3-way succesion game

[bobbobbybobbob]

Good job Tiberiu. I would do exactly the same, bribe Zulu, denounce and DoW. We can't afford a double DoW. It will lose our eastern Empire very quickly. We see no reason not to go liberty 5 here. We got our religion so Piety could be our second tree but there is no rush to abandon Liberty right now. Just finish it off and grab GE imo. I found a NW so we are allies with the Sidon. Sofia want to see a GE and they give us ally status if we do so.

Philosophy still at turn one away for us. I figured we could go greedy for a third trade route so that's why I teched the way I did. There is still no penalty if you wanna go for civil service. I respect either decision.

If we take GE I wouldn't mind trying to pop it for Machu. It's a lot of gold for us and the faith is a nice bonus on that.

Zulu and Siam are peaceful so that means the city state is neutral, however I see no problem with defending Zulu. I have fortify our position and we don't need honor generals since we are going to get one soon enough. Even so.. I don't think we are in a need to get plant one either way. Since we are going for Empire building I have put us every defensive. I'm sure you both know that to conquer Zulu during medieval is very rough and we haven't invested in military, which is fine. We can just stall here in our position and go for frigates.

We must make sure to do so IMO, because he will most likely not accept peace. So soon enough he will be able to just swim over and visit our fragile cities. Horrendous. So we gotta keep that in mind.

We can trade sugar from Germany to trigger king's day. We have also met Poland and a couple of CS's. Poor Cahokia lost another worker to us. We got a lot of workers so we can feed barbs them later on when we want the influence.

Another idea is to simply grab a GP. We spread it three times and then gift it to Sofia. Inca doesn't have a religion, nor does Germany. Either way both options is fine. I'm not a huge fan of GS pick, but I wouldn't say it's bad of course. You are free to do as you wish. I hope you enjoy!

EDIT: The way I teched we can build forts soon if you guys feel insecure that we will hold the line.

 

[Mizzenmast]

100: It looks like Linkoping might adopt Confucianism before our own religion, letting us buy a Pagoda/Monastery. Thus I want to keep it at 2, so I ceased growth, maxed production and started a Chariot. Sold Maya Cotton for 100g/4gpt, bought the latest Cotton tile for 105. Bought German Sugar for 9gpt to lock it down and get King Day. Borrowed enough gold (from Inca, in case they betray us as Tiberiu noted) to buy a Chariot in Uppsala, I didn’t want to risk an enemy Trireme getting past the city.
101: Took the Liberty Engineer and I will end up just getting the NC in Stockholm. Got our Spy (Bismark got Banking), and there is just enough time to rig the elections on t105. I put him in Sidon.
104: Truffles for Polish Wine for 2 king days.
105: Linkoping converts to Confucianism! Bought a Pagoda. Finished Engineering, bought an Aqueduct in Stockholm.
106: Zulu took Cape Town (Inca had allied). Sidon election rigged, spy moves to Palenque. I figure Germany has likely built a Constabulary by now and may have a counterspy.
109: Inca just barely beat me to a camp and supplanted us as Sofia’s ally. Met Buenos Aires; they have Gold, aren’t hostile, and have a gold quest out, so I pledged to protect but I doubt we will have the money. Maybe combined with a Writer donation? We spawned a Siege Tower in Uppsala.
110: Our spy will steal from Palenque in just 7 turns! We have all the Civil Service pre-reqs nearly researched, I was jumping between them. Maya has Banking.

Notes:
The Zulu war is going well. I killed some Triremes and Impis, and with our new toy we might be able to liberate Cape Town before long.
Next turn we can buy a Monastery in Linkoping. How nice that this city will have +4 towards borders now, no guild necessary. And Uppsala has most of its good tiles already so I think we should get both guilds in Stockholm, it is about to have 2 Cargo ships feeding it and can work the slots immediately at 40% boost. Whether we stockpile them for Worlds Fair or give them to CS to fix our happiness, we should prioritize them.
We’ve sold all our copies of Gems, Cotton, and Truffles. We just lost Cotton happiness by losing Sofia allyship, we might want to fix that. Gems we won’t get back for 26 turns. But Stockholm will soon be able to buy a new Truffles that we can connect with Optics. We’ll get a copy back in 6 turns but I think we should renew that sale. And we should obviously renew the Truffles:Copper that just ended with Germany.
Cahokia has claimed a tile such that we’ll need a Horseman if we want to keep stealing. We have 12 Workers, though. I haven’t made peace in case you guys think we should use them to farm EXP later, or want even more Workers for war. Up to @Tiberiu
Our far scout is ready to come back down through Poland, their borders are open to us.
All our tiles are assigned according to the Golden Age about to end
We are deep in debt to the Inca in case they backstab us. From the two Triremes in the latest screenshot, could they be up to something?

Spoiler :

Regarding policies: I like Tradition opener. But we have most of our best tiles already and the border bonus applies retroactively, so I wonder if it can wait, maybe taken as a pair with the +1 happy policy after winning WF, when our cities are nearer 10 pop. What about the Aesthetics opener and rushing Acoustics for the Musician Guild, getting a massive GP engine going? If it gets us 1 additional Writer for Worlds Fair it will pay for itself in culture, and it leads to another decent policy as well.

I think @bobbobbybobbob is spot-on about the future of the Zulu war. We should head towards Compass/Navigation.

 

[Tiberiu]

Hey guys. We are doing well I think. I hard focused growth in this session. Feel free to micro citizen when needed. I upgraded our Spearmen to Pikes. Not much else to report this time...

110 - small loan from Inca and gift 250 to Sofia because we can steal it from Inca who is same amount of influence and they dont seem to have Patronage. We really need to keep Sofia for us.
111 - Sold Truffles to Inca for 240.
112 - Sidon wants... Truffles! Wonderful.
112-117 - just micromanagement of citizen. Killed 4 triremes and 3 Impis
117. Stole Theology. DOF Poland! We now have 5 friends!! Got one more catapult as gift from Sofia. Not bad. 5th religion founded (Siam)
118. Took Exploration Opener. We will need the happiness and production from it. Unfortunately, I make some mistake due to no radaring and expose a chariot. It could die next turn, and I will just gift it to Sofia instead. sorry :-( . Killed 1 more horseman too, at least.

Notes:

- prepared some forts near Shaka (they are not finished yet!). Feel free to also build in our terrain if needed. Please do not underestimate Shaka because he has built a huge army apparently. The Great General is coming soon and I think we will have to use it defensively. This remains to be decided by the player in command.
- I suggest to simply defend from Shaka for the moment with the land units, it seems very hard to attack him. Without a planted citadel, at least. Compass is almost ready and maybe we should prepare to build 3-4 galleass immediately in the capital.
- Still at war with Cahokia for no reason. I don't know what we should do about it. Maybe peace because they might get some naval unit close and try to pillage our routes. I have scout on the lookout for that.
- One more route from Compass soon - and I suggest more food to the capital (from Birka) because it will need the food if it works all guilds.

 

[bobbobbybobbob]

Lost a city (Linkoping), a Pikeman and a trade route. Not a fun save file to share for the next guy however since Inca and Zulu are warring I think it's just best to leave them to fight each other. Just fortify at Uppsala and we should be all right. The GG was a bit too slow which is too bad.

I made peace with our CS (Cahokia) and almost all workers are idle right now. We could start feeding them back to CS.
I can't say much other than it's still OK even though we lost a city. We are starting to generate Great People so soon we can get some good city state allies. War boats are coming up so we can't be feeling to bad about what's happen to us.

Just start the fleet and hold the current city and we shall be fine. I hope you don't feel too discourage about this.

 

[Tiberiu]

I didn't see this coming...but, man... why let Zulu take city instead of giving it to somebody else at least? For example Poland or maybe Maya. This lets open door to Zulu not to mention extra luxuries.
What to do moving on? I guess just focusing on a fleet is enough to recover.

 

[Mizzenmast]

No worries @bobbobbybobbob, we can recover. I regret founding Linkoping on that flat grass, it wasn’t worth the Stoneworks. But I am glad Uppsala is so defensible.

I bulbed our Writer to get Maritime Infrastructure 8 turns early, and built a round of Galleasses.

Germany got Archaeology on t134. Zulu built Himeji Castle, he will be even tougher now. Maya put up Ivory for trade, we swapped for it for 40 influence in Melbourne. We spawned a Prophet which I am using to spread religion to our 2 allies, then maybe to Cahokia before gifting to them? The whole process will take a while.

Pacal declares war on Zulu, and Zulu demands 3 of our cities on t135. I’m not sure if it’s the right decision, but I get a round of attacks in and take white peace. They are friendly now and I swap Truffles for Salt for a King Day in Uppsala. (Now we lack Truffles.) The Inca build Macchu Picchu.

136: Siam and Poland war Zulu, but Zulu makes peace with Inca and Germany. Zulu tell us the Inca are plotting against us. Siam is now 1 in Soldiers. I consider bribing him to attack the Inca but it's expensive.

The Inca soon tell us that Zulu are plotting against us, and denounce them, so I also denounce them for many positive modifiers. Germany builds Porcelain Tower.

140: Zulu denounce us. We can steal Acoustics from Maya! The next steal takes 19 turns. General is still around. I've been holding onto 4 of our iron. Navigation is next up.

 

[Tiberiu]

Looks like Mizzenmast managed to stabilize our situation, very nice! Just a small thing I would have liked after peace with Zulu is to also get his open borders right there.

Before I play my session I would like to consult with this: I feel like attempting some Coups. There are at least 3 city states that will have 75-85% chance of success. If we manage at least 1-2 it seems to be worth it. 19 turns feels like too much. Another option I like is to move him to Zulu's capital instead as it should steal faster and also safer, plus we will use the sight on Zulu's capital. But the move to Zulu can be done after we done attempting the Coups.

Another issue is... we are now on 7 cities but at the tech/policy cost of 8. We can settle a new city without increasing costs, but simply growing our existing cities seems also good enough. The only viable option if we were to settle a city now would be to plant a city near Inca and use general to Steal Gems + Ivory while there is still open ground to do so. I am certain this is a good move but I can understand if this seems too risky for you guys so if you don't like it we don't have to do it.

By the way we are at 290/400 to get another general and if we do this plan, we will be able to use the next general adjacent to Inca's capital and capture it for those awesome wonders. In order to spawn the next general we can battle Zulu....and in the meantime, bribe Inca to dow others so that he is taken off-guard by our actions.

I also feel like using the General against Zulu and declare war as soon as possible and maybe after his peace treaties with other civs expire and we can bribe him again before DOW.



So... @Mizzenmast @bobbobbybobbob

1) Are you up for some Coup attempts? Statistics are in our favour and the ratio of risk/reward seems worth it.
2) Should I use general vs Inca, getting us Ivory or against Zulu?
3) Attack Zulu immediately or wait until we have Frigates?


edit: screenshot with possible plan getting us great wonders

 

[Tiberiu]

I hope you guys won't mind that I didn't wait and instead continued. I think my plans were overly ambitious anyway...I went with something more normal and solid.

141- I move the General to steal Horses and Gems from Shaka. I feel bad just keeping the general and this brings us more gold and makes Shaka weaker.
142- Scouting with Caravel I found Grand Mesa. We still have 3 NWs to find. I place the citadel...Selling Horses and Gems for our Empire seems to be worth this move, and we will surely have the upper hand against Shaka soon.
143- Artist Spawns and after thinking I use him for Golden age. It is a useful push for gold and production to have more Frigates faster.
144- I convert Sidon who has religion quest. Prophet 2 spreads left. Inca has a settler and will most likely put up a city somewhere. Doesn't affect us much or might even be beneficial. Taking loans only from Inca because this is the weakest friendship that we have. Sadly, the Spy was killed in a 76% Coup attempt in Buenos Aires.
146. Shaka is willing to attack the Inca for .... 2 gpt. And same with Bismark. So this will be really strong for us now. Preparing a few more forts and Frigates will soon be ready. We are ready for revenge.
148. I used the last spread for the incan city and gifted to Genoa. Moving to Cahokia who now has religion quest was taking too long, we can do it with the next prophet if we want to. We unlock Navigation and I immediately upgrade to 5 frigates. We need more iron and need to buy it when it becomes available from our friends, or from CSs. Shaka has Caravels and we will have to position our frigates so that we protect our trade routes at the start of the war with Shaka.
149. Spy replacement came and I move him to Zulu's capital.

Notes:

- During the last turn - Shaka asked if we wanna Dow him and I said No... It was a tough call, could have lost some Sea Routes if I said Yes because he had a Caravel in the area. We should be able to maintain friendships for a while, even if we attack him and betray our word eventually. Otherwise we would have to wait for him to attack us and that's not really feasible.
- in the last turn, Shaka citadel bombed us, and stole back his Horse and Gems. Should we attack him, it's best to have a horseman there to pillage the citadel.
- I took loans during the golden age and this is why all our cities are building Markets. We can/should delete some workers anyway because they have finished their jobs, and also we should have stuff to sell if there's an emergency.
- We have Quebec City and Genoa as allies. We need more iron. and we will most likely lose 2 iron from Quebec after war begins with Shaka.
- We will soon lose Sofia as ally so if we find some excess gold somewhere, paying 250 for it will be useful.

 

[bobbobbybobbob]

I DoW Zulu. Took back Linkoping and Liberated Cape Town. Killed two of his cities and I'm in position where we could push into the capital soon. (We got Iron to upgrade our Galleasses.)

I gifted a Great Admiral to Kuala Lumper so we got Iron now. I also gifted a Great Writer to Cahokia and they got a easy quest to complete. (They want trade route.). I been gifting some obsolete units to Sofia to keep them as an ally. We got some money now and we could do some RA with people, but I decided to let the next man decide what to do.

We also got a Great Artist and a Great General. A Prophet is coming in a few turns too.

With our cities I decided to build universities and workshops. Most cities are working their slots but feel free to do as you please.

I also went and open Rationalism.

Zulu is also ready for peace but I think we can do more damage here. It's up to you @Mizzenmast

 

[Mizzenmast]

Nice work. I stayed at war with the Zulu and I think @Tiberiu can take Ulundi during his turns, or pick off and sell more of the small cities.

160: Bought a Monastery in Linkoping. I gave Sofia the new General and popped the Artist for a Golden Age. This put us in positive gold so I took loans from the Inca and bought a Garden in Stockholm, and queued N. Epic after the Musician’s Guild.
162: Lost our Shock III Pikeman. Zulu and Inca make peace.
163: Zulu captured Cape Town again, I liberated it and captured another Zulu city which I sold to Inca for Marble and ~30gpt. Cultural Heritage sites passes, Standing Army fails. It’s our turn to propose. I wasn’t sure we would be ready for WF in 30 turns so I picked embargo Zulu for diplo bonuses with 4 civs, thinking someone else might propose WF anyway. But Inca picked Ban Incense. I bought 5 of Germany’s 7 Coal to try to make him take Ideology late as possible and get some for ourselves. We got a GS and I saved him, I think we should use him to bulb Industrialization.
165: Liberated Cape Town again.
168: Germany takes Order.

Notes:
I sent a TR to Cahokia and I switched one of the Stockholm routes to production.
We stand to gain 4 happiness, 2 King Days, and big culture by allying Milan. (Sidenote: don’t buy Siam’s Gold.) Milan has a Prophet quest out now, we are set to generate one any turn and can gift it as well. We are also 1 turn from our first Musician.
Our scientist is ready to pop Industrialization soon and we have 8 Coal from Germany/Poland to build Factories with.
We should probably take the Explo happiness policy next instead of Secularism

Spoiler :

 

[Tiberiu]

Ok guys. War with Zulu continues. I didn't conquer anything more but farmed XP and now with ranged Frigates @bobbobbybobbob should be able to do something nice. Shaka was spamming Frigates each few turns and couldn't do much else than kill them from afar until we get Range.

171 - gift musician to Lhasa who should help us well vs Zulu. Bought 7 coal from Maya.
173 - bulbed for Industrialization and buy 2 factories after taking loans and selling stuff (horses, extra luxuries). Rigging takes place in 7 turns and I move new spy to Lhasa to decrease chances of coup from Germany.
Zulu is now simply spamming Frigates each 2 turns, making it difficult to take more cities. Simply staying afar and killing units seems to be good enough until we get Range on the frigates. Therefore, I move spy from Zulu capital and into Genoa, to try to secure this city state which has 3 luxuries, and is also in Shaka's area. Temporarily set all citizen for max production/gold ratios so that we can get some gold next turn for another factory.
174. I don't like how Siam and Inca are not in any wars and they have positioned units strangedly at us. I suspect a backstab is coming. I might be paranoid but I think 11 gpt is worth to be sure we won't get any disturbances from them for the moment.
We are very much in debt so I delete some non-vital roads near Cape Town. Some loans will end soon and we'll get a Golden Age. We are fine but I had to switch everything to building Banks just to make sure.

175. I really thought this one and I think we would risk big problems (Public-Opinion related) if we took Freedom or Autocracy for 2 free tenets.
I simply took Order and monument happiness and this way we can avoid any head aches. We have many cities and Order will be good, even if we only get 1 free tenet. Without tourism, we are vulnerable to all other civs influencing us, and Order gives the most happiness overall. Maybe this can be a mistake and I am just too pessimistic but I didn't want to risk to spoil the game and went the safe road. By the way I took Exploration Happiness with the policy as @Mizzenmast suggested we need to do. Maybe if I calculated previously that I will decide upon Order, Secularism would have been better or even Commerce Opener. It's not like happiness is bad but maybe I was suboptimal with these choices considering that we are far away from a natural golden age even with 25 happiness.

176. Sent a sea route to Sofia for both fulfilling a quest and to get 12 gpt that we need very much right now. Converted Cahokia and I think that it's best to start working against Germany since they are the tech leader and I gifted to UR to steal this CS from them.
177. We received a gatling gun from Sidon!
178. Gift Writer to Buenos Aires to get Gold luxury.

Notes:

-Milan has a barb quest, I sent a frigate and a scout is there to complete the mission.
-We should simply hold tight around Cape Town I think. Hard to make progress with the land units but they should be able to defend Cape Town, but we can retreat if necessary instead of incurring losses.
- Germany is starting to be a little scary. They have Electronics already. We need to focus on them soon...
- I built Banks in our cities because of the loans I took for Factories... but we are gold neutral now and an Artist is coming that can be used for Golden Age and maybe use gpt to bribe Germany to war everybody. We need to slow Bismark down!
- Our fleet must carry us to victory in this game...

 

[Mizzenmast]

Interesting game it's shaping up to be! I support your decision to follow the crowd and take Order @Tiberiu. I also think Freedom would have been a strong choice. GP% and specialist focus would go well with our empire, with many ocean tiles and lacking the Tradition border bonus/local culture. It's tough, there are so many policies before Ideology that would still be helpful.. more Rationalism, Tradition 2, Patronage, Aesthetics... Sadly we didn't get the culture from religious buildings or World's Fair to go crazy with policies. I probably should have proposed WF since getting all our Factories means maybe we could win, and we would get a Free policy even if we just go for 2nd place.

I fully support bribing for backstabs. I think we should take whichever opportunity presents itself earliest to get Germany in a war but not get backstab penalty ourselves, by making the deal right before our friendship ends with the aggressor and then we can declare war (not Inca). We should also tie up Inca to slow them down and distract them. But we must take care that we don't let CS get captured by someone we declare war on especially if it can't be easily recaptured with our fleet. But I don't remember how long our friendships last, maybe we can't afford to wait.

Everyone being friends with each other and making RAs means the game is going to end quickly. Even if we address it now, I think a Domination victory is going to be a tight race, even though many of the capitals are vulnerable to sea power and we could do a land-based push through the Inca into the Maya. We are so tied up in luxury trade as well and are low on Gold that the costs might outweigh the benefits of pursuing heavy conquest.

I suggest we just aim for a conquest-assisted Diplo Victory. We have so many Allies already and the map is set up for it perfectly. We can take Ulundi, liberate the other coastal CS Zulu has captured, then defend our holdings or go on to harass/cripple Bismarck with ships. Then towards the end of the game we could make a late push into Inca for the Forbidden Palace, and try to liberate Karakorum for their votes. Save all our GS for bulbing Globalization, donate everyone else. Thoughts?

Btw, I had to reload my game without EUI last time in order to get the option to liberate Cape Town (my game immediately puppeted for some reason- but weirdly, not the 2nd time I liberated with EUI on) and I had to immediately switch back, I found it unplayable. I know EUI provides a few subtle advantages over the base game but most of them are just shortcuts to info that is normally available if you go through extra clicks. But stuff like not being able to scroll through the Tech tree without holding down the bar at the bottom is CRIMINAL!

 

[Tiberiu]

Interesting game it's shaping up to be! I support your decision to follow the crowd and take Order @Tiberiu. I also think Freedom would have been a strong choice. GP% and specialist focus would go well with our empire, with many ocean tiles and lacking the Tradition border bonus/local culture. It's tough, there are so many policies before Ideology that would still be helpful.. more Rationalism, Tradition 2, Patronage, Aesthetics... Sadly we didn't get the culture from religious buildings or World's Fair to go crazy with policies. I probably should have proposed WF since getting all our Factories means maybe we could win, and we would get a Free policy even if we just go for 2nd place.

I am not sure I made the right decision, but my reasoning was this: I knew we are safe with just Germany (we would get tolerable PO). But I then thought - what if we are unlucky and all the others go other ideologies? We would then get influenced instantly to the point of maybe being forced to switch and lose the 2 free tenets. (everybody is already 15-25% influent on us). So I thought, by sacrificing the option to go for 2 free tenets, at least we can be sure we will not have problems with PO for the rest of the game due to how much happiness Order has. Also, I hope Factory Science will help us for a late game science push, increasing our Bulb value for the Scientists. (by the way I think we might be in danger if Bismark beelines and builds Hubble)...

We should also tie up Inca to slow them down and distract them.

Yes, I paid Siam for 11 to DOW Inca. They should be busy for a while. But I think Bismark is our only challanger for the victory. He is very far ahead in science. He might have submarines before we get Battleship on his capital but overall our late game plan must be to take his capital out ASAP, I think.

We are so tied up in luxury trade as well and are low on Gold that the costs might outweigh the benefits of pursuing heavy conquest.

We will have happiness I am sure and also gold, we have a lot of gold taken as loans so we are a bit richer than we seem. Also we have an opportunity to (Temporarily) sell Ulundi soon, to Inca for something like 130+ gpt if we want to. Not sure this is a good idea depending on what Wonders there are inside or if we need the money. But with so much GPT we can do a lot of things like starting a World War, pitting everybody vs everybody.

I suggest we just aim for a conquest-assisted Diplo Victory. We have so many Allies already and the map is set up for it perfectly. We can take Ulundi, liberate the other coastal CS Zulu has captured, then defend our holdings or go on to harass/cripple Bismarck with ships. Then towards the end of the game we could make a late push into Inca for the Forbidden Palace, and try to liberate Karakorum for their votes. Save all our GS for bulbing Globalization, donate everyone else. Thoughts?

I think Diplo is clearly the way to go with our CS allies and options to keep them and because we can liberate Mongolia for extra votes. I agree our goal should be Globalization but if we can get Hubble first ( not so much to get it for us but to deny it to Bismark), that is also good.

But stuff like not being able to scroll through the Tech tree without holding down the bar at the bottom is CRIMINAL!

I don't use any interface but I can scroll the tech tree with my mouse wheel.
I hope you enjoy the game Mizzenmast and I hope Bobby does too. Maybe we made small mistakes here and there but overall it's a good game I think and we just have to be careful not to lose important units and play our cards right with the CSs and we should win, either by war or by diplo. It would be a valuable victory considering our neighbours (Inca and Shaka are 2 of the toughest warmongers when near, right?), and our unimpressive start location.

 

[bobbobbybobbob]

The other civs are way to comfortable over there.. especially Germany. I really dislike it. I am surprised to see Order from you @Tiberiu , but it will have to do. I dislike catering after the world leader. We control congress so we dictate what ideology we want to go and others. However Order is fine. I have made most of the civs over there to backstab each other. So it is a FFA over there for those civs. I don't care who is winning the war over there as long as the are occupied while we are winning the war against the Zulus. We and the Inca are brothers in arms so this is very good for us!

I made however a miscalculation with some land units and I lost one pikeman and one heavy promoted Gatling Gun. However on the sea we are winning the war, so our economy is fixed for now. Almost every Frigate is a +1 range and we can easily conquer Zulu soon enough.

I have decided to tech for OIL because Battleships will be MVP against Germany later on.

I also went for Rationalism one point to the left. I don't see much purpose in anything else and science is always a good thing.

We got a Great Artist sleeping in Sigtuna.

Zulu is ready to pay for peace but I think we should just take care of him and perhaps liberate Mongolia for extra votes? It's something to do while we wait for Battleships!

So we have a strong economy and I have decided for you @Mizzenmast to decide what to do with it.

 

[Mizzenmast]

190: Spent some gold on Aqueduct in Linkoping and 2 sensible CS gifts. Started siphoning from Germany. Took a Golden Age from the Artist.
191: Zulu recaptured Ulundi and one of the smaller cities. I captured the smaller and sold to Siam for pennies. Then I captured Ulundi, sold off its luxes, and sold the city to Siam for everything he had: 450g, 180gpt, and 35 strategics including Oil. Siam was also at war with Zulu so I was hoping to repeat the process with Poland soon. Now I started siphoning from all civs. I hoarded the gold with the idea to take Skyscrapers next.
Siam took Autocracy, Maya Freedom. Germany built Broadway.
194: Repeated the double capture/sale with Poland, he too gave everything he had, another 120gpt and luxes.
195: Unlocked Biology, we have 38 Land Oil.
196: Sold Ulundi to Inca for 75gpt. Bought a Prophet to gift.
198: Two unallied CS put out investor quests, 1000g gifts to both.
199: Poland took Autocracy. I took Scryscrapers. We had 7k and 177gpt at this time. I spent about 5k on all available Science buildings, and Hospitals in our smaller/starving cities.

We have 1 idle Scientist.

The battlefronts:

Spoiler :

 

[Tiberiu]

Boosting the economy further with trades and sales and bought all XP buildings in capital where I also started to buy 1 frigate/turn... upgraded these new ones with Land instead of Sea promotion, it's good to have a mix of them to kill the nasty land units when needed.

200-203 - taking loans and buying stuff. I used up a Scientist... I know it's not for the best bulb value but I think we profit from Fertilizer and wanted to reach Dynamite faster and get all the XP buildings in capital to get more promoted fleet out.
203 - Sold Ulundi to Bismark for 300 gpt.
205 - Sold Ulundi to Bismark.for 275 gpt.
207 - Captured a city and sold to Inca to DOW Maya. Ideally, Inca kills Maya so that we can liberate them late game for more votes. I take Hero of the People Order policy.
208 - upgraded 4 cannons to artillery.
209 - Sold Ulundi to Siam for 170 gpt, and Inca Dow who was 30 gpt worth. Lost a basic gatling gun and a pikeman, gifted a knight..... Trying to attack with the land units to speed up finishing Zulu was a bit too hard without artillery but now that we have them we'll start to push.

Notes:

-Need to give some money to Geneva to remake it ally. We are ally with all CS
- I left some land units exposed, that pikemen will die so maybe gift away. and the logistic gatling needs to retreat.
- Careful to not DOW anybody who is giving us huge money, especially Bismark. We will need a lot of gold to upgrade frigates to battleship. Maybe start to beeline for Electronics and use our Scientists to get there quickly ?!
- We are ready to liberate Quebec and also to finish Zulu for good, he is getting old with his Impi spam. He is willing to give around 100 gpt right now, maybe take it after Quebec is liberated and Ulundi captured by us?! Ulundi has The Great Lighthouse which isn't bad for us considering that we rely on our Fleet do to serious work.

 

[Mizzenmast]

Oh wow, did Germany pay that without having another city nearby? I had assumed that part was necessary for big money but maybe the AI always pay lots for capitals? In any case nicely done. I was thinking to just siphon from him and backstab him to get the GPT back but you basically got the GPT back without doing this.

The Zulu peace gold is nice but kind of a drop in the bucket. I think we should press on to take Karakorum and liberate Malacca after Quebec City

 

[Tiberiu]

Oh wow, did Germany pay that without having another city nearby? I had assumed that part was necessary for big money but maybe the AI always pay lots for capitals? In any case nicely done. I was thinking to just siphon from him and backstab him to get the GPT back but you basically got the GPT back without doing this. The Zulu peace gold is nice but kind of a drop in the bucket. I think we should press on to take Karakorum and liberate Malacca after Quebec City

No, no, you are right. It's my fault for leaving maybe too much details out of the report, sorry about that. I just put the important stuff this time. There was that small city with weird name to the north of Ulundi (It was razed by Siam now, but it's ok because nobody has money right now except Zulu and Maya (who hates us and is giving us bad ratios for loans, but Pacal still respects the DOF).

Yes surely I agree we should liberate Mallacca and Karakorum. I was just thinking that maybe 100 gpt for 10 turns of peace until we position army closer to the important cities would be an option, but in truth, it would also mean 10 turns of not earning XP with the fleet. I think if we manage to upgrade all our frigates (some of which are approaching logistics promotion), we should win safely. Vs Bismark the frigates are too weak, he has airplanes now and will most likely have submarines soon if not already. We would do well to have a submarine at the front for scouting, too. If we reach Flight, this is also good. We can roll over the map with them.

 

[Mizzenmast]

@Tiberiu No problem at all, I thought you had done that but I just wanted to make sure I had the mechanic right, thinking there might be exception for a capital which I hadn't tested. As it is, this strategy of using the capital and 1 other city to repeatedly sell is very OP, even moreso than bribing and warring, but I don't mind (clearly) because it is tenuous based on whether the minor city gets razed, requires investment in a decisive army to make the initial captures, etc. In this case it may be vital to our win because it is a race against Bismarck.

 

[Tiberiu]

I forgot to upload the save... sorry. Here it is:

(these 2 files are the same, I accidentally uploaded the autosave too)