3 grams - Prodigal Son's

[grahamiam]

M60 gets to implement his plan. Leave some for me

Roster
bede
admiral k
denyd
RowAndLive
M60 <- UP
grahamiam <- on deck

 

[M60A3TTS]

The save at 1675AD

Preturn: Move the 3 cav armies south.

IBT- Dad calls and wants an embargo against France. We agree. Theo calls us to get our armies out, and unfortunately there is still an open tile closer to Cataractonium, so we get sent back there. An inconvenience, that may delay things for a turn.

Turn 1/ 1630AD- Worker actions. Try moving the armies back. Pull the defense away from Logrono. So long as the choke is blocked, Theo has to use the peninsula troops, and that will further weaken her defense.

IBT- Celts destroy the Spanish. Yikes! Sala army>army. Get kicked back to the same place.

Turn 2/ 1635AD More worker actions, and don’t even try moving the armies again.

IBT- More unit builds. Lone Byz cav snooping around Lorono.

Turn 3/ 1640AD Theo hasn’t called and the 20-turn peace is now over. Careful steal from Theo nets us refining. Trade Dad refining for medicine, 92g, 4gpt, and his WM.

Contact our Fatherland and offer to rid the world of the Byzantine tyranny through a military alliance. Dad wants an obscene amount of stuff. May be time to send him to a nursing home. Call Theo and kick her out of our lands, then declare war. The Byzantine garrison of Teruel comes under artillery fire. France had an MPP with Theo so she declares. Redline rifle and infantry. 3-cav army comes up from the south and finishes it off. Pike captures worker on what was the vacant tile north of Teruel. Artillery up. Another pike captures 2 workers. Cataractonium defended by a single infantry is shredded by artillery, and the first northern army captures it. Cherbourg with 2 reg infantry suffer the same fate and at size 1 is autorazed.
Samsota has an infantry and a rifle. Artillery barrage and the cav army that took Cataractonium with an additional single cav take that town. Echigo has 3 infantry and a rifle. Artillery takes them down and the last cav army gets rid of 3 defenders. The last red infantry is taken down by our elite cav at Matsumaya and Echigo is autorazed. Salt is back on line. Upgrade 4 knights to cav to fill army next turn.

Abandon Cataractonium. Build Chondote next to the site. Rubber now on line. Upgrade 47 Veteran rifles to infantry. Capture another Byz worker by Ancyra and park him and a scatter a lot of foreign workers and trebs by there and Ohrid so our spread out artillery units don’t get captured. May be totally unnecessary, but lose a foreign worker or a treb, and what the heck. Ohrid has 2 infantry defenders. Near the choke, Tatooe You has 11 infantry and 8 rifles stuffed into the fort at Irondequoit. Now to see what sort of counter we get.

IBT- One Byz cav moves past the choke, we get bombarded by a couple ironclads. No other action, so Theo must be out of position dealing with Dad. Onontare riots. Palace gets some crown moulding in front. Brennus establishes an embassy. We lose a rifleman to disease in the jungle.

Turn 4 1645AD. Ancyra with 3 infantry defenders gets shelled and our cav army takes it. More artillery redlines 3 infantry at Ohrid. Add 4 upgraded cav to our empty army at Sala and attack, taking the town. The plan was to take the peninsula in about 4-5 turns. It took 2. Move up the infantry with some artillery support by Vidin.

IBT- SOD of 6 Byz infantry and 2 cav appeared headed to Tatoo You. Brennus wants to trade WM. No thanks. He’s in the modern age. Not good. Celt town of Alesia finishes Hoover’s.

Turn 5 (1650AD) Vidin is hit by artillery with 2 infantry defenders. Cav army takes it. Send almost all the artillery to Vidin, redline the Byzantine SOD and kill all 8 units at the loss of an infantry. Dad is polite and has Sci Method.

IBT- Theo just can’t keep up with the pace. Now a relief expedition is headed to Vidin.

Turn 6 (1655AD) Hakodate is pop 1 defended by 3 infantry. Another barrage and cav army treatment. Gone. Squeeze in a combat settler between Byz and Dad and found Gandasetagion. Cav army pillages all road connections to what is half of the Byzantine nation.

IBT- Aztec/French embargo agains us ends.

Turn 7 (1660AD) Kill some infantry by Vidin. Move into position to take Trebizond next turn.

IBT- More ironclad bombards. Another army from Sala.

Turn 8 (1665AD) Load the army with cav. Trebizond defended by a regular and draft infantry. Both killed and cav army moves in. Move some artillery up towards Caesarea to bombard in a couple turns. But then Trebizond was so easy, attack reg infantry with 2 cav armies at Caesarea. Win both, the town falls. And with that, I believe they have one rubber source left on a far away city, Iconium. Raze and replace Caesarea with Neodakheat.

IBT- Theo tries to get to empty Sala by landing 2 infantry and a cav next door.

Turn 9 (1670AD) Kill the unwelcome visitors by Salamanca. With several Byz infantry trying to get to Vidin from Septum, converge 4 cav armies at Septum and conquer that defended by 4 infantry with a little artillery support. Then the artillery redlines all their infantry and our grunts kill about half a dozen. We lose one. Bombard and cut what may be Theo’s sole salt source.

IBT- More ironclad bombards.

Turn 10 (1675AD) Artillery fire and one cav army take Sardica. Kill 2 more Byz infantry. Pull all the remaining armies into Sala to heal. They do have all their MPs. Reposition the troops a little bit. Put a settler in Septum if next up wants to raze and replace. And done.

Post turn- One quarter of the Byzantine Army destroyed. This is the same army that last time I had it had us down to five cavalry and a couple knights. The Peninsula taken. Their empire cut in two. Our lead units 4 tiles from the capital of Constantinople. From Septum, we can clear out the remaining 5 Byz cities without any real difficulty. They should be pretty much out of the picture within 15-20 turns. Dad will sell us sanitation for WM and 1300g. We have 2353 in the bank @ 383gpt. Brennus is the only real threat to win this now.

 

[Bede]

NIce execution.

When they go they do go quick.

 

[grahamiam]

all that and no screenie to show it off nice work i got it.

Roster
bede <- on deck
admiral k
denyd
RowAndLive
M60
grahamiam <- UP

 

[RowAndLive]

I guess that I'll agree with Moonsinger now too - Queen of the battlefield.

 

[denyd]

Excellent work M60...

I guess we should keep on Theodora until she's no longer a factor (and before she can get to the modern age and possibly get mechs). Then it's a choice between the Celts & Aztecs. If we can keep dad as a ally, I'd like it to be the Aztecs for a couple of reasons. One to finally get rid of that NE city on our lands and two to have the primary battlefront be on dad's land.

With the Celts in the modern age, we have a couple of new concerns. Nukes & a UN vote. I would guess that no AI is going to be calling for a vote due to all the past wars. Nukes on the other hand could prove to become an issue. Do we know is Brennus has started the Manahttan Project yet?

 

[RowAndLive]

One to finally get rid of that NE city on our lands

I took care of that during my turn set.

With the Celts in the modern age, we have a couple of new concerns. Nukes & a UN vote. I would guess that no AI is going to be calling for a vote due to all the past wars. Nukes on the other hand could prove to become an issue. Do we know is Brennus has started the Manahttan Project yet?

Manhattan hadn't come up during my turns, only Hoover, which was just finished.


Off-topic, do you guys know why our SGoTM4 results were N/A'ed on the scoring results?

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Rubber now on line. Upgrade 47 Veteran rifles to infantry.

Vote for Celts next. No nukes.

 

[denyd]

How about taking out France, while finishing off the Byzantines?

Based on the most recent mini-map (on the prior page), getting to the Celts is going to take either lots of boats to invade the once Spanish lands or a long walk through Japan. The Aztecs offer the same option. A short boat ride east or a long trip via dad's railroads. Keeping that ROP with Japan is vital for either plan. My reasoning for the Aztecs was to be able to gain that single NE city (which R&L already did) and to they seemed to be the easier of the two (less advanced and smaller) of the two targets. I thought we'd be able to pointy-stick research from Theodora most of the remaining IA techs and could then attack the Aztecs with tanks. When Monty was on the ropes, get any modern age tech from him and start on the Celts. Reversing that plan (Celts before Aztecs) also has a lot of merit. Getting the Celts before nukes, is the prominent one. I'm willing to go either way on this.

 

[RowAndLive]

I tend to worry more, and so would say to go after Brennus first, but also am willing to pursue either plan.

 

[M60A3TTS]

I thought we'd be able to pointy-stick research from Theodora most of the remaining IA techs

I don't know that I've ever seen an AI give up a late-industrial tech for peace no matter what. Even if they're on the verge of extinction, I'm lucky to get ironclads.

Finishing Joan is a good idea, so that she doesn't live to cast a vote at the UN. The next army out of Sala could be loaded with just 3 cav and transported over in safety. A second galleon could carry a couple infantry and artillery. Byzantines are a slightly different story. We have to capture Iconium which is on an island that's a four turn trip from our nearest port in a galleon. Theo has 14 ironclads and 14 frigates vs. 2 galleons of our own. We're going to need enough ships to survive a naval engagement or two on the way there. I agree we should get rid of both, so that Brennus can't win a UN vote. He can't win if it is a split with us and Dad vs Brennus and Monty.

As far as Aztecs vs. Celts, we are probably going to have to fight both at the same time, even if not right away. If we take on Brennus, he'll buy the Aztecs against us. If we take on Monty, we'll be reaching a certain level of power that I don't think Brennus will ignore, especially as he has tanks and air.

We can still win with cav armies and artillery, even against tanks and air. We just need lots of each. That's why I proposed getting medicine so we can get a hospital in Salamanca, merge enough workers, and turn it into a four-turn army factory. In 40 turns that gives us 10 armies, plus the 6 we have, plus maybe 3-4 more from MGLs. 20 cav armies can match just about anything the AI throws at us.

 

[grahamiam]

Preflight check: Dad is currently up Sci Method, Sanitation, and a bunch of crap we don’t want.
We only have a spy in with the Byz. Try a steal and succeed, taking steel. Trade Steel to Japan for SM, WM, and 111g (don’t want gpt right now). They are up Atomic Theory
I sell Japan Gems for 7gpt
Raze and replace Septum with Rectum
Lower lux slider to get an extra 65gpt. Then go thru all cities to ensure no riots.
We’re a little over irrigated and we really need the spt so I’ll try to fix here and there. Next player should look at this closely as well. Also, I go thru each town, trying to optimize as much as possible. Things look good, it’s just a shield here or there, or flipping a specialist to get a market a little quicker. Go thru very carefully and get us up to +463gpt.

IBT: Celts and Aztecs sign MPP. Celts move up 2 tanks on Neodakheat and declare war on us. They kill 1 infantry in Neodakheat. Bombers from former Spain hit our peninsula towns and kill 1 infantryman.
Celts declare on the Japanese

T1: 1680AD Redline 2 celtic Tanks near Neodakheat. Kill them both with elite cavs (4/5, 3/5).
Use 2 armys and some arty to pillage in front of Neodakheat. Switch production to walls, then disband an LB and a pike inside to get in 1T.
Raze and replace Trebizond with Ivory Town.

T2: 1685AD Fall 1 redlined infantry short in taking Amorium, but nearly lose an army (2/17)

IBT: Celts and Aztec’s sign trade embargo against us. Celtic bombers take out more units.

T3: 1690AD @ Amorium: Redline 3 infantry and kill all 3 with 1 army (16/18). Move a combat settler up, sell improvements, abandon Amorium and found Byzantine Pops
@ Nicomedia: It takes 18 arty, but 4 infantry are redlined. Army kills 2 redlined infantry but almost dies (2/17); elite cav kills ¼ infantry (4/5); elite cav dies attacking infantry and promotes it (2/5); arty redlines it; vet cav attacks and kills the redlined infantry (1/4) and we take the city + 21g + 3 arty.
@ Naissus: redline 3 defending infantry; use army to kill 1 unit (17/18), and then another (13/18); Use 2nd army to kill the 3rd and we take the city + 21g.
Trade WM to Japan for WM + 17g. we will be 99g short next turn for a steal. I try to see if we can trade a lux for gold but no dice, only will trade a resource for a resource.

IBT: Celtic bombers take their toll. They also land 2 infantry, 1 tanks, 1 marine and 1 rambo near Oiogouen. Surprised they didn’t just take it as it was empty.

T4: 1695AD Bring down 14 artys, 2 cannon, and 2 trebs to redline the Celtic stack. Army kills infantry (11/16); army kills infantry (11/17); army kills tank (11/17); army kills Rambo (9/17); cav kills Rambo (1/4); 4/5 cav kills Marine and the stack is gone.
Sell improvements and abandon Nicomedia and Niassus. Get enough gold for a steal and succeed, taking combustion. Trade combustion to Japan for Sanitation + WM + 160g. He now will not trade oil for coal, so I will have to pinch one of his oil supplies.
Switch Sala to Hospital (4 shields short of 2T so I will abandon something inside).

Save here for the night.

Before the slaughter.

 

[RowAndLive]

You're doing it well, G-man, but it's a tough road to walk. Do we have enough unit production to keep up with the number of damaged units that have to spend time recovering?

 

[grahamiam]

You're doing it well, G-man, but it's a tough road to walk. Do we have enough unit production to keep up with the number of damaged units that have to spend time recovering?

i don't know if we can keep up with the bombers. they are emptying all our towns to the NW (on the pennisula). as far as the Byz go, yes, we can keep up. the redlined armys make it back to a barracks on the same turn as attacking and are back in action again soon. however, we need fighters in our coastal towns to the W as our spy in Celtia reveals about 8 marines and 10+ bombers so they could wipe out all defenders with bombers and take those coastal towns with ease.

does anyone know if flak are any good or should we avoid them altogether and just build fighters in adjacent airfields (fighters in towns will die as fast as the units)?

 

[RowAndLive]

I've never built AA, so unknown. I have built SAMs, but never saw them in action. I'd go for the adjacent airfields.

 

[Bede]

Flak workerd a treat in another game. They can also soak up bomber hits on heling units. D=6 I think.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Raze and replace Septum with Rectum

Never used flak except in WWII Pacific.

 

[denyd]

I really can't remember a C3C game where the AI reached flight there was a war.

BTW: Nice work on Theo's troops so far. I suppose we could abandon and resettle those NW cities as non-coastal to avoid having to worry about the Celtic marines. Until we can get a deterent up there, it might be best to move our units out of harms way and plan to retake the cities once we've got an answer for those planes. Another idea is to move some workers up there an rebuild the roads/rails and give the bombers another target. I'm assuming they wiped out most of the roads/rails first. If we use our workers to rebuid them the bombers will attack them again and ignore our troops maybe long enough to allow us to move a deterent up there.

 

[grahamiam]

i finished last night but my internet was choppy and couldn't stay on long enough to post. will try again tonight.

Summary:
Constantinople & town N of that is ours
All byz towns west of the Neokdakat (sp?) choke are ours
Wall Street Built
Lost the salt town but then founded a new one, not on the coast (thanks denyd )
Celts have 70+ tanks and 19 bombers, are at war with everyone, gobbling up territory. we will be the only ones that can stop her.
Sala up to 102spt (but had to build a cathedral and temple to get enough smilies)

 

[M60A3TTS]

Celts have 70+ tanks and 19 bombers, are at war with everyone, gobbling up territory. we will be the only ones that can stop her.

With the ability to create a cav army every 4 turns, I like our chances.