Emperor Domination

[Giaur]

However those cats are to be disband anyway. So maybe razing two Hans cities is not a bad idea.

 

[futurehermit]

why are we disbanding cats???

 

[Giaur]

Cause they cost us a lot. Are we running pacifism?

edit: Checked the save. Upkeep is standable. So do not remove cats

 

[lasombra]

ok guys I just played but don't have the time for a write up right now. will do this tonight or tomorrow morning...

took one more of han's cities, made some trades and we'll have rifling and steel within a few turns.

next one prepare for a war for 5 turns and then crush han and alex...

 

[lasombra]

OMG, I just deleted my entire post by accidentally pasting another pic...

 

[lasombra]

I don't have the time right now to do it all over again.

So, here goes the save and the pics I took in the order as I took them.

[EDIT]

Turn 0:
I did not change any production as the idea of peace sounded reasonable. I asked Han for peace
but figured he might also throw in Printing Press . --> one more city

Turn 1:
First I took Thapsus at the expense of 3 suicide cats.

Then I made peace. We did not get a better deal .

Trading for Printing Press with Genghis sounded much better to me. So I give him Education + 70 Gold for it.

Turn 2:
I start to build courthouses whereever possible to help our economy recover.

Turn 3:
Alex is still beeing a *****...

I thought our GA will relieve some cultural pressure...

...but I thought wrong. Sorry.

Turn 4: Nothing

Turn 5: Peace will Alex under the following conditions.

I also use the GE to build the Globe Theatre in Sparta. Is has a reasonable food surplus and doesn't do anything else particularly well except for growing. Also with biology...

Turn 6: Nothing

Turn 7:
Chemistry comes in...

Set research towards Replaceable Parts for Drafting. Start producing grenadiers.

I assign another scientist in Berlin.

Then I ask Genghis for 90 Gold to fund our research which he happily donates. I also give him liberalism and theology for replaceable parts. So now Genghis funds our Rifles .

Turn 8:
We need money...

Turn 9:
Nappy comes asking and and I give in which gets us up to pleased.

Turn 10:
Alex keeps *****in' and I say no f****** way.

In general:
- We'll have another GP (let's pray for a GS, who can lightbulb steel (I hope it works that way)) in 2 turns.
- Another couple of Grens will be due within the next few turns. With some additional whipping it should be enough to redeclare war against Han in about 5 turns.
- Our relations with the other continent are improving and actually will be quite nice pretty soon. So, I would say we hit Nappy and Washington.

[/Edit]

I'm really sorry about that. I'll write some tonight or next morning, but this way you can at least look at the save and pics.

 

[futurehermit]

ok, nice. once we have steel and rifling we should be able to finish off han and alex. hopefully neither will vassal to Nappy in the meantime...

anyone else in favour of getting the globe theatre up and running so we can draft rifles?

 

[lilnev]

Got it. Bad news is I did a tile count. Our continent is about 15 tiles short of domination. I think that means we want to hit Nappy no later than Infantry/Artillery. It's going to be a long slow war. It looks like we've got a large standing army. We might not need to wait for cannons before finishing Hannibal.

Also, I see that Alex has got another city. Is that a small island off the east coast? That makes it a bit more annoying to wipe him out completely.

Yes on Globe-drafting. Which is our best city for it?

peace,
lilnev

 

[lasombra]

I gotta tell you I already build the GT in Sparta.

 

[lasombra]

Hold on guys, I'll do the write up within the next 5 hours. That might answer some questions on what I did and what lilnev could do in his turn set.

 

[futurehermit]

Is the overseas island = Nappy and Washington + 15 tiles? If so, we could try and keep Nappy while we go to war overseas. We could keep him peaceful by bribing him into war with those guys (but hopefully his side of the war is fake...). Risky and probably not the best bet I guess, but just wanted to throw it out there.

I agree that we will want to hit nappy in the industrial age. Infantry/artillery sounds fine to me then we can add tanks after, etc. As long as we hit him with a tech lead (i.e., get to artillery a fair bit before him) I think we'll be ok. I don't see us beating him with numbers based on his power graph???

My memory of sparta was that it didn't have a ton of food to make an ideal GT site? Athens probably would've been better iirc. However, what is done is done of course.

 

[Giaur]

1:3 is enough to beat the enemy on emperor.

btw: what's the story about these 15 tiles? Can someone explain it to me?

 

[lilnev]

Our continent is not quite large enough to satisfy the land requirement for domination. Even if we conquer all of it, we'll need to go overseas for the last ~15 tiles.

Conquering the other continent instead of Nappy/Washington might be an option to consider. I just don't know if we can trust Nappy, and if it would be easier.

peace,
lilnev

 

[Giaur]

We should not trust Nappy.

 

[lasombra]

I just updated the ealier post...

 

[Galileo44]

Ok, as soon as it is possible, we should hit hannibal fast to prevent vassalization. once he is dead, Alex will be easy to take out to relieve the unhappiness of former greece. I agree with futurehermit about teching to artillary and going after Nappy/Wash with hitting Panzers sometime during that war. I assume that the other continent is still backward, and we should easily be able to take 15 tiles from them when the time comes.

 

[futurehermit]

I think we should look to close out a victory with panzers. Attack earlier with artillery/infantry then finish our continent + 15 from other continent with panzers...In the short term we need to mop up hannibal/alex + tech to artillery/infantry.

 

[lilnev]

Turn 0: Trade spare Copper to Washington for Dye+3. Switch Berlin and Cologne to workboats (first, we allowed resources to be pillaged, and second, we haven't replaced the boats?!?), Athens to a harbor (health cap is limiting growth), Argos, Hippo and Thaenae to granaries. Whip the grenadiers in Munich and Thebes, and the courthouse in Leptis. Minor tile adjustments, including letting Argos poach the Cows from Athens. Move the catapults from Hadremetum and two of the cavalry from Leptis closer to the front.

Turn 1: Whip the harbor in Athens, granary in Argos, workboat in Cologne, granary in Hippo. Start harbor in Berlin, barracks in Hadrumetum, granary in Leptis, cavalry in Thebes, Sparta, Hamburg, and Munich. I take this trade:

Saves about 1800 beakers off Rifling, and I really don't see any harm in giving him Econ. In retrospect, bringing him into the war might have been a bad idea, as it opens up capitulation possibilities. Steel will take 13 turns. Revolt to Nationalism. DECLARE WAR!!!! Really our army is quite large, and I debate splitting it into two stacks. Ultimately I decide to send the bulk of the forces east, saving just a handful of cats to join with reinforcements in taking the west.

Turn 2: Han is kind enough to move some units into suicide position:

Turn 3: Bombard Carthage to zero. Six fortified rifles.

Sign Open Borders with Mehmed and Ghengis. I don't see why not.

Turn 4. Time to take Carthage:

After 5 suicide cats and 1 treb (0/6 on retreats after poor dice at damaging the defender), I proceeded to lose 4 favorable cavalry fights in a row. Sigh. It's a good thing we have a surplus of troops, and it falls anyway.

Turn 5: Rest.

Turn 6: Advance.

Turn 7: Deal with some guys in the field, advance.

Turn 8: Advance. I had been planning to wipe out the last two cities on the same turn, to avoid capitulation and minimize WW effects. I realize too late that Hannibal has another city, tiny Sicca. It's too late for me to send a cavalry razing party.

Turn 9: Time to die in the west. There's 4 cavalry and a gren in addition to the highlighted stack.

Total losses: two catapults. OK, I'll stop complaining about the RNG now.
Nappy has cavalry, and I worry that Han will beg his protection. So I ask Nappy if he will pretty-please help us in our struggle, and he agrees. I raze the eastern city (it would have been swamped by French culture):

Leaving only Sicca for Nappy to finish off. Despite being reduced to literally a single tile of land, Han still won't give up a tech for peace.

Turn 10: WW is hurting, so I take a ceasefire. Reposition troops.

General notes: We have a GS sleeping in Athens. He could lightbulb half of Scientific Method. Next great person in 9 turns, ~60% GS. We have Chemistry on Nappy and Ghengis, Econ on Mehmed, Ed and Nationalism on Washington. Nappy has Constitution. Four turns to Steel at deficit spending, but our underlying rate is not so good: 281 beakers/turn at breakeven (50%). Washington is large enough that he could declare his independence if he chooses to.

peace,
lilnev

 

[lilnev]

Going forward: I think we should finish Steel and start stockpiling cannons. Then we really need to fix our research. Either:
(1) Constitution-Democracy and grow onto a bunch of cottages, running Emancipation, planning to switch to US and Free Speech once enough towns are grown.
(2) Sci Method-Biology and switch to Caste System to run scientists. A variant might be Sci Method-Physics-Biology. Trading for Astro would let the GS lightbulb part of Bio.
Personally I'm more comfortable with cottages at this stage of the game, but if the SE contingent of our group (I know you're out there, I keep seeing more and more farms around our cities) wants to play it that way, I'll go along.

The standing army is 8 cavs, 6 grens, 6 rifles, 10 cats/trebs. Enough to drive Alex off the continent, but we can't reach his miserable little island until Astro. Definitely not enough to take on Nappy. But he's pleased, and I think we'll have enough time to acquire some cannons. And we can draft rifles if we suddenly need defence.

peace,
lilnev

 

[Galileo44]

Good job! It seems that the war has paid off, with a 50% increase in score in 3 turnsets! Not that score means anything. I agree, Steel then get at least 10-15 cannons along with a few defensive rifles before any more serious warring. I vote for the Democracy-Cottage economy route. It is late game, and the cottages will mature much faster if we switch to free speech at some point.