RBTS6 - Finally Ready for Noble!

[Compromise]

I'd just send 3 rifles down toward that last Carthaginian city once Hadremetum's cultures clears up the area. Raze it and move on. There will be 2 stacks on Inca's west border when it's time....

 

[Sullla]

Yeah, I really don't see the point in vassalizing a civ with one city left. Just eliminate that blight from the map and move on.

I'm not a fan of the capitulation option; a little too gamey trying to find the perfect amount of damage that will induce the AI to surrender. Usually I like to finish the job off completely. However, I'm perfectly OK with the rest of the team creating vassals if it looks like a good choice. Just remember that their land only counts halfway towards Domination.

 

[Compromise]

I think that refusing to accept capitulation is more consistent with this variant. If we accept capitulations, then we are sort of benefiting from tile improvements. Yes, I know this line of thinking could be used to condemn our long-term trade for fish, but at least there we were giving the AI benefit for a resource which we'd double-settled.

While the line is definitely blurry, I think that since we don't need capitulated civs, why not just go for the pure military victory and Dominate!

 

[Zeviz]

ok No capitulations it is.

Can I at least raze that city to avoid having to overgarrison it to prevent flip to Monty? (And on that note, Huamanga looks like it might be in danger of flipping to Monty after we take it from HC, so should I just raze it, or try to overgarrison and whip Theatre?)

 

[Compromise]

Yes, I'd say raze anything that will add to headaches. We can easily steamroll over the AIs now, depending on how much resistance Huayna puts up. Getting our land area percentage should be no problem at all.

 

[say1988]

Or just take Monty's threatening cities

 

[darrelljs]

I am back and running, but you go ahead and take it Zeviz, I still have tons of stuff to re-isntall . I'll just take my normal turn after Sulla's next one, hoepfully there will still be some scraps left for me .

Darrell

 

[Zeviz]

I probably will not be able to play today, so feel free to take the save. (Just post here when you do, in case I decide to play at midnight. )

 

[darrelljs]

Zeviz,

I can play in 16 hours...if you can play before then please go ahead and do so, but if not I'll jump back in. If I don't see a "got it" from you in 12 hours I will post a "got it" of my own .

Darrell

 

[darrelljs]

Got it !

Darrell

 

[darrelljs]

Okay, so start by hitting F5 and trying to find out where everything is. We seem to have a lot of Galleons in the middle of the ocean, no doubt in transit back to the homeland for all the troops. We've got two forces just like Compromise indicated, that will be ready to enter Incan lands soon...very soon. Speaking of the Incan, Huyana Capac has enough on his hands. Definitely not Hannibal, they are Friendly. Probably Monty. The dirty savage also has access to Grenadiers now. I love killing Grenadiers in the morning .

(0) Hit enter.

(1) Began the long labor of love that is moving troops without roads. Including into Carthaginian cities:



I keep it, no Courthouse but we have cash rush now. Speaking of cash, dear lord do we have a lot, and we are making 174/turn. I up research to 100%, Cannon in 7 turns. I also switch EPs to Monty and HC.

(2) IBT Hannibal has moved a threatening stack of one Worker to try and re-take Carthage. He gets smacked and disbanded. Marching four Rifles towards Hannibals last city, and they find a decent garrison:



That Guerilla II Musket has great odds against are Rifle (even the Pinch one). Luckily Monty has a pathetic stack with siege. Decide to hold off a turn as WW is not an issue.

(3) IBT Monty goes nuts on Xochicalcoch. We kill the remaining wounded units and waltz in. After looking around, mud huts aren't our style and we raze it to the ground. Hannibal is no more.

(4) Okay, so we are left with two new world savages and their trucidator, although the roles seem reversed this time around. Do a little diplomatic survey as there have been votes for Monty and votes for Huyana Capac. Plan is created. Plan is executed:

Step one - Give Monty Divine Right. We are now Cautious between +4 trade bonus and +2 military struggle bonus.

Step two - Sign Open Borders with Monty to get some intercontinental foreign trade routes.

Step three - Sell Philosophy to Huyana Capac for 140 gold.

Step four - Declare war on Huyana Capac .

Step five -



Step six - Trade Monty spare Stone and Wine for Dye, Silk and 3 gold/turn.

Here's some cheese for you:



I hate taking advantage of bad game mechanics, but since there were so many Galleons around I did decide to, just once, do this. Galleon transfer in mid sea to double the movement.

(5) IBT Cahokia complains about Slavery. Geez, we've given you Universal Suffrage, rather than rioting, why not use the ballot to show your displeasure. Pay some gold to lose a population and turn, but end the riots. Our northern stack reaches the borders of Vilcabamba. The garrison is a Grenadier, Longbowman, Catapult and Axeman.

(6) Begin bombarding Cilcabamba, and reach Huamanga.

(7) Huamanga's garrison is down. Whoops, stack attack seems to be enabled:



Oops, I did it again :



I was also finally able to sail some troops around the north side of the continent. Vilcas is barely garrisoned, and my Frigates are pounding the Wall-less wonder with great zeal.

(8) IBT Monty asks for our spare Iron, for a Cow. Hah. Hah-hah. Drop Vilcas to 18% and attack before a Longbow can reach the city. Scrambling poorly today, are we Mr. Capac?



Steel is in, set research back to 0%.

(9) Blow 1210 gold upgrading twelve Trebuchet to Cannon on the northern attack force. Blow another 770 gold upgrading seven Trebuchet to Cannon on our southern attack force. No marching this turn as we replace rocks with balls, and complicated wooden structures with simple iron structures.

(10) Sweet:



Logistics and save in the next post.

Darrell

 

[darrelljs]

First off, we have a question at Vilcas:



The Navy can come in and pull the boys out, but my feeling is let 'em stick around (one of the Grenadiers is badly wounded). Worse comes to worse, we have more Rifles sailing in from the North. There is also a small naval force on the south side heading to Isabella's land, the problem with this force is there is only one Frigate and no siege. More on the way, but going might be slow to start with. Maybe direct Monty towards a city, and swoop in after he does the siege work for us?

Here is our southern army:



And our northern army:



Northern army has five Rifles (four really, the other is needed for garrison) one tile behind the main stack. Have fun !

Darrell

P.S. Really, I seen no reason to raze any cities, we are making tons of cash at 0% research, this is just a race to see how fast we can close it out.

 

[Zeviz]

Nice turnset and report.

Sorry I couldn't pick up the game the last two days. I'll try to play this evening.

Looks like the plan is to just keep capturing cities until domination is triggered.

In Vilcas, the defense will be restored if city is recaptured, so we'll have to waste time bombing it down agan. So I am tempted to just let the troops fight it out. We can afford the losses. HC can not.

 

[Sullla]

Don't forget to rush theatres and assign Artist specialists in our newly captured cities once they come out of resistance. We can rush settlers too as needed to plug gaps. Universal Suffrage cash-rushing is really powerful, so use it!

 

[Compromise]

...

(4) Okay, so we are left with two new world savages and their trucidator, although the roles seem reversed this time around. Do a little diplomatic survey as there have been votes for Monty and votes for Huyana Capac. Plan is created. Plan is executed:

Trucidator? Must be a typo (traditor?), unless I'm just missing something. But bringing Monty in as a war buddy was hilarious. Good reporting from the front.


In Vilcas, I'd give our rifles a chance to prove themselves. Viva la resistance!

In broad terms, I agree with the overall plan: keep everything we can and press on to Domination.

 

[Zeviz]

Well, we are finally #1 in almost all categories and #2 in production. I guess it helps to have eliminated three and a half most powerful rivals and to control 48.92% of land out of 64% needed for domination.

On that note, the only MM I do is to start Theatres in all cities that need second border expansion. I draft 3 rifles on west coast, but I suspect the game will be over by the time they get to the front.

I also redirect espionage to HC and Izzy, because we can already see Monty's cities. Talking about which...

Any bets on whether Monty will get to keep the city?

Unsurprisingly, Monty loses the city.

IBT, our forces in Vilcas win all 3 battles. Unfortunately, our northern attack stack gets hit by HC's SoD. We are caught in the open by large number of Grens, Knights, and Trebs, so while each of our units is better than the enemy's, the numbers are against us. We lose 7 Canons and 2 Rifles and have 4 Canons and 3 Rifles left, while HC loses 5 Grens, 7 Trebs, and 4 older units. His remaining 9 units are on a hill. And to add insult to injury, Vilcamba goes into a revolt.

1841AD(1) I could retreat to Vilcambra and promote Rifles with CG, but our canons will be pretty good on attack, and I don't want HC's grens to heal by promotions. So we attack. All canons retreat. All Rifles easily win against badly damaged foes. And HC's SoD is down to 6 units.

Meanwhile in the south we land a Rifle near Izzy's island city.

I spend most of our gold to hurry Theatres and a Settler for a filler city in the north.

1842AD(2) Izzy finds out that Knight is not a good city garrison unit. In the north, HC's stack decides to heal in place. That's not a good idea, because I've moved my main attack stack into position last turn. A single canon does some collateral damage, and then it's a slaughter, as our southern stack joins the remnants of the northern one.

Meanwhile in the south I notice this:

Looks like Monty has kindly dropped the defenses for us. I hope he doesn't take the city under our nose.

IBT:
Somehow I doubt Music will be very useful to anybody in this situation.
And I forgot to mention that last turn HC built Versalles for us.

1843AD(3)Monty does a great job of wounding attackers at Salamanica, but we have only 5 units and there are 6 defenders. A step north reveals no sign of Monty's troops left, so we attack. The battle is easy and only 2 wounded knights remain to guard the city.

1844AD(4)Thanks to Monty's help, that Spanish city is ours:


Meanwhile, we capture Machu Pichu in the north.

HC is now offering Capitulation. That will put us very close to domination limit, especially after we detonate a culture bomb in northern filler city I am about to found. (GA was just born in the capital.) If Izzy surrenders as well, we could win in less time than it would take our troops to get to Monty's lands. Here is victory conditions screen. HC had 19% land last turn:


I have to go to sleep, so I'll stop for the night with this question:

Do we want to take capitulations, or do we prefer the purity of conquest, even if it's a foregone conclusion at this point?

My vote is for accepting capitulations, because I find this part of domination mopup somewhat boring.

PS Attaching a save if anybody wants to take a look.

 

[darrelljs]

Trucidator? Must be a typo (traditor?), unless I'm just missing something.

Heh-heh...I took some liberties with a real word. It was either that or genoicider . Zeviz, you did more MM than I did. I basically hit F1 to find drafting opportunities at the start of my turn, and that was it. It was all troop movements. Progress looked great, I didn't even know Huyana Capac and a stack of doom out there, but you took, care of it! If I was playing I'd probably take him as a Vassal, but unfortunately for the Incan Sulla is up and he strikes me as disinclined towards mercy .

Edit: Actually, I just realized you are only on your third turn. I think Sulla gave the green light for anyone to take a vassal if they felt it was the right move, and I'll second that motion, so the call is yours .

Darrell

 

[darrelljs]

Am I allowed to read the Team B thread yet?

Darrell

 

[Sullla]

I'll just quote what I said before: the decision is up to you, I'm fine either way.

I'm not a fan of the capitulation option; a little too gamey trying to find the perfect amount of damage that will induce the AI to surrender. Usually I like to finish the job off completely. However, I'm perfectly OK with the rest of the team creating vassals if it looks like a good choice. Just remember that their land only counts halfway towards Domination.

 

[Zeviz]

1844AD(4) (continued) People are ok with accepting surrenders, so that's what I'll do. To me Capitulation is to Domination what Domination is to Conquest: a way to avoid boring slog through endgame, when outcome is obvious, but you have to get the game to realize you've won.

In addition to surrender HC is offering all his cash, map, and the city of Toledo, which featured in my first screenshot. However, I want a different city. Seville is out of question, so I take Cordoba instead:

As you can see, Spain is down to 2 cities. We could eliminate them easily, but Monty is a better target, because we'll need most of his land for Domination. (HC's capitulation put us at 58.74% of land area, up from 51.67%), so we'll need something equivalent to half of HC's territory.

Upon more careful consideration, I decided to attack both. Capturing Barcelona will relieve lots of cultural pressure from Cordoba and HC's other cities. And it can be bombarded by our Frigates and captured with reinforcements currently on the way, so main forces can still focus on capturing Monty's cities.

1845AD(5) Two cities come out of resistance, putting us at 60.1%. Founding a filler city in northern tundra brings it to 60.9%. Theatres are bought in all new cities and artists are hired where possible and necessary. I even start building culture in some places and bump the culture slider up to 20%.

However, just waiting for borders to expand is boring, so I attack Monty:

2 Rifles and a Treb against a Longbow and a Jaguar. This will be pretty easy if he doesn't whip more LBs.

1846AD(6) A couple border expansions bring us to 62.38%. I bump up culture slider even more and put some new cities into starvation to guarantee that domination will be triggered next turn.

Meanwhile, Monty hasn't whipped any defenders in that city, so we fight the last battle of the game:

The borders instantly readjust, putting us at 62.98%.

And just to make sure we have attacked everybody in the game, I invade Spain as well:

The fleet you see in the north contains 3 Frigates and a galleon with 3 Rifles.

1847AD(7) I hit Enter and see this:

(The city decided to revolt due to Aztec culture while the garrison was out clearing the landscape, but that didn't stop us from hitting the domination limit.)

We are finally #1 in every demographic category.

The final save (the turn before domination was triggered) is attached.