Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik [Archive]

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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, 20