Dr kossin #2

You know you can workshop green tiles t0o. Why you work water over mines? I could understand if you have whipped cities down to size three, but now...

Also you can gently ask Toku attack city of your choice. AI actually follow this advice. With some management you can get him do dirty job for you. This would ease job on these castles.

I see, I knew this feature worked for vassals but never knew for allies at war. Interesting.

Konya is working water tiles so that it can 2-whip for max hammers next turn.

I tend to wait until Chemistry or that I run caste to workshop grassland usually as a tile doesn't look too great in my mind. I'll check it out though.

kossin said:

Regarding Xian, I believe Toku is still sieging it and they had about equal forces (slight edge for Toku). I'm not too sure he can take it. I would rather not as it would give him horses making his conquest a bit harder. Mao will have reinforced the city but I don't know how many troops he sent there as he has many fronts to take care of I could send a spy to investigate and see what's happening in 2 turns from now.

Click to expand...

At least send someone to pillage those horses before the fall (or while city is in revolt)...

Round 6

A somewhat short round but the game looks well in hand.

I took the trade from last round with Saladin and bribed him into Free Market a few turns later. I also did this with Charlemagne and Hammurabi later in the round (they still don't have Astronomy).

Toku was still sieging Xian as you can see:



I tried Soirana's suggestion to get him up to Zapotec but he wouldn't bite. He captured the city a little bit afterwards and took Peace with Mao.

The free Great Merchant finally arrived at his destination...


Meanwhile, I marched on Beijing while taking one city en route. It was a nice prize.


At that point, Steel was in so I upgraded as many trebuchets>canons as I could with the leftover money from the Merchant. I also split my stack in two to take 2 more cities, the western Nanjing as well as the shrined Shangai.


At this point, Mao is willing to Capitulate and I think I should take it.


It will give me a good buffer against Tokugawa whose army was still stationed in Xian last time I checked - meaning I take it out on turn 1. Moreover, he has quite a few techs I can broker to get me back on top of the tech board:


I also kept watch on Justinian's ever growing fleet (still lacks Astronomy, but he has Rifling).


I found a simple solution:


hehe, free xp!

The alternative to Capitulating Mao is taking every city, do the same to Toku and then I can probably win by Diplo.

I'd take enough of Mao's cities to make sure your cities from him don't keep revolting. That means probably at least the city on the west coast there. Otherwise, decide on the vic condition. Diplo win, domination/diplo win, space?

"Crush your enemy, see him driven before you, hear the lamentation of his women." - Conan

I say crush Mao, and then yes, Toku. You will be the king of your island, minus a couple of cities (if you choose to let them continue to exist). This will make intercontinental missions to crush future enemies (such as the Byzantines who are plotting on you) all the easier, as you won't have to worry about your homelands at all. You will surely perform better for your cause than a capitulated Mao with several cities remaining will.

Unless WW is crippling, I'd finish off Mao. His cities will benefit more under you and he won't tech anything as a vassal for you to trade for. You should be able to get cavalry before Toku can get rifles, allowing you to crush any stacks he puts together (together with cannons).

I will definitively take some more of Mao's cities. But I think I may leave him Zapotec as a buffer against Toku and a spot to attack him from. I'll think on it and see how it plays out. I think going for Space is pointless at this stage in the game, it's clearly won and I don't feel like pressing Shift+Enter 100 times.
Either Domination/Diplomation, plain Diplomacy(easiest if I wipe out Mao+Toku completely) or Conquest will be the VC I think.

Round 7

Picking up from last round, I decided to take some more Mao cities as they were just so good and he had so little units. I was a bit afraid he would vassal to Toku, both being Pleased towards each other despite the war. I tried getting a forced peace with Toku, but it didn't work, so! I had a 2-front war going.


I bribed just about every AI on the map against Toku as: it was cheap, it got me diplo points, distracted Toku and broke their trades. Here is one of them:


I had my spies running about trying to locate Toku's stack, but he beat me to it.


I had pitiful defenses in that area... but I was still under Nationhood, so a few turns later, while Toku was busy bringing down the defenses, this is what was awaiting him:


I kept taking Mao's cities as I did not want the homeland unhappiness... Until he was no more. Then I took a shot at Tokugawa, just to hurt him a bit



I razed one city, took his Capital (SoZ) and a few more. Then I had enough and took peace while heading to Mass Media (easiest victory from here given diplo). Hammurabi and Saladin already had several techs in that direction so I traded for Scientific Method as well as Physics.



Then I set everything on Wealth and hit Shift+Enter a while All the while I kept Justinian on check, killing his galleys and caravels that were massing in Antioch. I guess at one point he must have got tired of losing his fleet because he made Ironclads


I pulled the Privateers just out of range and picked on a few more caravels but he started escorting them with Ironclads, so.... let's make some friends...


I forgot the screenshot but Hammurabi, his continent neighbor, also was kind enough to provide me with a Defensive Pact. Then Justinian upgraded (he had Combustion)his fleet and moved it towards me.


I took the forced peace for 10 more glorious turns...


And he unloaded his units


Why is it so funny you ask? Look:


His units would be thrown off the Continent Which is what happened when he DoW'd in 1785AD. But, just prior to this, I gave a poisoned apple:


He would be my UN opponent, securing my win. Sure enough, come 1800AD:


I had switched civics and No State Religion to get more diplo points (turned out that with the war I didn't need them).





Victory!


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Post-game Analysis

This was definitively a harder map than the previous one. Having little or no rivers in the Capital hurts commerce quite a bit or I would have shot ahead in tech much earlier than those 2 goose I had for neighbors. Besides the Capital, I had mostly farms and mines, later on windmills and workshops were added as needed.


Demographics weren't the prettiest at the end, but I still got the W.


Power graph... Justinian took a beating at the end.


So how did we fare with a semi-late UN win?


Decent but almost terrible

I'll put up Dr Kossin #3 in a few moments, thanks for following and helping!