Immortal Dutch Domination - REX/Spy Fusion

[axident]

*RING RING*

“King Capac speaking,” Huayna answers after picking up the phone.

“Your majesty, this is general Spitting Snake. The Dutch sneak attack continues. Dutch airships keep harassing our main army and Dutch artillery is decimating our ranks. The enemy encamped in the hills east of Cori before pushing with infantry.”

“How long can you hold the city?”

“They have six divisions of infantry armed with assault rifles, light machine guns, grenades, and mortars, 11 artillery battalions, 16 rifle divisions, two machine gun divisions, and tens of thousands of medieval-era support troops, including two knight-medic mounted divisions.”

“I’m going to ask you again: how long can you hold the city?”

“We can’t. We’re going to lose Cori and the Eiffel Tower with it. We have just three rifle divisions, a cavalry division, and a battalion of cannons. The Dutch bombardment has produced significant casualties among our riflemen, to boot.”

“Hold on, Spitting Snake; I’ve got an incoming call,” Huayna says as he switches to the other line.

*CLICK*

“Hi Huayna. We’re uniting Colossia’s Hindus. I just thought I’d call to let you know,” Willem cheerfully says.

“Thanks for declaring war AFTER sending hundreds of thousands of troops into my country, you sneaky bastard!”

“I love you too. Talk to you later, sweetums!”

*CLICK*

“Spitting Snake, that was Willem on the line just now, mocking me. I won’t stand for it. Retreat if you must, but rally our troops in Tiwanaku and counterattack.”

“But sir, we don’t have enough cavalry and cannons to deal with the enormous Dutch army even on flat terrain.”

“You’ll get reinforcements as we train them.”

“Oh great, someone else is calling in,” Huayna says. “Just do your job, General!”

“Yes sir!”

*CLICK*

“Hello?” Huayna says as he switches to the other line.

“Your majesty, this is Admiral Hungry Hippo. The Dutch navy has destroyed the frigate If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands and has landed a sizeable force of machine guns and mounted medical warriors in the hills between Cuzco and Machu Picchu. Just thought you might want to know.”

“Argh! What happened?”

“Our frigate put up a valiant fight in a losing effort against the Dutch ironclads.”

“This is not the time for moral victories!”

“Indeed, especially since I’m radioing in on board the If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands. As captain, I’m going down with the ship. See you in the next life!”

************************************************** ****

Spoiler:

As our troops climb that hill to the east of Cori, Nijmegen’s airships rain bombs on Cori’s defenders. (662)



Our ironclad overpowers Inca’s frigate. (663)



Thus, the sea lanes are open for our East Indiaman to dump machine guns and a knight-healer on a hill near Cuzco and Machu Picchu. These forces are supposed to divert Incan reinforcements away from the front lines. Machine guns are virtually immune to siege collateral damage and are very good against early gunpowder units like riflemen. The hills’ defense bonus and knight-healer mean that only a very determined attack can dislodge these decoys. (664)



Another wave of airship strikes, and a few artillery (and trebs and cats) bombarding the cultural defense to 0%, means that we easily overrun Cori’s defenses. (667)



We brought our CR-promoted swordsmen and maceman along because they have the most xp out of our active units and thus have a chance at getting us to level 6 = West Point. (670)



Eiffel Tower captured. Also, all the airships that flocked to Cori on the previous turn are destroyed as our army rolls into the city. (671)



Cavalry and cannon mass west of Cori; we need to be prepared for this counterattacking force. (672)



Our navy is busy bombarding the coastal Incan towns and blockading. (675)



After seemingly eons of buildings burning down and water poisonings, Haarlem is finally done with its builds and is ready to kick ass. Its first post-barracks build shall be a tank. (676)



Nobody attacks our decoy stack, so we move it closer to Cuzco and Tiwanaku to try to get more attention. (677)



A stupid mediator came in and ended the Viking-Native American war. Now that our 4 prod cities all have factories and dikes to go along with forges and State Property, and now that they all are producing units, our power rating has taken off like a rocket. (680)



We continue to rain bombs down on the Incan forces massing in Tiwanaku, even as we continue marching south. Cori has a substantial garrison, but it’s easier to kill many enemy units using collateral damage on the offense, whereas it’s tedious to do so on the defense, especially when the enemy has at least 6 cannons at his disposal. (683)



We still have a decent tech lead. (689)



Dutch naval supremacy. (692)



Middelburg continues to crank artillery, as it is the only pre-Pentagon city capable of producing 2-promotion units. Xp for siege units are harder to come by in BtS thanks to the revamped siege system/maximum damage rule. Our lesser prod cities get tank-producing duties. We also get another Great Spy. (694)



The bulk of the army has reached Tiwanaku and has bombarded its defenses to zero, while the airships keep pounding the garrison there. (696)



Hmm, we have one spy too many for a Golden Age. Why couldn’t he have been a priest or something? He gets to make Scotland Yard, though I think it’s a waste in hindsight; maybe he should have settled instead. (698)



Ecology after Plastics, because most cities will be very unhealthy after Airports and Industrial Parks. (701)



Amsterdam will build a hydro plant for itself before building the 3GD for others. Without it, it would take 19 turns. (702)

[axident]

*RING RING*

“Hello?” Huayna answers.

“Hi buddy. Just wondering if you’d like to capitulate now.”

“In your dreams!”

“You just lost Tiwanaku and with it, Mining Inc. and Versailles. Not to mention that for the cost of one artillery battalion, the Dutch army destroyed seven cavalry divisions, six cannon battalions, four rifle divisions, and three caravels that were at port, hiding from the far superior Dutch navy. Speaking of the Dutch navy, it’s also kicking your butt.”

“Never!”

“Did I mention that the first tank division has already moved into Tiwanaku and that we’ve completed The Pentagon?”

“Argh, go away!” Huayna says angrily as he hangs up the phone.

**********************

Spoiler:

The Hague can start cranking modern naval units now, including Destroyers. Destroyers like the one that will blow that Incan ship out of the water. (704)



More airstrikes. (705)



Unfortunately there are so many units in our next target city that the air strikes don’t injure most of the units (like the airships did against the small Incan army that held Cori), so our artillery will face healthy units with hilltop defense bonuses. We send in a rookie artillery in at 38% victory odds, since even the veteran gets just 47%. (707)



Another rookie goes in. (709)



69% is good enough; the veteran goes in. (711)



The rest is a piece of cake. (713)



The maceman only has 71% odds, but the swordsmen also have high xp so even if the mace falls, we have other ways to get to level 6. (722)





The maceman wins! As do the swordsmen after that. (724-25)



Versailles and Mining Inc. are captured. (728)



Now that Cori is not threatened by the big cav and cannon stack that we just demolished, reinforcements can pour into Tiwanaku. Also, some stragglers like a tank show up to reinforce Cori and Tiwanaku. (729)



Maastricht is so hard pressed that it begins to produce culture to slow down the creeping Native American influence. And this is a city with The Hermitage, too! (730)



Pentagon done. Moai/IW can now produce ships instead of wonders. Also, all ships and ground units are now level 3 coming out of the gate thanks to the Pentagon. (732)



FDR decides to help out his master by trying to break our blockade. We send FDR's ships to the bottom of the ocean. (733)



In part because of the creeping Native American culture that has already made our farm chain vulnerable, and in part because Middelburg isn’t a top-tier HE/WP city and thus could use a production boost, the next GG settles as a culture-producing Military Academy instead of as an instructor. (736)



Shut up and sit down, :):):):):):). (737)



It’s a shooting gallery; the Dutch navy is getting one ship promotion after another! (739)



The navy blew up the cultural defense, the airships humiliated the Incan garrison, and the artillery is now tearing the survivors apart. (741)

[axident]

*RING RING*

“Hello?” Huayna says wearily.

“Hi pal! Did you happen to notice how our navy tore up Machu Picchu and let our army stroll in, after a good air-pounding, of course?”

“What do you want?”

“Did you notice that we also researched Ecology and are moving on to Flight?”

“So?”

“Did you notice that Cuzco fell afterwards, giving up the Hindu shrine, Scotland Yard, The Great Lighthouse, The Hanging Gardens, The Hagia Sophia, The Spiral Minaret, The Kremlin, Rock N Roll, Hollywood, Shwedagon Paya, and the Apostolic Palace?”

“Okay.”

“With Kremlin and Cristo, now we can switch into and out of Universal Suffrage at will and thus rush-buy lots of shiny buildings.”

“Your point?”

“Capitulate!”

“Fine.”

“What?”

“I’ll capitulate.”

“No can do, I didn’t really mean that.”

“What?”

“Hold on, Ragnar just called me.”

*CLICK*

“Where were we?” Willem asks.

“What did Ragnar say?”

“He just demanded Economics and I said no.”

“Good, maybe he’ll attack you.”

“That pansy can’t even take a single city from Sitting Bull.”

“I’ll vassalize to someone else if you won’t let me vassalize to you!”

“Ragnar and Sitting Bull are preoccupied, and nobody else is likely to vassalize you right now, so we’re going to capture the rest of your cities if we can.”

“You, jerk!”

“Bye!”

**********************************

Spoiler:

These hilltop cities are a pain to penetrate. Even the mighty tank has only 93% odds of winning. (743)



We are forced to sacrifice a rifleman to knock down the health of the top defender. We should have upgraded the trebs and cats to arty and sacrificed one of those instead, but oh well. (744)



The rest of the Incan garrison dies easily. (745)



Drydock captured. (747)



Ecology done. Flight next for airports (trade routes, easy reinforcement airlifting) and fighter planes. (750)



Capac isn’t ready to capitulate. (753)



We send the Incan raiding vessel to the bottom of the Long Island strait. (754)



Ship bombardment and airship strikes make Cuzco easy pickings for our artillery attacks, followed by tanks and xp-hogging CR-promoted melee units. (757)





Hindu Shrine, Spiral Minaret, Kremlin, Hanging Gardens, Hollywood, Rock N Roll, Scotland Yard, etc. are all very nice to capture. (759-60)



Since there is nobody else at war with Inca, they are less likely to capitulate to someone else, so we will risk it and continue the war despite Capac’s willingness to capitulate now. Maybe we can pry Military Tradition from him if we capture another city. (761)





Ragnar’s war with Bull hurt both of their power ratings, and we are about to pass Bull. (765-66)







We will be going into UniSuff every so often to turn gold into instant buildings (like dikes), in order to help out laggard cities like those on Long Island and cities that we’ve recently captured. (768, 771-72)



We will take a slight detour and build Recycling Center instead of 3GD. But note that pre-hydro plant it would take 19 turns to build 3GD; we spent 2 turns building a hydro plant and now it takes just 13 turns to build 3GD, for a total of 15 turns. So it was worth it to build the hydro plant before 3GD, to save 4 turns’ of building. (773)



Bring it on, Ragnar. If Ragnar couldn’t take even one city away from Bull, he has no chance against our more advanced units and the explosion of units we’re about to make once all of our prod cities finish building factories--and that’s not even counting the Pentagon making our units buffer, or 3GD which will supercharge production, or the Moai city wrapping up its buildings queue and starting to help out The Hague and Amsterdam in ship construction. (774)



Bull is willing to open borders now, after we canceled trade with him a long time ago at Ragnar’s request. (775) He and Suleiman and everyone else but Ragnar show empty hands (not pictured).

[axident]

*RING RING*

“The end is near, Huayna! Capitulate! We have airplanes and are researching Medicine. You can’t win!”

“Argh. Shut up and go away, Willem!”

************************************************** ********

Spoiler:

Industrialism and Plastics obsolete various resources. We renegotiate our trades with Gilgamesh. (779, 781)



It’s easy to see that Ragnar is going to attack Bull (if the 10 turn limit passes so Ragnar can re-DoW) or Wang Kon (if not), since he’s Furious with those two and on better terms with everyone else. He is Pleased with Inca, which is good, because that means he won’t poach some cities from us while we keep pressing Inca. (782)





That size-16 Incan city is poorly defended. We will sweep around and hit it from the east, as well as ship some units via Trompest in a Teapot II. I can’t believe I’m writing this, but our UU (East Indiaman) is actually somewhat more useful than a normal galleon for once; the UU has 4 cargo spaces (same as a transport) instead of the standard three spaces like regular galleons. (784-85)



Before, when we acceded to Ragnar’s demand to cut trade off with Bull, we knew that for 10 turns Ragnar could not touch us, so we did not build scout ships to patrol the Orange Ocean. This time, we can’t be 100% sure, so we sent a destroyer or two to watch for invasion fleets coming from the east, in the very unlikely event that Ragnar decided to attack us. (788)



Trompest in a Teapot makes 2 trips to deposit 8 units to the south of the Incan city, as the rest of the attackers march to attack from the east and bombard it. The 8 units from the boat are the main attackers, as they don’t have to cross a river to attack, unlike the units coming from the east. However, only the tanks are ready to attack right now, so we wait a turn. (790)



Ignore the stuff it says about the newly-captured cities’ builds; I realized later that Hindu Temples were great first builds for new cities, as they add +2 hammers and +6 culture and +1 happy. (791)



We are the continental superpower, Gilgamesh. Don’t make demands of us if you value your life. Not that we care about Korea, but it’s just the principle of the matter: don’t mess with the Dutch! He has empty hands after we reject him. Pansy. (792)



We can squeeze in one more city north of Leiden. (794)



After last turn’s artillery bombardment, we are ready to attack in force on this turn. Airstrikes start the show, paving the way for artillery to maul the defenders. The two southern artillery are followed by some eastern artillery, who despite having to cross the river, have great odds after the first two artillery soften up the defenders. (798)



Tanks blow away the stronger defenders, and our melee units mop up and edge closer to level 6. (803)



How odd; now Capac is unwilling to capitulate, when he was very willing after Cuzco fell! (804)



As much as we’d like to grind Korea into the ground, we have culturally pressing problems in Maastricht, not to mention how Rotterdam got its corn stolen by the Native American culture, too. Sitting Bull is going to die soon, if not by Ragnar then by our hands. (807)



Flight done. Medicine next, because Computers wreck our AP/Sistine/Spiral/Sankore combo, and nothing else is really appealing. Also, hospitals unlock Red Cross. (809)



Ack, more reason to kill the Native Americans: their culture renders some of our newly-captured ex-Incan cities useless. (811)



Khoisan is about to get creamed by the Dutch army. The Dutch navy is already busy blowing up the city’s cultural defenses. (813)



Ragnar is lagging in tech. Everyone else doesn’t matter, because they all die soon, anyway. (815)



As if Bull didn’t have enough cultural output as it was! (816)



Capac’s riflemen stand in the way of our army’s most direct route to Khoisan, so we airstrike them and run them over with tanks. (819)

[Snaaty]

Quite some action... ...great turnsets and writeups

[axident]

Originally Posted by Snaaty

Quite some action... ...great turnsets and writeups

Hehe thanks, I look forward to reading about how your anti-Celtic war goes. I hate doing war writeups though, because they add little to the story. They end up being a lot of screenshots and game commentary with little non-game commentary... hence my trying to rush through these wartime writeups.

[MrFelony]

I just don't think you're looking at it the same way as you did spying or other things. I think war write have some of the most potential for additions to the story. just think of it similarly to how you did 001. like how does the spearman defeat a tank? that had to be a great story . you could flesh out one of your more experienced troops quest towards level 6 maybe. I'm sure you can think of something great for the war against sitting bull .

oh and i meant to say great turnset too lol

[axident]

Originally Posted by MrFelony

I just don't think you're looking at it the same way as you did spying or other things. I think war write have some of the most potential for additions to the story. just think of it similarly to how you did 001. like how does the spearman defeat a tank? that had to be a great story . you could flesh out one of your more experienced troops quest towards level 6 maybe. I'm sure you can think of something great for the war against sitting bull .

oh and i meant to say great turnset too lol

Oh, I plan a writeup of some military adventures, but I'm speeding through the early Incan battles. Also, part of my speeding is because I might be moving soon, and I want to wrap up the story before I move, in which case I need to get through about ~800 more screenshots (~320 after cutting out the unnecessary ones) quickly!

[MrFelony]

ahh. look forward to it . did 001's son become a military hero for the country that cost him his father? anyway good luck moving, i know that can be a ...female dog

[Killroyan]

What an action. Sound the war trumpets. Sitting bull has been annoying enough. Does that guy really think he can cultural steal tiles, tssssss. Teach the dog some lessons. And also tell what 001's son is doing right now.

Keep up the story.

[axident]

Originally Posted by Killroyan

What an action. Sound the war trumpets. Sitting bull has been annoying enough. Does that guy really think he can cultural steal tiles, tssssss. Teach the dog some lessons. And also tell what 001's son is doing right now.

Keep up the story.

Hehe I'm writing. I think I'll update in big chunks from now on. If possible, I don't want to stop a set of turns in the middle of a war.

[axident]

A raging hurricane sweeps the Dutch capital of Amsterdam. Our heroes gather inside Amsterdam Palace, surveying the damage.

***

“Willem, regardless of Maarten’s successes in the battlefield, we have a pressing matter here at home. As you have heard, Hurricane Katrina has devastated our city. The Amsterdam Colosseum is lost, as well as the entire grocery section of the Amsterdam market.”

“Isn’t there any good news?”

“Middelburg, our primary military training city, is now starving due to Sitting Bull paving over one of the farms in our irrigation chain to the city.”

“I said good news, not bad.”

“Well, a baby orphan left among the stones of the Moai Statues has grown up to be a great merchant.”

“That’s more like it!”

***

“Admiral Tromp, we have made contact with King Capac. He is on a boat escaping our forces that are storming Khoisan even as we speak. Shall we pursue?”

“Willem wants to make peace. We’ll radio him instead.”

***

*bzzz*

“King Capac speaking.”

“King Capac of the mighty, one-city Inca empire, this is Admiral Maarten Tromp speaking. Comrade Willem van Oranje of the mighty Dutch empire seeks peace with your empire.”

“Yeah right, he was just joking last time.”

“He means it this time.”

“What’s the price?”

“Inca shall merge with the Netherlands but be operated as a semi-autonomous zone. In return, the large and ever-growing Dutch military shall offer protection. Furthermore, Inca shall help attack our enemies, research what we request, and give the Dutch the secret of Military Tradition.”

“Hell no!”

“How about Military Science?”

“Deal.”

“Comrade van Oranje will meet with you in Cuzco to formally declare peace. Turn your vessel around. We will escort you to Cuzco and the Apolostic Palace.”

***

“Good to see you again, Huayna,” Willem says cheerfully as they sit down at a long table in the Apolostic Palace’s great hall in Cuzco. They are alone.

“Yes, hello,” Huayna says glumly.

“Now, now, it doesn’t have to be like that. This should be a joyous occasion! The Hindu empires have united!”

“What about Roosevelt?”

“Okay, fine. Two-thirds of the mighty Hindu empires have united! And two out of three ain’t bad!”

“Whatever. I’m surprised that you didn’t ask for Mass Media instead of that worthless Military Science tech,” Capac says.

“We seem to get the benefits of Hollywood even without having researched Mass Media. And we have no interest in building the United Nations, which would obsolete this fine Palace and would make our citizens less fanatically religious and therefore less productive. Lastly, the tech is a dead-end. So why on earth would we want Mass Media?”

“Good point.”

“Now, Huayna, we are friends and thus we shall ask you to accept a huge array of resources from the Dutch empire.”

“How about oil?”

“Except that.”

“Why?”

“You are not much of a military power now, I’m afraid, and we’d rather have some spare oil lying around in case we get some of our oil sabotaged or bombed.”

“But you have an army of workers sitting near your main oil well, ready to repair it at a moment’s notice!”

“How did you know that?”

“I, er, uh, so how’s the weather in Amsterdam?”

Another man steps into the room, standing just inside of it, past the threshold of the main entrance.

“Who is this?” Capac asks.

“My name is Jan Bushnell the second, Dutch special operations airborne. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

“Now, now,” Willem cautions. “We had an agreement.”

“Who are you?” Capac demands.

“I just told you!” Jan retorts.

“Yes, but, should I know you?”

“Nine feathers killed my father, at your behest.”

“And you want revenge?”

“Yes.”

Willem interrupts. “Huayna might have something to say about that.”

Huayna glances at Willem and turns back to the young man. “There has been enough bloodshed in the Hindu world as it is. You have my condolences, though I’m not sure why I’m apologizing about one of my spies killing a known thief.”

Jan moves away from the main entrance and approaches Capac menacingly and silently.

“Jan, our forces have captured some information that you may find of some use,” Willem says.

Jan pauses and turns to Willem.

“Capac, why don’t you tell him what happened to Nine Feathers’s family?”

“I’m not sure. I am head of state, not chief statistician.”

Willem replies, “His wife and daughter were both killed while fleeing the city of Cuzco. Dutch artillery. Both of his sons enlisted in the Inca army. One died among the cavalry at Tiwanaku. The other was on an ill-fated caravel that was blown to smithereens by a Dutch ironclad.”

Jan looks at Capac. “I’m sorry.”

“Not as sorry as I am,” replies a fourth, swarthy man who has rolled into the room from a side door, in a wheelchair.

“Tell them who you are,” Willem says.

“I am Eleven Feathers. I am the son of Nine Feathers and the sole surviving member of his immediate family.”

“Why have you brought them here?” Capac asks Willem.

“Because he knew that I wanted revenge,” Jan replies for Willem. “And he knew that I would not stop at anything.” “Except maybe this,” he adds softly.

“I’ve longed for the day of revenge against my father’s killer, too,” Eleven Feathers says, rolling closer. “But I think that Willem has made his point without having to say a word.” He extends his hand.

“There has been enough bloodshed among our Hindu brothers,” Jan responds, taking his hand.

“Peace. I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Peace. I’m sorry for yours.”

“Oh, I do love happy endings!” Capac exclaims, clasping his hands. “Hindu Hug time!”

***

“How did it go?” Ilse asks, unfastening her hair in preparation for bed.

“The official signing of the peace treaty?” Willem asks glibly.

“You know what I mean.”

Willem grins and caresses her from behind. “Splendidly. And it was all your idea!”

“Mari’s, actually. She was the one who let her husband’s story slip, and she was worried that her son might follow in his father’s footsteps.”

“Very well,” Willem says, tickling Ilse into laughter. “Now about that Hindu Hug you owe me…”


*************************

Spoiler:

Our HE/WP city, Middelburg, took a big hit when Bull interrupted our chain-irrigation and thus knocked out a lot of Middelburg’s food supply. We write a reminder to ourselves to farm this tile when we get the chance to. (821)




A hurricane strikes our capital! The colosseum loss is not critical, but losing a grocer really hurts in terms of money and especially in terms of health. (822)




Moai city spawns a Great Merchant. (826)







Airships upgrade to fighters; one of them flew away to make room for a newly-minted bomber flying in. The aircraft pound Khoisan, and the Dutch navy blows up remaining Incan naval resistance, spawning yet another GG in the process. (828-30)



The air strikes make it easy for the artillery to do their thing and to survive. (831)



The melee units get their licks in; then the tanks mop up. (834)



Capac capitulates but won’t cough up Mil Trad. (843)



So we settle for Mil Science anyway, because Capac only has 1 city left, so we can’t capture another city to force him to ante up. Besides, we can trade techs with him after he’s our vassal, right? (845)



Wrong. (847)



We give Capac spare resources, one at a time, and open borders. Maybe after several more turns, he’ll be willing to trade us Mil Tradition. (848)



And no, Rosie, who is now free of Capac’s influence, is not willing to trade Mil Trad either. But he does want clams. (850)



We tell Inca to research fission for us, but really we ought to have let him research something more useful since he doesn’t have the beakers to get there before the end of the game. Capac is basically finished, since he has just one city. (We’re going for Domination so we want maximum land area, unless it’s a really crappy city in which case we’d liberate it. All captured cities so far have not been that crappy.) If he gets close to Fission, and we don’t want him to get it, we can tell him to research something else. We also won’t give him any techs, since he’d probably turn around and trade them around to our rivals if we did so. (851)



It’s not worth it to invade the pathetic American “empire.” (852)



We renegotiate our gold-for-gpt trade with Bull, as we heal our army and start massing our armies for a broad-front war against him. (854)



We clearly have the no. 2 army in the world now. (856)

[MrFelony]

haha worth the wait . did the move go okay? I especially loved the 11 feathers touch (might have woken my roommate up lol). nice to see everything worked out so peacefully. It's also good to see ragnar's power stall for a little bit. seems like you should come be on par with him sometime after the war against Native America. They should have tried to take you out when they had a chance

[axident]

Originally Posted by MrFelony

haha worth the wait . did the move go okay? I especially loved the 11 feathers touch (might have woken my roommate up lol). nice to see everything worked out so peacefully. It's also good to see ragnar's power stall for a little bit. seems like you should come be on par with him sometime after the war against Native America. They should have tried to take you out when they had a chance

Thanks. I haven't moved yet, but other real-life stuff has come up, and I also want to conserve some graphics bandwidth. (Photobucket resets my bandwidth allowance on the 13th of each month.)

[MrFelony]

I actually have no idea what my bandwidth allowance is. I just uploaded a crap ton of pics, but have never actually hit the cap lol. but since you said you have like 600 pics for the story, i guess you'd be much more likely to hit it than i would . I've uninstalled civ so i can't answer my own questions, but how many EPs would you have to throw into Sitting Bull to be able to see inside his cities? I think it may be worth it to delay research for a little bit to focus on throwing as many EPs into Sitting bull as you can (the same goes for ragnar. It'd probably help a lot ot get city visibility on him if it's feasible). Have you already played the future rounds? if not, whats your attack plan? so many options. take out poverty point to 1) capture one of his best cities and ease culture on the newly acquired cities, or do a 2 point attack on poverty point and the city that's interrupting your irrigation chain? I guess that depends more on your defensibility in the Incan cities and whether you can field enough troops for a 2 prong attack. however, the benefit of a strong 2 prong attack is that you'll probably not have to build as many troops for an invasion of ragnar or sully

[tycoonist]

good read. however when you said you weren't upgrading those macemen because you wanted west point they were at 10xp. if you upgrade at any number they lose xp until they reach 10, i think

[axident]

@MrFelony: While I think espionage is a good idea in general, I don't even bother with EPs or anything other than going for the jugular if there is low threat of a multiple-front war and I have at least half the power rating of an enemy, and CR-promoted siege units. (Although as luck would have it, we do have enough EPs to see into Bull's territory on the eve of our attack.)

If the enemy does not meet us on open ground, the CR-promoted artillery will annihilate them inside their cities.

If the enemy tries to intercept our stack, we have some excellent defenders protecting our stack, especially our Drill-promoted tanks (less likely to take damage from weak units, and take less collateral damage). We also have medics on hand so the stack can pause to heal, if necessary.

The above still applies no matter what era you are in, as long as you have good defensive units coupled with CR promoted siege units. Since our power rating is HIGHER than Bull's, I'm not really worried about anything other than a fast counterattack, which is why we will be leaving moderately powerful garrisons in our border cities. Not TOO powerful, just strong enough to deter casual counterattacks. Many of our new troops will be tanks and paratroopers massing in Rotterdam, which can quickly intercept any counterattackers via our rail lines and/or airlifts/paradrops. Plus our bombers can intercept invaders as well, before resuming their offensive duties.

I have already played through the war and you can see the attack plan unfold over the next few posts.

@ Tycoonist. That might be true; I didn't check. However, a CR3-promoted swordsman or better, is good enough to mop up whatever CR2+ promoted artillery leaves behind. No point in wasting gold on needless upgrades, when that gold can be spend on more useful things. On the other hand, maybe it would have been worth it, as we had to let our melee units heal up a few times, whereas if they had been upgraded to Infantry, they would not have had to heal as much going from 10xp to 26xp.

[axident]

Amsterdam Palace War Room. Everybody is gathered over a map of Colossia.

“Status update?” Willem asks.

“Our Moai merchant did a little dance with our waiting spy and artist and generated a fourth Dutch golden age. We have completed research on Medicine and Superconductors,” Chris says. “Rocketry is up next, then Genetics and Satellites.”

“Native American culture continues to press us greatly. Rotterdam has lost the cultural fight for its corn, for instance,” Ilse adds. “Cuzco has completed the National Epic, though. I suggest that we have Middelburg build a Mandir to stall for time as we gather our forces. Also, thanks for your latest, um, erection in my honor, Amsterdam's Three Gorges Dam. It's our highest-production riverside city, so it had to be the 3GD city by default.”

“Very well. Maarten, what’s the military status update?”

“We’re upgrading our warships to take advantage of our oil and combustion. Ragnar has opened a can of whoop-ass on our evil nemesis Wang Kon,” Maarten beams.

“Whoop-ass? Is that really proper language from an admiral?” Chris asks.

“Are you askin’ for an ass-whoopin’?” Maarten replies.

*RING RING*

“Comrade Willem speaking,” Willem answers.

“How would you like to help your pal Wang Kon out and declare war on Ragnar, who has just invaded Korea and taken our Seoul?”

“You have a soul?”

“Seoul, not soul.”

“That’s what I thought. Good-bye!” Willem says

“Miserable Hindu scum! We will vassalize to Ragnar!”

“Good bye!” William repeats, hanging up.

*************************

Spoiler:

Remember the Moai merchant? He gets to burn with the spare spy and artist for a fourth Dutch Golden Age (the Taj Mahal gave us one too, remember?). (857)



Medicine is done, unlocking hospitals and a potential Red Cross. We go for laboratories next, via Superconductors. (859)



Every so often we will switch from Rep to UniSuff and buy infrastructure for laggard cities before switching back to Rep; this will be the last s/s of it happening. A few times I forgot to switch back to Rep for a few turns, which is why the manufactured goods production graphs are jagged. (860)



The GG spawned by the Incan-Dutch naval wars goes to settle as an instructor in Middelburg. (862)



Our scout ships in the Orange Ocean did not see any navy coming. That’s because the navy went for Korea instead! (864)



Groningen, our city north of Leiden, was the last Dutch city to be founded; all future Dutch cities are going to be captured ones. We send a Hindu over so that it can build a Hindu temple and also get +25% production from Organized Religion. (865)



Rotterdam, despite the Synagogue, Broadcast Tower, Mt. Rushmore, theater, and a variety of religious buildings, is getting hurt badly by Native American culture. It struggles to feed itself, but it gamely continues to crank out troops. Paratroopers are very mobile and can complement our tanks. (866)



Meanwhile, Moai city creates its first military unit, a transport. We’re going to have a spare fleet of transports to play hopscotch up the western side of Colossia, because it’s a pain to walk one tile at a time with artillery. Previously we were busy building destroyers and such in The Hague and could not spare the resources to build transports. (867)



NE should have been in Amsterdam, and we probably lost a lot of time, production, golden ages, etc. for waiting this long to build the NE, but oh well, better late than never. (868)



We upgrade our ironclads and frigate during this lull before the storm we are about to unleash on Sitting Bull. (870)



Dear jackass who spent half the game trying to sabotage us, and the guy responsible for those ‘spy caught near Haarlem’ and ‘spy caught near Delft’ messages that keep popping up: go to hell. (871)



We’ll gladly take your money, though. And it’s hilarious that Ragnar pillaged your seafood to the point where we can sell you clams. (Korea has a lot of seafood.) (873)



Dear vassal: shut up and sit down. Vassals can’t threaten anyone; you can’t declare war or do ANYTHING diplomatic against us. Go run and cry to Suleiman if you want us to do anything, and maybe we’ll listen to him. I’m sick of posting screenshots of ludicrous demands like this, so I will stop posting them in the interest of moving the story forward more quickly. (874)



We’ll open borders with you, though! (875)

All transport-type ships are slower than military ships, so all transport-type ships go for the extra movement promos. (878; not pictured)



Also, out west, Trompest in a Teapot morphs into a transport to get the extra movement. (879; not pictured.)



Most of our land is developed now, so most of our workers bunch up in Rotterdam, near our working sole oil well. If a saboteur or bomber or whatever pillages the oil, we can rebuild the well immediately. (880)



Superconductors. We go for mass media next for a turn, before I realize that it would cancel AP’s hammer bonus. Ack, another wasted turn of research. However, notice that every so often we set the slider down really low to get gold to upgrade units or to build infrastructure in laggard cities. (882)



Our production already went through the roof with dikes and factories; now we have a golden age and powered factories to really crank up the hammers! (884)



A carrier would be handy to field fighters to bomb enemy oil wells. We probably don’t need it in a war against Sitting Bull, but better safe than sorry. (885)



An enemy spy got through and destroyed a factory in the up-and-coming city of Kampen, just south of the Moai city. In other news, Rotterdam gets to be the site of our Red Cross city, rather than Delft or Haarlem, as Rotterdam needs every point of culture it can get. (890)

[axident]

“Chris and Maarten, settle down,” Willem admonishes. “Maarten, how soon can we strike Sitting Bull?”

“We’ve moved some of our healer-knights north; they should be in position soon. We have three objectives: capturing Cahokia’s Zeus statue to reduce wartime unrest, capturing Povery Point’s Jewish shrine and Creative Constructions headquarters to reduce cultural pressure, and the western naval yards north of Khoisan.

“Zeus is most important, to reduce costly war weariness. I will personally lead the way in Operation Zeus.

“The next-most important is Operation Heist to seize Poverty Point, but we have a problem: many of our Incan war troops are stuck in and around Khoisan. Therefore, rather than sending them back home for Operation Heist, my son Cornelius will lead a series of amphibious landings and make use of our Khoisan troops that way. In the meantime, most new troops will mass in Rotterdam to prepare for Operation Heist.

“Throughout the war, we will continually bomb the oil wells west of Maastricht to deny Sitting Bull any motorized divisions and modern ships.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Willem says.

*RING RING*

“Hello?”

“Willem. Our gods can beat your gods any day of the week. Convert to Buddhism before it’s too late!” Ragnar growls.

“Our people will never give up their beliefs!” Willem cries, hanging up the phone.

“Was that wise, sir?” Chris asks.

“If necessary, our Rotterdam troops will delay Operation Heist and go beat up Korea. But Ragnar is unlikely to attack us when there are others with far weaker armies.”

“We have Cristo. We can switch religions at will.”

“Oops.”

*************************************************

Spoiler:

Wang Kon’s outdated units can’t cope with Ragnar’s mighty war machine, and Seoul falls. (891)



We switch to a better tech, Rocketry, and also send up a healer knight or two to the northern front, in preparation for a broad-front invasion of Native America. (895)



Wang Kon barely put a dent in Ragnar’s power rating, but at least he slowed him down. We’re quickly catching up to Ragnar’s might. (897)



You can see the effect of the golden age and then the Three Gorges Dam shortly after that. (898)



We reject some idiotic demand of Rosie’s to stop trade with Ragnar, then ask him for Open Borders. (900)



With the useful tiles of Middelburg under attack, and the city already starving thanks to Bull cutting off its irrigation, we build a Hindu Mandir there. It probably ought to have one anyway, but we didn’t have enough temples left for it to build one earlier. Now we’re spamming Hindu temples left and right, so Middelburg gets a hammer boost from AP and a big culture boost as well, from Sistine and the Mandir itself. Look at poor Maastricht, by the way. That’s powerful cultural pushing, considering Maastricht has Hermitage, a broadcast tower, and is Sistine Chapel-helped. Rotterdam also builds a Mandir after it gets done with Red Cross. (902)



Rocketry done. Going for Genetics now since there is a dearth of other good techs to go for, and also because it lets our newer cities have more time to build production-oriented buildings before having to build grocers and aqueducts and such. (904)



Amsterdam spawns a GS, whom we tell to settle down. (907)



Spiro is heavily guarded. We have better troops, but he has a LOT of troops, and we also need to leave large garrisons in our cities bordering Sitting Bull to fend off counterattacks. We are going to have to delay our attack for a bit longer as we build up more forces. (909)



Also note that Cahokia has Zeus and ToA, which I wrongly though Capac had built. Zeus means that we will have to tread carefully and not lose too many units, or else be forced into Police State to curb war weariness. (911)



Unlike Inca, which we could just run over, we will need better coordination to defeat Native America.

OPERATION HOPPER: We will send a fleet of destroyers, battleships, and transports packed with troops north from Khoisan. Ships and bombers will provide bombardment and airstrike support. If successful, those troops will get airlift backups and then reboard the transports and head off to Jute.

OPERATION ZEUS: Maastricht will field aircraft to pillage the oil well to its west. The aircraft will also support tank and artillery operations that quickly dispatch Chaco Canyon before moving on to Cahokia to capture the Statue of Zeus. Battleships and destroyers will protect the northern shores from enemy counterattacks by sea.

OPERATION HEIST: Massed troops near Rotterdam will, with air support, capture the jewels of Creative Construction in the Jewish holy city of Poverty Point.

(913)



We spread Hinduism to our vassal via airlift. Maybe after all our resource gifts and open borders and such, we can ask him to go Hindu, and then ask him to trade Mil Tradition once we get the diplo bonus from shared religion. Except that the missionary fails, so we will have to try again next turn. (915)



Amsterdam and other non-prod, mature cities build wealth from time to time, as we need lots of gold to upgrade troops and buy infrastructure for laggard cities. (916)



Genetics done, Satellites next. (918)



What a wimp, I thought Korea would be able to recapture Seoul while Ragnar’s fleet went back home to fetch more troops. Wang Kon is now a vassal of Ragnar. (919)



This time our missionary succeeds in spreading Hinduism to Inca. (921)



We have the most powerful economic base, tech lead, and manufacturing base. Ragnar has a fleeting lead in military units, and we’re itching for him to DoW on us so we can walk in and pound Korea, anyway. So we reject Ragnar’s demand. Ragnar responds with empty hands. Smart boy. (Editor's note: I forgot that we had Cristo which lets us swap religions without penalty, if memory serves me correctly. So we might have been better off accepting the demand and then switching back to Hinduism immediately.) (922)



Yay, Amsterdam didn’t get hit with a hurricane this time. It got a nice commerce boost from its public transit system, instead. (924)



Mature commerce cities are idle and can build military units as needed. To save us the trouble of building barracks, they will crank our air units instead, since they already have airports for the air unit xp bonus. (926)

[Killroyan]

I am aching to see the invasion of the native Americans. Damn their culture is pressuring you. Incredible. Never expected them to pressure you so hard. I haven't got BtS but capturing the creative cooperation will increase your maintenance propably. But then again -9 gpt at 70% you can handle that.

Nice touch with both sons. Now lets see them in the covert ops working together (who would suspect a guy in a wheel chair to be a top spy).

Production is sky rocketing. Ragnar may have an incredible lead but you are catching up fast now. As long as you keep cranking out units you will catch up really soon.

Go Hopper, Go Zeus, Go Heist. GOGOGOGO!!!!