28 turns slower conquest than my Inca attempt some months ago.
Out of 4 American cities I captued at the start of the game, I think I got 1 building so some bad luck there.
The rest of his cities were not settled correctly and had multiple seafood just out of range.
Rather than sort all that out, I vassaled America and went for Ghandi.
Having 1 tiny and weak vassal made the other 5AI hold out from vassaling longer, and Germany was too strong this game to get as a peace vassal.
My Rome didn't have the economy to keep up with the AI.
That meant less fail gold than I usually get, two runty 8-turn golden ages, and
total economic collapse around Gunpowder after Lib'ing Astronomy around 350AD.
Got a Great Artist and was able to make a spy city to give Asoka (4000
in a city pretty much locks in the -50% city culture bonus), so got all the rest of my techs from him.
Lots of Courthouses, Jails, Security Bureaus, Banks, and Mercantilism for the free spy specialist for my empire. No Observatories!
Lost quite a few units ignoring Gandhi's plea to become a vassal for 1 extra turn so I could get his Confucian Holy City.
With Buddhism I could get 15% spy cost bonus but with Confucianism and holy city later that went up to a solid 40% spy cost bonus.
Carefully telling my vassals what to tech next and trading them 2 techs to get their 1 tech worked very well with my spy efforts.
The tech pace for this map/game was once again blistering.
Liz almost had 1120AD Infantry and Asoka had 1140AD Artillery.
Guess what works good against Redcoats?
Cheap
City Raider III Praetorians after Airships and siege attacks!
Bribed Liz to change a few civics when she was 2 turns from Infantry, and the two turns of her in Anarchy let me grab her capital.
My vassal Egypt settled quite far north and let me start the war deep inside England.
Got Dow'd 4 times with AI bribing AI after I attacked this game.
Twice with Germany while I fought America and once with Egypt while I fought Gandhi.
The most alarming was the surprise DOW from Asoka while I fought Elizabeth.
A huge amount of Rifles while my core cities had squat isn't what I wanted to see while the Legions were 2000 kilometers from home.
A simple beg for gold from my neighbors for 10 turns of peace the same turn I started my wars would have saved a lot of problems.
Thankfully, when the AI gets bribed into war they don't usually have a Stack of Doom ready to rampage and just flail around the first few turns usually.
Warrior on a good tile to mess up pathing and some Airship strikes to injure wandering units saved the day with massive drafting.
Ultimately, I was the only one with Oil on the map (western England), so Bombers, Fighters, Aircraft Carriers, and Destroyers were on the menu.
Germany and India tried to tech towards offshore oil, but didn't make it haha.
Been a while since I did air combat.
SAM Infantry has 40% chance to block an air attack from Airship/Fighter/Bomber on their tile and the 8 surrounding tiles, but once they do they can't block anymore that turn.
Air Units like Fighter on the Intercept Mission can block air attacks over and over and over in a large area as long as their HP holds out.
Artillery are just too fierce.
18
, won't take collateral damage from siege units, +50% vs. siege so it defends directly vs. Cannons very well, and even Infantry only have good and not great odds attacking them.
Need Marines or Tanks or Bombers to mow them down I think.
.
) - I can't remember the last time I ever used those. Luckily Gandhi lacked the techs (or resources?) to retribute my nuclear attacks, so it went swiftly.
