Bugs 2.1 The Gauntlet Revisited

[grahamiam]

China would go for us if we MPP them and then create the dogpile.

We can't afford Henry to hold the vote.

no chance we could get Byz and Korea ourselves, leaving the chinese food for the Dutch? Korea was cheap @ only 50gpt for the chance to jump on Theodora.

 

[grahamiam]

oh goodie, Varna's on a hill too totally fits this entire game.

 

[gozpel]

Don't we still have peace deals to consider, which could get us the MPP's?

Ah well, I voiced my opinion and if anyone can better my proposal we go for that.

If we believe we can take out the city ourselves, then all is good.

"oh goodie, Varna's on a hill too totally fits this entire game."

Haha, it's funny isn't it, but luckily arties doesn't consider those facts and we need to do something.

Ah well, G-man told me to get some sleep and he's the commander

Good night.

 

[grahamiam]

sorry guys, i need another day. sgotm3 came up tonight and i wanted to get those in first. we had a bit of a slowdown last week and need to get caught up due to the guillotine

 

[microbe]

OK I looked at the save, and this is what I think we should do:

1. Start building artillery, infantry, sipahi and boats.
2. Hurt Byzantines. It has tanks, but it's small, in Republic and shouldn't have too many units.
3. Once we get the foothold and enough discount on tech, we can buy Flight and MT from Byzantines, then with the free tech we may be able to get the money back.
4. In the mean time, we can see if we can eliminate carthage and China. If we can extort Mass Production from Carthage it would be great too. Alternatively we can try steal Flight from Byzantines?

There is a lot to do. Timing is also important, like how many units are enough to take on Byzantines? Is existing force enough? We would know better when we plant a spy.

 

[grahamiam]

Preflight check: Go thru all the cities but I don’t know why I bother, Justus left things is such good order. Ah, find a clown in Mugla that changes to a taxman. That’s about it. We seem to be building transports and getting our production up with factories. All looks good.
That’s funny, there’s a pair of Carthage workers standing next to Yozgat. That all you got? Well, according to the trade advisor, they have tanks as well so they are probably only 1 tech from the AA. That’s great! Cheap-steals-are-us!

IBT: China and Byz sign MA vs us. A couple of Chinese cities riot.

T1: 1455AD MM some cities (Izmut, Mugla, and Istanbul) to shave a turn off a transport build.

IBT: Byz and Korea sign peace

T2: 1460AD More landscaping. As builds come in they are focusing on transports for coasts and infantry/arty for inland cities. We can sign peace with Byz getting flight for 177gpt. Will wait a couple more turns so I can get enough gold for a steal on Carthage.

IBT: Hannibal offers PP for 450g but I decline.

T3: 1465AD Waiting for gold. 1 more turn till a careful steal… Renegotiate the silk deal with Portugal, extracting 38gpt vs 32 (wanted 600g but he wouldn’t take it)
1935g for careful steal

IBT: Intel Agency completed.

T4: 1470AD Steal price on Mass Production doesn’t come down with Intel Agency. Hopefully, the steal chance goes up.
Can sign peace with China getting 48g & WM.
Can sign peace with Byz getting Flight &1g for 176gpt.
Wait on those deals as I think I can buy Flight next turn from Korea when we renegociate peace.
We have enough money for a careful steal on Carthage right now but maybe I can swing a deal with MP for Flight and then steal MT from Carthage or buy from Byz

IBT: Henry demand TM and 100g. I cave. Byz land a tank on our island.

T5: 1475AD Arty knocks 2hp off the tank and a single Sipahi finishes it off.
Renegotiate peace with Korea, getting flight & 1g for 175gpt & WM.
Flight for MP from Carthage is doubtful.
Sign Peace with Byz, getting MP & 4g for 118gpt and WM. I realize we wanted to take Varna but I'm sure we can get them to declare again.
Buy MT from Carthage for Flight, WM and 952g.
We draw Rocketry as our free tech and we have aluminum near Kaifeng (on our Eastern island)
Portugal is up (MA techs only here) Fission, Space, Ecology
Theodora is up Ecology but down Rocketry.
Korea is up Ecology.
Carthage is down Rocketry.

Plant a spy in Byz for 98g and he succeeds However, we can see that the Byz army is really paper only. Operation Varna should succeed.

We lose a lot of war happiness so I’m going to see what I can do about that. Demand Economy from Carthage and he says something bad about my mouth. I then proceed to demand each tech, 1 at a time, to no avail. I demand 50g and he won’t even give that. I then ask him to leave or declare and he agrees
I resign myself to raising the lux tax to 10%, cutting our income down to 47gpt.

T6: 1480AD 1st of many bombers and tanks begin to be built.

IBT: Portugese finish Manhatten Project

T7: 1485AD Merge a couple of workers to reduce unit support costs. Disband an MDI and a conscript Inf in Izmit to take 3T off transport build (due in 1T)

IBT: Carthage and China sign an embargo against us.
Mao comes calling and we tell him off.

T8: 1490AD I’ve merged all but 1 native worker for now, to bring the support costs down.
IBT: We catch a Korean spy; Portugues building Seti

T9: 1495AD I try to renegotiate the spice deal with Portugal but now he doesn’t want them, costing us 35gpt.

IBT: Carthage declares war on the Chinese, causing the embargo to end.
Portugal and Korea Sign an MPP

T10: 1500AD Not much. I fortified all units so the next player can decide what he wants to do with them. We have all the required tech’s to get the UN, now we just need all the required parts. We also have a spy in Byz and they should be easy to take. Good luck

Notes: The builds in Istanbul, Riza, Edrine, Iznik, Bursa are all new and can be changed if desired.
Peace with Portugal can and should be renegotiated. We could either save money or get a tech. Right now, we pay 481gpt to other civs. If we had all that back, it would still take us double-digit turns to research any entry level tech.
Byz have gained the Rocketry tech.

 

[grahamiam]

Roster Update:
Justus II
Grahamiam <=Just Played
Microbe <= UP
Gozpel <= On Deck
Bede

 

[microbe]

Got it playing.

 

[microbe]

preturn: I plant spy in Portugal as I want to do some stealing, it succeeded. Same for Korea.

Military:
Korea: 10 tanks, 36 infantry, 10 destroyers, 4 bombers and 2 TOW. That's not a lot!
Byzantines: 6 tanks, 27 infantry, 4 destroyers and 1 bomber. Pathetic.
Portugal: 15 tanks, 76 MI, 22 destroyers, 10 bombers and 20 TOW. That's some forces.

I renegotiate peace with Portugal, still pay 90gpt and get 1600g in return.

I then try an immediate steal, and we succeed!

Computers would be very good to have, but I pick Fission. Lisbon will build UN in 29 turns, and Istanbul can build it in 16 turns. We'll get it.

OK, I've had quite some luck here. I'll hold Fission not to trade.

Now, we just need to wipe out China and Carthage so we can win the vote. Korea is currently in MPP with Portugal, and we need to fix that later.

I plant spy in Carthage, but fail on China.

Carthage has 9 rifles and 8 infantry. We still have a 3-turn peace.

Oh we have Uranium at Edrine.

Sadly I cannot cancel our transport builds, although we don't need them anymore.

We hire quite a few civil engineers while we are building military? Switch to policemen or taxmen.

It's a long inter-turn, press enter.

IBT We get 5 expansions for our palace! Looks like our people love their new leader.

(1)1505AD: I decide to cancel transport build in Izmit and start market from scratch.

IBT Sivas riots.

(2)1510AD: Nothing.

IBT Korea starts UN.

(3)1515AD: Korea is building UN in P'yongyang, a size-19 city with decent shields. I'll do an investigation later and if it's a threat our spy can do something. We have 13 turns to go.

I sell Rocketry to Carthage for Amphibious War + ironclads + PP + Chivalry + 338g, and declare war.

IBT Carthage lands 5 guerilla!

(4)1520AD:

@Theveste:
Sipahi army kills reg infantry and rifle, and turns yello.
Elite sipahi kills conscript rifle and we get another leader:

It of course forms another army, but will reserve for the tanks.

Then clean up the 5 guerilla but we lose one sipahi.

@Saldae:
vet tank 3/1 retreats from reg rifle!
vet sipahi 4/1 loses to reg rifle.
elite sipahi 3/2 kills rifle.
vet sipahi 4/1 loses to rifle and promotes it.
vet sipahi 0/2 kills rifle and captures Saldae.

I notice that it seems Portugal has its only Uranium at edge of Utica which we can settle, so I switch Cankiri to settler and will rush it next turn.

IBT Portugal starts SS Cockpit.

(5)1525AD: Mostly a healing turn.

Rush settler in Cankiri.

IBT we lose a TOW. Byzantines start UN. Too late buddy!

(6)1530AD: 5 arti, 2 bombers and sipahi army kills TOW and 2 infantry, and we capture Rusicade.

I load two tanks into army and kill infantry/flak and capture Tientsin.

I notice that Portugal now has MA and a Nuke. It's good we don't have to fight it (on its homeland).

IBT Wall Street is completed. I start on Stock Exchange.

(7)1535AD:

Vet sipahi 2/3 kills rifle.
Vet sipahi 0/3 kills NM and we capture Hadrumetum.

Cold Blood 4/3 kills rifle.
vet sipahi 3/1 retreats from rifle.
vet sipahi 3/0 retreats again.
Our last healthy sipahi 1/2 kills rifle and we capture Nora.

Now Carthage is OCC. It has 2 rifles, 1 guerilla and 4 infantry.

(8)1540AD: Surprisingly, there are only 1 reg infantry and 2 rifles in Leptis Minor. Apparently some units are on a transport to land on us.

We first found Van to claim the Uranium. As expected Portugal doesn't have Uranium anymore. But I do see a Uranium next to Rusaddir a Portuguese city, so what's wrong?

Elite sipahi 3/2 kills rifle.
vet tank 0/1 kills infantry.

Korea has two more luxes (probably was selling to Carthage). I renew deal with Korea: iron+spices+silks+8gpt for dyes+gems+furs.

Byzantine is furious with us but since we didn't raze any of its cities, we can easily fix that by trading resources, gifting 100g, or MA/MPP. The annoying thing is Korea still has MPP with Portugal.

We can lower lux to 0 and fire many clowns.

Now time for China!

IBT WLTKD, double palace expansion.

(9)1545AD: We land 3 armies on Chinese island.

I do investigation on P'yongyang: 7 lux, one source of everything, and building UN in 7 turns, same as ours! I think it's OK? We can actually shorten it if we starve a bit. If Korea knew how to use Civil Engineer, we'd lost the race.

Never saw it before:

(10)1500AD:

Kill some musket and spear and capture Anyang and Tatung.
Send an infantry and tank to the east island.
Chop some forests and rush a library.

Un is in 6 turns (we can make it 5 turn if we starve it and keep merging workers every turn), and it's very crucial. We'll have to get vote from Korea and Byzantines.

How? I think we should sign MPP with Byzantines/Korea in a couple of turns, then immediately declare on Portugal. We should not enter its territory, however. Let it attack us. We may lose some cities, no problem (but try not to), but Byzantines and Korea will immediately declare on it and hopefully they'll vote for us! We should also sign MA in addition to MPP to make them love us even more. Make sure we get them to at least polite! (MA, MPP, gift 100g, trade resources will all help and I think they'll be gracious in the end). To ensure Portugal has time to attack us, declare at least 5 turns (EDIT: 3 might be enough) before UN is built, which means next turn. Bring our tank/sipahi armies back home immediately! Our homeland defense is a little too thin.

There are some artillery in Van the Uranium city.

The only problem is that we still have a 10-turn peace treaty with Portugal. If people don't like it, we can do this:

Note there are two Portuguese trebs inside our territory on the eastern island. We can use units to block it and ask it to leave. Before that, demand everything from Portugal to make it furious with us. I think it will declare. If not, we can try stealing. If all fail, and people don't want to break peace deal, we'd have to wait for 20 turns. Portugal has built one SS part.

Portugal has Modern Armors!

By the way anyone can explain why Portugal seems to have no Uranium while it has one? (check the island in the very east which has two Portuguese cities)

Gozpel: good luck, and give us a win!

 

[Locomotive]

lurk
this is the first game i have ever seen and/or played where the portuguese are somewhat of a threat
delurk

 

[microbe]

This is the Korean city during last turn. I guess Korea won't suddenly get a GA right?

 

[Bede]

Nicely handled, microbe and all.

 

[grahamiam]

nicely played microbe and nice setup for gozpel i think if they declare, it won't be more than a turn or 2 till a destroyer or bomber bombards our coast, which, iirc, is enough for the others to declare.

Roster Update:
Justus II
Grahamiam
Microbe <=Just Played
Gozpel <= UP
Bede <= On Deck

 

[microbe]

I agree 5 turns are too many. One turn is too few. I'd feel comfortable with 3 turns.

I finally figure out why Portugal doesn't show Uranium - it must be selling it to Byzantines.

 

[gozpel]

I got it and will play shortly.

 

[gozpel]

Pre-turn - Find a few entertainers, scroll through cities and change specialists to best purposes.

Change working tiles around and set Istanbul on starvation to get UN in 5t.

1555AD - Build some stuff and move workers around.

1560AD - More stuff built. Kill China. 3 turns to UN, will MPP next turn.

1565AD - Sign MPP with Korea and Byz.

Try to do immediate steal from Portugal, we fail but still have the spy.

1570AD - Try another immidiate steal and succeed! Take Computers.

Sell it to Korea for Ecology, 21gpt and 637g.
Byz get's it too for a couple of old techs and 343g and 2gpt.

ROP and spice deals are up for renewal with Portugal, should I renew it?

Cancel both and but can't tell them to get out of our lands.

1575AD - Istanbul starves and doesn't produce the shields needed for UN.

Tell Portugal to remove their troops and...

1580AD - Renew peace with Korea and Byz inter-turn.

We build the UN. Korea and Byz declare on Portugal.

We vote:

Thanks team for an enjoyable game, where I never really thought we would pull it off.

 

[grahamiam]

excellent ending gozpel nice high-wire act everyone! way to pull it our of our ass!

 

[microbe]

Excellent game! And I did have some good turns.

 

[Justus II]

Awesome ending!! Way to go everyone! I've been stuck here without Internet access since Wednesday, and finally the rest of our Battalion showed up today with the laptops, and I get to read The Rest of the Story. I knew we could pull it off. Thanks for inviting me to a good, challenging game that was still a lot of fun.

 

[microbe]

I knew we could pull it off

That might be true, but nobody knew how until at the very end.

Before I played my last turns people had been preparing for taking Lisbon, then I was shocked to find that we could actually build it ourselves.

We did have some very bad luck at the beginning, but luck also favored us at various points in the game. There were two game breakers:

1. ToE
All AIs ignored Scientific Method (with tanks already around), and we managed to build ToE and mostly caught up in tech.

2. UN
1) We managed to steal Fission.
2) Lisbon was a very poor city shields wise.
3) Korea got Fission two turns later and we JUST beat it to UN. If I had acted one turn later we'd have lost the wonder.
4) Portugal had two trebs it captured from us during a previous war and never left our territory, so we could ask it to leave.
5) We managed to eliminate Carthage/China just in time.

IMHO that was the only chances and we seized them.

The game was very exciting. We probably could have done better, but we wouldn't have had a better, more satisfactory ending.

See you in the next game! [actually I might start my cultural expansion game]