thanks, guys!
@guess
Not rebuilding my fleet after it was sunk was a combination of laziness and not-worth-it-ness. The choice you are often presented with is: build a huge navy that can overwhelm the opponent's navy, or give up the ocean entirely. I couldn't exactly do the latter this game, since I had to move troops across the ocean, but I didn't want to attempt to out-navy a deity master-vassal combo, so I basically built enough galleons to get my troops where they needed to go, and built enough frigates to protect my galleons for a few turns and provide distraction before they got totally overwhelmed.
At that point, HRE decided to ignore (for the most part) my continued shuttling from my original landmass, to what was now my peninsula that used to be HC's. So I just let that dynamic stand and didn't bother the huge initial investment of hammers it would have taken to re-establish a naval presence near HRE lands. It might have been better to do it, because at the end of the game I had an awful lot of cannons just waiting to get sent over, and having them on boats would make them move much faster along enemy territory (take city, pick up cannons, move along to next, etc.) Not to mention the fact that I needed to go to the expansion island if I really wanted domination. But, since I had overwhelming land troops anyway I just didn't bother.
So basically, when I'm presented with the question of trying to maintain a navy or not, I err on the side of giving up the ocean entirely. The risk you're running is having your seafood all pillaged and coast blockaded, but the AI usually seems content to have its huge fleets sit in its capital instead. Maybe once it's in "hide in city" mode, the AI doesn't put together that it should definitely not do that with a navy.
@cbucks
Somehow I missed your question from way up above about my bpt. iirc it was about 1300-1400 at 100%, which is really pretty lousy considering how many tiles I was working. I did build oxford actually between the Monte and HRE wars, basically as insurance (and since I had put a lot of hammers in unis before Monte DOWed me), but other than that (and the obligatory academy in cap) I had no science multipliers. Not even a library outside those 6 uni cities I think.
I skimped on infra to the point of not building any forges in my cities (I hope I remembered granaries everywhere at least!), which provide 7.5 hammers per pop whipped on top of raw hammer bonuses, and so probably would have paid off by the end of the game. It just felt like every troop I whipped was so urgent (during Monte war, before HRE war racing rifling and then between HRE wars racing AL) that I think it was better not to build anything else. Keep in mind: even though I lost both the race against rifling and that against AL, I did minimize the time HC and HRE had to build rifles and then infantry. Not so much rifles, but infantry I didn't have to face any non-drafted ones until the second-to-last city, and there is a world of difference between fighting a drafted infantry and a whipped one. The first defender I hit in my battles was actually often an un-airshipped slow-built rifle rather than a drafted airshipped infantry.
@guess
Not rebuilding my fleet after it was sunk was a combination of laziness and not-worth-it-ness. The choice you are often presented with is: build a huge navy that can overwhelm the opponent's navy, or give up the ocean entirely. I couldn't exactly do the latter this game, since I had to move troops across the ocean, but I didn't want to attempt to out-navy a deity master-vassal combo, so I basically built enough galleons to get my troops where they needed to go, and built enough frigates to protect my galleons for a few turns and provide distraction before they got totally overwhelmed.
At that point, HRE decided to ignore (for the most part) my continued shuttling from my original landmass, to what was now my peninsula that used to be HC's. So I just let that dynamic stand and didn't bother the huge initial investment of hammers it would have taken to re-establish a naval presence near HRE lands. It might have been better to do it, because at the end of the game I had an awful lot of cannons just waiting to get sent over, and having them on boats would make them move much faster along enemy territory (take city, pick up cannons, move along to next, etc.) Not to mention the fact that I needed to go to the expansion island if I really wanted domination. But, since I had overwhelming land troops anyway I just didn't bother.
So basically, when I'm presented with the question of trying to maintain a navy or not, I err on the side of giving up the ocean entirely. The risk you're running is having your seafood all pillaged and coast blockaded, but the AI usually seems content to have its huge fleets sit in its capital instead. Maybe once it's in "hide in city" mode, the AI doesn't put together that it should definitely not do that with a navy.
@cbucks
Somehow I missed your question from way up above about my bpt. iirc it was about 1300-1400 at 100%, which is really pretty lousy considering how many tiles I was working. I did build oxford actually between the Monte and HRE wars, basically as insurance (and since I had put a lot of hammers in unis before Monte DOWed me), but other than that (and the obligatory academy in cap) I had no science multipliers. Not even a library outside those 6 uni cities I think.
I skimped on infra to the point of not building any forges in my cities (I hope I remembered granaries everywhere at least!), which provide 7.5 hammers per pop whipped on top of raw hammer bonuses, and so probably would have paid off by the end of the game. It just felt like every troop I whipped was so urgent (during Monte war, before HRE war racing rifling and then between HRE wars racing AL) that I think it was better not to build anything else. Keep in mind: even though I lost both the race against rifling and that against AL, I did minimize the time HC and HRE had to build rifles and then infantry. Not so much rifles, but infantry I didn't have to face any non-drafted ones until the second-to-last city, and there is a world of difference between fighting a drafted infantry and a whipped one. The first defender I hit in my battles was actually often an un-airshipped slow-built rifle rather than a drafted airshipped infantry.
