AG7 - Revenge of the Democracy

[betazed]

Ok. I got it. May not be able to complete it tonight (since I supposes these will be war turns with the fascist Japs). I have to play Bz8. But should be able to get some turns in.

Will definitely finish by tomorrow.

 

[Aggie]

It sounds a bit lazy, but since no unit has moved in turn 10 you can even declare war this turn. I left the last army empty by the way. Artillery and a couple of settler are positioned near the capital.

 

[betazed]

Preturn: I want Japs to declare against us. So I attempt to steal tech from them in the hopes that they declare. However, we are successful. We steal Natioanlism for cheap. 1236G. Heh! I ask them to leave and they declare on
us.

I mobilize for war. Take Nara for no loss. That thorn in our territory. No forces in it. If it flips we will retake. Take Newcastle for no loss. Take Canterbury for the loss of one cav. We get 1 cannon and two trebs from that too. I upgrade them. Take Hastings for the loss of one cav. Get another cannon from that. Take Shimoneski without the loss of anything. RR Hastings and Shimoski. Bombard out Jap Ivory. That should hurt too. Take Zarquim for no loss.

That is 6 cities and I have run out of artillery to attack.

I also start research. We have enough gold to upgrade everything. No point losing time in catching upto France.

Adequately guard everything and press spacebar.

IBT: No counter attack. Predictably three Jap cavs move into our territory going for the unguarded towns in our interior. Yeah right. We get lots of We love the President day. Reverse WW.

1380 AD: Take Berlin for no loss. There goes Jap's wines. Take Satsuma for no loss. There goes Jap iron. Also capture one Jap arty and one cannon which is upgraded. Also got two elite upgrades of cavs.

I am putting all the elite cavs in the capital. That way you know where all the elite units are for leader fishing.

Take Izumo for the loss of one cav. Get a elite promo. Take Konigsberg for the loss of a cav. Get another elite promo. Take Yokoshima. Damn now we are out of cavs to attack but still have arty left.

Now we are No. 1 in land area and stronger than the Japs. When I started we are average to the Japs and no. 2 in land area.

IBT: No jap counter.

1385 AD: Troops need to heal. So no attack this turn. Arty moves into position to take Tokyo next turn.

IBT: Jap counters with three cavs. One dies and 2 more retreat with 1 hp. We finish the pentagon.

1390 AD: Two elite victories but no leader. A thrid elite cav die attacking a 1 hp jap cav on plains. I hate this! Take tokyo without any loss. Generate another elite.

This is as far as I have got. Will finish the rest of the turns tonight. These being war turns are taking time. The above three turns took me like 1 hour and 15 minutes.

 

[Aggie]

Great work! This is really going very fast! I had an idea this would be the case. That is why I stopped research and started rushing armies. I figured that 8 armies are more important than Steel, Refining and Combustion. And I'm counting conservatively here. I don't believe that France will have tanks when we are turning our attention to them.

 

[betazed]

Great work! This is really going very fast! I had an idea this would be the case. That is why I stopped research and started rushing armies. I figured that 8 armies are more important than Steel, Refining and Combustion. And I'm counting conservatively here. I don't believe that France will have tanks when we are turning our attention to them.

You are probably right in that France will not have tanks by the time we are finished with the Japs. However, IMHO, I doubt we will be able to conquer France with just cavs alone. Maybe in Monarchy but not in Democracy. We will take decent amount of losses against France with just cavs and that would cause quite a bit WW in Democracy.

Hence IMO, the sooner we get to Tanks the better which is teh reason I started reasearch.

Also I think we need at least one more infantry army to hold two towns in the French border with us.

 

[Aggie]

Point taken on the war weariness in Democracy The extra infantry army is entirely in your hands though

 

[betazed]

1390 AD (contd): Take hamburg for the loss of one cav. There is a buffer of on culture size 3 city between us and France. So we can sustain a war with them right now if necessary. So I decide to steal from them cheaply. If it si war then war it is.

Ack! We fail but France is just displeased. Oh Well! We will see next time.

1395 AD: We try to steal again from France and this time we are successful in stealing Steel. We take Osaka fro no loss. This has the statue of Zeus. Oh well! We take Kagoshima for no loss.

1400 AD: We take Kyoto for the loss of 2 cavs and get some ten thousand workers. It has the hanging gardens and the Oracle. That's it. Japs have no more cities this side of France. So time to make peace with them. A very short and productive war. We get Communism, 135 G (all that they had in their treasury) and world map from them. I took communism because I want to build Police stations in all our major cities to control WW. I am really scared of WW in Democracy as you cna see.


1405 AD: Refining comes in. We have three sources of oil connected and two more that I can see which are not connected. France has combustion too. I will stop research for one turn and see if we can steal it from her. Settle Albuquerque.


1410 AD: We try to steal from France. We fail. We will try next turn again.

1415 AD: We try again and succeed. I take combustion. France has Flight but not Mass Production or Motorized Transportation. I start on Flight. Due in 6. We are researching at second price. We have enough money in the treasury to steal the Mass Production when it comes in from France.

One army is free. Do as you wish with it. Another is forming next turn. I have taken the liberty to build some infrastructure in our core cities like Police Stations, Stock Exchanges and even Cathedrals.

Get ready for the big one with France. Our army is weak compared to them.

France is now at peace with the japs. They did not eliminate them entirely. One city is left.

 

[microbe]

Playing...

 

[Aggie]

Great job! Absolutely amazing!

We have4 combat settlers near Washington. Please make proper use of them. The shape of the land mass should be perfect to hurt France. Good luck microbe

EDIT: I would get more artillery. It may be needed eventually. But I would also attack now.

ROSTER:
-Aggie
-Yom (CD gone bad)
-betazed
-microbe--- up
-Mark1031-- on deck

 

[microbe]

preturn: Continue the research. Stealing safely is almost half of the research price. Switch Nara/Chicago to factory, join workers to make them size-12, and convert many irrigation to mines. Rush wall in Albuquerque. Change some taxmen to civil engineers. Stop factory build in really corrupted cities.

(1)1425AD: Found Portland. Good news is that France's army is about the same size as ours.
(2)1430AD: I start building explorers - together with an infantry army they'll pillage France back into stone ages.
IBT Yokohama disposed us to Japan!
(3)1435AD: I draft some infantry. We have too many cities without defense.
IBT GA ended.
(4)1440AD: Rush some temples.
(5)1445AD: Japan turns back to Democracy! This means we'd have to return all its slaves.
(6)1450AD: France has Mass Production. We don't have money to steal yet.
(7)1455AD: Nothing.
(8)1460AD: I try an immediate steal and it failed.
(9)1465AD: Kyoto expands and France has no wines now. A careful steal gets us Mass Production from France. We can research Motorized Transportation in 11 turns, but I shut off research for this turn to get treasury above 1000g.
I then declare on France.
With the recent culture expansion we can bombard Tours from mountain directly. However RNG is so bad that we lose two elite cavs to redlined infantry and promote it. I then use a cav army to attack and kill it but the army is redlined! I then take no chances and use another cav army to kill two redlined infantry and the army turns yellow! Finally use an elite cav to kill a 2-hp cav but our cav is also redlined! This city is size-12 and on a plain. Why so difficult to take?!

Minneapolis is founded so we can bombard Shanghai, the delicious dyes city. We lose one cav and take it. We now have dyes. France lost two lux this turn and it will be very unhappy next turn.

Combat settler isn't working as expected as I cannot settle beside the newly captured cities. Have to wait for resistance to end first I guess.

An infantry army is sent to the French core, together with 9 explorers. Another army is sent to south with 2 explorers. Both armies aim for rubber as the first priority, then the irrigation and other resource.

There are about 30 French units in the open, so I bombard and try to kill. However, I again lose 2 elite cavs in a row to a fortified 1-hp infantry on plains, and a vet cav to another. I guess I'll just stop attacking fortified infantry. I'll let those units enter our territory and then kill them.

We also capture Chengdu without loss.

We have lots of cavs not used as I want to see how much counterattack from France first before we spread our defense.

IBT the battle at Chengdu is brutal. Eight bombers injure some of our infantry and lots of cavs attack. All units drop to 2-hp, including our cav army! But we hold.

(10)1470AD:

We lose one cav and capture Edo with Newton's University. It's a size-4 town and our cavs kill redlined infantry easily. I think this means we'd better to starve those big cities before attacking.

About 40 infantry/guerilla surround Chengdu in two stacks, one on plains and the other on mountain. I bombard the first stack to redline, and start killing. We lose 7-8 cavs and kill > 30 units. No leader as we use vet units.

I rush settler in Chengdu. It's highly possible to flip.

I move a settler into Frech territory to settle the gems south to Orleans. It will also claim one of its rubber.

WW is already 15%.

I'll play one more turn to fix the turns.

IBT: France throw its infantry at Chengdu and lose quite some units. Cavs attack Shanghai and all lose.

(11)1475AD: Shanghai still has one resistor. 10 units only can quell 2 resistors?! This means we still cannot use combat settler to let artillery reach Beijing. I have to retreat some units from Shanghai as it may flip this turn.

We settle the gem, our 8th lux. A small group of French infantry tried to reach this spot IBT but they fall into my trap and are killed instantly.

We capture Orleans. It's a ring-1 city with size 30. It will definitely flip so I gift it to Japan. It will still flip, and we'll just capture it back, but we won't risk losing too many units, or losing the city through combat (which would cause WW).

I also disband a guerilla and rush another settler in Chengdu. It would drop to size-1 next turn, making flip risk to zero if we have at least 17 units in it according to the flip calculator, but we may just leave a few units there.

An elite cav kills a cav, and we get a leader. Form an army.

The second French SoD has been trying to retreat from Chengdu. I move some infantry to completely block their way home. They have to die or attack our infantry on mountains.

Found a way to bombard Beijing this turn. Use 3 armies to take it. I tried to take chance to use 2 cavs to take a redline infantry, no luck, both died miserably. It looks like cav attacking infantry fortified in cities is just suicide, so don't do it. Towns are OK as long as not on hills.

WW has been 42-50%.

I could also reach Xinjian or Canton by combat settlers, but we are out of armies so I don't do it.

To next leader:

France's counterattack has been wearing out, but the biggest threat is flip. If the city is really big, maybe we should gift to Japan as what we did to Orleans.

We could attack Lyons, Canton and Xinjian next turn, but we may not have enough armies to do it all.

I haven't started research. We could get MT in 8 turns.

We are 56/62. Close to the limit.

Pillaging armies are approaching rubber. It has 3 sources as far as I can see. Explorers can move 3 tiles plus a pillage.

Bombers are annoying. Beaware. I've seen it bombing armies. We have to pillage its oil too. Flaks would be good to have too.

Avoid using cavs to attack infantry in cities. Even if they are redlined. Heal armies before attacking too. Try lure French infantry into open plain tiles before attacking.

It's late, so check around to see if I missed anything, such as city riot.

 

[Aggie]

Good progress microbe! But I am a bit surprised that you waited so long to attack. Maybe I'm just a bit to hasty.

Regarding the unlucky cav armies: you were unlucky, but getting the city to size 11 or 6 with artillery would have helped. Also, don't worry about wounded enemy infantry in the open. We should focus on capturing cities. And then the flips: I wouldn't care about them. They will not flip in the IT that you get them, so just conquer along and retake flipped cities. Another option: raze and replace! We need the land and really can't be bothered to retake these cities.

We can mobilize now. I would do so.

I assume that I won't play anymore

ROSTER:
-Aggie------ on deck
-Yom (CD gone bad)
-betazed
-microbe
-Mark1031-- up

EDIT: I'M STUPID! RAZING IS NOT ALLOWED (RULES OF THIS VARIANT).

 

[Aggie]

We may be kicked into anarchy in a few turns, but I wouldn't worry. Just continue the killing and eventually go republic. It may be a shame that we won't finish as a democracy, but let's end this quickly.

 

[microbe]

Good progress microbe! But I am a bit surprised that you waited so long to attack. Maybe I'm just a bit to hasty.

I wanted to steal Mass Production first. We don't have Espionage so we could only do so in peace. I declared as soon as I got it.

And then the flips: I wouldn't care about them. They will not flip in the IT that you get them, so just conquer along and retake flipped cities. Another option: raze and replace! We need the land and really can't be bothered to retake these cities.

The problem is that if we don't have enough defense, France could capture those cities directly, and we'll get WW for that. Our WW already hits 50%..

EDIT: would artillery bombardment decrease city pop if all units are already redlined?

EDIT2: yes, razing isn't allowed, that's why it's such a big problem.

 

[Aggie]

We have 83 infantry, surely that's enough defense? WW is a valid point though.

 

[microbe]

I mean the defense in the flip-risky cities, not the entire empire (for the latter, check how many of our cities actually have defense ). You know, at one time the flip calculator told me that I would need 107 units to prevent flip completely. Since normally we cannot prevent flip, we wouldn't want to put too many units there just to lose them..

 

[Mark1031]

got it. Don't know if I will finish tonight. This may take a while.

 

[Mark1031]

Preturn: Mobilize. Hire a few entertainers in some cities. We have heavy WW. Shift a few troops. Hit enter.

IT: About 10 bomber runs yellowline 2 cav armies. Minimal counter attacks with like 3 cavs and couple infantry. No losses.

1480: Bombardment of Lyons reveals a tank . Take Lyon with loss of 1 infantry. Gotta get the rubber pillaged. Pillage rubber by Paris. Pillage Rubber by St Pete’s. Take Canton no losses. Take Tsingtso loose 2 cav. Found Santa Fe close enough to final rubber to take it out with arty. Take Nanking, Moscow, St.Pete’s Loosing about 6 Cavs. Out of Arty. Cover Arty stacks.

IBT Bombers yellow line a cav army. 2 tank attacks loose 1 cav. Not much. France will talk. They lack oil and rubber . Time for the fat lady’s aria groucho .d

1485: Take Anyang, Hangchow, Yaroslav, Bayonne, Vladavostok and Rostov with minimal losses. We have 66% of the land. Buy a bunch of settlers.

IBT: Tsingtao diposed, back to 65% land

1490: Retake Tsingtao. Plant a bunch of settlers in open spaces. Shift enter and…. We win a glorious victory!!!

Good job team that was easier than I expected.

 

[microbe]

Wow, that was fast! Great job! Save before victory please!

 

[Aggie]

Fantastic And yes, give us the save This is indeed a convincing 2nd attempt. Good job team. I will be starting a new game today or tomorrow.

 

[betazed]

Wow! That was faster than I expected. Great game everyone.