GGF4: French

[grahamiam]

one thing we learned the hard way in 1.0 grams was that the AI was afraid to attack a healthy army in the open, but would readily attack them when they were fortified in a city. we still have the other one so no biggie, just keep using it to rip up the sumerian core and delay thier troop movements. next time we need a defensive army, we load it with infantry

 

[jb1964]

The save, GGF4 1625 AD

Pre-flight, 1575 AD – OK, we have a massive number of cities and I’m going to assume the build orders are just fine. I’ll work with what I get. I do fail to see the advantage of the civil engineer and cannot find anything in the civopedia.

Sumerians are three techs behind us in getting to Motorized Transport so I’m inclined to save the army for tanks. But that is about 30 turns of waiting. Hmmm, well, the Sumerians are not going to be hitting us w/ tanks anytime soon, if ever, so we’ll go for another cavalry army and continue the ransackery of the infrastructure.

IBT: Sumerians want peace. Nope. Yep, Isin was retaken.

Turn 1, 1580 AD
Isin was held by two cavalry. Was. We move a SoD into the city, bomb some infantry and kill some of them off. Cav army pillages three more railed tiles. Ships to the East of the Sumerian/Mayan continent are going to come all the way around to port. There’s not enough on these ships to land and take a city.
A Sumerian flotilla (two frigs and a galleon) comes out of port and heads West. The first frigate is killed off and two other units take an angle to send the others to the bottom.
Working mountains, swamps and jungles.
Neither the Maya or Persians have coal or saltpeter. And neither want a gpt deal. I think it was me that trashed our rep. Sorry.

IBT: Holy cow! The Sumerians take forever, about two score units and retake Isin.

Turn 2, 1585 AD
Intercepting ships get the short end of the stick.
Now this gets really bad. The army loads up w/ three cavs to take out the two infantry in Isin, the defenders are bombed to 3 and 2 hp, yet our army dies. This sucks. The lone cavalry on the continent takes out the Rambo Infantry and then we turn a load of captured arty on all targets until all 6 are bombed down to 1hp.
Move the pillaging army back to Isin or disconnect Lagash? Let them dash against the infantry, the army disconnects Lagash and then grabs 4 workers and kills them out of frustration.
Hovers in 1. No trades.

IBT: Isin holds! 5 infantry and one guerilla are parked on our doorstep. We get a palace expansion. The façade on the palace looks lovely. Hoovers has arrived.

Turn 3, 1590 AD
We bomb the 6 fools on our doorstep to one hp each. Attacking w/ two cavalry we slaughter the first infantry and then the second cav manages to die and make his opponent a 2 hp elite unit. Again, this sucks.
Loading up cavs and infantry to port across the pond.

IBT: Sumerians throw cavalry at Isin until it is recaptured. Zitlapecblahblah is lost to Berserkers.

Turn 4, 1595 AD
Isin is retaken w/ 4 infantry.
Viking ships off of the Celtic coast have me concerned. We move in the cavalry army and reposition forces. We also hit up the more populated city with a draft.
Use our cash reserves to buy up factories. Should have waited a turn or two for US to finish.
More cavalry land on our Sumerian beachhead. Cavalry army continue to wreak havoc on the Sumerian infrastructure.
Persians want saltpeter to backstab the Sumerians. Not a problem.
Rushed several frigates on the western Celtic coast to intercept Viking ships.
Research pulled back to gather some coin.

IBT: A 1hp cavalry I left stranded takes out 5 weakened Sumerian cavalry. I feel better about the loss of the army now.
Isin is not attacked. Sumerians land an infantry.

Turn 5, 1600 AD
Sumerian infantry is dispatched by our mixed cav/knight army. The AI just does not know how to conduct a good landing.
Moving artillery in position to pound the snot out of Marad.

IBT: Thank goodness… Nothing! Except we built US.

Turn 6, 1605 AD
Alright, now we have some serious forces ready in Sumeria.
Costco needs an entertainer. Actualy, they need a market.
Can’t bring myself to pull the trigger on mobilization.

IBT: Ha! Again. Vikes try a Zerk assault on August (renamed) but we placed two infantry there last turn. Sumerians moved in some cavalry to pillage roads but they will never get the chance.
Columbus riots. Their football team must have won the national championship.

Turn 7, 1610 AD
Sumerian frigate sunk. Next turn the lone galleon runs into two privateers and a frigate.
Marad is ours.
Three Sumerian cavalry bombed silly and killed.
Columbus gets an MP. No trades.

IBT: Sumerian galleon sinks our privateer.

Turn 8, 1615 AD
Our frigate sinks the Sumerian galleon.

IBT: Sumerians lose cavalry attacking our infantry. Berserker kills off our musket on Nagsu.

Turn 9, 1620 AD
Trade frigates with the Vikings. Pick off another Viking frigate.
Rails, mines and clearing of mountains, swamps and jungles.
Sumerian workers have hooked up their capitol again.
We get a MGL mopping up units around Isin and make an army.
No trades.

IBT:
Sumerians
Viking frigate pulls away from bombing Nagsu to sink an approaching frigate.
A couple Viking flotilla’s are heading towards our West coast.
Lost our supply of furs from the Maya

Turn 10, 1625 AD
We sink another Viking frigate and then another.
New Ameins is founded in former Sumerian territory and has an infantry Army forted there.
Kill a berserker outside of Nagsu.
We trade Corporation to the Maya for furs, Espionage, WM, 28gpt and 540g.
We have a monster SoD head towards Ur.
Top 20 cities are building stock exchanges, cavalry and a temple.

We never mobilized. Was too keen on continueing building stock exchanges and other infrastructure.

 

[grahamiam]

I do fail to see the advantage of the civil engineer and cannot find anything in the civopedia.

nice turns, M60 is up!

each CE gives 2spt towards city improvements, that's why i was irrigating/RR'ing the terrain in the faraway former celtic/inca/iroquois lands, so we could buildup a large pop and use CE's to build city improvements up there. they do not provide shields towards military units.

 

[M60A3TTS]

I'll get to it tonight. Don't know that there's a point in taking Ur, it will just allow them to have a newly connected capital. Probably will continue a resource-denial campaign, and tear up his economy. Didn't see a mention of what we started to research after refining. Steel, I assume.

 

[jb1964]

Researching steel at 50% in 5.

The cav army can continue the resource denial but you have a stack of hurt 2 tiles out ready the reduce Ur to rubble.

Here's an F1 Shot...

 

[grahamiam]

nice caption, but i agree with M60, let's disconnect his capitol again, as well as the rubber, and then destroy the other towns. there's probably a ton of junk and infantry in that capitol and we might as well use that SOD to secure some towns for our eventual invasion of the Mayan.

 

[jb1964]

Infantry army only has 3 units but a 4th could be added without a problem since that army will be busy on this continent long after transports are available.

 

[M60A3TTS]

The latest save

Preturn: All looks ok, pillage 1 tile.

IBT: Zerk attacks our cav army, dies. Paris starts Wall Street in 5, Lyons Intelligence Agency in 9.

Turn 1 (1630) Crank science to 70%, steel in 4. Pillage and more pillage.

IBT- Persians take Zitlalpec from Vikes. Vikes land a rifle by Damascus. We lose a few units in Sumeria.

Turn 2 (1635)- More and more pillage.

IBT- We lose Nagsu to the Viking zerk. Little island to the SW.

Turn 3 (1640)- Fun with pillaging

IBT- Lose quite a few cav in Sumeria, but infantry is now being replaced by guerillas and his core cities are losing production. Sumeria drops off another cav by Damascus

Turn 4 (1645)- Science to 10%, steel in 1. Kill the cav by Damascus. Oh yes, and pillaged.

IBT- Steel in, combustion in 9.

Turn 5 (1650) Take out the rax at Ur. Pillaged some more stuff.

IBT- Viking zerk takes Damascus. Wall Street in.

Turn 6 (1655) We take back Damasus with army. Ur loses temple, marketplace, courthouse.

IBT- Zerks capture Mecca

Turn 7 (1660) We take Mecca back. Enough of this nonsense, draft a bunch of infantry up there. Bank, cathedral, university, coluseum of Ur gone. Now pop 1.

IBT- Lose a couple units to Sumeria

Turn 8 (1665) Land 19 units on the shore by Sumer.

IBT- Not much

Turn 9 (1670) Throw 24 cav at Sumer and lose half, collect 26 gold in capturing it. Land 8 units by Bad-tibira.

IBT- Persia and Scandanavia sign peace treaty. Get Intelligence Agency in Lyons.

Turn 10 (1675) Send 3 viking ships to the bottom by Damascus. Pillage some more. Plant a spy in Ur for 65gold.

Post turn- While not terribly exciting, and we took quite a few losses, Sumeria is rapidly falling off the power graph. I’ve added a few more artillery to the builds to reduce the losses on city attacks. They outnumber us in infantry 79-75, but they only have a couple cavalry left. Paris is building army, and that is probably all it should build the rest of the game. Combustion in a few more, so the galleons can go to transports.

 

[jb1964]

Yes, the Vikes did seem to have the hots for the former Celtic lands. I had conscripted a few units and tried to run the army and some of the cavalry around in an attempt to meet the Zerk landings but just putting infantry in the cities pretty much solves the problem.

Good job.

It was a clever idea to not take Ur. Never thought of that one before. If the AI really did have any “I” it would have abandoned Ur by now.

It appears that the Sumerians have put a pretty good hurt on Persia.

Odd that Xerxes and Smoke have an MPP yet Ragnar is only warring w/ the Mayans.

I see that we'll have Motorized Transportation to ourselves for a very long time.

 

[grahamiam]

didn't i just play this? got it then. dispatches tomorrow.

edit: 9/12/04 sorry, tonight i try to finish

 

[grahamiam]

Preflight check: take a turn off combustion but bumping sci rate up to 80% (-98gpt, 2189g in the bank, 3T vs 4T)

IBT:

T1: 1680AD bomb, kills stuff, leader hunt but no luck. Spend most of the time landscaping. There’s so many workers, it’s painful, so I start joining them into cities below size 12.

T2: 1685AD Drop research to 60%, +165gpt, 1T. Load up so workers for Sumerialand.
Looks like the Sumerians are getting the better of the Persians.
IBT; Sumeria declares on the Vikings
Combustion -> mass production 8T @ 70% (flight is 10T)

T3: 1690AD Hire some scientists to shave on 1T on Mass. Leader fishing around Sumer nets an MGL! Send him back towards Kuara so that we can have a tank army in7T.

IBT: Maya and Vikings sign peace.

T4: 1695AD

T5: 1700AD Landscaping. Turns are taking very long with all the gardening. I’ll post the save as it’s getting late. Next player should be in position to take Lagash next turn. I've also transported a load of workers to the front so we can conquere and rail as we go, especially when tanks come online in 5T.

edit: finishing my 10

IBT: Maya take Ur. Palace jumps to Akshak.

T6: 1705AD Attack a group of Viking ships coming at the former celtic lands.

T7: 1710AD Bombard Lagash down to size 5, then take it losing 1 cav.
Leader hunting around Camp Greyling nets another MGL. Decide to go for another Cav army.

T8: 1715AD Use Arty in Camp Greyling to redline all infantry in Bad-tibira, then take it for the cost of 1 cav.
New Sumerian capitol is disconnected.

IBT: Mayans take Kua; Vikings offer peace but will only concede 1 city so I decline.

T9: 1720AD nada, kill stuff, move stuff, irrigate stuff…

IBT: Mass Production -> Motorized Transport

T10: 1725AD Trade: Sell Steel to Mayan for Furs, Commie, WM, 899g
Bombard Lapaza down to size six and kill the redlined infantry, losing 3 cav, and gaining a MGL!
Found Kish of Death, then use all the arty to redline everything in sight and to begin destroying Kish. Note: I destroyed the barracks and redlined 3 infantry and 1 conscript rifle.
Put the new leader in Kuara for the next player to decide what to do with him. Not bad, that’s the 3rd MGL during this turnset There are also 2 Army’s in Paris. One final note, if you do decide to build another Army, there are 2 elite cav’s near Sumer that can leader hunt on the redlined guerilla’s near Kish of Death.
Have fun, not too long till tanks

 

[jb1964]

Two armies in Paris and another MGL? I'm thinking 3 tank armies will make things move real fast. Then again, an infantry army w/ the stacks of arty we have could be prudent. Any thoughts?

 

[grahamiam]

we already have one of those going so no need for another. we actually have 1 leader and 1 army in Sumeria that are waiting for us, as well as 2 army's in Paris and another will be done before MT comes in. I'd wait and field 5 tank armys. send 1 to viking land and the other 4 to tear up Sumeria, Mayans, and Persia. This should end quickly if we want it to, especially once we get flight as well.

 

[M60A3TTS]

Priority builds:

1. Tanks
2. More Tanks
3. Even More Tanks

Flight will be good. So we can airlift.....tanks

 

[jb1964]

BTW, "Kish of Death" very cute.

Also, nice use of the fleet of figates.

I made it about half way through the pre-flight and then fell asleep on the couch.

 

[jb1964]

8 turns done and then the meds kicked in and I was out.
The years are now counting off by 2's. We had five turns to 1750 and then 3 turns to get us to 1756.

I have all the saves since I was using the Map Stat tool, which requires a .sav file, but overnight my turn log went AWOL.

Abstract:
Us:
Motor is in and flight is on its way.
I replaced (and disbanded) many of the swords and archers on the coast with the last infantry built just prior to tanks.
No MGL so far but I have managed to get a few elite units to die at the hands of redlined infantry. One of thse elite units was our elite archer.
We have an excess of transports but that's not bad. Tanks load in the city the turn they are constructed and then unload two turns later in port ready to run the rails to wherever needed.
Some of the smaller, corrupt cities have been put to work generating cash.

Sumerians:
We're kicking the daylights out of them. Armies have been transported and are being filled w/ tanks. Arty is doing a bang up job.
Kish was Kished.
There are no more Sumerian cities between us and the Mayans and some of the gaps have been filled in w/ a settler or two. Everything is shifting North. All western coastal towns below the 1 tile choke point belong to us.
The capitol is surrounded to keep the Mayans from giving them a palace jump. We have ~2 infantry in every occupied city.
I did next to zero MM'ing.

Vikings:
Two armies shipped to Scandahoovia and the capitol has been disconnected. Our newly planted spy there says they have 7 (2 now dead) Zerks and ~45 rifles. He also says that the smoked fish is pretty good and the women are quite beautiful. They also have few remaining ships. These guys are toothless.

Mayans:
Seem to have about 1000 infantry. Not going to try to plant a spy because we don't need the headache a botched insertion could cause right now. Besides, that're paying us 46gpt for a couple of luxuries.

Persians:
They still lack basic resources but are unwilling to purchase them from us for any gpt.

I'm going to the Cubs vs. Reds game tonight so I'm unlikely to finish the last two turns. And since I'm camping this weekend w/ my boys and the rest of the scout troop I'll probably just post what I have so far.

This campout is to teach the boys gun safety and marksmanship techniques. Many of the boys will be shooting for their qualifying scores to earn the rifle/shotgun merit badge. Many of them have never held a gun. If you never hear from me again it's because one of them shot me.



Go Cubs!

 

[grahamiam]

sounds like good progress for giggles, why don't we research amphibious warfare after flight. i always wanted to try out marines (esp. marine army) and there are some islands out there that seem ideal for them. usually i just go for the MA but let's try something different.

 

[jb1964]

I'm now in no rush to finish this off and am willing to play around w/ different options.

I'm almost sad that the only victory option is conquest. I thought we had line of sight to a conquest victory as soon as we ripped the Inca to shreds. Anyway, it would have been more interesting to go for the conquest while having to keep an eye on the AI's capturing a UN, cultural or space race victory.

 

[grahamiam]

yeah, that was probably a bad idea, but in reality, we turned the corner on this a while ago and the AI would never have been able to compete. maybe 20k, but that's very hard for an emporer level AI to get. UN, space we would beat without a problem, 100k we would probably have to watch ourselves more than the AI, ditto domination.

 

[jb1964]

The Save... All 10 turns... 1760 AD

Sumeria is down to two cities. We can probably get them to give up Sanitation if you want to let the Persians kill them off. Neither city has a resource or lux that we need so I guess we should sqeeze them for the tech.

Alliance and trades w/ the Persians are on autopilot.

Vikes can be slaughtered at your leisure. Armies went after some of the 41 rifles and got roughed up. Vikes have 19 cities so you can take a guess at how many rifles are in each city.

We own a fair amount of the available territory.