ok, the plan is simple, attack the greeks. but we'll need to bait them into attacking us outside their territory, we have a RoP with the Carthagians so that'll help us. we can put units there, but we'll need to ensure they attack us. We have rifles, and they have cavalry, this'll be a textbook late Middle-Ages/ early Industrial Age war. We're still a bit away from rifles and I think it'd be best if we got that ASAP more for the artillery than anything else, we will need to transport units in drips and drabs due to the amount of ships we have so our main punch will be with the units we have on the battlefield in the opening turns.
turn 2 (1435AD)
the cities which are producting units on the homeland are changed to cavalry and cannons. this is due mainly to the fact our saltpetre deal runs out in 3 turns where as we can produce rifles anytime.
the following few turns will be mainly to shuttle troops back and forward. I'll need to be careful not to leave either the FF or indeed our home land relatively open to attack by stripping it of troops. I'm tempted to take an Ed Warrior along with the fleet to act as bait. from experience I've seen that the AI are more willing to attack an "easy" target rather than say a rifleman, and besides, i'd rather not sacrifice units which may proove useful in the comming fight.
turn 3 (1440AD)
No AI movement at all during the intern turns.
Drop off 6 Cavalry and 2 cannons next to Leptis Magna, this is the closest point to FF, they will use the RoP with Carthage to move the rest of the way, freeing up our Galleon's to move more troops across.
Put a policeman in FF to avoid a riot, it even seems to help, knocking 3 turns off a cannon.
We're 600 odd gold short of a safe steal from the Hittites. unfortunately it seems no one has anything to trade us with should we steal something valuable. my choice is obviously eletricity from which we can go for RP.
turns 4 (1445AD)
Carthagians move units into the city north of FF. Produce various units on the homeland. shuttling units.
turn 5 (1450AD)
our saltpetre deal ends. I could renew it for around 450gold (or nationalism, which I ain't gonna do)
there are now 3 rifles, 3 cavalry, 1 ed warrior and 4 cannons in FF. I ain't gonna take anymore units out of that, if needbe we can divert units from the homeland there rather than to Greece.
Turn 6 (1455AD)
It's a shame we have long standing deals with Carthage, they only have muskets, it would be oh so easy to take them out.
Manage to steal Eletricity from the Hittites. Obviously set to RP.
Also note now that for some reason our GA has ended. Strange..... I didn't get a popup.
Turn 7 (1460AD)
ok now I get a popup. How does that work?
FF riots, sorry guys, didn't see it.
From looking at what we've got, it seems we're going to attack with 6 cannons, 6 Rifles, 1 Ed warrior (bait) and 15 Cavalry........ I'm not happy with this.They Greeks are obviously going to have more and I do not see how I can possibly hold one city with only 6 rifles and 6 cannons, and that doesn't includes possible losses at the hands of the Greek armed forces actually getting to the cities in the first place. I'm shuttling units to the "main" land as fast as I can but I can't do it quick enough. and as soon as we declare war on the Greeks we're going to have to contend with whatever Navy they have (although i've yet to see any indication of said navy, they have to have some)
oddly enough we have more cities than Greece (10 to their 8)
lol, notice a Hittite city has an airport.... hey that's a good site.
that wheat site puts us directly 1 square from 2 large Greek cities. I had always planned to attack Sparta due to it's furs deposits and it's general proximity to coal. but I don't know if I'd dare try to stretch my forces to take Knossos. It woudl mean signing a RoP with the Hittites though.... which might make them a bit less likely to try to kick lumps out of us.
ok, think out a battle plan, move the troops into Hittite controlled territory and sit there, sacrifice the ed warrior to provoke the Indians into joining us (how about the Carthagians as well?) then move as 1 to Sparta and take the city, then sit there to wait for reinforcements. After that we can have a discussion about where to go next, I'm for Thermopylae, mainly for it's port and also to ensure we hold the coal.
Risk a confrontation by sending in a Cavalry to spot the area around Sparta. they're quite advanced in improvements, pretty much all rail roaded.
Turns 8 (1465AD)
Greeks don't get mad and just ask us to remove our units, rather than automatically telling them to leave. They do so.
I could theoretically get the Corporation off the Greeks for the stolen eletricity however than would put them on a path to RP which we'd obviously like to avoid
Turn 9 (1470AD)
Embargo between the Greeks and hittites end, nice of them.
Turn 10 (1475AD)
End of ten turns, I've stopped here mainly for discussion on any problems with my turns and the points I've made.
At present the Greek strike force consists of 13 Cavalry, 2 cannons and 5 rifle with more on the way. the main problem is just sheer distance. The lack of a Carthagian rail network ain't helping.