Recovering from Last Place after Expansion Phase, Step by Step

zerksees

in remission
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This article details an approach to recovering a game where the human player looked doomed. It is a concrete example of how using many techniques from this site can change the game in your favor. It is a long article, but I strongly recommend reading it for anyone who struggles to win at the chieftain, warlord or regent levels.

On November 29, 2003, CFC member Groobz posted a thread entitled “Can I win this game? help!”. The thread was about a week old when I found it. Many CFC members had already given advice about the situation. The posts that said the game was lost got to me. I believe most any game can be saved with the right strategy and tactics. I posted a request for a save game.

After receiving the save game I took over the game as a challenge. In this game the AI was so far ahead, I frankly wasn’t sure if it could be saved. At my current skill level I regularly beat the game on emperor and have one deity game (a victory) under my belt. I hoped these skills would be enough.

As I played the game I took notes and later converted them into game updates. From the comments in other members posts on the thread, I gathered that many people were learning from this thread.

I realized that many players might have found themselves in a losing game and felt it was over. I also realized there was no strategy article detailing how such a game might be saved. While I realize this game is not representative of all games, a solid example might help others see that those “hopeless” games may not be hopeless after all, and show others how some of the techniques in the war academy might be applied to such a situation.

This article is constructed from the game updates I posted in the original thread, which you can see here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70298

The game is a continents game played on PTW on a huge map at Regent level. It was played until 590 AD at patch 1.21f but I finished it on patch 1.27f. There are 11 AI players. The human is playing Japan. The game was at 590 AD when the thread was posted. The original 590 AD save game is now attached (corrected 7/6/10).
Though I did not know it at the start, the only victory condition enabled was conquest.
 

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Phase I: Assessment

It is 590 AD. Japan is dead last following 11 AI players. There are no luxuries. There are only 9 workers, and they are automated. Land space is small – only 10 cities or so. There is no Forbidden Palace, as there are not enough cities to build it yet. Nothing to trade since there are no extra resources of any kind. Germany, the most powerful civ, is right next door. Japan is hopelessly behind in tech (more than a whole age back). What is worse is this is an accelerated production game, which means the AI can build units like crazy. Later game play shows we are losing ground on all the civs, including 11th place Egypt. Total gold income is 196 per turn. We still have no idea what the map looks like, not even territory maps for some of the neighbors. The situation looks dire.

The military is decent size, but it still has warriors and spearman. There are some pikemen and we have gunpowder so we can build musketman. A few are out there. There are some Samurai running around. No battles, let alone wars, are going to be won by this military at this point in the game. The AI has infantry! Japan will not be initiating wars anytime soon, if ever, in this game.

The political situation is not too bad. China and India are polite, and Germany is cautious. No one appears to be furious, which means there is hope that diplomacy is possible.

Japan is in Republic. The civ size may be a little small for that but since we are not going to have wars for a while, I leave it alone. In retrospect I should have ran some tests to see if monarchy or despotism would be better.

Japan does have iron and saltpeter within its borders and one port city.

In my opinion, the only hope Japan has is to survive long enough to get MPP and hope the AI country in the MPP doesn’t start a bunch of wars. At this point I have no idea how this game can be won. My short-term goal is not to finish last. This will not be easy. Japan will need to find a way to outplay Egypt. If that works, then new short-term goal can be established.

Phase 2: Adjustments and Building

590 AD:
Japan is not using city governors, nor are the cities being micro-managed every turn. This is a mistake as there are too many entertainers. I choose to avoid micro-management of citizens and turn city governor on by setting “manage citizen moods”, “emphasize food” and “emphasize production” to yes for all cities. Income increases from 196 to 220 per turn. With this change I increased science to 40% and was able to complete theology in one turn. Even after these changes, Japan is 10th in population and GNP, 11th in mfg goods and 12th in landmass. This is going to be a long road back.

I spot empty spaces in Japan’s current territory and cities that are growing too slowly. I change current production on most cities to granaries, workers and settlers. Japan finished a couple more musketman and that will be the end of military growth for a while. All of the tiles in Japan influence need to be worked, so she needs better population growth.

After this is done, I worked on culture, as I would hate to lose cities to culture flip.

Some of the other members had suggested looking for an island to move to for a fresh start. I decide not to go with the new land exploration option, as it is likely that the AI has found any unoccupied lands by now. Without a good map or resources to buy one, and without the ability to set up right of passage, Japan is going to have to make due with the land she has, and what she can steal.

600 AD:
Set science to 0. Trade for techs. Buy chemistry from China for 15 gpt and 75 gold. Buy education from Egypt for 13 gpt and 35 gold.

Science will be at 0 for a long time, since techs are cheaper to buy than to build, especially when this far behind. Made later trades with Germans, Mongols, India, England, America, Arabs, Russia and France. Most middle age techs went for 380 gold. Some of the earlier trades were for gold and gpt, but I decided cash was cheaper. Some gpt trades were done to assure neighbors would have an additional reason for not declaring war. I always accepted the AI trade offers for non-required techs at low prices (like music theory for 10 gold from Mongols).

Rome demands territory map. Japan gives it gladly. This will be the case for demands from Germany in 880 AD and India in 1000 AD. Japan wants to survive the AI dogpile, so she swallows her pride and saves her ire for a future day.

750-760 AD:
Complete Forbidden Palace in Osaka. Sell any nearby courthouses as they would not be needed.

Made a strategic decision to sign MPP with China. Japan gave 98 gold, 2gpt and world map. To have any chance in this game, Japan is going to need help. MPP is a deterrent to other civs not to attack her. I know the risks, but what choice does Japan have? To get back in the game Japan needs to take chances.

820 AD:
Built city named “Ivory” near the ivory tile just inside the Russian border. The tile switches to Japan and the first luxury is established. Russia may not be happy but does not declare war.

880 AD:
Trade with Arabs for territory map. Most of the territory maps Japan acquired as part of a trade for technology. This was not. Also purchased German territory map for 95 gold in 970 AD.

I am learning that money is most precious in this accelerated production game. As all city improvements are completed Japan is building musketman, and disbanding warriors to keep the military count down (rather than paying to upgrade the warriors).

Walls are cheap, so all border towns are getting them. Anyone who needs an aqueduct gets that built too.

990 AD:
Trade with India for Steam Power. Gave 19 gpt + 350 gold. Ouch. Industrial age techs are going to cost a lot more. Can’t build railroads. Need coal. Found coal in German territory on the border. Built city there. Voila – coal. Again, AI’s might not be happy but no wars are declared.

1000 AD
Egypt declared war on Germany. This will help Japan. Japan now trails Egypt by about 205 points.

Phase 3 – Japan Faces War With Musketman Vs. Tanks

1020 AD:
Germany has been starting wars. Two against France and one against Russia. In 1000 AD China and Germany created a military alliance against Russia. This is bad news for Japan. All three of them have radar towers and tanks. Russia has about 8 units stacked up right next to Satsuma, the port city. Satsuma has one musketman and one medieval infantry for defense. Japan moves several other units in there, including veteran Samurai. Musketman is no match for a tank, even if he has walls and is fortified. In 1020 Russia enters China territory and Japan is forced to declare war on Russia.

At this point I am ready to quit the game. I am resigned to Japanese defeat from Russian tanks.

To my surprise the AI sends only some of the units against Satsuma, sending the others after units not in cities. The attack results in a victory for Samurai and a golden age begins! Roads to Japanese iron get pillaged. The tanks attack but only one per city. Germany and China take out the tanks after they hit my cities once.

Now everyone starts lining up against Russia. China is turning them into the rogue state. I am glad Japan has avoided that fate.

Soon after China takes the Russian city just north of Japan, and razes it! Japan smells golden opportunity as there are four fur tiles out there. Japan builds two cities nearby and takes control of them all! In the mid 1100’s she trades one for spices. These luxuries should help with war weariness a little later on.

1050 AD
France declares war on Japan. Oooh. I am scared. Perhaps they can beat all those German Panzers and get Japan.

Soon after the Germans and China start turning France into a second rogue state. And the wars continue.

1120 AD:
Japan completes research on Replaceable Parts. This is huge. Now Japan can upgrade musketman to infantry, and build artillery. Japan starts building artillery with vengeance. Any underpowered army can win a battle with enough artillery. Since Japan’s cities are close together, the skeleton railroad system was quickly put in place so these units can get to the front lines easily.

Soon discovered Mongols did not have Replaceable Parts. Traded it to them for Industrialization , Economics and world map. Egypt did not have Industrialization. Traded it plus Electricity and 60 gold for Nationalism.

1170 AD:
France gets Egypt to join military alliance against us. Again Oooh. Egypt is on the rocks already, having lost many cities to Germany. They are really on the way out. What’s better is Japan is gaining on them. The point deficit in 1220 AD is down to 160. Japan has already taken advantage of gaps between conquered Egyptian cities to build a city and gain incense as a luxury.

It is also clear that Russia is losing her wars. In the wake of the razed city, there is a nice chunk of space, mostly under Russian control (but no city). Japan is at war with them. Settlers are sent up and the land is claimed. Two more new cities on grassland are born.

Phase 4 – Japan Puts Artillery and Cavalry to Work

1230 AD:
Our artillery stack has been building. Japan has 25 artillery and 15 or so cavalry. Each turn she attacks Rostov, to the point where all improvements (city and tile) are gone. There are 2 mechanized infantry in there (one is elite), and I want enough artillery to get them down to one hit point before starting the cavalry charge. In 1230, the artillery barrage gets the 2 MI to one and two hit points. The cavalry charge succeeds, the four riflemen supporting the MI are also defeated, a great leader is born, and Rostov is taken. Japan will probably raze it and build another right nearby, rather than risk a culture flip.

Now Japan sets her sights on the next city: Krasnoyarsk

So far no cities have been lost.

I am starting to think about how to stop the spaceships and the UN vote.
 
At this point in the game I became aware that conquest is the only victory condition enabled for this game. This means I don't have to worry about spies for sabotaging spaceship parts, nor do I have to worry about UN vote.

1240 AD:
Took Krasnoyarsk with artillery and cavalry. Three mechanized infantry were eliminated. Decided to use the great leader to build an army. Loaded it with cavalry and immediately put to use on a one hit point guerrilla. Now I can build heroic epic which will help build more leaders.

1250-1260 AD:
Rampaging German forces eliminate the Egyptians. (one AI down) They are still at war with Russia and France so I have some time. I am surprised Germany is in monarchy. It will still take a while before Japan ranks 11th, but time to start looking ahead. Japan has 430, Egypt 570, and Arabs have 731. Maybe Japan can finish 10th.

Start siege on Sevastopol. The artillery barrage is so sweet!

Attaching some of the five fur luxury tiles. Plan to trade these soon.

Another great leader appears from combat. Decide to take the risk and jump the palace to the Incense city (just off to left of above screenshot). Corruption decreases from 84 to 50 per turn. Production increases from 197 to 211 megaton. I wish the new location was farther away, to improve the effect of the palace rank exploit but it is not. Japan will build another palace later.

Japan also dropped another city between Kiev and Sevastopol.

About the Palace Jump

A palace jump is simply moving the palace from one city to another. There are several ways to do this:
1) Build it like any other building. This could take a long time since it takes 300 shields to build a palace, and you can't rush build it.
2) Abandon the city where your current palace is, and the palace will move to the largest city (uses a formula of native population, foreign population, ans cities within 8 tile radius). This is known as a free palace jump. Read about it here
3) Rush build it using a great leader. (This is the method I used.)

I use a palace jump to take advantage of an exploit discovered to help negate corruption. This exploit entails moving the palace far from the forbidden palace, measuring the distance between the two (about 40 tiles in this case), and then not building any cities in a circle of half that distance (20 tiles for this game) around the palace. Read this article in the war academy for a better explanation on the rank corruption exploit. It is very powerful. I had to read it a couple times to really get it.

1270 AD:
Two Chinese modern armor are near Sevastopol. I postpone the siege there. I am afraid I will weaken Russian defense enough that China will take it. Switch siege to Astrakhan. The attack goes well and I take the city. Thank goodness, as Russia loses the bombers that have been plaguing my improvements. The city was down to size 3 when it was taken. When the Chinese modern armors attack Sevastopol, they are both easily defeated by the fortified MI. Boy is the AI stupid.

Unfortunately the army was lost. I used it to attack a single guerrilla in the woods and it was defeated. The guerrilla only lost one hit point! This was a reminder that I should not attack anything that has not been shelled with artillery. I was trying to build experience for the units inside the army. No matter, heroic epic is on its way.

Set up embassies with Arabs and Romans. Arab capital is making a pathetic 10 shields per turn. They will be an easy target when the time comes. Hopefully Japan will last that long.

Initiate a string of trades. India trades scientific method and 275 gold for some precious Japanese furs. Arabs trade refining for scientific method and 370 gold. Americans trade steel for 335 gold and 27 gpt. Mongols trade atomic theory for 68 gpt. Arabs trade sanitation, navigation and 370 gold for atomic theory. Germans trade electronics for 290 gold + 44 gpt. Japan is still gaining about 110 gpt. With only 65 gold left in the treasury, Japan decides to build more cash before the next string of trades.

Japan is now about 5 techs away from mechanized infantry. With those Japan has a chance against the modern armor.

Japan also looks like she is back to her 1/12 share of the score bar.

Kiev, just north of Japan’s new northern border, falls to China. Too bad. Japan is still small and can’t win them all. It would probably have been corrupt anyway, with current palace and FP configuration. At least I didn't waste any effort attacking it.

France asks for peace. I can’t accept. My MPP with China would kick in the next turn and I would break an agreement. I still need easy AI trades, so the war continues!

1280 AD:
In 1275 China brought 9 modern armor through my territory within striking range of Sevastopol. I moved infantry and musketman in the way so they have to go all the way around to the north, in case the attack fails. I feel it is now or never if Japan wants Sevastopol. Japan needs Sevastopol. I then went through my artillery barrage, and it was not too good. Two MI down to one hit point and one at two hit points. I am not sure what else is in there. So I start the attack. I lost five or six cavalry but Sevastopol fell!

I immediately move a settler to drop another city between Sevastopol and Astraken.

1285 AD:
Artillery moves to striking range of Tblisi (just off the screenshot near Astraken). Put the hurt on them, trashing infrastructure and dropping population from 13 to 8. Japan has only 8 cavalry left, and some are healing, so shelling will have to do for this turn. It may be too much to ask to get this city, based on the volume of China and American units converging on Russia. I may try to post some units nearby and strike if the other AI’s leave them weak.

Russia has only four cities left.

I also plan to slip a few more cities in the gaps between these four remaining cities.

Japan has these units: 8 cavalry, 69 infantry, 35 artillery, 7 guerilla, 17 musketman, 27 worker and 1 galleon. The military is strong compared to Russia, France and Arabs, and average compared to Mongols. Need to rebuild the cavalry stack for the time being. With all this new territory Japan needs more workers. Cities at max size will now generate a worker between other units. Select large cities are building hospitals.

I notice Japan has no oil. This is going to be a problem when Japan wants tanks. Japan now has an unhooked iron. Between that and the extra fur maybe she can get some oil when the time comes.

Japan is now 8th in population, 7th in GNP and 7th in manufactured goods. Better than 10th, 10th and 11th back in 590 AD, but still a long way to go. Population and GNP are three times bigger than 590 AD, and manufactured goods are five times bigger.

I just hope Germany chooses to pick on someone else when Russia and France are gone.

1295 AD: Tblisi falls to Japanese artillery and cavalry. 2 MI and one guerilla were no match for 37 artillery and 5 cavalry. The expansion is exceeding my hopes, as Japan grabs more precious territory.

1300 AD: China makes peace with France. Woohoo! I try to demand techs for peace but she won’t budge. Finally in 1310 I made peace getting two free workers. Not bad considering I never even went near their territory.

I want to make peace with Russia. She will give combustion, a worker and Yakutsk (their second last city), but this will break my agreement with China. I need a good rep to continue trading for techs, so I let it pass. Instead I will rush settlers up around there and take the soon to be vacant land between the former Russian cities. Someone razed their third last city last turn leaving two more furs and rubber up for grabs. Earlier I saw a Chinese settler leaving former Egyptian territory. I explore a little with cavalry and see he is now in range of the resources. I build a row of cavalry so he has to walk around. I hope my settlers can get there in time.

1305 AD: MPP expires with China. I choose not to renew. This frees me to make peace with Russia and get a free tech. Too bad after I decline China takes Moscow and Russia is out of the game! (two AI down) I will postpone signing a MPP until France is gone.

Sent a settler with an infantry and a guerilla escort toward old France territory to prepare for a better palace location. Some AI went raze happy down there and now there is a huge open area. Using German railway and Chinese roadways with my ROP to get there.

1310 AD: Initiate more trades: England trades combustion for furs, 430 gold and 13 gpt. (I do this now in case China beats me to those extra furs. Hate to lose a customer!) India trades flight for 100 gold and 52 gpt. Germany trades mass production for 40 gold and 46 gpt. I tried selling to Arabs but they won’t bite, and Mongolia has all these techs.

Japan income is now up to 774 gold per turn.

Successfully block the Chinese settler paving the way for Japanese cities to control the rubber and furs. This feels devious, but I am sure it will not cause a rep hit. Any human player might declare war over this, but I feel safe with the AI.

1315 AD: India destroys France. (three AI down: Egypt, Russia, France) The world is now at peace.
Japan drops two new cities north of Tblisi. Still one more needed to control the last fur.
 
Phase 5 – Need for Oil Affects Strategy

1320 AD: Sign MPP with Germany. Paid 50 gold for it. They have extra oil I can buy and China does not, so my fate somewhat rests with them now.

1325-1335 AD: Buy Flight from Romans for furs, 443 gold and 16gpt. (Correction I did not buy it from Indians earlier. I wrote it down but must have changed my mind before doing the deal.)
Founded a faraway city in France’s old territory for the next palace jump.

1340 AD: Germany declares war on America. So when Japan’s turn starts in 1345 she is forced to declare war as well. Ouch – this breaks trades with America and kills Japan’s rep! Now almost no one will accept gpt for techs. Japan still needs radio, computers and oil to have MI.
Japan completes military academy small wonder.

Phase 6 – America the Next Victim of the Japanese Artillery Barrage

1345 AD:
Buy motorized transportation from Germany for 68 gpt. Somehow they will sell this, but not oil. Apparently even though they started the war Bismarck still sees Japan as untrustworthy.

Japan braces for American assault. Artillery pillage every American tile in range of Coaltown (the only border she has with America). For defense Japan stacks up 20 infantry in the city along with 6 more on the coal. America attacks with about 12 to 15 units – tanks, MA and MI. I lose some units, and actually lose my position over the coal, but he is out of units and does not pillage the road.

1350 AD:
Japan puts the artillery to work on all the American units just outside the city. Many are taken down to one hit point. Japan retakes the coal, and builds a fortress there and puts 6 more fortified infantry in there. If Lincoln takes it he is going to pay. I am feeling very underpowered and decide to switch to mobilization economy. I had to pull a lot of units from other cities to reinforce Coaltown and the coal resource.

1355-1365 AD:
Traded flight to Arabs for alliance against America.
America declares war on Romans. Seems like a dogpile against America. I can get MPP with China for 669 gold, but doesn’t seem worth it yet.
Japanese artillery barrage lowers Baltimore down to one population. (It was at 19 when war started)

Ugh – this rep hit is killing me. I need radio, computers and oil and I can’t use gpt. I regret mobilizing since the American surge seems to be over and Japan has not yet lost a city.

Strategy Check

I tend to get consumed by the battles during wars, and other areas suffer. Here Japan is so underpowered I need to focus on strategic objectives:

1 – Get oil. Japan has a few ways to do this. There is a small opening in the tundra in near cities taken by China. I am sending a settler up there to grab it. It is only four tiles, but hopefully with rush build of culture units I can get enough expansion to plant another city next to oil resource. The second plan is bolder. In about 3 turns the first army will come out of military academy. I plan to load it with veteran infantry, and stack under it 10 more infantry and a couple settlers. These will make a 15+ tile trek deep into American territory and attempt to plant a city on top of American oil, maybe both of them. Both oil sources are at least 2 tiles away from a city. Since cultural conversions are off I can get away with this without worry of culture flip. The final way is to save up cash and buy it. This is dangerous since the AI could break the treaty after I paid all the cash up front, so it is a last resort. As soon as this is hooked up I can build tanks.
2 – Get radio and computers. No more GPT deals due to rep hit so this requires gold now. Switch some cities to wealth production only. Change governors to emphasize commerce in other cities.
3 - Jump the palace to south location to improve commerce and reduce corruption. Need to prepare the future palace for this by sending out some workers to speed up the move to size 12. Since mobilized, will need to shrink the other cities to 10 or 9 to ensure it jumps to the correct city. Also put another settler at current palace location to rebuild after the jump. It should be a productive spot and it has incense nearby.
4 – Save up some gold for a quick update of infantry to MI once oil and computers are obtained.

1370 AD: Income 928, corruption 117

1375 AD:
Took Baltimore from America. There was only one tank in there. This seemed too easy. I looked on military advisor screen and determined America was in anarchy! Better move fast before they recover.
Also had the privilege of defeating an American modern armor army. Used artillery to reduce it to one hit point and took it out with cavalry. Artillery rocks!
Bought radio from Arabs for furs and 740 gold. Renewed ROP with Bismarck at no cost.

1380-85 AD:
Cleared land SW of Baltimore of improvements with artillery. Sent a settler there to put artillery in range of Houston and Cincinnati. Maybe I can get one more city.
Put artillery and cavalry to work and took Asyut from America, again defended with only one unit.
Renew ROP with China for 5 gold.
Founded a city in a small gap of unclaimed land near Chinese oil. Will need culture expansion to place a second city and more culture expansion to take it. This is a contingency plan.

1390-1400 AD:
Founded new city: First American Road. Had moved workers with defenders between Baltimore and this city. They built roads. Artillery moved in and attacked Houston. Two infantry and one MI defending. The unstoppable artillery and cavalry (lol) overpower their units and Houston now belongs to Japan. Houston has dyes, which Japan can use to help with war weariness.
Artillery has also been hitting Cincinnati. There are at least 3 MI in there and Japan has not been able to get them all down to one HP. They are isolated now, so reinforcements are unlikely and I will be able to see Germany coming after them, so they wait.
Send infantry army, settler, two cavalry and a couple more infantry on a trek through American territory to reach American oil. Japan must continue this war until that resource is secure.

The approach of building a city to move artillery in range, positioning workers to road-connect the new city as soon as it is built, and taking the enemy city with cavalry is repeated in most of the attacks against American cities. I hate losing all those units, so artillery will bomb down to one HP on each unit before the cavalry charge.

1405-1410 AD:
Took out another American modern armor army with artillery and cavalry. Note to self: never send an army against a civ with 40+ artillery unless the army has an escort stack.
Took Cincinnati. Artillery barrage not so good, I just used some cavalry to force the issue. Several pesky American bombers and fighters based there were destroyed.
Put a road in to hook up the dyes near Houston, and put some infantry on it. “We love the shogun” day celebrated. Maybe they will offer to expand my palace.
Bought computers from Ghandi for 1490 gold – crazy insane prices! Now all Japan needs to do is secure the oil.

1420-1425 AD:
Took Boston. Japan did not have a road so she defended with 4 infantry and 8 cavalry. The infantry had crept up the turn before. The Americans counter attacked and retook the city, but left the workers and infantry right outside the city. Japan attacks again, retakes city, builds road with workers right outside, moves in infantry army for defense, and moves in remaining artillery to defeat modern armor used in the counter strike. Bombed them all down to one HP and eliminated them. Ouch for them. They are losing cities and that was probably their last best strike force.
3 more turns until my settler and infantry army are on the oil. Amazingly, they are advancing at the same speed as my conquest of cities. Japan is deep into American territory and she can smell that oil!
The MPP with Germany came up, and Japan renewed it for 9 gpt. Japan is still too weak to go without friends, and the oil is not secure. The last thing she needs is a war with China. I guess it’s 20 more turns of war.

1430-35 AD:
Germany takes Detroit and razes it! Apparently they have enough land already. Speaking of them, where have they been? They took Richmond and kept it earlier, but that’s it. I promptly move in settlers and take over the vacant land! I am amazed at how much success I am having compared to them. All these cities are going to be close enough to the forbidden palace to be productive.
Japan is closing in on Washington. Attempted to take it this turn but came up short. Now German forces smell blood, and a stack of MA are headed toward Washington. They will be there next turn. One of the oil resources is outside Washington – it would be a shame if it falls into German hands. So I pull every extra unit and stack them up next to Washington for the final attempt.
America came asking for peace. They would give rocketry but Japan tells them no thanks.

China and Mongols sign MPP. China and England sign MPP the next turn. I was unhappy before that China was not in this war but I am even less happy now. China is not participating in any war now and so they must be stockpiling units. When an AI starts signing MPP like that I think they feel “safer” to start a war since they know several civs will support them. Perhaps I am overestimating the AI. Also, Japan has a huge border with China right now. It would be virtually impossible to defend the whole thing adequately. I would hate for Japan to lose all that prime territory taken from Russia. If Japan gets into a better position, I will make a priority out of consolidating that border, probably by taking most of the former Russian cities at the north end of the continent. I hope they decide to leave Japan alone.

1440 AD:
Japan launches artillery barrage and then takes Washington with cavalry, infantry and guerillas. German modern armor witnesses the event.
A settler is moved to the oil directly outside the city with reinforcements.

Phase 7 – Japan Enters Modern Era with Mechanized Infantry

1445 AD:
Japan founds Oilville on the first American oil tile. The military offensive beat the settler/infantry army stack. That stack now directed toward the other oil resource.
Also took San Francisco, just ahead of German modern armor.

Japan does mass upgrade of infantry to mechanized infantry. Shift-U updates 40 infantry in cities with barracks to MI for 800 gold. (Japan still has 1238 gold left after this upgrade.) On future turns these will be moved around to replace infantry, which will be brought in for upgrades. Production for many cities switched to tanks.

Whew! The playing field starts to level a little. I feel Japan is a little safer from surprise attack now, and is starting to have a little more control of her destiny. Never again will Japan be so vulnerable to the forces of the AI!

Income is 1010 and corruption is 185, with +236 gold extra each turn.
India signs MA with Germany against America.

1450-60 AD:
Japan takes New York and Philadelphia.
Placed settler on top of second source of American oil. Japan will not take this yet, as I want America to defend well against the other AI players.
England requests trade of world map for Japan world map plus 190 gold. Sure Elizabeth, I am going to pay to show you where the open areas are near me. Romans tried to trade territory maps and collect 1 gold in 1430. In both cases Japan says no thanks. Japan can afford to be a little selective now. If I were worried about repercussions, I might gift territory map or 25 gold, but not today.
Sell dyes to China for 40 gpt. Buy rocketry from Romans for dyes, furs and 610 gold.
Allowed alliance with Arabs to expire. I will make peace with America if they last long enough.
Units: 2 settler, 54 worker, 16 cavalry, 51 infantry, 7 tanks, 89 mechanized infantry, 67 artillery, 1 galleon, 3 armies, 1 guerilla (291 units I think).

1465-1475 AD:
Plan to fill gaps around Philadelphia with new towns.
Had planned to stop fighting America, but discovered Japans territory has no aluminum. Ouch. Buffalo has some, but again Germans and India are closing in. Moved a stack of 25 units next to the city in 1470, and used some workers to wall off access to the city. Took Buffalo in 1475.
Saw my first war elephants ever. They look cool. Also saw first stealth aircraft ever, also from India. My games are usually over before any AI can build stealth. Hmm… Not looking forward to fighting against the stealth.

1480-1495 AD:
In 1480 America has four cities left. Japan is done attacking her. Instead she pillages the roads in neutral territory to slow the AI advance and buy America more time. I believe Japan will benefit from a longer war, since it will drain down the other AI and keep Germany busy.
Japan now has 320 units.
Bought ecology from Arabs for dyes, furs and 680 gold. Bought synthetic fibers from India for 33 gpt, 808 gold and ROP. Apparently Ghandi trusts Japan again.
Built more cities to fill gaps, and to take extra rubber resource left in wake of an American city.
Upgraded a couple tanks to modern armor. Look out AI world, zerksees has modern armor!

Another Strategy Check

It is obvious Bismarck is a war monger. Japan’s republic can’t take always war. Germany is in monarchy so she can play AW (always war). Japan needs to let the MPP with Germany expire, make preparations, and then attack. As soon as America is gone Japan will sign MPP with China and prepare to go after Germany. Besides, Germany owns a nice chunk of land directly east of the forbidden palace, so Japan could put some nice productive cities there. Japan needs to get out of mobilization as well, as many improvements are not being made.
 
1515-1520 AD:
Five Roman units found their way into Japan territory. I hit them with artillery and then with my ragtag stack of elites: 1 tank, 1 MI, 1 infantry and 1 cavalry. No great leader. Never again will Roman units that enter my territory survive the other AI players.

Did an investigation of German city of Dortmund. This is the lone German city west of Queen Barbie. There are only 3 MI in there. This city is a planned target of my first assault. Maybe the strength of the German army is out making war.

Have not mentioned that Japan passed Egypt and took 11th place in score quite a ways back. Did an analysis of scores and found that Japan, China and Germany tied with the highest increase in score (10 points per turn). India gained 8, Mongols 4, England and Arabs 3, Rome 2. The Americans (-4), France (-4), and Russia (-3) are all in free fall mode since they are out of the game. If Japan does not get herself killed and/or nuked out, she should finish at least 8th. (Four AI down - I am not exactly sure when America was knocked out, but my guess is it is right around now.)

Corruption is up to 407 per turn. This is amazing since it is over double Japan’s total income at 590 AD when I picked up the game.

At this time every tile east and north of city Second American Road is fully improved with railroads and mines or irrigation.

1525-1540 AD:
MPP with Germany ends. Bismarck regrets he does not wish to extend it. Is he prophetic?
Completed Wall Street. Woo-hoo! Extra 50 GPT thank you very much.
India gets England to join the war against Rome, so the trade embargo ends.
Japan’s military now “average” compared to Germany. Japan is still weak compared to China’s military.
Income 1817, corruption 450, gaining +600 gpt.

1545 AD:
Finally Rome acknowledges our envoy. Collect 200 gold for peace.
Buy fission from Arabs for 1610 gold. Japan has two uranium tiles in her territory.
Germany signs MPP with Arabs. Wonder if Japan’s gold financed it?
Gave furs to Elizabeth. Maybe she will look better wearing them. Really I wanted her polite, and I want her to think about the furs she will lose if she joins Germany against me.
Japan ranks 2nd in GNP and annual income, and 5th in manufactured goods.
Over the last few turns Japan has started building more military units in preparation for the next war. I hope to avoid using mobilization.

I am chomping at the bit to get this war started - just waiting for ROP to run out in 4-5 more turns.

1555 AD:
Making final preparations for war. Moving all available units to key areas in case Bismarck wants to start the war before Japan does. I notice Germany has a large group of units in Miami, so Japan puts up another city nearby for fodder (named it Fodder). Start putting up radar towers at strategic locations and backing them with a couple MI. Start organizing workers into larger stacks so they can finish their jobs and get to a safe place. Build cash to use to buy alliances or MPP with other civs.
Sell dyes to China for 40 gpt.

1575 AD:
Preparations are complete. The ROP ends next turn.
China destroys the Romans. (5 AI down) I suspect Caesar realizes he should have given in to Bismarck’s demands. Fortunately Rome was so short on units that they did not invade Chinese territory and force Japan back into the war, dealing her another rep hit.
Bismarck requests renewing ROP, Japan says no thanks. Now he is furious. I am not watching the reputation that closely, I am surprised he is not just annoyed.
I keep seeing potential holes in my defense, so slowly I reduce my defense on the China border to one or no units per city and move them to the German border.

Phase 8 – Japan Goes on the Offensive

1580 AD:
Japan signs MPP with Indians, to augment current MPP with China and Arabs. I think this MPP cost about 300 gold.
Germany has units in Japanese territory. I tell him “remove your forces or declare war”. Bismarck chooses war. Germany is in trouble now but it is about to get worse.
Japan pays 930 gold to sign MPP with Mongols.
Japan pays 50 gold and 100gpt to sign MPP with English (chose gpt because I was afraid she would quit the war early)
Japan now has MPP with everyone left except Germany. Note that two MPP’s were signed after Germany declared war on Japan, but before Japan invades.
Now, Germany still has MPP with the Mongols and the Arabs. Knowing this Japan chooses not to invade German territory. Instead Japan takes about 15 workers who were passing through at the time, and hunkers down for the German assault.

I pressed the enter key and waited. It seemed like eternity. Would the Germans be smart enough to stay out of my territory?

Nope. They invaded Japan. As soon as they did, all 5 other civs immediately declared war on them! I felt like Japan had hit the jackpot, and the foreign advisor announced all five declaring war on Germany. Bismarck liked war, now he will be up to his ears in it! This is a good example of using the rogue state strategy, which I use as often as possible to make my wars easier.

The German assault began. I lost three cities with a total population of 9: Gatorade was razed, Fodder was destroyed and New Incense was captured. I lost a couple radar towers. Just about everything he attacked was fortified MI with radar tower support. He assaulted my position defending the aluminum near Buffalo, but ran out of units. After the assault I had one cavalry left under the radar tower there!

1585 AD:
Now it is Japan’s turn for offense. Japan promptly destroys an MA army and a panzer army, and every last unit Germans brought into Japanese territory. There were probably about 25 modern armor and some guerillas. Of course he lost a bunch of MA in his initial attack as well. Japan used artillery against the armies and MA on hills before taking them out with MA. Japan had to take down some German radar towers to help these attacks.
Further, Japan began acquiring German territory. Dortmund, Dallas and Richmond were taken, greatly simplifying the border defense. New Incense was recaptured.
All this war generated a great leader.
I rebuilt radar towers where needed and adjusted defense. I am sure Germany will try again.
I think Japan cleaned up the German units a little too well, as India took Miami from Germany. That was followed by a significant flow of Indian and Chinese units toward German (former American) cities just off the southwest corner of Japanese territory. This is fine with me since I don’t want the AI taking any of the prime territory just east of the forbidden palace. These cities are so far from the Indian and Chinese capitals that they will be totally corrupt anyway.
Germany had a chance to return fire but they had few units to attack with, so the counter was weak. No cities were lost.

1590-1615 AD:
Germany’s borders are in full retreat. Japan is taking as many cities as she can, focusing effort to the east of the forbidden palace. Took cities as follows: 1590 – Cologne; 1595 – Munich and New Berlin; 1600 – Hannover, Leipzig, and Bonn; 1605 – Konigsberg and Berlin; 1610 – Stuttgart (renamed to Skipper at daughter’s request) and 1615 – New Leipzig. All of these cities are prime real estate for Japan, and will greatly help increase production once the resistance ends. Most of them were taken with help from artillery to weaken units defending radar towers, then hitting cities with whatever arty was left before attacking with MA.

Taking Leipzig nets Japans first great wonders: Sistine Chapel, Hanging Gardens and Copernicus. May not help now but it is still sweet to have them. Berlin also nets a great wonder: Sun Tzu’s Art of War! Barracks everywhere on the continent will be handy.

During this time I saw some very big stacks of Chinese MI and MA (over 50 tall and I think more than one), as they shifted fronts to attack Germany off Japan’s eastern border. Someday Japan is going to have to defeat those stacks. I guess she will need lots more units by then. China did put those stacks to good use as Germany is losing cities to China as well.

I also saw lots of ships. Ships were everywhere, all nations except Germany, clogging up shipping channels. I can’t tell you how many times Japanese ships had to take alternate routes because ocean tiles had hidden subs in them.

In 1605 MPP with China expired. Japan does not renew it. China is the next target. I will stay polite and trade but do not want to be obligated to the MPP.

Bought miniaturization from Arabs for 1820 gold, bought nuclear power from England for 1580 gold. Bought spices from Mongols for Ivory, Dyes, 60 gpt and 35 gold. Japan is a republic and the extra luxury will help unhappiness (and cheaper than upping luxury slider 10 more percent).

Somewhere along the line here I did move the luxury slider to 10%.

Rush built a transport and two battleships to move GL to new palace location. Decided I did not like positioning of New South Palace city, so Japan built one a little farther south on the coast. I named it “New Groobz”.

Japan passed Russia and Arabs to move into 9th place in scoring.

1620-1625 AD:
Japan took nine more German cities. These were mostly straight up MA attacks, with selected use of arty to assist taking out radar towers.

Moved great leader to New Groobz and rush built the palace. Abandon Temp City and New South Palace to keep the forbidden palace as a rank one city. (I had been rush building settlers to get population down in those cities.) The problem here is the balance of German cities is now in the 20 tile radius from the new palace. I plan to keep them to the end of the war then gift them to Arabs or England (the weakest civs) to minimize corruption in the 20 or so tile radius around the FP. Corruption dropped from 561 to 354 after the jump.

China is really crushing Germany’s outlying cities, as Germany ends this turn with just 8 cities left. Germany no longer owns any former American or Egyptian cities.

1630-1640 AD:
Took six more cities from Germans, eliminating them from the game in 1635! Germany leads China and India in score by a few hundred points so they will lead in scoring for a while, but the German empire is history. (six AI down: Egypt, Russia, France, America, Rome, Germany)



Gave four cities to England and two to Arabs. These cities were too close to the new palace, and would affect the ranking of the forbidden palace.

Bought the laser from Arabs for 1590 gold. I wanted this to upgrade 67 artillery to radar artillery.

Japan passed France for 7th place in scoring.

Income is up to 2681, corruption is -451. Japan is making +1068 gold per turn, even with the luxury slider still at 10%. At this rate she can buy a tech every other turn with a few hundred gold left over. There is over 5000 gold in the treasury right now.

Japan is going to need more workers to improve the newly acquired land quickly. Some new cities have been built in large gaps between the newly conquered cities. This will ensure every tile is worked once the population grows. With Bismarck gone I am hoping Japan will have peace for a while to prepare for the next war.

No great leaders were produced after the palace was built. Japan could use one more for a possible future palace jump to the other continent.

China is Japan’s main obstacle right now. If Japan can successfully weaken China then she will be almost unstoppable.

Phase 9 – Ramping up to be #1

1645-1685 AD
Japan passes England for 6th place in 1665 AD, and passes America for 5th in 1675 AD. In 1675 the scores are Germany 2212, India 1997, China 1857, Mongols 1482 and Japan 1134. Japan is now gaining 20 pts/turn, more than anyone else.

Japan has been busy with infrastructure building. Building marketplaces, banks, stock exchanges, hydro plants and in former German cities and in some of the former American cities. Building mfg plants in core Japan cities. Japan is second in mfg. goods. Being number one means Japan will not have to rely on superior combat techniques to keep up. I am building the industrial machine to be number one and take on China.

I am staying friendly with all of the remaining civs. Renewed MPP with England, India and the Mongols. Renewed ROP with China.

Unit inventory in 1685 AD: 8 settlers, 82 workers, 13 cavalry, 10 infantry, 5 tank, 186 mech inf, 59 modern armor, 67 radar artillery, 2 transports, 1 carrier, 1 AEGIS cruiser, 1 nuclear sub, 1 bomber, 5 jet fighters, 1 stealth bomber, 11 armies!, and 4 guerillas. This military is weak compared to India, China and the Mongols, avg compared to England and strong compared to Arabs. It is clear Japan is going to need more units to be the world superpower.

The world is at peace.

1690 AD
Believe it or not Japan starts losing power on the power chart. Japan is not ready to attack China but I am concerned they are pulling away. I am starting to think Japan should start a diversionary war against one of the civs on the other continent. Japan could start it and then use minimal forces allowing her to build up. Maybe I can steer China into using up some of that army overseas, and give Japan time to catch up with military. Too bad I just signed all those MPPs. I guess this is 18 turns away.

Complete purchases of all techs of modern era. I also purchased a few from prior eras that I had not acquired yet. The most I paid for any of them was 2150 gold. I do not plan to buy or build any more techs for this game. Next tech to research: free artistry.

1695 AD
Ghandi declares war on the Mongols, starting the diversionary war I wanted! The timing was impeccable. Japan was forced to declare war due to the MPP as were the Arabs (who had MPP with India). England also declared war.

I immediately sign MPP with China - even though it cost 1090 gold. This is my chance to get them into the war.
 
1700-1730 AD
China declares war on the Mongols - heh-heh.
The Mongols bring some ships over to Japan's shores but they are quickly defeated with radar arty and a few ships. The ships Japan missed must have been obliterated by everyone else, as this attack only lasted a couple turns.
I decide it is time to go and acquire some of the fine silks the Mongols had for myself.
Abandon Sokitume, as it was small and probably affecting production of larger nearby cities.
All jungle now cleared from former German territory. Workers are still busy improving tiles.
As of 1720 Japan has over 8000 gold in treasury and accumulating 2290 gold per turn. Science and luxury sliders set at 0%. I have been rush building improvements to keep gold lower, adding culture improvements in border areas to build a buffer against China.
Mongols are losing cities. Someone is razing the Mongol cities so there is a big gap. England has taken one of the Mongol cities near the silks so it looks bad for me acquiring that resource - for now. I am still trying to build up a landing party - I decide to rush build some ships.

1735 AD
Demographics: population 3, GNP 1, mfg. goods 2, land area 1, annual income 1, productivity 1.
Japan now has 560 total units. Japan military still weak compared to China.

AI's have been having trouble deciding what government to be in. Shortly after the war the Mongols and India went into anarchy (I think all of them were democracy before that). This turn I notice England is in anarchy. Serves them all right for running that weak democracy.

Mongols ask for peace. I tell them no thanks.

1740-1752 AD
Japan's military build up continues.
Mongols are losing cities. Somebody over there is razing them. Since Japan is not there yet I cannot tell who is doing the razing.
England takes the other city and control of the silks. Oh well. I plan to divert my second landing party there to the spices in Mongol territory. Somehow the Mongol city by them was razed too.
Sent out a settling party headed for the "new world" (other continent). Brought along another settler, a couple workers, some MI and a couple MA.
China attempted to make peace with the Mongols in 1745 but immediately declared war again, probably because of MPP.
China signed MPP with Arabia.
Noticed China was in anarchy in 1752. Japan is now # 1 in mfg. goods.

Phase 10 – AI’s Go Nuclear

1754 AD
For the first time I heard the sound of missiles. My speaker isn't very good, so I wasn't sure at first what it was. I heard the sound about five or six times. I wondered if the game was going to lock up. I soon found out it was nukes. Mongols must have launched them. One (or more?) landed on Xinjian, a Chinese city on Japan's western border. It appears the nuke filled all nine tiles around the tile with pollution and stripped all the improvements. I don't like it. Since I still have ROP with China, I sent a unit on a tour of China and found no other cities hit. I am sad, they should have hit their capital! No matter, I see desperation will force the AI to launch nukes. Need to develop a strategy to address this tactic. I now realize how lucky I was that Germany did not launch - some of their cities had ICBM's when I took them. I have never seen nukes used before as my games are usually over before they can be built.
China tries to renew trade for dyes at 67 gpt, and I said no. Japan is cutting ties with China one at a time.

1756 AD
Landed on the new continent. There is a vast open space of former Mongol territory. Next turn Japan will found Plymouth, and start settling this open space.
Investigate Chinese city of Ningpo. Found 5 MI, 2 cruise missiles and a jet fighter in there. This city is on Japan's west border and will be a primary early war campaign objective. I am surprised it is not defended better.
Tried to plan a spy in China, but he was killed. Mao was not pleased. He is going to be less pleased soon.
Someone is launching more nukes, as I hear the missiles again. I am not sure where they hit, but Japan was not hit (Japan's SDI has been built for a while – and at this time I had no idea how to know if it was working or not).

1758 AD
The rampaging Indian forces knock the Mongols out of the game. (seven AI down) Their city with spices was razed. Japan will try to hurry up and get the next settling party there. There is a lot of boat traffic in the way.
Immediately signed MPP with Arabs.
Tried spy plant in China again with no success.

1760 AD
Tried China spy plant again with no success.
Japan passes Mongols for 4th place. Score: India - 2199, China - 2124, Germany - 2084 and Japan - 1524.
Japan now has 700 units. China is still in anarchy. Five turns left on MPP with China.
I have also been busy preparing defenses. Most of the cities on the western border and southern border have armies in them for defense. Key cities have about 10 units each and others have about 5. Almost all front line defense is fortified MI. Radar towers are up out of range of border wherever possible to help with defense. If he wants Japan cities he is going to have to earn it. Second tier cities are defended with MA and in some cases MI. All cities have at least one unit. Workers are finishing tasks and being pulled in to safe areas.

1762 AD
Did not renew ROP with China. Mao is now annoyed.
Renew MPP with England and India, giving each about 700 gold.
Making some progress on new continent with 3 cities. One is right near the spices.

Phase 11 – Seizing Control of the Continent

1764 AD
China in democracy.
Even so Japan is now number one in population, GNP, mfg. goods, land area, annual income and productivity. Zerksees head swells with power. I can outproduce them. I can outlast their weak democracy in war. Further, the military advisor informs me Japan's military is average compared to China.

1766 AD
China is walking across Japan's territory. How convenient! I tell Mao "remove your forces or declare war!" To my surprise he concedes to my demands. Maybe he is smarter than I think.

1768 AD
Japan demands free artistry from China. Mao will not budge, but now he is furious.
China still has units in Japan territory. Japan repeats her demand to remove forces or declare war. This time China obliges and declares war on us!
Japan took a few workers and sank some ships. She also attacked a few units in neutral territory on the other continent. Japan was very careful not to invade Chinese territory.
China invaded and India, England and Arabia all declared war on her. The AI could use some help with diplomacy.

China's attack lasted a long time. My Pentium III 500 mhz was maxed out. Japan lost 2 cities on the other continent and two (Oiler Spoiler which was on tundra surrounded by China, and New Incense - far south and west) on the new. They came close to taking one of the west coast cities - the only one that did not have an army in it. They also came close to taking Rubberville, but failed there as well. China then sent a bunch of MI into Japan territory in pairs and pillaged almost every tile on the west border of Japan. There were at least 70 MI there. Furthermore there was a stack of 25 MI on the ruins of New Incense. Three stacks of about 8-10 MA each were also sent past the outside cities and toward Kyoto.

India lost at least one city, and England lost four or five of the cities I had previously given them. All were razed by China.

1770 AD
Now it is Japan's turn. It took a while but I was able to clear all but six of China's units off Japan's territory. My favorites were the two MA armies they had sent. I estimate he lost 120+ units and I lost about 60. Taking out all those MI was tough. I added a few radar towers to help. I was also able to secure the Chinese city of Ningpo on the strength of remaining MA with radar tower help. Then I took some time to reshuffle defenses.
This turn took a long time - probably at least 3 hours.

China's response this turn on the main continent was weak. Some MA that were left unprotected were lost. I am more confident than ever that they can be defeated. They did hit Japan at Plymouth. Japan is in danger of losing her foothold there. What's worse is the city is in anarchy because I left the governor off and I can't rush build anything. I need barracks and airport there.

1772 AD
What do you know - China is in anarchy again. They should have increased the luxury slider! This bad decision will expedite their doom.
I took Yakutsk and New Shanghai for border consolidation. Most of the MA were healing this turn so not so much action. I also put some MI and workers on the border to rebuild roads for future invasions and to feed the people of the border cities.

1774 AD
Found that China owns universal suffrage in Rome and Magellan's Voyage in Antium. These are on the border, so I took them. These two cities also yielded the Colossus and the Great Library. Both are expired, but still a sign that Japan is taking over. Also took New Beijing, Xinjian and Kiev - all of which will simplify defense against China. Taking Xinjian netted about 20 workers who were busy rebuilding and cleaning up the mess from the Mongols earlier nuclear attack.

The plan now is to go after big Chinese cities, the ones that might have nukes, before taking too many of the other cities. With any luck they will be very low on nukes when they get desperate.
I also plan to palace jump to the other continent so I can keep all the cities I take near the current palace. China was razing Mongol cities - perhaps this added to their decision to launch.

1776-1784 AD:
Took 20 cities from China - about four a turn. China is in anarchy the whole time. Ouch. Many of these are prime Chinese producing cities. Their empire will be in shambles by the time they get out of anarchy.

In 1780 Mao asks for peace, and he wants some of my workers. I laugh. Naturally Japan declines.

In the same year Japan takes Beijing. Japan hit it with 88 radar arty, reducing city from size 26 to 8. There were 12 mech inf in there. Japan gained control of Hoover Dam, the Internet, SETI, Theory of Evolution, Shakespeare's Theatre and the Oracle, all in Beijing. China capital moved to Kharkov - off the southeast end of Japan's growing empire.

Also took Tatung, which had Longevity. This was costly as he was on a hill and he had a radar tower that I could not reach, but it was worth it. Build some cities in the gaps between former Chinese cities. None of the AI took any Chinese cities in the prime space west of Japan's forbidden palace. Once the resistance ends this area will add a significant amount of power to the Japanese industrial machine!

Three ICBMs were destroyed conquering these cities. None have been launched by China.

In 1784 Chengdu was conquered by Japan, gaining Leo's Workshop. Probably too late to help, but still cool to own it.

This whole time precious few Chinese units even venture into Japan's territory. Japan has been mildly harassed by Chinese air force, but the fall of so many cities reduces the problem and Japan takes control of many stealth bombers, radar arty and cruise missiles. Many of these went right to work against China!

For these and the remaining turns of the war, I am busy managing all these units. Each turn I bring all the radar arty, and MA back to a central point and fortify them (arty in stacks of 30 or so, MA in stacks of healthy veteran and elite). New production would be added to the stack. Wounded units sent to cities to heal. Extra workers put to work cleaning up pollution. When the blue and orange flash comes up for the end of turn, that's when I start with attacks. This way I don't worry about jumping to some other part of the world in the middle of my attacks. It may take a little longer, but it helps me to line up all my units ahead of time so I know what I can achieve, and to focus on the battle. After battles, the MI come in to fortify cities and protect radar arty.

At this point I feel the game is in "mop up" mode. The addition of so much prime territory is going to make Japan very hard to beat. At this point I wish the domination condition was enabled, so I could reach that limit sooner. There are going to be battles but unless Ghandi has a big surprise I have little doubt that Japan will win this game. But, I play on so there can be no debate about it in the end.

1786 AD:
China is out of anarchy and into communism. Seems too late. Japan takes five more cities, including the last of China's original cities on the continent. China remains in selected former cities of Egypt, Russia, France, Rome and Germany. What is worse for them is they have no access to aluminum or rubber (checked on the trade screen to make sure). I did bomb their roads to aluminum in former Russian territory a few turns back to expedite the disconnect. So they will be unable to build any MA or MI.

1788 AD:
Took six more cities from China. China did take Kharkov back, but only because I left it undefended. This would be their only successful counter attack the whole war. Counting this city, China has 12 cities left.
A few MI and cavalry are making weak attempts to attack me. They fail to take any units, or any other cities.

Zerksees starts looking past China and at the next target. India is strong, so I think they are next. Believe it or not Japan's military is average compared to India. How can this be?

1790 AD:
Took 11 cities from China including Kharkov. China has only one city left, Paoting, and it is on a 2-tile island off the west coast of the continent. One tile had the city. The second had and MI and a radar tower. Used arty to bomb the MI to one hit point and took him out with a Chinese cruise missile. I had an escorted transport with 8 MA ready to land but found out they could not land because of the radar tower! Ugh. Rush built some marines, a couple more cruise missiles and another transport nearby. I hope to end this next turn.

1792 AD:

Used radar arty to hit the new MI under the tower, and took out with cruise missile. Used radar arty and planes to bomb MI and guerilla in Paoting to one hit point. Took out 2 MI with cruise missiles. OK marines let's go. Brought 6 marines and was able to take out the tower then the city with 4 marines. It was the first time I had ever used marines, and it worked like a champ. Mao's reign is over - with no nukes launched. (eight AI down)
 
Another Strategy Check

China's demise netted some nice new territory. I immediately sent workers to work improving the territory. Some of the former Roman and French cities are close to the current palace, as are most of the Indian cities I plan to take, so a palace jump to Plymouth is in order. I have been planning the jump for a long time, so I have been rushing improvements over there. Near the end of the war with China I stopped building armies with GL's and saved one for the next palace jump. Rush building anything has not been a problem since Japan has over 40,000 gold with 1200 per turn coming in at the end of the war, even with 10% luxury.

India has 13 cities on my continent. Gandhi took a couple here and there from Rome Egypt and America, and with his strongest presence at the southeast tip in former France territory. I suppose these will need to be eliminated first. Hopefully these attacks will net a great leader, in case I need to jump the palace again.

I look at the other continent and see only three sources of aluminum. Each one of remaining AI has one. The Arabs have one very far south deep in Indian territory, surrounded by Indian cities. The Indians source is in a city on the west coast of their continent. For the next war, I think I will have England join me against India. I will leave Arabs out of it. If they join India so be it, at least India won't get their aluminum. I will then built a few carriers, fill them with stealth bombers and give them a nice escort with subs, battleships and AEGIS cruisers, and pillage their aluminum at the start of the war. All of their spare units will attack Plymouth at the north end of the continent, which will be heavily defended, or England. Once the assault slows I will invade and take the aluminum city. India will fade quickly after that.

Japan could probably take them all on, but that would take longer. I think Japan will have at least one more military alliance with England and possibly Arabia to take down India. After that I may attack England and Arabia simultaneously, since they are so weak, and because I can!

However, the English declared war on the Arabs last night and Japan’s almost expired MPP with England kicked in, so now Japan is at war with Arabs. I am considering sending the fleet to acquire Arab iron first. After that I think Japan will make peace with Arabs and give them oil and aluminum in exchange for MA vs India. Sinister?

For now, the republic rests, and waits for trades with India to end.

1794-1800
Jumped the palace to Plymouth. Income went up by 160 to 6010 and corruption went up by 80 about 1460. Too many cities on the north end of the continent in the radius around the new palace affected corruption. Start moving 13 units (MA and MI) per turn to Plymouth via airports every turn.

At peace turns are taking about 45 minutes. I am sure the next war turns are going to be quite lengthy.

Let trades of dyes and ivory to Gandhi for 67gpt each expire. Now he is annoyed. Too bad.
Trade with Arabs. Give aluminum and oil to get spices and silks. It is funny they need aluminum when they have it but just not hooked up.
In 1798 Abu regrets he does not want to extend MPP. I suspect this may be he undoing by Ghandi or Elizabeth. “Certainly, I understand”. Fool! He should be paying Japan for MPP now.
I also chose not to renew ROP with Arabs.
Remarkably, in 1800 my prediction came true when England declares war on the Arabs.

1802
Unfortunately, Japan still has one turn left on MPP with England and is forced to declare war on Arabs. Japan takes Mosul, the only Arab city on Japan’s continent. Over the next few turns Japan will sink quite a few Arab ships approaching the coast, but nothing more.

Japan passes Germany for third place. India – 2388, China – 2176 and Japan – 1997.

The Arabs foolishly sent a couple ironclads to pillage Japan’s shores, and now Gandhi is forced to declare war on Arabs due to his almost expiring MPP with Japan.

MPPs with India and England expire. Japan does not renew them. Those days are over. I was a little sloppy with the political situation there and let this situation develop. Maybe I should have renewed MPP with Arabs to stall off the war a few more turns. Oh well. Now the war is on and Gandhi takes the lone Arab source of aluminum in Baghdad.

India feels sorry for us and offers free artistry for 10 gold. I find this comical. Japan is probably three times bigger than them. For fun Japan accepts.

All of these unplanned wars require revised strategy. While going after Arabs with minimal force, Japan will now build up defenses in Plymouth, and form two healthy fleets. Each fleet will target the aluminum resources now under India’s control. The one in Baghdad will be taken out with stealth bombers on carriers. The one in Kohlapur is in a city bordering the Arabs, and will be taken with troops so this force will have transports and landing units. The landing force will be a settler with a bunch of defensive units. The fleet will contain battleships AEGIS cruisers, carriers, and nuclear subs. Carriers will be equipped with one fighter for defense and three stealth bombers.

1806-1808
Demand gold from Gandhi. He refused but is still annoyed.
Decide to plant a spy “safely” in India. It worked on the first try. This is sweet as now I can see all his unit counts. I record them all on a piece of paper. The military advisor says I need a spy to determine how many units are in each city. I wonder about this.
I then proceed to try and expose Gandhi’s spy, which works. zerksees is not pleased.
Boldly I decide to plant a spy in London, and this works as well. What a roll! I again look at all their unit counts and write them down.
Finally I also try to expose English spy and it fails. Elizabeth is not pleased. Is Japan supposed to be scared by this?

I also discover India is in anarchy again.
Sadly for Abu his once pathetic empire is now more pathetic as he has only seven cities left.

Here are some of the unit counts (in this count J is Japan, I is India and E is England):
Modern Armor – J267, I97, E54; Mech Inf – J355, I351, E173; Radar Artillery – J124, I53, E22; ICBM – J12, I12, E10; Battleship – J38, I28, E18.
Japan has over 1000 total units now.

Phase 12 – The Last Big Offensive – and Nuclear Retaliation

1810
MPP with India expires. Of course Japan does not attempt to renew. I don’t recall for sure but I think Gandhi wanted to renew it.

1812
India now has forces in my territory. I tell Gandhi to remove his forces or declare war, and he chooses war. This Japanese tiger is ready to roar!

Japan is teeming with war units. I put them right to work and take all 17 cities India held on Japan’s continent. Two ICBMs were neutralized during these attacks, and taking Paris netted the Pyramids, Smith’s Trading Company and JS Bachs. Gandhi has only two wonders left – Cure for Cancer and Manhattan Project.

In this new state, it is obvious Japan needs a way to get to the two islands off the south coast of the continent. Rush build some ships to get there, and divert some seafaring units in those directions.

On the new continent, took and razed three cities near Plymouth.

Signed MA with England vs India. Asked what they would need for the alliance, and she requested furs. Elizabeth must have a thing for those furs now.

Made peace with the Arabs. I suspect Japan there won’t be anymore peace treaties like this. India and England are still at war with the Arabs, and now each other.

1814-1816
Took a few more cities south and east of Plymouth. I have decided to keep some of them. It seems as though the Indians are not going to mount an assault on Plymouth, so I get more aggressive and clean out their presence north of Arab territory (in former Mongol territory).
Landed units on the southeast island in 1814 (former Roman territory) and liberate it (all four cities) from India in 1816.
Oops I hit the spacebar too early in 1816 and missed out on final movement of units.
Finally a stack of 57 Indian MI is seen at Balkh, presently Japan’s southern most acquisition from India.

1818
The main fleet approaches the new world. The Arab cities have been conquered so Japan can land just north of Kohlapur at the north end of India’s main territory. I unload the settler, all the defensive units and a couple workers on a hill tile. In all 35 units unloaded. The rest – workers, cruise missiles and some radar artillery wait with the fleet for the city to be built.

I hurriedly move about 15 MA and one MA army into Balkh to defend. The roads are bombed out and MA can just reach the city. Hopefully that stack can defend against the 57 high Indian MI stack.
To my surprise the Indian MI stack starts retreating.

Decide to send a small fleet of ships west from Japan’s west coast toward India. This is a third fleet and was not part of the original plan. It has an aircraft carrier and a transport with ground units, supported by some battleships and an AEGIS cruiser.

1820
Founded “Ft. Civ Fanatics” north of Kohlapur. Rush built the airport.

Attacked the fleeing MI stack. Used quite a few MA but knocked the stack down to 29. When it is India’s turn they run again. This time they end on a neutral tile just outside Arab territory. It seems they might escape to Medina. Medina is an Arab city that the Indians took in 1818. Arabs have 3 cities.

Took Toulose from India, clearing the island off the southeast corner of Japan’s main continent. This is not that significant, except that there were 24 stealth bombers in there that Japan now owns! (See screenshot in next post.) I cannot believe the AI did not use these against Japan as I invaded this island. Surely they could have redlined most of my landing units (I was only bringing one transport load per turn). Just another example of how dumb the AI can be. At least they could have been moved or scuttled. Now they will be used against the Indian fleet that I spotted headed toward the southwest island that Japan conquered in 1816. There are a few Japanese ships there (I would hardly call it a fleet), so they will need help against this attempted counter strike.

After Japan’s turn was done, Gandhi made his move. He launched his nukes! The first seven ICBMs were intercepted by SDI. Seven more were launched and 4 cities were hit. Xinjian, Konigsberg Road, Salzburg and Buffalo were hit. You may recall that the Mongols hit Xinjian when it belonged to China - I would hate to live there. None of these are significant to Japan, though it appears he may be going after aluminum resources.

zerksees is now wise to the effects of SDI, and the nuclear attack. I have never been the target of an ICBM before so I did not know what to expect. I want to launch Japan’s ICBM’s immediately in retaliation.

1822-1824
But I resist. It appears as Gandhi is out of uranium so I plan to finish him off with conventional war. Instead I move key stack of units away from the potential fallout zone of all cities, as I do not want to lose big stacks of units to nuclear attack.

Tried sabotage on production of an ICBM being built in Delhi. It cost 4776 in gold, but it worked.

At the end of 1822 he nukes me again. Only two get through but I am getting fed up. If Gandhi wants nuclear winter he is going to get it. I decide the best way to take out Gandhi is to disable his SDI by taking the city holding it and then nuke him into oblivion! Doing some spying I found his SDI is in Hyderabad, about midway into his territory (I had to investigate several cities before I found it). Send a lone MA army towards it, hoping it makes it there to take over the city after the nukes get through. It takes two turns to get there. Japan already has 12 ICBM’s, so I changed production on 19 cities to ICBM.

The 57 unit Indian MI stack is now MIA. I was able to destroy it before it made it to any cities.
Took Kohlapur and Medina. (Medina was an Arab city just captured by India). India had at least 20 MA in Kohlapur but I had enough units to take it.

1826
Rush build 19 ICBMs at a cost of about 12000 gold. zerksees means business now! Japan still has 40000+ gold after this impulse buy.
The MA army is just outside the fallout zone outside Hyderabad. Everything is in place.

Gandhi is not done. He launches two more ICBMs and one hits. I think the total of hit Japanese cities is now at 7.

1828
Japan launches ICBMs at Hyderabad. Four are intercepted. The fifth passes the SDI and scores a hit. There are still units left in there. Did a spy investigate and found two more units in there. OK. More nukes. Launched three more to get another hit. Now there are no units in there. The army crosses the fallout zone and takes the city. Now Gandhi is in trouble. I launch another at Karachi. It hits. My plan is working.

I pull out my copy of Fabulous Thunderbirds' Tuff Enough and play it. Gandhi is being nuked to the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Ain't that tough enough Gandhi? I nuked all the rest of his cities and every launched nuke hit its target. A few cities were apparently already nuked by England and after I hit one, I bought their map to make sure I didn't nuke any other cities that were already hit. I also nuked Karachi twice so that damaged MA units outside could drive in unopposed. He had one ICBM left in Dehli, so I hit it again but it did not take it out. I decided to take my chances that the SDI would get it.

All the nuking has really left his army in shambles. All 24 of his cities have now been nuked. What a mess!
 
On the main continent I have been building workers to expedite cleaning up the mess.
I have captured quite a few workers and have 40 or so on the new world continent to start connecting the newly acquired cities. I am about one turn away from completing a railroad line from the north to the south to allow these workers access to the newly acquired cities. They will never get the mess cleaned up before the game ends but at least all the cities will get connected.

Some of the cities that were nuked are celebrating “we love the shogun” day! They must be happy because it is not way too crowded. This doesn’t seem right. Oh well, I won’t be visiting their cities any time soon!

I need to speed up the attacks, as Japan is building units faster than I can use them. Japan now has over 1200 units.

Nuclear attack really slows military advance as all the roads around newly acquired cities are destroyed. To counter this I plan to send large stacks of MA into enemy territory to clean up, and the workers reconnecting cities will speed up the advance to the front lines in a few turns.

In 1830, Bangalore, New Delhi and Dacca all fell to Japan. I put up a wall of units near Hyderabad across the narrow part of the continent to block England from sending down units and taking over the weakened cities further south. If they want cities they will have to access them from their border with India.

Funny in 1784 I thought the game was basically over. While the outcome was decided, I had no idea then that everyone would be launching nukes, with me being the worst offender!

1830-1834
Japan passes India for top score in 1830. Japan - 2455, India - 2433. Japan's victory is almost 100% guaranteed now.
In 1832 Japan has 1234 units and India has 43.
Japan takes 11 cities from India over these turns, netting Cure for Cancer and the Manhattan Project. The lack of roads is slowing the advance, as stacks of MA are forced to drive through polluted unroaded tiles.
Japan now controls all remaining wonders.

1836
Japan's military power is still growing. I can't use up the units fast enough. Japan is way bigger than all of them combined. So I declare war on England. Too bad I am breaking a military alliance. I no longer care what any of them think. I took 10 cities from them, including all but one on Japan's continent (it is surrounded by mountains. I also cleared out any units I could find, including a 45 high stack of MI near Ise (near middle of the other continent).
Strangely, England attacks Indian city of New Bangalore with 2 nukes. Japan has units right outside the city so Japan's SDI defends the city. Besides the oddity of this, I have to think England is using an incredibly bad strategy! England should make peace with India immediately, and go all out against Japan. You would think the AI could know this.

1838
Took 10 more cities from England, including the last one on Japan's continent. Found 2 ICBMs in those cities. Why weren't they launched? Again Elizabeth targets her remaining nukes at New Bangalore. This time one misses and the second hits. She must figure that she can outlast Gandhi by nuking him out.
Move units into position to take last Arab city. They have been also-rans the whole game, and I am not going to let them live any longer.
Workers making progress on the pollution cleanup on Japan's continent, as Konigsberg Road is now all cleaned up.

1840
Declare war on Arabs and take their last city, and the settler they had sent out the turn before. (9 AI down)
Take India's last five cities and they are out of the game. (10 AI down)
Took two more cities from England, and start positioning for final assault. I have been using workers to build/finish rail line to expedite moving units into position against England's remaining cities.

1842
Newly conquered city of Manchester is rioting. Governor is on but they are still rioting, so I abandon the city. Too bad, they should have kept their mouths shut!
Took two more cities from England. I am moving through a hilly/mountainous choke point and can't advance fast enough to move on the remaining cities, though these cities open the chokepoint.
Workers finish up on two more cities on Japan's continent. It looks like we will succeed in cleaning up the mess Indian ICBM's made before the game ends. Put extra workers on new continent to work cleaning up the mess Japanese ICBMs made in the former Indian cities. They will never finish in time but at least I tried!
Stopped the airlift of units from old continent to new. New continent already has enough units to finish England. Any remaining units produced will be fortified right where they were made. Also fortified the ships, as they will no longer be needed.

1844
Took 9 more cities from England. zerksees stands back for a second. 11 bigger and technologically advanced civs are now represented by 2 English cities. The game will end next turn.
All of the cleanup is done on the main continent. Fortified about 60 of the workers. England is one turn away from completing an ICBM, and I don't want that mess on my continent. I try sabotage but it fails. So I nuke them. I also nuked the other city since only a couple units were near and I want the turn to end next turn.

1846
Took Coventry and Norwich. England has been destroyed. (11 AI down) I press shift-enter to end the turn. It takes a while for all the remaining automated units to complete their moves, but the game has ended with a Japanese conquest victory. Anticlimactic but satisfying nonetheless.





Post Game Analysis

In case you were wondering, history will remember me as "zerksees the magnificent" (actually Tokugawa the magnificent). I was surprised it gave this rating at the end, since Japan was so far behind for the first part of the game.

After the game was over I did some investigating to figure out how Japan got into this predicament at 590 AD. I watched the summary replay to get a better idea how the situation unfolded before I picked up the game. You can download the final save game if you want to see it yourself - see attachment at bottom.

Here are some highlights:

1725 BC. Japan founds second city. Most of the AI have 8-9, with the slow ones having 4. Early gameplay must focus on building more cities. With all the land available I try to grab as much as I can. I try not to start wars until there is little or no free land left on my continent.

330 BC. First sign of war as Germany gets a GL.

170 BC. Expansion phase is over. Japan has 10 cities, Germany has 25 and Russia has 17.

210 AD Cleveland, an American city not too far from Japanese territory is destroyed - I think by Germany. Another city is not built there until 380 AD. This is free land that could have been grabbed, if only Japan had America's territory map before the war! Since Japan did not have this map, it could not have known to send a settler and escort down there to take the land. Maps are a hot commodity in the game during expansion phase, and I try to trade them for AI maps and whatever else I can get.

970 AD - Russia enters a golden age. This is funny, since in 1010 Japan was dragged into a war with them, and in the teeth of their GA, Japan was able to grab a nice chunk of her territory. Just goes to show you even a golden age can't get you out from under the AI dogpile.

1010 AD - Germany enters a golden age
1020 AD - Japan enters a golden age (of course we already know this)
1450 AD - America enters a golden age. Too bad they were eliminated in 1500 AD - not such a golden age!
1695 AD - Mongols enter a golden age. Too bad they were eliminated in 1758 AD - also short-changed on their golden age. And Japan had almost nothing to do with their demise.
1802 AD - Arabs enter a golden age. Following the trend they were out before their golden age ended in 1840. They almost made it out alive.

I also went back and retired the game at 590 AD, and found that it took Groobz 2 hours and 18 minutes to get to 590 AD. I recommend spending more time on details of building infrastructure in the early game. Two hours might get me to somewhere between 2000BC and 1000BC.

I have some ideas why it takes me longer to play all those turns. For me, all workers are manually controlled, and I often look into the city screens to find the best tiles to have them improve. I also build warriors and horsemen to send out exploring. Maybe I can find two civs before they find each other and trade communications for tech. Trading with the AI is important - so I visit the diplomacy screen and check out what is available. I take a lot of time to strategize what is going to happen in the next few turns and in the next 50 turns (I am sure I spent even more time doing this when the game was off). I also never let the AI decide what to build in my cities. In the later part of this game it kept wanting to build more mechanized infantry, and not much modern armor. It was tedious but I hate to waste shields building cavalry when you could be building modern armor.

[edit:] I spent 45 days to complete this game, spending over 3 hours a day on average to get it done.

Regarding Culture Flips and This Game

The culture bar was low in the early going. I was very concerned about culture flips before Groobz informed me that option was off.

Once I knew that my cities could not flip I became very bold about taking territory from the AI with cities because I knew the cities would not flip. I also had no reason to raze any cities I had taken.

With culture conversions on, I would have been forced to rush build temples and other improvements in newly built cities to avoid the flips. For conquered cities I could have used garrisons to standby to retake (and keep the other AI from taking). I would have been selective about keeping some cities that were too close to enemy capitals, and I probably would have had to do some razing to ensure I could keep the land, particularly during the early war with Russia.

It would definitely have slowed the progress, if it didn’t make it altogether impossible to win. But hey, you adapt to the circumstances. I have seen the great players overcome huge cultural deficits on deity, so I can’t say it would have been impossible.

About the luxury slider

As a general rule I leave the luxury slider at 0% as much as possible. During war, when I start to notice a significant drop in shield or cash production, or a lot of starvation due to the governor switching citizens to entertainers, then I will put the luxury slider up to 10%.

This game has been a slight exception. I followed that rule up to some point in the war with the Mongols(IIRC). After buying all the techs there has been little use for all that gold so I have been leaving the luxury slider at 10% whether there is war or not. I have never been in this situation before, usually game is over before all techs are researched.

I rarely have luxury over 10% and can't remember going above 20% to fight war weariness in any game. In general republic is pretty durable as long as you take some breaks between your wars. As you can tell I have battled my way back and spent a lot of time at war and have not had the government overthrown.

Sometimes acquiring a new resource or a great wonder like universal suffrage or longevity during a war can help fight war weariness as well.

I think city size might be a factor here as well. Since Japan has few cities larger than size 15, the regular array of resource luxuries coupled with marketplaces, temples, cathedrals etc, does a better job keeping the people happy.
 

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Regarding OCP, RCP and ICS

Since the original city placements were done before I started playing, RCP and OCP were out. I think OCP is less effective than RCP and/or ICS, particularly if you want or need to warmonger. In the early turns I crammed in cities anywhere I could to make sure every tile was worked, so I guess that is a variant of ICS. Expansion phase was well over by 590 AD, so I was picking up the pieces.

As soon as palace jumping started, RCP was irrelevant since the forbidden palace was at the core of the current cities and RCP does not apply around the FP. I tried to have no cities at all near the palace to cut the distance corruption of the empire around the FP.

When I play from scratch, I try to use RCP (2 rings) around the capital followed by a variation of ICS through the end of expansion phase. Once I start taking over the game I might use OCP in newly conquered areas to keep the AI from rebuilding there and to build happiness cities.


Regarding governments

It is much easier for war weariness to bring down a democracy. Read this war academy article on war weariness to understand why: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3acad_war_weariness.shtml
This is why I call a democracy “weak”.

It is possible to wage war successfully with a democracy, but it requires more intelligence than the AI has to manage it. Read this article: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3acad_demo_war.shtml

It is my experience that if you are going to win by conquest or domination, then the bonuses you get from democracy are probably not worth the trouble, particularly if your civ is not religious.

For this game, China doomed themselves by trying a government swap right after I declared war on them. America doomed themselves the same way when Germany declared war on them. By the time the anarchy was over there wasn’t much left to save in the new government. India, being religious, may have benefited from switching governments.

However, even religious civs can have 1 turn of anarchy and somehow you have to guess if the loss of production for that turn is worth the benefit received by switching. I can’t even do that well so what chance does the AI have? Every turn an AI civ is in anarchy I am celebrating because I am gaining on them.

Republic is the best government to use against the AI for my style of play, and it served me well in this game. I can't say it is 100% best, because I am sure there are cases when others would be better, I hjust haven't run into that situation yet.

For this game the religious trait was cheap insurance that if I overdid it and the republic government was overthrown, I knew I wouldn’t be in anarchy for long.

Regarding buying techs

As a general rule I like to research them and try to trade them with the AI for other techs or other things. In this game Japan was so far back buying almost every tech was the only way to go. A couple times I checked the trade price vs. the build price, but it was always cheaper to buy. I have never been this dependent on buying techs in a game, but it worked.

About nukes :nuke:

These are a tool that can be used to wage war. I prefer not to handcuff myself and let the AI use them while I do not. If there was a UN vote or some other game reason to avoid launching them I would. For that matter, if the AI had not escalated to that level I would not have launched. But since they did I followed. No regrets! In fact I am now much more confident with nuclear strategies, should I need them in the future.

In this game there is little doubt in my mind that India would have fallen, nukes just expedited the process.

In real life nukes would be another matter – but this is a game, so I had fun using them to defeat the AI, and exposing its inherent weakness.
 
The time and effort alone is worth applause,

Good job Zerksees.

Your recovery was very well done. Off the top of my head I would say that you way overused MPPs to your own detriment. Nevertheless, well done.

Ision
 
A Standing Ovation for your kindness to us newbies in taking the time for this AAR. IMHO everyone should read it.

I am printing it out in color to add to my strategy files binder !:goodjob:
 
Originally posted by Ision
Off the top of my head I would say that you way overused MPPs to your own detriment.

Thanks to everyone for your support!

Ision,

Interesting comment. I am a student of this game. What approach might you have used? MPPs are not perfect, maybe there is a better way?
 
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