw. The Arabians were polite enough to do, but the Romans decided to get rude with me in 1650 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/romewar1650ad.jpg

The stack of Romans near Istanbul amounted to only 5 Legionary, so I figured I can dispatch them easily. Not so, not so. My first attacking Cossack is killed right away. The next Cossack kills a Legionary but is red-lined for the effort. Another Cossack manages to get itself red-lined with no kills on its part. The next Cossack kills a Legionary but is he himself red-lined. I finally was fored to ship Army Zhukov via rail to kill the last 3 Legionary. That really sucked, and costly. My Cossacks seem to be extemelt fragile in combat...

At first, this seemed to be a simple irritation, and I sent some riflemen to Istanbul to guard against any other attacks. I returned Army Zhukov back to the Indian border to heal, putting off my invasion for another turn or two - or so I thought.

In the meanwhile, I managed to complete two more wonders:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/finishagency1660ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/finishpentagon1660ad.jpg

I can finally perform spy missions, and the Pentagon increases my army size from 3 units to 4 units.

The next thing to screw up my plans to invade India comes a couple of turns later in 1665 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/celts1665ad.jpg

That is a big stack to simply ignore in my territory, so I demanded for the Celts to withdraw...or course, the Celts declare war in response, the bastards. With only a few riflemen guarding the border, I sent some Cossacks and one army to deal with the Celts. Thankfully, my rail lines now extend to every point of my territory allowing me to shift troops from one end to the other in one turn and still be able to attack. So, I dip into my invasion force to fight the Celts.

I open my attacks with a Crusader who is killed by a pikeman. A Cossack kills a pikeman but is reduced to 2 hp. An elite Cossack kills 2 pikemen, followed by a vet cossack killing a pikeman and medieval infantry. The next Cossack kills 2 medieval infantry, followed by Army Zhukov who kills 3 medieval infantry. Finally, the last of the stack is destroyed by a Cossack who kills the last medieval infantry and pikeman.

Before I can do anything else, I am notified of this:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/war1665adpart2.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/war1665adpart3.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/war1665adpart4.jpg

Ok, that's it. My attempts to set up an invasion of India is not going to happen. In that turn, I was at war with the Celts, Rome, America, the Ottomans, and England. You are probably thinking, "why halt my attack on India?" Well, I was most worried that I would find myself engaged in a war with England, America and the Spanish while at war with India, and this would bring in even more civs against me. This very thing has happened to me in other games way too often wher I suddenly find myself attacked on all fronts. I also didn't want what happened with the Iroquois to happen again with England and America, that being my butt kicked in a losing naval war, so I shelved the attack on India for now.

One other thing that changed my mind was when I noticed that, along the coast of Africa, there was a Rubber supply next to the Arabian city of Najran. I had been able to build up my navy off the coast of Scandinavia - in the screenshot above, there are 10 frigates - more than enough I thought to protect my coastlines. In addition, I had 2 frigates, 2 galleons carrying 8 cossacks that I had garrisoned in Trondheim to invade England should this very thing occur.

I decided to use the galleons to capture the Arabian city of Najran. It would take the fleet some time to reach the city, so I sat back and prepared to guard my borders.

In the meanwhile, my cultural border with Germany had expanded beyond my border cities, leaving alot of tiles being unusable. I decided to establish two new cities, in 1670 AD and 1675 AD to take advantage of this:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/foundchita1670ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/foundsamara1675ad.jpg

By doing so, I might be able to flip both German cities and remove them as a threat with not a single shot being fired.

As my invasion force sails for the coast of Africa, I found out that Rome, the Celts, England and the Ottomans all seek peace with me. I wanted to kick myself, as this makes my decision to cancel the attack on India moot and pointless. Oh well, at least I can still capture some Rubber...hopefully.

I feel better when Arabia declares war on me after I demand for them to leave my territory near Pasargadae:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/war1695ad.jpg

The offending Arbian units, all two of them, are easily killed and the Arabians make no attempt to even attack me further. What a waste of a DOW...

Well, that allows me to capture Najran with no penalty to my rep! I also find out this that same turn:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/hittites1695ad.jpg

In 1700 AD I completed the Secret Police HQ in Persepolis:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/secretpolice1700ad.jpg

Finally, in 1720 AD, my invasion reaches Najran and attacks the following turn. The 3 defending Arabian spearmen easily fall to my 8 Cossacks and the city falls:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/najranfalls1725ad.jpg

Not only do I now have Rubber, but I picked up some more gems and my own ivory!

My plans to invade India are now shelved for good. I've got my Rubber so I can begin upgrading and building Infantry, so I am unsure what to do next. Here's an (incomplete) map of the world:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/worldmap1725ad.jpg

Egypt has actually managed to expand I think, and the Iroquois and Incas have really taken off in the Americas. My captured Arabian city, Najran is marked in red.

The next shot is of Najran itself:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/najran1725ad.jpg

A very lonely city surrounded by potential enemies...

Here's a shot of the Middle East:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/middleeast1725ad.jpg

My cultural borders have expanded quite decently in the area, though the border of Ur is dangerously close to Persepolis. I am very worried that Ur will flip Persepolis soon, so I am building as many cultural improvements to prevent this from happening.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/europeanfront1725ad.jpg

On the European front, the addition of my new cities of Chita and Samara has put a definite threat on the Germans. I am also hoping to extend my cultural border so that Istanbul and Samara can be linked and that would also give me all of the Black Sea.

Last are the current standings as of 1725 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standing1725ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standing1725adparttwo.jpg

London is threatening to overtake me for single city cultural score, and the Iroquois are still my main rival for overall cultural score and world area. As far as my other standing, I have slide somewhat, but I am still happy with the scores.

Ok, so there it is. I have alot of work ahead of me. I have no allies in this game, and don't expect any in the future. I really am unsure of where to go from here. I have the resources I need for now. I know that Aluminum is located in my territory, so the only thing I might not have is Uranium. I might sit back for a while a just build for a century and try to placate everyone and get friendly with everyone. Perhaps I can reserve any further conquests to civs that declare war on me. I also believe that it would be prudent to secure a city on Greenland - if I can do this, I could use Greenland as a starting point for attacks into North America. The best target for this would be the Dutch, as they have 2 cities right now in Greenland.

Lastly, thanks for everyone following this story. I hope it has been worthwhile to read, though the action level seems quite low compared to most on the forum.

vorlon_mi

Dec 12, 2007, 10:28 PM

Thanks for writing, Brucha! I really enjoy your use of screenshots and gameplay thoughts.

I went back and re-read your first posts, where you talked about seeking a histographic victory. That amounts to keeping one of the AI from winning before time runs out. Some thoughts in that regard ...

Cultural victories ... the biggest culture-per-turn producers are buildings that are centuries/millenia old. And culture is unlike shields/gold/beakers in that if you destroy a building that produces it, and the AI rebuilds the building,
the rebuilt building will not be as effective -- because it is new, not old.
This lets you slow down an AI, even if you don't destroy it.

20K city -- When you get bombers, you should be able to reach London
from your cities in Western Europe or Scandanavia. At a time that is
convenient for you, declare war and recreate the London blitz. Once the
older temple/library are destroyed, the cpt accumulated by London will
plummet. This would be really sweet if you could do it before England
gets fighters or flak.

100K civ -- OK, the Iros have a lot of cities and will probably build a bunch
of libraries. Unless you can get the Incas to take them down a bit for you,
you will need to invade North America. An idea: send over an army
on a transport, with a bunch of arty. Bombard the larger cities from
2 squares away, and try to destroy buildings. You may not need to actually
take the cities to slow down the cpt.

Space Race -- OK, this is the one condition that the AI knows how to pursue.
You may or may not be able to cripple the research rates of the Iros and Incas to keep them from getting the proper techs; the AI will trade techs amongst themselves pretty aggressively at Monarch.
Consider resource denial -- strategic strikes and/or invasions to deny
the sources of uranium or aluminum. The AI can't build SS parts without AL.

Good luck!

Brucha

Dec 13, 2007, 12:09 AM

Thanks for writing, Brucha! I really enjoy your use of screenshots and gameplay thoughts.

Thanks very much! I appreciate that you enjoy it!

20K city -- When you get bombers, you should be able to reach London from your cities in Western Europe or Scandanavia. At a time that is convenient for you, declare war and recreate the London blitz. Once the older temple/library are destroyed, the cpt accumulated by London will plummet. This would be really sweet if you could do it before England gets fighters or flak.

Yea, this is what I was thinking of doing myself. I have always utilized airpower heavily in all my games and I am waiting with anticipation to be able to build bombers and flatten London. From Scandinavia, I can use at least three cities to strike at London. It will be interesting if England has fighters or flak when my bombing campaign begins, a venerable Battle for Britain!

100K civ -- OK, the Iros have a lot of cities and will probably build a bunch of libraries. Unless you can get the Incas to take them down a bit for you, you will need to invade North America. An idea: send over an army on a transport, with a bunch of arty. Bombard the larger cities from 2 squares away, and try to destroy buildings. You may not need to actually take the cities to slow down the cpt.

I also have been considering this once I can build transports just to cause damage to the Iroquois infrastructure. I might even raze a couple of of their better cultural cities to help this out.

Space Race -- OK, this is the one condition that the AI knows how to pursue. You may or may not be able to cripple the research rates of the Iros and Incas to keep them from getting the proper techs; the AI will trade techs amongst themselves pretty aggressively at Monarch. Consider resource denial -- strategic strikes and/or invasions to deny the sources of uranium or aluminum. The AI can't build SS parts without AL.

Again, this may have to be resolved by aerial bombardment or simply capture the city that is building the SS parts and raze them.

Brucha

Dec 13, 2007, 01:27 AM

After posting my latest update last night, I decided I needed to play some more today as I haven't done much playing for a while.

Even before Vorlon Mi's post above, I had made up my mind as where to go in my game. I have all but reached the limit of aggressive expansion without risking all-out war with most of the other civs in the game. I have the resources I need, though I could use another source of Rubber as I only have one right now.

So, instead, I am going to limit further expansion to those civs that declare war on me. This will allow me time to build up all the new cities and territories that I have recently conquered as well as get back on good terms with my neighbors.

I have also decided that I would abide by my own restrictions in the game am cement a military alliance with China until it erupts into a Russo-Sino conflict sometime in the future.

Anyway, I recieved good news from Moscow in 1723 AD after re-starting my game:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/sgl1725ad.jpg

Another SGL! That makes 2 SGl's I have right now. I still have Korolev whom I received back in 1495 AD (who I am holding in Moscow), and who I was saving to rush-build the United Nations. So, I immediately switch building a rifleman in Copenhagen to the Theory of Evolution, and it's completed the next turn, in 1730 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/completetoe1730ad.jpg

The minute the TOE is finished, I am given 2 free tech advances:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/learnsteel1730ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/learnrefinery1730ad.jpg

Cool! That will certainly put some distance between me and the most advanced civs in the game. It also allows me to start on Combustion, which is the only other tech I need to research Flight! Then I'll have bombers, which are my favorite unit in the game. London better start building bomb shelters...

My decision to restrict further expansion except when war is declared on me comes to the forefront right away in 1730 AD when I get sick of the Sumerians using my territory in the Middle East as a highway and demand for them to withdraw. The sorry bastards declare war:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/war1730ad.jpg

I immediately attacked all Sumerian troops in my territory, losing 2 Cossacks but killing 3 Sumerian cavalry. I also immediately launch an attack on the Sumerian capitol of Ur. Army Zhukov kills 3 musketmen, followed by Army Yermenko killing the last defending musketman and captures the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/urfalls1730ad.jpg

Wow, that was way too easy. That will teach the Sumerians to declare war on me with such pitiful numbers of garrisoning troops - especially in their capitol.

I don't even wait to see what the Sumerians plan on doing. The following turn, 1735 AD, I launch attacks on Lagash and Sparta (which the Sumerians cpatured from the Greeks back in the 1600's).

Lagash, the new Sumerian capitol, proves tougher than Ur. A Cossack is killed by a musketman and the next Cossack is red-lined by a musketman without killing anything. A third Cossack kills a musketman but is red-lined also. I get sick of the performance of my Cossacks and ship Army Popov via rail over to Lagash. Popov kills a musketman, a rifleman and a cavalry, capturing the city in return:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/lagashfalls1735ad.jpg

Sparta is next, but it falls easily to a lone Cossack who kills the only defending musketman and captures the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/spartafalls1735ad.jpg

With no other Sumerian cities on my borders, I decided to make peace with them as soon as Sparta fell - and the Sumerians eagerly accepted it. Maybe they'll think twice about entering Russia without permission...

I finished off by establishing my first spies - I have to admit that I had forgotten to do this after finishing Espionage until now. However, I only have enough cash to establish spies in China and England. Here's their military as of 1735 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/england1735ad.jpg

England it seems has very little as far as a military. They also have a very weak navy, so that makes me feel good, though I only have 10 frigates right now protecting the Scandinavian coast to defend against England in a war right now.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/china1735ad.jpg

Naturally, China's military is bigger, but not as much as I had thought. Nonetheless, 16 frigates? I only have 12 myself...but they have ALOT of spearmen! Even a spearman in a walled city can be tough to defeat.

Last of all is Russia's military strength:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/russia1735ad.jpg

My military has suffered some casualties of late, so it has been weakened greatly. With building 2 new cities and capturing 3 more, my unit cap is over 300 and I only have 240 or so. My first priority is to max the cap out and really increase my military to the fullest. I am going to wait until I finish Combustion to increase my naval forces, as frigates cannot be upgraded. I would rather have cruisers as IMOP they are far better than frigates in all respects.

I also have to wait until the city of Najran in Africa completes its Harbour so I can start upgrading my riflemen to infantry. Most of my cities are building coal plants and wall streets, so it may be a couple of turns until I can switch my economy over to building up my military.

Marsden

Dec 14, 2007, 11:47 AM

Another SGL! That makes 2 SGl's I have right now. I still have Korolev whom I received back in 1495 AD (who I am holding in Moscow), and who I was saving to rush-build the United Nations. So, I immediately switch building a rifleman in Copenhagen to the Theory of Evolution, and it's completed the next turn, in 1730 AD:

I didn't check the dates, but this is why you have not been getting any MGLs from your elite victories lately. You can't get an MGL when you have another Leader already. So the downside to holding an SGL means no MGLs until they are gone. Just like you should never hold on to an MGL while you have more elites to use. I like to form the army immediately before any more attacks, if possible, because there is no one turn MGL limit, just the one only at a time limit. The one only limit doesn't stop SGLs from appearing, but stops MGLs.

ChuckNorris135

Dec 14, 2007, 06:39 PM

or simply capture the city that is building the SS parts and raze them.

Actually, if your income is through the roof at that point you might consider investigating enemy cities to discover where they're building SS parts then sabotaging them. Black ops are fun. :)

Brucha

Dec 16, 2007, 08:27 PM

I didn't check the dates, but this is why you have not been getting any MGLs from your elite victories lately. You can't get an MGL when you have another Leader already. So the downside to holding an SGL means no MGLs until they are gone. Just like you should never hold on to an MGL while you have more elites to use. I like to form the army immediately before any more attacks, if possible, because there is no one turn MGL limit, just the one only at a time limit. The one only limit doesn't stop SGLs from appearing, but stops MGLs.

Yea, now I realize that, but I guess its ok since I can build armies now. I still am going to hold my last SGL in reserve to rush build the United Nations - there is no way I am going to lsoe this game by someone else being voted in as the S-G. I currently have 3 armies and am building a 4th in Moscow. I have yet to see an AI army so far, so I think its safe to follow this plan.

Marsden

Dec 17, 2007, 01:32 PM

Yea, now I realize that, but I guess its ok since I can build armies now. I still am going to hold my last SGL in reserve to rush build the United Nations - there is no way I am going to lsoe this game by someone else being voted in as the S-G. I currently have 3 armies and am building a 4th in Moscow. I have yet to see an AI army so far, so I think its safe to follow this plan.

I've found that the AI aren't always too keen on calling for elections once they do build the UN, but having it yourself is ironclad. I think the internet is a much better wonder for the shields, but that's me. And BTW, the AI don't ever build or use armies in conquests unless they are given to them at the begining of the scenario, so you shouldn't see any.

Brucha

Dec 17, 2007, 04:09 PM

I've found that the AI aren't always too keen on calling for elections once they do build the UN, but having it yourself is ironclad. I think the internet is a much better wonder for the shields, but that's me. And BTW, the AI don't ever build or use armies in conquests unless they are given to them at the begining of the scenario, so you shouldn't see any.

I could almost swear that I have seen AI armies before in Conquests, but I guess not:confused:

Brucha

Dec 18, 2007, 12:33 AM

I have to admit ahead of time that this post is going to suck a bit. I had an accident with my laptop and I was forced to reboot to an earlier save point. Thus, I lost most of my screenshots and so I have to relate this action report from memory and a few shots that I had saved on a mem stick from work (yea, I was playing Civ3 on the desktop at work).

My plan for the next phase of the game was fairly simple. It seemed that nearly every civ in the game was on the verge of going to war with me no matter what I tried to do to placate them. As of 1745 AD, I was being hit by 9 seperate embargos, and my expansion and sheer size seemed to anger nearly everyone on the planet.

So, no more expansion for a while and try to calm everyone's nerves. I tried to convince China into a military alliance, but China would not do it for less than Electricity and Combustion - there was no way I was going to give China those two techs.

Unfortunately, there is alot of animosity towards me and peace would not last long...

I started by finishing Wall Street in Novogorod in 1745 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/finishwallstreet1745ad.jpg

Very un-communist of me I know....

Arabia was not very pleased with me after I captured their city, Najran. They parked two pikemen right outside of Ur in response - they didn't actually attack, jsut sat there waiting for me to react. I waited a turn or two, then demanded for them to withdraw; naturally the Arabs declared war:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/arabsdeclarewar1750ad.jpg

I was in kind of an ugly mood and so, instead of capturing their cities of Mecca and Medina, I decided to simply punish them by ripping up their entire infrastructure. That did not take long. The Arabs tried to fight back, but it was basically futile. By the time I was done, I had destroyed all their improvements. That should radically reduce the cities' population and may even lose some buildings when they can't afford the gold upkeep.

By 1758 AD, Arabia was tired of the war that they started and sued for peace:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/peacewitharabia1758ad.jpg

Meanwhile, in 1754 AD, the Greeks declared war on me when I demanded for them to leave my territory:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/greeksdeclarewar1754ad.jpg

This was amounted to a total of 3 hoplites that were easily destroyed. They pretty much left me alone after that.

The last part of this report has no screenshots. Basically, France declared war on me after I demanded their troops to leave my territory. A turn or two later, a force that was much larger than I thought France could build showed up near Istanbul. It amounted to 6 knights, 3 pikemen and 7 medieval infantry. I destroyed a couple of the forward knights, and the entire force moved from Isatnbul to Chita along the border with Germany.

I decided to opt for an alliance with Germany against the French. Here's where I saved - that's a good thing after I had my reboot problem. I could not have picked a better time to stop as I can continue the game at the start of the war with France and be able to detail it better.

Marsden

Dec 18, 2007, 10:04 AM

It seemed that nearly every civ in the game was on the verge of going to war with me no matter what I tried to do to placate them.

That's because you are the score leader, and the AI seem to hate the player, especially if you are ahead. I guess if they didn't mind losing the game would be too easy, I know I don't put up with being behind. I've been in games happily trading and such with a civ for thousands of years, but when I'm number 1, then they all hate me.

BTW, I'm sorry I didn't say this sooner, but great story, I've been reading along from the begining, :thumbsup:

Quintillus

Dec 18, 2007, 10:16 AM

vorlon_mi

Dec 18, 2007, 04:16 PM

I could almost swear that I have seen AI armies before in Conquests, but I guess not:confused:

The AI occasionally -- very occasionally -- build armies in vanilla Civ3.
I saw a couple, but not many.

In C3C, they added a feature to armies (increased movement) that triggered a bug in the AI code, and so the C3C AI will not use them.

You need to determine whether or not you can live with the pace of armies
produced from your military academy, since you will be keeping your SGL in reserve to rush-build the UN. 3-going-on-4 armies is not bad, and you can
complement them with sufficient attack troops artillery, and eventually
air power.

Brucha

Dec 19, 2007, 12:26 AM

Caught up at long last - been a busy last two weeks. Had to laugh to the cannons getting surrounded by mountains and water - I don't think I've actually seen that before, at least not with mountains. The Cossacks managed to outpace the cannons even despite the relatively high losses, though. Hard to have artillery keep up with cavalry offenses.

Yea the accident with the cannons was funny, but maybe not at the time. :p
I really didn't consider the possibility at the time and was shocked when it happened. So far in the game, since my offenses have relied on cossacks, I have not used much in the way of artillery as they just can't keep up with them. I have not even bothered to build any more artillery. I think I only have a total of 12 artillery at the moment.

I'm not sure you'll be able to increase relations without allowing some rights of passage - it seems like the AI's favorite pasttime is trampling across your territory, and of course you won't get along well if you don't allow them to do so. Might be expensive to get RoP though if the Babylonian one was still in effect when you invaded.

I am sooo tired of the AI using my territory as a highway. I have been forced to sign ROP's just to keep in the good graces of many civs, though it does tend to tick me off in having to do so. But I am very paranoid of forcing all-out war with an overwhelming majority of civs - I don't think that I could defend against an attack of this size.

China seems advanced enough to still be a factor in the late game, and the Iroquois and Inca are large enough to still be a factor, especially if they expand some more at home. Egypt and Zululand aren't out of it, either. I have a feeling at some point you'll be facing more powerful rivals than the two-or-three city ones you've faced so far and it won't be such a walk in the park - but sometimes it does take the AI quite a while to get to the stage of putting up formidable armed resistance. China certainly is exemplifying that this game with all their Spearmen!

It is definitely looking like an eventual showdown between Russia, China, the Iroquois and Incas. Eventually I am going to have to go to war with China I think. The Incas and Iroquois are on a seperate continent so I only have to be concerned about naval combat for a good while. China, however, is right on my border - and a long one at that. The problem is that I can't get a MPP with any civ bigger than a couple of cities. So I have been forced to swallow my pride and play nice lately with my neighbors.

You need to determine whether or not you can live with the pace of armies produced from your military academy, since you will be keeping your SGL in reserve to rush-build the UN. 3-going-on-4 armies is not bad, and you can complement them with sufficient attack troops artillery, and eventually air power.

I am going to live with the pace of building armies for now and wait to build the UN. I am soon going to have airpower - about 8 turns in fact - and I am going to try to build up my airforce as fast as possible once I can. I am going to rely heavily on my airforce both for attacking and defending. IMO, airpower is even more powerful than artillery - bombers can kill units, unlike artillery - and in past experiences, my bombers have been able to completely break up AI attacks on their own. Bomberes are also excellent for destroying the enemy's infrastructure - a good bombing campaign can send a city or entire region back to the Stone Age.

I was happy to get the alliance with Germany against France - I am going to make sure that Germany captures Paris no matter what. I also want to try to help Germany take out as many Western European cities that they can. I hope by doign so I can build a strong alliance with the Germans.

Late of all, this is the first time playing with Communism. It is very different than Democracy or Republic - the biggest difference is money. I am running my Lux slider at 20% and Science at 50% - that is the highest that I can go. I have little in the treasury for back-up, mainly because I just spent seeral turns and probably a 1,000 gold upgrading my riflemen to infantry - and that is paying 15 gp per upgrade per unit! On the other hand, it is a great boon for military op's and I never have to worry about war weariness.

I am glad everyone is enjoying the story. Turns are now 2 years each, and I am still in the 18th Century - this is going to be a LOOONG game.:goodjob:

Brucha

Dec 20, 2007, 01:32 AM

As of 1760 AD, France had declared war on me and sent forces towards Chita and Istanbul - the six French knights split and head for both cities. The 3 French knights near Chita manage to kill 2 of my cossacks who were fortified along the border. As soon as I can move, I react by immediately attacking, losing another cossack and the next one being reduced to 2 hp before all 3 french knights are destroyed.

Near Samara, Army Zhukov kills all 3 knights trying to cross the border, and is reduced 10 hp (out of 19 hp) for its effort. With the French knights gone, that leaves the medieval infantry and pikemen to deal with.

Germany helps me out by attacking the French near Istanbul - by the time they are done there are only 5 medieval infantry remaining. I immediately cross the German border and attack the French MI's. 2 cossacks each kill a MI, and the remaining 3 MI are destroyed by the newly created army, Konov (3 cossacks army) fresh from Moscow. This ends the French attack on my western border. On to Paris!

I end turn 1760 AD by checking my standings:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standings1760ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standings1760adparttwo.jpg

I still have a lead on Land Area, but London is catching up with me. I am close to being able to build bombers so I plan on bombing the city into oblivion. I figure I can prod the English into declaring war on me by sending spies to their cities.

I also check the number of embargos against me as of 1760 AD - this includes: Arabia, England, Persia, Ottomans, Sumeria, India and France.

On another note, I make an attempt to prop up the civs in the Americas agains the growing threat of the Iroquois and Incas. I gift Metallury to the Mayans and Nationalism to the Aztecs. I want to be able to strengthen them to prevent either from being wiped out.

Germany ends the turn on a sour note:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/mpp1760ad.jpg

I send some cossacks towards Paris to watch the German attack on the city - it never develops. Over the next five turns, Germany sends a total of 4 cavalry (each one by itself) to attack Paris with the expected results. It seems that Germany is not interested in capturing Paris at all...ther goes my plan for Germany to sweep through Europe.

By 1770 AD, I give up any hope that the Germans will take Paris. I leave a lone cossack atop a hill near Paris just to watch the activity aroudn the city and withdraw back to my own border. This is when China decided to join up with the French and sign an embargo against me:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/embargo1766ad.jpg

China is really getting on my nerves. I really want the Chinese to just declare war so I can destroy them.

The session ends on a really good note when one of my sources of oil (near the Black Sea) depletes.

Overall, a really pathetic playing session...

Kraznaya

Dec 20, 2007, 02:33 AM

Didn't you originally plan to maintain China as a partner and ally throughout the entire game no matter what?

Quintillus

Dec 20, 2007, 02:47 AM

You should've played another three turns so London could overtake you for #1 in culture - get all the bad events out of the way at once. London is gaining 14 culture per turn on Moscow, and you're only 31 culture ahead.

Culture rates - London: 48. Moscow: 34. Turns until London wins by 20k culture at current rate: 267. Turns until London wins by 20k if you bomb them down to only a palace: 6396.

Why not just take Paris yourself? It'll give you a nice place to take off from for London bombings and possibly some nice wine as well.

Brucha

Dec 20, 2007, 03:38 AM

Didn't you originally plan to maintain China as a partner and ally throughout the entire game no matter what?

You are correct, that was the game plan. I have been lax at cementing an alliance but I have done so now, in 1788 AD. Let's just hope that it lasts more than a couple of turns...

You should've played another three turns so London could overtake you for #1 in culture - get all the bad events out of the way at once. London is gaining 14 culture per turn on Moscow, and you're only 31 culture ahead.

Culture rates - London: 48. Moscow: 34. Turns until London wins by 20k culture at current rate: 267. Turns until London wins by 20k if you bomb them down to only a palace: 6396.

Why not just take Paris yourself? It'll give you a nice place to take off from for London bombings and possibly some nice wine as well.

My plan is to bomb the hell out of London once I can get bombers - sort of a Russian version of the Battle for Britain. They have no fighters so I can bomb the city with impunity.

As far as Paris, I was hoping that Germany would capture it and use Paris as a spring board to sweep through Europe. Then I was going to keep Germany in a good mood with me. The thing is ... that never happened.

Daniel Khan

Dec 20, 2007, 10:56 AM

Counting on the AI to achieve military objectives for you never pays off.

vorlon_mi

Dec 20, 2007, 07:20 PM

OK, from your screenshot of the top 5 cities, it looks like London has
Shakes' theatre, which is probably a big part of their culture engine.

You've said that you will have the techs to begin building bombers in 8 turns,
and as posted above, London will overtake Moscow in 3-4 turns. Not achieve
a 20K victory, mind you, but overtake. It will still take many turns for them to
get close to 20K. You may or may not want to start a pre-build in Scandanavia
for an airport, to help your bombers heal faster if they take any damage.

If the Brits declare on you (say, from spies), look at your coastal cities
to see where they might try to land. A small expeditionary force should be enough to swoop in and wipe out any troops they land. The AI tends to send
a goofy mix of ships -- 3 escorts for one galleon/transport.

Sounds like China may be a larger threat in the short term. Ensure that there
are rail lines from your core to the Chinese border, and think about how you want
to conduct the attacks.

Kraznaya

Dec 20, 2007, 07:38 PM

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~beck0778/velociraptors/substitute.png

Haha, I saw your original post had somewhat be changed to not include the perm China alliance... although erasing history and insisting China was never an ally would be pretty true to Soviet propaganda. ;)

And also true to the Sino-Soviet split.

Brucha

Dec 23, 2007, 01:42 AM

As of 1770 AD, I was in the process of researching Flight and was preparing for my air war against England. The only reason for this war was the fact that London was (and was about to overtake me and go into first place) my single city cultural rival to date. My plan was simple - bomb London into the ground!

There was not much action while I waited to complete Flight - once I got it, I started to crank out as many bombers as I could and sent them to Copenhagen in Scandinavia. I am not even bothering to build Fighters since no one else has Flight yet. The war with France was still on-going but Germany was making no attempts to attack Paris, much to my ire.

England must have detected my build-up and decided to make an alliance with Japan in 1780 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/mpp1780ad.jpg

in 1786 AD, I checked out England to see what I was facing:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/england1786ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/england1786adparttwo.jpg

Definitely not much to be facing, even if I decided to conduct a full-fledged invasion of the British Isles. The English naval forces had even been reduced to only four man-of-wars! I won't have to worry about a large naval war with England then. I also had just completed building my sixth army and was in the process of building my seventh. With seven armies I really feel comfortable militarily to be able to defeat any of my neighbors.

Well, to keep with my original plans for the game, I sucked my pride down and made an alliance with China:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/chinesealliance1788ad.jpg

Wow, I had to gift both Steel AND Scietific Method just to get the Alliance. This MPP just had better last, that's all I have to say.

On another note, I had been trying to anger England enough to declare war on me, but to no avail. I tried everything I could think of: I demanded tributes, tried spy missions, entered their territory and parked units, and spent alot of money needlessly. Nothing I did would get the English to declare war. By 1788 AD, my attempts had proved futile, so just declared war myself:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/declarewar1788ad.jpg

China, my 'glorious' ally, immediately declared war on both of my current enemies:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/chinadeclareswar1788adparttwo.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/chinadeclareswar1788ad.jpg

Naturally, Japan, England's ally, fulfilled its pact and declared war on me:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/japanesedeclarewar1788ad.jpg

Following the obligatory letters sent back and forth to various embassies, I sent my first wave of bombers from Copenhagen, 7 in all, over the skies of London. My bombers actually prove to be not quite up to snuff, and managed to only destroy London's Stock Exchange that turn.

I also unleashed my fleet of cruisers from Trondheim to begin bombarding the English coastline.

At first, there was no response from the English to my attacks, and they didn't even send out their man-of-wars to attack my cruisers or even my Scandinavian coastline or cities. All the better, I say.

The following turn, 1790 AD, I release my second wave of bombers against London, managing to destroy the city's Barracks and killing 2 citizens. A transport also reaches the English coast from Trondheim, and drops off 6 Cossacks just south of York. As soon as they are ashore, an English Cavalry from york pops out and immediately kills one of the Cossacks. I had only shipped the cossacks to England to tear up infrastructure that my cruisers could not reach - I really had no desire to conquer the British Isles.

However, for now, that is the only offensive the English takes and in 1792 AD, my bombers destroy London's harbour. By now I am bombing London with 11 bombers, but this is going to take awhile to complete the destruction of the city.

Japan decides to declare war on my 'alley' China during this time:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/japandeclareswar1792ad.jpg

This does not bother me in the slightest - in fact I welcomed it as I hoped that Japan might be able to damage China a bit - also, Japan would have to go through China first just to get to me...

My on-going bombing campaign against London is slow, but in 1794 AD, I am able to destroy London's Temple and kill 2 citizens. I also move up my 5 Cossacks that had landed near York to London and attack the city. I didn;t want to take the city, but alot of my bombers were striking the city's garrisoned units and not improvements. The first Cossack kills 2 riflemen, the next also kills 2 riflemen and promoted to elite. The 3rd Cossack kills a conscript rifleman but is himself killed by a conscript rifleman. The next Cossack kills another conscript rifleman but is killed in return. My last Cossack killa a regular rifleman but is killed by a 1 hp vet rifleman.

In response, English troops, a cavalry, 2 longbowmen and 2 riflemen, counter-attack out of York, destroying my last 2 Cossack outside of London.

In 1796 AD, I divert some of my bombers out of Copenhagen from destroying London to killing the units from York that killed my Cossacks. My other bombers continue their missions over London that turn, destroying London's Marketplace and Library.

Here's am image of London as of 1796 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/england1796ad.jpg

England's navy has yet to show itself and my cruisers have destroyed a good deal of England's infrastructure.

The turn ends with notices of the expansion of the current war:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/greecedeclareswar1796ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/japandeclareswar1792ad.jpg

And, of course, this message:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/traitorouschina1796ad.jpg

I just KNEW that China would do something like this to me!

I also unload four Cossacks recently sent from Trondheim and land outside of London.

The next turn, 1798 AD, my bombing raid finally makes some good success. I manage to destroy London's Bank, Cathedral, University, Colesseum and Factory - all in a single turn!

Maybe it was China being a traitorous snake that put me in a foul mood, or just the fact that I was tired to playing nice since I stopped my military expansion. I had checked on London to see the damage wrought after this turn's bombing raid to find this:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/london1798ad.jpg

Sooo, I managed not only to destroy all of London's improvements but also all its garrison. Oh well, I decide that its time that London should be erased from the Earth:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/razelondon1798ad.jpg

I don't even care how the rest of the world takes this...true Soviet-style tactics of scorched earth strategy.

My play ends with a quick check of my current standings:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/standings1798ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/standings1798adparttwo.jpg

Hmm, Delhi is now my single city cultural rival once again! Not to worry, though, I have 5 Cossack armies along the Indian border near Delhi and I can shift my bomber fleet in a single turn to be within striking range of the city. The Iroqouis are still my overall rival, but my approval rating is at 91% ?!?!? I really need to start planning an invasion of North America, starting with capturing a city in Greenland first, to use as a jumping off point to the Americas. But I would like to wait until I can build carriers so I can bring aloong bombers in my attack on the Iroquois.

Quintillus

Dec 23, 2007, 06:53 AM

The wonder, the wonder, the......noooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You destroyed three Wonders of the World!!!!!!!

[/Age of Empires II reference]

Well-told section. I'm impressed that you signed the alliance with China for so high a price. Looks like the era of peaceful expansion is over now. The spectre of communsim is haunting the world.

Arkatsson

Dec 23, 2007, 08:50 PM

Comrade, you make all of Civ Communism proud, I salute you! To be honest I'm very socialist and not Communist but the Soviet anthem of '45 was very kickass and the Soviets were kickass. Great story too, it has me hooked, very well story telling, love the screenshots, its epic.

Brucha

Dec 26, 2007, 01:39 AM

With the destruction of London, I have no reason for my continued campaign against the English. The loss of London, and the general razing of England's infrastructure, has removed England as a threat for some time.

In 1800 AD, I shifted the bulk of my bomber force (21 bombers in all) from its bombing campaign in Copenhagen to Persepolis on the Indian border far to the south in the Middle East. My general plans for Delhi, the Indian capitol, is basically the same as the fate of London - utter annihilation of the city. I also increase the size of my forces along the Indian border in the Middle East in preparation for the up-coming attack.

My ability to form and keep strong alliances in the game has proven to be quite difficult. In 1800 AD, my alliance with Germany expires, and the Germans will neither renew it nor sign a MPP, no matter what I offered.

While preparing for the invasion, England begs for a peace treaty to end hostilities with Russia - feeling generous, I agree:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/peace1802ad.jpg

My "ally" China, meanwhile, is still at war with France, and has even begun attacking Paris for several turns. In one turn alone, a pair of French musketmen defeated 5 Chinese cavalry! However, the relentless Chinese attacks eventually wear the French down and Paris falls:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/chinacapturesparis1802ad.jpg

With the capture of Paris, France is out of the game:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/frenchdestroyed1802ad.jpg

My attempts to force India to declare war proved much easier than England. In my first attempt, in 1804 AD, to place a spy in Delhi grants the response I wanted:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/spycaught1804ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/war1804ad.jpg

China, at least, holds up our alliance and joins in the war:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/war1804adparttwo.jpg

Naturally, all this diplomatic activity brings in Carthage into the fray:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/warcarthage1804ad.jpg

This works out perfectly for me. Carthage has a single city in Greenland, Leptis Minor, that would be a great jumping off point for attacks on the Iroquois. Well, on to the invasion of India!

As this is an invasion of destruction and not one of occupation, I decide to use a smaller force than expected. In all, I cross the Indian border with 7 Cossack armies (each having four units), 3 Infantry, 6 Artillery and 12 Cossacks. My main strength will be my airforce, consisting of 2 fighters (mainly for recon) and 25 bombers.

I unleash my entire bomber force onto Delhi in 1804 AD; they manage to to damage a good number of the city's garrisoned units and destroys the Stock Exchange. My ground troops targets India's infrastructure, ripping up all improvements they could reach.

At the same time, an invasion force consisting of 9 cruisers, 3 transports and 12 Cossacks set sail from Trondheim bound for Leptis Minor in Greenland.

India proved to be a tough opponent when she counter-attacks at the end of the turn with a wave of cavalry and infantry. I end up losing 10 Cossacks and the Indians suffer the loss of only a single cavalry. My Cossacks are beginning to reach the end of their usefulness, me thinks...

The following turn, 1806 AD, I am able to exact some revenge for the wholesale slaughter of my loyal, if somewhat antiquated, Cossacks. I first divert some of my bombers stationed in Persepolis to destroy the counter-attacking Indian forces aroudn Delhi, then mop up with some newly-arrived Cossacks from the Mother-land. In all, I eliminate 8 Cavalry and 4 infantry, losing a further 2 Cossacks in the process.

The glorious (no sarcasm intended actually) Soviet airforce continues its campaign over Delhi the same turn, damaging more garrisoning units, killing 2 citizens and destroying Delhi's Courthouse.

India, after only two turns, has taken alot of damage:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/india1806ad.jpg

All the tiles inside India's borders had been worked with rails - every single tile! But my Cossacks and armies made short work of the improvements.

At the turn's end, India tries a half-hearted attempt to invade Russia near Konigsberg - with a total of 2 guerillas and an infantry. Yet, my Cossacks are proving more and more that their usefulness have now eclipsed. My first 3 attacking Cossacks against the guerillas are each red-lined without killing anything. My fourth attacking Cossack kills one of the guerillas but is himself red-lined. The same happens to the next Cossack. Finally, my last Cossack kills the Indian infantry. God, I cannot wait to get Tanks...

1808 AD sees my continued assault on the hapless Indians when the Soveit airforce destroys Delhi's Police Station, Granary, Temple and Marketplace. I feel the time is right for the ground assault to begin on the city.

The assault on Delhi begins with a bombardment by my artillery to further soften up the Indian garrison. Army Yermenko opens the attacks by killing 3 infantry, and is reduced to 9 hp out of 17 hp. Army Konev kills 2 infantry but is reduced to 5 hp out of 18 hp. Army Vetutin kills 2 infantry but is reduced to 7 hp out of 17 hp. Finally, Army Popov kills the last remaining cavalry (and only loses 3 hp out of 18hp) and captures the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/delhicaptured1808ad.jpg

Of course, Delhi does not survive the pillaging of the capitol:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/delhidestroyed1808ad.jpg

With the loss of Delhi, the Indians are drastically weakened and they are not even able to form any sort of counter-attacks. With my mission accomplished, I withdraw my ground forced back to the Russian border and unleash my airforce on further destroying India's infrastructure even more.

In 1810 AD, Sumeria parked a lone cavalry inside Alesia - naturally when I demand for them to withdraw, the Sumerians declare war:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/war1810ad.jpg

However, they try no attempts at invading me....why declare war then? However, I have plans for the Sumerians, as I can use the war as an excuse to build a city in their territory to use as the Suez Canal:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/suezcanal1812ad.jpg

I must have to wait for the Chinese units to move off that fortress...

The same turn, my invasion fleet reaches Leptis Minor - I check the city and find this:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/leptisminor1810ad.jpg

Oh, not a problem at all, the city will be mine. My Cossacks make a landing next to the city and the follwing turn, 1812 AD, attack. A single elite Cossack kills both Numidian Mercs and captures the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/leptisminorcaptured1812ad.jpg

Here's the standings as of 1816 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standings1816ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standings1816adparttwo.jpg

Entremont is my new single city cultural rival, but I don't think I have to worry about them!

I have come away from the war with India with one thought - my strategy of rampaging my enemies works just fine! Soviet glory needs not expansion! However, I am worried of my own Cultural scores...I have to find a way to slow the growth of my own cultural score so I don't end the game by a Cultural victory. I have built nothing above Temples, but the sheer number of Wonders that I have built is increasing my score.

China is also beginning to worry me. She is getting stronger and stronger and my alliance with her is tenuos at best. I need to go to war with the Iroquois soon (now that I have captured Leptis Minor), so the possibility of being backstabbed by the Chinese is in the forefront of my mind.

ChaosArbiter

Dec 26, 2007, 09:09 AM

You're razing Indian cities, yes? Make sure you get settlers to replace all their territory - there are 4 luxuries there, if nothing else.

Marsden

Dec 26, 2007, 09:45 AM

If you mobilize it cuts your culture per turn in half.

Do you mean 20k? Because you won't win 100k with another civ having more than half of yours. The Iroquois are only just behind you in overall culture.

Brucha

Dec 26, 2007, 03:46 PM

You're razing Indian cities, yes? Make sure you get settlers to replace all their territory - there are 4 luxuries there, if nothing else.

I am not altogether sure if I am going to settle the region. I have no problems with citizen happiness and trading with other civs is pretty much not an option because most do not have any money. It would be more fun to watch the other civs fight over the scraps left after Delhi's destruction.

If you mobilize it cuts your culture per turn in half.

Do you mean 20k? Because you won't win 100k with another civ having more than half of yours. The Iroquois are only just behind you in overall culture.

Yea I was refering to 20k. I am at 8,000 single city cultural score and still have nearly 300 turns left in the game. I wish that I could destroy my own Wonders in Moscow...

Marsden

Dec 27, 2007, 07:38 AM

I wish that I could destroy my own Wonders in Moscow...

Well, you can by abandoning Moscow. I don't know if it's a good idea, but it can be done.

Quintillus

Dec 27, 2007, 07:49 AM

ChaosArbiter

Dec 27, 2007, 08:35 AM

Well, if you do have 4 extra luxuries lying around, maybe you can use them to gain alliances ...

vorlon_mi

Dec 27, 2007, 12:20 PM

Maybe just sell the Temple/Library/University? Even if you rebuild them they won't get as much culture.

That's a good idea. The temple and library are old, so they will have their cpt doubled. Sell both, and rebuild the library for the science multiplier. Don't know if you need the temple in Moscow for happiness, esp. since you have switched to Communism for the balance of the game.

Brucha

Dec 27, 2007, 10:24 PM

Nice empire - 41 million Soviet citizens and 1500 megatons production.

You may have to emulate the Cultural Revolution in China, but abandoning Moscow is a painful way to do it. Maybe just sell the Temple/Library/University? Even if you rebuild them they won't get as much culture.

Can't be a good sign that your score is 1991, though. Not a good number for the Soviet Union at all.

That's a good idea. The temple and library are old, so they will have their cpt doubled. Sell both, and rebuild the library for the science multiplier. Don't know if you need the temple in Moscow for happiness, esp. since you have switched to Communism for the balance of the game.

I think that I agree with both of you. I really don't need my temple and library in Moscow at all. Beyond those two, I only have my wonders that are putting out a good deal of Culture each turn.

I don't think that I'll be able to keep my alliance with China, despite my original restrictions for my game. Just getting the first MPP recently was costly, and China keeps forming an embargo against me, even though their attitude is Polite! I think the moment the MPP runs out they won't renew it at all. I have somehow managed not to spark a war with China, but its probably just a matter of time before they attack me...

What exactly do you mean, Quintillus, about emulating the Cultural Revolution in China?

Marsden

Dec 28, 2007, 08:46 AM

Well, you do have an MPP now, just declare war on China's Embargo partner and then if they attack China will declare war on them and cancel the embargo. You seem strong enough to take on just about the whole world, start formenting some war. Maybe ally agaisnt the Iroquois with all the other powers in the Americas, then let them fight it out.

vorlon_mi

Dec 29, 2007, 11:50 AM

In RL China, Chairman Mao put the country through a rather harrowing time
after the Communists came to power. He sent intellectuals (doctors, lawyers,
university professors) out to work in the farm fields, and pretty much squelched
the cultural improvements in the country. "Old" thinking was replaced with
"new" revolutionary thinking, and lots of people suffered.

By selling some of the buildings which produce culture, you would be
emulating Mao's "Cultural Revolution" ... :)

Brucha

Jan 05, 2008, 12:14 AM

AArrg! Finally the holidays are over for at least another year. During the holidays, I haven't had alot of time to play, as well as being undecided as where to go in the game.

At the end of my last action report, my war with India had wound down following the destruction of Delhi, the Indian capitol, and I had managed to gain a foothold in the Americas by capturing Leptis Minor in Greenland.

I was at a loss as what direction to go in the game. In the end, I decided to sit back for a while, and let my neighbors fight over the territory opened up by the razing of Delhi. However, what occured was not what I expected.

I also have to apologize that this action report is very light on screenshots. much of the action was obscured by fog of war and I had turn after turn of no combat or such.

Between 1810 AD and 1820 AD, a major world war began to develop. America became the target of a large alliance all over the world, including: Arabia, the Iroquois, India, Korea, Japan, the Zulus, Greece, the Mayans, and the Aztecs. With no units in the Americas, it was impossible for me to keep tabs on the war. What I did do was gift Replacement Parts to America to try to keep her afloat and watch the world map for changes.

On the other hand, my ally, China, declared war with nearly everyone in Europe and Asia, naturally pulling me into war via our MPP. By 1820 AD, China (and thus myself also) was at war with Spain, Portugal, Germany, Greece, Arabia, Sumeria, Japan and Carthage.

Between 1815 AD and 1820 AD, I sat back watching the war with China, hoping that she would get a bloody nose from being at war with so many civs at once. With Paris in Chinese hands, most of the action revolved around that area, leaving only an occasional attack into Russian territory.

Somehow, China managed to hold onto Paris, despite Spain and Germany's best efforts to take the city. For myself, I held off from attacking in support of China, and defended my borders from the occasional attack. I did this in hopes that either Spain or Germany would capture Paris from China, but it never happened. At least by not attacking, I didn't weaken them and therefore prevented China from taking their cities.

In 1820 AD, I founded Chelyabinsk:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/foundchelyabinsk1820ad.jpg

The Russian version of the Suez Canal! This will allow me to move naval forces much quicker than having to all the way around Africa.

1824 AD turned out to be a busy turn for once. I first kicked off Russia's Cultural Revolution by destroying Moscow's temple and library, hoping to slow down my single city Cultural score.

Meanwhile, the on-going war that China sparked was getting old. No matter what I would do, I could not get peace with Europe. When I went to war with Germany because of my MPP with China, I was forced to break a ROp with the Germans. this really pissed the other civs off and ruined my rep quite a bit. I wasn't even invading anyone and still, I could not get peace. A large number of my military was camped out in the Middle East guarding against the Indians, Sumerians and Arabians:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/arabia1824ad.jpg

By capturing Damascus and Mecca, I could free up a good portion of my military which were doing little more than border-guard duty.

I opted not to use my airforce in this attack, as I wanted to capture the cities relatively intact, especially harbours and marketplaces. I attacked Damascus first, with my veteran Cossack army, Rodimtsev, who kills 2 pikemen. An elite Cossack kills a pikeman, followed by a veteran Cossack who is red-lined by a pikeman. Another veteran cossack is killed by a pikeman. Finally, I attack with veteran army Konev, who kills 2 pikemen and takes the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/damascusfalls1824ad.jpg

Mecca is next. Veteran army Popov attacks, killing 3 pikemen, then veteran army Malinovsky kills the last remaining 2 pikemen and captures the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/meccafalls1824ad.jpg

Well, that was easy enough! The ends with the completion of another wonder for Moscow:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/hooverdam1824ad.jpg

China, meanwhile, was hammering on India, leaving my border with India very quiet.

Over the next couple of turns, there is little to report, Spain tried a half-hearted attack on my European border, but I easily broke up the attack using bombers and a couple of cossacks.

In 1832 AD, India finally tries an attack against me along our mutual border. The attack, consisting of only 9 infantry, is easily broken up by my airforce alone, not even needed ground units to mop up.

The war sparked by China has been raging now for some 12+ turns with no end in sight. I still cannot get peace with anyone, but China's attitude with me has remained Gracious despite the fact that i haven't aided her in the war. The war seems to be a stalemate; China has yet to capture any cities and still is in control of Paris, so it appears that the civs involved are simply chewing up each others military forces.

I am a couple of turns awat from completing Motorized Transport - once I can build tanks, I plan on retiring my Cossack armies and replace them with tank armies. However, this will take quite a while to do so, therefore I will replace the armies one by one over many turns.

Quintillus

Jan 05, 2008, 01:10 AM

How's the war in America? Are the Iroquois expanding? Surely there's something to report? We must know if the coalition is succeeding or not!

I wouldn't retire the Cossack Armies. Even in the late Industrial and early Modern Age they'll be powerful enough to be useful, and with 4 movement points they might come in quite handy when you need another unit to get to a far away area quickly. Non-army Cossacks may have to be disbanded for unit support reasons, but the army ones are worth their weight in silver.

I'm not sure you'll want more Wonders in Moscow, either - that only makes it closer to a Cultural Victory and at this point it's still too early to tell how much of a danger that really is. There ought to be some other decent location in a Communist empire.

agonistes

Jan 05, 2008, 05:32 PM

China is really getting on my nerves. I really want the Chinese to just declare war so I can destroy them.

The session ends on a really good note when one of my sources of oil (near the Black Sea) depletes.

Didn't you originally plan to maintain China as a partner and ally throughout the entire game no matter what?

Its stuff like this that makes you one of the finer story tellers, Brucha. Keep up the good stuff!
:)

Brucha

Jan 06, 2008, 02:22 AM

I will officially apologize for the terrible action post that I posted above right now. I hadn't had the time to post of late and sort of hurried up and did the post last night without any real content. I fully admit how lousy of a post it was. Oh well. I definitely left out a great deal in the report, especially with the war against America. Yet, we Soviets might re-write history to our liking, but we re-write it with LOTS of detail!

So, to make up for it, I played a couple more turns today so that I could more fully explain the events going on better and with more clarity.

Let's start off with worldly events:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/worldmap1832ad.jpg

America (circled in light blue) has had the snot beaten out of it by the Iroquois. They still control Washington DC and Atlanta, the city next to DC, but its other surviving cities are isolated and surrounded. The north of North America is still contested between America, the Mayans (yes the Mayans in the Arctic - they are the brown in that areas) and the Iroquois. The Iroquois are very busy gobbling up almost all of North America, and I don't think that America will survive too long at this rate. And after America I believe that the Mayans will be next.

The Incas have come to dominate South America, bottling up Byzantine in the south and have begun to invade Maya to the north, and recently captured the southern-most city in Centrla America from the Mayans.

China has gained alot of territory, including Paris (circled in red on the map), but her cities are not connected. That is good news because that makes it difficult to defend so many isolated cities. yes, I know, China is my life-long ally for the game, but I just don't like them very much.

Spain, which has three core cities in Europe) has vainly tried to capture Paris but has been unable to do so.

India is a former shadow of itself - though it looks like India is still strong, it is deceptive. Since I destroyed Delhi, India has taken a nose-dive in the game

Amazingly, Zulu has made no efforts at expansion since its war long ago against China and her allies. When they were exganged in their expansion long ago, I expected the Zulus to eventually sweep through Africa, but they have become peace-loving of late.

More surprising is Egypt - somehow, Egypt has not been at war with anyone that I know of the whole game. Egypt has a healthy core of cities and seems to be able to avoid being attacked - I need to find out their secret.

Russia has done quite well as you can see by the world map, thank you very much! The city circled in dark blue in Africa is Najran, my depot for Russia's only supply of Rubber. Amazingly, though I have been at war for 15 or so turns, I never really suffered any serious attacks against the city. This is good, because it is my only source of Rubber...just to be safe though, I have kept in heavily garrsioned, with infantry, cossacks, a couple of frigates, 2 cruisers, and a number of bombers and fighters. It is a lonely city in a foreign land, far from home...without it I cannot have any modern army at all.

To the north, on Greenland (and also circled in dark blue) is Leptis Minor, my outpost in the Americas. I share Greenland with America, the Iroquois and the Dutch, though since the city's capture, I have not suffered any attacks. Again, just to be safe, I have also heavily garrisoned the city, including a large cruiser fleet numbering 9 ships in all.

The city is built in tundra with a 3 population so it will never amount to much - thats ok because it is nothing more than a military outpost for an attack into North America. I have trying to build an airport so I can fly in ground troops, but I started it with a build time of 50 turns and still have something like 20 turns left...I really need that Airport!

Here's the world standings as of 1832 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standings1832ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standings1832adparttwo.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standings1832adpartthree.jpg

I have nothing to fear anymore from a rival for single city culture (except Moscow of course - and that city is mine). The most important score for me to watch is the Histograph score since this is the only victory that I am going for.

Time for some action...

China seems hell-bent upon world domination, even though I sent them a memo on the victory conditions for the game. I guess they are playing from a seperate play-book. I am really regretting that China captured Paris because this has given them a springboard to attack the rest of Europe from within.

China had declared war on most of Europe (except the Dutch), dragging me into China's war-mongering. Not wanting to allow China to swallow up Europe, I held back from attacking Europe, hoping that the civs in Europe would overwhelm Paris and take it back. This was not to happen. In fact, China decided it was time to get some prime ocean-front property in Italy by capturing Rome in 1832 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/chinacapturesrome1832ad.jpg

With Rome's last city taken, Rome is defeated completely:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/romansdestroyed1832ad.jpg

Great, now China has TWO cities in Europe. The problem is that, even though I have not attacked, Spain (who I figure had the best chance to take Paris) has squandered alot of troops attacking me instead. The same goes for Germany. And, of course, no one wants a peace treaty with me - that's how much I am disliked.

With the fall of Rome (seems fitting somehow), I decided that I needed to get peace with Europe at any cost. As long as Europe wastes its forces attacking me, they can never kick China out.

I started out with England. I hoped to bomb England to the bargaining table - hell, Nixon thought it would work on the Viet Cong and North Vietnam, maybe it'll work for me...

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/england1834ad.jpg

In 1834 AD, I began a bombing campaign from bases in Scandinavia against York, the England capitol. Amazingly enough, since I destroyed London, England has made no attempt to resettle southern England which is still a wasteland of craters. In all, I send a force of 6 bombers over York, killing 2 citizens, damaged some of the garrison troops and destroy its Barracks.

Since that seemed like fun, I decided to subject some other of my enemies to this barrage of airpower, since I am still the only civ with airpower that I know of. India gets a bombardment on its infrastructure, tearing up tiles and creating crates all around. Kind of pretty actually.

Germany is not left out either. The Germans have really ticked me off - I sincerely tried to cement good relations with them earlier only to be forced to break my ROP with them because of my MPP with China. Can't Europe and Russia just get along? I guess not, so I bomb Berlin instead, damaging a couple of units and killing 2 citizens.

After a turn of heavy bombing, Europe is still not ready for peace, so the next turn, 1836 AD, I continued the bombing campaign. York loses its harbour, granary and another citizen. India's countryside looks more and more like the surface of the Moon and Berlin loses it barracks and a citizen.

However, I see that America is getting smeared by the Iroquois that same turn when both Washington DC and Atlanta fall. I do the only thing that I can do to help out the Americans - I gift them all of my techs, right up to Motorized transport in hopes that they can stave off their inevitable destruction at the hands of the Iroquois. In all, I gave the Americans 8 techs in all, plus a sum of 1,000 gold. I never thought that, during this game, Soviet Russia would be trying to help America from certain destruction.

By 1838 AD, my bombing campaign seemed to work as Germany, England, Spain and India all accept peace treaties with me. Thanks Nixon!

I also decide to end the on-going war with Arabia the only way I know how - by capturing their last city, Medina:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/arabia1838ad.jpg

They can't be at war with me if they are destroyed, I figure. I open up with heavy bombing from Najran, and succeed in killing all but one defending unit. A single Cossack is able to kill the last defending pikeman and captures the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/capturemedina1838ad.jpg

I naturally do the most logical thing - raze the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/arabiadestroyed1838ad.jpg

No more Arabia! Let everyone else fight over who gets to build a city there.

In other news, America tried vainly to regain some of its glory by attacking from its only relatively strong point - in Greenland:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/america1840ad.jpg

However, archers and spearmen are not going to defeat cavalry and infantry. America tries two attacks on Goigoven but are easily defeated.

Quintillus

Jan 06, 2008, 02:43 AM

Brucha

Jan 06, 2008, 03:08 AM

:eek: You gifted all your techs to America? I sure hope they don't decide to pawn them off to everyone else for gold/alliances. Next thing you know the Inca will have Tanks, and then China, and then the Iroquois themselves...this has a very unsettling potential for a domino effect.

I'm pretty conservative with tech trading, maybe it's not that likely, but still, it is possible...'course you could just bomb anyone who gets a Tank back to the Moon Stone Age before they do any damage.

Nice job getting peace in Europe. The Old World still looks locked up no matter what - anyone who threatens the balance you can flatten without a few turns.

Yea, gifting America is a risky move, but they are at war with 12 civs right now. I don't think that anyone will trade with them. Smaller civs have nothing to offer for a tech. Inca, China and Iroquois are equal to me in techs so I am not worried about that. My hope is the domino effect actually - with everyone at the same tech level maybe the smaller and weaker civs can hold out against the larger ones. They might even be able to bloody the bigger civs for a change.

I am glad that I got peace with Europe - I can now try to help them out against China in the background. China is poised to sweep through Europe if I am not careful.

Lapoleon

Jan 06, 2008, 07:09 AM

agonistes

Jan 06, 2008, 10:15 AM

By 1838 AD, my bombing campaign seemed to work as Germany, England, Spain and India all accept peace treaties with me. Thanks Nixon!

:D

Someone needs to collect these tales and send them off to a publisher. I'd love to have a hardcover.

Brucha, I happen to be playing a similar game on the same map (as Germany). I was looking at the map the other night, and noticed there are only three instances of uranium. Its possible I edited the map and forgot, but its something to consider.

[edit]: No, dang it, sorry, I'm on Marla's map.

Brucha

Jan 07, 2008, 11:07 PM

This is a pretty amazing game, too bad you're going to go for the histograph victory. I would really like to see a showdown between Sovjet Russia and the dirty capitalist Iroquois pig-dogs. Any chance for a savegame?

Actually, I will eventually be going to war with the Iroquois in the Americas. That's the entire reason for capturing Leptis Minor in Greenland. I already have the first of my carriers parked off the coast of Greenland right now, aling with 9 cruisers and a battleship. I don't plan on a full-fledged invasion of North America, but more like what I did to England, a campaign of terror and destruction. I do plan on bombing Iroquois back to the Stone Age though...

megistatos

Jan 08, 2008, 03:47 PM

Brucha

Jan 08, 2008, 03:54 PM

Ha Ha:lol: , funny save. I completely fell for it.

Great story so far. Up the Rus!

Looks like your only real rivals are Iroquois, Zulu and Egypt. Though you're productivity must be way higher. Actually corruption seems tiny. Has it been modified, or is it just because the map is so big?

I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more expansion. How about securing all of what was the USSR by 1918(?), then it's satellites plus Cuba by 1945 perhaps?

Good luck with everything. Thanks.

edit: oh of course, you're in communism hence communal corruption. I didn't realise it was as powerful as it your game shows. Also, I suppose you won't want too much expansion as it will make you're entire empire more corrupt(like in RL!)

Actually the save upload was amistake - I can't seem to upload my saved game file, hmmm?

My corruption is really low, but the game is unmodified. As Communism, I get the Forbidden Palace and Secret Police, so corruption is not a problem for me. As far as expansion, I want to try to continue my expansion to the Pacific but China is right in my way.

megistatos

Jan 08, 2008, 04:09 PM

darski

Jan 09, 2008, 02:43 AM

What a great story and great playing too.

Thanks for a very interesting read.

Brucha

Jan 10, 2008, 02:07 AM

The save actually was at 1840AD, which I think is up to date. For some reason it's link said 150BC. I see you've removed it now anyway.

I really don't think China should be too tough. Once you get a few more tanks that is. I'm no longer sure whether you are still maintaining a permanent alliance with them or not.

Ahhh, ok, at first I thought that my save game upload didn't work. I was lazy and never renamed my save game from my very first save waaaaayyyy back in the game at 150 BC:lol:

As far as China and my alliance, I have been continuing my MPP alliance with them since who knows when. However, I was playing a turn tonight and discovered this:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/china1848ad.jpg

China is a fascist state !?!?!?! :confused: China's perferred gov't is SUPPOSED TO BE COMMUNIST! OK, that's it, I have been putting up with China because they WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MY SOCIALIST BROTHERS-IN-ARMS! :mad: But fascists!?!?! I guess I never noticed that China never chose Communism for their government!

That's it - I know this is going against my rules for this game, but China was supposed to be Communist! I have about 13 turns left in out MPP - after that I am declaring war full-out on China. Soviet Russia cannot be allies with fascists! It's almost like Nazi Germany but its the Chinese!

For simple Soviet principles, I might not even wait for the MPP to expire. China is going down, hard! Craters all around and lots of razed cities! This is not going to be a war of expansion, but of destruction! I am going to draw all my armies and airforce off to field against China. My other forces can easily defend my borders in Europe and the Middle East while I deal with China. heck, China doesn't even have aircraft yet.

This maybe a wrong choice, since I laid down ground rules for this game - let me know everyone! Should I go ahead and attack fascist China ? I just don't think that I can no longer stay allied with China after this revelation.

What a great story and great playing too.

Thanks for a very interesting read.

Thanks! :) I appreciate the encouragement and I'm glad that people are enjoying the game. I don't seem to get as many responses as other stories on the forum, so I am always unsure how entertaining this story is to people.

Quintillus

Jan 10, 2008, 04:34 AM

You certainly seem determined enough to beat those Fascists; I say go for it. The Soviet determination to crush their enemies is no doubt there. You're right that the Soviets shouldn't be allies with Fascist pigs!

You might want to rebuild the areas you conquer after annihilating the Chinese, though - I noticed your military support costs are getting somewhat high.

My first thought upon seeing the screenshot was "wow, they have 26 Spearmen!" So I guess I'd be cautious with the Tanks - might want to keep the Cossacks nearby for when you have to fight Spearmen!

Marsden

Jan 10, 2008, 07:26 AM

Too bad you couldn't just subvert their government and install a communist regime. But, that's not civ.

agonistes

Jan 10, 2008, 08:31 AM

Thanks! I appreciate the encouragement and I'm glad that people are enjoying the game. I don't seem to get as many responses as other stories on the forum, so I am always unsure how entertaining this story is to people.

Ah, Brucha, your stories are great! No worries! You, Quint, and TheRat are/were my inspiration! Keep up the good work.
:)

Daniel Khan

Jan 10, 2008, 10:42 AM

Strike, liberated workers, strike the fascist pig dogs while they lie in their opulent beds of decadence!

darski

Jan 10, 2008, 10:45 AM

Strike, liberated workers, strike the fascist pig dogs while they lie in their opulent beds of decadence!

yeah... what he said!!!

:lol:

ChaosArbiter

Jan 10, 2008, 11:55 AM

Brucha

Jan 10, 2008, 02:08 PM

*IF* you decide to wait until the MPP runs out (to try and keep your rep from sinking any further), I'd double-check to see if they're still Fascist. That said, I think Mother Russia has learned that her enemies (particularly fascist/dictatorial ones) are not to be trusted regardless of treaties. Destroy the foul fascist forces threatening the free (Communist) world!

I agree - I am not going to wait for the Chinese MPP to expire before attacking. My rep is pretty much shot anyways in the game. I will need a turn or two to get my units and airforce into position first, then time for some fun! I am predicting that China falls within 4 turns after my initial attack. This will probably mean world war with everyone though...

However, this will also allow me to expand to the historical Soviet Russia boundaries! :goodjob:

darski

Jan 10, 2008, 02:13 PM

I am very sure that if you checked the stacks at the Moscow city library you will discover that a previously little known soothsayer had foretold that Mother Russia would be required to quell the fascist pig Chinese after you had done everything in your power to bring them into the communist fold. Some people just cannot be brought to civility and honour requires that you act now. :lol:

Brucha

Jan 10, 2008, 07:43 PM

I have made the ultimate decision finally - to attack China once and for all. The reasons are too numerous to mention, but the main one is my discovery that China is a fascist government and not communist. This alone makes the game choice to being allied with China moot now. So, war is on the horizon.

However, this is going to be a major operation, so I needed a couple of turns to prepare, get my forces into position, and take care of some minor things before launching my huge attack.

As of 1840 AD, the war with Europe and the Middle East had wound down, leaving me at war with Portugal and Sumeria, which didn't amount to much action.

At least someone in Europe had the guts to stand up to China with some success, when Portugal captured Rome from China in 1840 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/fallofrome1840ad.jpg

I just hope that they can hold it. I spied on the city and found out it was held by only a single medieval infantry.

I really wanted to secure peace with both portugal and Sumeria before my attack on China, but neither would call off the hostilities. I could not do much to Portugal without sweeping through all of Europe, but Sumeria was another matter.

My city of Chelyabinsk created a very nice bottle neck, giving me a great position for defence, as well as being right next door to the Sumerian capitol of Sumer.

Naturally, I do the proper thing - begin bombing Sumer. With a fleet of 19 bombers, I manage to crater the Sumerian landscape, destroy the city's barracks, temple, marketplace, kill 3 citizens and eliminate the city's garrison of 4 riflemen and 1 longbowman:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/bombingofsumer1842ad.jpg

With no one to stop my advance into the city, I give my very first newly-built tank army, Popov, the distinction of capturing the city and razing it to the ground:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/sumercaptured1842ad.jpg

Yet, with the loss of yet another of their capitols, Sumeria refuses to come to the peace table. oh well, at least I don't border them any longer.

The next couple of turns are peaceful, but I am worried about America; they are down to their last two cities in Greenland:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/americaslastcities1846ad.jpg

Beyond declaring war on the Iroquois, I fear that I am seeing the last days of America...

Of course, Portugal proved to not be up to snuff with holding onto Rome, when China retakes it in 1846 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/romefalls1846ad.jpg

Meanwhile, I have been shifting my forces for preparation for my attack on China. Here's what I will be facing:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/china1848ad.jpg

And here's the Sino Front as of 1848 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/chinesefront1850ad.jpg

Against China, I have formed 4 fronts:

Beijing Front
11 veteran Cossacks
1 veteran Crusader
3 veteran Infantry
1 elite Cossack
4 veteran Tanks
veteran Tank Army Popov
veteran Tank Army Vatutin
regular Cossack Army Zhukov
15 bombers
2 fighter

Tsingtao Front
4 Artillery
9 veteran Cossacks
1 elite Crusader
4 veteran Crusaders
1 elite Knight
1 elite Longbowman
2 veteran tanks
veteran Cossack Army Konev
veteran Cossack Army Malinovsky
10 bombers
3 fighters

Xinjian Front
1 Artillery
3 veteran Cossacks
3 veteran Crusaders
1 veteran infantry
1 elite Longbowman
veteran Cossack Army Vasilevsky

Tatung Front
6 veteran Cossacks
4 veteran Crusaders
2 elite Longbowmen
3 veteran Tanks
9 Artillery
3 veteran Infantry
1 elite Knight
veteran Cossack Army Yeremenko
4 bombers

I don't have the numerical superiority that I wish I had, though I can look forward to having my aircraft being unopposed by the Chinese. I am going to rely heavily on my armies and airforce in the attack...

I saved my game at the start of 1850 AD, which will be the kick-off to the invasion. Wish me luck!

ChaosArbiter

Jan 10, 2008, 09:59 PM

Destroy the evil Fascists in the name of Mother Russia! Also, what are you going to do about the two European Chinese cities?

Headbanger

Jan 11, 2008, 12:55 AM

Burn them to the ground, of course!

Brucha

Jan 11, 2008, 07:15 PM

Operation Blizzard (Oперация буран) is the codename for the Soviet invasion of China that commenced in 1850 AD. My operational goals for Operation Blizzard is the rapid conquest/destruction of the Sino cities bordering Russia and the capture of what I have called the Tatung Corridor.

As mentioned above, I formed four sperate Fronts for the invasion [note: in the Russian military, army groups are called 'Fronts'], each with a specific objective:

Front Beijing, the largest of the Fronts, was to capture the cities of New Xinjian and Canton. Success in these two cities falling would allow me to march on Beijing, the Sino capitol to the east of Canton.

Front Tsingtao was to capture the city of Tsingtao, while Front Xinjian was to capture the city of Xinjian. The capture of these two cities would effectively cut China in half, north to south, preventing any easy reinforcements to each section.

Front Tatung had three objectives, that being the capture of Uskudar, Tatung and Tientsin. Success here would allow me to march on the Pacific Coast.

Operation Blizzard began with a naval bombing run by a Russian carrier group in the English Channel and supported by a pair of battleships:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/bombingofparis1850ad.jpg

Unfortunately, my airforce does not seem to be performing to its normal level of expertise. They manage to little else to paris than slightly injure 2 garrsioned Chinese infantry.

I start operations with elements from Front Beijing, who attacked New Xinjian. My first veteran Cossack kills an infantry but is reduced to 2 hp. My next veteran Cossack kills an elite cavalry but is himself reduced to 1 hp. the third veteran Cossack is reduced to 1 hp by a spearman. For now, I halted the attack to push for Canton.

Canton bears the brunt of my bombers in the area - 19 bomberes in all. 4 garrisoned units are injured, one infantry is killed along with 2 of Canton's citizens, and its barracks is destroyed. Unfortunately, my forced are unable to reach the city that turn in strength enough to attack that turn:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/bombingofcanton1850ad.jpg

I managed to get two armies right next to the city but they ran out of movement and couldn't attack the same turn.

In the Sino center, the operation was progressing better and as planned. Front Tsingtao began their assualt on the city of Tsingtao with a wave of 10 bombers. The air bombardment injured 3 infantry and killed a fourth one. In addition, the bombers destroyed the city's stock exchange and barracks. My first unit to reach the city is a veteran tank, who kills an Infantry with no hp loss. My veteran Army, Malinovsky, kills a pair of infantry and the remaining defending rifleman - the city falls:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/tsingtaorazed1850ad.jpg

As this is not an invasion of conquest, but of retribution, the city is razed.

Front Xinjian is next. Since Tsingtao fell so easily, I shifted veteran Cossack Army Konev north to attack Xinjiang. Chinese resistance here is tenacious - Army Konev kills only a single infantry and is reduced to 5 hp out of 18 hp. Veteran Army Vasilevsky attacks next, killing the last defending infantry and musketman and captures the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/xinjianrazed1850ad.jpg

Again, I have no plans for conquest in this sector, so the city os razed to the ground.

To the north, Front Tatung manages nothing more than barely crossing the frontier and is unable to attack this turn:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/tatunganduskudar1850ad.jpg

Front Tatung's meager airforce destroyed a pair of infantry along the border but little else.

The Celts, meanwhile, have decided to throw their forces against Chinese-held Paris instead of attacking me - this gives me a nice warm feeling:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/paris1850ad.jpg

Apparently, the news of the invasion has been accepted quite well by the Soviet populace:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/celebration1850ad.jpg

In all, 12 cities have ILTKD!

Amazingly, China's reaction to the invasion was nest to nothing. Near Canton, a Sino Cavalry kills a lone Cossack and near Uskudar a pair of cavalry kills an Infantry and Crusader.

At the end of the turn, Japan contacted me. Just for fun, I asked for a military alliance against China - this is what they wanted for it:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/alliance1852ad.jpg

Well, if they want to become Communist, how can I stop them with a good conscience?

All in all, the initial attack did not go as well as I hoped and I managed to secure only 2 of my four objectives for the first turn. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of Chinese response, but that could very well change next turn.

Brucha

Jan 12, 2008, 12:14 AM

After posting my action report above, I re-read it and noticed several things that I miscalculated.

Take a look at the Russ-Sino front as of 1850 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/sinofront1850ad.jpg

Front Beijing is the largest circle of units in the south, and also my largest concentration of forces for Operation Blizzard. Not only did Front Beijing fail to capture both of its objectives (the cities of New Xinjian and Canton), but I failed to calculate the distance that Canton (and therefore Beijing) was on the Chinese side of the border. At one tile per turn for my infantry and artillery, and 2 tiles per turn for my tanks, it will take my forces 6 and 3 turns respectively to reach Beijing (let alone time to capture its initial objectives).

Initially I was planning on razing both Canton and New Xinjian - I am glad that neither attack succeeded, as I 'll HAVE to occupy Canton just to keep the railroads open for the assualt on Beijing. Without Canton's raillines, there is no way that I can attack Beinjing in force within 3 turns at the earliest. I'll also need Canton to move my bombers forward as they are unable to reach the capitol from Russian territory.

Front Tatung suffers the same problems as above with slowed movement in the Tatung Corridor to the far north. There, my units managed to get no more than 2 tiles across the border and was not able even attack that same turn. With three city objectives, Front Tatung has its work cut out for it if all three cities are to be captured in 4 turns. However, I am planning on occupying the tatung Corridor so that I can reach the historical Russian territory...

Thankfully, Fronts Tsingtao and Xinjian in the center completed their objectives on the first turn. Those two cities were surrounded by Mongol cities, so China is now effectively cut in two. I can remove both Fronts and merge them into Fronts Beijing and Tatung.

China has a large colonial empire in the Asian oceans as well as Australia, but my new alliance with Japan should draw forces away from the mainland to these areas - or at least not allow these cities to reinforce the mainland.

I am also curious of the lack of a Chinese counter-attack following my invasion. The best that I can assume is that their forces are spread out all over the world and are not really concentrated anywhere in force, and tied down to garrison duty. However, I am anticipating alot of conscripts being produced the next couple of turns in Chinese cities...

On the European front, I was glad to see the Celts turn their forces on Chinese-held Paris, as I stripped my borders of extra units for the operation.

Though it may look like I have an overwhelming number of forces, I am garrisioning each city with 2 infantry each - not to mention my garrisons at Leptis Minor and Najran. With 30+ cities, thats over 60+ units used just for garrision duty. It may seem illogical to garrison cities with 2 infantry, I just don't want an invasion force to sneak across the border (or land on the coast) and capture a city defended by a lone infantry.

In all, I managed to only kill perhaps 8 Chinese units during the opening salvo of the invasion. On the other hand, I began switching alot of my cities to building tanks prior to the invasion, and 5 new tanks were shipped to the Beijing Front at the end of the turn. At least 15 of my industrial cities can produce tanks at the rate of 2-3 turns, so I will have a constant reinforcement of 5 or so such reinforcements each turn during the operation.

As far as Chinese-held Paris and Rome, I plan on a continued bombing campaign against both and hope that someone in Europe (it looks like the Celts or Portugal have the best chance) captures them. I really have no desire to capture either city.

So, altogether, Operation Blizzard began less than perfectly. My ability to reach my intial objectives and the effectiveness of China's counter-attack will decide the early outcome of this attack. I am waiting with anticipation for a mass attack by crazed hordes of those 30+ Chinese spearmen...

[EDIT] Who wants to bet that the Iroquois and China form a military alliance with me during Operation Blizzard?

darski

Jan 12, 2008, 12:37 AM

I am waiting with anticipation for a mass attack by crazed hordes of those 30+ Chinese spearmen...

Too funny!!!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

...it may not have been perfect but it was a good plan with reasonable execution.

Brucha

Jan 12, 2008, 02:15 AM

...it may not have been perfect but it was a good plan with reasonable execution.

Thanks for the encouragement! ;) Actually, the results were altogether not that bad. My main fault was not spying on my target cities - I seem to always forget to do that before a large attack. :cry: Heck, I have a spy planted in Beijing so I can spy on Chinese cities even during war...

With my expansion to the east to gain traditional Soviet territory, I am considering of pulling out of the Middle East. It might be fun to try to continue the game with historical Soviet borders and no more. I would lose 10 cities in the region, but they really are not contributing much to Russia beyond money. Besides, my expansion in the east would give me nearly the same number of cities in return.

Plus, I am forced to garrison the Middle East in case of an attack from India. However, to reach historical Russian boundaries, it would require me to invade Germany....

Headbanger

Jan 12, 2008, 02:22 AM

EVen in the game, it's imposible to hold the middleeast.

Brucha

Jan 12, 2008, 02:31 AM

EVen in the game, it's imposible to hold the middleeast.

So you think its a good idea to abandon the Middle east then? I would lose a source of oil and spice, but at least I would shorten my border quite a bit.

Headbanger

Jan 12, 2008, 02:37 AM

I'd say keep it as long as you can. That oil is gonna come in handy, especially if you don't want any facsist pigs going after it.

Brucha

Jan 12, 2008, 03:01 AM

I'd say keep it as long as you can. That oil is gonna come in handy, especially if you don't want any facsist pigs going after it.

The Middle East only gives me 1 oil tile - I know its not realistic, this map does not correctly depict oil sources in the Middle East - its something I noticed after I started the game. Beyond that, I still have 4 other sources of oil elsewhere. I can withdraw, play scorched earth policy and leave nothing for anyone. And it might be fun to see the other civs fight over the Middle East. The only problem is that I would have to vacate the cities, and leave them open for capture with the civs I am at war with right now - especially China. I could always gift the cities away to weak civs...

Headbanger

Jan 12, 2008, 03:14 AM

Have you tried using musical numbers to stop the chinese? It always worked for Bugs Bunny.

megistatos

Jan 12, 2008, 11:13 AM

No no no! Don't abandon the Middle East. I had a look and it's got 4 oil resources(though you have another 2 in Northern Russia.

I'm pretty sure that at times in history, Russia's territory has approached the Middle East, and now you've accomplished conquering the whole lot. If you've got to give it away, can you at least sort out the Isreali-Palestinian problem? Or you could give it to the Byzantines, relocating them approximately to where they really belong.

I think you can get away with not garrisonning cities so heavily. Maybe one infantry in every border city. Then you'd have another big force, which could slowly make up ground in north east Asia(especially with artillery support). Or do you think there's a risk of a civ ROP raping you and capturing an important city? And I suppose the garrisons keep the people quiet.:lol:

Good luck in the Sino-Soviet War!

Headbanger

Jan 12, 2008, 04:45 PM

Russia would have had the middle east historically if the americans hadn't given the taliban money and weapons.

megistatos

Jan 12, 2008, 08:02 PM

Yes, I had Afganistan in mind. Happily in this game the USA has enough of it's own problems to intervene.:lol:

Brucha- are you going to bother capturing all the Arctic islands at some point?

They won't be particularly useful, but technically the are Russian.

Brucha

Jan 13, 2008, 03:31 PM

No no no! Don't abandon the Middle East. I had a look and it's got 4 oil resources(though you have another 2 in Northern Russia.

I think you can get away with not garrisonning cities so heavily. Maybe one infantry in every border city. Then you'd have another big force, which could slowly make up ground in north east Asia(especially with artillery support). Or do you think there's a risk of a civ ROP raping you and capturing an important city? And I suppose the garrisons keep the people quiet.:lol:

Wow you are right about the 4 oils! I guess I only saw one. Well, I guess I'll keep the Middle East if for no other reason than to deny the oil to the others. I just hate having to keep a substantial garrison to guard against attacks, especially from India.

As far as my 2-unit garrisons in my cities, I indeed am worried about ROP rape,a s well as the problems I have had during the game with other civs crossing my territory at their leisure. I would hate to lose a couple of cities this way...

Brucha- are you going to bother capturing all the Arctic islands at some point?

They won't be particularly useful, but technically the are Russian.

I was actually planning to take these islands after the current Russo-Sino War. They are currently held by the Scandinavians, but several of them are 1-tile islands, so I currently building a small invasion force of marines for this purpose.

Brucha

Jan 15, 2008, 01:50 AM

I believe that Operation Blizzard has succeeded in catching the Chinese off-guard and by surprise. Certainly, I don't think that China (whose attitude with me was "Polite" before the attack, probably not so "Polite" no though)Though I failed to obtain my initial objectives last turn, the lack of a Chinese counter-attack shows me that they are quite spread out among the various Chinese cities and that surprise was complete. I really was expecting a slug-match, but not this.

I have relied heavily on my fighters along the Russo-Chinese border for recon - without opposition to my aircraft, recon and bombing missions have been meet with no losses or hinderance. I might as well take advantage of having air superiority while it lasts...

1852 AD starts off when I spotted a fleet of 3 Chinese frigates sailing past Najran:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/chinesefleet1852ad.jpg

To quote Captain Lennox of "The Empire Strikes Back", 'Good, our first catch of the day.' After softening them frigates up with bombers stationed at Najran, my Frigates (also stationed at Najran) sail out along with a single Cruiser, the Chinese ships are easily sunk with no losses.

My bombing campaign on Paris is not going as well as I planned:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/paris1852ad.jpg

My carrier group off the coast of Paris, and bombers stationed in Scandinavia, managed to kill a single citizen, damage a garrisoned unit and destroys the city's Barracks. At least the bombing campaign is keeping the Chinese units in the city bottled up:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/paris1852adparttwo.jpg

Now, back to the real front in China...

The north, along the Tatung Corridor is my true goal for expanison so I started there first. This time I remembered to spy on my targeted cities since I have a spy planted in Beijing.

Tatung, it seems is weakly defended with only a spearman and an infantry, while Uskudar has only a pair of musketmen. Since I deemed Tatung more defended than Uskudar, I sent my 4 bombers from Arkhangel'sk over Tatung, but can only accomplish damaging the infantry by 1 hp. However, my battery of 9 Artillery does a little better, reducing both defending units to 1 hp each. I decided to give the glory of capturing the city to my Crusaders, who have been sitting idle for centuries along the northern borders. The first Crusader, a veteran, kills the Chinese infantry, while my elite Crusader kills the spearman and captures the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/tatungcaptured1852ad.jpg

To the south, the attack on Uskudar goes just as smoothly. My veteran Cossack Army, Yermenko, easily kills both musketmen and the takes the city with no hp losses:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/captureuskudar1852ad.jpg

In the south, my psuh towards Beijing, the Chinese capitol, is going better than its initial start. Again, my crafty Soviet spies tell me that New Xinjian is garrisoned by a cavalry and a spearman (both with only 2 hp each), while Canton is defended by 4 infantry (all damaged) and a single artillery.

My fleet of bombers from Konigsberg targets Canton with 14 bombers. Canton gets flatten by the Soviet rain of terror from the sky, as the city's Stock Exchange, Temple, Marketplace, and Library are destroyed. In addition, 2 infantry are also killed. My veteran tank Army, Vatutin, is sent forward to assault the city - he is able to kill the last pair of infantry with no hp losses, and captures the city (as well as the artillery unit):

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/cantonfalls1852ad.jpg

New Xinjian fares no better than Canton. My first attacking veteran Cossack kills the spearman, then a veteran Crusader kills the cavalry and takes the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/newxinjianrazed1852ad.jpg

Surprisingly, my Crusader razes the city the minute it captures New Xinjiang without me even having to issue the order...

So, my second turn of the invasion was better than the first, as I was able to capture four objectives out of five of my objectives. In the north, I have one more Chinese city to capture (not raze), but after that I will have to go to war with the Dutch to make it to the ocean:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/chinanorth1852ad.jpg

If I really want to reach the Pacific, I will also have to attack the Zulus and Korea...

In the south, I am on the verge of completing my objective, that being the total destruction of Beijing:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/chinasouth1852ad.jpg

I am not planning on expanding in this region, so I'll probably gift Canton away after I destroy Beijing. It'll be fun watching everyone scramble to settle the region once I get done with the Chinese captiol. The one potential problem I see is the Mongols filling the vacuum, as they lie between these two areas. This could make the Mongols fairly large if they do so...yet, I want to try to keep with historical Soviet boundaries so far...

Last but not least, a world map, as of 1852 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/worldmap1852ad.jpg

unlike Europe, the Americas are forming some definite borders, and not a patchwork of various civs clustered together. America is on its last legs, having been resigned to Greenland with only a pair of cities - of which I don't expect will last too much longer. Maybe i can engineer some form of war between the Iroquois and the Incas...

Brucha

Jan 15, 2008, 02:31 AM

On another note, I am considering playing a series of Soviet games after this one. I want to modify the World War One scenario in the mods forum (The Great War) to include the Russian Civil War and play that, then follow up with a Cold War game. However, in these games I plan on not trying to stay with historic Russian boundaries, but another victory condition. Which one I am unsure right now...

darski

Jan 15, 2008, 09:37 AM

12 Bar Blues

Jan 15, 2008, 10:57 AM

tdawg82

Jan 15, 2008, 03:48 PM

I have been reading this story since it started and would like to say that I would love to read those stories

ChaosArbiter

Jan 15, 2008, 04:54 PM

First off, New Xinjian was auto-razed: whenever a unit captures a 1-Pop city with no culture, it's razed. Second, to maintain true Soviet expansion, won't you have to take the northernmost Mongol cities (Ulaanbataar and Tabriz)? Also, the first turn of any offensive rarely makes its objectives unless you completely overwhelm your enemy militarily and strategically, as well as terrain-wise. Instead, it is often the second turn that makes most of its objectives, as you've had a chance to rethink secondary plans, reform armies that aren't needed (perhaps a city fell more easily than expected), and you know how cautious you need to be.

Brucha

Jan 15, 2008, 06:43 PM

Second, to maintain true Soviet expansion, won't you have to take the northernmost Mongol cities (Ulaanbataar and Tabriz)?

Actually, there are several areas that I must conquer to do so, namely the islands to the north in the sea as well as the Mongol (Ulaanbataar and Tabriz), Dutch (Groningen and Endhoven), the Zulu (Aydin), the Chinese (Frankfurt and Hangchow) and Korean cities (Pusan and Namp'o) in the north. Heck, by the time I get done, everyone will pretty much dislike me...

I am unsure who I will go after to reach this overall objective. Naturally, I will continue to chew up China and capture Frankfort and Hangchow first, since I am already at war with them.

ChaosArbiter

Jan 16, 2008, 03:35 AM

I'd say to go after Mongolia first. No sense having a decent-sized Militaristic neighbor if you can instead have a broken, shriveled up Militaristic neighbor instead. The Dutch, Zulu, and Koreans are either too small or too far to really do much to you, so I'd leave them until you've taken out the big guys nearby.

Headbanger

Jan 24, 2008, 07:15 PM

Promise us you'll name a submarine "Red October".

Brucha

Jan 25, 2008, 03:27 AM

Wow, sorry everyone for such a long drought without an update. I have to admit that I re-booted the game several times and was unable to decide just what exactly to do. My first objective was to finish my campaign against the Chinese, but I was somewhat at a loss as what to do exactly after that. I did want to try to expand further to the northeast to more properly fit the actual Soviet borders, but the one nagging problem I was fighting with was the on-going war with Europe - specifically the Celts and Portugal. Both civs had MA's with most of Europe which made me hesitant to aggressively attack either civ (without expanding the war further). And I am thinking of the up-coming war with the Iroquois in the near future - in this I am going to need some allies and not have to face everyoen against me.

In the end, I wimped out and decided that a period of Soviet isolationism was due - for two reasons. First, to repair my rep - by 1854 AD, most civs were involved in embargoes against me and I could not trade with anyone. Second, my attack on China broke my ROP pact with them, further sending my REP into the toilet. Nobody likes me...and we Russians make the best vodka! Too shame!

My first objective then was to finish Operation Blizzard in 1854 AD.

I started off with the continued bombing campaign against Paris in hopes that someone in Europe would capture the city. By now, I had moved a second carrier to the Paris coast. After spying on the city, I found that the city was defended by a pair of Infantry. using my carrier-based bombers, I cratered the rest of Paris' improved tiles. Of course, no one seems interested in retaking Paris, let alone Rome from the Chinese. No one even tries to attack either city.

In the north, I had three cities to still capture. I began with Tientsin - after spying on the city, I discovered the city was defended by a regular Infantry, and an elite Spearman. A bombardment of 7 Artillery reduced both defending units to 1 hp. I ordered my veteran Longbowman to attack first, killing the infantry but is reduced to 1 hp itself. Next, my elite Knight attacks, killing the spearman but is also reduced to 1 hp - but the city falls:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/tientsinfalls1854ad.jpg

Hangchow is next. Spying on the city reveals the defenders to be a veteran Infantry, a 1 hp Cavalry, a regular Spearman, and a 3 hp Cavalry. To soften up the defending garrison, I launched 6 bombers from Uskudar, who manage to destroy the city's harbour and barracks, kills the Infantry and Spearman, and reduces the 3 hp Cavalry to 1 hp. Though my Cossacks are beginning to become almost obsolete, I nonetheless give them the glory of taking the city. A veteran Cossack kills the first 1 hp Cavalry, the next veteran Cossack kills the other 1 hp Cavalry - and the city falls:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/hangchowtaken1854ad.jpg

Two down, one more to go. The next city to fall to the relentless Soviet march to the sea is Frankfurt, home of the world-renowned Chinese-German hotdog. Guarded by a lone regular Spearmen, the city easily falls to my veteran Cossack Army, Yeremenko. Unfortunately, I don't have a screenshot because, drunk with such a Soviet victory, I forgot to take a screenshot.

I have now reached the Pacific, after only some 1,800+ years since I started expanding eastwards.

The only city left not in Soviet hands is Beijing, the Chinese capitol. I was expecting the attack on the Chinese capitol to be a bloodbath - it was not that, but costly nonetheless. The city was defended by 4 veteran Infantry and 2 veteran Musketmen. Of course, my bombers had to be moved up that turn, so I had no airforce to aid in the attack. I should have waited, but I stubbornly went ahead and attacked. My elite Cossack was first red-lined by an infantry, followed by a veteran cossack being killed. The regular Cossack Army, Zhukov (the first Russian Army ever formed, mind you, and sort of a bit of pride with me) managed to kill a single infantry before he was destroyed. Another veteran Cossack was red-lined without killing anyone. At this point, I had two armies left who were able to attack. I first attacked with my veteran Tank Army, Popov, who thankfully killed 3 infantry in a row. Then veteran Cossack Army Vasilevsky killed the remaining pair of musketmen and captured the city:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/beijingrazed1854ad.jpg

Beijing does not survive the Soviet rampage and pillaging...

At this point, all I wanted was peace - with everyone. Yet I needed to nudge everyone to the peace talks first.

Though I had gutted China quite well, they were not ready for peace. So, naturally, I continued bombing Paris into the ground. This is what Paris looked like in 1856 AD:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/paris1856ad.jpg

In all, I sent a wave of 4 carrier-based bombers and 3 land-based bombers over Paris, and only managed to kill one of the infantry and destroy the city's bank. I have to speak to my airforce generals...

In the north, I had reached an impass:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/russia1856ad.jpg

I very well could continue my march to the sea, but its time for some healing and isolation. I opted to halt my advance and consolidate what I already have. There is time enough to march over the Dutch and Koreans soon...

1856 AD ends as I completed researching Radio and entered the final Age:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/newera1856ad.jpg

Here's were everything turns quite sour. I had been holding onto a SGL for centuries for just this momentous event so that I could get Fission as my free tech advance (for being a Scientific civ) and rush-build the UN. No, what I got was Ecology.

My plan for victory was to prevent the United Nations from falling into anyone's hands - by building it first. All I can do is use my SGL to rush research of Fission from 9 turns to 7 turns...and hope for the best.

On a better note, the on-going wars finally come to an end:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/peace1858ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/peace1858adparttwo.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/peace1858adpartthree.jpg

I am now at peace with everyone except for the Sumerians, who just don't want to play nice I guess.

I stopped playing at this point, and took a look at my standings:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standing1858ad.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m28/junovitch/russia/standing1858adparttwo.jpg

Its the start of the 1858 AD turn when I saved. If I can manage it, I would like to kill the next 20 turns just building up my rep once again and make friendly with my neighbors if I can. According to my standings, it might be time for another Russian Cultural Revolution to ensure a Histograhp Victory - I guess the Soviet people have not yet understood the name of the game.

I am also building up my naval forced as best I can and have cut back on my forces on the continent. I have a carrier off the coast of Greenland, with another sailing there, and another being built. These are to support my eventual invasion of Iroquois-held North America. I might even consider the nuke option if things get hairy...