A random map, a sympathetic one (Deity Fractal)

How do you cancel the instruction? I tried somethings like that once and the unit ran off anyway.
 
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You have to hold shift the whole time and release it only after
- you have hovered over the trade mission option (to check the value)
- and clicked on the "cancel last action" button (so the path disappears)
Then you can release the shift key.
 
@BornInCantaloup: did you keep playing this map?

I've been in anarchy for the last five turns due to a grotesque migraine attack, hence the lack of posts. I tried to play a little here and there, but quickly had to give up. This has not been a good week! :cringe:
 
Will be interesting to read your updates, if you decide to play further :thumbsup:

I have finally been able to play more sustained today. Time flies, and it's now 1290AD. More big decisions for what to do. I sometimes get uncertain about this big pictures things, because there are different ways to go.
Spoiler :
The war on Genghis continues, and Beshbalik is a mighty fine city. Well, the shrine is nice, the rest maybe not so hot.
Spoiler :
Roosevelt BiC-T181 Beshbalik shrine.jpg

Remember the city I gifted away to Hannibal to prevent Ghengis from stealing it? Yeah, not so easy to take back now :undecide:
Spoiler :
Feels like a long time ago it was 'protected' by 5 catas and nothing else.
Roosevelt BiC-T181 Philadelphia.jpg

Genghis is hurting a lot and is willing to give away a city + 4 techs, but the silly goat simply refuses to capitulate. Even when I take his capital + another big city, he won't budge.
Spoiler :
Roosevelt BiC-T186 Genghis won't cap.jpg

War weariness has become brutal in the extreme. The counter is just shy of 1000. Don't think I've seen that before, except in the game where I tried 20+ nukes.
Spoiler :
Roosevelt BiC-T187 high WW.jpg

Sury is besieging Samarqand, with.. well... 1 CATAPULT!! He's grinding him down, one percent at the time. Per turn :lol: It's a city I want, though, because it is the HE city, and since I haven't come across any GGs elsewhere, they must all be in there. Must be 5-6 settled. I've seen Combat4-Formation Pikes aplenty, so he's probably getting them out the gates like that.
Spoiler :
Roosevelt BiC-T188 Samarqand siege.jpg

However, as you can also see from that picture, it has become his new capital. Which means he will no longer give it away in a peace treaty :cry: Instead he wanted to give away Old Sarai, which is culture squeezed by HC. It was probably a big mistake to accept that. It had no tiles. Then I gifted it back, thinking it would be more useful to Genghis. It probably is, but it has no tiles for him either. Because all culture was wiped when he gifted it to me. I should have taken a different city, or not taken any at all. Oh well, greed can have a price :shifty:

Here is the peace deal, or most of it. We got four techs out of it, which was brilliant. I was starting to feel pretty darn backwards. This war took forever, and I didn't really have anything sensible to tech. Eventually I started on MilScience, but otherwise I could only research techs 'everybody' had, which always feels like a waste.
Spoiler :
Roosevelt BiC-T188 peace deal.jpg

Almost the best thing is that he also has Communism, which I was able to trade next turn. Had to give him Steam power plus the rest of Military Tradition. Think he was almost done with that, but I ordered him to do something else when he capped.

The eastern front looks like this, so Genghis doesn't have much left.
Spoiler :
Roosevelt BiC-T189 eastern front.jpg

Unfortunately HC is untouchable due to having infantry, and Hannibal is essentially the same with MGs. Monty got bribed on Sury a long time ago, but hasn't done anything as far as I can tell. This very turn, Zara declared on HC, on his own I think. Sury is still at war with HC from before he broke free of Genghis.

Sury will get RepParts this turn, so it will be a nailbiter to see if he goes Rifling next or not. He's the only person I can realistically take on at this point, so I hope he doesn't, and some idiot doesn't trade it to him either. It might then be possible to declare on him, wipe the cuir stacks that he has near the eastern front, and double back to invade his land. He looks surprisingly weak, but with a lot of cities.

The war has taken a pretty big toll on our numbers, though, and I stopped whipping so hard quite a while ago. The whip timers were mighty high all over the place, and coupled with absurd war weariness, it was impossible to sustain. And I had one eye on the transition to a hammer economy, so tried to grow the cities a little bit (while running 20% culture slider), and at least cool down on the whipping. 6-8 :mad: is a bit on the high side.

Techs (we just traded for Communism)
Spoiler :
Roosevelt BiC-T189 techs.jpg

I've queued up Assembly Line for now, and have the gold to get through it. If I for example take a two-turn anarchy hit to change to Rep/SP/Caste, I can forget about climbing back to friendly with HC and possibly trading (he has HR as favourite civic). But it still seems like the best bet. Would be nice with slavery for whipping factories, but it's 9 turns away, and two civic swaps is already 2 turns anarchy due to high city count, so I may as well do all three right away. Then spam more workshops where feasible.

As I said, this has been a pretty bloody affair, with war weariness just shy of 1000. We've lost 32 cavs, and only have 40 left now (and some are currently on MP duty). They've killed a lot, however, and what is so nice with cavs vs cuirs, is that cavs get good odds vs even muskets, at least well-promoted cavs. I also lost 5-6 cavs in a nasty cannon+counter attack after we took Beshbalik. But I preferred that over getting a bunch of tough muskets back in that hill city.
Spoiler :
Roosevelt BiC-T189 kills.jpg


Now about those strategic decisions.

As was seen in a picture above, I've queued up Assembly Line. I'm thinking that's my best bet, since this is likely to turn into a long-ass meatgrinder of a game. I'll need more hammers here, and can't really start to whip out a pile of cannons and try to smash into infantry, rifles or MGs. It will probably be overly costly, don't you think? So I was thinking that it's better to play the long game, get the economy back in order under state property. Hopefully it will be possible to take on Sury, but if he goes Rifling then we can't do all that much there either.

Also, I should really find location for NE + HE. The thinking was to put HE in Samarqand even if it was kinda iffy foodwise, but sadly that was impossible because it became his new capital. I love to take over cities with many settled GGs, but we got 0 out of Genghis :( Haven't settled any myself either. Have used them for XP on units, and one medic (an old axeman). One or two heroes have died in combat, but I have several others. They are quite useful in combat, as long as they survive a little and get a decent chunk of promos.
 

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No feedback. Maybe it's difficult or people don't have time? Anyway, I'm trying to continue. Unfortunately...
Spoiler :
...Sury went straight for Rifling. Depending on how he moves, I may take out his Cuirs, but otherwise I suppose I need to sit back and tech up a bit?

The military overview thingy shows 32 Khmer cuirs here and there, tho a few of those are in his own territory. I'm not sure which way they get bumped if they happen to be in my territory, even near Hannibal/HC, but if they go all the way back to his, I won't have much over there to deal with him. Btw, I went Rep-Caste-SProp, hence the anarchy.

Roosevelt BiC-T190 Sury goes rifling.jpg
 
Busy weekend here sorry, imo you are in a comfy position and can improve your land with workshops, factories soon etc.
Maybe the laziest play would be tanks? Should be some very respectable beakers output when cities recovered a bit and stopped building Cavs :)
 
No feedback. Maybe it's difficult or people don't have time? Anyway, I'm trying to continue. Unfortunately...
Spoiler :
...Sury went straight for Rifling. Depending on how he moves, I may take out his Cuirs, but otherwise I suppose I need to sit back and tech up a bit?

The military overview thingy shows 32 Khmer cuirs here and there, tho a few of those are in his own territory. I'm not sure which way they get bumped if they happen to be in my territory, even near Hannibal/HC, but if they go all the way back to his, I won't have much over there to deal with him. Btw, I went Rep-Caste-SProp, hence the anarchy.

View attachment 616757

There's nothing to worry about. It's still relatively straightforward to take out Surry with rifles/cavs + cannons, which you should do because at 14 cities he's the biggest long-term threat. He's far far away from infantry, so you don't have to worry about that. Then, afterwards, you should have 35+ cities, which will let you win the game basically however you want. Huayna may be a culture threat? But 100 tanks and, worst case scenario, a few dozen nukes should fix up the endgame real quick.
 
Busy weekend here sorry, imo you are in a comfy position and can improve your land with workshops, factories soon etc.
Maybe the laziest play would be tanks? Should be some very respectable beakers output when cities recovered a bit and stopped building Cavs :)
Thank you for the feedback. I was going to write an update here, which ended up going in a different direction. T200 is a nice stopping point.
Spoiler :
Relax the whipping and transition to a hammer economy, and try to smash the other civs later is what I was going to do. Particularly when Sury went Rifling directly after RepParts. But his stack was just there... This was a bit cocky for sure, but I wanted to try. First, mess him up a little with anarchy.
Spoiler :
Roosevelt BiC-T192 put Sury in anarchy.jpg

His stack is in Philadelphia next turn, but he changes ideas and goes back for a nearby Mongolian city. Perhaps he didn't like the sight of my rifle in San Francisco. Think Genghis had some cannon action, which injured a few more units. Our guys swoop down.
Spoiler :
Magic! They be gone :ninja:

Roosevelt BiC-T194 Sury stack wiped.jpg

That was a fun start. Then Hannibal steals Military Science, which was less fun. It's strange that he keeps putting thousands of :espionage: on me when I have nothing on him, but it does leave me open to crap like that. Anyway, our western border is long and dangerous, although I've gotten a few rifles out. Sury has many Cuirs, so it was therefore fortunate timing that Monty had landed a few units to keep him busy.

The army hasn't arrived yet, but I've got out a cannon. The city is nothing to write home about, but it's close and easily accessible. Sury has also gotten rifling now, which makes me want to hurry up.
Spoiler :
We manage to take the city by a hair, and then reinforce with some rifles since our city is only 3 tiles away. The cannon died btw.

Roosevelt BiC-T198 lone cannon attack.jpg

Down south where Monty landed with more units (his previous stack was down to just a musket), I attack until there are 5 defenders left. Because Monty has 4 attackers.
Spoiler :
Roosevelt BiC-T198 Monty helps out.jpg

Because Sury was so close to getting rifling, this war isn't about conquest. I just wanted to wipe his stack and maybe get a few cities. We have done that already. However, with a good deal of the main army healed up and present, they take a look at Nagara Jayseri, which has the Statue of Zeus.
Spoiler :
Okay, that's kinda scary actually. Particularly that hill2 rifle in a 60% hill city.

Roosevelt BiC-T200 Rifle defence.jpg


Probably a little fortunate here. First cav withdrew, but did zero damage. Then two losses before we managed to pull through. I took some chances with highly promoted cavs.

Roosevelt BiC-T200 Rifle defence shattered.jpg


Well now, look at that.
Spoiler :
Our power has risen to 1.6 of his, and I guess his land is low enough too.

Roosevelt BiC-T200 Sury will cap.jpg

The timing is quite nice, because we got Assembly Line this turn. I wanted to go slavery to get out factory+coal plant quicker, but paused when it was a two turn anarchy for just one civic change. Not worth it I think.. Hopefully Hannibal doesn't steal it right away, with his 4500 EPs on us. Crikey!
Spoiler :
Roosevelt BiC-T200 techs.jpg

Both Hannibal and HC is getting a little far ahead for comfort. Zara landed units on HC's territory a while back. Must have wanted to reconsider life choices when faced with 4-5 infantry in the city. Not pleasant for muskets and knights. Oddly enough the visit only lasted one turn.

These are the relations. Some lost love here and there, but currently only one war.
Spoiler :
Roosevelt BiC-T200 relations.jpg

Monty isn't chairman of my fan club, so I'm thinking it's probably best to get him busy again before he gets any silly ideas. Can bribe him on HC. He won't get anywhere, but hopefully it will slow down HC a little bit, and maybe get rid of some more of Monty's units. He has more than a few. Our power is 0.71 to his now, after being less than 0.6 for a while.

We do have a decent chunk of units left, but many also need to keep watch in former Mongolian cities. I had to give up on one city for this war, but still need them in the shrined city, as losing 70-80 gold per turn isn't very tempting.
Spoiler :
Roosevelt BiC-T200 units.jpg


If you have advice, I'd gladly read it. Could well be the experienced Deity players consider this a won game, but there is still a good way to go I think, against some dangerous and advanced AIs.
 
Is Hannibal any danger to you ? Secure a peace treaty with Huayna, go kill ? Then follow-up on Huayna ?
You have a huge production advantage.

You can research towards Physics for Airship support. Follow-up with Artillery.
I guess Railroads is also a consideration to mass your units on the front line faster.

Against ennemy Railroads, I'd probably want some mixed units. Cavs are still very useful. So are cannons. And so are Infantries.
Is there a world in which you can use Nationhood + Slavery and do it all ? (Or Nationhood + Caste, if you're solidly into Caste, now ; Nationhood being the keyword.)


If you want an easy way out, just get a navy... It would be nice if you could unlock trades with Hannibal and Huayna again but I guess that two vassals will make that difficult.
Even against Hannibal, a smallish navy could be useful (in the 5 Galleons range) so as to get some reach against cities behind the lines.
 
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Cheers. I'm leaving tomorrow and won't have a computer during the holidays, so won't be able to finish this game by then. I've played a little past 1500AD, and things look fairly good.
Spoiler :
Bribed Monty on HC and Hannibal got bribed on Monty, so all the others are at war now. Don't think much of anything has happened, but that's how it is with cross-ocean AIs. A couple galleons here and there, which ofc leads nowhere. I got elected AP president by a hair (at the time), so that is nice. Otherwise I've kept growing the cities and slow-building factory+coal plants. Got a GE that I'm not sure what to do with. Could have launched a GA, but I've kept postponing it, thinking maybe I could quick-build West Point or something. Just got up Oxford superlate. Not often I do Oxford before NE and HE :D

The plan was to declare on Hannibal, and that is probably what I will do. Sadly he got Artillery the same turn I did, but it should still be okay. He has a 20-30 unit stack, but we should be able to handle that, especially if we get siege initiative. HC lacks artillery for now, but has a pile of infantry. Monty has a pretty scary power, but I don't know what kind of stacks he has over there. I suppose it may be required to deal with him or Zara as I got so little land out of Sury before he capped. I'm currently at ~40% land. Actually, let me fire up the game and take a few screenshots. Need to pack before leaving tomorrow, but a quick peak should be okay. As long as I don't "just one more turn" too bad, haha.
Spoiler :
Hopefully Monty doesn't get Fission and nuke everybody!
Roosevelt BiC-T213 techs.jpg


Relations are so-so, but as mentioned there isn't much war weariness, so doubt much is actually happening.
Roosevelt BiC-T213 relations.jpg


Our two stacks:
Roosevelt BiC-T213 Turfan stack.jpg


Roosevelt BiC-T213 SFran stack.jpg


Hannibal's main stack from what I can tell.
Roosevelt BiC-T213 Hannibal stack.jpg


This is what HC has, but I'm sure there must be more roaming about. He has the highest power right now.
Roosevelt BiC-T213 HC stack.jpg


As you saw above, I don't have nearly enough siege (upgraded the 6 cannons I had), and it's slow when I can't whip, but with some power-fueled cities, it should be a little quicker at least.
Roosevelt BiC-T213 city builds.jpg


The power graph, with HC and Monty on top. A little Monty action as you can see, but not much.
Roosevelt BiC-T213 power.jpg


Unit count, which again shows that we don't have sufficient siege currently. Some airships is nice, but I need more siege I think before declaring. It will be war at tech parity with Hannibal, but hopefully we do well and don't get wiped from lack of initiative.
Roosevelt BiC-T213 units.jpg


Attached the save too, in case somebody want to check it out. Like I wrote earlier, I won't be able to play for quite a while now due to lacking a computer while I'm away.

I'd still like to read updates from BiC if you continued your game, or others for that matter. It was a tough map I think, and I 100% assumed it was a loss when HC peace vassaled to scary-looking Genghis with 16 cities or whatever he had. Even worse when I saw Genghis had TWO giant stacks. I thought he only had the one.

Feels like the game is under control now, and I'd say one of the key aspects was @Fippy advising me to hold off on Cuir whipping and get to Cavalry instead. It almost backfired in truth when Genghis DOWed, but I was able to buy enough time to get to Rifling, and slowly grind him down. Wiping both his stacks felt great! :smug:
 

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