Empress Cathy: Help Me Set My Goals!

[Gwaja]

Okay, let's see how well the war goes with Sal. The objective is to try to capitulate him as soon as possible, draw Alex into the war with a bribe, and then draw my attention toward Liz before she gets redcoats.

First, the Great Merchant arrives in York once again. This city has been very good to me giving me lots of gold. This time I will be getting 1700 gold! ^_^

Spoiler :

Next turn, the result of the Apostolic Palace election for resident was in:

Spoiler :

Just as I expected, I won it handily. As expected, both Alex and Genghis voted for me, so it was really not even a contest. Now let's play get some proposals on the table please!

Meanwhile, the war between Genghis and Cyrus came to an end, again another stalemate with neither side gaining much other than a Great General or two for each side.

Spoiler :

Now I will have to be careful of Genghis once again, to make sure that he doesn't backstab me. As soon as I see him plotting war, I will prepare myself. By the way, speaking of plotting war, Alex is back into war plotting mode. Who could he be targeting this time? Gah! I can't bribe him then... hopefully he won't be targeting me or Liz. If he goes for Liz, it's gonna be a headache.

Meanwhile, I noticed Sal's large stack right outside Dur Kurigalzu:

Spoiler :

The bastard managed to get to Military Tradition and get himself cuirassiers. How he amassed all those cuirassiers is beyond me in such a short time frame. Sometimes I wish the AI don't cheat or gain ridiculous bonuses when it comes to unit upgrades. It just seems ridiculous.

Well... this is as good of a time as any to attack this stack, especially given the fact that my cossacks are great against other mounted units. Also his catapults in this stack will be shred to pieces with my flank attacks.

And the ensuing attack resulted in this:

Spoiler :

Well, that didn't go too well for Sal, did it? Cossacks are simply amazing units. They come at a great time, have great bonuses, and well... I consider them one of the best unique units in this game. And this is after the nerf they received since the vanilla days. Remember how ridiculously overpowered they used to be? Well, they are still great.

Genghis come to me, offering a tech trade:

Spoiler :

I am sure he wants Guilds badly. But I decided not to give it to him. I could certainly use Optics for Astronomy, which leads me to Physics. But it is not really high priority for me right now.

And on the same turn, the event that I really did not want to see happened:

Spoiler :

This complicates matters. I should have bribed him sooner, but then I realized that as soon as he was done warring with Sal, he immediately went into war mode again, so even if I wanted to bribe him, I couldn't do so. Oh well... I guess I will have to fight Sal on my own and hope that Liz holds on and not capitulate to Alex. I could only hope. If things start to go out of control, I will have to bribe Alex to stop fighting Liz... or better yet, if I can get the Apostolic Palace resolution to stop the fighting, that would be even better! ^_^

Next turn, I was baffled to find that Liz, even in time of war, was still continuing to horde wonders:

Spoiler :

I guess this is what differentiates AI from human players. And not only that, this wonder is gonna be pretty useless very soon, so why bother? I guess she's going for Culture Victory? HA! She is so far away from it and not even that much better than I am. So what's the point again?

At any rate, I captured 1st of Sal's cities:

Spoiler :

Meanwhile, Liz came calling to seek help in her war against Alex:

Spoiler :

Sorry, Liz. If I want to help you in any way, I will try to bribe Alex out of the war with you, but I am not going to declare war on my friend... well my temporary friend for now that is.

Also on this turn, I finally got the tech I was gunning for:

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And this effectively rewarded me for my efforts:

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Interesting option I have with this guy. On one hand, I could settle him in the capital for the espionage points. Building the Scotland Yard is kinda useless at this point. Or I could save him and try to use him for another Golden Age? Nah... I went ahead and settled him in Moscow.

Genghis comes calling with a demand:

Spoiler :

I refused. Not that I care much about Cyrus really but he is giving me some useful resources. I usually don't like to accept these “Stop Trading” demands from AI anyway. Speaking of which... why does the AI always make these demands while the human player, almost all the time, has to bribe the AI? I don't think I have ever been successful at making the AI stop trading or declaring war at someone for free.

Anyways, the war with Sal continues with the capture of his capital:

Spoiler :

And this got me yet another Great General. Gotta love Imperialistic trait! ^_^ And I will settle him in St. Pete once more.

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And now a civics change that I've been planning for a long time:

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I think this is like my 1st civics change outside a Golden Age for a very very long time. But this is well worth going through 1 turn of anarchy! ^_^

And just another day at the office with another of Sal's cities falling in my hands:

Spoiler :

Medina is pretty valuable since this city houses the Statue of Zeus! Awesome!

And with that, Sal is ready to capitulate under these terms:

Spoiler :

He is still quite big though. Under these conditions, he has 59% of my land area and 47% of my population. Too close for comfort? He's still got 2 southern cities that should be relatively easy to capture. I do want his northern cities intact though so that I can use him in a war against Alex.

Should I cap him now or capture one or more of his cities?

Well, this is the end of the update for the night. I hope to play some more and post more update tomorrow.

STATE OF THE WORLD

Diplo: I am in pretty good position diplomatically. I do need to take a bit of precaution though because Genghis is plotting war once again. Cyrus is not. I don't yet see any large stacks in Genghis' border cities but I should take some precaution don't you think? Perhaps my refusal in stopping all deals with Cyrus got him angry with me? Or is it so obvious that he will be gunning for Cyrus? After all, Cyrus is his worst enemy with so many wars between the two of them that I have lost count.

The war between Alex and Liz are still ongoing, with no cities swapping hands just yet. I am assuming that Liz is fighting a defensive war, but I am not sure how long she would be able to hold on.

Spoiler :

Resources: The marble is now absolutely useless, so no need to trade for it, but Cyrus has that sugar I could use. Of course, trading with him again results in further diplo penalty from Genghis, doesn't it?

Spoiler :

Techs: Both Liz and Sal are getting close to Rifling. I certainly do not want to fight redcoats, so this give me the incentive to cap Sal now and go after Liz ASAP. I can take Optics from Sal as condition for capitulating him, so no need to trade for that. I can then have direct his research toward Constitution. The other 3 guys: Alex, Cyrus, and especially Genghis are falling behind in tech.

Spoiler :

Map of the World: Damascus and Kufah are the 2 southern cities of Sal that I am thinking about capturing before capitulating him... just to be on the safe side since capping him at this state is a bit uncomfortable due to his still rather large population and land.

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Biology will be researched in 3 turns, and then afterwards, I will probably have to lower the slider to 40%, as I probably will not be able to deficit research beyond that point. After Biology, I am planning on Optics → Astronomy → Physics → Electricity route.

As always, criticisms, feedback, comments, and questions are welcome and appreciated! ^_^

 

[Gwaja]

You will need Steel fairly soon. Airships are nice, but you will need to be able to bring down the city defenses and inflict acceptable collateral damage to avoid suffering unacceptable losses when attacking Sal's (and Liz's) cities. You can use spies to bring down the defenses though. Spies + seige would be ideal. As you probably suspect by now, permanent war will be the most effective strategy to win, thus minimizing your losses should be paramount. Remember, once you get a vassal - direct their research to help compensate for your research slowing a bit due to constant unit spam. Looking good so far.

I have been doing well with my cossack army against Sal so far. He is already ready to capitulate though I would feel more comfortable capping him after I take at least 1 or 2 more of his southern cities. As for Liz, she is closing in on Rifling, but if I hurry, I think I can get her before she fields rifles. Alex is keeping her busy in most likely a defensive war for her survival, so I think that will slow down her research quite a bit.

As I have mentioned, I have my eyes set on Optics (which I will get from Sal for capitulating to me) --> Astronomy --> Physics --> Electricity route.

Liz is the only one that I am concerned with in terms of techs, as others are falling behind and I don't see them getting to Rifling in reasonable amount of time. I think I can capitulate/eliminate Liz and Alex before possibly having to worry about using cannons against Genghis.

 

[Gwaja]

Another option that struck my mind is to cap Sal now and attack Alex immediately while his main stack is busy attacking Liz.

 

[huerfanista]

You will need Steel fairly soon. Airships are nice, but you will need to be able to bring down the city defenses and inflict acceptable collateral damage to avoid suffering unacceptable losses when attacking Sal's (and Liz's) cities. You can use spies to bring down the defenses though. Spies + seige would be ideal. As you probably suspect by now, permanent war will be the most effective strategy to win, thus minimizing your losses should be paramount. Remember, once you get a vassal - direct their research to help compensate for your research slowing a bit due to constant unit spam. Looking good so far.

I never use seige with cavalry - it takes away their main advantage, which is speed. The faster you take his cities, the fewer units he can produce to defend. Cuirassiers get owned by cavalry, but cossacks? Let's hope he builds a ton of them.

EDIT: Well, I see you've been busy! Baghdad and Damascus should be enough to relieve the cultural pressure on Medina and Mecca. Don't worry about his land percentage relative to yours - that will drop fast with each AI city you take.

I think it was foolish to refuse Genghis request to stop trading with Cyrus. You really don't want to risk a backstab from him until you've taken out Liz and Alex (in that order) first. It's a small price to pay and gets you a peace treaty to boot.

As long as you hit Liz before she has less than 5-6 turns left on rifling, you should be fine. Her tech rate will drop like a stone once you start taking cities. She's far more dangerous than Alex if she gets redcoats. Why not bribe Alex off of her? Just remember that it will mean another 10 turns before you can attack him, so I'd try to do it soon if possible.

You can always switch to nationalism if Genghis backstabs you to get a bunch of rifles out quick, but I'd consider a castle in Yekaterinberg and Rostov since he probably won't have many GP units (you won't be able to build them unless you already have walls there). Together with the rifles that you're building now, that should stop him in his tracks if he declares.

Fun game, huh?

 

[Jester Fool]

I never use seige with cavalry - it takes away their main advantage, which is speed.

Really? I don't use seige for the initial rush, BUT eventually you WILL need siege (since there is more than one AI.) Conserving forces (by appropriate use of siege) helps mitigate the AI's production bonuses (and allows you to press the attack instead of waiting for reinforcements). It depends on the defenders of course. Maybe I'm too timid (or too afraid of losses?) It would be cool if you could shadow the game. I would be very interested to see how you deal with the situation (maybe start from the 1080 save?) I can hold my own on Emperor but am no expert by any means.

 

[Jester Fool]

Another option that struck my mind is to cap Sal now and attack Alex immediately while his main stack is busy attacking Liz.

As long as you keep conquering AI cities, I don't think Sal will be able to break free. I only took one of his cities (and razed one) and after ~5-6 turns he had no chance to break free. But I did keep the war machine turning. IMO, cap your target AI ASAP and then move on to the next target. Oftentimes, especially due to the land target rule, you can cap an AI after taking only 1 or 2 cities. Due to your map conditions, the sooner you can send your army to the western front the better. Momentum is definitely on your side.

 

[huerfanista]

Really? I don't use seige for the initial rush, BUT eventually you WILL need siege (since there is more than one AI.) Conserving forces (by appropriate use of siege) helps mitigate the AI's production bonuses (and allows you to press the attack instead of waiting for reinforcements). It depends on the defenders of course. Maybe I'm too timid (or too afraid of losses?) It would be cool if you could shadow the game. I would be very interested to see how you deal with the situation (maybe start from the 1080 save?) I can hold my own on Emperor but am no expert by any means.

I don't think I need to shadow it since Gwaja is doing a great job in demonstrating how it's done. (I may play it from the start at some point since it looks like a fun map).

There's a snowball effect from seigeless cavalry rushes - the faster you take his cities, the fewer units he can produce to defend, and the quicker he'll cap, which allows you to get their former cities producing units for you and which gets you to the next victim quicker, which means they'll be less advanced, etc, etc. I'm never afraid of losing a few units to speed up a rush - it's well worth it IMO. The only time I'll use seige with cavalry is if I'm facing PRO rifles without blimps, or if I'm facing infantry. Once you get the state property production engine revved up you'll be able to field huge stacks. This is especially true on a pangaea map like this one, where you don't have transport delays to another continent.

On this map, Gwaja will be able to roll over Genghis easily - the best he'll have will be grens, and cavalry own them pretty hard (especially with blimps). If she can keep him warring with Cyrus they'll both be easy targets, but she can probably get domination just by taking out the mongols.

 

[Gwaja]

Well, I see you've been busy! Baghdad and Damascus should be enough to relieve the cultural pressure on Medina and Mecca. Don't worry about his land percentage relative to yours - that will drop fast with each AI city you take.

Yeah the cultural pressure is another annoyance. I was thinking of hitting Damascus and Kufah... maybe Baghdad since it is small and I doubt Sal has lot of defenders there.

I take it that this means you suggest taking 1 or 2 more cities before capping him?

I think it was foolish to refuse Genghis request to stop trading with Cyrus. You really don't want to risk a backstab from him until you've taken out Liz and Alex (in that order) first. It's a small price to pay and gets you a peace treaty to boot.

I rechecked things, and it turns out that when Genghis made that request to stop trading with Cyrus, he was already plotting war again. I don't see him stacking a large number of units in his border cities near me, but I will be sure to keep an eye on him.

As long as you hit Liz before she has less than 5-6 turns left on rifling, you should be fine. Her tech rate will drop like a stone once you start taking cities. She's far more dangerous than Alex if she gets redcoats. Why not bribe Alex off of her? Just remember that it will mean another 10 turns before you can attack him, so I'd try to do it soon if possible.

I have to send a scouting unit in Liz's land to see how the war is going over there. I am sure Alex sent a ton of units her way. Since it is very possible that Liz is teching Replaceable Parts as of this moment, I don't have much time. I did think about attacking Alex while he has his big stack attacking Liz, but I think dealing with Liz is a priority. I am actually seriously considering eliminating her altogether because she's been hording wonders, and after the war with Alex, she will not have much defenders to resist my attacks.

You can always switch to nationalism if Genghis backstabs you to get a bunch of rifles out quick, but I'd consider a castle in Yekaterinberg and Rostov since he probably won't have many GP units (you won't be able to build them unless you already have walls there). Together with the rifles that you're building now, that should stop him in his tracks if he declares.

Fun game, huh?

I am not sure if you have caught this, but in the early going, many posters suggested that I build my border cities on hills, especially when I am sharing a border with the likes of Genghis. Therefore, my border cities on the west are all on hills, and they all have walls. And since I have my own supply of stone, building a castle will be a breeze. I am not sure if I want to take such drastic measures, but I will consider it.

The rifles being built now are for garrisoning the newly captured cities to the east, but I may need more for home defense.

 

[huerfanista]

I take it that this means you suggest taking 1 or 2 more cities before capping him?

yep.

I rechecked things, and it turns out that when Genghis made that request to stop trading with Cyrus, he was already plotting war again. I don't see him stacking a large number of units in his border cities near me, but I will be sure to keep an eye on him.

Your LOWEST surplus is 6 - you didn't need more from him at the cost of taking a diplo hit with Genghis. You can get gold from Sal once you cap him.

I have to send a scouting unit in Liz's land to see how the war is going over there. I am sure Alex sent a ton of units her way. Since it is very possible that Liz is teching Replaceable Parts as of this moment, I don't have much time. I did think about attacking Alex while he has his big stack attacking Liz, but I think dealing with Liz is a priority. I am actually seriously considering eliminating her altogether because she's been hording wonders, and after the war with Alex, she will not have much defenders to resist my attacks.

Yeah, I'd definitely go for Liz ASAP.

I am not sure if you have caught this, but in the early going, many posters suggested that I build my border cities on hills, especially when I am sharing a border with the likes of Genghis. Therefore, my border cities on the west are all on hills, and they all have walls. And since I have my own supply of stone, building a castle will be a breeze. I am not sure if I want to take such drastic measures, but I will consider it.

It's a moot point. I was wrong - you can't build castles now.

The rifles being built now are for garrisoning the newly captured cities to the east, but I may need more for home defense.

That's probably fine. Genghis is almost certainly going after Cyrus, but I've been backstabbed by that sucker so many times that I never take a chance with him.

Some thoughts on your save:

You've got enough units in the area to take out Kufah next turn - just send the six nearby cossacks there.

Why are you building a harbor in Yakutsk and running no specs? You've got +3 health there! Fire those mines and hire 7 merchants, let the city grow from Bio farms later.

Change from a farm to the unworked workshop in St. Pete and start workshopping a bunch of those farms there - you have a huge food surplus there which will be even larger after Bio. Get those up - it's your HE city! Every new grass WS gives you 10 more - 12 under PS later. You should be doing cossacks in 1 turn there rather than 3.

Workshop/watermill over those cottages in Baghdad - in fact, consider doing that everywhere except your newly captured cities. The game is won - all you need at this point is more ---> cossacks. I'd consider going nationalism + police state after physics. You'll have all the tech you need to wrap this game up, and if you wipe out Liz you can immediately draft garrison rifles in her cities.

I think it would have been better to go physics> bio. You caould have used the free GS to bulb Bio and knock 3 turns off the total time for those 2 techs. You'll be turning your slider way down in 3 turns once your money runs out, although capture will help some.

EDIT: and move those units outside Mecca into the city to heal, and send the super-medic chariot up to medina - you'll get way more benefit from having him heal 8 wounded cossacks insetead of 2.

 

[awilder]

Hey Gwaja,
imo there are two sensible ways to play out this game:
1) what I would do--cap Sal now, move all cossacks to Lizzy's borders, change all cities to produce *cossack (first finish the stable in st. petersburg, but all others cossacks, including Sal's cities). DOW Lizzy as soon as troops are reasonably healthy. Finish bio and then put slider to 0%, and revolt to US and slavery as soon as you can. Once this is done, every turn go to the cities with the most hammers in cossacks and rushbuy them until you have 0 gold left, any other cities that have any hammers invested in cossacks whip. Next turn repeat. Chain cap everyone, taking as few cities as possible.

2) a little more conservative--same as above except tech until physics before turning off slider and revolting out of rep. cavalry+airship can take rifles in reasonable numbers.

I really don't think you need any more techs beyond bio, but that's a matter of taste.

 

[huerfanista]

@Jester Fool

OK, I played from the last save, no seige or spies:

Spoiler :

1590 Domination. Absolutely nothing fancy, just slam cossacks into cities. I took 3 more cities from Sal to ease cultural pressure, then capped him. Meanwhile, I bribed Alex off of Liz. A couple of turns later, he re-declared on her along with Genghis. Alex managed to take London, GK took the border city nearest us. As soon as I had units healed I declared on Alex, then used the AP to get Genghis out of war. In 5 turns I had all of Alex's cities, 2 turns later I had London. After a couple of turns of healing/moving units, I declared on Liz, taking her remaining cities in around 4 turns.

GK had his main stack in that border city, so after a couple of more turns of healing and moving cossacks to his border to the west I DoWed him on the turn that the AP peace treaty expired. I had a dozen cossacks in near Moscow to take out his entire stack on the first turn of the war (mostly knights/trebs, so it was a piece of cake), and took 2 more cities of his on the first turn of the war. Next turn I took 2 more, and 2 turns later I had his capital. That was enough for domination due to a bunch of English cities coming out of revolt.

1540AD Elizabeth's last city falls.

AD1585 looks like domination next turn.

St Petersburg after some terraforming - a great HE city.

Units lost:

Units killed:

Next turn, domination:

Pretty nice score:

The save: View attachment Gwaja Cathy AD-1590.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[Gwaja]

Thank you huerfanista and awilder. ^_^ I think I now understand clearly what I need to do now. I can't lose focus just yet!

GP Farm: That city was a bit decimated after running Slavery, so I wanted to grow it back. But then it was clearly my miscalculation, not to consider that I will be getting Biology very soon, which means I can grow back the population even faster. So, I elected to starve the city for a bit and run a horde of merchants in the city.

Spoiler :

I also started to replace grassland farms with some workshops near St. Pete. You probably couldn't see it, but this city was down to like size 5 at one point because I was whipping like crazy. Still, I might have overdone with farms because some of them are clearly not being worked.

And yes, workshops and watermills and windmills. I love these things under State Property... works fabulously. Electricity was mentioned because of the bonus it grants to watermills and windmills, which make them extremely powerful.

The civics suggestions that you guys have offered make ton of sense. I will monitor the situation turn by turn and adjust accordingly. However, until I can get at least Physics and possibly Electricity done, I want to keep pace with my research. After that, all bets are off. ^_^

Anyways, here is some more update! GOODIE!!

On the ensuing turn, I got a really happy event:

Spoiler :

It is a no brainer as to what proposal I made. "STOP THE FIGHTING AGAINST ALEX!" Haha, the AI always pulls this joke on me all the time, and now it is my time to do it. Hopefully it will pass. Alex may defy the resolution, and Genghis, well I don't know how he will vote. I crossed my fingers and hoped that the resolution would pass.

And on the next turn, I was baffled to see this:

Spoiler :

I mean, come on! Does this make any sense? I can understand Genghis and Alex voting no, but why is Liz voting no? Is she doing so well in the war? I am curious! Or is she desperate to be capitulated by Alex?

No, apparently she is NOT.... look at this!

Spoiler :

This is just foolish. Her capital got captured, for crying out loud!

The southern city of Kufah gave some resistance as it was on top of an ice hill. Nevertheless, I captured it:

Spoiler :

Next turn, Alex came calling to join in the war against Liz:

Spoiler :

You know what? That's fine. I will go ahead and declare war now. I am gonna go after her anyways, and now that Alex is friendly, I want to keep him that way.

Actually, since Alex already captured London from Liz, I didn't want him to go on capturing more of Liz's cities. So I made a bribe:

Spoiler :

I am pretty certain that he is researching this anyway, and he is still far from getting Rifling. My cossacks will eat up his cuirassiers like breakfast, so there is no worry. And this got him out of the war with Liz. I am still baffled as to why Liz would vote "no" on that AP proposal I made. So stupid of her!

Next turn, I finished my priority tech:

Spoiler :

This is really going to help my cities grow, and working the workshops won't be much of a burden as it used to be. I temporarily set my research to Optics, fully knowing that I will be getting this tech for free.

But first, another of Sal's cities falls:

Spoiler :

This was the last city I wanted to take away from Sal's hands before capitulating him. And now that I achieved this goal, it was time to end this war:

Spoiler :

Pretty much everything I could have gotten from him. He offered the city of Baghdad, but that city is pretty meaningless to me anyway and I couldn't add the city on top of what I wanted. The most important things from this deal was that I got Optics which enabled me to research Astronomy right away, and convert Sal into Buddhism. Since he no longer owns the Hindu holy city, he was willing to do it... and this will get me some diplo bonus from him eventually, for sharing the same religion.

A few turns later, Alex declared war on Liz once again.... sigh.... And then, the next turn, Genghis declared war on Liz. Oh my goodness... it is a dog pile war against Liz! I'd better hurry!

Some of the healed cossacks from the Arabian war have managed to come back to St. Pete just in time, as well as some fresh cossacks. I immediately launched an attack on Canterbury, since I could launch an attack directly from St. Pete in 1 turn. And the city fell very quickly:

Spoiler :

And with that, Liz was already ready to capitulate:

Spoiler :

I would have preferred to wipe her out or at least take Constitution from her, but I couldn't take any chance. Alex declared war on her, and Genghis also brought a stack of units into my territory to attack her as well. If you haven't noticed, the 2nd screen shot from the bottom where it shows me capturing Canterbury shows Genghis' stack heading towards Liz. I don't want her to cap to anyone else, otherwise it will ruin my whole plan. So I took her capitulation.

And now, I guess it is time to prepare for war against Alex to secure my east for good!

Diplo: Genghis and Cyrus are still worst enemies. Liz have 2 worst enemies.. Alex and Sal... Sal and Liz used to be great pals, but I guess when Sal declared on her after capitulating to me, all that friendship went away I suppose.

Spoiler :

Deals: I am getting pretty much all the resources I can get for trades here.

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AI Civics:

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Techs: The two next advanced AI, Sal and Liz, are capped. Sal is researching Constitution, and Liz is researching Democracy. The other AI are still far away from Rifling, though Alex does have Gunpowder + Military Tradition. Genghis and Cyrus are also falling far behind in tech.

Spoiler :

World Map:

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I would like to believe that my bribe to get Alex out of the war with Liz just barely managed to delay him from capturing more of her cities, effectively stopping him from capitulating her... well at least I would like to think so.

Obviously my next target is Alex, and I think that if I hit his capital Athens and Corinth, then he just might capitulate to me. He sent his large stack to attack London, and now that all his stack is stuck in London, he has no way of bringing them back to his home territory due to the fact that there is no open borders between him and Liz. If I want to capitulate him quick, I will have to hit him hard all at once in 1 turn to capture at least Athens and Corinth, which will effectively split his empire in half.

Astronomy is done in 1 turn, with 80% deficit research. Tech path is set to Physics --> Electricity, and then I will most likely turn off research altogether. For now, I will have to heal up my cossacks, send some defenders to the newly captured cities, gather my army, and hit Alex as hard and fast as possible.

 

[Nick Carpathia]

Nice, that's a decent cavalry rush date. Which is understandable, the land is excellent and the map fits Cathy's traits perfectly.

Fun thing to do: Build the Kremlin, use high-production cities to hammer out troops, low-production cities to rushbuy cavalry. It's, uh, rather obscene. Just make sure to build or rushbuy banks in your high commerce cities. I wouldn't even bother with rifles except as city defence, just get tons of cavalry, fork their cities, and shred their stacks with 15-strength 2-movers when they're exposed on open terrain. I'd expect you to win within the next 20 turns or so, no one is close to replaceable parts. I would recommend hitting Alex now (expect a very fast capitulation, both your vassals have a ton of borders with Alex), bribe Genghis against Cyrus again, force your vassals to stop trading with Genghis and Cyrus, and then backstab Genghis.

 

[Gwaja]

Nice, that's a decent cavalry rush date. Which is understandable, the land is excellent and the map fits Cathy's traits perfectly.

Fun thing to do: Build the Kremlin, use high-production cities to hammer out troops, low-production cities to rushbuy cavalry. It's, uh, rather obscene. Just make sure to build or rushbuy banks in your high commerce cities. I wouldn't even bother with rifles except as city defence, just get tons of cavalry, fork their cities, and shred their stacks with 15-strength 2-movers when they're exposed on open terrain. I'd expect you to win within the next 20 turns or so, no one is close to replaceable parts. I would recommend hitting Alex now (expect a very fast capitulation, both your vassals have a ton of borders with Alex), bribe Genghis against Cyrus again, force your vassals to stop trading with Genghis and Cyrus, and then backstab Genghis.

The civilopedia's description of the Kremlin is not quite clear as to whether or not the rushbuy discount applies to all cities or just in the city that it is built in. The description of the Temple of Artemis is worded exactly like this, and that wonder's effect is only for the city it is located in... so how does it work with Kremlin?

Obviously, banks will be essential for high commerce cities if I want to do the rush buying with Universal Suffrage. Once I turn off the research slider completely, this will come in quite handy... as well as my next Great Merchant. ^_^

I think cossacks are pretty much all I will build for offense at this point, as it is dominating the game and I don't see it ending anytime soon. Not sure if I can win the game within 20 turns, but I will certainly try!

 

[awilder]

@gwaja

I don't think you're going to want/need banks here. They would take quite a few turns to pay back more than they cost.

 

[Nick Carpathia]

I like to build markets/grocers/banks as a matter of course in any game with a bloated empire, as they help to pay for expenses. Now that I think about it, banks are fairly useless, as I said earlier, you have a terrifying military advantage that is not going to be countered within 20 turns, and there's no way your enemies have the time. Just build tons of cossacks and capitulate everyone.

But yeah, the Kremlin is an awesome wonder. It basically changes the hammer:gold rushbuy ratio in all your cities from 1:3 to 1:2. This gives cottage economies a ton of production, we're talking a large mature empire capable of churning out 2-4 nukes/turn. You don't need assembly line at all, as your grassland towns effectively produce 2 food and 3.5 hammers.

 

[Gwaja]

How is the calculation made for getting 3.5 from a town? Are we counting 1 from Universal Suffrage? Are you converting the from towns into ? Assuming a non-riverside town for a non-financial leader like Cathy...

1 from Universal Suffrage
5 x 100% slider for x 50% ratio for Kremlin = 2.5

1 + 2.5 = 3.5

Am I right with this calculation here?

--------

@awilder,

I am such in love with building stuff. Back when I was a chieftain/warlord level player I used to build every single available buildings in my cities and felt so proud of doing that. Then I realized that the game doesn't give me any credit for doing so, and it was largely a waste of time.

Banks are not anywhere near the top of my priority list. As you mentioned, right now, more cossacks is simply too effective here.

I think with my already standing troops of cossacks, I can easily capitulate Alex. As soon as my cossacks are healed and in position to attack both his capital and Corinth all at once in 1 turn, I will attack. ^_^

 

[Nick Carpathia]

Ah, I forgot the US hammer. Anyway, the 7C from printing press and free speech converts into 3.5H when used to Kremlin rushbuy. The true power is not the pure hammer-equivalent output (though it's not bad), but it's the flexibility and liquidity of rushbuying. The bonus hammer is just an extra.

Watch TMIT's Suleiman game, you'll get what I mean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SoMQ9mtvYE

 

[Gwaja]

Okay... time to regroup and prepare to attack Alex!

At the start of this round, I finished another tech:

Spoiler :

I have burned all the gold that I have accumulated through numerous trade missions so I can no longer run deficit research at 100% slider. Something tells me that I don't really need further research right now, but I want at least 2 more techs: Physics → Electricity.

Plan is simple: I can probably get Physics in about 10 turns or so, which will grant me a free Great Scientist, and allow me to research Electricity right away. The beauty is that the Great Scientist will partial bulb Electricity for me, so it all works out well.

By the way, Alex, who no longer has any enemies in his direct vicinity to attack, has now officially declared me his worst enemy. He is not yet plotting war, but when he does, there is no doubt that he will be gunning for me. Before he does anything like that, I will have to wipe him out. But first, I will need to make sure that my newly captured cities are defended by at least a rifleman, as well as addressing the culture issue by some cheap libraries.

Also, my cossack army is healing and gathering in St. Pete, probably the best place to launch an attack on Alex's biggest cities.

At exactly 1500 AD, I noticed something that could prove quite useful to me:

Spoiler :

Notice the Great People production rate in these two cities. The 1st is my Heroic Epic city, St. Pete, which is generating the GPP strictly from wonders, and has not been working any specialists. The 2nd city is my GP farm, which has been running 8 merchants all the time. If I left things the way it was, the GP farm will produce a Great Person first, further delaying the possibility of one popping from St. Pete. However, if I ease up on the merchants in the GP farm, and let St. Pete assign a specialist to make sure that St. Pete pops a Great Person first, I could end up with 2 Great People within about 13 turns.

Assuming that I get 2 different kinds of Great People, I could even launch another Golden Age! ^_^

Also, notice that St. Pete, even without running Police State, can now crank out a cossack every single turn with 3 promotions right out of the gate. ^_^ Awesome stuff, isn't it? This city is literally begging me for West Point! ^_^ I am not planning on researching Military Science, but if I can get one of my vassals to do it for me, that would be gravy!

I got another proposal for the Apostolic Palace:

Spoiler :

None of these are going to help me. I don't want Alex to have open borders with anyone, which enables him to move around his stack of troops. I want them stuck in London where they are. Also, stopping trade with Cyrus will be pointless. I am getting good resource deals with him, so there is no point in doing that.

Right as I amassed my cossacks in the Greek border for an attack the following turn, I realized that Sal finished teching Constitution. So I made this deal:

Spoiler :

The 80 gold helps, but the reason for doing this was simple. Liz was 2 turns away from Democracy, and by getting Constitution, I could trade for it if I want to. Another reason for this trade was to direct Sal to research Military Science, so that I can trade for it and get myself the ability to build West Point, if I feel like doing so.

As I started building the Kremlin after putting up an Intelligence Agency to boost the EP production in Moscow, I decided that the time has come:

Spoiler :

My army of cossacks was divided into 4 divisions to attack 4 of Alex's cities all at once in 1 turn. As it turns out, I was surprised that I did reasonably well without losing too many units. Sparta actually did the most resisting, killing 3 initial cossacks of my own, albeit them being only at combat 1. Nevertheless, all of the following 5 events happened in the same turn:

Spoiler :

The Great General is going to be saved, because I have a unit that is a combat 4 unit with only 3 more experience needed to advance to the next level, which means I will be unlocking West Point. Also, Alex has Military Science, which he will most likely cough up when he capitulates, which also means that I could use the Great General to build me the Military Academy, which will further boost my unit production even more in this city.

However, Alex was not ready to talk peace yet, so the war pressed on. On the following turn, I captured 2 more of Alex's southern cities, effectively reducing him to only 2 cities: London and Thebes.

Spoiler :

I actually misclicked and made a tactical mistake. I saw Alex's stack of trebuchets and mustkets in the open, and I failed to attack them with my cossacks, moving them to a different tile by mistake. They attacked me next turn, all effectively dying, but doing some extra damage that I probably could have avoided altogether.

Anyway, after all that fiasco, Alex was finally ready to give up his hopeless fighting:

Spoiler :

He was not willing to cough up Military Science. I guess that is because he has a monopoly on it. No matter... Sal is researching that right now, so when that happens, I am sure I can trade for it. Oh by the way, I got Liz's old capital of London on this deal. It will be culture pressed heavily, but the city has a lot of goodies in it, as well as having the potential to be another GP farm if necessary. And it is also the Buddhist holy city as well! ^_^

Spoiler :

STATE OF THE WORLD:

Diplo: The only ones worth mentioning now are Genghis and Cyrus, who are continuing to hate each other's guts. This has been very helpful to me in this game. I think I owe Cyrus a lot for keeping Genghis preoccupied with him for the whole game and not me. It's been instrumental.

Spoiler :

Resources: A few trades here and there, but mostly, I am in good shape with resources now.

Spoiler :

AI Civics:

Spoiler :

Techs: Liz is one turn away from finishing Democracy. She also has Divine Right (useless to me) and Corporation on me as well. She is teching well, but I wonder why she hasn't pursued Rifling earlier if she was teching this well. Alex has the monopoly on Military Science, which he is willing to trade, but rather at very hefty price. I will wait until Sal is finished with it, so that there is no monopoly.

Cyrus and Genghis are hopelessly behind in techs. Still far away from Rifling. Unbelievable.

Spoiler :

Victory Conditions: Good to check the progress at any rate. No threat of anyone closing in on any other types of victory, especially Culture Victory which I was worried about happening from Liz. My population is well over the Domination limit, but I still need more land. Capping Genghis will do the trick, I am sure.

Spoiler :

World Map:

Spoiler :

Okay, so where to go from here? I am 2 turns away from Physics, which will net me a free Great Scientist, which I will use him to partial bulb Electricity. Then I can finish Electricity, and completely turn off research altogether. St. Pete will be giving me a Great Person with its slow GPP accumulation from wonders in 5 turns, while the GP farm is due to give me a Great Merchant in 7 turns (which will be increased once the Great Person from St. Pete pops). The Kremlin is also in production, and it will be done in 9 turns.

The plan obviously is to reorganize my troops and hit Genghis next. The most desirable situation would be for me to bribe either Cyrus or Genghis to attack the other party, and then backstab Genghis while he is busy fighting Cyrus on his western front. This will be much easier than fighting Sal and Alex because it will be an all-out one-front war without having to worry about anyone attacking me from the side.

It looks like I can wrap this game up in the 1600's. ^_^

Any comments, questions, suggestions, and/or criticisms? Please share them with me!

 

[Nick Carpathia]

So, uh, why electricity? Physics I can understand, Airships are pretty useful for recon and cavalry wars. Electricity boosts Windmills and Watermills, but do you really need commerce? You want production: Steel and Railroads, or Corporations and Assembly line. However, considering your tech lead, I wouldn't even bother. I'd just start banking gold now, fire off a golden age when Yakutsk gets its next GP (just starve it a little bit), switch into US, then rushbuy swarms of Cossacks when the Kremlin finishes.