King of the World #3: Tokugawa

You should probably switch the worker to a workboat, nice and simple for the new city and there's still some untapped seafood resorces lying around, such as the crabs on Kyoto's far side.

You shouldn't declare war until you're ready, you'll just alert him into making more troops and possibly hurting you in a counterattack. Plus those workers aren't going anywhere, they'll crawl into the cities so you'll get them eventually.

Do not declare on Qin just yet. You can take his workers during the war. He will most likely hole them up in his cities which happens a lot.

I would simply say build up your military. Don't build anything else, apart from several workers (Osaka really needs one).

Axes are nice for defensive and power rating purposes, but against Qin you'll need swordsmen, Neal, who are 20% more powerful than axes (6.6 base strength vs. 5.5 base strength) when attacking archers and chariots in cities, not to mention swords' 10% city attack bonus that stacks with city raider. My guess is that Qin doesn't have iron working yet. If he does mine that iron near Beijing, then you'll need axes and possibly catapults.

I would whip a worker in Osaka ASAP. The rice and deer will more than make up for the lost population. Osaka will eventually make a nice SE city.

I'm not a fan of early warring vs the Chinese. i think that trowing Mongols vs them while preparing to backstab with a late classic ( if you can get the phants down Asia ) /medieval army( the good ol'Earth 1000 AD standart Japanese strat ) would be far more easier and profitable.

In this round, the Chinese government is exiled to Thailand.

By 600 B.C., I felt that we had a force sufficient to do some damage to our continental neighbor:



As you can see, we're working on Mathematics. The Construction beeline turned out to be a major boon for the later phases of the war.

Sure enough, Shanghai ended up rather poorly defended, garrisoned by an Axeman, a Chariot, and two of those accursed Protective Archers. There were minor losses, but we won out:



As I said, one off the coast. Shanghai burned. My intent was to resettle 1N, on the Silks. I had a Settler being built in Kyoto and everything. Sadly, it was not to be.

Around this time, the Khan came calling, asking for open borders. This should have raised a red flag, but I was too focused on my war with China, and saw only the opportunity to improve relations with Genghis.

By 475 B.C., my army (along with a few piddling reinforcements arriving by boat) reached Beijing which, if anything, was an even easier target:



For some reason, Qin moved that chariot out of Beijing the turn after my stack arrived.

My first mistake of the war came when Beijing fell:



... I kept it. I really shouldn't have. It's one off the coast (though it does only have one coastal tile, and said tile is a fish, it still doesn't get the GLH bonus), it took a while to come out of revolt, it didn't have any Wonders or even much infrastructure, and, most importantly, its presence prevented me from settling the Shanghai-replacement where I wanted it. Yeah, yeah. The Open Borders agreement with Mongolia was a red herring. I've gotta build up suspense somehow, right?



So I landed my Settler (along with a Swordsman) on that Silk and found the site a no-go. So I founded one east, on the cottage. Still not terrible, but not as perfect as I'd like. As you can also see, my increasingly ragtag army took out a 1 pop stronghold inland.

At this point, Asoka showed up, asking me to renounce my relations with Mongolia. It was a tough decision, but I decided that India's probably a better next target than Mongolia, so I refused. Also, Hatshepsut showed up, glad to trade Meditation and Polytheism for Mathematics, and...



You can always count on her to make a decent trading partner, though I am a little hesitant to strengthen what is already a major power on this map. Once I could trade techs, Genghis came calling, demanding Mysticism. You can always count on him to not make a decent trading partner, but by this point, it was 130 B.C., and Mysticism was a Tier I tech. So whatever, take it.

I wish I had more leadup for this next screenshot. I thought I did. The battle for Guangzhou was preceded by an impressive buildup, with my Medic Spearman healing up my decimated veterans while Galleys ferried in the new state of the art: Catapults. Anyway, in case you couldn't predict the obvious, Guangzhous fell:



So that's where we currently stand. Qin doesn't have anything to trade for peace, but I'm tempted to offer it anyway. The army could use some time to regroup and reinforce. Qin is exiled to the jungles of southeast Asia, anyway, so it's not like he can pump out much of an army.

Here's the Japanese Empire as it currently stands:



The Domestic Advisor:



The Foreign Advisor:



At this point, lots of people can offer me Priesthood and/or Monotheism, but without a religion, those aren't much help.

Finally, the all-important Power Graph:



So, as you can see, both China and India are on the weaker side of average, especially if you consider that a good chunk of that is "empty" power from Barracks and such. India has a fantastic defensive chokepoint at the entrance to the Himalayas, but I don't think the A.I. is capable of making great use of it.

My current plan is to accept peace with China, building up our forces in Guangzhou while working on infrastructure in cities that need it. We should research Calendar and then Currency, both for the happiness that the resources will provide and for the economic boost of both working improved tiles and the ability to sell our exotics abroad, not to mention another trade route.

Once the Peace Treaty is up, we redeclare on and finish Qin and, assuming the army is in good shape, sweep on into India. Thoughts?

Oops. The save:

My current plan is to accept peace with China, building up our forces in Guangzhou while working on infrastructure in cities that need it. We should research Calendar and then Currency, both for the happiness that the resources will provide and for the economic boost of both working improved tiles and the ability to sell our exotics abroad, not to mention another trade route.

Once the Peace Treaty is up, we redeclare on and finish Qin and, assuming the army is in good shape, sweep on into India.

Click to expand...

Exactly what I was going to suggest

You should consider moving the capitol to mainland soon

That's a good point. Where, though? Beijing? It is a capital site, and the Palace Culture should help it stave off Mongol pressure. Osaka? A fabulous city, and one constantly beset by happiness problems. The +1 should help there. I'm leaning Tokyo, myself. Not only does it keep with history (in name if not in location), it's got the potential to be a monster city, and it's fairly central, especially if our next move is to sweep through India.

Any other ideas?

A city that can feed lots of cottages, for buero. Coastal is nice too, as trade route income gets the boost as well.

1SW of where Shangai was would had been pretty nice for a cash beauro capital. None of the existing cities would do pretty well that role.... unless you want to wait for the Thai area to be on your grasp. Tokio is a nice choice for the hammer side and would be certainly the fastest solution....

Another issue: you should start thinking Indonesia ( India too, but you're already thinking on that )

Good round.

Don't forget to send a fishing boat to that fish in Beijing. It won't get the extra +1 from a lighthouse, but it will still be a 5F 2C tile.

Everyone says India, but I think Mongols are a bigger threat.. higher power graph than you + lots of space to expand. Even though their land sucks, they can get very large and difficult to destroy. I say finish Qin if you think you should (maybe you don't have to now) and go after Ghengis.

India is not a threat, is a oportunity

But I agree that GK will, sooner or later , give problems.

Agree, secure the flank first before sweeping through India.
Otherwise the Mongols will always be a threat in your backyard.
This also gives the Indian workers a few more turns to develop the land for you.

Genghis is more dangerous, but his land is not that great. The reverse is true of Asoka.

The real Ghengis Khan and the Mongols could never conquer Japan despite conquering almost all of Asia. You can't fail.

Really though. Kill the Mongols before they become stronger. You know Ghengis is gonna build units almost exclusively. He may even backstab while you attack India. What are your relations with him? It's scary that his power graph is higher than yours and you just killed China without too many casualties.

You all are probably right. As much as I'd like to claim Asoka's precious spices, Genghis is just violent enough to cause us trouble while we do it. I don't know about eliminating the Immortal Temujin (he tends to found useless cities all along northern Eurasia), but we should definitely trim him back significantly. Should we finish China first?

Yea .. just raze Ning-hsia and capture Karakorum (his capital). Oh and build a few Spears just in case he gets Keshiks running around.

Finish off Qin first. Why leave him around to complicate things and drag down your captured cities' happiness?

After that, I would go after Genghis, razing everything but his capital. The tile in Manchuria 1N of the wheat tile (to the NE of Beijing) would be nice for a replacement city.

In this round, we finally put an end to the Chinese menace and gear up for war with the Mongols while scrabbling to keep our head above water financially.

We started the round by giving our beleaguered army and economy time to rest up:



... Okay, Qin. You just seethe down there in your little jungle.

I'm beginning to think Metal Casting before Currency and Calendar was a mistake, judging by the financial hardships of this round. We shot for Currency first, both for the extra trade route and for the ability to deal in cash.

I looked at the tech screen to see that Persia and Germany had beaten me to Currency. These two therefore became my primary trading partners. They wouldn't reveal the secrets of how to assign value to shiny metal, but they were glad to give me shiny metal of their own:



I did a lot of this throughout the round, constantly trading my worst techs (typically those along the religious path) to whoever had a bit of spare change. I've never done that quite as much as I did in this game, but without it there's no way we would have been able keep solvent.

We also traded a spare source of Copper to Asoka for Ivory. Mainly for the happiness.

Beijing (former capital of the sinister Chinese), being near the Mongol border, whipped out a Monument and a Library, then proceeded to focus on Archers. They're cheap, they get cool bonuses from our Protective-ness, and they would come in handy in averting Genghis Khan's bellicose intentions, at least until we were ready.

In 25 A.D., Our good buddy Asoka came by with a godsend:



Finally, we could do something about the happiness problems sweeping our empire. Apparently, my people have issues with their sons being sent to die in the salt mines. Ingrates.

In 100 A.D., we were ready to reopen hostilities with our (now) southern neighbor:



All new units were sent to the north, both to dissuade Genghis and prepare for a strike of our own.

While our forces rampaged through Thailand, and new recruits headed for the Mongol Border, we continued to peddle our lesser techs to the world. For instance, we got 60 gold from Genghis Khan for Meditation! In 100 A.D., that's quite a coup.

In this next screenshot, I think we can see the benefits of all that buildup and reinforcement on the northern border:



I'm sure that if we had the obligatory one or two archers per city up there, that stack wouldn't have moved on like it did.

Our forces marched through China's remaining cities, but not without cost:



I probably should have burned that city and refounded on that western dye, but we can always found a second city farther down on the peninsula. As you can see, our Invincible Army is once again pretty much decimated, and Qin still has a city left!

On the bright side, my other Swordsman finally managed to claim some Chinese workers. With Calendar finally online, those would come in handy.

It took us centuries to get our forces in place to finally crush Qin's ultimate stronghold:



It was the two Catapults from the Mongol Front that made all the difference. Sadly, we lost a City Raider 3 Swordsman in the fighting. He had 92% odds, too. C'est la guerre, I guess.

As you can see, we also finally got our golden ticket to join the Buddhist bloc. Needless to say, we converted immediately. We also birthed a Great Merchant, who is currently marching across central Eurasia in hopes of being a "reverse Marco Polo," of sorts, and fetching us some European trade goods. Lord knows our economy could use them.



Ah, music to my ears.

Here you can see the two stacks ready for Mongol hostilities:



The selected stack is south of Ning-Hsia, and the mouse-overed stack is in Beijing. You can also see my spy hanging out in Beshbalik.

Just after we came out of Buddhist Anarchy, Saladin came by with a proposal to go to war with Egypt. To my immortal shame, I declined. We need to rebuild the economy, and a war, (even a fake war), isn't going to help things.

Here is the empire as a whole:



Yes, Colonial Maintenance is becoming a real bear. I should have moved the capital already. It's my next priority, but I'm still not sure where.

Since joining the Buddhist family, everyone's hunky-dory and glad to be my friend:



.... Suckers.

Here's the tech situation. As you can see, we're not exactly running away with things, but, given the state of our economy, we're doing quite nicely at the moment:



And the power graph. As you can see, the siege of Xian took quite a bit out of us:



Our newly reallocated Espionage screen:



And the military glance:



So... what do you all think? spend some time rebuilding or launch right into it with the Khan, counting on war booty to keep the treasury afloat? Move the capital to Tokyo? And what about the South Pacific?