Awn of an Ynasty

[Aabraxan]

Chapter 11: Clearing some land​

Looking at the Trade Screen, I see the Persia, my closest competitor, lacks Steam Power. I've already begun the ToE, so I'm at least 4 techs ahead of them, at least on the branches I've pursued. Obviously, PP creates a bottleneck & Xerxes could have Demo & Free Artistry. The only tech out there to buy is Printing Press. There may be something beyond printing press, but it's nothing that I'll need for this game.

1495 AD
The Siege of Constantinople:
I peek at the F7 screen. Constantinople contains The Great Lighthouse and JS Bach's. Those seem worth keeping, don't they?

Bombardment by 19 cannons redlines every defender. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that a redlined spear is no match for a cav army. Go figure.

I do a little leader-fishing at Constantinople, but no luck. Anyhoo, Constantinople is mine.

Spoiler :

Nicomedia is also mine, but I don't treat it as well.

I send my troops southeast to Chalcedon and get another MGL. I've had great luck with them in this game (anybody remember what number that was?). I also succeed in razing Chalcedon. The Byzantines no longer have a foothold on my continent.

I send Sun Tzu back to Beijing and discover that I don't have any small wonders to rush. I make an army and hold it empty for now.

Out of curiosity, I go hit the diplo screen, but Theo won't talk to me. Ah, well. Man, talk about stubborn!

I've got a significant amount of land left to fill on this continent, so I cash-rush ~25 settlers, thoroughly depleting my cash reserves. That means that I have to thin out my military, lest I go in the hole or have to slow down research. The turn that those settlers come in becomes an exercise in speed-settling. Rail, settle, rail, settle.

I scale back my military pretty significantly. By the close of 1500 AD, I'm down to only 10 units over my support limit.

On the IBT, a dromon comes out of the fog and sinks one of my frigates.

In 1505, Theo decides that she's ready to talk to me again. She doesn't have much to offer, but I've no need to keep warring on her. Not right now, anyway. I need to turn my attention to Xerxes.

Spoiler :

I get my military trimmed to 0 over the limit. Interestingly, here's my military advisor's opinion:

Spoiler :

Interesting. I guess we'll just have to see how the advisor's comparison plays out.

Refining comes in on the IBT following 1510 and I set my sights on Atomic Theory. ToE is 9 turns out. I could go ahead and grab The Corporation before it comes it, but I've already got a palace prebuild going in Canton. If I use ToE for Refining and Steel, what do I use the prebuild for? So Atomic Theory & Electronics it is. I set research for AT, switch to Lone scienctist, and shut off science spending.

Constantinople continues to starve. I disband a cannon every turn in it to produce a worker. I'll have it down to a size-1 in no time.

In 1535, there I was, mindin' my own business. . . I mean I wasn't doin' nothing, when all of the sudden, my luxes get cut & this happens:

And here I was, playin' all nice & stuff. . .

Naturally, I pull in ol' Bill.

Spoiler :

And, of course, Hank.

Spoiler :

I check with Theodora, but she wants too much, given that I expect her to have about a 1-dromon fleet. She's an OCC, after all.

By the end of the following turn, the Persians no longer maintain a presence on my continent. Now I'm off to invade theirs.

Wish me luck!

 

[Spoonwood]

Why didn't you get Bill's luxes? Why give him Saltpeter instead of luxes?

 

[CommandoBob]

Why didn't you get Bill's luxes? Why give him Saltpeter instead of luxes?

If Bill makes an early peace and thus breaks the treaty, he (Bill) loses access to the Saltpeter. Making peace before the MA expires becomes expensive.

If Bill's luxes are part of the deal, Bill isn't hurt by breaking his word, but China is because China loses the luxuries.

 

[Aabraxan]

Why didn't you get Bill's luxes?

I looked into the cost of buying Bill's luxes and, as you might imagine, buying luxes is very expensive for me at this point, considering the size of my empire. If I remember correctly, for 2 luxes, he wanted 2 luxes, a resource and Steam Power, or some such deal.

As for the deal that I did make: I expect Bill to make peace before 20 turns runs out. If I make his luxes part of the deal, I lose them when he makes peace. If I were to make them a separate deal, the lux deal will survive his making peace. Also, CB is right. Including a per-turn item on my side of the equation makes breaking the MA more expensive for Bill.

Why give him Saltpeter instead of luxes?

Because he can't build cavalry out of furs.

 

[darski]

Wish me luck!

Absolutely. Wow this is really cooking now.

Nice work on paring your military.

 

[Aabraxan]

Chapter 12: The Persian Conflict​

Oh, and I forgot to mention something before I closed the last chapter. I went ahead and landed troops on Persian soil. I've zoomed out so that you can see where I landed, as well as where my staging area is.

Spoiler :

If you look in the last chapter, in the military screenshot, you'll see that Persia is a Democracy. I've tried to crash AI democracies with WW on several occasions and I've never had much luck. Let's see how long it takes for Xerxes to switch governments, shall we?

1550 AD:
Lahore falls. I keep it for a beachhead, fingers crossed.
1 source of spices unhooked for Persia.

Sadly, Henry goes the way of the dodo.

1555 AD:
Second source of Persian spices unhooked
3 Persian cavs killed by cav army.

At the end of that turn, I get the ToE, as expected.

That nabs Atomic Theory & Electronics for me. Palace prebuild at Canton swapped to The Hoover Dam, due in 15.

I was stockpiling cash while building the ToE, but now that ToE is finished, I crank up research again. After switching all my tax collectors to beaker-makers, I can get The Corp in 4 at 50%, +59 gpt.

The Persians send a stack of 5-6 Immortals at Lahore. Just like MDI, Immortals die like spears. Put them on defense & they're just not a match for cavalry. Now, I'll grant you that the counterattack is painful, but that's a different problem.

I send the Third Sword Army north, to Ghulaman. Look at the minimap & how far Ghulaman is from the rest of the Persian empire. I suspect that there might be black gold in them thar hills, so I burn the city down, load up a settler and send it north.

Spoiler :

In 1565, Thucydides completes his work: The Largest Nations of the World

I have 114 cities. Xerxes has 33 known cities.

In 1575, I send forces to Calcutta and see something I've never seen before. How is it that a caravel is guarding Calcutta?

Spoiler :

I attack and discover that a pesky cavalry was hiding underneath. Calcutta and Guimares both fell that year.

As of 1580, I've taken out 3 Persian cities. My armies were damaged, but that was to be expected now that I'm facing Rifles. It doesn't appear that the Dutch have taken any Persian cities, but they haven't lost any ground, either.

And, of course, here's the latest screenshot of the empire.

Spoiler :

 

[TheOverseer714]

The Cavalry was loaded in the Caravel, so it wasn't showing as that towns defender. The AI often loads their troops for a counterattack even if the town has no troops defending. True brilliance....

 

[Aabraxan]

That would 'splain it. Thanks, Overseer.

 

[Aabraxan]

Chapter 13: The Persian Conflict, Part II
Leader-Palooza​

I realized after shutting the game down last time that those of you following this thread don't really need any more pictures of my core. You've seen about a dozen of those. What you really need to see at this point is the Persian Front, so here it is:

Spoiler :

In 1580 Persia and the Dutch sign a peace treaty. Hmmmm, does that mean I can kick the Dutch off my continent now? In that same year, the Persians request peace. I would have posted a screenshot, but the bottom line is that they won't offer anything but the PT and one tiny, corrupt hamlet. Not yet, thank you.

Taking a look at the active deals that I had going with the Dutch, hmmm, there are none, except a PT. I no longer have to ship saltpeter, because he made peace with Xerxes. Time to kick him off my continent. In 1585, I DOW William & take Haarlem. I am finally the sole occupant of my continent.

By 1590, my continent is railed. I am already beginning to join native workers back to my cities, as I have 97 slaves. I also being the process of railing a few hills and mountains in the farmlands, because I'll want them railed before I put down airfields. I'm still 2 turns from RP, so it'll be a while before Flight comes, but I'd rather be ready sooner than later. And thanks to the circular rails to which darski was kind enough to direct me, my continent looks cooler than it did before. Thank you, darski.

I should have done this ages ago, but I finally get around to really MMing all of my specialist farms.

The Persians attack Lahore in 1590 and reduce it to one wounded defender, but are unable to take it. The RNG has smiled upon me. I promptly move my attackers back into the town to defend my beachhead. I guess I'll just have to use my two lil-ol' cav armies until I get the Persians whittled down. I also go ahead and cash-rush an army at Beijing.

I begin to leader-fish a little more on the Persians who attacked Lahore and, lo and behold:

I build another army (which I know must surprise y'all to no end), and send my already-filled armies into Persian territory. They're going to spend a little time killing strays, capturing workers and pillaging resources. By the end of 1595, I've pillaged one source of Persian coal and am sitting on a source of their iron. I'll pillage it on the next turn.

Replaceable Parts comes in, and I realize just how much easier this game would be if I could only build a few infantry. That would violate my variant, though. Currently, the best defender I've got is cavs. After looking at my rule, though, I debate the issue of Guerillas:

I may never build any defensive units, unless its attack value currently exceeds all other units available to me. A "defensive unit" is defined, for purposes of this game, as any land combat unit whose defensive value exceeds its offensive value. The only exception to this rule is when a defensive unit is also the unit with the highest attack value. Once a unit with an equal or higher attack value is available, I must immediately quit building the unit whose defense exceeds its offense and begin disbanding them. I am not required to disband all of them at once, and I am allowed to move them to my own cities to reclaim their shields. Artillery, aircraft, and watercraft are expressly excluded from the definition of a "defensive" unit.

A guerilla's defensive & offensive values are the same (6), so I technically can build them. At the moment, I'm going to hold off, for a couple of reasons: (a) I'd be using them in an almost purely defensive role, which doesn't seem right; and (2) they upgrade to a defensive unit (TOW), so I'd never be able to upgrade them. I'll have to think about this, because the 6 defense would sure be a step up over the 3 of cavs.

I continue to leader-fish at Lahore, knowing that I don't have enough attackers on-scene to take down the Persian Rifles just yet. Lo and behold, No. 10 comes along.

Aaaand, General Tso shows up:

K'uang-Yin . . COME ON DOWN!

In 1610, in what can only be described as a fit of desperation, Xerxes orders his men to immolate themselves by attacking Lahore directly. Not his best plan. He succeeds in losing ~8-10 units, while killing 0 of mine.

I've lost interest in pursuing war with the Dutch any longer. They're neither a threat nor a helpful ally, but I don't need to kill them now. I make peace in exchange for their maps.

I've got enough towns ready to riot that I have to turn lux spending up to 30%. Not a good sign, but not unacceptable, either.

Refining comes in & I have 4 sources of oil already hooked up. Yay for me.

I've begun to notice that, in spite of conventional wisdom, aqueducts in my science farms may actually make sense in this game. I've got tons and tons of railed grassland, which means that I've got lots of farms coming in at 14 fpt, supporting 6 citizens with 2 fpt waste. An aque costs 100 shields and 1 gpt, but it would change the support from 1 to 3 in that town, which (if my math is right) should add 4 gpt (moving 1 unit from the unsupported column to the supported one), +3 bpt for every town that makes the jump from town to city. I don't normally put aques in my farms, but it seems like a good idea this time around.

Anyway, I go through and swtich lots of settler builds to aques. I've already got ~25 settlers and no safe place to plant them, so now's the time to do this. We'll see if it works out.

I didn't take any more towns during this set, so the Persian front looks just like it did when I started. I did, however, get some coal, some horses and some other resources, ahem, unhooked for the Persians. I'm not far from being able to assemble a force and getting back to the business of taking towns, but it just didn't happen this set.

Thanks for following along.

 

[darski]

This is just an amazing game.

 

[eldar]

lurker's comment: Good game, good game! I'm quite amazed by how many leaders you got that early on! I wish I'd been nearly half as lucky in my current game. I swept an entire continent with the Iroquois and got no MGLs . And I only started one of the three wars Meanwhile the Inca are making merry across the (very wide, surprised my suicide boat made it!) water, and I've no safe way to get to them for a while. My conquest involved building only one defensive unit - a rushed Pike for emergency defence - in the process. That's my general style prior to Muskets, anyway - where this variant would start to really hurt me is from Guns, more likely Rep Parts, onwards.

 

[Aabraxan]

Thank you both. I've had better MGL luck in this game than in any other game that I can recall, no doubt. The last turnset only spanned from ~1580-1620 and generated 4 MGLs. I don't want to jinx myself, but if I'm counting right, I've had 13 MGLs and an SGL, so far. At this point, I don't have enough vet cavs to fill the armies I've got. I've had to rename a couple of armies, "Don't Fill Me Yet," so that I don't get mixed up while loading armies at Lahore.

eldar, you've hit the nail on the head as far as when this variant hurts: the Industrial Age. During the first two ages, there are offensive units that can easily compensate for the lack of defensive units. No big loss if you can't build spears or pikes. I almost never research Nationalism, so that wasn't a big deal, either, though I can see how it could be. I usually only build Rifles if I lack rubber. But Infantry are a very big step up from prior units. I usually build at least one Infantry army under which to hide arty and cavs.

 

[TheOverseer714]

lurker's comment: I'm surprised there are no specialist farms on rivers, In my games, up to 1/4 of my specialist farms are "supersized" from being on rivers or being captured enemy cities that had aqueducts. Building a few aqueducts for them isn't a bad idea, but I'll bet a few are already on rivers and can be allowed to grow. In the future, you might emphasize settling on rivers to generate more super science farms. Another suggestion is designating your farms by adding punctuation to their names, which moves them to the top of the list. Here is a picture of a COTM game specialist farm list:

Spoiler :

They are far easier to Micromanage when they are organized. Hope any of this helps you.

 

[Aabraxan]

Actually, Overseer, I've seen how you name your specialist farms before and it's a good idea. I keep meaning to do the same thing, but just haven't gotten around to it.

As for this game, there are specialist farms on rivers, because I do emphasize that. The other thing that I emphasize is putting them on hills to get them up off the grasslands and turn a 1-food hill into a 2-food city center. This game just really has a lot of grassland available for farming, though. Almost everything formerly controlled by Theo is grass. The 'ducts may turn out to be a bad idea, but I'm going to give it a shot, if for not other reason than to see how well it works.

 

[TheOverseer714]

lurker's comment: I'll be watching to see how it works, I'll bet it works well, the 1 gpt upkeep is far outweighed by the ability to ease back on the tech slider. Something that might help speed them along is "shield dumping", building units in low corruption areas and disbanding in high corruption areas. I'm sure you do that already, but there are many watching this game that might appreciate such tips, however redundant they might be.

 

[Aabraxan]

I took a look at my save tonight. I was going to go through and rename my farms, but the 4 & 3/4-year-old ninja that lives at my house insisted that she be allowed to play her own game of "Conquerin' da Planet." How could I possibly resist?

I'm only 12 units over the support limit, so I don't really think I have enough units to do much shield dumping, but that may change once I get tanks. At that point, I can begin scrapping vCavs.

One other thought: Beijing has a library, Cope's and Newton's and lots of other cities have at least a library & a few have universities. If I drop the science slider to make use of scientists, I sort of defeat the purpose of the 2 wonders at Beijing. I counted the coins at Beijing, and it's producing 36 raw commerce. I don't have any beakers invested in Steel yet, so this is the perfect time to run some tests as to which is better in this situation: (a) slap up a university, crank up the science slider and switch (some) specialists to taxmen; or (b) make all specialists scientists and drop science as far as it will go. I'm aware of the 2-coins vs. 3-beakers aspect, but I'll be curious as to what happens to that equation with those 2 science wonders + the other multipliers in place.

 

[Aabraxan]

Ok. I went through and renamed my specialist farms. This is the first time I've done this, so we'll see if it helps. For farms that are still growing, I used "^^CityName." For farms that are zeroed out or as close as they'll ever get, I used "**CityName." The F1 screen then puts the **Cities and the ^^Cities before the rest of my empire, and I'm not sure I like that. In later games, I may switch to zzCityName or something so that my farms go at the bottom of the list.

I haven't had time to run any tests on whether it's more efficient to rely on: (a) a high slider and lots of tax collectors; or (b) a low science slider with lots of scientists, but I've decided to upload the save in case anyone wants to tinker with the farms or just take a look.

Let me know what you think.

 

[eldar]

Given that a scientist gives you three beakers and a tax collector gives two gold, using scientists is more efficient. Remember that specialist output doesn't go through multipliers, and assuming that you have both (lib+uni) and (market+bank) in your core cities, it's better to get as many beakers as you can from scientists and keep the sci slider low. Actually if you have (market+bank+stock exchange) in core cities, AND Wall Street, you really do want the sci slider to be lower as you'll get more tax income (+150%) from core cities than you would science output (+100%).

 

[Aabraxan]

Oh, I understand all of that, but I'm still going to tinker with it. I suspect that I'll just learn that the conventional wisdom about science farms is correct. It's just that, given how my core, & especially Beijing, is outfitted, I wonder if the equation changes. My core is fully outfitted with libraries and markets and has a few universities. Very few, if any, banks have been built, which may narrow the applicability of my results, now that I think about it.

The multipliers in my core rely on raising the science slider to get the commerce that's converted to beakers. Science farms allow me to keep the science slider low. So, in theory, those two ideas work at cross-purposes, if you understand what I mean. When I tinkered with things last night, Beijing was producing 49 bpt at 40% science. It should produce ~100 bpt at 70% (IIRC). IIRC, I can swap the army build to a university and get the uni in 1 with no shield loss. I think I'll have to totally shut down research for 1 turn for this test, but that's OK; that won't cost me this game. If I do that, Beijing should produce ~120 bpt. So that's a ~70 bpt increase. That's 23 specialists that can be converted from scientists to tax collectors, from Beijing alone. If I raise the slider, more commerce goes through libraries in about 15 cities.

 

[Aabraxan]

Chapter 14: Science & Sliders & Specialists, Oh my!​

To satisfy my own curiosities about science, sliders & specialists, I'm going to have to shut research off totally for 1 turn before experimenting. I can switch Beijing to a university (from an army) & get the uni in 1, with no shield loss. Then I set science to 0% & switched all scientsists to something else. In towns building aques, I hired CEs. Everywhere else, I hired tax collectors. Then I realize that I forgot to rename all those farms up in the Entremont area. So I rename those, while I'm at it.

After all of that is done, here's what I've got for my F1 & CA2 tecnology screens. Zero beakers invested in Steel, zero coming in this turn.

Spoiler :

Before I made the changes, I had Steel due in 4, so that's going to be my standard for this test. Both methods have to produce Steel in 4. As you can see above, Steel comes in at 3733 beakers, so I have to generate 934 bpt to hit that. (OK. Technically, 933.25, but I'm assuming that the game rounds beakers down.)

Oh, and I've decided that I can build Guerillas. Their attack value is equal to their defense value. Besides, I'm currently using sword armies to protect arty, but that doesn't make them "defensive units."

Anyway, I hit enter and away we go. We Love the Chairman Days erupt all over the place. A couple of aques finish. Militarily, I deicde it's time to gather my forces for another push into Persian territory.

But first, the experiment. To give you an idea of what my core cities have, I begin at Beijing:

Beijing:
Library
University
Market
Cope's
Newton's

Canton:
Library
Market
(Don't fret. Canton should & will get a uni.)

Hangchow:
Library
Court
Market

Shanghai:
Library
Uni
Market

Chinan:
Library
Market
Court
Uni

Xinjan:
Library
Market
Court
Uni

Tsingtao:
Lib
Market
Uni
Court

Macao:
Library
Uni
Market

Ningpo:
Library
Court
(Market in 2)

Xinjian:
Forbidden Palace
Library
Market
Uni
Courthouse

Shantung:
Library
Market
Uni
Court

Nanking:
Lib
Market
uni

Tatung:
Library
Market
Uni

New Xinjian:
Lib
Market
Court
Uni

New Canton:
Lib
Market
Court

New Hangchow:
Lib
Market

New Ningpo:
Lib
Market
Court

New Shantung:
Lib
Court

The last few cities are what I'd call semi-core & I'm not about to go through each and every city and detail what it's got. If you're that interested, you're free to download the save. Leaving science at 0%, I switch all tax collectors to scientists. I also switch CEs to scientists, leaving only 1 CE in each town that's building an aque. Obviously, this costs me a few scientists, but it seems reasonable for this game. At 0% science, 30% lux, I can grab Steel in 7 at +402 gpt. I then turn up the science just far enough to grab Steel in 4 and begin switching scientists back to tax collectors.

Spoiler :

At 40%, Beijing produces 56 bpt. Interestingly, CA2 shows me as producing 1008 bpt, but if I switch even one tax collector to a scientist, I lose a turn of research. Now, let's look at it the other way. I move my science slider to 70%, then begin switching scientists to tax collectors.

Beijing is an even 100 bpt. If I had more luxes and could run 100% science, it would produce 144 bpt. (Even though I know I can't leave lux spending at 0% without massive riots, I shut it off just to see what Beijing could theoretically produce.) Anway, here's the F1 for running high science with more tax collectors:

Spoiler :

As you can see, even with 2 Great (science) wonders, a library and a university in the captial, running a low slider and lots of scientists puts a little more gold in your pocket. On the one hand, my first reaction was that, with only ~35 gpt difference, the question was open as to whether that's always the right solution. I could imagine that you could run across situations where high-slider, more tax collectors might actually be the right way to go. On the other hand, my core has zero banks. If I had more banks, there would have been a greater difference between the two tests.

Anway, thank you for putting up with my experiment and back to the game . . .

To be continued in Chapter 15