Reread Northern Pikes hand off notes. Saw that I missed the bit about abandoning the Viking cities to keep us under the Domination limit.
Checked the CCM-v1.7 biq; 66% terrain is sill the Domination Limit as is 66% of the total population.
Looks like we have about 22 railing stacks in Scandanavia.
We'll keep Ústí nad Labem (rushed harbor), Eutin (rushed barracks), Plön (rushed airport) and Örebro (rushed airport).
0 1875 AD
Scroll through the cities. Change the occasional taxman into a geek. Set the Viking cities to Wealth (no sense in investing in a barracks that won't be built).
[IBT]
1 1876 AD
Around the Empire
China has interceded on behalf on the Aztecs. They have massed their units into two stacks near Örebro, on the Aztec border. Two tiles west of the city in a forest are 2 Cavlary, 21 Hussars and 5 War Elephants. These units are just across the Aztec border. Just 1NW of the city, on a hill, are 6 Cavalry, 14 Hussar, 25 Riders (4.2.
3) and 8 War Elephants. Totals out to 81 units.
The best Chinese attacker is Cavalry at 8. We have plenty of units that defend with better than that. I'm tempted to just pack the city and garrison with units and watch China suicide against us. That would be a lot faster than 80+ battles.
Automoves for workers and slaves is still going on.
We rail around Linköping, Visby and Uppsala. This is easier than razing the city, reroading and then rerailing.
We rail in West Scandanavia, around the cities we will keep. This will allow us a place to park our units. We do not rail around the Turkish border at Salzburg. In unroaded tiles we road with Northeuropean Workers and rail with normal workers. Since they are two different types of units, we won't need to sort them out later.
We move and park all units on rails in Scandanavia.
It is most annoying that Hussars are considered better defenders than Cavalry. Chinese Cavalry are few and I had hoped our Luftwaffe would be able to attack them first, since Cavalry attack with 8 and Hussars with only 6.
We do some bombing and reconning and discover that China is really peeved at us. In addition to the 80 units we saw at the first of the turn, about another 200 are straggling along behind them. It is the usual motley collection of forces, with Longswords walking side by side Musketeers and War Elephants, so I'm not worried. And the fact that China has ROPs with Aztecs and Turkey isn't a big concern, either. It just that for the next few turns we'll have to deal with the Yellow Peril before we can concentrate on the Aztecs.
Well, that's the way its going to be, so lets get ready. At least the front line is rather small.
All the Stukas in Örebro bombed the hillside stack of Chinese. Now the He-111s near Plön are called up. The fools at Örebro are well within their range. Once all the Cavalry on that hill are damaged we focus on the troops in the woods. Once the Cavalry are exposed, we switch back to hillside guys and bother the War Elephants.
We move the Recon Cars out of Örebro, along with anything wounded, and are left with 2 Atomic Bombs, 1 AT-Infantry, 1 MG Squad and 1 Infantry.
We use our units in the field, including the slightly wounded, to thin out the larger stack of Chinese. These units are on roads and not rails and cannot heal this turn if they are moved into a barracks, and they are strong enough to survive at least one round of combat.
Thirteen elites eradicate 27 mounted units, losing only one Panther in the process, and that one loss was on its third attack. In the fun we promoted
Panther of Örebro and
Year of the Panther with v.Mannstien and Rommel rushing Airports in Eutin and Ústí nad Labem (27 of 28, 2 of 27e).
We have a stack of 35 unmoved (only moved on rails, that is) Panthers, but we don't need any more MGLs, since there is so little worthwhile to rush on this island.
We let the Veteran units take their pot shots, starting with units not on rails. Four Recon Cars sniper the last 4 Cavalry on the hill and 2 promote to Elite, while 2 Panthers and a Wespe count coup also (36 of 37).
The hillside stack is down to 17 units, a 3/5 War Elephant defending a stack of mostly rRiders. So we rail the garrison tile and start to whittle down the forest stack. We round up 14 Veteran Panthers and use 10 of them on the stack. Only the last one does not promote to Elite and that is because it took out the last Hussar and moved into the forest tile. We also gain
Pink Panther and Barbarossa, who rushes a Commerical Dock in Innsbruck (64 of 65, 3 of 38e).
The forest threat eliminated, we turn back to the hillside tresspassers. The remaining vPanthers pummel the rRiders and the survivors fall to rocket fire (79 of 80, 3 of 42e).
The leaves us with 50 unmoved, healthy Elite units ready for action next turn, in addition to 38 more that will heal over the IBT.
In Örebro we rush a worker for 80 gold and then barracks for 40 more gold.
We sell off the improvements in Norrköping, Malmö, Göteborg, Linköping, Uppsala and Stockholm before abadoning the cities.
The Oracle is lost with Stockholm. We gain about 600 gold, offsetting the rushing in Örebro.
We keep Visby for no good reason.
We did need only 215 tiles for a Domination win (64.3%) and now need 336 (63.4%).
On the Big Island we have 21 stacks of One Turn Rails with Workers, one stack of One Turn Rails with Slaves along with 15 Northeuropean Workers.
Continue the Freighter naming scheme; we get up to Freighter 28 and Luxury Liner 2.
Now I discover the air units in Lübeck! We use the bombers to create a two tile wide non-roaded strip between West Aztecs and our Viking rail line. It is possible that China would send units through Aztec land to circle around Örebro and attack our rail or West Scandanavia. This will slow them down, with no roads to use in no man's land. We eliminated all their visible Riders, so we don't have to face a weak 3 move unit. (As a human, having a three move unit before the AI would be a real killer. Riders become available with Chivalry, the last tech of the Ancient Empires Age. Combustion unlocks the other 3 Move units, and it is midway in the Industrial Ages. Riders would rule for a long time.)
We can, but don't have to, build a second rail line to Visby/Örebro, a bit south of the current rail line. Visby to West Scandanavia would rail 9 tiles and then 3 more from Visby to Örebro, where we join Örebro on the SW side, away from the Aztec border. Depends on what China does this IBT.
Rebase the U-2 to Prague.
We ship across a bunch of units, including workers, ePanthers and some of our exotics from around the capital. You never can tell when a spare Flamethrower might come in handy.
On the mainland we rail towards Taumin, the lone Aztec city on the Greater German Continent.
Set a continental rally point on the mountain SE of Berlin.
Drop science to 20%, The Cold War in 1 turn, +7706 gpt, 194791 gold.
[IBT]
Get preboot from Aztecs, no surprise there. One itty bitty vPanther...
And then it doesn't matter, as that vPanther survives and promotes to Elite and then dies right away (80 of 82).
The hill NW of Örebro must be cursed as China avoids it entirely, massing Cavalry, War Elephants and artillery on the open plains 1W of the city instead of the hill.
The Cold War -> Advanced Computers, 6 turns at 20%.
New toys!
Leopards (22.12.3) Berlin can crank out one a turn.
Bell Heuy Cobras (0(12).2.2) two actions per turn.
F-100 SuperSabrs 7(8).4.1, we start some.
National SSBN Project. What a great idea! Must be in a coastal city, makes veteran ships, heals ships in one turn, upgrading can be done and produces a nuclear submarine every 8 turns. Cost 300 shields.
2 1877 AD
Around the Empire
Domination limit in 319 tiles (63.5%).
Ten War Elephants, 30 Hussar, 3 Cavalry, 1 Cannon and 4 Bombarde; 48 fast movers have come to Örebro to die.
The forest tile is again populated with Chinese units: 10 War Elephants, 1 Schnieder75, 11 Rifleman, 1 Musket, 1 Longbow, 14 Hussar, 1 Firelancer, a 1/4 Cavalry, 12 Asian Musketman and 2 Asian Longsword; 54 more soon to be victims of delusional Oriental grandeur.
We bomb the forest stack first, to damage the Rifles and Muskets and such. And our first Stuka gets bad directions and blows away the rails we just built to our garrison! When all of the Rifles and Muskets are yellow and red, we switch to the easy targets on the plains.
We ship our 3 new vLeopards to the Big Island and they launch our ground assualt. On the first Elite attack we promote Leopard of Örebro and rush the National SSBN project in Ústí nad Labem with Richthofen (84 of 86, 4 of 43e).
We let our veteran units cut their teeth and try to promote themselves, even an AV7 and Earnhardt. In due time the plains are cleared of the Chinese (135 of 137, 4 of 49e).
Now we bring in the ePanthers to clear out the woods. We take out the last unit with an eInfantry and the woods are clear again, and we gain 2 MGLs in the woodland frolic (168 of 170, 6 of 105e). We rush Electric Power in Kufa and Kazan.
Science goes up to 40%, Advanced Computers in 4, +5780 gpt, 202342 gold.
[IBT]
Wonderful News
National SSBN Project is built in Ústí nad Labem, on the Big Island, and close to China, Turkey and Aztecs.
We win one and lose two on the IBT (169 of 173, 6 of 105e).
3 1878 AD
Around the Empire
Domination limit in 301 tiles (63.7%).
One, lone, brave or perhaps lost Chinese Firelancer stands on the hill NW of Örebro. In the forest hideaway are nestled 16 foot units.
Upgrade some He-177 Greif to Heavy Bombers.
From recon flights spot a stack of 161 Chinese Rilfeman that just crossed the Aztec border. If they follow the current path of Chinese units, they'll be at our border in 3 or 4 turns. We have 86 healthy ePanthers at the moment, plus around 30 other elites. We'll watch the progress of that stack, but we can handle it. We could buy the Aztecs into a Mutual Protection Pact for Iron, but then we have to be friendly with them for 20 more turns, whereas if we just wait out the Chinese surge we can attack with a clear conscience in 6 more turns.
A vPanther blasts away the Firelancer (170 of 174). We then rail that hill and build a garrison.
Stukas had blasted the foot soldiers guarding an artillery train two tiles deep in Aztec land. Recon Cars smash 13 of the 14 units, leaving one Heavy Artillery (should have left a Bombarde instead!) (183 of 187, 6 of 115e).
Take on a mixed stack of Chinese also two tiles from the border. We leave a Longbow standing; 28 attacks (211 of 215, 6 of 143). Due to the distance, no unit attacked twice (no double-taps).
Back to the Forest Firefight. This are was bombed quite heavily earlier, so we let the Veteran have a whack at killing wounded units, but this time we leave a wounded Asian Musketman and not a valued German unit as the last unit in the forest. We gain M43 Patton: Longsword Killer and Rommel is shipped back home to christen some Heavy Industry in Oporto (226 of 230, 7 of 147e).
Ship across Infantry and Leopards and vMarines and isolated exotics.
[IBT]
No attacks.
4 1879 AD
Around the Empire
Domination limit in 298 tiles (63.7%).
Four Chinese are once again 1W of Örebro. Ten older units are in forest hideout. A total of 35 units, mostly Asian Musketman are traveling 2 tiles from the border heading northeast.
The Turkish border of Salzburg expanded on the IBT.
Bombers damage both stacks of units that are two tiles from the border and the forest friends, too. Then we start pinging the big stack of Rifleman, peeling off a few to heal from their wounds. Recon flights show no large mass of Chinese units following behind their Stack of Doom.
vLeopards start this round of action. Training was poor as our first Leopard retreats and the second one explodes on a healthy Asian Musketman! The remaining 6 vLeopards do much better, as do other Veteran units (244 of 250; 7 of 151e). The Vets decimate the smaller stack inside Aztecs borders, leaving an rLongbow to tell the tale.
ePanthers start on the larger stack of 21. Twenty attacks later we leave another rLongbow untouched as we scurry back across the border (264 of 270; 7 of 161).
All that is left is that forest tile. Seven short-legged and weaker units prevail and once again leave an rLongbow unscathed (274 of 278).
This forest tile that China likes so much is unroaded.
Notice that Stukas have Lethal Land Bombardment, while the F-86s and Bombers do not. The Stuka upgrades to the Bell Heuy Cobra, but cannot tell from the civopedia if it is still Lethal. The entry for Stuka doesn't mention that fact, but I have seen it kill units. Regarding Stukas, having Bombing and Reconning in one turn is nice.
Cycle through the cities and rush stuff in our low producing (netting 1 or 2 spt) cities. This costs about 3K in gold. These cities will build wealth. The cities that rush Town Centers and Town Clocks will be checked to see if they are more productive, if not they will stay at wealth. Worker and freighter builds are not changed. Workers we can always use and we may need to rush freighters down the road. No culture producing buildings are rushed. We end up with 209707 in gold.
[IBT]
china avoids our killing fields.
The big stack heads home.
5 1880 AD
Around the Empire
Domination limit in 280 tiles (63.8%).
One vLongbow is 1W of Örebro. The ever popular forest tile is vacant. Two deep inside Aztec lines are 13 units, including an Asiatic Settler.
We get our first Bell Heuy Cobra on the front lines. Two moves per turn and Lethal Land Bombardment. Sweet!
After the bombing, 9 Vets reduce the only attackable stack to a vLongbow and the Asiatic Settler (284 of 290). And I thought we had a Stuka to take out the Longbow.
Upgrade Bombers to Heavy Bombers.
Recon shows a 30-odd stack of Chinese units moving away from us towards the north. We damaged about half of that stack. I expect them to move east next turn and try to move around Örebro. We have many units parked in the field between Örebro and the west end of the Big Island. Those units are guarding our northen most rail lines and grouped in stacks of like units. North of our rails and between the Aztec-Turkey border are unimproved tiles, deep enough to preclude a surprise attack by 2 Move military units.
We ship across 18 Infantry, 6 Recon Cars and 12 Leopards.
Drop science to 20%, Adv. Computers in 1, +7894 gpt, 215244 gold.
Save the game and come back to it later.
It really bugs me that all those Chinese targets are just out of range. I want to kill them before we start our Aztec Ambush and this is galling and frustrating. I don't mind waiting out the last turns of Aztec peace, but to wait and watch and not be able to do anything about the Chinese units just a tile or so outside of our range, now that must be addressed.
Abandon Visby.
Build West Örebro at the garrison west of Örebro, making the Forest of Death part of Germany.
Domination limit in 291 tiles (63.8%).
Need to abandon Prague also, but our U-2 is based there.
Now we can reach out touch a lot of Chinese units.
We rail the forest 1W of West Örebro. This is not the Forest of Death, but next to it.
We start to mow down Chinese.
One stack of 9; gone. We lost an eVespe to a 2/4 Rifle and a Jagdpanther retreated, in contrast to the eTiger Tanks Pz. Abt Rat and Pz. Abt vmxa who performed well (293 of 301, 7 of 167e).
Eight vLeopards whittle another stack down to 1 rLongbow (301 of 309).
Short stack of 3, we leave 1 (303 of 311).
Our last 2 vLeopards trim a stack of 4 down to 2, leaving Asian Longsword and Firelancer (305 of 313).
We rail 1N of West Örebro.
Start on a stack of 36, containing Asain Muskets, Asian Longswords, bombed out Rifles, Firelancers, Longbow, a Late Pike and a Musketeer. Facing ePanthers. In the carnage Duncanville Panthers (my high school) generates Barbarossa, who builds a bank in Innsbruck and Panther of the Aztec Plains gives birth to Richtofen, who has a market named after him in Plön; Panther Like Chinese Buffett, whose Moltke dedicates a market in Ústí nad Labem. In the end 29 ePanthers and 6 eM48 Pattons are involved, leaving another rLongbow as a witness (340 of 348, 10 of 202e).
Lastly, an eM48 Patton finishes off an earlier stack and claims a Chinese slave (341 of 349, 10 of 203e)
We left an ePanther stuck in some woods, so we send 5 Infantry to protect the Panther. One Heavy Artillery could attack and it is the most dangerous threat the Panther faces. The rest, a Cavalry, 4 Rifles and 2 Hussars and then the older stuff, might hurt a Panther weakened by the Heavy Artillery. These units should all survive.
[IBT]
Well, the Aztecs are mad enough to boot our units out their land before China gets a chance to attack. How thoughtful of them!
Infantry fight off an artillery barrage (342 of 350).
Adv. Computers -> Plastics, 5 turns at 20%.
Berlin starts on Control Center, 2 turns.
6 1881 AD
Around the Empire
Domination limit in 272 tiles (63.9%).
Switch Control Center to Königsberg, where it will complete this IBT.
Recon shows the big stack headed back to us.
But Aztec units are beginning to block easy access to Chinese leader fodder.
Recon also shows that China is definitely bypassing Örebro, swinging around to the north and east, with Longbows leading the way. They were walking between Tzintzuntzen and Örebro, where we would run over the Aztec border, kill them and scamper back home. Now they are going further north and keeping the Aztec city between them and us. I think China plans to go down the coast to Salzburg, Turkey (China has an ROP with Turkey, too) and then attack Plön, which has only two Infantry defending it.
At the moment only 7 units are within striking range.
If Örebro were the middle of a clock, the Chinese forces are moving clockwise. At 1 o'clock is their most advanced in distance stack, with a Hussar, 2 Asian Muskets, 5 Firelancers, 2 Asian Longsword and 3 Longbows. Two more Longbows, one per tile, scout out their next steps. Between 9 and noon is the stack of 7 we can touch and a stack of 15 wounded; both of these around 11 o'clock. Close to 9 o'clock is a stack of 6 Asian Muskets on an unimproved plain. Between these are 3 stacks totaling 9 units, a Rifle and Musketeer their best defenders. At 8 o'clock is the not-so-big stack of 53 Rifles. At 7 o'clock is a stack of 8 wounded Rifles.
Well, if Plön is their target, there is still a road gap between Aztecs and Turkey, one that was created a few turns ago. We can and will build some roads and rails to meet the Chinese and introduce them to the German cat family (Panthers, Leopards and Tigers).
We gain two slaves with Partisans (344 of 352).
Ju-52s need Plastics to upgrade to Transportplanes.
Six Vetrans stomp on 6 of the 7 stack we can reach (350 of 358). A Stuka removes the last unit, an Asian Longsword. Other Stukas stuff out 3 or 4 units. Bell Heuy Cobra delivers its first attack. Unlike the Stuka, the Cobra can attack twice per turn.
Rename Ústí nad Labem to Ústí nad Labem (SSBN).
Ship across an Alpine Troop, 8 Infantry, 1 Heavy Artillery, 7 Leopards, 7 Marine Infantrie, a Paratrooper, a Partisan and 3 Recon Cars.
Raise science up to 30%, Plastics in 4 turns, +6840 gpt, 220998 gold.
[IBT]
Wonderful News
Command Center is built in Königsberg.
One source of Oil and one of Uranium are exhausted.
7 1882 AD
Around the Empire
Domination limit in 232 tiles (64.2%).
At initial (pre recon flights) glance China has pushed three units across our border at West Örebro into a forest, with three more on the other side of the border. To the east, 6 units are visible around our newly constructed rail lines in no man's land.
It looked like a lot of Chinese headed home on the IBT.
We had border expansion at West Örebro but nothing changed.
In fact, I think the most stylish conclusion would be to gift the one-tile island city off our east coast to a rival and reduce the AI presence to that.
Rename Huanuco Pampa to
Last Piece of Turkey, sell its goodies and gift it to the Nation of Orange.
That increases the Domination limit to 241 tiles (64.1%).
Sell the improvements in Växjö and Chuquiapo and then abandon both cities. They share an island.
Back on the mainland I look for small cities that are next to desert to disband. Ridgetop (2), Kish (5), Perm (9), Kursk (6), Voro (4), Sara Buri (8) and Cuello (3) are removed from the tax rolls. All of them were building wealth.
Now the Domination limit in 451 tiles (62.5%). We still have over 90% of the world's population.
Ridgetop was a connector in the rail line from Berlin to the West Coast by the Big Island. It gets repaired but we also need a back up route.
We gain a new Partisan attacking a Turkish auto produced Worker, one of those that fights back.
Last turn we built a garrison with two slaves, but one of them survived. Not sure how that happens.
Me-109s recon for us from Örebro. We see more Chinese units but except for the ones already mentioned, none can be reached by ground troops.
We have 100 Panthers on the Big Island and all are Elite.
Ten vets attack, all survive, some promote (360 of 368). Stukas sandbag bombed out Rifles and healthy Longbows. They'll take what they can get.
Ship across 11 Infantry, 7 Leopards, 3 Marine Infantrie, 3 Recon cars and a Rocket Launcher.
[IBT]
China sends more forces our way.
8 1883 AD
Around the Empire
Domination limit in 437 tiles (62.6%).
Two Asian Muskets tresspassers in the Forest of Death.
Seven Rifles are two west of West Örebro, just across the Aztec border.
Six units, mostly Asian Muskets are across the border in the deserts to the NE of Örebro, though I think is because Aztec units block their way. I don't think they are headed to Örebro.
Twelve units in Aztec territory next to rails in no mans's land.
Recon flights show a stack of 90+ Rifles near the Chinese-Aztec border, at least three turns away from us.
A stack of 40+ Rifles, including several wounded, is about a turn away from us.
Closer to the border are two much smaller stacks of Rifles on hills, a 7 and a 2, both a tile deep in Aztecdom.
Hmm. Stukas should upgrade to Bell Heuy Cobras but that option does not appear for them in Örebro, which does have an airport.
Firelancers have nice defense graphics!
We pick off the Chinese we can. Their Rifles retreat one Leopard and kill two more, in addition to a Jagdpanther and a Self Propelled Artillery. The SPA attacks at 24 and I was shocked when it lost. These were all veterans attacking, looking to become elites (389 of 402).
On both hills we left redlined Rifles; Stukas finish them off. Stukas and Cobras clobber 5 Rifles and 1 Asian Musket.
We ship across 8 Leopards, 5 Recon Cars, 9 Infantry, 1 Panzergrenadiere and 1 Buzz Bomb.
Cycle through the cities. Change all Tactical Nuke builds to other military. We have 23 of them and no nuclear submarines on which to place them. They won't load on carriers. Also change any build for a culture producing structure to something else. At this point we don't need any research help, not at 4 turn research and 30% science. And we don't need any more border expansions if we can help it.
Leave the Buzz Bomb active.
And the save is attached.
turn once CBob is done with his.
The story suffers a little bit from the fact, that in reality you have won this game since many turns and CCM would say the same, if you would let it do that. 
