COM2 - n00bile deities

[Whomp]

As Bede said I think we need to be very judicious in our new builds and may even want to disband some things like the MW army to speed a factory.
As far as communism, I think we will have to cash rush courts in any potentially productive city and turn all the smaller ones ones into cash machines.

Where are we techwise vs. everyone?

 

[Nikodemus]

Preturn

Allegheny can't grow past size 12, convert non-productive tiles into 2 taxmen.
Same in Cattaraugus..

The problem is that when it's a non-corrupt city with a bank (or even just a market), you just lose money by turning people into taxmen. As long as no other city can use those tiles and there are no happiness issues at least. Take Allegheny for example: with 3 taxmen as it's in the save, they're producing 58 gpt. After putting all these people out on the fields and seas they total 66 gpt. Sure they're wasting more food now, but what does it matter if no one else could use that food anyway? Civil engineers are of course an entirely different matter.

As for communism, I don't really have that much experience with it either. What I do know is that CA2 tells me we're making 200gpt more under Republic than we would under Communism. Even with the SPHQ the difference would still be some 150gpt. I don't think we would make much more shields either, since most of our high shield cities are already at lower waste than what it would be under communism.

Tomorrow's my last day of work as a volunteer at the athletics world championships, which means I'll have more time to participate again. And I'll play my set of turns tomorrow evening.

 

[pindicator]

1345 AD (9)

Sell spices,ivory and incense to Greece for 46 gpt

It

Greece signs with Inca MA against us and declare war on us.

Looks like they didn't want the stuff after all.

Edit: Looking at a war against Greece, I think our goals should be to take their out-lying islands. The two small ones south of us look like nice and relatively easy acquisitions. Our newly acquired island from the Incans will probably be a target of Greek landings. But one thing I remember from the last war against Greece was that Azteca kept them pretty occupied.

Also, who razed that Korean town? We should try to grab that open spot.

 

[Whomp]

Very interesting on CA II Niko. That really helps. What are your thoughts about steals? I would think combuston to Mass Prod. to motor transport.
Pind--What Korean town got leveled?
Also I did change some food heavy cities pop 12 cities from irrigation to mines and it helped a lot.

 

[pindicator]

@Whomp -- take a look at the screenie Leha put up. The nearby Korean island got a city leveled.

 

[Whomp]

Aha a whale too! Good catch Pind.

 

[Bede]

On the communism thingy:

As long as we can control the War Weariness and our troop support costs, Republic is our better deal. If the baddies start busting our spies, and WW increases and our troop costs start to eat us alive, then Communism is the way to go.

The key here is the number of luxuries available and their cost. If we can make up the 150gpt Nik refers to by not buying luxuries or by being able to reduce entertainment costs with the elimination of war weariness then it is a no brainer.

I notice in the screenshot some temples being built. Kill those jobs and use specialists instead. Those towns are really corrupt, and a couple of cops will bring them under control, as well as increasing output.

Don't use CE's in outlying corrupt towns to build infrastructure faster. It costs way too much and the benefit is not there. If you need a building (cultural border expansion or a barracks) then short rush after one turn's sheild accumulation. Then use cops to make it productive.

 

[Leha]

@Whomp -- take a look at the screenie Leha put up. The nearby Korean island got a city leveled.

Wow, how did I miss it? I remember only incan troops land there.
OK, there are four our galleons nearby, they are heading to the snowy island. There are some settlers, workers and absloete troops in them. Chose one with settler and pike or two and redirect to Korean island.

Everybody: thanks for inputs about specialists , I've learned new things (I have problems with math and calculation )

 

[Nikodemus]

Pre-turn

Trade Steel to Korea for SciMeth, 100g and 10gpt. Then I look through our cities,
man we have a lot of them. Think I lost the sight of what I was doing at some
point, but regardless we're making some 80gpt more now.


Early turns:

Greece and Inca ally against Korea. Incas land on the southern island. Kill the landing.
Greeks land almost on the same spot, but with more force. Kill them too although that
actually cost a unit. Capture Tepetlaoxtoc from Greece. Lots of irrigations around our
core turned into mines to waste less food and produce more shields.

Middle:

I decide to start upgrading our obsolete units, starting from trebs and anything that
can be upgraded to infantry. For some reason it seems like we're fighting our wars
with rocks and sticks when we could use actual weapons. Finally got that agent in Cuzco.
And Incas complete Hoover's.

Late:

I just realized even Aztecs don't have have Combustion yet, but Incas do. It would be nice
to be able to build some destroyers pretty soon. Beat Aztecs to that empty city spot at the small
small island to our west by 1 turn. As soon as our little landing group appears at the small Greek
island of Marathon they suddenly want to negotiate for peace. I don't see that happening.
Merge some of the workers we pay upkeep for. We still have over 60 slaves and not much work for them.
Renew the furs for spices deal with Aztecs, only we have to pay 2 more gpt than before. Carefully steal
Combustion from Greece. Trade it to Aztecs for 1200g and Comb+500g for Communism with Korea. Incas already
have flight too.


To summarize: Most of the turns were spent building factories, coal plants and stock exchanges while
the workers improved the lands. I think we need to start getting more aggressive, we still have some time
to beat somebody before they get tanks. On the other hand bombers are already something to look out for.

The most advanced nations in the world, not counting the useless techs, half guessed:
1. Inca (only MassProd and MotTrans away from the next era)
2. Aztecs (same as above plus Flight)
3. Greece (same as above plus maybe Electronics)
4. Iroquois and Korea (same as above plus Atomic Theory)

Notes for the next player:

- Most of our workers on the home continent are fortified in two large piles. I couldn't figure
out what to do with them but didn't want to merge too much either in case someone else wants
to do something with them.

- There's an empty army in Salamanca.

- The Greeks had a little more troops than I had anticipated at Halicarnassus, so our little
landing force is probably not enough to take that city. They have two hoplites and are quite likely
going to draft an infantry IBT.

- The other landing might be too weak as well. It appears I wasn't thinking clearly towards the end.


Some pictures for the lurkers (like there are any ) :

Most action during my turns took place on some smallish islands in the south:

Our military is weak compared to Incas (we also have some 9 trebs and 8 knights):

 

[pindicator]

Is that a redlined hoplite left to defend Halicarnassus?

It's nice to still be expanding. After we pick up those two small Greek islands, we could probably go for peace with them (after any MAs expire, of course).

Nobody has researched Sanitation yet? We could use some hospitals and Battlefield Medicine will be nice, too. Is there any point in trying to research it ourselves with hopes of selling it at monopoly value? And what about Marines? We probably are going to need all our coastal cities defended very quickly if the AI is that close to the tech.

 

[Whomp]

This is getting good folks! Nice steals and trades Niko!

The way I see it the Incans are weak compared to us with only a 2:1 advantage on infantry and no offensive units. Let's continue to build arty and we can pound on anyone. Should we disband that MW army? Not much military value anymore.

I'm not sure about researching tech. Steals are so much cheaper and the AI has to spend a lot more to get them. I would lean towards continuing to steal.

 

[Bede]

Keep up the good work on the theft and extortion front. Don't forget to use the renegotiate peace technique even when you don't need gpt in the deal. It will sometimes get you a nice discount for cash.

Shift the thieving attempts to the Aztecs if it makes sense and you are feeling brave. By stealing from them and selling to others you hurt the Aztec economy more than if you steal from elsewhere and sell it to them.

 

[Nikodemus]

Is that a redlined hoplite left to defend Halicarnassus?

It's actually two redlined hoplites. I brought a little too few infantries and even lost one to either a hoplite or a defending cavalry.

Nobody has researched Sanitation yet? We could use some hospitals and Battlefield Medicine will be nice, too. And what about Marines?

No, I think they all got Sanitation, I just only included the mandatory techs in the briefing. We could probably easily acquire it from Korea for whatever we steal next.

No one had MassProd yet, so they can't have marines yet, but Incas will be there soon. They already have 4 bombers so they must've had Flight for a little while at least. In my experience though they rarely or never build marines if they have oil to build tanks.

I would suggest putting some consideration into disbanding all of our horse-units. It's unlikely that we'd get access to saltpeter before we have access to tanks and killing anything with MWs or knights doesn't seem too likely. Artillery+Infantry should work better until we have tanks and after that those cavalries are of marginal use at best.

 

[Own]

lurker's comment: I would be helful to ICS the tundra. More free unit support.

 

[gmaharriet]

Some pictures for the lurkers (like there are any ) :

Lurker's comment: I've been following this one. Interesting game! Thank you for the pics.

 

[Nikodemus]

A roster reminder:

Whomp
Leha
Nikodemus -- just played
MjM -- still mia apparently
pindicator -- likely up
Bede -- on deck

 

[pindicator]

that's right, MjM is mia... I'll grab it and play in a bit

Edit: 6 turns finished, will wrap up tonight or tomorrow.

 

[pindicator]

Change a few builds and specialists, but just minor stuff.

Only can squeeze 80g out of Korea for continued peace. In fact, only the Aztecs have a greater power rating than us.

IBT - renew our silks deal with the Aztecs. I'm not nearly brave enough to steal from them yet.

1) 1405AD
We liberate Zitlaltepec and its neighboring oil. I love liberating oil.
We probably should move the town onto the oil, so it can pick up the whale. It's a low priority.

The last of our MWs are disbanded.

Upgrade a few of our galleons to transports.

Kill a conscript infantry in Hali... okay, that was a bit of a gamble. I've got 4 more infantry coming from the Mongolian island.

Create an infantry army in Salamanca.
Our MW army is decommissioned in Mauch Chunk to aid the factory effort to glorious fanfare.

IBT-
Maintain the current deal with Korea. I wasn't able to pull gpt out of extortion on them before and am afraid they don't have as much tradable gpt as they are offering.

2) 1410AD

I steal Flight from Inca.
Trade flight to Korea for Sanitation, Ironclads, 493g and WM. They wouldn't give gpt.
Aztecs wouldn't give Atomic Theory for it before, and they won't give us much anything for it now.
I won't sell it to them for 59g. Maybe they'll give Korea Atomic Theory for it.
Hospitals are ordered in some cities.

IBT-
Inca wants peace. I tell them no way. Or at least, not yet.
Greece lands troops on the tundra island. Another transport is seen heading that direction.

3) 1415AD
Greeks are repelled successfully.
Accidentally upgrade another galleon.

IBT-
Inca drops a landing party on our northern island.
Greece has ships around the tundra island.

4) 1420AD
Inca now knows Mass Tran

There's not much funnier than watching trebs shoot at destoryers. Except when they hit!

We take Helicarnassus from the Greeks.
Expell the Inca from our lands.

IBT-
:rotf:
The Greek ships run away, scared of our trebs.

5) 1425AD
Our spy is caught. But we plant a new one in its place.

IBT-
Wall Street completes. Will keep gold above 1000g every turn now.
Propoganda upsets Niagara Falls

6) 1430AD
Not much...

IBT-
Greece lands a larger party on the tundra island... this one could be trouble.

7) 1435AD
Bomb the infantry down to two with the trebs.
Then the army only hits it once and dies!!!
MDI takes out cav. Can still pull this out.
Knight redlines cav, then dies! Oh crap, now we are in trouble.
Rifleman from Ganogeh redlines and kills cav. Abandoning Ganogeh (after selling harbor).
Still not much left on the island, though...

IBT-
Greek cav redlines killing Aztec cav.

8) 1440AD
2/4 MDI kills Greek cav.
Bede's division lands and shows how its done, killing the last infantry without a scratch.
Inca will give us 5gpt for peace. They aren't giving us much of a problem, so I'll leave that for discussion. I'll probably leave Greece for discussion, too, since the turnset is almost up.

IBT-
Monte asks us to renew the alliance against Inca, but I decline.

9) 1445AD
A settler is in transport to Ganogeh's old ruins.

IBT-
Monte asks us to renew the alliance against Greece. Again, I say no.

10) 1450AD

This is probably a bit of a mess by now. I just haven't been able to get my mind around the whole scope of the empire, if that makes any sense. In any case, we're up and over the 1000gpt mark. There is gold ready for the next person to make a steal. There are also the two wars we are now free to make peace in if we so choose.

I mostly focused on building up infrastructure and upping our gpt. A number of cities are building airports; bombers I think will be more desireable than artillery due to the layout of the map.

 

[Bede]

Bede gots it, will play it tomorrow.

Nice work again gents. But I am beginning to feel like the dog who chased the school bus 'till he caught it. Now what do I do with it?

From the looks of things the Aztecs are the runaway, though how far they are running away it is hard to tell. Long range we have to concern ourselves with Aztec culture and an SS build. There has been enough head banging by Monte that I don't really fear an Aztec UN vote.

So, what is the longer range plan? We have met the first important milestone of survival well into the Industrial Age. What's the next one?

 

[pindicator]

Actually, by what I saw during my turns, Inca was the tech leader. But Aztecs definitely have more of a power base. I think the next long range goal has to be taking them out; if not killing them then at least crippling them enough that we don't have to worry about them running away with a Spaceship. I feel confident enough that we could take on Inca or Greece (definitely Korea) should they try that feat.