For my comment above - we can do the final techs in 4 after I MMed a lot. I didn't think I would be able to make it but we got the 100 odd scientists we were short.
Preturn: Things look good. There are two towns with only 50% corruption that are science towns. They have courthouses and all. I change them into real towns and will probably switch over the irrigation to mines. We have fewer towns that can build units so I think we should keep all we can. They do need Markets (and probably Cathedrals) which they can build very quickly and then can start building units. I may also get Syracuse building boats - it being the least corrupt west coast town.
IBT: Bombardment in Russian lands and near Berlin. Looks like landings will be in the Southwest.
We get Wall Street.
A Cavalry is dropped off near Bonus Grass.
1772 AD: Bombard the ships and Cavalry near Bonus Grass.
Bombard 2 Spear in Kanesh to 1 HP. Army kills both spears and the city is Razed.
Plant spies in about 1/2 the other civs.
Switch some towns to Galleons - They can upgraded to Transports but Frigates cannot upgrade to Destroyers.
I fill one army with Elite* Cav, one with Infantry, and find another Army with only 3 units to send off My thought is to send these units to a spot to possibly build a town to lure enemies into no-mans land. Not sure yet - in any case 3 more armies are going across. I also included 2 cav, 1 inf and a settler.
Other armies:
France has 48 Cav and 109 Rifles.
Iroquois have 111 Cav and 309 Rifles.
India has 36 Cav and 91 Rifles.
Zulu have 157 Impi, 2 Knight, 7 Pike.
Arabia has 32 Rifles - mostly longbow for offense and pike for defense.
Portugal has 2 Rifles, 140 Muskets, 24 Cav, 25 Knights.
Ottomans, Hittites, Persia, Carthage - Unknown
Chinese are unmet.
Raze Umfolozi. Other Armies heal. Build town.
I am not going to disband Infantry to build more Frigates - we are close to Destroyers so Frigates aren't worth it at this point.
IBT: Another landing
Several Horsemen attack our Armies.
1774 AD: Investigate Ulundi before attacking it. It has 9 defenders only 2 are pikes. I kill them and raze the City. Raze Itombe as well. Kill landing and Bombard boats. MM steel to 1 turn again. Build 2 new towns.
IBT: We are starting to catch spies.
We go 0 for 2 in Frigate battles near Moscow (4 stack of Frigates).
1776 AD: Have trouble getting to the next Zulu city as there are too many units in the way.
Kill the 2 Frigates that attacked us after bombarding.
We get Steel. I have to raise science to 50% to get Combustion in 4 turns (MM as well).
I switch towns to Artillery. They can be switched back to settlers as we need more. Right now we have too many.
IBT: Random units continue attacking our Armies - Not very many, but some.
1778 AD: Reach next Zulu Towns.
IBT: This time our Army with the Cannon doesn't do so good. I am still not sure why the Hittites are attacking it - it is Def 12 in the Forest. In any case they have overwhelming odds and finally kill it capturing all our Canon - I guess we needed 2 armies there. The Zulu are also attacking with some of their Horses a stack of 5 Armies all mostly healthy.
1780 AD: Hloblane is razed after killing 12 units and town is replaced.
Bombard boats. Try to sink one but cannot do a HP to it.
IBT: Another landing.
1782 AD: Bombard and attack 5 1 HP boats losing once.
IBT: No landing - bombardment. Zulu chase some workers.
We get Combustion and start on Flight since that seemed to be the consensus.
1784 AD: Tugela is attacked and razed ( City built).
Use up some Infantry (mostly) to rush Destroyers and Transports.
Massive MM (every city) and we can get flight in 4 turns at 50% science instead of 90%. Most civ engineers are fired to do this with town growth from 3-5 for the most part.
IBT: Bombardment. Zulu attack some Armies.
1786 AD: Armies in Zulu lands rest. First destroyers built - sink 2 Frigate. Put Armies and Artillery into Transports. Spend gold (down to 2K) on upgrading galleons.
I am going to switch to drafting if I want to rush any more destroyers or transports.
IBT: Bombardment is getting less. Attempts to send back the enemy ships is working and now we are sinking them.
1788 AD: Start setting up the Transports with units. They can leave next turn. Upgrade the rest of the Galleons. We end up at 1025 gold
Smyrna and ??? (I thought I wrote down the name but have now forgot) are razed - Both Zulu.
1790 AD: Raze and replace Caesarea
Notes:
Flight next turn is MM'ed exactly. Make sure you don't make a small change that puts it to 2 turns.
Note that there are several civil engineers that could be switched.
We have launched a west and east coast fleet - They have just started across. They are transports guarded by 2 destroyers.
There is 2 Armies and a bunch of workers in the mountains near Zulu. This is in preparation for building an Airfield there (also needs a road). The site is completely surrounded by mountain so no enemy can get there in 1 turn. We can then send over big stacks of Infantry to guard it. I am assuming we are going to use workers to build airfields as soon as we can
Most Artillery is on the way toward the Zulu or Hittite. We will want to build more for bombarding boats. We don't quite have enough to red line every boat.
There is hopefully a settler in case we want to build a town.
Upgraded the Galleons and sent everyone over that I could. There are still armies not on boats yet - Knight and GS.
Zulu have 10 cities left.
I think we will be able to get the rest of the Ind techs in 4 turns, but it will take more to get the modern ones. Remember we want to have 1000 gold for wall street.
Units are stacked near the Capitol
Apologies if any unit is on moveto. I think I may have misclicked and sent a unit or two going stupid places. I tried to catch any but it is difficult.
The save (AD1790)
