Goz11- 5CC-Deity

[zerksees]

All right - no extra towns it is then.

I am in the middle of turn 3 - 1365 AD. Kyoto is a pile of rubble, no bombers in there. The Persians must have them in Zohak, which is the next target. I think there are over 20 bombers now. From Zohak the bombers can reach our eastern most city, and we have lost our marketplace there. I plan to knock out Zohak next turn.

We emerged as a communism and are +188 gold at 10% lux and 0% science. Once I get the marketplace back online there should be very little difference between democracy at 40% lux and commie at 10% lux. Can't mobilize until I know the Persian bombers are out of range of the homeland.

Persia only has like 9 cavs. Too bad they have 180+ infantry

gozpel your advice about bombers was spot on, too bad I did not read it before I played. In 1360 I had to take back a stack of 26 artillery and 8 workers I lost due to underestimating what the bombers could do. IIRC it cost 2 cavs to take it back plus the three or four units that were defending the stack. Thank goodness they had to go offroad and they only defended with 2 inf and a guerilla.
I also signed up Korea as our ally from 21 gpt as they were plopping cities in the empty lands - they are now polite. This got the bombers off our back as they must have repositioned to attack Korea. I am concerned we might not be able to renew our rubber trade with them at the end of our trade.

Oh yeah Inca died on the first IBT.

After Zohak is gone saltpeter is next.

I'll play more tonight.

 

[zerksees]

I am now in the middle of turn 6. Zohak fell, then Lagash, Bad-tibira and Isin. Took out a couple bombers in Isin. Been seeing a couple tanks each turn. Xerxes has 165 infantry, 15 tanks, 7 cav and 13 bombers, along with all his other units. We have 29 cav, 24 infantry and 35 arty (that does not count all the free ones).

Xerxes will give us all his 1318 gold for peace right now. Problem is I would break the military alliance with Korea if I take it. Xerxes has 0 gpt to offer so I think he is running a deficit.

Should I go for it to get the gold? I would redeclare the next turn.

We have 1913 gold at the moment. We are around +240 gold per turn. I have upgraded some cannons (five or six is best guess)

I have not mobilized yet as Dehli is making 90 spt without mobilizing. Problem is pollution seems to come each turn and I rarely get to take advantage, so mobilization is coming soon.

I will play more/maybe finish tomorrow night.

 

[gozpel]

We could use that money for a steal maybe? Depending on how Korea fares, another broken deal wouldn't make them hate us more. If we don't make peace, mobilize right away, so that awful pollution don't mess things up.

How is the possibility to connect saltpeter, we could use that and some more cavs. If you have time, post a screenie(s) of available resources, that we could build colonies on.

 

[zerksees]

Well we are gaining ground and I think we can beat old Xerxes.

We took 13 cities leaving him with 35 or so. We took 137 of his units. We lost 43 units. I was a little sloppy but artillery is wicked.

They have 3 tanks, 137 infantry, 7 bombers, 2 cavs, some flak, ships etc.
Disconnected Persian dyes. Razed Newtons.

Saltpeter connected. We can also connect diamonds and rubber.

bombers in Nampo - that might be a good next target. After that Sistine is in Umma
watch the Persian settler in the northeast
may want to reconnect road west of dyes colony

I plan some more writeup tomorrow.

 

[zerksees]

Pre-flight:

Next big goal: Persian elimination. I would like to simplify the job by taking out Persian oil and rubber.

Intermediate goals:
Get the bombers away from our cities by wrecking nearby cities like Zohak and Kyoto.
Stay at war with Persia to keep their military in check
Wreck as many non-expanded cities as possible

According to the 1350 save we have 116 units

IBT
Persians destroy the Inca. Good – only two to go

Turn 1: 1355 AD
Use artillery to redline units in Kyoto, then take the city and raze it. (+1) <- city count. Remains of Shakespeare&#8217;s Theatre can be seen in the rubble, though no bombers were destroyed.
Go to anarchy as this democracy is not well suited for extended war.

IBT
Korea starting to drop cities
Yikes lost a big stack of artillery because I underestimated the bombers capability to destroy the defenders.

Turn 2: 1360 AD
Retook the artillery stack costing only a few units. Thank goodness they tried to haul it across unimproved tiles and we still had some cannons/ary left to weaken their three defenders
Sign MA with Korea against Persia paying them 21 gpt. I can&#8217;t have Korea repopulating the whole continent.
We barely have enough workers to keep up on pollution, and some tiles remain polluted on the IBT

IBT
Lost a few workers

Turn 3: 1365 AD
Emerge as communism. At 10% lux we are at +188 gpt (down from +222 with 40% lux). We lost a marketplace to bombers in between so the comparison is not exactly fair. With some MM I can get it up to +235 (hey we have military police again so less clowns needed).
We have 109 units. Persia has 188 infantry, 8 tanks and 15 bombers

IBT
First Persian tank attacks us and is defeated by a defending infantry
Sadly we lose 3 artillery and 3 other units to bombers and counterattacks on the oil to the north

Turn 4: 1370 AD
Our artillery and cavalry take Zohak (+2). Besides the four defenders Persia lost at least one destroyer and 16 gold in the attack.
Lagash is next. We have enough artillery, defenders and cavs to take it too. (+3) Newton&#8217;s University is a casualty of our treachery.

IBT
Lost a couple units in counterattacks

Turn 5: 1375 AD
Defenders at Bad-tibira succumb to Indian artillery and cavs and the city is razed (+4). It cost us four cavs though.

IBT
Survived a couple counter attacks and lost a couple

Turn 6: 1380 AD
I retook control of the three lost artillery pieces &#8211; they were in the jungle undefended
Isin is the next victim (+5). This time we sank two bombers inside.
We also had enough to take Ur (+6) and Mausoleum of Mausollos is sacked.

I was able to spread out our units as I decided to make peace with Persia for the IBT. Collect 1295 gold, Hangsan (+7), Macchu Picchu (+8), and Juli (+9) for peace. Sold off a few improvements inside and abandon the cities. Sorry if this is cheating for 5CC. To me it is creative license. I would have taken more gold but Xerxes was fresh out.

IBT
Nothing

Turn 7: 1385 AD
Try the safe steal from Persia for 2319 gold. It works. &#8220;Would you like us to steal steel, comrade?&#8221; I say yes and take it from them. Our kitty is down to 1224 gold.
Unceremoniously declare war on Persia again.
Knock out six tanks in the jungle losing zero units

Go after Sumer. More of the same &#8211; it falls and the Hanging Gardens are now Rock Gardens (+10). With this I do believe we have disconnected Persia from dyes.

Mobilize economy. MM the cities. I can get four of them to 90 spt so I can produce anything in one turn.

Turn 8: 1390 AD
Agade falls netting two more bombers (+11)
Most of the cavalry are healing so we can only take one.
Finally getting on top of the pollution and workers are sitting around. Of course we have a few more than we did at 1350.

IBT
Take out a couple dumb tanks attacking infantry fortified on mountains

Turn 9: 1395 AD
Corihuyrachina falls and Knights Templar goes with it. (+12)
Ollantaytambo also succumbs to our weak military, and we raze it like the rest (+13)
We are out of artillery so we can&#8217;t take another

I spot fourteen Persian tanks just off the road to the northeast. Actually I spotted them mid-turn but I really wanted the cities. Use a couple cavs to cut the free zone railroad there so the tanks can&#8217;t make it to our territory.

IBT
No attacks other than bombardment &#8211; may have lost a couple infantry

Turn 10: 1400 AD
Persia starts the turn with 21 tanks. Besides the fourteen, there are 4 more trying to get around our fortified position on a mountain in the free zone. All 18 of them fall to our artillery, cannons and cavalry and infantry. We also knocked off a cav and two infantry. The whole exchange cost us one infantry and two cavs. Persia ends the turn with 3 tanks.

I am a little surprised how well this worked!

Sorry I was a little sloppy, I probably cost us at least 10-15 units due to sloppy management. The rest were unavoidable losses as taking cities quickly is going to cost you a little.

We should keep the free zone railroad intact as we can handle the Persians as long as they can&#8217;t get the chance to build up. It will be a lot easier to take down any new cities if we keep the railroad intact. Maybe some trimming to cut to single lines here and there but we should keep it.

I strongly suggest keeping up the war so they cannot build up. And we should probably watch for Persians getting marines. Once they do we will need infantry in our coastal cities.

This turn was a blast!

Mathias, you should be next. Are you still interested in playing? If not please tell us so.

 

[Mathias]

Yes. I've got it, but won't have time to play until Saturday.

 

[Ansar]

lurker's comment: I know its a little late, but wouldnt disconneting rubber come first before saltpeper? Since you can beat cavalry easier than infantry...

 

[zerksees]

It was more about connecting our own saltpeter rather than disconnecting theirs. They have tanks and no longer need saltpeter.

 

[Mathias]

Sorry guys, I'm gonna bail. The weekend's over, and I just don't have time for this.

 

[gozpel]

We are down to a 2-man roster.

Only me and zerksees will play this game from now on.

I play tomorrow.

 

[Ansar]

lurker's comment: I know this may be a hassle, but 1-2 pics per set please?

 

[gozpel]

Oh, we have a reader!

Sure thing, you get a few pics.

 

[Ansar]

lurker's comment: I have been reading this thread since it began. So sorry to have lost so many people.

 

[The 777 Hoax]

Now you have two readers

 

[SimpleMonkey]

lurker's comment: Draft Ansar to help finish this one out. Yeah.

I would have given up on this when I saw how mighty Persia was getting, but now I see that it wasn't hopeless at all. Rawk on!

 

[zerksees]

Logically it certainly seems like 5 cities should be no match for a technically superior AI with 48+ cities. I certainly thought it was hopeless but giving up is not really in my nature. I have learned a lot from this game and want to finish it. Read "catch the runaway AI" in my sig. Maybe this game should be "catch the runaway AI II"?

 

[vmxa]

If you can get flight and make some flaks to slow down that bombing, it would be sweet. Are they bombing stacks and cities from the same place? Can you induce them to get the bombers in one or two places that you could get at?

Have you pushed them too far back to reach the towns now or do they have some carriers?

 

[gozpel]

Due to Easter and interupted play, this was a bit time-consuming.

Pre-turn: Quickly run through our cities to get best shield output, we want a unit per turn in all cities. MM some tiles by irrigation or mines to get there and to avoid losing food.

zerksees really put a dent in Xerxes army, some 50 infantries less than last time I saw the game. Good stuff, mate

I don't know where to go from here really, we only have 25 cavs left and that's including the army. Well, I guess I can build another 50 during my turns. We have a leader, I have no idea what to do with him...

We have over 60 slaves, I sort out irrigation and add workers (dead civs) to cities, this will take a couple of turns to maximize. We want the gold ticking, we will pay hard soon with more units.

That done, I look at the strategic positions and wonder why some rails are cut. We need 2 or maybe 3 ways to get to Persia and we really only have one.

1405AD - Pretty quiet - Kill 5 infantries and a flak.

Cannons are useless at this stage and I'm sick of mishits. Bombers or no bombers, we will win this, so I upgrade 11 cannons, 4 last next turn.

Persia founded a city to the north, we don't want to take those out but going for the big stuff. Cleaning up later is the melody.

When enough roads are cut, I will go for Oea. (remember Carthage?)

1410AD - IBT - Lose 2 infantries and 4 slaves near Persian border.

Annoying, lose 3 cavs trying to kill redlined infantries. Kill 5 tanks and 6 inf's.

Nam'Po is a threat, bombard it and kill 2 more inf's and the town goes down with 7 bombers! Frigging halleluja! They have one bomber left.

Korea knows Scientific Method, I give them Steel and get wines plus change in return. Then I gift them 2 luxes to get them from furious to just annoyed. We don't have many trading-partners anyways.

A stack of 7 green inf's wants our ivory. I will kill them next turn, but it slow things down.

Wow, these turns takes some time now.

Start to destroy roads S of Oea and W of Gordium.

1415AD - Kill the 7, but lose 2 cavs...Ah well.

Stop for now, I need some sleep and some planning. Not sure how to attack, if inf's are coming from the left and the right.

1420AD - Kill 2 tanks on defense, Korea and Persia sign peace.

Bombard Andahuaqylas, kill 3 infantries losing a cav. Raze the city.

Redline and kill a stack of 8 tanks, no losses.

1425AD - 5 tanks and 4 infantries killed, lost a cav.

Bombard Oea, kill the 3 inf's and raze the city.
Same procedure for Vilcas.

1430AD - Lose 2 infantries IBT, kill a tank.

Stupid pollution muck up cav-production in 2 cities.

Hadremetum and Hippo have 3 infantries each, raze both cities losing 3 cavs. Nice to see that Persia is below 100 infantries.

We have enough gold for a safe steal and we succeed, take Combustion.

Too bad that Korea won't sign alliance for anything, we have to fight it out ourselves.

1435AD - Over a dozen destroyers start whacking Madras, lose a couple of pop and the barracks.

Dispose of 4 tanks and 2 inf's, lose 2 cavs.

Bombard Umma, 4 defenders killed, the last redlined mongrel kill 4 of our cavs.

Sabratha is next to go, no losses this time.

Put a dent in some of the destroyers, so they will go away.

1440AD - Lose 2 cavs and an infantry IBT, some sloppy play there.

Kill 7 tanks, no losses.

Kish and Theveste are razed, no losses here either.

1445AD - Kill 2 on defense IBT.

Kill 2 tanks, 6 infantries and a cav, lose one cav.

Burn Hamadan to the ground after kill 3 infantries and a tank.

1450AD - 6 units killed, one lost cav.

Utica's 3 infantries and a tank is removed and the city burnt down. Chejo and Cuzco follow suit, 7 defenders killed in all and we lose 3 cavs.

Continue the warpath, taking old Cartagian cities first and soon enough we will be in the core. And don't forget to have a decent bunch of defenders for your arties.

And yeah, they have a whole bunch of ships that pound Madras and it's tiles every turn.

Good luck zerksees, you've got the core to work on.

Next target:

X-man's military:

Before and after:

 

[vmxa]

"I don't know where to go from here really, we only have 25 cavs left and that's including the army. Well, I guess I can build another 50 during my turns. We have a leader, I have no idea what to do with him..."

If you can capture 3 cities in one turn, you can create another army and then abandon the cities. Not sure if this is allowed in your game or not.

 

[zerksees]

Down to 20 cities left - nice work!

I don't think I can finish the Persians in 10 - but maybe I can cut it to 10 cities.

A little dirty pool and I should be able to get Korea back into the war, get the destroyers off our backs, and gain some more cities for nothing. This time any cities gained during peace will be immediately razed and no benefit to us. I guess I'll have to hold them for at least a few seconds.

I can't wait to check out the power bar.