To recap from the last report, Prince William is attempting to win by either domination or back-door domination. Whichever comes first. The first war was started last round against Mehmed II. Dutch Marines were sent in to do battle against Ottoman Longbowmen and Cuirassiers. Support was provided by both the Royal Dutch Navy and the Royal Dutch Air Force. Casualties thus far ... none.
The war began on Mehmed's northern island, with those 3 cities being captured during the last round. My initial thoughts were to capture the cities and then use them to form a colony. Unfortunately, you cannot do that until the cities come out of revolt. I would later decide against the colony idea and opt instead to keep the cities. A vassal's land only counts 50%, as I understand it, towards the domination limit. I had a strong economy and a huge tech lead, so I decided to keep the cities.
I also decided, at the start of this round, to open up a second front against Alexander. This Greek War began by upgrading all of my swords and axes to Infantry, at a cost of 4000 gold. I sold Scientific Method to my friendly vassal, Ghandi, in order to pick up Military Tradition. I wanted MT so that I could upgrade my 3 mounted units (yep, that's all I ever built) to Cavalry. I then spent a further 2000 gold to upgrade all of my Cannons, Catapults, and Trebuchets to Artillery.
And then -- finally -- the UN vote I had been waiting for all last round ... Me against the Khan!
I decided to give Alex a reprieve on the invasion until
after everyone voted. Not that it would do many any good.
Arrgghh! My mistakes from last round continue to haunt me!
Let this be a lesson to all:
Never build the UN unless you know how the votes will fall!
Alexander's empire consisted of 6 cities. The basic plan was to be speed. I was getting hit hard by War Weariness from Mehmed. I needed for the Greek war to be short. Athens would be the prize, the city where I would build my Forbidden Palace. I started with his copper city (Mycenae) in the north. At the same time, my forces were marched towards Sparta. Both cities would fall without resistance.
But just as the war was getting started, I receive a message that I had made peace with Alexander. I have? When? It seems Alexander capitulated to Churchill, thus ending the war. Oh, come on! In order to finish off Alexander, I would have to declare on Churchill. But I'd been trying to get on Churchill's good side. Besides, declaring on Churchill would have cost me 2 happy faces in lost resource trades. Not the thing to do when battling war weariness.
And thus ended the shorter-than-expected short war with Alexander ...
Meanwhile, the war with Mehmed continued on his big island. Because the island was shaped like a big "W", it meant all of his cities would be coastal, and thus accessible to my Marines. But, it also would mean a long drawn out affair for the boats to sail to each succeeding city.
The Ottoman Task Force consisted of a Battleship, several Destroyers, Carriers, and East Indiaman Transports. The East Indiaman UU has the same capacity as the Transport, so I had not bothered to upgrade them. A contingent of 12 Fighters and 12 Marines were assigned to the Task Force.
City by city, the plan was the same: Bombard the city defenses to rubble with the boats. Then send in the air support of halve the defenders. Mop up with Marines. Airlift, from the Dutch homeland, a newly trained CG2 Infantry to defend the just captured city. Rinse. Repeat. I was able to do a city a turn with this method. Sometimes 2 cities in a turn if they were close enough together and I had enough healthy Marines.
The Ottoman cities of Malatya, Izmir, and Zonguldak were the first targets on Mehmed's big "W" island. My Marines were attacking Longbowmen, Janissary muskets, and Cuirassiers. It wasn't much of a fight, especially after being hit by the air force.
And with each successive battle, the war weariness would continue to mount at an alarming rate. Most of my cities had already had a jail built for the espionage benefits. The main production centers already had Theaters, as well. But the culture slider just kept climbing with the amount of War Weariness. At one point, my culture slider was sitting at 30% and my larger cities were still starving!
I started Mount Rushmore in my highest production city that didn't already have two national wonders. But then I finally figured out what was up! I remembered the new Statue of Zeus that doubled war weariness. Sure enough, it was owned by Mehmed in his capital.
Needless to say, the Marines immediately set sail for Istanbul, sailing past a couple Ottoman cities to get there. After the capture of Istanbul, my war weariness fell considerably. And it would no longer be a noticeable factor in the game.
But as I managed to solve the war weariness problem, along comes UN Secretary General Kublai Khan with an offer to help even further ...
At this point, I'm really starting to hate the UN! Fortunately, the resolution would fail. The Ottoman war would continue ... with the Marines capturing the canal city of Samsun, followed by Konya, Gaziantep, and Diyarbakir. The Royal Dutch Marines were unstoppable!
I would later spend 3500 gold to upgrade all of my Privateers to Destroyers. I also built 5 Transports and loaded them with Tanks and the troops from the ill-fated Greek campaign. Destination: not Burma ... but Mongolia!
I Declare on Kublai Khan ... I land the troops ... I'm ready to begin the assault of Mongolia! And then ...
Have I mentioned just how much I
hate the UN? At least let me take a city first! Just one city! Please?
Fortunately, Khan was the only one who voted for it and thus it failed. Phew! I went on to capture Ning-hsia with my infantry and sent my Tanks south to his capital of Karakorum. With Bomber support out of Ning-hsia, the tanks easily captured Khan's capital. I also razed the city of Sanchu that was sitting on a 1-tile island.
Meanwhile back on the Ottoman front, Mehmed is ready to capitulate. I was tempted to do it. Its not that the offensive was running out of gas or anything. The Marines were healthy. They had plenty of air support. I was airlifting in a CG2 Infantry to defend the captured cities ... the war was going well. No, I was afraid Mehmed might pull an Alexander and vassalize to someone else. Since vassals only count 50% towards domination, I wanted the big "W" island all to myself. So I decided to risk continuing the fighting ...
Mehmed had only 3 cities left on the big "W" island. The Marines did what they always do and captured Edirne, followed by Bursa. The city of Ankara was Mehmed's last vestige on the island. But Mehmed knew when he was beaten. He was still willing to capitulate, and he would even throw in that last city.
The Ottoman war was now over. But, the Mongolian war would continue. Mehmed joined in the fray because of the vassalization. Like Gandhi before him, he would not contribute to the war effort.
A Dutch armored division captured the city of Beshbalik, while Dutch Infantry captured the city of Samarqand. The Bombers of the Royal Dutch Air Force were credited with an assist.
But then things took an ugly turn. Khan mounted a major offensive against his former capital of Karakorum. Wave after wave of troops were suicided against the city. Eventually my CG2 Infantry fell, followed by the two Tanks defending the city. When the city finally fell, it took four of my Bombers with it.
Khan had over 30 units remaining from the engagement with which to reinforce the city.
I moved 5 Tanks, accompanied by a Medic III General, outside the gates of Karakorum. Even with Blitz promotions, it was slow going. With each passing turn, more Tanks would arrive. But it would still take quite a few turns to clear out that hornet's nest that was Karakorum.
After what seemed an eternity, the Marines from Mehmed's island arrived in Mongolia. First order of business was the Mongolian city of New York?!?!?! Rather than keep the city, I gifted it back to Washington, in the hopes of better relations. After switching to his religion earlier, I was up to a +8 with him. As it turns out, there is no diplomatic bonus for liberating a city. Oh well. As a result, Seattle and Philadelphia would not be so lucky. Their mine! Mine, I say!
The next city to fall would be Old Sarai. Some Paratroopers that I built would land on one of Khan's islands and take the city of Kazan. Then our Tanks finally clear out Karakorum and it falls ... again! Houston, we have a problem! The Dutch are taking all of our cities, but the cry fell on deaf ears. The Marines had already paid a visit to the Mongolian city of Houston.
At this point, Kublai Khan has lost 11 of his cities. He is vastly out-numbered and out-gunned. Will he accept capitulation? No, he would refuse to surrender. Whatever ... you're funeral, buddy!
Next up was the city of Turfan, captured by the Marines. Dutch armor would roll into New Sarai. While those two cities were not all that consequential, Khan is now ready to capitulate. He even throws in the Tundra city of Tabriz. Hey, land is land!
I now had 49% of the required 62% land for domination. With all but a couple of the Mongolian cities still in revolt, it was just a matter of waiting for the cities to come out of revolt. I set most of my core cities to building wealth and cranked the research slider up as high as it would go and started pressing enter ...
Slowly by slowly I acquired more land ... 49% to 52% then 54% ... and then an AP vote comes up? Ghandi, what are you thinking? Give Sparta to the Greeks? You're supposed to be on my side!
Fortunately, it failed. I voted never and Churchill also voted against it. Although with my culture slider at 50%, there was probably no danger of the defy unhappiness affecting my cities.
I would also capture the barb city of Uzbek. I used the Paratroopers for that one.
I then finally win the UN election to be Secretary General.
What? A hundred turns after I build the &@*%# thing! And the two folks that I'd been courting -- Washington and Churchill --
still wouldn't vote me. Yep, that UN plan was doomed from the start.
My land area would go up to 56% and then 57%, as most of the former Mongolian cities came out of revolt. With only a couple cities left in revolt, I realized that I wasn't going to make the domination limit. Alexander's capitulation to Churchill was the problem. I needed that Greek land. Of course, that would also mean war with Churchill. Eh! No big deal.
The war plans were drawn up. The Marines (I love those guys!) were moved into position. The armored divisions were positioned on the Greek border. The Infantry and Artillery moved to the English borders. I even had a Settler on hand.
In the meantime, I had been offered the opportunity to propose a UN resolution. I decided to go for the victory, even though I felt that there was no chance at all for winning. But, what the hey, right?
I got a bruise on my chin from when my jaw dropped and hit the floor. I won the election!?!?! Amazing! I knew Ghandi would vote for me, but Mehmed and Khan, as well? I can only assume that there is something in the code that says a vassal has to vote for the master.
I was rather concerned about having vassals because of all of the negative press I had read about them from Warlords games. Frankly, I'm not sure what all of the hoop-la was all about. Vassals seem to be quite a powerful feature.
For those interested in the costs of fighting an overseas domination war ...
Keep in mind, that figure is with Courthouses built in most cities. There were a few cities that had not completed the Courthouse, but most had one. If it wasn't for my huge tech lead, and being able to dial down the research slider, this campaign probably would not have been possible.
I also referred a couple of times to my use of Paratroopers. I wanted to have a look at this new BTS unit. They were rather pointless in Civ III. And while the BTS version has a great animation graphic, I cannot say that I am very impressed with the utilitarian nature of the unit. They can only launch from a city that is not in revolt. And then they cannot attack a city on the same turn that they para drop. And frankly, isn't that the point of having a Paratrooper?
Anyway, it was an enjoyable game. Despite the huge tech lead and the tedium of fighting a modern war against outdated units, I had fun with the game. I was able to explore some of the new BTS features, as well as the [new-to-me] Warlords features.
Thank You, Ozbenno, for hosting this game!
The attached save is from the turn after victory ...
) I get another GE. Decided to start 3 GA ( fouth will be started with the Fusion GE )
)
... They only have 1 city with a corp, and thats Sid Sushi....)
) )
move. GW asked me to stop trading with Mehmed in 1804. I agreed. I then realised that Mehmed had the world monopoly on sugar! Unhealthy, unhappy grocers! He wouldn't talk with me!
I've still got the report to write up, though. I should be able to post it sometime tonight.
And even after shifting out of bureaucracy, I could still build any unit, tank, boat, etc in a single turn. It was a great combo. I don't recall exactly, but I think every tile in my capital had hammers.
