AP-2 Suleiman's conquest (RFC)

[blizzrd]

Turn 1: 1390AD
Ethiopia declares war on Arabia and our mutual military struggle brings us closer together (Pleased). They have 2gpt available, I ask for it, they provide (with 10 turns of peace).

Repositioned some troops for an attack on Mecca. Start research on Paper to be able to sell maps for cash to eventually upgrade some of our horse archers. I figure we should be able to trade for Optics within this turn set, given that 2 civs already have it, no need to research it ourselves when we have Divine Right and Gunpowder for trade.

Turn 2: 1400AD
Uneventful. Spread Judaism in Akkerman.

Turn 3: 1405AD
Kill an Arabian Camel Archer near Babili. Our troops are now fast approaching Mecca. Spread Judaism in Dirac. Science slider back up to 40%.

Turn 4: 1410AD
The independent kingdom of Ninua is now completely locked by our culture. They mistakenly send out a War Elephant to the E and a Pikeman to the SW, both of which are picked off by our units in Babili. A Great General is born in Artashat, which is one of our military production cities so I settle him there as a Military Instructor. Now our units from this city will have 2x promotions when they are built.

Turn 5: 1415AD
Launch a Golden Age with the Great Artist and Great Prophet who had been waiting around for our recently captured cities to come out of revolt. Science slider up to 50%. Start bombarding Mecca's defences.

Turn 6: 1420AD
A Great Artist is born. I send him to Akkerman and settle him there for +3gpt and +14 culture per turn. This should get the nearby resources under our control as opposed to the nearby German city which currently controls the Iron, Wheat and Pig.

Turn 7: 1425AD
Trade Divine Right +60g to England for Optics. Start research on Printing Press. Mecca is captured. Arabia capitulates to us and also gives us Drama + 20g + WM. Open borders with Arabia. Trade Iron to Arabia for Incence. Make peace with Persia for 30g + 1gpt. Arabia are currently Unstable, but not Unstable/Collapsing.

The independent kingdom of Mediolanum sends an Axeman and a Swordsman towards Dirac. Our waiting units get some promotions from the cannon fodder.

Turn 8: 1430AD
Persia wants to vassalize to us (voluntarily). I deliberate long and hard, but decide to accept. They are currently Unstable with 4 cities and last in score. I trade them (gift them) Guilds for their World Map. They have scouted out some of Siberia and all the way to China and the Khmer lands. Persia may not be a long-term vassal, but have resources that we could use right now. Open Borders with Persia and demand their excess resources (Cow, 2x Wheat, Ivory).

We now have contact with some of the Eastern civs. Japan and Khmer are at war with each other. Trade Horse to Khmer for Banana + Spices. Trade Horse to Japan for Rice + Silk + 4gpt. Buy Ethiopia's WM for 10 g. Sell our WM to Germany for 30g. Sell our WM to Russia for 20g.

Turn 9: 1435AD
Castle quest is completed. I choose +3 attitude from all world leaders over all melee units are upgraded to city garrison I (would be fairly pointless for us). Our newly built caravels remove some Independent Triremes from their blockade around Atina.

Turn 10: 1440AD
Turkish revolt in Ninua. Finish removing Independent Triremes from the Mediterranean and replace various broken fishing nets. Load a Spy onto a caravel for a trip to London. Finish spreading Judaism in all of our cities.

Sell WM to Japan for 50g. Sell WM to France for 90g + WM. Cancel Sheep to Germany for 2gpt and replace with Clam to Germany for 3gpt. Sell Divine Right to Ethiopia for Literature + WM. Sell WM to England for 15g. Cancel Marble to England for 3gpt and replace with Clam for 4gpt. Trade Fish to Persia for 1gpt. Cancel Wheat to Ethiopia for Cow (which we now have from our Persian vassal).

Screenshots to follow.

 

[blizzrd]

There are 3 turns left of our Golden Age. Our stability is still a problem.

I have queued courthouses in various cities that do not currently have them. Judaism (our state religion) is now in every one of our cities (including Mecca). Infrastructure buildings have been/are being built in many cities.

We have settled Military Instructors in Bogazkoy and Artashat. These cities should be used to produce the majority of our military units.

We have no active wars, but have built up a sizeable military force near our German/Italian borders. Germany or another Euro civ is bound to declare war on us soon, if we don't declare on them first. But we should add to our forces before we do any declaring. I have increased the defences of each of our cities along our European borders and thinned our defences near our vassals (Arabia and Persia).

We have some caravels which need to get on their bikes pretty fast if we are to circumnavigate and/or get the conqueror events. Someone is currently tracking down the eastern coast of South America according to the latest World Map. We may not have enough time for the conquerors, but should still try for circumnavigation.

To do:
1. Get our spy (currently onboard a caravel) into London.
2. Build courthouses to buffer the stability drop once our Golden Age ends.
3. Learn Constitution after Printing Press and build jails everywhere for the stability bonus.
4. We may get a Great Engineer in Bogazkoy in a few turns. If we do, save him for the Taj Mahal. If not, keep trying for a Great Engineer by locking in the Engineer Specialist here.
5. Keep building up our military on the European borders.

 

[kravixon]

3 great people already? Turkey sure seems a lot easier on the 3,000BC start.

UHV-wise anyway

 

[blizzrd]

Ninua should flip to us soon. I think it should be disbanded when this occurs. Thoughts?

 

[blizzrd]

What we can now see is that espionage against England (in London) is going to be much cheaper than espionage against France. Stealing a tech from England will currently cost us 700EP whereas stealing from France will cost 850EP. I set all of our espionage against England.

Grrrrrr.

While I thought that I had set all of our espionage against England, I apparently did not succeed in doing this. I have no idea why it didn't register, but it should be done immediately.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Ninua should be disbanded if it doesn't have any wonders (I didn't look). I should have razed Atina but didn't. Our science is in the dumps right now because of too many cities.

Independent Mediolanum is in an interesting position--it's a tempting city to get since it's got the Parthenon. It's blocking out the Frankfurt area which is why Germany is kinda weak right now. I think unless we can vassalize Germany (by force if necessary), Mediolanum should be left alone (otherwise Germany can expand there). Remember Germany would be a great vassal to get for future conquest (we don't need to own all of Europe, just one of our vassals need to).

The great people are coming in fast because of all those wonders in Bogazkoy. It's a good thing but we not able to get anything else other than GP and GA's. (We really need a GS after paper for Education or a GE for building the Taj).

If we don't get a GE, please remember to get back one marble from our trades.

 

[CrossRFC]

Playing now

 

[CrossRFC]

Finally done. A rather straighforward game.

Turn 0
Upped reseach from 50% to 60%

Turn 1
Dalmum (Arabian) becomes independant!
Didn't take any chances with Ninova and captured it with loss of 1 crossbow.

Turn 2
Great Merchant born in Bagazkoy, not engineer >=( Sending him to Japan via caravel.
A Turkish revolt takes place in Dalmum.
Meet with Spain, they're Muslim! (historical accuracy?)
Portugal doesn't seem to exist. Lisbon's been razed and replaced with a farm, and Ponta Delgata wasn't founded. In other words, no Portuguese respawn.

Turn 3
Toku wants me to declare war on Khmer, er no.
Building up troops near Germany. I plan to blitzkrieg Berlin and take care of the rest after.
Reseach back to 50%
Whip courthouses in Kudus and Dirac.

Turn 4
Dalmum doesn't flip. So I take it with no losses. Return control to Persia!?
Upgrade some horse archers to knights. No gold left in treasury.
Trade our abundant wheat to Khmer for 5 gpt.
More wheat for 3 gpt to Izzy.
50g for our world map to Khmer.
20g fot our world map to Izzy.
Cancel marble for 2gpt with France.
Sheep to France for 3gpt.
Whip courthouse in Akkerman and Gaziantep.
We're unstable!

Turn 5
We're stable again, no worries.
I'm building some infrastructure in our European possessions.
I declare war on Germany...they have very little defense!
Pick off some workers near Lemberg.

Turn 6 uneventful

Turn 7
A Turkish revolt takes place in Pompeii!
We take Berlin at the loss of 1 cannon and 1 knight.
Upped research to 60% to get Printing Press in 1 turn.

Turn 8
Persia is stable, Arabia is still unstable.
Lose 1 knight in a skirmish vs a musket.
PP finishes, researching Constitution.

Turn 9
A distant civ has cirumnavigated the globe!

Turn 10
Netherlands cancels the +1 free gpt.
Meet the Mongols, give 10 gold, they are still cautious...
Trade clam fro +2 gpt to Mongolia.
Ap election, I vote for myself, Zara is the other candidate.
Kill a horse archer outside of Berlin.
Pompeii doesn't flip to us.
Took Lemberg, German capital. Losses: 1 cannon.
Great General born. I did not settle him, so do what you will with him.

To do list
Use the GG, and get the great merchant in Japan!
Besides that, finish off Germany. That's about it.

Edit: oh by the way, all our espionage points are going to England, and we have a spy sitting in London.

 

[blizzrd]

Didn't take any chances with Ninova and captured it with loss of 1 crossbow.

But we didn't want to keep this city. It is completely useless. When it flips there is the option to disband, which was preferred.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

And there's the problem with selling maps too early: people circumnavigate before you do because they don't have to sail to the other side of Asia. Personally I never sell maps until I discover the New World.

Oh well. I guess we'll have to rely on brute force to colonize America.

We did not want Ninua nor Dalmun. It's bad for stability at this time to liberate cities (we need to be at least 20 cities before there's an increase in stability with liberation).

 

[AnotherPacifist]

And why are our vassals researching compass and optics?! People do know how to redirect research of vassals, right?
They should be doing Aesthetics, Drama, Literature and Music for us!

 

[blizzrd]

We already know Aesthetics, Drama and Literature.

 

[CrossRFC]

Sorry guys, I'm not as good as you two...

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Yeah, but music is a prereq for military tradition which they should be researching for us.

BurnEmUp show us what you've got.

 

[BurnEmDown]

Got it. will play later today.

 

[blizzrd]

Sorry guys, I'm not as good as you two...

I think we'll be quite OK in the long run, it's not really any kind of disaster.

One of the key steps towards conquest is to time your growth appropriately. Getting too big an empire too soon can see your stability crash before you can switch to Occupation/Nationalism/Police State.

We should prioritize acquiring just the best city sites until around the time that we have tanks when we can go on a much bigger war push. Acquiring Mecca was more than worth it for the Spinal Minaret and the Islamic shrine.

Ninua at least has the Oracle in it, which is better than the "completely useless" that I described it as earlier. It can also work the Wheat tile that neither Babylon or Artashat can reach within their fat crosses. My apologies for the shortness of my post earlier.

Berlin was a fine city site to capture. But we should have sound reasons for enlarging our empire other than just "becase we can" as we go forwards.

 

[BurnEmDown]

Some comments before I start playing:
I tell Persia to research Music and Arabia to research Banking. GG settled in Bogazkoy since it has a settled GG already and I like having many GG's in one city for something like 20 exp out of the box tanks .
Looks like we have too much knights, I like jannisaries, why not use them?
Will play later tonight as I gtg.
BTW should I take Germany's last city (riga) and vassalize them if they are willing?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

The Oracle is useless since it doesn't give us culture. It's just one more city to support and running bureaucracy it destabilizes us. (I think in retrospect I should have done vassalage or viceroyalty instead with the civic change).

Which brings me to the point of making Istanbul as efficient as it could be while we're in bureaucracy. It should have the maximum number of buildings for research and gold. For example, we should spread more religions to it so it can build monasteries, and if we absolutely don't have to, don't build units in it unless we are done with buildings.

Are we actively preparing for sending settlers to New Orleans, Chicago and Denver? (I don't really care about any other city in the New World, they can all be conquered later on). If we don't get conquerors, we need to build more troops to support them there. If it means declaring war on Spain to go through the Gibraltar, do it.

The only other civic change we should do in the near future in 1 turn should be state property (beeline SC and Communism). I probably wouldn't do representation (due to number of cities), and the benefit from viceroyalty isn't enough to buffer the instability. When we're closer to another golden age, we can do another civic change (like emancipation).

Germany should be vassalized, not destroyed. They can be very useful later on with their UP and their area of control is also quite big (we need to take on Russia later).

 

[BurnEmDown]

Launching a GA after switching civics won't help us, it was changed in the last patch.
Playing now.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Yeah, what I mean is that we switch civics, then buffer the downturn in stability with a GA the next turn.

I still disagree with eliminating no-anarchy GAs--BTS is right in its original conception. The greatest golden ages were associated with civic changes--Roman republic to monarchy, Greek decentralization to Athenian oligarchy, French monarchy to democracy (then back to Napoleonic dictatorship), and even as much as I hate police state and communism in real life, the formation of the USSR meant a great leap-forward for previously backwards Russia.